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Ravel Daphnis et Chloé, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Boléro
The Scotsman, 23 Nov 2010
The main work – the ravishing ballet Daphnis et Chloé – gets the full wistful treatment from conductor Valery Gergiev, who allows every golden moment to emerge with delicious piquancy and crystalline clarity.
Verdi Otello
Financial Times, 16 Oct 2010
Davis inspires the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus to a performance of vigour and refinement, and it’s for their contribution – and Gerald Finley’s suave, stylish Iago – that this recording stands out
The Observer, 14 Nov 2010
... this is a spellbinding account, thanks to O'Neill, Anne Schwanewilms's Desdemona and Gerald Finley's Jago, but above all to Colin Davis's warm, urgent but never forced interpretation.
New Zealand Herald, 27 Nov 2010
The release itself, on LSO Live, cements just how valuable the London Symphony Orchestra's own label has become in its 10 years of existence.
Mahler Symphony No 4
Daily Telegraph, 7 Apr 2010
Gergiev’s febrile intensity lends itself well to the neurotic quality of Mahler’s music ... the orchestra is superb.
Strauss: Eine Alpensinfonie
The Sunday Times, 24 Jan 2010
Haitink’s account is slightly compromised by a too fragile oboe solo in the central summit section, and an unconvincing organ sound near the close, but it has immense grandeur
International Record Review, Feb 2010
[the LSO] members responded with a candour that is refreshing and otherwise offering devotion to Haitink's focused and sane direction, the strings sweetly expressive when required without becoming mawkish or sentimental.
Irish Times, 5 Feb 2010
Bernard Haitink is a well-prepared mountaineer. He doesn’t lose his grip or his head, and he keeps the whole in a judicious perspective that makes some of the bigger moments all the more impressive for not having their thunder stolen.
musicalcriticism.com, 28 Feb 2010
There's no denying the magnificent playing of the London Symphony Orchestra, whose quality is certainly held up to close scrutiny by the very detailed recorded sound. The solo playing is outstanding, in particular – the brilliantly characterised bassoon solo that introduces the 'Gefahrvolle Augenblicke', for example, or an awestruck but unhammy oboe at the summit, and rarely have I heard the intricate details of the waterfall come across so clearly.
The Daily Telegraph, 24 Mar 2010
[Haitink] penetrates to the core of the musical substance ... The orchestra rises magnificently to the challenge of this climax.
Prokofiev: Romeo and Juliet
Audiophile Audition, 27 Dec 2009
The live recording is sensational in its realism, and the note booklet is highly detailed in several languages.
The Buffalo News, 10 Jan 2010
Familiar mostly from its suites, it isn’t all that often performed in its two-hour, 20-minute totality and even less-often performed that way by a truly major orchestra with a great and completely idiomatically attuned conductor. All of that is what happens here, which makes this an uncommonly welcome disc.
The Times, 11 Jan 2010
... the death of Tybalt has rarely sounded more coruscating in its raw depiction of Lady Capulet’s grief. Juliet’s early music positively scampers with youthful delicacy and grace, and the love music shimmers with a rapt beauty.
The Irish Times, 15 Jan 2010
The ever- adventurous Valery Gergiev offered the full original ballet in London in November 2008, substituting a nice, springy energy in places where other conductors focus on sonic spectacle, and always finding the lyricism in this most lyrical of mid-20th-century works
Financial Times, 16 Jan 2010
its main claim to attention is the polish of the London Symphony Orchestra’s playing, and the idiomatic flair and sweeping conviction that Gergiev brings to one of Prokofiev’s most lyrically inspired scores.
The Daily Telegraph, 20 Jan 2010
... in the hands of Gergiev and the LSO there is always a moment of delight around the corner. Wonderful for dipping into.
Bangkok Post, 29 Jan 2010
If you know the story of Romeo and Juliet, you will have no trouble following the entire plot through the music alone, without any dancing, and you will be deeply moved ... strongly recommended.
The Australian, 13 Feb 2010
Rarely does a new recording supersede all before it, but that is the case with the London Symphony Orchestra's new performance of Prokofiev's ballet score, Romeo and Juliet ... This is an indispensable release.
theartsdesk.com, 20 Feb 2010
With such luxury casting, the results are predictably thrilling. Gergiev directs with a theatrical swagger and the more aggressive, brassy numbers have a shattering, visceral impact. The weight of the LSO string sound lends unbearable poignancy to the closing pages, and Gergiev finds space for humour too - listen out for the mandolins.
