Reviews The musicologist
Stanley Sadie reviewed the album on LP in
Gramophone in November 1977. Philips's casting of Dame Janet Baker and Yvonne Minton had given the recording "immense strength and dramatic vitality at its centre", he wrote. As Vitellia, the bitter daughter of a deposed emperor trying to manipulate her lover into murdering her father's successor, Baker was by turns subtle or domineering as the moment required. She sang with a "marvellous firmness and evenness of tone and steadiness of line", falling into imperfection only when Mozart took her higher up the stave than she was comfortable with. In the
castrato role of Sesto, the infatuated instrument of Vitellia's scheming, Yvonne Minton delivered a performance that was arguably more impressive still. She was equally successful at portraying both sides of Sesto's character: the youth besotted with his vengeful mistress, and the "Roman of the highest standards of honour, courage and resolve" torn by the competing claims of duty and desire. And as well as singing with "real dramatic power", Minton displayed "virtuosity of a high order". "Pure", "superb" and "magnificent" were just some of the accolades that Sadie bestowed on her vocalism, although he acknowledged that sometimes. like Baker, she perpetrated an imperfect note which should have been mended by a retake. Stuart Burrows was scarcely less good as the third of the opera's principals, "a strong Tito, lyrical when he [was] being gentle and merciful, yet with a force ... in the more imperial music that [made] him a plausible figure as a Roman emperor." Frederica von Stade did splendidly in another Mozart
en travesti role to set beside her Cherubino, singing Annio with force and true rhetorical power in the scene where the young man advised Sesto to throw himself on Tito's mercy. In the other secondary roles, Lucia Popp was affecting as an argent-bright Servilia and Robert Lloyd was "properly sturdy" as the Praetorian soldier, Publio. Covent Garden's orchestra played splendidly, with the opera's famous clarinet and basset-horn obbligatos both dispatched with distinction. Conducting, Davis infused the album with all the energy of a live performance, eliciting "taut rhythms, firm accents [and] a general urgency". It was obvious that Davis, his orchestra and several of his soloists had profited greatly having presented
Tito at Covent Garden. Well recorded and well balanced, the album was certainly the best version of the opera yet committed to disc.
J. B. Steane reviewed the album on LP in
Gramophone in January 1980, comparing it with a more recent version of the opera conducted by
Karl Böhm. Both recordings had points in their favour, he thought. In one of Vitellia's arias, for example, Janet Baker's "noble anger" was preferable to the "shrewish huff" of Böhm's
Julia Varady, while in another, Baker's superior technique was countered by Varady's greater delicacy and eloquence. In a duet for Annio and Sesto, Frederica von Stade and Yvonne Minton sang with more "charm and lightness" than Böhm's
Marga Schiml and
Teresa Berganza. And as Tito, Stuart Burrows was "more agreeable to listen to" than Böhm's
Peter Schreier. On the other hand, Böhm himself sometimes conducted better than Davis, delivering a livelier Overture and a statelier March and allowing Tito more time to meditate in his dark night of the soul. in Prague, where
La clemenza di Tito was premiered Hilary Finch reviewed the album on CD in
Gramophone in September 1987. She conceded that
La clemenza di Tito had a rebarbative reputation, but suggested that Davis's recording could win some converts to its cause. She judged Janet Baker's Vitellia to be good with reservations. Vocally, Baker showed signs of her advancing years in both her higher notes and her lower. Dramatically, she offered more sternness and less glitter than some people might wish. But she painted a compelling portrait of her character with no little psychological acuity. As Sesto, Yvonne Minton was in no way Baker's inferior, delivering a "truly great portrayal" with "dignity and power" and a voice still strong at the bottom of the stave. Lucia Popp and Frederica von Stade made something "delightful" out of their love duet. The only soloist who was disappointing was Stuart Burrows as the emperor. He supplied a photograph of Tito, as it were, when what was needed was a movie. He "never quite [touched] the greatness of voice and of heart demanded by the role", although the orchestra revealed much about the emperor that he was unable to show us. The hallmark of the album as a whole was its kinetic energy, exemplified by the five minutes of "electrifying"
recitative (accompanied by an excellent harpsichordist) at its very beginning. Its vitality was chiefly attributable to Colin Davis's conducting. "Throughout it is his excitement and admiration for the score which is palpably transferred to the listener."
Alan Blyth reviewed the album on CD in
Gramophone in April 1992. He admitted that Janet Baker's voice bleached when it climbed into the ledger lines, but he applauded her for her "splendidly vicious, calculating and alluring Vitellia". He thought that Yvonne Minton's Sesto had set the gold standard for the part - "a handsome, authoritative performance, creamy and firm in tone, secure in character". He did not share Finch's poor opinion of Stuart Burrows's contribution, acclaiming Burrows's Mozartian musicianship and arguing that he made Tito's acts of forgiveness easy to believe in. Lucia Popp and Frederica von Stade had happily been cast when "both in their absolute prime". He shared Finch's perception that Colin Davis patently loved Mozart's score.
Accolades In May 1978,
Stereo Review included the album in its "Best Recordings of the Month" pages. Discussing the album in his
Gramophone survey in October 2010, Richard Wigmore concluded that it was the finest of all the recordings of the opera that had been performed with modern instruments. "Baker's vicious Vitellia attains a tragic gravitas in her final scene," he wrote, "while Yvonne Minton's intensely 'lived' Sesto vindicates Davis's broad
tempi, characteristic of the elegiac
tinta he brings to Mozart's score." ==Track listing, CD1==