Sir Colin Davis 85th Birthday tribute

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from LSO Friends and Patrons

Drawing by Stephanie Ramplin

For Sir Colin Many of the individuals who support the LSO have been looking for an opportunity to tell you how much your music-making means to us.

The obvious time to make a collection such as this is on retirement, but as you will see the hope is frequently expressed that you will never retire, so we decided not to wait for such an unwelcome occurrence and to use the excuse of your 85th birthday to present you with this book.

All the contributions are from people who are currently individual supporters of the LSO. Every one of us thanks you for enriching our lives and wishes you a very happy birthday and many happy returns of the day.

on your 85th birthday

Thank you

Being only a little younger than Sir Colin I have listened to his music with joy and admiration as long as I can remember.

While everything he conducts bears the hallmark of his precision, insight and sensitivity, his Mozart and Berlioz performances are magically imprinted on my memory. But a very special memory for my family is the concert at Mansion House in 2009 when Sir Colin was presented with the Queen's Medal for Music by Her Majesty the Queen—and our 10 year old grandson was also presented to Her Majesty!

We all wish Sir Colin a very happy birthday and look forward to many more of his beautiful concerts.

Best wishes, David Scholey

Some years ago my wife and I went to a performance of the St Matthew Passion at Gloucester Cathedral conducted by Sir Colin, and with much of the orchestra made up of Stephen Isserlis's friends. It was a memorable performance, but it was slated in the press because they did not use ancient instruments. I was so cross about the unfairness of this review that I wrote a letter to Sir Colin saying that as far as we were concerned it was the finest performance of the St Matthew that we had heard. Some months later, to our astonishment and great pleasure, I received a handwritten reply in a handwritten envelope saying he never took much notice of reviews, and that the reason why the performance was so special was that all those taking part were devoted to the music.

Martin Mays-Smith

for I should like to wish you a very Happy Birthday. I have very fond memories of when I played oboe and cor anglais in the National Youth Orchestra of Wales in the late 1950's and you were our Wind Coach.

Since we were performing Dvorak's New World Symphony at the Edinburgh Festival that year, I remember many sessions with you one-on-one when you helped me with the famous cor anglais solo in the second movement. I should also like to thank you for your very many wonderful performances I have attended, both at the Barbican and the Royal Opera House.

Sincerely, Anne Hepburn Edwards l

Happy Birthday Sir Colin. Your music making, and particularly your deep insight into the worlds of Berlioz and Sibelius, has been a constant inspiration to me ever since I heard you conduct Don Giovanni in the Festival Hall over 50 years ago.

Have a glorious 85th birthday season.

Best wishes Michael Gammie

l

A Colin Davis interpretation of an old favourite or a new work is an experience for both the heart and the mind. Over the years, I have been moved and excited by the performances Colin has teased out of the orchestra. And to see Colin lead his players is to see how an inspirational figure creates something very special by getting a team to perform at levels beyond their own expectations. Long may the remarkable partnership between Colin and the LSO continue.

Mervyn King

music How fortunate I was that the last years of my time with the LSO coincided with the appointment of Sir Colin as Principal Conductor. This was not a man on any kind of ego trip, all he wanted to do was to make music with us and the result was music making of a very high order. Perhaps best of all, we played pretty well everything that Berlioz ever wrote—nobody does this music better.

Thank you Sir Colin.

From David Goodall

Thank you, Sir Colin, for adding so much to my appreciation and enjoyment of music over the last twenty-five years since I started coming to the Barbican to hear the LSO. Your rapport with the orchestra and soloists is a joy to behold!

Anne Pearse

making One of my earliest experiences of Sir Colin was my first ever visit to Covent Garden.

Encouraged by a television documentary on Frederica Von Stade I had decided that I needed to book to see an Opera. My initial choice seemed somewhat fortuitous, as Miss Von Stade was appearing in Werther at Covent Garden. At the time I knew nothing of the opera, or even Massenet.

I was bowled over by the whole evening, not least the wonderful sounds drawn from the orchestra pit by Sir Colin. It proved a rather expensive evening, as I have been a (reasonably) regular attendee at Covent Garden ever since!

However, most of the great performances I have attended led by Sir Colin have obviously been with the LSO. Of these, the Sibelius cycles stand out, as I am sure they must for so many others. I also have fond memories of performances of Berlioz, particularly the Damnation of Faust, Tippett, and Mozart. However, many years ago in pre-LSO Live days, urging the orchestra to record the Elgar Symphonies with Sir Colin. I am delighted to say that this indeed did eventually happen, thanks to the aid of LSO Live. These recordings rate amongst my most favourite CDs, and I note frequently top the best available lists in the media.

With many thanks for so much great music making!

Happy Birthday Anthony Madin

He used to visit Cambridge with the Chelsea Opera Group. We are talking 1950's. I was an undergraduate. He was just 'Colin' and hugely popular. A bunch of us were occasionally roped in to supplement the chorus. Hence my first inside experience of Otello and the Magic Flute.

