With musical gifts much admired by his friend Robert Schumann, Bennett (who never used the name Sterndale) briefly enjoyed popularity as a composer, although his obvious abilities were later submerged in the demands of public life, as Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge and later as Principal of the Royal Academy of Music. Interest in his music is now growing, with the occasional revival in particular of his piano music and five Piano Concertos. His songs remain an important example of the genre in mid-19th century England.
Orchestral Music
The third and fourth piano concertos are a good introduction to Sterndale Bennett's music, the first with a romantic slow movement and the latter with a Barcarole (Gondolier's Song) slow movement, inserted at the suggestion of Mendelssohn.
