Philharmonia Orchestra / The Pilgrim’s Progress
“Ralph Vaughan Williams's time has come. Undervalued in his lifetime as a “cowpat” composer of pastoral idylls, he is at last being seen for what he was: a passionate English visionary whose music is as capable of evoking the traumas of the mid-20th century as it is of conjuring a deep sense of sublime spirituality.
The Philharmonia Orchestra and Richard Hickox already deserve plaudits for marking the 50th anniversary of the composer's death with a wide-ranging concert series, but this stunning production of his Bunyan-inspired opera — an epic that occupied Vaughan Williams, on and off, for more than 20 years — went beyond the call of duty. It was one of the most revelatory and moving evenings that I can remember. The only sadness? Just two performances, both now gone.
Hickox conducted with affection, the Philharmonia played eloquently, and the young Philharmonia Voices, who had roared the roof off as the Doleful Creatures of Hell, welcomed the Pilgrim to Heaven with a radiant halo of choral sound.
It felt as much of a triumphant homecoming for Vaughan Williams as for his bruised but resolute hero."
The Times, 5 stars, June 2008
“This was the centrepiece of the Philharmonia Orchestra’s series marking the 50th anniversary of the composer’s death, and it pulled out all the stops.
The conductor was Richard Hickox, one of the composer’s most ardent champions; the orchestra, onstage rather than in the pit, was in top form; and it is hard to imagine anyone assembling a better cast.”
Evening Standard, 5 stars, June 2008
“Richard Hickox conducted with a fine sense of the music's flow and grandeur, coaxing some limpidly beautiful playing from the orchestra. The performance's other major asset was the warm, smooth and heartfelt singing of that splendid baritone Roderick Williams as the Pilgrim.”
The Telegraph, June 2008
City of London Sinfonia, Tiffin Boys’ Choir & soloists / Britten Owen Wingrave (Chandos)
“Hickox draws haunting colours and chordings from his City of London Sinfonia, and the recording is flawlessly presented.”
BBC Music Magazine, July 2008
“This excellent recording by Hickox and the City of London Sinfonia conjures shimmering life into oft-ignored episodes of brilliant musical characterisation.”
The Times, June 2008“Hickox's performance has much to commend it, not least his vivid characterisation of the score with the City of London Sinfonia.”
Financial Times, June 2008
“Richard Hickox's command of the score also banishes once and for all the idea that the work was a mere appendix to the composer's operatic career: its pacifist theme was a central one to Britten's creative being, and he invested the opera with all the musical richness and textural originality of an unrivalled master of the medium…”
The Telegraph, June 2008
Philharmonia Orchestra / Symphony No.2 'A London Symphony'
"Thanks to the Philharmonia's beautifully nuanced playing and Hickox's advocacy, it sounded not a note too long.The concert opened with an edgy, spirited account of the brisk Symphony No8 in D minor, written late in RVW's life and making expansive use of bells, vibraphones and all the latest in tuned percussion."
Evening Standard, May 2008
Philharmonia Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus, Susan Gritton, Gerald Finley / Symphony No.7 'Antarctica', Symphony No.1 'A Sea Symphony'
"...anyone who loves Vaughan Williams, and those on the way to loving him, couldn't ask for a tastier concert series than the Philharmonia Orchestra's five-pack, spread throughout 2008, the 50th anniversary of the composer's death.
We began with the water symphonies: water frozen in Sinfonia Antartica, hewn from the film score for Scott of the Antarctic; water billowing into symbol and philosophy in A Sea Symphony, hewn from Walt Whitman. They made a great match.Hickox's understanding and the Philharmonia's finesse worked really well together. Two more symphonies follow in the Philharmonia's next Vaughan Williams programme on May 31."
The Times, May 2008
"Neither symphony launching this series celebrating Vaughan Williams's 50th anniversary is performed often. The first, his setting of Walt Whitman's Song for All Seas, All Ships, demands a veritable navy of orchestral and choral resources, and the seventh, an expansion of the score of Scott of the Antarctic, is usually dismissed as an oddity, fraught with technical and artistic difficulty.
