Saturday 14 November 2026 7.30pm
Princes Hall, Aldershot, GU11 1NX – Venue Information
Conductor: Daniel Hogan
Lili Boulanger: D’un matin de printemps
Debussy: La Mer
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique
The FSO opens its 2026/27 season with an exciting programme of French music under the baton of our new Artistic Director, Daniel Hogan. The opening work of the concert is D’un matin de printemps (‘One spring morning’), a scherzo by Lili Boulanger, the younger sister of renowned composition teacher, Nadia Boulanger. Originally written for violin and piano in 1917 during her recovery from surgery, the composer later arranged the work for orchestra just weeks before her untimely death in March 1918 at the age of 24. Whilst it is an impressionistic expression of the joy of nature, the work also reveals something of her underlying pain.
Often regarded as the first impressionist composer, Claude Debussy’s work had a profound influence on many of his contemporaries (including Lili Boulanger). He rejected the classical symphonic form in favour of ‘symphonic sketches’ of which La Mer (‘The Sea’) is the most well-known collection. The work was premiered in 1905 to an unenthusiastic reception but has gone on to become established in the core orchestral repertoire.
The concert closes with a work from an earlier era. The Symphonie Fantastique, written by Hector Berlioz in 1830, is a piece of programme music that tells the story of a gifted artist who, in the depths of hopelessness and despair because of his unrequited love for a woman, has poisoned himself with opium. Inspired by an emotional obsession with Harriet Smithson, an Irish actress whom he had seen in the role of Ophelia in a production of Shakespeare’s Hamlet, in 1827, Berlioz produced what has been described as “one of the most remarkable outbursts of genius in the history of music”. Leonard Bernstein wrote that, “the music is all you need for the wildest trip you can take, to hell and back.” We hope that you are happy to buckle up and join us on this most exciting French journey – we promise that you will end the evening in one piece!
