Long admired as one of the most compelling recordings ever made of
Hector Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique,
Thomas Beecham's performance with the Orchestre National de la Radiodiffusion Française is still a strong contender, even in the age of all-digital sound and super-audio technology. First,
Beecham's interpretation is highly dramatic, exciting, and suspenseful, and
Berlioz's Romantic scene painting and hallucinatory imagery are vividly rendered. Second, the sound is striking for its realistic qualities and positively stunning for a recording made in 1959, at the dawn of stereo reproduction. Despite some incidental background noises that can be overlooked, the instruments were recorded with such care and fidelity that they have natural resonance and true, vibrant timbres that can only be heard within the orchestra. Third, careful preservation of the original masters ensured that the recording would be free of distortion or deterioration, so this reissue is remarkably fresh and vital, comparable to many late analog-era recordings, and superior to some digital. "Le Corsaire Overture," the "Trojan March," and "Royal Hunt and Storm" from the opera Les Troyens are among
Berlioz's most popular concert selections and were performed by
Beecham and the
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the
Beecham Choral Society between 1958 and 1961. While these recordings don't rise to the level of greatness that the legendary version of Symphonie fantastique attained, they are excellent filler works that bring added value to this EMI Classics package.