# Berlioz's Les Nuits d'Eté



## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Berlioz is one of my absolute favourite composers and I've just enjoyed a concentrated period of listening to all my Berlioz recordings, which embrace almost all his works.

I finished off with my ten different recordings of his gorgeous song cycle _Les Nuits d'Eté_ and reviewed them all for my blog. My conclusions can be viewed there if anyone is interested.

https://tsaraslondon.com/2021/07/07/berliozs-les-nuits-dete/


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## david johnson (Jun 25, 2007)

I have none of those recordings! I do have Reiner/Price/CSO.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

david johnson said:


> I have none of those recordings! I do have Reiner/Price/CSO.


I don't recall hearing it, but it gets a thumbs up from Ralph Moore, if not challenging versions by Baker, Hunt Lieberson, Steber and Von Stade.


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## wkasimer (Jun 5, 2017)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Berlioz is one of my absolute favourite composers and I've just enjoyed a concentrated period of listening to all my Berlioz recordings, which embrace almost all his works.
> 
> I finished off with my ten different recordings of his gorgeous song cycle _Les Nuits d'Eté_ and reviewed them all for my blog. My conclusions can be viewed there if anyone is interested.
> 
> https://tsaraslondon.com/2021/07/07/berliozs-les-nuits-dete/


For something completely different, try Jose van Dam, either orchestrated or with piano:


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

wkasimer said:


> For something completely different, try Jose van Dam, either orchestrated or with piano:
> 
> View attachment 157109
> 
> ...


Ralph Moore, in his survey, gives both recordings a cautious thumbs up, but, like me, he prefers a female voice in the songs, so, admire Van Dam though I do, I'm not sure it woud do it for me.


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## Woodduck (Mar 17, 2014)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Berlioz is one of my absolute favourite composers and I've just enjoyed a concentrated period of listening to all my Berlioz recordings, which embrace almost all his works.
> 
> I finished off with my ten different recordings of his gorgeous song cycle _Les Nuits d'Eté_ and reviewed them all for my blog. My conclusions can be viewed there if anyone is interested.
> 
> https://tsaraslondon.com/2021/07/07/berliozs-les-nuits-dete/


Wonderful overview of a wonderful song cycle. I haven't heard all of the recordings you review, but like you I find the the Baker/Barbirolli supreme, and can hardly imagine it being surpassed. I'm also one of the dissenters on Crespin, but I'll go further and suggest that I find her one of the least exciting sopranos of comparable vocal gifts and reputation I know of. Your description - "tasteful" and "too civilized" - describes my general experience of her work. I think its partly a quality of the voice itself - smoothly sensual in a restrained sort of way, without much inherent intensity. As you say, this works in the urbane Ravel but not so well in the febrile Berlioz. There's French music - and then there's French music.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

When I did my survey of recordings of Berlioz's _Les Nuits d'Eté_ a couple of months ago, I hadn't heard Von Stade's version, which was Ralph Moore's favourite in his excellent and more extensive survey on MusicWeb Intrenational. Had I done so, this version would definitely have joined the ranks of my favourites (Baker/Barbirolli, Steber/Mitropoulos and Hunt Lieberson/McGegan), if not quite ousting the Baker from the top spot.

As usual, Von Stade sings in excellent French and she is able to emabrace the melancholy and pain of the middle songs as well as the lightness and joy of the outer ones. Her lovely voice, with its signature flicker vibrato, is in excellent shape, easily encompassing the wide range of the songs (right down to a secure and resonant low F# on _linceul_ in _Sur les lagunes_ and radiantly beautiful on high.

The coupling of Debussy's _La Damoiselle élue_ is also lovely and all in all this is a winning disc.


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## philoctetes (Jun 15, 2017)

De Los Angles and Lorraine Hunt are my favorites, and the couplings are impossible to beat as well. I was fortunate to hear Hunt's Handel recital live in Palo Alto.

