Search - Hector Berlioz, Colin Davis, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra :: Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

Yes, This Is Still The Best

Socrates Stewart | Owings Mills, MD | 05/18/2008

(5 out of 5 stars)

""Symphonie Fantasique" can be a truly haunting,engaging experience or it can be rambling and tedious. It takes the listener to so many emotional peaks and valleys only a skilled, sympathetic conductor with a multifaceted orchestra can succeed.



Colin Davis is the master to be sure. This performance is lush and beautiful, moody and magnficient. Despite being from the analog era, the overall sound quality is magnficent. The recording provides a transparent window to a wonderful orchestral experience.



This album, Colin Davis conducting this Berlioz classic, is one of those dozen classical CD's I'd never want to be caught without.



Listeners unfamiliar with this work, try this CD. It's moderately priced, a good value, and a great disc you'll enjoy for the ages.



Those who love the symphony, compare this to your preferred version. You'll probably love this one.



For those who once loved this work on vinyl but had doubts how it would survive the digital conversion process, chin up! This performance will KO all those DDD alternatives. If you sacrifice a little technology, it will be compensated by performance quality.



A MUST HAVE!!!! PERIOD.

"

"There can be only one"...........Connor MacLeod

Timothy Mikolay | Pittsburgh, PA | 04/04/2009

(5 out of 5 stars)

"As ridiculous as MacLeod's assertion may be, it speaks volumes about what this recording has always meant to me. Of the dozens of recordings I have of the major 'war-horses' per se (Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler symphonies, Rachmaninov concerti, Baroque sewing machine music), this is the ONLY one I'll ever want.



Recorded in 1974, the most readily apparent characteristic of this reading is its momentum. Davis doesn't allow the orchestra to rest for a moment, creating tension whenever and where ever necessary. So many performances of 'Fantastique' lack the simple inertia to keep this score alive and the Dutch respond to Davis magically. The first movement, difficult to convey because of the orchestration parrying between sparse and complex, is performed with such ease and color; I simply have not heard a better first movement anywhere.



The second movement waltz, 'At the Ball', is absolutely gorgeous, especially with the added cornet. Anytime I hear this waltz without the cornet part, I'm ready to call the guilty conductor and ask him why he left it out. It simply cannot go without. Again the Concertgebouw performs this movement with such life and joy it dances off the disc!



The third movement is simply amazing. The english horn solo at the beginning and end (the shepherd's pipe) of the movement is forlorn, impassioned, lonely, it is what typifies a benchmark reading for this piece. The Berlioz bass drum at the end is perfect for the coming storm. In general, the Concertgebouw bass drum for this recording is right on. The depth, the bass, the power, it's perfect and perfectly played.

One of the better moments of the CD, the March to the Scaffold, is strictly paced here but the orchestra accentuates throughout and conveys a truly sinister scene. Listen to the bassoons and how they pierce the Concertgebouw acoustic like no other. Marvelous!



The last movement is the best Witch's Sabbath I know; the creepy beginning leading up to the ensuing Dies Irae is only just the beginning. The bells used in this recording I have yet to hear anywhere since and never on any disc before. They set the stage for some of the most frenzied and expertly played Berlioz in recorded history (I'm dead serious about this). The low brass Dies Irae is striking and never lets up. The prickly dance that interrupts the Dies shows us a level of execution the woodwinds of very few orchestras ever demonstrated. The sextuplets that lead up to the main fugue are incredible and their reaffirmation at the ending really make a statement about the greatness of this offering.



This recording is unparalleled. Because I love this music so much and Davis found the perfect orchestra for this recording session, I have not yet found a reason to buy another. It IS a benchmark for this work; it is an incontestable addition to anyone's music library."

The pioneer of the tonal phantasmagoric!

Hiram Gomez Pardo | Valencia, Venezuela | 04/10/2010

(5 out of 5 stars)

"
The "Symphonie Fantastique" still remains as a landmark into the classical universe. In many ways, it might be labeled the summit of the highest peak of an artistic expression.



It is far beyond and behind a simple symphony. It contains many elements that make of it unique and inimitable. The concept of the fixed idea, the suggestive landscapes and the cornerstone of what would be to come. The raising of the Symphonic Poem, with Liszt and Strauss as its maxim exponents.



That feature is at the same time, the most difficult obstacle to surpass at the moment to perform it. Because you have to take into account this is an incorporeal score, where the kaleidoscopic nature permeates the work from start to finish. That requires a vivid imagination as well as an exuberant melodic flight all the way through and obviously a first-order orchestra to materialize this ambitious project.



There have been countless versions over he years but just a few have been capable to express with majestic intensity and radiant lyricism its portentous meaning. Moreover, it could be stated that to win with this Symphony you must be hovered by a special pathos. And you may be sure Colin Davis has a lot of it. Besides, if you consider the presence of The Concertgebouw, what else may be requested? .This version captures with all the possible spell this magic poem.



Don't miss it.

"