Harold en Italie (Harold in Italy)

Symphony with solo viola

Harold aux montagnes (Harold in the moutains): Adagio – Allegro

Marche des pèlerins (Pilgrims’ march): Allegretto

Sérénade: Allegro assai – Allegretto

Orgie de brigands (Orgy of the brigands): Allegro frenetico

Bearing in mind what a virtuoso string-player would have expected of a concerto in 1834, when Berlioz wrote his Harold in Italy for Paganini, it is not surprising that the celebrated musician refused to play it. Between Beethoven’s Violin Concerto in D (1806) and Mendelssohn’s in E minor (1844) composers were so awed by the brilliance of Paganini’s concertos that they either attempted to emulate them, indulging the soloist at whatever cost to their integrity, or wrote something else. It is true that Harold in Italy does not pretend to be a concerto. But Paganini had commissioned from Berlioz a score that would show off his recently acquired Stradivarius viola and it is clear from his reaction to the new score what he had expected of it: “That’s not what I wanted”, he exclaimed: “I have to keep quiet for too long. I must be playing all the time.”

Another anomaly about the symphony is that it has little to do with Byron’s narrative poem Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage. It would have been more truthful to call it “Hector in Italy” since it is inspired largely by the composer’s experiences wandering through the Abruzzi mountains when he was staying at the Villa Medici as a holder of the Prix de Rome between 1831 and 1832. Byron meant no more to him here than that he saw himself, he said, as “sort of melancholy dreamer like Childe Harold.” That is where the solo viola comes in, as the voice of the “melancholy dreamer” with his own motto theme or, in Berlioz terms, his idée fixe. Structurally, it is a symphony in four movements not a little influenced by Beethoven’s Ninth, which Berlioz had heard for the first time earlier in 1834.

The full title of the first movement is Harold in the Mountains: scenes of melancholy, happiness and joy. It opens in sombre mood with an Adagio introduction consisting basically of a fugato for strings with a counter-subject on woodwind. From this the woodwinds emerge with a preliminary outline of Harold’s (or Hector’s) idée fixe. That theme is heard in its definitive form on the first entry of the solo viola accompanied by harp and is repeated, in less intimacy, by the whole orchestra. The lively Allegro section has two main themes, both of them adumbrated by the orchestra before the viola formally introduces them. They are developed in an often dramatic dialogue between viola and orchestra before they are driven in a continuously accelerating tempo to a joyous conclusion.

The March of the pilgrims singing their evening prayer derives from a memory Berlioz had of Italian farmers returning home at the end of the day and “singing litanies while from somewhere comes the sad jangle of a monastery bell.” It derives too, perhaps, from the similarly inspired slow movement of Mendelssohn’s recently completed “Italian” Symphony. That we are hearing the farmers’ song (on violins and violas at first) and the persistently dissonant tolling bell (on harp and flute) through the ears of Harold/Hector is confirmed by the entry of the solo viola with the idée fixe and, in a middle section marked canto religioso, by its arpeggiated accompaniment to a new plain-chant melody on the violins, the march continuing on pizzicato basses in the far distance.

The third movement, Serenade of a mountaineer of the Abbruzzi to his beloved, alternates two different tempi. The opening Allegro assai recalls the sound of the pfifferari, strolling musicians of the region whose rustic pipes are effectively simulated by piccolo and oboe. It is followed by a melodious Allegretto serenade which is awarded not to the viola, as Paganini would surely have expected, but to cor anglais and other wind instruments. The viola is held in reserve to make another entry with the idée fixe and then to add a decorative counterpoint as horns take up the serenade. It is only after a repeat of the Allegro assai material that the soloist gets to play the serenade while woodwinds take responsibility for the idée fixe.

After a brief glimpse of the “frenetic” Allegro of the Orgy of the brigands, like Beethoven in the finale of the Ninth Symphony Berlioz reviews the earlier movements of the work. First comes the sombre Adagio introduction now coloured by solo viola. Then, between more anticipations of the orgy, he turns to the Pilgrims’ march and the Serenade, both featuring the viola. The idée fixe and the first theme of the Allegro are also recalled. After that, although the intensity of the frenzy is reduced from time to time, there is nothing to stop the brilliantly scored orgy raving ahead. The one distraction, a magical acoustic inspiration, is the sound of the Pilgrims’ March played by solo strings offstage intermingled with discreet observations from the solo viola. From then on, according to Berlioz, “wine, blood, joy and rage mingle in mutual intoxication.”

Four years after the first performance of Harold in Italy Paganini heard the work in a concert at the Paris Conservatoire and realised what a mistake he had made in refusing to play it. Confessing that he had “never experienced anything like it,” he sent Berlioz a cheque for the considerable sum of 20,000 francs, which gave the composer the time to create another masterpiece, Roméo et Juliette.

Gerald Larner © 2011