One of the most original musical geniuses of the 19th century, Berlioz was the son of a brilliant and cultivated but not especially musical doctor. Born in La Côte-Saint-André, a small town in the Isère department of southeastern France, the young Berlioz became proficient on the flute and guitar but never mastered a keyboard instrument. He was sent to Paris to study medicine, but music's power forced him to rebel. He did not enter the Conservatoire until he was 22, but within four years he had composed several important works and had won the coveted Prix de Rome, which enabled him to spend two years in Italy. In 1833 he married the Irish actress Harriet Smithson, with whom he had fallen madly in love six years earlier when she performed Shakespeare in Paris. (In the meantime, however, he had had a tempestuous affair with the pianist Camille Moke.) Their marriage produced one son, Louis, but the couple soon separated. Berlioz later lived with and eventually married the Franco-Spanish singer Marie Recio. His life was a series of remarkable artistic achievements and embittering professional checkmates. The death, in 1867, of his beloved son dealt Berlioz a blow from which he never recovered, and he died in Paris on 8 March 1869.

Although the influential French critic and poet Théophile Gautier placed Berlioz, with Hugo and Delacroix, in his Trinity of Romanticism, only a few of the composer's works (the Symphonie fantastique, the "dramatic legend" The Damnation of Faust, and the overtures Roman Carnival and The Corsair) have always enjoyed widespread popularity. Other masterpieces, such as his three operas, Benvenuto Cellini, the magnificent, epic Les Troyens (The Trojans), and Béatrice et Bénédict (after Much Ado About Nothing); Harold in Italy (a symphony with solo viola, commissioned by Paganini) and the Shakespearean "dramatic symphony" Romeo and Juliet (with solo voices and chorus); the vast Requiem and Te Deum and the intimate oratorio L'Enfance du Christ (The Childhood of Christ); and the exquisite song-cycle Les Nuits d'été (Summer Nights) won full recognition only after the Second World War.

Berlioz invented orchestral techniques of unprecedented richness, paving the way for Wagner, Richard Strauss and many French and Russian composers of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. He wrote influential treatises on orchestration and conducting; but his extraordinary literary gift appears most fully in his letters, reviews, and books - Les Soirées de l'orchestre (Evenings in the Orchestra) and, especially, his Memoirs, essential reading (available in English translation) for anyone interested in 19th-century music.

Harvey Sachs

Biographical notes (c) 1996, reprinted by permission of Deutsche Grammophon GmbH, Hamburg

A selection from his works:

Orchestral: Harold en Italie, Symphonie fantastique, Symphonie funèbre et triomphale, Roméo et Juliette (dramatic symphony), Overtures: Le Carnaval romain, Le Corsair, Les Francs-juges, King Lear, Rob Roy, Waverley.

Vocal: Les nuits d'été (song cycle), La mort de Cléopâtre (cantata), Mélodies.

Choral: Messe solennelle (rediscovered 1991), Te Deum, Requiem.

Stage music: Béatrice et Bénédict (opera), Benvenuto Cellini (opera), La Damnation de Faust (dramatic legend), Les Troyens (opera).