Hector Berlioz (1803-1869)

Today's programme focuses on a single work, the Messe solennelle, which Berlioz composed at the tender age of 21. Long thought lost - the composer incinerated the parts after only two performances - the score turned up in 1992 in an oak chest in an Antwerp organ loft, where it had lain unnoticed for over a century, the accidental discovery of a retired music teacher called Frans Moors, who had been hunting for a copy of Mozart's Coronation Mass.

Despite Berlioz's evidently low opinion of it, the Messe solennelle is a remarkable and still relatively little-known work, that bears many hallmarks of the composer's mature style. Indeed, listeners familiar with the rest of his oeuvre will recognise plenty of passages that Berlioz salvaged from this early work and transplanted into later ones.

Donald Macleod and John Eliot Gardiner explore the music of Berlioz.

Today's programme focuses on a single work, the Messe solennelle, which Berlioz composed at the tender age of 21. Long thought lost - the composer incinerated the parts after only two performances - the score turned up in 1992 in an oak chest in an Antwerp organ loft, where it had lain unnoticed for over a century, the accidental discovery of a retired music teacher called Frans Moors, who had been hunting for a copy of Mozart's Coronation Mass.

Despite Berlioz's evidently low opinion of it, the Messe solennelle is a remarkable and still relatively little-known work, that bears many hallmarks of the composer's mature style. Indeed, listeners familiar with the rest of his oeuvre will recognise plenty of passages that Berlioz salvaged from this early work and transplanted into later ones.

Donald Macleod and John Eliot Gardiner explore the music of Berlioz.

Today's programme explores two of Berlioz's symphonies - Harold in Italy and Romeo and Juliet. But are they really symphonies?

Harold includes a part for solo viola, which suggests a concerto; but it's more like a 'song without words', evoking the spirit of Byron's Childe Harold, than a true concerto role. That's certainly what Paganini thought - he commissioned Berlioz to write it in the first place, then lost interest when he realised that it wasn't going to allow him sufficient scope to show off. And Romeo, with its voices, its chorus, and its plot, is as much a concert opera as it is a symphony, closely following the action of the Shakespeare play that had knocked the composer's socks off when he saw it in September 1827.

Like a pioneering horticulturalist, Berlioz created new musical hybrids to suit his present purpose; no wonder that some of his contemporaries were confused. But in the process he created some of the most thrilling, dramatic and beautiful music of the 19th century.

Donald Macleod and John Eliot Gardiner explore two of Berlioz's symphonies.

Today's programme explores two of Berlioz's symphonies - Harold in Italy and Romeo and Juliet. But are they really symphonies?

Harold includes a part for solo viola, which suggests a concerto; but it's more like a 'song without words', evoking the spirit of Byron's Childe Harold, than a true concerto role. That's certainly what Paganini thought - he commissioned Berlioz to write it in the first place, then lost interest when he realised that it wasn't going to allow him sufficient scope to show off. And Romeo, with its voices, its chorus, and its plot, is as much a concert opera as it is a symphony, closely following the action of the Shakespeare play that had knocked the composer's socks off when he saw it in September 1827.

Like a pioneering horticulturalist, Berlioz created new musical hybrids to suit his present purpose; no wonder that some of his contemporaries were confused. But in the process he created some of the most thrilling, dramatic and beautiful music of the 19th century.

Donald Macleod and John Eliot Gardiner explore two of Berlioz's symphonies.

Today's programme explores Berlioz the song writer - and discovers that Berlioz the song writer is really just another aspect of Berlioz the dramatist. All of Berlioz's music is essentially dramatic. Often, incidents in his own life are seen through the filter of literature - Shakespeare, Goethe, Virgil - then converted into music, whether symphonic, vocal or operatic.

Irlande, a collection of nine songs to poems by the Irish writer Thomas Moore, is a case in point. At the time, he was still reeling from the double impact of Shakespeare and Harriet Smithson - the Shakespearean heroine and future Mrs Berlioz. He happened to pick up a copy of Moore's poems, with their atmosphere of heroism and patriotism, all steeped in the soft glow of Celtic romance, and it proved to be perfect material for him, besotted with his passion for the beautiful Irish actress.

