Customer Reviews

Conducts Berlioz

5 star:		(2)
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3 star:		(1)
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I had been waiting for this 1959 recording of the Berlioz Requiem to be remastered and released on CD. No release since can compare with this one! Unfortunately, this work was not released on its' own, but was included with several other works by Berlioz as recorded by Munch and the BSO over a period of years. The sound is therefore a bit dated, however with this newly remastered release, I was able to hear things that I couldn't hear i the original releases. All in all, a very excellent selection- well worthwhile for those who appreciate the older BSO.

Other conductors do this repertoire, of course, but this set contains recordings of one master by another, who was born to conduct this music. Munch is the iconic Berlioz conductor just as Gieseking was the iconic Debussy interpreter. No fan of Berlioz or Munch should be without these masterful recordings. It was inspired of RCA to combine them all in one box for a reasonable price.

This set really doesn't hold a candle to the complete Berlioz with Colin Davis on Philips, or to many great readigs of the individual pieces. Despite Munch's reputation, his Berlioz is often hectic and sloppy. The choral work is particularly disappointing, since he had to rely on either the Harvard-Radcliffe or New England Conservatory choruses, there being no professional group in Boston at the time. The highlight of this box is the Romeo and Juliet, one of two recordings Munch made for RCA in Boston, and the overtues are bliazingly done. I also like the L'Enfance du Christ veyr much, and Munch's Symphonie fantastique holds up. But overall the deficits in dated sound make this a valuable historical set rather than a definitive modern one.