For You Alan Opie

"As always, Hickox takes his time over the score, but there is less sense of self indulgence than in some of his earlier Britten recordings. He raws playing of high quality and generosity of feeling from the City of London Sinfonia. Add an exemplary choral contribution from the BBC Singers and a typically atmospheric Chandos recording, and there is no reason to resist."

Gramophone's Good CD & DVD Guide 2006

So this is, on the whole, a fine performance. The only other commercial recording of Die Meistersinger to come along in the last couple of decades has been Sawallisch's (for my review see Fanfare 18:3). And that one, despite its many virtues, is seriously disfigured by Weikl's Sachs. So if you want a Meistersinger in up-to-the-minute digital sound, you would do better with Solti. I must add, however, that while the sound on this new recording is very full and clear, it lacks warmth.

This is the first complete recording of the revised, two-act version of Billy Budd to appear since the one led by the composer appeared in 1968. A previously un-released "private" recording of the four-act version with the original cast showed up in 1994 and shed great light on Britten's growth and approach to drama, and just two years back, Kent Nagano led the same version with Thomas Hampson in the title role on Erato. This present recording is a stunning achievement and pushes all of the others out of the first place slot.

Langridge is an inspired interpreter of the role of Aschenbach; his performance here is matched by Alan Opie’s sinister portrayal of the six characters who convey him to his doom. Michael Chance contributes an ethereally unsettling Voice of Apollo, and Richard Hickox coaxes out every bit of the score's morbid beauty.