Something for Thursday

I haven’t made much reference to my fiery passion for the music of Hector Berlioz in quite some time, so I’m going to rectify that. YouTube turns out to be an interesting source for older recordings of classical music — older recordings, with mono sound that can still provoke a deep thrill, with that ability mono has to allow many details in the orchestration to shine through in a way that stereo recordings, for all their warmth and vitality, can sometimes allow to fall back into the mix. For those who only know Berlioz through the Symphonie fantastique, here is one of his other popular compositions, his thrilling concert overture Le corsaire. Sir John Barbirolli conducts the Halle Orchestra. Note how far back the orchestra sits from Barbirolli; he’s a good seven or eight feet from his concertmaster. I found that interesting.