Hector Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

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.

Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique Op. 14; Berlioz Takes A Trip -
New York Philharmonic; Leonard Bernstein
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 344 MB, 3% recovery | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Complete scans
Publisher: Sony Classical | Recorded: 1964, 1968 | Published: 1999 | Catalog number: SMK 60968

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. –David Hurwitz; Classicstoday.com

In 1999, conductor Daniel Barenboim and scholar Edward Said created the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra to be a cultural bridge between young Israeli, Arab, and Iranian musicians, and the success of the enterprise has not only raised public awareness of their worthy cause, but also yielded some remarkable recordings. Celebrating the tenth anniversary of the orchestra's formation, Barenboim leads the orchestra in performances of two works linked to the city where the group held its first workshops, Weimar, where associations with Hector Berlioz and Franz Liszt are still strong.

H. Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique Op. 14; P. Dukas: The Sorcerer’s Apprentice; M. Mussorgsky: Night on the Bare Mountain –
The Philadelphia Orchestra; Eugene Ormandy
Classical | 1 CD | EAC Rip | 345 MB, 3% recovery | FLAC+LOG+Cue | Full scans | RS links
Publisher: Sony Classical | Recorded: 1961/63/67 | Published: 1990

The main interest in Eugene Ormandy's Symphonie fantastique is the excellent playing of the Philadelphia Orchestra, which gives a good old-fashioned virtuoso performance highlighted by marvelous solo work from the principals… Ormandy displays his typical mastery of orchestral "fireworks" in these bracing renditions of The Sorcerer's Apprentice and Night on Bald Mountain, done with all the swagger and sparkle the music requires (you can almost see the marching broom in Sorcerer). –Victor Carr Jr, classicstoday.com

Hector Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique / Ouvertures: Benvenuto Cellini & Le Carnaval Romain
Orchestre Philharmonique de Strasbourg / Alain Lombard
EAC+LOG+CUE | FLAC: 304 MB | Full Artwork: 58 MB | 5% Recovery Info
Label/Cat#: Erato # ECD 55030 | Country/Year: France 199_
Genre: Classical | Style: Romantic

"Alain Lombard is among the leading French conductors from the latter half of the twentieth century. He has held numerous prestigious positions both in the operatic and orchestral realms. Lombard is best known for his interpretations of French opera, particularly of Bizet's Carmen, Gounod's Faust and Romeo et Juliette, Delibes' Lakmé, and Massenet's Werther. He has also garnered notice for his Puccini and Verdi, as well as for instrumental works by Berlioz, Debussy, and Ravel. Lombard's repertory is hardly limited to French and Italian music, however, as it takes in chunks of Prokofiev, Mahler, Mendelssohn, Mozart, and many others. He has made numerous recordings since the 1960s for a range of labels, including EMI, Elektra, Erato, Forlane, and Valois…"

Not many versions of the Symphonie fantastique rival Myung-Whun Chung’s in conveying the nervously impulsive inspiration of a young composer, the hints of hysteria, the overtones of nightmare in Berlioz’s programme. He makes one register it afresh as genuinely fantastic. Some may well prefer the more direct, more solid qualities that you find in the new Mehta version, also well played, and recorded with satisfying weight, but the volatile element in this perennially modern piece is something which Chung brings out to a degree I have rarely known before, and that establishes his as a very individual, sharply characterized version with unusually strong claims.