Recording of Note – Symphonie Fantastique

Many of us find classical music to be stuffy, pretentious and inaccessible. Yet, we know that the recorded classical music catalog contains many sonic gems. How to handle this dilemma? 

For those who are curious about classical music but have not found the right introduction to the genre, we propose Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique. While there are a number of other compositions which are similarly accessible, Symphonie Fantastique is an ideal classical work that will appeal to the uninitiated as well as the hard-core classical music lover.  

Symphonie Fantastique is a sonic spectacular from a musical standpoint. Composed in 1830 and refined by Berlioz over the next fifteen years, it is an indisputable example of  Middle Romantic era classical music. It oozes emotion. It is the musical story of the life of an artist suffering from unrequited love. The theme is generated from Berlioz’s own life circumstances when, as a 12-year-old boy, he fell in love with the 18-year-old niece of a family friend. Berlioz’s infatuation was laughed off by the young woman. He was crushed. His despair at this early age generated a hauntingly beautiful song, the melody of which appears many years later in the first movement of Symphonie Fantastique. 

The experience of unrequited love recurs years later, when at age 23, Berlioz experienced another infatuation – this time with Harriet Smithson, a Shakespearean actress he saw perform in Paris. He became completely obsessed with her and sought her attention for several years. Despite his efforts, Smithson refused to ever meet him. He was once again crushed. 

Berlioz’s pursuit of love continued to cause grief. At age 27 he met and fell in love with a 19-year-old pianist named Camille Moke. The two seemed to find love and agreed to marry. It wasn’t long, however, before Camille met an older, rich man and renounced her engagement to Berlioz in order to marry the older suitor. Spurned in love again, he resolved to kill Camille, the older man and her mother. His serious intentions were evidenced by the purchase of pistols, poison and a disguise. It was only after days of reflection that he abandoned his murderous plan.    

Although, Berlioz ultimately married twice (remarkably, the first time to the actress Smithson after her career began to fade and her debts began to amount – coinciding with Berlioz’s rise in celebrity as a composer accompanied by a growing bank account!), it is the earlier failures at reciprocated love which inform the emotions and thematic elements in this symphony.  

A part of what makes Symphonie Fantastique a perfect introduction to classical music is the fact that it is a Middle Romantic era work. This means that particular attention was paid to melody. Additionally, unlike the preceding “Classical” era 30-60 member orchestras, large scale orchestras were commonplace in the Romantic era. Berlioz wanted an orchestra of 220 pieces for the work’s premier. He ended up with 130 – still a sizable number compared to today’s 80-100 player orchestras. Berlioz was a master at orchestration and used his talent to colorful effect in his works.  

Along with the Romantic eras large scale orchestras came a dramatic increase in dynamic range in musical compositions. In the case of Symphonie Fantastique you will hear four timpani drums being vigorously struck in unison by four players, massed violin and viola strings being played col legno (beating the strings with the wooden portion of the bow) and large church sized bells being struck on stage. Orchestral whispers to blasts. Combine this with colorful, relatable expressions of emotion and drama – feelings – and much of the stuffiness, fussiness and restraint of preceding eras is absent.  

The symphony is a work of five movements rather than four, as was the convention of the time. Berlioz titled the work Symphonie Fantastique: Episode de la vie d’un artiste … en cinq parties (Fantastical Symphony: Episode In the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections). 

Berlioz wrote program notes for each of the five movements. He titled the first movement Reveries – Passions (Daydreams – Passions). His notes introduce a young musician who envisions a woman who embodies all that he desires and has dreamed of. The young artist’s imaginations are accompanied by what Berlioz calls an idée fixe or “musical idea”. A portion of this musical idea appears in each of the five movements of the symphony. In the first movement, the theme transitions through what Berlioz describes as reverie, fits of unmotivated joy, delirious passion, fury and tenderness. How nice of the composer to provide this guide from which a new listener’s imagination can expand. 

The second movement bears the title Un bal (A ball). Here Berlioz’s young artist finds himself, regardless of where he is at the moment, envisioning the image of his desire. Here he imagines a ball. His imaginations are accompanied by the sounds of an elegant waltz, made all the more so by Berlioz’s use of two harps in the score. He fantasizes that he is swirling in dance with his beloved. 

Movement three, Scene aux champs (Scene in the Field), the artist is in the countryside in the evening. In early youth, Berlioz’s family home was located in a pastoral setting in view of the French Alps. In this movement an English horn and an oboe (off stage) play as a duet in call and answer form representing two herdsmen in the distance. Berlioz writes that his young musician experiences hope, loneliness and ultimately fear of being deceived by his imagined love. The movement concludes with the plaintive calls of one of the herdsmen going unanswered by the other. As the lone English horn calls, four timpani strike rolls from the back of the stage evoking distant thunder which ultimately fades to silence in understated drama. 

The recordings of note

The Los Angeles Philarmonic version, conducted by Mr. Gustavo Dudamel