In Sir Colin Davis's new recording of Oedipus Rex the virtues of a fine Stravinskian are apparent. The pace is unerringly right, the rhythms never monotonously mechanical, the score's phrasing and accents scrupulously realized. The singers are, on balance, the best team currently available, with Thomas Moser anguished and expressive in ways which occasionally recall the Pears of the 1951 Stravinsky/CBS recording (released here in 1955). That version, superior to the Solti performance on Decca in spirit if not in sound, remains a classic. Moser lacks the sheer individuality of Pears, but even his more conventional forcefulness at moments of tension is always well controlled.
Jocastas notoriously tend to unsteadiness, but Jessye Norman is never tempted to push urgency of attack to the point where the actual sound becomes rough or distorted. The role—and the recording—bring out the distinctive colour of her voice, and although she may not be ideally suited to the more mannered aspects of the part she gives a memorable performance. So too does Siegmund Nimsgern, a commanding Creon and Messenger. For the rest, Roland Bracht is not quite bass enough for Tiresias, while Alexandru Ionita allows some intrusive aspiration to mar the Shepherd's song. Michel Piccoli is a powerful narrator—using Cocteau's original French—even if he does overdo the rhetorical pauses.
The performance achieves a good balance between neo-classical stylization and vivid dramatic force: only at one crucial point, Oedipus's terrible confession ''Lux facta est'', does it seem too restrained, too sotto voce, to carry complete dramatic conviction. A rather low-level transfer means that careful attention to the volume control is required, and this can affect the audibility of orchestral detail in what is, essentially, a well-balanced recording. But Sir Colin's rapport with his Munich forces is complete, and a whole series of new Stravinsky issues from this quarter would be most welcome.'