As an exploration of the awe and mystery of the natural world and of man's hubristic desire to master it, it is appropriate that the Sinfonia Antarctica threatens to spin out of control at every lurching turn - which made Hickox and the Philharmonia's restrained mastery of the score all the more remarkable. Never trying to squeeze order where none was to be found, nor over-egging Vaughan Williams's exotic pudding of percussive effect, wordless voices and Promethean collisions of timbre and tone, the inhuman landscape seemed powerfully present, penetrated only by the oboe homage to Captain Oates's last walk and the ethereal solo violin reverie in which his mortal breath ceases."
The Guardian, May 2008
"Conductor Richard Hickox has an instinctive command of VW's idiom, and knows how far pastoral spaciousness can bend the music's pulse without sounding indulgent.The last movement of the Sea Symphony, often decried as shapeless, seemed as shrewdly structured and paced in this performance as anything in Mahler."The Telegraph, June 2008
City of London Sinfonia / Riders to the Sea (5 stars)
"Richard Hickox is certainly doing his bit to mark the 50th anniversary of Vaughan Williams’s death... Hickox’s accompaniments were always models of stylistic correctness."
The Guardian, May 2008
"Richard Hickox conducted the City of London Sinfonia with mastery of a score that is unsparing in its emtion, and he made clear its foreshadowings of great things to come in the composer's output."
The Sunday Telegraph, May 2008
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Elgar Symphony No.3 (Chandos)
“...Richard Hickox makes a really compelling case for this work…
This splendid… recording is a most valuable addition to the Elgar discography. No serious Elgarian should even think of passing it by.”
American Record Guide, May/June 2008
Australian Opera / Dvorák: Rusalka (Chandos)
"Mackerras unseated? This magical version from Australia comes close."
"Hickox… conducts this magical score with a bite that brings out the elements so closely related to the Slavonic Dances, and the recording, made in the Sydney Opera House… is clean and fresh."
Gramophone, Editor's Choice, March 2008
"British conductor Richard Hickox responds beautifully to the passionate ebb and surge of the score, and draws some luscious playing from the orchestra."
Classic FM Magazine , March 2008
"… this Rusalka speaks extremely well of Hickox's work 'down under'."
Financial Times, February 2008
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Elgar: First Symphony (Chandos)
"Hickox and his admirable orchestra relish its beauties and splendours"
The Sunday Times , July 2007
"... the wonderful sense of coherence that Hickox gives to the whole span of the four movements, his ability to integrate every section of the outer movements into a convincing whole, and the lustrous orchestral playing."
The Guardian , June 2007
"Hickox's interpretation is impressive…An outstanding new issue."
Gramophone, August 2007
West Australian Symphony Orchestra / Elgar: Dream of Gerontius
"One cannot praise Hickox's directorial qualities too highly...His view of the work was a model of taste and refinement, a reading profoundly loyal to the composer's requirements...Here was a near-perfect assessment of the score, an instance of a conductor eschewing any temptation to interpose himself between the music and the listener, instead allowing Elgar's great score to speak for itself...Hickox is an orchestral accompanist par excellence...and this extraordinarily fine reading brought him very close to the central shrine of Elgar's genius."
The West Australian , April 2007
London Symphony Orchestra / Vaughan Williams: Sea Symphony (Chandos)
"The previous instalments in Richard Hickox's cycle of Vaughan Williams's nine symphonies have consistently proved themselves to be valuable additions to the composer's discography, and this latest issue is no exception…the opening of the slow movement and spacious opening and closing of the finale have rarely sounded so profound as in Hickox's skilled hands."
