0:00:03 > 0:00:05MUSIC: "Symphony No. 2" by Elgar
0:00:49 > 0:00:53Bernard Levin once wrote that the final piece of music he wanted
0:00:53 > 0:00:58to hear before he died, provided he had sufficient notice,
0:00:58 > 0:01:01four or five hours, was Wagner's Die Meistersinger.
0:01:01 > 0:01:03HE LAUGHS Good heavens!
0:01:05 > 0:01:08Is there a piece that would fall into that category for you?
0:01:14 > 0:01:18I haven't... I've thought a lot about dying, but not...
0:01:18 > 0:01:22but haven't given much thought to the programme.
0:01:40 > 0:01:45When you say you've thought a lot about dying, in what way?
0:01:45 > 0:01:46Well, it's...
0:01:48 > 0:01:51It's a universal problem, isn't it?
0:01:51 > 0:01:57And I think it should be spoken about quite openly and not made such
0:01:57 > 0:02:02a dreadful future experience which you don't want to think about.
0:02:07 > 0:02:09'It's been going on a long time.
0:02:09 > 0:02:13'An awful lot of people have managed to die quite decently.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20'I think, probably,'
0:02:20 > 0:02:23I'd have Mozart's string quintets.
0:02:24 > 0:02:26For as long as it takes!
0:02:29 > 0:02:31# Surely
0:02:31 > 0:02:34# Surely
0:02:34 > 0:02:36# He hath borne... #
0:02:36 > 0:02:38Now, if you watch me... Would you please watch, all of you?
0:02:38 > 0:02:41And then you won't sing that note too short, because...
0:02:41 > 0:02:43For the thousands of amateurs who sang with him
0:02:43 > 0:02:46during his 62 years as a conductor,
0:02:46 > 0:02:50rehearsing with Sir Colin Davis was an unforgettable,
0:02:50 > 0:02:52life-enhancing experience.
0:02:52 > 0:02:53You know how this goes...
0:02:53 > 0:02:56# Surely
0:02:56 > 0:02:58# Surely
0:02:58 > 0:03:02- # He hath borne... # - Great big crescendo!
0:03:02 > 0:03:05# Our griefs... #
0:03:05 > 0:03:11- Crescendo... - # And carried our sorrows
0:03:11 > 0:03:12# Surely
0:03:12 > 0:03:16# Surely
0:03:16 > 0:03:18- # He hath borne... # - Basses, crescendo.
0:03:18 > 0:03:20# Our griefs
0:03:20 > 0:03:26# And carried our sorrows... #
0:03:27 > 0:03:29That's great. Now...
0:03:29 > 0:03:32'Have you yourself sung in a large choir?'
0:03:32 > 0:03:38'Yes, when I was young, I was lucky enough to be given a lot of singing lessons,'
0:03:38 > 0:03:42and he said, "You've got to learn not to be afraid of your own voice...
0:03:43 > 0:03:46"..but nobody will ever come to hear you sing."
0:03:48 > 0:03:49Oh, that was perfectly true.
0:03:51 > 0:03:52Oh, dear. Oh, dear.
0:03:55 > 0:03:57What I thought we would do
0:03:57 > 0:03:59is to play each movement without stopping.
0:03:59 > 0:04:03If there are any big catastrophes, we'll put them right.
0:04:03 > 0:04:06If there aren't any, we'll go on to the next one.
0:04:06 > 0:04:08So we get a feel of what it's like.
0:04:09 > 0:04:11As the years began to catch up with him,
0:04:11 > 0:04:15Sir Colin devoted more and more of his time to the young.
0:04:15 > 0:04:16HE HUMS
0:04:16 > 0:04:18Pa-pa!
0:04:18 > 0:04:19Pa-pa!
0:04:20 > 0:04:24HE HUMS
0:04:27 > 0:04:29When the tree is dying,
0:04:29 > 0:04:32it suddenly produces enormous quantities of fruit.
0:04:33 > 0:04:36Maybe that's the stage we're in.
0:04:36 > 0:04:39HE HUMS
0:04:41 > 0:04:45'We don't see any decline in the numbers who take up classical music,
0:04:45 > 0:04:48'going to these fantastic youth orchestras
0:04:48 > 0:04:50'which play so amazingly well.'
0:04:50 > 0:04:55And the standard of orchestras has gone up in the same way
0:04:55 > 0:04:57over the last 30 years.
0:05:08 > 0:05:12'The way people talk about it, the tree is dying.'
0:05:12 > 0:05:14You look so solemn! I hope it's fun, good lord!
0:05:16 > 0:05:18Now, we'll have a rest.
0:05:18 > 0:05:21But I don't think it is dying.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24Colin Davis was one of seven children.
0:05:24 > 0:05:28Both his parents were musical, but it wasn't until the age of 13,
0:05:28 > 0:05:31when he was at school at Christ's Hospital in Sussex,
0:05:31 > 0:05:33that he became hooked.
0:05:33 > 0:05:38My brothers had come home with a bag of records,
0:05:38 > 0:05:44and amongst which were discs of the Eighth Symphony of Beethoven.
0:05:46 > 0:05:48And when I heard that, then...
0:05:48 > 0:05:51I really knew I had to be a musician.
0:05:53 > 0:05:57MUSIC: "Eighth Symphony" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:05:57 > 0:06:00It's bang, isn't it? It's...
0:06:00 > 0:06:03It's as if Beethoven just burst through the door.
0:06:03 > 0:06:06MUSIC CONTINUES
0:06:19 > 0:06:22It wasn't the only piece of music that I knew,
0:06:22 > 0:06:28but it was the point at which there was no help for it any more.
0:06:28 > 0:06:30Why was that?
0:06:30 > 0:06:33Oh... I don't know.
0:06:33 > 0:06:34Do you?
0:06:34 > 0:06:39Why it is... What happened to Saint Paul on the way to Damascus?
0:06:44 > 0:06:46Was there any live music at home?
0:06:46 > 0:06:48No.
