Program Two • Anxieties of Influence: Models, Teachers, and Classmates by Berlioz, Reicha, A., Von Weber, Parish-Alvars, Cherubini, Ab (2024/2024), Fisher Center, Annandale, Vereinigte Staaten

Program Two helps contextualize Berlioz among his predecessors, mentors, and peers. One of his little-known chamber works will be heard alongside examples by Luigi Cherubini, under whose headship he chafed at the Paris Conservatoire, and Elias Parish Alvars, whom he considered “the Liszt of the harp.” Also featured are Carl Maria von Weber’s Invitation to the Dance–the piano piece Berlioz orchestrated for his French adaptation of Der Freischütz–and operatic excerpts by his early composition teacher Jean-François Le Sueur, fellow Prix de Rome winner Ambroise Thomas, and Italian opera composer Gaspare Spontini, whom he dubbed “the genius of the century.” The program’s centerpiece is the substantial yet underrated C-minor String Quartet of Berlioz’s Czech-born teacher, Anton Reicha.