The Symphonie fantastique is one of the most extraordinary phenomena in the history of music. Written barely three years after Beethoven's death, it comes like a bolt out of the blue, a pitchfork into the Romantic era, and was without any precedent except for Beethoven's Ninth Symphony which Berlioz had not yet even heard (though he had carefully and eagerly studied the score in the Conservatoire library). Even that seems by comparison to belong to a past age, so totally novel are Berlioz's wild imagination and vivid modernity of thought together with his eccentric yet supremely effective orchestration, transcending all that had gone before. Due to its extreme originality Berlioz was so terrified that it would be “murdered” by incompetent executants that he insisted on either conducting or at least supervising all performances himself, resisting all offers from publishers except Liszt's transcription for piano which Schlesinger issued in 1834, earning a favourable review from Schumann. Only when Berlioz had toured the work in Germany and begun to find orchestras equal to its demands did he finally, in 1845, have the score published by Schlesinger in both Paris and Berlin.

sources

A  Autograph score (1830), in the Bibliotheque nationale de France, Paris

E,P  First edition of score and parts, published by Schlesinger, Paris and Berlin in 1845

Br  Full score, edited by Charles Malherbe and published by Breitkopf & Härtel in 1900

EE  Miniature score based on E, published by Eulenburg

Ub  Urtext edition, edited by Nicholas Temperley and published by Bärenreiter in 1972

two different printings of Br

In the earliest printings of Br the Pos/Tuba parts were bowdlerised between 253 and 55. This was corrected (8 pages were re-engraved) at least by 1960, but unfortunately when Dover issued their reprint they reverted to the original, faulty printing.