Les Nuits d'été, 'Summer Nights', sets poems from the collection The Comedy of Death by Berlioz's friend Théophile Gautier, and again they seem to reflect the emotional turmoil he was going through when he wrote them - the period when his flesh-and-blood relationship with the idealised Harriet was irretrievably breaking down. They're best known as an orchestral song-cycle - in fact, as the first ever orchestral song-cycle; another Berlioz 'first' - but they're presented here in the rarely played but magnificent version for voice and piano.

Donald Macleod and John Eliot Gardiner explore Berlioz the song writer.

Today's programme explores Berlioz the song writer - and discovers that Berlioz the song writer is really just another aspect of Berlioz the dramatist. All of Berlioz's music is essentially dramatic. Often, incidents in his own life are seen through the filter of literature - Shakespeare, Goethe, Virgil - then converted into music, whether symphonic, vocal or operatic.

Irlande, a collection of nine songs to poems by the Irish writer Thomas Moore, is a case in point. At the time, he was still reeling from the double impact of Shakespeare and Harriet Smithson - the Shakespearean heroine and future Mrs Berlioz. He happened to pick up a copy of Moore's poems, with their atmosphere of heroism and patriotism, all steeped in the soft glow of Celtic romance, and it proved to be perfect material for him, besotted with his passion for the beautiful Irish actress.

Les Nuits d'été, 'Summer Nights', sets poems from the collection The Comedy of Death by Berlioz's friend Théophile Gautier, and again they seem to reflect the emotional turmoil he was going through when he wrote them - the period when his flesh-and-blood relationship with the idealised Harriet was irretrievably breaking down. They're best known as an orchestral song-cycle - in fact, as the first ever orchestral song-cycle; another Berlioz 'first' - but they're presented here in the rarely played but magnificent version for voice and piano.

Donald Macleod and John Eliot Gardiner explore Berlioz the song writer.

Today's programme explores the poetic vein of death and melancholy running through Berlioz's output - on the face of it a somewhat gloomy line of enquiry, but in fact one that brings together an astonishing variety of reflections on mortality.

On Berlioz's third attempt to win the coveted Prix de Rome in 1829, he was thought to be a shoo-in. In fact, he blew it. Rather than submitting a 'safe', conventional piece designed to impress the academic judges, he produced a highly original work that was held by the judiciary to 'betray dangerous tendencies'. That work was The Death of Cleopatra, and the prize was not awarded.

Barely a decade later, Berlioz was considered sufficiently part of the French musical establishment to be commissioned to write music for a grand ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the July Revolution. In response he composed what he called his Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, scored for a huge military band of 200 players. In the event, despite careful rehearsal the day before and the huge sound made by so many musicians, the noise of the crowds was such that hardly a note of the music was heard.

The programme ends with Tristia - 'Sad Things', a title borrowed from Ovid. It's a triptych of reflective pieces including the well-known Death of Ophelia and the less well-known Funeral March for the Final Scene of Hamlet. Listeners of a nervous disposition should be alerted to the volley of musket fire at the climax of the piece - a musical counterpart to Fortinbras's speech: 'Go bid the soldiers' shoot!'.

Donald Macleod explores the poetic vein of death and melancholy in Berlioz's output.

Today's programme explores the poetic vein of death and melancholy running through Berlioz's output - on the face of it a somewhat gloomy line of enquiry, but in fact one that brings together an astonishing variety of reflections on mortality.

On Berlioz's third attempt to win the coveted Prix de Rome in 1829, he was thought to be a shoo-in. In fact, he blew it. Rather than submitting a 'safe', conventional piece designed to impress the academic judges, he produced a highly original work that was held by the judiciary to 'betray dangerous tendencies'. That work was The Death of Cleopatra, and the prize was not awarded.

