Composed at least partially under the influence of opium, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique was both a staggering achievement and the first true Romantic symphony, using music alone to depict a hero’s wild and often terrifying progress through a passionate affair and, ultimately, his execution for his lover’s murder. Composed in 1830 when he was only 27 years old, it is an astonishing musical step forward from the music of Berlioz’s own hero Beethoven, who had died just three years earlier. In this evening’s programme Esa-Pekka Salonen has chosen to pair the music of both composers; the Overture Leonore No. 2, was known to be Berlioz’s favourite work by Beethoven.
'Let me tell you, you don’t know what love is, whatever you may say about feeling it deeply. For you, it’s not that rage, that fury, that delirium which takes possession of all one’s faculties, which renders one capable of anything. You would not be the man to lose yourself in pleasure over the person you love. In that you are lucky, and I would never want you to experience the unbearable suffering to which I have fallen prey.’
Hector Berlioz, on his love for Harriet Smithson
Tickets: £27.50 £24 £22.50 £18 £14 £9.50
Read Esa-Pekka Salonen's biography
Read Hélène Grimaud's biography
Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
Beethoven Overture, Leonore No.2
Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
EMI 5 67740 2 (with Leonore No. 3 & Eroica Symphony)
Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra/David Zinman
Arte Nova 82876 57831 2 (complete overtures)
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Kurt Masur
Philips 468 101-2 (complete overtures)
Beethoven Leonore (complete)
Alastair Miles, Matthew Best, Kim Begley, Hillevi Martinpelto, Franz Hawlata, Christiane Oelze, Michael Schade, Christoph Bantzer/The Monteverdi Choir/Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/John Eliot Gardiner
Archiv Produktion 453 461-2
Beethoven Fidelio (complete)
Christa Ludwig, Jon Vickers, Walter Berry, Franz Crass, Gottlob Frick, Ingeborg Hallstein, Gerhard Unger/Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
EMI 5 67364 2
Robert Lloyd, Rebecca Evans, Peter Wedd, Pavlo Hunka, Christopher Purves, Richard Margison, Christine Brewer, Ashley Catling/Geoffrey Mitchell Choir/Philharmonia Orchestra/David Parry
(sung in English)
Chandos CHAN 3123
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4
Hans Richter-Haaser/Philharmonia Orchestra/Istvan Kertesz
Testament SBT 1299 (with Emperor Piano Concerto)
Barry Douglas/Camerata Ireland
Satirino SR 051 (with Piano Concerto No. 2)
Emil Gilels/Philharmonia Orchestra/Leopold Ludwig
Testament SBT 1095 (with Emperor Piano Concerto)
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor); Piano Sonata in A, Op.101
Hélène Grimaud/Staatskapelle Dresden/Vladimir Jurowski
DG 477 7149
Schumann Piano Concerto (plus songs and chamber music by Clara Schumann and Brahms)
Hélène Grimaud/Staatskapelle Dresden/Esa-Pekka Salonen
DG 477 5719
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Rafael Kubelik
Orfeo C499 991B
Cleveland Orchestra/Pierre Boulez
DG 453 432-2
Philharmonia Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
BBC Legends BBCL 4018-2 (with Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy)
Toulouse Capitole Orchestra/Michel Plasson
EMI Gemini 3 71467 2 (with Harold in Italy and Overtures)
Salonen Foreign Bodies; Wing on Wing; Insomnia
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
DG 477 5375
Messiaen Turangalîla Symphony
Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Sony SBK89900
Composed at least partially under the influence of opium, Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique was both a staggering achievement and the first true Romantic symphony, using music alone to depict a hero’s wild and often terrifying progress through a passionate affair and, ultimately, his execution for his lover’s murder. Composed in 1830 when he was only 27 years old, it is an astonishing musical step forward from the music of Berlioz’s own hero Beethoven, who had died just three years earlier. In this evening’s programme Esa-Pekka Salonen has chosen to pair the music of both composers; the Overture Leonore No. 2, was known to be Berlioz’s favourite work by Beethoven.
'Let me tell you, you don’t know what love is, whatever you may say about feeling it deeply. For you, it’s not that rage, that fury, that delirium which takes possession of all one’s faculties, which renders one capable of anything. You would not be the man to lose yourself in pleasure over the person you love. In that you are lucky, and I would never want you to experience the unbearable suffering to which I have fallen prey.’
Hector Berlioz, on his love for Harriet Smithson
Tickets: £27.50 £24 £22.50 £18 £14 £9.50
Read Esa-Pekka Salonen's biography
Read Hélène Grimaud's biography
Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique
RECOMMENDED RECORDINGS
Beethoven Overture, Leonore No.2
Philharmonia Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
EMI 5 67740 2 (with Leonore No. 3 & Eroica Symphony)
Zurich Tonhalle Orchestra/David Zinman
Arte Nova 82876 57831 2 (complete overtures)
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra/Kurt Masur
Philips 468 101-2 (complete overtures)
Beethoven Leonore (complete)
Alastair Miles, Matthew Best, Kim Begley, Hillevi Martinpelto, Franz Hawlata, Christiane Oelze, Michael Schade, Christoph Bantzer/The Monteverdi Choir/Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique/John Eliot Gardiner
Archiv Produktion 453 461-2
Beethoven Fidelio (complete)
Christa Ludwig, Jon Vickers, Walter Berry, Franz Crass, Gottlob Frick, Ingeborg Hallstein, Gerhard Unger/Philharmonia Chorus & Orchestra/Otto Klemperer
EMI 5 67364 2
Robert Lloyd, Rebecca Evans, Peter Wedd, Pavlo Hunka, Christopher Purves, Richard Margison, Christine Brewer, Ashley Catling/Geoffrey Mitchell Choir/Philharmonia Orchestra/David Parry
(sung in English)
Chandos CHAN 3123
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.4
Hans Richter-Haaser/Philharmonia Orchestra/Istvan Kertesz
Testament SBT 1299 (with Emperor Piano Concerto)
Barry Douglas/Camerata Ireland
Satirino SR 051 (with Piano Concerto No. 2)
Emil Gilels/Philharmonia Orchestra/Leopold Ludwig
Testament SBT 1095 (with Emperor Piano Concerto)
Beethoven Piano Concerto No.5 (Emperor); Piano Sonata in A, Op.101
Hélène Grimaud/Staatskapelle Dresden/Vladimir Jurowski
DG 477 7149
Schumann Piano Concerto (plus songs and chamber music by Clara Schumann and Brahms)
Hélène Grimaud/Staatskapelle Dresden/Esa-Pekka Salonen
DG 477 5719
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra/Rafael Kubelik
Orfeo C499 991B
Cleveland Orchestra/Pierre Boulez
DG 453 432-2
Philharmonia Orchestra/Leopold Stokowski
BBC Legends BBCL 4018-2 (with Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy)
Toulouse Capitole Orchestra/Michel Plasson
EMI Gemini 3 71467 2 (with Harold in Italy and Overtures)
Salonen Foreign Bodies; Wing on Wing; Insomnia
Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
DG 477 5375
Messiaen Turangalîla Symphony
Philharmonia Orchestra/Esa-Pekka Salonen
Sony SBK89900
