Program Notes for Harold in Italy Essay

Harold in Italy, Symphony with Viola obbligato, Op. 16 Berlioz completed the score of Harold in Italy on June 22, 1834, and heard the work’s first performance five months later (November 23) at the Paris Conservatoire, with Chrétien Urhan playing the solo part and Narcisse Girard conducting. Norman Lamb was the soloist in the National Symphony Orchestra’s first performance of this work, conducted by Hans Kindler on November 21, 1948; Roberto Díaz was the soloist in the most recent ones, with Richard Hickox conducting, on May 20-22, 1993. In addition to the solo viola, the score calls for an orchestra of 2 flutes and piccolo, 2 oboes, English horn, 2 clarinets, 4 bassoons, 4 horns, 2 cornets, 2 trumpets, 3 trombones, tuba, timpani, cymbals, triangle, 2 tambourines, harp, and strings. Duration, 45 minutes. _________________________________________________

The legendary violinist and composer Nicolò Paganini (1782-1840), one of the dominant figures of the musical world when Berlioz began making a name for himself, was enormously admired by his fellow musicians as well as his adoring public. Berlioz described him as "a Titan among the giants," and as "that great artist who exercised such a happy influence upon my destiny.” It is to Paganini that we owe the existence of two of Berlioz’s finest works" both of them among the four called symphonies--though he never performed either of them, and actually heard only one of them. These two remarkable musicians first met after a concert of Berlioz’s works conducted by Narcisse Girard on December 22, 1833, three years after the premiere of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique, and within a few weeks Paganini asked Berlioz to compose a work for him in which he coupled play the Stradivari viola he had just acquired. Berlioz responded that he knew too little about the viola, and that Paganini himself would be better able to write the brilliant piece he wanted, but Paganini persisted, adding that he was "too unwell at present to...