0:06:48 > 0:06:49No.
0:06:50 > 0:06:54Nobody played anything, except...
0:06:57 > 0:07:01..I peeped on the clarinet.
0:07:01 > 0:07:04That was the only instrument.
0:07:14 > 0:07:16Some nice chamber music moments there,
0:07:16 > 0:07:19because I was in a string quartet...
0:07:20 > 0:07:23..at Christ's Hospital.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26So we played the Mozart Quintet.
0:07:27 > 0:07:29Once you sit in an orchestra, the...
0:07:32 > 0:07:37It's such a bewildering mixture of sounds when you start,
0:07:37 > 0:07:39and you've got to count your bars,
0:07:39 > 0:07:42and that doesn't seem to have much to do with the music.
0:07:44 > 0:07:48But...it's part of learning what it's like to be musician.
0:07:55 > 0:07:58His conducting career took him all over the world,
0:07:58 > 0:08:02with regular dates across Europe, and then the United States.
0:08:02 > 0:08:05He came to fame in the 1960s
0:08:05 > 0:08:08as Sir Malcolm Sargent's successor at the Proms
0:08:08 > 0:08:12and went on to run the music at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.
0:08:12 > 0:08:15He was more or less self taught,
0:08:15 > 0:08:19but the veteran conductor Sir Adrian Boult did give him some advice
0:08:19 > 0:08:23after attending one of his concerts.
0:08:23 > 0:08:25He came to me afterwards
0:08:25 > 0:08:28and said, "My dear boy, you'll be a cripple if you go on like that.
0:08:28 > 0:08:30"You must go and see Barlow."
0:08:30 > 0:08:37Doctor Barlow lived opposite the stage door of the Albert Hall.
0:08:39 > 0:08:45And that's when I started an acquaintance with the Alexander technique.
0:08:47 > 0:08:51I used to go to the LPO office,
0:08:51 > 0:08:56where Adrian Boult had a disc, and so on.
0:08:56 > 0:08:59He said, "Just throw the juice over them like that.
0:08:59 > 0:09:01"Imagine you have a water cannon and you go, "Phoot!""
0:09:01 > 0:09:03And it's certainly true.
0:09:04 > 0:09:07- There was a passionate side to Boult, wasn't there?- I think so, yes.
0:09:07 > 0:09:11I think he was underestimated as a conductor.
0:09:11 > 0:09:16He was a very important figure in the lives of those who were...
0:09:18 > 0:09:20..at school during the war.
0:09:20 > 0:09:24I mean, the only music we could get hold of was through the BBC,
0:09:24 > 0:09:27mostly conducted by Boult.
0:09:27 > 0:09:30And he did not maltreat music.
0:09:31 > 0:09:35If you wanted to hear what a Brahms symphony sounded like,
0:09:35 > 0:09:38it was just better to listen to him
0:09:38 > 0:09:42than to somebody else who had freakish ideas about it.
0:09:43 > 0:09:46What was Boult like to meet?
0:09:47 > 0:09:50He was very charming.
0:09:50 > 0:09:53Except when you mentioned the words "smug" and "Sargent".
0:09:53 > 0:09:57Then, he flew into this terrible rage.
0:09:57 > 0:10:00I didn't know what the history of that was,
0:10:00 > 0:10:03it was something to with Sargent getting me out of the BBC.
0:10:04 > 0:10:08There was some intrigue with the women, I think, there.
0:10:09 > 0:10:12So, we didn't talk about that kind of thing.
0:10:12 > 0:10:14Why he was so irascible, I have no idea.
0:10:16 > 0:10:19But I think we all go through that,
0:10:19 > 0:10:23and I am as old as he was when I knew him a bit.
0:10:25 > 0:10:30I can see how old age calms one down.
0:10:37 > 0:10:40Let's stop there. Can we go back to 214?
0:10:40 > 0:10:41The first note...
0:10:41 > 0:10:43HE HUMS
0:10:43 > 0:10:46However short any of the notes are, I think we should make them...
0:10:46 > 0:10:50As a young man, David had his problems with orchestras,
0:10:50 > 0:10:54who often found him arrogant and impatient.
0:10:54 > 0:10:58He ended up as the LSO's longest-serving principal conductor.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01But his early years with them were sticky.
0:11:01 > 0:11:06Not least because he felt they didn't know how to play Stravinsky.
0:11:06 > 0:11:07The LPO was a bit bloody-minded,
0:11:07 > 0:11:11I tried stupidly to do the symphony in C
0:11:11 > 0:11:15and they can't... And they...
0:11:18 > 0:11:21They didn't like me either.
0:11:21 > 0:11:24But that's the hazard of going through existence.
0:11:28 > 0:11:30What did you do in that situation?
0:11:30 > 0:11:31Soldier on.
0:11:33 > 0:11:35Just going home in a huff...
0:11:35 > 0:11:37And it's no use lecturing the orchestra -
0:11:37 > 0:11:39they all behaved themselves
0:11:39 > 0:11:42and tried to play the damn thing.
0:11:42 > 0:11:45So you just had to live through it.
0:11:50 > 0:11:53Did you feel in those days you made enemies?
0:11:53 > 0:11:54Of course.
0:11:58 > 0:11:59Yes.
0:12:01 > 0:12:05There was one who I never identified.
0:12:05 > 0:12:09This was at Maida Vale, you know, remember the canteen there?
0:12:10 > 0:12:14And I bought some lunch and I left it on the table
0:12:14 > 0:12:18and I went... I don't know, I washed my hands or something.
0:12:18 > 0:12:21And when I came back, it was gone.
0:12:21 > 0:12:26Somebody had taken the trouble to deprive me of my lunch,
0:12:26 > 0:12:28so I thought it was fairly mean.
0:12:30 > 0:12:32'Can we phrase the...'
0:12:32 > 0:12:37HE SINGS
0:12:37 > 0:12:39..please, from two to nine?
0:12:39 > 0:12:44The fact that you did make enemies, was that your fault or theirs?
