<p>Anja Bihlmaier leads the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra in this symphonic Tour De France, arriving at a musical work like none other.</p>
<p>The landscape of French music changed permanently in 1827, when Hector Berlioz fell head-over-heels in love with an Irish actress and set out to prove his love for her in music. Berlioz’s <em>Symphonie fantastique</em> didn’t just regale its listeners with all the torture, urgency and heroism of his love for the actress, it set a new course for music in France, urging other composers to invest their works with passion, humour, spirit and pride.</p>
<p>All that was felt by the French composers who followed, among them the child prodigy Saint-Saëns who filled his Piano Concerto No. 2 with everything from Bach to Offenbach - not forgetting its wild ‘tarantella’ finale. Winner of the Clara Haskil Competition, Mao Fujita, plays Saint-Saëns’s most popular concerto here after Louise Farrenc’s vivacious Overture No. 2, a work partly inspired by Berlioz’s impassioned symphony.</p>
<p><strong>Related concert recordings at Bergenphilive:</strong><br> <a href="https://www.bergenphilive.no/en/video-concerts/2021/11/berlioz-symphonie-fantastique/" title="Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique">Hector Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique</a><br> <a href="https://www.bergenphilive.no/en/video-concerts/2018/5/berlioz-grande-messe-des-morts/" title="Berlioz Grande messe des morts">Hector Berlioz: Grande messe des morts</a></p>