Britten: Death In Venice / Hickox, Chance

Philip Langridge, tenor; Alan Opie, baritone; Michael Chance, counter-tenor; BBC Singers; Stephen Betteridge, chorus master; City of London Sinfonia; Nicholas Ward, leader; Martin Fitzpatrick, assistant conductor; Richard Hickox

Many of those involved in this recording remarked that they felt as if they were witnessing a small piece of musical history in the making. The recording was always going to create a stir, for Richard Hickox's existing accounts of Britten's operas are highly regarded and are often compared favourably with the composer's own benchmark versions, but to have secured Philip Langridge, universally regarded as an Aschenbach to rival that of Peter Pears, the tenor for whom the role was written, was a great achievement; his performance is, quite simply, mesmerising.

Price: $48.98