1846
Continuation of the concert tour in Germany and central Europe: Prague, back to Vienna, Pesth (in modern Hungary), Breslau, Prague again and Brunswick. In January a poem in honour of Berlioz by the Viennese writer Johann Hofzinser is published in the journal Der Wanderer, and it looks forward to Berlioz’s forthcoming trip to Hungary. At the request of a Hungarian friend, Berlioz orchestrates Hungary’s national anthem which is enthusiastically received when he conducts it at a concert in Budapest; he later incorporates it in the Damnation of Faust as the Hungarian March (Marche hongroise). A second portrait of Berlioz by Prinzhofer in Vienna (between 1 January and 28 February). Joseph Kriehuber draws a group picture of Berlioz and friends entitled ’Une matinee chez Liszt’ (April.)
Completion of the composition of La Damnation de Faust (19 October) which is premiered at the Salle Favart on 6 December and repeated on 20 December; it is a failure and leaves Berlioz heavily in debt.
1847 - visit to Russia
Berlioz makes his first visit to Russia (February-May); on 14 February he leaves Paris for Saint-Petersburg via Brussels and Berlin.
While in Saint-Petersburg, Berlioz meets Princess Sayn-Wittgenstein for the first time. After a successful series of concerts in Saint-Petersburg and Moscow he returns home via Riga and Berlin, where he gives two concerts, with Harold en Italie, excerpts from La Damnation de Faust and other pieces in Riga (29 May) and La Damnation de Faust in Berlin (19 June). Berlioz arrives in Paris in the last week of June. He abandons the composition of La Nonne sanglante. Fragments of this opera survive. Start of the serialisation in the Journal des debats of his account of his travels in central Europe and Russia (from 24 August), later incorporated in the Memoirs.
Visit of Berlioz to La Cote with his son Louis (8-20 September). This is Louis’s first visit to his grandfather’s home. On 3 November he departs for London to make the first of his five visits. This visit will last over seven months (November 1847 - July 1848); he is engaged as conductor by Jullien, director of the Theatre Royal Drury Lane. For the best part of this visit Berlioz stays at 76 Harley Street, which belongs to Jullien.
1848
The February Revolution breaks out in Paris. Berlioz begins the writing of his Memoirs in March during the stay in London. His mistress Marie Recio joins him in London in April; they move to 26 Osnaburgh Street (since demolished and replaced by a block of flats).
Berlioz remains in London until mid-July. His father Dr Louis Berlioz dies at La Cote on 28 July; Berlioz goes to La Cote on 21 August "to mourn the death of his father with his sisters" Nanci and Adele. He also makes a pilgrimage to Meylan, where he first met Estelle Dub?uf back in 1815. He returns to Paris in mid-September, and stays at 15 rue de la Rochefoucauld.
Harriet suffers a series of strokes which leave her almost paralysed. She needs constant attention and four servants look after her continuously; all paid for by Berlioz who visits her almost daily when he is in Paris. Start of the composition of the Te Deum (October, completed in August 1849).
1851
Death of Spontini (24 January). Berlioz applies to become member of the Institut de France to succeed Spontini (6 March), but is unsuccessful; Ambroise Thomas is elected (22 March). Second and final season of the Societe philharmonique de Paris (last formal concert on 29 April). Berlioz travels to London for the second time between May and July, on official visit: he is sent by the French government as member of the international commission examining musical instruments at the Great Exhibition. The following year he gives a detailed account of this visit in Les Soirees de l’orchestre.
1852
Third visit to London, between March and June. Berlioz is engaged by Frederick Beale, the co-founder of the New Philharmonic Society, to conduct six concerts for the Society at Exeter Hall. While Berlioz is still in London, Liszt embarks on the revival of Benvenuto Cellini and conducts on 20 and 24 March performances of what was to become with Berlioz’s approval the Weimar version of that opera. These are the first performances of the work since the disastrous premiere in Paris in 1838. Later in the year Berlioz and Marie Recio travel to Weimar (November) to attend a "Berlioz week" organised by Liszt. Benvenuto Cellini receives several performances in its revised ‘Weimar version’ at the Grand-Ducal Theatre. Serialisation of Les Soirees de l’orchestre in Revue et gazette musicale (from 19 September), published as a book in December, with a second edition in 1854.
1853
Berlioz travels to London for the fourth time, from mid-May to mid-July. He is invited by Frederick Gye, the director of Covent Garden, to produce and conduct Benvenuto Cellini at the Theatre Royal Covent Garden. Berlioz withdraws it after one performance (25 June), because of the audience’s hostile reception. First visit to Baden-Baden to conduct a concert on 11 August; the concert is part of an annual festival which Edouard Benazet, the director of the Casino, has asked Berlioz to organise. The visit to Baden-Baden is followed by a trip to Frankfurt, where he gives two concerts (20, 24 August). He embarks on a concert tour in Germany: Brunswick, Hanover, Bremen and Leipzig, between October and December.
1855
Revised version of Le Retour a la vie, now called Lelio (January). Berlioz gives concerts in Weimar in February and Brussels in March.
The Te Deum is premiered at Saint-Eustache on 30 April, Berlioz conducting. Fifth and last visit to London between June and July – Berlioz is engaged by Henry Wylde, the co-founder of the New Philharmonic Society, to conduct two concerts for the Society at Exeter Hall. During his stay he has a long meeting with Wagner at Sainton’s flat. Berlioz leaves England on 7 July never to return. Berlioz serves on the jury of the Exposition universelle held in Paris (August-September). In November, Berlioz gives three concerts at the Palais de l’Industrie, including the first performance of L’Imperiale. Publication late in the year of the second revised edition of the Treatise on Instrumentation and Orchestration which now includes a new chapter, Le Chef d’orchestre — theorie de son art (The Conductor — Theory of his Art).