Britten: The Turn of the Screw - download (MP3 & FLAC)

“As Sir Colin Davis has shown on Philips, there's room for an alternative interpretation of this remarkable work, but this superb first recording will remain as documentary-historical evidence of the highest importance and value. Will there ever be a better performance, let alone recording, of The Turn of the Screw than this by the original cast, recorded less than four months after the 1954 Venice premiere? This score is Britten at his greatest, expressing good and evil with equal ambivalence, evoking the tense and sinister atmosphere of Bly by inspired use of the chamber orchestra and imparting vivid and truthful life to every character in the story. As one listens, transfixed, all that matters is Britten's genius as a composer. Jennifer Vyvyan's portrayal of the Governess is a classic characterisation, her vocal subtleties illuminating every facet of the role and she has the perfect foil in Joan Cross's motherly and uncomplicated Mrs Grose. The glittering malevolence of Pears's Quint, luring David Hemmings's incomparable Miles to destruction; the tragic tones of Arda Mandikian's Miss Jessel; Olive Dyer's spiteful Flora – how fortunate we are that these performances are preserved.
As with all the Decca/Britten reissues, the transfer is a triumph.” Gramophone Classical Music Guide, 2010

“Though the recording is in mono olny, the very dryness and sharpness of focus give an extra intensity to the composer's own incomparable reading of this most compressed opera...so atmospheric and powerful is this performance, visuals become almost irrelevant, so vividly are pictures painted in the mind.” Penguin Guide, 2011 edition