Somehow CUMS had missed the chance to have him as permanent conductor. Pure folly! I still remember him walking to the back of the hall while the Chelsea band rehearsed, saying “See, they don't really need a conductor”...

May your 85th birthday bring you as much glory, happiness, love and great music as you've brought to so many others through the course of your wonderful years.

Have a Very Happy Birthday.

Hiroaki Yamataka International Vice President London Symphony Orchestra All the best wishes, Yamasan

no

Life, vigor, wit, depth–those were the characteristics. No surprise to anyone who has since heard his Haydn, Berlioz or Sibelius.

Treasured memories indeed.

John Boyd l

Many thanks for all the wonderful music over the years.

Jeanette Roberts

like Dear Sir Colin, Many thanks for all the wonderful lifeenhancing musical experiences you have given us, and best wishes for a very happy 85th birthday.

Judith Mellor l

Thank you, Sir Colin, for all the music making which I have been able to enjoy in your company over the past 48 years.

In particular, you have deepened my knowledge and understanding of the music of Berlioz from a performance of the first two Acts of the Trojans with Josephine Veasey, Ronald Dowd, Peter Glossop, and the New Philharmonia, in March 1965, through to the recent performance of the Grande messe des morts in St Paul's.

And, of course much more besides.

Birthday greetings, Martin Hill

I don't know where to begin! Perhaps with a special word for your wonderful concert performances of opera. For a long time I was rather sceptical of this format, taking the view that opera, unlike Victorian children, was meant to be seen and heard.

But in your concert performances of opera everything seems to come together, giving the works a whole new focus and intensity.

My own choices are Otello and Peter Grimes. They are lifelong favourites of mine which under your baton have been given a whole new impact.

Trying to choose among your orchestral interpretations is an impossible task, so again I can only highlight personal favourites; I give pride of place to the stunning sound world of the Sibelius symphonies and among your many interpretations of your beloved Berlioz I would choose the Symphonie Fantastique and that truly luminous reading of L'Enfance du Christ.

But whatever the performances, whatever the music, for me perhaps the most lasting impression from your concerts with the LSO is the extraordinary rapport that exists between you and the orchestra. One senses that you all become one person in the service of the music, and it is this which make your concerts such a warmly human as well as a musically profound experience.

Happy birthday, Sir Colin, and thank you for giving us all such enormous and lasting pleasure!

Mary Culpan

My first experience of Colin Davis was in 1962 when he conducted the LSO in the Damnation of Faust at the Proms (my very first Prom). My most recent was the concert performance of Der Freischütz, also with the LSO, in April this year. So for 50 years I have been able to enjoy Sir Colin's wonderful music-making both in the opera house and the concert hall.

At Covent Garden the span stretches from TheTrojans and Peter Grimes in 1969 to the Jonathan Miller production of Cosi fan Tutte in 2001. With the LSO at the Barbican the highlight was probably the Berlioz Odyssey (1999/2000) which included such rarer works as Benvenuto Cellini and Beatrice and Benedict but there have also been fantastic concert performances of major operas—Carmen, Otello, a sparkling Falstaff—as well as intensive explorations of the orchestral works of Dvorak and Elgar. You know that with Sir Colin there will never be a routine performance but always one deeply involved with the music and bringing you fresh insights. May there still be many occasions to wish him 'Many Happy Returns'.

Anne Stoddart

other Although I have been privileged to be at many of your concerts and operas for many years, my abiding memory above all others is of the tour of the then Soviet Union, which I was then responsible for sponsoring as General Manager of the Eastern Export Operations of Rank Xerox. The orchestra visited Moscow, Kiev and Leningrad and played to hugely enthusiastic audiences— even showing the Russians how to play Shostakovich 5.

I can only add my thanks to the thousands of people whose lives you and the LSO have enhanced over the years.

Congratulations and many happy returns on your birthday!

Ralph Land, CBE

We have enjoyed most of Sir Colin's concerts in the past few years and, indeed, look forward to celebrating with him on 27 September. We would like to wish him a very happy 85th birthday.

Peta Walmisley and Bobbie Dunbavand (Looking back, it seems we have been attending them for more than 20 years) l

I started listening to the LSO when I was first sent to boarding school in England in the 70's. By the 90's my tastes in classical music had matured and I was very conscious of Colin Davis. But I did not expect to enjoy Sibelius, for whom I have to thank Sir Colin who made him a serendipity for me. And later, also because of him, I became a fan of the unfashionable Nielsen. In a distance, simply as a member of the audience, I especially loved the way in which an Englishman could bring out so much of the Scandinavian pathos! That, for me, is the measure of his broad musical sensitivities from which so many of us have derived so much pleasure.

On the occasion of his 50 years of association with the LSO, this Chinese man is forever grateful!

Sir David Tang

With my very best wishes to Sir Colin on his 85th birthday.

Heartfelt thanks for his music making over many years, from which I have greatly benefitted. So many wonderful Davis/LSO evenings, with special thanks for the Berlioz and Sibelius cycles, plus Elgar, Tippett, and most recently the Nielsen Symphonies.

My earliest memory is a BBC SO Prom in 1968. (Elgar/Beethoven), followed by another in 1975. Schubert 5, Britten— Serenade, with Peter Pears and Alan Civil, and Sibelius 1.

I remember how the music really took hold of me on that evening. Thanks to Sir Colin.

Finally I must mention operatic performances at the ROH when Sir Colin was MD that made a special impact.

Trovatore, Carmen, and The Mastersingers.

(Lucia Popp, Geraint Evans, Hans Sotin) A big thank you for all the above, and many more memories. I look forward to future performances.

Robert A Jones l

Thank you for your wonderful LSO concerts.

Wishing you a happy 85th birthday Freda Davies

Many happy returns and congratulations.

You have enriched my musical life beyond measure for over 40 years. As a young boy in the early 1970s I remember your inspiring work at the Proms especially, and indeed one of my own earliest memories of hearing you live was an absolutely revelatory performance of Beethoven 5 at the 1979 Proms with the LSO. Since then I have attended countless concerts that you have given and each one has been a deep and meaningful musical experience.

As a teacher myself I especially admire your work with so many of the world's youth orchestras. What an incredible performance of Tchaikovsky's 4th at last year's proms. These young musicians will remember your work with them for the rest of their lives. Your dedication to the LSO is also quite unique. I am so glad that you are still able to give them so much of your time and I always come to your concerts knowing that there will be a great and deeply musical performance. It is so clear to us as listeners that for you it is the Music that counts and nothing else. I treasure so many of your recorded performances that will gladden the hearts of humanity for ever. Your selfless dedication to Music and Musicians is an example to anyone involved in this noble art. I am greatly looking forward to your 85th Birthday concert and the many more that you are giving this year.

Derek Holland

for enriching lives beyond measure

Sunday 27th April 2008 (Orthodox Easter): LSO concert at the Barbican, St. John Passion by James Macmillan, conducted

by Sir Colin Davis.

I travelled from Liverpool for over four hours to attend the above concert. Though it was a long and arduous journey, it was worth it. The concert was outstanding.

I had the opportunity to meet Sir Colin after the concert and I had a very memorable conversation.

I told Sir Colin that it could have not been a better and more appropriate concert for such a day like today. Today is my Easter.

At that moment Sir Colin stood up, looking a little bemused for Easter had been and gone a week earlier, Nevertheless he shook my hand and wished me a very happy Easter. Shortly after, James MacMillan joined us. Sir Colin went on to tell him about the significance of my day and the concert.

Vida Milovanovic l

Dear Sir Colin I have been fortunate indeed to experience —to be moved by, to find joy in, to learn from—your inspirational conducting for more than fifty years. Although memory can be treacherous, I believe that I attended my first concert directed by you as long ago as 1959; your work has been a constant companion throughout the ensuing decades.

As a student in London in the 1960s I was able to enjoy musical riches on most evenings (in those days the Upper Slips at Covent Garden were a maximum price of half-a crown!), and many of your performances remain vivid memories. Some of these were concerts with our beloved LSO, but I recall many others, particularly with the English Chamber Orchestra and at the Royal Opera House. I was privileged to be introduced to much of your enormous repertoire; in those days your Mozart, Stravinsky and—above all—Berlioz helped to create lifelong passions. There were innumerable special evenings at Covent Garden: A wondrous “Don Giovanni”, that fresh-minted “Cellini” with Nicolai Gedda, later “Les Troyens” and what remains the most vivid theatrical experience of my life— “Peter Grimes” with Jon Vickers...

Recordings were a greater financial strain and every LP represented a significant purchase. Yet the excitement of your Beethoven 7 with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra remains with me today. My first of hundreds of your recordings with the LSO was of five Berlioz overtures, bought, I remember in Paris as an alternative to a night at the Opera! Those recordings are a most distinguished legacy.

Your artistic leadership of the LSO as Principal Conductor and President has created one of most the distinguished of musical partnerships. I and thousands of other music lovers have marvelled at superlatively executed and spiritually enriching performances a good number of which have been happily captured by LSO Live. Many of these will always live with me—the Berlioz and Sibelius evenings, a Mozart G minor, Brahms 3, much Beethoven and Dvorak, “Falstaff” and “Otello”, the sense of discovery with Nielsen, “La clemenza di Tito” at Aix and the recent Grande Messe des Morts at St. Paul's.

There are so many others...

It is in the expectation that there will be many other great experiences to come that I set out this appreciation of your work and life thus far. Your wisdom and authority communicate your love of music with a unique blend of warmth, humility, profundity and humanity.

Happy Birthday, Sir Colin! Thank you for enriching my life...

Rod Stafford l

Thank you for so many wonderfully enjoyable performances, one of the earliest of which for me was a Royal Philharmonic Society concert at the Festival Hall in 1967 at which the Society's Gold Medal was presented to Kodaly. There was a different conductor for each item but my only memory is of your contribution, a delightful performance of a Mozart symphony.

I look forward to many more concerts to come.

Warmest birthday wishes.

