In December 1838, a few days after Berlioz had conducted a concert of his own works that included Harold in Italy, a four-movement ‘symphony with principal viola’, the composer found that his bank bal

Inspired by the Walter Scott novel, Berlioz’s Rob Roy of 1831 celebrates the Jacobite outlaw in a 15-minute overture for orchestra. Though he liked the main melody enough to re-use it in Harold in Ita

Malin Broman (violin); Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding OUR Recordings 9.70867 22 mins This recording comes from the premiere of Helen Grime’s Concerto in 2016, but it has taken a long

Music is a serious business. Whether it’s love, death, heartbreak, loneliness, power, conflict, destruction, sin, faith, hope, despair… you name it, every weighty subject and state of mind has been ta

● AS WE ALL KNOW, OPERA IS THE ...

Mathias Vidal, Véronique Gens, Sandrine Piau et al; Les Pages et les Chantres du Centre de Musique Baroque de Versailles; Les Ambassadeurs – La Grande Écurie/Alexis Kossenko Alpha Classics ALPHA1193 1