Composer
Hector Berlioz
1803–1869
Hector Berlioz was music’s great revolutionary. Born in 1803 near Grenoble, he was expected to follow his father, a physician, into medicine and dutifully enrolled at the School of Medicine in Paris. But the lure of music proved irresistible.
Berlioz’s path was never easy. His independent mind and refusal to follow traditional rules put him at odds with the conservative Parisian musical establishment. He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1830. Throughout his life his music was more appreciated abroad, in Germany, Britain and Russia, than at home. Yet his innovations in orchestration, program music, and musical narrative transformed the art form.
Unlike most of his contemporaries, Berlioz never studied the piano and played it haltingly at best. The orchestra was his instrument, and he expanded its expressive possibilities in ways no one had imagined.
Works
- Harold en Italie, Op. 16 1
- L’Enfance du Christ, Op. 25 1
- Requiem (Grande messe des morts), Op. 5 1
- Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17: La Reine Mab, ou la Fée des Songes 1
- Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17: Roméo seul 1
- Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 6
Performed at
Upcoming
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François-Xavier Roth conducts Strauss, Berlioz and Boulanger Strauss · Berlioz · Boulanger
Past guides
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Schumann’s ‘Spring’ and the Symphonie fantastique Schumann · Berlioz
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Seascapes, Reconciliation, and a Descent into Madness Mendelssohn · Brahms · Berlioz
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Seascapes, Reconciliation, and a Descent into Madness Mendelssohn · Brahms · Berlioz
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Tamestit’s Harold in Italy and Schumann’s Rhenish Berlioz · Schumann
Sources 1
- Hector Berlioz, Wikipedia