Berlioz L'Enfance du Christ (vaimusic.com)

[cher19952]

magnifique. i started making an arr. for piano solo and 2 pianos ... Great Piece! Great Berlioz!

[bankerbird]

Amazing. So hauntingly beautiful!

[Majhnavea0]

what a beautiful interpretation. rare gem on youtube!

[mcvanadis]

I remember the first time I heard this and have treasured it ever since. I prefer the tempo in this lovely and delicate selection from a choral work too rarely heard.

[cbliebert]

Has been rolling around in my head for months. We performed this in my 8th grade Chorus Christmas concert, mid-60s. Had a wonderful, innovative 1st year music teacher, Murray Sidlin, who went on to become a conductor of some note. He was a Jew and we also performed one of my favorites ever, Havah Nagilah, for our hugely WASP families. I still remember those words, too. Thank you for the post; so beautiful it gave me goosebumps.

[crazyafroman123]

who ever disliked this video should be ashamed with them selves

[crazyafroman123]

is berlioz actully conducting?

[martinadu]

As I listen to this, tear almost rolling down my cheeks, I remember first hearing in on a classic music LP of my mother and it's such a beautiful and powerful peace. So tender. Thanks for posting! My favourite part

Qu’un bon ange vous avertisse

Des dangers planant sur vous.

[09phall]

I first heard this last Christmas, and it's become one of my favorite Christmas pieces. I like this performance of it more than any other on YouTube. Thanks for uploading.

[wimniewenhuijs]

great!

[nolasinger]

I have vivid memories of this recording by WGBH, I believe in the winter of 1966. I sang in the chorus; Munch conducted four performances of this masterpiece, with great attention to singers and text. He had to be watched carefully because every performance was individually inspired. It was a wonderful first encounter to an intimate and underperformed work.

[randomizerca]

@nolasinger So you were in this chorus? This performance? I am so infatuated by this moment, especially by the tenor in the third row right next to the altos. Where was this performance?

[hippppppppps]

Très belle version, j'aime beaucoup

[beethomozart]

extraordinary version of this highly rated director Charlie Munch and well deserved with an extract of this famous Christ childhood by Hector Berlioz, outstanding

[TheHikering]

Well, It is a matter of interest. When I was 9 or 10 was it? -I was busy scratching my fathers LPs. and the L'Efance du Christ was a triple lp of the month club set. and this closing piece stuck in my head all of these years. now in my mid 50's

[Klemperer]

@TheHikering I really like stories like this (many of us have different ones, is it :). Thank you very much.

[rockgor]

Used to have this on an LP record from

ca. 1957. Soloists are excellent.  Too bad

they didn't make more recordings.

Merci 4 zee post.

[marcussalieri]

french should have make like english.go in all countries and do not pay if the seller do not speak english even at post office hotel restaurant..it is by this way that people speak now english

[thirlestanelodge2]

Is that what you did? Did you ? Did it work?

[AchillesValda]

THANKS for this video!!!! This oratorio is my fafourite composition from Berlioz, I have all recordings, but not this video...It is in style big Berlioz compositions, I like more "chamber" interpretacion...Thanks for mail adress too!

[ElisabethLepidi]

too much difficult for me and I have no time.

I suppose sometimes French people comes here, and if there is not anybody who can understand what I mean, it is not very important. If I have to say something, I'll go on to write in French ! Sorry ! ET VIVE LA FRANCE !!!

[thirlestanelodge2]

You mean;

IT is too (no need for much) for me, I have no time. I EXPECT that French people come here sometimes, and if NO ONE can understand what I mean, it is not very important.If I WANT to say something, I will write in French! Sorry! LONG LIVE FRANCE!!!

Then live in French obscurity.

You make yourself understood in English , so why write in French on an English message board. That's Gallic arrogance.

[ElisabethLepidi]

Cette interprétation en langue française est, de loin, supérieure à celle de Brisbane Quire. Les nuances sont respectées, et la musique a été écrite par un compositeur Français, il était donc normal d'avoir des paroles en langue française. Je ne vois pas pourquoi, d'ailleurs, on s'amuse à traduire certaines pièces musicales. Fait-on ainsi avec les opéra de Mozart ?

[thirlestanelodge2]

If you write in English we will know what you mean ;-)

[ElisabethLepidi]

and why I shoud have to write in English ? ;-)

Take a dictionnary and translate. I'm French and I'll stay :-)

[thirlestanelodge2]

You mean; "Why SHOULD I HAVE to write in English?;-) (One can not begin with "and") USE a dictionary and translate IT. I am French and I'll stay (FRENCH(?)) (It is not clear what you mean here. It doesn't make sense)

It looks as if it is you who need the dictionary,better still , a grammar book.I hope this helps with your future use of English.

To answer your question; you should use English, because this whole page is in English. It is rude not to do so. As you say, your French. Voila tout

[marcussalieri]

au xix eme siecle oui on s en ait donne a coeur joie..

[martinadu]

Thanks for posting. I first heard this piece on a record owned by my mother many years ago. And have always looked for it, but now I've not only found it, but see aperformance of It. I'm almost in tears.

"Qu'on bon ange vous avertisse des dangers planant sur vous"

[anasousaana]

So fast!! just sang it today. it*s really hard to sing it in french.. the pronunciation is dificult. Even though it was nice to work this piece. My favorite part is the *epilogue*

[sarahrchds]

Pity the recording sounds a bit muddy, I'm sure that's the technology, not the choir! My score doesn't have those exaggerated rallentandi that, to my taste, spoil the flow of the piece. So I prefer the Brisbane performance, and as it's in English I can sing along.

[kapariz44]

Re - thirlestanelodge2's comment that "the French don't like it in English".

Yes, they can be touchy buggers, the French. After all, we don't mind them singing, say, G D Rossetti's "The Blessed Damozel" in French ha, or even Kipling's "The Jungle Book" for that matter. Notwithstanding that, tho', Debussy's setting of the Damozel and Koechlin's "Song of Kala Nag" are among my favourites. What would they say if we sang them in the original words?

[kapariz44]

Yeah, that sounds more like what I had in mind (cf. the Brisbane clip).

[thirlestanelodge2]

read the comments on the video from the Brisbane Quire, the French don't like it in English, so you just can't win, English or bad French! Perhaps best not to sing it at all, if the French get so upset.

I sing it in two part harmony , in Scots. They would hate that.

Thou mon gan frea yon clarty sheilin',

Yon smeddumsom creel,yon bire sae sare,

Muckle Bearn , al' bearns excellin',

Th'rt weel contentet wer yirth tae share,

Dotin' faither,dotin' mither,

Beild Ye baith wi' couthyness fair,REP

[kapariz44]

Yes, they can be touchy buggers, the French. After all, we don't mind them singing, say, G D Rossetti's "The Blessed Damozel" in French ha, or even Kipling's "The Jungle Book" for that matter. Notwithstanding that, tho', Debussy's setting of the Damozel and Koechlin's "Song of Kala Nag" are among my favourites. What would they say if we sang them in the original words?

[thirlestanelodge2]

They woiuld be obnoxious about it, as they are about everything else. If you have eperience of a wider world, their cooking and wines are vastly overated, especially by them. How ever they do make glorious perfume. A language without words, rather like music. What a shame that they are such snobs.

[kapariz44]

Yeah, rather like the flummery surrounding champagne and caviar. In the first case, the nose is assailed more with the stink of sulphite than anything else; in the second a smell akin to fermented shrimp paste. If they didn't cost a packet, words like p**s and s**t would probably be more likely to come to mind.

But the French do produce some fine music and musicians. As you've rightly indicated, they're not all bad.

[thinazzabird]

I'm rather impressed with snobbery that the French took toward the quality of their leadership 23 or 4 or so decades ago. That showed discernment.

[thirlestanelodge2]

Unfortunately, I can't say that I am impressed with your English. I can't understand what you mean to say, Sorry.

[pasfresh123]

Lovely music, all good but bad French pronunciation. Exaggerated S's.