Hector BerliozBerlioz signature 3rd century

The Hector Berlioz Website

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    The great 19th century French composer Hector Berlioz holds a unique place in musical history. Far ahead of his time, he was one of the most original of great composers, but also an innovator as a practical musician, and a writer and critic whose literary achievement is hardly less significant than his musical output. Few musicians have ever excelled in all these different fields at once.

    Available in English and French, this personal site is devoted to the music, life and works of this great figure. Created, funded and authored by two British academics, the site gives a panoramic view of Berlioz’s life and art, and seeks to recreate the context in which he worked. It also presents regularly updated news on everything which concerns Berlioz: performances of his music world-wide, bibliography, discography, reviews of live performances and contributions from regular visitors to the site. The table below maps out the contents of the site in detail. A separate page provides a short history of the site.

    Please note that our site is entirely independent and does not represent or host any organisation or association.

Copyright notice: The Hector Berlioz Website is owned by Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb. The texts, photos, images and musical scores on all pages of this site are covered by UK Law and International Law. All rights of publication, reproduction, or adaptation of this material in any form, including Web page use, are reserved. Their use without our explicit permission is illegal.

Last update: 1 March 2024 (the date is linked to the page Updates of the website)

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Table of contents of this site: (a red asterisk (*) indicates an addition or update within the last four weeks)

Berlioz: Life and Career
Musical Works
Literary Works
Berlioz and Paris
Travels in France
Travels Abroad
Travels in Germany and Central Europe*
Travels in Russia
Letters of the composer’s family at the Hector Berlioz Museum
Predecessors and Contemporaries
Berlioz: Pioneers and Champions
Contemporary performances and articles
Original contributions and other articles
Berlioz Anniversaries
Homage to Berlioz – December 2003
Bicentenary Special (articles)
Berlioz in our time*
Project with the Berlioz Museum
Award of the Berlioz Society Medal
Site History*
Updates of the website*
Site Statistics*
Who we are

See also the French version of the site

Berlioz: Life and Career


Berlioz Biography

The first known autobiography of Berlioz (in French)

La Côte Saint-AndréBerlioz’s birthplace

Meylanwhere Berlioz first met his ‘Stella montis’

Vienne (Isère) – where Berlioz’s sister Adèle lived

Berlioz and Paris

An autograph document of 1866 — Berlioz’s finances

Hector Berlioz’s Will

Berlioz Photo Album
Berlioz as seen by his contemporaries:

    Richard Wagner (1841)
    Eugène de Mirecourt: Berlioz (1856) (in French)
    Adolphe Jullien: Hector Berlioz 1803-1869 (1870) (in French)
    Stephen Heller (1879) (in French)
    Ernest Legouvé (1886) (in French)
    Camille Saint-Saëns (1890) (in French)
    Ernest Reyer (1893)
    Charles Hallé (1896)
    Richard Wagner (1911)
    Wilhelm Ganz (1913)


Contemporary performances and articles

Berlioz Statues

Berlioz Cartoons
See also:
    Cartoons from Le Journal amusant, 28 November 1863

Table of contents


Berlioz: Musical Works


Berlioz: A Complete Listing of his Musical Works
(including works lost, unfinished, or merely planned)

Berlioz Music Scores
(a collection of Berlioz’s orchestral music in full score)

    See also on this page:
    Scores not included in the New Berlioz Edition

Berlioz Music Scores – Texts and Documents

Berlioz and his Music – Self-borrowings

Berlioz: Musical and Literary Works
(bibliographical information on his musical and literary works)
Extracts from the Treatise on Instrumentation and Orchestration

The Conductor – Theory of his Art
(complete text in the original French)

Berlioz’s Critical Study of the Symphonies of Beethoven

First Editions of Berlioz’s Published Scores

Berlioz Libretti (in the original language – French or Latin)

Berlioz and Literature – Some Sources of Inspiration

Berlioz-inspired Works of Art

Berlioz-inspired Art Postcards

Table of contents


Berlioz: Literary Works


Berlioz’s Writings
With built-in search function

Berlioz: Musical and Literary Works
(bibliographical information on his musical and literary works)

Voyage musical en Allemagne et en Italie (1844)
Introduction (in English), excerpts from the composer’s correspondence (in French), table of contents

