Product Review

'I feel, therefore I am.' For Hector Berlioz and for the Romantic Movement, those were more than words; they were a song of the heart. But with the unprecedented outpouring of emotion in his Symphonie fantastique, Berlioz almost overpowered Paris. This orchestral sonic spectacular, written to win the heart of a beautiful actress, demanded sacrifice from its author and his audience. From romantic daydreams to deadly displays of devotion, the symphony relates an 'episode in the life of an artist,' that artist being the love-obsessed composer himself. Join Michael Tilson Thomas and the San Francisco Symphony as they follow Berlioz to the brink and beyond in this volume of Keeping Score. As a bonus, the disc includes a full-length concert performance of Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique.