Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique / Rattle

Susan Graham - Mezzo-soprano, Berlin Philharmonic, Simon Rattle - conductor

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14, La Mort de Cléopâtre - Scène lyrique Susan Graham

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 Grammy-Award winning mezzo-soprano Susan Graham is featured in La mort de Cléopâtre. Not long ago, Rattle said of the Berliner Philharmoniker’s sound: "It's like an enormous heat source that comes at you, and you feel as though you can burn in it." The orchestra bring the intensity Rattle describes directly to bear on Berlioz’s work, undaunted by the fire in late May 2008 at Berlin’s Philharmonie that resulted in a last minute change of date and venue to Berlin’s Jesus Christ Kirche for the recording of this album. September 2008 **** “Rattle, displays the easy lyricism one might anticipate, but more power and atmosphere - Berlioz grandioso. Cléopâtre is also a big-screen performance. Mezzo-soprano Susan Graham, today's reigning Dido, makes Berlioz's earlier heroine equally epic… it's a welcome coupling.” “Rattle and the Berliners are capable of taking one’s breath away” November 2008 “The opening "Rêveries - Passions" is one of the great musical expressions of sexual infatuation, one that Sir Simon Rattle shapes well… The Berlin soloists make a gorgeous sounds, the lead clarinet and cor anglais especially… La mort de Cléopâtre is… prime-cut Berlioz, outrageously advanced for its time (1827-30). Rattle obviously relishes the music's ghostly aura, much as he focuses the pre-Roméo atmosphere near the start of the "Scène lyrique". Susan Graham enacts the music's drama with a sense of theatre and a frequently rich tone, especially in the "Meditation".” 14th September 2008 **** “inspired by Simon Rattle,[the Berlin Philharmonic] give a superb performance of the symphony. Too little is made of the bass drum’s important part in the finale - but in every other respect the playing is exemplary, with the strings really singing their music and the wind matching them with equal force. Rattle, while achieving exceptionally wide dynamic range, shapes the work with a sure hand.” 26th September 2008 **** “this is a plush, silky-smooth reading, with the Berlin sound at its most opulent and refined. Until Rattle finally gives the orchestra its head in the closing pages, the performance has a Karajan-like svelteness” Anthony Holden 31st August 2008 “Berlioz blended opera with symphonic form in this blazing outburst of passion, vividly realised by this wonderful ensemble.” 6th September 2008 “This must be one of the most beautifully played performances of the Symphonie fantastique on disc. Textures have been honed, everything points to an almost obsessive search for perfection, and Simon Rattle has his players paying attention to every last detail of expression and articulation in the score.”

Price: $21.98