Symfonia fantastyczna hector berlioz biography

Symphonie Fantastique (H 48)

Contents of this page

Introduction
Composition
Performance history
The five movements of the symphony
The scores

This page is also available in French

See also Texts and Documents; The Programme of the Symphonie fantastique; Berlioz and his music: self-borrowings

Introduction

    The Symphonie fantastique has been described as the most remarkable first symphony ever written by any composer. Beethoven, the giant among symphonic composers, began with a first symphony which, though expertly and confidently written, is on a small scale, singularly devoid of passion, and gives little indication of the great symphonies that were to follow. Not so Berlioz, whose first symphony constituted a musical revolution in itself, in its daring originality, scale, imagination, expressive range and orchestral mastery. Berlioz himself was fully aware of its novelty and significance almost from