0:00:07 > 0:00:10Vienna 1876. The place was a building site.
0:00:10 > 0:00:14The hub of an empire and the symphony.
0:00:16 > 0:00:22The Emperor Franz Joseph had decided the city walls should come down
0:00:22 > 0:00:27to be replaced by a prestigious urban boulevard - The Ringstrasse.
0:00:30 > 0:00:33Another Ring, Wagner's massive music drama
0:00:33 > 0:00:37with its Ride of the Valkyries, was being created at the same time.
0:00:37 > 0:00:40Two ground-breaking moments
0:00:40 > 0:00:43and both Rings took about 30 years to construct.
0:00:46 > 0:00:48The Austrian writer Karl Kraus said,
0:00:48 > 0:00:51"Vienna was being demolished into a great city."
0:00:51 > 0:00:55With a classical Parliament building, Athena presiding at the front,
0:00:55 > 0:01:01a Gothic style town hall, and a Renaissance-style university.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05But constructed before any of these, in 1868, was the Opera House.
0:01:05 > 0:01:09Music remained of course an abiding interest for the Viennese public
0:01:09 > 0:01:13and at the time debate was fierce about whether new music should be
0:01:13 > 0:01:18descriptive or abstract - Wagner versus Brahms.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21The symphony was at the centre of this controversy.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24In this programme we'll see how it emerged triumphant.
0:01:24 > 0:01:29How it became a vehicle for nationalist sentiment and gained genuine popular appeal.
0:01:29 > 0:01:33And how it became the means of intense artistic self expression.
0:01:33 > 0:01:36We'll also see how composers like Dvorak, Tchaikovsky
0:01:36 > 0:01:39and Sibelius came to the expanding city of Vienna
0:01:39 > 0:01:42and exported the symphony to new nations and new worlds.
0:02:02 > 0:02:05Why does a film about the symphony start with an opera,
0:02:05 > 0:02:08and in particular an opera by Wagner, who once declared
0:02:08 > 0:02:10emphatically that the symphony was dead?
0:02:10 > 0:02:15MUSIC: Beethoven's Symphony No 9
0:02:18 > 0:02:22The problem was how to follow a composer like Beethoven,
0:02:22 > 0:02:27who in his 9th Symphony in 1824 seemed to have taken the classical four-movement form
0:02:27 > 0:02:31as far as it could go with its ground-breaking choral finale.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35CHOIR SINGS
0:02:38 > 0:02:40Despite the attempts of his successors,
0:02:40 > 0:02:45was Beethoven the final word in symphonic writing?
0:02:49 > 0:02:51Richard Wagner certainly thought so,
0:02:51 > 0:02:55and when he held the first performance of The Ring, his massive music drama
0:02:55 > 0:02:59at his specially-built theatre in Bayreuth, he began it with
0:02:59 > 0:03:03Beethoven's 9th, as if to say "roll over Beethoven, now it's my turn."
0:03:08 > 0:03:13Wagner's Ring is a cycle of four operas over four evenings.
0:03:13 > 0:03:1815 hours of music telling the story of humanity from dawn to dusk.
0:03:19 > 0:03:23The premiere in 1876 wasn't just a musical event,
0:03:23 > 0:03:27but a political event, attended by crowned heads of Europe.
0:03:27 > 0:03:30Everybody who was anybody was there.
0:03:31 > 0:03:37But all the drama over The Ring made someone want to stand up for the symphony.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43Johannes Brahms, 20 years Wagner's junior,
0:03:43 > 0:03:47was a classicist who was ready to fight for pure symphonic music.
0:03:51 > 0:03:55The arena for this particular contest was Vienna's new concert hall, the Musikverein.
0:03:55 > 0:03:58The land was donated by the Emperor Franz Joseph.
0:03:58 > 0:04:01It was built by the Gesellshaft der Musik Freunde,
0:04:01 > 0:04:06the Society of Friends of Music, and opened in 1870.
0:04:06 > 0:04:11MUSIC: Opening of Brahms' Symphony No 1, 1st Movement.
0:04:35 > 0:04:38Brahms was from Hamburg in northern Germany, brought up in
0:04:38 > 0:04:43the protestant Lutheran tradition, although he didn't stay a believer.
0:04:43 > 0:04:46He'd been working on his first symphony for 14 years,
0:04:46 > 0:04:49all the time he'd been in Vienna.
0:04:54 > 0:04:59Brahms had already made it clear that writing a symphony after Beethoven's 9th was no joke.
0:04:59 > 0:05:06You've no idea", he said, "how it feels to hear behind you the tramp of a giant like Beethoven.
0:05:06 > 0:05:10Although he was over 40 at this stage and had certainly taken his time,
0:05:10 > 0:05:13the fuss over Wagner's Ring had made him determined to finish
0:05:13 > 0:05:16the symphony ready for a premiere in 1876.
0:05:16 > 0:05:19After initial performances in Germany, Brahms himself conducted
0:05:19 > 0:05:22his 1st symphony here at the Musikverein on 17th December
0:05:22 > 0:05:26of that year as part of celebrations for Beethoven's birthday.
0:05:30 > 0:05:34The hall was packed, but not with the heads of state, who went
0:05:34 > 0:05:36to Wagner's premiere in Bayreuth.
0:05:36 > 0:05:37The decor may be opulent,
0:05:37 > 0:05:42but the Musikverein wasn't built for the aristocracy, but for the Viennese middle-class.
0:05:44 > 0:05:48When the hall was opened, it was the first concert hall in Vienna,
0:05:48 > 0:05:51real, definite great concert hall.
0:05:51 > 0:05:56And every new work was welcomed highly.
0:05:56 > 0:05:59The audience was very much interested in hearing contemporary music
0:05:59 > 0:06:03because at that time the only interesting things were new things.
0:06:07 > 0:06:12Brahms' new symphony was written for what is now the modern symphony orchestra.
0:06:12 > 0:06:20The music for this programme is played by the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by Mark Elder.
0:06:20 > 0:06:23'By the time he started writing his greatest pieces,
0:06:23 > 0:06:27'Brahms had mastered the legacy of Beethoven'
0:06:27 > 0:06:32and turned it into something even more muscular than Beethoven's music.
0:06:32 > 0:06:37But he had the vision of how great symphonic masterpieces
0:06:37 > 0:06:41could aim at the highest emotional planes.
0:06:41 > 0:06:47Every great symphonic writer takes an audience on an emotional narrative journey through the piece.
