Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique | Harmonia Mundi HMM902644

Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique

£16.10

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Label: Harmonia Mundi

Cat No: HMM902644

Format: CD

Number of Discs: 1

Genre: Orchestral

Release Date: 25th October 2019

Contents

Artists

Les Siecles

Conductor

Francois-Xavier Roth

Works

Berlioz, Hector

Les Francs-juges, op.3
» Overture
Symphonie fantastique, op.14 H48

Artists

Les Siecles

Conductor

Francois-Xavier Roth

About

Drawing on various themes dear to the early Romantic movement of the 1820s, Symphonie fantastique broke all the rules of classical symphonic form. This new recording from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles benefits from a close study of the composer’s autograph score and the unique timbres of period instruments, including the church bell of the composer's hometown, La-Côte Saint-André. The symphony incorporates passages from Les Francs-Juges, an early operatic effort Berlioz left unfinished. Only the Overture survives, and it makes for a perfect pairing here.

Reviews

Much as I enjoyed Les Siècles’s earlier recording, this new disc sweeps that, and the rest of the competition, firmly aside. ... The success of this account is not just through the conductor’s close study of the autograph manuscript. Roth seems to have an emotional hotline to Berlioz, alive to every twist and turn of the composer’s fevered passions. Double basses judder so hard in the first movement (8'54") you can feel the rosin flying. ... Indeed, this is not just my favourite ‘historically authentic’ recording. I strongly believe this is the finest account of the Fantastique to emerge from France since Charles Munch and the newly formed Orchestre de Paris in 1967 … and it probably trumps that too.  Mark Pullinger (Recording of the Month)
Gramophone December 2019
Gramophone Editor's Choice

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