This program features two fine symphonies, beginning with Mozart’s Symphony No. 38, known universally as the “Prague.” The nickname is a lasting tribute to a city that Mozart found extremely congenial to him and to his music. After intermission, the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra will grow to the size needed to play one of the largest early romantic symphonies, the Symphonie Fantastique by Hector Berlioz.

Mozart premiered his newly completed D major symphony on January 19, 1787 at “Grand Musical Academy,” a benefit concert arranged by his Prague friends. Mozart was extremely pleased by the performance, which employed an orchestra of the best musicians in the Bohemian capital, a group that was apparently better disciplined and more attentive than Vienna orchestras he was used to leading. (He later wrote “My orchestra is in Prague, and my Prague people understand me.”) We have a remarkable account of this concert written by an admiring Bohemian musician. Franz Xaver Niemetschek, who described the effect of the new symphony:

“[Mozart’s symphonies] are true masterpieces of instrumental composition, full of unexpected transitions, and have élan and a fiery momentum, so that they immediately incline the soul to expect something sublime. This is especially true of the great symphony in D Major, which is still a favorite in Prague, even though it has probably been heard a hundred times.”

What is now known as the “Prague” symphony is richly orchestrated, and calls for skillful playing, particularly from the woodwinds. There is also a depth to this music, particularly in the way that Mozart develops his material, that points to what is to come in the great final trilogy of symphonies he would compose in 1788.

All of Berlioz’s compositions illustrated his passions, but none is more directly (and disturbingly) autobiographical than his Symphonie Fantastique. The work grew out of Berlioz’s infatuation with English actress, Harriet Smithson, after seeing her perform in Shakespeare’s Hamlet. Written for a huge orchestra, this work uses orchestral effects and even instruments that had never been used in a symphony. (This is, for example, the first appearance of the tuba—or rather its ancestor, the ophicleide—in a piece of orchestral music.) Even more striking is the programmatic idea behind Berlioz’s score. This is not the first programmatic symphony—Berlioz himself credits Beethoven’s “Pastoral” symphony as inspiration—but it is the first in which the extra-musical story line is so explicit. In a story that has echoes of Goethe’s dark Faust, Berlioz musically describes his obsession in great detail, even going to the extent of publishing a written program as an aid to the audience’s imagination. To illustrate his affair, he creates a musical idée fixe (literally “fixed idea” or “obsession”) representing his changing view of his beloved. This idea appears in each movement, but each time in a different character: as a flowing Romantic melody in the opening movement, as a lilting waltz in the second, as a shepherd’s song in the third, and in the fourth movement, it is the last thing the condemned artist thinks of before the blade of guillotine drops. Its final appearance is as a mocking dance in the “Witches’ Sabbath” movement.

The 2024/25 Symphonic Series season is presented by United Grain Corporation.