Maxime Pascal makes his debut with Berlioz’s “L’Enfance du Christ”
A Christmas oratorio à la française: in L’Enfance du Christ, Hector Berlioz recounts the story following the birth of Jesus – the visit of the Three Wise Men to the cruel King Herod, and the Holy Family’s flight to Egypt. Berlioz’s music combines operatic drama with quiet contemplation, and luminous orchestral colours with magnificent choruses. Maxime Pascal, one of the musical directors at Deutsche Oper Berlin, makes his debut with the Philharmoniker with this work.
The story behind the creation of L’Enfance du Christ is an intriguing one: Hector Berlioz initially composed a short piece for choir and organ characterised by “rustic, naïve mysticism”, which he attributed to a fictional Pierre Ducré, a “master of music at the Sainte-Chapelle in Paris in the 17th century”. Berlioz’s intention was to endow the music, upon its performance, with “all the significance of an archaeological curiosity”. The composition, which was supposedly rediscovered in a bricked-up church cupboard shortly before its world premiere in 1850, was received with the delight he had hoped for: “During rehearsals, the choristers immediately developed a great love for this music from the time of their ancestors,” Berlioz reported. Even the critics, who had accused the composer of bizarre stylistic mannerisms, were taken in and praised the graceful and melodious style of the supposedly ancient work.
Later, Berlioz added another vocal work and an overture, and performed the three pieces – now under his own name – several times in Paris to great acclaim. He subsequently expanded this “fragment of a mystery play in the old style” to include a sequel (L’arrivée à Saïs) and an extensive musical prologue (Le songe d’Hérode), which deals with the birth of Jesus and the flight into Egypt. The result was the “Trilogie sacrée” L’Enfance du Christ – “simple and gentle music”, whose libretto, written by the composer himself, contains much romanticised fantasy that strays far from the Bible. Choral music specialist Maxime Pascal makes his debut conducting the Berliner Philharmoniker with this thoroughly captivating work.
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