Hector Berlioz
European romantic music
Hector Berlioz is one of the titans of European romantic music. His literary sources (Goethe, Shakespeare, Virgil) filled him with a sense of the universal. Passionate yet clear-sighted, Hector Berlioz was the antithesis of improvisation. Hector Berlioz dedicated himself to the task of crafting and shaping his vision, rejecting all the received formulas in favour of a more poetic approach informing his dramatic action. For Hector Berlioz, all is drama, and all means are subordinate to expression. An outstanding melody-writer, he was also an exceptionally able figuratist, and the founder of modern orchestration. And - lest we forget - a gifted writer and music critic of the first water: his fascinating Mémoires and his books on music attest to as much.
Born in La Côte-Saint-André
Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte-Saint-André in 1803. His father, by profession a doctor, gave his son his first musical education when Hector was still a child. In 1821, Hector Berlioz sets off for Paris to study medicine, but music will soon turn his life around. Fired with enthusiasm by Gluck and by Weber, he decides to become a composer. In 1825, Hector Berlioz writes and organises a performance (at his own expense) of a Messe solennelle, which is denied the expected critical acclaim. It was long believed that Hector Berlioz destroyed it. Until 1991, when it was chanced upon, quite unexpectedly, in the Church of Saint Charles Borromeus in Antwerp.
Hector Berlioz
Despite parental disapproval, Hector Berlioz goes up to the Conservatoire. After two attempts, he is awarded second prize in Rome with Herminie, then composes the Huit scénes de Faust, an essay in the art, presaging the later Damnation. Failed again in the competition, in which the boldness of his Cléopâtre offends the sensibilities of the jury, he finally obtains the Grand Prix in 1830 with Sardanapale. That same year sees his Symphonie fantastique. This work sets him among the vanguard of the musical world. His musical creations follow one after the other. To name but a few: Lélio, Harold en Italie, the Requiem, Romeo et Juliette, l'Enfance du Christ, the Te Deum, Béatrice et Bénédict. Long ignored in France, Hector Berlioz received a hero's welcome in other countries, such as Belgium, Germany and Russia. Official recognition in France came much later. III, spent, embittered, Hector Berlioz died in Paris at the age of 65.
Issue: Belgium, 24 February 2003
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