This is "Symphonie Fantastique,"
an orchestral sonic spectacular. Composed in Paris in 1830... ...it set the mark for what
a Romantic symphony should be. With its overwhelming emotions
and unabashed melodrama... ...it pours straight from the heart and soul
of its composer, Hector Berlioz. Welcome to Paris. We're here in the Pantheon... ...a great monument
to France's fallen heroes. We're looking over the great pendulum
placed here by the scientist Foucault... ...to demonstrate the cycles
of the Earth's rotation. Foucault revolutionized science
in France... ...just as the great Romantic
Hector Berlioz revolutionized music. And since the 1820s,
Berlioz had been interested... ...in public demonstrations
of quite another sort: In demonstrations
of pendulum swings of feelings... ...and of the cycles of human emotions. Like his friends and contemporaries... ...the painter Delacroix
and the novelist Victor Hugo... ...Berlioz set out to explore, proclaim
and glorify his own feelings. That's what made him a true Romantic. The Romantics were just
a pendulum swing away... ...from the group that preceded them,
the rationalists. The rationalists had asserted... ...that nature and reality
were governed by concepts... ...and provable by scientific experiment
and thought. Descartes had proclaimed,
"I think, therefore I am." But Berlioz proclaimed,
"I feel, therefore I am." The first big piece in which Berlioz
confessed his unique artistic vision... ...was "Symphonie Fantastique." He wrote it when he was 26 years old,
and it was an epic for huge orchestra. Long before its premiere... ...he began to circulate
a so-called program... ...which explained
what the symphony was about. It was about the life of an artist,
his passions... ...particularly his self-destructive passion
for a beautiful woman... ...who has no idea he even exists. So unhappy is this artist that
he eventually decides to kill himself... ...by taking a lethal dose of opium. The symphony describes his last dreams,
hallucinations, ecstasies and despairs. The story was, in fact... ...a psychological self-portrait
of its composer... ...blown up to a size suitable
for an inspired egomaniac. He wrote the symphony
in a state of acute emotional distress... ...but its raw materials had been
a part of him for over 20 years... ...since the days of his childhood
in the village of La Côte Saint-André. Hector Berlioz was born in 1803
in La Côte Saint-André... ...a small town near the French Alps. Here, nothing much seems
to have changed in the last 200 years. Hector was baptized
at the local church. His mother was a devout Catholic,
his father was a noted doctor... ...and they lived in this charming house
right in the middle of town. We're in Hector's room. It's a fine-sized room for a little boy... ...and it has a great location,
because it's right next door... ...in fact, it connects with the study
of his father, Louis Berlioz. Louis Berlioz was a remarkable man. He wrote an important medical text... ...on chronic diseases,
cupping and even acupuncture. When his son reached 10 years old,
Louis took over his education. Right here,
they studied everything together: Mathematics, Latin, geography. But at age 12... ...his life began to change rapidly,
through a series of revelations... ...which he describes in his amazing
and remarkable memoirs. The first of these revelations
was his discovery of music. It was the music he heard during
Communion at his village church... ...that changed his life. I thought I saw heaven open,
a thousand times more beautiful... ...than the one
I had so often been told about. Oh, the ecstasy
that possessed my young soul. It was my first experience of music. In the 19th century, it was customary
for a prosperous French family... ...to provide their children
with music lessons. These mechanical dolls
celebrate that ritual. The repetitive drills... ...the pupil attempting
to master the exercises. It was enough to drive
most beginning students away... ...but not Hector. He became an accomplished flutist,
and picked up the guitar. And then he taught himself drums. Creating his own music
became a growing obsession... ...and music wasn't his only passion. Now, Berlioz's room,
being right next to his dad's study... ...offered him great opportunities
for exploring the library... ...without supervision. That's just what he did. One day, he found a copy of a book,
a pastoral romance. It was called Estelle et Némorin... ...and Berlioz read it hundreds of times
in secret. The book is full of vows of eternal love
and cruel separations. Estelle in tears,
Estelle suffering in silence... ...Estelle fainting dead away. And then one day, Hector's parents
took him to visit a lady in the next village. Her charming young niece
was named Estelle. The real Estelle
was an Alpine village temptress. She was 18, tall, elegant... ...and as Berlioz wrote in his memoirs,
primed for the attack. The moment I beheld her,
I was conscious of an electric shock. I loved her. Everyone laughed
at the spectacle of a child of 12... ...broken on the wheel of a love
beyond his years. She herself was much amused. She laughed, looking down on me... ...from the remoteness
