Colin Davis

He played Bartok with great passion and authority.

Now, I'm a little bit on the fence because as much as I admired his recording of the three Bartok concertos conducted by Colin Davis, which really hold their own today, these recordings basically were superseded by those of Zoltan Koch's, which were also on Phillips.

I'm going to recommend instead Stephen Kovacevic in Solo Bartok and a wonderful recording that he made of the Out of Door Suite in 1969.

I think the pianist truly understands the music's lyricism.

And it's fascinating to see how Blegen's Mélisande adopts a placating tone in order to appease his rage, spinning out a lie just to save her own skin.

This performance, by the way, is conducted by Colin Davis.

[singing] Qu'y a-t-il, Mélisande? Pourquoi pleurais-tu tout à coup?

Je suis...

That is a dangerous situation.

They test you, they poke you, and even the great conductors like Colin Davis, Sir Colin Davis, he was conducting Covent Garden Mozart opera during the World Cup.

It's a wonderful story, he told me.

My friend who was a guest concertmeister, and the one next to him, next to concertmeister, was a famous sort of joker of the orchestra.

and so he gave a wrong cue in the recitative which is really complex So this guy already had it prepared in his pocket.

He shows him a yellow card to Colin Davis.

He said, to me? He said, yes.

Absolutely straight as the whole orchestra is just in stitches.

Like, I talked about the Zviv, I talked about the Huguenots.

There are two Don Giovannis, one with Berim where she's singing Elvira and one with Colin Davis where she's singing Donna Anna, which kind of gives me ideas that it would be great to have, like, a Grace Bunbury where she's singing the Aida duet situation with herself with, like, Martina Arroyo singing both ladies in Mozart.

Oh my god.

We can make it happen.

Because at the end of the day, she is i- in particular a singing who- a, a singer whose working relationships are, are, like, an extremely important tent pole of her career.

Like, from John Pritchard, Sir John Pritchard, to Pavarotti, uh, to Sir Peter Hall, and, uh, Colin Davis, who, who was the, the conductor who, like, put her on all of these Mozart recordings when Phillips went to record all of the Mozart operas.

Peter Hall was one of her favorite directors who, like, went to bat for her to get her... to get George Schulte to let her be Tatyana in Eugene Onegin.

Uh, I mean, like, you don't get that many telecasts without James Levine being on your side.

Here is the overture to La Clemenza di Tito.

Colin Davis conducts the Royal Covent Garden Opera Orchestra.

It's about five minutes long.

ORCHESTRA PLAYS Thank you.

Thank you.

That was the overture to La Clemenza di Tito, The Clemency of Titus.

Colin Davis conducted the Royal Covent Garden Opera Orchestra.

My name is Peter Cardlip, and you have been listening to the Classical for Everyone podcast.