Britten: Beggar's Opera / Curnyn, Bickley, White, Jones, Randle

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Label
Chandos
Release Date
October 27, 2009
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    Featuring ⌄
    • COMPOSER
      BRITTEN, BENJAMIN
    • PERFORMER
      Curnyn, City Of London Sinfonia, Bickley, White, Jones, Randle, Gardiner, Maxwell, Fox, Mccafferty
    Product Details ⌄
    Works ⌄

    1. Introduction: If Poverty be a title to Poetry (Beggar)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sirena Tocco

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    2. Overture

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    3. Act I: Through all the employments of life (Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    4. Act I: Sir, black Moll hath sent word (Filch, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Robert Anthony Gardiner, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    5. Act I: 'Tis Woman that seduces all Mankind (Filch, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Robert Anthony Gardiner, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    6. Act I: But it is now high time to look about me (Peachum, Mrs. Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Jeremy White, Susan Bickley

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    7. Act I: Women indeed are bitter bad judges - …ev'ry Man handsome who is going to the Camp - If any wench Venus' Girdle wear (Mrs. Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Susan Bickley

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    8. Act I: Was Captain Macheath here this morning? (Peachum, Mrs. Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Jeremy White, Susan Bickley

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    9. Act I: If Love the Virgin's Heart invade (Mrs. Peachum, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Susan Bickley, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    10. Act I: A Maid is like the Golden ore (Mrs. Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Susan Bickley

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    11. Act I: Come hither, Filch (Mrs. Peachum, Filch)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Susan Bickley, Robert Anthony Gardiner

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    12. Act I: I know as well as any of the fine ladies (Polly) - Virgins are like the fair flower in its lustre (Polly, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    13. Act I: Our Polly is a sad slut! (Mrs. Peachum, Omnes, Peachum, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Susan Bickley, Jeremy White, Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    14. Act I: Can Love be controlled by Advice? (Polly, Mrs. Peachum, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Susan Bickley, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    15. Act I: The girl shows such a readiness (Mrs. Peachum) - O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed (Mrs. Peachum, Polly, Omnes, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Susan Bickley, Jeremy White, Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    16. Act I: I, like a Ship in storms, was tossed (Polly, Mrs. Peachum, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Susan Bickley, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    17. Act I: A fox may steal your hens, Sir (Peachum, Mrs. Peachum, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Jeremy White, Susan Bickley, Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    18. Act I: O ponder well! Be not severe (Polly, Mrs. Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Susan Bickley

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    19. Act I: The Turtle thus with plaintive crying, her Lover dying (Polly, Mrs. Peachum, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Susan Bickley, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    20. Act I: Now I'm a wretch indeed! (Polly, Omnes, Macheath)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    21. Act I: My heart was so free (Macheath, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    22. Act I: Were I laid on Greenland's coast (Macheath, Polly, Omnes)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    23. Act I: O! what pain it is to part! (Polly, Macheath)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    24. Act I: The Miser thus a shilling sees (Macheath, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    25. Act I: But pr'thee, Mat, what is become of thy brother Tom? (Ben Budge, Mat of the Mint, Jemmy Twitcher, Nimming Ned, Harry Paddington, Wat Dreary)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Aidan Smith, Ben Thapa, Paul Hopwood, Thomas Barnard, Bryn Evans, Mark Saberton

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    26. Act I: Fill ev'ry glass, for wine inspires us (Gentlemen of the Road)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Bryn Evans, Aidan Smith, Mark Saberton, Ben Thapa, Paul Hopwood, Thomas Barnard

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    27. Act I: Gentlemen, well met (Macheath, Mat of the Mint)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Ben Thapa

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    28. Act I: I shall wish myself with you (Macheath) - Let us take the road (Harry Paddington, Gentlemen of the Road)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Bryn Evans, Aidan Smith, Mark Saberton, Ben Thapa, Paul Hopwood, Thomas Barnard

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    29. Act I: If the heart of a man is depressed with cares (Macheath)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    30. Act I: Dear Mrs. Coaxer, you are welcome (Macheath) - Youth's the season made for joys (Macheath, Ladies of the Town)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Kathryn Jenkin, Siobhain Gibson, Clare McCaldin, Bernadette Lord, Alison Place, Katy Batho, Miranda Westcott, Katherine Paterson

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    31. Act I: Now pray, ladies, take your places (Macheath, Jenny Diver, Mrs. Coaxer)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Miranda Westcott, Clare McCaldin

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    32. Act I: It is your own choice (Jenny Diver) - Before the barn-door crowing (Jenny Diver, Ladies of the Town, Macheath, Dolly Trull, Suky Tawdry)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Miranda Westcott, Bernadette Lord, Siobhain Gibson, Kathryn Jenkin, Clare McCaldin, Alison Place, Katy Batho, Katherine Paterson

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    33. Act I: But to be sure, Sir (Jenny Diver) - The Gamesters and Lawyers are jugglers alike (Ladies of the Town, Betty Doxy, Macheath, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Jeremy White, Leah Marian Jones, Kathryn Jenkin, Siobhain Gibson, Clare McCaldin, Bernadette Lord, Alison Place, Katy Batho, Miranda Westcott, Katherine Paterson

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    34. Act I: The gentleman, ladies, lodges in Newgate - Constables, wait upon the Captain to his lodgings (Peachum) - At the Tree I shall suffer with pleasure (Macheath)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Jeremy White, Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    35. Act II: Noble Captain, you are welcome (Lockit, Macheath)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Donald Maxwell, Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    36. Act II: Man may escape from rope and gun (Macheath, Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    37. Act II: Thus when a good Housewife sees a rat (Lucy Lockit, Macheath)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    38. Act II: It is the pleasure of all you fine men (Lucy Lockit) - How cruel are the traytors (Lucy Lockit, Macheath)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    39. Act II: The first time at the looking glass (Macheath, Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    40. Act II: In this last affair, brother Peachum, we are agreed (Lockit, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Donald Maxwell, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    41. Act II: Such language, brother, anywhere else (Lockit) - When you censure the age (Lockit, Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Donald Maxwell, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    42. Act II: Is then his fate decreed, Sir? (Lucy Lockit, Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Donald Maxwell

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    43. Act II: Though the Chaplain was out of the way to-day (Lucy Lockit, Macheath, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Tom Randle, Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    44. Act II: Thus when the Swallow seeking prey (Polly, Macheath, Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Tom Randle, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    45. Act II: If women's tongues can cease for an answer (Macheath) - I will not! (Lucy Lockit) - How happy could I be with either (Macheath, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Leah Marian Jones, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    46. Act II: Cease your funning (Polly, Omnes, Macheath, Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Tom Randle, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    47. Act II: Why how now, Madam Flirt! (Lucy Lockit, Polly, Peachum, Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Leah Marian Jones, Jeremy White, Donald Maxwell

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    48. Act II: No power on earth can e'er divide (Lucy Lockit, Macheath, Lockit, Peachum, Omnes)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Tom Randle, Donald Maxwell, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    49. Act III: To be sure, wench, you must have been aiding and abetting (Lockit, Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Donald Maxwell, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    50. Act III: Dear Sir, mention not my education (Lucy Lockit, Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Donald Maxwell

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    51. Act III: Ungrateful Macheath! (Lucy Lockit, Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Donald Maxwell

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    52. Act III: Thus Gamesters united in friendship are found (Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Donald Maxwell

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    53. Act III: Our scene doth represent a Gaming House (Beggar) - The modes of the Court so common are grown (Macheath, Ben Budge, Mat of the Mint, Omnes)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Aidan Smith, Ben Thapa, Sirena Tocco

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    54. Act III: The Coronation account, brother Peachum (Lockit, Peachum, Servant, Mrs. Trapes)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Donald Maxwell, Jeremy White, Frances McCafferty

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    55. Act III: In the days of my youth I could bill like a dove (Mrs. Trapes, Lockit, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Frances McCafferty, Donald Maxwell, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    56. Act III: In the days of my youth I could bill like a dove (Mrs. Trapes, Beggar)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Frances McCafferty, Sirena Tocco

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    57. Act III: Jealousy, rage, love and fear (Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    58. Act III: I have the Rat's-bane ready (Lucy Lockit, Filch, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Leah Marian Jones, Robert Anthony Gardiner

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    59. Act III: A curse attends a woman's love (Polly, Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    60. Act III: When I was forced from him (Polly, Lucy Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Sarah Fox

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    61. Act III: Come, sweet lass (Lucy Lockit, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    62. Act III: Now every glimmering of happiness is lost (Polly, Lucy Lockit, Macheath, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Sarah Fox, Tom Randle, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    63. Act III: Which way shall I turn me, how can I decide? (Macheath, Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    64. Act III: Dear, dear Sir, sink the material evidence (Polly)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    65. Act III: How then can you be a tyrant to me (Lucy Lockit) - When he holds up his hand arraigned for his life (Lucy Lockit, Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Sarah Fox, Donald Maxwell

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    66. Act III: Ourselves, like the Great, to secure a retreat (Lockit, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Donald Maxwell, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    67. Act III: We are ready, Sir… (Lockit) - …to conduct you to the Old Bailey! (Lockit, Lucy Lockit, Polly, Macheath, Peachum, Omnes)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Donald Maxwell, Sarah Fox, Leah Marian Jones, Tom Randle, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    68. Act III: O cruel, cruel case! (Macheath, Jailer)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    69. Act III: Would I might be hanged! (Polly, Lucy Lockit, Macheath)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Leah Marian Jones, Sarah Fox, Tom Randle

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    70. Act III: But surely you don't intend that Macheath shall really executed? (Mat of the Mint, Beggar, Ben Budge, Lucy Lockit, Polly, Lockit, Peachum)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Ben Thapa, Sirena Tocco, Aidan Smith, Leah Marian Jones, Sarah Fox, Donald Maxwell, Jeremy White

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn

    71. Act III: Thus I stand like a Turk, with his doxies around (Macheath, Mrs. Peachum, Peachum, Ladies of the Town, Gentlemen of the Road, Lucy Lockit, Polly, Mrs. Trapes, Lockit)

      Composer: Benjamin Britten

      Ensemble: City of London Sinfonia

      Performer: Tom Randle, Susan Bickley, Jeremy White, Leah Marian Jones, Robert Anthony Gardiner, Donald Maxwell, Sarah Fox, Frances McCafferty, Kathryn Jenkin, Siobhain Gibson, Clare McCaldin, Bernadette Lord, Alison Place, Katy Batho, Miranda Westcott, Katherine Paterson, Bryn Evans, Aidan Smith, Mark Saberton, Ben Thapa, Paul Hopwood, Thomas Barnard, Sirena Tocco

      Conductor: Christian Curnyn


This Chandos production must now be first choice for this work.

Welcome to John Gay’s and Benjamin Britten’s romp through some seamy but also colourful and vibrant elements of 18 th century London. This work established the ballad opera in which spoken dialogue alternated with musical items. Gay’s satirical words were set to well-known traditional and popular tunes. Two hundred and twenty years later Britten added 20 th century accompaniments.

What’s entirely Britten here is the fresh caterwauling Overture (tr. 2) in which the various characters are given brief sound-portraits. There’s an oboe of sinuous sweetness for Polly (0:40), a cavorting clarinet for Macheath (1:29), suave strings and a jocular bassoon for the highwaymen (2:35) and a bantering circus-like master of ceremonies style for Mr Peachum (3:25). It’s all terrifically realized by the City of London Sinfonia who play marvellously throughout.

But what of the songs? Filch’s ‘’Tis woman that seduces all Mankind’ (tr. 5) is a good example of Britten allowing an original tune free rein while giving it modern dress with balmy woodwind and harp. The heroine Polly comes in (tr.12) to strains of her first song over which there are snatches of dialogue. This, like the melodrama which shortly follows (tr. 20), is Britten’s neat way of subverting the claim in the opening dialogue that this opera will have no “unnatural” recitative. Polly’s first song, ‘Virgins are like the fair flower in its lustre’ has as its tune Purcell’s ‘What shall I do to show how much I love him?’ from Dioclesian. Like its original, it is shown by Leah-Marian Jones to be at once wistful and coy. Her duet with Susan Bickley’s Mrs Peachum, ’O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed’ (tr. 15) catches well a cosy lullaby make-believe, aided by the gently rocking strings’ accompaniment. It’s lovely but only fleeting. Another notable accompaniment is the flutter-tonguing flute illustrating Polly’s ‘The Turtle thus with plaintive crying’ (tr. 19).

The highwayman hero Macheath enters and Tom Randle proves courteous enough to Jones’ simpering. The duet between Macheath and Polly, ’Were I laid on Greenland’s coast’ (tr. 22) is sweetly done but I felt the singers were over-conscious of the need to match the flowing orchestration and then the addition of chorus and drum. Some of the natural freshness is lost that’s present in the 1963 Aldeburgh Festival staging on DVD (Decca 074 3329). In this Chandos CD ‘The Miser thus a shilling sees’ (tr. 24) responds better to the typical careful attention of conductor Christian Curnyn’s approach. The disciplined emphasis of rhythm in its thorny progression matches the text’s poetic expression of loss. A pity, however, the second appearance of “Till home and friends are lost at last” (1:54) isn’t, as marked in the score ‘(in the distance)’ as the lovers go their separate ways. It’s an effect achieved in the BBC broadcast recording of the original 1948 production conducted by Britten (Pearl GEM 0225).

The highwaymen’s ’Fill ev’ry glass’ (tr. 26) is a drinking song of the sturdy, resolute variety in 2009 where a lustier abandon was shown in 1948. ‘Let us take the road’ (tr. 28) is infused with eagerness because of the excitement Britten and Curnyn convey in sketching the approach of the coach. Tom Randle’s Macheath has a too cultivated spoken voice but his singing is virile enough. You can hear this in ‘If the heart of a man is depressed with cares’ (tr. 29), marked as a caressing Andante backed by sweetly musing violin solo and rocking clarinet. Again I felt the line was held back a little in deference to the detail of the accompaniment. At this point Macheath is visited by a parade of prostitutes and what’s entertaining in the Decca DVD is rather curious here. With no sounds incorporated of women moving around, squealing and the like , you might think Macheath is imagining it all. I guess this is so as not to detract from Britten’s own variety parade of instruments, a kind of ‘Young Person’s Guide to Women’. There’s a superb tambourine to enliven the headiness of ‘Youth’s the season made for joys’. Randle sings with sunny freedom the ad libitum ‘Ah’s above the chorus repeat, though the top C final phrase is left to a soprano. Now betrayed by the women, his ‘At the Tree I shall suffer with pleasure’ has a disciplined testiness but less venom than Decca’s Kenneth McKellar.

Again more telling in this Chandos production is the more meditative material. The opening song of Act 2, ‘Man may escape from rope and gun’ (CD2, tr. 2), where Randle shows how transfixed Macheath is in his repetition of ‘woman’, savours past joys even while aware they’re the cause of present pain. Sarah Fox, as Lucy Lockit, is scarily efficient in her spite in ‘Thus when a good Housewife sees a rat’ (tr. 3). Polly’s response is the more sensitively elegiac ‘Thus when the Swallow seeking prey’ (tr. 10) and here Leah-Marian Jones is rich, smooth and eloquent. For me, however, Macheath’s ‘How happy could I be with either’ (tr. 11) is taken so fast it becomes too much a tongue-twister virtuoso piece losing some of its whimsy. In 1948 Peter Pears’ lighter touch was more effective. Polly has the easier task of rising above all this with ‘Cease your funning’ (tr.12), whose merging into the chorus and distancing of perspective are successfully achieved before we’re brought back to earth with a vengeance by Lucy’s crisp, snappy ‘Why how now, Madam Flirt!’ (tr. 13). The finale begins with Lucy and Polly showing great resolve. ‘No power on earth can e’er divide’ (tr. 14) is well progressed by Curnyn to an exciting ‘Horay’ trio response from Macheath, Lockit and Peachum. The there’s then increasing speed with a backing chorus in Sullivanesque abandon.

The opening song of Act 3, Lucy’s ‘When young at the bar’ (tr. 16) should be familiar as the tune is Purcell’s ‘If love’s a sweet passion’ from The Fairy Queen. Fox invests it with its original sad yearning while Curnyn points the claustrophobic cloying nature of Britten’s rich scoring of the wry accompaniment. Of a different order and part of the score’s kaleidoscopic variety is the relished archness of Frances McCafferty as Mrs Trapes delivering ‘In the days of my youth I could bill like a dove’ (tr. 21) with relished archness. To this is added the raucous carousing of Lockit and Peachum. Shortly there’s also the poignancy of Lucy and Polly’s ‘A curse attends a woman’s love’ (tr. 25). The paradox that these two candidates for Macheath’s affection can at one moment be united in their shared sense of rejection and understanding of the impossibility of their situation and at the next daggers drawn as rivals and eager still to court Macheath with warm affection at ‘Hither, dear husband, turn your eyes’ (tr. 28) is exploited dramatically. Fox’s pleading for Macheath’s life with ‘When he holds up his hand’ (tr. 31) ought to be the more persuasive, aided by Britten’s obbligato oboe accompaniment. ‘The Charge is prepared’ is a stock, formal chorus considerably pepped up by Mrs Peachum’s triumphant ‘Ah’s and glissando shrieks over its orchestral postlude.

Britten creates a closing scena (tr. 34) with Macheath in the condemned cell at first extolling the virtues of drink when about to die, then recalling pretty women. This gives way to the questioning protest ‘must I die?’. This is well sung by Randle but doesn’t quite have Pears’ grasp of the torment of ever-fluctuating contrasts of mood. Polly and Lucy offer a moving show of support, ‘Would I might be hanged’ to the heavily insistent backdrop of the funeral knell. In 1948 Britten’s knell is less weighty but more searing. Macheath realistically confesses ‘my courage is out’. The spoken dialogue wipes this all away. The highwaymen begin an address directly to the audience to demand the playwright provides a reprieve and all the players join in so the work can end with a dance. This bit of trickery and the rejection of the moral that vice must be punished works better in sound alone than the quicker and tamer removal of justice in the DVD. So you finish the Chandos sound recording remembering the company’s lusty tra-las and Fox’s top C.

This Chandos is the fullest version of the three currently available in the UK, playing at 117:52 in comparison with Decca’s 93:50 and Pearl’s 79:03. The differences are largely down to the Chandos including more of Gay’s spoken dialogue with alterations and additions by Tyrone Guthrie though even here I’d guess about a quarter of the dialogue published in the full and vocal scores has been cut. I don’t think this is a disadvantage because there’s a good deal of repetition in the text anyway. However, some musical numbers are also cut in the other recordings: Mrs Peachum’s ‘If Love the Virgin’s Heart invade’ (CD1 tr. 9) can only be heard here. To see the piece staged is a benefit. On the DVD the dialogue generally has a touch more pace and life, being less self-conscious in delivery. In the same vein the switch from dialogue to music flows more seamlessly and the folksong origins of many of the tunes are delivered with a more disarmingly innocent directness. The feeling between the characters is clearer in the ensemble numbers. The 1948 recording is striking for the verve of Britten’s direction, the charm of Pears’ light heroic manner and the lovely unforced upper register of Nancy Evans as Polly. Listen to her in ‘The Miser thus a shilling sees’. On the other hand it also at times adopts an over-romantic style, as in ‘O Polly, you might have toyed and kissed’ or is too patrician as in ‘Virgins are like the fair flower’.

To conclude, then, although sometimes more studied and deliberate than it might be, including careful points of emphasis within the dialogue, this Chandos production must now be first choice for this work. It also offers you in most luxuriant detail the colour and density of Britten’s orchestration.

-- Michael Greenhalgh, MusicWeb International