0:00:04 > 0:00:07Today, musicians are some of the most influential
0:00:07 > 0:00:09and celebrated people on the planet.
0:00:09 > 0:00:11It wasn't always this way.
0:00:11 > 0:00:14For centuries, musicians were much lower down the pecking order
0:00:14 > 0:00:17and no-one would have dreamt of asking them for an autograph.
0:00:19 > 0:00:22But 200 years ago, all that began to change.
0:00:23 > 0:00:25The dawn of the 19th century
0:00:25 > 0:00:28saw composers and musicians bursting out...
0:00:29 > 0:00:32..beyond the boundaries of the concert hall
0:00:32 > 0:00:33and onto a bigger public stage.
0:00:40 > 0:00:43They became influential, in politics and revolution,
0:00:43 > 0:00:47earned vast sums of money, and were famous across the globe.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59The 19th century was Europe's great revolutionary century.
0:00:59 > 0:01:02Industry and commerce were reshaping people's lives.
0:01:02 > 0:01:06The political shock waves of the French Revolution
0:01:06 > 0:01:08reverberated across the continent,
0:01:08 > 0:01:11and there was a revolution in thinking and imagination
0:01:11 > 0:01:14that became known as Romanticism.
0:01:14 > 0:01:20In this volatile world, music reflected and even shaped events.
0:01:20 > 0:01:24This was the age of Verdi and Wagner, Beethoven, Schubert, Liszt,
0:01:24 > 0:01:27Rossini, Chopin, Mahler, Debussy.
0:01:27 > 0:01:30No other century produced more great composers.
0:01:30 > 0:01:35'In this series, I'll be exploring the extraordinary transformation
0:01:35 > 0:01:37'that happened to music in the 19th century.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41'Discovering why composers became national heroes,
0:01:41 > 0:01:43'revered to this day.'
0:01:43 > 0:01:45- Viva Verdi.- Viva Verdi!
0:01:45 > 0:01:49'And being taught how music sparked revolution.'
0:01:49 > 0:01:54C'est la revolution. Wwwhhah, rrrah! It goes, "Woof, woof!" Like a dog.
0:01:54 > 0:01:58I'll find out how music was at the cutting edge of technology,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01creating new industrially manufactured instruments.
0:02:01 > 0:02:03SHE SOUNDS OUT A SCALE
0:02:06 > 0:02:08And in this first episode,
0:02:08 > 0:02:11I'll explore how and why 19th-century musicians
0:02:11 > 0:02:13became superstars.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20Yeah, it's very Keith Richards, that kind of showing off to the audience.
0:02:20 > 0:02:23In this era of extremes,
0:02:23 > 0:02:28I believe it was music that truly captured the spirit of the age.
0:02:28 > 0:02:33This was the moment in history when music exploded into life
0:02:33 > 0:02:35and life exploded into music.
0:02:42 > 0:02:44CHATTERING
0:02:54 > 0:02:56MUSIC: The Blue Danube by Johann Strauss
0:03:00 > 0:03:03I'm in Vienna, which for centuries has prided itself
0:03:03 > 0:03:06as the musical capital of Europe.
0:03:06 > 0:03:10Every night of the year, around 10,000 fans are treated
0:03:10 > 0:03:12to live performances of classical music,
0:03:12 > 0:03:16something that's simply unheard of in any other city in the world.
0:03:16 > 0:03:21Today, it plays host to 15,000 music events each year.
0:03:22 > 0:03:26So, it's unsurprising that it was here in Vienna, two centuries ago,
0:03:26 > 0:03:30that music underwent a huge transformation in its fortunes,
0:03:30 > 0:03:33a shift encapsulated in one historic event.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39At 3pm on the 29th March, 1827,
0:03:39 > 0:03:42Vienna was packed with mourners paying their respects
0:03:42 > 0:03:44at the passing of a giant.
0:03:47 > 0:03:52Vienna was then the capital of one of Europe's mightiest empires,
0:03:52 > 0:03:55but this wasn't the funeral of a Habsburg king or queen,
0:03:55 > 0:03:57they were here for a composer -
0:03:57 > 0:03:59Ludwig van Beethoven.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04The streets were gridlocked with tens of thousands
0:04:04 > 0:04:06following the coffin.
0:04:06 > 0:04:09After the burial, a gravedigger was offered money
0:04:09 > 0:04:13to exhume Beethoven's head so it could be kept as a trophy.
0:04:13 > 0:04:16Such was the adoration of his fans.
0:04:16 > 0:04:17In the 21st century,
0:04:17 > 0:04:21we're pretty familiar with the public outpouring of grief
0:04:21 > 0:04:24that accompanies the death of a much-loved musical star,
0:04:24 > 0:04:29the spectacle, the media scrum, but this was a first.
0:04:30 > 0:04:34Beethoven's huge public send-off was remarkable.
0:04:34 > 0:04:35And it seems all the more so
0:04:35 > 0:04:39when you compare it to the funeral of another Viennese great.
0:04:41 > 0:04:45Mozart had passed away in the same city less than 40 years earlier,
0:04:45 > 0:04:49without pomp or ceremony, buried in a common grave.
0:04:49 > 0:04:53There were no crowds, no swarms of adoring fans for Mozart,
0:04:53 > 0:04:56and yet, he was no less a brilliant musician.
0:04:56 > 0:04:58So what had changed?
0:04:58 > 0:05:02Well, you couldn't come to Vienna, this most musical of cities,
0:05:02 > 0:05:04without picking up a couple of bits and pieces to take home.
0:05:04 > 0:05:06Nothing more typical than these two.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09We have our Mozartkugeln,
0:05:09 > 0:05:13little balls of marzipan, nougat and chocolate.
0:05:13 > 0:05:14And the classic Beethoven bust.
0:05:14 > 0:05:19But here's the rub. These quite literally are a complete confection.
0:05:19 > 0:05:23They were created 100 years after Mozart's death.
0:05:23 > 0:05:27That famous picture of him there was painted years after he died.
0:05:27 > 0:05:31They're chintzy, and they're terribly oversweet.
0:05:31 > 0:05:32And then you get this.
0:05:32 > 0:05:36Now, the original bust - copies have been made ever since -
0:05:36 > 0:05:41was first sold in 1812 and it was sold across Europe.
0:05:41 > 0:05:44This guy was a recognisable pin-up in his own lifetime.
0:05:44 > 0:05:47And you just look at him, he's got all the classic ingredients.
0:05:47 > 0:05:51That square, movie star jaw, and a proud brow,
0:05:51 > 0:05:53and those lovely tousled locks.
0:05:53 > 0:05:58This is the first musician, really, who was a true superstar.
0:06:00 > 0:06:03MUSIC: Piano Sonata No.11 by Mozart
0:06:07 > 0:06:11And that's because Beethoven was the man in the right place
0:06:11 > 0:06:12at the right time.
0:06:12 > 0:06:15Just as Mozart died in 1791,
0:06:15 > 0:06:19the centuries-old status quo that had kept people like him
0:06:19 > 0:06:22at the bottom of the food chain was suddenly wiped out.
0:06:24 > 0:06:27The French Revolution purged the King of France
0:06:27 > 0:06:31and his old regime, and it unleashed a spirit of freedom and democracy
0:06:31 > 0:06:33that swept through Europe.
0:06:34 > 0:06:37Beethoven grew up in this fast-changing world,
0:06:37 > 0:06:40where it was now possible for people of any class
0:06:40 > 0:06:44to rise up through society on the basis of merit and talent.
0:06:44 > 0:06:47Music, he decided, would be his passport to success.
0:06:48 > 0:06:53In 1803, Beethoven set out to capture the spirit of the age
0:06:53 > 0:06:57with a musical portrait of the great hero of the day -
0:06:57 > 0:06:59Napoleon Bonaparte.
0:06:59 > 0:07:02Napoleon had emerged from the climactic events
0:07:02 > 0:07:05of the French Revolution as a heroic leader.
0:07:05 > 0:07:08He represented the new world order,
0:07:08 > 0:07:09not an aristocrat,
0:07:09 > 0:07:13but a common man who'd risen up to become the people's champion.
