This recording was made back in 1982 as the soundtrack for the highly imaginative, riveting film made by Petr Weigl now available on Philips VHS ((VHS) 070 400-3PHE). It appeared on LP in 1984 but has long been unavailable in sound-only form. It provides strong competition to the creators’ set on Decca and even to the recent, admired Collins Classics version. Davis yields little if anything to the composer or to Steuart Bedford in realizing the taut, claustrophobic feeling of the score itself. The players of the ROH Orchestra are quite as alert as Britten’s and Bedford’s chamber ensembles to the minutiae of the fastidious instrumentation, bringing out the genius of Britten’s variation form. Davis unerringly pinpoints the change from the lyrical euphony of some of the earlier scenes and the sinister, otherworldly suggestions of the later ones.
The cast stands comparison with its rivals – though Tear, for all his competence, cannot quite match the peculiarly haunting quality of Pears’s tone as Quint in a role specifically tailored to Britten’s partner. Tear doesn’t attempt to double with the Prologue, here sung with predictable intelligence and refined poetic expectancy by the young Langridge, who memorably doubles the roles on the Collins set. Donath very properly lets a note of nervous agitation enter into her tone and evinces full understanding of the Governess’s predicament, “Lost in my labyrinth” rightly given as a whispered, interior monologue, though she doesn’t build all the tensions as unerringly as Vyvyan (Britten) or Dame Felicity Lott (Bedford).
Heather Harper, herself an erstwhile Governess, is a rightly hard-bitten Miss Jessel, preferable to either of her rivals. Ava June is even more articulate than her teacher Joan Cross (Britten) as Mrs Grose, though not superior to Bedford’s excellent Phyllis Cannan. Lilian Watson makes a more vivid Flora than her counterparts on the other sets, but Michael Ginn, accomplished treble though he is, doesn’t suggest the paradox of evil in innocence as David Hemmings so amazingly does on Decca.
In 1984, I made this my clear choice – and it stands up well to the competition of the Bedford set (I prefer the Philips recorded sound), but the years make one newly aware of the historic importance of Britten’s own reading. Each version is wholly worthy of this extraordinary score.'