In Audible Memory of Philip Langridge
Philip Langridge,
who
died Friday night (5 March 2010), was a quiet star in the
world of singers. Perhaps he wasn’t a star at all, but a talented
gentleman who happened to be extraordinarily successful. Even
if you count only his most important recordings, he has nearly
a hundred discs to his name. From
Handel
to
Birtwistle,
from
Purcell
to Thomas Adès, for whose “
The
Tempest” he created the role of the King of Naples, singing
the role on stage throughout Europe last year. And always there
was Benjamin Britten — whose music Langridge had a particular
affinity for and with whom he had worked extensively. When Chandos
recorded the great Britten operas, Philip Langridge was their
‘Peter Pears’.
His voice wasn’t ever a lush crooner’s instrument — it was rather
on the dry side. But it was very well controlled, imbued with
immense artistry, and it lasted him in demanding repertoire all
his 69 years. I wanted to see the Frankfurt production of "The
Tempest", but was sick at the time. Now I have never seen
him on stage. Sad though that is, my memories of him remain strong
because he was “my” Grimes. During my long struggle to grasp and
appreciate — eventually love — Benjamin Britten, it was his recording
of "Peter Grimes" (
Chandos,
1997 Grammy winner) that opened my ears the widest. Not the classic
Britten-Pears,
nor the famous
Vickers-Davis,
but Langridge-Hickox. It had stoic nobility, complexity, it was
darkly-dramatic and above all it remained surprisingly mellifluous.
For once I really felt for — and with — the Grimes character.
And thus enthralled by the character, the music offered itself
with natural self-evidence.
His Billy Budd is equally good and if “Death in Venice” were a
more popular opera, he’d be famous for that, too. His “Turn of
the Screw”, performing alongside Felicity Lott, can be found of
Naxos — one of their many fine re-issues from the Collins Classics
catalog. That’s where you also find his very worthy Serenade for
Tenor, Horn, and Strings — coupled with the Nocturne, op.60 and
Phaedra, op.90 where the mezzo is his wife, the equally wonderful
Ann Murray.
Langridge was a staple of Naxos’s “
English
Song Series”. He has at least five Messiahs to his name (
Mackerras,
Hickox,
Marriner,
Alldis…),
sang in Simon Rattle's (English language) recording of Haydn’s
Creation,
Monteverdi
with Harnoncourt and Gardiner, Mozart operas with Haitink and
Solti,
Mussorgsky
and
Janácek
with Abbado.
Shostakovich,
Stravinsky,
and
Szymanowski
all litter his discography, his wife coaxed him into doing a CD
of
French
songs with her, he notably participated in Graham Johnson’s
Schubert
Edition
on
Hyperion,
he did
Tippett
and
Weill,
and wasn’t afraid of Walton’s
Façade.
The first disc I will put on in memory of Philip Langridge will
be a Hickox-conducted collection of Gerald Finzi (
Decca).
The music is painfully-gently touching and it opens with “Dies
Natalis”. “Rapture”, “Wonder”, and “Salutation” — movements three
through five — are exactly what Langridge’s passing asks for.
The discs ends appropriately enough with “For Saint Cecilia” —
who now warmly welcomes home one of the prouder examples of her
art.
Jens F. Laurson
Philip Gordon Langridge CBE (16 December
1939 – 5 March 2010)
70th birthday concert
http://www.musicweb-international.com/SandH/2009/Jul-Dec09/langridge0311.htm
Many reviews of Philip Langridge’s musicmaking can be found
if you search under his name in MusicWeb International
and a brief footnote from Rob Barnett
Allowing for the occasional dalliance with baritone and soprano
registers the tenor voice has most often moved me. Philip Langridge
was one of its finest British exponents. While his voice in later
years developed a vibrato which abraded some of the gleam this
was always compensated by his intelligent engagement with the
words, his evident feeling for other vocal and instrumental parts
of the score and the intrinsic flavour and tone of his voice.
It all began for me with a revelatory 1973 BBC Concert Orchestra
broadcast on BBC Radio 3 of Finzi's
Intimations of Immortality.
This was two years or more before Ian Partridge's Lyrita recording.
Langridge was in gloriously flourishing voice and the colour,
poignancy and delight he lent to Finzi's music and Wordsworth's
words melded the two into a single continuum. Hearing that tape
now reminds me how steady his tone production was in those days
and achieved irrespective of dynamics and of Finzi's ruinously
demanding long held notes. That euphoric steadiness had taken
damage by the time he recorded
Intimations with Hickox
in 1988 (EMI)/
While he was of course active well beyond the generous confines
of British music I would just list a meagre sampling of his fine
broadcasts and recordings over the years which may serve in part
as a reminder of a grievously missed artist:-
Bernard Stevens Et Resurrexit Denys Darlow/Tilford Bach Ens with
Denys Michelow 1973
Holst At the Boar's Head RLPO Atherton 1975 EMI CDM 5655651272
Malcolm Williamson Mass of Christ The King Groves/RPO 1977
C W Orr and Howells songs Langridge Ogston Parkin 1979 Unicorn
LP RHS 369 (never reissued on CD, more’s the pity – will this
ever be reissued?)
Moeran Four Shakespeare Settings / Oldham Chinese Lyrics - Langridge
Grady July 1977
Anthony Milner Roman Spring - Poole BBCS BBCSO Manning 1980
Cyril B Rootham Ode on Morning of Christ Nativity - Handley BBCCO
Teresa Cahill December 1980
Edmund Rubbra Crucifixus Pro Nobis Sauer, Evans, Routh, Knight
1981
Stanford Requiem - Poole BBCCO BBCS Wendy Eathorne Margharet Cable
1981
Holst Savitri - Hickox City London Sinf Felicity Palmer Stephen
Varcoe 1983 Hyperion
Alan Bush The Voices of the Prophets - Lionel Friend 1986
Arthur Bliss The Beatitudes - Willcocks LPO / Bach Choir 1991
Constant Lambert Eight Poems of Li Tai Po Lionel Friend and Nash
Ens 1994 Hyperion
Elizabeth Lutyens Islands - David Atherton L Sinf Jane Manning
1995
