Berlioz: Harold en Italie, La mort de Cléopâtre

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Violist Antoine Tamestit, and mezzo-soprano, Karen Cargill join forces with the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev, in the latest instalment of their Berlioz exploration.


Composed in 1834 at the suggestion of Paganini and later completed in Montmartre, Harold en Italie received its first performance at the Conservatoire de Paris later that year. “I wanted to make the viola a kind of melancholy dreamer” – Hector Berlioz. Taking inspiration from Lord Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, Harold en Italie is among the most poetic of Berlioz’s oeuvre, its ingenious use of solo viola charting the dreamy Harold’s wanderings throughout the Italian countryside, and the characters encountered along the way.


Composer Berlioz
Conductor Valery Gergiev
Performers London Symphony Orchestra
Soloists Antoine Tamestit, Karen Cargill

Harold en Italie, Op.16
1. I. Harold Aux Montagnes. Scenes de melancolie, de bonheur et de joie
2. II. Marche des pélerins chantant la prière du soir
3. III. Sérénade d'un Montagnard des Abruzzes à sa maîtresse
4. IV. Orgie de Brigands. Souvenirs des scènes précédentes

La mort de Cléopâtre, H. 36
5. I. Scène Lyrique
6. II. Méditation 

Benvenuto Cellini, Op. 23
7. Overture

Release date 18th November 2014
LSO0760 | 0822231176022

Digital booklet in English / Notes de programme en français / Einführungstexte auf Deutsch

Producer James Mallinson
Engineers Classic Sound Ltd
Recorded 1st & 12th November 2013 in the Barbican Hall, London

FLAC - 24bit 96kHz - Compatible with Windows and Android devices
MP3 - 320kbps - Universal compatibility

Available on streaming services

Reviews

“

[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