Berlioz: Les Nuits d'ete (CD review)

Also, Handel: Arias. Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, mezzo-soprano; Nicholas McGegan, Philharmonia Baroque Orchestra. Philharmonia Baroque PBP-01.

In the interest of full disclosure, I have to admit that the Philharmonia Barque Orchestra is probably the one orchestra I've listened to in-person more than any other. My being a San Francisco Bay Area native and the orchestra being based in the Bay Area these past thirty years or so, I have been able to enjoy a number of their live performances. I have also included the orchestra as a top choice for several works in my "Basic Classical Collection." So, yes, it's always a pleasure to hear a new recording from them.

Philharmonia Baroque is a period-instruments ensemble founded in 1981 and led by its current conductor, Nicholas McGegan, since 1985. They always play with style, panache, refinement, and well-informed period practices. What's more, they have had the good fortune over the years to make quite a few excellent-sounding recordings with Harmonia Mundi, BMG, and Reference Recordings. Their 2011 release of Berlioz's Les Nuits d'ete is the first in a series of discs they are producing themselves, though continuing their distribution with Harmonia Mundi.

French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) wrote his song cycle Les Nuit d'ete (Summer Nights) in 1841, based on six poems by Théophile Gautier. In 1856 Berlioz orchestrated the works in the form we hear them on this program, sung by the late, great mezzo-soprano Lorraine Hunt Lieberson. While the music is a kind of hodgepodge of pieces the composer worked on over a period of years, there is a distinct personality to every segment that reminds us this was the same man who wrote the Symphonie fantastique and Harold en Italie. About the only thing critics and historians agree upon is that Berlioz probably titled the collection Summer Nights in tribute to William Shakespeare, whom he adored, and A Midsummer Night's Dream.

Ms. Lieberson sings the pieces with apt emotional involvement, the songs varying only a little in their nostalgic, sentimental, melancholy, sometimes melodramatic longing. Lieberson's voice soars or simmers as the occasion demands, always providing a comfortable setting for the music. By the time she reaches the third section, "Sur les Lagunes," there is a thrillingly tragic element introduced that quite steals the show. One hardly notices McGegan and the orchestra, they integrate their support so smoothly into the production. Without question, Ms. Lieberson and the Philharmonia Baroque appear ideally suited to this material, producing exquisite realizations of the music.

Accompanying the Berlioz numbers, we get a series of seven arias that George Frideric Handel (1685-1759) composed especially for one of his favorite singers, Margherita Durastanti. Again we find Ms. Lieberson in ravishingly beautiful voice, and one can only imagine she would have made Handel proud with her range, intensity, dynamism, and effortless execution.

Although Philharmonia Baroque released this disc in 2011, they recorded it in 1991 and 1995, live at one of their several San Francisco Bay Area venues, First Congregational Church in Berkeley, California. The sound is rather resonant, with plenty of hall ambience. One notices a bit of background noise and audience rustling throughout, too, a minor distraction we have all become used to in live productions. Ms. Lieberson's voice dominates the proceedings, as it should, the orchestra generally well in the background; however, when the orchestra does come to the fore, it does so in fairly well-defined terms, if not terribly extended in the bass or treble. Overall, Ms. Lieberson's vocals and the orchestra are clear and lifelike, although both voice and ensemble are also a tad bright and hard, perhaps again the result of the live recording. On the Handel, there is an occasional touch of echo, and we must put up with applause at the end of each selection. They are small prices to pay for such eloquent performances.

JJP

Meet the Staff

Meet the Staff
John J. Puccio, Founder and Contributor

Understand, I'm just an everyday guy reacting to something I love. And I've been doing it for a very long time, my appreciation for classical music starting with the musical excerpts on the Big Jon and Sparkie radio show in the early Fifties and the purchase of my first recording, The 101 Strings Play the Classics, around 1956. In the late Sixties I began teaching high school English and Film Studies as well as becoming interested in hi-fi, my audio ambitions graduating me from a pair of AR-3 speakers to the Fulton J's recommended by The Stereophile's J. Gordon Holt. In the early Seventies, I began writing for a number of audio magazines, including Audio Excellence, Audio Forum, The Boston Audio Society Speaker, The American Record Guide, and from 1976 until 2008, The $ensible Sound, for which I served as Classical Music Editor.

Today, I'm retired from teaching and use a pair of bi-amped VMPS RM40s loudspeakers for my listening. In addition to writing for the Classical Candor blog, I served as the Movie Review Editor for the Web site Movie Metropolis (formerly DVDTown) from 1997-2013. Music and movies. Life couldn't be better.

Karl Nehring, Editor and Contributor

For more than 20 years I was the editor of The $ensible Sound magazine and a regular contributor to both its equipment and recordings review pages. I would not presume to present myself as some sort of expert on music, but I have a deep love for and appreciation of many types of music, "classical" especially, and have listened to thousands of recordings over the years, many of which still line the walls of my listening room (and occasionally spill onto the furniture and floor, much to the chagrin of my long-suffering wife). I have always taken the approach as a reviewer that what I am trying to do is simply to point out to readers that I have come across a recording that I have found of interest, a recording that I think they might appreciate my having pointed out to them. I suppose that sounds a bit simple-minded, but I know I appreciate reading reviews by others that do the same for me — point out recordings that they think I might enjoy.