0:07:13 > 0:07:18Beethoven wanted to capture that heroism, equality and decency,
0:07:18 > 0:07:20and translate it into music.
0:07:20 > 0:07:23It would be his heroic symphony, or Eroica.
0:07:23 > 0:07:28With the Eroica, Beethoven set out to create the most powerful,
0:07:28 > 0:07:31muscular symphony that had ever been written,
0:07:31 > 0:07:34so he opens it with a thunderclap.
0:07:36 > 0:07:41Two explosive chords that simply force us to shut up and listen.
0:07:43 > 0:07:47And following that clarion call, he gives us a grand,
0:07:47 > 0:07:50sweeping, noble theme in the low strings...
0:07:53 > 0:07:57..that he then passes around the various sections of the orchestra.
0:08:05 > 0:08:09Then Beethoven hits us with the unexpected.
0:08:09 > 0:08:12Instead of letting the music continue on its journey,
0:08:12 > 0:08:15he hits us with that original theme again.
0:08:15 > 0:08:19Only this time, it's bigger and bolder than before,
0:08:19 > 0:08:21just to make sure we got the message.
0:08:34 > 0:08:37Beethoven initially dedicated his work to Napoleon.
0:08:39 > 0:08:44But before he'd even finished it, Napoleon proclaimed himself emperor,
0:08:44 > 0:08:47no better than an old-school autocrat.
0:08:47 > 0:08:50Beethoven was disgusted, took up a knife
0:08:50 > 0:08:53and scratched out Napoleon's name from the score.
0:09:15 > 0:09:18I think that tearing up that dedication
0:09:18 > 0:09:22was the first decisive musical act of the 19th century.
0:09:22 > 0:09:26This was Beethoven saying, music isn't just notes on a page,
0:09:26 > 0:09:30it's not entertainment, it contains a powerful message.
0:09:30 > 0:09:33The Eroica was the expression of all those ideals,
0:09:33 > 0:09:37of truth and justice, honour and heroism.
0:09:37 > 0:09:40And he simply wouldn't allow it to be tainted by tyranny.
0:09:41 > 0:09:45The Eroica not only marked a turning point for its composer,
0:09:45 > 0:09:47but for the whole of music.
0:09:47 > 0:09:51With it, Beethoven had created a piece of personal philosophy
0:09:51 > 0:09:54and conviction, a musical mission statement.
0:09:54 > 0:09:55For his predecessors,
0:09:55 > 0:09:59writing music was more a question of keeping the boss happy.
0:09:59 > 0:10:00You could be brilliantly creative,
0:10:00 > 0:10:02but you were still in many ways a servant,
0:10:02 > 0:10:05and success depended on whether your aristocratic patron
0:10:05 > 0:10:07liked what he heard.
0:10:07 > 0:10:10Beethoven had other options.
0:10:10 > 0:10:12He still courted the aristocracy,
0:10:12 > 0:10:15but he also had a powerful new audience to pay his bills.
0:10:15 > 0:10:18The middle classes, who'd grown confident
0:10:18 > 0:10:21in the aftermath of the French Revolution,
0:10:21 > 0:10:23and rich off the back of the industrial one.
0:10:29 > 0:10:32I'm visiting Vienna's Theater an der Wien,
0:10:32 > 0:10:36a place that was critical in Beethoven's rise to fame.
0:10:36 > 0:10:38He became the theatre's artist-in-residence
0:10:38 > 0:10:41shortly after writing his Eroica symphony.
0:10:44 > 0:10:48It was here that the Eroica was given its first public performance.
0:10:48 > 0:10:52And that's important, because the piece was originally paid for
0:10:52 > 0:10:55by a prince and was premiered in private at his home.
0:10:55 > 0:10:58But Beethoven sensed the opportunity here for a double whammy.
0:10:58 > 0:11:01After six months, he got hold of the performing rights
0:11:01 > 0:11:04to put the piece on anywhere he wanted to.
0:11:04 > 0:11:07He and this theatre's impresario staged a benefit concert
0:11:07 > 0:11:09and they pocketed the proceeds.
0:11:24 > 0:11:26Well, see this gorgeous space.
0:11:26 > 0:11:29Opened up in 1801 for the whole public of Vienna.
0:11:29 > 0:11:32I mean, it's huge, is the first thing that strikes you.
0:11:32 > 0:11:36But also terribly opulent and lavish.
0:11:36 > 0:11:38How many people would cram in here of a night?
0:11:38 > 0:11:41About 2,000, and they were both standing and sitting
0:11:41 > 0:11:44and they said the seats were very comfortable.
0:11:44 > 0:11:47And just the decoration was so impressive for the people
0:11:47 > 0:11:50of the time, that some of them said they would even come and pay
0:11:50 > 0:11:53just to see the room, even without a performance there.
0:11:53 > 0:11:56What kind of a mix of people would have come here?
0:11:56 > 0:11:58Especially the people living in the area,
0:11:58 > 0:12:02like, the craftsman were living, the servants were living,
0:12:02 > 0:12:06also upper bourgeois people, and they were the prime audience.
0:12:06 > 0:12:10So, sort of, a great night out, a very lavish place to come.
0:12:10 > 0:12:12And right in the centre of middle-class Vienna,
0:12:12 > 0:12:14- so it was bound to succeed.- Exactly.
0:12:14 > 0:12:18The Theater an der Wien's vast size
0:12:18 > 0:12:22and open-door policy reflected the new social order.
0:12:22 > 0:12:25Being able to hear music like Beethoven's Eroica
0:12:25 > 0:12:27gave middle-class concertgoers
0:12:27 > 0:12:30the kind of highbrow, desirable cultural experience
0:12:30 > 0:12:33that was previously reserved only for the rich.
0:12:33 > 0:12:37And for Beethoven, getting his music performed in front of a wider public
0:12:37 > 0:12:41freed him from total dependence on an aristocratic elite.
0:12:43 > 0:12:47Establishing a theatre where all the public was able to come
0:12:47 > 0:12:51is actually a step in the spirit of the French Revolution,
0:12:51 > 0:12:54whereas of course, you still had an emperor here.
0:12:54 > 0:12:56He had the power of guiding the events.
0:12:56 > 0:12:59But he said that people should go to the theatre in the evening
0:12:59 > 0:13:01and have some entertainment here,
0:13:01 > 0:13:04rather than having revolutionary ideas on the streets.
0:13:04 > 0:13:05So it's true to say, then,
0:13:05 > 0:13:07that in the first decade of the 19th century,
0:13:07 > 0:13:11music really starts gaining a new kind of valency, a new power?
0:13:11 > 0:13:15Definitely, and it also affected the listening to music.
0:13:15 > 0:13:18What used to be an aside, divertissement or something,
0:13:18 > 0:13:22the new music really calls for an attentive and alert listening.
0:13:22 > 0:13:24The only understanding, you get the point of it,
0:13:24 > 0:13:26if you are really an attentive listener.
0:13:26 > 0:13:29And a room like this invites for that.
0:13:29 > 0:13:33You sit and you are concentrating on what's happening on the stage,
0:13:33 > 0:13:35and you're concentrating on the sounds.
0:13:35 > 0:13:37It's not a place to sit and chat and see your friends.
0:13:37 > 0:13:38Oh, no, no, not at all.
0:13:38 > 0:13:41People really came because of the theatre, because of the music.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Created in the democratic spirit of the French Revolution,
0:13:47 > 0:13:50this theatre gave Beethoven the opportunity to experiment
0:13:50 > 0:13:53in a way that previous generations couldn't.
0:13:53 > 0:13:56He wasn't held back by the whims of a patron,
0:13:56 > 0:13:59but could express his feelings and ideas.
0:14:00 > 0:14:05And try out his bold new music on an attentive mass audience.
0:14:05 > 0:14:09And in 1808, he did that on a massive scale.
0:14:09 > 0:14:11On a single freezing night in December,
0:14:11 > 0:14:14Beethoven put on a musical marathon...
0:14:16 > 0:14:19..premiering a piano concerto, his Choral Fantasia,
0:14:19 > 0:14:23a concert aria, part of a mass, and two symphonies,
0:14:23 > 0:14:26including one of the most monumental pieces of all time,
0:14:26 > 0:14:27his Fifth.
