Hector Berlioz

[Dana]

Berlioz is one of the greatest composers after Beethoven in the XIX century.

      Indeed, Paganini initially rejected the viola concerto he commissioned from Berlioz because the solo part wasn't flashy enough. But upon hearing another violist premiere Harold en Italie, he sent Berlioz his full commission, along with a letter in which he declared "Beethoven being dead, only Berlioz can make him live again."

[Varg]

      Indeed, Paganini initially rejected the viola concerto he commissioned from Berlioz because the solo part wasn't flashy enough. But upon hearing another violist premiere Harold en Italie, he sent Berlioz his full commission, along with a letter in which he declared "Beethoven being dead, only Berlioz can make him live again."

Why would it be necessary that Beethoven "keeps living"? And how could it be an honor to have somebody tell you that you are the shadow of another man? "That's not good enough... but wait, that one sounds like Beethoven, it's great!". That's full of crap.

[Varg]

Not much to do with his music, but for those in NY who are interested, the famous Berlioz painting by Courbet is currently being exhibited at the Met.

I had a loud laugh when i saw that picture; the man looked just like me (at least from that angle)!

[Bonehelm]

What else is worth hearing other than the Sinfonie fantastique?

[some guy]

Everything.

Well, Reverie et caprice is kinda lame. And a handful of forgettable choruses. But you're not likely to run across those.

But everything else. Truly.

Be prepared to be surprised, though. While his pieces are all obviously by him--no mistaking him for anyone else--he never quite did the same thing twice in any of them. So if you like the Requiem, for instance, don't go looking for something else by him that's like the Requiem, because there isn't anything. His four symphonies are as different from each other as any four symphonies by four different composers.

And if you don't like opera, be prepared to start liking at least Berlioz' three. They're all good. (And, of course, all very different from each other.)

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Everything.

That would be just about my answer, too.

Yes, the Symphonie fantastique is his best known work but the quality hardly drops off after that.

I'd say go for his Requiem next. That is, assuming opera isn't on one's radar. Otherwise go for Les Troyens. Colin Davis for either.

[Dana]

      Some people may find Harold en Italie boring, but I find it to be full of vibrant color. The Symphonie Funebre et Triomphale is also rather excellent, both in it's original band form and in the orchestrated form. And of course there are the many concert overtures he wrote.

Why would it be necessary that Beethoven "keeps living"? And how could it be an honor to have somebody tell you that you are the shadow of another man? "That's not good enough... but wait, that one sounds like Beethoven, it's great!". That's full of crap.

      Well, he meant it as a compliment. He initially rejected it partially because of the unvirtuosic solo writing, and partially because of the complete lack of solo part in the finale. It's important to note that he refused to play it before he had even tried it; he probably thought he would look like a fool standing there doing nothing for the entire final movement, and given that it's Paganini that we're talking about here, I don't blame him. Upon hearing the completed work, though, he liked the end result, even if it wasn't the concerto he asked for. It's the thought that counts

[Dana]

      As a side note, a brouhaha isn't even a house, or piece of furniture, or anything in which one could relax  and discuss. I'm just saying...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Just adding my voice to say I love Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique, Harold en Italie, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, Roméo et Juliette, La Damnation de Faust, Les Troyens... Berlioz is inimitable. He has it all - subtlety, grandeur, emotion, and his handling of the orchestra is always adventurous.

[karlhenning]

Not much to do with his music, but for those in NY who are interested, the famous Berlioz painting by Courbet is currently being exhibited at the Met.

Beauty.  Is this on loan, is it a temporary exhiibition? If so, how long does it run?

[karlhenning]

      As a side note, a brouhaha isn't even a house, or piece of furniture, or anything in which one could relax  and discuss. I'm just saying...

Well, one must be grateful that it didn't become a Berlioz Boudoir, or Bordello, or Brothel, or Bawdy-House, or . . . .

[bhodges]

 

So I heard a terrific Berlioz Les Nuits d'été last week, with Susan Graham, Boulez and Chicago.  I guess I haven't heard these songs much, and clearly, my loss.  They seemed particularly well-suited to Graham's temperament and range. 

--Bruce

[orbital]

Beauty.  Is this on loan, is it a temporary exhiibition? If so, how long does it run?

It is part of a Gustave Courbet exhibition that runs until May I think. The notes next to the painting mention that Berlioz hated the painting and disowned it, but Courbet exhibited it, nevertheless.

[knight66]

If you want a disconcerting experience; listen to the music of his teacher Mehul. There, a lot of the Berlioz sound existed before Berlioz.

Nevertheless, he is among my favourite composers. In addition to the items mentioned, do try the Te Deum. More concise than the Requiem, splendid and celebratory.

Also, do get the early cantata, La Morte de Cleopatre.

Here is a good resource.
http://home.earthlink.net/~oy/berlioz.htm

Mike

[Dancing Divertimentian]

      As a side note, a brouhaha isn't even a house, or piece of furniture, or anything in which one could relax  and discuss. I'm just saying...

Maybe that's why no one posted on this thread for almost a year.

Mea culpa...

[Dana]

Well, one must be grateful that it didn't become a Berlioz Boudoir, or Bordello, or Brothel, or Bawdy-House, or . . . .

How about a barge? Or a boarding house?

[Dancing Divertimentian]

Well, one must be grateful that it didn't become a Berlioz Boudoir, or Bordello, or Brothel, or Bawdy-House, or . . . .

Hmm...I wonder if this would have made it past the GMG censors...

[some guy]

Knight, I think it might be more true to say that Berlioz and Mehul both sound quite a lot like Gluck, whom they both rather admired.

[(poco) Sforzando]

It is part of a Gustave Courbet exhibition that runs until May I think. The notes next to the painting mention that Berlioz hated the painting and disowned it, but Courbet exhibited it, nevertheless.

Yes indeed. Berlioz also disliked Courbet, who fancied himself a composer and sang his music to Berlioz while painting him. (That Courbet show is well worth seeing, though there are much better things in it than the Berlioz portrait.) The famous photograph of Berlioz by Felix Nadar was also exhibited at the Met a few years ago:



I love Berlioz to distraction myself, but I don't deny there's some unevenness in his work. Berlioz's attempts at sonata form can be weak because his musical nature inclines more to lyricism than the motific development characteristic of Beethoven. He has trouble constructing a development section in Fantastique i, for example, falling back on a few repeated chromatic scales. And when I hear Harold i, I always feel it turns into a shapeless mess by the end of the movement. Some of the scores have dull patches too: some parts of Beatrice et Benedict, some movements of the Romeo symphony and the Requiem. I can live without Lelio and some other lesser-known works.

But no matter. What genius in his most exceptional pages. He had a unique rhythmic and melodic vocabulary that makes his work unmistakable; no one else sounds quite like Berlioz - at once flamboyant and classical. The entire fourth act and much more from Troyens, the first three movements especially of the Fantastique (chromatic scales notwithstanding), the nocturne at the end of Act I of Beatrice, the Queen Mab scherzo and love scene from Romeo, are just a few of the high points. The last of these is to my mind Berlioz's most striking single achievement, enough in itself to make him a very great composer. Charles Rosen's analysis of this movement in The Romantic Generation shows what an extraordinary musical structure it is.

And Berlioz the man is a compelling figure too, brought to blazing life in David Cairns's huge 2-volume biography. This was a man who lived by a code of great courage and integrity, unwilling to compromise, who wrecked his health travelling all over Europe (including a Russian winter) to bring his music to whoever would hear it. Cairns makes palpable an episode like Berlioz's deep grief when his sailor son Louis died of malaria in central America. One comes from that biography with deep respect for this composer, and something like empathy.

Not everybody appreciates his idiosyncratic and almost bizarre style. Mendelssohn thought his music incoherent. Berlioz on the other hand could not follow what Wagner was doing in the Tristan prelude. With one foot in the classical tradition of Gluck and the other looking towards the musical future, Berlioz is as unique a voice as can be found in musical history. Is it truly credible that the Fantastique was born three years after Beethoven's death?

Berlioz the man of letters cannot be forgotten either. His Memoirs and Evenings with the Orchestra are masterly. Even people alienated by his musical idiosyncracies grant his genius as a writer.

[knight66]

Knight, I think it might be more true to say that Berlioz and Mehul both sound quite a lot like Gluck, whom they both rather admired.

It is very much a matter of the specific orchestration. It is especially noticeable in the woodwind writing. I was performing in a piece, I have forgotten the name, but I was startled at how much of what we think of the Berlioz sound lay intact within the Mehul score.

Mike