Customer Reviews
A robust and idiomatic performance of this key opera - By: Christopher J. Sharpe, 10 Oct 2006 
This was the first opera recording I ever listened to & it got me hooked. I've since acquired the Pears / Britten interpretation on Decca, but (so far) have been unable to relinquish my loyalty to this Philips set. The two major pillars here are Jon Vickers as Peter Grimes & Colin Davis overseeing the whole work. Vickers makes Grimes much more powerful, agressive, threatening & tortured than Pears. Right from the first bars -in the court room scene - it's clear that Vickers is going to put his heart & soul into this role. Indeed, such is the depth of his portrayal that one cannot help a degree of sympathy for the "sadistic fisherman". In fact, it is Vickers' ability to generate a complex mix of feelingsin the listener that gives Grimes a real human dimension. I confess to a personal feeling that Vicker's is the better of the two interpretations. His singingin key scenes such as "The truth... the pity..." and, particularly, "Now the Great Bear & Pleiades" simply makes more of the score than does Pears. Clearly, to judge by the Decca recording by the composer, Britten did not intend this though.
Heather Harper should also be mentioned as a beautiful, compassionate & thoroughly believable Ellen Orford. Her "Let her among you" & "Glitter of waves" are wonderful. The Chorus is superb too. And finally, the orchestra plays immaculately to provide stalwart backing to the singers as well as offering up excellent Sea Interludes.
The sound here is superb. There are one or two noticeable edits, but nothing too serious. This version comes without a libretto, but that's easy enough to find electronically. So, if you're after a Peter Grimes, then it's down to Britten or Davis & you can't go far wrong with either. Those who love the opera will want both since the interpretations are so different.
Room for very different performances - By: Klingsor Tristan, 02 Jun 2005 Britten was said to have hated Jon Vickers' performance as Grimes & one can see why. Nothing (and no tenor since) could be further from Peter Pears, for whom he had written the part. Let's face it, for all his usual beauty of tone & heady high notes, Pears sounds just too urbane, too sophisticated, too intellectual, too smooth for the rough, tough character as writtenin Crabbe &in the libretto.
Vickers, on the other hand, is a huge brute of a man (aurally even more than physically). We are leftin no doubt that his treatment of apprentices can be rough & bullying, easily leading to the 'accidental circumstances' of their deaths. ("To lose one apprentice...etc.") And his descent into madness is truly terrifying. Which is not say that he misses out on the dreamerin Grimes, the side of the character that could be said to be Pears' strength. The scenein the clifftop hut sees Vickers lurch absolutely credibly from anger & violence & frustration to his all too human dreams of a better life with the schoolmistress, Ellen Orford, all within the space of just a few bars.
I grew up with Pears' Grimes & love it to this day. But Vickers' fisherman is a different beast - almost as viscerally exciting on disc as he wasin the theatre. And, perhaps a mark of a great opera, the part will sustain both interpretations, whatever the composer thought. I wouldn't part with either.
The rest of the cast are no slouches either. Heather Harper was probably the best of all Ellens & the smaller parts arein the more than capable hands of the likes of Thomas Allen, Richard van Allen & the venerable (as he was by then) & much missed John Lanigan. Colin Davis's conducting is exemplary, perhaps with an ounce more energy & drive than on his more recent LSO performance, but perhaps with a gram less depth as well.
The opera is an unbelievable 60 years old now - about as far from us as Grimes was from late Wagner & Verdi! It deserves to have two classic performances such as this & the composer's own. And any collection deserves to have both on its shelves.
Quite simply the best!!! - By: brixtonite, 23 Nov 1999 This is the best recording I've heard. And it's good value. Jon Vickers was widely agreed to be the best Peter Grimes ever, & the crispness of the sound & the perfect pacing will astound you. Recorded by Colin Davis only 2 years after Britten died, the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House have never sounded better. What are you waiting for?! Buy this now!!
