Who is berlioz

Berlioz met Franz Liszt who was also attending the concert. This proved to be the beginning of a long friendship. Liszt would later transcribe the entire Symphonie fantastique for piano to enable more people to hear it. On 30 December , Berlioz left France for Rome, prompted by a clause in the Prix de Rome which required winners to spend two years studying there.

Although none of his major works were actually written in Italy, his travels and experiences there would later influence and inspire much of his music.

During one of these trips, while Berlioz enjoyed an afternoon of sailing, he encountered a group of Carbonari. These were members of a secret society of Italian patriots based in France with the aim of creating a unified Italy. Instead her daughter was to marry Camille Pleyel son of Ignaz Pleyel , a rich piano manufacturer.

He created an elaborate plan, going so far as to purchase a dress, wig and hat with a veil with which he was to disguise himself as a woman in order to gain entry to their home.

He even stole a pair of double-barrelled pistols from the Academy to kill them with, saving a single shot for himself. Planning out his action with great care, Berlioz purchased phials of strychnine and laudanum to use as poisons in the event of a pistol jamming.

Despite this careful planning, Berlioz failed to carry the plot through. After arriving in Nice at that time, part of Italy , he reconsidered the entire plan, deciding it to be inappropriate and foolish.

He sent a letter to the Academy in Rome, requesting that he be allowed to return. This request was accepted, and he prepared for his trip back. Berlioz continued to travel throughout his stay in Italy. Italy was important in providing Berlioz with experiences that would be impossible in France.

At times, it was as if he himself was actually experiencing the Romantic tales of Byron in person; consorting with brigands, corsairs, and peasants. He returned to Paris in November Between and , Berlioz wrote many of his most popular and enduring works. A few days after the performance, Berlioz and Harriet were finally introduced and entered into a relationship. Despite Berlioz not understanding spoken English and Harriet not knowing any French, on 3 October , they got married in a civil ceremony at the British Embassy with Liszt as one of the witnesses.

The following year their only child, Louis Berlioz, was born — a source of initial disappointment, anxiety and eventual pride to his father. Unfortunately for Berlioz, he was soon to discover that living under the same roof as the Beloved was far less appealing than worship from afar.

Their marriage turned out a disaster as both were prone to violent personality clashes and outbursts of temper. This became the symphony for viola and orchestra, Harold en Italie. Paganini changed his mind about playing the piece himself when he saw the first sketches for the work; he expressed misgivings over its outward lack of complexity. The premiere of the piece was held later that year. The next day he sent Berlioz a gift of 20, francs, the generosity of which left Berlioz uncharacteristically lost for words.

Around this time, Berlioz decided to conduct most of his own concerts, tired as he was of conductors who did not understand his music. This decision launched what was to become a lucrative and creatively fruitful career in conducting music both by himself and other leading composers.

Berlioz composed the opera Benvenuto Cellini in He was to spend much effort and money in the following decades trying to have it performed successfully. One of his most enduring pieces followed Benvenuto Cellini —the Grande messe des morts , first performed at Les Invalides in December of that year. Its gestation was difficult; because it was a state-commissioned work much bureaucracy had to be endured.

There was also opposition from Luigi Cherubini, who was at the time the music director of the Paris Conservatoire. Cherubini felt that a government-sponsored commission should naturally be offered to himself rather than the young Berlioz, who was considered an eccentric. It was a success both at home and abroad, unlike later great vocal works such as La damnation de Faust and Les Troyens , which were commercial failures. While his career as a critic and writer provided him with a comfortable income, and he had an obvious talent for writing, he came to detest the amount of time spent attending performances to review, as it severely limited his free time to promote his own works and produce more compositions.

Despite his prominent position in musical criticism, he did not use his articles to promote his own works. After the s, Berlioz found it increasingly difficult to achieve recognition for his music in France.

As a result, he began to travel to other countries more often. During his lifetime, Berlioz was as famous a conductor as he was as a composer. Owing to a strict deadline, it was performed only days after it was completed.

The performance was held in the open air on July 28, conducted by Berlioz himself, at the Place de la Bastille.

The piece was difficult to hear owing to the crowds and timpani of the drum corps. This was later remedied by a concert performance a month later, and Wagner voiced his approval of the work. The following year he began but later abandoned the composition of a new opera, La nonne sanglante ; some fragments survive.

