Est 1923

Berlioz Messe Solennelle

Record and Artist Details

Composer or Director: Hector Berlioz

Label: Classics

Media Format: CD or Download

Media Runtime: 56

Mastering:

DDD

Catalogue Number: 37204-2

Tracks:

Composition Artist Credit
Messe Solennelle Hector Berlioz, Composer
Gene Tucker, Tenor
Hector Berlioz, Composer
J Reilly Lewis, Conductor
Rosa Lamoreaux, Soprano
Terry Cook, Bass
Washington National Cathedral Choral Society
The first recording of Berlioz's rediscovered Messe solennelle was of a performance given in Westminster Cathedral in October 1993 at the end of a European tour of premieres, and it captures all the excitement of that occasion and almost none of the tiredness which the artists must have felt. The American premiere was also recorded live, in May 1994. After the lean, clear sound of Gardiner's violins in the ''O salutaris'', and the purity of tone and intonation of the Monteverdi Choir's marvellous sopranos, textures here are muddy, the choral tone dull and the phrasing casual.
The latter is one of the most marked defects in the new recording: Berlioz's phrasing is always highly original and needs a quick understanding of where the stresses and emphases lie within the full length of phrase, which Gardiner senses accurately and does not seem to concern Lewis so much. Even though Gilles Cachemaille was sounding a little tired, he still sang the Credo as if he believed every word of it; Terry Cook is quavery and dull, as is Rosa Lamoreaux in the ''Incarnatus''. Gardiner takes the ''Quoniam'' a good deal faster, which perhaps Lewis could not risk in the acoustics of Washington National Cathedral; his textures are murky, the words barely audible. The ''Resurrexit'' is a tame statement in Lewis's version, astonishing in Gardiner's. There is, in short, no comparison, and the American version will really be of interest only to those present as a souvenir of the occasion.'

Berlioz Messe Solennelle

Messe Solennelle

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