Hector Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and Robert Schumann’s Symphony No. 1, Spring, bring together two contrasting approaches to Romanticism. Amsterdam’s Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, conducted by Klaus Mäkelä, performs the programme at L’Auditori de Barcelona. Berlioz’s symphony unfolds as a musical narrative shaped by the passions, obsessions and visions of its protagonist, while Schumann draws inspiration from the arrival of spring, giving rise to music that is bright and expansive. Together, the works illustrate the symphony orchestra’s narrative possibilities and the contrasting musical languages of the Romantic period.

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Berlioz fell in love with the Irish actress Harriet Smithson after seeing her play Ophelia in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She inspired his Symphonie fantastique, and the two eventually married.
Schumann drafted his First Symphony in just four days, shortly after marrying Clara Wieck. The orchestration took a few more weeks, and Felix Mendelssohn conducted the premiere in Leipzig.
In the Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz even depicts an execution by guillotine. The sound of the blade interrupts the memory of his beloved, and a few notes suggest her head falling.