0 Berlioz: Overtures

“... a vivid , large-scale recording that brings out Berlioz’s detail really clearly, of which the excellent Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra players make a great deal. I personally feel the Berlioz’s textures are most truly rendered by instruments of his time, in the brass especially, but the playing here is satisfyingly mellow and vibrant, with warm strings and sturdy woodwind, yet also refreshing and translucent. This is aided by Andrew Davis’s tempos, fairly spacious and unforced but never slack, and now and then sizzling... a welcome release.” --BBC Music magazine – April 2013  - Performance ****   Recording *****

 

"...Sir Andrew Davis conducts these colourful and inventive scores with panache and he secures colourful, rhythmically precise performances from the Norwegian orchestra which plays with zest throughout the programme. The Chandos recording is up to the usual high standards of the house - I listened to this hybrid SACD as a CD - and Hugh Macdonald’s succinct notes are ideal. If you’re looking for a set of Berlioz overtures - a highly desirable addition to any collection - then this disc has very strong claims on your attention." --John Quinn - MusicWeb-International.com - 4 March 2013

“ ... [Davis] on fine form here with the Bergen Philharmonic. The opening to the Corsaire holds no terrors for them ... The lesser-known overtures reveal their virtues well.  Davis, abetted by an excellent recording, responds vividly to Berlioz’s pioneering orchestral textures...” --John Warrack – International Record Review – February 2013

Detail: Berlioz: Overtures

0 Berlioz: Herminie, Les Nuits D'ete; Ravel: Sheherazade

“In her mid-forties, this voice has become richer and even more expressive, and he works on this disc suit her to perfection. She not only pronounces the words, she feels them...Her Nuits d'ete reilshes hues both light and dark, and if she'd been around to sing Berlioz's Prix de Rome cantata Herminie in 1828, who know, he might have won gold instead of silver!” --BBC Music Magazine, October 2012 ****

“[Gens is] alive and vivid, giving a passionate account of the wonderful Sur les Lagunes. Elsewhere, she seems to me in too much of a hurry.” --Sunday Times, 9th July 2012

“warm, sensitive, the lyrical French soprano par excellence...Gens bring [Herminie] to life as sympathetically as any of her operatic portrayals...It is unusual to encounter a recording of Les nuits d'ete in which the colouring is so consistent throughout...Gens has in her sights a purer kind of poetry.” --Gramophone Magazine, September 2012

“As you might expect, Gens's singing has sharpened its musical perceptions still further and acquired even more shades of colour since [her] earlier recording. No one today delivers French song with the combination of tonal beauty and verbal nuance she does, and each number of Nuits d'Eté offers a miniature masterclass...Pure ravishment.” --The Guardian, 21st June 2012 *****

Detail: Berlioz: Herminie, Les Nuits D'ete; Ravel: Sheherazade

0 Berlioz: Symphony Fantastisque, Etc

...[E]xcellent Berlioz performances... Leonard Bernstein's dramatic yet classically structured recording of the Symphonie fantastique was highly regarded when it was first issued, but outside of purchasing an import LP, American audiences have not been able to hear it in all its glory until now... I have always felt that Previn's ardent, exceptionally well played readings of...the composer's overtures is highly underrated... -- Rad Bennett, ClassicsToday.com [reviewing EMI 73338]

Detail: Berlioz: Symphony Fantastisque, Etc

0 Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Le Carnaval Romain

“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.” --Gramophone Magazine

“'Fantastique' indeed as the symphony has all its original colours via the stunning period instruments of Anima Eterna” -- Classic FM

“Wiry strings, characterful woodwinds, an original Erard harp and pianos tolling instead of bells — all reasons for pinning the ears back as you listen to the Symphonie Fantastique from Jos van Immerseel’s esteemed period instrument orchestra.” -- The Times

 “The forces are small, the sound translucent in Rêveries/Passions and Un Bal, brittle and dusty in the Marche au Supplice. Two Erard pianos replace the bells in Songe d'une Nuit du Sabbat, an odd, alluring sound. Scène aux Champs is particularly poetic” --The Independent

“...it is the sheer raw clarity of every line and colour in these Flemish players’ performance, and its effect on the rhythms, that strikes you, especially in their revelatory account of the opening movement.” --The Sunday Times

“Immerseel's approach, his choice of tempi and phrasing, are relatively conservative...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” --The Guardian

Detail: Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Le Carnaval Romain