The Philharmonic Orchestra (Singapore), formerly the Philharmonic Chamber Orchestra is a project initiated by Lim Yau in 1998. The orchestra comprises of young adults who are committed to the study and performance of seminal orchestral literature.
With Lim Yau at the helm, TPO distinguishes itself as an orchestra that delves deeply and whole-heartedly into the composers that shape the evolution of the western symphony. It has received critical acclaim for performances of the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Schumann, Brahms and Haydn. In 2008, TPO became the first Singaporean orchestra to perform the complete Sibelius symphonies. 2012 marked another milestone when TPO was joined by acclaimed pianist Lim Yan in performing the complete piano concertos by
Beethoven, the first in Singapore to feature a Singaporean pianist.
In bringing its music to a wider audience, TPO works frequently with actors and presenters to explore theatrical elements to create accessible concert formats for new audiences. A crowning highlight in TPO’s community outreach is its collaboration with contemporary dance group The ARTS FISSION Company and Esplanade Theatres by the Bay, presenting inter-generational symphonic dance-theatre productions - The Rite of Spring: A People’s Stravinsky in 2013, The Mazu Chronicle in 2015 and garden•uprooted in 2018.
Since 2011, TPO has presented the ever-popular annual New Year’s Eve Countdown Concerts, which continues to be a cherished fixture in the Singapore concert calendar. Born of its early activities as a pit orchestra, TPO has been the collaborative orchestra of choice by the Singapore Dance
A graduate of the Royal Northern College of Music, UK (Bachelor and Master Degrees in Cello Performance) and Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (Specialist Diploma in Orchestral Conducting), Juan is a highly sought-after orchestral musician, regularly freelancing with the Singapore Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, and re:Sound Chamber Orchestra. He also appears regularly as Principal Cellist with the Singapore Lyric Opera Orchestra and The Philharmonic Orchestra.
As an active chamber musician, Juan has most notably collaborated with Ding Yi Music Company, Red Dot Baroque, Incursion Trio, and since 2022 was appointed cellist of the Concordia Quartet.
With the belief that education is a natural part of a musician’s life, Juan is Lecturer at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts (NAFA), teaching cello and conducting its orchestra and ensembles. He was Associate Conductor of the Singapore National Youth Orchestra, and conducts the string ensembles of Raffles Institution and Hwa Chong Institution.
Juan is proud to be Resident Conductor of The Philharmonic Orchestra.
During her operatic debut in 2012 as Adina (from L'elisir d'amore), her performance was noted by The Straits Times as the 'Best Debut' of 2012. Since then, she has performed the full roles including Ilia (Idomeneo, Mozart), Mimi (La Boheme, Puccini), Dido (Dido and Aeneas, Purcell), Pamina (Die Zauberflöte, Mozart), Parasha (Mavra, Stravinsky), Rosalinda (Die Fledermaus, J. Strauss), the Governess (Turn of the Screw, Britten), and Eurydice (Orpheus in the Underworld, Offenbach).
In 2019, Xiang Ting made her debut in Switzerland at the Theatres of Biel and Solothurn singing the roles of Belinda and the First Witch in Dido and Aeneas (Purcell), to critical acclaim. Recent engagements also include Norina in Don Pasquale (Donizetti) with The Arts Place in Singapore, during which her performance of Norina received special mention in The Straits’ Times Best Classical Concerts of 2019.
Also an avid lover of the song and concert repertoire, Xiang Ting performs regularly in recitals. Her oratorio performances include the soprano soloist in Mozart’s Requiem, Mozart’s Vesperae solennes de confessore, Handel’s L’allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato, Handel’s Messiah, Brahms’ Requiem, Haydn’s Creation, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Haydn’s Little Organ Mass, Gounod’s Messe solennelle de Sainte Cécile, Mahler’s 4th Symphony and Vivaldi’s Gloria.
Labels and accolades aside, Xiang Ting believes that this musical journey has always been about much more than just the beautiful voice. Singing lessons are life lessons, regardless of aptitude or wherever you are in this journey. She believes that this applies to all musical learning, and she is looking forward to sharing with you some of the things she has discovered in her own journey.
