This Collector's Edition presents a challenge to reviewers. There's
so much of it. I could never do it any sort of justice if I approached
this as if reviewing a smaller set. This, after all, comprises
37 CDs. As it is all I have been able to do is to sample, reminisce
about known recordings and write around the subject. With
this caveat stated, let's make a start.
There are three principal
strands of Britten recordings. These are broadly tied into and
defined by record companies, artists and eras. First we have Britten
recording Britten for Decca. It’s very much of the 1960s
and of Aldebugh and of Peter Pears. It’s also the
most exhaustive survey. And it’s available in several princely
Decca boxes. It has panache and authority given its identification
with the composer.
Then from the 1980s
and 1990s you have an outcrop from the now defunct Collins. These
have found their way onto Naxos and very nicely done they are
too. Often these involve Britten’s successor at Aldeburgh Steuart
Bedford who worked with the composer. There’s no box of these
but the series can be picked up inexpensively in individual Naxos
discs.
Lastly – and to some
extent contemporaneous with the Collins project we have the activities
of EMI. These are represented in this box and gravitate around
various names: Previn, Rattle and Hickox (pre-Chandos). The outliers
in the EMI set are Haitink, Mork, Isserlis, Brunelle, the Endellion
Quartet and Iona Brown. Many of these recordings belong to the
period 1982-2002. There are appearances by Reginald Goodall, Britten
and Pears (songs recorded in the 1940s) and Steuart Bedford. Then
again there’s Goodall in a late 1940s Rape of Lucretia and
excerpts from Grimes. The Previn Spring Symphony,
the Berglund/Haendel Violin Concerto and works directed by Philip
Ledger and David Willcocks are firmly of the 1970s.
If you have been around
for a while you might not think of Britten and EMI as natural
partners. After all Britten was very much Decca property and vice
versa. Over the years EMI has gradually amassed a substantial
representation of his works. Some of these - often pre Second
World War pieces - were never recorded by Decca. Decca are strong
on the operas where EMI can only manage a sampling even though
some of these have not been tackled by Decca. Paul Bunyan is
an operetta but here it comes from EMI/Virgin. The EMI Grimes
is Haitink's magnificently recorded 1992 version with Anthony
Rolfe Johnson as Grimes. The Turn of the Screw is from
2002 with Ian Bostridge as Peter Quint and Daniel Harding conducting.
We also have A Midsummer Night's Dream from 1990 as conducted
by Richard Hickox. It's magical and made me regret that Britten
never essayed an opera on The Tempest. Finally there's
the aforementioned complete 1947 Reginald Goodall-conducted Rape
of Lucretia with Pears as the Male Chorus and 40 or so minutes
of extracts from a 1948 Grimes with Pears. There he is
in much better voice but still with that hint of shredded tone
under strain and a certain archness of manner.
While Decca can boast
of the authority of recordings where the composer conducts and
Pears sings one might naturally want to try something different.
This set allows that at length. It also helps if, like me, you
are allergic to Pears' voice - though his sappier voice of the
1940s can be heard on CDs 24, 27, 36-37. I have distant yet abiding
memories of the almost comedic horror of watching and listening
to the braying Pears in a BBC black and white television
broadcast in the late 1960s - I think it must have been Owen
Wingrave. I turned away. Later experiences confirmed the negative
impression. It's a personal foible but an obstacle to enjoyment.
That is one of the reasons why this set which offers an alternative
approach has such attractions. Even then - as mentioned already
- if you would like to hear Pears at his peak EMI offer the 1948
Grimes excerpts and a 1947 Lucretia alongside some
Britten folksongs and Purcell realisations, Michelangelo and Donne
Sonnet sets. In fairness Pears makes a very positive impression
in the lilting Come you not from Newcastle.
Discovering Britten
through other approaches has for me had its satisfying discoveries
including learning the Serenade through the CFP Ian Partidge
analogue 1970s recording and the Violin Concerto, not through
Lubotsky, but via Rodney Friend and even more strongly through
Ida Haendel. Sadly, maybe, Neil Mackie is preferred over Partridge
when the choices were made for the present set. In fact he gives
a fine steady and strongly projected performance and Barry Tuckwell
is the fruity horn-player. We can regard Colin Matthews' orchestration
of Now sleeps the crimson petal as a glowing appendix to
the Serenade. Again Tuckwell's horn comes into play in
this piece. It is most luminously performed and recorded.
