Not since the heyday of the madrigalists four centuries ago has England seethed with so much native musical creativity as it does today. The British renaissance, which began half a century ago with Elgar and Vaughan Williams and continued with Walton and Britten, is currently upheld by a coterie of younger talents whose work is now beginning to make a worldwide noise. One of the most promising of the group and by far the best known, 31-year-old
Richard Rodney Bennett, arrived in Manhattan last week with a resounding bang. Within 24 hours the crack Opera Theater at the Juilliard...