Berlioz is not the first name that comes to mind when the topic of historical performance is mentioned, but here is a delightful group of short pieces presented as "une soirée chez Berlioz" and played on instruments of his time. Mostly they are songs, accompanied on piano or, more unusually guitar, and the fascinating thing is that the guitar was Berlioz's own. He even signed it when he donated it to the Conservatoire in Paris. The album is worth hearing just for the quiet, measured voice of the guitar alone, in the hands ...
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Berlioz is not the first name that comes to mind when the topic of historical performance is mentioned, but here is a delightful group of short pieces presented as "une soirée chez Berlioz" and played on instruments of his time. Mostly they are songs, accompanied on piano or, more unusually guitar, and the fascinating thing is that the guitar was Berlioz's own. He even signed it when he donated it to the Conservatoire in Paris. The album is worth hearing just for the quiet, measured voice of the guitar alone, in the hands of Thibaut Roussel. The piano is a Pleyel instrument of 1842, both gentle and agile. The entire album never rises above true chamber dynamics, and pianist Tanguy de Williencourt adjusts his sound to this level as well. (Berlioz specialist and mezzo-soprano Stéphanie d'Oustrac if anything dominates her accompanists a bit too much.) The album is not just a vaguely conceptual soirée but a set of pieces that Berlioz himself, for personal or professional reasons, might have liked (the...
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