Sunday Feature

An exploration of the musical versatility of Richard Rodney Bennett, who would have celebrated his 90th birthday in March 2026. Born into a highly musical family, his mother had studied with Gustav Holst, he was already writing film scores while a teenage student at the Royal Academy of Music and went on to study with Boulez, perform as a jazz pianist and singer and receive three Academy Award nominations for his film music. In this programme, archive interviews with Bennett himself are interwoven with new observations from jazz singer Claire Martin, pianist Neil Brand, biographer Anthony Meredith, music publisher Gill Graham and conductor Scott Dunn.