Berlioz - Harold en Italie
Berlioz - Ballet music from Les Troyens
Zimmermann; London Symphony Orchestra / Davis
LSO Live LSO0040

Release date July 2003

Sir Colin Davis’s 1975 taping of Harold en Italie, with the LSO and Nobuko Imai as soloist, has been an easy ‘first choice’ ever since. His new version for LSO Live finds the LSO in peerless form; textures are more transparent than before and accents kept needle-sharp. His soloist this time round, Tabea Zimmermann, is quite the equal of her illustrious predecessor - her control of the glinting sul ponticello arpeggios as the pilgrims retreat into the distance is spell-binding. While Sir Colin’s Mozart performances may have lost much of their former vitality, his Berlioz remains armed and dangerous – check out those brigands in the finale! LSO Live’s documentation is as impressive as ever (there is a valuable essay by the eminence grise of Berlioz studies, David Cairns) and – hurrah! – a list of the orchestral personnel.The cover is a puzzle and a missed opportunity: a grim-faced Sir Colin against a brown background. What this has to do with Berlioz’s dazzling reminiscence of his journeying in the Abruzzi mountains is hard to fathom!

Reviewed by Sandy Matheson