Peter Grimes review: Stuart Skelton is electrifying in a superb recording of Britten's masterpiece
Peter Grimes has fared well on disc ever since the pioneering stereo recording conducted by Britten himself with Peter Pears in the title-role was released on the Decca label in 1959. In its wake have come (among others) notably distinguished interpretations conducted by Colin Davis, with Jon Vickers; by Bernard Haitink with Anthony Rolfe Johnson; and by Richard Hickox with Philip Langridge.
Each of these offers the listener a different perspective: Britten’s reading has, of course, the stamp of authenticity, even if some of the secondary casting is less than ideal; Davis and Vickers charge the music with visceral intensity based on their collaboration on a powerful staged production; Haitink and Rolfe Johnson emphasise the lyrical beauties of the score; Langridge and Hickox explore subtleties of text and psychology. And this new version proves there is still something else to say about this shattering masterpiece.
It has grown out of a series of concert performances given by the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra between 2017 and 2019 under its Chief Conductor Edward Gardner. Together they create an interpretation of bewitching majesty, particularly rich in its evocation of the atmosphere of the Suffolk coast in which the opera is set. There were moments such as the exquisite close of the second act, with its eerie obbligato of celesta and viola, that sent shivers down my spine, and all the sea interludes are in their different ways electrifying.
The Australian tenor Stuart Skelton is a superb Grimes – visionary in the poetic meditation of "Now the Great Bear and Pleiades", impassioned in his duet with Balstrode, poignant in "In dreams I’ve built myself". He doesn’t go the whole hog into craziness as Vickers does, but perhaps that is all to the good of the music. Erin Wall captures all of Ellen Orford’s quiet despair in "Embroidery in childhood", and there are wonderfully vivid supporting performances from Roderick Williams as the staunch Balstrode, Marcus Farnsworth as jack-the-lad Ned Keene and Catherine Wyn-Rogers as the baneful Mrs Sedley. The choral singing of combined Norwegian and British ensembles is knockout – quite terrifyingly so in "Who despises us, we’ll destroy".
It’s a marvellous achievement that reminds one forcefully of the genius of its twenty-nine-year old composer and whets the appetite to see this great opera on stage again: it’s good news that (fingers crossed) a new production directed by Deborah Warner with Allan Clayton in the title-role is heading for Covent Garden.
Peter Grimes is out now on the Chandos label
