Fantastique!

Never one for understatement, Berlioz’s crazily entertaining Symphonie Fantastique really is just that: an opium-fuelled phantasmagoria full of witchcraft and star-crossed romance, and complete with a notorious musical depiction of a public beheading. It’s really got to be heard to be believed, as does Gounoud’s Concerto for Pedal Piano, a delightful one-off written for a piano fitted out with a second keyboard for the pianist’s feet!