Verdi Requiem
Sunday Times, 16 Aug 2009
the orchestra responds magnificently to Davis’s volatile and deeply felt interpretation.
The Guardian, 11 Sep 2009
Davis creates a sense of almost unendurable emotional uncertainty by reminding us that consolation is ­repeatedly proffered, only to be whisked away. Unforgettably powerful...
musicalcriticism.com, 13 Sep 2009
The LSO's brass inevitably comes off best in the piece, which is a showcase for them: the 'Sanctus' and 'Dies irae' are heightened by the exciting trumpet and trombone playing.
Bartok Bluebeard's Castle
musicalcriticism.com, 13 Sep 2009
White is ... commanding and succeeds in colouring his voice to match the text.
Saga Magazine, Oct 2009
Gergiev and LSO in a vivid live performance conjure up every tableau in vibrant colours.
Haydn Die Schöpfung (The Creation)
musicalcriticism.com, 22 May 2009
[Davis] leads a lively, light-footed rendition on the whole, featuring three fine soloists, beautiful orchestral work and rousing singing from the London Symphony Chorus.
The Sunday Telegraph, 28 Jun 2009
The LSO's magnificent playing of the opening of this awe-inspiring work is an immediate reminder of the impact of Sir Colin Davis's conducting ... A joyous way to mark the Haydn anniversary.
Audiophile Audition, 30 Jun 2009
I cannot think of a better version done with traditional forces in many, many years ... The singing is superb, the soloists all the more so (especially the radiant Sally Matthews) ... This is one of their best releases to date, with lovely surround sound adding much to the presentation. This is truly a wonderful achievement ...
Mahler Symphony No 8
Chicago Tribune, 19 Mar 2009
The recording captures the immediacy of the concert experience while the resonant acoustics do not obscure chamber-music detail.
CD of the Week
The Times, 28 Mar 2009
Gergiev, the LSO and the impressive choral ranks of the Choir of Eltham College, Chorals Arts Society of Washington and the LSO Chorus find the ethereally glorious in Mahler's choral epic.
The Scotsman, 30 Mar 2009
the setting enriches the whole aural spectacle. It's the kind of performance you instantly wish you had witnessed, but this vivid and momentous recording takes you 99 per cent of the way there.
Midwest Record.com, 31 Mar 2009
For listeners that want something bold, grand and rousing all the while cinematic in scope, this is classical recording like it used to be.
musicalcriticism.com, 28 Apr 2009
Gergiev does an impressive job at marshalling his forces and on the whole he maintains a tight grip on ensemble in what must have been difficult circumstances. The playing of the London Symphony Orchestra is typically fiery and virtuosic, even if the spot-lit brass sound a little rough and ready at times.
Audiophile Audition, 29 Apr 2009
there is no question that the interpretative understanding and partnership of Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony represents yet another tour de force collaboration in the music world today. The ensemble plays truthfully out for him, and this in turn gave Gergiev the assurance he needs to commit entirely to his interpretive ideas, certain of their effective realization.
Washington Post, 15 Jul 2009
... the odd space also focuses attention on some moments of truly gorgeous playing from the orchestra: silvery flutes, shining strings and, at the end, an actual sense that one is moving into an otherworldly realm.
MacMillan St John Passion
The Scotsman, 30 Jan 2009
This is one of the most powerful works MacMillan has written for some time, full of conviction and performed by musicians who clearly feel as confident with its opulence and fervour.
musicalcriticism.com, 1 Feb 2009
There are, of course, no comparisons to be made with other recordings yet but I cannot imagine that there could be any significant improvements on Sir Colin Davis' interpretation.
Audiophile Audition, 14 Feb 2009
The LSO, Colin Davis, and the choral groups (not to mention Mr. Maltman’s performance) perform authoritatively and splendidly, obviously relishing this magnificent work.
The Berkshire Review, 22 Jan 2010
The playing of he LSO is superb, and Sir Colin's direction is powerful. He cuts straight through the circumstances to the essence of the music and communicates it as a powerful and universally valid statement of the human condition.
Mahler Symphony No 2 & adagio from Symphony No 10
The Times, 24 Jan 2009
The Resurrection Symphony is given monumental life in this live recording with the London Symphony
musicalcriticism.com, 29 Jan 2009
The London Symphony Chorus clearly enunciates every word – even when close to a whisper, the soloists soar above the clamour, and the orchestra seems to bring the whole to a satisfyingly heaven-and-earth-trembling close.
Audiophile Audition, 14 Feb 2009
LSO Live gives a largely first-class recording sounding splendid in both stereo and surround programs.
Sibelius Symphonies Nos 1 & 4
The Sunday Telegraph, 23 Nov 2008
The LSO's playing has a warmth and richness as well as sweeping grandeur in the big tunes ... This is Davis and the LSO at their closest.
The Sunday Times, 24 Nov 2008
Davis’s readings are becoming more powerful, more subtle, more Sibelian, as he ages.
Audiophile Audition, 21 Dec 2008
These are exceptionally powerful performances of two of the Finnish master’s great symphonies.
San Francisco Chronicle, 18 Jan 2009
Davis underscores that connection [with Tchaikovsky] with a gorgeous performance full of tender grace and sonic polish.
Mahler Symphony No 3
Yorkshire Post, 24 Oct 2008
... this from the LSO and their charismatic conductor, Valery Gergiev, seeks out, more than any other, the lyric beauty of the score.
The Daily Telegraph, 24 Oct 2008
It shows that, for all the conductor's reputation for never being in one place long enough to establish a detailed interpretation, here there is no mistaking his rapport with his performers in this longest of Mahler's symphonies.
Audiophile Audition, 3 Nov 2008
Gergiev emphasizes the dramatic aspects of the work strongly, but also delivers the many contrasting quieter passages with touching gentleness.
The Sunday Times, 9 Nov 2008
I’ve never heard the opening Pan Awakes music more marvellously vivid in all its miraculous scoring, every dynamic in place, the snarl of the trombones, the menace of the trumpets ... you won’t hear more brilliant playing than the LSO's.
Mahler Symphony No 7
classicalsource.com, 4 Aug 2008
This is far from being a conventional Mahler performance. Many conductors bring soulful romanticism to the music, but not Gergiev who is powerful and down-to-earth. The recorded quality is very good.
The Guardian, 8 Aug 2008
Taped at the Barbican earlier this year, the recording is warmly spacious
The Sunday Times, 17 Aug 2008
This is a terrific, gripping performance from Gergiev and the LSO of Mahler’s Seventh Symphony, an edge-of-the-seat experience of a work that can often be elusive.
Financial Times, 13 Sep 2008
Gergiev mines the infernal contrasts with thrilling intensity: you really hear the nerve-ends. If you want a sample of Gergiev's Mahler, this is the one to go for.
Gramophone Magazine, Oct 2008
The playing is consisently assured; the sound powerfully immediate. The reading has a monolithic drive that is nothing if not distinctive.
Tippett A Child of our Time
The Scotsman, 26 Jun 2008
The London Symphony Chorus, who give life to the spirituals, match the dynamic magnitude of the LSO.
The Observer, 29 Jun 2008
Beautifully structured, if fractured, sound-clusters drive the vocal lines in this outstanding performance.
The Sunday Times, 6 Jul 2008
Colin Davis's affinity with Tippett's music has been a feature of his long career and this live performance from December last year is a moving token of it.
The Sunday Times, 13 Jul 2008
The orchestral playing is superb, the choral singing gutsy and confident.
Classic FM Magazine, Oct 2008
The octagenarian's astonishing energy, fully matched by the LSO, fuels a great performance from the London Symphony Chorus. Unmissable.
Mahler Symphony No 1
International Record Review, Jun 2008
The first two movements in this performance are magnificent, of a level we rarely hear, either live or in the studio.
Audiophile Audition, 5 Jun 2008
Playing is superb and so are the surround sonics.
Malibu Arts Journal, 19 Jun 2008
It is a sure bet to invest in any recorded performance by the LSO, yet Gergiev's intensely accurate interpretation of Mahler's work brought the LSO to one of its most memorable recorded performance in all its elegant history.
classicalsource.com, 10 Jul 2008
LSO Live’s recording quality is good, despite the difficulties of recording in the dry Barbican acoustic. The sound is close-up, but there is a sense of space around the instruments, and the recording sounds particularly impressive when heard via the 5.1 ‘surround sound’ layer.
BBC Music Magazine, Aug 2008
Not since Bernstein have we encountered a Mahler conductor of such idiosycrasy and fire as Valery Gergiev.
Classic FM Magazine, Aug 2008
... packed with heightened drama, fastidious detail and mint-fresh playing from the London Symphony Orchestra.
Berlioz Benvenuto Cellini
The Daily Telegraph, 3 May 2008
Colin Davis vindicates its dramatic qualities magnificently in this recording, despite the fact that it derives from concert performances. Its success is partly down to the vibrant playing of the LSO, but also to the way the cast members seem to interact vocally as if they were on stage. And the cast itself, mainly of younger singers, is very fine indeed, led by the resolute Cellini of Gregory Kunde.
BBC Music Magazine, Jul 2008
The combination of technology and the conductor's unimpaired élan makes for glowing textures and shattering climaxes. So if orchestral splendour is your thing, this set is a must.
Classical Music Magazine, 5 Jul 2008
None of the cast, headed by Gregory Kunde and Laura Claycomb, disappoints.
classicalsource.com, 14 Jul 2008
Like his other LSO Live recordings of these operas, if you want a scintillating account of “Benvenuto Cellini”, then this is a real bargain – one that will repay repeated listening.
Gramophone Magazine, Aug 2008
In a score that grows and growls from the bottom up, Davis's Berlioz sound comes into its own.
Classic FM Magazine, Aug 2008
Colin Davis leads all concerned on a breathtaking musical and, ultimately, spiritual adventure through Berlioz's score ... As close too definitive as possible.
Mahler Symphony No 6
The Daily Telegraph, 5 Apr 2008
It shows how Mahler's neurosis and Gergiev's volatility are ideally matched: this is no plain-sailing exercise in orchestral virtuosity, but a deeply wrought journey of the soul, from the unusually brisk but urgent account of the first movement to the tense exposition of the tragic finale.
Financial Times, 8 Jun 2008
Unlike Gergiev's breathless, restless approach (on one CD), Haitink's (on two) has a perfect balance of parts, but it lacks the visceral energy the Russian conductor draws from the LSO.
The Allmusic Blog, 4 Jul 2008
... this is a spectacular performance that is marvelously suited to the state-of-the-art technology employed in LSO Live's releases, and the multichannel hybrid SACD format gives the music outstanding sound quality. This superb recording is highly recommended as one of the best of the year.
Mozart Requiem
musicalcriticism.com, 6 Feb 2008
with the London Symphony Chorus in magnificent form and the orchestral forces as receptive as ever to Davis' vision, this is a highly respectable recording of Mozart's valedictory masterpiece.
The Guardian, 8 Feb 2008
At its considerable best, it is ritualistic, monumental and thrillingly dramatic. Davis allows the Sanctus to soar majestically heavenward.
The Times, 23 Feb 2008
Colin Davis gives a true Londoner's performance of Mozart's unfinished mass. The local orchestra (the London Symphony) is on good form, from the chillingly ominous opening and the brass scything through the Dies Irae to the whole weighty ensemble floating through the sobbing Lacrimosa.
Sunday Times, 10 Mar 2008
This is a deeply felt account of a masterpiece from a conductor who has lived with this music for most of his professional life.
MacMillan The World's Ransoming / The Confession of Isobel Gowdie
classicalsource.com, 10 Jan 2008
This is LSO Live’s 50th issue for which the LSO deserves many congratulations, having preserved some great performances by the orchestra particularly under Sir Colin Davis, Bernard Haitink and Mstislav Rostropovich. On this release, Sir Colin, a conductor with a wide repertoire, and the LSO give performances with electric ensemble and superb playing.
musicalcriticism.com, 10 Jan 2008
From the start, the composer creates a magical timbre mainly using the string section of the orchestra playing wide chords. There is an extraordinary cumulative effect with the strings; it's amazing how Macmillan takes his time, creating wonderful harmonic effects by gradually modifying the chords, which are carefully balanced by Davis and the LSO.
Financial Times, 26 Jan 2008
These two works, treated here to virtuosic performances by the London Symphony Orchestra under its former principal conductor, Colin Davis, sum up the MacMillan "problem".
Gramophone Magazine, Mar 2008
Sir Colin Davis and the LSO bring out the mainstream qualities of MacMillan's music. with such assured playing you're more conscious than ever of the way in which both these works offer new angles on that archetypal battle between good and evil...
Handel Messiah (includes bonus DVD)
Mail on Sunday, 4 Nov 2007
Colin Davis's ... contribution to this complete LSO Live set ... is generally excellent, proving that an outstanding conductor at the helm of a modern symphony orchestra still has much to offer in music that is sadly becoming the preserve of original instrument ensembles.
classicalsource.com, 7 Dec 2007
I think that the composer would have been pleased with this edition. I suggest that this is a highly intelligent attempt to represent how Handel might have wished his great oratorio to be performed.
The Guardian, 14 Dec 2007
The choral singing, from Tenebrae, is jaw-droppingly beautiful, though the playing lacks spirit. The actual recording, however, is far better balanced on DVD.
