Recorded live, this characterful version of the Symphonie fantastique breaks new ground in bringing together the talented performers of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, using modern instruments, and wind-players from Marc Minkowski’s period orchestra, Les Musiciens du Louvre. Not that I would have noticed; there is no discrepancy between the two groups, and Minkowski, period specialist though he is, takes an unashamedly romantic view of Berlioz, generally preferring spacious speeds, strikingly different from Gardiner or Norrington in their period performances.

The dynamics of a live occasion have their own part to play, especially in the excitement of the final ‘Witches’ Sabbath’. Some listeners will find themselves jumping up to change volume levels, such is the dynamic range of DG’s all-embracing recording.

Aurélia Legay’s dramatic reading of Herminie makes an apt coupling: Berlioz uses the theme which later became the idée fixe of the symphony at key points in Herminie, including the work’s opening and its gentle close. It says much for both Legay’s warm, focused soprano and for Minkowski’s direction that the ear is drawn to moments which prefigure his supreme achievement, Les troyens.

-- Edward Greenfield, Gramophone [10/2003]