SACD. Naxos Archive

BERLIOZ: Roméo et Juliette ‒ Soloists/ Valery Gergiev on London Sym. Live SACD & Soloists/Robin Ticciati on Linn CD

by Audiophile Audition | Nov 17, 2016 | SACD & Other Hi-Res Reviews

BERLIOZ: Roméo et Juliette ‒ Olga Borodina, mezzo-sop. / Kenneth Tarver, tenor / Evgeny Nikitin, bass-bari. / Guildhall School Singers / London Sym. Chorus / London Sym. Orch. / Valery Gergiev ‒ London Symphony Live 2SACD LSO0762 (2 SACDs), 57:06, 33:19 (7/8/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ***: BERLIOZ: Roméo et Juliette ‒ Katija Dragojevic, mezzo-sop. / Andrew Staples, tenor / Alastair Miles, bass / Swedish Radio Choir / Swedish Radio Sym. Orch. / Robin Ticciati ‒ Linn CKD 521 (2 CDs), TT: 94:00 (10/14/16) [Distr. by Naxos] ****: Two approaches to a Berlioz classic; one SACD and one CD. Berlioz’s hybrid masterwork, dubbed by the composer a symphonie dramatique, could be considered an advance on Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Like Beethoven’s final symphony, it includes among its forces vocal soloists, chorus, and orchestra. But whereas Beethoven’s work is a symphony with an uncommon choral finale (and some boneheaded commentators still take the composer to task for daring to tinker with the basic tenets of symphonic construction), Berlioz’s conception is more radical, incorporating as it does set pieces that could only be considered orchestral tone poems (before the fact) along with lengthy narrative-dramatic sections delivered by the soloists and orchestra. Perhaps the only genuinely symphonic […]