of her unfeeling beauty. Hector was crushed. He poured out his hopeless love
into this fragile tune. Now I have to leave forever My dear country My dear friend Far from them, I'll spend my weary life In sorrow and regret A river, whose crystal stream I have seen A few years later, at the age of 16... ...he began to suffer from what he called
the disease of isolation... ...of the symphony's
imaginary suffering artist. Right from the start of
"Symphonie Fantastique"... ...Berlioz introduces us
to his vulnerable side. There are the characteristic pauses. The sighs. The menacing growling. The giddy laughter. Music was the perfect expression
for Berlioz's romantic nature... ...but his family was absolutely against
his desire to be a musician. His father insisted he go to Paris
and study medicine... ...and so he did. But he was miserable doing it. Besides, he spent more time
at the opera house... ...than he did in the operating theater. So Berlioz's father grudgingly said: "All right, you can study music for a time,
but you'd better be excellent." His mother was far tougher. She confronted him
on their family farm... ...and told him that she considered
all theater people as agents of the devil. She begged her son not to risk
the family's good name... ...by becoming a musician. When Berlioz tried to calm her,
she disowned him. Despite this encouraging sendoff
from his family... ...he returned to Paris,
now resolved to be a composer. Paris in the 1820s was bursting
with new energy and ideas. Most of the city as we think of it
came into being at this time. In the season of 1828, the city
was abuzz with two new sensations. The first was Beethoven. It had taken 25 years... ...for Beethoven's third symphony,
the "Eroica," to begin to affect... ...the musical life of the nation
whose revolution had inspired it. It wasn't just the music
that was at issue... ...it was the music's purpose:
to move and challenge the spirit... ...chart disturbing, even dangerous,
emotional territory. The French old guard were shocked. Youngsters like Berlioz
couldn't get enough of it. He made Beethoven's musical language
the basis of his own. The other sensation of 1828
was Shakespeare. Shakespeare, that is, as presented
by the tempestuous Irish actress... ...Harriet Smithson. Harriet was the star... ...of an English Shakespearean company
then touring Europe. There's fennel for you. When they opened
at the Odeon Theater in Paris... ...overnight, she became
the toast of the town. She was Ophelia in Hamlet,
Desdemona in Othello. Best of all, she was Juliet. What's here? A cup, closed in my true love's hand? Poison, I see,
hath been his timeless end. Seeing Harriet play Shakespeare
changed Berlioz's life forever. He couldn't really understand English,
so he only reacted to her face, her figure... ...her gestures,
the rise and fall of her voice... ...the poignant pauses
of her style of acting. Today, this style would be considered
melodramatic, even campy... ...but then it made the plays come alive. Seated in the cheap seats... ...he might have experienced
something like this: O Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo? Deny thy father and refuse thy name. Or, if thou wilt not,
be but sworn my love... ...and I'll no longer be a Capulet. What's in a name? That which we call a rose
by any other name would smell as sweet. Whatever it was he got
from her performance... ...she herself
became his complete obsession. From then on, his whole desire was to do
something to attract her attention... ...and "Symphonie Fantastique"
was the most extravagant of his attempts. The object of the artist's hopeless love
was represented in the symphony... ...by a charming theme
Berlioz called the idée fixe... ...describing the phenomenon
of fixation. The violins and flute... ...float elusively and flirtatiously
through the charming melody... ...stalked by the stealthy steps
of the lower strings. Now Berlioz has set in play the themes
that will shape the first movement... ...the idée fixe standing
for the artist's beloved... ...and all the other music and noises
of the rest of the orchestra... ...representing the artist's frustration
and despair... ...as he tries to attract her attention
at theaters and parties... ...and mostly, inside of his own head. He summoned enormous,
frightening noises from the orchestra. A modern orchestra... ...an orchestra that this piece
had a very big part in establishing. Outbursts like this alternate with
moments of the greatest tenderness. The one big exception
comes in a moment of role reversal... ...where the cornets and winds blare out
the idée fixe in a blaze of sexual energy... ...and the violins scurry madly around. A lot of the times, there's this great
answering back and forth. And it's a
huge orchestra, but your stand partner... ...you have to play off each other
and you have to be a little duet... ...in the midst
of this hundred-piece orchestra. It's like a roller-coaster ride
for me sometimes. ...and then it's part panic
and part exhilaration. It leads to a moment of
complete frenzy and collapse. There's one last murmur
of the idée fixe... ...and then we're in a section sounding
like the quiet notes of an organ... ...suggesting the artist's hope
of finding consolation in religion. The premiere of "Symphonie Fantastique"
took place in Paris in 1830. In a three-month frenzy
of composition... ...the 26-year-old had poured out
all his feelings into his new symphony. He was now a student
at the Conservatory of Music... ...and it was here that audiences
were first introduced... ...to this tryout of the piece. We're in the original auditorium
of Paris' Conservatory of Music. This is the hall where
Berlioz really became Berlioz. It's much as it was in his time. In this hall, so many shattering events
that shaped his life forever took place... ...like that amazing afternoon
when he first heard Beethoven. This is the hall where
"Symphonie Fantastique" was premiered. Berlioz knew its acoustic perfectly... ...and he closely considered
the numbers and positions... ...of each and every instrument
on the stage. He himself played drums on this stage,
and later, he conducted. He became a great conductor,
noted for the precise, colorful... ...and emotionally affecting performances
he drew from the musicians... ...all of whom he had personally hired
and paid for every concert. The reaction to "Symphonie Fantastique"
was mixed. Some were stirred,
many were outraged. He had risked everything,
and it had almost worked. Most disappointingly of all... ...absent from the audience
was Harriet Smithson. The second movement
takes us to a ball... ...but it's an imaginary ball. Out of a dreamy haze,
the sound of a new instrument emerges: It's the sound of a harp. In fact, two harps. They appear only in this movement. Here they are, leading in the waltz tune
as the dancers swirl around us. It's just so tinkly and quiet,
and everyone's playing." But it often cuts through
due to the percussiveness... ...especially the higher pitches. In this movement,
our point of view swings... ...between viewing
the elegant ball itself... ...and spying on the artist
as he tries to position himself... ...hoping to catch forbidden glimpses
of his beloved... ...as she waltzes by,
her idée fixe trailing behind her. He doesn't dare to approach her. He never gains her attention... ...exactly as Berlioz was unable
to gain Harriet's attention. The movement accelerates
to a dizzying close... ...the harps add their special glitter. But the ball was only a dream. Berlioz still had to face
the cold realities of real life. "Symphonie Fantastique"
had not been the crazy success... ...he'd hoped for. And Paris was expensive... ...especially for a struggling artist. What's more, he still felt he needed
national recognition as a composer. So he decided to enter... ...the Institute of France's
composition contest... ...competing for the highly coveted,
richly rewarded Prix de Rome. The Prix de Rome
was an annual composition contest. It took place in the headquarters
of the French Academy... ...right here in this fabulous library. The competition was in two parts. The first part was rather like the
first round of an ice-skating match: Compulsory figures. The candidates were given a theme
upon which to write a fugue. A fugue is a kind of musical acrostic,
or puzzle... ...for several independent voices. It all has very strict rules... ...and the judges seemed to delight
in faulting the candidates... ...for the slightest infractions
of those rules. To write a fugue under these conditions
was absolute torture. The second round
was more of a freestyle-- Well, not too freestyle. --event. The candidates were read a text,
usually from mythology or from the Bible... ...and on that text, they were expected
to compose a cantata... ...a kind of mini-opera for soloists,
chorus and orchestra. During their composing... ...they were confined
right here behind this bookcase. Up these stairs,
they were kept in tiny cubicles... ...locked in until they had finished
their compositions. It took Berlioz four years to master
the rules of the competition... ...and learn to disguise his own true
musical nature enough to win it... ...but at last, in 1830, he did,
and this book records his triumph. Winning the Prix de Rome meant Berlioz
got the recognition he coveted... ...as well as a subsidy
for two years' study in Rome. The third movement opens
with an echo from Berlioz's childhood... ...growing up near the Alps. It's the sound of a cowherd's melody
played here on alpenhorns... ...by two San Francisco Symphony
musicians. It's part of the pastoral folk tradition
of a lot of composers. Berlioz was more than happy
to incorporate some of the tunes... ...and the feeling of the alpenhorn
into the "Symphonie Fantastique." The beginning of the third movement
is a feeling of great connection... ...with the countryside, pastoral nature. Berlioz orchestrated this musical memory
not for some kind of a horn... ...but for a double-reed instrument
confusingly called the English horn. It's echoed by an oboe
playing from off-stage. Berlioz said this movement
was the most difficult to compose. It took him months. Why? Because it concerns intimacy...
...the most difficult emotion to be attained and the most difficult to be sustained. In this movement... ...Berlioz uses his huge orchestra
delicately, tenderly, confessionally... ...to create a sense of suspension of time
that great love can bring. The music is always
only a heartbeat away... ...from storms of rage
that arise when the artist imagines... ...he catches sight of his beloved
with somebody else. Tremolo is-- It's where we have to move
our bows incredibly fast and furiously. Tremolo can be one of
the most electrifying things... ...that a violin section can do. And it can also be one of
the most exhausting things to do. If it's long enough, it can be the bane
of a violinist's existence. This passage illustrates,
perhaps better than any other... ...the pendulum swings
of Berlioz's emotions... ...and the emotional range of his music. Perhaps the most important part
of Berlioz's Italian journey... ...was his opportunity
to explore the countryside... ...and in it, to find
a new musical landscape. Berlioz became especially fond
of a little hill town called Subiaco. He would escape here
at every opportunity. It was the perfect Romantic's refuge. The atmosphere of Subiaco
inspired Berlioz... ...as he polished
"Symphonie Fantastique." Although we tend to remember
the noisy explosions... ...of "Symphonie Fantastique,"
most of the music is quiet. Berlioz delights in creating
a floating world of sound. As the scene in the country
comes to an end... ...the English horn returns
and a quartet of timpani... ...give their impression
of a passing thunderstorm. And a storm seemed to be passing
in Berlioz's spirit. The trip to Italy had refreshed him. Now he summoned his courage
to return to Paris... ...take up his quest
for musical mastery and recognition. Essential to this was revising
"Symphonie Fantastique"... ...to be the unquestioned masterpiece
he knew it was. He'd pretty much given up on Harriet,
but he hadn't given up on the piece. By 1832, Berlioz was back in Paris... ...determined to swing
public opinion his way... ...with a new version of
"Symphonie Fantastique." He relaunched the piece
with a second premiere... ...booking the same hall,
hiring many of the same musicians... ...and then discovering
Harriet Smithson was living nearby. The intervening years
had not been all that kind to Harriet. Shakespeare was now
last year's news... ...and she was no longer the obsession
of the Parisian audience. In fact, she was deeply in debt... ...and struggling
to hold her company together. But Berlioz, ever the romantic,
desperately wanted Harriet there... ...on the opening night
to witness his triumph. He gave her tickets
to the best seats in the house... ...the first loge, right by the stage. Every eye turned toward her
as she entered. In the fourth movement... ...Berlioz begins to reveal
the truly sinister side of his imagination. As he explained in the program notes: The artist, knowing beyond all doubt
that his love is not returned... ...poisons himself with opium. The narcotic plunges him into sleep,
accompanied by the most horrible visions. The first of those horrible visions... ...was the already famous
"March to the Scaffold." It was the first movement
Berlioz had written. He came up with it, he said,
in a single night. He'd already used it
as part of two other pieces... ...and now he revised it in order to
continue the artist's dream. The artist now imagines himself
brought to the scaffold... ...and executed for the murder
of his beloved. The march echoes the sound
of the enormous bands... ...that swarmed through Paris
during the revolution... ...accompanying victims
to the guillotine. The cellos and basses
play a gruff, menacing theme... ...accompanied by one of
Berlioz's favorite noises... ...four baying bassoons. Then comes the main theme
of the movement: The gleeful sound of a military band
escorting the prisoner... ...to the enthusiastic cheers and squeals
of the strings. The low brass make
a mighty proclamation. The music lurches forward... ...representing a prisoner's cart
rushing toward the place of execution. And then in the last instant of his life,
the artist remembers his beloved. There's not even enough time to make it
all the way through her theme. The blade falls,
his head bounces down the steps... ...the drums roll and the crowds roar. The fifth movement,
a Sabbath eve's dream. Of course,
Berlioz means black Sabbath. It takes up where
the fourth movement left off. The artist sees himself in the midst
of a ghastly crowd of spirits... ...sorcerers and monsters
assembled for his funeral. The air is filled with strange groans... ...whispers... ...bursts of laughter... ...shouts and echoes. Suddenly, there's a commotion
as some great personage comes in. Who is it? It's the artist's beloved. Now she's a witch, and her theme
has been transformed and distorted... ...into a spiteful parody of itself. Shrill clarinets and piccolos
squeak the tune... ...in the form of a merry,
mocking dance. A vast church bell begins
