Symphonie fantastique is a program of music composed by French musician Hector Berlioz. The piece is a significant work from the developing Romantic periods. The inaugural performance occurred on the 5th of December, 1830, at the Paris Conservatoire. The music depicts the storyline of a composer with a sense of wonder who, in anguish over unrequited, hopeless love, used opium to poison himself. For every composition movement, Berlioz wrote his prologue and program annotations, which occurred in two major versions, 1845 and 1855. Berlioz, later on in life, disregarded the thematic part of the work, as evidenced by the rewritten preface and annotations.
This piece has been among the most notable works during the Romantic era and the most challenging test pieces throughout the repertory for both orchestra and conductor, necessitating virtuoso brilliance, flair, elegance, and great rhythm. The song does not play automatically. Rattle, alongside Berlin cohorts, fail terribly in their last excursion and even in some shockingly basic ways. This orchestra’s decline under Rattle has never been more apparent, significantly concerning organizational sonority and collective values.
The Ball has extremely meticulous exposition from the lines, which drowned out the strangely flavorless trumpet solos when they arrived with the idée fixe after an introduction lacking the essential “tug” from the string instruments and basses. The opening is not as nostalgic as aimless, courtesy of the extremely legato woodwinds. Parts of the second movement are delicate, but the finale falls flat once more: the trumpets never shine, the orchestral strings do not hammer, and the allegedly triple-piano ending is much too loud. The ending begins with a frantic scramble that then gets stronger as it goes, despite Berlioz’s well-delineated portamentos.
The March has already been described, but the ending is just as terrible. The English trumpet and oboe are not separated enough in the first few bars of The Scenery throughout the Fields. Rattle’s speed is still not especially slow at 17 minutes (Deok, 2011, May 28). However, the emotively impartial woodwind playing moves seem prolonged. The timpanists towards the ending are wildly variable in their adherence to Berlioz’s intricate dynamic marks, resulting in strangely unattractive consequences.
References
Deok, K. C. (2011). Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique – 4th & 5th Movement. YouTube. Web.