John Eliot Gardiner - Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ (1998)
John Eliot Gardiner - Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ (1998)
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 01:00:35 | 333 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Erato | Catalog: 45275
EAC | FLAC (image+.cue, log) | Covers Included | 01:00:35 | 333 MB
Genre: Classical | Label: Erato | Catalog: 45275
I am familiar with half a dozen recordings of this wonderful seasonal work but invariably return to two favourites. I dismiss Matthew Best's curiously pallid and far too anglicised version and turn to the Inbal recording from 1989,which is tenderly conducted and benefits from two very different but very beautiful voices in John Aler's vibrant Narrator and Stafford Dean's darkly intense Herod but unfortunately Margaret Zimmermann completely lacks the delicacy and nuance that both Anne Sofie von Otter and Janet Baker bring to the Holy Mother, being thick and clumsy of tone with too pronounced a vibrato and very little variety in her expression. The Joseph for Inbal sings indifferently in poor French, and thus this "L'enfance" must be ruled out on the grounds of an inadequate Holy Family.
The strength of Davis's set is the subtlety and flexibility of his phrasing which makes Gardiner's own direction sound stiff and sometimes, as in a disastrously harried "Shepherd's Farewell", simply rushed. Where Gardiner scores is in his singers: each one is either the best or at least as good as his or her competitors: von Otter is controlled and moving as Mary, Cachemaille restrained but urgent as Joseph; both have superb legato phrasing. Anthony Rolfe-Johnson is mellifluous as the Narrator, every bit as much as Inbal's Aler and considerably more expressive with the text than Davis's harsher voiced Eric Tappy - who ought to have the advantage, being French-speaking Swiss but must yield to Rolfe-Johnson. Davis's Joseph is the elegant Thomas Allen, who pairs serenely with Baker in their lovely duet. Gardiner's trump card, however, is José van Dam's dark, tortured, marvellously vocalised Herod, considerably smoother voiced than the experienced Jules Bastin - but as both are native French speakers, they know what to do with the text.
Davis gets every tempo just right and draws lovely playing from the LSO, so despite the strength of Gardiner's cast, his 1976 recording continues to be the first recommendation. It astonishes me that you can find reviews presuming to find Berlioz's music here flat and uninspired; true, the piece lacks thrills and spills, being more of a meditative series of tableaux rather than having an action-packed plotline, but it is, after all, a portion of The Greatest Story Ever Told and we don't really need a libretto to understand the gist, even though the text is Berlioz's own.
John Eliot Gardiner - Berlioz: L'Enfance du Christ (1998)
Track List:
CD 1:
01. Part 1 Herod's Dream The Narrator [0:02:02.47]
02. Part 1 Herod's Dream Scene 1 [0:08:08.20]
03. Part 1 Herod's Dream Scene 2 [0:08:21.08]
04. Part 1 Herod's Dream Scene 3 [0:00:39.65]
05. Part 1 Herod's Dream Scene 4 [0:09:45.10]
06. Part 1 Herod's Dream Scene 5 [0:08:38.35]
07. Part 1 Herod's Dream Scene 6 [0:04:15.27]
08. Part 2 The Flight into Egypt 1 Overture [0:05:20.63]
09. Part 2 The Flight into Egypt 2 Chorus Of Shepherds [0:05:49.25]
CD 2:
01. Part 2: Le Recitant [0:05:08.35]
02. Part 3: L'Arivee a Sais - Le Recitant [0:03:15.67]
03. Part 3: Scenes 1 and 2 [0:12:19.35]
04. Part 3: Trio des Ismaelites [0:06:55.13]
05. Part 3: Marie, Joseph, Le Pere de Familie, Choeur des Ismaelites [0:04:46.72]
06. Part 3: Le Recitant [0:03:18.65]
07. Part 3: Le Recitant, Choeur mystique [0:06:36.43]
Performers:
Anne Sofie von Otter - mezzo-soprano
Gilles Cachemaille - baritone
José van Dam - bass
Jules Bastin - bass
Anthony Rolfe-Johnson - tenor
René Schirrer - baritone
Michel Fockenoy - tenor
Monteverdi Choir
Orchestre de l'Opéra de Lyon
John Eliot Gardiner - conductor
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 26. June 2013, 15:52
John Eliot Gardiner / Berlioz - L'Enfance du Christ - John Eliot Gardiner (Disc 1)
Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-222BB Adapter: 2 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
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Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
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Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TRACKTOTAL=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %source% -o %dest%
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9 | 47:11.50 | 5:49.25 | 212375 | 238574
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Test CRC 863A2DD5
Copy CRC 863A2DD5
Copy OK
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EAC extraction logfile from 26. June 2013, 15:52
John Eliot Gardiner / Berlioz - L'Enfance du Christ - John Eliot Gardiner (Disc 1)
Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-222BB Adapter: 2 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TRACKTOTAL=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 2:02.47 | 0 | 9196
2 | 2:02.47 | 8:08.20 | 9197 | 45816
3 | 10:10.67 | 8:21.08 | 45817 | 83399
4 | 18:32.00 | 0:39.65 | 83400 | 86389
5 | 19:11.65 | 9:45.10 | 86390 | 130274
6 | 28:57.00 | 8:38.35 | 130275 | 169159
7 | 37:35.35 | 4:15.27 | 169160 | 188311
8 | 41:50.62 | 5:20.63 | 188312 | 212374
9 | 47:11.50 | 5:49.25 | 212375 | 238574
Range status and errors
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Filename G:\Ripped general\[2207] Berlioz – L'Enfance du Christ – John Eliot Gardiner\cd1\Berlioz - L'Enfance du Christ - John Eliot Gardiner (Disc 1).wav
Peak level 85.1 %
Extraction speed 6.8 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC 863A2DD5
Copy CRC 863A2DD5
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [6DC29BC1] (AR v1)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [07E75D8D] (AR v1)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [48BAED67] (AR v1)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [AE9FC67B] (AR v1)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [BF1A562D] (AR v1)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [5AA0982E] (AR v1)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [657BE1D5] (AR v1)
Track 8 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [7D07E968] (AR v1)
Track 9 accurately ripped (confidence 6) [83A7D1F6] (AR v1)
All tracks accurately ripped
End of status report
Exact Audio Copy V1.0 beta 3 from 29. August 2011
EAC extraction logfile from 26. June 2013, 16:17
John Eliot Gardiner / Berlioz - L'Enfance du Christ - John Eliot Gardiner (Disc 2)
Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-222BB Adapter: 2 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TRACKTOTAL=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
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Range status and errors
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Filename G:\Ripped general\[2207] Berlioz – L'Enfance du Christ – John Eliot Gardiner\cd2\Berlioz - L'Enfance du Christ - John Eliot Gardiner (Disc 2).wav
Peak level 73.5 %
Extraction speed 6.5 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F5C92459
Copy CRC F5C92459
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [6D4A3B56] (AR v1)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [ABA8CC6F] (AR v1)
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Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [0E054017] (AR v1)
All tracks accurately ripped
End of status report
EAC extraction logfile from 26. June 2013, 16:17
John Eliot Gardiner / Berlioz - L'Enfance du Christ - John Eliot Gardiner (Disc 2)
Used drive : TSSTcorpCDDVDW SH-222BB Adapter: 2 ID: 1
Read mode : Secure
Utilize accurate stream : Yes
Defeat audio cache : Yes
Make use of C2 pointers : No
Read offset correction : 6
Overread into Lead-In and Lead-Out : No
Fill up missing offset samples with silence : Yes
Delete leading and trailing silent blocks : No
Null samples used in CRC calculations : Yes
Used interface : Native Win32 interface for Win NT & 2000
Used output format : User Defined Encoder
Selected bitrate : 1024 kBit/s
Quality : High
Add ID3 tag : No
Command line compressor : C:\Program Files\Exact Audio Copy\Flac\flac.exe
Additional command line options : -8 -V -T "TITLE=%title%" -T "ARTIST=%artist%" -T "ALBUMARTIST=%albumartist%" -T "ALBUM=%albumtitle%" -T "DATE=%year%" -T "TRACKNUMBER=%tracknr%" -T "TRACKTOTAL=%numtracks%" -T "GENRE=%genre%" -T "COMMENT=%comment%" -T "PERFORMER=%albuminterpret%" -T "COMPOSER=%composer%" %source% -o %dest%
TOC of the extracted CD
Track | Start | Length | Start sector | End sector
––––––––––––––––––––––––––––-
1 | 0:00.00 | 5:08.35 | 0 | 23134
2 | 5:08.35 | 3:15.67 | 23135 | 37826
3 | 8:24.27 | 12:19.35 | 37827 | 93286
4 | 20:43.62 | 6:55.13 | 93287 | 124424
5 | 27:39.00 | 4:46.72 | 124425 | 145946
6 | 32:25.72 | 3:18.65 | 145947 | 160861
7 | 35:44.62 | 6:36.43 | 160862 | 190604
Range status and errors
Selected range
Filename G:\Ripped general\[2207] Berlioz – L'Enfance du Christ – John Eliot Gardiner\cd2\Berlioz - L'Enfance du Christ - John Eliot Gardiner (Disc 2).wav
Peak level 73.5 %
Extraction speed 6.5 X
Range quality 100.0 %
Test CRC F5C92459
Copy CRC F5C92459
Copy OK
No errors occurred
AccurateRip summary
Track 1 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [6D4A3B56] (AR v1)
Track 2 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [ABA8CC6F] (AR v1)
Track 3 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [C01EFEE3] (AR v1)
Track 4 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [AFF14DF8] (AR v1)
Track 5 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [04A62757] (AR v1)
Track 6 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [65F46426] (AR v1)
Track 7 accurately ripped (confidence 5) [0E054017] (AR v1)
All tracks accurately ripped
End of status report