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Klaus Mäkelä conducts Berlioz and Ravel
The Finnish conductor and the Orchestre de Paris present an incredibly colourful and terrifying reading of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique alongside a riotously chaotic account of Ravel's La valse.
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Berlioz's Les nuits d'été & Harold en Italie from John Nelson in Strasbourg
Vocal shape-shifter Michael Spyres tackles the song-cycle in the original orchestral keys, whilst viola-player Timothy Ridout is a warmly collegiate soloist in Harold on this clear-eyed, affectionate recording from Strasbourg.
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John Nelson on Berlioz
Ahead of his performance and recording of the Grande Messe des Morts at St Paul's Cathedral tomorrow evening to mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's death, the American conductor talks to Katherine about his fifty-year relationship with music which 'lit something up in me that's remained all my life'.
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Hector Berlioz – The Complete Works
Artists include Sir Roger Norrington, Sir Adrian Boult, André Previn, Louis Frémaux, Jean Martinon, Leonard Bernstein, Michel Plasson, Louis Langrée, John Eliot Gardiner, Sir John Barbirolli, Charles Dutoit, John Nelson, André Cluytens
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Berlioz from François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles
Tabea Zimmermann and Stéphane Degout are the soloists in period-instrument performances of Harold en Italie & Les nuits d'été.
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John Nelson conducts Les Troyens
Joyce DiDonato and Michael Spyres triumph as the doomed lovers in Berlioz's Classical epic, recorded live in Strasbourg earlier this year.
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Valery Gergiev and the LSO perform Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette
James enjoys Berlioz's dramatic setting of Shakespeare's immortal love-story with Valery Gergiev and the LSO.
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Hector Berlioz
Katherine takes up the 'Presto Recommends' baton this week and selects some favourite recordings of works by Hector Berlioz.
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Les Troyens - CD Choice
Ben Heppner (Enée), Michelle DeYoung (Didon), Petra Lang (Cassandre), Sara Mingardo (Anna), Peter Mattei (Chorèbe), Stephen Milling (Narbal), Kenneth Tarver (Iopas), Toby Spence (Hylas), Alan Ewing (Priam), Guang Yang (Hécube), Isabelle Cals (Ascagne), Tigran Martirossian (Panthée), Bülent Bezdüz (Helenus), Mark Stone (Un chef grec), Leigh Melrose (Un soldat troyen/Mercure), Orlin Annastassov (L'Ombre d'Hector), Andrew Greenan (Premiere Sentinelle), Roderick Earle (Deuxieme Sentinelle) London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Sir Colin Davis
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Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts from Paul McCreesh
With a massed choir of English and Polish singers and an orchestra which deploys as many authentic nineteenth-century instruments as possible, McCreesh plays up not only the sound and fury of Berlioz’s super-sized Requiem but also the astonishing range of textures which the young composer summons.
