Fantastic Symphony Wagner, Howard, Berlioz

Lighthouse, Poole

An early comic opera by Wagner, Forbidden Love is set in Sicily and celebrates the Italian pleasure in life and love. The very un-Wagner-like overture sets the scene in an almost Gilbert and Sullivan manner, with dancing rhythms, imaginative use of percussion, lots of big ensembles, and flamboyant finale. Dani Howard’s Saxophone Concerto is a homage to the instrument’s inventor Adolphe Sax. Howard explains that it “reflects the pivotal moments in Sax’s life; his ingenuity, his resilience in the face of adversity, and the enduring legacy of his invention”. Hector Berlioz was a good friend of Sax and the first composer to write a piece for the new instrument. Ever the original, his Symphonie fantastique sounded like no other music yet written when it was first performed in the 1830s. With its daring music and staggeringly inventive use of the orchestra, it tells its own story of forbidden love. Its forms are fresh, its programme is grotesque, with bold, unexpected harmonies and melodies united around a recurring musical motive that he called the ‘idée fixe’. It is still to this day, unlike anything else; there isn’t a page of this score that doesn’t contain something distinctive and surprising – an iconic leap forward in musical and romantic expression.

Please note this concert is being livestreamed and some shots will include wide angle views of the audience.