* NAFA Musician Musicians from violin, viola, cello and double bass sections are listed in alphabetical order.
Violin 1
Edward Tan, Albert Phang
Concertmaster
Cheryl Ho Erlyn Alexander* Kathleen Koh Koh Cheng Ya* Lim Shue Churn
Regina Angelita Setiawan* Vivienne Poh* Yamakawa Sakura* Yap Qin* Ye Zhi Zhang Chunsheng*
Violin 2 Andrea Lin, Alyssa Loh*
Principal
Chua Jia Min Hong Yaw Chang Nadine Ng Oliver Ng*
Saenghaengfah Tosakul* Vanessa Caralyn Tan Victoria Sok Xu Nuo* Zhu Zunzun*
Martin Peh, Chen Tian* Dean Asalie Fan Ruilin Ivan Goh
Principal
Jonathan Francis Koh Leon Lai* Marissa Yee Natasha Lee* Shen Huo* Teh Chia Hui* Thantakorn Lakanasirorat*
Viola Cello Ryan Sim, Chee Jun Sian Elton Teo* Isaac Tah Koh Xuan Wen* Li Yiyang Sharon Ham Tan Xiao Rong Tang Ya Yun
Principal
Double Bass Li Yongrui, Chee Jun Hong Chen Xueer*
Principal
* NAFA Musician
Musicians from violin, viola, cello and double bass sections are listed in alphabetical order.
Koh Yi Ling, Tizane*
Kuek Jia Xin*
Lim Roo Yee*
Richmond Lip
Flute
Jasper Goh
Fu Junxin*
Oboe
Leow Rui Qing
Huang Xingyang*
Clarinet
Benjamin Wong
Natalie Gail* Bassoon
Emerald Tan
Tan Kuo Cheang
Ma Bohao
Lim Sze Ai
Trumpet
Lee Jinjun
Hanns Tan
Cornet
Alvin Quek
Achim Lindt
Horn Christopher Shen
Kartik Alan Jairamin
Harsharon Kaur
Michelle Lim*
Joey Aston Lim*
Trombone
Don Kow
Toh Chang Hui
Martin Ong*
Tuba
Gordon Low Koh Yu Xuan*
Timpani
Sng Yiang Shan
Gordon Tan Orathai Singhaart Vareck Ng
Percussion
Gordon Tan
Tan Sheng Rong*
Vareck Ng Ng Chen Yee
Harp
Sarah Wong
Lim Qi Qin*
(To Libretto/Text of poems)
“Berlioz represents the romantic musical idea... unexpected effects in sound, tumultuous and Shakespearean depth of passion.”
— Théophile Gautier
Early 19th century French culture was dominated by literature and opera, and a young Hector Berlioz was swiftly enamoured with contemporary stagings at the Paris Opéra and OpéraComique, particularly the works of Gluck. Many of Berlioz’s own works were also written for voice and orchestra, or arranged from his many other works for voice and piano.
From his neighbour and friend Théophile Gautier, Berlioz received great admiration, as well early access to a collection of
poems - La comédie de la mort (The Comedy of Death). The two had shared an entwined history - 1830 marked the first records of Berlioz’s first symphony (which you will hear later tonight) and Gautier’s poetry. Beside their individually prodigious output, Berlioz as a leading music and opera critic found a spiritual and professional counterpart in Gautier’s professional criticism of ballet, art, and drama.
A selection of six poems from La comédie de la mort was eventually published as a song cycle in summer. Originally written for voice and piano (1841), Les nuits d'été was progressively orchestrated and improved over several years, motivated by enthusiastic audiences and famous singers. One such singer was Marie Recio, for whom Berlioz orchestrated the fourth song Absence in 1843, and who would also become his second wife in 1854. The final orchestrated version you will hear today was published in 1856.
Les nuits d'été, a title likely dreamt up by Berlioz stemming from his love of Shakespeare, is his only song cycle published as a set, amongst an impressive output of vocal scores including dozens of choral works, fourteen works for voice and orchestra, and six operas. The songs' ironic gentleness and intimacy experienced growing popularity in the 20th century.
“Their common theme is nominally love unrequited or lost, symbolising, arguably, an ache for vanished or unattainable beauty. But their musical order is apparently fortuitous, and forms an acceptable, rather than a compulsive, association.”
Allegretto
A celebration of spring and love, a rustic song or dance; pastoral
Quand viendra la saison nouvelle, Quand auront disparu les froids, Tous les deux nous irons, ma belle, Pour cueillir le muguet aux bois ; Sous nos pieds égrenant les perles Que l'on voit au matin trembler, Nous irons écouter les merles Siffler.
Le printemps est venu, ma belle, C'est le mois des amants béni, Et l'oiseau, satinant son aile, Dit des vers au rebord du nid. Oh ! viens donc, sur ce banc de mousse Pour parler de nos beaux amours, Et dis-moi de ta voix si douce : Toujours !
Loin, bien loin, égarant nos courses, Faisons fuir le lapin caché, Et le daim au miroir des sources Admirant son grand bois penché ; Puis chez nous, tout heureux, tout aisés, En paniers enlaçant nos doigts, Revenons, rapportant des fraises Des bois.
When the new season comes, When the cold has vanished, We will both go, my lovely, To gather the lily of the valley. Gathering the pearls underfoot, That one sees shimmering in the morning, We will hear the blackbirds Whistle.
Spring has come, my lovely, It is the month blessed by lovers; And the bird, preening his wing, Speaks verse from the edge of his nest. Oh! come now to this mossy bank To talk of our beautiful love, And say to me in your sweet voice: "Always!"
Far, far away, straying from our path, Causing the hidden rabbit to flee And the deer, in the mirror of the spring Bending to admire his great antlers, Then home, completely happy and at ease, Our hands entwined round the basket, Returning, carrying strawberries From the wood.
Adagio un poco lento et dolce assai The ghost of a rose, as dreamt by a girl
Soulève ta paupière close Qu'effleure un songe virginal ; Je suis le spectre d'une rose Que tu portais hier au bal. Tu me pris, encore emperlée Des pleurs d'argent, de l'arrosoir, Et parmi la fête étoilée Tu me promenas tout le soir.
Ô toi qui de ma mort fus cause, Sans que tu puisses le chasser, Toutes les nuits mon spectre rose À ton chevet viendra danser. Mais ne crains rien, je ne réclame Ni messe ni De profundis :
Ce léger parfum est mon âme, Et j'arrive du paradis.
Mon destin fut digne d'envie: Et pour avoir un sort si beau, Plus d'un aurait donné sa vie, Car sur ton sein j'ai mon tombeau, Et sur l'albâtre où je repose Un poète avec un baiser Écrivit : Ci-gît une rose, Que tous les rois vont jalouser.
Open your closed eyelids Touched by a virginal dream! I am the ghost of a rose That you wore yesterday at the ball. You took me, still pearly With silver tears, from the watering can, And in the starlit party, You carried me all evening.
O you who caused my death Without being able to chase it away Every night my rose-coloured spectre Will dance by your bedside. But fear not, I claim neither Mass nor De profundis (celebration nor misery).
This light scent is my soul And I come from Paradise
My destiny is enviable And to have a fate so beautiful More than one would have given his life; For on your breast I have my tomb, And on the alabaster on which I repose A poet with a kiss Wrote, "Here lies a rose Of which all kings will be jealous."
III. Andantino
Lament of a Venetian boatman for his beloved
Ma belle amie est morte : Je pleurerai toujours Sous la tombe elle emporte Mon âme et mes amours. Dans le ciel, sans m'attendre, Elle s'en retourna ; L'ange qui l'emmena Ne voulut pas me prendre. Que mon sort est amer ! Ah ! sans amour s'en aller sur la mer !
La blanche créature Est couchée au cercueil. Comme dans la nature Tout me paraît en deuil ! La colombe oubliée Pleure et songe à l'absent ; Mon âme pleure et sent Qu'elle est dépareillée ! Que mon sort est amer ! Ah ! sans amour s'en aller sur la mer !
