BERLIOZ, Hector (1803-1869)

BERLIOZ, Hector (1803-1869)
Autograph musical quotation from Roméo et Juliette signed ('H. Berlioz'), Prague, 28 January 1846.
9 bars on two staves, inscribed in French 'Thème de La Fête chez Capulet / De la symphonie de Romeo et Juliette', on an album leaf, 89 x 147mm, laid onto music paper, the verso bearing an autograph music manuscript signed by the Czech pianist and composer Alexander Dreyschock, Prague, 5 June 1847, the opening of a 'Fuga à 3 Voce', 16 bars on four systems of two staves. Provenance: Sotheby's, 5 December 1997, lot 22.

A quotation from Roméo et Juliette at the end of a hugely successful visit to Prague. The quotation dates from the last day of a two-week visit to Prague in January 1846 during one of the frequent foreign tours which sustained Berlioz both artistically and financially during the 1840s. The visit featured three concerts at the Sophiensaal, with the Queen Mab scherzo and Love Scene from the as yet unpublished Roméo et Juliette performed at the second, on 25 January, to a reception so enthusiastic that Berlioz reported 'I thought they were all going crazy' (in a letter to Joseph d'Ortigue, 27 January). The success of the visit inspired a second series of three concerts in March/April, the last of them featuring a complete performance of Roméo et Juliette. The Czech virtuoso Alexander Dreyschock (1818-1869), who contributes a musical excerpt on the verso of the supporting leaf, was famous for being able to play the left-hand arpeggios of Chopin's Revolutionary Étude in octaves, at the correct tempo.

Provenance
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