Everything about Berlioz was widely enthusiastic and over the top. He was a revolutionary composer who dramatically changed classical music and ushered in the age of Romantic music by doubling the size of orchestras and using the whole orchestra as a single instrument to produce great walls of crashing sound. This symphony was written and performed for the single purpose of impressing the Irish actress, Harriet Smithson whom Berlioz had never met but with whom he had fallen utterly and obsessively in love. The performance succeeded, she fell in love with him, they got married (and lived unhappily ever after). Almost two hundred years after it was first performed, this piece still leaves audiences in shock. Berlioz was as flamboyant and dramatic as his music and the sheer force of his personality ended one cultural age and started another.Tilson Thomas' version is excellent and has outstanding dynamic range which is important to appreciate this crashing piece.
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