Rêverie et caprice for violin & orchestra ("romance"), H.88 (Op. 8)

Share on Facebook Share on Twitter Email
AMG AllMusic Guide to Classical Music :

Rêverie et caprice for violin & orchestra ("romance"), H.88 (Op. 8)

Top

Review

Like many of his shorter works and overtures, Berlioz draws the main thematic material in the Reverie and Caprice for Violin from his dubiously successful opera, Benvenuto Cellini. His only real contribution to the concerto repertoire (with the slightly possible exception of 1834's Harold in Italy), the reverie, an ever-broadening cavatina very identifiable as once having been a vocal melody, opens with a broad melodic gesture in F-sharp minor and is then divided into two verse-like sections in A minor, both of which are begun and dominated by the adagio "reverie" tempo. To segue into the nimbler "caprice" section of the work, Berlioz adeptly modulates to nearby C major by way of distant G-sharp minor before passing through a disorienting array of tempo changes and a Weberesque recitative on his way to an A minor cadence, returning the work to the "reverie" material. The only time throughout the work in which the faster tempo is allowed to establish itself comes in the heavily punctuated coda, where reckless cross-rhythms bring the piece crashing to a brilliant conclusion. ~ Graham Olson, Rovi

Albums with Complete Performances of the Work

Title Date
Aaron Rosand Plays... 1995
Berlioz Edition (Box Set) 2003
Berlioz: Complete Orchestral Works 1997
Berlioz: Harold in Italy Op16; Rêverie et caprice Op8
Berlioz: Harold in Italy; Les Francs - Juges; Rêverie et Caprice 1996
Berlioz: Harold in Italy; Rêve et Caprice 2007
Berlioz: Harold in Italy; Rêverie et Caprice
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
Classic Love Moods 1999
Classic Love Moods 1998
Classics for Romance 2000
Classique Emotion
French Showpieces (Concert français) 2002
Greatest Hits 1993
Intimate Moments [Madacy] 1995
Joyaux Romantiques, Jewels of the Romantic Era, Vol. 2: Music & Poetry
Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole; Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3
Lalo: Symphonie espagnole in Dm; Berlioz: Rêverie et caprice Op8
Le Boeuf sur le toit: French Works for Violin & Orchestra 2001
Mendelssohn: Concerto for violin in Em; Bruch: Concerto for violin in Gm
Moods 2012
Panorama: Hector Berlioz 2000
Poème 2004
Poème 2004
Romance 2009
Rêverie et Caprice
The Berlioz Experience
The Best of Berlioz 1999
The Best of Rainy Day Classics 2001
Violin Romance
Yehudi Menuhin: The Great EMI Recordings 2009

Albums with Excerpt Performances of the Work

Title Date
Story Of Berlioz In Words And Music 1993

Previous:Rêverie et Petite Valse for flute & piano
Next:Rêverie for bassoon & harp, Op. 24

Post a question - any question - to the WikiAnswers community:

Copyrights: