BBC Radio 3 is devoting the entire day to “a celebration of Hector Berlioz on his bicentenary”:http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/classical/berliozday.shtml. Some great music and much commentary on the life of a man who Ken Russell described (about an hour ago) as the most cinematic of composers.
{ 6 comments }
fryreflye 12.07.03 at 3:45 pm
Berlioz turns me off completely, but still it’s great that there’s a vehicle available for this kind of programming. USA classical stations (those few left) sometimes feature birthday programs for composers but the music they play must always be interrupted by jewelry commercials and Pachebel.
Happy listening to all Berliozophiles. Let me know when the BBC does the same for Haydn.
TomD 12.07.03 at 8:12 pm
You could listen to the entire mature works of Berlioz in a day, or almost.
Unfortunately only about half of it would be worth listening to. When he’s good he’s very very good, but when he’s bad he’s just turgid.
I dunno about all the ‘commentary’ – readings from his autobiography and letters would be fun though.
Haydn should be coming up in 2009. Too bad he didn’t die a bit earlier. (Too bad for him too, he was too unwell to compose anything after about 1802 and in the end had to put up with Napoleon invading Austria…)
Jaquandor 12.07.03 at 10:42 pm
Berlioz has long been my favorite composer, and listening to his greatest works would take a very long day indeed: four hours for his symphonies alone (especially the magnificent “Romeo et Juliet”); two for his Requiem; five for Les Troyens; two for his delightful comic opera Beatrice et Benedict; more than an hour for the overtures.
When I went to Epcot, I remember being annoyed that the wonderful film in the French pavilion was scored with excerpts from great French composers, but not a note from Berlioz.
Thanks for the pointer.
fyreflye 12.07.03 at 11:09 pm
>Haydn should be coming up in 2009. Too bad he didn’t die a bit earlier. (Too bad for him too, he was too >unwell to compose anything after about 1802 and in the end had to put up with Napoleon invading >Austria…)
He may have anticipated Beethoven’s imminent demolition of his carefully constructed musical world. But you could hardly name another composer who did so much so well in the time he had to do it.
fyreflye 12.07.03 at 11:18 pm
>When I went to Epcot, I remember being annoyed that the wonderful film in the French pavilion was scored >with excerpts from great French composers, but not a note from Berlioz.
I seem to recall some complaint about Berlioz not having been properly buried in a tomb appropriate to
his genius. Apparently the French don’t value him so highly as do others.
Thomas Dent 12.08.03 at 2:12 pm
It’s a myth that Beethoven destroyed the oh-so-orderly Classical style: most of his best-known formal ‘innovations’ had already been done… by Haydn!
Not to mention the pre-echoes of Romanticism in ‘The Seasons’.
However, we’ll never know what a healthy Haydn would have done after 1802…
But back to Berlioz, I urge everyone to find a CD of the Te Deum, preferably conducted by Abbado (surpasses the recent Nelson/Alain/Alagna effort in all respects). It’s the greatest setting I know of.
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