Rating: - Berlioz & Faust
Berlioz and the story of Faust together is interesting to observe...Berlioz was an admirer of Goethe, and sent the poet this work in manuscript. Goethe loved the letter attached, but was warned and cautioned by his friend Friederich Zelter, whom many of us know was Mendelssohn's teacher.

This work originally started out as "Eight Scenes from Faust" (available on Decca with Dutoit conducting)...and as Berlioz's vision expanded, he turned into into this, his famous "Legende dramatique". ... Read More

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Rating: - Still vying for top honors, three decades later
For some reason Philips offers no recording date for this Damnation de Faust in its complete Colin Davis Berlioz set, but I assume it comes from the mid-Seventies. In every respect it's a spectauclar recording, with thunderous percussion and full-out brass. The reviewer below is right to call for a remastering into modern digital sound, but what we have here is very good. The phrase "embarrassment of riches" was invented for Berlioz's Faust, because the best recordings rise to an enviable high standard. ... Read More

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Rating: - Brilliant Melodrama
Berlioz transforms a deeply tragic drama into a melodramatic opera. He concentrates on the love affair between Marguerite and Faust and neglects practically everything else. But he has to make the end palatable for the French who cannot accept the idea that Marguerite could be executed by justice because of her « fornication ». Sex and love are naive and pure for the French, and always a private business. So he makes Marguerite unconsciously kill her mother by giving her too much of the sleeping drug she ... Read More

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Rating: - Good Singing, Good Playing, Good Conducting, But ?
This recording is part of the historic Colin Davis Berlioz cycle made for Philips in the 1970s. Philips originally release it in on CD the 1980s, and then they released it, without any changes in packaging or content, in 2001.

La Damnation de Faust is not an opera; it is not meant for the stage. It is a concert work, not a theatrical piece. It can be adapted for the stage, of course, and has been very successfully many times.

The male singers in this recording are hard to beat. Gedda ... Read More

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Rating: - GOETHE DID NOT COMMENT
Colin Davis probably did as much as any musician since the war to establish Berlioz as a central musical classic. This set is the earlier of his versions of Faust. In terms of recorded tone and quality it is good, but needs a little management to be heard to best effect. Right at the start Faust may seem just a bit remote, so you will be tempted to turn up the volume, only to think better of that when the first major orchestral outburst, recorded with great fidelity, makes its impact. Similar issues of tone ... Read More