Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique Op.14 / La Mort de Cleopatre

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique Op.14 / La Mort de Cleopatre cover $25.00 Low Stock add to cart

HECTOR BERLIOZ
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique Op.14 / La Mort de Cleopatre
Susan Graham (soprano) / Berliner Philharmoniker / Simon Rattle

[ Warner Classics / CD ]

Release Date: Saturday 1 November 2008

This item is only available to us via Special Import.

Having championed Russian and German repertoire in their first three releases of 2008, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker turned to French music for their latest CD, specifically the Symphonie fantastique and La mort de Cléopâtre by Hector Berlioz.

"The Berlin soloists make a gorgeous sound, the lead clarinet and cor anglais especially; the strings come across as well groomed and when those wavering modulations take over towards the close of the first movement, Rattle charts their course with a characteristically sure hand....Susan Graham enacts the music's drama with a sense of theatre and a frequently rich tone, especially in the "Méditation"." Gramophone

"Susan Graham's singing in The Death of Cleopatra is excellent, and as an accompanist Rattle can't be faulted." ClassicsToday

"Rattle and the orchestra hold Berlioz's dramatic thread throughout the symphony. They also have a keen sense of the music's operatic qualities and milk them to their full potential, e.g. in the March To The Scaffold." BBC Music

Tracks:

Symphonie fantastique Op.14
La mort de Cléopâtre