As a young man Colin Davis came to conduct a concert at school. Was it in 1958? With the BBC Symphony Orchestra? And which Stravinsky did he conduct so blisteringly? The Rite of Spring probably. My first ear-opening experience of that composer.
My study-mate at Uppingham, Nick Billingham, announced that
he would obviously become a star. “How do you know?” I asked him. “Well, he
came on quickly, and with a little skip,” said Nick, as if this was the most
obvious and conclusive evidence.
Then, a couple of years later, my mother took me to my first
opera – Carmen at the Coventry Theatre. It was the Sadler’s Wells company –
conducted by Colin Davis, of course – and it lit a flame for life.
He seems to have been ever-present in my musical life
since those days. Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro and Britten’s Peter Grimes (with
the incomparable Jon Vickers) at Covent Garden. Berlioz’s Trojans at the
Barbican. Just three special memories. And so many fine recordings.
So RIP Sir Colin Davis, who died last Sunday, aged 85.
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