RCHUMS 250 Chapter Notes - Chapter 15: Hector Berlioz, Conservatoire De Paris, Symphonie Fantastique
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Vienna is still important, but paris (by 1830) has emerged as an international artistic and cultural center opera (major genre, lured italian composers), spoken theatre, literary tradition (hugo, dumas), visual arts, ballet. The predominant features of my music are passionate expression, inner intensity, rhythmic animation, and a quality of unexpectedness. I mean an expression bent on reproducing the inner meaning of its subject, even when that subject is the opposite of passion, and the feelings to be expressed are gentle and tender. To perform [my works] well, every concerned, especially the conductor, must feel as i feel. This requires a combination of irresistible verve and extreme precision, a controlled vehemence, a dreamlike sensitivity, an almost morbid melancholy, without which the essential character of my phrases is falsified or even destroyed. I generally find it extremely painful to hear my works conducted by someone other than myself.
