<P> In 1840, the Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale was commissioned to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the July Revolution of 1830 . Owing to a strict deadline, it was performed only days after it was completed . The performance was held in the open air on 28 July, conducted by Berlioz himself, at the Place de la Bastille . The piece was difficult to hear owing to the crowds and timpani of the drum corps . This was later remedied by a concert performance a month later, and Wagner voiced his approval of the work . The following year he began but later abandoned the composition of a new opera, La nonne sanglante; some fragments survive . </P> <P> In 1841, Berlioz wrote recitatives for a production of Weber's Der Freischütz at the Paris Opéra and also orchestrated Weber's Invitation to the Dance to add ballet music to it (he titled the ballet L'Invitation à la valse, and the original piano piece has often been mistitled as a result). Later that year Berlioz finished composing the song cycle Les nuits d'été for piano and voices (later to be orchestrated). He also entered into an intimate relationship with singer Marie Recio who would become his second wife . </P> <P> In 1842, Berlioz embarked on a concert tour of Brussels, Belgium from September to October . In December he began a tour in Germany which continued until the middle of next year . Towns visited included Berlin, Hanover, Leipzig, Stuttgart, Weimar, Hechingen, Darmstadt, Dresden, Brunswick, Hamburg, Frankfurt and Mannheim . In Leipzig he met Felix Mendelssohn and Robert Schumann, the latter of whom had written an enthusiastic article on the Symphonie fantastique . He also met Heinrich Marschner in Hanover, Wagner in Dresden and Giacomo Meyerbeer in Berlin . Back in Paris, Berlioz began to compose the concert overture Le carnaval romain, based on music from Benvenuto Cellini . The work was finished the following year and was premiered shortly after . Nowadays it is among the most popular of his overtures . </P> <P> In early 1844, Berlioz's highly influential Treatise on Instrumentation was published for the first time . At this time Berlioz was producing several serialisations for music journals which would eventually be collected into his Mémoires and Les soirées de l'orchestre (Evenings with the Orchestra). He took a recuperation trip to Nice late that year, during which he composed the concert overture La tour de Nice (The Tower of Nice), later to be revised and renamed Le Corsaire . With their marriage a failure, Berlioz and Harriet Smithson separated, the latter having become an alcoholic due to the collapse of her acting career . Berlioz moved in with a mistress Marie Recio . He continued to provide for Harriet for the rest of her life . He also met Mikhail Glinka (whom he had initially met in Italy and who remained a close friend), who was in Paris between 1844 and 1845 and persuaded Berlioz to embark on one of two tours of Russia . Berlioz's joke "If the Emperor of Russia wants me, then I am up for sale" was taken seriously . The two tours of Russia (the second in 1867) proved so financially successful that they secured Berlioz's finances despite the large amounts of money he was losing in writing unsuccessful compositions . In 1845 he embarked on his first large - scale concert tour of France . He also attended and wrote a report on the inauguration of a statue to Beethoven in Bonn, and began composing La damnation de Faust, incorporating the earlier Huit scènes de Faust . On his return to Paris, the recently completed La damnation de Faust was premiered at the Opéra - Comique, but after two performances, the run was discontinued and the work was a popular failure (perhaps owing to its halfway status between opera and cantata), despite receiving generally favourable critical reviews . This left Berlioz heavily in debt to the tune of 5000 to 6000 francs . Becoming ever more disenchanted with his prospects in France, he wrote: </P>

Who composed the piano cycle entitled the year