Leslie Berry

Congratulations Sir Colin Davis Over the years I have built up a collection of long playing records and tape cassettes, including quite a few by Sir Colin—in particular a 1960 recording of Mozart's oboe concerto played by Léon Goossens with the Sinfonia of London conducted by him. And as a supporter of the London Symphony Orchestra, many archive recordings.

Yours sincerely, Alan Martin [I celebrated 80 in January this year]

I hope I am not too late to wish Sir Colin a very happy 85th birthday and also to thank him for all the wonderful music he has given us over the years.

I have attended a great many of his concerts and particularly treasure his Berlioz and Sibelius cycles with the LSO. I also recall a wonderful performance of A Child of Our Time after which I had the great honour to meet Sir Colin briefly, a memory which I shall always cherish.

I also have in my possession many of Sir Colin's recordings—too many to list, but the Sibelius, Berlioz, Dvorak and Mozart interpretations come especially to mind.

Happy birthday Sir Colin and may there be many more to celebrate.

Michael Nunn

An Evening with the LSO A Birthday Greeting for Sir Colin

“Ye gods! What music! What players!

What impeccable singing! ”

This evening, the Missa Solemnis of Beethoven is being performed and Sir Colin is on the rostrum. The London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus are in their smartest attire: white tie and tails for the gentlemen and flowing, glamorous gowns for the ladies.

Their faces show an especial excitement, eyes aglow; each musician is intent on the task carried out lovingly, with respect and admiration for the sublime music. The deep concentration, precise articulation, keen sense of expression and delicate accompaniment throughout is mesmerising.

The Royal Albert Hall erupts, the attentive audience acclaiming an evening of magic.

No one says a word—the Royal Albert Hall is spellbound.

At the conclusion of the Agnus Dei, Sir Colin, whose understanding, precision and verve have been perfection itself, leaves the rostrum visibly moved, presses the Leader's hand as he goes by murmuring

Happy Birthday Sir Colin!

Susi Woodhouse [With apologies to Hector Berlioz]

Dear Sir Colin, About twenty years ago you conducted an interesting production of The Damnation of Faust at Covent Garden and I remember being astonished that people left protesting about the production when they could have stayed, shut their eyes and listened to the glorious music coming from the pit and the singers. Of course I'd heard music by Berlioz previously but that evening showed me just how wonderful it could be.

Since then I've discovered that concert performances of operas given by you and the LSO are frequently much more satisfying than staged performances, your performances of Verdi's Otello are a prime example even though I like the ROH production.

It is your partnership with the LSO which I've found particularly rewarding. I'm fortunate in being able to come to concerts at the Barbican as although I cannot play an instrument I find live music essential and when you conduct the LSO so much is revealed. I picture your conducting as drawing back a curtain.

There are so many memorable concerts, a performance of Beethoven's 8th which I thought I knew well but made more sense than any I'd previously heard, Missa Solemnis at the 2011 proms, performances of Elgar, Sibelius, Verdi's Falstaff, Nielsen's symphonies and MacMillan's St John Passion to mention a few. The Berlioz Odyssey you undertook with the LSO is a major highlight of my life and it's wonderful to be able to conjure up memories of this and many of your other concerts with the help of LSO Live.

Even if there were nothing else to thank you for, I would be forever thankful that I was there for Les Troyens in 2000. Petra Lang spoke of the hand of God being spread over the project and I understand her saying that, there was something very special about those performances. I was convinced I'd seen Troy and particularly Carthage, and their inhabitants. For this and so much more, thank you.

With very best wishes for the future, Moira Gray

Some memories: 1. The longest ago: Recording of Beethoven 7 in 1961. I cannot recall the orchestra (RPO or BBCSO?) but do the recording which announced Sir Colin's arrival on the musical scene, as chronicled by Gramophone Magazine. It was a fiery, arguably angry, interpretation I have never forgotten.

2. Asking him at a Q&A about 5 years ago, whether he would ever write an autobiography, and if not (which I suspected) would authorise a biography. He replied in his humorously dismissive way that neither suggestion appealed to him in the slightest.

I still hope one day he will change his mind and give future generations the benefit of many of his rich musical experiences.

3. The Walton 1 performance with LSO one Sunday evening at the Barbican which is thankfully recorded on LSO Live —he and the players were “on fire” that unforgettable night.

4. The most recent: being privileged to be at first rehearsal of his first Nielsen symphony (number 5, I think) performance.

It was in St. Luke's and I remember he said absolutely nothing to the orchestra after the first run-through, followed immediately by another at which he spoke only at the end of the first movement, and very little thereafter till the end of the rehearsal. It was wonderful later to be at the actual concert by when small untidinesses had been cleared but the essential interpretation was very much consistent with the first run-through. Made me think how he must have prepared a symphony I think he admitted publicly, he didn't know before tackling it. And this when over 80!

Finally, thanks to Sir Colin I have appreciated the value of consistency in his interpretations. If he did Beethoven 7 tomorrow I'm pretty certain it would not be significantly different in key aspects to the 1961 version, and would be equally faithful to what the composer himself wanted.

