 The orchestra played with "passion and refinement" under the "strong hand" of Colin Davis.A "masterly orchestral colorist", he managed Massenet's "subtly sensuous orchestral idiom with a sure and sensitive command".His "tempi" were not the sprightliest ever heard in "Werther", but he gave the opera enough momentum to counterbalance its tendency towards a weepy misery, and his reading had certainly gained from the "ensemble spirit" that he had elicited when performing the work at Covent Garden.