THE Chandos Symphony Orchestra is celebrating 200 years since the birth of French composer Hector Berlioz with a concert at Malvern's Forum Theatre.

In closing its annual season, the Chandos returns under conductor Michael Lloyd to feature four of the most popular of all Berlioz's works.

It is musical territory with which they scored such a resounding success last year with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

Berlioz was a composer bursting with imagination and romanticism. Notorious for his violent emotional changes from enthusiasm to misery, the intensity of his personality is inextricably woven into his music. His works reflected something in himself expressed through poetry, literature, religion or drama.

All of the works in this concert were composed between 1839-1844, and represent the peak of Berlioz's achievements as one of the era's most revolutionary composers.

The centrepiece is a selection of excerpts from Berlioz's music for Romeo and Juliet. After Berlioz attended a performance of Hamlet in Paris, he fell in love with Ophelia and Shakespeare became a lifelong idol. He based several compositions on the playwright's works, with Romeo and Juliet being the best known.

The concert begins with the exciting overture Le Corsair, a real orchestral showpiece, before soloist Christine Rice joins the orchestra for the beautiful song cycle Nuits d't.

With well over 40 recordings, the hugely popular overture Roman Carnival is one of Berlioz's most extrovert and brilliant works, guaranteed to close the concert with an orchestral bang.

The concert is on Sunday and tickets are priced at £13, £10 and £8 (concs £11, £9 and £7). They are available from the box office on 01684 892277.