Another good one is Herreweghe, but the name of the vocalist escapes me now. I've heard both Von Otters and each has issues - the interpretation in the first, and her aging voice in the second.


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## Barbebleu (May 17, 2015)

philoctetes said:


> Another good one is Herreweghe, but the name of the vocalist escapes me now. I've heard both Von Otters and each has issues - the interpretation in the first, and her aging voice in the second.


Is that the one with Brigitte Balleys?


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Berlioz is one of my absolute favourite composers and I've just enjoyed a concentrated period of listening to all my Berlioz recordings, which embrace almost all his works.
> 
> I finished off with my ten different recordings of his gorgeous song cycle _Les Nuits d'Eté_ and reviewed them all for my blog. My conclusions can be viewed there if anyone is interested.
> 
> https://tsaraslondon.com/2021/07/07/berliozs-les-nuits-dete/


Interesting. Unlike you and Ralph Moore, I'd put my favorite, Regine Crespin, well ahead of Eleanor Steber and Janet Baker, great singers but not favorites of mine, and even Victoria de los Angeles and Leontyne Price, who are favorites of mine in other repertoire. A lot of it has to do with the fact that she alone is a native French speaker, which makes a huge difference here. Her idiomatic but not overly-dramatized reading, helped and not hindered by her distinctive though perhaps not textbook-perfect sound, for me is just what is called for. This is not grand opera, and Crespin knows how to tone things down accordingly. Crespin is also fine in Scheherazade, but imo there Crespin's approach is not as perfectly matched to the exotic and foreign atmosphere Ravel so skillfully creates. At least, there, I don't feel so much need for a native French speaker.

As for the orchestra, Ansermet's OSR was well-known not to be the very best when it came to pure technical skill. And here he was over 80 and near the end of his career and life. So the preference for other orchestras and conductors is understandable. But for me, Ansermet, like Crespin, understands the idiom and knows not to oversell the drama.

I look forward to the next, probably French, singer who can capture the magic of the nights of summer. But I haven't found her yet.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Has anyone tried Veronique Gens's version?

Here's a sample:


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> Has anyone tried Veronique Gens's version?
> 
> Here's a sample:


Hasn't she recorded it twice? I've heard the 2001 version under Louis Lagrange. Speeds are very fast and I find the voice much too light. She hasn't got the lower register to do the songs justice. The outer songs are done quite nicely, but where is the longing, the despair, the sensuality, the tragedy that the middle songs require? Not for me, I'm afraid.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

MAS said:


> Has anyone tried Veronique Gens's version?
> 
> Here's a sample:


Gens has a ravishingly beautiful voice. But she sings the piece nearly a half tone sharper than Crespin, and that gives it a very different sound. I noticed it sounded sharp the moment I started listening. I wonder if that was intentional on either singer's part, or simply a different tuning convention from different eras. But still, she and the orchestra backing her give it the intimacy it needs.

Edit: I've now read Tsaraslondon's post, and I wonder if there was a tape speed inaccuracy problem with the Gens recording. It is a little sharp and fast, and perhaps could be more relaxed.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

fluteman said:


> Gens has a ravishingly beautiful voice. But she sings the piece nearly a half tone sharper than Crespin, and that gives it a very different sound. I noticed it sounded sharp the moment I started listening. I wonder if that was intentional on either singer's part, or simply a different tuning convention from different eras. But still, she and the orchestra backing her give it the intimacy it needs.
> 
> Edit: I've now read Tsaraslondon's post, and I wonder if there was a tape speed inaccuracy problem with the Gens recording. It is a little sharp and fast, and perhaps could be more relaxed.


I don't know the recording - I am quite satisfied with the Von Stade recording and found all others _de trop_. It's like I've been _imprinted _ (a term I read on one of Anne McCaffey's dragon fantasy novels). 
But the Gens excerpt sounds very high, if you're used to a mezzo in the songs.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

MAS said:


> But the Gens excerpt sounds very high, if you're used to a mezzo in the songs.


