Historic Archive Award

Berlioz
Les Troyens
Covent Garden Opera / Rafael Kubelík
Testament SBT4 1443

The hand of history lies heavy on this recording, enshrining as it does the classic (English language) 1957 Covent Garden performances that established Berlioz’s epic work as an opera house favourite. Jon Vickers would later refine and deepen his classic Aeneas but there’s a definite rush of excitement flowing through the entire cast of a jewel newly uncovered. “It is,” wrote Patrick O’Connor in Gramophone, “difficult to approach this historic broadcast without some feeling of awe.”