Main content
Sorry, this episode is not currently available

±«Óãtv Philharmonic - Symphonie fantastique

Mark Wigglesworth conducts the ±«Óãtv Philharmonic in groundbreaking music by Berlioz and Messiaen. They are joined by soprano Dorothea Röschmann for Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder.

Conductor Mark Wigglesworth returns to the ±«Óãtv Philharmonic for a programme by musical pioneers.

Messiaen's "Un sourire" opens the programme, this smile vibrating with rainbow colours and spiritual mystery. This, his last commissioned work, was written to commemorate Mozart's memory and Messiaen says that "despite bereavements, sufferings, hunger, cold, incomprehension and the proximity of death, Mozart still smiled, and also his music".

The life of a troubled artist is to the fore in Berlioz's ground-breaking "Symphonie fantastique". Unrequited love and opium fuel an artist's personal journey; a torturous, opulent waltz, a wild witches' dance, and deathly bells are all presented in a score which explores every character of the orchestra.

Star soprano Dorothea Röschmann joins the ±«Óãtv Philharmonic for a performance of Wagner's Wesendonck Lieder. Poetry by Mathilde Wesendonck, Wagner's lover and muse as he began work on the poetry for Tristan and Isolde, inspired these songs. Ultimately this passionate and artistically fruitful relationship was doomed to failure, but their collaboration leaves us a chance to hear music by a composer who broke the mould with his large-scale music-dramas experiment on a smaller scale.

Messiaen: Un sourire
Wagner, orch Mottl: Wesendonck Lieder

8.05pm
Music Interval

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Dorothea Röschmann (soprano)
±«Óãtv Philharmonic
Mark Wigglesworth (conductor)

Recorded at the Bridgewater Hall, Manchester on 22 June.
Presented by Tom McKinney

2 hours, 14 minutes

Music Played

  • Olivier Messiaen

    Un Sourire

    Orchestra: ±«Óãtv Philharmonic. Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth.
  • Richard Wagner

    Wesendonck-Lieder

    Singer: Dorothea Röschmann. Orchestra: ±«Óãtv Philharmonic. Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth.
  • Franz Liszt

    En Rêve - Nocturne, S 207

    Performer: Paul Lewis.
  • Franz Liszt

    Four Little pieces S.192

    Performer: Paul Lewis.
  • Franz Liszt

    Schlaflos, Frage und Antwort S.203

    Performer: Paul Lewis.
  • Hector Berlioz

    Symphonie fantastique Op.14

    Orchestra: ±«Óãtv Philharmonic. Conductor: Mark Wigglesworth.
  • César Franck

    Prelude, aria and finale

    Performer: Sir Stephen Hough.
    • HYPERION.

Broadcast

  • Wed 3 Jul 2024 19:30