Berloz: Enfance du Christ

Naouri, Laurent;
Gens, Veronique;
Herreweghe, Philippe;
Collegium Vocale Gent;
Agnew, Paul;
Lallouette, Olivier;
Chapelle Royale Choir

HMC 901632.33

Nakład wyprzedany, ostatni egzemplarz

This live recording was made in Montreux’s Auditorium Stravinski; its dryness is ill-suited to parts of Berlioz’s oratorio. Otherwise this is as good as any available recording, perhaps better: what it lacks in ambience it makes up for in colour. After a slow opening narrative, Herreweghe sets judicious tempi and is not afraid to bend them, but some dynamic nuances are underplayed. The period instruments’ sonority is matched by well-focused singing from a largely francophone cast, but Paul Agnew’s steady, expressive narrator never seems out of place. Véronique Gens (Marie) and Olivier Lallouette (Joseph) are well matched in their duets, particularly their pleas for shelter in Egypt; the grainy bass of Frédéric Caton, who offers them shelter, makes an effective contrast. I wish Laurent Naouri had not ended the role of Herod, which he sings well, on an unauthorised high note. The temptation is obvious: half-way through Part 1, he and the brass simply disappear. The heart of the work lies in the woodwind, and this can hardly have sounded better since it was last performed on contemporary instruments. •Julian Rushton

CD x 2

Muzyka klasyczna

Harmonia Mundi

06-10-1997

794881399826