Can you introduce yourself, and talk about your current musical role and responsibilities?
My name is Gareth Davies and I am the Principal Flute player in the London Symphony Orchestra. As you would expect this involves playing the flute. A lot.
Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique is a classic piece of orchestral repertoire, but also hugely modern for its time. Can you give a short introduction to this unique piece?
The piece is really unlike anything else in the repertoire both musically and in its subject matter. For the performers it is incredibly challenging to play. Berlioz places huge demands on the players and I can only imagine the difficulty of playing it on the instruments of the time. He was about 26 years old when he wrote it and was obsessed with the actress Harriet Smithson. He uses an idée fixe, a theme to represent her in the piece – it appears in all five movements, and the whole piece is a series of imagined scenes.
We go to the countryside, a ball, he takes opium and has a murderous vision which leads to the famous March to the Scaffold. Naturally the piece then goes on to some witches… even writing this down it seems like a poorly judged piece of art with which to impress Harriet Smithson. But dear reader, she married him.
It’s almost impossible to describe this piece, I hesitate to use the word symphony because it seems so much more. I’ve played it many times, but it never loses its power to shock and impress.
Berlioz’s idée fixe is heard first in the flute and violins in the opening movement. Can you talk a bit about your own role as principal flute in this complex work?
This melody is quite long and always feels full of youthful vigour. Although it is first heard in the flute and first violins and is quite quiet, it surges and pulses with barely restrained sense of frustration. It’s full of small crescendi that give it a restless feeling. It’s amazing the way Berlioz uses this material in so many different ways until it’s transformed into its final leering and demonic version at the end.
Berlioz’s woodwind writing is famously virtuosic. Are there other woodwind highlights you would particularly point to in the piece?
My favourite bits aren’t in the flute part. I love the cor anglais and offstage oboe duet. Offstage instruments can sometimes be less effective than they should be (I’m looking at you Mahler and your offstage cows!), but something about this section works so well and is wonderful to listen to, even when you’re sitting in the orchestra. It’s a magical moment.
There are four bassoons in the woodwind section and the section they have in the March to the Scaffold is just wonderful!
My favourite bit in the whole symphony is where Berlioz lets the E flat clarinet off the leash in the Witches’ Sabbath. It’s really quite shocking and must have sounded even more so when it was first performed. It really lays the groundwork for the entire woodwind section to open up in their raucous best towards the end!
What impression did the work make on you when you first heard it?
It’s a piece which I never played in youth orchestra, so my first experience I think was at music college. I remember having to learn the excerpts from the piece, and of course like every good student I learned them on their own and then investigated how they sounded in situ. It was a bit of a shock as it was like nothing else I’d heard. I played a lot of Berlioz when I first joined the LSO with the late, great Colin Davis. A lot of it is slightly crazy, but this piece takes it to another level. I remember the first few times I played it, the last page felt like a desperate scramble to keep up.
Is there a recording or a memory of a performance that is particularly special to you?
That’s an easy question to answer. Nobody has come close to finding the heart of Berlioz as much as Colin. He made it all seem so easy and obvious. At the time, I just thought that was how it went, but I’ve played Berlioz (and Sibelius) with many other conductors who just make me realise how good Colin was. I miss him a lot.
Do you have a personal favourite passage in this symphony?
15 bars from the end of the piece are my favourite two bars. Why? It’s just four crochets in 6/8! When we played this with Colin Davis, it was going hell for leather up to this point, we were going as fast as possible and then those four chords came. Colin always used to look up with a naughty look in his eye and opened up the gas with a little accelerando. A tiny gesture that sent the end into orbit. Unforgettable.
What guidance would you give listeners and performers new to Berlioz’s music?
Listeners: I have no idea. It’s often very visual music for me. Close your eyes and enjoy.
Performers: Pay close attention to the details. Often you’ll be playing with someone else who has a totally different marking to you, so don’t just go with the general feel – pay attention!
Why should one come to hear a performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique?
The same reason you should go to hear a performance of any piece. Nothing can replicate the experience of live performance. Listen to a piece on your headphones at home then hear it live. There simply is no comparison.
The London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Antonio Pappano perform Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique in London on 21st–22nd May, and on tour in Vienna, Cologne, Frankfurt, Hamburg, Milan, Florence and Aldeburgh.
See all upcoming performances by the London Symphony Orchestra.
This article was sponsored by London Symphony Orchestra.
