Word: norrington
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This was not the well-trod turf of Bach, Mozart or even Beethoven that Norrington's crack London Classical Players were venturing onto, but the terra incognita of Hector Berlioz, the virtuoso French composer who in the 1830s revolutionized symphonic sound in such works as the hallucinogenic Symphonie Fantastique and the blazing choral symphony Romeo et Juliette. "Our goal is to present a view of Berlioz very different from modern received opinion," Norrington told the audience before the performance. "We're not like a symphony orchestra playing notes. We only play poetry here...
...Norrington's vigorous hands, the result was a revelation. The Fantastique, premiered in 1830, just three years after the death of Beethoven, is an opium-tinged odyssey through the composer's psyche as he pursued his mad passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. Its restless opening, brilliant ballroom scene, desolate pastorale, terrifying march to the scaffold and cackling witches' sabbath bloomed anew, while the 1839 Romeo et Juliette, Shakespeare transformed into sound, burst with hot-blooded vitality...
...than offset by the loss of nuance and detail. But on early instruments, the flutes purr, the oboes squawk, the brass barks, and the strings alternately cajole and bite. "This is not a pureed, strained cup of tea that you might drink in the back of a limousine," says Norrington. "This is a bracing beverage quaffed in a well- sprung vehicle...
...foray into Berlioz marks a bold step for Norrington, who began his musical career as a tenor, founded the amateur Heinrich Schutz Choir in 1962 and was music director of the Kent Opera for more than 15 years. But it was not until he conceived his "Experiences" three years ago (first Haydn, then Beethoven) that the Oxford-born, Cambridge-educated musician achieved his current eminence. Norrington's contribution to the original-instruments movement is to push its boundaries forward from the Baroque and Classical periods into the mid-19th century. "Modern orchestras sometimes don't play Beethoven very well...
Performing on a mix of originals and reproductions, Norrington's 80-player ensemble is made up of London free-lancers, many of whom also play in similar bands like the Academy of Ancient Music and the English Concert. In rehearsal, he leads his players with forceful gestures, cries of encouragement and vivid, running pictorial images that mirror the music's story. "It was only a passing shower," he tells the strings in the Fantastique's adagio. "Now you might live again . . . supposing she is with somebody else . . . you're exhausted . . . what Berlioz says about this part is that the drums...