Les Soirées de l’Orchestre (1852) (complete text in the original French)
  A Bibliography of Les Soirées de l’Orchestre
  Excerpts from the composer’s correspondence
   (French text, introduction in English)

Les Grotesques de la Musique (1859) (complete text in the original French)
  A Bibliography of Les Grotesques de la Musique
  Excerpts from the composer’s correspondence
   (French text, introduction in English)

À Travers Chants (1862) (complete text in the original French)
  A Bibliography of À Travers Chants
  Excerpts from the composer’s correspondence
   (French text, introduction in English)

Mémoires (1870) (complete text in the original French)
  A Bibliography of the Mémoires
  Excerpts from the composer’s correspondence (in French)
  Composition and history

Berlioz: Mémoires d’un musicien – Le Monde Illustré 1858-1859
(Introduction and presentation in English)
All the articles published by Berlioz, under the title of “Mémoires d’un musicien”, for Le Monde Illustré in 1858 and 1859 are available on this site.

Berlioz: Voyage en Russie (1847) – Magasin des Demoiselles, XII, 1855-1856
(in the original French, with introduction in French and English)
Treatise on Instrumentation and Orchestration (Excerpts)

The Conductor – Theory of his Art (complete text in the original French)

Berlioz: Report on the Great Exhibition in London in 1851

Berlioz: Feuilletons – Journal des Débats 1834 - 1863
With built-in search function
(Introduction in French and English, feuilletons in French)
Contains the transcription of all the articles that Berlioz wrote for this journal from 1834 to 1863 (nearly 400 in all).

See also:
List of Berlioz’s feuilletons transcribed on this site
Berlioz: Feuilletons – Excerpts from the composer’s correspondence
Berlioz: Feuilletons – Notices in the Journal des Débats

Letters of the composer at the Hector Berlioz Museum - Chronological tables
(in French, with introduction in English)

Letters of the composer at the Hector Berlioz Museum - Dating
(in French, with introduction in English)

Index of letters of Berlioz cited on this site

Autograph letters of Berlioz on this site:

   16 June 1832
   18 December 1838
   31 July 1852
   ca. 13 May 1853
   3 December 1853
   13 May 1854
   12 May 1865

Table of contents


paris Berlioz: Paris – the centre of his activities through most of his life


Berlioz and Paris
(Comprehensive introduction to Berlioz’s career in Paris)

Residential addresses
(Includes all Berlioz’s domiciles in Paris and other related locations)

Public buildings and venues

(Includes all the buildings associated with Berlioz’s career - institutions, concert halls, theatres and opera houses)

Three institutions that played a major role in Berlioz’s career:

    Paris Conservatoire
    Institut de France
    Paris Opéra Le Peletier
Concerts and performances 1825-1869
Concerts and performances 1825-1869 — texts and documents
(Documented list of all the concerts of Berlioz in Paris in his lifetime)

The Société Philharmonique, 1850-1851 (with Illustrations)
La Société Philharmonique, 1850-1851 — textes et documents (in French)
(Documented history of the concert society founded and run by Berlioz in 1850-1)

The première of Les Troyens in 1863
Théâtre-Lyrique

Paris and Berlioz: the revival
(Performances of his music in Paris, 1869-1884)
Paris and Berlioz: the revival
(Articles and reviews of concerts in Paris, 1869-1884) (in French)

content Table of contents


Berlioz: Travels in France


Berlioz and France

Bordeaux

Grenoble

Lille

Lyon

Marseille

Berlioz and Marseille: friends and acquaintances
Montville

Nice
(for much of Berlioz’s lifetime the city was part of
the kingdom of Piedmont-Sardinia)

See also: Berlioz’s Nice in our time

Plombières

Strasbourg

Versailles

Table of contents


Berlioz: Travels Abroad


Berlioz and the Americas
    See also: Concert programmes of the 20th century

Berlioz and Europe

Berlioz in Italy (1831-32)
    See also on this page:
    Le voyage en Italie — Le séjour à Rome (in French)

Berlioz and Monaco
Berlioz in Belgium (1842-1866)

Berlioz in Germany (and Central Europe) (see below)

Berlioz in Russia (see below)

Berlioz in London (1847-1855)

