Berlioz Colin Davis Philips Berlioz Edition 22 CDs in 3 boxes

Berlioz - Colin Davis Philips Berlioz Edition 22 CDs in 3 boxes. PLEASE NOTE, the box of Orchestral works only has 4 CDs in it instead of the advertised 6. The two discs were of Romeo and Juliet and but exactly the same recording appears on two CDs in the box of Sacred Music and Symphonic Dramas. The CDs now missing in the orchestral box were simply duplicated in the box of dramas. So the total number of CDs is 22 not 24 but no recordings are missing from the combined set of three boxes.

The duplicate CDs went to a good home because I could not see the point of keeping them. These Colin Davis recordings were always highly regarded, and for very good reason. The recording of the Symphony Fantastique with the Concertgebouw Orchestra is beautifully played but lacks a little fire. Everything else is just wonderful.

As far as recordings go, Philips made many of their best recordings in this LP era. For example, listen to the opening of Les Troyens. It is so clean and full of life, I don't think there is a more recent recording that puts a candle to it. All Davis' singers are wonderful and you get Janet Baker in Beatrice and Benedict and L'Enfance du Christ!

A personal favourite of mine is the Symphonie funebre and triumphal at least the first movement. As a teenage autograph hunter, I personally met Colin Davis in his dressing room at the Fairfield Halls, Croydon soon after he had recorded this and we had a very interesting conversation about it.