Ep 1. Berlioz: Symphony Fantastique

"I feel therefore I am."

For Hector Berlioz, and for the Romantic movement he personified, those were words to live by. But with the unprecedented outpouring of emotion in his Symphonie fantastique he almost overpowered Paris. This orchestral sonic spectacular, written to win the heart of a beautiful actress, demanded sacrifice from its author and his audience. From romantic daydreams to deadly displays of devotion, the symphony relates an “episode in the life of an artist,” that artist being the love-obsessed composer himself. Join Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony as they follow Berlioz to the brink in this episode of Keeping Score.