Description on Youtube:
Hector Berlioz- Rob Roy Overture 1831
Hector Berlioz (1803-1869) was an early French Romantic-era composer. He used huge orchestras for many of his works, giving way to the term 'Grandiose Romantic', a style which influenced later Romantic composers such as Richard Strauss, Wagner and Mahler. His most popular work was probably 'Symphonie Fatastique', and even many non-Classical music fans would be familiar with the 4th movement of this symphony- 'March to the Scaffold'. His 'best' works are, of course, a matter of opinion, but the melodious "Harold in Italy" symphony would be a good place to start. For those who enjoy marching/funeral style pieces, "Symphonie Funebre and Triomphale" is very impressive. Some of his more popular overtures are "King Lear", Le Corsaire", Beatrice and Benedict" and "Le Carnavale Romain"
Not very well known, and even disliked by Berlioz himself, is the 'Rob Roy Overture', which no one has even bothered to post on youtube yet. Berlioz composed this in 1831, performed it for the first time in 1833, "was not happy with it and 'withdrew' it after the premiere." The work was inspired by Sir Walter Scott's novel, "Rob Roy".
Tremsfan became familiar with Berlioz in an odd way- in a rock and roll record catalogue from the west coast in the early 1970's, he read a review for the Pink Floyd album, "Atom Heart Mother", where the Suite from that album was compared to Berlioz. Tremsfan still does not see the connection, but we would be interested if anyone else does !
The "Rob Roy Overture" is not even mentioned on Berlioz' wikipedia page, but if you google the work you will come across a few sentences for each of his overtures. For more information on this overture, please go to www.hberlioz.com/Scores/srobroy.htm. For ALL information on Berlioz, go to the website www.hberlioz.com . For the Berlioz Facebook page, search for 'The Hector Berlioz Facebook'.
Our clip of "Rob Roy" is conducted by Sir Alexander GIbson with the Scottish National Orchestra.
Text by Tremsfan
