Berlioz: Harold En Italie, Les Nuits D'ete - Les Siecles

Tabea Zimmermann - Viola

Stéphane Degout - Baritone

Les Siècles

François-Xavier Roth - Conductor

Berlioz the pioneer

A new aesthetic calls for new forms: such is the challenge the composer set for himself in the two works presented here. In Les Nuits d’été, Berlioz pioneered, well before Mahler and Ravel, a 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 Les Siècles, led by François-Xavier Roth, with violist Tabea Zimmermann, also feature Stéphane Degout in the vocal cycle, heard here in the composer’s own version for baritone. File under: out of the ordinary.

Tabea Zimmermann plays a viola by Paolo Maggini, Brescia 1610

Harold en Italie, Op. 16, H. 68

11. Harold aux montagnes. Scènes de mélancolie, de bonheur et de joie.
Adagio 15'10
22. Marche de pèlerins chantant la prière du soir.
Allegretto 7'48
33. Sérénade d'un montagnard des Abbruzes à sa maîtresse.
Allegro assai 5'57
44. Orgie de brigands. Souvenirs des scènes précédentes.
Allegro frenetico 11'34

Les Nuits d'été, Op. 7, H. 81B

51. Villanelle 2'10
62. Le Spectre de la rose 6'36
73. Sur les lagunes, Lamento 5'41
84. Absence 5'42
95. Au cimetière, Clair de lune 5'37
106. L'Île inconnue 3'33