Berlioz: Harold en Italie & La mort de Cléopâtre

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This Harold in Italy takes a while to get going...Gergiev's pacing of the opening in its use of dynamics...Still, he brings out details in the score, and the third movement Serenade finds both... — BBC Music Magazine, Awards Issue 2015, 3 out of 5 stars More…

Release Date: 9th Feb 2015
Catalogue No: LSO0760
Label: LSO Live
Length: 73 minutes

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Berlioz: Harold en Italie, Op. 16

Work length42:27

$5.20

$6.50

$7.60

Antoine Tamestit, Valéry Gergiev, London Symphony Orchestra

I. Harold aux Montagnes, Scènes de mélancolie, de bonheur et de joie

Track length15:07

$1.60

$2.00

$2.35

II. Marche de pélerins chantant la pière du soir

Track length7:59

$1.20

$1.50

$1.75

III. Sérénade d'un Montagnard des Abruzzes à sa maîtresse

Track length6:25

$1.00

$1.25

$1.45

IV. Orgie de Brigands, Souvenirs des scènes précédentes

Track length12:56

$1.40

$1.75

$2.05

Berlioz: La mort de Cléopâtre, H. 36: I. Scène lyrique

Work length9:35

$1.20

$1.50

$1.75

London Symphony Orchestra, Valéry Gergiev, Karen Cargill

Berlioz: La mort de Cléopâtre, H. 36: II. Méditation

Work length11:05

$1.40

$1.75

$2.05

London Symphony Orchestra, Valéry Gergiev, Karen Cargill

Berlioz: Benvenuto Cellini Overture

Work length10:24

$1.40

$1.75

$2.05

London Symphony Orchestra, Valéry Gergiev

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Violist Antoine Tamestit and mezzo-soprano, Karen Cargill, join forces with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, in the latest instalment of their Berlioz exploration.

Composed in 1834 at the suggestion of Paganini and completed in Montmartre, 'Harold en Italie' received its first performance at the Conservatoire de Paris later that year. Taking inspiration from Lord Byron’s 'Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage', 'Harold en Italie' is among the most poetic of Berlioz’s oeuvre, its ingenious use of solo viola charting the dreamy Harold’s wanderings throughout the Italian countryside and the characters encountered along the way. In this new recording Antoine Tamestit brings a forthright personality to the hero.

“Maestro Gergiev’s deep musicianship added the sort of instinctive passion one needs with Berlioz and especially with 'Harold en Italie'. All of this was overwhelmingly inspiring for me and made these concerts and recordings a truly unique and unforgettable experience,” says Tamestit. Karen Cargill gives an emotionally intense performance of the dramatic cantata for 'La mort de Cléopâtre' adding to her already formidable reputation in the Berlioz canon. She says, “La mort de Cléopâtre is a monumental work, grand in drama, orchestration and vocally challenging. The scope of the piece is huge, not only emotionally – it has a vocal range of over two octaves within only a few pages, ultimately quite operatic in delivery. Pacing the work is a huge part of performing it, allowing the character to recollect, reflect and ultimately act. The death scene is so wonderfully written, so simple and real.”

Reviews

Awards Issue 2015

This Harold in Italy takes a while to get going...Gergiev's pacing of the opening in its use of dynamics...Still, he brings out details in the score, and the third movement Serenade finds both him and Tamestit more characterful, with greater engagement with dynamics and phrasing.

Diapason

The refined Parisian violist Antoine Tamestit executes the solo part with elegance.

April 2015

Karen Cargill gives a gripping account of The Death of Cleopatra, clearly relishing the music's graphic portrayal of a woman in a state of mental torment...while Berlioz's extraordinary ending is fully realised through the brilliance of the LSO's string section.

May 2015

[Tamestit] is very fine indeed, and elevates this performance to something above the mediocre...[Gergiev] controls the opening fugato in a way that is brooding and mysterious without ever sounding too gloomy, and the gathering excitement of the rest of the first movement comes across very naturally in his hands, backed by exciting playing from the orchestra every step of the way, with a conclusion that is suitably headlong.

8th February 2015

These are vividly coloured, gripping live performances. Antoine Tamestit's viola offers silky sound in the Byron-inspired symphony Harold en Italie...[In La mort de Cléopâtre] Karen Cargill is deeply affecting.

Berlioz: Harold en Italie & La mort de Cléopâtre

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