If you've never treated yourself to the compositions of Hector Berlioz, here's a good place to start - it's the last movement of his most well known work, the Symphonie Fantastique. It's a little bit like coming in on Hamlet in the last act, but still, for orchestration and pure inventiveness, you won't find much to match it in 1830.

Of the handful of composers who have left us a substantial written record of their lives and ideas, Berlioz is by far the most entertaining. If you can get your hands on Ernest Newman's edition of his Memoirs, you should - half the fun is in Newman's footnotes which desperately try and make sense of Berlioz's mangled chronology and plain fictions. The man was entirely willing to just Make Shit Up about himself and grossly move events around if he thought it would make for a more dashing story, and it's hard to be upset with him, because it is such an entertaining journey. His Evenings with the Orchestra is also hilarious - the perfect present for any classical musician you might happen to know.

The Packing a Woman's Dress By Way of Disguise and An Extra Set of Pistols By Way of Vengeance event actually did happen, by the by - luckily Berlioz came to his senses before going all the way through with it.

- Count Dolby von Luckner