L'Enfance du Christ – review

Queen Elizabeth Hall, LondonBerlioz's oratorio challenges conceptions of the composer as an exponent of the gargantuan and the emotionally extreme. Scored for relatively modest choral and orchestral forces, its gestures tend to be small and intimate, its loose sequence of scenes outlining a narrative focusing on a largely domestic view of the holy family. Yet it represents a change of scale rather than language. There is scarcely a bar in the piece that does not contain those unique characterist...

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