Berlioz, "Symphonie Fantastique"

 
The financial support that Hector Berlioz received from his father to study medicine in Paris was withheld several times. This was always the case each time his father learned he had left medicine aside to further his knowledge of music at the Paris Conservatory. The father, a highly cultivated physician, only gave his approval to his son's willing vocation when the latter premiered in 1825 a Mass that was an impressive success with audiences and critics. But he set one condition: Hector had to compete for the coveted Prix de Rome every year until he won it.

Harriet Smithson
in the role of Ophelia

The Muse
From the following year, Berlioz focused all his efforts on winning the famous prize that assured him a scholarship in Italy for two years. He would achieve it five years later, in 1830, with a lyric drama.
But before that, an innocent visit to the theater to watch a Shakespearean drama will leave him in a mess. Hector Berlioz would fall at the feet of Harriet Smithson, a small-time Irish actress who at the time – September 1827 –, she played Ophelia one day and Juliet the other. The composer, a glamorous romantic 24 years old, will fall in love first with the characters and then with the one who embodies them.

Hector Berlioz (1802 -  1869)
Portrait made in Rome, 1832

Episode in the life of an artist

But Harriet, three years older, refused him. Bizet's letters to her failed to enthuse her. The composer was forced to capitulate. But in the pain of unrequited love, he found the inspiration for a symphony that had occupied his thoughts ever since he met the actress. And so that there can be no doubt about its genesis, he will entitle it: "Episode in the life of an artist". Only in the subtitle, he will add the form: Symphonie fantastique... en cinq parties.
Premiered on December 5, 1830 – the same year he won the scholarship –, it was warmly received by the Parisian fans.

Movements
Regarded as the first successful example of "psychological music", its "five parts" (its movements, subtitled) move in a progression towards the catharsis of the protagonist, who is none other than the young Berlioz:

1. Daydreams and Passions
2. A ball  15:06
3. Scene in the country  21:29
4. March to the scaffold  43:16
5. Dream of a witches' Sabbath  46:33

The rendition is by the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France conducted by South Korean conductor and pianist, Myung-whun Chung.

Epilogue: Berlioz had to fulfill the prize commitment, so he resided in Rome until May 1832. Upon his return, the Symphonie Fantastique reaped more triumphs, and Harriet learned that the muse was her. They married in October 1833, but the union was not a happy one. They broke up in 1840. So much effort for so little.