Haendel is favoured
for this box over Friend. She gives the Violin Concerto a strong
Waltonian romantic ‘kick’ which eludes the more objective Mark
Lubotsky on Decca. The same can be said for Andsnes/CBSO and the
Piano Concerto over Richter/ECO.
The chamber music is
thoroughly explored across CDs 9-14 and we get to hear many of
the early works omitted from the Decca edition. The well-regarded
mainstays here are the Endellion from 1986, Truls Mørk in the
cello suites and Stephen Hough in the solo piano music including
a surprisingly touching Nocturne (part of the Sonatina
romantica). Much more declamatory and rugged is the Introduction
and Rondo Burlesca in which Hough is joined by Ronan O'Hora.
On CD 14 the remainder is mopped up including the Suite for violin
and piano (Barantschik), the Cello Sonata with the underrated
Moray Welsh, the Six Metamorphoses (Roy Carter) and Bream's
1992 Dowland Nocturnal. In the latter Bream delights in
the technical and mood complexities of the dissonantly obsessive
and plangent Inquieto. Speaking of Bream, reminds me of
another absentee from this box - the chamber ensemble version
of The Courtly Dances from Gloriana. This was
enjoyably set down by the Bream Consort in the 1960s but that
was a Decca or possibly RCA item. As compensation we do hear the
dances in their full orchestral regalia with the RLPO and Takuo
Yuasa. Gloriana was never recorded by Decca - at least
not while Britten was alive. This Coronation year opera seems
to have missed a beat. It lived on in the Symphonic Suite and
the Courtly Dances as arranged by Julian Bream. The suite
includes the Dances as well as a sumptuously haunting yet gentle
Lute Song which is beautifully put across in this set by
Jonathan Small (oboe) and Mair Jones (harp). This is Britten in
pastoral English mode - a rare occurrence. The Tudor percussive
patterning was to be picked up again in the Hankin Booby movement
of the late suite A time there was here played on CD 6
by Rattle and the CBSO.
Another stalwart across
this set is Robert Tear. He is often good but sounds tested to
discomfort in the quick fire When will my May come in Previn's
otherwise fine version of the Spring Symphony. Interesting
to see that for that celebrity 1978 recording the chorus-master
was none other than Richard Hickox who was then soon to make his
Rubbra Masses LP for RCA
with the St Margaret’s Singers.
CD 21 is, for me, one
of the most intriguing. It includes The Company of Heaven music
to a radio play on the subject of angels - it is by no means entirely
serene. The war in heaven movement is restive, urgent and
full of drum and organ-emphasised attack. Unusually for Britten
the searing emotional strings at the end of that movement cry
out with undisguised passion.
There are some possibly
surprising artist entries in this set. I have already mentioned
Reginald Goodall - more strongly associated later in his career
with Wagner and Bruckner. Sarah Brightman better known for the
Lloyd Webber connection is on CD26 in six Britten folksongs. Jonathan
Lemalu is there in a 2005 recording of the Tit for Tat cycle.
Söderström rides the whooping wave of Our Hunting Fathers -
for me one of Britten's masterpieces. Try the eruptive wildness
of the Rats Away movement which might almost have been
written for Jane Manning such are its demands. Söderström puts
this across well though I have heard more possessed performances
including a broadcast by Heather Harper with Charles Groves and
the BBCSO on 27 July 1976. This is writing that is neither cerebral
nor precious. It carries a glorious emotional cargo as well as
being brilliant. This paved the way for other rapturous concert
pieces such as Maw's Scenes and Arias. The Vasari Singers
give us the late choral cycle Sacred and Profane. Join
the queue to kick me for decadent taste when I express my regret
at the continued absence from the catalogue of Swingle II’s version
of Hymn to St Cecilia but then that disc also offers my
favourite version of RVW's Three Shakespeare Songs. Still,
that Swingle II LP (RL25112) from about 1975 is an RCA item. It
should be reissued and urgently.
The big players in
this set are Rattle and the CBSO with supporting roles for Steuart
Bedford, Hickox, Ledger and Marriner. There are also one-offs
of great distinction. Take Knussen and the London Sinfonietta
in the gamelan-bejewelled Prince of the Pagodas - wonderful
score - a legacy of a world tour that took him to the South Seas
and into contact with another gamelan-influenced composer, Colin
McPhee with whom he recorded on 78s a two piano version of Balinese
Ceremonial music. There’s also the Previn Spring Symphony
recorded at the height of his youthful fame yet with the statesmen
and stateswomen of British music as soloists.
