Sir Colin Davis - Haydn: Die Jahreszeiten (2011)

Colin Davis has recorded a great deal of Haydn's music over his long career, and his late recordings have enjoyed critical and popular acclaim. This live performance was recorded at the Barbican in London in June 2010, when Davis was just short of his 83rd birthday, and for British audiences it has carried overtones of a golden age. In the late 1960s Davis recorded the oratorio Die Jahreszeiten, in its English version as The Seasons, for the Philips label with the BBC Symphony Orchestra, and that version remained a fixture of music stores through the late LP era. The present reading doesn't depart too far from that recording, and there's certainly nothing to object to here; the sizable London Symphony Chorus is handled in classic clean Davis style and actually makes a good case for replicating the large group that premiered the work in Haydn's time (reportedly the first performance had a cast of hundreds). The young soloist group is fine, and Swedish soprano Miah Persson is clearly emerging as a major star. Davis takes leisurely tempi and generally leaves room, insofar as is possible with modern instruments, for the raft of subtle pictorial effects in the music. All this said, the interested listener has a good case for seeking out the old Philips recording. In spite of the fact that the CD release is festooned with audiophile symbols, the choir sounds as though it's across a large room, and the orchestral sound is thin. There are a few points of imprecision, which isn't unusual for a live performance, but there isn't a real feeling of spontaneity to make up for them either. In short, although Davis fans may well enjoy this recording, there are other recordings to consider for Die Jahreszeiten.