Search - Hector Berlioz, Charles Dutoit, Orchestra symphonique de Montréal :: Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14

Berlioz' revolutionary orchestral showcase glows and glitter

Pater Ecstaticus | Norway | 03/20/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"When you love Dutoit's classic performance of Holst's 'The Planets' (1986), then you will certainly love this album (as well as the other way around). Both works are helped tremendously with a full and wide soundpicture, and mellifluous and disciplined playing by the magnificent Montreal Symphony Orchestra. Maestro Dutoit and his orchestra really make Berlioz' orchestral showpiece glow in all of its colorful splendour, but with enough tenderness and warm lyricism in the more reflective, dreamy parts. But 'Un bal' really sways and swaggers with appropriate grandiloquence. The 'Scene aux champs' is played wonderfully poised and concentrated, but with a lot of warmth as well, helped of course by the mellifluous, wonderfully blended tone of the orchestra. The 'Marche au supplice' and 'Songe d'une nuit du sabbat' are made into an ultimate showcase of orchestral color and power here, with wonderful 'attack' and 'bite', but also on the grandest scale imaginable; here, the wide acoustics really help as well! And what a magnificently creepy clarinet, 'col legno'-strings and what fantastically ominous bells, low strings and brass here in the last delirious scene!

This is a classic recording of Berlioz' revolutionary orchestral showpiece that makes one immerse in a veritable kaleidoscope of luxurious sounds, played and conducted fantastically. IMHO, this album is simply not to be missed."