Daniel Barenboim conducts Berlioz’s “Symphonie fantastique”

“My favourite instrument”, Witold Lutosławski professed, “is the orchestra itself”. It comes as no surprise that his most popular piece is a virtuoso work for just this “instrument”: the Concerto for Orchestra, which, with its vibrant colours and folkloristic vitality, is considered one of the masterpieces of the 20th century. The Symphonie fantastique also calls for top orchestral performances. It sets the scene with an enormous instrumental ensemble around its subject: the dream of an opium high, fluctuating between autobiography and fiction, with rapture, effects and sound spectacle.