DISCOVERINGBERLIOZESSAYS, REVIEWS, TALKS

DAVID CAIRNS

Foreword by SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER

David Cairns on MusicVolume One

Musicians on MusicNo. 12

To Rosemary, and in honour of Colin Davis and his forebears and successors

!is collection "rst published by Toccata Press, 2019. © David Cairns, 2019

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical,

including but not limited to photocopy, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system without prior permission from the copyright

holder or publisher.

British Library Cataloguing in Publication DataA catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library.

ISBN 978-0-907689-58-4ISSN 0264-6889

Set in 11 on 12 point Minion Proby Kerrypress Ltd, St Albans

5

Contents Page

Foreword Sir John Eliot Gardiner 11

Prelude: Life with Berlioz 13Acknowledgements 21

Preamble 27A Tragic Life 29Autobiography/Biography 37

I: Early Life 57The Distant God 59Berlioz and Song 71La Côte-Saint-André 82Two Sisters 91

II: Apprenticeship and First Maturity 105Messe solennelle 107Shakespeare – Our Father 122The Mighty Bird 138The March to the Scaffold 152‘Programme Music’ and the Symphonie fantastique 156The Two Italies 171Harold en Italie, the Viola and the Stage Directions in the Score 188

III: The 1830s 189The Journalist, the Writer: 191

Berlioz and the Music of the Past 191Selected Letters of Berlioz 193Evenings in the Orchestra, Memoirs 196

Benvenuto Cellini 208The Dramatic Symphony Roméo et Juliette 219Roméo et Juliette: An Alternative Reading 230

IV: The 1840s 231The Grand Traité: Origins and Genesis 233Holy Germany, a Nation of Musicians 251

6 Contents

La Damnation de Faust: 270Germany and La Damnation 270Mephisto – the devil it is! 271Berlioz, The Damnation of Faust and the Critics 273Ceaseless Vigilance 277

The Damnation on Disc 280Les Nuits d’été 288

V: Berlioz and Politics 291The Reluctant Conservative 293Berlioz and Napoleon III 305

VI: The 1850s and Les Troyens 307Les Troyens and the Aeneid 309The 1957 Trojans 334The Historical Significance of 1957 341Les Troyens: the Philips Recording 343Les Troyens in Hamburg 345In Defence of the Theatricality of Les Troyens 348Les Troyens and Colin Davis 352Munch or Davis? 359

Epilogue 363 Two Hundred Years On 365

Appendix 377 Three Berlioz People: Appreciations 377

Catherine Reboul-Berlioz-Vercier 377Ian Kemp 379Pierre Citron 380

Select Bibliography 383

Index of Berlioz’s Works 385General Index 387

7

List of IllustrationsLes Troyens, Act 1, autograph full score 15David Cairns with Stella, Bamburgh, 1929 1758 Queen Anne St, London W1, with plaque 18Berlioz conductors I: Edouard Colonne, Hans von Bülow, Felix Mottl,

Charles Hallé, Hans Richter, Felix von Weingartner 22Berlioz conductors II: Arthur Nikisch, Gustav Mahler, Charles Munch,

Sir Hamilton Harty, Sir Thomas Beecham, Pierre Monteux 23Dr Louis Berlioz and his Livre de Raison 41Berlioz by Nadar 45Gluck, Iphigénie en Tauride, copied by Berlioz in 1822 47A page from chapter 22 of the Memoirs 49Alexander von Humboldt, by Julius Schrader, 1859 51Claude Lorrain, View of Carthage with Dido and Aeneas, 1675 or 1676 56Grande Messe des morts, autograph full score, p. 1 64A page from chapter 4 of the Memoirs 75The ‘Chanson d’Hylas’ from Act 5 of Les Troyens 81Anonymous caricature of Berlioz, La Côte-Saint-André, 1845 83The Berlioz garden and house, rue de la République,

La Côte-Saint-André 85Adèle Suat née Berlioz 93Autograph letter to Nancy Berlioz, 28 July 1827 96Nancy Berlioz 98Autograph letter to Albert Du Boys, 20 July 1825 109The church of Saint-Roch, Paris 110–11Autograph title page of the Messe solennelle 113Jean-François Le Sueur 114First page of the Kyrie of the Messe solennelle 118First page of the Offertoire of the Grande Messe des morts 119A page from chapter 18 of the Memoirs: the advent of Shakespeare 123Harriet Smithson as the demented Ophelia in Hamlet 129A page from chapter 18 of the Memoirs: the impact

of Romeo and Juliet 130Autograph letter to Princess zu Sayn-Wittgenstein, 24 June 1856 136L’andante de la symphonie en la: watercolour by Eugène Lami, 1840 146Autograph letter to Humbert Ferrand, 6 February 1830 158

8 List of Illustrations

Page 2 of the autograph full score of the Symphonie fantastique 168‘D’une image, hélas’ from Gluck’s Iphigénie en Tauride in Berlioz’s hand 179The Villa Medici, Rome 180Corot, Roman Campagna with Claudian aqueduct, 1826 182Autograph letter to his sister Nancy, 9 May 1831 184Pifferari in Rome 186 Journal des débats, 24 May 1846: Berlioz on the state of the Opéra 198Title page of Voyage musical, inscribed to Berlioz’s son, Louis 204Autograph full score of the Sextet from Act 2 of Benvenuto Cellini 214Lithograph by Benjamin from La Caricature provisoire,

1 November 1838 217Recording Benvenuto Cellini, Wembley Town Hall, July 1972 218Charles Kemble and Harriet Smithson in the tomb scene

from Romeo and Juliet, 1827 226Autograph full score of Roméo et Juliette, finale 228A page from chapter 4 of the Memoirs 235Portrait of Gluck by Duplessis 237Title page of the Grand Traité d’instrumentation

et d’orchestration modernes 240The Grand Traité on the flute 249Sketch by August Prinzhofer, 1845 254Lithograph by Prinzhofer, 1846 255Painting by Richard Lauchert, 1855 258Peter Cornelius 263Liszt in 1858 267Delacroix, lithograph of Faust and Mephistopheles, 1827 272Jacques Barzun 277Autograph first page of ‘Absence’ 290Vladimir Vasilievich Stasov, painted by Repin in 1883 295A page from chapter 2 of the Memoirs: the death of Dido 311A study (1873) of Princess Carolyne zu Sayn-Wittgenstein

by Ernest Hébert 313Title page of the 1861 edition of the vocal score of Les Troyens 315Mosaic of Virgil, flanked by muses 317Set designs for the 1863 production of ‘Les Troyens à Carthage’ 321, 323, 325Guérin’s Énée racontant à Didon les malheurs de la ville de Troie 326Sketch of the beginning of the love duet, ‘Nuit d’ivresse’,

Les Troyens, Act 4 330–31Rafael Kubelík 335A scene from the 1957 Trojans at Covent Garden 336

List of Illustrations 9

Amy Shuard, Blanche Thebom and Jon Vickers 339Colin Davis by June Mendoza 357Minutes of the Athenaeum, recording Berlioz’s temporary

membership, 1848 366George Bernard Shaw 368Berlioz torchbearers: Russell Brown, David Cairns, Hugh Macdonald,

Richard Macnutt, Julian Rushton and John Warrack 370Sir Roger Norrington 371Sir John Eliot Gardiner 371Catherine Reboul-Berlioz-Vercier, with François Lesure

and Lucien Chamard-Bois 378Ian Kemp 379Pierre Citron 381