BERLIOZ: HAROLD EN ITALIE LES NUIT D'ETE

Berlioz: Harold en Italie Les Nuit D'ete - A new aesthetic calls for new forms: such is the challenge the composer set for himself in the two works presented here. In Les Nuits d'ete, Berlioz pioneered - well before Mahler and Ravel - the song cycle for voice and orchestra. In Harold in Italy, scored for large orchestra and solo viola, he experimented with the symphonic genre. These period-instrument performances by Francois-Xavier Roth and Les Siecles feature violist Tabea Zimmermann and vocalist Stephane Degout, heard here in the composer's own version of Les Nuits d'ete for baritone.