# Richard Hickox?



## Enthusiast (Mar 5, 2016)

I was wondering how others rate the work of Richard Hickox. I always felt he was reliable and often seemed to be the beneficiary of unusually good recording quality ... but that he somehow wasn't in the top rank. The British authorities never knighted him, for example, but then he died relatively early (he was 60). Now, though, I have to recognise that so many of his records, and even those of often much recorded music, are among my favourites for the piece he was doing. He got to record a lot - and there are many works that we might not have recordings of were it not for him - but I'm not sure how well known he was outside of Britain. His recordings of rarer works at least must have attracted wide attention? What do you all think?


----------



## mbhaub (Dec 2, 2016)

He was a solid, musical, technically fine conductor who made some great recordings of the British choral works: Elgar, Tippet, Britten, etc. His Vaughan Williams 2nd on Chandos - the original version - was fantastic. He was buttonholed as a choral conductor though, a step below a "real" symphony conductor. His early death was tragic and I'm glad he left us such a fine legacy of recordings. He died too young to really make a mark in the concert arena.


----------



## Merl (Jul 28, 2016)

Some of his VW (but certainly not his Pastoral symphony), much of his Holst and many Arnold recordings are excellent. His Beethoven cycle not so. Like any other conductor there's good and bad.


----------



## Art Rock (Nov 28, 2009)

I've got lots of CD's with him conducting, mainly British repertoire (Alwyn, Arnold, the two Berkeleys, Bridge, Britten, Bush, all on Chandos). Good stuff mostly.


----------



## Bulldog (Nov 21, 2013)

I'll remember him primarily for his recordings of the Haydn/Hummel/Telemann choral works on period instruments.


----------



## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

I have him doing Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Very nice.


----------



## David Phillips (Jun 26, 2017)

Enthusiast said:


> I was wondering how others rate the work of Richard Hickox. I always felt he was reliable and often seemed to be the beneficiary of unusually good recording quality ... but that he somehow wasn't in the top rank. The British authorities never knighted him, for example, but then he died relatively early (he was 60). Now, though, I have to recognise that so many of his records, and even those of often much recorded music, are among my favourites for the piece he was doing. He got to record a lot - and there are many works that we might not have recordings of were it not for him - but I'm not sure how well known he was outside of Britain. His recordings of rarer works at least must have attracted wide attention? What do you all think?


Richard Hickox was a fine conductor who made a lot of superb recordings - RVW's 'London' Symphony is a favourite. Many musicians, writers and artists are offered knighthoods but choose to turn them down. The only honour RVW accepted from the Palace was the Order of Merit.


----------



## Bruckner Anton (Mar 10, 2016)

I like his conducting of lesser known Britsh works. I am not sure about his recordings of best known ones. The market competition is just so fierce.


----------



## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

I am a fan of his Haydn Mass recordings, over the years I have collected the full set in original covers, those along with his Arnold symphonies and his George Dyson recordings I rate highly. The VW London symphony recording of the original score is a super recording and a very good performance but personally I prefer the revised edition of the symphony - hardly Hickox's fault.
As a general opinion he was a very good conductor of the majority of works he tackled but perhaps was one step down from the very best in core repertoire. If you pick up a disc of his you are unlikely to be badly let down.


----------



## joen_cph (Jan 17, 2010)

Regarding Haydn masses, indeed. Also Hummel masses.

Delius vocal works weren't mentioned, I think.

Many fine Chandos discs.


----------



## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

I'm also a big fan of his recordings of Classical era choral music (Haydn and Hummel), as well as the previously mentioned Britten Midsummer Night's Dream recording. His other Britten recordings are also excellent, particularly the War Requiem. Other favorites are his Dream of Gerontius and Beethoven Mass in C.


----------



## larold (Jul 20, 2017)

I thought Hickox a good, probably great, conductor with some good recordings. I liked his Beethoven 9th symphony better than most; he used an orchestra about the size Beethoven would have known in his day making the overall sound smaller than big band. It was well sung and performed. 

He recorded a lot and had a lot of good ones but probably no signature recording ... like Bruno Walter and the Beethoven "Pastoral" symphony, Solti's Ring, Dennis Brain's Mozart horn concertos, etc. Conductors that go through their careers like that end up having less reverential reputations than those who are affiliated with or known as experts in certain music like Eugen Jochum and Bruckner or people like John Gardiner and Roger Norrington and period performance.

Others of that ilk are people like Erich Leinsdorf, Neemi Jarvi, Riccardo Muti and one of today's ascending conductors, Antonio Pappano. These are/were great conductors with wide repertoires but not people thought of as expert in any one thing.


----------



## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

larold said:


> Conductors that go through their careers like that end up having less reverential reputations than those who are affiliated with or known as experts in certain music like Eugen Jochum and Bruckner or people like John Gardiner and Roger Norrington and period performance.