The Telegraph , 24 February 2007
“Even by his own standards, this disc is an outstanding achievement for the indefatigable Hickox. The ‘filler’ comes first – a bracing account of The Wasps overture written in 1909 while Vaughan Williams was completing the main work, his Symphony No. 1, ‘A Sea Symphony’, a four movement choral setting of Walt Whitman verses. Few versions since Boult’s classic first recording have exuded such sheer exhilaration and depth of felling as the one featured here and, of course the 1952 recorded sound bears no comparison with Chandos’s. With two gifted soloists, this elegantly presented and superbly engineered disc must now be the frontrunner for the work.”
Classic FM Magazine
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Bridge, Britten and Elgar
"Richard Hickox, the most sought-after British conductor, is not ostentatious in his gestures, and yet he succeeds time and again in pumping energy in to the orchestra, giving a clear sense of direction, layering sounds and creating forms ... It begs the question why [British music] does not appear on the programme more often."
"The central work of the evening, Edward Elgar's First Symphony, deepens this impression ... From the solemn, ceremonial, dramatically progressing and richly glowing opening viola theme, Hickox, with overarching sensuality draws out nearly an hour of music of the finest order."
"Hickox never allows the monumentality of the work to become ridiculous: it is never undercooked, nor over exaggerated. A British conductor, a British symphony and a German orchestra making music together in complete symbiosis. In no available recording has Elgar's First ever sounded so overwhelmingly powerful as on this stormy Thursday"
Der Leipziger Volkszeitung , January 2007
Philharmonia Orchestra/ Britten: Death in Venice
"Richard Hickox conducted authoritatively, keeping the dramatic tension taut and realising Britten's evocation of Venice with heart-tugging vividness. An unforgettable occasion, which haunts me still."
The Telegraph, 25 November 2006
"The Philharmonia's playing of this strongly gamelan-influenced score was virtuosic, and Richard Hickox conducted with all the commitment that this unlovable but ever-fascinating final Britten opera could want."
The Guardian, 25 November 2006
"Conducting the Philharmonia in this concert perfomance, Richard Hickox drew the threads together with a fervour that made a real case for this opera as a very human drama."
The Times, 27 November 2006
"The Philharmonia Orchestra is on a high. It certainly sounded so in a concert performance of Benjamin Britten's last opera... re-creating the siren sounds of Britten's Serenissima with wonderful éclat.
Philip Langridge... sounded wonderfully fresh of voice, laying bare the fragility beneath the protagonist's mask of respectability. Alan Opie was the supremely versatile baritone, William Towers a radiant counter-tenor, while the Philharmonia Voices created a mirage of intoxicating sound."
The Financial Times , 27 November 2006
"A superb Philharmonia orchestra and Voices gave an enthralling account, semi-staged with ideal clarity by Kenneth Richardson."
The Evening Standard, 27 November 2006
"In a concert performance under Richard Hickox, the Philharmonia relished the chance to show off its silky skills, supporting a superb cast in a semi-demi-staging that nevertheless brought the work to thrilling life. "
The Observer, 3 December 2006
"Conductor Richard Hickox knows this elusive, etiolated music inside out and gave full detail to Britten's sound world of Venice's bells, boats' sirens and the slack motion of the waters of the lagoon, realising the composer's unerring skill for making the maximum resonance with the sparest of means. Hickox gave us the sick melancholic torpor of the great city built on chaos and the gathering accidie of the great artist contemplating it, in an objective but passionate reading of the score, lovingly played by the Philharmonia."
The Sunday Telegraph, 3 December 2006
London Symphony Orchestra/ Holst: The Planets, Grieg: Piano Concerto
"Hickox can always be relied upon to bring something special out of British music, and his account of The Planets was a thrilling reminder of the score's radicalism... All this came vividly to life in Hickox's performance... There was plenty of flash and dash in the concerto, too... Hickox encouraged the cello section to let rip in the swooning second subject, ensuring that it never sounded routine".
The Guardian, 14 November 2006
Opera Australia/ Giulio Cesare
"Richard Hickox gave good support to the singers with brisk tempos and alert rhythms. The orchestra's vigorous attack enlivened moments of high drama while reflective passages benefited from softly gleaming sonorities... At four hours, Giulio Cesare is a long night in the opera house. But in the hands of these accomplished performers, it seemed like an evening of heavenly length."
