Toronto Choir/Toronto So - Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique, Fantaisie sur la Temp?te de Shakespeare

The Fantaisie sur la Temp�te de Shakespeare was composed shortly after Berlioz had won the coveted Prix de Rome (at the fourth attempt) with his cantata Sardanapale, and was originally conceived as a concert overture, with chorus. After various re-workings of the material, the four-movement Fantaisie, as recorded here, became the finale of Berlioz�s �monodrama� L�lio � a juxtaposition of existing material interlinked with dramatic monologues recited by the �artist� at the centre of the work. Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz�s best-known work by some distance, remains an evergreen in the orchestral repertoire, and beloved of audiences the world over. The idiomatic approach to orchestration, grounded in Berlioz�s musical training in French provincial wind-bands, and the revolutionary approach to the prevailing conventions of musical form at the time shine though in the five-movement masterpiece, which remains one of the most vividly programmatic symphonies ever written. This recording was made after a pair of performances in September 2018 in the Roy Thomson Hall in Toronto, and is made in Surround Sound.