Tim Moorey

My life as a Double Bass player in the LSO spanned over 40 years from 1967 until 2008 and all during that time running through the orchestra has been the thread and presence of Colin Davis. He seems to have always been there as a constant figure who in many ways personified the stability, dignity and grandeur of the British character which he was able to transfer to the orchestra.

Colin's musicianship and music making is always a pleasure as he is one of those rare conductors who is able to let the orchestra make the music while steering the musical journey from beginning to end.

He allows musicians to play by guiding rather than ordering. The joy of working with him and the outstanding results he always achieves is through seeing the grand picture of a composition and seeing the broad sweep and brushstroke of a masterpiece and never allowing pedantic detail to destroy the inspiration or passion of the players or the composer. Colin's music making is a joy and privilege in which to be associated.

He broke new territory when we visited the Soviet Union in the 1970's during the Cold War and I recall the tremendous reception we received from the Russian audience for Colin's concerts and also for his political contribution in being such a great ambassador for his country behind the scenes at official receptions where his charm and dignity did much to establish warmer and closer ties during those troubled and potentially dangerous times in European history.

To me, Colin is more than a great conductor, he is a gentleman.

Gerald Newson l

We feel especially indebted to Sir Colin for his championing of Berlioz's music and were thrilled by the Berlioz Odyssey in 1999.

Dear Colin

Sitting in the stalls at Covent Garden one evening we were delighted to see that Sir Colin was singing along with the cast of Le nozze di Figaro. His obvious enthusiasm for the opera added to our own enjoyment.

Thank you for so much wonderful music!

With best wishes, Richard and Claire Gapper

With love from, Colin Matthews

May I wish you a very Happy 85th Birthday, and thank you very much for the many wonderful musical experiences you have given me so far.

Dear Sir Colin Congratulations on your 85th birthday and on over 50 years of great music making with the LSO. Your performance of the Missa Solemnis at last year's Proms was one of the greatest musical experiences I have ever had and it was surely one of the greatest performances of this elusive work ever. Beethoven's towering genius in this, his greatest work has surely never been so tellingly revealed. It was a performance that I shall never forget.

I also have many of your LPs and CDs in my collection from your Beethoven 7th with the RPO (still one of the greatest) to your recent LSO live performances. I especially love the Dvorak 8th. I am really looking forward to your 85th birthday concert for which I already have my ticket.

Tom Torley (aged 15) l

One of my most lasting memories of opera and Sir Colin is the concert performance on 18 October 1959 of Don Giovanni at the Festival Hall. Sir Colin was standing in for Giulini and there was a spectacular cast of singers. The performance was a huge success, one of the most exciting I have attended over a period of 50 years, and, I believe, launched Sir Colin's subsequent career. I still vividly remember the aria 'finch' han del vino', which went at a tremendous pace and which I have never heard surpassed, even when conducted

by Sir Colin himself!

Fred Brittenden

I started attending your concert and opera performances at a time when I had hair and you had black hair.

Just a few recollections of some LSO concerts of yours which have particularly stayed in my memory from across the years: —Two tremendous Promenade Concerts in September 1963—The first was when I saw you conduct the Verdi Four Sacred Pieces and a marvellous performance of the Mozart Sinfonia Concertante with Norbert Brainin and Peter Schidlof. The second was the concert with Andre Tchaikovsky playing the Mozart K491 and your performance of Mahler's First Symphony—the first sparking my lifelong appreciation of his Piano Concerti, and second opening my eyes to the wonderful world of Mahler.

—Then there was a more recent Proms concert which included a most affecting performance of Elgar's Second Symphony Of your many concerts at the Barbican which I have attended, the following particularly stand out in my memory: —A Haydn/Berlioz concert, which included a most satisfying performance of Haydn's Symphony No. 102 (one of my favourite Haydn symphonies, with its marvellous second movement) and the piece which made the greatest impact of all on me at that concert—your conducting the ladies of the LSO Chorus in a sublime performance of La Mort d'Ophelie—the tender instrumental introduction to each verse still lingers in my memory.

—Two performances of Romeo and Juliet a few years apart, the first of which was your debut concert at the Barbican as Principal Conductor of the LSO.

—A programme with the LSO consisting of yet another excellent performance of Mozart's K491 played by Alfred Brendel, this time followed by a striking performance of the Sibelius Kullervo Symphony.

—Another with a really tremendous rendering of En Saga followed by Mstislav Rostropovich playing James MacMillan's Cello Concerto with the Beethoven 7th after the interval.

—Your concert which included the first performance of The Rose Lake and a scintillating performance of the Ravel Piano Concerto in G with Gerhard Oppitz, —The numerous concerts in recent years with Mozart and Beethoven concerti played

by Mitsuko Uchida And there are so many more I could mention!

I hope your concerts have all given you great satisfaction and enjoyment—they have certainly given me much pleasure.

Kind regards.

