Death of a great British baritone - Slippedisc (2024)

Raymond Gubbay says:

Very sad news. A really great artist and a warm and friendly personality. I vividly recall in 1963 his performance of Sir Tristram in Rutland Boughton’s The Queen of Cornwall at the St Pancras Town Hall where I was working backstage.

Mary Burman (Shelton) says:

A great singer and a wonderful man and musician. I am grateful for his gifts so generously shared- he was a memorable Noah when I was a tiny mouse in Truro Cathedral’s terrific production of Britten’s Noyes Fludde

Michael Turner (conductor) says:

A great singer – a great loss.

Larry says:

Truly, a massive loss. End of an era, perhaps.

Christopher Clift says:

Very sad to read of Ben’s passing. I remember him as a student at The Guildhall School in the very late 60s early 70s. And I took part in a memorable performance (in YouTube I believe) of Mendelssohn’s Elijah from Birmingham Town Hall in (about 1990/1) with Margaret Marshall, Alfreda Hodgson and Ian Caley, conducted by Rafael Frübeck de Burgos. RIP Ben.

Jonathan says:

Reading this one would think he only ever sung in the UK. No mention of the many performances at La Scala, Bayerische Staatsoper, Wiener Staatsoper, the Metropolitan opera and many many more international houses. He was a true star, and one of the most modest and kindest. On top of that he had a natural ability to communicate the simplest of songs to a wide ranging public, hence his success on shows like The Good Old Days, and then later in his career singing folk music with the American folk artist Bill Crofut. There are so many wonderful videos and recordings of him singing on youtube, but if I were asked to single out one, then his performance of ‘Johnny I hardly knew’ya’ with Crofut stands out. The intensity of the performance is breathtaking, displaying all the qualities he brought to his music making. He will be greatly missed. RIP Ben Luxon.

Richard says:

He was Wozzeck for Abbado (1984) and Rattle (1988).

He’s on video singing Ford at Glyndebourne under Pritchard in 1976, before he took on Falstaff.

He recorded Riders to the Sea for EMI in 1970.

He can be seen in Oberon, or The Elf-King’s Oath, in a semi-staging in Frankfurt led by Ozawa in 1986.

He sang Onegin for Rostropovich and Ozawa, in 1982 and 1986.

And he recorded Polyphemus under Marriner for Argo in 1978.

Warren sturely says:

Such a lovely bloke !! He studied with Arthur reckless a little before myself and Alan Opie , also Cornish. Terrible loss to all. Kindest thoughts to family. !! Warren

PiaNO says:

Very sad to hear this. I grew up in Cornwall and although he had pretty much retired by the time I was born, I remember very well an event for kids where he read The Mousehole Cat and then sang Mud Mud Glorious Mud. Obviously I was too young to appreciate his artistry, but I’ve since grown to love recordings of his. I especially love his Lieder Eines Fahrenden Gesellen. He was very important in securing funding for the Hall for Cornwall, which remains such a crucial arts venue. A fine Cornishman and he will be much missed.

Alan Oke says:

A truly great artist and a really lovely man.

B J was a great. says:

remember seeing him live in London FH.
A great singer from a whole generations of greats

Ian Bostridge says:

Heavenly man and a beautiful singer.

Hilde Weisert says:

He retired from opera singing but had a vigorous and consequential career in Sandisfield Massachusetts as a founder and director of the Sandisfield Players, host and reader of poetry events, mentor to many well known musicians, master gardener, and inspiration to his family and wide circle of friends.

Philip Haley says:

Sad loss to the whole musical world, superb voice.

Barney says:

A wonderful singer. I have just listened to his appearance on Desert Island Discs.

His favourite piece was ‘Profiscere, anima christiana’, from The Dream of Gerontius. Very appropriate, as the first time I heard him was also the first time I heard Gerontius. 1968 Three Choirs Festival, in Gloucester.

It was very sad that his career was cut short by his hearing problems.

Petros Linardos says:

I heard him in the title role of Handel’s Julius Caesar, under Harnoncourt. Theater an der Wien, 1985. Wonderful. RIP

Barney says:

I meant to add that he was 87, not 85. Born 24/3/37.

RW2013 says:

The great Owen Wingrave.

Rosemary Dunnill says:

1976, an extremely hot summer Saturday afternoon in York Minster, dress rehearsal for Gerontius with an amateur choir formed especially for York Festival. We young altos were already thrilled to have heard Janet Baker sing with us. We had a break and watched the masses of tourists milling around for the free performance. Orchestra started up and a tall man broke away from a group of tourists and walked the length of the aisle. Shirts, T shirt and a big beard: he grinned at all of us, turned around, opened his mouth and the huge minster was filled with the glorious ‘Profiscere anima christiana’. No score, just a voice and stunned looks from the people he’d been talking to who obviously had no idea who he was. Spine tingling moment, never forgotten

CRogers says:

I echo all the above comments. I have very good memories of BL. As a young, enthusiastic and serious amateur singer who wanted to improve I wrote to him asking his advice. At the time he was travelling round the country with Robert Tear doing concerts of the Victorian Songbook they’d recently recorded. He asked me to meet him before the concert so we could talk. We talked in the queue for his concert. There was no going to the front for preferential treatment. He got me in for nothing. It was great concert. After he had to retire from his singing career because of hearing loss and went to America he would make trips to the UK for various things and I bumped into him at the RNCM in Manchester where his daughter was studying. Then later still I asked him to contribute to a piece I was writing about the idea of there being a completely natural voice, the model upon which the Florentine Camerata in about 1600 had based the training of singers, which he willingly did. He was without affectation and generous. I also felt he was close to the earth where I believe all good and great singers reside. And he was positive and warm despite nature landing him a cruel blow that ended his stella singing career. Thank you Ben. RIP.

