3-021-574 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

The late M. Berlioz, French musical composer, 1869. Portrait engraved from a photograph by '...M. Nadar, who is well known both as a scientific aeronaut and a photographic artist. [Berlioz] ...began life as a medical student, being the son of a country physician; but he had shown from his earliest infancy an extraordinary talent for music...He composed a mass, which was performed with applause...he devoted himself to the composition of symphonies and operas, in a style which was highly original, and different from that most in fashion at the time...[He was] elected a member of the Academy, and subsequently appointed librarian of the Conservatoire. He appeared in London, in 1855, as one of the conductors of the New Philharmonic Society's Concerts. In Germany and in Russia his works are more admired than in France; they are remarkable for grand orchestral combinations and effects, particularly the overtures to some of his operas, which are little known in England, besides his funeral marches and requiems. Berlioz was also a writer of musical critiques and commentaries for the Journal des Debats, which have been reprinted in several volumes'. From "Illustrated London News", 1869.