Symphonie Fantastique |
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Composed: 1830 First Performed: December 5, 1830 Peak: -- Sales (in millions): -- Genre: classical > symphony |
Parts/Movements:
Average Duration: 51:40 |
Rating: 4.869 out of 5.00 (average of 5 ratings)
Awards:(Click on award to learn more).
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About the Work:The Symphonie Fantastique is “an important piece of the early Romantic period.” WK Leonard Bernstein described it “as the first musical expedition into psychedelia because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature.” WK History actually suggests Berlioz composed at least part of it under the influence of opium. WKThe symphony was inspired by Berlioz’s infatuation with Harriet Smithson, a pretty British ingénue who came to Paris to play Shakespeare. AM His efforts to win her affection “led him to the work’s guiding theme – a man pursuing his romantic ideal to the gates of Hell.” TM He did eventually marry her, but “discovered that the onstage illusion was better than the reality.” TM In Berlioz’s work, he “details the journey of a lovesick artist who, having glimpsed the feminine ideal, is involved in an all-consuming chase.” TM In an attempt at suicide, the young musician “smokes copious amounts of opium” TM and ends up hallucinating about his “Beloved” appearing “as a recurring melody with several personalities.” AM The symphony “expanded the idea set forth in Beethoven’s ‘Pastorale’ Symphony No 6, that an orchestra could echo and emulate natural phenomena.” TM “Where Beethoven whipped up a storm, Berlioz created a mob scene that concludes with the protagonist’s death: his decapitated head bounces into a waiting basket pizzicato. In the finale, Berlioz went far beyond Beethoven’s merrymaking peasants; he created a witches’ sabbath, without precedent in music before 1830. Along with liberating orchestral color, he overthrew the tyranny of bar-lines, downbeat accents, and academic dogma.” AM “Dreams, Passions begins with the hero’s despair…The Beloved’s signature melody is the main theme of a sonata structure with exposition repeat.” AM “A Ball (Allegro non troppo, A major) is the waltz without a trio, although a contrasting section in F major has unison flute and oboe playing the Beloved’s theme.” AM “Scene in the Fields is an Adagio that begins and concludes with an antiphonal shepherds’ duet on oboe and English horn.” AM “The G minor March to the Scaffold recreates a scene from the Revolution…The protagonist dreams he’s been condemned to die for killing his Beloved, who appears briefly as a clarinet, and he is guillotined as the crowd shouts approval.” AM “Dream of the Witches’ Sabbath features a four-part structure after an eerie introduction in E flat. The Beloved’s melody is the main theme of Part I, now, however, distorted and vulgarized by clarinets.” AM It was first performed at December 5, 1830 at the Paris Conservatoire WK with Berlioz conducting. “He revised it in 1832 and added two cornets to the instrumentation in 1845.” AM |
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Last updated 2/25/2026. |
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