0:00:19 > 0:00:22In November 2010, the Berlin Philharmonic
0:00:22 > 0:00:25and their Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Sir Simon Rattle,
0:00:25 > 0:00:29performed at the Esplanade Theatre on the waterfront in Singapore
0:00:29 > 0:00:32as part of the orchestra's tour of the Far East.
0:00:32 > 0:00:35Playing to an audience of music students and school children,
0:00:35 > 0:00:40the programme featured Mahler's 1st Symphony and Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances.
0:00:49 > 0:00:51How did you find the audience in Singapore?
0:00:51 > 0:00:55Well, we had a very, very young audience for when we were filming.
0:00:55 > 0:00:59Lots of students, lots of people who had studied the music,
0:00:59 > 0:01:04fantastically concentrated and very, very enthusiastic.
0:01:04 > 0:01:08And some of the highest applause you'll ever hear.
0:01:08 > 0:01:11But it was a great audience.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14There's a big hunger for music there.
0:01:16 > 0:01:19We wanted to take programmes that would show
0:01:19 > 0:01:23all the different colours the orchestra could make.
0:01:23 > 0:01:26You've compared the Mahler Symphony
0:01:26 > 0:01:28with Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances,
0:01:28 > 0:01:31this was the last piece that he composed,
0:01:31 > 0:01:34what does it tell us about his whole life in music?
0:01:34 > 0:01:38Well, it's interesting, because he remained deeply Russian,
0:01:38 > 0:01:43but he was in what, for him, must have been endless exile in America.
0:01:43 > 0:01:49But you really hear the city life in this piece.
0:01:49 > 0:01:52And you here, actually, that he had become
0:01:52 > 0:01:57a more and more sophisticated composer and orchestrator.
0:01:57 > 0:02:02And it's one of the huge showpieces for any orchestra.
0:02:02 > 0:02:06This was the first time in the history of the Berlin Philharmonic
0:02:06 > 0:02:08the piece had been played in concerts.
0:02:08 > 0:02:09Wow.
0:02:09 > 0:02:12And so another journey of discovery.
0:02:12 > 0:02:15APPLAUSE
0:02:15 > 0:02:19And so to perform Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances,
0:02:19 > 0:02:24here is the Berlin Philharmonic with their Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Sir Simon Rattle.
0:39:18 > 0:39:24APPLAUSE
0:39:30 > 0:39:34The Berlin Philharmonic performing Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances
0:39:34 > 0:39:36to an invited audience of music students
0:39:36 > 0:39:40and schoolchildren here at the Esplanade Theatre in Singapore.
0:39:40 > 0:39:45This was Rachmaninov's last completed orchestral composition,
0:39:45 > 0:39:48first performed when he was 57 years old.
0:39:48 > 0:39:53Twice the age that Mahler was when he wrote his 1st Symphony.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57Every orchestra now plays Mahler, but the Berlin Philharmonic
0:39:57 > 0:40:02seem to have such a particular relationship with the music. Why do you think that is?
0:40:02 > 0:40:04What makes them such a perfect Mahler orchestra?
0:40:04 > 0:40:08Well, of course, look, there's history. One or two orchestras have been lucky.
0:40:08 > 0:40:13We played the first performance of the 3rd Symphony, for instance.
0:40:13 > 0:40:16Some orchestras had a real history with Mahler,
0:40:16 > 0:40:20and you can feel it underneath.
0:40:20 > 0:40:23But, in a way, it's made for an orchestra,
0:40:23 > 0:40:26which is willing to go for extremes.
0:40:26 > 0:40:32And some orchestras are frightened to go to those places in Mahler.
0:40:32 > 0:40:35These guys, not at all.
0:40:35 > 0:40:37If you say to them, "OK, let's drive over the mountain,"
0:40:37 > 0:40:41they will drive over the mountain with great joy.
0:40:41 > 0:40:46- Tell us about Mahler's 1st Symphony. - Well, there's a composer...
