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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. — BBC Music Magazine, July 2008, 4 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 28th Apr 2008
Catalogue No: LSO0623
Label: LSO Live
Length: 2 hours 27 minutes

Gramophone Magazine

August 2008

Editor's Choice

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Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini

Work length2:27:55

$42.20

$52.75

Isabelle Cals (soloist), Darren Jeffery (soloist), Gregory Kunde (soloist), Andrew Foster-Williams (soloist), Isabella Cals (soloist), Laura Claycomb (soloist), Peter Coleman-Wright (soloist), London Symphony Chorus (soloist), Jacques Imbrailo (soloist), Alasdair Elliott (soloist), John Relyea (soloist), Andrew Kennedy (soloist)
London Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Chorus
Sir Colin Davis

Ouverture

Track length10:08

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Teresa!

Track length1:32

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Enfin il est sorti

Track length2:17

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Les belles fleurs!

Track length4:13

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length3:50

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Benvenuto Cellini: Cellini!

Track length6:35

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length6:58

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Ciel! Nous sommes perdus!

Track length2:19

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A nous, voisines et servantes!

Track length1:06

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length2:07

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Benvenuto Cellini: Une heure encore

Track length5:57

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length3:49

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Amis, avant qu'on recommence

Track length3:10

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Cette somme t'est due

Track length1:32

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length4:30

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Benvenuto Cellini: C'est trop fort

Track length1:27

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length3:25

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Benvenuto Cellini: Finale - Le Carnaval

Track length1:01

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length3:15

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Benvenuto Cellini: Venez, venez peuple de Rome

Track length4:48

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length0:53

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Benvenuto Cellini: Ariette de Pasquarello

Track length1:38

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length1:40

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Soyez surpris

Track length4:56

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Ah! cher canon du fort

Track length3:14

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Entr'acte

Track length1:54

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Ah, qu'est-il devenu

Track length5:01

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Ma dague en main

Track length3:33

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Ah! je te trouve enfin

Track length1:27

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Le Pape ici!

Track length11:49

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Ah, maintenant de sa folle impudence

Track length2:16

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Prelude

Track length1:03

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Tra la la la

Track length5:52

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Seul pour lutter

Track length8:16

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Bien heuruex les matelots

Track length2:42

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Vite au travail, sans plus attendre

Track length1:01

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Peuple ouvrier

Track length2:04

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Ciel, c'est Fieramosca!

Track length0:42

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length2:37

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Benvenuto Cellini: Teresa, Teresa, ici

Track length1:56

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Benvenuto Cellini

Track length9:22

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This title will not be issued on standard CD. A high density DSD recording (5.0), live at the Barbican, June 2007 Slimline double case & booklet in slip case with notes in English, French & German.

Reviews

July 2008

The combination of technology and the conductor's unimpaired élanmakes for glowing textures and shattering climaxes.

this recording outshines Davis’s version of 40 years ago in sound quality and maturity of interpretation. Berlioz’s flamboyant portrait of the Renaissance goldsmith impresses with its sheer vigour and conviction, thanks to Davis’s inspiration...a bargain.

August 2008

Davis and Co give Berlioz's joyous opera all the love and vitality it deserves. In a score that grows and growls from the bottom up, Davis's Berlioz sound comes into its own, certainly weightier than Nelson or Norrington but always watchful as the melodies and cross-rhythms cascade across the barlines.

No conductor today excels Sir Colin Davis in Berlioz’s music and this performance of perhaps his most brilliant opera finds him in sparkling form. The American soprano Laura Claycomb is excellent in the coloratura role of Teresa, dominating the performance with her charm and vivaciousness.

27th April 2008

Conductor and tenor are the joint heroes of this exhilarating release...The American tenor Gregory Kunde doesn’t have the most immediately appealing timbre, but the high tessitura holds no terrors for him, his sung French is good and, even in his early fifties, he manages to counterfeit the youthful braggadocio of Berlioz’s likeable rapscallion. Davis remains the supreme Berliozian of our day, brilliantly evoking the mercurial wit of the comic repartee, the abandoned gaiety of the Roman carnival and the high drama and suspense of the climactic scene in the foundry, for the casting of Perseus...At LSO prices, this is a steal, and anyone who doesn’t know this fabulous score should snap it up.

3rd May 2008

Compared with The Damnation of Faust, Béatrice et Benedict and The Trojans, Benvenuto Cellini has always been Berlioz's Cinderella opera, a strange mixture of farcical comedy and hymn to the supremacy of art. But Colin Davis vindicates its dramatic qualities magnificently in this recording, despite the fact that it derives from concert performances. Its success is partly down to the vibrant playing of the LSO, but also to the way the cast members seem to interact vocally as if they were on stage. And the cast itself, mainly of younger singers, is very fine indeed, led by the resolute Cellini of Gregory Kunde.

New York Times

Davis is a renowned Berlioz interpreter, and this new recording, taken from live performances with the London Symphony, makes the strongest case for this fascinating work

The Guardian Concert Review

In Davis's hands, its [the opera's] originality and imagination are fully vindicated. The cast attack the piece with skill and immense vigour. Gregory Kunde rises to the full stature of Berlioz's thinly disguised self-portrait of the artist as romantic hero. Davis's identification with the score brings out the best in his forces, allowing this neglected work to register as a masterpiece.

Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini

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