Barely a decade later, Berlioz was considered sufficiently part of the French musical establishment to be commissioned to write music for a grand ceremony to mark the 10th anniversary of the July Revolution. In response he composed what he called his Grande Symphonie Funèbre et Triomphale, scored for a huge military band of 200 players. In the event, despite careful rehearsal the day before and the huge sound made by so many musicians, the noise of the crowds was such that hardly a note of the music was heard.

The programme ends with Tristia - 'Sad Things', a title borrowed from Ovid. It's a triptych of reflective pieces including the well-known Death of Ophelia and the less well-known Funeral March for the Final Scene of Hamlet. Listeners of a nervous disposition should be alerted to the volley of musket fire at the climax of the piece - a musical counterpart to Fortinbras's speech: 'Go bid the soldiers' shoot!'.

Donald Macleod explores the poetic vein of death and melancholy in Berlioz's output.

Today's programme, the last of the week, is devoted to what many consider to be the summit of Berlioz's achievement - his gargantuan opera Les Troyens. And here we must be thankful for the influence of Dr Berlioz, who infected his son, as a young boy, with a love for the tales of towering passion, of gods and goddesses, of heroes and villains of Virgil's Aeneid - he even named him Hector.

The programme features three extracts from this four-hour epic. Two of them focus on the opera's key couples, Cassandra and Chorebus, and Dido and Aeneas - all of them ultimately doomed except for Aeneas, who eventually sails off into the sunset for his date with destiny - the founding of Rome.

The third extract is the famous 'Trojan March' from the end of Act I. John Eliot Gardiner's recording is the only one to feature the original saxhorns demanded by the score, and he relates how he tracked down a complete set in the private collection of a retired Parisian railway worker, whose apartment near the Gare du Nord was hung from floor to ceiling with historic brass instruments. The sound they make is quite extraordinary.

Donald Macleod and John Eliot Gardiner focus on Berlioz's gargantuan opera Les Troyens.

Donald Macleod explores Berlioz's struggle against his parents' disapproval of his career.

Donald Macleod on how Berlioz's time spent in Italy made its presence felt in his music.

Donald Macleod tells the story of Berlioz's extensive wanderings around Europe.

Donald explores Berlioz's early life, which was without any significant musical stimulus.

Donald Macleod explores the music that resulted from Berlioz's romantic idealism.

Donald Macleod explores Berlioz's fascination with Shakespeare.

Donald Macleod explores the bitter final years of Hector Berlioz.

The Prix de Rome - usually qualified by the adjective ‘coveted' - was established in 1663, to encourage talented ‘fine' artists: painters and sculptors. The Prize was a competitive bursary, paid for by the crown, that included an extended period of residential study in the Holy City. In 1720, the award was extended to architects, but it was not until 1803, more than a decade after the first French Revolution, that composers were eligible to enter; the first victor was Albert Androt, no longer a household name. By 1827, the year of Berlioz's first attempt to win it, the Prix de Rome was recognised as the principal route to recognition for a French composer - usually followed by a glittering career at the Paris Op退ra. It took Berlioz four attempts to snag the vaunted gong, with his setting of The Death of Sardanapalus, the set-text for that year's competition cantata. Presumably to avoid any chance of collusion, the contestants were locked away in the Institut de France for a maximum of 25 days - Berlioz completed his setting in a mere 12, perhaps because he was impatient to join the revolutionary fray that was erupting outside the building. As he recalled in his Memoirs, `I dashed off the final pages of my orchestral score to the sound of stray bullets coming over the roofs and pattering on the wall outside my window`. It was in the same year, 1830, that Berlioz unleashed his Symphonie fantastique on the world, and, less successfully, fell for the musically gifted Camille Moke. They were engaged to be married on Berlioz's return from Rome, but Cupid - in the form of Camille's mother, whom Berlioz dubbed `the hippopotamus` - had other plans, and instead, Mademoiselle Moke tied the knot with another Camille: Pleyel, the celebrated piano manufacturer. Berlioz may later have derived some bitter satisfaction from the fact that their marriage lasted a mere four years - due, it was said, to his former inamorata's `multiple infidelities`.

Claude Joseph Rouget de Lisle, arr Berlioz

La Marseillaise

Placido Domingo, tenor

Choeur et orchestre de Paris

Daniel Barenboim, conductor

La mort de Sardanapale (conclusion)

Daniel Galvez Vallejo, tenor

Pas-de-Calais North Regional Choir

Orchestre National de Lille

Jean-Claude Casadesus, conductor

Ouverture pour la Tempꀀte de Shakespeare

San Francisco Symphony

San Francisco Symphony Chorus

Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Symphonie fantastique, Op 14 (3rd movement, Sc耀ne aux champs)

Philharmonia Orchestra

Andr退 Cluytens, conductor

Grand symphonie fun耀bre et triomphale, Op 15 (3rd movement, Apoth退ose)

The Wallace Collection

Leeds Festival Chorus

John Wallace, conductor

Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales

The Revolution can wait - Berlioz has a cantata to finish!

Berlioz is perhaps unique among composers in having had a literary gift almost the equal of his musical one. He earned his bread-and-butter living as a writer, turning out witty and often acerbic music criticism for the influential Journal des d退bats and Gazette musicale among others. His Grand Trait退 d'Instrumentation et d'Orchestration Modernes - a technical study of musical instruments and their role within the orchestra - was a go-to work for generations of later composers. A prolific letter-writer, his recently published Correspondance g退n退rale runs to seven fat volumes. He wrote his own first-rate librettos for the operas Les Troyens and B退atrice et B退n退dict, based on Virgil and Shakespeare respectively. And in his M退moires, begun in March 1848 in lodgings in London's Harley Street, he produced one of the great autobiographies - a unique insight into the life and times of one of the most original musical minds of the 19th century, as well as a fascinating account of the trials, tribulations, triumphs and disasters, both professional and personal, that shaped his rollercoaster career. Hovering over the book like a guiding spirit is the figure of Estelle Duboeuf, the childhood crush Berlioz sought out again towards the end of his life. By then a widow with six children, how taken aback must she have been to be told by the now-famous composer she had known as a lad of twelve that she had unwittingly been the inspiration behind all the love scenes in his music!

Les Nuits d'退t退, Op 7 (Villanelle)

Janet Baker, mezzo soprano

New Philharmonia Orchestra

John Barbirolli, conductor

Overture Les Francs-Juges, Op 3

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

Georg Solti, conductor

Grande Messe des Morts, Op 5 (Dies irae)

Chetham's School of Music Symphonic Brass Ensemble

Gabrieli Consort

Ensemble Wroc?aw

Wroc?aw Philharmonic Choir and Orchestra

Paul McCreesh, conductor

La Damnation de Faust, Op 24 (Part 1, Scene 3: March hongroise)

London Symphony Orchestra

Colin Davis, conductor

B退atrice et B退n退dict (Act 1, `Vous soupirez, madame?`)

Catherine Robbin, mezzo soprano (Ursule)

Syvlia McNair, soprano (H退ro)

Orchestre de L'Op退ra de Lyon

John Nelson, conductor

Zade, Op 19 No 1

Brigitte Fournier, soprano

Sir John Eliot Gardiner

Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales

Donald Macleod explores Berlioz through his engaging, passionate and entertaining Memoirs.

