March 6

Few works cast as large a shadow as Hector Berlioz‘s (1803-1869) Symphonie Fantastique. Put simply, the work is a clear-cut presentation of the ideas and impulses which dominated the Romantic era: it is a massive work, nearly 50 minutes in length, full of rich emotional life and story, and features unique instrumentation, rhythms, and textures.

Berlioz was born in southeastern France to a rather wealthy and privileged family, though he uniquely was not exposed to a thorough music education. Berlioz did not master the piano—if anything, he struggled against it. To this day many composers depend on the piano’s eight octaves to conduit the orchestra’s wide range of voices. Berlioz framed his piano-less compositional approach as an advantage: he considered himself to be free of what he called “bad keyboard habits,” and the confines of tonality which slowly harden into place over a key player’s lifetime.

Berlioz began writing Fantastique inspired by a deep love and fascination for an Irish actress with whom he quickly became obsessed after watching a performance in London. They shared no language, had little in common other than the relationship between actor and audience, but Berlioz fell passionately, obsessively in love. Fantastique’s narrative is quasi-autobiographic in nature, and posits the artist with a capital A—Berlioz specifically notes the main character in the work is an artist of unmatched brilliance.

A first-time listener of Fantastique familiar with Romantic-era sound might inaccurately guess the timeline of the work’s premiere. Premiered in 1830, Fantastique has countless moments where the orchestra’s presence is so large and dramatic, you wouldn’t believe it premiered closer to Beethoven 5th Symphony than major works by Tchaikovsky, Wagner, or before even Brahms was born. Berlioz stands boldly against tradition: he introduces newer and lesser used instruments to the stage, including the English horn, the haunting E-flat clarinet, and calls for an absolutely unprecedented four sets of timpani.

Fantastique’s story tells of an artist of brilliant mind who falls madly in love with a woman. She dominates his thoughts, and he can’t help but obsess over her no matter where he goes or how he tries to distract himself. Pained by his feelings, our main character takes a small dose of opium too weak to kill him, but strong enough to induce fantastic and terrifying hallucinations. Enter the monsters, ghouls, and witchcraft, occupying an absolute fantasy world rich with jewel-toned passion. The main character dreams he kills the woman he loves, is swiftly condemned, and begins viewing his own execution. The melody Berlioz introduces at the top of the work to represent the woman he loves returns, but this time in a wholly grotesque state, embodied by the piercing wail of the E-flat clarinet.

The devolution in sound which takes place during the opioid-induced hallucinations painted in the music only serve Berlioz’s view of the artist as troubled genius. Random bursts of sound, chaotic moments tucked in between moments of Beethovian lyricism and harmony, and confusing and uncertain pairings of voicings craft Fantastique as wholly unique.

It is clear where the sound of the symphony evolved as the Romantic era progressed: it became bigger, louder, more bold-faced and creative. One could easily argue Fantastique gave permission for composers after Berlioz to go further, to do and say more with the orchestra.

Jimmy López Bellido (1978-*) is a prolific Peruvian composer of orchestral works, chamber music, opera, and more. His works have been performed internationally, with such notable orchestras as the Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra, Boston Symphony, Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Norwegian Radio Orchestra, Helsinki Philharmonic, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the National Symphony Orchestras of Argentina, Chile, Ecuador, Peru and Spain, among others. López’s music has been heard in prestigious venues such as Carnegie Hall, Sydney Opera House, Gewandhaus Leipzig, Kennedy Center, Vienna’s Musikverein, Concertgebouw, and Konzerthaus Berlin.

Fiesta! Four Pop Dances for Orchestra is a high-energy romp for the orchestra. Its influences are wide ranging, from western classical, to present-day commercial pop, to Peruvian melodies and rhythms. In a sense, it is the perfect modern presentation of symphonic music: wrapped up in and wholly dependent on context of time, place, and presentation. “Techno” is the fourth and final movement of “Fiesta!” Listen for the exciting rhythms which drive the movement, and how instruments drop in and out to create a dynamic, edge-of-your seat sound.