The Grande Messe des morts was recorded one year short of the 50th anniversary of the day that dawned to reveal to Dresdeners the devastation of their city. For many years, Dresden was not an easy city for Englishmen to visit; but attitudes change, and it was certainly a moving gesture for Davis to conduct this performance. The Kreuzkirche has been beautifully reconstructed, and it has beautiful acoustics that welcome Berlioz's wide-ranging demands.
The quieter moments fare best here: the strange chords in the Hostias, with a firm trom- bone seeming to project overtones in the flutes; the soft cor anglais and bassoon lines over cellos and basses in the Quid sum miser; the unaccompanied choral Quarens me, which the Dresden choirs sing most sensitively; the high sounds of the Sanctus, with Keith Ikaia-Purdy an elegant if slightly operatic tenor. The acoustic seems positively to welcome these, and it can well accommodate, though not without some loss of verbal clarity, the great clamour of the Dies irae and the snapping rhythms of the Lacrymosa, which have a cut that Davis achieves more sharply than any other conductor. This is his only recording of the work since his classic 1969 version, and his grasp of the music remains supreme.

For many years, despite the warmth of Saxon welcome, Dresden was not an easy city for Englishmen to visit; but attitudes change, and it was certainly a moving gesture for Davis to conduct this performance. The Kreuzkirche has been beautifully reconstructed, and it has beautiful acoustics that welcome Berlioz's wide-ranging demands. ...the clamour of the Dies irae and the snapping rhythms of the Lacrymosa... have a cut that Davis achieves more sharply than any other conductor. ...his grasp of the music remains supreme.