Hello all,

This week’s music is the Reverie et Caprice by Hector Berlioz. It is performed here by the French virtuoso Augustin Dumay.

The name Berlioz doesn’t bring to mind a violin. The great opera composer wrote very few compositions for instruments other than the human voice, but the Reverie et Caprice is one of the few Berlioz works that have retained fame outside of the opera context. Even then, Berlioz couldn’t stray too far from his favorite genre; the melody for the Reverie et Caprice was transposed from one of the discarded arias from his opera Benvenuto Cellini.

Benvenuto Cellini is a comic opera, and that playfulness comes through clearly in the Reverie et Caprice. As the name suggests, it begins with a calm, expansive “reverie” and proceeds to a flashy “caprice.” Berlioz utilizes the musical key to his advantage in creating these two different worlds. For example, he sets the Reverie in the dark, pensive key of F-sharp minor and sets the Caprice in the airy, confident key of A Major. He also uses timing to his advantage when creating an atmosphere of unpredictability in the Caprice. You’ll notice around the 9-minute mark, for instance, his use of fermatas and other time-expanding musical tools to intersperse the violin’s spastic runs with moments of hesitation and suspense.

Enjoy!

T