0:14:32 > 0:14:37The audacity of staging four hours of uninterrupted new music
0:14:37 > 0:14:38was breathtaking.
0:14:38 > 0:14:42Beethoven's bold conviction in the power of his own music
0:14:42 > 0:14:44gave him an almost mythic status,
0:14:44 > 0:14:46something he was well aware of.
0:14:46 > 0:14:50Beethoven himself had every confidence in his own genius.
0:14:50 > 0:14:55One day in 1812, he took a walk in the park with the writer Goethe,
0:14:55 > 0:14:59when their path was blocked by a group of Habsburg aristocrats.
0:14:59 > 0:15:02Beethoven charged straight through the centre of the melee,
0:15:02 > 0:15:05as if he were Moses parting the waves.
0:15:05 > 0:15:08Goethe bowed obsequiously instead,
0:15:08 > 0:15:11he was completely shocked by the composer's rudeness.
0:15:11 > 0:15:14Beethoven said to him, "There are many princes
0:15:14 > 0:15:16"but there are only two of us."
0:15:17 > 0:15:22Beethoven created a legacy of music that is utterly unique
0:15:22 > 0:15:25and packed full of beauty and meaning.
0:15:25 > 0:15:28But it's now so familiar and comfortable that we just
0:15:28 > 0:15:31don't get the impact it must have had on contemporary audiences.
0:15:31 > 0:15:33MUSIC BOX PLAYS
0:15:35 > 0:15:39In its day, Beethoven's music was new, explosive and radical
0:15:39 > 0:15:41and by his death,
0:15:41 > 0:15:45it had made him into music's first international superstar.
0:15:45 > 0:15:47MUSIC: Symphony No 9 Choral
0:15:54 > 0:15:59The democratising message of Beethoven's music chimed powerfully
0:15:59 > 0:16:01with the spirit of the age.
0:16:01 > 0:16:04When he was buried on the 29th of March, 1827,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07the day was declared a national holiday.
0:16:07 > 0:16:12Beethoven had radically re-imagined the power of music
0:16:12 > 0:16:13to change the world.
0:16:13 > 0:16:16Whether or not he had achieved that lofty aim,
0:16:16 > 0:16:18the world had responded
0:16:18 > 0:16:21by making him one of its great heroic figures.
0:16:23 > 0:16:27Beethoven had conquered the international stage
0:16:27 > 0:16:29and become Vienna's favourite musical son,
0:16:29 > 0:16:33his bold works feeding the hunger of the city's bourgeois music fans.
0:16:37 > 0:16:39Their cultural appetites didn't stop
0:16:39 > 0:16:43at attending huge spectacles in public concert halls, though.
0:16:43 > 0:16:46They wanted to play at being aristocrats themselves,
0:16:46 > 0:16:48and their homes became a new place of opportunity
0:16:48 > 0:16:52for composers and their ideas, the most popular booking,
0:16:52 > 0:16:55another of Vienna's musical residents -
0:16:55 > 0:16:56Franz Schubert.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59Schubert was born in Vienna in 1797,
0:16:59 > 0:17:04and died just a year after Beethoven at the age of just 31.
0:17:04 > 0:17:08He came from a poor background and grew up in this building,
0:17:08 > 0:17:12which also housed 16 other families.
0:17:12 > 0:17:16While Beethoven was widely known in Vienna as "the Master",
0:17:16 > 0:17:21Schubert's friends cruelly nicknamed him, "the Little Mushroom",
0:17:21 > 0:17:25because he was short, squat and not a little rotund.
0:17:25 > 0:17:28It's not entirely fair, really, when you think of the greatness
0:17:28 > 0:17:30and the ambition of his music.
0:17:30 > 0:17:34These are the spectacles that sat on those chubby cheeks
0:17:34 > 0:17:36and he was never seen without them.
0:17:36 > 0:17:37In fact, he even wore them in bed,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40so that if the muse grabbed him in the middle of the night,
0:17:40 > 0:17:43he could spring out from under the covers and immediately
0:17:43 > 0:17:44start composing.
0:17:49 > 0:17:52Schubert must have had many sleepless nights,
0:17:52 > 0:17:55because as well as composing a catalogue of symphonies,
0:17:55 > 0:17:59religious works and chamber music, he also wrote several hundred songs,
0:17:59 > 0:18:05which on their own establish him as one of the 19th century's greats.
0:18:05 > 0:18:11Schubert's 600 or so songs are a kind of forensic examination
0:18:11 > 0:18:13of the human soul.
0:18:13 > 0:18:16They talk of love and loss, death and fear,
0:18:16 > 0:18:21street beggars and peddlers and soldiers coming home from war.
0:18:21 > 0:18:25If Beethoven's symphonies were grand statements of noble ideals,
0:18:25 > 0:18:28then Schubert's songs take on the messier business
0:18:28 > 0:18:30of what it really is to be human.
0:18:30 > 0:18:34They take us into the private, intimate world.
0:18:37 > 0:18:42Schubert could encapsulate an entire world of emotion
0:18:42 > 0:18:44and imagination in a single song.
0:18:46 > 0:18:50His music was so popular that song soirees
0:18:50 > 0:18:53held at fashionable addresses throughout the city
0:18:53 > 0:18:55became known as Schubertiades.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59They were THE event to attend.
0:19:02 > 0:19:05To find out what they were like, I'm hosting one.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13So, got the wine, got the snacks - now all we need is the music.
0:19:20 > 0:19:24Donning my Schubertian spectacles and accompanying the tenor
0:19:24 > 0:19:27Ian Bostridge, a world-class performer of his songs.
0:19:31 > 0:19:35MUSIC: Der Leiermann by Franz Schubert
0:19:35 > 0:19:38# Druben hinterm Dorfe
0:19:38 > 0:19:42# Steht ein Leiermann... #
0:19:42 > 0:19:47In The Leiermann or Hurdy-Gurdy Man, Schubert creates a perfect
0:19:47 > 0:19:49three-and-a-half minute song...
0:19:49 > 0:19:53telling the story of a lowly musician, an outsider
0:19:53 > 0:19:57ignored by society, who shows us the harsh realities of the world.
0:19:57 > 0:20:00# Barfuss auf dem Eise
0:20:00 > 0:20:04# Wankt er hin und her... #
0:20:04 > 0:20:09It's hauntingly simple, full of darkness and melancholy.
0:20:09 > 0:20:12# Barfuss auf dem Eise
0:20:12 > 0:20:16# Wankt er hin und her... #
0:20:16 > 0:20:18You might think that's a bit downbeat for an evening
0:20:18 > 0:20:20of entertainment...
0:20:21 > 0:20:24# Und sein kleiner Teller
0:20:24 > 0:20:26# Bleibt ihm immer leer... #
0:20:26 > 0:20:29..but then, these events weren't just parties,
0:20:29 > 0:20:32they were also magnets for intellectual discussion
0:20:32 > 0:20:33and political comment.
0:20:38 > 0:20:41# Keiner mag ihn horen,
0:20:41 > 0:20:45# Keiner sieht ihn an... #
0:20:45 > 0:20:50For all their beauty, Schubert's songs also had incendiary power.
0:20:50 > 0:20:53What might at first have seemed a rather bourgeois wine
0:20:53 > 0:20:57and cheese event, was actually a rather radical environment.
0:20:57 > 0:21:01Under the cover of music, salons were places of subversion,
0:21:01 > 0:21:03debate and dissent.
0:21:04 > 0:21:08These gatherings did not pass unnoticed by the authorities.
0:21:08 > 0:21:12After the fall of Napoleon in 1815, there was a backlash
0:21:12 > 0:21:15as the old order tried to re-establish power.
0:21:19 > 0:21:24In Vienna, this meant a clamp-down on all political expression,
0:21:24 > 0:21:27and musical soirees were caught firmly in the firing line.
0:21:33 > 0:21:37In 1820, a Schubertiade was raided by the secret police.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40Schubert escaped with little more than bruising,
0:21:40 > 0:21:43but his friend, Johann Senn, got off less lightly -
0:21:43 > 0:21:47imprisoned for a year and then permanently exiled from Vienna.
