 | This is my post from this week's Once or Twice a Fortnight. |
Our second post in our series marking the Berlioz year considers a little programmed work (although it has been the subject of several concerts in this special year).
The Berlioz discography, as I discussed briefly in the previous post, counts his Symphonie Fantastique as one of the composer's essential works. As some have pointed out, this "program-based" symphony defies the traditional stranglehold of the "classical" symphony, using musical imagery and making particularly noteworthy use of the leitmotiv as a device, or the idée fixe (which loosely translates to “obsession”)
The Berlioz catalog identifies this symphony as opus 14 (work number 48 in the Holoman catalog). Opus 14b (or Holoman 55b) is reserved for the operatic monodrama Lélio or the return to life. This numerical assignment further feeds the established folklore that Lélio is the "sequel" to the said Fantastique. Berlioz writes that the work "must be heard immediately after Symphonie Fantastique, of which it is the end and the complement. ". The name "Lélio" is taken from the hero of George Sand's novel, The Last Aldini, published in 1832 - all this time, I thought it was a sort of nickname derived from "Berlioz". You learn something new every day!
Composed in Italy in 1831, Lélio was premiered at the Paris Conservatoire on December 9, 1832. It was revised for a performance in Weimar at the request of Franz Liszt in 1855 and published the following year.
Lélio is presented by an actor standing on stage in front of a curtain hiding the orchestra. The actor's dramatic monologues explain the meaning of music in the artist's life.
The work begins and ends with the theme of the idée fixe, linking Lélio to the Symphonie fantastique and, like the symphony, Lélio is inspired by Berlioz's tragic loves - with Harriet Smithson for the symphony, with Camille Moke for Lélio , women who broke their engagement with the composer, then making him think of suicide. Subsequently, Berlioz gave a different interpretation, saying that the symphony and Lélio speak of Harriet Smithson (who later became his wife).
While the Fantastique describes the desperate artist trying to kill himself by overdose of opium, this creates a series of more and more terrifying visions. Lélio talks about the artist waking up from his dreams, meditating on Shakespeare, his sad life and not having a wife; he then decides that if he can not forget this unrequited love, he will immerse himself in the music; he then successfully directs an orchestra on one of his new compositions and the story "ends well".
This work is in six parts:
Unlike the Symphonie fantastique, Lélio's discography is much less extensive. The selected version, which dates back a dozen years, is narrated in French by the lyric baritone Jean-Philippe Lafont, accompanied by the Danish Radio Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard. Other soloists and choirs are Danish.
Happy listening!
Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869)
Lélio ou le retour à la vie, op. 14b [H. 55b]
monodrame lyrique en six parties (1831, rev. 1855)
Gert Henning-Jensen, tenor (Horatio)
Sune Hjerrild, tenor (La Voix imaginaire de Lélio)
Jean-Philippe LaFont, baritone (Le Capitaine) and narrator
DR KoncertKoret
Fredrick Malmberg, chorus master
DR SymfoniOrkestret
Thomas Dausgaard, conducting
Recorded in July and August 2004
Chandos 10416
Details - https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010416
Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/16LelioOuLeRetourALaVieOp.
The Berlioz discography, as I discussed briefly in the previous post, counts his Symphonie Fantastique as one of the composer's essential works. As some have pointed out, this "program-based" symphony defies the traditional stranglehold of the "classical" symphony, using musical imagery and making particularly noteworthy use of the leitmotiv as a device, or the idée fixe (which loosely translates to “obsession”)
The Berlioz catalog identifies this symphony as opus 14 (work number 48 in the Holoman catalog). Opus 14b (or Holoman 55b) is reserved for the operatic monodrama Lélio or the return to life. This numerical assignment further feeds the established folklore that Lélio is the "sequel" to the said Fantastique. Berlioz writes that the work "must be heard immediately after Symphonie Fantastique, of which it is the end and the complement. ". The name "Lélio" is taken from the hero of George Sand's novel, The Last Aldini, published in 1832 - all this time, I thought it was a sort of nickname derived from "Berlioz". You learn something new every day!
Composed in Italy in 1831, Lélio was premiered at the Paris Conservatoire on December 9, 1832. It was revised for a performance in Weimar at the request of Franz Liszt in 1855 and published the following year.
Lélio is presented by an actor standing on stage in front of a curtain hiding the orchestra. The actor's dramatic monologues explain the meaning of music in the artist's life.
The work begins and ends with the theme of the idée fixe, linking Lélio to the Symphonie fantastique and, like the symphony, Lélio is inspired by Berlioz's tragic loves - with Harriet Smithson for the symphony, with Camille Moke for Lélio , women who broke their engagement with the composer, then making him think of suicide. Subsequently, Berlioz gave a different interpretation, saying that the symphony and Lélio speak of Harriet Smithson (who later became his wife).
While the Fantastique describes the desperate artist trying to kill himself by overdose of opium, this creates a series of more and more terrifying visions. Lélio talks about the artist waking up from his dreams, meditating on Shakespeare, his sad life and not having a wife; he then decides that if he can not forget this unrequited love, he will immerse himself in the music; he then successfully directs an orchestra on one of his new compositions and the story "ends well".
This work is in six parts:
- Le pêcheur. Ballad, based on Goethe’sDer Fischer.
- Chœur d'ombres – Evokes Shakespeare’s Hamlet and its use of ghostly spirits. Berlioz reuses music from his cantata Cléopâtre (H. 36)
- Chanson de brigands - A celebration of freedom, gangster of sorts.
- Chant de bonheur – Remembrances, reusing music from La mort d’Orphée (H. 25).
- La harpe éolienne, a purely orchestral passage, and a reference to the wind harp – a common image from the Romantic period
- Fantaisie sur la "Tempête" de Shakespeare - Sung in Italian, and reuses some more of Berlioz’s music (H. 52 and 36)
Unlike the Symphonie fantastique, Lélio's discography is much less extensive. The selected version, which dates back a dozen years, is narrated in French by the lyric baritone Jean-Philippe Lafont, accompanied by the Danish Radio Orchestra under Thomas Dausgaard. Other soloists and choirs are Danish.
Happy listening!
Hector BERLIOZ (1803-1869)
Lélio ou le retour à la vie, op. 14b [H. 55b]
monodrame lyrique en six parties (1831, rev. 1855)
Gert Henning-Jensen, tenor (Horatio)
Sune Hjerrild, tenor (La Voix imaginaire de Lélio)
Jean-Philippe LaFont, baritone (Le Capitaine) and narrator
DR KoncertKoret
Fredrick Malmberg, chorus master
DR SymfoniOrkestret
Thomas Dausgaard, conducting
Recorded in July and August 2004
Chandos 10416
Details - https://www.chandos.net/products/catalogue/CHAN%2010416
Internet Archive - https://archive.org/details/16LelioOuLeRetourALaVieOp.
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