Berlioz: Overtures; Queen Mab Scherzo

Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com essential recording
Munch and Berlioz are like chocolate and peanut butter--they go great together. This disc is the finest collection of Berlioz overtures and short works available, and possibly the best ever recorded. Berlioz was music's ultimate neurotic: his music is quite simply hyper. It jumps, fidgets, and explodes with bursts of passion, all of it uniquely tuneful and magnificently scored. Charles Munch could lose himself in music like this; here he surrenders to the excitement of the moment and positively revels in the passages where all hell breaks loose. The Boston Symphony plays as if their lives depended on it, and the early-1960s sound hasn't dated a bit. --David Hurwitz

Tracks:

Le Carnaval Romain
Beatrice Et Benedict: Overture
Le Corsaire
Les Troyens
Benvenutto Cellini: Overture
Romeo Et Juliette: Scherzo De La Reine Mab
Le Rouet D'omphale

Amazon.com essential recording

Munch and Berlioz are like chocolate and peanut butter--they go great together. This disc is the finest collection of Berlioz overtures and short works available, and possibly the best ever recorded. Berlioz was music's ultimate neurotic: his music is quite simply hyper. It jumps, fidgets, and explodes with bursts of passion, all of it uniquely tuneful and magnificently scored. Charles Munch could lose himself in music like this; here he surrenders to the excitement of the moment and positively revels in the passages where all hell breaks loose. The Boston Symphony plays as if their lives depended on it, and the early-1960s sound hasn't dated a bit. --David Hurwitz

Customer Reviews:

As good as it gets!.......2005-07-05

These Berlioz overtures will never find a best performer than Munch: This Alsatian conductor had that sublime taste, eloquence, absolute domain of the thematic material, presence and hard to find conviction as any other conductor previous or later.
Besides, if you have an Orchestra of such level as the Boston Symphony in those ages, how can you loose?.
Magnificent performances and the best made rendition for Berlioz music.

A desert island disc, unsurpassed.......2005-03-10

Reviewer David Hurwitz has it on the nose - there have never been recorded performances of Berlioz's popular short pieces of music to match these. The overtures, which contain infectious melodies that beg replay, explode with life under Munch's baton, and the magnificient BSO plays them to the hilt. Roman Carnival erupts with sizzling joy, almost making the listener stand up and cheer while listening to it; in Beatrice and Benedict, one can sense the tangible presence of Shakespeare's comic lovers duking it out with reckless hilarious abandon. The Royal Hunt and Storm from Les Troyens is the most evocative version ever placed on disc, and the other two lollipops are no less splendid. The sound is bright, sparkling, fully present and clear to match the performances. Make no mistake, folks, it gets no better than this.

Very Good.......1999-06-16

This is a very good recording of these Berlioz overtures and it sounds very good. Not the greatest music ever, but this is a very good recording and makes the music sound very good.

Track Listings:

Track Listings

track listings

Track Listings

Overnight Success [Import]

The Australia Ensemble Plays Schubert

Then the Morning Comes

Jazz in Paris: Nuits de Saint-Germain des-Prés [Original recording remastered] [Import]

Disco Party Classics

The Soul of a Genius [Enhanced]

Sing The Hits Of Sunset Boulevard (Karaoke)

The Mozart Collection, Vol. 3

Rock Legends [Import]

Russian Mystic [Import]

The Anthology

Se Te Quemo La Casa [Import]

Sentimental V.2 [Import]

King of New Orleans

E.S.P.