Episode 277. Benjamin Luxon In Memoriam
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Last week on July 25th, the music world was saddened by the death of the Cornish baritone Benjamin Luxon at the age of 87. I began collecting recordings of this exceptional artist a few years ago with the intention of producing an episode in his honor at some point. Here is that episode, albeit a posthumous effort now. In an episode I produced in the first few months of Countermelody in 2019, I featured the French baritone Gérard Souzay and called him “a modern troubadour.” There are very few singers of recent years to whom one could accurately apply that appellation, but Ben Luxon is emphatically one of them. Music and words simply flowed out of him, and he sang with equal aplomb in an extraordinary number of different styles: opera, oratorio, art song, Broadway, crossover, and, perhaps most immediately and delectably, folk. In opera alone his range was exceptional, covering key roles in Mozart, Verdi, Tchaikovsky, Wagner, Berg, and Britten, who wrote the title role of his television opera Owen Wingrave expressly for Luxon. In song as well he covered a vast array of repertoires, including Russian, German, and British (including Victorian ballads), including, again, many contemporary composers. Luxon’s career hit a snag in the late 1980s, when he first began experiencing hearing loss which eventually resulted in him putting a stop to his singing career. But he hardly retired: moving to the Berkshires, he became actively involved in the artistic life of the region, and founded a theatre troupe, the Sandisfield Players, while continuing to give poetry readings and spoken word performances. The program today attempts to recreate his profound versatility, and range from folk song to pop song; from orchestral song cycles to world premiere creations; art songs by Hugo Wolf, Mussorgsky, George Butterworth, Schubert, and John Ireland; to late career narration and poetry projects. Collaborators include artists such as Benjamin Britten, Bill Crofut, Galina Vishnevskaya, Leonard Bernstein, Robert Tear, Janet Baker, Seiji Ozawa, Ileana Cotrubaș, Jill Gomez, Klaus Tennstedt, Mstislav Rostropovich, and his most frequent recital collaborator, pianist David Willison.
RECORDINGS HEARD IN THIS EPISODE
All tracks feature Benjamin Luxon, baritone.
Traditional Scots: Loch Lomond [live Tanglewood ca. 1986]
George Frideric Handel, anonymous [probably Moses Mendes]: What though I trace each herb and flow’r (Solomon). John Poole, Orchestre de l’ORTF [live La Besnardière 22.IX.79]
Benjamin Britten, William Blake: The Tyger (Songs and Proverbs of William Blake, Op. 74). David Willison [1987]
Traditional American, arr. Bill Crofut, Benjamin Luxon: The Fox. Bill Crofut, John Guth, Roger Limb, Harry Swartz, Maggie Holtzberg, Jim Cowdery, David Johnson [1981]
William H. Penn, Harry B. Smith: Pansy Faces. André Previn [1976]
John Parry: Flow gently, Deva. Robert Tear, André Previn [1976]
Leonard Bernstein, Lawrence Ferlinghetti: The Pennycandystore Beyond the El (Songfest). Benjamin Luxon, Leonard Bernstein, Orchestre National de France [live Paris 21.IX.79]
Arthur Sullivan, W.S. Gilbert: My name is John Wellington Wells (The Sorceror). Richard Hickox, Northern Sinfonia of England [1985]
Ralph Vaughan Williams, Dante Gabriel Rossetti: Heart’s Haven (The House of Life). David Willison [1986]
John Ireland, anonymous text: Friendship in Misfortune. Alan Rowlands [1975]
George Butterworth, A.E. Housman: The lads in their hundreds (Six Songs from A Shropshire Lad). David Willison [1976]
Franz Schubert, Wilhelm Müller: Am Feierabend (Die schöne Müllerin, D.795/5). Frederick Moyer [live Tanglewood 30.07.86]
Hugo Wolf, Eduard Mörike: Fußreise (Mörike-Lieder). David Willison [1972]
Gustav Mahler, Friederich Rückert: Oft denk’ ich, sie sind nur ausgegangen (Kindertotenlieder). Klaus Tennstedt, Philadelphia Orchestra [live Philadelphia 04.III.81]
Modest Mussorgsky, Arseny Golenishchev-Kutuzov: Trepak (Songs and Dances of Death). David Willison [1972]
Pyotr Il’yich Tchaikovsky [after Alexander Pushkin]: Final Scene [excerpt] (Yevgeny Onegin). Galina Vishnevskaya, Mstislav Rostropovich, Orchestre de l’Opéra National de Paris [live Paris 1982]
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, Lorenzo da Ponte [after Pierre Beaumarchais]: Crudel, perchè finora (Le nozze di Figaro). Ileana Cotrubaș, John Pritchard, London Philharmonic Orchestra [live Glyndebourne 1973]
Benjamin Britten, Myfanwy Piper [after Henry James]: You’re wrong, ev’ryone knows it (Owen Wingrave). Janet Baker, Benjamin Britten, English Chamber Orchestera [1971]
Alban Berg, Eberhard Büchner: Er hat ein Kind ohne den Segen der Kirche… Wir arme Leut’! (Wozzeck). Francis Egerton, Alexander Gibson, Members of the Scottish National Symphony [live 1980]
William Alwyn [after August Strindberg]: If only I had enough money (Miss Julie). Jill Gomez, Vilem Tausky, Philharmonia Orchestra [1983]
Giuseppe Verdi, Arrigo Boito [after William Shakespeare]: Può l’onore riempirvi la pancia? (Falstaff). Seiji Ozawa, Orchester der Wiener Staatsoper [live Wien 1993]
William Walton, Edith Sitwell: Polka (Façade). Benjamin Luxon, Peter Gilbert-Dyson, The Belmont Ensemble of London [1992]
Richard Strauss, Alfred, Lord Tennyson: But if my children care to see me dead, Who hardly saw me living (Enoch Arden, Op. 38). Frederick Moyer [2002]
Richard Rodgers, Oscar Hammerstein II: Some Enchanted Evening (South Pacific). Owain Arwell Hughes, National Philharmonic Orchestra [1980]
Chris de Burgh: Something Else Again. Arranged and conducted by David Cullen [1983]
Herman Hupfeld: As Time Goes By (as heard in Casablanca). Owain Arwel Hughes, National Philharmonic Orchestra [1981]
Traditional American: Johnny, I Hardly Knew You. Bill Crofut [live Tanglewood 28.VII.1986]
Igor Stravinsky, Charles-Ferdinand Ramuz [English version by Michael Flanders, Kitty Black]: But the devil is not finished (The Soldier’s Tale) [live Parlance Chamber Concerts, Ridgewood, NJ 15.XII.2019]
Christina Rossetti: When I Am Dead, My Dearest [posted 20.V.2021]
