Confronted with this piece, what can one do (apart from try to conserve some voice for Mahler 8 later in the week)? I’ve said enough about it in the past, so I needn’t spend much time describing it. It seemed an appropriate moment to affirm French culture, at a time when it was under attack.
If I attempt to say what was special about this performance (in which the tenor was Robert Murray) I risk disparaging others I’ve taken part in. I haven’t sung for Edward Gardner before, but I hope that some time I shall do so again. When I last heard him at ENO he was conducting Wozzeck, another radical and brilliantly orchestrated piece with outbreaks of hysteria, and his interpretation of the Berlioz brought out these qualities. This approach is fine by me! In particular, I was able this time to be a part of the very carefully controlled climaxes he was able to build up.