SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE AT THE BBC PROMS, 22 JULY 2025
On Tuesday July 22 at 7.30pm, the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Anja Bihlmaier will be performing Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at the Proms at London's Royal Albert Hall. Booking starts on May 17 online: royalalberthall.com, telephone 020 7070 4441.
FESTIVAL BERLIOZ 2025, 21 TO 31 AUGUST
This year's Festival Berlioz will be held in La Côte-Saint-André, the composer's birthplace in south-east France, from August 21-31. Entitled À la vie, à la mort (To Life, to Death) the festival spans an impressive 19 concerts, the main venues being the local hilltop château, medieval La Halle market place and the downtown church (scene of Berlioz's baptism); the programme includes key Berlioz works notably the Requiem (La Grande Messe des morts), Harold en Italie Symphony, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, Symphonie fantastique and its sequel Lélio (conductor Maxime Pascal), a concert featuring extracts from the Romeo and Juliette renderings of Berlioz, Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev and Bernstein and four concerts in the church with the focus on Berlioz's Mélodies (including Les Nuits d'été).
For further information and online bookings, please click here.
BERLIOZ 150 TRANSFERS TO THE BERLIOZ SOCIETY
Berlioz 150 was set up to mark the 150th anniversary in 2019 of Berlioz's death, with the vision of “inspiring young people with a lifelong love of music and singing”. The charity has now been closed, and its work and assets transferred to the Berlioz Society.
For more details please click the heading BERLIOZ 150 on the menu above.
LSO TO DELIVER SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE AT HALF SIX FIX AT BARBICAN, 21 MAY 2025
Antonio Pappano and LSO will perform Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique at the Barbican at an early evening Half Six Fix concert with presentation by conductor at the Barbican on May 21 at 6.30pm. For tickets and 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.
SYMPHONIE FANTASTIQUE AT ALDEBURGH FESTIVAL, 29 JUNE 2025
As the climax of the Aldeburgh Festival, the London Symphony Orchestra, chief conductor Antonio Pappano, is to perform Berlioz's Le Corsaire Overture and the Symphonie fantastique in Snape Maltings Concert Hall, Snape, Suffolk on Sunday June 29 at 5pm.
For further information, including ticket purchase, please click here.
TE DEUM IN GLOUCESTER CATHEDRAL, 5 JULY 2025
As part of this year's Cheltenham Music Festival, Berlioz's Te Deum will be performed in Gloucester Cathedral on Saturday July 5 by the South Cotswold Big Sing Group, Cathedral Choristers, mezzo Sarah Connolly, tenor Liam Bonthrone and the British Sinfonietta, conductor Adrian Partington.
There will be a pre-concert talk in the Lady Chapel at 6.30pm, and the concert starts in the Cathedral at 7.30pm. For tickets and further information, please click here or ring 01242 850270.
TE DEUM AT THE ROYAL ALBERT HALL, 13 JULY 2025
The Vivace Chorus and three other choral societies will sing Berlioz's Te Deum, together with Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloé Suite No. 2 and Poulenc’s Gloria with soloists tenor Nicky Spence and soprano Lucy Crowe, and the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, under the baton of Jeremy Backhouse at the Royal Albert Hall, at 7.30pm on Sunday 13 July 2025.
For more details and to buy tickets, please click here.
SCOTTISH CHAMBER ORCHESTRA MARKS CHRISTMAS WITH L'ENFANCE DU CHRIST
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra & Chorus, conductor Maxim Emelyanychev, is to perform Berlioz's L'Enfance du Christ:
in Edinburgh's Usher Hall at 7.30pm on November 27; and
in Glasgow's City Halls at 7.30pm on November 28.
Soloists: Andrew Staples, Paula Murrihy, Roderick Williams.
For further information please click here.
MAJOR INTERNATIONAL BERLIOZ SYMPOSIUM AT LYON, ST ETIENNE UNIVERSITIES, 19-21 MARCH 2026
'What Berlioz heard - Orchestral sounds and practices at the crossroads of the 18th & 19th centuries' - is the subject of a major international symposium on Berlioz at the universities of Lyon and St Étienne from March 19 to 21 2026.
Further detailed information is available from Céline Cerenco (celine.cerenco@univ-lyon2.fr) and/or Matthieu Cailliez (matthieu.cailliez@univ-st-st-etienne.fr). Please also see the document below.
