Britten: Death in Venice (complete opera)

Editor's Choice Gramophone Magazine (May 2005)

"I remember hearing Peter Pears at Covent Garden as Gustav von Aschenbach in one of his last stage appearances in this work: it was, needless to say, an unforgettable experience. Here, some 30 years on, is only the second complete recording of the work, and very impressive it is too. Hickox once again shows off his Britten credentials and Langridge's Aschenbach is as complex and fascinating as ever."
(Gramophone)

Many of those involved in this recording remarked that they felt as if they were witnessing a small piece of musical history in the making. The recording was always going to create a stir, for Richard Hickox's existing accounts of Britten's operas are highly regarded and are often compared favourably with the composer's own benchmark versions, but to have secured Philip Langridge, universally regarded as an Aschenbach to rival that of Peter Pears, the tenor for whom the role was written, was a great achievement; his performance is, quite simply, mesmerising. Prior to the recording this cast gave several charity concert performances in aid of the 'Venice in Peril' fund. The concerts received overwhelming write-ups, snippets of which you can read below.

Richard Hickox has recently been appointed Music Director of Opera Australia. His first project, an English-language production of Prokofiev's Love of Three Oranges, will open in Sydney on 18 January 2005.

Hickox's recordings of Britten's operas have been honoured with a variety of awards, including a Grammy award (for Peter Grimes, also with Philip Langridge), a Diapsaon d'or (Albert Herring), Gramophone 'Critics' Choice' (Billy Budd), as well as a plethora of other accolades such as 'Editor's Choice' in Gramophone, 'Pick of the Month' in BBC Music Magazine and 'CD of the Week' in all the leading national newspapers.

REVIEWS FOR LAST YEAR'S CONCERT PERFORMANCES:

'Conductor Richard Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia last night gave an important, overwhelmingly powerful reading of Benjamin Britten's final opera… Philip Langridge… proved a subtler, more deeply involved and flexible interpreter than Peter Pears… on this evidence there's still no finer singer-actor in the world.'
- London Evening Standard

'I doubt whether I shall ever hear Aschenbach sung with more telling, truthful or touching insight.'
- The Times

'…what astonishing sonorities Hickox drew from his 41 players; never, perhaps, before have Britten's new-found chord-spacings come over so vividly… [Aschenbach] was a role written for, even partly by Pears, with all his unique idiosyncracies, and one never imagined him being surpassed. Yet in his immaculate diction, vast range of expression and tone, and above all, in the integrity of his portrayal, Langridge surely comes close.'
- The Independent