Search - Berlioz, Humperdinck, Klemperer :: Symphonie Fantastique / Overture & Dream Pantomime

Given his outstanding credentials as a Mahler conductor, it should come as no surprise that Otto Klemperer's performance of Berlioz's youthful, hallucinogenic masterpiece is one of the best around. Typically, his tempos are rather slow in quick movements, and surprisingly quick in the central slow movement, but this doesn't in any way dampen the excitement he creates in the "March to the Scaffold" and final "Witches' Sabbath." In fact, Klemperer's preference for up-close focus on the woodwinds and his love of dark sounds adds a real touch of gothic horror to the work's most grotesque moments, and the Philharmonia plays with 100 percent commitment. A classic. --David Hurwitz