Berlioz: Harold en Italie, La mort de Cléopâtre [download]

The Mail on Sunday’s Album of the Week

Gramophone’s High Fidelity Test Disc
‘With a live presence and vitality typical of LSO Live, this recording of Harold en Italie finds the orchestra at its best and provides a thrilling test for a system.’

‘[Gergiev] brings out details in the score, and the third movement Serenade finds both him and Tamestit more characterful, with greater engagement with dynamics and phrasing… An impressive range of tone and emotion [La mort de Cléopâtre].’
BBC Music Magazine

‘These are vividly coloured, gripping live performances. Antoine Tamestit’s viola offers silky sound in the Byron-inspired symphony Harold en Italie. In La mort de Cléopâtre… the mezzo Karen Cargill is deeply affecting.’
The Sunday Times

‘These two works are impressively recorded. The sound is particularly full and spacious; even listening on ordinary stereo equipment, Berlioz’s evocative writing is fully realised… Karen Cargill gives a gripping account of The Death of Cleopatra… her slow chromatic descent as the poison takes effect is breathtaking, while Berlioz’s extraordinary ending is fully realised through the brilliance of the LSO’s string section.’
Gramophone