0:40:46 > 0:40:48in his twenties,
0:40:48 > 0:40:52but he'd hardly written for an orchestra before.
0:40:52 > 0:40:56And he turns the symphony on its head.
0:40:56 > 0:41:00I mean, he turned the symphony on its head so much that, actually,
0:41:00 > 0:41:04the first performances, the orchestra would desert him on stage
0:41:04 > 0:41:07because the reaction of the public was so hostile.
0:41:07 > 0:41:10Now, it's hard to imagine.
0:41:10 > 0:41:16It's such a fresh and alive and imaginative piece.
0:41:16 > 0:41:19But it's a piece that takes you on a journey
0:41:19 > 0:41:24that people considered at the time to be almost obscene.
0:41:24 > 0:41:28The idea of having distorted children's songs,
0:41:28 > 0:41:32of Jewish klezmer music, of marching bands,
0:41:32 > 0:41:36it was a real puzzle for people.
0:41:36 > 0:41:41And it's a type of trajectory...
0:41:41 > 0:41:43of a young man's life,
0:41:43 > 0:41:49ending in an extraordinary feeling of liberation and triumph,
0:41:49 > 0:41:52of which there's no irony.
0:41:52 > 0:41:57It was something that Mahler was hardly able to return to.
0:41:57 > 0:42:02Bernstein said he didn't know another composer who had such a keen sense of how to begin things.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04It seems to me that it's also about
0:42:04 > 0:42:07the beginning of something much bigger than just the 1st Symphony.
0:42:07 > 0:42:11Yeah. The beginning of the symphony, it's like all of nature breathing.
0:42:11 > 0:42:15There's an A, which goes from the bottom of the orchestra
0:42:15 > 0:42:21from the top, and it's very, very slowly opening a door into a journey.
0:42:21 > 0:42:26But, of course, it's opening a door to all of his symphonies.
0:42:26 > 0:42:30And the idea that you would have one note
0:42:30 > 0:42:33that leads and leads and leads
0:42:33 > 0:42:38through to the end... through to the end of the piece.
0:42:38 > 0:42:42It's strange. I grew up in the city, in Liverpool,
0:42:42 > 0:42:44where, believe it or not,
0:42:44 > 0:42:48the first Mahler Cycle with all the symphonies
0:42:48 > 0:42:51and the same conductor was played,
0:42:51 > 0:42:54- as I was growing up.- Wow. - And I can remember
0:42:54 > 0:42:56the players in the Liverpool Phil saying,
0:42:56 > 0:43:02"Oh, Simon, we're off for our twice-yearly struggle with Mahler."
0:43:02 > 0:43:07But for all of us as young teenagers, it was like a knock on the head.
0:43:07 > 0:43:12It was one of those big farm horses kicking you on the head.
0:43:12 > 0:43:17We would walk out into the night absolutely transfigured.
0:43:17 > 0:43:21APPLAUSE
0:43:21 > 0:43:26Four decades on from Simon Rattle's first encounter with Gustav Mahler's music,
0:43:26 > 0:43:29here he is to conduct the Berlin Philharmonic
0:43:29 > 0:43:33in a performance of Mahler's 1st Symphony.
1:42:16 > 1:42:21CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:42:23 > 1:42:25A tremendous reaction from the audience
1:42:25 > 1:42:27at the Esplanade Theatre
1:42:27 > 1:42:28to Mahler's 1s Symphony,
1:42:28 > 1:42:33a piece that was vilified during its premiere in 1900.
1:42:33 > 1:42:36The reaction couldn't be more different here in Singapore.
1:42:36 > 1:42:40A true masterpiece performed by one of the world's leading orchestras,
1:42:40 > 1:42:42the Berlin Philharmonic,
1:42:42 > 1:42:44and their Chief Conductor and Artistic Director,
1:42:44 > 1:42:47Sir Simon Rattle.
1:43:08 > 1:43:12APPLAUSE DROWNS SPEECH
1:43:14 > 1:43:18CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:43:19 > 1:43:21Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd
1:43:21 > 1:43:24E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk