BaL 15.10.11 - Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Stephen Johnson with a personal recommendation from the available recordings of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique

Available recordings:

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, John Eliot Gardiner
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Charles Mackerras
Kölner Rundfunk Sinfonie Orchester, Gary Bertini
Saito Kinen Orchestra, Ozawa
Vancouver International Festival Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Boston Symphony Orchestra, Charles Munch
Orchestre de Radio-Canada, Charles Munch
Sydney SO, Willem van Otterloo
New York Philharmonic, Leonard Bernstein
Radio Sinfonie Orchester Frankfurt, Eliahu Inbal
San Francisco SO, Pierre Monteux
Saarbrücken Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stanislaw Skrowaczewski
Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Rafael Kubelik
Baltimore Symphony Orchestra, David Zinman
Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Français, André Cluytens
Berliner Philharmoniker, Kempe
San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Yoav Talmi
New Jersey Symphony Orchestra, Zdenek Macal
Paris Conservatory Orchestra, Bruno Walter
Cleveland Orchestra, Pierre Boulez
Hungarian State Orchestra, János Ferencsik
New Philharmonia, Leopold Stokowski
Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, Herbert Kegel
Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam, Eduard van Beinum
The NBC Symphony, Bruno Walter
Cleveland Orchestra, Lorin Maazel
Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, Roger Norrington
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Zubin Mehta
Orchestre de Paris, Christoph Eschenbach
Orchester der Komischen Oper Berlin, Rolf Reuter
Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra, Andre Cluytens
Orchestra Sinfonica di Torino della RAI, Sergiu Celibidache
Slovak Philharmonic Orchestra, Zdenek Kosler
RIAS SO Igor Markevitch
Halle Orchestra, Sir John Barbirolli (2 versions)
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorin Maazel
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Ernest Ansermet (2 versions)
Philharmonia Orchestra, Esa-Pekka Salonen
Les siecles, François-Xavier Roth
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Yehudi Menuhin
Leningrad Philharmonic Orchestra, Gennadi Rozhdestvensky
Orchestre Lamoureux, Paris, Igor Markevitch
Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Jarvi
Utah Symphony Orchestra, Varujan Kojian
Orchestre National de l’ORTF, Jean Martinon
Hungarian Radio and Television Orchestra, Charles Munch
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis (studio version)
London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis (live version)
Concertgebouw Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis
RNRO, Sir Thomas Beecham
Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle
Les Musiciens du Louvre & Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Marc Minkowski
London Symphony Orchestra, André Previn
Anima Eterna, Jos van Immerseel
San Francisco Symphony, Michael Tilson Thomas
Philadelphia Orchestra, Muti
Berliner Philharmoniker, Mariss Jansons
Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Yannick Nézet-Séguin
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim
Orchestre de Paris, Daniel Barenboim
Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, Marek Janowski
London Classical Players, Sir Roger Norrington
Slovak Radio Symphony Orchestra, Pinchas Steinberg


Piano, arr. Liszt
Idil Biret
Roger Muraro
Leslie Howard
Nikolai Petrov (revised Petrov)
Antony Peebles

[makropulos]

Long list! And yet even with all those, my favourite recording seems not to be available at the moment - Paul Paray on Mercury.

[Petrushka]

Last time this featured in BaL I think that the Concertgebouw/Colin Davis version took the palm. It's still a hard act to follow and as a library version will do for me. Other favouritss not listed are Solti and Abbado both with the Chicago SO and Myun-Whun Chung with the Bastille Opera Orchestra. I have 14 versions altogether most of which don't appear on the above listing!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

There are also a VPO/Davis and a VPO/Haitink, both with great merit, that are not generally available.

[Barbirollians]

The Concertgebouw /Davis is still one hell of a great record and available for less than £4 on Amazon ! I am also a fan of the missing Abbado , Beecham and Barbirolli's recordings.

[vinteuil]

... well, of course, performances without ophicleides to be rejected before we start.

[Richard Tarleton]

Is John Eliot Gardiner's version currently available? (Orch.R&R) - recorded in the original room in Paris.....I listen to it occasionally. My only other recording on CD is Mackerras/RPO. I also have an old LP of Barenboim with the Orchestre de Paris.

[Richard Tarleton]

... well, of course, performances without ophicleides to be rejected before we start.

And yes JEG has an ophicleide

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

... well, of course, performances without ophicleides to be rejected before we start.

That should see off all the best performances.

[John Skelton]

I have Markevitch (very characterful & very French as it was then orchestral sound), Martinon, Boulez LSO (with Lélio), Minkowski (Les Musiciens du Louvre & Mahler Chamber Orchestra), two Norrington's (LCP & Stuttgart) & Gardiner Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique. I think the first I bought was Martinon (c. 1989), then Gardiner, then Norrington LCP. Which might give an entirely misleading impression of stability & organisation in my life .

I didn't set out to collect seven versions. But I do like the piece very much.

[Biffo]

The Mercury/Paray version is available from Amazon but only at silly prices. The CD version is on sale at £26.95 and the hybrid SACD from £38.99 with one copy at £45.53. Fortunately, I bought a copy when it was available at a sensible price. Why were so many of the Mercury re-releases available for such a short time and does anybody pay these silly prices?

The Paray is a fine peformance but my favourite is Martinon/ORTF Orchestra with Barbirolli and Davis very close behind.

[Nick Armstrong]

... well, of course, performances without ophicleides to be rejected before we start.

mais bien évidemment....

The France-Musique 'critics forum' programme (now called for reasons which elude all rational people, "Le Jardin des Critiques") considered the piece a couple of weeks ago.

The two recordings which emerged on top were by Les siècles, under François-Xavier Roth (2009, Musicales Actes Sud) and the Thomas Beecham performance with the Orchestre national de l'ORTF in 1959 for EMI.

With commendable lack of chauvinism, they chose Beecham as the best of the best, for its sheer vigour and style and hallucinatory brilliance, relegating their compatriot because the orchestra, ophicleides and all no doubt, just didn't have the 'oooomph'. I actually loved the grainy, woody, visceral sounds of Les siècles...

[LeMartinPecheur]

I can field an obscure CD version that hasn't had a mention yet: European Community Youth Orch under James Judd, live in Stockholm, 14/8/89, on something called the Digital Classics Collection. On the same label and also with the ECYO I have a decent Prokofiev 3rd pf conc with Barry Douglas. If the booklet is to be believed he also conducts!

These were given to me IIRC and I know nothing about their origins. Might they be an orchestra own label, perhaps just for performers and their families? They look quite professionally produced and are associated with something called the Digital Equipment Corporation.

Back on topic, the groaning shelves would also yield Concertgebouw/ Davis and, LCP/ Norrington on CD plus Orch Nat de l'ORTF/ Martinon on quadraphonic LP. I'd probably reach first for the Norrington, if only to avoid members' crushing disdain for lack of ophicleides!

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Whatever its alleged qualities, I don't think I'd ever consider the LCP/Norrington, simply because the conductor was at his most pompous when he was promoting it when it was first issued - "everyone will have to take account of my version..." What arrogance!

The tuba sounds quite good too.

[vinteuil]

o good, I knew I was right to have Norrington as my favourite.