0:06:47 > 0:06:50For me, that's one of the definitions of a great symphony.
0:06:50 > 0:06:53MUSIC: Brahms' Symphony No 1, 4th Movement.
0:07:00 > 0:07:07The French horn - such a symbol of romantic energy - has an heroic feel to it as well.
0:07:07 > 0:07:11And this is something that possibly Brahms could have taken from Beethoven.
0:07:11 > 0:07:13But underneath it, the strings shimmer
0:07:13 > 0:07:18and that's something I think that Beethoven wouldn't have done in that same way.
0:07:23 > 0:07:29That sense of contacting nature - just like the romantic paintings of Caspar David Friedrich -
0:07:29 > 0:07:32is very vivid, memorable, and superbly well done.
0:07:40 > 0:07:43That contact with nature is then surprisingly
0:07:43 > 0:07:48interrupted by a chorale on the trombones and this protestant,
0:07:48 > 0:07:50perhaps Lutheran chorale,
0:07:50 > 0:07:56recalling Brahms' musical past, but also perhaps his own childhood,
0:07:56 > 0:07:58calms the soul.
0:08:36 > 0:08:39And from that sense of stillness
0:08:39 > 0:08:43sings the last movement's main tune.
0:08:43 > 0:08:47Now this tune in C major, the primary key,
0:08:47 > 0:08:52has a whiff of the great tune of the last movement of Beethoven's choral symphony
0:08:52 > 0:08:54that introduces the Ode to Joy.
0:08:54 > 0:09:00And when somebody pointed that out to Brahms he said, "Oh, any silly ass can see that!"
0:09:30 > 0:09:32Brahms' symphony was a great success
0:09:32 > 0:09:35and the enthusiasm was further promoted by music critics.
0:09:35 > 0:09:38The most important was Edward Hanslick,
0:09:38 > 0:09:42who also fanned the flames of the Brahms/Wagner debate.
0:09:42 > 0:09:45The rise of the critic here in Vienna was very important.
0:09:45 > 0:09:48It's inconceivable now, I think,
0:09:48 > 0:09:53to think of a major critic like Hanslick writing a long article
0:09:53 > 0:09:56on the front page of the Neue Freie Presse,
0:09:56 > 0:09:59which is the equivalent of the London Times,
0:09:59 > 0:10:01going on to page two and page three,
0:10:01 > 0:10:05about the first performance in Vienna of Brahms' 1st Symphony.
0:10:05 > 0:10:07Which he did.
0:10:07 > 0:10:12And people would read that at breakfast alongside international news on the front page of the paper.
0:10:38 > 0:10:44In his front page article, which surprisingly hasn't been translated into English before, Hanslick wrote,
0:10:44 > 0:10:47"It must be recognised by friend and foe alike, that no other composer
0:10:47 > 0:10:54"has come as close to the greatest creations of Beethoven as Brahms has in the finale of his symphony."
0:10:56 > 0:10:58Hanslick, of course,
0:10:58 > 0:11:02was very much a friend of Brahms and pure music and a foe of Wagner whom
0:11:02 > 0:11:06he felt was destroying melody and form in favour of philosophising.
0:11:09 > 0:11:13Wagner's argument was that music is not pure.
0:11:13 > 0:11:18One can use music politically as well as aesthetically to raise all
0:11:18 > 0:11:23sorts of questions about society, about people's psychology, what music
0:11:23 > 0:11:29does to them, what music can have an effect on an audience in this space.
0:11:29 > 0:11:36Just imagine the Gotterdammerung music sounding in this space against all these classical things.
0:11:36 > 0:11:39But the idea is to convey ideas with the music
0:11:39 > 0:11:41and Wagner is a composer of ideas.
0:11:46 > 0:11:48In 1875, Wagner himself had conducted
0:11:48 > 0:11:52excerpts from The Ring here in the Musikverein to build up
0:11:52 > 0:11:54an appetite for the premiere at Bayreuth.
0:12:01 > 0:12:04Mark Elder is demonstrating - perhaps controversially -
0:12:04 > 0:12:08that while Wagner was writing mythological music dramas
0:12:08 > 0:12:11for the opera house, he was also composing symphonically.
0:12:22 > 0:12:26In my view, Wagner was one of the greatest symphonic composers,
0:12:26 > 0:12:29by that I mean he invented a number, a large number of little themes,
0:12:29 > 0:12:35motifs associated with the characters, the actions, the events, even places, objects.
0:12:35 > 0:12:40And he wrote the opera, he set his words, accompanied them
0:12:40 > 0:12:43with this enormously elaborate orchestral texture.
0:12:46 > 0:12:49Can you give me an example of a theme he might use?
0:12:49 > 0:12:53Yes, let's look at Siegfried and Brunhilde, the heroine and the hero.
0:12:54 > 0:12:57When we first see them, their music is very, very different
0:12:57 > 0:13:02and it's quite clear which pieces belongs to which character.
0:13:02 > 0:13:05Here's one for Brunhilde... PLAYS THEME
0:13:12 > 0:13:14Tender, loving, affectionate, gentle,
0:13:14 > 0:13:18big intervals expressing big emotions but in a small dynamic.
0:13:18 > 0:13:22Now another one that he needs, of course, is to portray his hero Siegfried.
0:13:22 > 0:13:26Listen to this... PLAYS THEME
0:13:32 > 0:13:37All together grander, heroic, masculine in its strong rhythm
0:13:37 > 0:13:40and its clear cut idea.
0:13:40 > 0:13:42That little tune, short as it is,
0:13:42 > 0:13:47can then later on appear even shorter when she speaks of their love,
0:13:47 > 0:13:52the things that draw them together and he changes it to suit the occasion.
0:14:09 > 0:14:16Now this process of developing the characters of the themes is what I would call the symphonic process
0:14:16 > 0:14:18that he was engaged in.
0:14:18 > 0:14:22And by the time he'd finished the Ring he'd got the full
0:14:22 > 0:14:26flow of it and his attitude towards how he used these little themes
0:14:26 > 0:14:30and musical ideas to suit the drama became really loose, became
0:14:30 > 0:14:34very free and sometime we can't quite understand why that particular
0:14:34 > 0:14:38little musical idea is embedded in the jewellery of the texture.
0:14:38 > 0:14:41- So he released the themes from the story?- A bit, yes.
0:14:41 > 0:14:43He did in order to draw out gorgeous symphonic music,
0:14:43 > 0:14:47to build up the themes into great architectural masses of sound.
0:14:47 > 0:14:48I mean really beautiful.
0:14:48 > 0:14:51MUSIC: Wagner's Gotterdammerung
0:15:22 > 0:15:26It's hard to appreciate now, just how divided musical opinion
0:15:26 > 0:15:31across Europe was and how polarised it became between two warring camps.
0:15:31 > 0:15:34Wagner didn't just have fans, he had worshippers.
0:15:34 > 0:15:39One of the most important was a young organist and composer called Anton Bruckner.
0:15:41 > 0:15:45Bruckner was a provincial boy, born near Linz.
0:15:46 > 0:15:48He became a choirboy
0:15:48 > 0:15:51and organist in the Augustinian monastery of St Florian.
0:15:51 > 0:15:54He was a very devout Catholic.
0:15:54 > 0:16:00Mahler described him as half simpleton, half God.
0:16:01 > 0:16:05His 3rd Symphony was dedicated to Wagner and premiered here
0:16:05 > 0:16:12in the Musikverein in December 1877, just one year after Brahms' 1st.
0:16:41 > 0:16:43The effect of Wagner is huge,
0:16:43 > 0:16:46not that Bruckner's music sounds like Wagner - it doesn't.
0:16:46 > 0:16:48It's much more bold harmonically,
0:16:48 > 0:16:54but Wagner showed him how you can organise huge spaces of music.
0:16:56 > 0:16:59How you could use harmony
0:16:59 > 0:17:04and expressiveness to fill out large spaces of time in music.
0:17:04 > 0:17:06It hadn't been done before.
0:17:22 > 0:17:26His symphonies were built with huge blocks of stone,
0:17:26 > 0:17:31gradually being built up like a cathedral, not a parish church.
0:17:31 > 0:17:35And of course for many people, that music takes them closer to their God.
0:17:35 > 0:17:40The great spiritual dimension that he as a man had is reflected in these enormous edifices, musically.
0:18:01 > 0:18:05The scale of Bruckner 3 - it lasts for well over an hour -
0:18:05 > 0:18:08is reflected in the urban expansion of Vienna itself.
0:18:08 > 0:18:11Between 1860 and 1900 the city trebled in size
0:18:11 > 0:18:14from half a million to 1.5 million inhabitants.
0:18:27 > 0:18:31The symphonies reflected more the fears of what was going on
0:18:31 > 0:18:35rather than the triumph, which is why, I think, Bruckner symphonies
0:18:35 > 0:18:38took a long time to get a foothold in Vienna.
0:18:40 > 0:18:45Brahms had described the typical Bruckner symphonies like a massive boa constrictor
0:18:45 > 0:18:48and the concert, here at the Musikverein,
0:18:48 > 0:18:52was a disaster with much of the audience walking out before the end.
0:18:55 > 0:19:00Bruckner's eccentric, monumental symphonies were eventually accepted in Vienna, of course,
0:19:00 > 0:19:07but both Bruckner and Mahler didn't really enter the international repertoire until the 1960s and '70s.
0:19:07 > 0:19:12Their symphonies are long, ground-breaking works - full of ambition, but also anxiety.
0:19:12 > 0:19:15Like the city in which the composers lived.
0:19:20 > 0:19:27This is Franz Joseph, depicted as Caesar on the front of the Parliament building in Vienna.
0:19:27 > 0:19:31Franz Joseph ruled over 17 distinct nationalities within the Hapsburg Empire.
0:19:31 > 0:19:37But many of these weren't that happy about being included in such a vast conglomerate
0:19:37 > 0:19:39and rose up in revolt in 1848.
0:19:39 > 0:19:43It was after this difficult time that Franz Joseph, then only 18,
0:19:43 > 0:19:47was placed on the throne and began his long reign of 68 years.
0:19:47 > 0:19:52But nationalist pressure wouldn't go away - many demands went un-met
0:19:52 > 0:19:57and nationalist resentment intensified, particularly in Bohemia.
0:20:10 > 0:20:13"A year ago", wrote a Leipzig newspaper in 1880,
0:20:13 > 0:20:16"news flashed across the German music world
0:20:16 > 0:20:19"of a miraculous talent residing in Prague."
0:20:20 > 0:20:23"What heightens the charm of Dvorak's compositions
0:20:23 > 0:20:26"is the sharply etched nationality that accompanies them."
0:20:31 > 0:20:34In the symphonic world, as in the political arena,
0:20:34 > 0:20:36nationalism was becoming a potent force.
0:20:40 > 0:20:44Dvorak's father was a butcher, but he also ran the local inn.
0:20:44 > 0:20:47So the boy must have grown up with the sounds
0:20:47 > 0:20:49of celebratory singing and dancing.
0:20:49 > 0:20:52His Sixth Symphony was written for the Vienna Philharmonic,
0:20:52 > 0:20:56but in fact it was premiered here in Prague in 1881.
0:20:56 > 0:21:00The Vienna Philharmonic didn't get around to playing it until 1942.
0:21:00 > 0:21:04Dvorak used Brahms' symphonies as his model,
0:21:04 > 0:21:08but instead of the typical scherzo or intermezzo movement, he wrote
0:21:08 > 0:21:13a furiant, a Bohemian folkdance that became his distinctive calling card.
0:21:13 > 0:21:15FOLK MUSIC
0:21:20 > 0:21:23What gives the furiant its bounce is the way it shifts
0:21:23 > 0:21:25between two-beat and three-beat rhythms,
0:21:25 > 0:21:28which stems from the nature of the dance.
0:21:37 > 0:21:40The man here is performing his masculinity
0:21:40 > 0:21:44and he takes advantage of this 2/4 measure
0:21:44 > 0:21:47to show how he is strong,
0:21:47 > 0:21:49how he is proud, how he is clever.
0:21:54 > 0:21:59And it's always during this 3/4 measure that it's the dancing
0:21:59 > 0:22:03in the couple and about the dancing of the woman also.
0:22:09 > 0:22:12Dvorak understood very well the nature of the dance,
0:22:12 > 0:22:14what was the spirit of the dance,
0:22:14 > 0:22:17so I think, in this way, he was very accurate.
0:22:21 > 0:22:24I notice that the dance was a bit slower.
0:22:24 > 0:22:28Dvorak speeded it up quite a lot, didn't he?
0:22:28 > 0:22:33Yes, because it was virtuosity that he wanted to show.
0:22:33 > 0:22:36But it was not written for a dance.
0:22:36 > 0:22:41So when you need to dance the music has to be slower.
