"The story of the Symphonie fantastique is thinly disguised autobiography — Berlioz had become infatuated with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson (1800-54) after seeing her Ophelia in performance of Shakespeare's Hamlet on 11 September 1827. Berlioz pursued her for years, bombarding her with love letters, but she refused to meet him. Eventually, however, she would attend a performance of a revised version of the Symphonie fantastique in 1832, and the two would marry the following year. Leonard Bernstein considered the symphony, with its hallucinations and dream images, to be the first piece of psychedelic music. "Berlioz tells it like it is," he said, "You take a trip, you wind up screaming at your own funeral."
The Madman's Orchestra, Edward Brooke-Hitching (Chronicle Books, 2025)
The Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France conducted by Myung-Whun Chung performs Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique”. Live recording on September 13th 2013 at the Salle Pleyel (Paris) 00:35 1st movement: Rêveries – Passions. Largo – Allegro agitato e appassionato assai – Religiosamente 15:08 2nd movement: Un bal (A Ball) . Valse. Allegro non troppo 22:09 3rd movement: Scène aux champs. Adagio 39:53 4th movement: Marche au supplice. Allegretto non troppo 00:00 5th movement: Songe d’une nuit de sabbat. Larghetto – Allegro
