Berlioz in the concert hall
This year’s best anniversary events
Requiem (Grande Messe des morts)
Marking 150 years to the day since the death of Berlioz, John Nelson conducts the Requiem in the monumental setting of St Paul’s Cathedral. Tenor Michael Spyres joins the Philharmonia Orchestra (8 March, see p126 for further details). Symphonie fantastique Berlioz’s vivid orchestral masterpiece is being played across the UK in the next few months. Herbert Blomstedt joins the Philharmonia Orchestra at London’s Royal Festival Hall (11 April) for a performance that pairs the piece with Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony. Elsewhere in London, the LSO and Simon Rattle set Berlioz alongside
John Adams’s post-modern symphonic exploration, Harmonielehre (5 May). And Mark Elder will lead the Hallé in a number of performances of the Symphonie fantastique at Manchester’s
Bridgewater Hall (16, 19, 22 May) and St David’s Hall in Cardiff (18 May).
La damnation de Faust
Berlioz’s ‘légende dramatique’ inspired by Goethe, is a favourite this anniveresary year. Saimir Pirgu (left) takes on the role of Faust with the CBSO at Birmingham’s Symphony Hall (26 June), while Peter Hoare steps up with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Gloucester Cathedral as part of the Three Choirs Festival (27 July). For a fully-staged version, head to Glyndebourne, where Allan Clayton heads the cast for Richard Jones’s production, with Robin Ticciati conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra (18 May-10 July).