RECORDINGS IN REVIEW: COLIN DAVIS

Abstract

1 6 9 R R E C O R D I N G S I N R E V I E W D E W E Y F A U L K N E R Colin Davis, who died on 14 April 2013 at age eighty-five, was one of a generation of orchestra directors born between 1924 and 1936 whose glory years fell after the passing of the great ones: Wilhelm Furtwängler, Arturo Toscanini, Fritz Reiner, George Szell, Bruno Walter, Thomas Beecham. The younger group’s early prominence overlapped that of their immediate predecessors, such as Leonard Bernstein, Herbert von Karajan, Dimitri Mitropoulos, and Georg Solti. And they are now beginning to pass. Lorin Maazel and Claudio Abbado, born in 1930 and 1933, respectively, both died in 2014. Charles Mackerras (b. 1925), Klaus Tennstedt (b. 1926), Gustav Leonhardt (b. 1929), and Carlos Kleiber (b. 1933) predeceased them. So the questions of their legacy and their work’s quality now come to the fore. All of our group left a body of recorded performances, both live and studio-created, in far better sound than was given their predecessors . Davis’s first recordings were in stereo in 1959, and eventually he recorded digitally on both LP and CD. He made surroundsound recordings in the ill-fated Quadrophonic LP format, several of which have been remastered on CD by Pentatone, and in the Super Audio CD format, mostly in five-channel surround sound. 1 7 0 F A U L K N E R Y There are also pirated and in-house recordings, primarily of his operatic work. So it is relatively easy to hear what Davis’s performances sounded like at all periods of his career. Much the same is true for the rest of the group, if not in quite this variety of formats. Davis’s career spanned work with orchestras and opera houses in England, the United States, and Germany. He came to prominence in October 1959 when he conducted a London public performance of Mozart’s Don Giovanni with the cast of Carlo Maria Giulini’s famed EMI recording. Giulini had replaced Otto Klemperer on short notice but was unable to perform the concert, allowing Davis to become an overnight star. In 1959 he also first conducted the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO). Then in 1960 he suddenly replaced Sir Thomas Beecham in Mozart’s Die Zauber flöte at Glyndebourne. His justified reputation as an important Mozartean was now established, and he was much in demand. As a young man, Davis was both ambitious and intolerant of those less dedicated to music than himself, especially orchestral musicians. From 1961 to 1965 he was director of the Sadler’s Wells opera company, but his goal was to lead the LSO. The LSO players were not impressed. In 1964 they passed over him and selected István Kertész as their principal conductor. As a rather nice consolation prize William Glock, controller of music for the BBC, soon o√ered Davis the BBC Symphony Orchestra (BBCSO) and the summer season of the Henry Wood Promenade Concerts. This gave Davis resources unavailable to most of his peers to conduct large-scale works, such as Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 and Hector Berlioz’s Requiem and Te Deum. Meanwhile, Davis came to America, where in 1967 he conducted Tyrone Guthrie’s stunning new production of Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes as part of Rudolf Bing’s gala opening season at the new Metropolitan Opera House. In 1969 he would return to the house with Grimes and add Alban Berg’s Wozzeck; in 1972 he conducted Claude Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande there. This and his London accomplishments brought him to the attention of both the New York Philharmonic and the Boston Symphony Orchestra (BSO), both of which were seeking conductors. Consequently, in October 1968 Davis gave four series of concerts with the Philharmonic , opening with an all-Berlioz evening. As with the LSO, the New York players balked, delivering only average playing until R E C O R D I N G S I N R E V I E W 1 7 1 R the last item...