FOOTNOTES:[14]Harriet Constance Smithson, born in Ireland in 1800, was a member of a company of English actors that stirred Paris in 1827 by their performances of Shakespearian plays, then unknown to the French public. Miss Smithson was known in Paris as "Henrietta." Berlioz married her in October, 1833. She died in 1854.[15]Mr. W. F. Apthorp finds in the initial phrase of this introduction a reminder of Lear's speech to Gloster before the latter's castle (act ii., scene iv.):"Go tell the duke and 's wife I'd speak with them,Now, presently; bid them come forth and hear me,Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drumTill it cry sleep to death.""It is quite as likely, however," observes Mr. Apthorp, "that Berlioz may have associated this violent, recitative-like passage with Lear's casting-away Cordelia in the first act of the tragedy."[16]Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.[17]Paganini died in 1840. When the symphony was first performed at the Paris Conservatory, in 1834, Chrétien Urhan, one of the most famous virtuosos of his day, played the solo-viola part.
FOOTNOTES:
[14]Harriet Constance Smithson, born in Ireland in 1800, was a member of a company of English actors that stirred Paris in 1827 by their performances of Shakespearian plays, then unknown to the French public. Miss Smithson was known in Paris as "Henrietta." Berlioz married her in October, 1833. She died in 1854.
[14]Harriet Constance Smithson, born in Ireland in 1800, was a member of a company of English actors that stirred Paris in 1827 by their performances of Shakespearian plays, then unknown to the French public. Miss Smithson was known in Paris as "Henrietta." Berlioz married her in October, 1833. She died in 1854.
[15]Mr. W. F. Apthorp finds in the initial phrase of this introduction a reminder of Lear's speech to Gloster before the latter's castle (act ii., scene iv.):"Go tell the duke and 's wife I'd speak with them,Now, presently; bid them come forth and hear me,Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drumTill it cry sleep to death.""It is quite as likely, however," observes Mr. Apthorp, "that Berlioz may have associated this violent, recitative-like passage with Lear's casting-away Cordelia in the first act of the tragedy."
[15]Mr. W. F. Apthorp finds in the initial phrase of this introduction a reminder of Lear's speech to Gloster before the latter's castle (act ii., scene iv.):
"Go tell the duke and 's wife I'd speak with them,Now, presently; bid them come forth and hear me,Or at their chamber door I'll beat the drumTill it cry sleep to death."
"It is quite as likely, however," observes Mr. Apthorp, "that Berlioz may have associated this violent, recitative-like passage with Lear's casting-away Cordelia in the first act of the tragedy."
[16]Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.
[16]Translated by Mr. W. F. Apthorp.
[17]Paganini died in 1840. When the symphony was first performed at the Paris Conservatory, in 1834, Chrétien Urhan, one of the most famous virtuosos of his day, played the solo-viola part.
[17]Paganini died in 1840. When the symphony was first performed at the Paris Conservatory, in 1834, Chrétien Urhan, one of the most famous virtuosos of his day, played the solo-viola part.