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Britten: Death in Venice (Chandos) Britten: Death in Venice (Chandos) ‘…The original Decca recording of 1974 would seem pretty irreplaceable. However I feel that this new recording is not so much a potential replacement, but more a complementary account of this disquieting drama. The Chandos, recorded last summer in the Blackheath Concert Halls, is certainly not lacking in depth. But it also has an incisive clarity matching Richard Hickox’s generally more urgent approach to expression and tempo… [Philip Langridge’s] riveting intensity is finely supported by Alan Opie’s increasingly sinister evocation of the succession of characters who convey Aschenbach to his doom… With the BBC Singers contributing many a vivid bit part and the City of London Sinfonia often outplaying the English Chamber Orchestra, this new version bids fair to become as irreplaceable as the old.’ BBC Music Magazine (Bayan Northcott), May 2005 …Philip Langridge’s performance for Hickox is all the more remarkable. He charts Aschenbach’s journey to self-destruction with wonderful clarity, and never a hint of self-pity or camp. His portrayal confronts the opera’s core issues of artistic truth and beauty… …Aschenbach’s demons are…utterly distinct, with the perfect balance between seductiveness and menace…The other dramatic element in the opera is the choral dances, and that is where Hickox’s account really comes into its own: he makes more sense of the…choral writing and the gamelan-inspired orchestral textures than any other performance I’ve heard.’ The Guardian (Andrew Clements), February 25, 2005 ‘Last year’s concert performance of Britten’s last, bravest opera, premiered in 1973, earned lavish praise, and the associated recording is equally powerful. Philip Langridge, as Aschenbach, his voice in fine shape in his sixties, brilliantly expresses all the complexities of the hero’s emotional journey, from lofty delight in the adolescent boy’s beauty, to abandonment to a pure love and the forces of fate… …This is…one of Britten’s most richly imagined and resourceful instrumental scores, and Richard Hickox, the City of London Sinfonia and the BBC Singers sing and play with exactitude and vivid responses. The sounds of metallic-tuned percussion which depict the languid movements of the beautiful boy resonate with an especially cruel yet alluring impassivity.’ Evening Standard (Stephen Pettitt), February 18, 2005
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