Byron's Harold the unlikely star in Gardiner's Berlioz Prom

By Mark Pullinger, 06 September 2018

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“Gardiner thoroughly embraced Berlioz’s theatrical eccentricity and the results were riveting”

Reviewed at Royal Albert Hall, London on 5 September 2018

Berlioz, Le Corsaire, Op.21: Overture

Berlioz, La Mort de Cléopâtre

Berlioz, Les Troyens: Royal hunt and storm

Berlioz, Les Troyens: Ah! Ah! Je vais mourir! … Adieu, fière cité

Berlioz, Harold en Italie, Op.16

Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust, Op.24: Autrefois, un roi de Thulé

Joyce DiDonato, Mezzo-soprano

Antoine Tamestit, Viola

Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique

Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Conductor

A triumph against the odds: Les Troyens at the BBC Proms

Mark Valencia, 3rd September

Dinis Sousa doesn't put a foot wrong as the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique and Monteverdi Choir give a performance of startling virtuosity at the end of a European tour.

*****

Prom 59: Berlioz with a bronze glow

Mark Pullinger, 2nd September

To mark the 150th anniversary of the composer's death, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts the opera charting the escapades of the Italian goldsmith and sculptor.

****1

A mortal nothingness: Verdi's Requiem at Westminster Cathedral

Olivia Bell, 18th September

This concert was inevitably the sum of far more than its parts, and not for nothing are the Monteverdi Choir and the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantiquem, regarded as among the best in the world

Prom 31: An intoxicating La Damnation de Faust

Mark Valencia, 8th August

An unapologetic treat at the Proms and a composition of immediate appeal.

****1

Berlioz's Roméo et Juliette with the ORR

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, 30th July

Prom 20 proved an exhilarating journey, featuring Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette as one of the key works of this year’s BBC Proms' Shakespeare 400 celebrations.

****1

Gardiner and his Romantic Revolutionaries pack a punch

Alexander Hall, 9th August

A Franco-German alliance of trailblazing symphonies from the early 19th century performed with style by Sir John Eliot Gardiner's own Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique band of musicians.

****1

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Prom 71: Byron's Harold the unlikely star in Gardiner's Berlioz bonanza