Music Fueled By Desire Hector Berlioz Symphony Fantastique

The Mémoires

“The public, I am aware, is little concerned with what I may have done or felt or thought. But a few artists and music-lovers having expressed the desire to know, I would rather they were given a true version than left to believe a false one.”
 —Hector Berlioz, 1848

A true Romantic, Berlioz was not shy about expressing his feelings in writing, leaving us poignant letters and dramatic memoires that give us a glimpse into his inner thoughts.

In these selections Berlioz describes how he first saw Harriet and, although seemingly paralyzed with love, wrote a tune months later that would evolve into the idée fixe.