Yours sincerely Harold Shupak l

Happy Birthday Sir Colin Of many memories of you one of the greatest is from March 1987 at a performance of Ariadne Auf Naxos at Covent Garden.

With arms held high you supported Edita Gruberova through her showpiece aria.

There was not a sound in the house.

I still feel the goose pimples.

Dorothy Rea

I grew up with Sir Colin's recordings of the Mozart/Da Ponte operas—and I still think that they are the versions I love most. But what I am most grateful to Sir Colin for is his extraordinary concert performances of Berlioz' Les Troyens: I went to the first one because I love the Aeneid rather than because I knew the work. In Sir Colin's hands the music became Virgil come to life —somehow he conveyed the extraordinary grandeur and power of Virgil's poetry and Berlioz's response to it. I am now looking forward to seeing it for the first time on the stage—but I cannot believe that any performance could be as powerful as those of Sir Colin.

It has always been a privilege to hear you conduct and more than just enjoyable to meet you—wherever! Sara feels the same.

George Peretz

Ewen Fergusson

It is an honour and great pleasure to pay tribute to you on your birthday. The brilliant music which you have created over many years has been and is a rare gift to us with some of our most memorable moments.

Your performances of The Trojans never to be forgotten, much Mozart and Haydn, the recent Berlioz Grande Messe des Morts and so much more—have enriched our lives.

You are just five years older than me but you, of course, have had a much closer association than me with the wonderful London Symphony Orchestra. Would it be so wonderful without all that you have done? You are a Trojan, and if I have one memory of your conducting, it is of the Trojans—a few years ago now, but I have the CDs to remind me!

With very best wishes for your 85th birthday, and a huge thank you for all that you have done.

We warmly congratulate you and send you our deepest thanks, dear Sir Colin, for your warmth and friendship—here's to many more years of your truly unique music-making.

Happy birthday Dvora and Michael Lewis

We met in about 1952 or 53 when you gave me clarinet lessons. You lived in Princedale Road. I lacked talent and did not practise.

There was a letter in my mother's papers regretting “my” decision to give up, and could she please send the three guineas....

I first encountered you as a conductor when at Oxford (1956-59), of the Chelsea Opera Group. In true undergraduate fashion, I demanded a recording of the Jupiter to compare with Kleiber, Walter, Furtwangler et al. This appeared in Isis in about 1958. Well before Don Giovanni...

I cherished your performances then of Mozart, Stravinsky and Berlioz.

The sixties were dotted with your concert performances of The Trojans, building on the initial production under Kubelik, also in English. It was subsequently difficult to “learn” the French. Do you remember Janet Baker singing in English when the rest of the cast were in French? She saved the day when Josephine Veasey was indisposed...

Composers like Sibelius, Elgar, Tippett and now Nielsen came later, and your glorious years with the LSO. What I am trying to say is that I am 10 years younger than you, and you have spanned my musical life in the most wonderful way, and somehow adequately to say thank you.

Oliver Prenn

I joined the, then, London Symphony Orchestra Chorus in 1969 and shortly afterwards sang in a recording of Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts, under Sir Colin.

My most recent concert with him was Beethoven's Missa Solemnis at the Proms last year. In between there have been numerous fantastic concerts and recordings.

He is terrifying at times. He would spot someone not watching his beat and suggest that they should have stayed at home. During one rehearsal, many years ago, he asked a soprano what “Kyrie eleison” meant and she didn't know. Sir Colin was horrified that she was singing without understanding what she was singing about! Our next work with him was Mahler's 8th Symphony and I made sure I had the full translation written in!

Highlights would have to include Peter Grimes in New York and Les Troyens (twice). Sir Colin has given me a lifetime of happy memories and I wish him good health and every happiness on his 85th birthday.

With love, Mary Baker l

You were a sight to behold, luxuriant chestnut curls, shaggy sheep vest, when I interviewed you for the Boston Globe in 1966 during your first week as Boston Symphony Orchestra guest conductor. Why Berlioz? I asked. The BSO had learned theirs under Charles Munch. “Because he's virile.” Passion in composers, passion in music was to come from you for almost 40 years. In rehearsals, you said “figger” for “number,” the players' first inkling of an English man on the podium, and you brought English music nearly every season. Michael Tippett, of course (and himself). And Elgar.

Would the howl of tormented “Gerontius” go over? Or would we, you quoting text, “use well the interval” and flee the hall.

We sat stunned and shocked and moved.

Something afoot too with “Messiah.” We'd become accustomed to performances, best typed by George Bernard Shaw, as a “lumbering family coach.” Yours was fast and fierce and tender. Not since Koussevitzky had we heard much Sibelius.

The orchestra's fabled strings were grateful for, among other things, the Tchaikovsky

and Dvorak serenades. We loved the Mendelssohn “Midsummer Night's Dream.”

I was lucky later to hear the Britten with the London Symphony Orchestra, as well as a “Messiah,” and, most of all, the big operas—from Berlioz and Mozart to Verdi—in concert form, unmessed with by stage directors.

