ABSTRACT
In order to understand the unique character of the close relationship between Christoph Willibald Gluck and Hector Berlioz, we must first remember that Berlioz's own creativity was conditioned by certain "poetic shocks," as he called them, which he first experienced as a youth. The fact that Berlioz never became a teacher of composition must be taken into consideration, for his actions on behalf of Gluck have a decidedly didactic character. As early as 1825, Berlioz's music criticism focused upon the name and the works of Gluck in such a way as protectively to surround them with a kind of palace guard. And on 25 November 1838 Berlioz organized and conducted a concert in which he gave several excerpts from Alceste in versions later found in his own rescoring of the work, which was intended for use by Pauline Viardot. Berlioz's version of Gluck's Orphee was long and continues to be sung as the "original" version of the opera.
