http://www.gramophone.co.uk/classical-music-news/the-conductor-sir-colin-davis-has-died
The conductor Sir Colin Davis has died
by Gramophone.co.uk, 15 April 2013
Born September 25, 1927; died April 14, 2013
The English conductor Sir Colin Davis died on Sunday, April 14 at the age of 85. He had not conducted for some months due to illness.
Davis's relationship with the London Symphony Orchestra, whose president he was at the time of his death, dates back over half a century. His career started in earnest – following a variety of freelance engagements (including Mozart’s Don Giovanni with Chelsea Opera Group) – when he was appointed assistant conductor of the BBC Scottish Orchestra (now the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra) in 1957. It allowed him to explore more unusual repertoire – the principal conductor tending to focus on the ‘core’ works – and also to start to conduct the music of a composer of whom he would become his greatest and most loyal interpreter, Hector Berlioz.
In 1959, Davis stood in for an indisposed Otto Klemperer for a performance of Don Giovanni at London’s Royal Festival Hall – the critics were impressed. A year later he replaced a sick Sir Thomas Beecham in Die Zauberflöte at Glyndebourne and his Mozartian credentials were established. In 1960 he joined the Sadler’s Wells Opera Company and the following year became its musical director, and in his five years with the company conducted a wide-ranging repertoire that embraced Mozart, Stravinsky, Weill, Pizzetti, Verdi, Wagner, Puccini as well as the world premiere of Richard Rodney Bennett’s The Mines of Sulphur. He left the company in 1965 with some acrimony.
Passed over by the LSO, who appointed István Kertesz as its principal conductor in 1965, Davis was given the job of principal conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra where he was encouraged by the BBC Controller of Music, Sir William Glock, to programme new music. He struggled, though, to fill the shoes that Sir Malcolm Sargent filled so suavely at the Proms. In 1970, he was invited by two major musical institutions to become their head – the Boston Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. He opted for Covent Garden and, after a rocky start when comparisons were drawn with his predecessor Sir Georg Solti, his 15 years with the company saw him garnering fine reviews for his Berlioz (he mounted Berlioz’s Les Troyens and Benvenuto Cellini), Britten, the major Mozart operas, Verdi’s Falstaff as well as more unusual fare like Zemlinsky. He also championed the music of Sir Michael Tippett and Alban Berg. In all he conducted over 30 operas during his tenure with the Royal Opera.
Alongside his work in the opera-house, Davis served as a guest conductor with the BBC SO (1971-75) and the Boston Symphony (1972-84). Other notable appearances included his Met debut in 1969, Bayreuth in 1977 in Tannhäuser (the first English conductor to appear at the festival), the Vienna State Opera in 1986 and the Bavarian State Opera in 1994.
From 1983-94, Davis was chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra where he developed a broader symphonic repertoire that embraced the symphonies of Bruckner and Mahler. He also enjoyed a close relationship with the Staatskapelle Dresden, first as a guest conductor and then as its honorary conductor. (During this period he was offered, but declined, the principal conductorships of the Cleveland Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic.) He served as principal guest conductor of the New York Philharmonic from 1998-2003.
In 1995, Sir Colin (he’d been knighted in 1980) was appointed principal conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, an ensemble he’d first worked with in 1959 and with whom he toured for the first time in 1964. During his tenure with the LSO (the longest period a single conductor had led the orchestra), he explored composers he’d previously not been closely associated with, including Elgar and latterly Carl Nielsen. He also returned to music he had long championed: Tippett, Sibelius and Berlioz.
Davis lived through a golden period of the modern recording era and recorded extensively throughout his career. One of his earliest discs to attract critical attention was an HMV LP of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony with the RPO. It led Edward Greenfield (June 1962) to conclude: ‘I had not intended to write more than a few lines for this stereo version, but once again the performance has made me lyrical. At its price it is one of the astonishing bargains in the catalogue. More Beethoven from Davis, I beg.’
The largest part of his recording life was with Philips and included a vast repertoire that embraced operas by Mozart, Puccini and Berlioz, as well as symphonic works by Berlioz, Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Tippett, the complete Beethoven symphonies (Staatskapelle Dresden) and the complete Sibelius symphonies (Boston SO), numerous concertos (including Mozart’s for violin with Arthur Grumiaux, and Beethoven’s and Brahms’s for piano with Claudio Arrau) as well as choral music (including Handel's Messiah and Mozart's Requiem).
He later recorded for RCA and left sets of Verdi’s Falstaff and the Requiem as well as his second Sibelius cycle, and the complete symphonies of Brahms (and the German Requiem) and Schubert.
His arrival at the LSO in the mid-1990s coincided with the slowing down of the classical recording industry and he was perfectly placed to lead the orchestra into the era of ‘own labels’. For LSO Live he recorded his third Sibelius symphony cycle (which this time included the Kullervo Symphony), a Berlioz cycle (which gained him a Gramophone Award for Les Troyens), the Elgar symphonies (including Anthony Payne’s edition of the Third) and the complete Nielsen symphonies, music only recently added to his repertoire.
Sir Colin was also a respected teacher and took his role as holder of the International Chair in Orchestral Studies very seriously and conducted six opera productions and over 60 concerts during his 25-year association with the Royal Academy of Music.
In Memory of Sir Colin Davis (25 September 1927 - 14 April 2013)
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis @ BBC Proms 2011
Helena Juntunen, Soprano
Sarah Connolly, Mezzo
Paul Groves, Tenor
Matthew Rose, Bass
London Philharmonic Choir
London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra
Sir Colin Davis, Conductor
Berlioz's Requiem (Grande messe des morts) @ BBC Proms 2000
Chorus and Orchestra of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama
Chorus and Orchestra of the Paris Conservatoire
Philharmonia Chorus
Symphonic Voices
Sir Colin Davis, Conductor
Mozart's Requiem in D minor, K. 626 (1791)
Version 1:
Edith Mathis, Soprano
Trudeliese Schmidt, Alto
Peter Schreier, Tenor
Gwynne Howell, Bass
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Chorus
Sir Colin Davis, Conductor
Recording Date: 1984
Place of recording: Herkulessaal in Munich
Version 2:
Ute Selbig, Soprano
Bernarda Fink, Mezzo-soprano
Steve Davislim, Tenor
Alastair Miles, Bass
Staatskapelle Dresden Orchester & Chor
Sir Colin Davis, Conductor
Recording Date: Feb 11 2004
Place of recording: Semperoper Dresden
Version 3:
Le Requiem de Mozart au Festival de Saint-Denis:
Requiem K. 626
Ave Verum Corpus k. 618
Kyrie en ré mineur K. 368 a/ Kyrie d-moll K. 368.a
Elin Rombo, Soprano
Stéphanie d'Oustrac, Mezzo-soprano
Werner Güra, Tenor
John Relyea, Bass
Choeur de Radio France
Orchestre National de France
Sir Colin Davis, Conductor
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