Berlioz Symphonie fantastique. Scriabin-Poème de l'extase
View record and artist detailsRecord and Artist Details
Composer or Director: Alexander Scriabin, Hector Berlioz
Label: BBC Music Legends/IMG Artists
Magazine Review Date: 11/1999
Media Format: CD or Download
Media Runtime: 79
Mastering:
ADD
Catalogue Number: BBCL4018-2
Tracks:
| Composition | Artist Credit |
|---|---|
| Symphonie fantastique |
Hector Berlioz, Composer
Hector Berlioz, Composer Leopold Stokowski, Conductor New Philharmonia Orchestra |
| (Le) Poème de l'extase |
Alexander Scriabin, Composer
Alexander Scriabin, Composer Leopold Stokowski, Conductor New Philharmonia Orchestra |
Author: John Warrack
There are surprises here for listeners who feel they know the sort of thing to expect from Stokowski. His approach to Scriabin’s Poeme de l’extase is marked less by an extrovert indulgence in orchestral richness, opulent though the climaxes are, than by an extraordinary sense of delicacy and by a shrewd sense of structure in a score that – on the occasions when we have the chance to hear it – can very easily seem to escape the conductor’s control. The playing is marvellous, especially that of the all-important first trumpet, and beautifully guided, even if the recording does lose some detail.
The Symphonie fantastique is also a remarkable and rather unusual performance. According to Edward Johnson’s helpful insert-note, Stokowski seems to have steered clear, for over half a century, of a work he did not feel he fully understood. Taking it up again for this 1968 concert, he pursues a very original approach. This is not a euphemism for eccentric or interfering. His amendments of Berlioz’s score are minimal, as when he moves into the last 15 religiosamente bars of the first movement with a slight crescendo before dropping to the marked ppp, like a faint sigh, then allowing a long, held diminuendo on the final bar. The Waltz is rather hard-driven, and, surprisingly for Stokowski, charmless. Such matters begin to fall into place with the forlorn playing of the Scene aux champs, and the bleak attack (at a pace far exceeding Berlioz’s metronome marking) of the Marche au supplice. I do not remember hearing a performance so suffused with a feeling of sadness.'
The Symphonie fantastique is also a remarkable and rather unusual performance. According to Edward Johnson’s helpful insert-note, Stokowski seems to have steered clear, for over half a century, of a work he did not feel he fully understood. Taking it up again for this 1968 concert, he pursues a very original approach. This is not a euphemism for eccentric or interfering. His amendments of Berlioz’s score are minimal, as when he moves into the last 15 religiosamente bars of the first movement with a slight crescendo before dropping to the marked ppp, like a faint sigh, then allowing a long, held diminuendo on the final bar. The Waltz is rather hard-driven, and, surprisingly for Stokowski, charmless. Such matters begin to fall into place with the forlorn playing of the Scene aux champs, and the bleak attack (at a pace far exceeding Berlioz’s metronome marking) of the Marche au supplice. I do not remember hearing a performance so suffused with a feeling of sadness.'
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique. Scriabin-Poème de l'extase
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