Berlioz was home-schooled by his father, Louis, in the picturesque village of La C䀀te Saint-Andr退 in the southeast of France, not far from Grenoble. Louis Berlioz was a doctor - a man, as his son would later write, with `a naturally liberal mind: that is, without any kind of social, political or religious prejudice`. He also had a deep love of literature, which he duly transmitted to young Hector. Most of all, he instilled in his son a passion for the Latin poet Virgil, whose epic masterpiece The Aeneid relates the legend of the wandering Trojan hero who overcame adversity to become the founding father of Ancient Rome. Forty years on, Berlioz conceived his opera Les Troyens, The Trojans, based on the events Virgil so compellingly describes - not least the death of Dido, a passage which reduced the young Berlioz to `nervous shuddering` when he had to translate it for his father. Goethe and Shakespeare were later but no less crucial discoveries. The former's Faust, which Berlioz read in the French translation of G退rard de Nerval, inspired his early 8 Scenes from Faust, which later blossomed into one of his mature masterpieces, The Damnation of Faust. Shakespeare was a more traumatic encounter; Berlioz was so thunderstruck by the performance of Hamlet he saw in the Od退on Theatre in Paris on the 11th of September 1827 that at first he vowed never again to expose himself to `the flame of Shakespeare's genius`. But it was a promise he was unable to keep, and the production of Romeo and Juliet he witnessed a few days later was to impact his life in two highly significant ways: it sowed the seed of one of his greatest works, the ‘dramatic symphony' Rom退o et Juliette; and it introduced him to the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, the Juliet of the Od退on production. Berlioz and Smithson would eventually marry - like Romeo and Juliet, it didn't end well.

La Damnation de Faust, Op 24 (Part 2, ‘Un puce gentille')

Jos退 van Dam, baritone (Mephistopheles)

Orchestre et Choeur de Op退ra de Lyon

Kent Nagano, conductor

Waverley, grande ouverture, Op 1

Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra

Andrew Davis, conductor

Les Troyens, Op 29 (Act 1, finale)

Petra Lang, mezzo soprano (Cassandra)

London Symphony Orchestra

Colin Davis, conductor

Marche fun耀bre pour la derni耀re sc耀ne d'Hamlet (Tristia, Op 18)

Orchestre R退volutionnaire et Romantique

The Monteverdi Choir

John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

La Captive, Op 12

V退ronique Gens, mezzo-soprano

Orchestre de l'Op退ra National de Lyon

Louis Langr退e, conductor

Harold en Italie, Op 16 (IV. Orgie des brigands)

William Primrose, viola

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Charles Munch, conductor

Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales

Donald Macleod delves into the world of Berlioz's literary muses.

Benvenuto Cellini is loosely based on the autobiography of the eponymous Italian sculptor. The first of Berlioz's three completed operas, it held a special place in his affections. `This dear score of Benvenuto`, he called it; `it is more lively, fresh, and novel (that is one of its great faults) than any of my other works.` Yet it's had a chequered history. Its opening run at the Paris Op退ra was little short of disastrous - unappreciated by the public and savaged by the critics. Then there was a revival in Weimar, with none other than Franz Liszt at the helm; it was well-received, but only in a version with major cuts that made a nonsense of the opera's taut construction. After that, the only other staging during the composer's lifetime was at London's Covent Garden. According to Berlioz, the auguries looked promising - `a superb orchestra, an excellent chorus, and an ‘adequate' conductor - I am conducting myself` - but in the event, the production was pulled after a single night, sabotaged by a hostile cabal. Benvenuto had to wait more than a century for its next Covent Garden outing, and even today, it's a rare visitor to the operatic stage. As Berlioz said of it, it `deserved a better fate`.

Le carnaval romain, Op 9

Boston Symphony Orchestra

Charles Munch, conductor

Benvenuto Cellini, Op 23 (Act 1, Tableau 1, Scene 3, extract)

Laura Claycomb, soprano (Teresa)

Gregory Kunde, tenor (Cellini)

Peter Coleman-Wright, baritone (Fieramosca)

London Symphony Orchestra

Colin Davis, conductor

Benvenuto Cellini, Op 23 (Act 2, Tableau 2, Scene 13, Conclusion)

Darren Jeffery, bass (Balducci)

Jacques Imbrailo, baritone (Pompeo)

Isabelle Cals, soprano (Ascanio)

Andrew Kennedy, tenor (Francesco)

Andrew Foster-Williams, bass (Bernardino)

London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

Benvenuto Cellini, Op 23 (Act 2, Tableau 2, Scenes 1-4)

Benvenuto Cellini, Op 23 (Act 2, Tableau 4, Scene 19)

John Relyea, bass (Pope Clement VII)

Produced by Chris Barstow for BBC Wales

The opera whose verve Berlioz feared he would never again equal: Benvenuto Cellini.

