This recording was made in April 2012 from a pair of live performances of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz at London's Barbican, and just a year later the great British conductor Colin Davis was dead at 85. The continuing high quality of his music-making in old age, in something as taxing as a full-length operatic score, deserves study in itself, and this release, apparently the last of his numerous operatic recordings (including at least one other Der Freischütz), is certainly a worthy conclusion to the oeuvre. The ...
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This recording was made in April 2012 from a pair of live performances of Carl Maria von Weber's Der Freischütz at London's Barbican, and just a year later the great British conductor Colin Davis was dead at 85. The continuing high quality of his music-making in old age, in something as taxing as a full-length operatic score, deserves study in itself, and this release, apparently the last of his numerous operatic recordings (including at least one other Der Freischütz), is certainly a worthy conclusion to the oeuvre. The London Symphony Orchestra is putty in Davis' hands, and they create a warm, magical tone that is of the essence of the pure German Romanticism of this superantural-themed opera. Davis' approach is quite deliberate as to tempo, and the singers, including Simon O'Neill as the titular "free-shooter," Christine Brewer as Agathe, and Sally Matthews as Ännchen, seem taxed occasionally, but all are attuned to the moods of the work. Those moods may seem to shift abruptly inasmuch as the spoken...
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Add this copy of Weber: Der Freischutz (Lso/Davis) to cart. $14.16, new condition, Sold by Revaluation Books rated 4.0 out of 5 stars, ships from Exeter, DEVON, UNITED KINGDOM, published 2013 by LONDON SYMPHONY ORCH.