Among recordings of the 'received' text of Faures Requiem, Davis's ranks very high indeed, for the subtle beauty of its choral singing, for the sober richness of its orchestral sound and for its marvellously atmospheric acoustic. All these qualities are intensified by CD, and the virtues of Davis's reading are as a consequence still more strongly projected: its solemnity, its firmly controlled gravity of tread, the lovely refinement of its dynamic shadings. If you find, as I do, that Simon Estes's over-dramatic manner (he barks, rather, and fiercely Teutonizes his Latin vowels) is a drawback, then that, too, you will find, is emphasized by the fact that on CD he appears to stand a pace or two closer. I am beginning to find this a small if tiresome price to pay for the lucidity, the seriousness and the sheer technical finesse of Davis's interpretation, and the CD sound conveys these outstandingly well.
Plasson (EMI) has a fine chorus, too, but his tempos are much less well judged, and he often sounds sleepy as a result; his dynamics, too, are rather roughly moulded by comparison with Davis's. Rutter (Conifer) is in a category of his own, using his reconstruction of Faure's original 'chamber' version of the score, but it is even more striking on CD than in the other media how very little of Faure's essential inspiration it omits: there is no lack of weight or of impact where required, and his small forces achieve with ease the clarity of detail and subtlety of nuance that other conductors, using the standard edition of the score, have to work hard to obtain. Davis by the way, offers no fill-up, and his timing of just over 39 minutes is rather short measure for a CD; Plasson and Rutter both add the Cantique de Jean Racine and are slightly better value as a result.'