S ymp h on i e f an ta s t i q u e , o p . 1 4 HECTOR BERLIOZ (1803-1869) When Hector Berlioz was 17, his father sent him to study medicine in Paris. The big city had a great influence on young Berlioz, but not in the way his father hoped for. The opera, Beethoven's symphonies he heard for the first time, and the Shakespearean tragedies he saw, made a strong impression on Berlioz and influenced his artistic path from then on. A unique cultural experience occurred in September 1827, when an English theater company performed “Hamlet” in the Odéon Theatre. Ophelia’s role was performed by the Irish actress Harriet Smithson. Berlioz immediately fell in love and became obsessed with her. He channeled this compulsive love into the composition of his Symphonie Fantastique. This work conveys extra musical content - a narrative partly based on the composer’s life. Berlioz penned down the story and requested that the audience be provided with a copy - which can be found in the next pages of this booklet. The symphony is based on amusical theme called Idée fixe - fixed idea - representing the beloved one. This theme, 40 bars long and of a very romantic character, expresses the composer’s unfulfilled love. It appears in all movements of the symphony, being modified each time to suit the narrative. The second movement, for example, is set in a Parisian ball. The attendees dance a nobel waltz when suddenly the hero spots his beloved among the dancers. In an almost-cinematic effect, the dance music fades and the Idéefixe isheard in thewaltz’s triple meter. In the fourth movement, the composer marches towards his execution, and just before his beheading he recalls his beloved one last time: the march stops, and the clarinet plays the beginning of the theme. In the Witches’ Sabbath in the fifth movement, the theme appears with a diabolic character, getting wilder as the movement continues. The orchestration of this symphony is radically inventive. Glissando played by the flute, four timpani players imitating thunders, an oboe playing outside of the stage, imitation of church bells, and playingwith thewooden part of the bow to make sounds of skeletones dance - are just some of the effects Berlioz uses. He indicates the exact desired number of string players and the specific kind of sticks the percussionists should use, and gives a solo part to the piccolo clarinet, an instrument which until that time played mostly in military bands. Eventually, Smithson accepted Berlioz’s courtingandthetwogotmarried in1832, two tears after the first performance of the symphony. Their marriage was fraught with troubles, Smithson got addicted to alcohol, and in 1845 they got divorced. The marriage did not last long, but the symphony earned its spot in the nineteenth century orchestral repertoire, giving Berlioz his place in the classical music hall of fame. Oded Shnei-Dor ca. 50 mins. Daydreams - passions: Largo - Allegro agitato e appassionato assai A Ball: Waltz. Allegro non troppo Scene in the countryside: Adagio March to the Scaffold: Allegretto non troppo Dream of a Witches' Sabbath: Larghetto - Allegro
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