The Australian, 10 October 2006
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Bliss: A Colour Symphony; Violin Concerto
"Bliss's command of the orchestra is superbly displayed in this evocative recording, made in Swansea's Brangwyn Hall. And Richard Hickox demonstrates his unerring command of the music in his idiomatic shaping of phrase, pointing of rhythm and balancing of the orchestral textures."
Telegraph, 7 October 2006
"Hickox, on superior form, adds his own bite with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales; it's a sterling interpretation of a key British work."
Times, 23 September 2006
Opera Australia / Jenufa
"...Under Richard Hickox, the Opera and Ballet Orchestra crafted well-balanced textures or careful emphasis, at times murmuring, at times glowing. With strong chorus work and a fine supporting cast (particularly Tim DuFore as the Mill Foreman) this is a taut realisation of a masterful tragedy of human ordinariness."
Sydney Morning Herald, 22 September 2006
"Conductor Richard Hickox took a more measured, expansive approach to the score than Mackerras did eight years ago. There wasn't the same atmosphere of unrelentingly heightened tension, but he sustained restless momentum and realised the music's abrupt contrasts. The orchestral playing was superb, with transparent textures and soft-grained sonorities revealing the surprisingly subtle beauty of Janacek's scoring."
The Australian, 25 September 2006
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / BBC Proms Belshazzar's Feast / Bryn Terfel
"... radiantly tender ..."
The Daily Telegraph, July 2006
"The crowning glory of the concert was Walton's Belshazzar's Feast, a work tailor-made for the vast spaces of the Albert Hall, delivered at white-heat in an electrifying interpretation. Hickox lived and breathed every note, investing a Mahlerian intensity in great choral tuttis. This outstanding event will surely long resonate in the memory of all those present."
The Independent, July 2006
"... gloriously expansive ... a spectacular way to say goodbye ... Hickox ensured that the splendour of Walton's choral and orchestral writing was unleashed..."
The Guardian , July 2006
"...enthralling..."
The Evening Standard , July 2006
BBC National Orchestra & Chorus of Wales / Stanford: Songs of the Sea (Chandos)"In both sets, Gerald Finley's firmly focused, ringing tone is a joy... he sings with unfailing ardour, intelligence and sensitivity. Hickox and his BBC Welsh forces provide exemplary support.
...[Choral ballad The Revenge is] most ably served by Hickox and company. Throw in an admirable booklet-essay by Jeremy Dibble and ripe, airy sound from Chandos, and it certainly adds up to a hearty recommendation."
Gramophone, July 2006
"The choral singing is splendid throughout, with the BBC National Chorus of Wales clearly loving the bluster and heroism of The Revenge, while the orchestra provides characterful, emphatic support."
The Telegraph , May 2006
Opera Australia / The Magic Flute
"Add to the Freeman/Potra mix Opera Australia's music director Richard Hickox conducting, and you have the best opera yet in the 2006 season."
The Sun-Herald
"Opera Australia's Musical Director Richard Hickox led the orchestra from the pit, bringing his brand of fastidious, disciplined support, right from the opening three noble chords of the overture"
"His virtue is in bringing together the music with the ensemble, and added to the marmoreal beauty of the set designs and the rhetoric of the performance, this is a splendid new production."
Media Culture Reviews
"It is all eye-catching, and thanks to conductor Richard Hickox and a sensitive, often delicate, Australian Ballet and Opera Orchestra supporting, often guiding, a competent cast, ear-catching."
North Shore Times
"Richard Hickox conducts and achieves a bright and light Mozartian sound from the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra and the Opera Australian Chorus."
'Words & Music', Eastside Radio
"Richard Hickox presided over the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra with taste and insight..."
The Sydney Morning Herald
Opera Australia & Sydney Opera House / The Rake's Progress
"Under Richard Hickox's direction... the clarity and cool imagination of Stravinsky's score don't need a piggy-back ride from Mozart to entrance...Brilliantly neo-post-classically modern."