0:12:44 > 0:12:46I'm sure it was mine.
0:12:46 > 0:12:51Or maybe my...simple existence irritated them.
0:12:51 > 0:12:53How does one know?
0:12:58 > 0:13:00What sort of person were you then?
0:13:00 > 0:13:02What a question!
0:13:02 > 0:13:04How the hell do I know?
0:13:05 > 0:13:09I've only been told that I was impossible.
0:13:09 > 0:13:13And I am ready to believe anything, since I don't know.
0:13:15 > 0:13:16Never mind.
0:13:16 > 0:13:20One of the things we might...try...
0:13:20 > 0:13:24'But there came a point when you decided to change course and to...'
0:13:24 > 0:13:26'Yes, there was.'
0:13:26 > 0:13:29I was wandering along Camden Passage...
0:13:31 > 0:13:33..feeling pretty gloomy,
0:13:33 > 0:13:37and I...then decided...
0:13:39 > 0:13:42..I would rather be a decent human being...
0:13:46 > 0:13:48..than an idiot conductor.
0:13:54 > 0:13:56I would have been about 35 then.
0:13:59 > 0:14:01So that was a really long journey.
0:14:04 > 0:14:05What I did...
0:14:07 > 0:14:09..was I married and had a family.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13Which was probably the, the biggest...
0:14:17 > 0:14:18..step in that direction.
0:14:18 > 0:14:21I had been married before, so I knew...
0:14:23 > 0:14:29And that did really not come to a very good end.
0:14:33 > 0:14:35So I started again.
0:14:44 > 0:14:46And we had five children.
0:14:46 > 0:14:48When I say that to young people now,
0:14:48 > 0:14:52they say, "Five children! How did you manage that?"
0:14:52 > 0:14:55And then, again, I have to say, "I really don't know."
0:14:55 > 0:14:56HE CHUCKLES
0:14:58 > 0:15:01Except there was the determination to do it.
0:15:06 > 0:15:10His passion for making music with children lasted into his 80s,
0:15:10 > 0:15:14when he launched the School's Orchestra, in London.
0:15:14 > 0:15:16Some of them were only nine years old.
0:15:18 > 0:15:22They meet once a year, towards the end of the summer term, I think,
0:15:22 > 0:15:27after all the exams are over. They tackle quite difficult music.
0:15:53 > 0:15:56Well, it's pretty well the hardest work you ever do.
0:15:58 > 0:16:02Cos they've got to learn to listen, which is the hardest thing, perhaps.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16You're quite demanding of them, though, aren't you?
0:16:16 > 0:16:21Well, of course, why not? It's no use talking down to kids, I don't think.
0:16:22 > 0:16:26I think you should just confront them with what it is they have to do.
0:16:42 > 0:16:45Are they quite responsive?
0:16:45 > 0:16:47Oh, yes. I mean, they try very hard.
0:16:47 > 0:16:49Some of them don't know how to respond,
0:16:49 > 0:16:52because they don't know what they're being asked to do.
0:16:52 > 0:16:56But you've got time to tackle all that, as far as you can.
0:16:58 > 0:17:00But they did improve enormously.
0:17:02 > 0:17:06And what is so gratifying is that it's still going.
0:17:13 > 0:17:18Colin Davis became almost a household name some 40 years earlier,
0:17:18 > 0:17:21when he took over the Proms season from Sir Malcolm Sargent,
0:17:21 > 0:17:23who was dying of cancer.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28Davis had little time for the hijinks of the Last Night,
0:17:28 > 0:17:31whereas Sargent had loved every moment.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35There's been one conspicuous absentee from these celebrations...
0:17:35 > 0:17:37in...
0:17:37 > 0:17:40as you know, Sir Malcolm Sargent.
0:17:40 > 0:17:42Now, before you say anything at all,
0:17:42 > 0:17:44I have a great pleasure in telling you...
0:17:44 > 0:17:45INDISTINCT SHOUTING
0:17:45 > 0:17:47Don't be so rude!
0:17:47 > 0:17:49CHEERING
0:17:55 > 0:17:57I was going to say...
0:17:57 > 0:18:00that Sir Malcolm Sargent is in fact here,
0:18:00 > 0:18:04and I know that you would like to pay to him your respects.
0:18:04 > 0:18:05And I will go and get him.
0:18:05 > 0:18:08RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE
0:18:08 > 0:18:12'When he insisted on coming to make that speech, at the Last Night...'
0:18:13 > 0:18:19..when he could hardly walk... I mean, he died a few days later.
0:18:20 > 0:18:23'And we were all afraid he was going to fall over,'
0:18:23 > 0:18:26so I was told to stand there, "And you can catch him."
0:18:35 > 0:18:38I feel tonight I'm an intruder.
0:18:38 > 0:18:41- Rubbish! - UPROAR
0:18:41 > 0:18:43I'll tell you why.
0:18:43 > 0:18:46I didn't win a seat in the ballot and I haven't bought a ticket.
0:18:46 > 0:18:47LAUGHTER
0:18:50 > 0:18:51Whose idea was it?
0:18:51 > 0:18:54His, I'm sure. Absolutely certain.
0:18:56 > 0:19:01'He lived for it, he lived for the adulation of the audience.'
0:19:07 > 0:19:11I had a charming letter from somebody who said, "Just like you,
0:19:11 > 0:19:17"the young conductors stand, waiting for him to die and get into his place."
0:19:17 > 0:19:21And I was astounded that people could be so offensive.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27You must have picked up some vibes from the orchestral musicians
0:19:27 > 0:19:30- as to what... - Well, nobody liked him, no.
0:19:30 > 0:19:34I mean, one doesn't want to say that, but they didn't.
0:19:34 > 0:19:40I mean, he was full of nonsense, because he lived in a flat...
0:19:40 > 0:19:43opposite the stage door of the...
0:19:46 > 0:19:52..of the Albert Hall, and he insisted on making that 50-yard journey
0:19:52 > 0:19:59in a Rolls, so that he could turn up like some kind of royalty.
