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Background: Following the success of his recent performance of the opera at London’s Cadagon Hall, the seasoned Britten performer Richard Hickox has committed the composer’s rarely recorded Owen Wingrave to disc. Commissioned by BBC television in 1966, the work is something of a Cinderella among Britten’s operas, despite its imaginative, closely knit score.

One possible reason is that it was composed for television rather than the theatre. Like its 1954 predecessor, The Turn of the Screw, Owen Wingrave is based on a ghost story by Henry James. Britten read the story while he was working on The Turn of the Screw, and even then conceived the idea of setting it as an opera. The music employs the relatively spare textures that Britten adopted in his later years. The Times commented: ‘Hickox and the CLS made every note count, every hiccupping rhythm, each transparent texture. Battle nightmares, sherry being poured: we saw them all, in sound.’

CATALOGUE NR: CHAN10473
RECORD LABEL: Chandos
FORMAT: 2 CD Set
PRICE: £ 25.00 including VAT, or £ 21.28 excluding VAT
RELEASE DATE: 02-Jun-2008

COMPOSER: Benjamin Britten
TITLE: Owen Wingrave - complete
ORCHESTRA: City of London Sinfonia
CONDUCTOR: Richard Hickox
ARTISTS: Peter Coleman Wright   Robin Leggate   Janice Watson   Alan Opie

- Jul-2008 4 star BBC Music Mag.

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