4 - George Benjamin (b. 1960)

Summary

Intuitively, I associate George Benjamin with Witold Lutosławski. I do not mean that their music has anything in common. It is rather the fastidious care with which they approach(ed) a new score, each detail crafted with utmost attention and in no undue rush to meet a deadline, with the result that each premiere became (and for Benjamin still becomes) a much anticipated musical event.

I actually knew the Polish composer better than I do George Benjamin. I succeeded in getting the older man invited to conduct in Budapest a number of times, and he and his wife Danuta came to my place, where we had long conversations over meals. None of this has been the case with George, but our few meetings, telephone conversations, and e-mail exchanges over many years have created in me the impression that Benjamin—like Lutosławski— views his work with an almost religious awe. The phrase “my music,” when uttered by George sounds as if he were talking of a being independent of him, with an existence all its own, whether it has been written, is in gestation, or being planned for the future.

All this is terribly subjective, of course. What counts—apart from the music itself—is the confession that George Benjamin has contributed to this book. It may be rather brief but it does reveal some very important aspects of his goals as a composer: new concepts, independent path, never-heard combinations. As far as I can judge, he has achieved them all.

June 2015

Courage? Surely “courage” isn't the right word. Obstinacy and patience— they are more suitable terms related to the act of composing. After all, no musician has ever had life or limb threatened by writing a simple dot on manuscript paper—unless that musician has the great misfortune to live in an insane totalitarian state.

And yet the empty page does hold its terrors—for, particularly with large-scale works, the first marks on a virgin sheet herald a long personal journey for its owner, pursuing an isolated path into the unknown that will inevitably have its fair share of dead-ends, blockages, and traumas until the final bar is reached.