Search - Hector Berlioz, London Symphony Orchestra, Yann Beuron :: Berlioz - L'enfance du Christ (LSO Live)

Davis's thrid recording of L'Enfance is as good as ever

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 01/04/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I began listening to this live L'Enfance du Christ without expecting it to better Colin Davis's two wonderful older recordings. But in his eightieth year he still holds his eminence as an instinctive Berlioz conductor (for someone so impeccably French, the composer's strongest champions on records have both been English -- Beecham and Davis). The earlier versions from 1961 and 1976 feature more famous singers than this new one, and I wouldn't want to do without Janet Baker as Mary from the second set or Peter Pears as the Narrator on the first. Nor does Davis set out to duplicate the freshness and drama of his initial performance.



Instead, he gives us a seasoned, quietly emotional reading that becomes deeper and more moving as it proceeds. Charles Munch held sway with his 1956 recording on RCA because of its impetuosity. Davis holds sway here with his authority. Tempos are fairly measured, but that's a superficial thing. What matters is that the music remains engrossing from beginning to end. The singers, even those without a French background, handle the language well (although the Mary and Joseph are comparatively weak singers), and the LSO, caught in wonderful sound, play with total conviction, perhaps more than on any previous version. The Amazon reviewer may have something here when he calls this autumnal reading the best of Davis's three recordings."