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SACD, Berlioz (composer)
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Berlioz: La damnation de Faust
Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano), Bryan Hymel (tenor), Christopher Purves (baritone), Gábor Bretz (bass)
London Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Guildhall School Singers, Tiffin Children's Chorus, Tiffin Girls' Choir, Tiffin Boys' Choir, Sir Simon Rattle
The work and its style – especially the virtuosity and panache required – have clearly remained in the orchestra’s collective memory…Overall it’s a tightly organised and carefully paced achievement... —
Awards:
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Record Review, 23rd March 2019, Record of the Week
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International Classical Music Awards, 2019, Nominee - Opera
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Gergiev has plenty of insights...The playing for the London Symphony Orchestra is, as so often, exceptionally refined, yet very much alive and full of colour...Under Gergiev, there is an exceptional... —
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Special offer. Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette
Michèle Losier (mezzo-soprano), Samuel Boden (tenor) & David Soar (bass)
BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Chorus, Sir Andrew Davis
A top-class performance and recording of a wonderful masterpiece. —
Awards:
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BBC Music Magazine, November 2016, Choral & Song Choice
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Special offer. Berlioz: Harold en Italie
RecommendedJames Ehnes (viola), James Ehnes (violin)
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra, Sir Andrew Davis
Davis and his production team have worked hard to keep James Ehnes's quite ravishingly beautiful playing in focus..It sounds as if Davis sees the work as more lyrical and Romantic...than as... —
Awards:
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Presto Recordings of the Year, Finalist 2015
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Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ, Op. 25
RecommendedVéronique Gens (Marie), Alastair Miles (Herod/Ishmaelite Father), Yann Beuron (Narrator), Stephan Loges (Joseph)
Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Robin Ticciati
Beuron, still probably France's finest lyric tenor, a compelling Recitant with open, ardent tones and warm delivery...Miles is a splendidly anguished but restrained Herod and benign Ishmaelite,... —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 2nd December 2013
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Berlioz: Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17
RecommendedOlga Borodina (mezzo-soprano), Kenneth Tarver (tenor), Evgeny Nikitin (bass)
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus & Guildhall School Singers, Valery Gergiev
Gergiev, in this live account, inclines towards operatic fire and pace, occasionally headlong, but with a clarity and hushed, atmospheric pianissimo finely captured by the spacious SACD recording. —
Awards:
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Presto Recording of the Week, 8th July 2016
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Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini
Gregory Kunde (Cellini), Laura Claycomb (Teresa), Darren Jeffery (Balducci), Andrew Kennedy (Francesco), Isabelle Cals (Ascanio), John Relyea (Pope Clement VII), Peter Coleman-Wright (Fieramosca), Jacques Imbrailo (Pompeo)
London Symphony Chorus & London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Colin Davis
The combination of technology and the conductor's unimpaired élanmakes for glowing textures and shattering climaxes. —
Awards:
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Gramophone Magazine, August 2008, Editor's Choice
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the playing here is satisfyingly mellow and vibrant, with warm strings and sturdy woodwind, yet also refreshing and translucent. This is aided by Andrew Davis's tempos fairly spacious and unforced... —
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Special offer. Berlioz: Grande Messe des Morts, Op. 5 (Requiem)
Bror Magnus Tødenes (tenor)
Choir of Collegiûm Mûsicûm, Bergen Philharmonic Choir, Edvard Grieg Kor, Royal Northern College of Music Choir, Eikanger-Bjørsvik Musikklag, Musicians from the Bergen Philharmonic Youth Orchestra & Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Edward Gardner
[Gardner] has the measure of this work – of its pacing, its contrasts and, not least, of its idiosyncrasies. Among my favourite moments here is the momentous hush before the final ‘mors stupebit’…Achieving... —
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Claudio Abbado: The Last Concert
Recorded in May 2013, Philharmonie Berlin
Deborah York (soprano), Stella Doufexis (mezzo-soprano)
Berliner Philharmoniker, Claudio Abbado
The legendary Abbado transparency is evident throughout this account [of the Mendelssohn] – a textural refinement that steers clear of preciousness and ever draws attention to itself. What needs... —
