Essential Berlioz discs.

[vinteuil]

Paul McCreesh, the 1837 Grande Messe des Morts
F.-X. Roth, les Siècles - Symphonie Fantastique
I wd also want les Nuits d'été
The 11 CD brillant box with Eliahu Inbal is a pretty good starting place for any Berliozian pilgrimage.
Plus you should read David Cairns...

... and I wdn't want to be without :

Requiem op 5, Grande Messe des Morts - Norrington, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, Vokalensemble Stuttgart
Messe Solennelle [1824] - John Eliot Gardiner. Orch: Rev: et Rom:, Monteverdi Choir
Symphonie Fantastique - Minkowski; les Musiciens du Louvre, Mahler Chamber Orchestra
Symphonie Fantastique - Norrington, London Classical Players
Benvenuto Cellini - Norrington, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart des SWR, MDR Rundfunkchor Leipzig
Benvenuto Cellini - Nelson, Orchestre National de France, Choeur de Radio France
L' Enfance du Christ - Norrington, Radio-Sinfonieorchester Stuttgart, SWR Vokalensemble Stuttgart
L' Enfance du Christ - Gardiner, Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon, Monteverdi Choir
Harold en Italie - John Eliot Gardiner, Orch: Rev: et Rom:
Les Troyens - Davis, LSO [live]

[mahlerei]

There’s no doubt Sir Colin Davis had a very special way with Berlioz. That said, I much prefer his Philips cycle to his LSO Live one; there’s a proselytizing zeal to the first that I don’t hear in the second.

High;ights of the Philips cycle:
The Requiem and Te Deum (never been bettered, IMO).
Les Troyens
Benvenuto Cellini (an astonishing work, full of wonderful things)
Symphonie fantastique (Concergebouw): Universal remastered and reissued this as a high-res download a few years ago and it’s even more of a stunner than it was on LP. I'm really puzzled about comments re the murky sound; that couldn't be further from the truth here.

In recent years there have been soe excellent recordings of the Symphonie fantastique. Among them is the vigorous and refreshing Robin Ticciati/SCO performance (Linn) and the musically/sonically spectacular pairing of the SF and its companion piece Lélio, from Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony (CSO Resound). Gérard Depardieu is the splendid narrator in the latter.

As for the overtures, I was much impressed with that other Davis, Sir Andrew, who leads the Bergen Phil in a thrilling selection of HB’s best (Chandos).

[vinteuil]

... for me the sound-world of Berlioz is so very particular that, once having heard his works performed in an Historically-Informed style, there is something very deadening in going back to a 'conventional' non-HIPP rendition. I grew up with Davis, and still have great respect for what he did - but I now need the more specific colours obtainable by respecting Berlioz's intentions. I need ophicleides!!!

[Ferretfancy]

I have a treasured stereo LP of selections from The Damnation of Faust with Nicolai Gedda, Rita Gorr and Gerard Souzay and the French National opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Cluytens. It was on HMV ASD430, and later on Classics for Pleasure. Although EMI must have had all the performers, for some reason they never issued the work complete, and as far as I know it has never appeared on CD.
Some years ago I made a request for it to be played on CD Masters, and Rob Cowan duly obliged. I would dearly love to know if possibly they did after all record it complete, it would be great if this was the case.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

I need ophicleides!!!

http://www.wessex-tubas.co.uk/product/c-ophicleide/

[vinteuil]

... does anyone know anything about this collection -

http://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00J3FKAKI

?

[Richard Barrett]

... for me the sound-world of Berlioz is so very particular that, once having heard his works performed in an Historically-Informed style, there is something very deadening in going back to a 'conventional' non-HIPP rendition. I grew up with Davis, and still have great respect for what he did - but I now need the more specific colours obtainable by respecting Berlioz's intentions. I need ophicleides!!!

Quite. I should say I didn't grow up with any Berlioz at all, and somehow didn't take any notice of his work until some time in the late 90s when I heard JEG's Symphonie fantastique. So that is how Berlioz sounds to me, sharp-edged and pungent in a way I've never heard from Davis.

[BBMmk2]

http://www.wessex-tubas.co.uk/product/c-ophicleide/

Not a bad company. The only trouble with their tubas, is that the material they use, is nothing like a Besson, for example. The Wessex Tubas, are lighter in weight, and so robust handling, would not be a very good idea.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

So that is how Berlioz sounds to me, sharp-edged and pungent in a way I've never heard from Davis.

Yes - I can understand that.

[LeMartinPecheur]

I have a treasured stereo LP of selections from The Damnation of Faust with Nicolai Gedda, Rita Gorr and Gerard Souzay and the French National opera Orchestra and Chorus conducted by Cluytens. It was on HMV ASD430, and later on Classics for Pleasure. Although EMI must have had all the performers, for some reason they never issued the work complete, and as far as I know it has never appeared on CD.
Some years ago I made a request for it to be played on CD Masters, and Rob Cowan duly obliged. I would dearly love to know if possibly they did after all record it complete, it would be great if this was the case.

