Prix de Rome Works, and: L'enfance du Christ, and: L'enfance du Christ, Reduction piano, and: Cleopatre, and: Herminie, and: La mort d'Orphee: Monologue et Bacchanale (review)

Hector Berlioz. Prix de Rome Works. Edited by David Gilbert. (New Edition of the Complete Works, 6.) Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1998. [Gen. pref. in Eng., Fr., Ger., p. vii; foreword, p. viii-xxxiii; score, 223 p.; crit. notes, p. 225-31; facsims., p. 232-36; appendixes, p. 237-42. Cloth. ISMN M-006-49501-6; BA 5446. DM 345.] Contains: Fugue (1826); La mort d'Orphée; Herminie; Fugue à 3 sujets (1829); Cléopâtre; Sardanapale.

Hector Berlioz. L'enfance du Christ. Edited by David Lloyd-Jones. (New Edition of the Complete Works, 11.) Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1998. [Gen. pref. in Eng., Fr., Ger., p. vii; foreword, p. viii-xxii; score, 210 p.; crit. notes, p. 211-19; facsims., p. 220-23; appendixes, p. 225-28. Cloth. ISMN M-006-49502-3; BA 5451. DM 320.]

Hector Berlioz. L'enfance du Christ: Trilogie sacrée. Réduction piano/ chant orienté à l'original de la Nouvelle Edition Berlioz de Eike Wernhard. Bärenreiter Urtext. Kassel: Bärenreiter, 1999. [Ensemble, notes in Fr., Ger., 2 p.; vocal score, 127 p.; afterword, 1 p. ISMN M-006-50529-6; BA 5451a. DM 28.]

Hector Berlioz. Cléopâtre: Scène lyrique. Partition chant et piano d'après le Urtext de la Nouvelle Édition Berlioz par Martin Schelhaas. Kassel: Bärenreiter, c1999. [Pref. in Fr., Eng., Ger., p. iii-v; vocal score, p. 2-27. ISMN M-006-50530-2; BA 5787a. DM 24; duration: ca. 259.]

Hector Berlioz. Herminie: Scène lyrique. Partition chant et piano d'après le Urtext de la Nouvelle Édition Berlioz par Martin Schelhaas. Kassel: Bärenreiter, c1999. [Pref. in Fr., Eng., Ger., p. iii-v; vocal score, p. 2-32. ISMN M-006-50532-6; BA 5789a. DM 24; duration: ca. 209.]

Hector Berlioz. La mort d'Orphée: Monologue et Bacchanale. Partition chant et piano d'après le Urtext de la Nouvelle Édition Berlioz par Martin Schelhaas. Kassel: Bärenreiter, c1999. [Pref. in Fr., Eng., Ger., p. iii-v; vocal score, p. 2-24. ISMN M-006-50531-9; BA 5788a. DM 24; duration: ca. 149.]

Quite by coincidence, the two newest additions to Bärenreiter's splendid New Berlioz Edition (NBE), the Prix de Rome Works (vol. 6) and L'enfance du Christ (vol. 11) present works that stand at opposite ends of Berlioz's career and, when examined side by side, afford us an example of the remarkable stylistic continuity that runs throughout this composer's music. Published concurrently are vocal scores of L'enfance du Christ and three of the Prix de Rome works: La mort d'Orphée, Herminie, and Cléopâtre.

In general, the two volumes from the complete edition continue the high standards of the NBE. Forewords (in English, French, and German) are models of what introductory essays of this type should be, presenting a detailed history of the composition, publication, performance, and reception of each work. The appendixes include complete texts for all works, a catalog of the various sources used in making the edition, and lists of variant readings. I do not understand, however, why translations do not accompany these printed full texts. Even fluent readers of French may find the nineteenth-century poetic style of these texts a bit difficult to decipher. Similarly, the various performance notes (some quite substantial) written into the score by the composer are also given without translations. Surely the extra space required to print parallel translations would not have added more than a few pages to the size, and a few dollars to the cost, of each volume. Given the already high price of these scores, such corner-cutting is shortsighted at best.

Other quibbles with the...