Your Favourite Sir Colin Davis Recording

[Alison]

There is a very cherishable disc of offbeat Tchaikovsky ballet music with the Royal Opera orchestra on Philips.

[Petrushka]

There is a very cherishable disc of offbeat Tchaikovsky ballet music with the Royal Opera orchestra on Philips.

There is indeed and it sits on my shelves. I think it's just been re-released on Eloquence.

[akiralx]

I've mentioned a few of my favourites on the Colin Davis RIP thread. Here they are again with the Bruckner added.

For me his Bruckner 6 is the only Bruckner 6 to listen to.

Any ideas why he performed Bruckner 7 with the middle movements reversed, as released on Orfeo C208 891 A? Not a mastering error - he did perform it that way!

[jayne lee wilson]

Any ideas why he performed Bruckner 7 with the middle movements reversed, as released on Orfeo C208 891 A? Not a mastering error - he did perform it that way!

I taped him doing it this way in 2/96 with the LSO on R3 live at the Barbican. I recall him (in interview that night - sadly not on my tape) citing Furtwangler as precedent, but despite much searching and a correspondance with John F.Berky at abruckner.com I can find no supporting evidence for it...

So, the mystery remains....

[richardfinegold]

Ah, yes; I hadn't noticed that cruel and unnatural singular!

Very well, for personal reasons only (I studied the work as a set text with this recording when I was in my waldorf salad days) - Sibelius, Symphony No 3; BSO.

[mikealdren]

He did some splendid concerto recordings too. Beethoven and Bartok with Kovacevich, Beethoven and Brahms with Grumiaux and an excellent Tippet triple concerto for instance.

Mike

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

He did some splendid concerto recordings too. Beethoven and Bartok with Kovacevich, Beethoven and Brahms with Grumiaux and an excellent Tippet triple concerto for instance.

Mike

[Ferretfancy]

Yes indeed all of those, and the Grieg and Schumann concertos with Kovacevich. I love his Stravinsky Firebird with the Concertgebouw, and a splendid Oedipus Rex with Ronald Dowd, but my favourite Stravinsky performances by him are on a splendid CD with the ECO, including Dumbarton Oaks and Danses Concertantes.

[martin_opera]

Davis made some very underrated Verdi recordings and his Un Ballo in Maschera for me really captures the sense of fun of the piece in Act 1 especially. It has also got Carreras and Caballe at their peak. I can never understand why it doesn't rate more highly and is certainly preferable IMO to the stolid Solti and von Karajan recordings which sap the brio out of the opera.

I'd also have to take his Cosi Fan Tutte away with me to a desert island. For me this is one of the greatest of all opera recordings because the sense of ensemble really comes across and the ladies - Caballe, Cotrubas and Baker - are perfect. This despite the fact that the men (especailly Gedda who was clearly having an off day) are often pretty coarse!

RIP

[aeolium]

He did some splendid concerto recordings too. Beethoven and Bartok with Kovacevich, Beethoven and Brahms with Grumiaux and an excellent Tippet triple concerto for instance.

Mike

And the Mozart violin concertos with Grumiaux, and Sinfonia Concertante with Grumiaux and Pellicia - a fine Philips Duo release.

[Sir Velo]

Yes indeed all of those, and the Grieg and Schumann concertos with Kovacevich.

Kovacevich has always said that Davis was one of the most volcanic and intensely passionate of conductors. As such, their coupling of Beethoven 3 & 4, the Brahms and the Bartok PCs should have their place on every serious collectors' shelves.

[Petrushka]

The EMI Icon box arrived today and I included that justly famous Beethoven 7 in my evening CD concert.

With recordings on their books from the likes of Furtwängler and Klemperer I wonder what prompted EMI to set down this work with a young Colin Davis? What a thrilling account it is!

[amateur51]

I taped him doing it this way in 2/96 with the LSO on R3 live at the Barbican. I recall him (in interview that night - sadly not on my tape) citing Furtwangler as precedent, but despite much searching and a correspondance with John F.Berky at abruckner.com I can find no supporting evidence for it...

So, the mystery remains....

Many thanks for this jlw

[mathias broucek]

Any ideas why he performed Bruckner 7 with the middle movements reversed, as released on Orfeo C208 891 A? Not a mastering error - he did perform it that way!

I heard him do it that way with them on tour "on the grounds of tempo relationships". Great orchestra but I couldn't cope with the movement reversal.

[Barbirollians]

His Berlioz Overtures disc with the Staatskapelle Dresden from the late 1990s is another favourite of mine.