[Granate]

2009 thread about the work

I've started a Berlioz Grande Messe des Morts challenge in the last days, counting 30 different performances. I have other questions, but which are your favourite performances and what do you like to feel listening to them?

 

[Granate]

Research about recording venues

I'm still far from reaching half of the challenge, but I found a massive Liverpool performance worth researching, and which made me interested about the performances and the venues they were recorded in.

The BBC archives say that this Liverpool performance by two choruses and two orchestras, conducted by George Hurst, was performed in the Anglican Cathedral on November 15th 1962 according to BBC archives.

It's a blasting performance even if I'm still far from finishing, but the sound is absolutely different from the famous Salzburg Festival 1956 performance by Dimitri Mitropoulos in the Felsenreitschule.

I've been researching about the recording venues of this work, especially for stereo performances, and there are some gaps that I'd like you to help me out with too.

• Hurst Liverpool 1962 (Anglican Cathedral, Liverpool)
• Scherchen ORTF 1958 (St. Louis des Invalides, Paris)
• Davis SKD (Kreuzkirche, Dresden)
• Davis LSO Philips (Westminster Cathedral, London
• Davis LSO Live (St.Paul Cathedral, London)
• Nelson PO (St.Paul Cathedral, London)
• McCreesh Wroclaw (St Mary Magdalene Church, Wrocław)
• Bernstein ONFr (St. Louis des Invalides, Paris)
• Edison Elora (Cathedral of the Transfiguration, Ontario)
• Saraste KRSO 2017 (Hohe Domkirche, Cologne)
• Levine BPO (Jesus-Christus-Kirche, Berlin)
• Bertini KRSO (Altenberg Dom)
• Dutoit Montreal (St. Jérome, Montreal)

• Beecham RPO 1959 (Royal Festival Hall, London)
• Mitropoulos KRSO 1956 (Funkhaus, Cologne)
• Mitropoulos WPO 1956 (Felsenreitschule, Salzburg)
• Previn LPO (Walthamstow Town Hall London)
• Fremaux CBSO (Birmingham University)
• Gardner Bergen (Grieghallen Bergen)
• Maazel ClO (Masonic Auditorium. Cleveland)
• Ozawa BSO RCA (Symphony Hall, Boston)
• Mortlot Seattle (Benaroya Hall, Seattle)
• Lombard Bordeaux (Espace Culturel du Pin Galant)
• Inbal FRSO (Alte Oper, Frankfurt)

And the recordings I cannot find the venue from:

• Munch SOdBR
• Munch BSO
• Billy ORF
• Norrington RSOS
• Barenboim OdP
• Ormandy PhO

Anyone can be generous enough to find out the missing information? I'm sure most of you own a copy of the Munch recordings. In fact there are more concert venues than I first thought. I hope you found this interesting.

 

[wkasimer]

And the recordings I cannot find the venue from:

Munch SOdBR (Herkules Saal, Munich July 1967)
Munch BSO (Boston Symphony Hall, April 1959)
Billy ORF (Wiener Konzerthaus, April 21, 2003; live)

I can't help with the other three.

 

[Granate]

I found two more:

• Barenboim OdP (Maison de la Mutualité, Paris)
• Gielen SWF BBuF (Liederhalle, Stuttgart)

Thank you wkasimer.

 

[Knorf]

I enjoy the Munch/Boston 1959 recording so much (especially in the splendid SACD remaster), that I've never felt the need to seek out another. It's glorious!

But I'll be very interested to read the results of your overview. I think I'd be keen particularly in a period-instruments recording...

 

[Becca]

I enjoy the Munch/Boston 1959 recording so much (especially in the splendid SACD remaster), that I've never felt the need to seek out another. It's glorious!

But I'll be very interested to read the results of your overview. I think I'd be keen particularly in a period-instruments recording...

I would strongly recommend the McCreesh/Wroclaw recording which uses a combination of the Wroclaw Phil. Chamber Orch. & the Gabrieli Players and Consort.

"McCreesh being McCreesh, he has his musicians playing almost entirely on period instruments, including ophicleides and cornets à pistons, but he has assembled an enormous cast of over 400 musicians to create a mind-blowing impact. He has based his numbers and approach on the circumstances of the work's premiere, including the importance of the scale of the building - vast forces in a vast space - and the positioning of the players in relation to the acoustical venue. So this is a performance that is "authentic" to the core and the results are thrilling."

 

[joen_cph]

Interesting info, thank you. There are some difficult vocal parts, especially the solo tenor, that are of much importance for a positive experience of the work too ... I've got maybe 4-5, and it's been a long time since hearing them, but I'm certainly not sure any of them are ideal. McCreesh does sound fascinating.

 

[Becca]

 

[Handelian]

I have got this on disc but afraid never warmed to the work.

 

[mparta]

I have got this on disc but afraid never warmed to the work.

Ditto. I love much Berlioz but still can't warm to this. i have the Bernstein DVD, the Munch (a Munch?-- BSO), McCreech, Levine/BPO, maybe others.

And I was fortunate to be in Amsterdam a couple of years ago for Pappano and Javier Camarena with the Concertgebouw....

I end up with multiple copies of things I really love, first, or second, for works I don't get in an attempt to find it in a particular performance. I would have given my eye teeth to have heard Bernstein's performance in Les Invalides -- except that I wouldn't after having seen the DVD.

More work to do, I guess.

 

[BachIsBest]

Ditto. I love much Berlioz but still can't warm to this. i have the Bernstein DVD, the Munch (a Munch?-- BSO), McCreech, Levine/BPO, maybe others.

And I was fortunate to be in Amsterdam a couple of years ago for Pappano and Javier Camarena with the Concertgebouw....

I end up with multiple copies of things I really love, first, or second, for works I don't get in an attempt to find it in a particular performance. I would have given my eye teeth to have heard Bernstein's performance in Les Invalides -- except that I wouldn't after having seen the DVD.

More work to do, I guess.

Maybe try Colin Davis; the 50's account is the "classic" recording of this work. He did it again shortly before he died on SACD which is another excellent account if you don't mind the extreme reverberation from the cathedral he recorded in.

Berlioz himself thought this was his finest work and I tend to agree with him and this isn't due to the fact I don't like his other stuff. Compared to orchestral works I find there are relatively few true non-opera choral masterpieces; in my mind, this ranks amongst some of the very finest of them.

 

[starthrower]

I've never listened to this work or investigated the recordings but I dialed up the Erato disc on YouTube. It's pretty heavy and reverberant but I still like it. I'll check out the Colin Davis, and McCreesh.

 

[Azol]

Levine/BPO is mastered so bad (hint: loudness wars), it deserves a good remastering. But none exist to my knowledge.

 

[gellio]

I love Nelson’s recording best.