"Symphonie Fantastique" (Hector Berlioz)

"Symphonie Fantastique" by Hector Berlioz is a groundbreaking 1830 orchestral work that tells a vivid, autobiographical story through music. It depicts a passionate artist’s obsessive love, despair, and eventual hallucinatory fantasies. The symphony uses innovative techniques like recurring musical themes ("idee fixe") representing the beloved, and colorful orchestration to evoke specific emotions and images. Each of its five movements explores different stages of the artist's tumultuous experience, transforming personal feelings into a dramatic, immersive musical narrative that expanded the possibilities of orchestral composition.