5.0 out of 5 stars
You Probably Haven't Heard This One, August 31, 2010
This review is from: Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique; Richard Strauss: Don Juan (Audio CD)
A friend played me an LP version of this on a system culminating in an array of Quad ESL-57 speakers; now I'm hearing it via the Chesky CD on my Magnepan MMGs.
The Royal Philharmonic players of 1962 should be proud. They're invisible when they should be and they sizzle when it's time. The woodwinds particularly deserve praise. The bassoons are wonderfully agile and the double-reed dialogue in the countryside is very well done. But all that is forgotten when the artist approaches the mouth of hell at the end of the witches' sabbath -- the woodwinds descend into madness with sounds of hysteria you'll have to hear to believe.
I listen to the Boston-Munch 1962 recording a lot, and of course Concertgebuow-Davis. You'll want to hear this one before writing your reviews of the others.
I hadn't even heard the name Massimo Freccia before -- oops.
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