Berlioz in London: friends and acquaintances

Berlioz in Switzerland (1865-66)

Table of contents


Berlioz: Travels in Germany and Central Europe (1842–1867)


Berlioz and Germany

Berlioz and Germany: friends and acquaintances

Baden-Baden

Berlin

Bonn

Bremen

Breslau (Wroclaw)

Brunswick

Cologne

Darmstadt

Dresden*

Frankfurt*

Gotha*

Hamburg*
Hanover*

Hechingen*

Leipzig*
See also:
    Faust in Leipzig
    A Train Journey from Leipzig to Dresden in 1843

Löwenberg*

Mannheim

Pesth/Budapest

Prague

Stuttgart

Vienna
See also:
    Berlioz and the Viennese Press, 1845-1846
    Berlioz und die Wiener Presse, 1845-1846

Weimar
See also:
     Goethe and Schiller in Weimar
     Berlioz’s Weimar in our time

Table of contents


Berlioz in Russia (1847 and 1867-8)


Berlioz and Russia

Saint Petersburg

Moscow

Riga (in Russia in Berlioz’s time)
Berlioz and Russia: Friends and Acquaintances

Berlioz: Voyage en Russie (1847) – Magasin des Demoiselles, XII, 1855-1856
(in the original French, with introduction in French and English)

Octave Fouque: Berlioz en Russie (in French)
Les Révolutionnaires de la musique (1882; chapter 2)

  Table of contents


Berlioz: Letters of the composer’s family at the Hector Berlioz Museum

(244 letters and documents from 1823 to 1878; all in French, except for the Introduction)


Introduction

Tables

Chronology

Images

Search function

Adèle Berlioz-Suat (123 letters)

See also:

Letters of the composer at the Hector Berlioz Museum - Chronological tables
(in French, with introduction in English)
Letters of the composer at the Hector Berlioz Museum - Dating
(in French, with introduction in English)
Letters of the composer’s family at the Bibliothèque nationale de France
(28 letters from 1803 to 1858; all in French, except for the introduction)
Berlioz’s parents (7 letters)

Berlioz’s wives (6 letters)
(including a letter of Harriet Smithson to Mademoiselle Duchesnois in 1828)

The Marmion Family (22 letters)

The Pal Family (39 letters)

The Suat Family (31 letters)

Various (19 letters and documents)

Table of contents


Berlioz: Predecessors and Contemporaries

(including orchestral scores of the composers who influenced him most)


Predecessors and Contemporaries: Introduction

Berlioz and Beethoven

Berlioz and Gluck

Berlioz and Halévy

Berlioz and Liszt
Berlioz and Méhul

Berlioz and Meyerbeer

Berlioz and Spontini

Berlioz and Wagner

Berlioz and Weber

Table of contents


Berlioz: Pioneers and Champions


Berlioz: Pioneers and Champions: Introduction

The Paris Conservatoire and Berlioz: 1869-1914

Berlioz’s operas in France, 1869-1914

Thomas Beecham

Hans von Bülow
See also:
   Two articles on Benvenuto Cellini (1852)
   Translated from the German by Michel Austin

David Cairns

Édouard Colonne
See also:
   Édouard Colonne: textes et documents (1) (in French)
   Édouard Colonne: textes et documents (2) (in French)

Colin Davis
Including:
   In Memoriam Sir Colin: Je ne vous verrai plus
   by Christian Wasselin (in French)

Wilhelm Ganz
See also:
   Wilhelm Ganz on Berlioz

Charles Hallé
See also:
   Charles Hallé on Berlioz

Hamilton Harty
See also:
   Hamilton Harty on Berlioz (1928)

Adolphe Jullien
See also:
   Hector Berlioz, 1803-1869 (1870) (in French, introduction in English)
   Feuilletons on Berlioz, Journal des Débats 1893-1925 (in French, introduction in English)

Charles Lamoureux
See also:
   Articles and reviews relating to Lamoureux’s concerts (in French)
Hugh Macdonald

Charles Malherbe

Georges de Massougnes
See also:
   Georges de Massougnes: BERLIOZ. SON ŒUVRE (1870) (in French)

Auguste Morel
See also:
   Auguste Morel and Berlioz (1869-1881) (in French)
   Auguste Morel: documents on his career (in French)
   Auguste Morel: 3 articles on Benvenuto Cellini (in French)

Felix Mottl
See also:
   Felix Mottl: textes et documents (introduction in English)

Jules Pasdeloup

Ernest Reyer
See also:
   Ernest Reyer and Berlioz (Introduction in English and French)
   26 articles by Ernest Reyer (in French)

Julien Tiersot

Julien Tiersot: Berlioziana (presentation in English)
This page contains all the Berlioziana and other articles on Berlioz published by Tiersot in Le Ménestrel between 1904 and 1911 (127 in all).

