# Berlioz, Lorin Maazel, Cleveland Orchestra ‎– Symphonie Fantastique



## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

This month's _Vinyl's Revenge_ is not necessarily a truly great recording, but it stands out in my mind because it was the first recording I ever owned of thus seminal work.

Trout, in one of his many surveys of repertoire recordings, looked at _Symphonie Fantastique_ and many of his stand-outs were from the great French conductors: Munch, Paray and I would add to that Igor Markevitch, as well as some "Berlioz specialists" like Sir Colin Davis and Sir Thomas Beecham. I would have added to that list Dutoit's mid-1980's release with the Montreal Symphony, but thee are so many recordings of the work to choose from...

In his interpretation of this well-traveled masterpiece, Lorin Maazel doesn't add anything new, but what he says is surgically precise, economical and somewhat clinical (read: aseptic and some would say, cold). In other words, pure Maazel - though not the way most of us would expect the work to be interpreted: with French flair and some abandon.

The work itself doesn't need introduction, as its back-story, and programme, have been well documented. What we have here is a straight-forward, honest and for Maazel not too pretentious. Considering that the Cleveland Orchestra isn't a French repertoire orchestra per se, it is quite enjoyable!

Happy listening!








*Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869)*
_Symphonie fantastique_, épisodes d'une vie d'artiste en 5 parties, op. 14 [H 48]

Cleveland Orchestra
Lorin Maazel, conducting	
CBS Masterworks ‎- M 35867
Released: 1980


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## itywltmt (May 29, 2011)

A LA CARTE #12- Lorin Maazel à la carte

We are repurposing the music from this post as a new montage in our ongoing A la Carte series on the For Your Listening Pleasure podcast April 22, 2022. The following notes are an update .

In the past few years, I have programmed Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique to mark “4-20” *which happens to have been last Wednesday) and Mahler’s Song of the Earth for Earth Day (today). As it turns out, we posted the Mahler song cycle a few days ago, and today (as part of this A la Carte post), it’s time for the Berlioz.

As I stated in the original post, the work itself doesn't need introduction, as its back-story, and programme, have been well documented. What we have here is a straight-forward, honest and for Maazel not too pretentious. Considering that the Cleveland Orchestra isn't a French repertoire orchestra per se, it is quite enjoyable!

To fill the montage, I added another Maazel CBS recording from his tenure in Cleveland. Theearly digital album featured three Richard Strauss tone poems, and I thought matching the Berlioz work to Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration was a fitting choice. Hope you agree!

I think you will (still) love this music too.

Richard STRAUSS (1864-1949)

Tod und Verklarung, op. 24 [Trv 158]

[NEW]

Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869)

Symphonie Fantastique Op. 14

[Vinyl’s Revenge #21]

Cleveland Orchestra

Lorin Maazel, conducting

Internet Archive - Lorin Maazel A la Carte : Free Download, Borrow, and Streaming : Internet Archive


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