Harold en Italie

In 1834, Niccolò Paganini, the greatest violinist of his era, asked Hector Berlioz to write a work for the beautiful Stradivarius viola he owned, expecting a showpiece for his astonishing technical virtuosity. What Berlioz proposed, however, was not a conventional concerto but a “symphony with viola”, where for long periods it was the orchestra telling the story, not the solo player. Paganini quickly lost interest in the project, but Berlioz persisted, eventually completing a four-movement work lasting 40 minutes. Entitled Harold en Italie after the poet Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, the piece casts the solo violist as the world-weary traveller of the poem’s title—“a melancholy dreamer”, as Berlioz called him. Harold’s melancholic state of mind is vividly communicated in the brooding introduction to the opening movement, while his personal theme, announced on solo viola, initially makes a sunnier impression. The second movement portrays a “March of Pilgrims”, with Harold an interested onlooker, while the third movement depicts a lively group of strolling woodwind players he encounters. The finale is the “Orgy of the Brigands”, where the threat and savagery of untamed external forces, brilliantly realised in Berlioz’ orchestration, finally engulf what remains of Harold’s peregrinatory spirit.