Sur moi la nuit immense S'étend comme un linceul ; Je chante ma romance Que le ciel entend seul. Ah ! comme elle était belle Et comme je l'aimais ! Je n'aimerai jamais Une femme autant qu'elle. Que mon sort est amer ! Ah ! sans amour s'en aller sur la mer !
My beautiful friend is dead, I shall weep always; Under the tomb she has taken My soul and my love. To Heaven, without waiting for me, She has returned; The angel who took her Did not want to take me. How bitter is my fate! Ah! Without love to sail on the sea!
The white creature Lies in a coffin; How in nature Everything seems to me in mourning! The forgotten dove Weeps and dreams of the absent one. My soul weeps and feels That it is deserted! How bitter is my fate! Ah! Without love to sail on the sea!
Over me the vast night Spreads like a shroud. I sing my song That only Heaven hears: Ah! How beautiful she was And how I loved her! I shall never love A woman as much as her... How bitter is my fate! Ah! Without love to sail on the sea!
IV.
Adagio
Pleas for the return of the beloved. Echoes of an abandoned cantata, Erigone
Reviens, reviens, ma bien-aimée ! Comme une fleur loin du soleil, La fleur de ma vie est fermée Loin de ton sourire vermeil.
Entre nos cœurs quelle distance ! Tant d'espace entre nos baisers ! Ô sort amer ! ô dure absence ! Ô grands désirs inapaisés !
Reviens, reviens, ma belle aimée ! Comme une fleur loin du soleil, La fleur de ma vie est fermée Loin de ton sourire vermeil !
D'ici là-bas que de campagnes, Que de villes et de hameaux, Que de vallons et de montagnes, À lasser le pied des chevaux!
Reviens, reviens, ma belle aimée ! Comme une fleur loin du soleil, La fleur de ma vie est fermée Loin de ton sourire vermeil !
Come back, come back, my beloved! Like a flower far from the sun, The flower of my life is closed Far from your bright red smile!
Between our hearts what a distance! So much space between our kisses! O bitter fate! O harsh absence! O great desires unappeased!
Come back, come back, my beautiful beloved! Like a flower far from the sun, The flower of my life is closed Far from your bright red smile!
Between here and there what fields, What towns and hamlets, What valleys and mountains, To tire the hoofs of the horses.
Come back, come back, my beautiful beloved! Like a flower far from the sun, The flower of my life is closed Far from your bright red smile!
Andantino non troppo lento Moonlight at the cemetery
Connaissez-vous la blanche tombe Où flotte avec un son plaintif L'ombre d'un if ? Sur l'if une pâle colombe Triste et seule au soleil couchant, Chante son chant ;
Un air maladivement tendre, À la fois charmant et fatal, Qui vous fait mal, Et qu'on voudrait toujours entendre ; Un air comme en soupire aux cieux L'ange amoureux.
On dirait que l'âme éveillée Pleure sous terre à l'unisson De la chanson, Et du malheur d'être oubliée Se plaint dans un roucoulement Bien doucement.
Sur les ailes de la musique On sent lentement revenir Un souvenir ; Une ombre une forme angélique Passe dans un rayon tremblant, En voile blanc.
Les belles de nuit, demi-closes, Jettent leur parfum faible et doux Autour de vous, Et le fantôme aux molles poses Murmure en vous tendant les bras : Tu reviendras ?
Do you know the white tomb, Where there floats with a plaintive sound The shadow of a yew tree? On the yew a pale dove Sitting sad and alone at sunset, Sings its song:
An air morbidly tender At once charming and deadly, That hurts you And that one would like to hear for ever; An air like the sigh in Heaven Of a loving angel.
One might say that an awakened soul Weeps under the ground in unison With the song, And for the misfortune of being forgotten Complains, cooing Very softly.
On the wings of the music One feels slowly returning A memory.
A shadow, an angelic form Passes in a shimmering ray In a white veil.
The Mirabilis blossom (lit. beauty of the night), half closed, Cast their weak and sweet scent Around you, And the ghost in a gentle pose Murmurs, stretching its arms to you: Will you return?
Oh ! jamais plus, près de la tombe Je n'irai, quand descend le soir Au manteau noir, Écouter la pâle colombe Chanter sur la pointe de l'if Son chant plaintif !
Oh! Never again by the grave Will I go, when evening falls In a black cloak, To hear the pale dove Singing at the top of the yew Its plaintive song.
VI.
Allegro spiritoso
A place where love can be eternal
Dites, la jeune belle, Où voulez-vous aller ? La voile enfle son aile, La brise va souffler.
L'aviron est d'ivoire, Le pavillon de moire, Le gouvernail d'or fin ; J'ai pour lest une orange, Pour voile une aile d'ange, Pour mousse un séraphin.
Dites, la jeune belle, Où voulez-vous aller ?
La voile enfle son aile, La brise va souffler.
Est-ce dans la Baltique ? Dans la mer Pacifique ? Dans l'île de Java ?
Ou bien est-ce en Norvège, Cueillir la fleur de neige, Ou la fleur d'Angsoka ?
Dites, dites, la jeune belle, dites, où voulez-vous aller ?
Menez-moi, dit la belle, À la rive fidèle
Où l'on aime toujours ! Cette rive, ma chère, On ne la connaît guère Au pays des amours.
Où voulez-vous aller ? La brise va souffler.
Tell me, young beauty, Where do you want to go? The sail swells its wing, The breeze begins to blow.
The oar is of ivory, The flag is of moire, The rudder of fine gold; I have for ballast an orange, For sail, an angel's wing For cabin boy, a seraph
Tell me, young beauty, Where do you want to go? The sail swells its wing, The breeze begins to blow.
Is it to the Baltic? To the Pacific Ocean? The isle of Java? Or perhaps to Norway, To pick the snow-flower Or the flower of Angsoka (Ixora)?
Tell me, tell me, young beauty, tell me, where do you want to go?
"Take me," says the beautiful one, "To the faithful shore Where one loves forever!" That shore, my dear, Is almost unknown In the land of love.
Where do you want to go? The breeze begins to blow.
1830 was a tumultuous year for Berlioz and his homeland France, with the composer reportedly completing his Prix-deRome-winning cantata scant moments before the July Revolution broke out. The cantata, his fourth Prix entry, was preceded by the completion of this Symphonie Fantastique, an earth-shattering first symphony (of an eventual four) which “[staggered] the world”.
The political turmoil was to serve as a pale backdrop to Berlioz’s “romantic” life. In 1827, the aspiring conservatoire student had given up a career in medicine (to his family’s chagrin), and shortly after his first Prix attempt, was awestruck by a renowned company’s production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet.
More importantly - he became lovestruck by one Harriet Smithson who played Ophelia. Smithson, against prevailing odds of gender discrimination and establishment of theatre norms, went on to wow and inspire French audiences and artistes with her convincing yet natural acting, playing no small part in subsequent productions of Romeo & Julie, and drumming up public demand for showings of Shakespearean tragedies. Notwithstanding Berlioz’s record in preferring older women, she became his obsession, muse, and idée fixe (fixed idea), “a single pathological preoccupation in an otherwise sound mind”.
Romantic and dramatic distractions aside, one cannot speak of the Symphonie without mentioning Beethoven - at a disastrous 1808 charity concert, his fateful Fifth and programmatic Sixth (Pastoral) symphonies had premiered in a frigid Vienna winter. Coincidentally, 1808 also saw Goethe’s first edition of his magnum opus Faust being published. Twenty years later, a young impressionable Hector Berlioz was introduced to these great masters’ works. The Symphonie (and its composer) became unmistakably infused with the rhythmic brilliance, cyclical elements, and illustrative potential that Beethoven exemplified, combined with Faust’s tragic love, dramatic narcotic use, and pacts with the devil:
A wistful entry - yet, could it be? Echoes of Beethoven’s Fifth, but in an opposite emotion.
A lengthy introduction, a self-borrowed tune Berlioz wrote for a poem he read in his childhood - Je vais donc quitter pour jamais (lit. I will therefore leave forever), expressing an “overwhelming grief of a young heart in the first pangs of a hopeless love.” Notice already the conflicts of four-against-six within the pulse. The beat and harmony never really settling, the melody forever wandering, until…
BA-DUMP! A throbbing heart!? The “double idée fixe” i.e. the beloved appears! It or she will keep returning to torment the protagonist-artist who is Berlioz. This theme was self-borrowed from his second Prix de Rome attempt Herminie, from the main section “Quel trouble te poursuit, malheureuse Herminie! (What trouble pursues you, unhappy Herminie!)” Miraculously, after many attempts and metaphorical hours at Confessional, the artist manages to shake off the obsession, and his aching heart somehow finds peace after a good quarter-hour. Ominously, the original text of Herminie ended with “Dieu des chrétiens, toi que j'ignore (God of the Christians, you whom I ignore).”
Softly scintillating, made doubly posh by two harps; the beloved returns suddenly, uninvited.
A song of Swiss herdsmen. Is this heaven? Perhaps Beethoven conducts his Pastoral in paradise. It does seem like an eternity. The spectre of the beloved appears with approaching thunder rolling over the plains. Did you notice the other herdsman? Did you notice where he went?
The main theme is a self-borrowing of the Gratias of Berlioz’s first large and sacred work, his Messe Solemnelle, the score of which he tried to destroy but was later recovered.
The effect of rolling thunder is unique, unlike when evoked by Beethoven or Vivaldi, it seems to be of no natural origin, leading almost seamlessly to the next movement.
The mad artist is in deep - having an opium dream.
A self-borrowing from a section of his unpublished opera Les Francs-Juges (The Judges of the Secret Court), Berlioz transforms the Marche des Gardes (March of the Guards) into a glorious, grotesque, inexorable procession.
A brief moment of sweetness arrives amidst the clangour. The artist’s memory of the beloved flashes before his
"Marche au supplice" (March of the supplicants/ March to the scaffold)
V.
eyes right before HIS OWN EXECUTION occurs - the guillotine drops! His head rolls.
This movement is a crowd favourite.
All hell breaks loose; Macbeth’s witches run amok. Observe very creative (ab)use of instruments.
The toll of bells, Dies irae, mixed with the diabolical creatures reflects Berlioz’s internal conflicts - his romantic dramas, his mother’s damnation of his path of an artist. The artist is dead, and his soul is damned and forsaken by both God and the Devil. Although the premiere of the Symphonie Fantastique was delayed till winter 1830, Berlioz only met with his object of passion in winter 1832, a few days after Ms Smithson finally heard the Symphonie and its sequel Lelio, or The Return to Life, and learnt that all this music was all about her. By this time, Berlioz had gotten engaged, dumped, and had hatched (and thankfully later abandoned) a plot to murder his ex-fiancee and her family. He also travelled Italy, and met Felix Mendelssohn, after winning the Prix de Rome. Berlioz and Smithson finally married a year later despite either of them hardly speaking a word of the other’s language. She continued to be the muse for a few of Berlioz’s major works, but they separated after just over a decade. Towards the end of her life, Berlioz dutifully visited her daily after she became ill, and continued to provide financially.
This “most remarkable first symphony ever written by any composer”, at once a semi-autobiography, a love offering, and a catharsis, encapsulated a musical revolution in 1830, inspiring future greats such as Liszt and Mahler. The writing is technically imaginative and wild - including hand-stopped brasses, painstakingly specific and challenging timpani techniques, hitting strings with the wood of the bow, and wailing glissandi in the winds. Ironically, the Symphonie was in its time overshadowed by his other works like the orchestral cycle La Damnation de Faust (1846), and Berlioz seemingly declined in popularity until his “modern [revival] in the acid-tripping 1960s'', not least due to the widespread popularity of this Symphonie Fantastique.