The Boston players appreciated that you mingled, schmoozed in the music library (the incumbent maestro was too grand), liked our whiskey (“Uncle Jack,” as you called our Tennessee sour mash Jack Daniel's), and added to the hilarity of BSO dinner tables. “Mensch” was their considered opinion of you. For a man who tended his own arboretum in Suffolk, England, the only

and for always making your point possible gift for your 65th was planting a sweet gum on the Commonwealth Avenue Mall to give you roots in our Suffolk County.

For me later, knowing Shamsi and watching the children grow was a huge pleasure, a great picture of life as it should be lived (though I was not a great fan of the pet snakes and iguanas). There were outings to the theater, Shamsi wondering if Pinter would shock. And books to read, from “crimmies” to the “Jesus books” (Kazantzakis, George Moore, Bulgakin, Robert Graves), and your test of character, Broch's “The Death of Virgil.” You were generous catching the musical mistakes in my first venture into fiction, the opera shocker “Murdering Tosca,” but not uncritical: “No opera stage I know has anything like that number of trap doors.”

Come back soon! You haven't brought us enough Nielsen.

Margo Miller

My very first sight of Colin was me as a young teenager being taken by a music loving aunt to concerts of the (London?)

Hospitals Symphony Orchestra. My memory is that at least one of those concerts was at the British Medical Association's headquarters—BMA House in Tavistock Square in London. I clearly remember sitting in a balcony behind the orchestra and seeing Colin's intently staring eyes and his bush of hair.

I also clearly remember going to Sadler's Wells Opera for a performance of Janacek's Cunning Little Vixen—absolutely enchanting—a new kind of experience for young me.

I remember listening on the radio to a live broadcast of Colin conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra on tour in Europe.

The first work was Berlioz Overture Le Corsaire—the audience gave that a standing ovation!

Colin with a group of people talking about some music on the radio: Colin—“those notes with a hole” (meaning minims).

Colin being candid on the radio: “London hasn't got a decent concert hall” (The Barbican Hall existed at the time).

Colin in a Prom rehearsal of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony telling the somewhat unresponsive orchestra (not the LSO): “Look there are going to be people in the audience tonight who have never heard this piece”.

Recently Colin talking to the announcer on radio before a concert broadcast: “It's good working with a soloist who actually likes music”.

Wishing Colin many happy returns on his birthday.

Dr. Martin Bligh l

Colin, Happy Birthday!

Thank you for the enjoyable experience of working with you.

Bob Retallick

…sometimes in more ways than one Sir Colin Davis impales member of audience with baton!

This could have been the headline in the Swansea Evening Post after a concert on the 28th October 1995 at the Brangwyn Hall.

I, the innocent audience member, sat enjoying the Ritual Dances from Tippett's Midsummer Marriage when Sir Colin, whipping the Orchestra to further frenzy, let slip the baton. It spun over his head in a graceful arc heading my way. I ducked. It fell, skittering over the floor and out of sight.

Despite broad grins from the Orchestra and the nuance of a shrug from Sir Colin, not a demi-semi quaver's hesitation—the music continued—and, elegantly, a second baton appeared from the cello section.

However, I was (metaphorically) transfixed, found my way to the Barbican and became a Friend!

Hilary Houghton

My earliest memory of Sir Colin goes back to my teenage years; as a fledgling clarinettist—in the late 60's—I watched all the BBC Prom broadcasts, including my introduction to Stravinsky's 'Petrouchka' conducted by the maestro himself.

In much later years my wife and I made frequent visits to LSO concerts at the Barbican, and one visit we shall always remember was to a truly great performance of Sibelius' 5th Symphony— of which we have the 'LSO Live' CD. We also remember with great fondness Britten's 'War Requiem' at the Proms, after which I almost walked—as if in a dream— in front of Sir Colin's car; as the perfect gentleman he is, he calmly beckoned me to proceed unscathed!

My wife waited for him and he gave her a smile she will never forget.

We sincerely wish him a very happy birthday, and look forward to the celebratory concerts this autumn.

Chris & Allison Allen l

It is well over 40 years since my wife and I attended a splendid lunch in celebration of Colin Davis receiving the honorary degree of Doctor of Music from the University of Liverpool, where I was for long a classicist.

His appearances at Philharmonic Hall were important occasions for the RLPO. I remember particularly Mozart's 34, but I already loved his record of Haydn's 84. Then came the glorious revelation of Berlioz's Troyens at Covent Garden for the centenary. That was an experience of a lifetime for a Virgilian! And since then so much more: the past ten years in London with dozens of marvellous concerts with his great LSO, of which I am proud to be a Friend. And, with a new orchestra not long ago, Mozart's adorable Posthorn Serenade.

Sir Colin, we salute you with colossal regard and much joy for what you bring to us: Der Freischütz, Nielsen's symphonies, life-enhancing for this mere 74 year-old!

Jonathan Foster

Dear Sir Colin Davis, I would like to wish you a happy birthday.

Since I am just a few months older than you many of our memories will coincide.