0:19:59 > 0:20:04When he was ill, in hospital, in the end of his life,
0:20:04 > 0:20:08and he had all his scores there, on the bed,
0:20:08 > 0:20:14and every conceivable free spot on the...
0:20:16 > 0:20:18..opening pages of the score,
0:20:18 > 0:20:24he printed his name... from a rubber stamp, or he wrote it.
0:20:24 > 0:20:27Extraordinary thing to do.
0:20:27 > 0:20:32What we have to try to do here is to set up the most saturated string sound. Excuse me.
0:20:32 > 0:20:36No lifting of the bow, no slowing down at either end.
0:20:36 > 0:20:38It must go right through.
0:20:40 > 0:20:43Ignore the lines, they're just long notes.
0:20:43 > 0:20:45Start once more.
0:20:45 > 0:20:47Not to stop the bow, anybody -
0:20:47 > 0:20:50please don't stop the bow from sounding on the strings,
0:20:50 > 0:20:56so there is no possibility for any of the notes being detached from any other.
0:20:56 > 0:20:59HE HUMS
0:21:07 > 0:21:12'Music is, of course, very little to do with beating time.
0:21:13 > 0:21:17'Anyone can beat time, and it's extraordinarily boring.
0:21:18 > 0:21:22'But what you can do with a baton is quite extraordinary.
0:21:25 > 0:21:29'You can indicate the kind of way you want people to play.'
0:21:31 > 0:21:33Very slow crotchets. HE SINGS
0:21:40 > 0:21:47'It is the key to playing together and making shapes and sizes
0:21:47 > 0:21:50'and all the things you can do with something
0:21:50 > 0:21:58'which is partly a rapier, partly an arrow, partly a bow, and so on.'
0:22:01 > 0:22:04HE SINGS
0:22:13 > 0:22:16'It takes a lot of doing. It's not easy.'
0:22:17 > 0:22:21Now, in the next bit, will you change your bow where you feel like it?
0:22:21 > 0:22:22Good.
0:22:24 > 0:22:27A lot of conductors now don't use the baton at all
0:22:27 > 0:22:29- and use just their hands.- Mm-hm.
0:22:29 > 0:22:31- Is that something...?- I tried that.
0:22:33 > 0:22:37Because I was trying to find out how to do anything.
0:22:38 > 0:22:42But it just means you have to move your arm much more,
0:22:42 > 0:22:46and that's not a good use of energy, really.
0:22:48 > 0:22:52It's really wasteful and rather confusing sometimes.
0:22:57 > 0:23:01Now, more crescendo, can you?
0:23:14 > 0:23:20If you're in a time of 4/4 and you're playing fairly slowly,
0:23:20 > 0:23:25beating time is not expressive - it just goes like that.
0:23:25 > 0:23:29And that doesn't tell anybody anything about the way you want them to play,
0:23:29 > 0:23:32whereas if you drag your stick around
0:23:32 > 0:23:36as though you're pulling it through some thick liquid, like honey...
0:23:38 > 0:23:45..you can pull the bows through the music that way, for example.
0:23:47 > 0:23:52And if you want to have a forte piano, you can go...
0:23:52 > 0:23:54And you keep quite still.
0:23:55 > 0:23:57Eventually, they will do it, they will...
0:23:58 > 0:24:03..strike the bow on the string and stop the speed of it.
0:24:03 > 0:24:08It's a very dramatic effect. I'm just saying these are things you can do.
0:24:08 > 0:24:12And, in fact, most music - especially fast music -
0:24:12 > 0:24:15doesn't consist of downbeats at all. They're all up.
0:24:16 > 0:24:19One, two, three...
0:24:19 > 0:24:21One, two...
0:24:21 > 0:24:23They're not down and up.
0:24:23 > 0:24:28Downbeats are... They tend to bring things to a stop.
0:24:28 > 0:24:31But to keep the music off the ground,
0:24:31 > 0:24:34you're mostly going upwards, like that.
0:24:38 > 0:24:42People often think, well, do conductors stand in front of a mirror, practising?
0:24:45 > 0:24:46Maybe they do.
0:24:46 > 0:24:48I don't know.
0:24:49 > 0:24:56Standing in front of a mirror is a totally narcissistic effort, I think.
0:24:56 > 0:25:00And that will certainly not help you.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Have you ever done it yourself?
0:25:03 > 0:25:04I can't remember.
0:25:05 > 0:25:09Standing in front of a mirror? No, I don't think so. I mean...
0:25:12 > 0:25:17..you inevitably look in the mirror to see that your zip isn't undone
0:25:17 > 0:25:21and your tie isn't fluttering away where it shouldn't.
0:25:22 > 0:25:24But you don't, er...
0:25:28 > 0:25:32Most normal musicians wouldn't do that.
0:25:37 > 0:25:40- The other thing is... - Fifth... 36, yeah, 36.
0:25:40 > 0:25:44I don't know what my friends think, but when I look at you,
0:25:44 > 0:25:46too many of these, they are like downbeats.
0:25:46 > 0:25:51- One, two... And sometimes, I don't know where you are.- OK.
0:25:51 > 0:25:56I mean, keep the plan of action and it'll help enormously.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59Good. 36.
0:26:05 > 0:26:09'All I do is I suggest ways of doing things.
0:26:09 > 0:26:16'But usually, the young men or young women, they are so - quite properly -
0:26:16 > 0:26:20'daunted by having to appear in front of the London Symphony Orchestra
0:26:20 > 0:26:25'that they, er, they get panicky and they do only what they think...
0:26:25 > 0:26:28'what they have learnt to do.
0:26:28 > 0:26:30'I mean, they are not flexible in their movements.'
0:26:33 > 0:26:37You see, what happened was this bar just sort of...
0:26:37 > 0:26:40It's still waiting for you to do something,
0:26:40 > 0:26:42instead of leading us into the next one.
0:26:42 > 0:26:45Do you see what I mean?
