[SACD-R][OF] Berlioz - Symphonie Fantastique (London Symphony Orchestra, Sir Eugene Goossens) (King International KKC-4026) - 1959/2014 (Classical)

foobar2000 v2.25.2 / DR Meter v1.0.1
log date: 2025-10-27 06:48:07
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Analyzed: London Symphony Orchestra & Sir Eugene Goossens, Conductor / Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
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DR         Peak           RMS       Duration Track
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DR15      -6.31 dBFS   -28.90 dBFS     13:18 01-Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14 - I. Dreams, Passions
DR13     -10.02 dBFS   -28.77 dBFS      5:53 02-II. A Ball
DR16      -8.90 dBFS   -34.57 dBFS     17:11 03-III. Scene in the Fields
DR14      -6.26 dBFS   -25.13 dBFS      4:50 04-IV. March to the Scaffold
DR13      -6.35 dBFS   -26.63 dBFS     10:24 05-V. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath
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Number of tracks:  5
Official DR value: DR14
Samplerate:        88200 Hz
Channels:          2
Bits per sample:   1
Bitrate:           5645 kbps
Codec:             DSD64
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Hector Berlioz composed his autobiographical Episode in the Life of an Artist in the spring of 1830, while he was still a student at the Paris Conservatory. The work is in two parts: the Symphonie Fantastique and Lélio, or The Return to Life, a "lyric monodrama." Orchestrally, Berlioz was years ahead of his time when he wrote the Symphonie Fantastique. He set the pattern for imaginative and brilliant orchestral sounds that seem more valid in the twentieth century than in the nineteenth. How the composer would have revelled if he could have heard the perfect fidelity with which his advanced ideas have been reproduced on Everest Records. This is a miracle of sound beyond even the far-seeing mind of Berlioz.
There were two underlying factors which caused the romantic young Berlioz to write his Fantastic Symphony. The first was his recent acquaintance with Goethe's Faust, which he had read in a French translation. Two years earlier, he had composed Eight Scenes from Faust (an unsuccessful work, parts of which were later used in his dramatic oratorio The Damnation of Faust) and a Faust ballet.
The second — and more important — influence behind the composition of the symphony was Berlioz's uncontrollable passion for the Irish actress, Henrietta Smithson. He had first seen her in 1827, when she appeared with an English company in Shakespeare's Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet, and he had immediately fallen head over heels in love with her. Miss Smithson, on the other hand, not only had never met her admirer but had not even heard of his existence. In an attempt to attract her attention, Berlioz, at great personal expense, arranged and presented a concert of his own works at the conservatory. But the lady of his dreams was occupied elsewhere and knew nothing of the event. Then he began bombarding her with letters until, becoming alarmed, she ordered her maid to refuse to accept any more when they were delivered. Finally he wrote the symphony as a last great outpouring of his emotions.
In the meantime, Berlioz had won the prix de Rome for his Cantata Sardanapale. Before departing for Italy for the year of residence, study and work which the award carries with it, he arranged a concert at the Conservatory, at which the cantata and the Symphonie Fantastique were given their premieres. The concert, which took place on December 5, 1830, was conducted by Francois Habeneck, and was a great success. Once again, however, Miss Smithson did not attend. At a second performance, also conducted by Habeneck at the Conservatory, on December 9, 1832, she did make her appearance; but she was the only member of the audience who, by this time, did not know that it was she who was the central figure of the symphony's program. When she came to realize the truth, she met the composer, and the two were ultimately married. By this time, however, her popularity had waned, and she had lost her graceful carriage as the result of an accident. Unfortunately, the story does not have a happy ending; the marriage did not work out successfully. The two were separated, and Mme. Berlioz died in poverty in Montmartre in March, 1854. The following October, Berlioz remarried.
When the score of the Fantastic Symphony was published in 1845, it carried the following program notes by the composer: "A young musician of unhealthily sensitive natúre and endowed with vivid imagination has poisoned himself with opium in a paroxysm of lovesick despair. The narcotic dose he had taken was too weak to cause death, but it has thrown him into a long sleep accompanied by the most extraordinary visions In this condition his sensations, his feelings, and his memories find utterance in his sick brain in the form of musical imagery. Even the Beloved One takes the form of a melody in his mind. like a fixed idea which is ever returning.
"I. Dreams, Passions. At first he thinks of the uneasy and nervous condition of his mind, of sombre longings, of depression and joyous elation without any recognizable cause, which he experienced before the Beloved One had appeared to him. Then he remembers the ardent love with which she suddenly inspired him; he thinks of his almost insane anxiety of mind, of his raging jealousy, of his reawakening love, of his religious consolation.
"II. A Ball. In a ballroom, amidst the confusion of a brilliant festival, he finds the Beloved One again.
"III. Scene in the Fields. It is a summer evening. He is in the country, musing, when he hears two shepherd lads who play, in alternation, the ranz des vaches (the tune used by the Swiss shepherds to call their flocks). This pastoral duet, the quiet scene, the soft whisperings of the trees stirred by the zephyr-wind, some prospects of hope recently made known to him, all these sensations unite to impart a long unknown repose to his heart and to lend a smiling color to his imagination. And then She appears once more. His heart stops beating, painful forebortings fill his soul. 'Should She prove false to him!" One of the shepherds resumes the melody, but the other answers him no more... Sunset... distant rolling of thunder... loneliness... silence...
"IV. March to the Scaffold. He dreams that he murdered his Beloved, that he has been condemned to death and is being led to execution. A march that is alternately sombre and wild, brilliant and solemn, accompanies the procession.... The tumultuous outbursts are followed without modulation by measured steps. The fixed idea returns for a moment a last thought of love is revived—which is cut short by the death-blow.
"V. Dream of a Witches' Sabbath. He dreams that he is present at a witches' revel, surrounded by horrible spirits, amidst sorcerers and monsters in many fearful forms, who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, shrill laughter, distant yells, which other cries seem to answer. The Beloved Melody is heard again, but it has lost its shy and noble character; it has become a vulgar, trivial, grotesque dance tune. She it is who comes to attend the witches' meeting. Riotous howls and shouts greet her arrival.... She joins the infernal orgy... bells toll for the dead... a burlesque parody of the Dies irae... the Witches' round dance... The dance and the Dies irae are heard together."
As a number of commentators have pointed out, Berlioz made his program to fit the music, not vice versa, as is usually the case. Most of the music for the Symphonie Fantastique was compiled from his earlier compositions. First of all, the idée fixe — the "fixed idea" — which is the theme of the Beloved One, was originally written for an earlier love, Estelle Gautier. It may be noted that Berlioz started his love affairs at an early age; Mlle. Gautier was eighteen, but the composer was only twelve! This theme was also used in a student cantata Hermione. The March to the Scaffold was taken in its entirety from Berlioz's unfinished opera Les Francs Juges (The Judges of the Secret Court), which also yielded the music for the Scene in the Fields. A Ball and The Witches' Sabbath are believed to have stemmed from his Faust ballet.
Since Berlioz was among the more romantic of the romantic school of composers, it is not surprising that he should have affixed such an elaborate program to his symphony. For he was not only interested in attracting the attention of Henrietta Smithson, he wanted to attract the public as well. In his admirable program notes on the Fantastic Symphony for the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra, Alfred Frankenstein calls Berlioz "one of the best publicity agents in history," and his programmatic outline for the symphony "his longest and most elaborate press-release."
Notes by PAUL AFFELDER