"Richard Hickox presided over the Australian Opera and Ballet orchestra with taste and insight"
Sydney Morning Herald , March 2006
"...establishing shape and flow in the music with brisk tempos and alert rhythms."
The Australian , March 2006
Opera Australia / The Love of Three Oranges
"..Hickox and his Australians have a ball throughout, and the recording somehow captures all the sparkiness of live performance without the usual excessive dryness of an opera house acoustic."
The Gramophone , January 2006
Opera Australia / Hansel and Gretel
“In the pit, the orchestral contribution matches Moshinsky’s purpose. Warmth and charm abound, but Hickox’s well-paced direction is weighty and serious enough to make the most of the lush, Wagnerian harmonies and the range of orchestral colour…Hickox was able to create a sumptuous sound as he sensitively shaped Humperdinck’s gorgeous, long-breathed melodies.”
The Australian, 29 August 2005
“In the pit, Hickox invests Britten’s inventive, evocative score with the right balance of prevision and passion, providing a haunting musical platform for a production that is mesmerising from beginning to end.”
The Australian, 9 September 2005
“The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra under Richard Hickox coaxes out the unexpected and sometimes exotic range of orchestral sounds with precision and savour. This is fine playing and a classic production in every sense, enriched by a dark glimpse into the soul.”
The Sydney Morning Herald, 9 September 2005
Opera Australia Tsunami Benefit Concert / Verdi Requiem
“…Richard Hickox brought the strings down to a sound so quiet that all assertiveness, hubris and vanity seemed drained away…”
The Herald, March 2005
London Symphony Orchestra / Elgar
“The visual aspect of his podium performance is unexceptional, but his technique gets impressive results in terms of the range of expression and the authority of his conducting.”
Evening Standard, March 2005
City of London Sinfonia & BBC Singers / Britten Death in Venice (Chandos)
“…Richard Hickox, the City of London Sinfonia and the BBC Singers sing and play with exactitude and vivid responses”
Evening Standard, February 2005
“…Richard Hickox brings a profound understanding of the score to every facet of his conducting.”
The Sunday Times, February 2005
“Conductor Richard Hickox shows a masterly command of Britten’s shimmering textures…”
Independent, February 2005
“The series of Britten opera recordings on which Richard Hickox has embarked for Chandos offers the most serious competition so far to the composer’s own versions…”
The Guardian, February 2005
“With the City of London Sinfonia and BBC Singers, Hickox delivers a crystalline account that trumps the composer’s own.”
Financial Times, February 2005
“…a cohesive and focused sense of team spirit from Hickox, the City of London Sinfonia, [and] the BBC Singers…”
Gramophone, February 2005
Opera Australia / Puccini Tosca
“The Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra plays with freshness and expressive warmth under the controlled, insightful direction of Richard Hickox, adroitly negotiating the frequent changes of tempo and atmosphere.”
The Australian, 28 January 2005
“Conductor Richard Hickox paced the extended orchestral opening to act III intelligently so that it unfolded with natural darkening colour, never dragging.”
Sydney Morning Herald, 28 January 2005
Opera Australia / Prokofiev The Love for Three Oranges
“Under Richard Hickox's precise direction, the Australian Opera and Ballet Orchestra relishes the glittering orchestral colours and captures the acerbic, sardonic mood to perfection. Hickox generates a series of swirling, sparkling musical eddies, balancing fast tempos and pointed rhythms with exemplary ensemble playing and remarkable clarity.”
The Australian, 24 January 2005
“Hickox brings from the Australian Opera and Ballet orchestra one of their best performances, mellifluously paced, bold in shape, delightful in colour. A triumph in every sense.”
Sydney Morning Herald, 20 January 2005
Washington National Opera / Billy Budd
“Britten specialist Richard Hickox, meanwhile, conducts a carefully calibrated reading of a difficult score. Sensitive to color, alive to the music’s fluctuating emotional temperature, and unafraid to toughen things up in order to set off the human drama with greater poignancy, his is textbook Britten conducting.”