Felix Weingartner
See also:
   Felix Weingartner: excerpts from Le Ménestrel, 1891-1940 (in French)
   Felix Weingartner: 5 articles on Berlioz (translated from the German by Michel Austin)
   Felix Weingartner: excerpts from his writings (original German text)
   An autograph document of Felix Weingartner

Tom S. Wotton
See also:
   Tom S. Wotton, Hector Berlioz (1935)
   Complete text, including Index (with hyperlinks)

Table of contents


Berlioz in our time: Bibliography, Concerts, Discography, Original contributions, News, Souvenirs, Views and Reviews


Berlioz News

Forthcoming performances of Berlioz’s music*
  (listing by countries* and listing by dates*)

Archive of performances of Berlioz’s music*

Reviews of live performances of Berlioz’s music

Reviews of recordings of Berlioz’s music

Berlioz bibliography

Berlioz discography

Berlioz on DVD, Video, Film
Original contributions to this site and other articles

Memorabilia

You and Berlioz’s music

Berlioz Anniversaries

   1903: The Centenary of Berlioz’s birth

   1969: The Centenary of Berlioz’s death

   2003: The Bicentenary of Berlioz’s birth (see also Berlioz Bicentenary Special [a collection of invited articles] and Homage to Berlioz - December 2003)

   2019: The Hundred and Fiftieth Anniversary of Berlioz’s death

Table of contents

 

An invitation extended to all of you

    We would like to invite you to contact us and tell us about events, news, publications, concerts or any other information related to Hector Berlioz in your community, so that we can circulate them among Berlioz admirers around the world via this site.

    May we take this opportunity to thank our visitors who have emailed us their contributions, comments, and feedback. They have all been thanked individually on the site as well via their email address.

Table of contents

Who we are and how to contact us

    This personal site is the result of a private initiative by the husband and wife team of Michel Austin and Monir Tayeb, both academics by profession, based in universities in Scotland, and sharing a common enthusiasm for Hector Berlioz and his achievements. Created in July 1997, and gradually expanded subsequently, the site is entirely devoted to the genius of Berlioz – his music, his writings, his career in France and abroad, and his contribution to musical history.

    The site is entirely independent of any organisation; it is run and maintained by us at our own expense. It is non-profit-making, does not receive sponsorship or financial support from any quarter, and does not accept any commercial advertising.

    Through this site we hope to share and exchange information and news on Berlioz-related events with Berlioz’s admirers around the world. We are most grateful to our friends and visitors for their support and look forward to enjoying their continued encouragement in the future. We would particularly like to thank our friends Pepijn van Doesburg, Pierre-René Serna and Christian Wasselin for their major contributions to the site.

    Monir Tayeb died suddenly on 30 July 2021. To commemorate her achievement, two new pages have been added to this site (1 October 2021): Monir Tayeb Academic Page, a page she compiled herself some years ago to summarise her academic career, and Monir and Berlioz, which outlines her contribution to the Berlioz website over a period of 24 years (see also the entry of the Hector Berlioz Museum in memory of Monir Tayeb [in French]). Michel Austin will continue to manage the website for the foreseeable future. In the longer term the website will form part of a bequest to St Anne’s College, Oxford, which has generously undertaken to preserve its continued availability on the internet as a closed archive which would no longer be updated, but would contain all the texts, documents and images currently available on the site, together with their search facility.

    Please address your contributions, feedback and enquiries to Michel Austin at the address below:

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The Hector Berlioz Website was created by Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin on 18 July 1997.
The French version of the Home Page (Page d’accueil) was created on 3 March 2002. See also Online Site History.

© Monir Tayeb and Michel Austin. All rights of reproduction reserved.

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