It's easy to forget that the musical giants of the past were flesh-and-blood creatures whose social interactions were generally pretty much like anyone else's. Berlioz's first brush with the venerable Luigi Cherubini, director of the august Paris Conservatoire, has an air of farce about it, with the now sexagenarian maestro chasing the cheeky young whippersnapper around the Conservatoire library, sending books cascading in every direction, after a porter had reported him for entering the building by a door expressly designated for the use of female students. Berlioz's relations with Franz Liszt were more decorous: Liszt paid him a call the day before the premi耀re of the Symphonie fantastique, then took him out to dinner afterwards. It was the beginning of a long and fruitful friendship, the fruits including a piano reduction by Liszt of Berlioz's new symphony. It was in that piano reduction that Robert Schumann first became acquainted with the Symphonie fantastique, and he was so impressed with it that he published a lengthy and laudatory analysis of Berlioz's work. The two men finally met in Leipzig some years later; apparently it was a somewhat stiff encounter, largely because neither spoke the other's language. Berlioz became reacquainted with Felix Mendelssohn on the same trip - they had met in Rome over a decade before, when Berlioz was studying there as part of his Prix de Rome bursary. Berlioz held Mendelssohn in the highest regard, both as a man and a musician. The musically conservative Mendelssohn's view of Berlioz was less flattering: while he recognized the genius of his French colleague's music, he found much of it unsettling, describing the Symphonie fantastique as `utterly loathsome

Hector Berlioz was one the most innovative and rebellious musicians of 19th-century France. He was a man of unwaveringly high expectations, in his wider life as well as his music. As the quintessential Romantic, one friend said that love was the `alpha and omega of his existence`. This week Donald Macleod looks at Berlioz through the passions and relationships that shaped who he was and what he created, exploring the romantic obsessions of an especially obsessive man. We'll also hear a movement of his Symphonie Fantastique each day - Berlioz's best-known work, and the musical embodiment of his most powerful infatuation.

Today, starting with the woman who would have a fatal influence over him - his Ophelia. As the curtain rises for a performance of Hamlet at the Paris Odeon theatre, little does Berlioz know what he would later call the `supreme drama` of his life, is about to begin...

Marche Fun耀bre pour la derni耀re sc耀ne d‘Hamlet (Tristia, Op 18)

Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique

John Eliot Gardiner, conductor

Irlande (La belle voyageuse)

Anne Sofie von Otter, soprano

Cord Garben, piano

Romeo et Juliette - Sc耀ne d'amour

London Symphony Orchestra

Colin Davis, conductor

Lelio - Choeur d'ombres

John Alldis Choir

Symphonie Fantastique (1st movement - Reveries - Passions)

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Mariss Jansons, conductor

Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker

Hector Berlioz was one the most innovative and rebellious musicians of 19th-century France. He was a man of unwaveringly high expectations, in his wider life as well as his music. As the quintessential Romantic, one friend said that love was the `alpha and omega of his existence`. This week Donald Macleod looks at Berlioz through the passions and relationships that shaped who he was and what he created, exploring the romantic obsessions of an especially obsessive man. We'll also hear a movement of his Symphonie Fantastique each day - Berlioz's best known work, and the musical embodiment of his most powerful infatuation.

Today, Berlioz wins the musical jackpot of the Prix de Rome but almost throws it in for his latest love. We'll follow the rollercoaster ride of his engagement to the young pianist, Camille Moke, from elopement to attempted murder. Plus, Berlioz channels his hero, Lord Byron, and lives out his Romantic ideals on a heartbreak holiday in the Abruzzi mountains.