That's true too, but it doesn't just sound high, it's pitched a half tone sharp, as are all four parts of her recording. You're right (imo) that the lower, mezzo tessitura (if that's the right word) of von Stade does work better. But there is more to it than that. These are songs set to poetry that explores themes of love and love's loss in an introspective and meditative rather than a dramatic way. There is no action or dramatic narrative. They need a more intimate approach than, say, Lucia's mad scene or Tosca leaping to her death. The tension created by Gens' naturally high tessitura and sharp pitch (though her singing is appropriately relaxed) somehow doesn't seem ideal to me.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

fluteman said:


> That's true too, but it doesn't just sound high, it's pitched a half tone sharp, as are all four parts of her recording. You're right that the lower, mezzo tessitura (if that's the right word) of von Stade does work better for me. But there is more to it than that. These are songs set to poetry that explores themes of love and love's loss in an introspective and meditative rather than a dramatic way. There is no action or dramatic narrative. They need a more intimate approach than, say, Lucia's mad scene or Tosca leaping to her death. Then tension created by Gens' naturally high tessitura and sharp pitch (though her singing is appropriately relaxed) somehow doesn't seem ideal to me.


I actually don't agree with you. I wouldn't say that they need a more passionate approach. The themes and the poetry often suggest the vivid _grand guignol_ of so much poetry of the Romantic era, especially French Romantic poetry. To me they cry out for a Cassandre or a Didon, sometimes a Margeurite. I agree that it is a pleasure to hear Crespin singing in her own language, but she just sails impassively through the songs, as if their greater passions don't affect her at all. Where are those _grands désirs inappaisées_?

I agree with David Cairns (in _Song on Record, Volume 2_ and Ralph Moore in his survey of most of the extant recordings that the best ones are Eleanore Steber, Janet Baker, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Von Stade.

The link to my own survey is in the OP.


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## fluteman (Dec 7, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I actually don't agree with you. I wouldn't say that they need a more passionate approach. The themes and the poetry often suggest the vivid _grand guignol_ of so much poetry of the Romantic era, especially French Romantic poetry. To me they cry out for a Cassandre or a Didon, sometimes a Margeurite. I agree that it is a pleasure to hear Crespin singing in her own language, but she just sails impassively through the songs, as if their greater passions don't affect her at all. Where are those _grands désirs inappaisées_?
> 
> I agree with David Cairns (in _Song on Record, Volume 2_ and Ralph Moore in his survey of most of the extant recordings that the best ones are Eleanore Steber, Janet Baker, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson and Von Stade.
> 
> The link to my own survey is in the OP.


In Villanelle, the narrator reflects on how he/she will walk in the woods with his/her lover in Springtime. In Le Spectre de la rose, the ghost of a rose (or the narrator) reflects on the previous glittering evening with his/her lover at a ball. In Sur les legunes, the narrator mourns his/her dead lover. In Absence, the narrator longs for the return of his/her absent lover. In Au cimetiere, the narrator is in a cemetery contemplating the immortal soul; In L'ile inconnu, the narrator asks (rhetorically, one presumes) a beautiful young woman what life and love have in store for her.

So, three internal reflections on the future, and three internal reflections on the past. None of these poems directly portrays external action. None tells a story directly, though past and future anticipated acts and events are implied or referenced.

This is what separates this important poetic and literary tradition from drama or theater. It is introspective and reflective, and not concerned with current acts and events. For me, that they are non-theatrical has important implications on how these songs should be sung. That is more important to me than a "great voice". As for various rankings, with respect, they mean little to me. Each of the singers you mention is immensely famous, as is this music. I probably can listen to all of them on youtube or Spotify. But I've enjoyed reading your comments.

Edit after some listening: Leontyne Price and Eleanor Steber give me exactly what I don't want in this music, i.e., operatic drama. De los Angeles and Baker (with Barbirolli), not as far off, but also not for me. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson is much better. She understands the texts and obviously is familiar with Crespin's recording. She was an impressive singer. And I completely agree with your review of that recording.


