Hector Berlioz
Harold in Italy, Op. 16
Hector Berlioz was born in La Côte-Saint-André, France, in 1803 and died in Paris in 1869. He composed this work in 1834; it was given its premiere performance at the Paris Conservatoire the same year with Chrétien Urhan on viola and conductor Narcisse Girard. The score calls for solo viola, 2 flutes, piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 4 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, percussion, harp, and strings.
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After he heard Berlioz’ Symphony Fantastique, the unsurpassed violin virtuoso Niccolò Paganini went to the composer with a request: “I have a wonderful viola, an admirable Stradivari, and should greatly like to play it in public. But I have no music for it. Would you write a viola solo? I have no confidence in anyone but you for this work.” Berlioz replied that he was flattered but did not know the viola well. He suggested that Paganini himself, having written six violin concertos of his own, would do a better job. “No, no, I insist you will succeed,” Paganini replied. “As for me, I am too unwell at present to compose. I could not think of such a thing.”

Berlioz embarked, then, on a “viola solo” that bore little resemblance to a concerto. Instead, Berlioz wanted the soloist and orchestra to tell the story on equal terms, knowing that “the incomparable power of Paganini’s playing would always keep the viola in first place.”

This suited Paganini not a bit when he saw the first movement: “That’s not it at all!  I am silent too long in that. I must be playing the whole time.” Paganini walked away from the project, but Berlioz pressed on with the remaining three movements. The result was a work that fit no category: surely not a concerto, yet not quite a symphony either. It was more like a symphony with viola commentary.

The title Harold in Italy was inspired by Lord Byron’s narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, but it was never Berlioz’ intent to tell all or even part of that story in music; it was to tell his own story in the manner of his literary model. Berlioz had studied in Italy for three years, wandering the countryside much as Byron’s world-weary Harold might have done. He composed the music of Harold in Italy as a travelogue of his own experiences and to display his collection of musical souvenirs. Berlioz, in the guise of the solo viola, becomes his own Harold, observing and commenting as the music unfolds. All in all, what we really have here is Hector in Italy.

The first movement’s long introduction brings us to Harold’s theme in the solo viola. This theme returns throughout the symphony in various guises, but its treatment is unlike the idée fixe of the Symphony Fantastique. “An idée fixe,” said Berlioz, “introduces itself obstinately, like a passionate, episodic idea, into scenes wholly foreign to it, disrupting them; but Harold’s theme is added to the other orchestral strains, with which it contrasts, both in movement and character, without hindering their development.”

Thus Harold/Hector observes the rustic scenes of “Harold in the Mountains,” the solemn “Pilgrim’s March” of the second movement, and the wandering minstrels of the third movement’s “Serenade.” In the Finale, titled “Orgy of the Brigands,” frenzied ribaldry eventually gives way to remembrances of the previous movements, while the viola is allowed but one phrase.

When Paganini eventually heard the finished work (performed by someone else) he told Berlioz: “Never before have I been so powerfully impressed at a concert. If I did not restrain myself, I should have to go down on my knees to thank you for it.” Paganini later sent him a gift of 20,000 francs, a sum that allowed Berlioz to compose his Roméo et Juliette; for his generosity, Berlioz dedicated that score to Paganini, and the circle was complete.