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Presto News - 12th April 2010Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique |
 This week I’d like to talk about a new recording of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique from the Flemish period-instrument orchestra Anima Eterna and their principal conductor Jos van Immerseel. Berlioz was just 27 when he wrote this great masterpiece in 1830. It was just three years after Beethoven had died, but inhabits an almost completely different time. This symphony is remarkable in so many different respects – it is programmatic (portraying the life of an artist through the form a dream), full of imagination, and contains ideas in form and harmony way beyond the young composers’ years. Most immediately noticeable though is Berlioz’s complete mastery of instrumentation and orchestration. His understanding of the character and potential of each individual instrument produces stunning results and through his imaginative orchestration he is able to produce both dream-like states and terrifying effects.  Hector Berlioz Gardiner, Minkowski and Norrington have all recorded ‘period instrument’ versions of this work before, but all with larger orchestras and while Immerseel’s tempos are in my view a bit too conservative (particularly in the ‘March to the Scaffold’), you cannot escape from the raw excitement and vitality of hearing things in the score that you simply haven’t heard before. The small string section allows the woodwind and horns to cut through with real transparency and it is wonderful to hear their different individual timbres so clearly. You also hear the pair of ophicleides, supporting the brass, and giving this impeccably trained orchestra just the necessary amount of untamed menace. For those who already know the work though the biggest shock is reserved for the finale, when Immerseel replaces the usual bells with two Érard pianos. He argues in the booklet that to play the actual notes marked in the score is impractical on real bells as they are too low and that the marking ‘Grande Pedale’ in the score can only refer to the use of a pedal on a piano. There is certainly evidence to suggest that Berlioz accepted the use of pianos as an alternative when bells were not available, but nothing (as far as I’ve seen) to suggest that bells weren’t his first choice option. Choosing to make a recording with pianos rather than bells then is somewhat controversial, but it is certainly interesting to hear it. This recording has already drawn wide disagreement amongst the critics. It was CD of the week on BBC Radio 3 CD Review this weekend and is the Disc of the Month in the latest Gramophone Magazine, but some of the broadsheets have been a bit more mixed and the critic from the Herald Newspaper (Scotland) described it as “the dullest, most rigid, routine and pedestrian account of this revolutionary masterpiece I have heard”. While I’ve already mentioned the tempos being on the slow side, I can’t quite work out what that critic can have been listening to as it is most certainly not dull, rigid nor routine – in fact quite the opposite! Lots of fascinating things to hear then, and I’ve given you a big chuck of the last movement (including some of the pianos!) to give you an idea.
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 Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14Anima Eterna, Jos van Immerseel
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Chris O'Reilly - chris@prestoclassical.co.uk |
listen - Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique - 5. Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat (opening)New Releases12th April 2010 |
This is just the pick of the recent releases. The New Releases and Future Releases pages are always available for browsing all the new and forthcoming releases. |
 Gluck: Orphée et EurydiceJuan Diego Flórez (Orphée), Ainhoa Garmendia (Eurydice), Alessandra Marianelli (Amour), Coro y Orquesta del Teatro Real, Madrid, Jesús López-CobosFollowing acclaimed performances at the Teatro Real in Madrid, Juan Diego Flórez records his first major opera role outside the bel canto repertoire, as he stars as Orphée in Gluck's most enduringly popular opera, sung in the original French of his 1774 Paris version. |
 Mendelssohn - Piano Trios Nos. 1 & 2Yo-Yo Ma (cello), Emanuel Ax (piano) & Itzhak Perlman (violin)To commemorate the Mendelssohn bicentennial in 2009, cellist Yo-Yo Ma, pianist Emanuel Ax, and violinist Itzhak Perlman collaborated together for the first time to perform and record the two Mendelssohn Piano Trios. The three players performed these works at Carnegie Hall in March 2009, and this Sony Classical documents this incredible collaboration with a studio album that finds the players in resplendent form. |
 Rosso - Italian Baroque AriasPatricia Petibon (soprano), Venice Baroque Orchestra, Andrea MarconiPatricia Petibon, admired for her command of Baroque style, records her first album of Italian Baroque arias partnered by Andrea Marcon and the Venice Baroque Orchestra. Petibon’s keen interpretive intelligence and gleaming tone summon into vivid life a wealth of characters tangled up in the power plays of gods, kings, witches, and devils. |
 Susan Gritton sings Britten, Delius & FinziSusan Gritton (soprano), BBC Symphony Orchestra, Edward GardnerOne of Britain’s leading lyric sopranos, Susan Gritton here performs a unique programme of works by three English composers, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Edward Gardner, ENO’s Musical Director. This premiere recording of the version of Delius’s A Late Lark for soprano voice is currently the only available recording of the work. |
 Marco dall’Aquila - Pieces for LutePaul O’Dette (lute: 6-course lute by Paul Thomson, London, 1984, after Magno Tieffenbrucker, c. 1550; 6-course alto lute by Grant Tomlinson, Vancouver, 1997, after Italian models)Star lutenist Paul O’Dette turns his focus on Marco dall’Aquila, a composer of remarkable individuality and creativity. In the lute’s transition from late-medieval style into fully formed Renaissance idiom, Marco was a pivotal figure and his trademark style brisé influenced the development of instrumental music for the next 200 years. |
 Father and Son - Wagner Scenes And AriasSimon O'Neill (heldentenor), New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, Pietari InkinenHeldentenor Simon O’Neill has recorded a solo album for EMI Classics featuring scenes and arias from Wagner’s Lohengrin, Die Walküre, Siegfried, Götterdämmerung and Parsifal. O’Neill, “one of the most exciting tenor voices of his generation,” is partnered by the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra under conductor Pietari Inkinen. Also featured are Susan Bullock as Sieglinde and Kundry, and Sir John Tomlinson as Hagen. |
 Mozart: Idomeneo, K366Gundala Janowitz (soprano), Luciano Pavarotti (tenor), Neilson Taylor (baritone), Enriqueta Tarrés (soprano), Richard Lewis (tenor), David Hughes (tenor) & Dennis Wicks (bass), London Philharmonic Orchestra & The Glyndebourne Chorus, John PritchardMozart is very much Glyndebourne’s signature composer and as a point of fact Glyndebourne was instrumental in putting Mozart back into the repertoire in the UK, so much so that the performing edition of Idomeneo was commissioned by Glyndebourne’s music director Fritz Busch. Glyndebourne’s 1951 Messel production of Mozart’s Idomeneo was the first professional performance in Great Britain. This 1964 recording is from the last staging of the Messel production and an opera John Pritchard had conducted at Glyndebourne since 1952. Pritchard was a consummate Mozartian and this recording allows, for the first time, Janowitz and Pavarotti to be heard before their respective international careers took off. |
 Liszt & Reubke - Great Organ Works - DVDRoberto Marini (at the Great Organ of the St-François church in Lausanne, Switzerland)Including the famous Prelude and Fugue on BACH by Liszt and the great Sonata on the 94th Psalm by J. Reubke, this is an essential purchase for organ enthusiasts. It also includes a 17 minute interview with Prof. Roberto Marini. |
 BBC Radio 3 CD ReviewSaturday 10th April 2010 |
Building a Library - Suk: Asrael Symphony, Op. 27 |
 First Choice(coupled with A Fairy Tale, Op. 16 & Serenade for String Orchestra in E flat, Op. 6)Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Jiri Belohlavek |
Disc of the Week |
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14Anima Eterna, Jos van Immerseel |
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