BERLIOZ: La Damnation de Faust.(Review)

BERLIOZ: La Damnation de Faust

[] Shkosa; Sabbatini, Pertusi, Wilson-Johnson; London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Davis. Text and translation. LSO Live 0008 (Koch, dist.)

This recording was taken from two live performances at the Barbican Centre in London in mid-October 2000. In the circumstances, the sound is excellent, with a minimum of extraneous noises and no applause. Still, with live recordings, that phrase "in the circumstances" is always advisable. Michele Pertusi, who sings Mephistopheles, is a subtle rather than a booming bass; in some passages his voice doesn't emerge with enough presence, and in one -- the start of "Voici des roses" --the balance with the brasses isn't in his favor. While one could wish for better mike placement in this soloist's case, the performance as a whole justifies overlooking such minor blemishes.

Colin Davis has his own well-known way with Berlioz. Attentive to the composer's tempos, which sometimes verge on the dangerously slow, he chooses a deliberate pace for the Rakoczy March, the Minuet of the Will-o'-the-Wisps and Marguerite's two big solos. He makes his approach work, sustaining the atmosphere, dramatic tension and above all the poetry of this extraordinarily imaginative score. Each tableau unfolds in its own good time, with a palpable sense of event and mood. The love scene is rhapsodic and heartbreaking, the Ride to the Abyss terrifying, and the potentially platitudinous finale has sober dignity as well as uplift.

Giuseppe Sabbatini's pliable, keen-edged timbre, naturally suited to French music, makes him a convincing Faust. In the opening scenes, he manages to suggest age and fatigue without sounding bored ...