to chime the traditional peal of death. Three rings, pause. Three rings, pause. Three rings, pause. Then unison bassoons and tubas
bark out the Dies Irae... ...the traditional chant sung at funerals,
"day of wrath." It's great to play the role
of the bad guy or the villain... ...to scare or show your teeth... ...or just provide
that certain amount of grit. Originally, "Symphonie Fantastique"
was written for an instrument... ...that's a predecessor of the tuba
called the ophicleide... ...and it's a cross between a bassoon
and a saxophone with a mouthpiece. And it didn't make it as an instrument. Soon after "Symphonie Fantastique"... ...the valve was invented, in 1835... ...and it really changed everything
about brass instruments... ...and that was the end of the ophicleide. The orchestra divides into teams... ...that seem to enact
some kind of sinister ritual. The brass intone the Dies Irae... ...the squeaky winds and pizzicato strings
a kind of up-tempo parody of it. All the while, the deep bell keeps tolling. And then, big surprise... ...the groaning theme from
the beginning of the movement... ...which had been transformed into
that shriek at the end of the Dies Irae... ...now is transformed
into a merry black Sabbath dance... ...which suddenly becomes the object of,
of all things, a fugue. One can imagine that after
Berlioz's torturous experience... ...writing fugues
at the Prix de Rome competition... ...this form may have come to represent
for him the ultimate vision of hell. The music whips itself into a frenzy,
combining all the themes at once... ...as it bears the soul of the helpless artist
on to his damnation. His beloved looks over
the scene, gloating. "Hector is going to hell! Hector is going to hell!" Now, imagine all this
from Harriet's perspective. The audience erupted in applause,
and she, at last she had realized... ...what everyone else in Paris
had known for years: That "Symphonie Fantastique"
was about her. She was the artist's idée fixe. She was Berlioz's adored one. She agreed to receive him. And then the real drama began. Hector and Harriet
started to act out in real life... ...what "Symphonie Fantastique"
had only imagined. He began to call on her. They spoke to one another haltingly
in their different languages... ...but gradually, Harriet came
to understand that Berlioz really loved her. She was overwhelmed, but indecisive. One day, not paying any attention,
she got out of a carriage... ...fell, badly breaking her ankle. Now she was even more vulnerable,
and still indecisive. And then Berlioz
did something desperate... ...to force her to make a decision. He produced from his pocket a vial. It contained a lethal dose of opium... ...and right there before her,
he swallowed the whole thing. She became hysterical
and avowed again and again... ...that she would marry him. Then he produced, conveniently,
from another pocket... ...the antidote to the opium
and swallowed that. He was sick for days, but he survived. Finally, she consented. They were married at the British Embassy
in Paris on October 3rd, 1833. Franz Liszt was their best man. It had been six years
since Hector had first laid eyes on her. For several years,
they lived happily together. They had a son, Louis... ...and Berlioz worked very hard
to relaunch his wife's career... ...pay off her debts and use their love
to go on inspiring his own work... ...but it was hard. The fickle fashions of Paris
had moved on. Nobody cared very much anymore
about their grand passion... ...or about Miss Smithson's
style of acting. She became jealous, a recluse. Ultimately, she and Berlioz separated,
but he never abandoned her. He always took care of her... ...and even after her death, he recognized
that she was the inspiration... ...of his artistic breakthrough. They were buried together
at the cemetery in Montmartre. With "Symphonie Fantastique,"
Berlioz stepped into his artistic maturity. The daring of his musical imagination
was soaring. He'd become who he wanted to be: Hector Berlioz,
composer, artist, impresario, master. Best of all,
his dreams were still largely intact... ...and every time he raised his baton... ...and heard the opening notes
of the symphony... ...somewhere inside himself,
he was still in touch... ...with the feelings of the little boy who,
all those years ago... ...had sung his melancholy romance. It's the story of an artist's life. A life of dreams, ecstasies... ...and finally, of complete despair. "Symphonie Fantastique"... ...performed by Michael Tilson Thomas
and the San Francisco Symphony. Poor Hector Berlioz... ...obsessed with a beautiful woman
who had no idea he existed. But he translated his pent-up passions
into "Symphonie Fantastique"... ...one of the great romantic symphonies. He called his symphony
the story of an artist's life. In fact, it's a psychological self-portrait. His mood swings
are blown up to a size... ...suitable for the truly inspired
egomaniac that he was. It's grand, it's extravagant
and scored for a huge orchestra... ...as you'll see in this
San Francisco Symphony performance... ...from our home right here
at Davies Symphony Hall.