My own favourites here
include the Diversions for piano (left-hand) and orchestra.
Yes, it was written for Paul Wittgenstrein but was never contractually
shackled in the way that many such commissions were. I discovered
this piece through a wonderful Proms broadcast in 1978 with Viktoria
Postnikova and Gennady Rozhdestvensky. Peter Donohoe, champion
of many British piano concertos is splendidly at one with the
work’s grotesquerie. The gaunt Russian Funeral Music is
magnificent dour and tragic. The wild-eyed Grainger-quirky A
Time There was is wonderful - one of the works that Bernstein
recorded in Britten's last years. The Ballad of Heroes
to mark the Spanish Civil War has Republican-orientated words
by Swingler and Auden. This sincere and moving work would pair
well with RVW's Dona Nobis Pacem and Holst's Dirge for
Two Veterans.
The Paul Bunyan
operetta is quirky but delightful and perhaps belongs in a loosely
bounded genre with Copland's The Tender Land, Shostakovich's
Cheryamushki, Walter Leigh's Jolly Roger, Anthony
Burgess's Blooms of Dublin (will this ever be revived,
I wonder) and Tippett's ballad-opera Robin Hood.
Pesek's RLPO from 1990
give a splendid reading of the Sinfonia da Requiem which
is also wonderfully done by Previn on the same label (but not
here). It is an impressive work with a scorching and completely
confident mature power. There are early indications that he had
been impressed by Shostakovich and even hints that Bernard Herrmann
might have been inspired by this work in his Death Hunt horn
scherzo from On Dangerous Ground. The close-up bells of
Sunday Morning in the Grimes interludes toll with
more than sadness. There's threat there too; I have never heard
that before. The symphonic gravamen of the Grimes' Passacagalia
is also well done and here benefits from being placed between
Moonlight and the uproar and welter of Storm. That
Passacaglia has the epic stride of Lennox Berkeley's 1946
Nocturne for Orchestra - still unrecorded along with many
of his early works including the oratorio Jonah, the grand
cello concerto and much else. I rather miss the heroism and grandeur
of those early works – the later elegance and sophistication is
a thin substitute. Britten's early music was no whit less brilliant
as we can hear in the warmly recorded Young Apollo with
Donohoe as the thunderous dazzling pianist and the violinist Felix
Kok (then Leader of the CBSO) among the soloists.
This is another wonderful
bargain from EMI. You make sacrifices though in return for a compact
clamshell box and a very low price. There are no notes at all
and no texts - yet much of this music is vocal. So you may need
to go looking for texts and background - not that it is in short
supply. Also you may well benefit from the undistracted concentration
of listening to just the music.
So this box is certainly
for you if you plan or even hope to explore Britten for the
first time. It is also an apt purchase if you would like to
encounter new approaches to interpretation freed somewhat from
the iconic Britten-Decca Aldeburgh hegemony of the 1960s and
1970s. I have to concede that the great Decca legacy bears the
authoritative imprimatur of the composer but if Britten's music
is to live it must continue to find new voices.
This set is full of
surprises and pleasures An outstanding bargain and an alternative
route to Britten.
Rob Barnett
see also Britten
biographical article
Details of works and artists (full tracklisting available here):
CD1
Sinfonia da Requiem Op. 20
Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia
from Peter Grimes Op. 33
The Young Person’s Guide to the
Orchestra Op. 34
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Libor
Pesek. rec. 1989
CD2
Canadian Carnival Op. 19
Wesley Warren, trumpet. City of
Birmingham SO/Sir Simon Rattle.
rec. 1982
Diversions for Piano (left hand)
and Orchestra Op. 21
Peter Donohoe, piano. City of Birmingham
SO/Sir Simon Rattle. rec.
1990
Scottish Ballad Op. 26
Peter Donohoe, Philip Fowke, pianos.
City of Birmingham SO/Sir
Simon Rattle. rec. 1982
An American Overture Op. 27
Occasional Overture Op. 38
City of Birmingham SO/Sir Simon
Rattle. rec. 1984
Building of the House Op. 79
CBSO Chorus/Simon Halsey. City
of Birmingham SO/Sir Simon Rattle
rec. 1990
CD3
Piano Concerto Op. 13
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano. City of
Birmingham SO/Paavo Järvi. rec.
1997
Violin Concerto Op. 15
Ida Haendel, violin. Bournemouth
SO/Paavo Berglund. rec. 1977
Young Apollo Op. 16
Peter Donohoe, piano. Felix Kok,
Jeremy Ballard, violins. Peter Cole,
viola. Michal Kaznowski, cello.
City of Birmingham SO/Sir Simon
Rattle. rec. 1982
CD4
Simple Symphony Op. 4 (rec. 1990)
Variations on a Theme by Frank
Bridge Op. 10 (rec. 1988)
Prelude and Fugue Op. 29
Lachrymae Op. 48a
Lars Anders Tomter, viola. Norwegian
Chamber Orchestra/Iona Brown.
rec. 1991
CD5
Symphonic Suite from ‘Gloriana’
Op. 53a
Royal Liverpool PO/Takuo Yuasa.
rec. 1994
Cello Symphony Op. 68
Steven Isserlis, cello. City of
London Sinfonia/Nicholas Ward,
Richard Hickox. rec. 1987
Men of Goodwill (Variations on
a Christmas Carol for orchestra)
Minnesota Orchestra/Sir Neville
Marriner. rec. 1983
CD6
Sinfonietta Op. 1
Pauline Lowbury, Julian Tear, violins.
Britten Sinfonia/Daniel
Harding. rec. 1997
Russian Funeral
City of Birmingham SO/Sir Simon
Rattle. rec. 1994
Suite on English Folk Tunes ‘A
time there was…’ Op. 90
Peter Walden, cor anglais. City
of Birmingham SO/Sir Simon Rattle
rec. 1984
Matinees Musicales Op. 24
Soirees Musicales Op. 9
English Chamber Orchestra/Sir Alexander
Gibson. rec. 1982
Rossini Suite original version
of Soirees Musicales
Boys of the Choir of Paisley Abbey
chorus/George McPhee
Scottish Chamber Orchestra/John
Tunnell, Steuart Bedford. rec. 1998
CD7
The Prince of Pagodas Op. 57 Acts
I and II
CD8
The Prince of Pagodas Op. 57 Act
III
London Sinfonietta/Oliver Knussen.
rec. 1989
CD9
Rhapsody for String Quartet
Elegy for Solo Viola - Garfield
Jackson, viola
String Quartet in D - Nicholas
Logie, viola
CD10
Phantasy for Oboe and String Trio
Op. 2
Three Divertimenti for String Quartet
String Quartet No. 1 in D Op. 25
CD11
String Quartet No. 2 in C Op. 36
String Quartet No. 3 Op. 94
Endellion String Quartet. rec.
1986
CD12
Cello Suite No. 1 in G Op. 72
Cello Suite No. 2 in D Op. 80
Cello Suite No. 3 Op. 87
Truls Mørk, cello. rec. 1998 &
2000
CD13
The Music For Solo Piano:
Holiday Diary Op. 5
Three Character Pieces
From Sonatina Romantica
Five Waltzes – Stephen Hough, piano
Two Lullabies for Two Pianos
Introduction & Rondo alla burlesca
Op. 23 No. 1
Stephen Hough, Ronan O’Hara, pianos.
rec. 1990
CD14
Suite for Violin and Piano Op.
6
Alexander Barantschik, violin.
John Adey, piano. rec. 1994
Cello Sonata in C Op. 65
Moray Welsh, cello. John Lenehan,
piano. rec. 1994
Six Metamorphoses after Ovid for
Solo Oboe Op. 49
Roy Carter, oboe. rec. 1995
Nocturnal after John Dowland Op.
70
Julian Bream, guitar. rec. 1992
CD15
War Requiem Op. 66
Requiem aeternam
Dies irae
Offertorium
Sanctus
Agnes Dei
CD16
Libera Me
Elisabeth Soderstrom, soprano.
Robert Tear, tenor. Sir Thomas Allen,
baritone.
Mark Blatchly, chamber organ. Boys
of Christ Church Cathedral, Oxford/
Francis Grier
CBSO Chorus/Simon Halsey. City
of Birmingham SO/Sir Simon Rattle.
rec. 1983
Spring Symphony Op. 44 Parts I-IV
Sheila Armstrong, soprano. Dame
Janet Baker, contralto. Robert Tear,
tenor.
St. Clement Danes School Boys’
Choir/Keith Walters. London Symphony
Chorus/Richard Hickox
LSO/Andre Previn. rec. 1978
CD17
Hymn to St. Cecilia Op. 27
A Ceremony of Carols Op. 28
James Clark, Julian Godlee, trebles.