“I accept that this symphony is of an almost inconceivable strangeness… But for anyone who isn’t too concerned about the rules I believe that M. Berlioz, if he carries on in the way he has begun, will one day be worthy to take his place beside Beethoven.”
— Anonymous reviewer
“This programme should be distributed to the audience at concerts where [the Symphonie fantastique] is included, as it is indispensable for a complete understanding of the dramatic plan of the work…
If the symphony is performed on its own as a concert piece this arrangement is no longer necessary: one may even dispense with distributing the programme and keep only the title of the five movements…”
— Hector Berlioz
Programme by H. Berlioz (1845; rev. 1855)
A young musician of morbid sensitivity and ardent imagination poisons himself with opium in a moment of despair caused by frustrated love. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions, in which his experiences, feelings and memories are translated in his feverish brain into musical thoughts and images. His beloved becomes for him a melody and like an idée fixe (fixed idea) which he meets and hears everywhere.
I. II. III.
He remembers first the uneasiness of spirit, the indefinable passion, the melancholy, the aimless joys he felt even before seeing his beloved; then the explosive love she suddenly inspired in him, his delirious anguish, his fits of jealous fury, his returns of tenderness, his religious consolations.
He meets his beloved again in a ball during a glittering fête.
One summer evening in the countryside he hears two shepherds dialoguing with their ‘Ranz des vaches’; this pastoral duet, the setting, the gentle rustling of the trees in the light wind, some causes for hope that he has recently conceived, all conspire to restore to his heart an unaccustomed feeling of calm and to give to his thoughts a happier colouring; but she reappears, he feels a pang of anguish, and painful thoughts disturb him: what if she betrayed him… One of the shepherds resumes his simple melody, the other one no longer answers. The sun sets… distant sound of thunder… solitude… silence…
He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned to death and led to execution. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end, the idée fixe reappears for a moment like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow.
He sees himself at a witches’ sabbath, in the midst of a hideous gathering of shades, sorcerers and monsters of every kind who have come together for his funeral. Strange sounds, groans, outbursts of laughter; distant shouts which seem to be answered by more shouts. The beloved melody appears once more, but has now lost its noble and shy character; it is now no more than a vulgar dance-tune, trivial and grotesque: it is she who is coming to the sabbath… Roars of delight at her arrival… She joins the diabolical orgy… The funeral knell tolls, burlesque parody of the Dies Irae. The dance of the witches. The dance of the witches combined with the Dies Irae. V.
Commonly referred to as an icon of the Romantic movement, which was a breaking-away from the preceding structured simplicity of neo-Classicism, the caricature of Berlioz the mad
artist and adulterer unjustly reduces a man who was dedicated and dutiful to (certain members of) his family, and unyieldingly passionate towards his art. Possibly a polymath, and definitely defiant, his exclusion from the musical trinity of Bach, Beethoven and Brahms belie a much deeper and intriguing character history.
Born in Isère in southeastern France, Berlioz’s fixation with older women began early, with an unrequited crush on his neighbour Estelle Dubœuf inspiring his early efforts at musical composition. The eldest son of a liberal agnostic doctor and a strict Roman Catholic mother, he was closest to his two sisters Nanci and Adèle throughout their lives. His brilliance and ambition as a Romantic individual was apparent in his studies and distractions, ranging from geography, Latin, philosophy, to medicine, and of course, music.
In the early 1820s, Berlioz had moved to Paris to study medicine at his father’s behest. Against the backdrop of war and Revolution stood the booming city of culture teeming with art, literature, and to a lesser extent, music - mostly appearing in the setting of opera. Berlioz was so smitten with Gluck’s music and orchestration that he resolved to become a composer. Meanwhile, his fiery attempts at defending French opera against its more popular Italian counterpart also fostered his burgeoning talent at writing criticism. By the time he had graduated from medical school, Berlioz had made significant headway composing and writing while studying privately from the Paris Conservatoire composition professor. Abandoning the logic and stability of a medical profession, and despite his father withholding his allowance and his mother’s belief that “all players and artists were doomed to damnation”, Berlioz careered headlong into music.