0:26:45 > 0:26:48OK. 36. And we'll lead.
0:26:53 > 0:26:59'Using a speaking stick, an acting stick, gets the music out of you.
0:26:59 > 0:27:03'If you don't get it out of yourself, it gets locked in there and you're
0:27:03 > 0:27:08'not expressing anything to them, you are expressing yourself to yourself.'
0:27:11 > 0:27:17The greatest hindrance in a performer is to, er...
0:27:17 > 0:27:19not to discipline his ego.
0:27:19 > 0:27:22'You're there for the musicians.
0:27:22 > 0:27:25'Of course you're there for yourself and you love doing it,
0:27:25 > 0:27:28'but that has nothing to do with the music at all.
0:27:28 > 0:27:32'That's your own particular self-indulgence.'
0:27:35 > 0:27:38That's it. Yes, but then you bullied it, you see,
0:27:38 > 0:27:41it's not pushing it forward, but it's not letting it hang back.
0:27:41 > 0:27:43That's all.
0:27:43 > 0:27:46And I know I'm a sentimental old man,
0:27:46 > 0:27:48but if you do the bar before C, please...
0:27:51 > 0:27:54HE SINGS ALONG
0:27:59 > 0:28:03It's one of those magical cadences, because it's a dominant
0:28:03 > 0:28:06and a sub-dominant all at once, you've got all three,
0:28:06 > 0:28:08it's always so beautiful, don't you think so?
0:28:08 > 0:28:12The whole thing's a love song about the countryside or whatever,
0:28:12 > 0:28:15it seems to be a huge pastoral symphony, doesn't it?
0:28:15 > 0:28:18'The problem is, learning music is difficult enough,
0:28:18 > 0:28:21'but it's dealing with all those people that's the problem.'
0:28:21 > 0:28:24Because you can't have an orchestra which is talking all the time,
0:28:24 > 0:28:28or grumbling, or not paying any attention.
0:28:30 > 0:28:33Because that's not what they are there for.
0:28:33 > 0:28:36We are all there to co-operate with one another,
0:28:36 > 0:28:41and I think that is a bit of the miracle of orchestras.
0:28:41 > 0:28:45All these people come from diverse backgrounds,
0:28:45 > 0:28:47completely different temperaments,
0:28:47 > 0:28:50a lot of them very highly intelligent,
0:28:50 > 0:28:53and they hang up their jackets and their egos
0:28:53 > 0:28:57and they march onto the platform and agree to play some vast symphony.
0:29:32 > 0:29:38Every man and woman in that orchestra has to be listening the whole time,
0:29:38 > 0:29:41as well as playing all the notes.
0:29:41 > 0:29:47And I think that many people, perhaps politicians are obvious ones,
0:29:47 > 0:29:50might learn a bit from that.
0:29:53 > 0:29:57If I were the Prime Minister...
0:29:57 > 0:29:59When do they open Parliament in the morning?
0:29:59 > 0:30:03I don't know, is it 10:30 or 11 or something?
0:30:03 > 0:30:07And they would have to sit down and listen to the first movement
0:30:07 > 0:30:11of a string quartet, to stop them talking!
0:30:12 > 0:30:17Because, you know, all this talk, such wasteful rubbish.
0:30:20 > 0:30:22I know you think I've gone a bit crazy now,
0:30:22 > 0:30:26but, I mean, I think it would be a rather good effect!
0:30:26 > 0:30:30MUSIC: "Grande Messe des Morts" by Hector Berlioz
0:30:42 > 0:30:45Throughout his career, Sir Colin championed the music of Berlioz.
0:31:03 > 0:31:0650 years ago, he launched the first City of London Festival
0:31:06 > 0:31:09in St Paul's Cathedral with his thrilling Requiem.
0:31:18 > 0:31:22Last June, at the age of 84, he conducted it again.
0:31:28 > 0:31:32It was to be his final concert with the London Symphony Orchestra.
0:31:45 > 0:31:51THEY SING IN LATIN
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Where did you first discover Berlioz?
0:32:54 > 0:33:00It was at summer school at Bryanston.
0:33:01 > 0:33:08We had, as part of the menu, the second part of Childhood of Christ.
0:33:10 > 0:33:14And I had never heard this music before, I was completely
0:33:14 > 0:33:18blown away by the melodies
0:33:18 > 0:33:22and the delicacy of the whole work.
0:33:23 > 0:33:29So, that's when that started. So I had to find out more about Berlioz.
0:33:29 > 0:33:34Of course, that led to wonderful experiences, like doing
0:33:34 > 0:33:37the Trojans, and the Requiem,
0:33:37 > 0:33:41in big cathedrals and so on.
0:33:41 > 0:33:46THEY SING IN LATIN
0:34:01 > 0:34:07Does anybody know what all that fuss about Berlioz was?
0:34:07 > 0:34:09I suppose it was the academics.
0:34:09 > 0:34:13Yes, the people who think you ought to write music like this, or...
0:34:14 > 0:34:17..you know, there is only one way of doing anything.
0:34:18 > 0:34:23THEY SING IN LATIN
0:34:27 > 0:34:30What sort of man would he have been like to meet, do you think?
0:34:30 > 0:34:33Berlioz? Goodness knows.
0:34:35 > 0:34:39Impatient, arrogant. Very witty.
0:34:45 > 0:34:50He was a very, very intelligent man, after all.
0:34:50 > 0:34:52And I think Howard would have kept very quiet!
0:34:57 > 0:35:02But perhaps some of those... Some of those adjectives might have
0:35:02 > 0:35:04applied to you when you were very young?
0:35:07 > 0:35:12- Which ones do you mean?- Impatient, arrogant.- Yes, yes.- Witty?
0:35:12 > 0:35:15Well, I'm not claiming that.
0:35:15 > 0:35:18I think most young people are...
0:35:20 > 0:35:25..given to overweening ambition and...
0:35:27 > 0:35:30..showing off. And aren't they?
0:35:32 > 0:35:35I think Berlioz was a real performer in that direction.
