Berlioz on music : selected criticism 1824-1837 / Katherine Kolb and Samuel N. Rosenberg
- Author
- Berlioz, Hector, 1803-1869
- Uniform Title
- Prose works. Selections. English
- Published
- New York : Oxford University Press, 2015.
- Physical Description
- 1 online resource
- Additional Creators
- Kolb, Katherine and Rosenberg, Samuel N.
Access Online
- Oxford scholarship online: ezaccess.libraries.psu.edu
- Contents
- Machine generated contents note: Le Corsaire, January 11, 1824 -- Definition of "dilettante"; Italian vs. French opera; Rossini vs. Gluck -- Le Corsaire, December 19, 1825 -- Criticism as understanding vs. carping; misprints and borrowings in Gluck; defense of Gluck; attack on Castil-Blaze (M. XXX) -- Le Correspondant, October 21, 1830 -- Romantic manifesto for music: definition of music; Classical scholasticism vs. Romantic liberty; Gluck as first Romantic; instrumental expressiveness; Weber and Beethoven -- Revue européenne, April 1833 -- Beethoven and the Egyptian pyramids; Weber's Freischütz; Beethoven's "Pastoral" Symphony -- Le Rénovateur, December 15, 1833 -- Liszt, Chopin, and Ferdinand Hiller; launching of the Symphonie fantastique -- Le Rénovateur, January 12, 1834 -- Measures of progress in audience education; Mozart's Don Giovanni ill-served at the Théâtre-Italien; Beethoven quartets well performed and well received -- Le Rénovateur, February 23, 1834 -- Balls at the Opéra; Opéra-Comique woes and solutions; Beethoven by the Muller Quartet; Chopin; Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Opéra-Italien vs. Don Juan at the Opéra; Handel festival in London -- Le Rénovateur, April 27, 1834 -- Women performers; violinist Hauman's communicative emotion; Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and Shakespeare's Othello; Cherubini aria sung by Ponchard; rarity of great singers -- Gazette musicale de Paris, June 1, 1834 -- Biographical sketch; critique admirative of monologue from Il Telemaco (Part II in companion website) -- Le Rénovateur, June 8, 1834 -- Turkish music; Beethoven's "Eroica" booed in Bordeaux; musical conditions in the provinces; oasis of progress in Lyon -- Le Rdnovateur, July 20, 1834 -- Jealousy vs. solidarity among artists; trials of young composers; ironies about Conservatoire training; Liszt performs in Reber's piano trio -- Le Rénovateur, August 11, 1834 -- Choron, voice teacher and propagator of sacred music of the past; funeral service at the Invalides: Mozart Requiem, Jommelli, and Palestrina -- Gazette musicale de Paris, September 7, 1834 -- Decline of religious music in France; destruction of ancien régime choir schools; church ban on women singers; inadequate "Tuba mirum" of Mozart's Requiem; visions of grandiose musical possibilities -- Gazette musicale de Paris, October 12, 1834 -- Rossini's new manner; Overture-detailed analysis (Parts II, III, and IV in companion website) -- Le Rénovateur, October 14, 1834 -- Funeral music for Boieldieu; survey of requiems; Cherubini -- Le Rénovateur, November 23, 1834 -- Satirical announcement of Berlioz's upcoming concert, conducted by Girard; amusing summary of Harold in Italy -- Gazette musicale de Paris, November 9, 1834 -- Early enthusiasm for Gluck; life-changing first experience of Gluck's masterpiece at the Opéra (Parts II, III, and IV in companion website) -- Le Rénovateur, November 16, 1834 -- Music as poetry and as expression; conditions for appreciating such music; analysis of Urhan's evocative pieces -- Le Rénovateur, December 5, 1834 -- Disappointing adaptation of Hugo's epoch-making play; assessment of Théâtre-Italien orchestra -- Le Rénovateur, December 23, 1834 -- Falling standards at the Opéra; success of Gretry's work; concert initiative at the Opéra-Comique; "little" Paris concerts vs. grand Handel festival in Vienna -- Journal des débats, January 25, 1835 -- Music in Paris before the founding of the Conservatoire Orchestra; circumstances of that founding; piece-by-piece analysis of a typically varied concert including Schubert's "The Nun"; ridiculous "Amen" fugue in Beethoven's Missa solemnis vs. fugal perfection in Mozart's overture to The Magic Flute -- Gazette musicale de Paris, February 8, 1835 -- Struggle between sensuality and piety in Meyerbeer's song; well-deserved success -- Journal des débats, February 20, 1835 -- Haydn symphonies vs. choral works; progress in music; digression on Gluck; Beethoven's Eighth Symphony -- Le Rénovateur, March 1, 1835 -- Critics on libretto vs. music; plot summary; scenic excess; visual vs. vocal in opera; triumph for Mlle. Falcon -- Le Rénovateur, March 17, 1835 -- Poor showing by remnants of Choron's school; difficulties of performing Palestrina; Choron as composer; duo by Clari; scene from Le Juif errant by Monpou; Beethoven's "Kreutzer" Sonata performed by Baillot and Hiller -- Journal des débats, March 22, 1835 -- Quest for great music in Paris by an enthusiast from the provinces; scene from Weber's Euryanthe; man's tirade against arrangers; Beethoven: Prisoners' Chorus from Fidelio, quartet movement by full string section, "Pastoral" Symphony as glimpse of a higher world -- Journal des débats, April 18, 1835 -- Analysis of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony; extraordinary audience responses, notably to the Finale; Napoleonic hauntings -- Journal des débats, April 25, 1835 -- Symphony by Hiller; "Ballade du pêcheur" from Berlioz's Mélologue (Lélio); new work by Liszt based on themes from Lélio; trivial vs. poetic arrangements; Girard's transcription for orchestra of Beethoven's "Moonlight" Sonata (first movement); his interpretation of Pilgrim's March from Berlioz's Harold in [ect.] -- Journal des débats, August 9, 1835 -- Ceremony for the victims of an assassination attempt on Louis-Philippe; aptness of Cherubini Requiem for occasions of violent death; critique of Mozart's Requiem, partly composed by Siissmayer; overlap between religious and dramatic music; attribution to Mozart of funeral march by Devigne; performing forces gauged in relation to performance space; music on a grand scale; the way of the [ect.] -- Journal des débats, September 27, 1835 -- Open-air, ancient grandeur vs. artifice of modern theaters in Italy; Hérold's work vs. Mozart's and Molière's; "Parisian music" vs. moments of quality in the score -- Le Rénovateur, October 5, 1835 -- Satire on review writing: Vigny greets Berlioz as man of letters; Berlioz greets Vigny as musician; review topics considered and dismissed, e.g., Bellini's I Puritani at the Théâtre-Italien, Cherubini's Treatise on Counterpoint-or a volume of poetry by Chaudesaigues -- Journal des débats, November 15, 1835 -- Success of Mozart's masterpiece at the Opéra owing to positive influence of Meyerbeer's Les Huguenots and Rossini's William Tell; great Commendatore Scene given its due; catechism on judicious use of orchestral resources; great interpreters of Don Giovanni (Garcia, Nourrit, Tamburini) and Donna Anna (Falcon); higher musical standards under new Opéra [ect.] -- Journal des débats, November 21, 1835 -- Three phases of artists' lives: imitation, independence, solitude; Lesueur as exception-wholly individual style; unusually expressive role of harmony; novelties of instrumentation and vocal writing; his oratorios; Urhan's imitation of an Aeolian harp -- Journal des débats, January 17, 1836 -- The Opéra-Comique as a French musical institution; concerts added (Styrian singers; Hauman); difficulties of virtuoso career; even greater obstacles for composers; example of Gluck, Spontini, Meyerbeer; Mozart disdained by the Opéra -- Journal des débats, February 24, 1836 -- Exorbitant poor tax threatens even the Conservatoire Orchestra; review of failed concert initiatives in Paris; story of a hapless foreign concertgiver; sensational appearance of Thalberg; scene from Mozart's Idomeneo eclipses Beethoven's Seventh Symphony -- Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, March 20, 1836 -- Analysis of the climax of Meyerbeer's masterpiece (Earlier acts: see companion website) -- Journal des débats, May 1, 1836 -- Burlesque scene of audience misbehavior, mirrored by the players on an off day; history of Mozart's Magic Flute in France; anathema on its arranger, left unnamed -- Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, June 12, 1836 -- "New" Liszt, just returned from Geneva, in concert at Erard's; has attained the summit of artistry through self-mastery; represents highest of several artistic stages or types; solves "Hammerklavier" riddle of the Sphinx; is pianist of the future -- Journal des débats, July 3, 1836 -- Recent deaths of Choron, Boieldieu, and Bellini; sudden death of Reicha, a dedicated teacher and composer indifferent to success; youthful acquaintance with Beethoven; studies with Haydn; contrast between Reicha, exponent of music as mathematics, and Choron, of music as expression and soul; many successful [ect.] -- Journal des débats, July 23, 1836 -- Rossini's lightweight success; Ole Bull's promising talent; Labarre's powers as harpist; potential of his harp school for mass music; power of music to ennoble the crowd; examples from 1794 and Berlioz's own experience in 183o with the Marseillaise -- Journal des débats, September 18, 1836 -- Destruction of choir schools and of Choron's Institution for Religious Music; abolition of the Chapelle royale; lack of musical sensibility in the clergy; orchestral music in the provinces suffers from musicians' disdain for rehearsing, vs. thirty rehearsals for Beethoven's "Choral" Symphony at Conservatoire; promising initiatives for military music in France under M. Beer, clarinetist; for a philharmonic society in Normandy under Aubéry du Boulley; for a workers' chorus in Paris under Joseph [ect.] -- Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, December 4, 1836 -- Touching awards ceremony for workers' school; classes in music and choral singing added to regular classes; civilizing power of music lauded in awards speech; four hundred workers sang a vocal fugue by Mainzer, organizer of choir and concert -- Journal des déats, April 19, 1837 -- Farewell to tenor Adolphe Nourrit; background and talents of Duprez; astonishment of his high notes "from the chest"; his talent as actor and dramatic singer -- Revue et gazette musicale de Paris, October 22, 1837 -- and Contents note continued: Satiric discussion of pantomime, impossible for Berlioz to comprehend; simulated audience conversation over ballet-pantomime in question; Fanny Elssler dazzles, silencing conversation and objections.
- Summary
- Berlioz the composer was also a writer and critic. His 'Memoirs' and 'Evenings with the Orchestra' are well-known and well-loved. This book offers a selection of his day-to-day criticism in English, taking him from his student days as a participant in musical polemics over Rossini to his first years of mature success. Through Berlioz's eyes we follow musical events during one of the richest periods in French cultural history - the decade surrounding the Revolution of 1830.
- Subject(s)
- ISBN
- 9780199391981 (ebook)
- Note
- Translated from the French.
- Bibliography Note
- Includes bibliographical references and index.
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