Although Britten's final opera has made it into the repertoire, this new Chandos recording is only its second appearance on record (although there is a Glyndebourne DVD). Strictly speaking, it is the first complete recording, a fact oddly not mentioned by Chandos. Possibly due to his increasing physical infirmities, Britten became uncharacteristically indecisive in his last years, and was persuaded to make a cut in the Munich prologue, a cut that the composer was later to regret. His first instincts were correct - in the Decca recording, Aschenbach makes up his mind to go to Venice rather abruptly, while the original presents an indecisive, vacillating character, surely more realistic and certainly closer to Mann's conception. I still wish that Britten had reconsidered the Games of Apollo sequence that closes Act 1; it feels, to me anyway, overextended in relation to the rest of the Act, and the mimsy choral writing sounds uncharacteristically parochial, and faintly camp. In most other respects, this seems one of Britten's strongest works. His gift for parody, a feature of Britten's work throughout his career, is put to good use here, for instance in the thumbnail sketch in the barber's shop, while his amazing ability to imitate natural (and mechanised) sound is regularly on display here. As Ned Rorem wrote admiringly after attending the first performance, "(Britten's) brushed drums are what you hear - not like what you hear - from vaporetto motors." His decision to create a Mephistophelean figure, who turns up in various guises throughout the opera, is a brilliant idea, and of course is a dream part for any singer. Alan Opie reprises the role he took with distinction on the Glyndebourne film; he is broader in approach than John Shirley-Quirk on the Decca version, but plausibly so. As Eschenbach, Hickox has cast the evergreen Philip Langridge, in astonishingly robust form for a man in his mid-sixties. Aschenbach, like Mozart's Idomeneo, was specifically written for a mature singer, and I'm really glad that Langridge has had the chance to preserve his intelligent, sympathetic interpretation on disc while his voice is still in such good shape. Hickox directs a powerful account of the score; by comparison, Graeme Jenkins's account on the DVD is somewhat lacklustre. Of course, the Decca recording, with the original cast, is essential listening; if pushed to a choice, I'd go with the new Hickox. The recorded sound is extremely vivid.

Reviewed by Sandy Matheson