0:22:41 > 0:22:45Why did he include this dance in this symphony?
0:22:45 > 0:22:49Because it had the meaning of the national feeling,
0:22:49 > 0:22:52so I think this was important for them to show
0:22:52 > 0:22:57the national identity in the music.
0:23:12 > 0:23:15What Dvorak is trying to do is to take the symphony away
0:23:15 > 0:23:20from the elite audience to a much wider audience.
0:23:20 > 0:23:23And, in this, he is a very modern composer
0:23:23 > 0:23:25although he's not regarded as that today.
0:23:37 > 0:23:39This is Vysoka, 60km south-west of Prague,
0:23:39 > 0:23:43where Dvorak had a summerhouse.
0:23:43 > 0:23:45He came here during the summer months to compose,
0:23:45 > 0:23:48to escape the pressures of a busy life in the city.
0:23:48 > 0:23:50The house remains in the Dvorak family
0:23:50 > 0:23:55and has been left very much as it was when Dvorak died in 1904.
0:23:57 > 0:24:02This is my grandmother, Dvorak's wife.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04when she married.
0:24:04 > 0:24:07She was 18 years old in this time.
0:24:07 > 0:24:09She was three months pregnant.
0:24:09 > 0:24:14It was unusual in this time but it was the reality.
0:24:16 > 0:24:18This desk, is this where he wrote?
0:24:18 > 0:24:24Sitting at this little table, Dvorak wrote many great opuses.
0:24:24 > 0:24:26- It's tiny, it's very small.- Yes.
0:24:27 > 0:24:31The Eighth Symphony was written here in Vysoka.
0:24:40 > 0:24:44Very interesting is this picture of Dvorak's family
0:24:44 > 0:24:49on the steps on the 17th East Street in New York.
0:24:49 > 0:24:53Here is my grandfather and here are two boys.
0:24:53 > 0:24:56One of these boys is my father.
0:24:56 > 0:24:58You didn't know your grandfather?
0:24:58 > 0:25:03I was born 25 years after his death.
0:25:04 > 0:25:06That's a wonderful picture.
0:25:09 > 0:25:13This picture is Dvorak sitting on a bench
0:25:13 > 0:25:15and feeding his pigeons here.
0:25:15 > 0:25:19- Is that here?- Here.- It's down there.
0:25:19 > 0:25:21Yes. Yes, this is here.
0:25:24 > 0:25:28This has various scores on it.
0:25:28 > 0:25:31Manuscripts and other, yes.
0:25:31 > 0:25:35Dvorak came to popularity through his Slavonic Dances,
0:25:35 > 0:25:38following the success of Brahms with his Hungarian Dances.
0:25:43 > 0:25:47Brahms, of course, was imitating Hungarian Gypsies
0:25:47 > 0:25:51he'd heard in Vienna, but Dvorak penned his furiants
0:25:51 > 0:25:54and other Slavic dances with national pride.
0:25:57 > 0:26:02This room was the dining room of the family.
0:26:02 > 0:26:05Very special is this picture.
0:26:05 > 0:26:08Dvorak and his two friends -
0:26:08 > 0:26:12Tchaikovsky and Johannes Brahms.
0:26:12 > 0:26:18Especially Johannes Brahms was a very good friend of my grandfather
0:26:18 > 0:26:22and Brahms don't believe in God
0:26:22 > 0:26:29and Dvorak said once about him "How it is possible that Brahms
0:26:29 > 0:26:33"composed such nice music when he don't believe?!"
0:26:49 > 0:26:51Brahms admired Dvorak's music
0:26:51 > 0:26:53and did a great deal to help the composer.
0:26:53 > 0:26:57But, in general, the attitude of the Viennese musical establishment
0:26:57 > 0:26:59was condescending if not downright dismissive.
0:26:59 > 0:27:02For the Austrians, nationalist composers like Tchaikovsky
0:27:02 > 0:27:05and Dvorak were colourful, but not serious.
0:27:05 > 0:27:09Once, when someone expressed his admiration for Dvorak's skilful
0:27:09 > 0:27:13and brilliant orchestration, Bruckner said, "You can paint a pair
0:27:13 > 0:27:17"of sausages blue and green, but they're still a pair of sausages."
0:27:52 > 0:27:55In 1890 a young composer came from much farther afield
0:27:55 > 0:27:58to continue his studies in Vienna.
0:27:58 > 0:28:00Jean Sibelius came from Finland -
0:28:00 > 0:28:03way beyond the reach of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,
0:28:03 > 0:28:06but Vienna was the place properly to study the symphonic tradition.
0:28:06 > 0:28:09He was a huge fan of Wagner, but also admired Beethoven's Ninth
0:28:09 > 0:28:13and Bruckner's Third and here, in this symphonic hothouse,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16it was inevitable that he should set about to write a symphony.
0:28:16 > 0:28:19And, as with Dvorak, it took on national overtones.
0:28:19 > 0:28:22Sibelius looked for inspiration to the Finnish national epic,
0:28:22 > 0:28:24the Kalevala.
0:28:40 > 0:28:43Elias Lonnrot, who compiled the Kalevala,
0:28:43 > 0:28:46published his final version in 1849.
0:28:46 > 0:28:49He'd travelled extensively into remote parts of Karelia -
0:28:49 > 0:28:52an area that covers parts of eastern Finland and Russia
0:28:52 > 0:28:56- where he collected folk songs and poetry from peasant bards
0:28:56 > 0:29:00and reworked these into a long rambling tale of over 22,000 verses.
0:29:00 > 0:29:03With the figure of the bard Vainamoinen,
0:29:03 > 0:29:05a sort of Finnish Orpheus, at its heart,
0:29:05 > 0:29:08the Kalevala became a major inspiration
0:29:08 > 0:29:13for artists, musicians and advocates of a Finnish national identity.
0:29:18 > 0:29:22This is the autograph score of Kullervo by Jean Sibelius.
0:29:22 > 0:29:26From the mass of different stories and mythological characters
0:29:26 > 0:29:29in the Kalevala, Sibelius focused on the tragic, anti-hero Kullervo
0:29:29 > 0:29:31in his choral symphony.
0:29:31 > 0:29:38Here you can see the programme text, the Kalevala, in the score.
0:29:38 > 0:29:39Here we go.
0:29:39 > 0:29:42Here we go, here is the first.
0:29:42 > 0:29:43It's always so exciting.
0:29:43 > 0:29:45Music page.
