Berlioz - Les Nuits d’ete, Harold en Italie
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Label: Erato
Cat No: 5419719685
Format: CD
Number of Discs: 1
Release Date: 18th November 2022
Contents
Artists
Michael Spyres (tenor)Timothy Ridout (viola)
Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg
Conductor
John NelsonWorks
Harold in Italy, op.16Les Nuits d'ete, op.7
Artists
Michael Spyres (tenor)Timothy Ridout (viola)
Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg
Conductor
John NelsonAbout
Continuing Warner Classics’ multiple-award-winning Berlioz cycle (Les Troyens, La Damnation de Faust) with conductor John Nelson and the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg.
Berlioz’s orchestral song cycle on a libretto by Théophile Gautier, Les Nuits d’été, is sung by superstar (bari)tenor Michael Spyres. This is the first ever recording of the original 1856 version by one single voice – Michael Spyres sings with a bass, tenor and baritone voice.
Featuring the young British viola player Timothy Ridout in Berlioz’s Harold en Italie.
“... the terrifically talented Timothy Ridout, one of the BBC’s recent New Generation Artists.” – The Times, April 2021
Berlioz’s orchestral song cycle on a libretto by Théophile Gautier, Les Nuits d’été, is sung by superstar (bari)tenor Michael Spyres. This is the first ever recording of the original 1856 version by one single voice – Michael Spyres sings with a bass, tenor and baritone voice.
Featuring the young British viola player Timothy Ridout in Berlioz’s Harold en Italie.
“... the terrifically talented Timothy Ridout, one of the BBC’s recent New Generation Artists.” – The Times, April 2021
Sound/Video
Paused
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1Les nuits d’été, Op. 7, H. 81 - I. Villanelle
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2Les nuits d’été, Op. 7, H. 81 - II. Le Spectre de la rose
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3Les nuits d’été, Op. 7, H. 81 - III. Sur les lagunes
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4Les nuits d’été, Op. 7, H. 81 - IV. Absence
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5Les nuits d’été, Op. 7, H. 81 - V. Au cimetière
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6Les nuits d’été, Op. 7, H. 81 - VI. L'Île inconnue
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7Harold en Italie, Op. 16, H. 68 - I. Harold aux montagnes - scènes de mélancolie, de bonheur et de joie (Adagio-Allegro)
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8Harold en Italie, Op. 16, H. 68 - II. Marche des pèlerins chantant la prière du soir (Allegretto)
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9Harold en Italie, Op. 16, H. 68 - III. Sérénade d'un montagnard des Abruzzes à sa maîtresse (Allegro assai-Allegretto)
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10Harold en Italie, Op. 16, H. 68 - IV. Orgie de brigands. Souvenirs des scènes précédentes (Allegro frenetico-Adagio)
Europadisc Review
The coupling on disc of two of Hector Berlioz’s most individual scores, Harold en Italie and Les Nuits d’été – a Byronic tribute to the Italian countryside, and a setting of six poems from Théophile Gautier’s La Comédie de la mort – is unusual, but one that we enjoyed a few years ago from François-Xavier Roth’s period-instrument orchestra Les Siècles, with soloists Tabea Zimmermann (Harold) and baritone Stéphane Degout (Nuits). Now, one of today’s leading Berlioz conductors, John Nelson, together with the Orchestre philharmonique de Strasbourg, brings us the same coupling, and again the soloist in the Les Nuits d’été is a male singer (it’s more usually favoured by mezzos or sopranos): American ‘baritenor’ Michael Spyres.
Spyres’s admirable range and vocal colouring means that he is able to sing all the songs in their original keys, and within the voice types endorsed by Berlioz for each number, making this a probably unique traversal of the score. For those who are used to a female singer in this set – a precursor by some four decades of the Mahlerian orchestral song cycle – the sound of a male voice may at first be unsettling, yet when sung as vividly as they are here the songs lose none of their effectiveness, and instead seem to benefit from an extra richness of texture. Another pause for thought might be the tempo for the opening ‘Villanelle’, which is slower than the norm – yet a glance at the score confirms that Nelson’s tempo is much closer to Berlioz’s metronome than brisker readings from Ticciati, Roth, and even the revered Ansermet (with Régine Crespin). There’s a feeling at the outset that Spyres’s light-toned tenor might be champing at the bit, yet this soon settles down to a sunny affair (the text locates it in spring, not summer), the telling variations from strophe to strophe finely observed without feeling micromanaged.
In the baritone register for ‘Le Spectre de la rose’ and ‘Sur les lagunes’ Spyres is wonderfully expressive, with the latter taken at a daringly slow tempo which brings out the pre-echoes of Wagner in the orchestration, and it pays particular dividends at the final outburst at ‘Ah! comme elle était belle... Je n'aimerai jamais’ and the subsequent dynamic subsiding. Returning to the tenor range for the remaining three songs, Spryres’s ppp towards the close of ‘L’Absence’ is utterly exquisite. In ‘Au Cimetière’, the solo string harmonics at the words ‘Passe, passe dans un rayont tremblant’ have a particularly ghostly quality, and the way in which the singer plays with the cadential ritenuti in the concluding, superficially joyous ‘L’Île inconnue’ is enchanting. Like Degout on Harmonia Mundi, Spyres opens up new avenues in this work for even the most seasoned Berlioz lover.
Composed more than two decades before the orchestral version of Les Nuits d’été, Harold en Italie has all the dazzling brilliance of its predecessor, the Symphonie fantastique, yet the absence of a truly concertante solo part caused the original commissioner, Paganini, to storm away in a huff. Here the viola soloist – representing Byron’s Harold – is more observer than protagonist, and the part demands a soloist who can respond sensitively to the music’s pictorial narrative without the temptation to grandstand. The solo part is played here by the young British violist Timothy Ridout, who has a pleasingly grainy yet not over-ripe tone, balanced forward but not overshadowing the many startling orchestral colours that parade past. The opening is a brooding affair (almost three minutes pass before the soloist’s first entry), but Ridout proves a balmy presence, and a nimble one when the Allegro eventually arrives.
The evening procession of pilgrims in the work’s second movement is a steady-paced one, yet thanks to Nelson’s ability to bring out an abundance of textural detail it is no trudge. The viola’s sul ponticello arpeggios starting at the movement’s halfway point are less icy than some, but are still magically haunting thanks to the sensitivity of the accompaniment. The saltarello-like opening to the third movement whisks us off to the mountains of Abruzzo, the ensuing dreamy Allegretto reminding us that this is the scene of a lover’s serenade, with playing of great tenderness from Ridout and the orchestra, and some marvellously bucolic cor anglais solos.
The brigands’ orgy of the finale shatters this reverie, with Beethovenian reminiscences of the preceding movements, before the fun starts in earnest. This is a thrillingly vivid account which demonstrates that you don’t need period instruments to bring out the vibrant colours of Berlioz’s orchestration. For much of the movement the viola is absent from proceedings (or just looking on as the wild revels take place), rediscovering its voice only to depart wistfully from the scene before the headlong dash to the work’s conclusion. This may not be the fastest Harold on record, but it is one of the most sheerly involving: Nelson has a unique way of illuminating Berlioz’s textures, and Ridout is a constantly responsive partner to the characterful playing of the Strasbourg orchestra. All in all, then, a quite outstanding disc, with well-focussed recording from Warner/Erato, and another fine addition to the Berlioz discography from Nelson and his colleagues.
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