Benjamin Luxon

[Guest]

I hadn't heard anything of him for years and years....I knew he'd been ill and I'd assumed that he was no longer of this parish. However, according to his wikipedia entry. BL is still very much alive and has carved an alternative career in spoken word.

I picked up this tasty little morsel last week:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dicky-Robert-Benjamin-Luxon-Previn/dp/B002KGVBE6/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319356474&sr=8-2-spell

Most of the items on here were unfamiliar to me. The recording is great fun, really transporting the listener into a Victorian parlour of your own imagination. I'll admit to not really have listened to BL properly before (his fach not being my cup of tea and his long association with ENO somewhat counting against him in my eyes) but on the evidence of these recordings, I've definitely been missing out. Did he make any other worthwhile recordings (barring the Leinsdorf Tote Stadt, which I already have)?

[amateur51]

I hadn't heard anything of him for years and years....I knew he'd been ill and I'd assumed that he was no longer of this parish. However, according to his wikipedia entry. BL is still very much alive and has carved an alternative career in spoken word.

I picked up this tasty little morsel last week:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dicky-Robert-Benjamin-Luxon-Previn/dp/B002KGVBE6/ref=sr_1_sc_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1319356474&sr=8-2-spell

Most of the items on here were unfamiliar to me. The recording is great fun, really transporting the listener into a Victorian parlour of your own imagination. I'll admit to not really have listened to BL properly before (his fach not being my cup of tea and his long association with ENO somewhat counting against him in my eyes) but on the evidence of these recordings, I've definitely been missing out. Did he make any other worthwhile recordings (barring the Leinsdorf Tote Stadt, which I already have)?

Benjammin?

[salymap]

Back in the 1960s Ben Luxon and Robert Tear recorded a book of Victorian 'parlour' songs that were published by Augener, where I worked at the time. The book and record sold well, don't know if it is still available

Sorry, I see it must be a new version of the 1960s book we published with a new title.

[Flosshilde]

I hadn't heard anything of him for years and years....I knew he'd been ill and I'd assumed that he was no longer of this parish. However, according to his wikipedia entry. BL is still very much alive and has carved an alternative career in spoken word.

How disappointing for you - perhaps the thread title should have been 'Benjamin Luxon - alive'?

his long association with ENO somewhat counting against him in my eyes

Good grief - why? Dame Janet Baker had a long association with the ENO - & chose to make one of her three final opera performances with them - do you think she's not worth your attention?

[french frank]

How disappointing for you - perhaps the thread title should have been 'Benjamin Luxon - alive'?

(Title amended, Am51)

[amateur51]

(Title amended, Am51)

If it's not too much trouble, could you remove my comment as well please, ff?

[french frank]

If it's not too much trouble, could you remove my comment as well please, ff?

Do I have to remove this one, too? You can remove them yourself, you know .

[amateur51]

Do I have to remove this one, too? You can remove them yourself, you know .

Really?!

[Mr Pee]

How disappointing for you - perhaps the thread title should have been 'Benjamin Luxon - alive'?

[Richard Tarleton]

Good grief - why? Dame Janet Baker had a long association with the ENO - & chose to make one of her three final opera performances with them - do you think she's not worth your attention?

Quite - what on earth (in those days at any rate) was wrong with ENO? Gooddall's Ring, with Hunter/Remedios ? I saw Baker there in Poppaea (with Leppard), Mary Stuart (with Mackerras) and lots of other great productions. They had a bit of a golden age in the late 60's-70's. They may have had their ups and downs since....To stay on thread, I see Luxon made his debut there in 1974 though I don't think I saw him there.

[Petrushka]

I knew he had been ill for years and had hearing problems. But what a glorious voice to have in Belshazzar's Feast, for example, and he looked the part too.

The last time I saw him was as the narrator in Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw with the CBSO and Simon Rattle on a snowy March day in 1995 in one of the 'Towards the Millenium concerts devoted to the 1940's (later televised).

[makropulos]

his long association with ENO somewhat counting against him in my eyes

What a weird remark, given how many wonderful things ENO did in the 70s and 80s.

Luxon in his prime was always a singer I loved to hear - and his creation of the title role in the original TV production of "Owen Wingrave" is a performance I still find exceptionally moving. Unless his association with Britten is something that counts against him in your eyes as well?

[amateur51]

I knew he had been ill for years and had hearing problems. But what a glorious voice to have in Belshazzar's Feast, for example, and he looked the part too.

The last time I saw him was as the narrator in Schoenberg's A Survivor from Warsaw with the CBSO and Simon Rattle on a snowy March day in 1995 in one of the 'Towards the Millenium concerts devoted to the 1940's (later televised).

Blimey, Petrushka, I was there too, if you mean at the Royal Festival Hall. What a good series that was, echt CBSO/Rattle

[Nick Armstrong]

Some years ago, I did a detailed comparison of various versions of the wonderful Butterworth 'Shropshire Lad' songs. Benjamin Luxon carried the day by a mile, I recall - heart-stopping performance

http://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Was-One.../dp/B000000AKH

[Petrushka]

Blimey, Petrushka, I was there too, if you mean at the Royal Festival Hall. What a good series that was, echt CBSO/Rattle

No, I was at the concert in Symphony Hall. Birmingham, March 2 1995, and this was the one later on BBC2.