Three years ago, almost exactly, I went to see Opera della Luna’s Sweeney Todd:
– subtitled The Victorian Melodrama, and sub-subtitled NOT the musical by Stephen Sondheim (Opera della Luna). This took the script of the original 1847 production and added – as seems to have been consistent with period practice – background music from a small orchestra. The music came from various (higher-brow) composers of the era, including my great-great-great-grandfather Julius Benedict. Hence our going to see it: I may never hear Benedict’s music performed live by professionals again.
Which just goes to show how much I know. For all my life, Benedict has been languishing in obscurity, my distinguished ancestor nobody’s ever heard of. I mean, I was fairly thrilled the other month to find a copy of Weber in London, which quotes Benedict’s rather gloomy write-up of his teacher’s last concert, in a National Trust second-hand bookshop. One takes what one can get.
But recently I learned – thanks to my husband happening to have Radio 3 on at just the right moment – that a music festival in Norfolk will very much be featuring Benedict’s music performed live by professionals. And not just as incidental music that I won’t actually be able to recognise. As the main event.
In fact, there’s going to be a whole week of it. I’ve had that tab open for a month now and I still can’t quite believe it.
I am thrilled. I am beyond thrilled.
I am very sad that my father did not live to see this, because he would have been even more thrilled than I am.
I am a little frustrated that my circumstances are such that I cannot go to all fourteen events.
I am doing my homework, listening to the recordings I have, reading the books I have.
I am wondering if – hoping that – this is just the beginning, that Benedict is going to be the newly rediscovered unjustly forgotten composer of the moment. I am trusting that I won’t need to regret the ten events I can’t get to, because I will no longer have to worry about this being my only chance to hear his work.
Apart from anything else, it’s lovely. Here, have his piano concerto in C minor:
<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ngMdbFcbT4k?si=YOGWtt9JhLGE-EJ9" title="YouTube video player" frameborder="0" allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" allowfullscreen></iframe>
And if you can get to the Burnhams, in Norfolk, come and hear more of it. I’ll see you there.
Kathleen Jowitt 