Full Score. Par BERLIOZ HECTOR. Hector Berlioz (1803–1869), considered the father of modern orchestration, possessed an intuitive musical genius all the more remarkable for his limited formal musical education. A brilliant colorist, a master of the unexpected rhythmic break, he brought a new symphonic richness to Romantic music. Both damned and venerated by his contemporaries — Mendelssohn considered him devoid of talent, Paganini declared him the one true heir to the spirit of Beethoven — Berlioz seems to have sought in music a way to soothe and give voice to the turbulent psychological instabilities and contradictions of what has come to be called 'program music' — i. e. , instrumental music with an extramusical significance. He strove to communicate musically the experiences, psychological themes, scenic description, and literary allusions more commonly associated with the confessional writings of Romantic poets. This Dover edition presents two of the greatest of these 'program' pieces: the Symphonie Fantastique (1830) and Harold in Italy (1834). Here are the full scores of both major symphonic works — painstakingly reproduced from the authoritative Breitkopf & Härtel edition, available for the first time in one convenient volume — plus Berlioz's 'program' for the Symphonie Fantastique. Musicians and music lovers everywhere will value this high-quality, inexpensive edition — ideal for study and performance. Reprint of Nos. 1 and 3 of Serie I, Symphonien (1900), of Werke von Hector Berlioz, Breitkopf and Härtel, Leipzig, 1900–1910. Breitkopf & Hartel edition./ Répertoire / Orchestre

Trois poèmes d'Henri Michaux was written for the Zagreb Biennale and first performed there by the orchestra and choir of Radio Zagreb, conducted by the composer and Slavko Zlatic on 9 May 1963. It is composed for 20-part choir and an orchestra similar to that of the Symphony of Psalms, though without the lower strings of the latter.Lutoslaswski has said that the general outline of the work came to him first, and only then did he choose the three poems. These reflect his Francophile taste: Henri Michaux was born in Belgium in 1899 and later became a painter: the trenchant Le Grand Combat, with its onomatopoeic invented words, dates form the 1920s- the other two texts, which are more philosophic than pictorial, form the 1930s. Choir and orchestra need separate conductors even though throughout they alternate more often than they combine.A description of the course of the music itself will be more useful than any discussion of its technical processes or of its notation. A quiet section of orchestral polyphony, which brass sforzandi punctuate with increasing frequency, frames the beginning and end of Pensées. After the choir's first unaccompanied passage, the woodwind have a staccato section over which the female voices, singing downward glissandi, are superimposed ('Ombre de mondes infimes?'). Then the woodwind and both pianos join in a lapping ostinato which illustrates the text of the next forte choir entry 'Pensées à la nage merveilleuse?' The climax of the movement comes as these characteristic woodwind figures alternate with the tintinnabulation of a gamelan-like ensemble of vibraphone, céleste, harp and pianos. / Orchestre