Symphonie Fantastique : Tilson Thomas / San Francisco Symphony (SFSO)

Keeping Score: Berlioz Symphonie fantastique (Companion Audio CD)

The 24-year old Hector Berlioz, happily enrolled at the Paris Conservatory after a desultory sojourn in medical school, fell madly in love with Irish actress Harriet Smithson. The real Harriet found him offputting, yet Hector’s persistence won out and the two were married in 1833, despite their obvious incompatibility. But before the wedding bells came a period of anguish for the hypersensitive young composer, who in 1830 poured his yearning and frustration into the programmatic Symphonie fantastique, telling of a morbidly amorous young man’s fatal attraction to an idealized young lady. ( San Francisco Symphony )

This companion concert recording for Keeping Score: Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, as seen on PBS, was recorded live in Davies Symphony Hall in December 2007.