To
the best of my knowledge the music of Berlioz has not previously
been a significant feature of Sir Simon Rattle’s programmes,
still less of his discography. In some ways that surprises
me because the invention of Berlioz and his often-revolutionary
orchestration would seem to be tailor-made for Rattle.
His talent for controlling large and diverse ensembles
would also seem to equip him well for Berlioz and whilst
not every work by this highly individual French master
might appeal to him I would have thought that, say,
La
Damnation de Faust or
Roméo et Juliette would
have been right up his street as well as
Symphonie Fantastique.
Perhaps this recording heralds a new enthusiasm on his
part.
I
came to this recording on the back of reviewing the cycle
of Bruckner symphonies that Herbert von Karajan set down
with the BPO in the 1970s and 1980s. Of course, the sound
worlds of Bruckner and Berlioz are poles apart but in their
different ways these recordings suggest powerfully to me
that there’s been no reduction in standards as between
Karajan’s BPO and its current manifestation under Rattle,
though the sound is leaner nowadays I fancy.
The
first three movements of the symphony are well done. Rattle’s
keen ear for detail and athletic, pointed playing from
the BPO ensures that all the subtle nuances of Berlioz’s
imaginative scoring come out. The main allegro of the first
movement surges along urgently and the ebb and flow of
the music is well handled. Just occasionally, however,
I did wonder if details were being slightly over-emphasised.
A case in point occurs at 11:27 in this movement where
first the viola line and then the cello and bass continuation
registers more prominently than I can recall hearing in
any other performance.
The
waltz is light on its feet. The music has charm and grace
but energy also. At 2:08 the main theme is heard in the
high woodwinds and at this point Rattle brings out the
accompanying string parts beautifully. The BPO must have
played this work countless times but their playing sounds
marvellously fresh both here and elsewhere. Sir Colin Davis,
in his celebrated Concertgebouw recording (Philips), also
makes this movement sparkle. He includes the optional cornet
part that Berlioz added subsequently. I’m not entirely
sure if Rattle includes this part – many conductors don’t.
I
think he may do but if he does it’s much more
integrated into the orchestral texture than is the case
with Davis, who makes quite a bold feature of the cornet
line.
The
Scène
aux champs begins with some wonderful woodwind playing.
The whole movement is beautifully controlled by Rattle
and his players respond with finesse. Berlioz’s often
spare but always hugely imaginative orchestral textures
are given full value.
So
far so good but it’s in the last two movements that doubts
begin to creep in. Rattle begins the
Marche au supplice at
a steady, ominous tread, which I applaud. When the march
tune is stated by the trumpet section it sounds comparatively
restrained and at first I thought that Rattle was concerned
not to peak too soon. But it’s little different second
time round – like Davis he takes the repeat – and I began
to feel that the reading was on too tight a rein and too
controlled. At the very end the dramatic brass chords sound
almost subdued. I acknowledge that they’re marked
f in
the score, not
ff, but even so the proper effect
is not achieved. Turn to Davis and you’re in a different
world (for comparisons I deliberately chose only recordings
made, like Rattle’s, under studio conditions.) Davis leads
a performance with altogether more bite – the dotted rhythms
in the aforementioned trumpet tune are much crisper – and
without any crudeness or histrionics he conveys the drama
of the piece, making Rattle sound tame and cool by comparison.
Charles Munch in his 1962 Boston recording, which eschews
repeats, packs even more punch, though part of this may
be due to a much closer recording. He starts with a tempo
that is appreciably slower than either Rattle or Davis
but then, as was his wont, he speeds up significantly later
on, in the heat of the moment. Either of these approaches – and
Davis’s in particular, is preferable to Rattle’s. After
all, Berlioz was writing in a country where the guillotine
still plied its trade and where the Revolutionary tumbrils
had only ceased to roll some three decades earlier.
If
the fourth movement is a vivid affair the final
Songe
d’une nuit du Sabbat is more Gothic still but once
again I think that Rattle slightly short changes the listener.
