Taking Stock: Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique

[Wallingford]

Here's a work that lends itself to a wide variety of interpretations. I've got:

Bernstein 1
Paray 1 (w/Colonne Orch.)
Paray 2 (w/DSO)
Munch 2
Munch 3 (both w/BSO)
Mitropoulos
Fried
Sokol
Gergiev
Maazel 1
P. Jarvi
Tilson Thomas
Rozhdestvensky
van Otterloo 2
Pretre 2 (w/Vienna Sym.)
Gilbert (ive, w/NYP)
Vanska (live, w/Minnesota Orch.)
Eschenbach (live, w/BSO)
Norrington (live, w/Phila. Orch.)
Martinon (live, w/NYP)
Monteux 1 (w/Paris Sym.)
Monteux 3 (w/SFSO)
Monteux (live, w/NYP)
Dorati (live, w/Nat'l Sym, Wash DC)
Karajan 2(?)
Freccia
Dutoit (live w/SFSO)
Walter (live, w/NYP)
Markevitch

[Heck148]

good piece of which to take stock -

my faves:

Mitropoulos/NYPO 1956
Solti/CSO - both - '72, '92
Abbado/CSO, '83
The CSO virtuosity is stunning on all 3 recordings...I love the Mitropoulos, too, he gets a really diabolical, creepy effect in the last mvt,

I don't care for any of the Munch performances I've heard...the marxch is way too fast, and some of his tempi are so fast, the orchestra falls apart. I know this might make for an exciting live experience, but for recordings, which must bear up under repeated listenings, it really doesn't make it.

[josé echenique]

I am citing only from memory:

1. BPO/Igor Markevitch.
2. Lamoureux/Igor Markevitch.
3. BPO/Herbert von Karajan.
4. ORR/John Eliot Gardiner.
5. Anima Eterna/Jos van Immerseel.
6. CSO/Daniel Baremboim.
7. CSO/Claudio Abbado.
8. Bastille/Myung Whun-Chung.
9. LCP/Roger Norrington.
10. VPO/Pierre Monteux.
11. ONF/Thomas Beecham.
12. RCO/Colin Davis.
13. VPO/Colin Davis.
14. Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Marc Minkowski.
15. OSM/Charles Dutoit.
16. BPO/Rudolf Kempe.
17. CSO/Georg Solti. Salzburg 1992.

[absinthe]

I've had several passing through my hands but whittled it down to just one:

Beecham / RPO

I've had the Munch/BSO,
Colin Davies/Concertgebouw
Maazel/Cleveland

I think I had the Beecham/Orch Nat Radiofusion Francaise but stayed with the RPO. Can't think I'd want to
listen to others - unless something quite magical is issued (or comes with free opium or something)!

[maestrob]

I'm rather fond of this one......

[Wallingford]

I also had both Beechams and all three Ormandys--before moving out of state.

Also Mehta's NYP disc.

[ContrapunctusIX]

Boulez/CO DGG
Monteux/VPO Decca
Monteux/Orch Paris Pearl
Monteux/SFSO RCA
Chung/Bastille O.O. DGG
Beinum/RCO Decca
Cluytens/PO EMI
Cluytens/Orch Conservatoire - Great Conductors of the 20th Cent.
Muti/Phila Seraphim
Ormandy/Phila Sony
Argenta/Paris CO Decca
Plasson/Toulouse CO EMI
Markevitch/Lamoreux DGG
Markevitch/BPO DGG
Bychkov/Orch Paris Philips
Martinon/ORTF EMI
Dutoit/OSM Decca
Davis/LSO Philips
Ansermet/OSR Decca
Otterloo/Hague PO Decca (FR)
Otterloo/BPO Philips
Paray/DSO Mercury
Bernstein/NYPO Sony
Kempe/BPO Testament
Solti/CSO Decca
Munch/BSO RCA
Kubelik/BRSO Orfeo
Fremaux/Birmingham Klavier
Karajan/BPO DGG
Abbado/CSO DGG

[nut-job]

Wow, amazing to see how many recordings of this piece some people have. The most recent recording I recall listening to is Cluytens on EMI. Before that, Paul Paray/Detroit. Both were satisfying accounts. I also have Ansermet's recording in a big box set, Karajan's old Berlin recording and a van Beinum on Decca Vinyl which I recall being dreadful. Probably I have forgotten about one or more.

[rwetmore]

I have:

Munch/BSO (1954)
Davis/COA (1974)
Freccia/RPO (1962)
Leibowitz/VSOO (1957)
Fourestier/CSOP (19??)

The Davis recording is realy pretty good, though maybe it bit too straight laced. The Munch seems a little too fast and rushed, though it is exciting.

Among others, I'd be interested to hear Klemperer's recording, which I've heard is surprisingly good (and not too slow).

[John F]

People might be surprised that German conductors have been attracted to the Symphonie Fantastique, but three of the early recordings were conducted by Selman Meyrowitz, Felix Weingartner, and Bruno Walter.

[rogch]

The Gergiev recording with the Vienna Philharmonic is spectacular.

[Wallingford]

The Gergiev recording with the Vienna Philharmonic is spectacular.

Oops, there's another one I left off the list......still been languishing in the cellophane after about five years....

[Wallingford]

Also, HERE'S a buried gem that I recommend as a good "slow" performance. Only $4 including postage. Grotesquery and creepiness to spare!

http://www.amazon.com/Berlioz-Symphonie ... que+lizzio

One amusing aspect of this performance is that, toward the start of the third movement, when the offstage oboe goes back into the orchestra, you can barely hear the heavy thud of his/her footsteps!

[Lance]

Great music! Lots of recordings over the years for me, too; all the following are CD recordings: [Added recordings i missed the first time around are shown in red at bottom of page]

Mitropoulos-NYP, Columbia/Sony
Bernstein-NYP, Sony
Stokowski-New Philharmonia, Decca (1968)
Stokowski-New Philharmonia, BBC Legends (live 1968)
Mehta-NYP, Decca
Markevitch-Lamoureux Orch-Paris, DGG
Markevitch-Berlin PO, DGG (1953)
Leibowitz-Vienna State Opera Orch, DGG-Westminster
C. Abbado-Salzburg Festival, DGG (live, 1997)
Beecham-ORTF National Orchestra, EMI (mono recording, 1957)
Beecham-ORTF Orchestra, EMI (stereo recording, 1959)
Norrington-London Classical Players (Orig. Inst.), EMI
Barbirolli-Hallé Orchestra, EMI
Martinon-French National Orchestra, EMI
Munch-Hungarian Radio/TV Orchestra, Philips (1966)
Munch-Boston Symphony, RCA (1954)
Munch-Boston Symphony, RCA (1962)
Pretre-Boston Symphony, RCA
Markevitch-RIAS SO, Andromeda
Monteux-San Francisco Symphony, RCA (1945)
Monteux-Paris Symphony, Music & Arts, Lys (1930)
Marketitch-RSO-Berlin, Arkadia (1952)
Koussevitzky-Boston Symphony, AS Disc (live, 1943)
A. Davis-BBC Symphony, BBC Magazine disc
van Beinum-Concertgebouw Orchestra, Beulah (1951)
Mitropoulos-NYP, Discantus + others (live 1947)
Barbirolli-SWF-Baden-Baden, Green Hill (live)
Mitropoulos-NYP, Hunt (live, 1957)
Weingartner-London Symphony, Lys (1925)
G. Pierne-Cologne Orchestra, Lys
Paray-Detroit Symphony, Mercury
Walter (Bruno)-NYP, Nuova Era, Music & Arts
van Otterloo-Paris Orchestra, Decca (1951)
Muti-Philadelphia Orchestra, EMI
C. Abbado-Chicago Symphony Orchestra, DGG
Ozawa-Saito Kinen Orchestra, Decca
Cluytens-Paris Conservatory Orchestra, EMI

[Lance]

The one conductor whom I would have thought recorded the Symphonie Fantastique in STEREO was the legendary French conductor, Pierre Monteux. I suppose, having had Munch record it with the Boston SO, they saw no need to record it w/Monteux. He might have also remade the stereo recording with the San Francisco Symphony. Somewhere, however, they may be a stereophonic performance with Monteux that I have yet to discover. Anybody know of one?

[John F]

Monteux recorded the Fantastique with the Vienna Philharmonic in the early '60s. I haven't heard it, and it does seem an unlikely choice of orchestra in this music. But German musicians have long had an affinity for Berlioz - Felix Weingartner, Bruno Walter, and Oskar Fried among others have conducted it on records - so I wouldn't prejudge the Philharmoniker.

http://www.discogs.com/Hector-Berlioz-O ... se/2559625

Someone has uploaded it to YouTube:

[david johnson]

i've always come back to the ormandy/philly on sony-columbia because i love those low pitched funeral bells the most.

[maestrob]

There are so many good versions of this piece that it's hard to recommend just one, but Eschenbach delivers a fine recording in Paris (I haven't heard his Philadelphia rendering):

[Lance]

Added a few more.