0:29:45 > 0:29:48Now, why was the Kalevala so important
0:29:48 > 0:29:53to Finnish national aspirations?
0:29:53 > 0:29:56First of all because it was in Finnish
0:29:56 > 0:29:59and it was Finnish folk poetry.
0:29:59 > 0:30:03It has been said that Kalevala showed to us Finns
0:30:03 > 0:30:06that Finland had its own history
0:30:06 > 0:30:13already before the Christian era, or the Swedish or the Russian era.
0:30:19 > 0:30:23After six centuries of Swedish domination, the Grand Duchy
0:30:23 > 0:30:27of Finland became part of the Russian Empire in 1809 and Helsinki
0:30:27 > 0:30:31became something of a showcase for the Russian emperor Alexander I.
0:30:31 > 0:30:34The central Senate Square of the city
0:30:34 > 0:30:36is very much in the St Petersburg style.
0:30:36 > 0:30:41This statue of Alexander II was built in 1894.
0:30:41 > 0:30:44He was remembered as "the good tsar", a reformer.
0:30:44 > 0:30:47Unlike most nationalities within the Russian Empire,
0:30:47 > 0:30:50the Finns enjoyed a degree of autonomy, but during the 1890s,
0:30:50 > 0:30:54the Russians began to limit this and this inevitably fuelled
0:30:54 > 0:30:56the Finnish nationalist movement.
0:30:56 > 0:31:00With Kullervo written in 1892 and, of course, Finlandia,
0:31:00 > 0:31:04his patriotic piece par excellence, which was composed in 1899,
0:31:04 > 0:31:08Sibelius found himself a national, even nationalist figure.
0:31:11 > 0:31:14This painting, called Symposium, depicts a gathering of artists
0:31:14 > 0:31:16and musicians of the time.
0:31:16 > 0:31:19It shows Sibelius on the right, Robert Kajanus,
0:31:19 > 0:31:22who conducted the premiere of the Kullervo Symphony, next to him.
0:31:22 > 0:31:25The figure worse for wear is a music critic,
0:31:25 > 0:31:27oblivious to everything and the fourth character
0:31:27 > 0:31:30is the artist himself, Akseli Gallen-Kallela,
0:31:30 > 0:31:33a good friend of Sibelius.
0:31:33 > 0:31:36He is famous for his Kalevala paintings
0:31:36 > 0:31:38and I went to the Ateneum Gallery to find out more.
0:31:42 > 0:31:47There are statistics about the popularity of Kalevala stories
0:31:47 > 0:31:53in Finnish art, visual art and culture in general
0:31:53 > 0:31:58and through all times, Kullervo, his very tragic story,
0:31:58 > 0:32:02has been the most popular story and motif from Kalevala.
0:32:02 > 0:32:07And thinking about the times when Kullervo has been most popular
0:32:07 > 0:32:12was exactly the time of young Sibelius, young Gallen-Kallela,
0:32:12 > 0:32:15the turn of the 19th century, 1890s.
0:32:15 > 0:32:19So there is a strong link to the times
0:32:19 > 0:32:23when Finnish national identity was being threatened.
0:32:34 > 0:32:38Sibelius' Kullervo Symphony tells the tragic story
0:32:38 > 0:32:41of Kullervo seducing a woman he meets,
0:32:41 > 0:32:42who he finds out later is his sister.
0:32:42 > 0:32:45But Sibelius' depiction of this, with its aggressive brass,
0:32:45 > 0:32:47is remarkable in 19th century music
0:32:47 > 0:32:50and makes it sound more like rape than seduction.
0:32:55 > 0:32:58Here we arrive at the climax of the third movement,
0:32:58 > 0:33:02the very powerful culmination of the movement.
0:33:02 > 0:33:06- Ah, yes, all the brass here playing very, very loudly indeed.- Yes.
0:33:26 > 0:33:29Sibelius arrived just at the right time
0:33:29 > 0:33:33as the Finns were really dying to get out from underneath
0:33:33 > 0:33:37the yoke of being dominated and run by Russia.
0:33:37 > 0:33:43And there was this extraordinary rough, wild, undisciplined,
0:33:43 > 0:33:46unreliable individual.
0:33:46 > 0:33:52And he found, through his long life, a way to express
0:33:52 > 0:33:57the feeling in his people and in his love for his country.
0:33:57 > 0:34:01But he never wanted to be thought of as a nationalist composer,
0:34:01 > 0:34:04he never wanted to have a political message.
0:34:04 > 0:34:07His music came from his own rigour inside himself
0:34:07 > 0:34:10that he eventually worked at and found,
0:34:10 > 0:34:14and through his own natural gifts of drama in music.
0:35:03 > 0:35:07Sibelius wanted his music to express a nationalism,
0:35:07 > 0:35:10but also be internationally
0:35:10 > 0:35:12well-known as well.
0:35:12 > 0:35:15And he was so popular in England and America
0:35:15 > 0:35:20because, unlike Germany, these two countries also did not have
0:35:20 > 0:35:24a great institutional musical culture behind them.
0:35:24 > 0:35:27When you think about Germany, an opera house in every city,
0:35:27 > 0:35:30a symphony orchestra and so forth, it's not the case in England
0:35:30 > 0:35:33and it's certainly not the case in America.
0:35:33 > 0:35:35So you have someone with Beethovenian ambitions
0:35:35 > 0:35:39trying to establish something meaningful in the symphony
0:35:39 > 0:35:42that is an alternative to the German tradition.
0:35:42 > 0:35:44MUSIC: Sibelius' Symphony No. 2
0:36:34 > 0:36:37In 1907, Gustav Mahler came to Helsinki
0:36:37 > 0:36:38to conduct a concert
0:36:38 > 0:36:41and he met the painter Gallen-Kallela,
0:36:41 > 0:36:43whom he knew from an exhibition in Vienna,
0:36:43 > 0:36:45and he met Sibelius.
0:36:45 > 0:36:50Taking a walk one day, the two composers discussed symphonic form.
0:36:50 > 0:36:53Sibelius said that he admired the severity and logic of the form
0:36:53 > 0:36:57that created inner connections between the motifs.
0:36:57 > 0:37:00Mahler replied that his opinion was very different.
0:37:00 > 0:37:03"A symphony should be like the world," he said.
0:37:03 > 0:37:06"It should embrace everything."
