Review: Inbal's Impressive Berlioz Edition 

The hr Frankfurt Radio Symphony videos on RU-vid generally have outstanding sound and many topnotch performances.

Inbal’s Berlioz recordings were my real entree into the music of this singular composer some 35 years ago, and they will forever hold a special place in my heart. I still consider Inbal’s Te Deum to be the best, most exciting version of this underrated masterpiece. Thanks, Dave, for giving these recordings the attention they deserve.

I hold Herod's aria from L'Enfance du Christ as one of the greatest bass arias ever to have been written. And Stafford Dean sings it with agony and nobility in equal measure - my all-time favorite rendition of this piece!

Romeo and Juliet is my favorite Berlioz work, for personal as well as musical reasons. But, as a whole, one does have to wrestle with the vocal bits. I have grown to be quite fond of them in parts. As Ernest Newman pointed out many years ago, the climax of the work is the incredibly orchestrated and conceived final tone painting of the death of the lovers. Yet, Hector (with always an eye to the Paris Opera, particularly with the 'failure' just recently of his Benvenuto Cellini) wrote his somewhat Meyerbeer-inan ending I think with that in mind, and it does seem anti-climactic and overblown. Certainly less interesting music. So, like you, if I had only the orchestral excerpts, I could live with their remarkable selves... Inbal is all you say he is in this music.

Wow, Brilliant Classics continues to perform quite the service to the classical music loving community; especially us completists on a budget. No other label comes close, I believe; hope BC earns enough for everyone over there to be happy. Wish I'd known about this box prior to purchasing all these works individually. Was very disappointed with the Robert Shaw Requiem, (my only non-Colin Davis acquisition); not sure if it was the recording or the conducting.

Thanks so much for this review, Dave. I have been looking for a first-rate Berlioz cycle in a box for several years. Davis is very fine, but those phillips boxes are out of print. I settled for individual issues of Munch and Davis, plus the Dutoit box to complete my Berlioz collection (Dutoit has an excellent Troyens, a good Harold, but the others are uneven). You are a great salesman, Dave!

Dear David, Many thanks to remind us of the achievements of Eliahu Inbal in Berlioz. I completely agree with your comments (as so often!). At the time I got this box from Brilliant, I possessed already only the Denon 2-CD box containing the Symphonie fantastique (op. 14); it was completed with the follow-up of the Symphony, Lelio ou le retour à la vie (op. 14bis). Even if Lelio is a quite problematic work (Berlioz called it a "melologue"(?!)), I don't really understand why it was not retained in the quite comprehensive box of Brilliant. After all, it is a work which is not recorded very often (Martinon and Boulez come in my mind) and would desserves to be better known in view of its quality and Berliozian fantaisy.

The moment you started listing other works Inbal had done, I was sure my top choice in anything would be there. But no! No mention of another unacknowledged cycle, and I don't think you ever mentioned him in this: Schumann! Totally unsung, but I love it to bits. Even when I had them on the original LPs, which were much too long playing (one and four on one LP!) to allow any decent dymanics, but the joy of the playing was still shining through. They have been reissued on CD twice, partly even three times, and for my money the first of those is the one to get: the three CD Philips set. The later two-CD one does not have the 'Zwickau Symphony', a youthful experiment which isn't a really great loss, but it also lacks the Overture, Scherzo and Finale - which is. These are wonderful! Nobody ever mentions them while regurgitating all the usual suspects (Sawallisch in particular, which is admittedly fine). And they also sound lovely on CD. The third reissue was done by the Pentatone team, which has done some spectacular remastering on a large bunch of old multi-channel Philips recordings (of which that team were the original recording crew, so they know the stuff inside out). It's two symphonies only, and although there is an audible improvement, for once the difference wasn't big enough to warrant the extra expense (for me). But Inbal's Schumann? Yummy! Wouter

Interesting composer. Seems to be decades ahead of his time.

Charles Dutoit was, and remains one of the most authoritative, and exhaustive interpreters of Berlioz. I don’t know why he’s so often overlooked, both upon his impact on Berlioz, and critically, but he’s recorded pretty much EVERYTHING, and his interpretations are more often than not, awesome. This isn’t a remark in contrast to Inbal, critically, but in response to that ‘only’ Davis and Munch did any significant recording of the Berlioz œvre.

hello mr hurwitz, I recently listened to an excellent record directed by marin alsop....the moons symphony by composer amanda lee falkenberg on sigmun classics, I liked it a lot.....you should listen to it and do a review....

I adore the Te Deum, my favorite Berlioz work by far. I owned Inbal's recording, and listened to it recently. I was struck by the total lack of expression, phrasing, shape, etc, in the gorgeous slow movements (the Tibi Omnes and especially the Dignare Domine); utterly routine, hurried, and rather soulless, IMO. I re-visited the Colin Davis version on You-Tube, and promptly bought it; it is far superior, and now occupies the space on the shelf where Inbal once resided (I had much the same reaction to Inbal's Mahler 8th, which I ditched). Nice sound, though. I'm sure there are many assets to Inbal's work, which I may someday discover. Actually, the final "March for the Presentation" of the Flags" of the Te Deum was good; brilliant, full sound and nicely balanced. Of course, from a conducting standpoint, you just set it on automatic pilot and let it go. LR