Berlioz: Les nuits d’été & La mort de Cléopâtre

How many times have you heard Berlioz's pioneering orchestral song-cycle Les nuits d'été sounding beautiful but less than engaging? Karen Cargill's new performance has expressive traction throughout, from the upbeat prospects of the opening Villanelle and into the darker worlds of Le spectre de la rose and Sur les lagunes . She is equally fine in the extraordinarily graphic dramatic cantata, La mort de Cléopâtre, a work whose originality never fails to astonish. Robin Ticciati delivers the orchestral writing with exquisite colour, although the Scottish Chamber Orchestra does rather lack depth of tone in the purely orchestral Scène d'amour from Roméo et Juliette . url.ie/55bm