– Composer: Hector Berlioz (11 December 1803 — 8 March 1869)
– Orchestra: New Philharmonia Orchestra
– Conductor: Leopold Stokowski
– Year of recording: 1968
“Symphony Fantastique: Épisode de la vie d’un Artiste … en cinq parties” (Fantastic Symphony: An Episode in the Life of an Artist, in Five Parts) Op. 14 written in 1830, is perhaps the most famous program symphony.
There are five movements, instead of the four movements that were conventional for symphonies at the time:
00:00 – I. Reveries: Largo – Passions: Allegro agitato e appassionato assai
13:12 – II. Un Bal (Valse): Allegro non troppo
19:04 – III. Scene aux Champs: Adagio
35:15 – IV. Marche au Supplice: Allegretto non troppo
39:20 – V. Songe d’une Nuit du Sabbat: Larghetto – Allegro
This is an important piece of the early Romantic period, and is popular with concert audiences worldwide. The first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire in December 1830. The work was repeatedly revived between 1831 and 1845 and subsequently became a favourite in Paris.
The symphony is a piece of program music that tells the story of “an artist gifted with a lively imagination” who has “poisoned himself with opium” in the “depths of despair” because of “hopeless love.” Berlioz provided his own program notes for each movement of the work.
He prefaces these notes with the following instructions:
“The composer’s intention has been to develop various episodes in the life of an artist, in so far as they lend themselves to musical treatment. As the work cannot rely on the assistance of speech, the plan of the instrumental drama needs to be set out in advance. The following programme must therefore be considered as the spoken text of an opera, which serves to introduce musical movements and to motivate their character and expression.” (see http://www.hberlioz.com/Scores/fantas.htm for the full program notes)
Trivia:
– Leonard Bernstein described the symphony as the first musical expedition into psychedelia because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature, and because history suggests Berlioz composed at least a portion of it under the influence of opium. According to Bernstein, “Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral.”
– Berlioz fell in love with an Irish actress, Harriet Smithson, after attending a performance of Shakespeare’s Hamlet with her in the role of Ophelia on 11 September 1827. He sent her numerous love letters, all of which went unanswered. When she left Paris they had still not met. He then wrote the symphony as a way to express his unrequited love. It premiered in Paris on 5 December 1830; Harriet was not present. She eventually heard the work in 1832 and realized his genius. The two finally met and were married on 3 October 1833. Their marriage became increasingly bitter, and eventually they separated after several years of unhappiness.
With this last anecdote of Goethean proportions, Berlioz consolidated himself & this composition in the eternal hall of great music from the Romantic period.