Berlioz wrote Symphonie fantastique to woo a talented young actress who repeatedly toyed with his affections; his description of the hero of the work — “a young musician of unhealthily sensitive nature and endowed with vivid imagination” — was a reasonable image of himself at the time. Obsession, madness, murder, and redemption are all portrayed in this richly Romantic score. Berlioz’s rarely-heard Lélio uses many of the same melodic themes to tell of the hero’s awakening and his ultimate triumph as a composer.