Search - Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Ernest Blanc, Remy Corazza :: Berlioz: L'enfance du Christ - Romeo et Juliette [excerpts] / Cluytens

A tender, very Gallic reading of L'Enfance du Christ

Santa Fe Listener | Santa Fe, NM USA | 12/10/2006

(5 out of 5 stars)

"It's strangely rare to encoutner performances of French masterpieces actually performed by French forces. Berlioz's sweet and gentle retelling of the birth of Jesus has been recorded no less than three times by Colin Davis (the first one, on Decca, being the freshest, although all are very fine) and by another Englishman, Matthew Best, whose smaller-scale reading is just as good, although it features no star vocalists. For the most excitable rendition, one can turn to Charles Munch and the BSO, a first-rate performance in every regard except the amateur chorus.



If you want the true Gallic timbre, however, which is always special in Berlioz, there's this highly appealing set from Andre Cluytens and the Paris Conservatoire orchestra. True, two of the major solo parts are sung by international opera stars--Victoria de los Angeles as Mary and Nicolai Gedda as the narrator. But both are so heart-warming that it's hard to complain, and they are surrounded by a Parisian chorus adding the perfect inflections to their parts, as well as two notable French baritones, Roger Soyer and Jules Bastin, undertaking the roles of Herod and Joseph.



Cluytens isn't nearly as dramatic in his approach as Munch, but he has more panache than his English rivals--this may be a religious subject, but Berlioz turns it into a confection as luscious as any patisserie could turn out in the form of a buche de Noel. The recorded sound is fine. Highly reocmmended as a holiday pick me up."