Hector Berlioz

[(poco) Sforzando]

Benvenuto Cellini is great. Musically, that is...

For some reason I can't get into several movements of Symphonie Fantastique, mainly the three first ones.

Curious, as I think those the best movements in the symphony, especially the first and third. The introduction to the first movement alone is a miracle of spontaneous growth, almost completely without repetition of any kind. I would say the movement is marred, but only slightly, by the passage in up-and-down chromatic scales midway through. But only slightly.

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Listening to some of Hector's songs. Breathtaking. Shame these are not performed more often.

[Maestro267]

With my recent purchase of Roméo et Juliette, I now own recordings of all four of Berlioz' symphonies. Interesting how they're all quite different from the typical symphonic form of the time. Symphonie Fantastique is a programmatic work in five movements, Harold en Italie is a fusion of four-movement symphony and viola concerto, Roméo et Juliette is a huge-scale, 100-minute work calling for soloists and chorus, and Grande symphonie funébre et triomphale is scored for a large wind orchestra.

[knight66]

Don't forget Lélio, another strangely structured symphony.

Mike

[aligreto]

Roméo et Juliette from the Colin Davis box set....





A symphony with voices?
A choral work?
A would be opera?

No matter, a wonderful, monumental work.

[Karl Henning]

Another genre-bender! 

[aligreto]

Another genre-bender! 

Indeed Karl, the more I listen to Berlioz the more I realize how different his approach was in many ways.

[Daverz]

Few Berlioz albums can boast such a novel design, perhaps.

That hardware is about as obsolete as the ophicleide.

[Daverz]

WTF? Can you figure out what that is? I can´t.

Looks like a PCMCIA USB card.

[kishnevi]

From NPR

[TheGSMoeller]

New release!
I'm very intrigued, and I love the coupling of Rameau and Berlioz. The samples offered a little insight into what to expect with some interpretive choices audible in the 90 second previews, Harding doesn't seem concerned with rushing at all, and the Swedish RSO doesn't seem interested in sounding sluggish or dull. This one could be good.

[knight66]

Having not heard the disc, my opinion may prove to be wrong. I have come to the point where I avoid Harding's work. I have found his musicmaking clod and professional. His Mozart opera conducting is to the letter of the score, but undramatic and constricts the singers. I avoided his live Mahler last week in Edinburgh and the only crit I read suggested that it was mechanistic.


On a slightly different subject, I attendind a concert of Ticciati doing Berlioz Romeo and Juliet and preview discs of the piece which will become available next month. As with his other Berlioz discs he uses a chamber orchestra. It was a very effective performance, warm, passionate and well paced. I have previously suggested on earlier discs that the music sounds a bit palid with the smaller body of players. So it will be interesting to see the reactions to the new discs, previously rather extravagantly praised. Though some of Harding's music making seems well thought of: 'tis mystery all.

Mike

[TheGSMoeller]

Having not heard the disc, my opinion may prove to be wrong. I have come to the point where I avoid Harding's work. I have found his musicmaking clod and professional. His Mozart opera conducting is to the letter of the score, but undramatic and constricts the singers. I avoided his live Mahler last week in Edinburgh and the only crit I read suggested that it was mechanistic.


On a slightly different subject, I attendind a concert of Ticciati doing Berlioz Romeo and Juliet and preview discs of the piece which will become available next month. As with his other Berlioz discs he uses a chamber orchestra. It was a very effective performance, warm, passionate and well paced. I have previously suggested on earlier discs that the music sounds a bit palid with the smaller body of players. So it will be interesting to see the reactions to the new discs, previously rather extravagantly praised. Though some of Harding's music making seems well thought of: 'tis mystery all.

Mike

Hi, Mike,
Found the Harding disc on Spotify last night, and even though it boasts very nice sonics and playing, you are about right, nothing to rush out for. Let's call the samples like a good movie trailer for a bad film, small doses can make it seem like a must see/listen, but as a whole it wasn't as good.

Regarding Ticcati, I've thoroughly enjoyed listening to their fantastique recording. Still have yet to hear the others discs in their cycle, but would like to catch up.

Cheers!

[knight66]

The Cleopatra/Les Nuits is good. I heard Cargill live last night and I think the microphone exaggerates her slight vibrato. The Cleopatra piece is epic, right up her street. I felt the orchestra in Les Nuits was a bit palid. But I do like the disc. I bought the Fantastique and enjoyed it, though not excessively.

Mike

[TheGSMoeller]

The Cleopatra/Les Nuits is good. I heard Cargill live last night and I think the microphone exaggerates her slight vibrato. The Cleopatra piece is epic, right up her street. I felt the orchestra in Les Nuits was a bit palid. But I do like the disc. I bought the Fantastique and enjoyed it, though not excessively.

Mike

Thanks, Mike.

[Karl Henning]

Reducing the orchestra for Berlioz is . . . an interesting contrarian tack.

[TheGSMoeller]

Reducing the orchestra for Berlioz is . . . an interesting contrarian tack.

[Karl Henning]

The solution is, more guys with good ears & ordnance.

[knight66]

I am not sure what lies behind it, except that the conductor is the chief conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and I guess he is stretching their repertoire. If he programmes a Grande Messe, I will know he really has lost Le Plot. He is a real Prima Donna.

All the Berlioz is being recorded, but as I have found, counterintuitively, the disc sound seems less full bodied than when in the hall.

I was reminding a friend last night, (prior to a Gurrelieder), of a concert I was in which consisted of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast in the first half and the Berlioz Te Deum in the second half. Who thought that one up I wonder? Sir Alex Gibson was in his fangs to the fore twilight years. At piano rehearsal he lambasted us for pushing the Berlioz speeds. He lectured us angrily that he had rethought the piece and instead of how he had previously conducted it; we had to accept his new much slower tempi.

On the night he was clearly  not entirely steady on his feet. During the unaccompanied opening of the Walton he just stopped conducting. The leader started to pulse the music with his bow and brought the orchestra in. Eventually Sir Alex rejoined us.

During the interval some further refreshment must have been taken, as the Berlioz shot off and was rushed through as though the house was on fire. The really alarming thing being that no two bars were the same length. I recall being able to see our chorus master standing at the back of the hall, grinning ear to ear and shaking his head over and over in amazement. Meanwhile on the platform I had sweat coming out of the back of my knees in stress while I tried to interpret where the beats had disappeared to.

If only Berlioz could have been there and written, no doubt pithily, about the performance.

Mike

[TheGSMoeller]

I am not sure what lies behind it, except that the conductor is the chief conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and I guess he is stretching their repertoire. If he programmes a Grande Messe, I will know he really has lost Le Plot. He is a real Prima Donna.

All the Berlioz is being recorded, but as I have found, counterintuitively, the disc sound seems less full bodied than when in the hall.

I was reminding a friend last night, (prior to a Gurrelieder), of a concert I was in which consisted of Walton's Belshazzar's Feast in the first half and the Berlioz Te Deum in the second half. Who thought that one up I wonder? Sir Alex Gibson was in his fangs to the fore twilight years. At piano rehearsal he lambasted us for pushing the Berlioz speeds. He lectured us angrily that he had rethought the piece and instead of how he had previously conducted it; we had to accept his new much slower tempi.

On the night he was clearly  not entirely steady on his feet. During the unaccompanied opening of the Walton he just stopped conducting. The leader started to pulse the music with his bow and brought the orchestra in. Eventually Sir Alex rejoined us.

During the interval some further refreshment must have been taken, as the Berlioz shot off and was rushed through as though the house was on fire. The really alarming thing being that no two bars were the same length. I recall being able to see our chorus master standing at the back of the hall, grinning ear to ear and shaking his head over and over in amazement. Meanwhile on the platform I had sweat coming out of the back of my knees in stress while I tried to interpret where the beats had disappeared to.

If only Berlioz could have been there and written, no doubt pithily, about the performance.

Mike

A pleasure to read, thank you, Mike.