BERLIOZ IN CONCERT WITH DAVID NICE
David Nice has been running Thursday Zoom courses on orchestral, instrumental and chamber music since 2020 - four on Russian music, one apiece on Czech, Hungarian, Finnish (mostly Sibelius), Danish (mostly Nielsen), two on Mahler and the latest on Bernstein.
The next course, starting on 18 April, is devoted to Berlioz. David has covered Les Troyens and Benvenuto Cellini previously in his Monday Opera course, but now thinks it is high time to deal with the great concert scores of the greatest orchestrator and original thinker.
The course runs for 10 Thursdays on Zoom, 2.30-4.30pm, starting 18 April 2024. For details please click the box below.
CBSO TO PERFORM DAMNATION OF FAUST IN BIRMINGHAM, 13 APRIL 2024
The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, conductor Kazuki Yamada, will perform Berlioz's La Damnation de Faust at Symphony Hall, Birmingham, on April 13, 2024 at 7pm. Soloists: Pene Pati (tenor), Grace Durham (Mezzo-soprano), Nahuel di Pierro (baritone) & Jonathan Lemalu (bass), CBSO Choir & Choruses. For more information and ticket details please click here.
RUSTIONI AND BBCSO TO PLAY SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE AT THE BARBICAN,
19 APRIL 2024
Daniele Rustioni will conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at the Barbican on April 19 at 7.30pm (also including works by Pepin and Poulenc). For more information including ticket details, please click here.
FESTIVAL BERLIOZ 2024
The annual Festival Berlioz will be held at La Côte-Saint-André, near Grenoble, south-east France, from 17 August to 1 September 2024. Full details of the programme and booking will be published on www.festivalberlioz.com on April 25.
BBCSO TO PERFORM L'ENFANCE DU CHRIST AT THE BARBICAN, 13 DECEMBER 2023
Andrew Davis will conduct the BBC Symphony Orchestra in a performance of Berlioz's oratorio "L'Enfance du Christ" at the Barbican Concert Hall on December 13 at 7.30pm. For more details please click here.
PAPPANO/LSO TO PLAY SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE & LE CORSAIRE OVERTURE AT THE BARBICAN, 22 MAY 2025
Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra will play on a (largely) Berlioz programme at the Barbican on May 22 2025 at 7pm, featuring the overture Le Corsaire and the Symphonie fantastique. For more details please click here.
FESTIVAL BERLIOZ 2023 - MYTHIQUE!
Please click on the box below to read Christopher Follett's review of this year's Festival.
NEW HANDBOOK ON SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE BY JULIAN RUSHTON
Julian Rushton, editor of the Society Bulletin and author of the excellent Cambridge Music Handbook on Roméo et Juliette, has written a handbook on the Symphonie fantastique. This book will be published in November and as an introductory offer will be offered with a 20% discount. Details are given below.
THE TROJANS IN NOTTINGHAM
Nottingham Music Hub have just released a performance of the Act 1 finale to Berlioz’s epic 5 act opera The Trojans.
This dramatic scene of the famous wooden horse being brought into Troy was recorded live last week at Nottingham Music Hub’s Great Orchestra Experiment and performed by the Robin Hood Youth Orchestra with hundreds of year 4 city children and featuring Helena Payne as Cassandra.
We are sharing this performance to celebrate the energy, commitment and sense of drama our young musicians have brought to this masterpiece.
NEW PUBLISHER FOR MEMOIRS AUDIOBOOK
The audiobook of the complete and unexpurgated Memoirs of Berlioz, using the classic translation by our President, David Cairns and read by the esteemed actor Malcolm Sinclair, is now available for just £15 from exciting new online publisher Spiracle: please click here for more details, and to purchase. The audiobook is available through many other outlets but Spiracle offer the Society the best royalties, so you would be helping both of us by purchasing through this channel.
This is a splendid chance to treat a fellow Berliozian, or to make new converts!
"DISCOVERING BERLIOZ" BY DAVID CAIRNS OUT ON TOCCATA PRESS
"Discovering Berlioz - Essays, Reviews, Talks" - the new, 400-page book on Berlioz by Society President David Cairns is now out and available (price £39.50) on Toccata Press, London.
For further details please click here.
PETER BLOOM'S NEW ANNOTATIONS FOR BERLIOZ MÉMOIRES PUBLISHED
French publisher Vrin has announced the publication of U.S. Professor Emeritus Peter Bloom's fresh annotations to Berlioz's Mémoires, a major 900-page project supported in part by the Berlioz Society. A compendious work by a leading Berliozian scholar, casting fascinating new light on the Memoirs. In French.
MÉMOIRES D'HECTOR BERLIOZ DE 1803 À 1865, ET SES VOYAGES EN ITALIE, EN ALLEMAGNE, EN RUSSIE ET EN ANGLETERRE ÉCRIT PAR LUI-MÊME
Price 49€ - For more information please click here.
CONCERT MONSTRE - PERFORMANCE FILMED
24 June 2019 saw five hundred artists on stage at the Philharmonie de Paris, performing the Funeral and Triumphal Symphony under the direction of François-Xavier Roth.
To watch, please click here. Thanks to Jim Hart for sending the link.
BERLIOZ LETTERS PUBLISHED BY ACTES SUD
The long-awaited ninth volume of the Correspondance générale - entitled "New Letters by Berlioz, his family and contemporaries" - has appeared - with some 300 hitherto unpublished letters - as a continuation of the initial eight volumes published by Flammarion under the editorial supervision of the late Pierre Citron. This latest volume is published by Actes Sud and the Palazzetto Bru Zane, with support from the Association nationale Hector Berlioz, the Musée Hector Berlioz, the Festival Berlioz, Smith College USA and the Fondation d'entreprise La Poste.
This collection is available in French only.
Nouvelles lettres de Berlioz, de sa famille, de ses contemporains
Peter Bloom, Joël-Marie Fauquet, Hugh J. Macdonald, Cécile Reynaud (Editors)
Published by Actes Sud / Palazzetto Bru Zane, 792 pages, price 30 € (available from Musée Hector Berlioz - price includes postage and packing).