Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

In this recording, the orchestra is the Orchestre Lamoureux, Paris and the conductor is Igor Markevitch.

## Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Symphonie fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un artiste … en cinq parties (Fantastical Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections) Op. 14, is a program symphony written by the French composer Hector Berlioz in 1830. It is an important piece of the early Romantic period. The first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire on 5 December 1830. Franz Liszt made a piano transcription of the symphony in 1833 (S. 470).

Leonard Bernstein described the symphony as the first musical expedition into psychedelia because of its hallucinatory and dream-like nature, and because history suggests Berlioz composed at least a portion of it under the influence of opium. According to Bernstein, "Berlioz tells it like it is. You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral."

In 1831 Berlioz wrote a lesser-known sequel to the work, Lélio, for actor, soloists, chorus, piano and orchestra.

### Instrumentation

The piece has the following instruments: 2 Flutes (one doubling Piccolo), 2 Oboes (one doubling cor anglais) (in the 3rd movement, the first oboist plays briefly offstage), 2 Clarinets (one doubling Eb Clarinet), 4 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 2 Cornets, 2 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, 2 Ophicleides (modern performances use Tubas), 4 Timpani (played by 4 players), Cymbals, Snare Drum (used in the 4th movement), Bass Drum, Bells in C and G, 2 Harps (used in the 2nd movement) and strings.

### Movements

The movements are named as follows:

1. Rêveries - Passions. (Reveries - Passions) - Largo - Allegro agitato e appassionato assai
2. Un Bal (A Ball) - Valse. Allegro non troppo
3. Scène aux champs (Scene in the Country) - Adagio
4. Marche au supplice (March to the Scaffold) - Allegretto non troppo
5. Songe d'une nuit du Sabbat (Dream of a Sabbath Night) - Larghetto - Allegro

## Cherubini: "Anacréon" Overture

Anacréon, ou L'amour fugitif is an opera-ballet in two acts by Luigi Cherubini with a French libretto by C. R. Mendouze. It was premiered on 4 October 1803 by the Paris Opéra at the Salle Montansier. The choreography was by Pierre-Gabriel Gardel. The work proved to be a complete failure, ending its run on 1 January 1804 after only seven performances. The subject matter, a love affair of the Ancient Greek poet Anacreon, was completely alien to the spirit of the time. One critic complained that in his protagonist Cherubini had represented "un vieux debauché déguisé en héros d'opéra" ("an old debauchee disguised as an opera hero").

The overture was praised by Weber and Berlioz and has frequently been recorded. The complete opera was revived by the Italian radio company RAI in 1973 and on stage at La Scala in 1983 with Gianandrea Gavazzeni conducting.

### Instrumentation

The piece is scored for the following instruments: 2 Flutes (one doubling Piccolo), 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets, 2 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Timpani and Strings.

## Auber: "La Muette de Portici" Overture

La muette de Portici (The Mute Girl of Portici, or The Dumb Girl of Portici), also called Masaniello in some versions, is an opera in five acts by Daniel Auber, with a libretto by Germain Delavigne, revised by Eugène Scribe.

The work has an important place in music history as the earliest French grand opera. It is also known for its alleged role in the Belgian Revolution of 1830.

### Instrumentation

The piece is scored for the following instruments: Piccolo, 2 Flutes, 2 Oboes, 2 Clarinets in Bb and A, 4 Bassoons, 4 Horns, 2 Trumpets, 3 Trombones, Ophicleide, Timpani, Triangle, Bass Drum, Cymbals, Snare Drum, Tam-tam, Bell and Strings.

## Program Note - "A true artist doesn't want to be admired, he wants to be believed" Igor Markevitch

Igor Markevitch (1912-1983) was one of the most authoritative conductors of his time. The quality that distinguished him above all, according to the critic Friedrich Herzfeld, was his "demonic fervour to recognize, understand and give shape to the essentials of the work. All the subjective strengths of the conductor's personality are consumed in the drive to objectivity". Other characteristics for which his conducting was praised were his skill in revealing the work's structures, his way of making everything tell, and bringing out detail without losing sight of the whole.

