Even listeners who rightly treasured their LPs of
Tippett's first three symphonies by
Colin Davis and the
London Symphony had to be grateful when
Richard Hickox and the
Bournemouth Symphony recorded all four of
Tippett's symphonies for CD. After all, not only are
Tippett's symphonies arguably in the same class as
Elgar and
Vaughan Williams', but, incredibly, they had rarely been recorded by anyone after
Davis. So even if listeners who found
Davis' recordings virtually definitive, they were still curious to know what the works would sound like under a different conductor.
As it turns out, under
Hickox it sounds bigger, brawnier, and more symphonic. Where
Davis was all about linear energy,
Hickox is all about orchestral weight. So while his First and Second don't have the same tensile lyricism as
Davis', they do have more weight and muscle, and while his Third doesn't have the same ecstatic radiance of
Davis', it does have more contrast and drama. Since
Davis and the
LSO didn't record the Fourth, no comparisons are possible, but
Solti and the
Chicago did and, compared with
Solti's impetuously forceful performance,
Hickox's more massively measured performance comes off equal to or better than his predecessor's. Are
Hickox's recordings better than -- more definitive than --
Davis'? No, perhaps not, but they are still superb and still fascinating and anyone who loved the earlier recordings will in all likelihood love the later recordings as well. Chandos' sound is big, loud, and clear.