Movement IV. "Marche au supplice" ("March to the scaffold")
hr-Sinfonieorchester (Frankfurt Radio Symphony), Andrés Orozco-Estrada, cond. (6 min, 20 sec)
"Convinced that his love is spurned, the artist poisons himself with opium.
The dose of narcotic, while too weak to cause his death, plunges him into a
heavy sleep accompanied by the strangest of visions. He dreams that he has
his own execution. The procession advances to the sound of a march that is
sometimes sombre and wild, and sometimes brilliant and solemn, in which a
dull sound of heavy footsteps follows without transition the loudest outbursts.
At the end of the march, the first four bars of the idée fixe reappear like a
final thought of love interrupted by the fatal blow."
1. Very much indebted to the funeral march in Beethoven's 3rd symphony.
2. Much heavier use of brass instruments (trumpets, horns, tubas) than before. This would be
a trend throughout the rest of the century.
3. The fervor builds throughout, then everything goes quiet.
There is a few second quote of the idée fixes
Then there is a bang as the guillotine falls and the brass chords signify cheers from the crowd.