Markevitch was born in Russia and grew up in Switzerland. He began as a composer. At the age of 13 he played one of his own piano pieces to Alfred Cortot, who took him into his class at the Paris Conservatoire and recommended him to Nadia Boulanger for composition lessons. In 1929, he made his début as soloist in his own piano concerto, which had been commissioned by Diaghilev. The ballets, oratorios, more piano works, as well as orchestral and chamber music, which followed all aroused attention - Béla Bartók said in 1932 that he was "one of the most remarkable personalities in contemporary music". These compositions have recently been republished by Boosey and Hawkes and make an important contribution to the music of the 1930s and early '40s. But during the same period, encouraged by Willem Mengelberg and Hermann Scherchen, Markevitch began to conduct, and decided to devote himself wholly to that activity in 1944, when he was invited to be director of the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino. He was soon receiving invitations to appear all over the world and built a repertory which covered the whole field of orchestral music, although he did little opera. He had a special preference for outsiders and new music in need of a hearing.

Those who heard him in the concert hall will never forget the mixture of analytical clarity and unassuming elegance. In addition to being delightful in their own right, however, his performances set standards for others: Markevitch was the embodiment of everything that the popular "wizard of the podium" is not. Conducting was for him a rational and functional activity, based on techniques that could be taught. At the invitation of Wilhelm Furtwängler, he began his legendary courses in Salzburg in 1948, and later taught in other countries as well. His outstanding technique and artistic experience enabled him to give some magnificent performances even in his last years, when he was sadly afflicted by a chronic hearing disability. It forced him eventually to reduce his work in the concert hall, and he turned to writing; his books include a volume of memoirs, Etre et avoir été (Paris, 1980), and a critical edition of all Beethoven's symphonies with "historical, analytical and practical studies" (1983).

Markevitch worked with all the major orchestras, and was chief conductor of the Orchestre Lamoureux of Paris from 1957 to 1961. Of the recordings they made together, the three brought together on this disc are of special interest for the light they shed on French Romanticism. Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (1830) is the most famous piece of French Romantic music, a depiction of human passion at fever pitch, which employs the whole range of musical extremes from simple song to tumultuous frenzy, from deafening fortissimo to the verge of silence. By contrast, the overtures by Cherubini (1803) and Auber (1828) are almost unknown today. Cherubini, beginning where Haydn left off, created a monumental Classical style without which Berlioz is unimaginable; the overture to Auber's first grand opéra features the contrast between lyrical wind solos and expansive orchestral passages. The conductor's art is shown in the balancing of these contrasts, between brilliant instrumental effects on the one hand and expressive delicacy and sensitive articulation of the solo lines on the other.

*Volker Scherliess*

*(Translation: Mary Whittall)*

## Reviews

A "classic" recording and two first releases of performances recorded in 1961: the contents of this disc amount to a piquant new encounter and a re-encounter with Igor Markevitch, one of the most authoritative conductors of that era. His recording of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique with the Orchestre Lamoureux of Paris is one of his most famous, and an outstanding example of his widely influential style of interpretation. Its particular quality lies above all in the analytical penetration of the score - never dry or academic but alive with passion and temperament. "Fire from ice" is how one critic described Markevitch's consciously anti-Romantic stance, which rested on rationality and functionality. The same qualities are found in the performances of overtures by Cherubini and Auber. The disc offers a unique opportunity to compare Berlioz's masterpiece with key works by two of his most important predecessors in the history of French music in the 19th century.

## Links

For the playlist of the album, click here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iUaprpuigI0&list=PL91Fed2c3kN-aHsr2c\_nDVcnx--g3oQls&index=1

For more details on the album, click here: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en/catalogue/products/berlioz-symphonie-fantastique-markevitch-10013

For the official Deutsche Grammophon website, click here: https://www.deutschegrammophon.com/en

## Notes

* Art Direction - Hartmut Pfeiffer
* Composer - Hector Berlioz
* Conductor - Igor Markevitch
* Engineer - Günter Hermanns
* Executive-Producer - Elsa Schiller
* Liner Notes - Volker Scherliess, Mary Whittall
* Orchestra - Orchestre Lamoureux, Paris
* Photographer - Rosemarie Clausen
* Producer - Hans Ritter
* Sound - Stereo
* Recording date - January 1961
* Recording venue - Paris, Salle de la Mutualité
* Total duration - 70'32