Harriet

Donald Macleod follows the drama as Berlioz finally marries the woman of his dreams.

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’Ophélie
Susan Graham, soprano
Malcolm Martineau, piano

Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker