Berlioz: (L') Enfance du Christ

Advantages: Colourful and always exciting
Disadvantages: absolutely none

...in his career to offer any great consolation. Always a great recycler of his own music he made many sets of collections of music written at different periods and published under one title. He revised and included his early set of songs after Faust into his dramatic legend "La damnation de Faust," among other pieces and, at the other end of the scale, he wrote the unbelievably beautiful "L'Enfance du Christ," a work that is difficult to believe is by Berlioz. In 1848 he wrote his famous "Mémoires" (updated in 1865) that is a fascinating read of this often exaggerating and always unique writer/poet/composer. After the death of his second wife in 1862 and of his beloved son Louis in 1867, Berlioz became a shadow of his former self, finally dying in 1869 a broken man. © berlioz... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: Good Music
Disadvantages: None

...An interesting album of French music. The singer is from France and has been around for a long time. Some songs are better than others. I would recommend this album as an easy listening record. It's something you can relax to in the evening. ~~ Tracks ~~ 1. La Quete 2. La Cathedrale 3. L'amour Est Mort 4. Mai 40 5. Avec Elegance 6. Sans Exigences 7. Les Marquises 8. Orly 9. La Vil S'Endormait 10. Jojo 11. J'arrive 12. Quand On N'a Que L'Amour 13. Le Plat Pays 14. Mon Enfance 15. Les Vieux 16. La Chanson De Jacky 17. La Valse A Mille Temps 18. Le Prochain Amour 19. La Chanson Des Vieux Amants 20. Ne Me Quitte Pas Disc: 2 1. Amsterdam 2. La Biere 3. Bruxelles 4. Le Diable Ca Va 5. Il Nous Faut Regarder 6. L'Enfance 7. Ces Gens La 8. Les Bonbons 9. Les Flamandes 10. Les Bourgeois 11. Jef 12. Mathilde 13... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful

Advantages: The experience of getting inside an artistic head
Disadvantages: French not quite idiomatic

...This 1995 CD was the Bulgarian mezzo soprano opera singer Vesselina Kasarova's first solo album. She was only 30 years old then, but age is not necessarily the arbitor of thoughtfulness. It is telling that despite of the French's tendency to be very picky of how their language is sung, this CD won the Prix Maurice Ravel despite of some pretty iffy French intonations. This singer is just so expressive and so mesmerizing in her singing of the emotionally loaded French song cycles (all quite over-recorded by all the prominent artists already, especially for the Berlioz 'Summer Nights' Cycle), that imperfect French diction is really an insignificant flaw. There is a detached quality to this recital. As if she is lost in her own thoughts, not quite aware of the presence of an audience (or the recording microphone, in this case). Listening... Read review

Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful