Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique & Rameau: Suite de Hippolyte et Aricie

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an arresting juxtaposition … Smart work from the uncredited harpsichordist and taut direction by Daniel Harding anchor the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s performance of the suite from Hippolyte... — BBC Music Magazine, December 2016, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 26th Aug 2016
Catalogue No: HMC902244
Label: Harmonia Mundi
Length: 70 minutes

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Rameau: Hippolyte et Aricie

Work length15:47

$9.00

$11.25

$13.05

I. Ouverture

Track length2:49

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

II. Air en rondeau pour les amours. Gracieusement

Track length2:04

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

III. Marche

Track length0:51

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

IV. Marche. Gracieusement

Track length1:51

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

V. Premier air des Furies. Gravement

Track length1:45

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

VI. Premier et deuxième air des Matelots. Gravement-Pesamment-Vivement

Track length2:09

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

VII. Premier rigaudon en tambourin. Très vite

Track length0:31

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

VIII. Deuxième air des Chasseurs et des chasseresses en rondeau

Track length1:54

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

IX . Première et deuxième gavottes. Vite

Track length1:53

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14

Work length54:58

Album only

I. Rêveries - Passions

Track length14:43

$1.60

$2.00

$2.35

II. Un bal

Track length6:26

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

III. Scène aux champs

Track length16:25

Album only

IV. Marche au supplice

Track length7:11

$1.20

$1.50

$1.75

V. Songe d'une nuit de sabbat

Track length10:13

$1.40

$1.75

$2.05

About
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A world might seem to divide the unbridled Romanticism of Berlioz from the highly controlled art of Rameau, standard-bearer of the French Late Baroque. And yet, at a distance of less than a century ('Hippolyte' was premiered in 1733, the 'Fantastique' in 1830), the same passion links two works more similar than their stylistic divergence might suggest. There is the same audacity in the orchestration, combined with an innate sense of drama that springs repeated rhythmic and harmonic surprises. The Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra performs here a task requiring unusual versatility under their Music Director, Daniel Harding, establishing a dialogue between two very different pioneers.

Daniel Harding is also Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and Music Partner of the New Japan Philharmonic. He takes up the baton at the Orchestre de Paris -the first British maestro in the orchestra’s history - this September, 2016. He is Conductor Laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra for life.

Reviews

December 2016

an arresting juxtaposition … Smart work from the uncredited harpsichordist and taut direction by Daniel Harding anchor the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra’s performance of the suite from Hippolyte et Aricie … With vibrato selectively applied, Harding’s Symphonie Fantastique rivals Philippe Herreweghe’s in its translucency, yet he has a Mahlerian quality, at once highly detailed and expansive.

CD Review 27th August 2016

I like the combination; the way it emphasises Rameau’s sense of colour and dramatic daring … an audacious coupling, I enjoyed it a lot, not just the idea but also the execution

October 2016

vibrant, pointed, stylish Rameau…more massive than our ears are used to but still quick on its feet … Harding’s Berlioz is resilient, pliant, conducted with a temporal freedom that always seems ambitious but ends up feeling electrifyingly right … Turn from Harding to his current peers – perhaps even to Charles Munch or Igor Markevitch – and it’s like going from IMAX cinema to living-room black-and-white.

October 2016

the key seems to lie in the really very surprising string tone that Harding draws from his Swedish orchestra in both works. They have an acidic edge in the Rameau, which reminds you of the period specialists, but Harding’s masterstroke is to carry this on into the Berlioz, creating an utterly distinctive soundworld for the Symphonie Fantastique … fascinating on both a musical and an intellectual level

1st September 2016

Harding’s own Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra are stylish in both. There’s some brazen playing to enjoy – the low brass in March to the Scaffold sound like a foghorn – but the impression of a lack of refinement is deceptive: the balance and pace are always tautly in check.

3rd September 2016

Daniel Harding’s gilt-edged Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra…[find] exceptional detail and expressiveness in these searing readings of Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique and Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie suite. The Rameau is crisp and precise with venomous fire in its belly…the Berlioz is ripe, explosive and furiously exciting

16th September 2016

the performance is a cracker. The Swedes play with a passion, swagger and relish for the grotesque that makes a nonsense of national stereotypes, and Harding’s attention to detail is exemplary without impeding the music’s drama

19th October 2016

The dances from Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie are sprightly in rhythm and crisp in articulation. The overall effect is one of highly sculpted music-making, though not without moments of impressive, full-bodied vehemence. The Berlioz is volatile, with Harding relishing the surprises that come from his refusal to smooth out rough edges.

1st October 2016

This is my new favourite Symphonie Fantastique on modern instruments, and it should be yours too … Everything sounds superb (sample the church bell in the last movement), and Harding knits everything together with an impressive sureness of intent ... Enormous fun.

Classical Ear 4th November 2016

a crisply enunciated, stylistically credible performance, from artistically deployed harpsichord continuo to the last double dot … be privileged to hear Harding commanding a detailed instrument-by-instrument understanding of Berlioz’s scoring, expressive and dynamic markings meticulously detailed and enthrallingly expounded to form an awesome aural portrait of the ‘heroics’, terrors and ‘poetics’ pervading this extraordinary work.

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