He also entered into an intimate relationship with singer Marie Recio who would become his second wife. In December he began a tour in Germany which continued until the middle of next year. In Leipzig he met Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, the latter of whom had written an enthusiastic article on the Symphonie fantastique.

Back in Paris, Berlioz began to compose the concert overture Le carnaval romain , based on music from Benvenuto Cellini. The work was finished the following year and was premiered shortly after. Nowadays it is among the most popular of his overtures. He took a recuperation trip to Nice late that year, during which he composed the concert overture La tour de Nice The Tower of Nice , later to be revised and renamed Le Corsaire.

With their marriage a failure, Berlioz and Harriet Smithson separated, the latter having become an alcoholic due to the collapse of her acting career.

Berlioz moved in with a mistress Marie Recio. He continued to provide for Harriet for the rest of her life. He also met Mikhail Glinka whom he had initially met in Italy and who remained a close friend , who was in Paris between and and persuaded Berlioz to embark on one of two tours of Russia.

In he embarked on his first large-scale concert tour of France. This left Berlioz heavily in debt to the tune of to francs. Becoming ever more disenchanted with his prospects in France, he wrote:.

Great success, great profit, great performances, etc. Art, in France, is dead; so I must go where it is still to be found. In England apparently there has been a real revolution in the musical consciousness of the nation in the last ten years. We shall see. In , during a seven-month visit to England, he was appointed conductor at the London Drury Lane Theatre by its then-musical director, the popular French musician Louis Antoine Jullien.

He was impressed with its quality when he first heard the orchestra perform at a promenade concert. In London he also learnt that he knew far more English than he had supposed, although still did not understand half of what was said in conversation. During his stay in England, the February Revolution broke out in France. Berlioz arrived back in France in , only to be informed that his father had died shortly after his return.

He went back to his birthplace to mourn his father along with his sisters. Berlioz paid for four servants to look after her on a permanent basis and visited her almost daily. He began composition of his Te Deum. In he became head librarian at the Paris Conservatoire, the only official post he would ever hold, and a valuable source of income.

During this year Berlioz also conducted an experiment on his many vocal critics. This composer was of course a fictional construct by Berlioz. The performances were the first since the disastrous premiere of Berlioz travelled to London in the following year to stage it at Theatre Royal, Covent Garden but withdrew it after one performance owing to the hostile reception.

Harriet Smithson died in At the age of 65, Berlioz died in Paris on March 8, Hector Berlioz, as he was known, was entranced with music as a child. He learned to play the flute and guitar, and became a self-taught composer. Heeding his physician father's wishes, Berlioz went to Paris in to study medicine.

Two years later, he left medicine behind to become a composer. In , Berlioz enrolled at the Paris Conservatoire. The next year, he saw Harriet Smithson in the role of Ophelia and became captivated by the Irish actress. His ardor inspired the Symphonie fantastique , a piece that broke new ground in orchestral expression.

With its use of music to relate a story of desperate passion, it was a hallmark of Romantic composition. Following three unsuccessful attempts to win the Prix de Rome, Berlioz finally succeeded in After spending more than a year in Italy, he headed back to Paris, where a performance of his "fantastic symphony" took place in Smithson attended the concert; after meeting the woman who had haunted him, Berlioz married her the next year.

The s saw Berlioz produce more of his inventive compositions, such as the symphony Harold en Italie and the impressive choral work Requiem , Grande messe des morts However, an opera, Benvenuto Cellini , flopped. The site is entirely independent of any organisation; it is run and maintained by us at our own expense. It is non-profit-making, does not receive sponsorship or financial support from any quarter, and does not accept any commercial advertising. We are most grateful to our friends and visitors for their support and look forward to enjoying their continued encouragement in the future.

Monir Tayeb died suddenly on 30 July To commemorate her achievement, two new pages have been added to this site 1 October : Monir Tayeb Academic Page , a page she compiled herself some years ago to summarise her academic career, and Monir and Berlioz , which outlines her contribution to the Berlioz website over a period of 24 years see also the entry of the Hector Berlioz Museum in memory of Monir Tayeb [in French]. Michel Austin will continue to manage the website for the foreseeable future.

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