Robin Ticciati - Scottish Chamber Orchestra - Berlioz: Les nuits d'ete - The Arts Desk

The 'Villanelle' which begins Les nuits d'été always surprises. Berlioz's softly muttering quavers and unexpected key shifts still sound disarmingly modern. Robin Ticciati achieves exactly the right lightness, the delicacy, in a song cycle which should ideally delight as much as it moves. He's well matched by mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill, whose hesitant phrasing at the start of the fourth song, 'Absence', is a joy to hear. Best of all is 'L'île inconnue'; Cargill's 'Où voulez-vous aller?' is impossible to resist.

La mort de Cléopâtre was completed in 1829; another one of Berlioz's unsuccessful attempts to win the Prix de Rome. Composition candidates would be shut in a room with a libretto and expected to produce a dramatic cantata. The wonder lies in how Berlioz achieved so much despite being dealt Pierre-Ange Viellard's cheesy text. The orchestral effects are extraordinary, and brilliantly played here - the doomy textures at the beginning of the 'Méditation' will induce dread. Cargill is again superb, relishing the melodrama yet managing to give us a glimpse of Cleopatra's dignity. Her asp-induced death would induce giggles, were it not projected with such vividness and sincerity. Wondrous, as is the 'Scène d'amour' extracted from Roméo et Juliette. Linn's production values are as usual exemplary.