Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique

Conducted by Maddie-Melville Smith, the orchestra will perform Berlioz' Symphonie Fantastique.

Composed in 1830 and premiered at the Paris Conservatoire, Symphonie Fantastique remains one of the most iconic pieces of classical music. This piece remains the finest example of programme music, and marks a shift in the way composers wrote romantic music. Berlioz composed this piece in five movements, with each movement portraying a different dramatic episode of his life falling in love and losing his life. In the first movement, he falls head over heels in love with an actress (based on his actual wife), and the music accentuates a rhythmic heartbeat throughout signifying his love. By movement four, chaos ensues and his character is beheaded, which can be head by the sudden falling crotchets. We arrive at the fifth and final movement titled the Witches Sabbath, depicting an eerie afterlife.

This concert is fully student lead and performed.…