Martin vans Best says:

I remember seeing him learning a part through the glass window of a studio door at Gsmd. Totally focused, ac companying himself, you could feel the greatness in the air.

Una says:

Remember him in 1981 when I was in Scottish Opera Chorus and the days of star singers up there in Glasgow, in David Poutney’s wonderful production of Eugene Onegin and Terry Gilbert as the choreographer – as the chorus did all the dancing too – in David Lloyd Jones’s fine English translation. Also Helena Dose, Claire Livingstone, Alexander Oliver, and John Robertson to name a few. Ben was delightful towards us choristers and make-shift dancers, and did a fine Onegin. Another one of the great unassuming but quietly talented British singers has now gone.

Guessed again says:

Yet again, another classical great, with a wonderfully lyrical voice and eclectic repertoire, whose passing has been ignored by BBC “Culture” and Cornish web pages, and TV news bulletins. At least Radio 3 has remembered him, but his passing should be more broadcast to the ‘masses’. RIP.

Una says:

https://www.kcstudio.com/Luxon.html

Two Benjamins: Benjamin Luxon taking about Benjamin Britten and writing for the voice. Very much woth a read.

Charles Stewart says:

Ben Luxon came to St John’s, Cambridge, in 1975 to record the Fauré Requiem with George Guest. His glorious tone and remarkable breath control sent me, with the other basses in the choir, back to the drawing board. A fine singer and a fine human being. Rest in Peace, Ben.

Linda Finnie International Mezzo-soprano. says:

Ben Luxton was a fine musician who possessed a beautifully refined Baritone voice.

Isobel Buchanan says:

Have only just read this news. What a man, what a singer, what a colleague!
Everything I have ever heard him sing was effortless and from the heart. He was such a wonderful musician and communicator too. I sang my British début as Pamina with Ben as Papageno at Glyndebourne in 1978 and loved him from day one. My husband and I listen to his recordings often and in particular to Mache dich, mein herze, rein which, in our opinion will never be bettered. Farewell to a fabulous human being and thank you for all the wonderful singing.

John O'Connor says:

Vividly remember him in Glyndebourne in Don Giovanni in 1977. Sad to see him go.

Paul Nelson says:

I was fortunate to hear him in the first stage performance of Owen Wingrave, in May 1973, and on many other occasions. As great a singer as it is possible to be. May he rest in peace.

Corno di Caccia says:

I was also very saddened to read the sad news of Benjamin Luxon’s death. I always found his performances and recordings immensely powerful and inspiring, especially in my days as a Baritone. He was almost a Rolè model. My favourite recordings of his will always be his English Song Series on Chandos. They are brilliant, as are his Schubert recordings, also on Chandos. His two recordings of Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with LPO/Solti and, secondly, with RPO/Previn are first class and both benefit greatly from his declamatory style. Then there are his two excellent Elgar Oratorio recordings, The Dream of Gerontius with Alex Gibson/SNO and his much later recording of The Kingdom with Leonard Slatkin/LPO. I was at the performance of the latter in London’s Royal Festival Hall and afterwards sneaked backstage to chat with Ben and Leonard Slatkin. A memorable night. His towering performance as Owen Wingrave in Britten’s Opera of the same name – a rolé composed for him – is spine-chilling! His part in Britten’s War Requiem with Robert Shaw is cruelly overlooked. From Folk music through Victorian Parlour Songs with Robert Tear and André Previn to his Opera performances and recordings he was such a versatile singer and one of our greatest singers whose career was sadly cut short because of a hearing problem. One regret must surely be that he was never asked to record Vaughan Williams’s First Symphony, ‘A Sea Symphony’, for which he had the perfect voice as against the varied weak Baritones on offer in the recorded market. A missed opportunity! His was a voice that touched the soul. RIP Ben Luxon and condolences to his family and friends.

Stephen Terry says:

In 1967 Ben was Demetrius to Bob Tear’s Lysander in Colin Graham’s new production of Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, which was the first opera performed at the newly opened Snape Maltings and went on to Sadlers Wells, Paris and Expo 67 in Montreal. I was very privileged to play Puck and Ben was always really kind and helpful to a nervous (and probably very annoying!) 16-year old. I loved his Cornish ‘burr’ and he and Bob Tear had great fun winding up Colin Graham in rehearsals – but were scary rivals in performance. A lovely man, a gorgeous voice.

Joe Pearce says:

Benjamin Luxon was my favorite British baritone of the entire second half of the last century. He was simply wonderful in everything he did, and on this side of the Atlantic we got particularly used to (hardly mentioned elsewhere here) a series of LPs on which he did a kind of crossover, singing British and American songs of mostly the Victorian era as no ‘legitimate’ singer I’ve heard has ever done. One of the albums was called “Give Me a Ticket to Heaven”, but there were others. One of the late pop LPs he made was an entire recital of Broadway show songs of the “Old Man River” variety, including the best version of the CAROUSEL Soliloquy I have ever heard by an operatic voice (far, far superior to George London’s well known version). He also appeared on American TV with Arthur Fiedler and the Boston “Pops” in connection with that album. It was one of the more memorable appearances of that kind – opera singer slumming! – and exciting as hell, since he seemed to live every song as he sang it. So very sorry he is gone!

Robert Brown says:

Nice obituary here – https://www.bright-thoughts.co.uk/news-jul2024.html

Sally Terris says:

Sad news. Amazing artist

Vivienne Stockley says:

I met him with Robert Tear when working for Decca in the late 70s. They were both very friendly and fun! With, of course, wonderful voices. I re-met Bob Tear at Dartington in 90s and he told me of Ben’s tragic hearing loss. His years of singing are such a treasure.