Hector Berlioz

The discovery of tone colour as an independent, central creative tool is probably the most important innovation in the work of Hector Berlioz (1803 – 1869). His special tonal imagination led him almost automatically to orchestral music, which he influenced profoundly not only through his works, but also through his treatise on instrumentation. In its revision by Richard Strauss, it represents the much-used standard work in this field, without which the development of the modern orchestra would be inconceivable.

Looking back, Berlioz saw his life as an “improbable novel”. Indeed, it was an adventurous ups and downs between intense love affairs, great successes and professional disasters, almost always accompanied by financial worries. The composer came from a small village at the foot of the French Alps and was actually supposed to become a doctor like his father. However, Berlioz gave up his half-hearted medical studies in 1826 to devote himself entirely to music. In 1830, he created his masterpiece, the ‘Symphonie fantastique’, which was premiered in December of the same year. In this symphony, Berlioz sweeps aside numerous genre conventions previously considered untouchable and introduces a poetic, narrative style of enormous vividness and dramatic impact into the music.

After the ‘Symphonie fantastique’, Berlioz received a series of honourable commissions. His artistic concepts remained on the borderline between absolute music and musical narrative. He enjoyed considerable success with newly conceived symphonic works such as ‘Harold en Italie’ and ‘Roméo et Juliette’ as well as the Requiem. In contrast, his literary, ambitious artist's opera ‘Benvenuto Cellini’, which is at odds with conventional operatic dramaturgy, failed spectacularly and was only performed three times. Ultimately, Berlioz was unable to make a name for himself as a musician, particularly in Paris, and so throughout his life he had to rely on his income from bread-and-butter jobs as a journalist - who was able to write brilliantly - and as a librarian. From 1835, he also worked as a conductor, whereby Berlioz primarily appeared as an advocate for his own compositions.

In the course of the 1840s, Berlioz’s position in musical life changed. Compared to younger composers such as Liszt and Wagner, who were artistically indebted to him in many respects, the former revolutionary Berlioz seemed downright conservative. During his lifetime, Berlioz was unable to bring his opera ‘Les Troyens’, the central project of his later work, to the stage in accordance with his ideas. However, a heavily abridged version was a great success in 1863. In the 1860s, Berlioz felt increasingly isolated and lost himself in depressive resignation. He died in Paris shortly after returning from a concert tour to Russia on 8 March 1869.