Essential Berlioz discs.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Buying the Philips Colin Davis 24(?) disc box set means I have all the Berlioz I could ever ask for. Sir Colin gave so much for the music of Berlioz.

The downside is that the box was clearly designed by a committee, with Romeo and Juliet included twice (the same performance).

[Barbirollians]

I should add

VPO /Davis - Romeo and Juliet
The Davis Philips disc of Overtures
The Pye Barbirolli Fantastique
Menuhin/Davis - Harold in Italy
Baker/barbirolli - Nuits d Ete but I should add the Crespin and Steber/Mitropoulos versions too . Baker singing the Death of Cleopatra too .
Les Troyens LSO Live Davis
Chicago SO/Abbado Fantastique

[richardfinegold]

The downside is that the box was clearly designed by a committee, with Romeo and Juliet included twice (the same performance).

The other downside is that Davis Berlioz is a tad over rated...

[EdgeleyRob]

The downside is that the box was clearly designed by a committee, with Romeo and Juliet included twice (the same performance).

I have that set.
The same performance of Lelio is included twice too IIRC.
I think this box was a coming together of 3 other sets (operas,orchestral and sacred music)hence the duplications.
I must admit I don't listen to much Berlioz these days

[Beef Oven!]

The other downside is that Davis Berlioz is a tad over rated...

This is a British forum.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

The other downside is that Davis Berlioz is a tad over rated...

In what way(s)?

[Richard Barrett]

The other downside is that Davis Berlioz is a tad over rated...

I didn't want to say that for fear of causing offence, but yes.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I didn't want to say that for fear of causing offence, but yes.

No offence taken. Just untrue.

[antongould]

If I remember correctly, top choice on CD Review for Les Nuits d'Eté went to Brigitte Ballys and L'Orchestre des Champs Elysées and Herreweghe. I still have yet to acquire it - and I also want to get hold of that McCreesh Grande Messe which Vinteuil mentions.

It was top choice MD and IMVVHO you are in for a treat ....

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I didn't want to say that for fear of causing offence, but yes.

Genuinely interested - but in what way(s)?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

No mention - yet - of the Symphonie Fantastique recording the conductor claimed "everybody" would have to take his version into account from then onwards.

[Richard Barrett]

Genuinely interested - but in what way(s)?

I guess I would say that for me his Berlioz recordings seem to aim at a generic orchestral sound which misses out on HB's more interestingly variegated/multilayered textures, as if he found them too outlandish and needed to tone them down.

[Nick Armstrong]

The downside is that the [Philips/Davis] box was clearly designed by a committee, with Romeo and Juliet included twice (the same performance).

Does it have the LSO or the Concertgebouw Fantastique? The latter is preferable, imho.

Symphonie Fantastique, Paul Paray/Detroit Symphony, Mercury Try the un bal movement for starters

Does it have the cornet part?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

No mention - yet - of the Symphonie Fantastique recording the conductor claimed "everybody" would have to take his version into account from then onwards.

Well - it is very good, even if the tempo for the March to the Scaffold is a bit steady: surely his Timpanist could have easily demonstrated that a single-handed semmiquaver passage was dead easy to accomplish? Even I could have shown him that - literally, if need be, with one hand tied behind my back!

But fantastic (!) detail and giving us Berlioz' instrumental sounds on the instruments he would have been familiar with for the first time: yep, I'd vote for it!


And Berlioz is one of my favourite Nineteenth Century composers - one of only six from that period whose mature output never fails to excite, delight and astonish me. Many thanks to ts for starting the Thread.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I guess I would say that for me his Berlioz recordings seem to aim at a generic orchestral sound which misses out on HB's more interestingly variegated/multilayered textures, as if he found them too outlandish and needed to tone them down.

That's interesting - it was Davis' recordings that first turned me on to Berlioz; and the detailed lines of instrumental texture was what specifically caught my attention. Even with the period sound now firmly established in my memory by Gardiner and Norrington, there are some aspects of the works that Davis above all other conductors brings out for me - in particular, as I mentioned earlier, in the two recordings of Les Troyens*. (Although I really shouldn't say "above all others" for this work as - ahem - I only know the rather functional Dutoit alternative. I noticed a Blu-Ray JEGgers disc earlier - I foresee some spending approaching: not least to do with the fact that I don't own a Blu-Ray player!)

* - and the last LSO LIVE Grand Messe des Mortes, too!