Hector Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique

- 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