Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem, Winter Words (arr Holloway), etc album review – confirms Gardner’s status as an outstanding conductor of Britten

Nicky Spence/LPO/Gardner

(LPO)

The first recording of Robin Holloway’s imaginative orchestration of the song cycle Winter Words is fascinating, and completes a superb new disc of Britten’s music

I

f Edward Gardner’s performances and recording of Peter Grimes had not already firmly established his credentials as an outstanding Britten conductor, then this collection, taken from Gardner’s concerts with the London Philharmonic at the Festival Hall in London and at Saffron Hall in Saffron Walden, superbly confirms them. It contains an outstanding account of one Britten’s greatest orchestral achievements, the Sinfonia da Requiem, and a fine one of a suite (Gardner’s own selection) from Britten’s only full-length ballet, The Prince of the Pagodas, together with the first recording of a fascinating orchestration by Robin Holloway of Britten’s Thomas Hardy song cycle Winter Words.