Ideally, I think, I would want Davis's Werther (Philips) and Plasson's Charlotte, but we aren't in an ideal world so I would opt, by a small margin, for this CD reissue on EMI because I still find Troyanos's Charlotte so much deeper, more affecting and more varied in timbre than von Stade's. When the Philips version was first issued, JBS took me to task for criticizing von Stade's account of Charlotte, but I still find it monochrome in tone and slightly affected in nuance. As HF put it when the Philips version appeared on CD, one wishes for ''a greater sense of the undercurrent of emotional conflict'' in the last two acts—just what Troyanos realizes to the full in her big-hearted, committed interpretation. That is the more marked after the properly demure, contained singing she offers in the first two acts.
Hilary Finch also suggested that Carreras (Philips) projected a Werther of ''impetuous self-destruction rather than of brooding lyricism''. With Kraus the balance tends to be the other way, almost to the point of excessive self-pity, and in the first two acts one sometimes feels that he is pressing on his tone unduly. In the last two his vast experience in the role begins to tell. In particular he answers Troyanos's emotional charge in the Third Act duet with his own, and the two are amply supported by Plasson's large-scale conducting. Sir Colin for Philips may be a little more subtle at times, but I marginally prefer the French conductor's instinctive passion. All this is seconded by EMI's more immediate recording. Philips score with Thomas Allen's warm, vibrant Albert, but Barbaux's Sophie is more idiomatic than Isobel Buchanan's (Philips). EMI have two acts per CD; Philips make their break uncomfortably towards the end of Act 2. On the other hand, EMI offer only the original text, no translation, while Philips offer a four-language booklet, albeit in tiny type.'