# Berlioz: Harold in Italy



## science

There aren't a load of choices for this, at least compared to something more popular like the Symphonie Fantastique. Looks like the main ones are: 

Bernstein (Sony)

Davis (Philips)

Davis (LSO Live)

Munch (RCA)

Which have you heard and which do you prefer? Which do you think is the most famous or popular or influential or significant?


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## Ukko

I have heard the Bernstein, the Philips Davis (I think) and the Munch. The Munch (with Primrose) is my favorite. It was recorded in RCA's Living Stereo (and has been remastered to SACD) so the sound is excellent - and Munch is Munch. I am willing to _guess_ that the Bernstein is most popular, Munch being under-appreciated nowadays.


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## quack

None of those: Inbal/Bashmet, Maazel/Christ, Minkowski/Tamestit of which I prefer Maazel, but I don't know much about "significance". This looks interesting, a reduction for viola and piano that Liszt wrote of the work, hadn't heard of it until today.


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## Manxfeeder

Any opinions on John Eliot Gardiner's recording? It's the only one I've heard. But how many chances to you get to hear an ophicleide?


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## ptr

I think that Davis is the benchmark in anything Berlioz!

A very good HIP alternative is Marc Minkowski and his Grenoble band on Naive! (review)









/ptr


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## StlukesguildOhio

There are actually quite a few choices if you look under "Harold en Italie" as well as "Harold in Italy". I have the old and very French Igor Markevitch recording which is included on the recording of _La Damnation de Faust_. If I was to seek out another I'd probably go with the Gardiner with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique and Monteverdi Choir. They were absolutely stunning on Berlioz _Messe-Solennelle_.


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## JCarmel

In my early days of collecting classical recordings, _the_ famous interpretation was by Sir Thomas Beecham and William Primrose.






Or as an alternative with that soloist, the one that I have...with Serge Koussevitzky...reissued on the Dutton label.









I have two different recordings with Colin Davis ....with soloists Tabea Zimmerman and Nobuko Imai.


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## moody

ptr said:


> I think that Davis is the benchmark in anything Berlioz!
> 
> A very good HIP alternative is Marc Minkowski and his Grenoble band on Naive! (review)
> 
> View attachment 13876
> 
> 
> /ptr


I think that Beecham and Muench were b etter.


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## moody

quack said:


> None of those: Inbal/Bashmet, Maazal/Christ, Minkowski/Tamestit of which I prefer Maazal, but I don't know much about "significance". This looks interesting, a reduction for viola and piano that Liszt wrote of the work, hadn't heard of it until today.


I have this and yes,it's great stuff.


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## Sid James

I got the one on Eloquence with Daniel Benyamini on viola with Israel PO under Zubin Mehta. Coupled with Bloch's Voice in the Wilderness, played by Janos Starker. Funny how though written about a century apart, both these works start off similarly, with the basses/low strings giving this dark feel. I got this version for the coupling but another one I was thinking of getting was Yehudi Menuhin's, but that was coupled with Berlioz's Reverie et Caprice, the nearest he did to a violin concerto.

I wouldn't know how the Benyamini/Mehta one compares to the others, in any case I have grown to love Harold, even though at first I found it a bit hard to appreciate. Esp. in terms of how different it is from Symphonie Fantastique. But one thing is that Harold is more thematically unified/integrated, as Berlioz wrote it in one go, whereas for the Fantastique, he had written the ball and march movements before he came to write the rest of it, so the idee fixee theme only pops up briefly in those movements, as an afterthought kind of thing. So since I love quite wholistic/unified works where I can hear a couple of themes going through it, now I very much like Harold but it took me a while to hear the links between its movements. So since this recording has offered me that insight, I can't complain.


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## bigshot

I have Bernstein, Davis (Philips), Koussevitzky and Munch. Munch is by far the best.


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## ComposerOfAvantGarde

Anyone for BPO+Hans Kirchner conducted by Igor Markevitch?


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## moody

ComposerOfAvantGarde said:


> Anyone for BPO+Hans Kirchner conducted by Igor Markevitch?


That's probably the one that St.Luke's has mentioned above. I don't know it but it is supposed to be good.


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## science

Thanks for your help guys. I think I'll go with Munch. Might try both Beecham and Davis later.


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## Vaneyes

Agreeing with SLGO...

View attachment 14265


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## arkadinho

What about this? 





I actually find it to be very Byronian. The beginning is brooding, almost psychotic, and the progression to a more happier state is gradual but it never quite reaches there instead plummeting into some sort of neurotic fit. And that was the description of the first movement only lol I think the neurosis and tension is present all throughout the performance, maybe not as distinctly as in the first movement but still.

In regards to viola Barshai is second to none imho, while David Oistrakh, well, it's funny but I'm discovering that I actually prefer him as a conductor rather than violinist. His conducting of Beethoven Violin Concerto with his son Igor doing the honors on violin became my favorite rendition of this Beethoven's great work since the first time I heard it, and now this.


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