This monumental work of French Romanticism is one of the\nessential landmarks in the career of any conductor. The quality of\nBerlioz’s orchestration and questions of timbre and the ideal\ninstrumental forces lie at the core of the approach of Jos van\nImmerseel and Anima Eterna Brugge, who are increasingly drawn to\nFrench composers and especially to their precise, shimmering\norchestral textures.

\n

Surprisingly enough, it was the influence of the master\norchestrator Rimsky-Korsakov on Ravel that made Jos van Immerseel\nwant to tackle such pieces as Bolero and La Valse in a recording\nsingled out by the press in 2006 for its hypnotic power and the\nquality of the timbres and phrasing.

\n

Over long months of preparation, the musicians steeped\nthemselves in Berlioz’s music, his Treatise on instrumentation and\nhis Memoirs, and gradually formed an image of the construction of\nthis masterpiece in which poetry, imagination, lyricism, rhythmic\ninvention and evocative power form the basis of a purely Romantic\nlanguage of great subtlety.

\n

The choice of period instruments (double basses from the period\njust after the instrument was modernised, French ‘omnitonic’\nclarinets by Müller, ‘ordinary’ flutes from before the invention of\nthe Boehm system, valved horns with crooks to avoid transposition,\nan ophicleide, an Érard harp, timpani with a central screw played\nwith the sticks specifically called for by Berlioz, two Érard\npianos to provide low harmonics in imitation of bells in the Dies\nirae of the Songe d’une nuit de sabbat), familiarity with Berlioz’s\nTreatise on instrumentation and Pierre Baillot’s L’Art de jouer du\nviolon (notably with respect to vibrato), and respect for the\ncomposer’s dynamics constitute the principal bases for the sound\nworld of this interpretation, which is at once refined in its\nClassical style and haunted by the pungent timbres of the brass and\nof those diabolical clarinets, abyssal bells, and rattling\ndeath-march timpani.

\n\n