Fleuve du Tage

Stephanie d'Oustrac, soprano

Thibaut Roussel, guitar

Tempest Fantasy

Toronto Symphony Chorus

Toronto Symphony Orchestra

Andrew Davis, conductor

Symphonie Fantastique, arr. Liszt for piano (2nd movement)

Roger Muraro, piano

Carnaval Romain

Anima Eterna

Jos van Immerseel, conductor

Harold in Italy (1st movement - `Harold aux montagnes`)

Tabea Zimmerman, viola

Les Siecles

Francois-Xavier Roth, conductor

Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker

Hector Berlioz was one the most innovative and rebellious musicians of 19th-century France. He was a man of unwaveringly high expectations, in his wider life as well as his music. As the quintessential Romantic, one friend said that love was the `alpha and omega of his existence`. This week Donald Macleod looks at Berlioz through the passions and relationships that shaped who he was and what he created, exploring the romantic obsessions of an especially obsessive man. We'll also hear a movement of his Symphonie Fantastique each day - Berlioz's best known work, and the musical embodiment of his most powerful infatuation.

Today, Berlioz's dreams come true when he finally manages to win the attention of his unrequited muse, Harriet Smithson, at the triumphant premiere of his Symphonie Fantastique. But after years of waiting, can she live up to his idealised image of her?

Requiem: Lacrimosa

Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

Roger Norrington, conductor

Chanson de Brigands (Lelio)

John Shirley-Quirk, baritone

London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

Pierre Boulez, conductor

Symphonie Fantastique (3rd movement - Scene aux champs)

Les Siecles

Francois-Xavier Roth, conductor

Benvenuto Cellini: Overture

Orchestre National de Lyon

Leonard Slatkin, conductor

La Mort d'Oph退lie

Susan Graham, soprano

Malcolm Martineau, piano

Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker

Hector Berlioz was one the most innovative and rebellious musicians of 19th-century France. He was a man of unwaveringly high expectations, in his wider life as well as his music. As the quintessential Romantic, one friend said that love was the `alpha and omega of his existence`. This week Donald Macleod looks at Berlioz through the passions and relationships that shaped who he was and what he created, exploring the romantic obsessions of an especially obsessive man. We'll also hear a movement of his Symphonie Fantastique each day - Berlioz's best known work, and the musical embodiment of his most powerful infatuation.

Today, Berlioz's success finds him touring across Europe, with a mystery companion who claims to be his wife. We'll trace his affair with the opera singer, Marie Recio, as his real marriage crumbles, and Marie's disguise soon becomes a reality. In this less obsessive relationship, he'll find a new kind of love - and loyalty.

Marche Hongroise

London Symphony Orchestra

Simon Rattle, conductor

Nuits d'退t退 (1. Villanelle, 5. Absence)

Brigitte Balleys, mezzo-soprano

Orchestre des Champs-Elysees

Philippe Herreweghe, conductor

Symphonie Fantastique (4th movement - Marche au supplice)

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Robin Ticciati, conductor

L'Enfance du Christ, Part II : La fuite en Egypte

Yann Beuron, tenor

Tenebrae

Colin Davis, conductor

B退atrice et B退nedict, Act II No 10 : `Dieu, que viens j'entendre?....Il m'en souvient `

Susan Graham, soprano (Beatrice)

Choeur et Orchestre de l'Opera de Lyon

John Nelson, conductor

Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker

Hector Berlioz was one the most innovative and rebellious musicians of 19th-century France. He was a man of unwaveringly high expectations, in his wider life as well as his music. As the quintessential Romantic, one friend said that love was the `alpha and omega of his existence`. This week Donald Macleod looks at Berlioz through the passions and relationships that shaped who he was and what he created, exploring the romantic obsessions of an especially obsessive man. We'll also hear a movement of his Symphonie Fantastique each day - Berlioz's best known work, and the musical embodiment of his most powerful infatuation.

In today's programme, having buried both his wives, Berlioz decides to seek out his childhood love, Estelle Duboeuf. This boyhood passion always stayed with him and sparked not only his desire to compose, but his lifelong quest for ideal love. For Berlioz, Estelle was the first, and it would fall to her to end the story.

Au Cimeti耀re (Nuits d'退t退)

Veronique Gens, soprano

Opera National de Lyon

Louis Langree, conductor

Rꀀverie et caprice for violin

Renaud Capucon

Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie

Daniel Harding, conductor

Les Troyens : Act IV, Nos 34b-37 ('O blonde Cere