Berlioz Carnevale Romano

Colin Davis is arguably the finest Berlioz conductor in the world; both of his recordings of Les Troyens are magnificent and elsewhere he's rarely bettered. His winning streak continues with this live performance with the LSO of Harold in Italy and the ballet music from Troyens. Tabea Zimmermann's solo viola is as grand, brilliantly flavorful, and picturesque as the LSO's playing; and the entire performance swift and rhythmically propulsive is simply fantastic.

Despite the efforts of conductors such as Roger Norrington and John Eliot Gardiner from the 1980s onwards, period instrument performances of Berlioz in general and the Symphonie Fantastique in particular are relatively rare on disc; currently, the only rivals to Jos van Immerseel's new version with his Bruges-based orchestra seem to be those by Gardiner and Norrington themselves. Immerseel's approach, his choice of tempi and phrasing, are relatively conservative – the account of the exuberant Roman Carnival overture is positively staid – but the raw edge that the period instruments bring to Berlioz's soundworld is often ­viscerally exciting, with a pair of ophicleides adding a feral growl to the brass bass lines.

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique & Le Carnaval Romain
Anima Eterna - Jos van Immerseel
EAC+LOG+CUE | WV: 252 MB | Full Artwork | 5% Recovery Info [Repacked]
Label/Cat#: Zig Zag # ZZT100101 | Country/Year: France 2009
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

…Elsewhere the whole kit of an old-instrument Fantastique – pungent brass timbres, shrieking clarinets, scary “bells” (the pianos) and death-march timpani – makes its mark. For its combination of unique orchestral size and recording quality, and overall Werktreu-ness, this new performance sits easily alongside, maybe even slightly ahead of, the other authentic contenders.

This recording presents–almost–Berlioz's original thoughts on this very complicated opera (which went through more than a dozen versions, with additions and subtractions, in the composer's lifetime), although conductor John Nelson also adds an aria or two Berlioz later added, making it somewhat different from the version recorded by Philips under Sir Colin Davis a little over 30 years ago.