Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique [Living Stereo]

It was simply a matter of time before Munch’s feverish, go-for-broke 1954 recording of the Symphonie fantastique showed up on RCA’s “Living Stereo” CD reissue series. The stereo that lives on this disc is primitive to be sure, with noticeable tape hiss and some weird resonances from the timpani, but for character, panache, and sheer abandon the interpretation is hard to beat. The filler, 13 beautiful minutes from Roméo et Juliette, was recorded in 1961 and shows the BSO with a good deal more polish, still glowingly expressive. – Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection.