Belgian National Orchestra & Schønwandt

With the Symphonie fantastique, Hector Berlioz created a work far ahead of its time. Rather than an abstract symphony, it is a musical vision. Berlioz tells the story of an artist, unmistakably his own alter ego, who encounters an idealised beloved and then spirals into a series of increasingly feverish dreams. What begins in longing and ecstasy unravels into obsession, slips into hallucination, and culminates in a frenzied witches’ sabbath. Through an unprecedented orchestration — featuring no fewer than four harps! — and vivid contrasts of colour and drama, Berlioz turns the symphony into an opera for orchestra, where every emotion and twist of the story is conveyed without a single word. An adventurous Symphonic Date, to be discovered alongside Thomas Vanderveken, who guides you with humour and flair through this fantastic symphony.