It’s very good to be
able to welcome the return to the catalogue
of this marvellous disc, which contains
most of Berlioz’s overtures (Rob
Roy is not included.) These are
all tremendously original pieces and
annotator Michael Steinberg is absolutely
right to lament that we so rarely hear
most of them in the concert hall. Here
they receive wonderful advocacy from
the great Dresden orchestra (on top
form) conducted by the man who is surely
the foremost Berlioz interpreter of
our day.
From the start of the
very first track you sense that the
disc is going to be very special. Les
francs-juges is Berlioz at his most
Gothic. The portentous, sonorous brass
recitative (track 1, 1’30" – 3’11")
is superbly intoned. This passage always
puts me in mind of the Symphonie
funèbre et triomphale and
the way the Dresdeners deliver it reminds
me more than usual of the dark grandeur
of parts of that score. It’s a tribute
to Davis’s meticulous and understanding
direction that every strand of Berlioz’s
imaginative and highly original orchestration
registers perfectly but very naturally.
For example, later on (6’08" –
8’ 05") comes the extraordinary
passage where a long, troubled (and
troubling) wind melody is quietly and
distantly sounded, accompanied at first
by agitated strings underneath. Subsequently,
threatening percussion underpins the
melody. Davis balances all this perfectly
and as a result the atmosphere of chilling
menace is conveyed just as Berlioz surely
intended it. This is a dark, dramatic
account of a superb and unjustly neglected
overture.
That performance is
an accurate harbinger of what is to
follow. Waverley is first class.
There’s great suspense in the lengthy
slow opening section and when the tempo
picks up the quicker music is deftly
done, with some especially delightful
wind solos (track 2, 5’40" – 6’06").
Michael Steinberg aptly describes the
music of Le roi Lear as "powerfully
probing". That’s a description
that applies equally well to Davis’s
reading of the score. Like Waverley
this work has a spacious introduction,
which Davis shapes superbly. When the
music quickens he’s suitably urgent
and thrusting. He’s equally successful
in Le corsaire, which is strongly
projected and vividly characterised.
The dazzling overture to Béatrice
et Bénédict
fairly sparkles in Davis’s masterly
hands.
The two best-known
works, Le carnaval romain and
Benvenuto Cellini are meat and
drink to Davis. In these Dresden performances
both are bursting with colour and vitality.
But though the music crackles when appropriate
the lyrical side is just as tellingly
done; for example the cor anglais solo
in Le carnaval romain is most
poetically played.
But in the presence
of such fine music making further detailed
comment is rather superfluous. This
is an outstanding disc. Indeed, it’s
one that really should never be out
of the catalogue. The playing of the
Staatskapelle Dresden is magnificent
throughout. They are splendidly agile
on the many occasions that Berlioz demands
agility. Equally, time and again they
prove they can play with the utmost
sensitivity and refinement. There’s
power a-plenty when it’s needed but
my abiding memory of their playing is
its wonderful lustre. They are accorded
splendid sound by the BMG/RCA engineers.
I should also add that the notes, by
that doyen of annotators, Michael Steinberg
are as stylish and informative as one
would expect from that source.
Guiding the whole enterprise
is the masterly hand of Sir Colin Davis.
I find him uniquely satisfying as a
Berlioz interpreter and this disc shows
him at his perceptive and committed
best. This CD is surely an essential
purchase for all those who love the
music of that wayward, original, exciting
genius, Hector Berlioz.
Recommended urgently.
John Quinn
see also review
by Jonathan Woolf
Staatskapelle Dresden/Sir Colin Davis 
