HECTOR BERLIOZ
(1803 - 1869)
Berlioz
was one of the great geniuses of French music if not the French Beethoven!
He was a composer, an astute critic and a conductor par excellence,
not truly recognized until many years after his death. He was born in a
village in the French Alps during the futile wars to establish French hegemony
over the entire European continent. Despite the disruption of the schools
in this turbulent period, Berlioz received an excellent education from his
father who was a physician and an erudite academician. The young Berlioz
acquired a thorough grounding in Latin as well some fundamentals of music,
but like many great composers he worked out most of the details by himself.
He taught himself to play a number of different instruments and composed
some small chamber pieces, but his father was unsympathetic to his musical
activities and packed him off to Paris where he spent two unhappy years
as a medical student. In 1823 he abandoned medicine and turned decisively
to a musical career. He enrolled in the Conservatoire and began an intense
study of composition. He tried four times for the coveted Prix de Rome and
was finally successful in 1833. Berlioz was attracted to Shakespeare and
a prominent actress, Harriet Smithson, whom he idolized and courted. He
married her in 1833 and settled down to an extremely active musical life.
He was influenced strongly by Beethoven's symphonies, Goethe's Faust
and the works of Scott, Bryon and Moore. This was a most productive time
for Berlioz, and it was in this period that he wrote the Symphonie Fantastique.
Unfortunately, his works were not received with enthusiasm and he received
little recognition in his native France, but in the rest of Europe his works
were hailed as "modern" and he was acknowledged as one of the
leading "modern" conductors. 
The
Symphonie Fantastique is an autobiographical work, which embodies
the supreme love of his life, Harriet Smithson, who became the theme, or
idée fixe of the work. It consists of five movements, described
by Berlioz himself in some detail: 1) Reveries. A young musician...sees
the woman of his dreams...and it...evokes a musical thought (the idée
fixe) that is impassioned, but also noble and shy....2) The Ball.
The artist finds himself at a party, but the beloved image appears...and
troubles his soul. 3) Scene in the Country. In the distance, two
shepherds play...a dialogue... (Solo oboe and English horn). The pastoral
setting calms him, but the troubled premonitions return...4) March to
the scaffold. Convinced of the loss of his love, the artist overdoses
on opium and in the deep sleep that follows he dreams he has killed his
beloved. Condemned and led to the scaffold, a solemn march proclaims the
sad procession. The idée fixe returns like a final thought
before the final, fatal blow...5) Dream of a Witches' Sabbath. His
beloved attends the Sabbath and joins in the wild orgy that follows. A funeral
knell parodies the Dies irae combined with a Sabbath round dance.Program Notes by J. Palmer Saunders©