Washington City Paper, 1 October 2004
“The large ensemble is conducted with pinpoint control and professionalism by British maestro Richard Hickox…Everything was ready for prime time on opening night – balance, precision and a real respect by the conductor for the vocal qualities of the singers, the chorus, and the space. Mr. Hickox’s vision for this work – which he recently recorded with the London – “contains multitudes,” as Walt Whitman might say. His “Billy Budd” could easily be the most memorable operatic production of the season.”
The Washington Times, 21 September 2004
“Richard Hickox, one of today’s leading Britten specialists, conducted incisively, making sure that each instrumental color registered and drawing from the orchestra disciplined, detailed and dynamic playing.”
Baltimore Sun, 21 September 2004
“The Washington National Opera Orchestra and Chorus fulfilled their duties immaculately and exuberantly under the sweeping, authoritative direction of Richard Hickox (indeed, I've never heard the choral music sung with such eager passion).”
Washington Post, 20 September 2004
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / BBC Proms / Elgar
“The conductor Richard Hickox knows that spirit better than almost anybody. He clearly loves the way the visionary moments in Elgar lie cheek-by-jowl with bluff good humour or tenderness and knows just how much weight to give to each. That marvellous penultimate movement of the Enigma Variations…has rarely seemed so compelling.”
The Telegraph, 20 July 2004
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / BBC Proms / Dvorák Dimitrij
“The Slovak Philharmonic choir and BBC National Orchestra of Wales contributed vividly to this splendid performance conducted with flair by Richard Hickox.”
The Telegraph, 25 July 2004
“…the Prom performance was hugely impressive. Richard Hickox conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with great force and clarity.”
The Guardian, 20 July 2004
“What it lacks in raw drama, it makes up in romantic intensity, and this performance positively glowed with that quality… Richard Hickox conducted the BBC National Orchestra of Wales with sensitivity and passion.”
The Telegraph, 19 July 2004
City of London Sinfonia / Britten Death in Venice
“…I have never heard this score sound so intense and enthralling. This was due to the conducting of Richard Hickox, who drew unerringly expressive and intricately wrought playing from the City of London Sinfonia.”
The Telegraph, 11 July 2004
“There was no doubting the power and authority of this account with the City of London Sinfonia under Richard Hickox, which relished the harmonic adventures the score offers.”
The Guardian, 5 July 2004
“…an important, overwhelmingly powerful reading of Benjamin Britten’s final opera … Under Hickox’s sure guidance the CLS played beautifully … The imminent Chandos recording sessions bode well.”
The Evening Standard, 1 July 2004
St Louis Symphony Orchestra / Walton / Elgar
“Most of the first half was taken by one of Edward Elgar’s best-known and most deservedly popular compositions, the Variations on an Original Theme, Op. 36, ‘Enigma’. Hickox brought out not only the majestic elements but the wit, the sensitive and the zippy, for a strong, compelling reading”.
St Louis Post-Dispatch, 6 March 2004
Les Contes d’Hoffmann at Royal Opera House
“Richard Hickox gets a sound from the orchesta that’s as solid and sumptuous as what’s on stage.”
The Guardian, 24 January 2004
“With Richard Hickox conducting a loving and knowing account of the score, this is an evening to treasure”
The Mail on Sunday, 25 January 2004
“…Richard Hickox and orchestra were in their most sumptuous mood, mixing up the grand and the delicate in a performance that took a while to get going but then never stopped.”
TheTimes, 24 January 2004
Beethoven Mass in C / Naxos
“If you’ve heard that Beethoven’s Mass in C lacks the passion of later compositions, seize this recording from musicians who think differently. Hickox avoids making the work’s opening sounds like the later and greater Missa Solemnis. Instead, he shapes a lyrical introduction as a springboard for fireworks in the Gloria and Credo. Clear-toned period instruments provide a kaleidoscopic accompaniment to magnificent singing. Outstanding.”
