The advantage of hearing Fidelio in concert, especially in a performance as eloquent as this, is that you appreciate the beauties of Beethoven’s conception and not its incongruities. In the theatre his only opera seems to house so many different, often conflicting, genres – from Singspiel to cantata – that it is not surprising the moral drama sometimes slips through the cracks. In concert that element comes out surprisingly well, and how noble and challenging it is, but what emerges even more strongly is the symphonic conception. Colin Davis underlined that here by moving straight from number to number without pause or applause and, paradoxically, by omitting the Leonora overture No 3 that traditionally links the two halves of act two.

The gain of dramatic inevitability narrowly outweighed the loss of a great piece of music that symphonically (perhaps unnecessarily?) encapsulates the entire opera. Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra were on such superlative form, so completely inside the music, that I felt cheated not to have heard it. But that was probably just greed on my part, given the overwhelming joy of listening to a conductor focus a lifetime’s love for and intimacy with this music, and bring such freshness to it. As he approaches 80 you might expect Davis to be expanding his tempi but it was the young Davis we heard here, the man in love with life: a cracking pace for the opening duet, a real spring to the ensembles, a wonderful freedom in the phrasing, all based on thorough preparation. Have Davis and the LSO ever been more hand in glove?

No soprano today sings Leonora more securely than Christine Brewer: the marriage of line, detail and timbre in “Abscheulicher!” was beyond criticism. Her Florestan was John Mac Master, soft-edged but sympathetic. Kristinn Sigmundsson was the excellent Rocco, Sally Matthews a stagy Marzelline, with Juha Uusitalo (Pizarro) and Andrew Kennedy (Jaquino) playing their parts well. And the London Symphony Chorus nearly stole the show. ★★★★★

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