For readers who might be wondering about what kind of system I am using to do my listening, I should probably point out that I do a LOT of music listening and employ a variety of means to do so in a variety of environments, as I would imagine many music lovers also do. Starting at the more grandiose end of the scale, the system in which I do my most serious listening comprises Marantz CD 6007 and Onkyo CD 7030 CD players, NAD C 658 streaming preamp/DAC, Legacy Audio PowerBloc2 amplifier, and a pair of Legacy Audio Focus SE loudspeakers. I occasionally do some listening through pair of Sennheiser 560S headphones. I miss the excellent ELS Studio sound system in our 2016 Acura RDX (now my wife's daily driver) on which I had ripped more than a hundred favorite CDs to the hard drive, so now when driving my 2022 Accord EX-L Hybrid I stream music from my phone through its adequate but not outstanding factory system. For more casual listening at home when I am not in my listening room, I often stream music through the phone into a Vizio soundbar system that has tolerably nice sound for such a diminutive physical presence. And finally, at the least grandiose end of the scale, I have an Ultimate Ears Wonderboom II Bluetooth speaker for those occasions where I am somewhere by myself without a sound system but in desperate need of a musical fix. I just can’t imagine life without music and I am humbly grateful for the technology that enables us to enjoy it in so many wonderful ways.

William (Bill) Heck, Webmaster and Contributor

Among my early childhood memories are those of listening to my mother playing records (some even 78 rpm ones!) of both classical music and jazz tunes. I suppose that her love of music was transmitted genetically, and my interest was sustained by years of playing in rock bands – until I realized that this was no way to make a living. The interest in classical music was rekindled in grad school when the university FM station serving as background music for studying happened to play the Brahms First Symphony. As the work came to an end, it struck me forcibly that this was the most beautiful thing I had ever heard, and from that point on, I never looked back. This revelation was to the detriment of my studies, as I subsequently spent way too much time simply listening, but music has remained a significant part of my life. These days, although I still can tell a trumpet from a bassoon and a quarter note from a treble clef, I have to admit that I remain a nonexpert. But I do love music in general and classical music in particular, and I enjoy sharing both information and opinions about it.

The audiophile bug bit about the same time that I returned to classical music. I’ve gone through plenty of equipment, brands from Audio Research to Yamaha, and the best of it has opened new audio insights. Along the way, I reviewed components, and occasionally recordings, for The $ensible Sound magazine. Most recently I’ve moved to my “ultimate system” consisting of a BlueSound Node streamer, an ancient Toshiba multi-format disk player serving as a CD transport, Legacy Wavelet II DAC/preamp/crossover, dual Legacy PowerBloc2 amps, and Legacy Signature SE speakers (biamped), all connected with decently made, no-frills cables. With the arrival of CD and higher resolution streaming, that is now the source for most of my listening.

Ryan Ross, Contributor

I started listening to and studying classical music in earnest nearly three decades ago. This interest grew naturally out of my training as a pianist. I am now a musicologist by profession, specializing in British and other symphonic music of the 19th and 20th centuries. My scholarly work has been published in major music journals, as well as in other outlets. Current research focuses include twentieth-century symphonic historiography, and the music of Jean Sibelius, Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Malcolm Arnold.

I am honored to contribute writings to Classical Candor. In an age where the classical recording industry is being subjected to such profound pressures and changes, it is more important than ever for those of us steeped in this cultural tradition to continue to foster its love and exposure. I hope that my readers can find value, no matter how modest, in what I offer here.


Bryan Geyer, Technical Analyst

I initially embraced classical music in 1954 when I mistuned my car radio and heard the Heifetz recording of Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto. That inspired me to board the new "hi-fi" DIY bandwagon. In 1957 I joined one of the pioneer semiconductor makers and spent the next 32 years marketing transistors and microcircuits to military contractors. Home audio DIY projects remained a personal passion until 1989 when we created our own new photography equipment company. I later (2012) revived my interest in two channel audio when we "downsized" our life and determined that mini-monitors + paired subwoofers were a great way to mate fine music with the space constraints of condo living.

Visitors that view my technical papers on this site may wonder why they appear here, rather than on a site that features audio equipment reviews. My reason is that I tried the latter, and prefer to publish for people who actually want to listen to music; not to equipment. My focus is in describing what's technically beneficial to assure that the sound of the system will accurately replicate the source input signal (i. e. exhibit high accuracy) without inordinate cost and complexity. Conversely, most of the audiophiles of today strive to achieve sound that's euphonic, i.e. be personally satisfying. In essence, audiophiles seek sound that's consistent with their desire; the music is simply a test signal.

Mission Statement

It is the goal of Classical Candor to promote the enjoyment of classical music. Other forms of music come and go--minuets, waltzes, ragtime, blues, jazz, bebop, country-western, rock-'n'-roll, heavy metal, rap, and the rest--but classical music has been around for hundreds of years and will continue to be around for hundreds more. It's no accident that every major city in the world has one or more symphony orchestras.

When I was young, I heard it said that only intellectuals could appreciate classical music, that it required dedicated concentration to appreciate. Nonsense. I'm no intellectual, and I've always loved classical music. Anyone who's ever seen and enjoyed Disney's Fantasia or a Looney Tunes cartoon playing Rossini's William Tell Overture or Liszt's Hungarian Rhapsody No. 2 can attest to the power and joy of classical music, and that's just about everybody.

So, if Classical Candor can expand one's awareness of classical music and bring more joy to one's life, more power to it. It's done its job. --John J. Puccio

Contact Information

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"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa

"Their Master's Voice" by Michael Sowa