Philips (Full price) (CD) 416 960/1-2PH (two discs, oas: 68 and 69 minutes: ADD). Texts and translations included. Items marked ^a from 6500 009 (6/70), ^b 9500 944 (6/83), ^c 9500 683 (8/80).

416 960-2PH—Scenes lyriques ^c —La mort de Cleopatre; Herminie (both with Dame Janet Baker, mez). [Song] Songs ^a —Zaide, Op. 19 No. 1; La belle voyageuse, Op. 2 No. 4 (both with Sheila Armstrong, sop); Le chasseur danois, Op. 19 No. 6 (John Shirley-Quirk, bar); La captive, Op. 12 (Josephine Veasey, mez); Le jeune patre breton, Op. 13 No. 4 (Frank Patterson, ten). 416 961-2PH—Les nuits d'ete, Op. 7 (Sheila Armstrong; Josephine Veasey; Frank Patterson; John Shirley-Quirk) ^a. Lelio, Op. 14b (Jose Carreras, ten; Thomas Allen, bar; John Alldis Choir; Roy Jowitt, cl; John Constable, pf; Renata Scheffel-Stein, hp) ^b.

Berlioz Vocal Works. London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Colin Davis.

One of the best products of the Berlioz Centenary in 1969 was the launching of the series of recordings under Sir Colin Davis on Philips. The collection of vocal works assembled here is excellent value, containing as it does at least one inspired performance, another that is of special interest, and little that is likely to be wastefully duplicated elsewhere on the shelves. At all points, the freshness of Davis's approach—imaginative ardent and thorough—is a positive presence and one feels that if Lelio himself were present, "la precision, I'ensemble, la chaleur" of the performances would satisfy even that impetuous soul.

I remember my colleague EG in his Guardian column describing Lelio as "a dotty work even by Berlioz's standards". That was in a review of the LP recording under Boulez (CBS—nla) in which Jean-Louis Barrault spoke the part of Lelio 'returned to life' from the scaffold and linking the medley of songs for the voices of Brigands, Shades and Spirits of the Air. Davis simply provides the music, and, while much of the 'dottiness' is lost so is any semblance of a structural thread. An uninformed listener might assume that the pieces were no more connected with each other than the five orchestral songs which make up a pleasantly assorted group at the end of the first record.

That is occupied principally by the two lengthy dramatic monologues sung with a vast variety of resources, vocal and dramatic, by Dame Janet Baker. Herminie, the earlier by a year, may be less memorable than La mort de Cleopatre: remarkable even so, not least for its final bars as the heroic woman rides away to save her lover. Cleopatra's end is a triumph of musical imagination just as the whole recording is a triumph of Dame Janet's art. Jessye Norman, in a later version (conducted by Barenboim on DG— 410 966-2GH, 6/84), is expressive of little more than routine grandeur by comparison.

Comparisons hardly count when one comes to the remaining work, Les nuits d 'ete, which is given (uniquely, so far as I know, on record) in the 1856 scoring, with the songs assigned to four different voices. Losses and gains are disputable, but the special interest of the recording remains. There is some fine singing too, most notably by Shirley-Quirk in the Lament, "Sur les lagunes": a fine, sombre humanity in the tone, impressively deepvoiced and quite thrilling in the climax. He and Dame Janet share the honours among the singers on these discs, though the contributions to Lelio of Thomas Allen and (more surprisingly) Jose Carreras deserve notice too.

Copyright © 1988 Gramophone Magazine.