The conductors that you mention also had/have the advantage of recording for so-called "major" labels at a time when they spent a lot of money and effort on promotion and advertising, and had wide distribution. Hickox wasn't so fortunate. Jarvi, Muti, and Leinsdorf may not be viewed as experts in any particular repertoire, but they had the same advantage, and are vastly better known than Hickox.


----------



## Nereffid (Feb 6, 2013)

Bulldog said:


> I'll remember him primarily for his recordings of the Haydn/Hummel/Telemann choral works on period instruments.


Yes, he was my introduction to that music.

He also recorded a large amount of Percy Grainger's works for Chandos, which I'm quite fond of.


----------



## Knorf (Jan 16, 2020)

I heard Hickox conduct live only once, when he was in Seattle to guest conduct the Seattle Symphony in Walton's First. This was in the Schwarz era, which was mixed to say the least. Sometimes Gerard Schwarz was excellent, or at least decent, but sometimes he was really terrible. For example, around this time I heard an almost unbelievably sloppy, mismanaged, and ill-conceived Prokofiev Fifth and came close to not wanting to listen to the SSO at all anymore.

But Richard Hickox was in town, and how often does one get to hear a great English symphony played in the USA, especially one by Walton?

Hickox was _sensational_. When I closed my eyes, I'd have sworn I was listening to the London Symphony Orchestra*. I could believe in the world-class potential of the Seattle Symphony Orchestra again!

(*Except in a way better concert hall.)


----------



## Josquin13 (Nov 7, 2017)

Hickox's complete recordings of Edmund Rubbra's Symphonies & Concertos, William Aldwyn's Symphonies & Piano Concertos, etc., and Malcolm Arnold's Symphony cycle are invaluable, if that is music of interest to people, as are his many recordings of other "British" music, & especially the neglected repertory.

--Rubbra Symphonies: 



--Aldwyn Symphonies: 








--Arnold Symphonies: 




Like others, I also think highly of his Haydn masses, which were a fairly recent discovery for me.

One stellar Hickox recording that no one's mentioned yet (unless I missed it), is his EMI recording of Handel's opera, Alcina, with sopranos Arleen Auger and Della Jones and an excellent cast of singers, played by the City of London Baroque Sinfonia--a period instrument orchestra. That's probably the recording by Hickox that I most treasure, since it's one of my favorite Handel operas, and I think one of Handel's finest works: 



. I've heard the production was wonderful, too, but unfortunately, it didn't play during my years in London.


----------



## Malx (Jun 18, 2017)

Another set I should have mentioned which I listened to the second symphony from earlier today is his recordings of the Tippett Symphonies - well worth a listen.


----------



## Reichstag aus LICHT (Oct 25, 2010)

Barbebleu said:


> I have him doing Britten's A Midsummer Night's Dream. Very nice.


All his Britten opera recordings are excellent. They're fully the equal of Britten's own, and sometimes better IMHO - e.g. Billy Budd, Owen Wingrave, Death in Venice; even Hickox's Peter Grimes gives the classic Decca recording a run for its money. Apart from Britten operas, he also gave us a fine Walton "Troilus and Cressida" and - of all things - a splendid Prokofiev "War and Peace". The latter's a bit of a Hickoxian outlier, but I'm glad he did it!

Orchestrally-speaking, I found his incomplete Chandos Vaughan Williams cycle rather patchy, but I thoroughly enjoyed his survey of Malcolm Arnold symphonies, even if I prefer Andrew Penny on Naxos overall.


----------



## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

A superb Bliss Colour Symphony

My current favourite in most Britten operas, even superseding the composer's own, IMHO

Ditto Ben's War Requiem

Sterling service on Rubbra symphonies

Ditto Alwyn symphonies

Disappointing in RVW symphonies (my opinion)

Excellent Malcolm Arnold symphonies (1-6)

Pretty good Tippett symphonies

An excellent Walton Troilus & Cressida

The above Hickox recordings, plus quite a few others, form an important part of my collection.

All in all, a greatly missed musician who died too early .....


----------



## HenryPenfold (Apr 29, 2018)

Reichstag aus LICHT said:


> All his Britten opera recordings are excellent. They're fully the equal of Britten's own, and sometimes better IMHO - e.g. Billy Budd, Owen Wingrave, Death in Venice; even Hickox's Peter Grimes gives the classic Decca recording a run for its money.


Only read this post after I posted myself - glad you said this, I was thinking that I was the only person with this view!


----------



## superhorn (Mar 23, 2010)

Hickox deserves admiration for his tireless championing of interesting lesser known works, not only by English composers . For example, his live recording from the Spoleto festival USA of Menotti's "The Consul ", which used to be fairly popular but has been really performed in recent decades, is terrific. 
But if I remember correctly, the excellent Chandos recording of Walton's "Troilus and Cressida" was conducted by Paul Daniel, who is still very much alive and is also a fine conductor . 
Who knows what interesting repertoire Hickox might have recorded had he lived to the present day and to a ripe old age ? The loss is ours .


----------

