There can be few better ways to kick off a bicentenary celebration of Berlioz's birth than with Colin Davis conducting Harold en Italie and the Symphonie Fantastique. Davis, arguably the greatest Berlioz interpreter of our time, has, more than any other conductor, rescued much of the composer's output from the disfavour into which it fell for nearly a century after his death. These works constitute two of Berlioz's most revolutionary experiments in musical form, redefining the parameters of the concerto and the symphony respectively.
In each case, orchestral music is placed at the service of psychodramatic narrative. Harold en Italie, based on Byron, examines themes of existential anguish by keeping its viola soloist isolated from the orchestra as a detached yet emotional observer, whose thematic material only once achieves integration with the rest of the score. The Symphonie Fantastique, meanwhile, depicts a sequence of drug-induced reflections, each more nightmarish than the last, on an elusive, treacherous beloved.
Davis's interpretation of the Fantastique has grown darker and more alarming with time. It progresses as a single relentless arc from the feverish opening, with its dislocating harmonic and melodic shifts, to its final horrific maelstrom. All this exposes Davis's immaculate control and his ability to make every orchestral detail speak volumes: the pizzicato strings that increasingly spell doom, the multicoloured waltz that suddenly lurches into fabricated, empty glitter, the daunting brass and percussion writing that becomes ever more baleful as the work progresses.
By its side, Harold en Italie emerges as an uneven work. The closing section, in which Harold observes a brigand's orgy, seems curiously staid. Davis launches it with rhythmic ferocity, and it is played with lethal precision by the London Symphony Orchestra, but neither he nor they can quite disguise its weakness.
Elsewhere, however, both work and performance are superlative. The soloist, Tabea Zimmermann, weighty of tone, plays the sorrowful, arching melodies with refinement and emotional density, while Davis surrounds her with a series of kaleidoscopic soundscapes that take your breath away. The work may be flawed, but it is hard to imagine a better performance.
