Unpopular Opinions

[Rinaldo]

It's a shame, it sounds as if the performance you attended did not properly do justice to a thrilling Berlioz piece. I hope the rest of the concert was better performed.

Well, I do hope me & Hector might get along one day but I still haven't heard a note from him that wouldn't either bore me or make me shake my head in disapproval. Can't judge the performance but the concert concluded with a riveting blast through Ravel's La valse. It was the Czech radio symphony orchestra playing, lead by Sergey Smbatyan - a guy five years younger than me by the way and I'm 30.. maybe Berlioz requires a more mature conductor / listener?

[TheGSMoeller]

Well, I do hope me & Hector might get along one day but I still haven't heard a note from him that wouldn't either bore me or make me shake my head in disapproval. Can't judge the performance but the concert concluded with a riveting blast through Ravel's La valse. It was the Czech radio symphony orchestra playing, lead by Sergey Smbatyan - a guy five years younger than me by the way and I'm 30.. maybe Berlioz requires a more mature conductor / listener?

Damn those youngsters. It really hits hard when you start realizing you would be considered "old" in professional sports.

Does Symphonie Fantastique bore you? Or The Damnation of Faust?

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Well, I do hope me & Hector might get along one day but I still haven't heard a note from him that wouldn't either bore me or make me shake my head in disapproval. Can't judge the performance but the concert concluded with a riveting blast through Ravel's La valse. It was the Czech radio symphony orchestra playing, lead by Sergey Smbatyan - a guy five years younger than me by the way and I'm 30.. maybe Berlioz requires a more mature conductor / listener?

Apparently this orchestra/conductor admired Berlioz enough to at least take a crack at him. Which I don't think they would've done had they considered Berlioz a hack.

Same goes for the legions of musicians who've been performing/recording his music for 150 years, I'd say.

[Rinaldo]

Same goes for the legions of musicians who've been performing/recording his music for 150 years, I'd say.

Hence my opinion being unpopular, although I've got some powerful allies on my side (Chopin & RVW)!

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Hence my opinion being unpopular, although I've got some powerful allies on my side (Chopin & RVW)!

An opinion which claims Berlioz is a "hack" isn't opinion. And I've more allies on my side that you. So there.

[Karl Henning]

Hence my opinion being unpopular, although I've got some powerful allies on my side (Chopin & RVW)!

Specious reasoning. What shall we say? Brahms was a talentless bastard -- I've got Tchaikovsky as an ally.

[Rinaldo]

Specious reasoning. What shall we say? Brahms was a talentless bastard -- I've got Tchaikovsky as an ally.

It wasn't meant to be reasoning at all. Sorry if I sounded THAT serious! But now that I've calmed down a little bit after the performance, I would call upon RVW for his take on Schoenberg: I don't hear what other people hear in his music but I blame myself.

So to alter my previous statement, Berlioz is a jolly good composer - I just don't like his music at all (and that still classifies as quite an unpopular opinion, right?).

[Madiel]

An opinion which claims Berlioz is a "hack" isn't opinion.

Of course it is. 

PS Barely know a note of Berlioz, so can happily sit on the fence regarding his abilities.

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Of course it is.

Not in this universe. 

PS Barely know a note of Berlioz, so can happily sit on the fence regarding his abilities.

Well, when your eyes are eventually opened to the goodness of Berlioz come back and give us a helping hand!

[Luke]

It wasn't meant to be reasoning at all. Sorry if I sounded THAT serious! But now that I've calmed down a little bit after the performance, I would call upon RVW for his take on Schoenberg: I don't hear what other people hear in his music but I blame myself.

So to alter my previous statement, Berlioz is a jolly good composer - I just don't like his music at all (and that still classifies as quite an unpopular opinion, right?).

I only fell in love with Berlioz when I heard the right pieces (for me) and thereby gained a glimpse of what (for me) is the mental image/aesthetic with which he 'clicks' best (for me). Reading the autobiography helped too. I realised that (for me) Berlioz is not (e.g.) huge orchestras, cackling witches, or Faust. For me he is the South, he is Italy, he is warm air and breezes, he is throbbing, ardent Early Romanticism - even at his most macabre there's nothing of Late Romantic decay or nostalgia in his music, just freshness, love and (for me) more than is the case with any other composer there is fragrance in Berlioz, the Southerly smells of sea and pine and flowers... This reads oddly, I know. I am trying to give an idea of the intangible thoughts and associations which Berlioz conjures up for me.

Change the details, the nouns and the adjectives, and the same, I think, goes with any composer who one truly loves. You just have to find your way in.

Anyway, the key pieces of Berlioz, for me, all heavily fragrance-laden, are things like the central songs of the Nuits d'ete, the song in which Herod recounts his dream in L'enfance du Christ (the perfume here becomes a hallucinatory incense), the first movement of the Symphonie Fantastique (especially the introduction), and above all the Scene d'amour from Romeo and Juliet (the balcony scene, the atmosphere of the darkened garden almost tangible, perfumed, we hear carousing voices in the distance before an extended love-dialogue which quivers with emotion...). Berlioz thought the Scene d'amour was his best piece, and I agree with him.

I'd add that not all Berlioz takes me into this world - and the pieces that don't are the ones I like less, with the exception of the Symphonie Funebre, which is Northern, cold, grey, shrill - and utterly wonderful. But I'm very sure that there is a way into loving these other pieces - I just haven't found it yet.

[Florestan]

Thank you, Luke, for this one gem of a post. Your take on, and description of, Berlioz's music are wonderful.

[North Star]

Thank you, Luke, for this one gem of a post. Your take on, and description of, Berlioz's music are wonderful.

+1. A great post, as always. Good to see you here.

[Karl Henning]

There goes Luke, raising the tone of the discourse again . . . .

Thanks for the post, fella!

[Luke]

A pleasure (genuinely - how good it feels to have time to think through writing a post for once). Thank you, guys!

[Rinaldo]

This reads oddly, I know.

Not at all. And it describes a very different Berlioz than I was reading about so far, which only bolsters my curiosity. Thank you!

[eyeresist]

Does Symphonie Fantastique bore you? Or The Damnation of Faust?

Yes.

[Mirror Image]

I only fell in love with Berlioz when I heard the right pieces (for me) and thereby gained a glimpse of what (for me) is the mental image/aesthetic with which he 'clicks' best (for me). Reading the autobiography helped too. I realised that (for me) Berlioz is not (e.g.) huge orchestras, cackling witches, or Faust. For me he is the South, he is Italy, he is warm air and breezes, he is throbbing, ardent Early Romanticism - even at his most macabre there's nothing of Late Romantic decay or nostalgia in his music, just freshness, love and (for me) more than is the case with any other composer there is fragrance in Berlioz, the Southerly smells of sea and pine and flowers... This reads oddly, I know. I am trying to give an idea of the intangible thoughts and associations which Berlioz conjures up for me.

Change the details, the nouns and the adjectives, and the same, I think, goes with any composer who one truly loves. You just have to find your way in.

Anyway, the key pieces of Berlioz, for me, all heavily fragrance-laden, are things like the central songs of the Nuits d'ete, the song in which Herod recounts his dream in L'enfance du Christ (the perfume here becomes a hallucinatory incense), the first movement of the Symphonie Fantastique (especially the introduction), and above all the Scene d'amour from Romeo and Juliet (the balcony scene, the atmosphere of the darkened garden almost tangible, perfumed, we hear carousing voices in the distance before an extended love-dialogue which quivers with emotion...). Berlioz thought the Scene d'amour was his best piece, and I agree with him.

I'd add that not all Berlioz takes me into this world - and the pieces that don't are the ones I like less, with the exception of the Symphonie Funebre, which is Northern, cold, grey, shrill - and utterly wonderful. But I'm very sure that there is a way into loving these other pieces - I just haven't found it yet.

And suddenly, I feel the need to listen Berlioz. Great post, Luke. Well expressed.

[TheGSMoeller]

Yes.

I'm crushing your head.

[Mirror Image]

I'm crushing your head.

Love that Kids in the Hall sketch.

[Madiel]

Not in this universe. 

Clearly, either every dictionary I can lay my hands on that has a definition of the word "opinion" has dropped through a wormhole, or this board is accessible in other dimensions.  Either way, the theoretical physicists will be thrilled.