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Donald Macleod sees Berlioz鈥檚 life come full circle as he tries rekindling an old flame.

Hector Berlioz was one the most innovative and rebellious musicians of 19th-century France. He was a man of unwaveringly high expectations, in his wider life as well as his music. As the quintessential Romantic, one friend said that love was the 鈥渁lpha and omega of his existence鈥�. This week Donald Macleod looks at Berlioz through the passions and relationships that shaped who he was and what he created, exploring the romantic obsessions of an especially obsessive man. We鈥檒l also hear a movement of his Symphonie Fantastique each day 鈥� Berlioz鈥檚 best known work, and the musical embodiment of his most powerful infatuation.

In today's programme, having buried both his wives, Berlioz decides to seek out his childhood love, Estelle Duboeuf. This boyhood passion always stayed with him and sparked not only his desire to compose, but his lifelong quest for ideal love. For Berlioz, Estelle was the first, and it would fall to her to end the story.

Au Cimeti猫re (Nuits d鈥櫭﹖茅)
Veronique Gens, soprano
Opera National de Lyon
Louis Langree, conductor

R锚verie et caprice for violin
Renaud Capucon
Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie
Daniel Harding, conductor

Les Troyens : Act IV, Nos 34b-37 ("O blonde Ceres鈥�Nuit d鈥檌vresse")
Kenneth Tarver (Iopas)
Michelle DeYoung (Didon)
Ben Heppner (Enee)
London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus
Colin Davis, conductor

Le d茅pit de la berg猫re, H. 7
Elsa Dreisig, soprano
Jeff Cohen, piano

Symphonie Fantastique (5th movement 鈥� Songe d鈥檜ne nuit de sabbat)
San Francisco Symphony
Michael Tilson Thomas, conductor

Produced in Cardiff by Amelia Parker