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Berlioz: Romeo et Juliette / Munch, Boston Symphony

Release Date: 01/14/2015
Label: Rca Victor Red Seal Catalog #: 38433
Composer:  Hector Berlioz Performer:  Margaret Roggero ,  Leslie Chabey ,  Yi-Kwei Sze Conductor:  Charles Munch Orchestra/Ensemble:  Boston Symphony Orchestra ,  Harvard Glee Club ,  Radcliffe Choral Society Number of Discs: 2
Recorded in: Mono Length: 1 Hours 31 Mins.

*** This title is a reissue of a Japanese release with liner notes in Japanese. ***

It's good to be reminded of Charles Munch's expertise as a Berlioz interpreter. Certainly this Alsatian-born conductor's mercurial temperament was uniquely suited to the composer's stark, abrupt changes of affect, which juxtaposes passages of febrile intensity with others of simple, aching lyricism. He effectively plays up the pictorial variety of Berlioz's brilliant orchestral palette: the bronze-toned low brasses of the Prince's proclamation; the bright, piquant woodwinds of the choral recitative; the deeper, more pungent reed colors of the Invocation.

Yet Munch's most singular asset may well have been his instinctive Read more grasp of the irregular shapes and quirky curves of a Berlioz phrase. When the themes are laid out with this sort of clarity, it becomes easier to comprehend the larger-scale structures; so, paradoxically, the score sounds unusually cohesive. Few conductors, for example, have successfully sorted out the introduction to the Scène d'amour, which too frequently bogs down in numerous short, repetitive motifs and fragments. Munch precisely weights each of the various musical elements within the overall sonority, clarifying the arc of a passage which is, after all, preparatory to the real business at hand.

So, as a Munch document, this Roméo automatically acquires a certain significance. The question relates to its usefulness for the general, as opposed to the specialist, collector. This is a decidedly cloudy issue, as Munch's 1961 stereo remake apparently remains available (RCA 74321 34168 2). The acoustic of this mono issue is dry - you hear rather a lot of bows scraping on strings in the vigorous opening Combats fugue - with an unpleasantly insistent treble response.

Turning to performance values, the Boston Symphony sounds very much itself in both versions. The monaural recording makes it easier to sort out the diverse strands in the more complicated passages, but the stereo account's more blended sheen falls more easily on the ear. The remake also scores in the choral department, offering the polished New England Conservatory Chorus. The enthusiastic Harvard and Radcliffe groups here are nicely tuned in some tricky spots, but their French enunciation is too doggedly emphatic and Americanized.

But the soloists provide for some serious competition. Munch's starrier 1961 line-up of Rosalind Elias, Cesare Valletti, and Giorgio Tozzi sing well and musically. However the present, lesser-known singers are equally scrupulous and better in touch with the style. In the Strophes, Margaret Roggero displays a clear mezzo with a good tonal depth and warmth, and an elusive floaty quality even in the solid mid-range. She keeps her emotional "cool," eschewing superfluous sentiment, and her sensitive phrasing and lustrous timbre won me over. Leslie Chabay's tenor is a bit nasal, but basically well-balanced, and he brings the right "verbal" dexterity and lightness to the scherzetto. Yi Kwei Sze intones Friar Laurence's lines with solemn dignity (backed, once again, by Munch’s broad, arching accompaniment); his French, though cautiously inflected, is excellent.

-- Stephen Francis Vasta, MusicWeb International
reviewing this performance reissued as Archipel 0206 Read less