I first heard you conducting when you were with the Chelsea Opera Group and also I remember fondly the Beethoven Violin Concerto with Yehudi Menuhin and the LSO. I also attended the Bayreuth Festival in 1975 and heard your Tannhauser twice in the same week, which I enjoyed very much. I would love to hear your views on 'Conducting at Bayreuth'! I also particularly remember an Albert Hall prom when you conducted Bartok's 2nd Piano Concerto with Stephen Kovacevich. I have enjoyed many of your concerts with the LSO over the years and the concert performances of the operas you have conducted, including many of the Britten's. I am looking forward to seeing your coming performances of the Turn of the Screw.

Other memories of the past include the many evenings enjoying curries after concerts at the Shah with my family, as you did with yours.

The first opera performance I ever saw was also the first occasion on which I heard Sir Colin conduct. It was a performance of Der Freischütz at the Alhambra Theatre, Bradford on Friday 11th October 1963. It was a marvellous Sadlers Wells production with Alberto Remedios as Max, Donald McIntyre as Caspar and Ava June as Agathe.

Needless to say I was hooked from that moment so it was very exciting to be able to see Sir Colin conduct the performance with the LSO almost 50 years later. In between there have been literally hundreds of concerts conducted by Sir Colin from which excitement, enjoyment, and revelation have overflowed to mould and enhance my experience of music beyond anything I could have expected before that evening at the Alhambra. It has been an epic journey for which I shall always be grateful.

Kind regards, David Smurthwaite l

As a then young 20-something quite new to the classical concertgoing experience, it was a performance in October 2009 with yourself and Radu Lupu which cemented my desire to somehow become involved with this wonderful orchestra called the LSO. Immediately after I became a Friend and volunteer. Since then my appreciation for your artistry—in particular your rapport with those you conduct—has grown immensely, and I always look forward to experiencing your concert hall magic as frequently as I possibly can.

Happy birthday Sir Colin!

Lesley Perez l

Kind regards, Raymond Barnett

I remember a lovely summer evening in 1952 at the Bryanston Summer School of Music —two enthusiastic clarinet players treating us to an informal concert outdoors. It was inspirational and I shall never forget it. Colin Davis and Gervais de Peyer. Mozart I think.

l

Sarah Bowness

I wish you a very enjoyable celebration and many happy returns.

The atmosphere warms as Sir Colin walks to the podium and the audience and orchestra unite as we prepare to enjoy another musical adventure.

Happy 85th...... may there be many more.

David & Jean Elliott

When in 1992 Clive Gillinson approached me to become involved with the LSO my first reaction was to decline. I had spent seven years in the 1970s as Chairman of the Board of the Philharmonia reorganising that Orchestra and working closely with Riccardo Muti. I felt that I had done enough in that area. Clive however invited me to a concert which was to be conducted by Colin Davis who had recently been appointed Principal Conductor. The programme included the Seventh Symphony of Sibelius.

When I left the Philharmonia they had presented me with a score of a work most

dear to me inscribed by the Orchestra and Lorin Maazel and now it was that very work which Colin was to perform.

I was prepared to be very critical.

I can still remember Colin's performance and I was deeply moved.

I decided at that moment to be part of this new period in the life of the Orchestra with Colin, and there followed fifteen years as Chairman of the Advisory Council and in those years Colin has never failed to inspire me both as a musician and a man.

Ian Stoutzker

we thank you

for inspiring so many

It was when I was still a pupil at Bedales School that I first met Colin Davis. This was in 1950 when Gervase de Peyer made a visit to the school (he had been a pupil at Bedales) bringing his friend Colin, whom he knew as a fellow student at the RCM. Colin was at that time very much a clarinet player and I, as a bassoonist, had the great thrill of playing a Mozart Divertimento trio with the two of them, which we performed to the school. I don't think I dared to say much to either of these distinguished players from London but I do remember that Colin had a beautiful round tone on the clarinet.

Some years later during my time in the LSO when Colin was already an established conductor, I had the joy of playing many concerts and recordings particularly of the big choral works of

Berlioz such as Grande Messe des Morts in the perfect acoustics of the Westminster Cathedral and Michael Tippett's A Child of Our Time in Wembley town hall. Then there were the tours with the orchestra to Hong Kong in 1964 and later to Daytona Beach in Florida. Always with his conducting he inspired his players with his obvious love of music making and his tremendous energy and commitment. Off the rostrum one could not have wished for a more human, witty and convivial companion with none of the “noli me tangere” of so many conductors.

Now well into his ninth decade I can only wish Sir Colin many more years of health and inspiration to future generations of music lovers.

Roger Birnstingl

and we wish you the HAPPiest of BIRTHDAYs on behalf of LSO Friends and Patrons

The editors are grateful to Sir Ewen Fergusson Sheila Sparkes Ralph Land, CBE for their unsolicited but much appreciated financial support for this book and to Libby Rice and Tim Wong in LSO administration for their invaluable help with finding photographs and collecting the contributions.

Edited by Moira Gray, Lesley Perez (Design) and Susi Woodhouse (All content appears as submitted although the formatting of entries has been standardised)