Richard Hickox’s lengthy association with the Chandos CD label has been incredibly fruitful.

In the past 20 years, he has made an astonishing 280 recordings. In this interview he talks about this relationship, plus his latest project, a recording of Britten’s opera Owen Wingrave.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: CHAN 10473(2)

Tags: 10473(2), Benjamin Britten, Chandos, City of London Sinfonia, conductor, English choral music, English opera, English symphonic music, Naxos Classical Music Spotlight, Owen Wingrave, Richard Hickox, Richard Hickox Singers

Kenneth LEIGHTON (1929-1988)
Orchestral Works, Volume 1
Organ Concerto, Op 58 / Concerto for String
Orchestra, Op 39 / Symphony for Strings, Op 3
John Scott (organ)

BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Richard Hickox

The medium of the string orchestra proved significant for Leighton throughout his life and is featured in a number of his important works. The three works in the first volume, each scored for string orchestra, accurately represent his compositional development, complementing one of his earliest student works, the Symphony for Strings, with two of his more mature ones. The Symphony for Strings was premiered by Gerald Finzi and his Newbury String Players while Leighton was still a student. The first major work by the composer for these forces, it was a considerable success, and sparked a friendship between the two composers which lasted until Finzi’s untimely death. Twelve years passed before the composition of the Concerto for String Orchestra. This gap represented a considerable advance in the development of Leighton’s musical language and style as he was exposed to the works of both neoclassical composers and members of the Second Viennese School. However, he retained the lyrical instinct of his earlier years. Completing the disc is one of Leighton’s most enduring orchestral works: the Concerto for Organ, String Orchestra and Timpani. The soloist is internationally-renowned concert organist John Scott, particularly acclaimed for his performances of works by 20th-century composers.

One of the most distinguished post-war British composers, Kenneth Leighton’s works are frequently performed both in the U.K. and abroad. His music maintains a compelling balance between Romantic tradition and early serialism. His lyrical and colorfully orchestrated works not only suggest a lively, if often dark, imagination, but also demonstrate a remarkable scope explored by few of his countrymen. Richard Hickox and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales present the first of two releases devoted to Leighton’s orchestral works.

Claude DEBUSSY (1862-1918)
Piano Works, Volume 3
Children’s Corner / Suite bergamasque / Danse Bohémienne /
Nocturne / La plus que lent / Mazurka / Rêverie /
Deux Arabesques / Morceau de concours / The Little Nigar /
Hommage à Haydn / Berceuse Héroïque / Page d’Album / Élégie

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet (piano)

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet releases the third volume in his critically acclaimed series devoted to the complete works for piano by Debussy. The recording includes the two famous collections: Children’s Corner and Suite bergamasque, as well as two rarities: La plus que lente, which foreshadows the 1915 Études, and Élégie. Élégie was written in 1915 following the composer’s move to the coast. The outbreak of the First World War had initially depressed Debussy into a state of creative sterility, but the move was most productive. The Élégie was written for a charity and dedicated to Queen Alexandra, honoring the role of women in wartime. It is rarely performed nowadays, but Roger Nichols writes, “it is one of the composer’s most extraordinary works …and we are left wondering what on earth Debussy would have written in the 1920s and beyond …”

Tags: BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Berceuse Héroïque, Chandos, Children’s Corner, Claude Debussy, Concerto for String Orchestra, Danse Bohémienne, Deux Arabesques, Élégie, Hommage à Haydn, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, John Scott, Kenneth Leighton, La plus que lent, Mazurka, Morceau de concours, Naxos, NaxosDirect, Nocturne, Organ Concerto, Page d’Album, Rêverie, Richard Hickox, Suite bergamasque, Symphony for Strings, The Little Nigar

April 2008 releases feature 12 new recordings, including Mozart’s Così fan tutte
on the Grammy Award-winning Opera in English series, the launch of a new series devoted to the music of Vincent d’Indy, and Franz Schmidt’s Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln.

On April 1, 2008, Naxos of America begins physical distribution of the award-winning U.K.-based Chandos catalogue. The month kicks off with 12 new releases (street date of April 29), including Mozart’s Così fan tutte (CHAN 3152) on the celebrated Opera in English series. Sir Charles Mackerras, recent winner of a “Best Opera” GRAMMY® Award for his Chandos recording of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, conducts the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and a cast of British luminaries who include Janice Watson, Leslie Garrett, Diana Montague, and Sir Thomas Allen.

