Sir Andrew Davis RIP

[LMcD]

I've just heard this very sad news on the 12.00 news summary on Radio 3.

[Pulcinella]

Sad news indeed.
And a shame that his latest recording (are there others in the pipeline?), of Tippett's A child of our time, gets a poor review in May's Gramophone (justifiably in my opinion if it's anything like the live broadcast the day before they took it to the recording studio); many other excellent ones to remember him by, though, not least when he was a King's organ scholar.

[kernelbogey]

Perhaps a host could add his annals: 2 February 1944 – 20 April 2024 (pace Wikipedia).

[Petrushka]

Very sad news. I share Pulcinella's frustration about the Tippett recording review especially as AD could usually be relied upon to give a good account of almost anything and was a fine advocate of Tippett (I have an especial memory of a Proms Mask of Time).

Sir Andrew conducted the first Prom I ever attended In 1978 (Mahler 5) and I met him once after one of his very best Last Nights in 1991.

I think he'll be best remembered as the finest Last Night conductor since Sargent and for his sterling advocacy of British music in both performance and recordings.

RIP Sir Andrew.

[richardfinegold]

R.I.P. I saw him conduct the Magic Flute at Lyric Opera of Chicago many years ago, and saw him conduct the CSO a few times as well. I have many recordings of his.

[akiralx]

He was MD here in Melbourne from 2013-19, I heard him conduct a great Dream of Gerontius. Very saddened to hear of his death.

[LMcD]

He was MD here in Melbourne from 2013-19, I heard him conduct a great Dream of Gerontius. Very saddened to hear of his death.

One of my abiding memories is of watching him temporarily vacate the podium in order the play the chamber organ during the Pie Jesu of Faure's Requiem in the Fairfield Halls in (if memory serves) the early 1980s.

[cloughie]

A great contributor to British musical life for many many many years, and recordings of British music and a wider repertoire, and he coducted many a Prom.
RIP Sir Andrew.

[Petrushka]

The Prom concerts of his I attended are a testament to Sir Andrew's wide repertoire. There was a memorable Mahler 8 in 1995, a thrilling Elgar Dream of Gerontius, Messiaen Turangalila, the wonderful Elgar/Payne 3rd Symphony, Tippett Mask of Time, Gurrelieder (with Hans Hotter), Elgar The Kingdom and several Last Nights. Outside of the Proms there were a couple of Elgar Dreams at Westminster Cathedral and also St Paul's (the one on DVD).

I'm sure others will come to mind.

[visualnickmos]

Gramophone has just reported the sad news that Andrew Davis has left us, aged eighty

[silvestrione]

Gramophone has just reported the sad news that Andrew Davis has left us, aged eighty

Sad news indeed. A great Tippett champion: I think I heard him do The Mask Of Time twice!

[Nimrod]

I'm very saddened by this news. Last time I saw him was in Bedford; he conducted superb intepretations of In the South and V-W's London symphony, the latter was broadcast when he conducted the BBC Philharmonic. I told him before the concert that the last time I heard Alassio 'live' was with Barbirolli in 1970, to which he expressed great admiration for JB and said that's one hell of a precedent to live up to! I saw him after the concert and he was delighted when I told him it was every bit as good as JB!
I love the recording of The Music Makers and his V-W Tallis Fantasia is excellent, too. I was hoping to see conduct Gerontius in Birmingham but illness intervened.
He'll be greatly missed. RIP

[Master Jacques]

Shocked to hear of Andrew Davis's death, as I had no idea he had been suffering from leukaemia. My own Proms memory is a tremendously vital - uncut - Midsummer Marriage about a dozen years ago, which ought to have been released on disc in preference to Edward Gardner's more recent (cut) traversal, which wasn't so strongly cast. The conductor's palpable joy in the piece communicated to the whole hall.

[kuligin]

That is a shock and very sad news, I saw him conduct Tippett‘s Rose Lake and Beethoven 8 only last December, the Beethoven was exceptional as was a VW 9 a few years ago, the BBC Philharmonic really responded on both occasions.

[french frank]

His website has been updated since this morning when his calendar still had him marked down to conduct Delius and Elgar in Malmö this Thursday