0:37:06 > 0:37:09MUSIC: Mahler's Symphony No.2, 1st Movement
0:37:40 > 0:37:43This is the Secession building in Vienna,
0:37:43 > 0:37:46one of the finest examples of an artistic movement
0:37:46 > 0:37:48known as jugendstil, the Young Style.
0:37:48 > 0:37:53And here is Gustav Mahler as a heroic knight in shining armour,
0:37:53 > 0:37:56painted by his friend Gustav Klimt.
0:37:56 > 0:37:59This frieze, which pictures Beethoven's 9th Symphony
0:37:59 > 0:38:02as seen through Wagner's eyes, was painted
0:38:02 > 0:38:04for a great Beethoven exhibition in 1902
0:38:04 > 0:38:08at which Mahler conducted an arrangement of the 9th Symphony.
0:38:08 > 0:38:11Mahler's 3rd symphony picks up on the idea
0:38:11 > 0:38:15of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. But as well as harking back to that,
0:38:15 > 0:38:18it looks out with ferocious energy onto a new world.
0:38:27 > 0:38:31Klimt's vision, like Mahler's, is a very personal one.
0:38:31 > 0:38:34The first wall represents heroic ambition.
0:38:34 > 0:38:36Featuring Mahler, of course.
0:38:36 > 0:38:41The second wall represents the obstacles that mankind
0:38:41 > 0:38:43has to overcome, including animal instincts.
0:38:43 > 0:38:47And the final section, taking its cue from Schiller's lyrics
0:38:47 > 0:38:48in the Ode to Joy,
0:38:48 > 0:38:50shows the kiss to the whole world
0:38:50 > 0:38:52that comes at the end of Beethoven's 9th.
0:39:07 > 0:39:10Mahler's 3rd is a symphony that pushed the form to its limits.
0:39:10 > 0:39:13It has six movements and at nearly 100 minutes in length,
0:39:13 > 0:39:16it's one of the longest symphonies in the repertoire.
0:39:16 > 0:39:20The first movement represents the unstoppable forces of nature.
0:39:20 > 0:39:24Summer is the victor amidst all that is blooming and growing.
0:39:24 > 0:39:28It's about the whole of creation. Mahler moves on to flowers, animals,
0:39:28 > 0:39:29mankind and the angels.
0:39:29 > 0:39:32But, of course, it's really about Mahler himself.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35This, after all, is the Vienna of Freud
0:39:35 > 0:39:38and the symphony has become a vehicle for self expression
0:39:38 > 0:39:41and a picture of the artist's vision of the world around him.
0:39:41 > 0:39:44Music: Mahler's Symphony No.3, 1st Movement
0:40:00 > 0:40:02Mahler was fascinated at the opportunity
0:40:02 > 0:40:05of stretching the orchestra,
0:40:05 > 0:40:09making it do things that no one else had dared go to.
0:40:09 > 0:40:13And his interest in these very, very extreme sound worlds
0:40:13 > 0:40:18came from everything that he was, a very complex personality.
0:40:18 > 0:40:21A man who gave up his Jewish faith to become a Christian,
0:40:21 > 0:40:25to help himself do better in Vienna and run the opera.
0:40:25 > 0:40:28A man who was brought up in a tiny village, way out in the countryside
0:40:28 > 0:40:30that had a very substantial barracks in it.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34And so his childhood was full of military marching music
0:40:34 > 0:40:37and strange, out of tune fanfares.
0:40:37 > 0:40:40Now this is pretty rare, isn't it, everybody?
0:40:40 > 0:40:42This little word - roh!
0:40:42 > 0:40:45It does not stand for Royal Opera House.
0:40:45 > 0:40:48It stands for the word which means unrefined.
0:40:48 > 0:40:50Raw, yeah?
0:40:50 > 0:40:51Strident.
0:40:51 > 0:40:53It's not so much that it needs to be very loud,
0:40:53 > 0:40:57it just needs to have a particular bite or edge to it, doesn't it?
0:40:57 > 0:40:59Tuk! Tuk! Tuk! Yeah?
0:40:59 > 0:41:03Not wholly musical. Can I hear it? Two, three, four...
0:41:03 > 0:41:05ORCHESTRA PLAYS
0:41:07 > 0:41:09ORCHESTRA STOPS PLAYING
0:41:09 > 0:41:11OK, good. That's better.
0:41:11 > 0:41:15If the horns are a bit softer and a little bit edgier,
0:41:15 > 0:41:18I think it would be better. And also earlier.
0:41:18 > 0:41:20It's late. Two, three, four...
0:41:20 > 0:41:22ORCHESTRA PLAYS
0:41:27 > 0:41:30Let me just address what the oboes are going to do.
0:41:30 > 0:41:32Could I just hear it, the three Fs?
0:41:32 > 0:41:34OBOES PLAY
0:41:34 > 0:41:36Yeah, yeah.
0:41:36 > 0:41:40It says "grell." Well, that just means shrill.
0:41:40 > 0:41:43This sounds like loud oboe playing. Sounds great, sounds quality.
0:41:43 > 0:41:46It shouldn't sound quality, it should sound strident
0:41:46 > 0:41:49and exaggerated. It's been suggested that the best way
0:41:49 > 0:41:52to do it is to actually put the reed further in the mouth.
0:41:52 > 0:41:55Just put it all further in. Would you try that?
0:41:55 > 0:41:58Don't worry if it sounds distorted, that's what he wants.
0:41:58 > 0:41:59One, two, three...
0:41:59 > 0:42:02OBOES PLAY SHRILLY
0:42:03 > 0:42:06That's it, that's better.
0:42:06 > 0:42:07LAUGHTER
0:42:07 > 0:42:09One, two, three...
0:42:09 > 0:42:11ORCHESTRA PLAYS
0:42:29 > 0:42:32'What he was trying to do was experiment'
0:42:32 > 0:42:35with how far the orchestra could be taken
0:42:35 > 0:42:38and in this way, of course, he was a great successor to Berlioz
0:42:38 > 0:42:41who wanted to do the same thing in his time.
0:42:41 > 0:42:43And in a way, that makes Mahler the first
0:42:43 > 0:42:46of the great 20th century composers.
0:43:29 > 0:43:31Mahler composed during his holidays.
0:43:31 > 0:43:33His day job was here,
0:43:33 > 0:43:37as conductor and director of the Court Opera.
0:43:37 > 0:43:40Born in Bohemia and raised as a Jew, Mahler was always the outsider.
0:43:40 > 0:43:43Being a Jew, he said, was like being born with a short arm
0:43:43 > 0:43:45and having to swim twice as hard.
