Hector Berlioz

[Biffo]

Colin Davis with both Nobuko Imai (Philips) and Tabea Zimmermann (LSO Live) is very good. But Tamestit / Minkowski is special - and has the most clarity of these, too. One of my favourite Berlioz works for sure.
[asin]B005GBIM8U[/asin]

All three recordings mentioned by North Star are excellent but I would go for Gardiner/ORR/Gérard Caussé  for a period instrument if only because it has a more interesting coupling - Tristia.

Munch/Boston/Primrose was the first version I ever heard and is still a favourite though the sound is a bit dated.

If forced to choose just one I would go for Davis/Imai

[Daverz]

The last Harold that impressed me was the Cambreling.  I didn't find the last Davis recording on the LSO house label nearly as good.

[asin]B002NXSSWE[/asin]

[PerfectWagnerite]

Thanks everyone for their inputs;

I ordered the Imai/Davis here:

[Baron Scarpia]

The only one I have listened to is the Reiner, which didn't make a huge impression...

[PerfectWagnerite]

Reiner as in Fritz Reiner? He recorded Harold?

[Alek Hidell]

Reiner as in Fritz Reiner? He recorded Harold?

A quick googling suggests that he did not. Maybe the Baron is thinking of this (a Living Stereo recording, like many of Reiner's):

[Daverz]

How could I forget Suk with Fischer-Dieskau?  Yes, that Fischer-Dieskau.  Sad that Fi-Di did not record more as a conductor, because he was pretty good.

[asin] B00000E8K4[/asin]

[Biffo]

This is a new recording, haven't heard it yet though - has some interesting fill-ups.

[PerfectWagnerite]

A quick googling suggests that he did not. Maybe the Baron is thinking of this (a Living Stereo recording, like many of Reiner's):

Just listened to Primrose/Munch again, I can see why on first listen it might not make much of an impression. The tempo (especially the 1st mvt) is blisteringly fast - 12 min versus about 16 for Lincer/Lenny despite recorded only about 4-5 yrs apart. If you don't pay attention a lot of details are missed. Also the sound is a bit flat for the viola part so that doesn't help.

[Baron Scarpia]

A quick googling suggests that he did not. Maybe the Baron is thinking of this (a Living Stereo recording, like many of Reiner's):

Indeed, I remembered RCA living stereo and my brain filled in Reiner. 

I found my listening notes. I didn't hate it, but it didn't really grab me. But I did like Munch's Romeo and Juliette love scene a great deal.

[TheGSMoeller]

I love this clip of John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique performing Berlioz's Harold in Italy with Antoine Tamestit on viola. I love how Tamestit moves to the back of the orchestra and joins them in the final coda, and I'm not sure at what point of the piece the orchestra stood up but it's exciting!

https://www.youtube.com/v/5tssDb3YotQ

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Apropos - my latest on ClassicsToday. {Insider content, alas... long piece, audio samples}


Gardiner's Revolutionary Berlioz? Take The Good With The Ugly

https://www.classicstoday.com/review/gardiners-revolutionary-berlioz-take-the-good-with-the-ugly/

...Gardiner's Harold in Italy also is an absolute corker—and here in spite of plenty of competition. Lucid, fresh, and alert, the ORR plays with the tenacious alacrity that characterizes its very best recordings, and Gérard Caussé plays his part with feeling and delicacy (Marche des pèlerins!) while not pretending that this is the virtuoso concerto its dedicatee Niccolò Paganini might have hoped for. It is coupled with Tristia, the highly diverting heterodox trilogy of Shakespeare-related moody, brooding, boisterous choral-orchestral pieces...

...At his best, Gardiner brings a boyish exuberance to Berlioz, that, combined with his orchestra's detox-approach to the orchestration, can really shine. When it's not that, his Berlioz tends to become episodic, which is something Berlioz's music doesn't suffer lightly. Perhaps that's why the hits are real hits and the misses real misses and relatively little between. I don't generally mind the nouvelle cuisine-idea behind Gardiner's approach, and you might find yourself rooting for the instruments' individual characters that come out better than on most recordings. But often we are left wanting more in terms of "music", rather than "moments". If you can live with the two nominal main ingredients being duds, you might find—as I do—that the juicy bits outweigh the chalk. In that case get this for the rarities and Harold and rely on your old favorites for the rest. The box has excellent notes but offers no librettos. The original cover-art sleeves (mini-LP style for the 2-disc sets) are a delight.

[Karl Henning]

Interesting, thanks, Jens.

[Biffo]

Gardiner is an excellent conductor of Berlioz and I have collected most of the Berlioz Rediscovered box piecemeal over the years (no Faust). I also have his disc of Les nuits d'été and Mélodies from Warner/Apex.

Gardiner's DVD of Les Troyens is also fine, marred only by his tampering with the Act V Finale.

[André]

Though I'd had several, not many, opportunities, over the years to hear Hermann Scherchen's Berlioz Requiem from '58 I heeded the commonly given advice to eschew it. ("Too drawn-out, horrible acoustic, etc. etc.) Saturday I chanced on a very good 2-record set on Westminster of the work and warily took it home.  It defied expectations.  Not only is the singing exceptional, but it is one of the most moving performances of the work that I have heard.  Not my favorite, mind - yes, it's drawn-out, one critic says "bar-distending," but he manages to make it work.  Lamenting is often of long duration...  The acoustic is not great for the vocals but it's more than acceptable and guess what - the drums pop like I've never heard (some of that is Scherchen - known for his tympani).   Altogether, it's a contender and not the bête noire it's been made out to be, in my estimation. If, like me, you've been avoiding it, don't do as I've foolishly done.  I don't see it currently avail. on Amazon in CD, but is avail for download.

Just heard this version in this incarnation on the Cascavelle label:



It is truly remarkable. Very individual ideas about tempos (at 98 minutes its is the longest ever on disc). The music almost stops at times (the concluding Agnus Dei clocks in at a brucknerian 16 minutes), but the effect is mesmerizing, not stultifying. The 8 trombones in this movement are the most sepulchral I've heard, a truly scary effect. Jean Giraudeau's plangent tenor is a wonderful asset in the Sanctus, his beseeching, imploring tone otherworldly. Even Simoneau (Munch, Mitropoulos) didn't sing with such seraphic beauty. The recording dates from 1958 and was taped in the vast expanses of Les Invalides, Paris, the work's original venue in 1837 (also used in the Bernstein/Sony version). Not ideal in terms of capturing all the score's details, but it gives an excellent feel of this mammoth, unwieldy work. Not an only version then, but a truly indispensable complement.

[TheGSMoeller]

Just heard this version in this incarnation on the Cascavelle label:



It is truly remarkable. Very individual ideas about tempos (at 98 minutes its is the longest ever on disc). The music almost stops at times (the concluding Agnus Dei clocks in at a brucknerian 16 minutes), but the effect is mesmerizing, not stultifying.

This alone is worth it for me to seek out. Is this recording easily obtainable?
Thanks!

[André]

This alone is worth it for me to seek out. Is this recording easily obtainable?
Thanks!

I think it is, but may be hard to find. MP3 seems a reasonable option:

https://www.amazon.com/Pure-Vol-Scherchen-Historical-Recording/dp/B084NVNV39/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=Berlioz+scherchen&qid=1598831198&s=dmusic&sr=1-14

[TheGSMoeller]

I think it is, but may be hard to find. MP3 seems a reasonable option:

https://www.amazon.com/Pure-Vol-Scherchen-Historical-Recording/dp/B084NVNV39/ref=sr_1_14?dchild=1&keywords=Berlioz+scherchen&qid=1598831198&s=dmusic&sr=1-14

Thanks, friend!

[knight66]

Just heard this version in this incarnation on the Cascavelle label:



It is truly remarkable. Very individual ideas about tempos (at 98 minutes its is the longest ever on disc). The music almost stops at times (the concluding Agnus Dei clocks in at a brucknerian 16 minutes), but the effect is mesmerizing, not stultifying. The 8 trombones in this movement are the most sepulchral I've heard, a truly scary effect. Jean Giraudeau's plangent tenor is a wonderful asset in the Sanctus, his beseeching, imploring tone otherworldly. Even Simoneau (Munch, Mitropoulos) didn't sing with such seraphic beauty. The recording dates from 1958 and was taped in the vast expanses of Les Invalides, Paris, the work's original venue in 1837 (also used in the Bernstein/Sony version). Not ideal in terms of capturing all the score's details, but it gives an excellent feel of this mammoth, unwieldy work. Not an only version then, but a truly indispensable complement.

Thank you for this André, i did not know about this version. I very recently bought the Nelson version, which I recommend in ever way. I have streamed the Scherchen and thought it fascinating. It is not all slow by any means and there is plenty of energy. The choir bases are very closely recorded, they are wonderfully unanimous and like an organ stp at the bottom. The conductor must have given a very clear beat to help the choir as he was constantly stretching normal tempi. I liked the huge acoustic. The tenor is the best I have heard in the piece, floating his endless lines. And the last movement induces a trance, like a vast unwinding.

Timings seem odd, there seem to editions of the same performance and they have very different timings for the final movement. I stuck with the edition that had something closer to the timing of the final mvt that you provided.

Mike

It is not how I would always want to hear it, but I am really taken by it. 

[TheGSMoeller]

Timings seem odd, there seem to editions of the same performance and they have very different timings for the final movement. I stuck with the edition that had something closer to the timing of the final mvt that you provided.

Mike

It is not how I would always want to hear it, but I am really taken by it.

The Amazon MP3 link shows 14:56 for the Agnus Dei, which is still about a minute slower than my slowest Requiem I own (Norrington/Stuggart at 13:55 without applause), and 3 minutes slower than my fastest at 11:46(Ozawa/BSO)