From the age of ten, Benjamin Frith studied with Fanny Waterman, and at the age of fourteen he won the National Concerto Competition in Dudley. He then studied at Leeds University where he gained a first class degree in music, won second place in the Mozart Memorial Prize and joint second prize with Predrag Muzijevic at the Busoni International Piano Competition in Bolzano, the year that the first prize was not awarded. Frith’s career took off when he won not only the gold medal, but also the chamber music prize at the Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Israel. He has appeared at many festivals including those at Harrogate, Edinburgh, Aldeburgh and King’s Lynn, and he now also teaches piano at the Royal Northern College of Music where he is on the faculty.
Frith has recorded the complete piano music of Malcolm Arnold for Koch and Beethoven’s ‘Diabelli’ Variations Op. 120 for ASV. However, he now records for Naxos, and on this label has recorded the complete piano music of Mendelssohn, including the concertos (that for two pianos with Hugh Tinney); piano concertos and nocturnes of John Field, and other works by Weber, Rachmaninov, and Schumann.
Frith’s playing has clarity and a tone suited to music of the early Romantics and is ideal for Mendelssohn, Weber and Field. His interpretation of Mendelssohn’s Rondo capriccioso Op. 14 shows an understanding of the style and sound of the composer’s world, and he is able to achieve a very light touch on a modern piano. An early disc of Schumann includes the Fantasiestücke Op. 12 where Frith’s rubato can sometimes sound self-conscious and pre-meditated. In the Field nocturnes Frith makes clear their place in the lineage of Chopin’s masterpieces in this form.
Frith also works as a duo pianist with Peter Hill and has recorded works for two pianos by Stravinsky, including The Rite of Spring, the Sonata and the Concerto for Two Solo Pianos. Frith has also received great critical acclaim for his recordings and performances of Messiaen with Hill. Their reputation is already high, and a recital at Cardiff University in February 2003 prompted Rian Evans to write: ‘The partnership of Peter Hill and Benjamin Frith is a formidable one. The recordings are authoritative and the impact of their live performance is extraordinary. This was a dazzling display of both technical and intellectual brilliance.’ Of the performance of Messiaen’s Visions de l’Amen Evans stated, ‘…it was the florid rhythmic exuberance and cumulative force of Messiaen’s impassioned testimonies to the divine power that made this so compelling.’
© Naxos Rights International Ltd. — Jonathan Summers (A–Z of Pianists, Naxos 8.558107–10).