Leonard Bernstein - Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

Now offered by Hi-Q Records on JVC's XRCD-24 bit Super Analog disc. XRCD-24 represents JVC's continuing commitment to the pursuit of digital audio perfection. XRCD offers clearer definition, more accurate imaging, and higher audio quality than any compact disc before.

Leonard Bernstein was one of the most recorded conductor/composers in history and whereas most of his work was released on CBS (Sony) and Deutsche Grammophon, during the 1970s several notable EMI recordings came out of his association with the Orchestre National de France (including Berlioz’s Harold in Italy).

EMI had recorded Orchestre National de France (also known as Orchestre National de l'Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF)) for many years under its chief conductor Jean Martinon. However, largely as a result of the concerts he gave at the time, Bernstein immediately struck up a rapport with the orchestra and the result was magic: “The French orchestra play beautifully for Bernstein, and they also sense the ebb and flow of tempo which he imparts to the music,” as GRAMOPHONE wrote in 1977.

Recorded in the famous Salle Wagram, Paris, the Berlioz Fantastique was produced and engineered by John Mordler and Paul Vavasseur respectively.

In the original 1977 review of the Mussorgsky John Warwick in the Gramophone wrote: 
"This is excellent... One necessary ingredient of a true performance of the Fantastic Symphony is the sense of virtuoso conductor responding to virtuoso composer; but Bernstein also holds fast to the essential point that the virtuosity is of imagination as well as expression... I would regard this as the most interesting performance of the symphony now on record. It has a character individually its own; it is reflective and exhilarating; it is exquisitely played; it is sensitively recorded."

Hector Berlioz (1803 - 1869)

Symphonie Fantastique Op. 14

1. Reveries - Passions

2. Un Bal

3. Scene aux champs

4. Marche au supplice

5. Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat

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