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8 unusual facts about Hector Berlioz


1828 in poetry

Gérard de Nerval, translator, Faust, translation into French from the original German of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe's long poem; the work earned Nerval his reputation; it was praised by Goethe, and Hector Berlioz later used sections for his legend-symphony La Damnation de Faust

Jim Blashfield

Recent films include Bunnyheads, SuctionMaster, Vanity and The Tasseled Loafers, an irreverent interpretation of Hector Berlioz' Dream of a Witch's Sabbath with music by the Czech Philharmonic.

London Classical Players

Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Overture Les Francs-Juges, Virgin Classics 3632862 (reissue)

Mary Davies

In 1880 she sang in England's first complete performance of Hector Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust at the Hallé Concerts, Manchester.

Moscow Manege

In 1867, Hector Berlioz and Nikolai Rubinstein performed at the Manege before a crowd of 12,000.

Princess Alexandra of Saxe-Altenburg

The Grand-Ducal family supported an impressive concert hall situated at Pavlovsk station, which proved popular with the middle classes, and attracted names such as Johann Strauss II, Franz Liszt, and Hector Berlioz.

Tatiana Riabouchinska

Subsequently, she created roles in other Massine works, including the first three of his famous, and controversial, "symphonic" ballets: Frivolity in Les Présages (1933), set to Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony; the third and fourth movements of Choreartium (1933), set to Brahms's Fourth Symphony; and Reverie in Symphonie Fantastique (1936), by Berlioz.

Tragic Lovers

#"'Love Scene' from Roméo et Juliette, Op. 17" (Hector Berlioz) – 15:59


Antiphon

It was popular in Spain and Germany and there are examples from the 19th and 20th centuries, from composers as diverse as Hector Berlioz, Igor Stravinsky and Karlheinz Stockhausen.

Ascanio

The name was changed to Ascanio to avoid confusion with the Berlioz opera Benvenuto Cellini.

Atlanta Symphony Orchestra

The full ASO Chorus has thrice visited Berlin, giving three performances on each occasion of Benjamin Britten's War Requiem (2003), Hector Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts (2008), and Johannes Brahms's Ein Deutsches Requiem (2009) with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under ASO Principal Guest Conductor Donald Runnicles.

August Prinzhofer

His lithographs included more than 500 portraits (of subjects including Hector Berlioz, Ludwig von Benedek, Ignaz Franz Castelli, Archduke John of Austria, Lajos Kossuth, Albert Lortzing, Alois Negrelli, pope Pius IX, Johann Ladislaus Pyrker and Johann Nestroy).

Berwaldhallen

Herbert Blomstedt conducted the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra and Choir in Franz Berwald's Sinfonie singulière, a commission from Sven-Erik Bäck - the cantata 'Vid havets yttersta gräns' (words by Östen Sjöstrand), and the Symphonie fantastique by Berlioz.

Canadian Grenadier Guards Band

The ensemble played an unusually varied repertoire for a band of its time period, playing both new music and works by major composers like Ludwig van Beethoven, Hector Berlioz, Jules Massenet, Giacomo Meyerbeer, Camille Saint-Saëns, and Richard Wagner.

Émile-Alexandre Taskin

Having made his debut in 1875 in L'enfance du Christ by Berlioz, his stage debut was in September 1875 in Amiens, as Roland in Les mousquetaires de la reine by Halévy.

Evolution of timpani in the 18th and 19th centuries

The technological evolution of the instrument led to increased interest in its capabilities and sound among such composers as Ludwig van Beethoven, Robert Schumann, and Hector Berlioz.

July Column

Music composed for the occasion was Hector Berlioz' Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale, which was performed in the open air under the direction of Berlioz himself, leading the procession of musicians which ended at the Place de la Bastille.

La muette de Portici

The dancer Lise Noblet played the mute title role, a part later taken by other dancers such as Marie Taglioni and Fanny Elssler, also the actress Harriet Smithson (the future wife of Hector Berlioz).

Ladislav Černý

He enjoyed a solo career often performing the solo viola part of Berlioz's Harold en Italie and other repertoire.

Hector Berlioz: Harold en Italie, Op. 16 – Ladislav Černý (viola); Václav Jiráček (conductor); Czech Philharmonic; Supraphon (1953, 1954)

Paul Doktor

They also joined forces in making four television films about the viola for the National Educational Network; these comprise rarely performed music by Marais, Telemann, Dittersdorf, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Hummel, Berlioz, Brahms and Flackton.

Pièces pittoresques

At first echoing the animated rhythms of Berlioz's Béatrice et Bénédict, it evolves into a more complex beat, avoiding the bar-line.

Sistrum

The sistrum was occasionally revived in 19th century Western orchestral music, appearing most prominently in Act 1 of the opera Les Troyens (1856–1858) by the French composer Hector Berlioz.

Whole tone scale

H. C. Colles names as the "childhood of the whole-tone scale" the music of Berlioz and Schubert in France and then Russians Glinka and Dargomyzhsky.

Witches' Sabbath

As referenced earlier, Hawthorne seems to have been describing a witches' sabbath and the surrounding activity in his short story, "Young Goodman Brown." Musically, the supposed ritual has been used as inspiration for such works as Night on Bald Mountain by Modest Mussorgsky and the fifth movement of Hector Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.


see also

Euphrosine

Hector Berlioz, Evenings with the Orchestra, translated by Jacques Barzun (University of Chicago Press, 1973; 1999 reprint)