Symphonie Fantastique

The five-movement Symphonie fantastique was completed in 1830, the year of Victor Hugo’s Hernani, the July Revolution, and Delacroix’s Liberty Leading the People. Both the historical context and the nature and structure of the score make this work symbolically a “proclamation” of French Romanticism. Berlioz revered Beethoven, whose Violin Concerto is also included in this programme.