"Gardiner and his orchestra bring a sense of drama to "Harold" which equals the greatest readings, including those of Beecham and Davis. Causse delivers a highly sensitive and understated reading. The recorded sound is excellent. Highly recommended listening."
One of the Great Performances of Berlioz's "Harold in Italy"
John Kwok | New York, NY USA | 08/27/2001
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Gardiner and his period instrument ensemble have rendered one of the finest performances I have heard of Berlioz's "Harold in Italy". It is probably comparable in quality to Sir Colin Davis' critcially acclaimed recording with the Concertgebouw Orchestra. Certainly the sound quality is exceptional. I found Gardiner's interpretation quite riveting, filled with excitement. Anyone looking for a splendid account of this Berlioz work will not be disappointed."
Bought, satisfied and not looking for alternatives.
Steven Guy | Croydon, South Australia | 09/18/2006
(5 out of 5 stars)
"This recording is amazingly good. I used to think of 19th century Romantic music as "stuffy", "stodgy" and "sentimental", yet recordings like this have completely changed my mind.
This is a wondrous recording the viola solo is handled by the soloist with great care and style and the orchestra plays with great boldness, style, colour and expressiveness. The work is new to me and I would not have normally bought a recording of this work had it not been for the HIP/period instrument approach of this CD. I am knocked out by this CD. It is a work that I now love and I listen to it when I need an emotional pick-me-up.
Gardiner's Beethoven & Mendelssohn Violin Concertos with Viktoria Mullova (period violin) and les Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique (on period instruments) is a good disc to buy before or after this one. Both are excellent."
Back from Oblivion!
Giordano Bruno | Wherever I am, I am. | 07/20/2010
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Back from "forgottenness" for me, I mean. I had an intense Berlioz phase as a teenager, when I played his music in the school orchestra and heard it on LPs. Then my musical focus shifted in time and I lost interest in anything composed after Mozart but before Schoenberg. John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Revolutionnaire have revived my crush on Berlioz with their DVD performance of his opera Les Troyens and with this stunningly evocative interpretation of Harold en Italie. Yes, I have heard Colin Davis's version, and yes, I do prefer Gardiner's. The orchestral colors are clearer and the phrasing is more transparent, and it helps that the sound recording on this CD is unusually accurate.
Harold en Italie is named after the lugubriously romantic poem by Lord Byron, but it was inspired more directly by Berlioz's visit to Italy in 1831. Listeners often imagine that the lovely melody given to the viola represents the pensive observer Harold. The symphony is a riot of musical impressionism, all sunlight and mountain crags and adolescent yearnings. Adolescent? So it sounds to me, but then I regard the entire romantic era as a phenomenon of cultural adolescence. Probably that was what appealed to me about Harold and the Symphonie Fantastique when i was an adolescent myself, and probably my current appreciation is a sign that I've entered my second adolescence. The "stages of life" have been augmented, you know. The cycle used to be roughly: infancy, childhood, youth/adolescence, independent adulthood, maturity, senescence/second-childhood. Almost universal retirement and extended lifespans have inserted another stage - second teenagerhood - between maturity and senescence.
But I still can't read Byron."
A Core Berlioz Disc
Aronne | 03/11/2009
(5 out of 5 stars)
"Berlioz's Harold en Italie, Op. 16 is a work that is just as fine as (if not better than) his Symphonie fanstastique, Op. 14. I became acquainted with Harold first and can vouch for its quality. The integration of the viola into the symphony is masterly - done as only Berlioz would or could.
Gardiner's interpretation has consistent bite, though his period style never sacrifices the poetic feeling that must be inherent in a work based on Byron (though in only the loosest sense). The Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique plays with flair and feeling to the point that its players (plus the violist Gérard Caussé) convince you that this music can be performed no other way. I have compared this performance to Sir Colin Davis's Philips recording and prefer this one. Both are different enough to justify duplication, however.
Tristia is a delicious work that deserves to be heard more often. It is a collection of three pieces for choir and orchestra which Berlioz wrote in 1831, 1842, and1844. The first, a "Religious Meditation" based on a poem by Sir Thomas More, is subtle in its treatment of the poem's theme of heaven. The translation from English to French loses the rhymes but not the beauty. The second piece, a ballad describing the death of Ophelia, is written beautifully for ladies' chorus. It is one of the most gorgeous ladies' choruses of which I am aware. The third, a funeral march for the Hamlet, is a dramatic work with wordless chorus. It is interesting to compare this work to the March to the Scaffold from Symphonie fantastique. This work is less grotesque; it's powerful climax makes the final descent into silence thrilling.
The Mondeverdi Choir cannot be praised enough. Its tones are beautiful, and in the funeral march, dramatic to an impressive degree. The fine choir is matched well by Gardiner and his forces.
Overall, I cannot recommend this album too highly. This work has no uncomfortably track divisions: the album may be safely downloaded in mp3 format without any worries. But whether you download it, buy it used, or find it through your library, the key thing is to here the persuasive music-making recorded here. It demonstrates keenly that the music of the past often contain more excitement that we may ever imagine."
Track Listings (7) - Disc #1
