Hector Berlioz, composer
On September 11, 1827, Hector Berlioz attended a performance of
Hamlet in which the actress Harriet Smithson played the role of Ophelia.
Overwhelmed by her beauty, he fell desperately in love.
Artist that he was, he found a way to channel his emotional upheaval into
something he could control: a "fantastic symphony" that took as its subject
the experiences of a young musician in love.
The program leaves no doubt that he conceived of the
Symphonie Fantastique as a romantically heightened self-portrait.
In the March to the Scaffold the artist, in an opium dream, witnesses
his own excecution.
March to the Scaffold is the fourth movement from Symphonie
Fantastique by Hector Berlioz.
Berlioz wrote this work during an emotionally charged period of his life, a
time when he was deeply in love with Irish Shakespearean actress Harriet
Smithson (whom he married in 1833).
This programmatic symphony was first performed in 1830 and is considered one
of the most significant pieces of the early Romantic period.