Gramophone Magazine
August 2025
Editor's Choice
Nicky Spence (tenor)
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
Britten: Sinfonia da Requiem, Op. 20
Britten: Winter Words, Op. 52 (Orch. Robin Holloway)
Britten: The Prince of the Pagodas Suite. Selection
This is Edward Gardner’s sixth release on LPO Label, and the third that celebrates the 20th anniversary of the label in 2025, having been preceded by the Rachmaninov: The Bells & Symphonic Dances and Edward Gardner conducts Dvořák and Schumann.
The Britten / Edward Gardner release comes from live concert performances recorded at London’s Royal Festival Hall (Sinfonia da Requiem and The Prince of the Pagodas), while Winter Words was recorded in Saffron Hall in 2021, at the close of the lockdown season.
Sinfonia da Requiem – A Bold, Early Masterpiece. Written at just 26 and originally commissioned to commemorate Japan’s 2600th imperial anniversary, Britten’s Sinfonia da Requiem was rejected for being too solemn—but emerged as his only major purely orchestral work and a powerful response to the growing threat of war. ‘Gardner has long been an outstanding Britten interpreter, and Sinfonia da Requiem was tremendous as the visceral immediacy of its first two movements gave way to the calm contemplation of eternity with which it ends.’ (The Guardian, ★★★★)
Winter Words Britten’s poignant song cycle originally for tenor and piano, set to texts of 8 poems by Thomas Hardy is presented here in a new orchestration by Robin Holloway—a world premiere recording. ‘Spence’s nuanced feeling for the text communicated the intense but contained poignancy of passing time.’ (Opera Today)
The Prince of the Pagodas, Britten’s ballet with Edward Gardner’s distilled concert suite from The Prince of the Pagodas—another world premiere recording—fulfils Britten’s unrealised ambition to arrange his full-length ballet into a dramatic orchestral suite.
‘We saw [Pagoda Land] clearly in sound instead, helped by the LPO’s percussion section, tinkling and throbbing, gamelan-style.’
(The Times, ★★★★)
