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Berlioz. Past, Present, Future. Bicentenary Essays.

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Berlioz. Past, Present, Future. Bicentenary Essays. Edited by Peter Bloom. (Eastman Studies in Music.) Rochester, NY: University of Rochester Press, 2003. [xviii, 212 p. ISBN 1-58046-047-X. $70.]. Music examples, illustrations, index.

Hector Berlioz's bicentennial in 2003 witnessed a large number of celebrations. Besides exhibitions, festivals, concert series, and opera productions around the world, official conferences--including those initiated by the Comite International Hector Berlioz--had already started by 2001, considering and reconsidering every topic imaginable, referring to the composer and his context, his music, his personality, his reception in different countries, his relationships to other composers, artists, and writers. At the beginning of this series of conferences was the one at Smith College; its papers are presented in this volume, edited with the highest scholarly accuracy by Peter Bloom. Among the myriad of publications emanating from this jubilee, the present tome is worth considering for some new and uncommon perspectives on Berlioz research. It focuses foremost on historical context, starting with Berlioz and his times, then looking at Berlioz's understanding of history and earlier music, as well as Berlioz's presence in the musical world around 1900 and even today.

The twelve authors that Bloom presents in this volume generally avoid the popular type of "Berlioz and ..." papers which discuss who influenced Berlioz and who was influenced by him. Only one article refers to this type of...

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