The Sunday Times, 16 Dec 2007
With a professional choir of 34 (the excellent Tenebrae), 37 strings (the LSO revelling in Handel's endlessly varied accompaniments) and Davis's supremely natural, dogma-free conducting, it holds its own.
Berlioz L'enfance du Christ
Financial Times, 21 Jul 2007
The civilised warmth of the orchestra's playing during his tenure is well captured and the solo singing includes stylish contributions from Yann Beuron, the native French narrator, and the two unrelated basses, Matthew and Peter Rose.
The Times, 10 Aug 2007
True, the microphones pick up the conductor’s back-of-the-throat growls as they never did 30 years ago; and that must be reckoned with. But those unplanned vocal ornaments fade beside the all-round achievement of this life-enhancing set – the seventh Berlioz release to emerge from Davis and LSO Live
The Sunday Telegraph, 19 Aug 2007
Sir Colin assembled a fine cast of soloists ... choirs and orchestra sing and play superlatively.
International Record Review, Sep 2007
The LSO Live teams has come up with a truly first-rate recording, with all the frisson of a live performance but none of the drawbacks.
BBC Music Magazine, Sep 2007
Yann Beuron, probably today's finest lyric tenor, gives the performance an essential idiomatic core in his narration.
Classic FM Magazine, Oct 2007
Colin Davis's conducting is superb: snarling trombones there, magical choral phrasing there.
Gramophone Magazine, Oct 2007
Davis phrases Berlioz's lines with all their latent anxiety and sadness, and with that curious sense of regret that David Cairns's essay suggests gives an added sharpness to the telling as the agnostic Berlioz "remembers what it was like to have faith".
Elgar Enigma Variations / Introduction and Allegro for Strings
Sunday Times Culture Magazine, 27 May 2007
Their Enigma, captured at the beginning of the year, is one of the most beautifully played I can recall.
BBC Music Magazine, Jun 2007
In both works Davis is marvellous at bringing out the subtleties of Elgar's orchestration.
Financial Times, 2 Jun 2007
These performances, recorded at recent Barbican concerts, capture the dichotomy at the heart of all Elgar's greatest scores - between rumbustiousness and melancholy. They also celebrate the LSO's symbiosis with Davis
The Daily Telegraph, 9 Jun 2007
The LSO plays wonderfully, and Davis's balancing of instruments - the delicate pointing of the woodwind over the solo viola in "Ysobel", for example - is ideal.
The Observer, 10 Jun 2007
Of all the issues to mark the 150th anniversary of Elgar's birth, few will be more distinguished than these masterful accounts, taken from live performances at the Barbican, of two of his bestloved works.
ClassicalSource.com, Jul 2007
An enticing proposition this, two of the composer's greatest works from one of the finest of Elgarians conducting the orchestra (here on top form) that Elgar once headed up. At bargain price, too
Gramophone Magazine, Aug 2007
The Introduction and Allegro is beautifully done, though there one notices the relative dryness of the Barbican acoustic, which takes some of the bloom off the strings. Nonetheless, those that enjoyed the live events will no doubt be among those eager to hear the disc.
Classic FM Magazine, Aug 2007
In Elgar's 150th anniversary year this album, with Sir Colin Davis at the helm, does the composer proud.
Sibelius Symphony No 2 / Pohjola's Daughter
The Sunday Times, 25 Mar 2007
'The latest LSO Live CD shows the orchestra (and the sound engineers) in resplendent form, with magnificently committed playing from all departments — the strings particularly fine in Sibelius’s many unison passages.'
The Scotsman, 30 Mar 2007
'... the striking thing about these performances of the symphonic fantasy Pohjola's Daughter and the Second Symphony are their freshness. The former has an irresistible energy, rich in colour and meaty in attack. The symphony unfolds with a comfortable inevitability, Davis savouring Sibelius's woody textures, but never once allowing self-indulgence to intrude.'
International Record Review, Apr 2007
This is an absolutely magnificent performance of the Second Symphony from first bar to last, reinforcing yet again the contention that live performances by great orchestras and conductors often have the edge over multi-edited studio recordings.
The Guardian, 27 Apr 2007
Davis handles [Pohjola's Daughter's] quasi-symphonic structure with masterly assurance, never neglecting the music's avowed programmatic aspects but always placing them within a form that is as organic and coherant as any in the numbered symphonies.
The Observer, 29 Apr 2007
This fourth disc in Colin Davis's Sibelius series for the LSO's own label ... suggests that this might turn out to be the finest Sibelius cycle on disc.
Classic FM Magazine, May 2007
For all the hype, the success rate of individual instalments in Davis's ongoing Sibelius cycle with the LSO naturally varies. This is one of the very best.
Gramophone Magazine, May 2007
EDITOR'S CHOICE
Disc of the Month

What Colin Davis has to say about Sibelius's Second Symphony hasn't changed in substance since his first recording with the Boston Symphony, but the paragraphs now flow with even more assured Wordsworthian cadences.
Beethoven Fidelio
The Sunday Telegraph, 4 Feb 2007
'Critical superlatives rained on the concert performances of Fidelio that Sir Colin Davis conducted at the Barbican last May; this recording made at the time shows they were not exaggerated, Davis's interpretation is as penetrating and moving as one could wish and the LSO plays at the top of its form for him.'
Sunday Telegraph, 9 Dec 2007
Sir Colin Davis excelled himself in the power and nobility of this interpretation, with the LSO on terrific form ... first class recording quality.
Best of 2007 Classical CDs
Evening Standard, 21 Dec 2007
Beethoven's only opera is stunningly served by an LSO Live budget recording released early this year, conducted by Sir Colin Davis with the magnificent Christine Brewer and John MacMaster as the heroic couple Leonora and Florestan.

Best recordings of 2007
Rachmaninov Symphony No 2
The Scotsman, 27 Apr 2010
The opening movement unfolds like an inbound tide, the waves of voluptuous sound building with a potency that is rich and sonorous.
The National (UAE), 1 Jun 2010
The LSO excels with a performance that is technically tight yet never less than gripping and often actively thrilling.
The Classical Review, 3 Jun 2010
The London Symphony Orchestra’s corporate string sound is so plush and idiomatic in the lugubrious opening bars, I had to glance again at the CD cover to make sure this was the LSO and not the Mariinsky Orchestra.
Audiophile Audition, 10 Jun 2010
The Adagio is an especially touching movement, and the finale brings back memories of the earlier movements in a rousing and spirited fashion.
Gramophone Magazine, 15 Jul 2010
Expertly played by the London Symphony Orchestra, wisely shaped and (unusually) observing the repeat of the first-movement exposition
Beethoven Symphonies Nos 4 & 8
The Times, 3 Nov 2006
'Haitink's interpretation of the Symphony No 4 is the highlight: lean and electrifying, its punch underlined by the Barbican acoustic ... Recorded in April, the CD concludes Haitink's LSO Beethoven cycle; it's a towering achievment.'
Beethoven Symphonies Nos 5 & 1
'I haven’t caught up with Bernard Haitink’s LSO Live Beethoven symphony cycle until now - but if this disc, and the plaudits earned by earlier issues, are anything to go by, it is building into one of the most impressive recorded cycles of the moment.'

Beethoven Symphony No 9 'Choral'
Sunday Times, 3 Sep 2006
'Every detail of the ever-astonishing score is given its value in a reading of passionate conviction.'
BBC Music Magazine, Oct 2006
'The extraordinarily vivid recording, in which the basses are caught to stupendous effest ... adds hugely to the effect.'
Elgar The Dream of Gerontius
The Observer, 6 Aug 2006
'In charge of his eloquent LSO forces, Colin Davis delivers this live performance with passionate engagement, bringing to it an elemental sweep and dynamism on one hand, and spiritual tenderness on the other.'
'All sorts of previously unnoticed orchestral details emerge without being unduly spot-lit, and Sir Colin Davis has an alert ear for Elgar’s motivic structure.'
'The chief merits of this recording reside in Sir Colin Davis's deeply felt conducting which combines dramatic urgency with a spiritual radiance.'
Beethoven Symphony No 3 / Leonore Overture No 2
BBC Music Magazine, Aug 2006
'With the new LSO Live release we are on a completely different level and indeed approaching greatness.'
'The finale sweeps towards its climax on a tide of orchestral eloquence - truely Promethean - such as the LSO reserves for its favourite conductors.'
Beethoven Symphonies Nos 6 & 2
International Record Review, Jun 2006
'I have many recordings of Beethoven Symphonies in my collection but if anyone were to ask me today which version of the Pastoral I would recommend, I would first of all direct him to this one.'
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique
Evening Standard, 5 Jul 2006
'There were many formidable concerts in the [Berlioz] cycle but no work focused so much experience and expertise as the supremely colourific Fantastique.'
The Definitive 100 Classical CDs, No 95
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