Complete performances of Roméo et Juliette come along every few years, and always raise the same question – whether this dramatic symphony is one of Berlioz's greatest and most original achievements, or whether it is actually an intractable hybrid of elements that are impossible to reconcile. Even Berlioz agnostics would agree the score contains some wonderful music, passages that really are among the finest things he composed, and which would make anyone want the work to succeed – and for a performance to fuse everything into a coherent musical and dramatic unity.
If any conductor could engineer that, it should be Mark Elder. His account with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Schola Cantorum of Oxford and the BBC Symphony Chorus, and a fine trio of soloists promised to have the right ingredients. The way in which Elder launched into the opening part, too, strings bristling, trombones and ophicleide rasping away, certainly set the right tone, with a lustrous contribution from mezzo Patricia Bardon and a nimble one from tenor John Mark Ainsley.
But then the performance came to a halt while the stage was rearranged; extra harps were wheeled on, the chorus taken off, and when it resumed, all tension had dissipated. There was a second pause later to get the harps off again and to bring the chorus back; whatever their rationale, these breaks ensured that a work which struggles for symphonic coherence was well and truly stymied. For anyone coming to the work for the first time, the programme offered no help either, not even including a list of the movements and their titles.
Of course, there were good things in passing, textures beautifully moulded and climaxes fiercely punched home by Elder, and a forthright final homily from the bass Orlin Anastassov, though generally too little of the French text was decipherable throughout. But overall the disappointment was intense, and an opportunity had been squandered.
• Programme repeated at the Anvil, Basingstoke (01256 844244) on Thursday, with excerpts at the Roundhouse, London (0844 482 8008) on Friday. Broadcast on Radio 3 on 26 February.