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## MAS (Apr 15, 2015)

Tsaraslondon said:


> I don't recall hearing it, but it gets a thumbs up from Ralph Moore, if not challenging versions by Baker, Hunt Lieberson, Steber and Von Stade.


"Thumbs Up?" Did film buzz words invade Classical Vocal Music critique?


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

MAS said:


> "Thumbs Up?" Did film buzz words invade Classical Vocal Music critique?


So sorry. I hadn't realised there was some sort of accepted lexicon in place for "Classical Vocal Music" critique. I'll inform the powers that be.


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## Red Terror (Dec 10, 2018)

I've only just begun discovering Berlioz's music and I am quite amazed that I hadn't given him the time of day sooner. What an exceptionally gifted composer he was! I can't understand why it was that Debussy and Ravel considered him a clumsy genius with no talent. I don't hear anything at all clumsy or talentless in his music—quite the opposite!

How do you all feel about Warner's complete edition?


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## hammeredklavier (Feb 18, 2018)

Red Terror said:


> Debussy and Ravel considered him a clumsy genius with no talent.


This is interesting-
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hector_Berlioz#Works
[ "In his 1983 book The Musical Language of Berlioz, Julian Rushton asks "where Berlioz comes in the history of musical forms and what is his progeny". Rushton's answers to these questions are "nowhere" and "none". He cites well-known studies of musical history in which Berlioz is mentioned only in passing or not at all, and suggests that this is partly because Berlioz had no models among his predecessors and was a model to none of his successors. "In his works, as in his life, Berlioz was a lone wolf". Forty years earlier, Sir Thomas Beecham, a lifelong proponent of Berlioz's music, commented similarly, writing that although, for example, Mozart was a greater composer, his music drew on the works of his predecessors, whereas Berlioz's works were all wholly original: "the Symphonie fantastique or La Damnation de Faust broke upon the world like some unaccountable effort of spontaneous generation which had dispensed with the machinery of normal parentage".
Rushton suggests that "Berlioz's way is neither architectural nor developmental, but illustrative". He judges this to be part of a continuing French musical aesthetic, favouring a "decorative" - rather than the German "architectural" - approach to composition. Abstraction and discursiveness are alien to this tradition, and in operas, and to a large extent in orchestral music, there is little continuous development; instead self-contained numbers or sections are preferred.
Berlioz's compositional techniques have been strongly criticised and equally strongly defended. It is common ground for critics and defenders that his approach to harmony and musical structure conforms to no established rules; his detractors ascribe this to ignorance, and his proponents to independent-minded adventurousness. His approach to rhythm caused perplexity to conservatively-inclined contemporaries; he hated the phrase carrée - the unvaried four- or eight-bar phrase - and introduced new varieties of rhythm to his music. He explained his practice in an 1837 article: accenting weak beats at the expense of the strong, alternating triple and duple groups of notes and using unexpected rhythmic themes independent of the main melody. Macdonald writes that Berlioz was a natural melodist, but that his rhythmic sense led him away from regular phrase lengths; he "spoke naturally in a kind of flexible musical prose, with surprise and contour important elements".
Berlioz's approach to harmony and counterpoint was idiosyncratic, and has provoked adverse criticism. Pierre Boulez commented, "There are awkward harmonies in Berlioz that make one scream". In Rushton's analysis, most of Berlioz's melodies have "clear tonal and harmonic implications" but the composer sometimes chose not to harmonise accordingly. Rushton observes that Berlioz's preference for irregular rhythm subverts conventional harmony: "Classic and romantic melody usually implies harmonic motion of some consistency and smoothness; Berlioz's aspiration to musical prose tends to resist such consistency."" ]


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Red Terror said:


> I've only just begun discovering Berlioz's music and I am quite amazed that I hadn't given him the time of day sooner. What an exceptionally gifted composer he was! I can't understand why it was that Debussy and Ravel considered him a clumsy genius with no talent. I don't hear anything at all clumsy or talentless in his music—quite the opposite!
> 
> How do you all feel about Warner's complete edition?


