Berlioz - March to the Scaffold (from Symphonie fantastique) (VIDEO)

[liszt1022]

Hello everybody, this is a favorite piece of mine. The arrangement is mostly my own, it's certainly less difficult that Liszt's but I believe it's still effective. What do you think?

Berlioz's description of the movement:
"Convinced that his love is unappreciated, the artist poisons himself with opium. The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has killed his beloved, that he is condemned, led to the scaffold and is witnessing his own execution. As he cries for forgiveness the effects of the narcotic set in. He wants to hide but he cannot so he watches as an onlooker as he dies. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts. At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow when his head bounced down the steps."

[emill]

Hello!!

I liked it  ... though I would have preferred a little more fire and energy ....
but most likely I am just too brainwashed by the orchestral version of Mehta
with the NY Philaharmonic ... this is the 1st time I heard the piano version.
THANKS!!!

[liszt1022]

Well I can't compete with a full orchestra for "fire," but I assure you I'm doing my best on this digital piano!
I've also arranged most of the first movement, and may do the second as well. We shall see...

This is a re-working of the way I used to play this piece in college. In fact, I posted one of my recital performances of this movement to the Audition Room six years ago! It's in better shape these days.