A new aesthetic calls for new forms: such is the challenge Berlioz set for himself in the two works presented here. In Les Nuits d’été, he pioneered – well before Mahler and Ravel – the song cycle for voice and orchestra. In Harold in Italy, scored for large orchestra and solo viola, he experimented with the symphonic genre. These period-instrument performances by François-Xavier Roth and Les Siècles feature violist Tabea Zimmermann and vocalist Stéphane Degout, heard here in the composer’s own version of Les Nuits d’été for baritone.
Music of Berlioz – Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth
