Berlioz: Lélio, Op. 14b (4/7) - Movement IV: Chant de bonheur. Souvenirs

Lélio, ou Le retour à la vie, Op. 14b (Lélio, or The Return to Life)

Movement IV: Chant de bonheur - Souvenirs (Song of Joy - Memories)

This work is a choral and orchestral composition by the French composer Hector Berlioz (1803-1869). It is the sequel to his wonderful and much more popular Symphonie fantastique, Op. 14. Both works deal with Berlioz's unfortunate love affairs and his passion for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, whom he married one year after the premiere of Lélio. The composition is programmatic, like the Symphonie fantastique, which depicts a composer in despair over his unrequited love attempting suicide by an opium overdose and experiencing a series of fantastic visions. Lélio shows the artist awakening from these visions, overcoming his unhappy love through the discovery of the joys and consolations of music and literature (Shakespeare in particular), and "returning to life" by performing his own composition, a symphonic fantasy on Shakespeare's play "The Tempest."

The present work is in six movements:

1. Le pêcheur (The Fisherman)

This is a musical setting of a ballad by Goethe about a fisherman who encounters a water nymph in a lake.

2. Choeur d'ombres (Chorus of Shades)

After explaining how Shakespeare's "Hamlet" affected him profoundly, the composer introduces this vision of sinister ghostly powers which figure prominently in Shakespeare's play.

3. Chanson de brigands (Song of the Bandits)

A raucous chorus portraying the merrymaking and revelries of Calabrian outlaws.

4. Chant de bonheur - Souvenirs (Song of Joy - Memories)

A hymn celebrating the artist's newly regained happiness.

5. La harpe éolienne (The Aeolian Harp)

A soft, tender orchestral movement symbolizing the power of music and artistic inspiration.

6. Fantaisie sur la "Tempête" de Shakespeare (Fantasy on Shakespeare's "The Tempest")

The artist leads a triumphant premiere of his new composition based on Shakespeare's play "The Tempest."
The text can be found at the following website:
http://www.hberlioz.com/Libretti/Lelio.htm

Note that this recording omits spoken narration.

Conductor: Colin Davis
Tenor: José Carreras
Baritone: Thomas Allen
Piano: John Constable
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus

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