Classic FM Magazine, January 2004
London Symphony Orchestra / Barbican / Vaughn Williams A London Symphony
“Hickox and the London Symphony Orchestra delivered a masterful, genuinely moving performance of a symphony that only increases in stature as civilisation’s darkness deepens.”
The Times, November 2003
Recording Beethoven’s Mass in C and other pieces
“Hickox consistently brings out the way that, as in the Massa Solemnis, Beethoven was rethinking the meaning of each phrase of the liturgy and illustrating it with an electric sense of drama. Even more than John Eliot Gardiner on his rival period performance, Hickox brings out the joy of the inspiration.”
The Guardian, 14 November 2003
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra / Elgar 1
“Richard Hickox was the ideal partner for the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra when it came to communicating Elgar's monumental sincerity of purpose...With a very forward sound, inclining to the robust rather than to the tender aspects of the music (with partially muted brass) the emphasis was upon grandeur and long phrasing; and at the end of the slow movement one could even experience the bliss of a true ppp).”
Südddeutsche Zeitung, Oct 2003
BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Holst / Berkeley / Bridge
“A programme of perfectly juxtaposed works, and a fine conductor performing brilliantly. Hickox’s understated, almost unnoticeable podium presence was hiding his great skill – he never stopped pumping power and confidence into his musicians…”
The Times, 6 September 2003
Records Dyson / BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Chandos
“Richard Hickox conducts with the fervour of a prophet and obtains fine playing and choral singing from his Welsh forces.”
The Daily Telegraph, 18 May 2003
London Symphony Orchestra / Barbican / Strauss Salomé
“Not surprisingly, the London Symphony Orchestra made the most of this hugely indulgent, swooning score, Richard Hickox conducting with tantalising restraint, even hints of the Mendelssohnian fairy touch Strauss wanted, before giving the orgasmic finale its head. This was a real catharsis, pity and terror with a juicy shudder of pure fin-de-siècle decadence thrown in.”
The Times, March 2003
City of London Sinfonia / Britten Albert Herring
“Hickox is one of the best second-generation Britten interpreters, and the playing he gets from his City of London Sinfonia soloists is brilliantly incisive, full of humour and sensitive to the serious elements of the score…Huge fun.”
Sunday Times, February 2003
Collegium Musicum 90 / Haydn Masses / Chandos
“A splendid culmination to an outstanding series”
Gramophone, February 2003
London Symphony Orchestra / Vaughan Williams (Chandos)
“One of Richard Hickox’s strong points is the absolute sense of clarity that he brings to any Vaughan Williams score."
American Record Guide, January/February 2003
London Symphony Orchestra / Vaughan Williams Symphony No.2 (original version) (Chandos)
“Hickox and Chandos have pulled off a unique feat, a sumptuous recording of a Vaughan Williams symphony that can never be repeated… Over everything Richard Hickox presides with superb control and a feeling for the idiom that has made his unfolding Vaughan Williams symphony cycle for Chandos such a joy.”
Gramophone Magazine, (Record of the Year & Best Orchestral Recording of 2001), 2001
“As of now, this issue is for me the symphonic recording of the year. It is glorious in all respects... We are thrice blessed with this recording. It is a very great symphony with some 16 minutes of additional music not heard for about the past 80 years! It is sonically magnificent. The reverberation is slightly more than I usually like, but it gives the work a sweep and vastness benefiting this masterpiece. Hickox’s interpretation is as great as any I have ever heard, and it is played magnificently by the London Symphony.”
American Record Guide, Sept/Oct 2001
London Symphony Orchestra / Vaughan Williams Symphony No.5 (Chandos)
“Hickox’s reading of that masterpiece for Chandos has the incandescence and rapt intensity that marked his Barbican performance… [His] unerring control of the great emotional climaxes of the visionary first and third movements is overwhelming…”
The Guardian, 1999
“Hickox's performance has much to commend it, not least his vivid characterisation of the score with the City of London Sinfonia.”, June 2008