Not many versions of the Symphonie fantastique rival Myung-Whun Chung’s in conveying the nervously impulsive inspiration of a young composer, the hints of hysteria, the overtones of nightmare in Berlioz’s programme. He makes one register it afresh as genuinely fantastic. Some may well prefer the more direct, more solid qualities that you find in the new Mehta version, also well played, and recorded with satisfying weight, but the volatile element in this perennially modern piece is something which Chung brings out to a degree I have rarely known before, and that establishes his as a very individual, sharply characterized version with unusually strong claims.
Such an approach as Chung’s might easily have sounded fussy or self-indulgent, but the rapport between the conductor and the Bastille orchestra is so complete that all the subtleties of expression, the highly complex rubato, sound natural and spontaneous, regularly making one register this – despite the nationality of the conductor – as a very French performance. It is characteristic of Chung that where the slow introduction is unusually spacious, with tension carried over long pauses, the main Allegro is impulsively fast, with a degree of wildness that sounds totally idiomatic. The second movement waltz, another performance of extremes, has a delectable lilt, and works to an exciting conclusion, impulsive again. The long meditation of the “Scene aux champs” flows easily, and the opening dialogue between cor anglais and distant oboe has rarely sounded more atmospheric. Mehta’s view, as in all the movements, is plainer and less poetic, but with tension comparably sustained. In the “Marche au supplice” Chung’s performance is tauter and faster, with sharper focus and with the chattering bassoon articulating superbly. Only at the start of the finale does tension momentarily slacken, and Chung’s fast tempo for the clarinet’s grotesque version of the motto theme challenges the players to the limit, again conveying wildness. The conclusion brings all the expected thrills in its impulsiveness, with the bass drum vividly caught. Mehta in this movement has an even finer clarinet, and the conclusion is above all weighty, if less clear.
As fill-up Mehta offers comparably direct and well-played readings of the two overtures, with the weight of the recording helping rather than hindering the mercurial qualities of Beatrice et Benedict thanks to crisp ensemble. Chung’s coupling is far more original, the set of five brief and brilliant pieces which Dutilleux wrote for Szell and the Cleveland Orchestra in 1964. Chung’s view is both poetic and atmospheric, bringing out the subtly contrasting timbres in each piece, with the different sections of the orchestra brought together in the final Presto, where Chung relishes the marking “Flamboyant”, underlining jazzy syncopations in fractional anticipation to make this even more exciting than Rostropovich’s weightier but equally volatile reading. This is a makeweight to welcome, for it is sure to surprise and delight many who simply buy the disc for Chung’s inspired reading of the Berlioz.'