Bennett concert

Press, 5 March 1988, Page 6

Bennett concert

Richard Rodney Bennett, presented by the Arts Centre of Christchurch in association 1 with Jazz South, at the Great March 4, 1.10 p.m. ReI viewed by Philip Norman. Most musicians are content to master a single skill and a single style. Not so ■ Richard Rodney Bennett, an English composer, arranger, pianist and singer whose multiple talents shine with equal lustre in the concert hall, nightclub and cinema. At the Great Hall yesterday lunchtime

it was Bennett the jazz pianist and i cocktail-bar crooner who took centre i stage The swag of swing-based material I presented easily charmed the capacity ! audience. * , ■ , ! 1 I had hoped for a greater selection of this musician’s own compositions. InI stead, it was the music of the early i tunesmithsithat was given the greatest i exposure, standards by Gershwin, Noel Coward, Jerome Kern, and Vernon Duke I comprising the bulk of the programme. In these, Bennett revealed a tidy keyboard technique and a well honed sense of vocal phrasing. The strength of his playmg lay m his stUdy rhythms and severe harmonic

• ! [Hi’ ! progressions. Few: bursts of melodic improvisation were;offered; in the} main, each song was presented simply and in 'accord with the spirit of the original. This was certainly the case with “The I Man I Love” and “I Got Rhythm,” both 'of which were read off transciptions of Gershwin’s own performances of the songs. Gershwin’s “Prelude No. 2” was j also given a faithful and expressive airing. It 3eems that Bennett holds his genuine invention in reserve for his own material. The two themes offered from his score to the mini series, “Poor Little Rich Girl,” for example, are masterpieces of understated sentiment. In the song, "Living in the Country,” we were given, evidence of a facility for light, comic lines. “Miurder on the Orient Express,” one of his best-known film scores, was represented by .the invigorating dance music written to underscore the Express’s departure from Istanbul. Richard Rodney Bennett will make two ’upther concert appearances during his stay in Christchurch — this evening at the Hollywood Theatre, Sumner, and tomorrow evening afthe Great Hall.