Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie fantastique’
19:30 Sat 8 Aug 2026 Royal Albert Hall
Programme
- Mephisto Waltz No. 1(11 mins)
- Dante – Part 2: Purgatorio(24 mins)
- interval
- Symphonie fantastique(49 mins)
Performers
- Thomas Adèsconductor
Composers
Berlioz’s ‘Symphonie fantastique’
Does the Devil really have all the best tunes? When it comes to classical music, he just might. Thomas Adès conducts the National Youth Orchestra – over 150 of Britain’s most talented teenagers – in a thrilling musical journey to Hell and back. Follow Faust into the irresistible, whirling dance of Liszt’s Mephisto Waltz No. 1; contemplate Purgatory, ‘a sort of pre-dawn, before the sun of Paradise’, in Purgatorio – the central panel of Adès’s own Grammy Award- winning, Dante-inspired ballet; and surrender to the vast soundscapes and phantasmagoria of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, culminating in a horrifying ‘Witches’ Sabbath’.
Recorded for broadcast on BBC TV and BBC iPlayer
Thomas Adès © Mathias Benguigui
