Following Symphonie fantastique and Harold en Italie, Roméo et Juliette was
Hector Berlioz's third and most ambitious symphony, and it was the product of the composer's obsessions with
Ludwig van Beethoven's Ninth Symphony,
William Shakespeare's plays, and the Irish actress
Harriet Smithson, whom
Berlioz saw in a stage production of Romeo and Juliet in 1827 and later married. This 2016 release on LSO Live by
Valery Gergiev and the
London Symphony Orchestra features mezzo-soprano
Olga Borodina, tenor
Kenneth Tarver, and bass-baritone
Evgeny Nikitin as the vocal soloists, and the
Guildhall School Singers and the
London Symphony Chorus, an impressive assembly of artists who bring across
Berlioz's innovative score with great polish and dramatic power. This compelling performance was part of an eight-concert series that toured Europe in 2013, and the concert at London's Barbican was recorded in multichannel audio, which offers superb clarity of details and vivid sonorities. The most popular orchestral excerpt from this work is the Queen Mab Scherzo, though
Berlioz's favorite movement was the Scène d'amour, so both parts are worth sampling. Highly recommended.