This live recording features a concert performance of Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette, a dramatic symphony, with solo and choral voices, in the original French language version.

Sir Colin Davis conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Chorus and Orchestra with soloists Philip Langridge (tenor), Hanna Schwarz (alto) and Peter Meven (bass).

Roméo et Juliette is the greatest and most satisfying of all Shakespearean works and inspired Berlioz to one of his best and successful dramatic symphonies. Intended for the concert hall, its musical core is purely orchestral, while the outer movements are choral and vocal, their function being narrative and more theatrical. Yet the whole piece coheres magically and no other work of Berlioz more perfectly demonstrates both his poetic and the individuality of his genius.