Posts tagged as "colin-davis"

Mozart: Symphonies Nos. 28, 33, 36, 38; Divertimenti Nos. 10 & 11

April 28, 2016

Colin Davis and the English Chamber Orchestra made several Mozart recordings for L’Oiseau-Lyre. All five symphonies and both Divertimenti that he recorded are collected here on a 2CD set (the Concertone has also been re-issued). Crisp and tender, they are classic performances from the 1960s and will be warmly welcomed in these CD transfers by […]

Tchaikovsky: Ballet at the Opera

April 28, 2016

Well known for his three great ballet masterpieces, Tchaikovsky also inserted some of the most colourful orchestral balletic numbers into his operas. Colin Davis and the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, recorded a selection of these in 1977 and both, for its vibrancy of colour as well as for its stunning (analogue) […]

Purcell: Dido and Aeneas

April 28, 2016

Reissued to mark Colin Davis’s 80th birthday, this sublime Philips recording of ‘Dido and Aeneas’ makes a welcome return to the catalogue. The honeyed sound of its protagonists – Josephine Veasey (whom Colin Davis also chose as the Dido for his recording of Berlioz’s ‘Les Troyens’) and John Shirley-Quirk – is offset by a chaste-sounding Helen […]

Handel: Messiah

April 28, 2016

Colin Davis recorded Handel’s ‘Messiah’ twice for Philips – in the 1960s with an English cast and then in the 1980s with British soprano and tenor soloists, a German alto and an American bass, not to mention a German orchestra and chorus. It’s a warm and voluble reading and was for a short while available […]

Birgit Nilsson sings Wagner

April 20, 2016

Birgit Nilsson. Richard Wagner. It was an operatic marriage made in heaven that lasted for over twenty years and, thanks to recordings, continues to thrill music lovers around the world. Nilsson sang her first Wagnerian part in Stockholm. It was Senta in Der fliegende Holländer. It was greeted rapturously and throughout her long career it was […]

Kiri Te Kanawa sings Mozart

April 19, 2016

While Kiri Te Kanawa was still preparing for that career-defining debut as the Countess, she made a first Mozart disc under Colin Davis: a collection of sacred music, including the Solemn Vespers, KV 339, with its serene setting of ‘Laudate Dominum’, and Exsultate, jubilate. The Countess became the singer’s calling-card, and she repeated the role […]

Beethoven: The Concertos

April 19, 2016

Like the Beethoven symphonies, his concertos form a cornerstone of the standard classical repertoire and collected together here, on four discs, are all his major concertos in stellar performances. From the Haydnesque first concertos, to the serene calm, poise and beauty of the Fourth Piano Concerto and the Violin Concerto, to the swagger of the […]