Enduring Fascination

Given Berlioz's strong influence on Russian composers in the middle of the nineteenth century, the Hallé Orchestra's pairing of Harold in Italy and Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony was cannier that you might at first think (Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham, UK, 27 October 2015).

Lawrence Power was the viola soloist in Harold, commanding a wide dynamic range to powerful expressive effect, and interacting with the orchestra like a true chamber musician. Conductor Ryan Wigglesworth's acute ear for orchestral balance and sonority encouraged a marvellously clean, focused tone from the cellos and basses as they opened the first movement, and kept the quicker music later on admirably light-footed. The second movement was particularly notable for the delicate way the bell-sounds, some of the most haunting products of Berlioz's extraordinary orchestral imagination, were touched in...