“What is this huge emotional storm, this intense suffering that is consuming me?” The 26-year-old Hector Berlioz was completely distraught with love while composing his Symphonie fantastique. The masterfully orchestrated work must be experienced live, when the symphony orchestra shines, blazes and takes the listener with it. “Cathedrals…a place of thought, growth, spiritual expression…serving as a symbolic doorway in to and out of this world.” Jennifer Higdon composed blue cathedral in memory of her late brother
His passionate – unrequited – love for the Irish actress Harriet Smithson inspired Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) to compose a symphony the premiere of which was a veritable sensation in Paris in 1830. The actress was so impressed with it that she finally agreed to marry him. The marriage was a disaster.
Berlioz produced various versions of the symphony’s plot, but the core is always the same: the narrator falls in love with a woman personified as an idée fixe. Depressed, he seeks solace in opium and has a terrible guillotine nightmare. The story may well have been influenced by the autobiographical Confessions of an English Opium-Eater (1821) by Thomas de Quincy. The orchestration of the symphony is also ‘fantastic’, conjuring forth novel, previously unheard-of effects, especially in the finale.
The symphony is in five movements: Reveries – Passions, A Ball, Scene in the Fields, March to the Scaffold, and Dream of a Witches’ Sabbath. In the final scene, the beloved appears in the form of a witch and, after a parody of a liturgical Mass, the symphony ends with a psychedelic dance of death.
Christian Holmqvist
Tomas Djupsjöbacka (born 1978) is a Finnish conductor, cellist, and chamber musician. He currently serves as Principal Conductor of the Vaasa City Orchestra in the region of Ostrobothnia. Djupsjöbacka has conducted numerous Finnish orchestras, including the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Sinfonia Lahti, the Turku Philharmonic Orchestra, and the Oulu Sinfonia.
As a solo cellist and chamber musician, Djupsjöbacka has performed with orchestras in Finland and abroad since 1998. He is the founding cellist of the string quartet Meta4 and a long-time member of the renowned Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Djupsjöbacka was the first ever Principal Guest Conductor of the Lapland Chamber Orchestra from 2019 to 2022.
Tomas Djupsjöbacka graduated from the Sibelius Academy in Helsinki and the Lausanne Conservatory in Switzerland in 2003, with a major in cello performance. He commenced his conducting studies with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Music Director of the New York Metropolitan Opera, and graduated from the Sibelius Academy in 2017.
Yes, but only before or after the concert. During the concert we just want you to enjoy the music. This way you won’t disturb the musicians or other audience members.
Only the orchestra has a dress code. You can dress as you like.
You can give the ticket to a friend or donate it to a music student by calling 09-3102 2700 or sending an e-mail to helsinki.philharmonic@hel.fi by 3pm on the day of the concert.
