After Decca’s best-selling Beethoven For All campaign and Barenboim’s Olympic appearance comes a celebration of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s 10th anniversary in a stunning Berlioz recording from the BBC Proms. This recording comes from WEDO’s 2009 Prom, celebrating the 10th anniversary of the West Eastern Divan Orchestra and marking a return to the roots of the orchestra’s conception in Weimar – a place where Liszt championed the works of Berlioz.
This 1963 Symphonie fantastique is actually the same as Bernstein's Royal Edition performance (though in significantly finer sound), which claims to be his marginally tamer 1968 remake. In fact, this is the most drugged-out performance of the work that you will ever hear, and it's accompanied by a delightful spoken essay (essentially word for word the same as appears in the "Young People's Concerts") that explores the highlights of the composer's opium-induced vision. It's easy to see why Bernstein, in a more reflective moment, might have found some of this performance's rougher edges a bit alarming (Just listen to those tubas in the finale. Incredible!). On the other hand, in these days of authentic instruments, a little edge to the sound isn't considered such a bad thing, and all of the squeaks, grunts, and thuds that Bernstein elicits from his players have ample justification in Berlioz's revolutionary score. This truly is a great performance, one that goes straight to the top of the list alongside Charles Munch's classic Boston version (RCA).
–David Hurwitz
Hector Berlioz was a French Romantic composer, best known for his compositions Symphonie fantastique and Grande messe des morts (Requiem). Berlioz made significant contributions to the modern orchestra with his Treatise on Instrumentation. He specified huge orchestral forces for some of his works, and conducted several concerts with more than 1,000 musicians. He also composed around 50 songs. His influence was critical for the further development of Romanticism, especially in composers like Richard Wagner, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, Franz Liszt, Richard Strauss, Gustav Mahler and many others.
The San Francisco Symphony under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas performs one of the most astounding symphonies in the repertoire, the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz. What presumption by this 26-year-old French composer, to think that he could write and produce (he personally hired the players) a massive five-movement symphony! Strange things happen when presumption is matched by genius: the young man created an enduring masterpiece that is still fresh and exciting today, nearly 200 years later…
“Stanislaw Skrowaczewski elicits remarkable ensemble qualities from the Saarbrücken Radio Symphony – both in the sharply drawn tutti and the subtle colours of the single instrumental groups.“ ~Rondo
…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.
Composer: Hector Berlioz
Performer: Tabea Zimmermann
Conductor: Christoph Eschenbach
Orchestra/Ensemble: Orchestre de Paris
The BR-KLASSIK label is now taking the 75th anniversary of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in 2024 as an opportunity to make previously unreleased recordings of concerts that are worth listening to available on CD and as a stream for the first time. Hector Berlioz's passionate "Symphonie fantastique", the almost revolutionary symphonic masterpiece by the great French composer, was performed by Colin Davis with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra at Munich’s Philharmonie im Gasteig on January 15 and 16, 1987.