SAD NEWS: LEADING BERLIOZ CONDUCTOR JOHN NELSON DIES AT AGE OF 83
The American conductor John Nelson, Grammy Award winner and leading authority on the music of Berlioz has died at the age of 83. In recent years Nelson conducted the Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra in a whole series of acclaimed recordings for Erato of major Berlioz works notably Les Troyens (with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato as Didon), Michael Spyres (tenor) as Énée and Marie-Nicole Lemieux (contralto) as Cassandre, Les Nuits d'été with Spyres and Tim Ridout (viola) in Harold en Italie, Damnation de Faust with Spyres as Faust, DiDonato as Marguerite and Nicolas Courjal as Méphistophélès and Roméo et Juliette and Cléopâtre with DiDonato, Cyrille Dubois (tenor) and Christopher Maltman (baritone). In addition there is a fine recording of the Grande Messe des Morts with the Philharmonia in St Paul's Cathedral in London, with Spyres singing the Sanctus. It is much regretted that Nelson was not to complete his survey of the Berlioz repertoire, as he was in many ways the successor of Colin Davis in his championing of his œuvre.
FESTIVAL BERLIOZ 2024
Please see attached a report on Festival Berlioz 2024 at La Côte-Saint-André by Alastair Aberdare.
Please click on the box below to download the document in PDF and Microsoft Word format. Please note that in the PDF version some of the images are, for some technical reason, not fully visible.
REBUILD OF FAÇADE OF BERLIOZ’S ONE-TIME RESIDENCE IN LONDON DUE FOR COMPLETION IN DECEMBER
The rebuild and refurbishment of the elegant 18th century Grade 11-listed town house in London’s Marylebone quarter - 58 Queen Anne Street W1 - in which Berlioz and Marie Recio lodged in 1851, started last October and is due for completion in December this year. The façade of the building – dating from 1774 - collapsed dramatically into the street in July 2021 after the first floor balcony subsided.
Berlioz stayed in the house from May-July 1851 during his second visit to London as member of the international jury assessing musical instruments at the Great Exhibition in nearby Hyde Park. It is the only one of several abodes during his five visits to London between 1847 and 1855, still extant. An impressive blue plaque adorns the front entrance to the house which at the time of Berlioz’s stay hosted concerts by the Beethoven Quartet Society as mentioned in the composer’s Les Soirées de l’Orchestre. It was owned at that time by Adolphe Duchêne de Vère, an active supporter of Berlioz; his English wife Isabelle Ann Hood, was a close friend of Marie Recio.
The restoration project involves the refurbishment of the interior office floors, the replacement of a rear extension as well as a ‘reinstatement’ of the front façade.
Christopher Follett
BERLIOZ150
Berlioz150 was set up to mark the 150th anniversary in 2019 of the death of the composer, with the vision of inspiring young people with a lifelong love of music and singing.
The schools project branded Fantastique! creates free downloadable learning resources for schoolchildren aged 8-13 based on Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique for delivery online or in the classroom.
For more information about Berlioz150, please click here.
GRANDE SYMPHONIE FUNÈBRE ET TRIOMPHALE: Rattle · Berliner Philharmoniker 2013
A recording of the Berlin Philharmonic performing the Grande Symphonie funèbre et triomphale under Sir Simon Rattle, recorded at the Gala Concert "50 years of the Philharmonie" on 20 October 2013, can be viewed by registering on the orchestra's website, which offers seven days' free viewing.
To register and access the video, please click here.
RICHARD MACNUTT
We report with sadness the death of Richard Macnutt, on 30 April, at the age of 88. He had been unwell for some time and was much missed at the Society’s meetings in the last few years. Richard was passionate about Berlioz, and unostentatiously contributed a very great amount to modern research. Hugh Macdonald reminds us his energy and determination were instrumental in setting up and administering the New Berlioz Edition; Hugh said that without him it might never have been launched. Richard prepared a thorough revision of Cecil Hopkinson’s definitive Bibliography of Hector Berlioz and published it himself (Tunbridge Wells: Richard Macnutt Ltd, 1980); he contributed to the Society’s Bulletin; and he published an article on the vexed question of the Berlioz forgeries, identifying no fewer than 155. He traded in second-hand books and music, and was himself a collector; he donated several rare items to the Bibliothèque nationale.
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 was published in November 2023 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).