Tchaikovsky · Ouverture solennelle "1812" Chorus · Romeo and Juliet · Dances "Eugene Onegin" · "The Oprichnik"

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Tchaikovsky · Ouverture solennelle "1812" Chorus · Romeo and Juliet · Dances "Eugene Onegin" · "The Oprichnik"

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Davis's device of having a chorus singing the chant-like music at the opening of 1812 works even more impressively on CD, where the hushed sound of male voices creeps in even more realistically thanks to the absence of background. Only the ultra-purist will worry about such treatment for 1812—chorus taking the string lines, an organ the woodwind until the orchestra enters at the first fortissimo, chorus singing the Tsar's Hymn at the end—for it is highly effective, and generally as one would expect Davis's approach to Tchaikovsky is clean and direct, dramatic but never wilful. The later choral entry is not so clear as I expected on CD, but the inner textures are necessarily muddied by the jangle of bells. On CD the big thuds when the cannon is fired are most impressive, and one can easily detect the organ in the texture in the final bars, another unscheduled addition, except that Tchaikovsky's authorization in the score of a band ad lib. might be taken to justify anything.

The contrasts of Romeo and Juliet are similarly impressive on CD, with the gentle woodwind at the start immediately conveying presence and the timpani at the end exceptionally clear. The two overtures alone make short measure for a whole disc, and it was a good idea to add the brief colourful dances from Davis's 1979 LP of Tchaikovsky ballet music, an excellent issue that disappeared far too quickly. The analogue sound has been effectively freshened in the digital re-mastering to make it remarkably consistent with the Boston sound.'Reviewed: Gramophone 11/1984, Edward Greenfield