It is perhaps unfortunate that, just before hearing this set, I had been listening to the Metropolitan Opera historic broadcast of 1940, a legendary performance now on a special LP issue in good sound available only from the Met, with Milanov, Bjorling and Sved in the leading roles and conducted by the greatly underrated, Toscanini-like Ettore Panizza. Both cast and conducting have always made this performance a once-in-a-lifetime experience. By its side this Philips set, for all its incidental merits, sounds somewhat low in voltage.
Its main virtue is the Riccardo of Carreras, in 1978-9 at the peak of his powers. When he sang with this kind of finesse, ardour and character, he could equal, if not surpass Domingo or Pavarotti (please, no letters—this is just a personal view). The passion of his performance, and in the final scene its pathos, fulfil every facet of Riccardo's complex personality. Caballe seems inspired by Carreras to give of her best. She fills her Gallows aria with the right sense of fear and foreboding and the ensuing duet with eloquence, while the Prayer has all the appealing fervour of a mother's plea for her life. But technically she is sometimes sorely pressed by the role's big demands, and by slow speeds chosen. There's much to admire in Davis's direction—his care for the tinta of this score is remarkable—but he doesn't create in the studio the spine-chilling excitement Panizza achieves in the opera house or Muti and Votto manage to some extent on the two EMI sets.
When it comes to the other singers, the Davis set leaves something to be desired. Wixell's grainy, un-Italianate Renato is no match for Gobbi's (Votto) or Cappuccilli's (Muti), nor Payne's Ulrica for Barbieri's (Votto) or Cossotto's (Muti)
and Ghazarian is an anonymous Oscar, but there's some excellent singing in lesser roles from Covent Garden stalwarts. The recording is up to Philips's high standards. Unfortunately Julian Budden's essay is no longer included in the accompanying booklet. For all the pleasures of Caballe and Carreras's singing, my preference is still for the Muti, even more so for the old Votto set. But the reissue of Toscanini's versions can't be long delayed. That should prove competitive.'