Search - H. Berlioz :: Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique

Tired of Sex

Unfrozen Caveman Bookseller | New Hampshire | 07/31/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"I won this exact CD on eBay for $5.00 and checked it out here to see what people say about it. I'll never figure out why it's only $2.82 (as of this writing), plus shipping, that's not even 7 bucks! The pundits have all Romantics ingesting opium. Not entirely, I say, for Berlioz. He was 26 years old when he wrote this and he was shag-mad for this actress. (think Weezer in 1829). Everywhere he went, he saw her--in whatever social arrangement, you name it--ball, meadow, when dying. In real life he finally married her three years later, but instantly grew tired of her and divorced, hence Weezer song, "Tired of Sex" (geek rock proves a good enough analogy for this expert review). He tried to kill himself with bad opium and ended up hallucinating for a long time instead of dying. Part V is pretty vicious; more stormy and electrifying than "Summer" of Vivaldi's Four Seasons. Forget Four Seasons if you're primering your classical collection. Skip some of the Mozart waltzes and marches. For $2.82, start banging with this vast range of just a single season, plus a bonus dream sequence, in a writer's head."