If you want to acquire all of Berlioz's works in one go, then it looks like a good buy and no doubt cheaper than buying individual works with different forces. I don't think there are any dud performances in it, but few of them would be among my favourites. 

I think Berlioz was so far ahead of his time that many of his contemporaries, and even those who came later, like Ravel and Debussy, didn't really get him. Fortunately in the twentieth century there were a few conductors of genius (particularly Beecham, Colin Davis and John Eliot Gardiner) who really understood his sound world and made everyone rethink his music.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Berlioz is not a favourite composer of mine, but this may well be my favourite song cycle. Crespin is good but cold, Baker is interpretatively more interesting but I don't love her voice, not that there's anything wrong with it. For me, an unorthodox choice maybe, Agnes Baltsa's version is the one. It's very characterful, and sung in a sing-it-like-you-mean-it way which may not be to the tastes of those who prefer their French music more delicate and gentil, but works nonetheless. Her diction is a little odd in places but fine for the most part and her voice copes with all the demands of the music. It's nice to have a singer not afraid to dip into the chest register in this kind of music too as some places need a little more chest engagement than some others give.


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## Op.123 (Mar 25, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> Berlioz is not a favourite composer of mine, but this may well be my favourite song cycle. Crespin is good but cold, Baker is interpretatively more interesting but I don't love her voice, not that there's anything wrong with it. For me, an unorthodox choice maybe, Agnes Baltsa's version is the one. It's very characterful, and sung in a sing-it-like-you-mean-it way which may not be to the tastes of those who prefer their French music more delicate and gentil, but works nonetheless. Her diction is a little odd in places but fine for the most part and her voice copes with all the demands of the music. It's nice to have a singer not afraid to dip into the chest register in this kind of music too as some places need a little more chest engagement than some others give.


How could I forget Steber's version! Old remasterings I heard weren't great but the one from the Mitropoulos box sounds much better. She's less overtly dramatic than Baltsa but more idiomatic and her voice is more reliable. This is another favourite. Beautifully sung and conducted.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Op.123 said:


> How could I forget Steber's version! Old remasterings I heard weren't great but the one from the Mitropoulos box sounds much better. She's less overtly dramatic than Baltsa but more idiomatic and her voice is more reliable. This is another favourite. Beautifully sung and conducted.


I don't know whether you read my article that I linked towhen I started the thread, but Steber's was one of my top choices, the others being Baker (preferably with Barbirolli) and Hunt Lieberson. 

I actually quite like Baltsa's rather individual take and remember I once heard her sing the songs live (with Muti, I think). Von Stade's version has now become another favourite.


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## Otis B. Driftwood (4 mo ago)

I just stumbled upon this recording. Thoughts?

Brigitte Balleys, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Philippe Herreweghe


https://youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_lOJv3624Ldz7Wxm6wgZHeugJfTfAJghrE


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

Otis B. Driftwood said:


> I just stumbled upon this recording. Thoughts?
> 
> Brigitte Balleys, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Philippe Herreweghe
> 
> ...


It's been extravagantly praised by some, but I don't really like it. Reactions will depend largely on how one feels about her rather strange vocal production.Not for me, I'm afraid.


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## Otis B. Driftwood (4 mo ago)

I have long admired Bernarda Fink as a lieder singer, though her recording of _Les Nuits d'Eté_ is new to me;


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

I'm glad you enjoyed David Daniels' performance. He and his brother, a cellist, were studying at the University of Cincinnati College-Conservatory of Music when I was getting my doctorate there. I barely knew him, but David was a scream at parties, where he on at least one occasion sang soprano arias dressed in a toga. I can verify that he performed _Les Nuits d'Eté_ on stage with the NY Philharmonic sometime in the 2000s because I created the parts for the performance, which required a transposition.


