Within a Dream: A Celebration of the Artistry of Richard Hickox

One of the most moving musical evenings of 2008 took place on November 27 at London's Coliseum, with English National Opera.

It was the opening night of their new production of Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea, which deals with the devastation wrought on a fishing family by the successive watery deaths of their men folk. Such subject matter was never going to make for a cheerful night but, just days beforehand, their billed conductor Sir Richard Hickox, the man responsible for this much-neglected opera's resurrection, died unexpectedly aged just 60. Despite the inevitable pathos of the evening, it couldn't have been a more fitting epitaph for a conductor who had tirelessly championed British music for decades.

Hickox recorded extensively, and Chandos was the main beneficiary of his talent with over 280 recordings. This is a compilation of some of the best of them. Whilst operas and oratorios by the likes of Verdi, Dvorak and Schubert are here, the lion's share of the disc is rightly devoted to his talent for and championing of British operatic and orchestral music. Vaughan Williams, Britten, Delius, Holst, Bridge, Elgar, Stanford and Arnold are all represented, as is the more modern music of Tavener. Inevitably when such a breadth of repertoire is being covered, we're talking movements rather than complete works, but it's been sympathetically programmed, and consequently the transitions don't jar the senses. Rather, it serves to highlight Hickox's wide-ranging musical knowledge and tastes, and his skill for creating dramatic atmosphere.

Gems include the sensuous second movement of the original 1913 version of Vaughan Williams' 'London Symphony', with its echoes of The Lark Ascending. There is a thundering 'Dance of the Spirits of Fire' from Holst's ballet, The Perfect Fool, plus Gerald Finley's colourful rendition of 'The Old Superb' from the Gramophone Award-winning recording of Stanford's Songs of the Sea, Op.9.

All profits go to The Richard Hickox Foundation, whose aim is to promote new recordings British music and performances of British music outside the UK, and to nurture talented conductors and singers through grants. Thank you, Chandos, for another fitting epitaph.