0:21:51 > 0:21:53The fact that the Viennese secret police bothered
0:21:53 > 0:21:57to target Schubert and his recitals says a lot about
0:21:57 > 0:22:01the growing power that music began to have in the early 19th century.
0:22:01 > 0:22:04It had left the confines of the palace and now moved
0:22:04 > 0:22:07into people's homes and public concert halls.
0:22:07 > 0:22:11Composers like Schubert and Beethoven had torn up the rule book.
0:22:11 > 0:22:15Rather than be governed by an aristocratic patron's agenda,
0:22:15 > 0:22:18they expressed their own beliefs and ideas,
0:22:18 > 0:22:22and for the first time ever, they had an audience eager to hear
0:22:22 > 0:22:26what they had to say - the artist himself took centre stage.
0:22:29 > 0:22:33In the world of literature, writers such as Goethe and Byron
0:22:33 > 0:22:37had already made it fashionable for artists to make public
0:22:37 > 0:22:40their innermost thoughts through their work,
0:22:40 > 0:22:42becoming Romantic heroes.
0:22:42 > 0:22:45Now composers were being placed on the same pedestal.
0:22:45 > 0:22:47They were the new Romantics.
0:22:57 > 0:22:59So, what was Romanticism?
0:22:59 > 0:23:01Well, one bright spark of an expert
0:23:01 > 0:23:07has identified 11,396 different definitions.
0:23:07 > 0:23:10So, let's through another one into the mix -
0:23:10 > 0:23:13the 18th century was the world of Enlightenment,
0:23:13 > 0:23:18a world of order and progress, scientific rigour and logic.
0:23:29 > 0:23:34Now came a new spirit - anti-authoritarian and chaotic.
0:23:34 > 0:23:38The Romantics revelled in the sublime beauty of nature,
0:23:38 > 0:23:43dreamt feverish dreams fuelled by their own strange desires
0:23:43 > 0:23:45and nocturnal fantasies.
0:23:45 > 0:23:48Above all else, they prized self-expression
0:23:48 > 0:23:51and the heroic genius of the individual.
0:23:53 > 0:23:57It's something we still want musicians to do today,
0:23:57 > 0:24:00to talk directly to us about their feelings, their inner struggles,
0:24:00 > 0:24:02to kick back against authority.
0:24:02 > 0:24:05That all comes from Romanticism.
0:24:05 > 0:24:07As musicians joined this club,
0:24:07 > 0:24:11by the 1830s anything Romantic became de rigueur throughout Europe.
0:24:11 > 0:24:16And it was in Paris that the wildest Romantic musician
0:24:16 > 0:24:17of the age emerged -
0:24:17 > 0:24:18Hector Berlioz.
0:24:20 > 0:24:23Any Romantic composer worth his salt
0:24:23 > 0:24:26was expected to pour his soul into music.
0:24:26 > 0:24:28It came with the territory.
0:24:28 > 0:24:32Only Berlioz had to take things a step further than that.
0:24:32 > 0:24:36He lived and breathed Romanticism, his weird imagination
0:24:36 > 0:24:40fuelling fantasies of personal triumph and tragedy.
0:24:40 > 0:24:43On one occasion, when he was in Italy, he discovered
0:24:43 > 0:24:47that a girlfriend back in Paris had got secretly engaged
0:24:47 > 0:24:50to someone else, so he did what we'd all do...
0:24:50 > 0:24:53He got hold of a French maid's outfit and disguised himself,
0:24:53 > 0:24:56bought a pistol and some strychnine, commandeered a carriage
0:24:56 > 0:25:00and set off to murder them both and then kill himself.
0:25:00 > 0:25:03Only somewhere along the way he changed his mind and instead
0:25:03 > 0:25:07went on holiday to Nice and wrote a rather jolly heroic overture.
0:25:10 > 0:25:14By immersing himself in his music, Berlioz had averted disaster
0:25:14 > 0:25:18for himself and his lover, but the lines that separated life and art,
0:25:18 > 0:25:22that kept his professional and personal life apart,
0:25:22 > 0:25:26would become blurred when it came to his next object of desire.
0:25:27 > 0:25:30In 1827, when he was an assistant librarian
0:25:30 > 0:25:32at the Paris Conservatoire,
0:25:32 > 0:25:34Berlioz went to see a performance of
0:25:34 > 0:25:37Shakespeare's Hamlet, starring a young British actress
0:25:37 > 0:25:41by the name of Harriet Smithson as Ophelia.
0:25:41 > 0:25:45He was instantly obsessed with her and his unrequited love
0:25:45 > 0:25:48formed the basis of a grand, new work -
0:25:48 > 0:25:50the Symphonie Fantastique.
0:25:56 > 0:25:59His new work reflected a four-year stalking campaign
0:25:59 > 0:26:02through the streets of Paris.
0:26:02 > 0:26:06He was driven by his obsession for Harriet and the volcanic effect
0:26:06 > 0:26:09of having heard Beethoven's Eroica at its Paris premiere,
0:26:09 > 0:26:12a moment he described as a thunderclap.
0:26:14 > 0:26:18Berlioz realised that orchestral music could tell a personal story.
0:26:27 > 0:26:32And he had the perfect subject matter - his own life.
0:26:32 > 0:26:35You might think a crazy obsession is best kept quiet...
0:26:37 > 0:26:41..but for Berlioz it was the ideal story for his new symphony.
0:26:42 > 0:26:46He even handed out a synopsis so the audience could be in no doubt.
0:26:46 > 0:26:48This was music about him.
0:26:57 > 0:27:00- So, the Symphonie Fantastique by Berlioz...- Yes.
0:27:00 > 0:27:03..is written in 1830, which...
0:27:03 > 0:27:06I know, but it constantly astounds me because it is the most
0:27:06 > 0:27:10breathtakingly modern-sounding piece of music.
0:27:10 > 0:27:12It's an incredibly modern-sounding piece of music,
0:27:12 > 0:27:15but it's also in concept very modern.
0:27:15 > 0:27:18The artist wanders around... He sees this woman that he quite fancies
0:27:18 > 0:27:21and he has a bit of a think about her. He thinks about her there...
0:27:21 > 0:27:24He doesn't just think about her, he obsesses about her, like crazy!
0:27:24 > 0:27:26He obsesses about her but it's all in his head and then
0:27:26 > 0:27:28eventually he takes some drugs
0:27:28 > 0:27:30and then his thoughts go all completely haywire
0:27:30 > 0:27:33and it's what I think makes it really, really modern -
0:27:33 > 0:27:38is that the entire programme, the entire story is psychological
0:27:38 > 0:27:42and it's about emotions and it's about how the artist is feeling.
0:27:42 > 0:27:46And that's a really, really radical thing, I think.
0:27:46 > 0:27:49Expecting an audience to listen to sex-crazed, drug-fuelled musings
0:27:49 > 0:27:53all about me, me, me is a rock and roll norm today,
0:27:53 > 0:27:57but back then it took music to a new level of autobiography.
0:27:57 > 0:28:00And this was what being a Romantic was all about,
0:28:00 > 0:28:04real life mixed with a hefty dose of fantasy and make-believe.
0:28:04 > 0:28:08When Berlioz cannily subtitled his piece "An episode in the life
0:28:08 > 0:28:12"of an artist", he knew that audiences would go wild.
0:28:13 > 0:28:17So, the hero of the piece, AKA Berlioz,
0:28:17 > 0:28:20falls hopelessly in love with the heroine, AKA Harriet,
0:28:20 > 0:28:24then the hero murders her and gets executed for the crime.
0:28:25 > 0:28:31That bit didn't really happen, but, hey, it was a great Romantic story.
0:28:31 > 0:28:34It's a fantastic piece, but this movement, the March to the Scaffold,
0:28:34 > 0:28:38where the main man in all of this, is being taken to his death,
0:28:38 > 0:28:42kind of emerging with this execution gang out of the murk
0:28:42 > 0:28:46- of the night-time - it's so atmospheric.- It is.
0:28:48 > 0:28:51And he achieves this in several really interesting ways.
0:28:51 > 0:28:55First of all, the orchestra that he's got is very bottom-heavy.
0:28:55 > 0:28:58He's got a lot of bassoons in it, he's got a lot of double bass.
0:29:01 > 0:29:03So it gives it that kind of dark, rumbling sound
0:29:03 > 0:29:06and it's really low in their register
0:29:06 > 0:29:09and it just gives it that gravitas.
0:29:13 > 0:29:16Really foreboding, you know that something's about to happen
0:29:16 > 0:29:18and it's not good.
0:29:29 > 0:29:32And then we have a lone bassoon that comes in.
0:29:35 > 0:29:38He doesn't say what this is, I've always thought
0:29:38 > 0:29:40this is the first sight you get of the prisoner, cos it's quite
0:29:40 > 0:29:43a wailing, plangent thing.
0:29:43 > 0:29:46He knows something's going to happen to him.
0:29:46 > 0:29:49Berlioz from then onwards just builds up the tension.
0:29:49 > 0:29:52He alternates this very slow and steady march,
0:29:52 > 0:29:55which is gradually increasing in pace,
0:29:55 > 0:29:56with a full-on brass band.
0:30:02 > 0:30:07So you get this nice split of really the crowd cheering the fact
0:30:07 > 0:30:10that Berlioz, or the artist, is going to get his comeuppance.
0:30:12 > 0:30:14That's the thing he does so brilliantly, is Berlioz uses
0:30:14 > 0:30:17the colours of all those different instruments
0:30:17 > 0:30:19to mean different things at different times,
0:30:19 > 0:30:21so you get, as you say, that murky, dark sound at the beginning,
0:30:21 > 0:30:25people coming out of the night. You get the brass being quite spooky
0:30:25 > 0:30:28and ominous-sounding, then you get this really triumphant
0:30:28 > 0:30:31blaze of glory, which is the hero, after all, of our story.
0:30:47 > 0:30:49And what of the other protagonist in all this,
0:30:49 > 0:30:52the alluring actress Harriet Smithson?
0:30:52 > 0:30:55Having been stalked for years, heard about the piece,
0:30:55 > 0:30:59read the programme notes, where the hero - ie Berlioz -
0:30:59 > 0:31:02is executed for murdering the object of his desire -
0:31:02 > 0:31:06ie herself - what did Harriet do?
0:31:06 > 0:31:08Take out an injunction? Run a mile?
0:31:08 > 0:31:13No, she fell in love and married him. How very...romantic.
0:31:22 > 0:31:26Berlioz has succeeded in putting the composer centre stage,
0:31:26 > 0:31:29weaving together life and art
0:31:29 > 0:31:33so that it was impossible to know where one ended and the other began.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36And he had given Paris what it wanted,
0:31:36 > 0:31:40a musical show stopper fit for the Romantic age.
0:31:41 > 0:31:45Romanticism and high drama went hand-in-hand.
0:31:45 > 0:31:50Audiences were as obsessed with the lives of the composers themselves
0:31:50 > 0:31:52as they were with their music.
0:31:52 > 0:31:56And it wasn't just composers whose currency was now on the rise.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59Performers also wanted a piece of the action.
0:32:01 > 0:32:04No-one more so than the great Niccolo Paganini.
0:32:07 > 0:32:11Paganini was the very first superstar performer
0:32:11 > 0:32:14and the greatest violin virtuoso of all time.
0:32:14 > 0:32:19His speciality was fast, furious, pulse-racing playing
0:32:19 > 0:32:22with a dash of devilish swagger thrown in for good measure.
0:32:26 > 0:32:30Paganini's performances where so spectacular that people said
0:32:30 > 0:32:32he was in league with the devil,
0:32:32 > 0:32:35or was just the devil himself and Paganini
0:32:35 > 0:32:37did nothing to discourage this.
0:32:37 > 0:32:43He'd wear false teeth on stage to encourage that gaunt, spectral look.
0:32:43 > 0:32:46He never, apparently, took his shoes off in front of anyone
0:32:46 > 0:32:48because he had cloven hooves
0:32:48 > 0:32:51and it was even rumoured he murdered his wife
0:32:51 > 0:32:54and used her intestines as violin strings.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58MUSIC: 24 Caprices by Paganini
0:33:04 > 0:33:07So, Jack, even today, Paganini, I think,
0:33:07 > 0:33:10is kind of the gold standard of violin virtuosity.
0:33:10 > 0:33:13What was it that he did that was so new?
0:33:13 > 0:33:16Well, he completely revolutionised the technique
0:33:16 > 0:33:19and created many of the techniques that we now use today.
0:33:19 > 0:33:21And spend so many hours practising.
0:33:21 > 0:33:23So just give me a sense then of the kind of practical stuff
0:33:23 > 0:33:25that you have to get your fingers around
0:33:25 > 0:33:27in order to be able to play the music.
0:33:27 > 0:33:29This is the ricochet bowing, there.
0:33:32 > 0:33:36He also had these hands with a huge span,
0:33:36 > 0:33:38not just... Normally, we span upwards,
0:33:38 > 0:33:40his fingers could go down as well.
0:33:40 > 0:33:43So you've got to stretch your fingers out in both directions?
0:33:43 > 0:33:46Just to play these in tune you need to have quite
0:33:46 > 0:33:48a span in your fingers.
0:33:48 > 0:33:50So then there's this fast bowing.
0:33:56 > 0:33:58Sorry, I'll do that again. Ha-ha! It's difficult.
0:34:02 > 0:34:04Yeah... It needs practice.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07I quite like the fact that you are a concert soloist
0:34:07 > 0:34:09and you still find Paganini difficult.
0:34:09 > 0:34:10This is not going in the film.
0:34:10 > 0:34:13No, this is great that you still find it difficult.
0:34:13 > 0:34:16Apart from the technical challenges then, how much do
0:34:16 > 0:34:20we know about what going to a Paganini concert was actually like?
0:34:20 > 0:34:22A bit like going to a rock concert today.
0:34:22 > 0:34:24If you look at all the pictures of him,
0:34:24 > 0:34:27he turned his back on the orchestra and he always played with
0:34:27 > 0:34:31the violin down like this and with this kind of funny pose,
0:34:31 > 0:34:34as if he was just showing the audience what he was doing.
0:34:34 > 0:34:37Yeah, it's very Keith Richards that, kind of showing off to the audience.
0:34:37 > 0:34:41People fainting and stuff. He had this persona of a real rock star.
0:34:41 > 0:34:43I reckon if you keep practising you'll get there in the end.
0:34:43 > 0:34:44- It will be all right.- I'll try.
0:35:03 > 0:35:06Paganini's unbridled, demonic playing
0:35:06 > 0:35:09created a pumped-up kind of live performance
0:35:09 > 0:35:13that's been copied by pop and classical stars ever since.
0:35:13 > 0:35:16And it made him very rich.
0:35:16 > 0:35:17In just eight concerts,
0:35:17 > 0:35:21he earned more that Schubert had done in a lifetime.
0:35:21 > 0:35:26Paganini's infamy was such that when he died in Paris in 1840,
0:35:26 > 0:35:30the Catholic Church refused to allow him to be buried
0:35:30 > 0:35:31in consecrated ground.
0:35:31 > 0:35:36It took 36 years before he was laid to rest here,
0:35:36 > 0:35:38at his birthplace in Parma.
0:35:41 > 0:35:43However infamous he was,
0:35:43 > 0:35:47Paganini had paved the way for the celebrity virtuoso,
0:35:47 > 0:35:50creating a template for the kind of rock stars we see today.
0:35:50 > 0:35:54Music, life, legend, all coming together
0:35:54 > 0:35:57to create a powerful mystique.
0:35:59 > 0:36:03Today, musicians get the mansion, a million Twitter followers,
0:36:03 > 0:36:07a global Instagram feed, but in the 19th century,
0:36:07 > 0:36:11you knew you had really made it as a superstar
0:36:11 > 0:36:14when you had a recipe named after you.
0:36:15 > 0:36:19How about eggs Berlioz washed down with a chilled glass
0:36:19 > 0:36:22of Bellini? Or Paganini ravioli,
0:36:22 > 0:36:26a recipe written down in the composer's own scrawl, no less,
0:36:26 > 0:36:31filled with cabbage, sausage, egg and brains,
0:36:31 > 0:36:34or testicles, if you prefer a lighter version.
0:36:34 > 0:36:37Makes those Mozart balls almost seem appetising.
0:36:37 > 0:36:40No, if there was one triumphant musical dish
0:36:40 > 0:36:44of the 19th century, it can only be tournedos Rossini.
0:36:46 > 0:36:49No other composer in the first half of the 19th century
0:36:49 > 0:36:52enjoyed the fame or the wealth of the Italian
0:36:52 > 0:36:55opera maestro Gioachino Rossini.
0:36:55 > 0:36:57On a five-month stint in England
0:36:57 > 0:37:00during one of his many European tours,
0:37:00 > 0:37:04Rossini earned an incredible £5 million in today's money.
0:37:04 > 0:37:06And when he and Wellington were given an audience
0:37:06 > 0:37:09with King George IV, Rossini is said to have quipped,
0:37:09 > 0:37:13"His Majesty is standing between two of the greatest men in Europe."
0:37:15 > 0:37:18But alongside being a celebrated composer,
0:37:18 > 0:37:21Rossini had a reputation as a gastronome,
0:37:21 > 0:37:23so it's fitting that he was immortalised in one
0:37:23 > 0:37:27of the most glutinous dishes of the day, made of steak, brioche,
0:37:27 > 0:37:30foie gras and Perigord truffles.
0:37:30 > 0:37:33It costs a fortune and it's still on menus today.
0:37:33 > 0:37:35How'd you like your fillet cooked?
0:37:35 > 0:37:38However the chef thinks it's best.
0:37:38 > 0:37:40OK, we'll go for a rare, medium-rare cooking,
0:37:40 > 0:37:41Good, sounds good.
0:37:41 > 0:37:43And now we've got everything seared off,
0:37:43 > 0:37:45we're just going to add a small amount of butter,
0:37:45 > 0:37:47if you don't mind passing the butter over.
0:37:47 > 0:37:51- Yes, Chef.- Thank you. Make a good chef out of you yet.
0:37:51 > 0:37:54This just adds to the richness of the dish.
0:37:54 > 0:37:57- This is not a dieter's friend, this dish?- Definitely not.
0:37:57 > 0:38:00If you're on a diet, definitely avoid it.
0:38:00 > 0:38:03He definitely loved his rich food, you can say that for sure.
0:38:03 > 0:38:06Then we'll start frying the foie gras.
0:38:06 > 0:38:09So, so far, we have beef fat, butter,
0:38:09 > 0:38:12and the fat from the foie gras, so just the three types of fat.
0:38:12 > 0:38:15There's a lot of fat going on in this dish, definitely..
0:38:15 > 0:38:18So going to add the brioche to it, and then it's going to start
0:38:18 > 0:38:20soaking up some of that fat and make that even richer...
0:38:20 > 0:38:22The brioche itself already has...
0:38:22 > 0:38:25I'm almost having a heart attack watching you do this.
0:38:25 > 0:38:28And that's going to suck up some of the fat for you to eat.
0:38:32 > 0:38:35When this dish was created, Rossini had already been
0:38:35 > 0:38:37in retirement for over a decade.
0:38:37 > 0:38:39This was a man who lived to be 76,
0:38:39 > 0:38:43but spent the last 40 years of his life not working.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47He'd been so handsomely paid, so lavishly well treated,
0:38:47 > 0:38:51he could afford to sit back and enjoy life's little luxuries.
0:38:57 > 0:38:58Lucky Rossini.
0:39:09 > 0:39:12The miraculous thing about Rossini, was that when he did work,
0:39:12 > 0:39:16he created musical genius, with apparently zilch effort,
0:39:16 > 0:39:19composing one of the most popular operas of all time
0:39:19 > 0:39:22in less than three weeks - the Barber of Seville.
0:39:22 > 0:39:24# Figaro!
0:39:24 > 0:39:26# Figaro! Figaro!
0:39:26 > 0:39:30# Figaro, Figaro
0:39:30 > 0:39:33# Ahime, ahime, che furia!
0:39:33 > 0:39:35# Ahime, che folla!
0:39:35 > 0:39:38# Uno alla volta, per carita!
0:39:38 > 0:39:41# Per carita, per carita!
0:39:41 > 0:39:45# Uno alla volta, uno alla volta... #
0:39:45 > 0:39:49Composing 39 blockbusting operas over his working years,
0:39:49 > 0:39:52Rossini was such a masterful storyteller,
0:39:52 > 0:39:55he'd boast that if you gave him a laundry bill, he could even
0:39:55 > 0:39:59set that to music, as long as you paid him for the service, that is.
0:39:59 > 0:40:00# Figaro qua
0:40:00 > 0:40:02# Figaro la, Figaro su, Figaro giu
0:40:02 > 0:40:04# Figaro su, Figaro giu
0:40:04 > 0:40:06# Pronto prontissimo son come il fumine
0:40:06 > 0:40:08# Sono il factotum della citta
0:40:08 > 0:40:11# Della citta, della citta, della citta, della citta
0:40:14 > 0:40:16# Ah, bravo Figaro! Bravo, bravissimo
0:40:16 > 0:40:18# Ah, bravo Figaro! Bravo, bravissimo
0:40:18 > 0:40:21# A te fortuna, te fortuna, te fortuna non manchera
0:40:21 > 0:40:24# La, la, la, la, la, la, la
0:40:24 > 0:40:27# A te fortuna, te fortuna, te fortuna non manchera
0:40:27 > 0:40:31# Sono il factotum della citta
0:40:31 > 0:40:34# Sono il factotum della citta
0:40:34 > 0:40:35# Della citta
0:40:37 > 0:40:42# Della citta! #
0:40:53 > 0:40:57By the mid-19th century, music had become big business,
0:40:57 > 0:41:00concert halls and opera houses providing a spectacular arena
0:41:00 > 0:41:04where people would pay handsomely to see and be seen.
0:41:04 > 0:41:07It wasn't just composers or performers who were reaping
0:41:07 > 0:41:09the rewards from ticket sales,
0:41:09 > 0:41:13theatres even employed members of the public as paid
0:41:13 > 0:41:15audience members known as the Claque,
0:41:15 > 0:41:17to really get the party going.
0:41:17 > 0:41:20There were the Rieurs, who would laugh.
0:41:20 > 0:41:23SHE LAUGHS EXAGGERATEDLY
0:41:24 > 0:41:26The Pleureurs, who would weep.
0:41:28 > 0:41:31SHE SOBS DRAMATICALLY
0:41:31 > 0:41:34SHE BLOWS HER NOSE LOUDLY
0:41:34 > 0:41:37And the Bisseurs, who would blow kisses
0:41:37 > 0:41:41and cheer at a specially designated moments.
0:41:41 > 0:41:46The drama was as much off the stage as it was on it.
0:41:46 > 0:41:48Encore! Bravo!
0:41:48 > 0:41:51Spectacle, showmanship, money -
0:41:51 > 0:41:54the music industry now supported a veritable army
0:41:54 > 0:41:56of composers, performers, impresarios,
0:41:56 > 0:41:59publishers and hangers on.
0:41:59 > 0:42:02But with the commercial success came the inevitable backlash
0:42:02 > 0:42:06from those who believed that music should be the romantic
0:42:06 > 0:42:08expression of a tortured soul,
0:42:08 > 0:42:11not a massive cheque to be cashed in at the bank.
0:42:11 > 0:42:14One composer in Leipzig was particularly virulent
0:42:14 > 0:42:17in criticising musicians who went for popularity
0:42:17 > 0:42:19over artistic profundity -
0:42:19 > 0:42:20Robert Schumann.
0:42:20 > 0:42:24Ironic, really, given that he relied on his ultra-famous superstar
0:42:24 > 0:42:27pianist wife Clara to pay the bills while he got on with
0:42:27 > 0:42:31the business of complaining bitterly about celebrity culture.
0:42:34 > 0:42:36Robert Schumann was a wonderful composer,
0:42:36 > 0:42:39but he also was a very prolific writer.
0:42:39 > 0:42:41What was he writing about?
0:42:41 > 0:42:43HE SPEAKS GERMAN
0:42:43 > 0:42:46- TRANSLATION:- Schumann was an unbelievable writer
0:42:46 > 0:42:48of many articles about music.
0:42:53 > 0:42:57In 1834, he founded the new periodical for music
0:42:57 > 0:43:01where he devoted space to composers he regarded as important...
0:43:04 > 0:43:06..like Beethoven and Schubert.
0:43:08 > 0:43:11So Schumann had very definite ideas about what was good music
0:43:11 > 0:43:13and what was bad music. What didn't he like?
0:43:17 > 0:43:18It was banal music.
0:43:21 > 0:43:23Virtuosity, that's what he attacked.
0:43:25 > 0:43:30Because he thought at the time music was too commercialised.
0:43:34 > 0:43:39So Rossini, for example, was a composer he couldn't stand
0:43:39 > 0:43:43because of the apparent banality in the way he wrote music.
0:43:43 > 0:43:46So how did he express that frustration,
0:43:46 > 0:43:49that vim and hatred of people like Rossini?
0:43:51 > 0:43:54In 1834, he founded The Davidsbund.
0:43:54 > 0:43:56- So the League Of David.- Of course.
0:43:59 > 0:44:01A battle against the Philistines.
0:44:05 > 0:44:08He spoke about virtuosity, which he regarded as un-artistic.
0:44:10 > 0:44:13And yet, he's married to the great virtuoso,
0:44:13 > 0:44:16the great commercial success, the pianist, Clara Schumann.
0:44:16 > 0:44:18How does he reconcile that?
0:44:20 > 0:44:23That was a problem for Robert Schumann.
0:44:25 > 0:44:29He was never as well known in his lifetime as his wife...
0:44:31 > 0:44:34..who was famous throughout Europe as a virtuoso piano player.
0:44:35 > 0:44:38PIANO PLAYS
0:44:55 > 0:44:57For Robert Schumann,
0:44:57 > 0:45:00things must have felt like they were coming at him thick and fast.
0:45:00 > 0:45:03He had seven children to contend with,
0:45:03 > 0:45:07a global superstar wife who earned a lot more than him,
0:45:07 > 0:45:10and there were the vulgarians like Rossini banging at his door
0:45:10 > 0:45:15threatening to overthrow the musical traditions he prized so dearly.
0:45:15 > 0:45:19All that, plus he was a man whose deeply struggled within himself.
0:45:19 > 0:45:22There was the extrovert Schumann, who wanted recognition.
0:45:22 > 0:45:26Then the quiet, introverted thinker.
0:45:26 > 0:45:28And all that makes itself known in his music.
0:45:28 > 0:45:31So in the opening dance of his Davidsbundlertanze,
0:45:31 > 0:45:34we have two fictional friends,
0:45:34 > 0:45:35Florestan and Eusebius.
0:45:35 > 0:45:39"They're the people who write the music," says Schumann, "not me."
0:45:39 > 0:45:43Florestan is the big, muscly extrovert of music,
0:45:43 > 0:45:44so it opens like this.
0:45:55 > 0:45:59And then immediately after that, we get Eusebius,
0:45:59 > 0:46:02the slightly shyer, more thoughtful Robert Schumann.
0:46:15 > 0:46:18For me, it's always that sense of struggle
0:46:18 > 0:46:20that I get with Schumann's music.
0:46:20 > 0:46:24Everything about him, inside and without,
0:46:24 > 0:46:26poured into every note that he wrote.
0:46:40 > 0:46:42You have to feel sorry for Robert Schumann.
0:46:42 > 0:46:46He might have railed against all those pampered performers,
0:46:46 > 0:46:49but secretly, he was desperate to be one himself.
0:46:49 > 0:46:54He would strap mechanical devices to his fingers, use splints,
0:46:54 > 0:46:58even on occasion plunge his hand into the abdominal cavity
0:46:58 > 0:47:00of a freshly slaughtered animal
0:47:00 > 0:47:04and let the warmth of the blood soothe his joints.
0:47:04 > 0:47:06All in a bid to be a top performer.
0:47:06 > 0:47:08But it was never going to work.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13The mercury he was taking for rampaging syphilis was poisoning him
0:47:13 > 0:47:16and it put paid to any kind of performing career.
0:47:16 > 0:47:19So Schumann could scribble in any number of journals,
0:47:19 > 0:47:22write any number of pieces,
0:47:22 > 0:47:25but without a performing life on stage,
0:47:25 > 0:47:27would anyone know he even existed?
0:47:35 > 0:47:39The runaway success of the music industry was creating
0:47:39 > 0:47:42a thorny problem for composers and performers alike.
0:47:42 > 0:47:46HE PLAYS: Etudes D'execution Transcendante D'apres Paganini
0:47:51 > 0:47:54For the first time ever, musicians began to agonise
0:47:54 > 0:47:59about whether they could be a celebrity and a respected artist.
0:48:03 > 0:48:07One man would prove that it was possible to be both.
0:48:07 > 0:48:11Perhaps the greatest superstar of them all -
0:48:11 > 0:48:13Franz Liszt.
0:48:21 > 0:48:26If you thought fan frenzy started with Beatlemania in the 1960s,
0:48:26 > 0:48:27think again.
0:48:29 > 0:48:33In 1840s Europe, Lisztomania was sweeping the continent.
0:48:34 > 0:48:38The girls went crazy for Liszt.
0:48:38 > 0:48:43Tearing at his handkerchiefs, stealing his used wine glasses
0:48:43 > 0:48:45and taking them home as prized possessions.
0:48:45 > 0:48:48They would even get hold of his used cigar butts
0:48:48 > 0:48:51and stash them proudly in their cleavage.
0:49:01 > 0:49:03To find out what all the fuss was about,
0:49:03 > 0:49:07I'm meeting Daniel Grimwood, a pianist and Liszt expert.
0:49:20 > 0:49:23It's so fantastic. I should have brought my earplugs today.
0:49:23 > 0:49:27It's such a massive piece that, and so incredibly virtuosic
0:49:27 > 0:49:29and impressive.
0:49:29 > 0:49:33He heard Paganini play, Liszt, and then took that baton
0:49:33 > 0:49:36of how far you could push flashy playing, didn't he?
0:49:36 > 0:49:38He did. He heard Paganini play
0:49:38 > 0:49:41and then seemed to lock himself away in a room for a period of time
0:49:41 > 0:49:43and obsessively practice scales and arpeggios,
0:49:43 > 0:49:46octaves and thirds to give himself a piano technique
0:49:46 > 0:49:49the like of which the world hadn't yet seen.
0:49:49 > 0:49:53And how much is Liszt in a piece like that really pushing forward
0:49:53 > 0:49:55what pianists were able to do?
0:49:55 > 0:49:58Well, he was also pushing forward what pianos were able to do.
0:49:58 > 0:50:01Strings would go flying, hammers would smash, apparently,
0:50:01 > 0:50:03and obviously the tuning would go.
0:50:03 > 0:50:06I mean, yes, he would have two pianos on stage and one,
0:50:06 > 0:50:09at least one of the instruments by the end would be left,
0:50:09 > 0:50:10this kind of poor trembling mess
0:50:10 > 0:50:14because he would break pianos regularly.
0:50:14 > 0:50:17What was it that Liszt did in terms of transforming
0:50:17 > 0:50:20the piano, the piano concert as we know it?
0:50:20 > 0:50:23Well, he invented the modern concert, basically.
0:50:23 > 0:50:26The idea of having a whole evening of piano music
0:50:26 > 0:50:28played by one person was...
0:50:28 > 0:50:30You know, this was completely new, it hadn't been done.
0:50:30 > 0:50:32It didn't happen.
0:50:32 > 0:50:35There were mixed concerts, even famous symphonies,
0:50:35 > 0:50:38the movements would be broken up and have a singer in between,
0:50:38 > 0:50:43or a violinist playing. No, Liszt basically sat down at the piano
0:50:43 > 0:50:46and played on his own for an entire evening.
0:50:46 > 0:50:48And that was it. It had never been done before.
0:50:48 > 0:50:52So what kind of experience would it have been,
0:50:52 > 0:50:55must it have been to go and hear Liszt play?
0:50:55 > 0:50:58Well, you would see the piano side on, so you would see the profile of
0:50:58 > 0:51:03the very, very handsome artist in all of his drama and theatre.
0:51:03 > 0:51:06You would see ladies sat around swooning,
0:51:06 > 0:51:09which may have had something to do with the ridiculous corsets
0:51:09 > 0:51:12- they wore at that time as well so... - But they didn't swoon
0:51:12 > 0:51:15walking down the street, they didn't swoon sitting at home.
0:51:15 > 0:51:18There was a Liszt effect, this Lisztomania, which he was
0:51:18 > 0:51:23- absolutely very happy to encourage I think.- It was extraordinary.
0:51:23 > 0:51:26Of course all the makers are desperate to get this superstar
0:51:26 > 0:51:27attached to their name -
0:51:27 > 0:51:30whether it's Erard, or Steinway or Bechstein,
0:51:30 > 0:51:31they're all fighting over Liszt.
0:51:31 > 0:51:35- It makes them make their pianos better in a way.- Oh, it did.
0:51:35 > 0:51:37This is very much a chicken and egg thing.
0:51:37 > 0:51:41There are compositions by Liszt that were only really made possible
0:51:41 > 0:51:43by developments in piano building.
0:51:43 > 0:51:45I would suggest that some of Liszt's music
0:51:45 > 0:51:48actually affected the piano builders themselves,
0:51:48 > 0:51:49so they responded to his needs.
0:51:49 > 0:51:51The introduction of the double escapement
0:51:51 > 0:51:54- made things possible on the piano. - What's a double escapement?
0:51:54 > 0:51:58Well, this was a device which meant that the key
0:51:58 > 0:52:01doesn't need to come all the way up in order to re-strike,
0:52:01 > 0:52:04which means that you are able to do very, very rapid repetitions.
0:52:04 > 0:52:06HE PLAYS RAPID NOTES
0:52:06 > 0:52:10And Liszt used these things. You get it in La Campanella...
0:52:10 > 0:52:12HE PLAYS RAPID EXTRACT
0:52:12 > 0:52:16Things like this would scarcely have been possible to play at such
0:52:16 > 0:52:18speed on the earlier pianos.
0:52:18 > 0:52:20HE PLAYS MORE SLOWLY
0:52:23 > 0:52:26The public hunger for Liszt was insatiable.
0:52:26 > 0:52:29In the 1840s, he embarked on a tour of Europe,
0:52:29 > 0:52:31performing over 1,000 concerts.
0:52:34 > 0:52:36Liszt was still only in his 30s,
0:52:36 > 0:52:40but he had already revolutionised 19th-century concert life.
0:52:40 > 0:52:44Rushing from city to city, he was feted like royalty,
0:52:44 > 0:52:51ferried around in a carriage drawn by white horses, surrounded by fans.
0:52:51 > 0:52:56He bedded countless young girls and wealthy society ladies,
0:52:56 > 0:52:57but it wasn't enough.
0:53:00 > 0:53:04What Liszt really wanted was to be taken as seriously
0:53:04 > 0:53:06as composers like Beethoven and Schubert.
0:53:06 > 0:53:09He yearned to be a true Romantic,
0:53:09 > 0:53:12a man who would make his imprint on history.
0:53:13 > 0:53:18So, tired of the fainting women, he turned his back on celebrity
0:53:18 > 0:53:20and began to think of his legacy.
0:53:21 > 0:53:23As an international star,
0:53:23 > 0:53:26Liszt was inundated with commissions for new music...
0:53:29 > 0:53:33..including one intriguing sounding project that saw him
0:53:33 > 0:53:35travel to Weimar in Germany.
0:53:39 > 0:53:43Liszt got the opportunity he desperately wanted
0:53:43 > 0:53:47when his new symphony was premiered in 1857 for the inauguration
0:53:47 > 0:53:49of this monument.
0:53:49 > 0:53:54It immortalised Germany's two great writers, Goethe and Schiller.
0:53:54 > 0:53:58Liszt chose to set Goethe's story of Faust,
0:53:58 > 0:54:01the tale of a man who makes a pact with the devil.
0:54:01 > 0:54:06That legend he said inspired in him the white heat of creativity
0:54:06 > 0:54:11and it produced what I think is his greatest work, the Faust Symphony.
0:54:11 > 0:54:14MUSIC: Faust Symphony by Franz Liszt
0:54:32 > 0:54:36This is a very different Franz Liszt.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39What we get here is futuristic music,
0:54:39 > 0:54:42anticipating the rise of atonal techniques that other composers
0:54:42 > 0:54:46only started exploring several decades later.
0:54:48 > 0:54:50With the Faust Symphony,
0:54:50 > 0:54:53Liszt left behind the showmanship of Paganini and ditched
0:54:53 > 0:54:57the kind of catchy melodies that would have made Rossini proud.
0:55:03 > 0:55:08Instead he created a work with the dramatic intensity of Schumann,
0:55:08 > 0:55:10a musical argument as distilled
0:55:10 > 0:55:13and crystalline as Beethoven or Schubert.
0:55:38 > 0:55:42In telling the Faust story, that tussle between good and evil,
0:55:42 > 0:55:47Liszt was purging himself of his own Faustian pact with celebrity.
0:56:09 > 0:56:11Liszt had done it all.
0:56:11 > 0:56:13He'd had the money, the fans, the fame,
0:56:13 > 0:56:17he'd been the darling of the music business, but he'd also
0:56:17 > 0:56:21achieved the greatest heights any romantic artist could hope for,
0:56:21 > 0:56:26creating music of blazing intensity, self-expression and daring.
0:56:26 > 0:56:29His place in the history books was now assured.
0:56:29 > 0:56:33Liszt died in 1886,
0:56:33 > 0:56:3881 years after Beethoven publicly premiered the Eroica Symphony.
0:56:38 > 0:56:43In those eight decades, the status of musicians had changed forever
0:56:43 > 0:56:45and music had triumphed.
0:56:53 > 0:56:57I'm back in Vienna where that transformation started,
0:56:57 > 0:57:00visiting its central cemetery.
0:57:00 > 0:57:05Built in 1863, Vienna's great and good were exhumed
0:57:05 > 0:57:07and reburied here.
0:57:10 > 0:57:15This is the VIP area, the Ehrengraber, the honorary graves,
0:57:15 > 0:57:19reserved not for poets or painters or philosophers
0:57:19 > 0:57:23or great military men, but for musicians.
0:57:23 > 0:57:25Beethoven lies here.
0:57:25 > 0:57:28This is Schubert's memorial over there,
0:57:28 > 0:57:30just round the corner, Johann Strauss
0:57:30 > 0:57:33and right in the centre of it all is Mozart,
0:57:33 > 0:57:37buried in the late 18th century in a nameless grave,
0:57:37 > 0:57:42but here monumentalised for eternity as a great idol.
0:57:42 > 0:57:45Composers past and present had now become celebrities,
0:57:45 > 0:57:48even retrospectively Mozart,
0:57:48 > 0:57:53as the revolution of Romanticism swept up everything in its path.
0:57:53 > 0:57:56In this era of social and political upheaval,
0:57:56 > 0:57:59where the future seemed full of possibility,
0:57:59 > 0:58:03musicians were the visionaries who saw those new horizons.
0:58:03 > 0:58:06They weren't just tunesmiths or entertainers any more, now they
0:58:06 > 0:58:11were the great heroes of the age and they captured its spirit in sound.
0:58:17 > 0:58:18In the next programme,
0:58:18 > 0:58:22I'll discover how, with their new-found celebrity and power,
0:58:22 > 0:58:25musicians believed they could change the world.
0:58:28 > 0:58:30Viva Verdi!
0:58:30 > 0:58:33'And how, remarkably, they really did.'
0:58:33 > 0:58:35Ohhh... LAUGHTER