Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869)
Symphonie Fantastique, Op.14 with alternative version of second
movement [62.15]
Le corsair, Op.21 [8.06]
Orchestre National de Lyon/Leonard Slatkin
rec. Auditorium de Lyon, 31 August-1 September 2011
NAXOS 8.572886 [70.21]
Once upon a time, and not very long ago either, the Symphonie fantastique
was still regarded as an orchestral showpiece that remained an extremely difficult
‘play’ over 150 years after its first performance. Nowadays players
can take the difficulties of the score in their stride, but there remain a
number of pitfalls which can still cause problems to even the most experienced
ensembles.
I make no apology for beginning with the matter of the bells in the finale.
Berlioz clearly writes these in the bass clef, in the same register as the
ophicleide and serpent (or nowadays the two tubas) which declaim the plainchant
Dies irae.He makes his intentions even clearer in his suggestion
that in the absence of bells the part can be ‘cued in’ on the
piano, in the same register. For many years however conductors have substituted
tubular bells or similar instruments sounding two octaves or more higher -
which simply distorts the relationship between the musical strands and gives
the bells an undue prominence. Karajan courted critical brickbats in his 1975
recording with his use of electronically synthesised bell sounds, but at least
he appreciated the importance of getting the right sort of sound - although
his version is ruled out of consideration by his omission of the repeats in
the first and fourth movements, which undermines Berlioz’s carefully
calculated proportions. Gardiner uses church bells, but again an octave higher
than Berlioz implies. Unfortunately here Slatkin gives us the usual tubular
bells a couple of octaves too high (track 6, 3.03).
I say “unfortunately” because otherwise this is quite simply one
of the best performances of the Symphonic fantastique on disc. The
orchestral playing is always precise, clear, perfectly balanced, and doesn’t
stint on a single one of Berlioz’s many orchestral effects. The trombone
pedals and the bass drum in the March to the scaffold are right in-your-face
as Berlioz clearly intended - and we get all the repeats he wanted. The harps
in the Ball scene sparkle and glitter and the notorious wind glissandi
at the beginning of the last movement (track 6, 0.41) smear their way across
the page as the composer asks. To cap it all we also get two versions of the
Ball scene, one as Berlioz originally wrote it and another - which
can be programmed in as a substitute - with the virtuoso cornet solo that
he added for a concert performance in 1844. The option to play either version
is, so far as I aware, unique to this recording.
Indeed - and always apart from those bells - this is even perhaps too
perfect a performance. Slatkin does not use period instruments like Norrington
or Gardiner, but he never lets the listener forget that this is a score from
the first half of the nineteenth century and which was first performed a mere
twelve months after Beethoven’s death. In other words this is a very
classical performance without much romantic dirt on it. Is this really
right for a score whose programme after all is about the nightmare of an opium
addict? Should there not be a bit more grit around the edges? This is a matter
for personal preference; and it must be admitted that a great many delightful
details in the scoring that often get smothered come across here with felicitous
effect. Slatkin has just been appointed as principal conductor of the Lyon
orchestra, and although in the past French orchestras have not always done
their best by Berlioz it is certainly the case that they do here.
The disc opens with a brisk performance of the overture The corsair,
which shares many of the same traits as the recording of the symphony: very
precise string playing in the difficult opening flourishes, but a certain
lack of sheer swagger in the principal brass theme. The recording is clean,
natural and enables us to hear everything.
Paul Corfield Godfrey
A very classical performance without much romantic dirt on it. One
of the best performances on disc.