What a shame this issue should be the last of Hickox's to be reviewed on this site, as it is something of a curate's egg.
Culled from a couple of live performances, it sounds too careful at times it should let rip. There are some excellent things - the drinking song "bibuli" and the baritone's sloshedness, the poor roasted swan - the LSO's brass and wind playing in particular are terrific. The recording sounds rather well, so long as you set the right level. Play it too quietly and it sounds dreadful. The boys sound good - they come from one of my local schools.
Not so impressive is the Spring section, which, in trying to achieve beautiful sounds, succeeds in the end in giving the impression hibernation is not quite over. Later on, the soprano didn't give me the impression of a bright-eyed young woman either.
This performance would have been as good as excellent, live, but a studio recording would have resulted in retakes of the less tidy entries.
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