The Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz is such a fascinating piece of work to dive into. For this blog post I’ll be touched on the document found from the New York Philharmonic archives.
https://archives.nyphil.org/index.php/artifact/a3836fca-12c6-4f11-9284-e1a42da794e8-0.1/fullview#page/6/mode/2up
This document is fascinating, because it showcases the story of the symphony. What’s fascinating is just how much thought and care must have been needed to craft something like this back then. It’s hard to imagine the reactions of the crowd that must have been taking place when this first premiered back then.
Nowadays it’s simple to see and understand something like this, but back then I find it hard to imagine what the audience must have been thinking when seeing such new and fresh ideas such as this take place.
The program notes itself is quite interesting too, since it showcases some personality that would be easy to miss if you just skim over it. For example when the board of directors is taking pleasure in announcing the pianist for being so kind to provide his services for the occasion.
Another intriguing detail is that the audience was asked to not ask for repetitions. It gives the idea of wonder if something like this was common occurrence then due to the request that it doesn’t take place. Or either it never was a common occurrence is just something put in there for the sake of it.
The thing about these programs that are just so fascinating has to be what they can imply about the times of the audience back then. The program gives such simple answers yet leaves the reader wanting more of something, and that something may have just been the performance itself. It’s interesting to wonder about how the audience was interpreting something as simple as a program. As mundane as it sounds, sometimes the mundane of now could have been an intriguing idea to pursue in the past.
