Hector Berlioz: The Complete Works

Various artists

Warner Classics 9029561444; 27 CDS There’s more Gardiner – and Davis – in Warner's big anniversary box. Yes, all of Berlioz, including classic and historic recordings, rarities and rediscoveries, from a huge range of performers. The opening track is a breath of fresh air, the Francs-juges Overture from Roger Norrington’s London Classical Players. Then Boult, Jansons, Previn, and classic Louis Frémaux with the CBSO. Unmistakably French orchestral timbres in

Jean Martinon’s 1970s accounts of the Symphonie fantastique and its sequel Lélio. Muti’s Romeo and Juliet is too operatic for my taste, but the rare songs and choral works here offer fascinating glimpses of things to come, often recycled in bigger works. The cantatas Berlioz entered for the Prix de Rome are here, including a superb Herminie with Janet Baker and Sir Colin Davis. Both versions of Les Nuits d’été – Gardiner with four singers, Barbirolli with Baker. Gardiner’s L’enfance du Christ is a plus, and the big dramatic works fare pretty well, although they don’t eclipse Davis for me until you reach John Nelson’s 2017 recording of Les Troyens with Joyce Didonato and Michael

Spyres – quite superb. The bonus disc of remastered early historical recordings is a fascinating extra: operatic excerpts from the 1900s, and the first complete recording of Symphonie fantastique from 1924. In terms of bang-for-your-berliozbuck, you can stop right here.