Ff, I fear you have all you're going to get The Wiki Cluytens discography mentions only an 'abridged' 1-LP Faust with your named soloists, and my 1965 EMG Guide just lists that one 'highlights' LP, ALP 1860/ ASD 430. So unless Warner suddenly pull up some completely unissued tapes, that seems to be it.

[Petrushka]

The Damnation of Faust is a work I've never really got on with despite being present at both rehearsal and performance of the Chicago SO/Solti Prom from 1989 that is available on DVD.

[teamsaint]

There’s no doubt Sir Colin Davis had a very special way with Berlioz. That said, I much prefer his Philips cycle to his LSO Live one; there’s a proselytizing zeal to the first that I don’t hear in the second.

High;ights of the Philips cycle:
The Requiem and Te Deum (never been bettered, IMO).
Les Troyens
Benvenuto Cellini (an astonishing work, full of wonderful things)
Symphonie fantastique (Concergebouw): Universal remastered and reissued this as a high-res download a few years ago and it’s even more of a stunner than it was on LP. I'm really puzzled about comments re the murky sound; that couldn't be further from the truth here.

In recent years there have been soe excellent recordings of the Symphonie fantastique. Among them is the vigorous and refreshing Robin Ticciati/SCO performance (Linn) and the musically/sonically spectacular pairing of the SF and its companion piece Lélio, from Riccardo Muti and the Chicago Symphony (CSO Resound). Gérard Depardieu is the splendid narrator in the latter.

As for the overtures, I was much impressed with that other Davis, Sir Andrew, who leads the Bergen Phil in a thrilling selection of HB’s best (Chandos).

I noticed that in Foyles yesterday, and am giving it a spin in the Naxos Library.

there are a couple of other Ticciati discs available too.

[aeolium]

I find The Damnation of Faust Berlioz' most intense and concentrated work and one of his finest achievements, the inspiration of the mature disillusioned composer compared with the youthful fantasy of the Symphonie Fantastique. It reflects his continuous fascination with Goethe's interpretation of the Faust legend (but only the first part, not the mystical, philosophical and redemptive Faust Part II). Here are savage harmonies, driving rhythms, the diabolical tritone forbidden by medievals, poetic and elegaic reflection in the later arias of Marguerite and Faust, as well as the sense of the pre-revolutionary and nationalist fervour in Europe of 1845-6 when the work was composed. John Warrack's comments (quoted in David Cairns' fine biography) aptly sum up the work's character: "[it is Faust's] own devouring solitude that precipitates the characters and events of the Damnation, so that these come to seem not a string of lurid or touching vignettes but a dramatization of the soul's condition, a nightmare progress from frustration at the failure of learning, of easy companionship, of God, of nature, of love, into an ever more terrible isolation, whipped by the devil who cannot be escaped because he is within, until journey's end is reached in the total dullness, the numbing of all sensation and the exclusion from any hope, that is hell." There is no salvation by the eternal feminine for this Faust.

My two favourite recordings are firstly the fiery and idiomatic 1959 Markevitch with the Orchestre Lamoureux and soloists who I think would mostly be unknown today, and secondly the modern one by Kent Nagano and the Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon with a fine cast including a superb Mephistopheles in José van Dam (Nagano has also recorded Busoni's Doktor Faust). The Nagano recording is available very cheaply as a download on Prestoclassical.

[richardfinegold]

I too 'grew up' with Colin Davis in Berlioz, but I rarely find any of those recordings satisfying anymore. They all seem tidy, well ordered, nicely played, sedate, and just plain dull. Berlioz was a wild eyed Revolutionary, after all, and that never comes through. Munch, Monteux, Paray, Toscanini and Beechum all from the Golden Age of Conductors are much preferable. Dutoit and the Montreal Orchestra are more worthy updates, and JEG for the HIPP flavor get my listening vote

[Bryn]

I too 'grew up' with Colin Davis in Berlioz, but I rarely find any of those recordings satisfying anymore. They all seem tidy, well ordered, nicely played, sedate, and just plain dull. Berlioz was a wild eyed Revolutionary, after all, and that never comes through. Munch, Monteux, Paray, Toscanini and Beechum all from the Golden Age of Conductors are much preferable. Dutoit and the Montreal Orchestra are more worthy updates, and JEG for the HIPP flavor get my listening vote

Interesting that the Nelson recording of Les Troyens was chosen over either of the Colin Davis options. I have not listened to any of them yet, but the three completed operas are all represented in the Warner Complete Works box by Nelson recordings.