Harold en Italie (Harold in Italy), symphony for viola & orchestra, H. 68 (Op. 16)
Les Nuits d'été, song cycle for voice & piano (or orchestra), H. 81 (Op. 7)
As period specialists and curators of one of the world's largest collections of historic instruments, Les Siècles has explored orchestral repertoire from Berlioz to Stravinsky, paying special attention to the instrumentation and employing vintage strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion that could have been used in the original performances. Conductor François-Xavier Roth took this adventurous band through Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique in a revelatory 2010 release on Actes Sud, and they have gone from strength to ...
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As period specialists and curators of one of the world's largest collections of historic instruments, Les Siècles has explored orchestral repertoire from Berlioz to Stravinsky, paying special attention to the instrumentation and employing vintage strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion that could have been used in the original performances. Conductor François-Xavier Roth took this adventurous band through Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique in a revelatory 2010 release on Actes Sud, and they have gone from strength to strength in recordings for that label and Harmonia Mundi. This 2018 album of Harold en Italie and Les Nuits d'Été marks their return to Berlioz, though the orchestra's expert playing and the exceptional audio reproduction show a real advance in the quality of the finished product. Harold en Italie was Berlioz's second symphony with an obbligato viola part, intended as a vehicle for Niccolò Paganini, though the great violinist turned down the work when he found the solo to be lacking in...
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