This year sees the 150th anniversary of the death of one of the great French composers, Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 – 8 March 1869), and we're marking the year with this special compilation of recordings by two conductors who could claim to one extent or another, direct links to the composer: Sir Hamilton Harty and Pierre Monteux.
With both conductors born within a decade of Berlioz's death it's fair to say both would have had exposure to musicians and others who'd lived and breathed the same air as the composer, despite themselves being a generation or so away from this direct link. They were both also closely associated with orchestras established by acquaintances of Berlioz with long-standing traditions of playing the composer's music.
The recordings here comprise all of Harty's electrical commercial recordings of Berlioz along with all of the works recorded by Monteux - who re-recorded the Symphonie Fantastique a number of times, but was said to have regarded his first 1930 recording as his best performance on disc.
