"Can you tell me what it is, this capacity for emotion, this force of suffering that is wearing me out? … Oh my friend, I am indeed wretched — inexpressibly! … Today it is a year since I saw HER for the last time … Unhappy woman, how I loved you! I shudder as I write it — how I love you!"
– Hector Berlioz describing his love for Harriet Smithson, the "object of his fixation" and muse for his masterpiece, Symphonie Fantastique
The Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz is an epic for a huge orchestra that tells the story of an artist's self-destructive passion for an unattainable woman. There are moments of tenderness, full on tantrums, obsessive longing, dreams full of joy and finally, visions of suicide and murder. That's just about right for a Halloween Learning to Listen!
Program Playlist
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/Paul Paray, cond.
Berlioz, Symphonie Fantastique
Mercury Living Presence
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