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Otis B. Driftwood said:


> I just stumbled upon this recording. Thoughts?
> 
> Brigitte Balleys, Orchestre des Champs-Élysées, Philippe Herreweghe
> 
> ...


This is also among my favorites. I consider Herreweghe a reliable conductor, and trust his selection of soloists.



> Reactions will depend largely on how one feels about her rather strange vocal production.


I am unsure why you call her vocal production "strange". To me her singing sounds like the quintessential French style.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

SanAntone said:


> This is also among my favorites. I consider Herreweghe a reliable conductor, and trust his selection of soloists.
> 
> 
> 
> I am unsure why you call her vocal production "strange". To me her singing sounds like the quintessential French style.


Quintessential or not (and I think I'd have to go back a lot further in time to find what I think of as quintessentially French) I don't much like the sound she makes. Your reaction is obviously different from mine. However, I'm not alone. Ralph Moore doesn't like her much either.



> Brigitte Balleys’ shares with a few sopranos a mannerism which I dislike, of starting a note without vibrato then swelling it winsomely into a broad pulse; it becomes twee, especially in combination with the whining strings of Herreweghe’s period band. Her essential tone is rather harsh and her lower register artificial; the low D on “en deuil” and lower E on “cerceuil” in “Absence” are manufactured and peculiar sounds. Herreweghe – usually a subtle conductor – over-emphasises some rhythmic effects. The joint interpretation of singer and conductor is essentially under-powered and even reserved; I am baffled by the extravagant praise heaped on this recording and can hear nothing special in it; indeed, I find it irritating and of no special vocal or instrumental quality


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## SanAntone (May 10, 2020)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Quintessential or not (and I think I'd have to go back a lot further in time to find what I think of as quintessentially French) I don't much like the sound she makes. Your reaction is obviously different from mine. However, I'm not alone. Ralph Moore doesn't like her much either.


I really like French composers,and listen to a lot of French music, and try to hear French musicians and singers as much as possible - so, I am accustomed to a certain sound which I have come to think of as "French". Brigitte Balleys is Swiss but has cultivated the sound I like: light, fluttery, and tenderly expressive. A butterfly in voice.

It is a subjective thing, and I think that what you and Ralph Moore do not like is precisely the kind of singing that I am attracted to.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

SanAntone said:


> I really like French composers,and listen to a lot of French music, and try to hear French musicians and singers as much as possible - so, I am accustomed to a certain sound which I have come to think of as "French". Brigitte Balleys is Swiss but has cultivated the sound I like: light, fluttery, and tenderly expressive. A butterfly in voice.
> 
> It is a subjective thing, and I think that what you and Ralph Moore do not like is precisely the kind of singing that I am attracted to.


I like French composers and French music a lot too, and I've istened to and loved many French singers over the years. I don't see how her sound is in any way particularly indicative of French style, but, yet it is quite possible that you are just attracted to a different sound and style of singing than me.


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## toasino (Jan 3, 2022)

Tsaraslondon said:


> Berlioz is one of my absolute favourite composers and I've just enjoyed a concentrated period of listening to all my Berlioz recordings, which embrace almost all his works.
> 
> I finished off with my ten different recordings of his gorgeous song cycle _Les Nuits d'Eté_ and reviewed them all for my blog. My conclusions can be viewed there if anyone is interested.
> 
> httpsT://tsaraslondon.com/2021/07/07/berliozs-les-nuits-dete/


This is probably my favorite song cycle. My favorite recordings are by: Crespin, de los Angeles and, surprisingly, Hildegard Beherns.


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## Tsaraslondon (Nov 7, 2013)

toasino said:


> This is probably my favorite song cycle. My favorite recordings are by: Crespin, de los Angeles and, surprisingly, Hildegard Beherns.


Probably mine too. I think the Crespin overrated, my reasons for which are in the blog post I linked to at the start of this thread.


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