“If you seek a monument, look around you.” So visitors to St Paul’s Cathedral, London are famously advised as they look for evidence of the architect, Sir Christopher Wren.

So the crowd that gathered inside Wren’s masterpiece in June last year to witness this account of the Berlioz Requiem could well have been told “if you seek a monument to Sir Colin Davis, listen to this”.

This utterly imposing performance of Berlioz’s grandest work was one of the last great triumphs of Sir Colin Davis’s long and illustrious career. That career, which spanned nearly sixty years, covered an astonishing breadth of repertory but he will be particularly remembered for his championing of Tippett, Sibelius and, of course, Berlioz.

In this account we hear all the fruits of Davis’s extensive performing experience and profound intimacy with this idiosyncratic yet evocative score.

A master sound-sculptor, Davis ensures the work’s apocalyptic explosions of sounds are thrillingly executed but cleanly placed within the acoustic, whilst the numerous quieter splashes of orchestral colour are lovingly brought to the fore. The louder sections of the Dies irae, such as the Tuba mirum, Rex tremendae and Lacrymosa are literally breathtaking in their intensity; whilst the quiet, haunting opening of the...