0:43:45 > 0:43:47Indeed, despite his obvious talents,
0:43:47 > 0:43:50he came up against anti-Semitism.
0:43:50 > 0:43:51But salvation was at hand.
0:43:51 > 0:43:55Symphonic culture had become all the rage a thousand miles away
0:43:55 > 0:43:58and Mahler, along with nationalist composers Dvorak, Tchaikovsky
0:43:58 > 0:44:03and Sibelius, was imported to plant the seed of a new musical culture.
0:44:03 > 0:44:06MUSIC: Dvorak's Symphony No.9, 'New World'
0:44:19 > 0:44:22America, and particularly New York, provided a new
0:44:22 > 0:44:25and highly lucrative market for European musical culture.
0:44:25 > 0:44:27Tchaikovsky was invited to attend
0:44:27 > 0:44:29the opening of the Carnegie Hall in 1891,
0:44:29 > 0:44:32Mahler came to conduct the New York Symphony Orchestra
0:44:32 > 0:44:37and The Metropolitan Opera, and Dvorak was asked to head The National Conservatory
0:44:37 > 0:44:40where his annual salary of 15,000 was nearly 30 times more
0:44:40 > 0:44:43than he was earning at the conservatoire in Prague.
0:44:43 > 0:44:46Most significantly however,
0:44:46 > 0:44:50it was here in New York that Dvorak composed his symphony No 9,
0:44:50 > 0:44:54from the New World which was premiered in 1893.
0:45:40 > 0:45:45Clive, on Dec 16, 1893,
0:45:45 > 0:45:48the New World Symphony was premiered here at Carnegie Hall.
0:45:48 > 0:45:51First of all, can you tell me something about Mr Carnegie?
0:45:51 > 0:45:55He was possibly the most successful industrialist of his age.
0:45:55 > 0:45:57At one time, he was reckoned to be the richest man in the world.
0:45:57 > 0:46:01He was a steelmaker, but also an unbelievable philanthropist
0:46:01 > 0:46:03and, of course, he created Carnegie Hall.
0:46:03 > 0:46:06But that came about because his wife sang in a chorus
0:46:06 > 0:46:09and there was no concert hall. So, as you do,
0:46:09 > 0:46:11she asked him to build a concert hall for her.
0:46:11 > 0:46:14Instead of going to the greatest architect of the day,
0:46:14 > 0:46:18he went to the guy who was treasurer of the choral society.
0:46:18 > 0:46:20He was a cellist, he was a musician, he wasn't well known.
0:46:20 > 0:46:23He asked him to build a concert hall. He'd never built one
0:46:23 > 0:46:27in his life before. He sent him to Europe to look at all the concert halls
0:46:27 > 0:46:30and he came back and built something unlike anything he'd seen.
0:46:30 > 0:46:33Now the concert itself, it was conducted by Anton Seidl
0:46:33 > 0:46:36- who was a big international figure. - Absolutely.
0:46:36 > 0:46:38He was assistant to Hans Richter,
0:46:38 > 0:46:41assisted with conducting the Ring Cycle in Bayreuth.
0:46:41 > 0:46:44He came here, in fact he was a great Wagnerian, so he conducted
0:46:44 > 0:46:48a lot of Wagner here as well. So he made a huge impact here.
0:46:48 > 0:46:50He was the most important musician in New York.
0:46:50 > 0:46:53Despite being built by a novice,
0:46:53 > 0:46:56Carnegie Hall was praised for its acoustics and it soon became
0:46:56 > 0:47:00the landmark in American cultural life that it remains today.
0:47:01 > 0:47:02All across America,
0:47:02 > 0:47:06in Boston and Chicago, for instance, symphony halls were built
0:47:06 > 0:47:08and a new entrepreneurial and middle class
0:47:08 > 0:47:11went to the symphony to hear symphonies.
0:47:11 > 0:47:13And Dvorak was there to help them
0:47:13 > 0:47:16Americanise a European musical culture.
0:47:37 > 0:47:39Dvorak was important
0:47:39 > 0:47:43because, as a Czech, he had created Czech culture,
0:47:43 > 0:47:48by, in a sense, taking international culture, which was really German,
0:47:48 > 0:47:51taking out the Germanisms and putting in Czechisms.
0:47:51 > 0:47:56It was hoped that he would come to the United States, take out the Czechisms, put in Americanisms
0:47:56 > 0:47:59and be a kind of object lesson for American composers
0:47:59 > 0:48:03about how one makes national music that belongs to them,
0:48:03 > 0:48:06rather than to some other distant culture.
0:48:07 > 0:48:10Dvorak stayed in America for two and a half years.
0:48:10 > 0:48:13He was taken to Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show,
0:48:13 > 0:48:16which also included Native American musicians.
0:48:17 > 0:48:19And amongst his pupils at the conservatory
0:48:19 > 0:48:23were several African Americans, notably the singer Henry T Burleigh
0:48:23 > 0:48:27and composer Will Marion Cook, who went on to teach Duke Ellington.
0:48:28 > 0:48:32"In the negro melodies of America," Dvorak said,
0:48:32 > 0:48:36"I discover all that is needed for a great and noble school of music."
0:48:37 > 0:48:39When he arrived in America,
0:48:39 > 0:48:41Dvorak was given articles and musical material
0:48:41 > 0:48:44that he might use in his compositions.
0:48:46 > 0:48:50One of the most famous was a journal called Negro Music,
0:48:50 > 0:48:53with an article by somebody with the improbable name
0:48:53 > 0:48:59of Johann Tonsor, that had six examples of black music.
0:48:59 > 0:49:03And it seems that Dvorak certainly drew on these
0:49:03 > 0:49:06for the composition of the New World Symphony.
0:49:06 > 0:49:10Here's one fragment of Swing Low Sweet Chariot...
0:49:10 > 0:49:13PLAYS MAIN MELODY
0:49:15 > 0:49:18..which is very much like the New World Symphony.
0:49:18 > 0:49:20PLAYS SIMILAR SEQUENCE
0:49:22 > 0:49:26And do we know anything about the author, this Johann Tonsor?
0:49:26 > 0:49:28Johann Tonsor doesn't exist.
0:49:28 > 0:49:33Johann Tonsor was a name made up by a wonderful woman,
0:49:33 > 0:49:37who was an ethnographer of Afro-American music from Kentucky
0:49:37 > 0:49:39named Mildred Hill, who was, I think, the only person
0:49:39 > 0:49:43Dvorak came into contact with whose music was more famous than Dvorak's
0:49:43 > 0:49:47- because she wrote Happy Birthday. - Ah-ha!
