Hector Berliosis Biography

His father, a doctor by profession, was an enlightened person, himself was engaged in music, Latin, history, geography and other school disciplines. At the same time, he refused to buy a piano to his son, and thus Berlioz became one of those rare composers who did not learn to play this tool. At eighteen years, Berlioz went to Paris to study medicine and even received a doctor’s diploma.

Having fulfilled his father’s desire, he devoted all his time to comprehend the music. He lived like Balzak's heroes in the horde, in the attic, but in the opera he did not miss a single performance and spent all his free time in the library, studying the scores. Quite soon, Hector began to take part in competitions at the Roman Prize, an annual competition of novice composers, which provided the winner of the scholarship for five years.

In the year and in M, he did not succeed at the competition, but seriously hoped to win the victory in the metro. He did not have time to end the second round, as the uprising began in Paris, later called the July Revolution. Berlioz finished his competitive work just in time, in order to join the rebels on the last night of battles. The presentation of the Roman Prize was a long -awaited joyful event for him.

Inspired by success, Berlioz gave a concert at which he presented his new work - “Fantastic Symphony” its full name: “Episode from the life of the artist, a fantastic symphony in five parts”. In this work, Berliosis resolutely breaks the old symphonic form, demonstrating radically a different understanding of the orchestration and melody. From his two -year journey through Italy, the composer brought the overture “King Lear” and the symphonic work of Le Retour a la Vie, called by him the “melologist” a mixture of instrumental and vocal music with a recitation, which was a continuation of the “fantastic symphony” under the name “Return to Life”, Berlioz returned to Paris, where he immediately organized a concert in whose program in the program.

Both works. Quite by accident, the Irish actress Harriet Smithson - the unrequited youthful love of the composer was in the hall of the December concert of the year. When the narrator said: “Oh, if I could find that Juliet, that offelia, only my heart is yearning for it! Five years earlier, Berlioz unsuccessfully tried to win the heart of this young actress, and now he received a note from her with congratulations.

He was shocked. A few days later they were finally introduced. Berlioz immediately offered Smithson a hand and heart, she responded with agreement. In October, they got married. The bride did not say a word in French, the groom-in English ... In the year, Berlioz was written the symphony "Harold in Italy", inspired by memories of this country and passion by Byron.

The next day, Berlioz received a letter from Paganini, where he calls him Beethoven’s successor, and a check for twenty thousand francs. In Paris, the premiere of the opera Benvenuto Cellini took place in Paris. However, she was not successful with the public, and the performance was excluded from the repertoire after the fourth performance. For the sake of additional earnings, the composer took up musical criticism and agreed to take the post of deputy director of the library of the Paris Conservatory.

They complemented the circle of his duties by regular tour as a conductor. Berliosis conducted not so much masterfully as on a hunch, but the audience fascinated his manner of waving his wand, then abruptly bending, then cringing, or even bouncing on the stage - he became famous as an outstanding conductor. Everywhere he was successful, especially in St.

Petersburg and Moscow, Berlioz, the first touring conductor in the history of performing art, performed, along with his works, the works of modern authors. Concerts helped Berlioz test their artistic discoveries in practice. He was the first to use many unusual timbres and combinations of timbres, introduced new strokes of string instruments. His ideas were summarized in the Treatise on modern instrumentation and orchestration, the composer also wrote an essay on the art of conducting - “The conductor of the orchestra”.

The Opera Convision of Faust was written in a year based on the music of the earlier work “Eight Scenes from Faust”. The premiere in the Opera-Commander took place on December 6. And on December 20, the last performance was given. The failure was crushing not only for the author’s pride, but also for his financial situation. The main source of earnings of Berliosis is musical and critical work.

Articles, reviews, musical novels, feuilletons were subsequently published in several collections: “Music and musicians”, “Musical grotesque”, “Evenings in the orchestra”. The central place in the literary heritage of Berlioz was occupied by memoirs - an autobiography of the composer, written by a brilliant literary syllable and giving a wide panorama of the artistic and musical life of Paris of those years.

In the year, Harriet died from a blow by the family by this time already actually broke up. Soon Berlioz married a second time. In the year, his second wife, singer Marie receiver, died suddenly from a heart attack.In the year, the son of Berlioz, who became a sailor, died of yellow fever in Havana. Berlioz could not cope with this grief, he suddenly turned into a weak old man.

In January, he fell ill, and died on March 8. Berlioz lived a tragic life, never gaining wide recognition in his homeland. The last years of his life have become gloomy and lonely. The only bright memories of the composer were connected with trips to Russia, which he visited twice, from the biography of Berlioz, we know that for the sake of Russian tour of the year, the composer rejected the proposal of Steinway to speak in New York for a fee in dollars.

Only in Russia did he achieve success with the public, real recognition among composers and critics. The last letter of the dying Berlioz was addressed to his friend - the well -known Russian criticism V. The reason for the inconsistency of the reviews about Berlioz as a composer is that from the very beginning of his musical career he went along a completely new independent path.

Berliosis is a bright representative of romanticism in music, the creator of a romantic program symphony. He boldly introduced innovations in the field of musical form, harmony and especially instrumentation, gravitated to theatricalization of symphonic music, the grand scale of works. Berliosis is the first composer of the French National School. All his predecessors, who wrote the operas in French, were either Germans or Italians.

The milestone in the reassessment of the reputation of Berlioz was the year when the professional opera troupe in the first evening put the original version of the Trojans.

It was at the Royal Opera House of Covent Garden; The work was performed in English with small abbreviations, but its importance was recognized all over the world, which led to the world premiere of the work without bills in French in Covent Garden in the year, when the centenary of the composer’s death was celebrated. Stasov letters of Berlioz.