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

The high-profile young Alina Pogostkina plays on a century-old Camillo Camilli violin. An instrument with a grandeur befitting the top violinist. She has already soloed with numerous leading orchestras around the world. Tonight she makes her debut at the Residentie Orkest in Prokofiev's First Violin Concerto, lyrical and dreamy but also vibrant and powerful. Louise Farrenc was the only female professor at the Paris Conservatory in the nineteenth century. Schumann and Fétis praised her compositions. Rightly so, her work is sounding more and more often. Finally, chief conductor Anja Bilmaier presides over the turn toward Romanticism. Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique does away with the traditional musical norms of the time. The comments were not kind: a symphony of wild and savage orchestral sounds. Berlioz was heartbroken. Perhaps that was it.