Berlioz: Complete Works V/A

Hector Berlioz, France's greatest Romantic composer, died in Paris on 8th March 1869. Warner Classics is marking the 150th anniversary of his death with the release

of the first-ever complete Berlioz edition, a 27-CD box set of his works. After the release by Warner Classics of the complete Debussy edition in 2018, the set becomes available in physical and digital formats.

Hector Berlioz: The Complete Works contains a wealth of milestone recordings. Carefully selected from the Warner Classics and Erato catalogues with some additions from Decca and Deutsche Grammophon, they span more than 60 years, from 1956 to 2018. Among them are: the multi-award winning 2017 recording of Les Troyens conducted by John Nelson; the Symphonie fantastique and Lélio conducted by Jean Martinon; Janet Baker singing Les Nuits d'été conducted by Sir John Barbirolli, and L'Enfance du Christ conducted by John Eliot Gardiner.

The edition also contains a number of world premiere recordings, most notably the surviving fragments of the unfinished opera La Nonne sanglante. Featuring leading French soprano Véronique Gens, these were recorded at their world premiere performance at the 2018 Berlioz Festival in La Côte-Saint-André, near Lyon. The edition offers a special bonus in the form of the two earliest recordings of Berlioz's music, produced by Pathé at the beginning of 20th century: two of Didon's arias from Les Troyens are sung by Marie Delna and Félia Litvinne, and for the very first time on CD the first ever recording of la Symphonie fantastique under Rhené-Baton's baton, recorded in 1923.