A quiet moment in Berlioz's Te Deum

Listen and enjoy!

A favourite Sanctus

The Requiem by berlioz has always been my favourite in the genre. Berlioz's work is a loud and bombastic as Faure's is quiet and gentle. The French certainly know how to write Requiems!

A French volcano!

At about four minutes into this clip you will recognize a certain similarity with the "Dies Irae" from the Requiem. This is an early work and some of the writing is jingoistic, but none the less the inspiration is there. A Romantic volcano ready to explode upon the scene!

It's a good thing both for us and the medical profession at the time that he didn't stick to his father's determination to see his son become a doctor! One cadaver and according to what he wrote in his Memoirs, he jumped out of the nearest window! He also wrote about his legendary fights with Cherubini(his teacher) as the elder composer was determined to set his student on the "right" narrow minded path. Aren't we glad he won....well sort of, he didn't quite graduate!

Berlioz's day of judgement!

Berlioz's anthem

The only god Berlioz had was Shakespeare and perhaps his wife Harriet Smithson. When it came to writing religious works such as this "Te Deum" or the magnificent "Grande Messe des Morts"(Requiem), Berlioz tended to really pull out all the stops! The Requiem requires five period orchestras(20-25 players), brass bands, ten pairs of kettle-drums and at least three huge choirs! Nothing is ever done small and in so many ways I recognize Berlioz to be the very embodiment of what it was to be a Romantic composer. He never could play an instrument properly, composed at a desk(couldn't play the piano) and yet wrote a treatise on orchestration that is still used today! He wrote a precursor to the Requiem in the form of his "Messe Solennelle" that was written in 1824. He had some truly amazing ideas at a time when composers didn't or weren't able to think of the future. To my knowledge there hasn't been a period performance recording done of the Requiem or Te Deum....that would be quite an experience!

Rameau's "Castor et Pollux".....c'est magnifique!

This aria from has amazed me from the first moment I heard it. What caught my ear was that it is apparent that Hector Berlioz had been influenced much more by Rameau than I had previously thought. Hearing this one aria made me think of "Les Troyens" and mainly from an orchestration standpoint. Rameau was the Baroque era's greatest orchestrator and it would seem that Berlioz had to have picked up something from the works of the master. This music blows me away.......magnifique!