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FeaturesThe last century was not a particularly happy one for the two greatest composers of the romantic era. There’s Franz Liszt— you remember him, don’t you? Magpie collector of pianistic glitter? Lothario of Europe? And there’s Hector Berlioz. You know, the “one work” man? No technique? Freakish and grotesque? And, as a consequence of all of the foregoing, a thoroughly embittered critic? Musical history, like the other sorts, is written, at least in the short run, by the victors, and the victors were anything but kind. Berlioz died a broken man, thwarted and frustrated throughout his career by the indifference and spite of the French musical establishment. After his death, biographers and commentators continued to embroider the same old fabric. Sacheverell Sitwell, for example, treated Berlioz as some sort of brilliant but alien force, enslaved by his “strange schemings.” Debussy thought Berlioz a “monste ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 19 October 2000, on page 29 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/Successes-just-missed--the-career-of-Hector-Berloiz-2330
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