Valery Gergiev conducts the London Symphony Orchestra on the first video/audio release on LSO Live. This is the start of a much anticipated Berlioz cycle and features 'Symphonie Fantastique' & 'Overture: Waverley'.

Berlioz let his imagination run wild in his music, finding inspiration in all manner of sources, including his own turbulent personal life. His experience of powerful, unrequited love finds its expression in the emotionally charged 'Symphonie Fantastique', the story of an artist’s ‘hopeless love’, complete with waltzes, witches and a hallucinogenic nightmare.

There are few orchestras with the music of Berlioz more thoroughly in their blood than the LSO, and here Valery Gergiev brings to bear his opulent interpretation of this landmark piece.

Concert Reviews:
"The March to the Scaffold’ went at a smart pace, with a chilling execution, and in an intensely dramatic ‘Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath’ the LSO, having already produced outstanding playing in the first four movements, achieved still greater heights of virtuosity, with the second violinists unusually permitted to show off their considerable paces at the front of the platform, opposite the firsts." - classicalsource.com

"Gergiev came to the platform and launched a seemingly possessed LSO into some of the most thrilling Berlioz one could ever hope to hear. With utterly sincere lyricism from cor anglais Christine Pendrill alongside ear-splitting, monstrous brass fanfares, this was a performance which, whilst totally committed to Berlioz’s uncanny ideas, was just as original and brilliant as the man himself." - ***** bachtrack.com

DSD recording, live at the Barbican 31st October 2013 & 14th November 2013
2.0 Stereo and multi-channel (5.1)
Total playing time: 65'35"
Booklet notes in English, French and German

Contents:
Disc 1: Pure Audio Bluray playable in all regions - also contains video footage of Symphonie Fantastique
Disc 2: SACD hybrid includes stereo & 5.1 surround mixes