‘Jon Vickers, one of the century's greatest singers, makes a rare appearance this weekend.’

The Daily Telegraph made its announcement on October 23, 1998, two days before a London audience were to see the legendary tenor Jon Vickers for the first time since his retirement from the operatic stage more than a decade earlier. All the seats in the Barbican Cinema had sold out virtually immediately as they had become available some weeks earlier, and, exceptionally, additional accommodation had been arranged to give some more lucky opera lovers access to an extra special event. Mr Vickers was going to speak about his life and career and discuss some of his most celebrated roles, after which he and the audience would view the film of Verdi’s Otello in which he sang the title-role, with Herbert von Karajan conducting and directing. It was to be a very rare opportunity to be in the personal presence of an artist who had held audiences spellbound with the searing intensity and dramatic profundity of his performances, thundered forth by a gigantic size voice that yet could whisper the tenderest delicacy.

On the designated day, the eagerly expectant audience in the Barbican Cinema discovered that Jon Vickers was also riveting as a speaker, and not only on a challengingly searching level. Perhaps many were surprised by the endearing wit and sprightly sparkle with which he recounted a host of anecdotes about his experiences. Their audibly buoyant response to him can now be shared by any and all of us, because Warner Classics is releasing a recording of that historic occasion as part of a two-CD memorial tribute to Vickers.

It is in fact the additional bonus disc that is packaged with an invaluable collector’s item that hitherto has only ever been available in France: Jon Vickers’ rapt interpretation of a work he loved and felt very deeply – Schubert’s monumental song cycle Winterreise, in which he is accompanied by Geoffrey Parsons. It is an unconventional and in many ways almost operatic reading that yet might possibly be stylistically closer to how the cycle had sounded at its first private hearing in 1828 than anything we might expect to hear today. What is for sure is that Vickers always approached Winterreise as a tremendous assignment – ‘an impossible challenge’, as the liner notes for ‘Jon Vickers – In Memoriam’ quote him saying.

The liner notes also quote comments from several highly distinguished performers and others who knew and performed with Vickers. In vividly conveying the enormous impact he made on them, Grace Bumbry, Renata Scotto and Sir Colin Davis are some of those who reveal how performances with him were supercharged interactive experiences. One had to react to him spontaneously, there was no way one could not, and the powerful responses of other artists in situ with him were surely vital elements of the composite realism and electricity of Vickers evenings in the theatre.

DVDs of his performances of Otello, Samson (in Samson et Dalila) and Peter Grimes are particularly thrilling testaments to that and the magnetic and life-like force of his acting, and although Britten strongly disliked his interpretation of Grimes, audiences around the world were unfailingly gripped by the almost unbearable tension he brought to the entire opera. Of course he was concerned by the composer’s displeasure, but when he openly stated that he felt Britten himself did not realise the full extent of what he had conceived, he spoke from passionate conviction, not protective defence. Some berated his comment, but he had made it one hundred per cent sincerely.

Jon Vickers’ total audio discography is not large, but fortunately it does preserve the majority of his most unforgettable interpretations. In addition to CDs of the aforementioned opera roles and now also Winterreise, posterity can also notably hear how his truly tremendous dynamic and expressive range so graphically brought to life Florestan, Aeneas, Don José, Don Carlos, Radames, Siegmund, Tristan, Parsifal and Canio. From the startling impact of Florestan’s first words ‘Gott! welch' Dunkel hier!’ (‘God! what this darkness here is!’), to the mesmerising hush of Don José’s impassioned confession to Carmen at the close of the Flower Song - ‘et j’etais une chose a toi’ (‘I belonged entirely to you’) - this is a wonderful legacy of inspired artistry and great vocal mastery.

We also must not forget his happy collaborations with Sir Thomas Beecham, Pierre Monteux and Sir John Barbirolli in the Messiah, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony and Verdi’s Requiem, respectively. And finally, there are also off-air and ‘in-house’ recordings of Vasek in Smetana’s The Bartered Bride, Herod in Strauss’s Salome and Sergei in Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, the last two characters being as far away as is humanly possible in sentiment and outlook from the profoundly Christian faith that so fundamentally shaped Vickers’ approach to his entire life. Another sign, surely, of the intensive pursuit of reality that Jon Vickers so hypnotically conjured up in his performing.

'Jon Vickers – In Memoriam', which includes his recording of Schubert's Winterreise along with a companion CD containing the interview with Jon Tolansky, is available now from Warner Classics. For further information, visit: warnerclassics.com