# Is Berlioz on the wane?



## science (Oct 14, 2010)

I'd especially like to hear from the older generation (you know who you are) - do you sense that Berlioz is performed and discussed less frequently than 30 or 40 years ago? 

My hunch is based on very little actual information or experience, so I could be 180 percent and 100 degrees wrong (that gets you more wrong than vice-versa), but I feel that perhaps his music was a bit more popular in the 1950s and 1960s than it is now.


----------



## violadude (May 2, 2011)

He shouldn't be on the wane.


----------



## Chi_townPhilly (Apr 21, 2007)

science said:


> I'd especially like to hear from the older generation (you know who you are) - do you sense that Berlioz is performed and discussed less frequently than 30 or 40 years ago?
> 
> My hunch is based on very little actual information or experience, so I could be 180 percent and 100 degrees wrong (that gets you more wrong than vice-versa), but I feel that perhaps his music was a bit more popular in the 1950s and 1960s than it is now.


Well, I have a hunch that's not based on much, as well-- and I speak from the experience of having attended more performances of _Symphonie Fantastique_ than any other work...

Maybe _Symphonie Fantastique_ is *slightly* on the wane (though it's still a well-entrenched war-horse)- but it seems that _Harold in Italy_, especially, has fallen back a bit in recent times.

Berlioz' _Operas_, on the other hand, appear to be on the uptick- especially _Les Troyens_.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Certainly not, in the old days only thomas Beecham and Charles Munch were fighting for him. Since then interest across the board has built up, but may be particularly in his vocal music.The man was a genius and quite unsettling to the establishment.


----------



## brianwalker (Dec 9, 2011)

Mahler has replaced him.


----------



## Sid James (Feb 7, 2009)

His _Symphonie Fantastique _has been in the concert rep here for ages (a warhorse!). I think his _Harold in Italy _is less played, but his _Les Nuits d'ete _is getting some traction here, there have been performances of it over the past year (which I sadly missed  ). So too his sacred choral extravaganzas, now and then. Dunno about his operas.

But Moody does make sense to me. To those two maestros supporting Berlioz he mentions, I'd add* Sir Colin Davis*, who did boost Berlioz's reputation in the post 1945 era, eg. first performance for ages (& first recording in stereo, I think) of _Les Troyens _& other such things.


----------



## Moira (Apr 1, 2012)

The last concert of the Johannesburg Philharmonic Orchestra for the first season included Symphonie Fantastique. Berlioz' place in the repertoire is probably secure.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

Sid James said:


> His _Symphonie Fantastique _has been in the concert rep here for ages (a warhorse!). I think his _Harold in Italy _is less played, but his _Les Nuits d'ete _is getting some traction here, there have been performances of it over the past year (which I sadly missed  ). So too his sacred choral extravaganzas, now and then. Dunno about his operas.
> 
> But Moody does make sense to me. To those two maestros supporting Berlioz he mentions, I'd add* Sir Colin Davis*, who did boost Berlioz's reputation in the post 1945 era, eg. first performance for ages (& first recording in stereo, I think) of _Les Troyens _& other such things.


You are correct, but Sir Colon was later and was only a freelance conductor until 1957,he more or less took over Beecham's role.


----------



## moody (Nov 5, 2011)

brianwalker said:


> Mahler has replaced him.


This is not well thought out, there is no comparison and they are from completely different eras of music.


----------



## Andy Loochazee (Aug 2, 2007)

I would say that Berlioz is still quite popular but may have lost ground somewhat over the past 10-20 years. This is based on hunch as I can't point to any reliable historic benchmarks. I would guess that he would be lucky to make into any kind of list of the top 20 composers in the present day, probably more like mid-late 20s. I can't say that Berlioz is one of my favourite composers, even though I'm not missing any of his greatest works.


----------



## Stargazer (Nov 9, 2011)

I see Symphony Fantastique being performed pretty regularly. I don't see much mention of any of his other works very often though.


----------



## PetrB (Feb 28, 2012)

Having heard Susan Graham singing Les Nuits d'ete with the Chicago Symphony under the baton of Maestro Boulez in 2008 [along with Berio's "Quatre dédicases," and the 1911 Petrushka suite on the same program] does not lead me to believe performances of Berlioz 'are on the wane.' There have been performances of other Berlioz works by the same band since 2008.

Ms. Graham, Boulez and the CSO performed the Berlioz song cycle later that month in Carnegie Hall.

Don't think old Hector's work is fading off the performing platforms much....


----------

