Hector Berlioz "Symphonie fantastique op. 14", played by the WDR Symphony Orchestra under the baton of its former chief conductor Semyon Bychkov on 23.04.2004 in the Cologne Philharmonie. Historical recording from the WDR Klassik archive.
Hector Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique op. 14
00:00:06 I. Reveries - Passions (Dreams - Passions)
00:14:09 II. Un Bal (A Ball)
00:20:43 III. Scene aux champs (Scene in the country)
00:36:18 IV. Marche au supplice (Walk to the place of execution)
00:40:59 V. Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat (Dream of a Sabbath Night)
WDR Symphony Orchestra
Semyon Bychkov, conductor
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○ Introduction
It all began with Berlioz's schooling. He attended a regular school for only a short time; his father preferred to teach him himself and occasionally hired private teachers. Berlioz himself later found this kind of education a shortcoming, as it shielded him "from the realities of life". On the other hand, the fact that he was spared school drill and being forced into behavioural templates is a rare stroke of luck for the music world. Only this made it possible for Berlioz to defy compositional traditions and conventions. Thus, with the "Symphonie fantastique", he pushed the door wide open - for the imaginative worlds of musical romanticism. The composition shows how aesthetically uncompromising and artistically self-assured Berlioz was. The 26-year-old's unflinching approach to sound and formal composition struck the audience at the premiere in December 1830 like a thunderbolt: fascination and bright enthusiasm here, irritation and sheer horror there. The reactions of experts were also controversial: some suspected Berlioz of madness, others proclaimed him the uncrowned icon of the musical modern era.
But what is so new, so stirring about the "Symphonie fantastique"? The most striking thing is the new tonality: the colour mixtures that Berlioz elicits from the orchestra have something magical about them. And he achieves this through sheer skill - which commands the respect of even his harshest critics. Berlioz divides the strings several times, for example, which means that not all the instruments of a voice group (for example the first violins or the violoncellos) always play the same, but sometimes different voice progressions. This fans out the sound in a previously unknown way. Then there is the harmony. Berlioz throws familiar progressions from one key to another overboard, sometimes with madness. The purely external novelty of the "Symphonie fantastique" is that Berlioz - for the very first time in music history! - Berlioz based it on a detailed programme. The sound developments here are therefore not "only" music in themselves, but they illustrate very concrete contents. The basic constellation: Berlioz had fallen in love with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, but she spurned his advances. From this he developed the melodious "Episode from the Life of an Artist", which he also called a "drame musical". Analogous to the classical drama with its five acts, Berlioz tells this tragic love story in five movements. He was also inspired by Beethoven's Symphony No. 6, the "Pastorale", which also refers (admittedly only latently) to extra-musical content in five movements.
The first movement of the "Symphonie fantastique" depicts the various stages of a young musician's infatuation with his ideal woman. Musically, it is embodied by a motif - called "idée fixe" by Berlioz - which appears in all movements in the most varied moods and shades. At the ball in the second movement, the lover sees his beloved again, but she pays no attention to him. In the "Scene in the Countryside", the dialogue of two shepherds is heard as the lover is seized by doubts about being loved again. Afterwards, only one shepherd sings his way. The "Walk to the Place of Execution" describes the musician's dream that he has murdered the chosen one, is condemned to death and is being led to the place of execution. Finally, in the "Dream of a Sabbath Night", the former lover appears as a witch. The distorted "idée fixe" contrasts with the melody of the "Dies irae", the Last Judgement from the Catholic Mass for the Dead. Harriet Smithson, the real courted, heard the work for the first time two years after its premiere. Fascinated and deeply moved, she agreed to make Berlioz's acquaintance. The following year they married - a turn of events as if from the dream worlds of the "Symphonie fantastique".
(Text: Otto Hagedorn)