0:35:40 > 0:35:44But it's just as well that he doesn't go on like that very long.
0:35:48 > 0:35:52And Mozart was as bad as anybody.
0:35:54 > 0:35:58He was going to show the world. In the end, he just wrote music.
0:35:58 > 0:35:59Thank God!
0:36:01 > 0:36:06SHE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:36:16 > 0:36:20HE SINGS IN GERMAN
0:36:28 > 0:36:30Lovely!
0:36:31 > 0:36:37He was the most obviously gifted composer.
0:36:37 > 0:36:41He could write anything, any length.
0:36:42 > 0:36:46He had all kinds of deviousnesses
0:36:46 > 0:36:52and...hidden melancholy.
0:36:53 > 0:36:57He didn't have to hammer out music, like Beethoven did.
0:36:58 > 0:37:03And he wrote, on the whole, more profoundly than Haydn.
0:37:05 > 0:37:09And he found composing pretty...
0:37:09 > 0:37:15He says he found it very difficult to write string quartets, but, er...
0:37:15 > 0:37:19And I guess if he found something difficult, then it really was.
0:37:19 > 0:37:23THEY SING IN ITALIAN
0:37:23 > 0:37:28Mozart was the other constant thread in Davis's life.
0:37:28 > 0:37:32His opera Don Giovanni was the first piece he conducted in public,
0:37:32 > 0:37:34at the age of 22.
0:37:34 > 0:37:37A few years later, still relatively unknown,
0:37:37 > 0:37:40he stepped in at the last minute to conduct it in London.
0:37:40 > 0:37:42He never looked back.
0:37:45 > 0:37:48It is Mozart who finally makes us
0:37:48 > 0:37:52feel that we are acceptable human beings.
0:37:52 > 0:37:57Without his music, we would go home feeling unclean.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00With his music, we go out of the theatre, dancing.
0:38:01 > 0:38:07I've never seen a production of Don Giovanni that I really liked.
0:38:07 > 0:38:09Now, that's an impossible opera for you.
0:38:13 > 0:38:17Figaro is wonderful, I mean, you can hardly ruin that.
0:38:17 > 0:38:22I think, wasn't it Brahms who said, looking at the score of Figaro,
0:38:22 > 0:38:28he said, "How does a man like this write one masterpiece
0:38:28 > 0:38:32"after another, and keep it up?" Which he did.
0:38:35 > 0:38:36Amazing.
0:38:38 > 0:38:39For you, Maestro!
0:38:47 > 0:38:50Davis was a controversial choice to succeed
0:38:50 > 0:38:54Sir Georg Solti as Music Director at the Royal Opera House.
0:38:54 > 0:38:56At first, he was besieged by critics,
0:38:56 > 0:39:00unimpressed by his love of Mozart and Berlioz.
0:39:00 > 0:39:03They wanted much more Verdi, Puccini and Wagner.
0:39:04 > 0:39:07No, they didn't like me. For some reason.
0:39:09 > 0:39:14I wasn't sufficient of a personality, I think.
0:39:17 > 0:39:23They howled at me and booed me, all those kind of things.
0:39:26 > 0:39:32They used to shout at me when I came out of the stage door.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35HE CHUCKLES Oh, dear.
0:39:39 > 0:39:42I was extremely upset, some of the time.
0:39:44 > 0:39:47I think on one occasion when you were being booed onstage,
0:39:47 > 0:39:50you stuck out your tongue at the audience.
0:39:50 > 0:39:53Jolly good! Did I? I hope so.
0:40:09 > 0:40:12What about Peter Grimes?
0:40:12 > 0:40:15Yes, that was another memorable occasion.
0:40:15 > 0:40:18Of course, we had John Vickers,
0:40:18 > 0:40:21who was the personification of Peter Grimes.
0:40:21 > 0:40:24Terrifying.
0:40:37 > 0:40:39Wonderful piece.
0:40:39 > 0:40:42It was a very, very cheap production.
0:40:43 > 0:40:45It was one of the best.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48It lasted ages.
0:40:53 > 0:40:58I don't think Benjamin Britten liked it. That I can assure you.
0:40:59 > 0:41:01How do you know that?
0:41:01 > 0:41:03He came. He didn't like it.
0:41:05 > 0:41:07But he sent me a letter.
0:41:07 > 0:41:09Was he critical, then?
0:41:09 > 0:41:11Yes, he always was.
0:41:15 > 0:41:17But we had a feeling that he...
0:41:19 > 0:41:22He hadn't quite realised what he'd let loose.
0:41:25 > 0:41:27It's a very violent piece
0:41:27 > 0:41:30but it has some wonderful music.
0:41:31 > 0:41:35I think he thought I took much too much freedom with it.
0:41:37 > 0:41:39# For we, like sheep
0:41:41 > 0:41:43# For we, like sheep... #
0:41:43 > 0:41:46Be confident that that's what you are.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48# For we, like sheep... #
0:41:48 > 0:41:51And if you didn't hear it the first time...
0:41:51 > 0:41:53# For we, like sheep
0:41:53 > 0:41:57# Have gone astray... #
0:41:57 > 0:42:00That's it. Now, all of those going astray have to be legato. Not...
0:42:00 > 0:42:02# Astray... #
0:42:02 > 0:42:05But legato as anything. Just on the voice. Let it blow. Away you go.
0:42:05 > 0:42:07Can we go from...
0:42:07 > 0:42:09# Eh uh, bum, da da di di di... #
0:42:09 > 0:42:11And one...
0:42:11 > 0:42:15# He have turned
0:42:15 > 0:42:18# Everyone to his own way... #
0:42:18 > 0:42:20Crescendo, tenors.
0:42:20 > 0:42:23# His own way
0:42:23 > 0:42:25# All we, like sheep... #
0:42:25 > 0:42:27I can't hear the first note of "all".
0:42:27 > 0:42:30# Have gone astray... #
0:42:30 > 0:42:32No, no. Legato, legato. Not...
