Britten: Owen Wingrave Opera Orchestral & Concertos Chandos

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BENJAMIN BRITTEN

(1913-1976)

Owen Wingrave, Op. 85

107:18

An opera in two acts

Libretto by Myfanwy Piper based on the short story by Henry James

COMPACT DISC ONE

Act I

Prelude –

3:24

Scene 1

Coyle: 'You've got your maps there?' –

5:06

Owen: 'Sir – I can't go through with it' –

3:49

Coyle: 'Straight out of school they come to me' – Interlude I –

3:23

Scene 2

Owen: 'At last it's out' – Interlude II. Owen: ''War is the statesman's game, the priest's delight…''

7:10

Scene 3

Lechmere: 'Your sherry, Mrs Coyle' –

5:44

Lechmere: 'Owen, you can't mean it' – Interlude III –

5:22

Scene 4

Mrs Julian: 'Oh, how unforeseen' –

4:33

Owen: 'And now, to face them' –

5:58

10.

Sir Philip: 'Sirrah! How dare you!' –

4:04

Scene 5

Miss Wingrave, Kate, Sir Philip, Mrs Julian: 'How dare you!' –

Scene 6

11.

Mrs Coyle: 'Coyle, I wish I had not come' –

3:12

12.

Mrs Coyle: 'Ah! Owen!' – Interlude IV –

3:53

Scene 7

13.

Sir Philip: 'May God bless the Queen, and this house'

8:49

64:31

COMPACT DISC TWO

Act II

Prologue (The Ballad). The Narrator: 'There was a boy, a Wingrave born' –

4:32

The Narrator: 'They called for him to toll the bell' –

2:37

Scene 1

Owen: 'The bell was for the child he slew' –

Lechmere: 'I envy you this fine old house' –

2:29

Sir Philip: 'Aha!' –

7:21

Owen: ''And with his friend young Lechmere played…'' –

4:13

Owen: 'Now you may save your scornful looks' –

5:26

Kate: 'Ah, Owen, what shall I do?' –

7:41

Scene 2

Mrs Coyle: 'Is that you, Coyle?' –

5:07

Kate: 'Ah, Owen, Owen – you've gone!'

3:17

42:47

Solo: Elizabeth Connell soprano - Miss Wingrave

Solo: Robin Leggate tenor - General Sir Philip Wingrave, Narrator

Choral: Tiffin Boys' Choir Distant chorus

Orchestra: City of London Sinfonia

Conductor: Richard Hickox

6-9 December 2007

This excellent recording by Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia conjures shimmering life in to oft-ignored episodes of brilliant musical characterisation. The stand-out in a first-class cast is James Gilchrist’s Lechmere, full of eager innocence, loyalty and vim. Peter Coleman-Wright does much with the pacifist soapbox that is Britten’s Owen, and while the Wingraves themselves remain a Greek chorus of approbation, they are nonetheless terrifying in this worthy reassessment.

The Times

Hickox’s performance has much to commend it, not least his vivid characterisation of the score with the City of London Sinfonia

Financial Times

Profiting from the naturalness and clarity of Chandos’ sound, the City of London Sinfonia offers playing of considerable brilliance under Richard Hickox. The Tiffin Boy’s Choir makes a brief but lovely contribution in the opening of Act 2. Besides the valuable Burton essay, the booklet has artist biographies and a full libretto.

International Record Review

The new set, in Chandos’ customary natural comfortable sound, becomes the first recording in any medium, to do the work full musical justice. It should also satisfy the curiosity of those who wonder why its devotees hail Wingrave as Britten’s greatest completed opera.

Gramophone

The cast, headed by Peter Coleman-Wright as the haunted, compromised Owen Wingrave, is strong, and the gallery of English eccentrics/grotesques that make up the extended Wingrave family is vividly depicted.

The Guardian

I am overjoyed, then, to have this superb new recording to remind me how deeply moving this work is. The first recording was the Britten on Decca, made a month after the filming of the opera. One might suppose that it would be definitive, since the work was written for the performers who recorded it. As it happens, Hickox’s recording is in every way the equal of the original… The Hickox set comes with fine notes, artist bios, full text in three languages, and the usual fine Chandos finish… it is most highly recommended

Fanfare

Richard Hickox’s conducting is Hitchcockian in its dramatic tension, and the City of London Sinfonia plays like a dream. The cast is uniformly excellent – especially Peter Coleman-Wright in the title role – and everyone’s diction is superb.

Classic FM Magazine

Richard Hickox’s command of the score also banishes one and for all the idea that the work was a mere appendix to the composer’s operatic career: its pacifist theme was a central one to Britten’s creative being, and he invested the opera with all the musical richness and textural originality of an unrivalled master of the medium, best experienced here in the playing of the City of London Sinfonia, which is wonderfully alive.

The Telegraph

Hickox draws haunting colours and chordings from his City of London Sinfonia, and the recording is flawlessly presented too.

BBC Music Magazine

Coyle’s wife, the only sympathetic character in the work, is tailor made for Janice Watson. In the thankless role of Kate, Owen’s fiancée, Pamela Helen Stephen follows in Janet Baker’s footsteps in vividly depicting a character so alien to her personality. The orchestral playing is excellent and the recording quality well up to Chandos standard.

Sunday Telegraph

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