Osian Ellis, harp
Miss brevis in D Op. 63
Julian Brown, Christopher Anderson,
Anthony Sackville, Rory Phillips &
James Clark, trebles. Ian Hare,
organ.
Festival Te Deum Op. 32
Simon Channing, treble. James Lancelot,
organ
Rejoice in the Lamb Op. 30
Simon Channing, treble. James Bowman,
countertenor. Richard Morton,
tenor. Marcus Creed, bass.
James Lancelot, organ. David Corkhill,
percussion.
Te Deum in C
Rory Phillips, treble. James Lancelot,
organ
Jubilate Deo
James Lancelot, organ. Choir of
King’s College, Cambridge/Sir David
Willcocks, Sir Philip Ledger. rec.
1971, 72 & 74
CD18
A Hymn to the Virgin
Stephen Barton, Hugh Hudleston,
treble. Warren Trevelyan-Jones, tenor
Francis Pott, bass
Winchester Cathedral Choir/David
Hill. rec. 1996
Saint Nicolas Op. 42
Robert Tear, tenor. Bruce Russell,
treble. Andrew Davis & Ian Hare,
piano duet.
Cambridge Girl’s Choir, Choir of
King’s College, Cambridge.
Academy of St. Martin in the Fields/Sir
Neville Marriner, Sir David
Willcocks. rec. 1970.
Hymn to St. Peter Op. 56a
Mark Emney, Peter Rowe, trebles.
Timothy Farrell, organ. Wandsworth
School Choir/Russell Burgess. rec.
1968
A Hymn of St. Columba – Regis regum
rectissimi Op. 56a
Mark Emney, Peter Rowe, trebles.
Christopher Hughes, Timothy Farrell,
organ.
Choir of King’s College, Cambridge.
Wandsworth School Choir/Russell
Burgess. rec. 1968
Sacred and Profane Op. 91
Vasari Singers. Jeremy Backhouse.
rec. 1992
CD19
The Little Sweep – A Children’s
Opera in 3 Scenes Op. 45 rec. 1977
A Boy was Born Op. 3
London Sinfonietta Chorus. Choristers
of St. Paul’s Cathedral/John
Scott, Terry Edwards
A Shepherd’s Carol for unaccompanied
chorus, words by W. H. Auden
Sarah Leonard, soprano. Susan Bickley,
mezzo-soprano. Peter Hall,
tenor. Gordon Jones, baritone.
London Sinfonietta Chorus/Terry
Edwards. rec. 1988
CD20
Noye’s Fludde Op. 59 rec. 1898
AMDG words by Gerard Manley Hopkins
London Sinfonietta Chorus/Terry
Edwards. rec. 1987 & 1988
The Ballad of Little Musgrave and
Lady Barnard
Baccholian Singers of London. Rogers
Covey-Crump, Ian Partridge, Ian
Thompson, Paul Elliott, tenors
Ian Humphris, Stephen Varcoe, baritones.
Michael George, Brian
Etheridge, bass. rec. 1976
CD21
The Company of Heaven Parts I,
II & III
Peter Barkworth, Sheila Allen,
narrators. Cathryn Pope, soprano. Dan
Dressen, tenor. Christopher Herrick,
organ
London Philharmonic Chorus/Richard
Cooke. English Chamber Orchestra/Philip
Brunelle rec. 1989
Ballad of Heroes Op. 14
Robert Tear, tenor. CBSO Chorus/Simon
Halsey. City of Birmingham SO/Sir
Simon Rattle
Praise We Great Men
Alison Hargan, soprano. Mary King,
contralto. Robert Tear, tenor
Willard White, bass.
CBSO Chorus/Simon Halsey. City
of Birmingham SO/Sir Simon Rattle
rec. 1990
CD22
Les Illuminations Op. 18
Heather Harper, soprano. Northern
Sinfonia Orchestra/Sir Neville
Marriner. rec. 1970
Serenade for Tenor, Horn and Strings
Op. 31
Now Sleeps the Crimson Petal (Tennyson)
Neil Mackie, tenor, Barry Tuckwell,
horn. Scottish C.O./John Tunnell,
Steuart Bedford. rec. 1988
Nocturne Op. 60
Robert Tear, tenor. English C.O./Jeffrey
Tate. rec. 1987
CD23
Quatre Chansons Francaises
Jill Gomez, soprano. City of Birmingham
SO/Sir Simon Rattle. rec.
1982
Our Hunting Fathers Op. 8
Folksong Arrangements
Elisabeth Soderstrom, soprano.
Orchestra of the Welsh National Opera/
Richard Armstrong. rec. 1982
Phaedra Op. 93
Felicity Palmer, mezzo-soprano.
Jane Salmon, cello. Melvyn Tan,
harpsichord. Endymion Ensemble/John
Whitfield
Five French Folksong Arrangements
Felicity Palmer, mezzo-soprano.
Endymion Ensemble/John Whitfield.
rec. 1986
CD24
Seven Sonnets of Michelangelo Op.
22
Peter Pears, tenor, Benjamin Britten,
piano. rec. 1942
Holy Sonnets of John Donne Op.
35
Peter Pears, tenor, Benjamin Britten,
piano. rec. 1947
On This Island Op. 11
Winter Words Op. 52
Robert Tear, tenor. Sir Philip
Ledger, piano. rec. 1973
CD25
The Five Canticles
Folksong Arrangements
Ian Bostridge, tenor. David Daniels,
counter-tenor. Christopher Maltman,
baritone
Timothy Brown, horn. Aline Brewer,
harp. Julius Drake, piano
CD26
Two Songs by Thomas Hardy
Beware! Three Early Songs
Two Songs by W. H. Auden
Three Rhymes by William Soutar
Neil Mackie, tenor. Roger Vignoles,
piano. rec. 1986
Tit for Tat (5 settings of poems
by Walter de la Mare)
Jonathan Lemalu, bass baritone.
Malcolm Martineau, piano. rec. 2005
Two Ballads for Two Voices and
Piano
Felicity Lott, soprano. Ann Murray,
mezzo-soprano. Graham Johnson,
piano. rec. 1991
Folksong Arrangements
Robert Tear, tenor. Sir Philip
Ledger, piano. rec. 1974
Sarah Brightman, soprano. Geoffrey
Parsons, piano. rec. 1986
CD27
Realisations of Henry Purcell –
Odes and Elegies
The Queen’s Epicedium
Peter Pears, tenor. Benjamin Britten,
piano. rec. 1947
Orpheus Britannicus
Felicity Lott, soprano. Ann Murray,
mezzo-soprano. Graham Johnson,
piano. rec. 1991.
Neil Mackie, tenor. Roger Vignoles,
piano. rec. 1986
Suite of Songs for High Voice and
Orchestra
Neil Mackie, tenor. Scottish C.O./John
Tunnell, Steuart Bedford. rec.
1988
Orchestrations of Schubert &
Schumann
Neil Mackie, tenor. Scottish C.O./John
Tunnell, Steuart Bedford. rec.
1988
CD28
Paul Bunyan – Operetta in 2 acts
and prologue Op. 17 – ACT I rec. 1987
CD29
Paul Bunyan – ACT II
Soloists, Chorus & Orchestra
of the Plymouth Music Series / Philip Brunelle
CD30 + CD31
Peter Grimes rec. 1992
Anthony Rolfe Johnson; Felicity
Lott; Thomas Allen; Patricia Payne; Maria Bovino; Gillian Webster;
Stuart Kale; Stafford Dean; Sarah Walker; Neil Jenkins; Simon
Keenlyside; David Wilson-Johnson
Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal
Opera House, Covent Garden/Bernard Haitink
CD32 + CD33
The Turn of the Screw rec. 2002
Ian Bostridge; Joan Rodgers; Julian
Leang; Caroline Wise; Jane Henschel; Vivian Tierney
Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Daniel
Harding
CD34 + CD35
A Midsummer Night’s Dream rec.
1990
James Bowman; Lillian Watson; Dexter
Fletcher; John Graham-Hall; Henry Herford; Della Jones; Jill Gomez;
Norman Bailey; Penelope Walker
Trinity Boys’ Choir; City of London
Sinfonia/Richard Hickox
CD36 + CD37
The Rape of Lucretia Op. 37 Opera
in 2 acts rec. 1947
Peter Pears; Joan Cross; Norman
Lumsden; Denis Dowling; Frederick Sharp; Nancy Evans; Flora Nielsen;
Margaret Ritchie
English Opera Group Chamber Orchestra/Reginald
Goodall
Scenes from Peter Grimes Op. 33.
rec. 1948
Peter Pears, tenor; Joan Cross,
Tom Culbert, Herbert Dawson, BBC Theatre Chorus, Orchestra of
the ROH Covent Garden/Reginald Goodall
EMI CLASSICS 2175262 