The years leading up to his first Symphonie Fantastique were prolific. While studying at the Paris Conservatoire, Berlioz fell head over heels in adoration for Shakespeare’s plays, and even more so with the leading lady Harriet Smithson in 1826. In his composition, Berlioz had written his first Messe Solemnelle and opera Les Francs-juges, works which the composer tried to destroy, but also paradoxically quarried major themes for his Symphonie. He sang in the choir, which made him money. His first concert however did not. Berlioz also attempted four times to win the Prix de Rome for the category of (vocal) composition, a most prestigious competition originally held for visual artists before its expansion to other artistic realms - he finally bagged the first grand prize in 1830 right before the premiere of his Symphonie Fantastique.
While his romantic interest in Smithson was swinging wildly between deranged obsession and dismissal (they still had yet to meet until 1832!) Berlioz became engaged to yet another - a young pianist, in 1830. In true operatic fashion, she dumped him for a wealthy heir to the Pleyel piano empire. Residing in Rome under the obligation of the Prix when he found out, this mad drama continued with Berlioz hatching a plan to murder the new couple and her mother, going so far as to purchase a dress for disguise, pistols, and the obligatory poison. By some miracle or divine intervention, the composer stopped short of carrying out the grim plan in Paris. During this sober pause of redemption, he wrote his King Lear overture, and on his way back to Rome he began the sequel to the Symphonie Fantastique, the aptly named The Return to Life.
After Berlioz and Smithson finally(!) met after a concert in late 1832 featuring the Symphonie Fantastique and The Return to Life, they married in 1833 and had a son a year later. Smithson, known for her beauty and flawless character, tragically faced a
declining career torn between an unsympathetic England and a France she could hardly communicate with, and by the 1840s she had lost her husband to his future second wife Marie Recio. After they separated in 1844, Smithson succumbed to alcoholism, and near-paralysed by a series of debilitating strokes, later died in 1854. Their whirlwind decade together bracketed Berlioz’s quartet of unique and irreverent symphonies - the psychedelic Symphonie Fantastique, the vivid Harold en Italie for viola and orchestra, the Shakespearean “dramatic symphony” Roméo et Juliette for voices and chorus and orchestra, and the magnificent Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale for military band.
Besides being a master orchestrator, Berlioz was also a master of words, and around the time of taking Marie Recio as his mistress, had completed the piano and voice version of Les Nuits d'été, as well as La Damnation de Faust, both relative failures in the concert hall during his lifetime. As fortune would have it, having had a hand at conducting and being good at it, his foreign tours saw much fame and financial growth. It was only after Harriet Smithson passed away did Berlioz formally marry Marie Recio, finish the orchestration of Les Nuits d'été, and complete his late landmark works including his gargantuan opera Les Troyens, and the most charming and well-received L'enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ).
In his final decade of life, Berlioz met tragedy after tragedy - the sudden death of Marie Recio, his two sisters, and his son. He remained dedicated to Recio’s mother, and poetically, in his final years, found his now-widowed first romance Estelle, to whom he wrote regularly till his very end. Berlioz was buried with his two wives in 1869.
Controversial even among his contemporaries and countrymen, contributed by his lack of conventional keyboard training, eschewing of classical forms and established concepts such as regular four-/eight-bar phrases and traditional harmonic progressions, Berlioz unwittingly became a visionary ahead of his time, paving the stylistic path for future greats including Mahler, and finding parallels in rule-breakers such as Messiaen. By the efforts of musical titans in the league of Mahler, Kajanus, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Munch, and Leonard Bernstein, we are blessed today to continue to witness the genius of the "first genuine romantic, maybe the only genuine romantic."
Programme notes by Jonathan Francis Koh
“...Why separate them? They are two wings of the soul.”
The orchestra would like to express its heartfelt appreciation to the following organisations and people:
Rehearsal Venue and Loan/ Transport of Instruments
Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts School of Music
Design Collaterals
Yun En Lam
Audio Recording
Rose Studio/ msm-productions
Video Recording Dancing Legs Production
Concert Photography Andrew Bi Logistics
Staff from Concert
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