"As recommended on Radio 3's Building a Library" has come to be seen as one of the highest accolades for quality in the classical record sector - even though it depends wholly on the industry and viewpoint of a single critic. However, no other reviewing exercise anywhere is quite as exhaustive as this. Nice has listened to around 12 recordings of the Berlioz, though some are not available.
A regular on Building a Library, he has selected "about two dozen or more" top recordings in their field, often Russian music (in which he is a specialist) and Richard Strauss, but also ranging from Gershwin to French ballet music. He says the experience of listening so intently to every bar of the works in all the available recordings takes weeks, and he never gets bored ("though Shostakovich 8 got me down through the sheer weight of misery in the end"). Berlioz's Romeo and Juliet, he says, is "a masterpiece in every bar" and the close-up encounter with it in so many interpretations has made him wholly understand why the composer cast the drama for orchestra, a Greek chorus and soloists, rather than a theatrical setting.
The hour-long feature is the central building block of CD Review every Saturday morning, and comes in at 9.30, half an hour after the programme starts. The programme itself has existed since the Third Programme days, and has had to fend off occasional attacks that it is too "elitist" in some of its weekly BAL choices and should return more frequently to mainstream library fare. Producers have pointed out that with so much music available, and with every Saturday morning available, there is no need to deny the eclectic and often unpredictable range of audience interests.
This week, Andrew McGregor listens with other reviewers to excerpts from new releases of violin concertos, with James Ehnes playing the celebrated Mendelssohn, Hahai Shaham playing the much less known Ferdinand David, and a large number of Bach recordings. The Disc of the Week is Mahler’s Second Symphony, Resurrection, with the Concertgebouw under Mariss Jansons, concluding the near three-hour programme at 11.50.
CD Review also has a website where it's easy to browse past BALs and "Discs of the Week" going back years and covering every composer - a remarkable resource for choosing a good interpretation.
- BBC Radio 3 CD Review website
- CD Review/Building a Library is tomorrow morning at 9.30-10.25 am - the programme begins at 9.05am.
- David Nice's reviews and articles on theartsdesk
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