0:42:32 > 0:42:34# Bum bum beem bum ba ba, te ah... #
0:42:37 > 0:42:41And I didn't realise how long it takes to get a voice
0:42:41 > 0:42:44to actually speak.
0:42:44 > 0:42:48So, what they tend to do is they keep to the music, because they're reading
0:42:48 > 0:42:54very carefully, and they start to sing on the downbeat, and that's too late.
0:42:55 > 0:42:58Because the voice won't be functioning
0:42:58 > 0:43:00until a couple of seconds later.
0:43:00 > 0:43:02- # We have turned - # We have turned
0:43:02 > 0:43:04- # We have turned - # We have turned
0:43:04 > 0:43:06- # We have turned - # We have turned
0:43:06 > 0:43:09- # We have turned - # We have turned
0:43:09 > 0:43:11# Everyone to his own way... #
0:43:11 > 0:43:15The secret of singing is always to breathe early enough so you...
0:43:15 > 0:43:19The voice is actually available when it's got to be there.
0:43:19 > 0:43:22But there are an awful lot of professionals who fail us
0:43:22 > 0:43:23in that respect.
0:43:23 > 0:43:26# La mi dirai di si
0:43:26 > 0:43:29# Mi trema... #
0:43:29 > 0:43:31More "M".
0:43:31 > 0:43:33A little earlier. Yeah?
0:43:33 > 0:43:35La mi dirai...
0:43:35 > 0:43:38# La mi dirai di si
0:43:38 > 0:43:42# Mi trema un poco il cor... #
0:43:42 > 0:43:44More "M". Mmm...
0:43:44 > 0:43:46Mmm...
0:43:46 > 0:43:49One week before!
0:43:51 > 0:43:53# La mi dirai di si
0:43:53 > 0:43:55# Mi trema... #
0:43:55 > 0:43:58Sing only the M. Only "mmm".
0:43:58 > 0:44:01Mmm. Mm-hm.
0:44:02 > 0:44:05# La mi dirai di si
0:44:05 > 0:44:10# Mi trema un poco il cor
0:44:10 > 0:44:12# Partiam ben mio, da qui
0:44:12 > 0:44:17# Ma puo burlarmi ancor... #
0:44:17 > 0:44:22If you want to sing "miserere",
0:44:22 > 0:44:26you can pitch the M the same note as you are going to sing E.
0:44:26 > 0:44:29WITH CONSTANT PITCH: # Miserere... #
0:44:29 > 0:44:34You can have that, which is a very, very...convenient thing.
0:44:34 > 0:44:39There are certain unvoiced consonants, of course,
0:44:39 > 0:44:44but you can imagine singing the word "sing".
0:44:44 > 0:44:46WITH CONSTANT PITCH: # Sing... #
0:44:46 > 0:44:48You can almost pitch it.
0:44:48 > 0:44:49But if you go...
0:44:49 > 0:44:51WITH VARYING PITCH: # Sing... #
0:44:51 > 0:44:54..it's that sound that one can't bear.
0:44:54 > 0:44:58People don't start on the note, they start somewhere else
0:44:58 > 0:45:02and congregate after the note has gone.
0:45:03 > 0:45:11# Rex tremendae majestatis
0:45:15 > 0:45:19# Rex tremendae majestatis... #
0:45:19 > 0:45:22If you are singing "Rex tremendae",
0:45:22 > 0:45:27the R of "Rex" comes before the orchestra.
0:45:27 > 0:45:32It's a big solo, and things like "tremendae" take a lot of time.
0:45:32 > 0:45:37So you've got to cheat the music and the language
0:45:37 > 0:45:40so that they fit together.
0:45:40 > 0:45:47# Rex tremendae majestatis... #
0:45:51 > 0:45:55The technique of actually singing in a chorus is more complicated
0:45:55 > 0:45:57than one would think.
0:45:59 > 0:46:02And very rewarding, actually, when you can achieve that.
0:46:02 > 0:46:04Oh, it's fantastic, yes. It's wonderful.
0:46:04 > 0:46:06It's worth slogging away at it.
0:46:29 > 0:46:31Are you a religious man?
0:46:31 > 0:46:33I don't know.
0:46:36 > 0:46:39I don't go to church and...
0:46:45 > 0:46:49But I am deeply moved by the great religious music that we have.
0:46:54 > 0:46:58It's very interesting, isn't it, that the...
0:46:58 > 0:47:03great romantic religious music is all about the requiem.
0:47:06 > 0:47:11And the last great mass was Beethoven's D Major Mass.
0:47:19 > 0:47:22And when I'm doing those pieces, I really...
0:47:22 > 0:47:25I do believe in the whole thing.
0:47:30 > 0:47:32# Gloria in excelsis Deo
0:47:32 > 0:47:36# Gloria in excelsis Deo
0:47:36 > 0:47:39# Gloria in excelsis Deo
0:47:39 > 0:47:43# Gloria in excelsis Deo
0:47:43 > 0:47:45# Gloria! Gloria!
0:47:45 > 0:47:48# In excelsis
0:47:48 > 0:47:52# Gloria! Gloria! Gloria!
0:47:57 > 0:48:02# Gloria in excelsis
0:48:02 > 0:48:04# Deo
0:48:04 > 0:48:07# In excelsis Deo... #
0:48:13 > 0:48:17The curious thing about those people, Mozart and Beethoven,
0:48:17 > 0:48:21Verdi, Berlioz -
0:48:21 > 0:48:25they'd all been brought up in the church.
0:48:26 > 0:48:29They'd all rejected it.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33They sort of concocted a private religion, I think.
0:48:35 > 0:48:39They were not conventional religious people.
0:48:40 > 0:48:43And I think...
0:48:44 > 0:48:46..I really belong in that class.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50# Gloria in excelsis Deo
0:49:02 > 0:49:05# Gloria! Gloria!
0:49:05 > 0:49:06# In excelsis Deo
0:49:06 > 0:49:09# Gloria...