Chandos also releases Schubert’s Mass in E-flat, D950 (CHAN 0750), conducted by GRAMMY® Award-winner Richard Hickox. This recording is the latest addition to Hickox’s extensive discography and follows a successful performance of the Mass at the 2007 BBC Proms. The same superb artists appear on this recording, including Susan Gritton, James Gilchrist, Mark Padmore, and Collegium Musicum 90. Composed in 1828, Schubert’s Mass in E-flat D950 was premiered posthumously the following year under the direction of his brother Ferdinand. This mass, more than any of Schubert’s others, emphasizes the chorus, relegating the soloists to three brief episodes. It is an emotive and haunting masterpiece, blending liturgical opulence with the composer’s trademark Romantic sentiment, influenced by Haydn, Beethoven, and Bach.

Chandos begins a new series of recordings exploring the music of French composer Vincent d’Indy (1851-1931) this month with Orchestral Works, Volume 1 (CHAN 10464). This debut features rarely-performed music, including Jour d’été à la montagne, Op. 61 (1905), a work of d’Indy’s full maturity. A three-part cycle, Jour evokes a day in the Ardèche mountains in southern France. While the influence of Debussy is apparent in the impressionistic details and tone painting, the piece is essentially Classical in its tonal structure. The recording also features La forêt enchantée, Op. 8, and fundamentally contemporary Souvenirs, Op. 62, which d’Indy composed in memory of his wife. Rumon Gamba, whose previous recordings for Chandos include the music of Malcolm Williamson, conducts the Iceland Symphony Orchestra.

Also slated for release in April is Austrian composer Franz Schmidt’s Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (Book of the Seven Seals; CHSA 5051), recorded in hybrid surround sound. Dutch bass Robert Holl, whose name has become almost synonymous with this oratorio, performs with the Tonkünstler Orchestra under its principal conductor Kristjan Järvi. Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln, often deemed Schmidt’s greatest work, is an ambitious setting of the Book of Revelation. In the program notes for its premiere, Schmidt comments on the immense challenge of setting the End Times to music and says his priority “was to bring the text into a form which retained everything important, wherever possible in the original wording, and yet [to] reduce the immense dimensions of the work to a point where they could be grasped by ordinary human brains.”

Percy Grainger was an unconventional Australian composer and pianist recognized for his arrangements of folk tunes and original works. Grainger: Transcriptions for Wind Orchestra (CHAN 10455) is the label’s latest foray into his oeuvre, featuring the acclaimed Royal Northern College of Music Wind Orchestra. This release includes arrangements of music for wind band by composers Grainger particularly admired, mostly from the series Chosen Gems for Winds. Grainger’s chosen arrangements span the development of Western music, from Renaissance (Ferrabosco and Josquin des Prez) to Baroque (J.S. Bach) to Romantic (Liszt, Franck, Fauré, and Goossens).

Other releases for this month include Great Operatic Arias, Volume 19, featuring beloved British baritone Sir Thomas Allen (CHAN 3155) performing works by Mozart, Verdi, Meyerbeer, and Weill; and a new disc of works by composer Edgar Bainton (CHAN 10460) who emigrated to Australia in 1934 and disappeared from the British music scene. The release includes four premiere recordings: Concerto Fantasia for piano and orchestra; Suite ‘The Golden River’; Pavane, Idyll and Bacchanal; and Three Pieces for Orchestra. Paul Daniel conducts the BBC Orchestra; Margaret Fingerhut is the piano soloist.

Additionally, Chandos continues its ongoing series of music by British composer Arnold Bax with two releases: Arnold Bax: Tone Poems, Volume 2 (CHAN 10446) features the BBC Philharmonic, led by Vernon Handley, and includes Three Northern Ballads, Into the Twilight, The Happy Forest, Nympholept, and Red Autumn. Bax: Orchestral Works, Volume 9 (CHAN 10457) includes The Truth About Russian Dancers and From Dusk Till Dawn with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, conducted by Bryden Thomson.

Chandos marks the 50th anniversary of the death of British composer Ralph Vaughan Williams with a recording of his 1909 song cycle On Wenlock Edge, based on A.E. Housman’s A Shropshire Lad (CHAN 10465). The recording features tenor Mark Padmore, joined by the acclaimed Schubert Ensemble in their Chandos recording debut. It also includes the rarely-performed Piano Quintet in C Minor, recently released by the composer’s widow and published in 2002, and his Romance and Pastorale, two brief, lyric pieces for violin and piano, published in 1923.

Tempesta di Mare, a Philadelphia-based Baroque orchestra and chamber ensemble, takes its name from Antonio Vivaldi’s concerto. Italian for “storm at sea,” the title reflects composers’ belief in the power of their music to evoke drama. Artistic directors Gwen Roberts and Richard Stone founded Tempesta in 1996 to pursue their ideal of Baroque music as a rhetorical, dramatic art form. Johann Friedrich Fasch (1688 – 1758) Orchestral Music (Chaconne/CHAN 0751) is Tempesta di Mare’s third recording for Chandos, featuring the music of one of Bach’s most significant contemporaries. Fasch’s orchestral works are characteristic of the late Baroque-early Classical era.

Finally, Welsh organist, choral director, and composer Iain Quinn provides a survey of unusual organ repertoire in Czech Music from the Norwich Cathedral (CHAN 10463), which includes works by Vítĕzslav Novák, Leoš Janáček, Jiří Ropek, Bohuslav Martinů, Antonín Dvořák, and Bedřich Smetana. Based in the U.S., he serves as Director of Cathedral Music and Organist at the Cathedral Church of St. John in Albuquerque. Quinn has performed throughout the world and previously released a disc of Russian organ music, Tsar of Instruments, on Chandos.

Chandos, which celebrates its 28th anniversary this year, is one of the finest independent classical labels in the world, celebrated for its world-class artists, unusual repertoire, and superb sound and engineering. It has pioneered the idea of the ’series’; its catalog features an impressive roster of British composers and artists, as well as a masterful film music series and the critically-acclaimed “Opera in English” series. Chandos is also dedicated to the SACD format, in which it has released over 40 discs. Since its founding in 1979, Chandos has championed rare and neglected repertoire, filling in many gaps in record catalogues and exposing audiences to the music of British composers, including Alwyn, Bax, Dyson, Moeran, and Rubbra. Today, Chandos’ richly diverse catalogue contains over 1500 titles and includes recordings of music, ancient and modern, by composers from around the globe. Chandos issues at least five new recordings a month—together with re-issues of back catalogue material—rivalling major classical companies.

Chandos has received numerous awards from Gramophone: 2001 Record of the Year for Richard Hickox’s recording of the original version of Vaughan Williams’ A London Symphony; Best Choral Recording of 2003 for a rediscovered Mass by Hummel; Best Orchestral Recording of 2004 for a set of Bax’s Symphonies; and Editor’s Choice of 2006 for Stanford: Songs of the Sea/Songs of the Fleet. This year, Chandos artists took home two GRAMMY® Awards, one for Best Opera Recording for its Opera in English CD of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel (Sir Charles MacKerras, conductor), and an award for Best Engineered Classical Album (John Newton, engineer) for its multi-nominated recording of Grechaninov’s Passion Week. The Chandos recording of Britten’s Peter Grimes, conducted by Richard Hickox, received a GRAMMY® Award in 1997.

Tags: April, Chandos, Naxos, NaxosDirect

Ralph Couzens, Managing Director of Chandos Records, has grown up with this record label - it was founded by his father Brian Couzens.

In this interview, he talks about the Chandos name, the Chandos sound, and what it means to be a classical label in today’s media universe.

Album details…
Catalogue No.: CHSA 5044

Tags: BBC Chorus, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Chandos, Charles Bruffy, Charles Mackerras, CHSA 5044, Grammy winners, Granville Bantock, Grechaninov, Hansel and Gretel, Kansas City Chorale, Naxos Classical Music Spotlight, Omar Khayyam, Passion Week, Philharmonia Orchestra, Phoenix Bach Choir, Ralph Couzens