Berlioz: Grand messe des morts;Symphonie funébre et triomphale

Advantages: Colourful and always exciting
Disadvantages: absolutely none

...works for the state, the Requiem or "Grande messe des morts" and "Te Deum" feature enormous orchestras and choruses (the Requiem's Dies Irae alone featuring batteries of trumpets in all four corners of the church blasting away at each other and are then succeeded by the simultaneous drumming of eight pairs of timpani, creating an unforgettable wave of sound). As an opera composer he had less of a success. His first opera, "Les Francs-Juges" only exists in fragments; Benvenuto Cellini was a total failure; the four hour "Les Troyens" after Virgil's Aeneas, was so huge that it was forced to be separated into two parts, and was even then performed only in part at the wholly unsuitable Opéra Comique, only receiving its first complete performance in the 1950's, a hundred years later; and the Shakespeare-based "Béatrice et Benedict" came so late... Read review

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Advantages: A work that changed the way we look at symphonies
Disadvantages: none whatsoever

...flat major into foreign tonalities from the very beginning already sets uneasiness to the symphony. The music also features many violent off-beats, strange harmonic twists, passages of such turbulance never heard before in orchestral music and other peculiarities that caused alienation with the people adjusted to thinking music as a pleasant pastime, not as a deeply personal utterance. As Brahms said: "Writing symphonies was no longer playful." I. Allegro con brio The symphony begins with two forceful E flat major chords (forte) that instantly set the tone of the music. The cellos then launch into the main theme, that in actuality is nothing more than an E flat chord tipped on its side and turned into a melody. Incidentally this theme bears incredible resemblance to the overture of Mozart's youthful singspiel Bastien et Bastienne. (This... Read review

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Advantages: A new way to hear Beethoven
Disadvantages: Surpassed by some later period cycles

...culmination of epic proportions. In the Fourth he made decisive moves to make the timpani a musical instrument instead of providing mere accented highlights during crescendos. He also added much romantic and poetical feel to the work that is especially apparent in the quiet B flat minor introduction. In the Fifth he brought us the concept of the "victory symphony" where we move from a great struggle to a final, grand victory. This approach of beginning in the minor key and ending in an affirmative major would become a basic staple for the Romantics that followed. The Sixth on the other hand offered a very different kind of avenue that was also developed in the Romantic era: program music. Cast in five movements, Beethoven's scenes from the country created a prototype for the highly pictorial music of Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner, and many others with its... Read review

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