The orchestral colouring is years ahead of its time and
Rattle brings out much of this. His reading is excellent
in many ways, generating much atmosphere and, of course,
it’s superbly played. I like the way the tolling bell is
nicely in scale – it’s a telling presence but isn’t over
prominent. But for all the felicities of the performance
I don’t feel Rattle lets rip. I miss the sense of controlled
abandon that Davis brings to the music. Berlioz was portraying
a nightmare vision here and in the last analysis I don’t
really get that from Rattle. One doesn’t want vulgarity,
of course, but Davis proves that it’s possible to deliver
all the devilish drama without going over the top.
So
my verdict on this new Rattle performance is that it’s
a near miss. It has a lot going for it, especially in the
first three movements, but when set beside the work of
an acknowledged master Berlioz interpreter, such as Sir
Colin, it’s not yet the full deal. However, there’s enough
in this performance to suggest that Rattle should continue
to explore Berlioz and that he could well become a very
fine exponent of the music of this wayward genius.
That’s
confirmed by the superb, dramatic accompaniment that Rattle
provides for Susan Graham in
La Mort de Cléopâtre.
This was the piece Berlioz submitted in one of his unsuccessful
attempts to win the coveted Prix de Rome. The competition
rules were very strict and the judges were not the most
broadminded and Berlioz’s efforts regularly scandalised
them. I’ve heard a few previous performances of this particular
work, notably the very fine and characteristically committed
one by Dame Janet Baker and Sir Colin Davis, but this present
one strikes me as being as good as any I’ve heard.
Miss
Graham has a wonderful voice, which is equally fine whether
she’s singing with velvet smoothness or biting drama. Furthermore
she has a striking affinity with the French language. And,
of course, she’s no stranger to Berlioz since her previous
credits have included the role of Didon in Sir John Eliot
Gardiner’s DVD of
Les Troyens (BBC Opus Arts
OA 0900 D). So she’s very well equipped for this assignment,
which is an impassioned lyric scena. As well as suiting
her lyrical and histrionic gifts
La Mort de Cléopâtre enables
her to demonstrate the range of her voice. She produces
some gloriously rich low notes and, when required, her
top register is thrillingly deployed, as for example at “m’élançai
triomphante aux rives de Cydnus!” (track 6, 8:20).
In
the second part of the work, “Grands Pharaons”, Miss Graham
invests her line with tragic, regal dignity. This whole
section is amazingly unconventional and hearing it performed
like this, with vividly characterised accompaniment from
Rattle and the BPO, one can readily understand why the
Prix de Rome judges were affronted – the music must have
sounded incomprehensible to them. The closing pages (track
7, from 7:24) are extraordinary and so is Miss Graham’s
singing. Listen, for example, to the passage beginning “Dieux
du Nil” and to the way she enunciates and colours words
such as “trahie”. After Cleopatra’s life has ebbed away
we are left with strange, spare and fragmented music for
the strings. These doom-laden bars are graphically delivered
by Rattle and his players to conclude a rather extraordinary
musical experience.
The
sound provided by EMI is very good. Up to now most, if
not all of Rattle’s recordings in Berlin have been made
in the Philharmonie and, in most cases have been caught
in live concerts. I wonder if the recent fire in the Philharmonie
has occasioned the move to the Jesus Christus Kirche, an
old stomping ground for BPO recordings? If so, though I’ve
never had much of a problem with the sound obtained by
EMI engineers in the Philharmonie, I welcome the move since
the extra resonance of the church is pleasing, though it’s
by no means excessive. I have one small complaint. The
typeface used for the text of
La Mort de Cléopâtre is
smaller than that used for the notes and I find it almost
illegible. Why the change?
I
have reservations about aspects of the performance of
Symphonie
Fantastique but other collectors may not share these
and certainly there’s a welcome freshness about Rattle’s
approach to this remarkable work. And in any event the
disc is well worth acquiring to experience the extraordinary
singing of Susan Graham. Despite my reservations I hope
we’ll get more Berlioz from Sir Simon.
John Quinn
see Masterwork
review index for
Symphonie Fantastique 
Susan
Graham (mezzo - Cleopatra) 
