Hektors Berliozs

Ektors Berliozs bija franču romantiskās mūzikas komponists. Viņš bija viens no izcilākajiem 19. gadsimta komponistiem.

1847. gadā Berliozs sniedza koncertu arī Rīgā

Starp slavenākajiem Berlioza darbiem ir "Fantastiskā simfonija" (Symphonie fantastique), episkā opera "Trojieši" (Les Troyens), rekviēms Grande messe des morts un dziesmu cikls Les nuits d’été.

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[...] While travelling via Riga I had the peculiar idea of giving a concert there. The receipts barely covered the expenses, but I had the benefit of meeting several professional and amateur musicians of distinction, among them the Kapellmeister Schrameck, M. Martinson, and the manager of the postal service. This gentleman had expressed strong reservations about my plan for a concert: « Our little town », he said, « is quite unlike St Petersburg; we are traders and at the moment everyone here is busy with the selling of corn. Your audience will number at most a hundred ladies and not a single man ». He was wrong: I had a hundred and thirty two ladies and seven men. In fact I believe that in all I made a profit of about three silver roubles (12 francs). This same manager claimed that I did not have the physique to match my profession: « Sir, you do not look to me like an ill-intentioned man », he would say, « and to judge from your feuilletons, of which I am an assiduous reader, I was expecting your appearance to be quite different. The devil take me if it is not with a pen that you write but with a dagger ». Well, the tip of my dagger is not poisonous and the precious villains I am so readily credited with slaughtering are still in fine health. One additional piece of good luck during my stay in Riga, which came as a complete surprise, was that the excellent German actor Baumeister was performing there, and I saw him play… Hamlet! [...]

    The letter to Count Wielhorski, dated 1st June from Tilsitt, gives a broadly similar account and adds further details (CG no. 1113):

Since you show interest in my concert in Riga and wish to know how it went, here is a brief account of what happened. Schrameck the Kapellmeister combined the professional and amateur musicians of the city with a few players who came from Mittau and so he put together for me a small orchestra of some fifty men. They did a good job and even performed with remarkable fury the finale of Harold in Italy (the orgy of brigands), one of the most difficult pieces there is and which I regret not being able to let you hear in St Petersburg. As you can imagine there was no harp, and Schrameck simulated it on the piano. We put on the complete Harold in Italy (with an excellent solo viola), the overture Roman Carnival, two songs with orchestra, fairly well performed by a Miss Bamberg from the opera, the Concert of the Sylphs (without chorus!!!!) and the Hungarian March. The audience was very sparse but no less responsive. At the moment there are eleven hundred ships in the river of Riga, and everyone is busy selling or buying corn, from 8 in the morning till 11 at night. As a result there were only ladies in the hall, except for a very small number of men. Be that as it may I do not regret the fatigue involved in putting on the concert nor the time that I have lost, because of the display of enthusiasm on the part of this orchestra I did not know; I believe I can now count them among my devoted supporters. Incidentally, you do not know the great good fortune that was awaiting me in Riga. Imagine that I saw a performance of Hamlet, the real Hamlet by Shakespeare, excellently played by an actor called Baumeister I had never heard of. As always, I was turned inside out by this marvel from the greatest of human geniuses; the English are right to say that after God it is Shakespeare who has created most… [...]

http://www.hberlioz.com/Russia/riga.htm