Customer Reviews

Berlioz: Requiem; Te Deum

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Since there is no cover picture or description, I will enlighten you that this release is part of the well engineered Philips 50 series, featuring some of the best recordings made by Philips (formerly Phonogram) in its history. Not all of the releases, this one included, were made available in the USA. But Amazon has been gracious to feature it as a special import.

The first CD version is still available (Amazon asin # B00000E34S, more reviews there).

And special it is. The recordings come from the Colin Davis Berlioz cycle form the the 1970s. And they are some of the best of that cycle at that.

The Requiem is brilliant. Without detracting from the obvious spectacle you get with such a large contingent of musicians, Davis never gets lost in the massiveness of the piece. Berlioz composition is both Grand (the full title is "Grande Messe des morts", or "Grand Mass for the Dead") and sublime, and Davis captures the sublime elements as few other conductors have ever done. The choruses (the London Symphony Chorus and the Wandsworth School Boys Choir) work together well, and the soloists are very fine.

The TE Deum is also given a memorable rendition by the LSO and Davis.

Sound is ever so important with a work as large as the Berlioz Requiem, and the Philips engineers, both the original recording engineers and the digital remastering engineers, deserve the bulk of the credit for this presentation. with such massive forces, engineers are challenged to give full efect to the sections that feature all of the forces and yet still capture the quite sections in a manner that makes them equally enjoyable in the home. With many recordings of the Requiem, you feel like you move from one position in the concert to another as the engineers try to "zoom in" to capture quieter moments and then "zoom out" get the full effect of the grand moments. With this recording, I feel like I never leave my seat, but I also never miss anything. I would give the Philips crew ten stars if allowed.

Shame on Philips for not releasing this in the USA though.

I'm sympathetic to the glowing review given below. I've lived with Colin Davis's classic Berlioz Requiem, so it was great to learn that there was a new remastering. Alas, the original tape source must not be in very good shape. The "Philips 50" series didn't do great things with Davis's Messiah, and the same holds ture here: climaxes still curnch, brass outbursts sting the ear, and the soundstage is boxy and restricted.

I'd go so far as to say that later Berlioz Requiems with great sound--from Levine, Shaw, and Ozawa--are so much more listenable that the Davis set is outdated. I don't know what kind of audio system anyone else has, but mine reveals major sonic improvements on many reissues, just not this one.

Over all these years -since the second half of the past century- Berlioz's music has intense and progressively more diffused, thanks to the titanic efforts of two great conductors: Charles Munch and Igor Markevitch. Then, during the sixties Georges Petre would add his peculiar style. But, since the seventies Colin Davis has been the indomitable and untired conductor whose devotion for Berlioz has been undeniable.

This album by itself seems to conffirm it. I received this album two weeks ago as a special gift of an appreciated lover music - Dr. Alvaro Gomez - (He is an enthusiastic music lover, a very good horn player as well as famed psychologist but better friend). So, yesterday evening I decided to listen this double recording.

The Requiem is probably, one of the five most mature and pyramidal Opus of this notable French composer. Davis makes a superb approach emphasizing dynamics, tempi and remarking the melodic lines with majestic intensity and powerful expressiveness.

The Te Deum reveals a Berlioz totally consecrated and committed. Owner of a huge talent and extraordinary power to convey the listener through the most unexpected landscapes.

Still in his early eighties Colin Davis' fame has become one of the living legends among the most respectful conductors of his generation (including Wolfgang Sawalisch, Andre Previn and Pierre Boulez).

This album is without blinking, a true musical document and certainly his gained reputation is not a mere random issue.

This album must be part of your invaluable musical collection. Don't even doubt it and go for it.

I became attracted to this recording upon viewing the film, "The Tree of Life" a couple of months ago. The film credits list this recording. I can see why this particular recording was used. The film closes with the Agnus Dei. Somehow the reverential and penitential feeling of this section is reinforced in the closing scene of reconciliation, reuniting and forgiveness in a family that had become estranged. Sir Colin Davis does not treat this as a "theatre" piece which could be said Of Verdi's Requiem. It has a spacious cathedral feel throughtout. The same could be said for the "Te Deum".