0:49:24 > 0:49:27# Gloria! Gloria!
0:49:27 > 0:49:29# Gloria! #
0:49:32 > 0:49:36I was very fortunate to go to public school, where we had...
0:49:36 > 0:49:41We went to chapel every day, and twice on Sundays.
0:49:41 > 0:49:43So after six or seven years,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46you'd heard a great deal of the Scriptures, which was good.
0:50:04 > 0:50:06You may not believe in the God
0:50:06 > 0:50:09we're expected to believe in,
0:50:09 > 0:50:13but you do believe that, for example,
0:50:13 > 0:50:17if you take the practical precepts
0:50:17 > 0:50:19of Christ's teaching,
0:50:19 > 0:50:23it's quite rational to apply them to one's life.
0:50:25 > 0:50:27The important thing, after all,
0:50:27 > 0:50:30is to rescue one's own corner of the world,
0:50:30 > 0:50:32which, of course, if everybody did that,
0:50:32 > 0:50:35we'd have a much better place to live in.
0:50:35 > 0:50:37It sounds simple.
0:50:37 > 0:50:42But there appear to be what are conventionally called
0:50:42 > 0:50:45the forces of evil who don't want to do that.
0:50:45 > 0:50:49They want to make as much mayhem, bloodshed
0:50:49 > 0:50:52and all the rest of it before they themselves have to die.
0:52:07 > 0:52:10Do you read the Bible sometimes?
0:52:10 > 0:52:14Yes, and goodness me, what a thing that is!
0:52:20 > 0:52:23We were doing Samson and Delilah
0:52:23 > 0:52:26and I was reading around that story...
0:52:28 > 0:52:33..really to discover that the people around at that time
0:52:33 > 0:52:36were simply thugs. They were dreadful.
0:52:39 > 0:52:42And the complaint in Kings 11, where there are two women.
0:52:42 > 0:52:46There was a frightful siege of the city they were in
0:52:46 > 0:52:52and they came to a compact whereby they would eat one child,
0:52:52 > 0:52:55belonging to its mother, first,
0:52:55 > 0:52:57and then when they'd eaten that one,
0:52:57 > 0:53:00they would move on to the other mother's child.
0:53:02 > 0:53:03And...
0:53:03 > 0:53:05there's a frightful quarrel,
0:53:05 > 0:53:09because the second mother refused to do it in the end.
0:53:15 > 0:53:18Do you feel the world is a better place now, then?
0:53:19 > 0:53:22I don't think so, no.
0:53:22 > 0:53:26Obviously, we have dubious machines like motorcars,
0:53:26 > 0:53:28and we have nice bathrooms
0:53:28 > 0:53:31all the things they didn't have,
0:53:31 > 0:53:35but I fear that the internal world of human beings
0:53:35 > 0:53:39is exactly the same as it was 10,000 years ago.
0:53:41 > 0:53:47The barbarity of what's taking place as we speak
0:53:47 > 0:53:50is not to be believed, is it?
0:53:56 > 0:54:00There's this lust for destruction, hidden away somewhere.
0:54:02 > 0:54:07And the best weapon against the whole thing is music. Something like that.
0:54:09 > 0:54:14# Peccata mundi... #
0:54:17 > 0:54:21Are there parts of music that you still would like to explore?
0:54:24 > 0:54:26Don't think so.
0:54:26 > 0:54:31I think if I couldn't go to work any more,
0:54:31 > 0:54:33and I can still hear,
0:54:33 > 0:54:36I would listen to all kinds of other music
0:54:36 > 0:54:38which I don't have time for now.
0:54:40 > 0:54:43Pre-classical church music.
0:54:43 > 0:54:45And...
0:54:45 > 0:54:50to sit down and study the Beethoven piano sonatas,
0:54:50 > 0:54:52which I've never done.
0:54:58 > 0:55:02And I vowed I'd read the whole of Shakespeare again before I die,
0:55:02 > 0:55:05so I thought it about time I started on that.
0:55:06 > 0:55:09I did read it once before, because I thought,
0:55:09 > 0:55:12"Well, I can't last much longer."
0:55:12 > 0:55:15But that's a long time ago. So I started again.
0:55:20 > 0:55:23And is there a piece you'd like to have conducted
0:55:23 > 0:55:25last of all, as it were?
0:55:25 > 0:55:27Good Lord!
0:55:27 > 0:55:31No, I don't have sort of fantasies of that kind.
0:55:32 > 0:55:35It's very hard to arrange that, because...
0:55:36 > 0:55:40..it takes two years to plan a piece,
0:55:40 > 0:55:46and death isn't amenable to our timetables.
0:55:50 > 0:55:53I'll take it, whatever happens, when it happens.
0:55:56 > 0:55:59Does it frighten you, the thought of death?
0:55:59 > 0:56:01No.
0:56:11 > 0:56:15Of course, like most people, I would like to die suddenly
0:56:15 > 0:56:21of a stroke or something like that, and not hang around, decaying slowly.
0:56:24 > 0:56:27But not being able to make an exit, that's dreadful.
0:56:33 > 0:56:38- And what do you think will happen? - When?- At death.
0:56:38 > 0:56:41I've no idea. I mean...
0:56:43 > 0:56:45..nobody knows.
0:56:57 > 0:56:59Can you give me any help?
0:57:01 > 0:57:03I was just wondering if you think...
0:57:04 > 0:57:10Does it mean silence? Do you think music will have a place after death?
0:57:12 > 0:57:17I never thought about that. The most I can imagine is silence.
0:57:22 > 0:57:26But then whatever one says,
0:57:26 > 0:57:31one is implying that one is going to experience whatever it is one says.
0:57:31 > 0:57:33One isn't.
0:57:33 > 0:57:36So there's no point even talking about it.
0:57:37 > 0:57:41If there's silence, there's got to be somebody to notice it.
0:57:43 > 0:57:49It's... It's in short supply, this side of the grave.
0:58:00 > 0:58:05APPLAUSE
0:58:49 > 0:58:55Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd