Symphonie Fantasique - extrait V. Songe d'une nuit de Sabbat Serpent & Ophicléide La Chambre Philharmonique Dir. Emmanuel Krivine Patrick Wibart Serpent - Ophicleide Corentin Morvan Ophicleide www.patrickwibart.com
I took part in one of the first attempts to reconstruct this 'original' sound as a student in the 1970s - it was pretty rough, but great fun - I was badly bitten by a serpent, then mauled by an ophicleide, but they were still completely feral then - amazed and delighted at how domesticated they have become all those years later - our sacrifice was worth it!
Fascinating to imagine that this is how it really sounded in 1830 - of course, we will never know, but it's a very brave attempt. Audiences then must have recognized that in this almost completely unprecedented work, Berlioz translated into music what all of France went through during the Revolution and thenceforth.
To be sure, Berlioz often called for huge forces in his music, so the orchestra in 1830 probably would've been twice as big. Similar instruments, though.
Great to hear a performance where these original and outrageous instruments (serpent and ophicleide) that Berlioz originally called for are used. What a sound! Also great to hear a true sul ponticello in the strings and a great skeleton rattling col legno. Hearing the piece like this shows what a truly outrageous work this is that Berlioz loosed upon the world in 1829!
@@gregmonks Interesting! It is like the basstrombone in Bb that is more like a modern tenor. Tenor-basstrombone. I would like to call your horn a bass-contrabasstrombone?
@@svenlarsson1584 The idea of bass has changed over the years. The ophicleide was considered a bass instrument when it was new on the scene, but it really plays in the euphonium's range. My F contrabass trombone plays best in the same range as the Bb tenor trombone because of its narrow bore. I know several modern players who would kill to get their hands on 19th century F contrabass trombones because of their rarity. Not that they're especially rare but that they're all taken. Lots of G's around, but F's are as rare as hen's teeth.
Bravi! The whole orchestra sounds smashing - the old French trombones, natural trumpets, and historical winds all have such a wonderful, lively character!
Every so often something pops up on RU-vid which is truly extraordinary and this is definitely one of them. As a tuba player, I was initially taken in by the appearance of the serpent and the ophiicleide, but then was stunned by how great they sounded. This movement of Symphonie Fantastique is one of my favorites because of the Berloz's incredible orchestration and I was gobsmacked how fabulous it sounded on period instruments. I've heard many renditions of this piece going back to the time I was a teenager (I'll be 73 next week) and this is the first one that actually brought me to tears.
Fantastic piece, and performance! Then I had a jolt - at 6 minutes in - the violinist who is the spitting image of my mother (when she was that age) - a violinist, too. Bless her. She died in 2014.
Everytime I hear this I'm taken back to my childhood watching A Journey Through Fairyland. This song definitely made the tentacle monster of death scarier.
Incredible to hear this work with the instruments of the time and played so skilfully. Must look up if the whole of this performance has been uploaded.
BRAVO! TRULY FANTASTIC ... no pun intended. What marvelous intonation, especially considering the period instruments, exciting performance capturing the emotions of the piece. So glad I stumbled across this on You Tube. I had hear modern orchestras performing this piece, but I do not recall performance with such excitement and passion. Well done!
Jack: Hi. I've got an appointment with Mr. Ullman. My name is Jack Torrance. Lady Receptionist: His office is the first door on the left. Jack: Thank you.
The music is fantastic, as the name would imply, but what I really enjoy is seeing so many period appropriate instruments! "Band Nerd" as I may be, but I love it. Thank you!
@@connorlange594 Yes -- Patrick Wibart seems to specialize in serpent and ophicleide -- I haven't seen him perform on modern instruments, although he probably started his training on euphonium or something similar. Anyway, it's good that there's at least _one_ person in the world capable of playing these things well!
Sounds fantastic! Thank you for sharing!! One complaint, though: the tricksy film production means we never see any section properly. The odd half an instrument, or the trombones through the harp strings. I'd love to be able to actually watch the whole brass section playing, and see what their various instruments are.
idk why but this has some old and grumpy feel to it (which i absolutely love, btw), also i see some trumpets with no valves and brown-orange clarinets, are these old instruments used for the performance?
Here's the March done by OAE - a brilliant performance I attended in Helsinki. The rest of the symphony is there too. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-73wj7MC9is0.html
Its lowest note is A1, nowhere near a normal tuba, but it can go much higher much easier. The Bb1 actually is the pedal note weirdly enough. It has the same length of tubing as a trombone.
Regardless of the key system, the ophicleide shares the same acoustical principles with any other conical bore brass instrument. But of course there are small differences between any examples of a class of instrument.
Pretty sure this tune is used to represent a sorta theme for death.... also this melody can be heard in nightmare before Christmas and of course, the shining just to name a few
The Dies Irae ('days of wrath, days of mourning') was a traditional part of the Roman Catholic funeral mass when I was young -- one of my favorite bits to sing.
The trombones/sackbuts used here are interesting -- they seem to be transitional instruments, with a more flared bell than the typical sackbut used in the renaissance/baroque, but less so than a modern trombone. I guess the bore is narrower also.
An absolutely amazing performance! I'm seeing comments about the instruments being from the 1830s. I didn't think valves were invented that early. Please correct me if I'm wrong.
The Wieprecht tuba (first one with valves) was developed in 1835. So, I'm thinking they had valves before that. Also, some of the valved horns were able to remove the valve set and play as a natural horn. Crazy stuff, but hey, they were inventive then. The ophicleide, oh lordy, was/is the best instrument ever. I own one and absolutely love playing it. More so than a baritone horn/euphonium, but not more than tuba :)
I thought that the 3 valve system was patented in 1815? I may be wrong but there was a mention of the history of it in the Cornet tutor book by Arbens. Ask your Brass Band mates. They would have studied out of that book. Hey, wasn't that a great performance.
No, it is NOT the theme from The Shining. The Shining theme was instead lifted from the theme of this movement of the symphony, namely the ancient "Dies Irae" (Day of Wrath), commonly used to associate a piece of music with death. In other words, both Berlioz and Carlos (this symphony and The Shining) borrowed the same pre-existing musical theme.
@@OBrasilo , I have not watched The Shining recently, but my recollection is that the opening music was a synthesizer realization by Wendy Carlos. If I am correct, then the soundtrack could not share instrumentation with Berlioz's use of the Dies It as theme. As for phrasing, it is a simple chant phrase, and 'phrasing' is implicit.....it would be very unlikely for them to be much different.
@@youtuuba The final note of the second line ("Solve sæclum in favilla") - in the original chant, it's a single note, but in both Berlioz and The Shining, it's two notes.
