from the Amazon.com Web page for the recording being discussed
In addition to taking on two major dramatic works of Hector Berlioz, Les Troyens (the Trojans) and La Damnation de Faust (the damnation of Faust), with his resources in Strasbourg, conductor John Nelson prepared yet another major Berlioz release to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the composer’s death. Appropriately enough, this was a performance of the composer’s Opus 5 setting of the Requiem text, given the title Grande Messe des Morts, performed this past March. The operative noun in that title is “Grande.” Not only was the music conceived on a grand scale; but also Erato responded in kind with a “Deluxe Edition” release that presents the same performance in two different media, CD and DVD.
I first came to know Opus 5 when I was an undergraduate; and, for my money, that was just about the right time. The performance involved Eugene Ormandy conducting the Philadelphia Orchestra and, unless I am mistaken, choral resources from Temple University. I was totally blown away by the spectacle. I followed every note in a vocal score that I purchased in the lobby of the Academy of Music. (Those sales were a regular practice for choral offerings by the Philadelphia Orchestra.) That, in turn, motivated me to purchase the LP recording of Charles Munch conducting the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
Most of the impact of the music resided in Berlioz’ setting of the “Tuba mirum” passage from the “Dies irae” sequence. This required four brass choirs requiring collectively 38 musicians. Ormandy situated them in the four Proscenium Boxes (usually reserved for the high rollers that preferred being seen to having a good view of the performers). To give “all that brass” adequate backing, the percussion section required 16 timpani, ten pairs of cymbals, four tam-tams, and two bass drums. All this made for the ultimate sophomoric thrill in the literal sense of the adjective.
As might be expected, as I grew older, my excitement over this music quickly ebbed. Nevertheless, I have to confess that, when Charles Dutoit returned to Davies Symphony Hall in May of 2017 to conduct Opus 5 as part of the San Francisco Symphony subscription series, many of my old feelings were reawakened. Part of me was reminded of a joke I had picked up over the course of my business trips to Japan. The joke was that there are two kinds of fools in the world, the man who has never climbed Mount Fuji and the man who has climbed Mount Fuji twice. Sitting through a second concert performance of Opus 5, I did not really feel like that second kind of fool. Nevertheless, about half a century had elapsed between my two experiences; and, if I do not experience another concert performance in my lifetime, I shall not have any regrets.
On the other hand I have had to deal with recordings of Opus 5, including the one included in the Warner Classics release, Berlioz: The Complete Works. I therefore feel I can bring some authority to the assertion that, however impressive the technology may be, no recording of Opus 5 can ever capture not only the magnitude of the resources but also the breadth of spatial extent that a performance demands. From that point of view, one might think that Nelson had made a wise decision in making his audio and video recordings in London’s St Paul’s Cathedral; but it does not take the listener long to realize that neither medium is particularly satisfactory. On the audio side, rather than enhancing the experience, the reverberations in that cavernous space tend to mask out many of the details in Berlioz’ score. On the video side the production team is almost consistently at a loss when it comes to which camera should be pointing where; and the “bat’s eye view” from the prodigious distance up the dome looks just plain ridiculous.
The good news is that the old Munch recording is now available as a CD release from Sony Classical!
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