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.
LONDON SCHOOLS TAKE ON SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE, 10 JANUARY 2024
The London Schools Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Karen Ní Bhroin, will perform Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique (along with music by Rachmaninov & Smyth) at the Barbican on Wednesday January 10 at 7.30pm.
For more details please click here.
LPO TO PLAY SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE, JANUARY 24 2024
The London Philharmonic Orchestra under Ryan Bancroft are to perform Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at the Royal Festival Hall, London on January 24, 2024 at 7.30pm (along with Tchaikovsky's First Piano Concerto). For further information and to buy tickets, please click here.
STRASBOURG PHILHARMONIC TO PLAY LE CARNAVAL ROMAIN AT CADOGAN HALL, FEBRUARY 13 2024
The Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra - famed for its Berlioz cycle under American conductor John Nelson - is scheduled to perform Berlioz's swashbuckling Carnaval Romain Overture under conductor Marko Letonja at a concert at London's Cadogan Hall on February 13, 2024 at 7.30pm ( programme also includes works by Rachmaninov, Franck and Ravel).
For further information and details about booking tickets, please click here.
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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 2023 - MYTHIQUE!
Please click on the box below to read Christopher Follett's review of this year's Festival.
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).