Fantastic Symphony

Frustrated in love, a young musician of deep sensitivity and ardent imagination takes opium. That’s how Hector Berlioz sets up his Symphonie fantastique – a story of gothic horror and glittering excess, rolled into one roof-raising musical phantasmagoria and scored for the biggest orchestra the world had then seen. It’s a fabulous way for the LPO’s new Principal Conductor Edward Gardner to raise the curtain on our new season, and a fitting counterpart to the teeming imagination and dramatic power of Lutosławski’s Cello Concerto – played by the superb Nicolas Altstaedt. This concert was filmed on 1 October 2021 at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. Program: Lutosławski Cello Concerto - Cello Conterto Berlioz - Symphonie fantastique