What Hector Berlioz unleashed with his revolutionary Symphonie fantastique in 1830 was unheard of. Core motifs, drama, the grand orchestral line-up, it was all unprecedented. Still an iconic work that symbolizes the freedom and boundless creativity of the romantic soul.

The controversial Alina Pogostkina plays a centuries-old Camillo Camilli violin. An instrument with a grandeur befitting the top violinist. She has performed as a soloist with numerous leading orchestras in the world. Tonight she plays at the Residentie Orkest Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, lyrical and dreamy but also effervescent and powerful. Louise Farrenc was the only female professor at the Paris Conservatoire in the nineteenth century. Schumann and Fétis praised her compositions. Her work is rightly being heard more and more often. Finally, chief conductor Anja Bilmaier leads the revolution towards romanticism. Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique does away with the traditional musical norms of the time. The commentary was not tender: a symphony of wild and ferocious orchestral sounds. Berlioz was heartbroken. Maybe that was it.