Customer Reviews

Hector Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique Mussorgsky: Night on Bald Mountain Vladimir Golschmann Vienna State Opera Orchestra

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Vladimir Golschmann came out here to Denver after his tenure in St. Louis ended after 31 years. One of our greatest memories was his electrifying "Fantastique" from 1965 that Denver Symphony concertgoers still talk about.

The fine orchestra here is rather Teutonic, but it doesn't matter all that much because Golschmann makes it think about Berlioz and not itself. It's definitely in the French school of Martinon and Paray, fleet, elegant, dramatic, superbly powerful. The fillers here were great favorites of the maestro who got smiling pleasure in conducting them. He had a great time doing these for Vanguard, and this compendium became famous worldwide.

Vanguard's sound aids and abets Golschmann's eloquence and the whole production knocks the socks off anything done in the last 10 years in this material, maybe even 20.

If you don't know Golschman, get this and enjoy the old man's considerable artistry. He'll prove a convivial favorite whose other work you'll immediately seek out.

Sometimes, when you go for the less obvious, the rewards are ample. Most listeners thinking of buying Berlioz's "Symphonie Fantastique" would go for the great romanic conductors, Sir Colin Davis or Riccardo Muti. You would also tend to prefer the great music ensembles--the Vienna Philharmonic or the Berlin Philharmonic, et al. I settled for the Vienna Staatsoper Orchestra just to try something different and have been congratulating myself on my choice ever since. The Staatsoper is a brilliant musical ensemble which if often overshadowed by the great opera singers. Here in this recording you hear Vladimir Golschmann conducting the orchestra in a stunningly full-bodied performance of the Berlioz symphony. The symphony has strong autobiographical elements and the languid playing of the orchestra brings out the dramatic ebb and flow of the work with clarity and melodic intensity. The outstanding quality of this recording is further reinforced with a listening of the symphonic poem by the Russian composer Modest Moussorgsky. "Night on a Bare Mountain" is deeply evocative music and the strings of the Staatsoper create just the right mood for it. Listening to the works, you also admire the pairing of these two compositions, which on their face have little in common. I would unhesitatingly recommend this superlative CD. Just buy it.