Symphonie Fantastique
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CD Details
Composer: Hector BerliozConductor: Riccardo Muti
Orchestra: Philadelphia Orchestra
Edition: Music CD
CD Release Date: 1999-08-10
Music Label: EMI Classics
Soundtracks:
- Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14: I. Reveries - Passions
- Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14: II. Un bal
- Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14: III. Scene aux champs
- Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14: IV. Marche au supplice
- Symphonie Fantastique, Op. 14: V. Songe d'une nuit de Sabbat
Music reviews of Symphonie Fantastique
Music Review: Unrequited Love
Rating: 5 Stars
If you don't know the back story of Hector Berlioz's world-famous Symphonie Fantastique, then consider it my duty to tell you how this symphony was originated. When he was twenty-four years old, Berlioz fell in love with a theater actress named Harriet Smithson. He sent her countless love letters, but she never wrote him back. Feeling that his love for her has been completely misunderstood, his pain and suffering then turned into musical motivation, which led to the creation of Symphonie Fantastique. With a length of roughly sixty minutes (depending on the conductor's pace, of course), this programmatic composition is more of a semi-autobiography. It tells the story of an artist who cannot resist the urge to think of a young woman he has fallen in love with. Slowly, the image of the woman starts to haunt him. Even when he's in the countryside, her appearance still lingers in his head. This leads to fear and paranoia as he becomes convinced that he's deceiving her in some way. With an overdose of opium, the man dreams that he is being executed for murdering her. Smithson was not there when this work premiered, but she eventually had a chance to meet Berlioz himself. They married, but this turned to me anything but a happy ending. The marriage became a disaster, and they divorced eleven years later. Smithson would die several years before the French composer did.
Quite a story, isn't it?
The symphony itself is pure brilliance: it's filled with wild orchestral color and wicked imagery (in the second half). With so much expression in terms of both story and music, this would become a milestone in the history of classical music. It, as well as a few other works by other composers, would take every single orchestra straight into the Romantic era.
I've been a fan of Symphonie Fantastique ever since I purchased a studio recording by Michael Tilson Thomas & the San Francisco Symphony. This version by Riccardo Muti & the Philadelphia Orchestra is just as great. Muti knows the score very well. He brings a lot of passion in this work without any hesitations. I'm impressed at how well he handles the orchestra. The playing by the orchestra is also top-notch. There are only a few sloppy moments, but it's mostly a brilliant performance. Sound quality is decent enough to lack any sound distractions. The one problem I have with this recording is the fourth movement, "Marche au supplice." It's a bit too slow during the first half for my own personal taste, and there's not enough intensity throughout to give it that dark exotic spark. Still, even though I prefer the San Francisco recording, Muti's rendition of Symphonie Fantastique is a must for those who adore French classical music (or just classical music in general).
Grade: 9.1/10
Description of Symphonie Fantastique
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