0:50:10 > 0:50:12The other American culture
0:50:12 > 0:50:15that attracted Dvorak's interest was that of the Native Americans.
0:50:15 > 0:50:17He didn't hear much of their music,
0:50:17 > 0:50:20but was captivated by the Hiawatha story.
0:50:25 > 0:50:31Dvorak became deeply involved with Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha.
0:50:31 > 0:50:33He'd known it as a young man -
0:50:33 > 0:50:36the Czech translator was a friend of his.
0:50:36 > 0:50:40Dvorak told the critic Henry Krehbiel
0:50:40 > 0:50:45that the Largo was based on a chapter called Hiawatha's Wooing,
0:50:45 > 0:50:50and I believe it represents Hiawatha and Minnehaha's journey
0:50:50 > 0:50:52through primeval American spaces.
0:50:53 > 0:50:55It was originally faster,
0:50:55 > 0:51:01but under the influence of the Wagnerian conductor Anton Seidl,
0:51:01 > 0:51:06it turned from probably an andante to a larghetto.
0:51:06 > 0:51:08Then we see it crossed out on the manuscript.
0:51:08 > 0:51:10Larghetto crossed out,
0:51:10 > 0:51:15largo finally appearing there as the speed,
0:51:15 > 0:51:19with some equation between the slowness
0:51:19 > 0:51:22and the deep expressivity of the passage.
0:51:39 > 0:51:42We've arrived up here, in fact where Dvorak sat.
0:51:42 > 0:51:44- In Box 10.- Absolutely.
0:51:44 > 0:51:47- So how was it received? - It was received incredibly.
0:51:47 > 0:51:48Everybody loved the music.
0:51:48 > 0:51:52I think what was important was it related to them as well.
0:51:52 > 0:51:54There were American themes.
0:51:54 > 0:51:58It was a piece for America, and of America, in America.
0:51:58 > 0:52:01MUSIC: "Symphony No 9 New World" by Dvorak
0:53:00 > 0:53:02APPLAUSE
0:53:02 > 0:53:05Writing about the premier, James Gibbons Huneker,
0:53:05 > 0:53:08the journalist who'd given Dvorak the article with Negro Tunes,
0:53:08 > 0:53:10acknowledged the new hybrid soil
0:53:10 > 0:53:13in which this musical culture was taking root.
0:53:13 > 0:53:16"Dvorak's symphony is American, is it?
0:53:16 > 0:53:19"Themes from negro melodies composed by a Bohemian,
0:53:19 > 0:53:21"conducted by a Hungarian
0:53:21 > 0:53:25"and played by Germans in a hall built by a Scotchman.
0:53:26 > 0:53:28"It will probably be many years
0:53:28 > 0:53:32"before a concert will be talked and written about as was this one."
0:53:36 > 0:53:40The New York Conservatory folded during the depression in the 1930s.
0:53:40 > 0:53:44The house where Dvorak lived and composed the New World Symphony
0:53:44 > 0:53:45was demolished in 1991.
0:53:45 > 0:53:48But his influence on American music was lasting.
0:53:48 > 0:53:52His famous largo sounds so much like a negro spiritual
0:53:52 > 0:53:56that it was given words by one of his pupils, William Arms Fisher,
0:53:56 > 0:54:00and famously recorded by African American singer Paul Robeson.
0:54:00 > 0:54:03# ..I'm just going home... #
0:54:03 > 0:54:06It's become a piece of American popular music.
0:54:06 > 0:54:17# ..I'm just going home. #
0:54:17 > 0:54:20MUSIC: Symphony No 6, 3rd Movement by Tchaikovsky
0:54:32 > 0:54:34At this time, having a symphonic tradition
0:54:34 > 0:54:36proved you were a proper nation.
0:54:36 > 0:54:39That's why America wanted Dvorak to create one.
0:54:39 > 0:54:43Just as the powerful Russian Empire had done a generation earlier
0:54:43 > 0:54:45using elements of their folk music.
0:54:48 > 0:54:51Here in St Petersburg, most successful at combining
0:54:51 > 0:54:54the national soul with Germanic tradition was Tchaikovsky
0:54:54 > 0:54:58writing symphonic music that was passionate and emotional.
0:55:11 > 0:55:15In October 1893, Tchaikovsky's latest symphony, his 6th,
0:55:15 > 0:55:18had its premiere here at the Philharmonic Hall,
0:55:18 > 0:55:21conducted by the composer himself.
0:55:21 > 0:55:23Partly because of its immense popularity,
0:55:23 > 0:55:26Tchaikovsky's music is often dismissed.
0:55:26 > 0:55:29But this symphony, known as the Pathetique,
0:55:29 > 0:55:32is one of the most original and deeply personal ever written.
0:55:42 > 0:55:45Tchaikovsky may have been using a public form,
0:55:45 > 0:55:48but it's a work that's full of private emotion.
0:56:54 > 0:56:57What Tchaikovsky did in the Pathetique that was so unusual
0:56:57 > 0:57:02was to replace an uplifting finale with a searing slow movement,
0:57:02 > 0:57:05descending into despair.
0:57:11 > 0:57:14The last movement seems to be an epitaph or a farewell.
0:57:14 > 0:57:18Full of the most glorious melodic material
0:57:18 > 0:57:20that rises to a desperate climax,
0:57:20 > 0:57:25as if he was ridding himself of some deep, deep hidden pain,
0:57:25 > 0:57:29before allowing itself to come to rest in the final bars, so movingly.
0:57:36 > 0:57:39No symphony before had ever ended like this.
0:57:39 > 0:57:41And, of course, it has since acquired an even greater power
0:57:41 > 0:57:46because Tchaikovsky died just nine days after the premiere.
0:57:46 > 0:57:50There was something very personal that Tchaikovsky wanted to say in this piece,
0:57:50 > 0:57:54but, in retrospect, it also seems like a requiem for the old Europe,
0:57:54 > 0:57:57which couldn't last much longer,
0:57:57 > 0:57:59with big destructive changes to come -
0:57:59 > 0:58:02which is what we'll be looking at next time.
0:58:16 > 0:58:19To go deeper into the music and unravel the secrets of the symphony,
0:58:19 > 0:58:25follow the links to the Open University at...
0:58:47 > 0:58:49Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
0:58:49 > 0:58:51E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk