Richard Hickox
Richard Hickox was one of the most active and well-known conductors in Britain, with a strong international reputation, especially for performing music of his native country. He began conducting at the age of 16 and, after studies at the Royal College of Music and Queen's College, where he was an organ scholar, he founded the City of London Sinfonia in 1971, of which he remained musical director until his death.
In 1972 he became organist and master of music at St. Margaret's Church, Westminster, remaining in that position until 1982. In 1977 he was appointed conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra Chorus, and in 1982 became the music director of the Northern Sinfonia in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. He is credited with re-establishing that orchestra as an ensemble of stature, confirmed by a highly successful tour of the United States and a complete Beethoven symphony recording cycle for the ASV label. He was associate conductor of the San Diego Symphony Orchestra from 1982 to 1985, and took the same title at the London Symphony Orchestra in 1985. He shared leadership duties with Simon Standage for Collegium Musicum 90, a period-instrument group the two founded.
All this activity made Hickox a very familiar face on the British music scene. With his various choral and orchestral ensembles he frequently appeared at the major British music festivals and at the BBC Proms Concerts. He participated in several notable special projects, including a BBC video production of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas and an appearance in the Istanbul Festival leading a production of Mozart's The Abduction from the Seraglio inside the actual sultans' seraglio in the Topkapi Museum. He also provided music for a Ken Russell film for the BBC on the wives of great composers.
In the 1990s he increased his involvement with opera, leading new productions of Handel's Julius Caesar in Berlin, Walton's Troilus and Cressida in a live BBC broadcast of an Opera North production, and Vaughan Williams' Pilgrim's Progress at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He conducted a televised production of Britten's Turn of the Screw on the BBC in 2004.
He guest conducted around the world, including frequent appearances with the Los Angeles Opera and the New Japan Philharmonic in Tokyo. He made over 300 recordings and won numerous awards, including a Gramophon Award in 1992 for his account of Britten's War Requiem, and three Gramophone Awards, a Diapason d'Or, the Deutsche Schalplattenpreis, and a Grammy for his recording of Britten's Peter Grimes in 1995 on the Chandos label, probably the most honored classical recording of the last quarter of the twentieth century. His recordings appeared on the ASV, Argo, EMI, and Virgin labels, and in the early '90s he had been an exclusive Chandos artist. More recording awards were received in 2001 and 2006 for the music of Vaughan Williams and Stanford, respectively. In 2005, he was appointed director of the Opera Australia. Hickox died of a heart attack following a recording session in Wales in November 2008.
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The Berkeley Edition, Vol. 2
Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Nicholas Daniel
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Nov 1, 2002
24-Bit 96.0 kHz - Stereo -
Vivaldi: Ottone In Villa
Opera - Released by Chandos on Feb 1, 1998
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
The Berkeley Edition, Vol. 5
Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Catherine Wyn-Rogers, Celia Craig, Steven Burnard, Howard Shelley
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Mar 1, 2004
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Rubbra: Symphony No. 2 & Symphony No. 6
Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Aug 1, 1996
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Rubbra: Symphony No. 5, Symphony No. 8 & Ode to the Queen
Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Susan Bickley
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Mar 1, 1999
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Leighton: Symphony No. 2 & Te Deum laudamus
Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Sarah Fox, Gareth Rhys-Davies, BBC National Chorus of Wales
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Nov 1, 2008
24-Bit 48.0 kHz - Stereo -
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Britten: World of the Spirit, An American Overture & King Arthur
Sacred Oratorios - Released by Chandos on Nov 1, 1996
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Walton: The Bear
Richard Hickox, Northern Sinfonia, Alan Opie, Della Jones, John Shirley-Quirk
Opera - Released by Chandos on Nov 1, 1993
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Rubbra: Symphony No. 9 & The Morning Watch
Richard Hickox, BBC National Orchestra Of Wales, Lynne Dawson, Della Jones, Stephen Roberts, BBC National Chorus of Wales
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Mar 1, 1996
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Edition Berkeley, volume 1
Classical - Released by Chandos on May 1, 2002
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Messes
Ian WATSON, St. Margaret's Westminster Singers, Richard Hickox
Sacred Vocal Music - Released by Chandos on Sep 1, 2007
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Carl Orff : Carmina Burana
Classical - Released by Chandos on Oct 1, 2008
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Strauss: Overture and Dance, Duett-Concertino - Wagner: Wesendonk Lieder, Siegried Idyll & Träume
Richard Hickox, Northern Sinfonia, Jard van Nes, Robert Plane, Stephen Reay, Lesley Hatfield
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Mar 1, 1995
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Symphonie n° 5 "Hydriotaphia" - Sinfoniette pour cordes - Concerto pour piano n° 2
London Symphony Orchestra, Howard Shelley, Richard Hickox
Symphonic Music - Released by Chandos on Aug 1, 1993
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Œuvres orchestrales (volume 5)
Symphonic Music - Released by Chandos on Sep 1, 2004
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Burgon: Requiem; Nunc dimittis
Choir of King's College, Cambridge, Stephen Cleobury, London Symphony Chorus, Richard Hickox
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Jan 1, 1978
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Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius/Delius: Sea Drift/Holst: Hymn of Jesus
Benjamin Britten, Sir Adrian Boult, Richard Hickox
Classical - Released by Decca Music Group Ltd. on Dec 4, 1995
The Qobuz Essential Discography16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo -
Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue - Copland: Appalachian Spring & Quiet City - Barber: Knoxville & Adagio
Classical - Released by Warner Classics on Nov 26, 2021
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Holst: A Somerset Rhapsody, A Fugal Overture, Egdon Heath, Hammersmith, Capriccio & Scherzo
Richard Hickox, London Symphony Orchestra
Symphonies - Released by Chandos on Aug 1, 2016
16-Bit CD Quality 44.1 kHz - Stereo