Symphonie fantastique

Symphonie fantastique
Épisode de la vie d'un artiste… en cinq parties
Symphony by Hector Berlioz
Hector Berlioz by Émile Signol, 1832
Opus	14
Period	Romantic music
Composed	1830
Dedication	Nicholas I of Russia
Duration	About 50 minutes
Movements	Five
Premiere
Date	5 December 1830 (1830-12-05)
Location	Paris
Conductor	François Habeneck

Symphonie fantastique: Épisode de la vie d'un artiste … en cinq parties (English: Fantastic Symphony: Episode in the Life of an Artist … in Five Sections) Op. 14, is a programmatic symphony written by Hector Berlioz in 1830. The first performance was at the Paris Conservatoire on 5 December 1830.

Berlioz wrote semi-autobiographical programme notes for the piece that allude to the romantic sufferings of a gifted artist who has poisoned himself with opium because of his unrequited love for a beautiful and fascinating woman (in real life, the Shakespearean actress Harriet Smithson, who in 1833 became the composer's wife). The composer, who revered Beethoven, followed the latter's unusual addition in the Pastoral Symphony of a fifth movement to the normal four of a classical symphony. The artist's reveries take him to a ball and to a pastoral scene in a field, which is interrupted by a hallucinatory march to the scaffold, leading to a grotesque satanic dance (witches' sabbath). Within each episode, the artist's passion is represented by a recurring theme called the idée fixe.

The symphony has long been a favourite with audiences and conductors. In 1831 Berlioz wrote a sequel, Lélio, for actor, soloists, chorus, piano and orchestra.