BERLIOZ H. ROMEO ET JULIETTE / B.Blachut, V.Krilová, L.Mráz, CPO Chorus, CPO / L.Maazel

Great Artists Live in Prague - Lorin Maazel - conductor

Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) - Roméo et Juliette. Symfonie dramatique avec chours, solos de chant en récitatif choral, composée d'aprcs la tragédie de Shakespeare (paroles de émile Deschamps), op. 17 (1839)

CD I 58:34

1ere partie

1. Introduction 4:48

2. Prologue 5:50

3. Strophes 5:50

4. Scherzetto 3:23

2me partie

5. Romeo seul - Tristesse - Concert et bal - Grande Fete chez Capulet 11:37

3me partie

6. Scene d'amour 19:18

4me partie

7. La reine Mab, ou la fée des songes 7:23

CD II 37:47

1. Convoi funebre de Juliette 10:31

2. Roméo au tombeau des Capulets 7:21

3. Final. Rixe des Capulets et des Montagus - Récitatif du pere Laurence 4:36

4. Air du pcre Laurence 9:40

5. Serment de réconciliation 5:22

Beno Blachut tenor, Věra Krilová mezzo-soprano, Ladislav Mráz bass

Czech Philharmonic Chorus, Josef Veselka

Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Lorin Maazel

Voice parts are sung in Czech. Recorded live at the concert in the Smetana Hall of the Municipal House, Prague, on May 19, 1960.

The violinist and one of the 20th century's foremost conductors, Lorin Maazel (b. 1930), US citizen of Russian-Jewish extraction, was born in France, where his father, actor and singer Lincoln Maazel, then studied. The Maazels were a musical family - Lorin's grandfather Isaac was concertmaster of the royal orchestra in Moscow, and from 1895 through the following two decades held the same post in New York's Metropolitan Opera, so there could be no doubt of their spotting, as early as his age four, Lorin's exceptional talent which coupled perfect pitch with photographic memory. As a child prodigy, he took up the study of conducting at seven, as a nine-year-old conducted the NBC Symphony Orchestra, and by the age of twelve already crisscrossed America as a touring conductor. Later on, he completed studies of linguistics, mathematics and philosophy at the University of Pittsburgh. Maazel stands out for his phenomenal memory. His conducting style is regarded as the ideal compromise between temperament and technical sovereignty. He has built up a dazzling international career: his art has been made known to audiences in all continents, he has conducted leading orchestras including the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra, the orchestra of the Vienna State Opera, the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, and many others, and has to his credit hundreds of recordings. The present disc features Maazel at the time he had just turned thirty, in his first appearance in Czechoslovakia, at the 1960 Prague Spring Festival. Last March, the ever-agile conductor celebrated his eighty-second birthday on undiminished force, still harbouring great creative plans (starting with the 2012 - 2013 season, he is to take over as principal conductor of the Munich Symphony Orchestra). Taking into account his father Lincoln's 106 years of lifespan, there is every hope we will yet hear a lot of Lorin Maazel in the future. Vít Roubíček

(Czech Radio 2012)