UNDER Bennett’s gentle baton, London’s music scene blossomed. Students flooded in; hidebound critics learnt to love Bach and Beethoven;* Clara Schumann and Jenny Lind graced the capital’s stage.* But the burdens of administration and Mendelssohn’s death in 1847 robbed Bennett of creativity, and by the time he began composing again in the late 1850s, those same critics craved not the comforting familiarity of another Mendelssohn, but the tortured novelties of Wagner. ‘In what the charm of such music lies,’ Bennett exclaimed, ‘I am unable to understand’.
Such outbursts were rare; Bennett was shy, tactful and kind. He once found a small boy at the Academy crying over his prep. ‘Ah!’ Bennett said, ‘I see what you want, my little fellow; pudding!’, and took the child home to his wife for a fortnight of family comforts. He would not interrupt lessons at the Clergy Orphan School even to attend a performance of his own music at the Crystal Palace, on the Saturday before he died.
Bennett’s staging of J.S. Bach’s ‘St Matthew Passion’ in 1854 was a watershed moment in the reception of Bach’s music in England, for so long found ‘difficult’ by the public and critics alike. He subsequently produced the ‘Christmas Oratorio’ as well.
Swedish soprano Jenny Lind (1820-1887) settled in England in 1855, as her extraordinary international career was starting to wind down. She later taught at the Royal College of Music. Bennett took an active interest in promoting the careers of women in music. See posts tagged Jenny Lind.