In 1830, when opera and ballet were all the rage in Paris, a 26-year-old Berlioz brought the house down with his Symphonie fantastique at the Paris Conservatoire. Using an unprecedented palette of orchestral colour, the Symphonie fantastique recounts in fifty minutes a five-part “episode in the life of an artist”. In a letter addressed to his father, the composer wrote: “It was a sensation. Liszt, the famous pianist, hijacked me, so to speak, taking me to dine at his home and overwhelming me with such vibrant enthusiasm”.  In the first half of this impassioned concert, Alexandre Bloch will accompany the violinist Veronika Eberle in Mendelssohn’s superb Violin Concerto No.2.