0:00:02 > 0:00:06For over 60 years, BBC Television has been filming many of the world's greatest cellists.
0:00:06 > 0:00:09Jacqueline du Pre, Yo-Yo Ma
0:00:09 > 0:00:12Mstislav Rostropovich, Paul Tortelier
0:00:12 > 0:00:13and Mischa Maisky
0:00:13 > 0:00:17are amongst those we'll see in the studio and on the stage.
0:00:17 > 0:00:19This programme is a look at
0:00:19 > 0:00:22some of the extraordinary gems in the BBC archive -
0:00:22 > 0:00:24my Classic Cellists at the BBC.
0:01:16 > 0:01:18APPLAUSE
0:01:20 > 0:01:22The final moments of Elgar's Cello Concerto,
0:01:22 > 0:01:26which I played there in 1987, conducted by Sir Yehudi Menuhin,
0:01:26 > 0:01:29a musical experience that I will never forget.
0:01:35 > 0:01:38I love the cello and I love cellists.
0:01:38 > 0:01:41And many of my favourites have appeared on the BBC,
0:01:41 > 0:01:44few more often than the great Paul Tortelier.
0:01:47 > 0:01:50Paul Tortelier simply oozed Gallic charm.
0:01:50 > 0:01:51Just listen to the way he
0:01:51 > 0:01:54captures the spirit of this little piece by Weber.
0:04:59 > 0:05:03More than 60 years later, the 17-year-old Sheku Kanneh-Mason
0:05:03 > 0:05:07won the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition.
0:05:07 > 0:05:09Sheku's definitely one for the future.
0:05:09 > 0:05:12And here he is, accompanied by his sister, Isata.
0:07:23 > 0:07:26SHE SINGS ALONG
0:08:04 > 0:08:07When I was around 11, my father suddenly announced
0:08:07 > 0:08:11one morning that there was something that evening on the radio that,
0:08:11 > 0:08:15as a budding young cellist, I should definitely hear.
0:08:15 > 0:08:18It turned out to be a performance from the BBC Proms
0:08:18 > 0:08:20by a young girl called Jacqueline du Pre.
0:08:20 > 0:08:25And I've never forgotten the intensity of that sound.
0:08:25 > 0:08:26Jackie was just 17,
0:08:26 > 0:08:29and the same year, the BBC invited her into the studio
0:08:29 > 0:08:33to record a programme of short pieces with her mother at the piano.
0:12:23 > 0:12:25APPLAUSE
0:12:25 > 0:12:29In 1968, just four years before she was cruelly afflicted
0:12:29 > 0:12:33by multiple sclerosis, BBC cameras were on hand to record
0:12:33 > 0:12:37Jacqueline du Pre performing in extraordinary circumstances.
0:12:37 > 0:12:41The previous week, the Soviets had invaded Czechoslovakia, and Jackie,
0:12:41 > 0:12:44together with her future husband, Daniel Barenboim,
0:12:44 > 0:12:47announced that they would perform the Cello Concerto
0:12:47 > 0:12:51by Czechoslovakia's most famous composer, Antonin Dvorak.
0:12:51 > 0:12:55We join Jackie at the end of the final movement.
0:16:38 > 0:16:41APPLAUSE
0:16:54 > 0:16:55Until the 20th century,
0:16:55 > 0:16:58solo cellists were very few and far between.
0:16:58 > 0:17:02The musician who changed all of that was Pablo Casals.
0:17:08 > 0:17:12Casals transformed the way the cello was played.
0:17:14 > 0:17:17Back in the 19th century, young cellists were taught
0:17:17 > 0:17:19to practise with a book under their arm, a bit like this,
0:17:19 > 0:17:22under their left arm. Of course, incredibly awkward
0:17:22 > 0:17:24and incredibly stiff.
0:17:24 > 0:17:26Now, Casals refused to do this and by doing so
0:17:26 > 0:17:29actually revolutionised cello technique
0:17:29 > 0:17:34making the whole process of playing the cello natural and more fluent.
0:17:35 > 0:17:39There's one piece of film which demonstrates this fluency perfectly.
0:17:39 > 0:17:42It's one of his legendary performances
0:17:42 > 0:17:46of a Bach Cello Suite broadcast as part of the BBC's Omnibus series.
0:17:46 > 0:17:49You can see how Casals' flowing technique allows the piece
0:17:49 > 0:17:52to build effortlessly as the music progresses.
0:18:55 > 0:18:58Following the example of Casals, the Bach Suites came to be
0:18:58 > 0:19:01regarded as the absolute peak of the cello repertoire.
0:19:01 > 0:19:05And the music you've just heard was actually the very first piece
0:19:05 > 0:19:08that our next classic cellist learnt to play.
0:19:08 > 0:19:13If you listen to it carefully, it's a very simple song.
0:19:13 > 0:19:15# Doo-do-doo-do-doo-do-do. #
0:19:15 > 0:19:19And it doesn't require a tremendous amount of technique.
0:19:19 > 0:19:23But it's actually, you cross strings and you use one finger.
0:19:23 > 0:19:27And I had a teacher, which was my father, who said, you know,
0:19:27 > 0:19:32you could learn this in a day, which you can, for first two bars
0:19:32 > 0:19:36and then, the next day you add another finger
0:19:36 > 0:19:38and then it's the same pattern.
0:19:38 > 0:19:42So, in fact, a lot of music, all of music,
0:19:42 > 0:19:48and a lot of Bach is all about pattern recognition.
0:19:48 > 0:19:53You know, when you see a pattern, when is it the same?
0:19:53 > 0:19:56When is it different and how different is it?
0:19:57 > 0:20:00Here's Yo Yo at the halfway point of his marathon recital
0:20:00 > 0:20:05of all six Bach Suites back-to-back at the BBC Proms in 2015.
0:23:05 > 0:23:06APPLAUSE
0:23:13 > 0:23:16I think perhaps sometimes people don't realise what an incredible
0:23:16 > 0:23:18range of pitch the cello's got.
0:23:18 > 0:23:21Right from its bottom open C string...
0:23:21 > 0:23:23HE PLAYS C STRING
0:23:23 > 0:23:27Beautiful, sonorous sound that on a nice cello like this
0:23:27 > 0:23:29will just go on ringing...
0:23:29 > 0:23:31right up to the top.
0:23:31 > 0:23:33HE PLAYS A HARMONIC
0:23:33 > 0:23:35Like that. It just floats away.
0:23:35 > 0:23:38In fact, the cello's range of pitch
0:23:38 > 0:23:42is almost certainly the closest of any instrument to the human voice,
0:23:42 > 0:23:45which means that hearing a cello played beautifully
0:23:45 > 0:23:47is like hearing someone sing.
0:23:47 > 0:23:50Schumann's Cello Concerto was written when
0:23:50 > 0:23:54he was 40, shortly after he had arrived to take up the appointment
0:23:54 > 0:23:58of conductor to the orchestra in Dusseldorf in his beloved Rhineland.
0:23:58 > 0:24:02The concerto is in three movements which are played without a break.
0:24:02 > 0:24:04Tonight's soloist is the distinguished French cellist
0:24:04 > 0:24:08Andre Navarra and here he is now.
0:24:08 > 0:24:10Navarra was well known as the teacher but
0:24:10 > 0:24:12he was rarely filmed in concert.
0:24:12 > 0:24:15Here, he plays the Schumann Concerto with the Halle Orchestra
0:24:15 > 0:24:17conducted by Sir John Barbirolli.
0:24:17 > 0:24:21We join him with his own cadenza in the final movement.
0:27:56 > 0:27:58APPLAUSE
0:28:03 > 0:28:06One of my closest cellist friends is Steven Isserlis
0:28:06 > 0:28:09who has an extraordinarily varied repertoire.
0:28:09 > 0:28:13From Vaughan Williams at the Proms,
0:28:13 > 0:28:16to Sir John Taverner's The Protecting Veil,
0:28:16 > 0:28:19and to exquisite chamber music.
0:28:19 > 0:28:24I've known Steven for many years - he even came to my wedding.
0:28:24 > 0:28:27He has an incredibly individual style of playing and I think
0:28:27 > 0:28:30he's had a very individual approach to his career.
0:28:32 > 0:28:34Steven's an expert in Beethoven.
0:28:34 > 0:28:37Watch out for his skilful interplay with pianist Peter Evans
0:28:37 > 0:28:40in the opening movement of the Fourth Sonata.
0:31:32 > 0:31:35One of the most memorable experiences of my life
0:31:35 > 0:31:37was when I first heard the great Russian cellist
0:31:37 > 0:31:40Mstislav Rostropovich perform live in concert.
0:31:46 > 0:31:48I just couldn't understand some of the things
0:31:48 > 0:31:49that he did on the cello.
0:31:49 > 0:31:51And years later,
0:31:51 > 0:31:54I got an opportunity to interview him for a national UK
0:31:54 > 0:31:58newspaper and one of the questions I asked was, "You know, I would
0:31:58 > 0:32:01"watch you and couldn't understand some of the things you were doing.
0:32:01 > 0:32:05"How did you do them?" And he said, "I couldn't understand either."
0:32:08 > 0:32:12Without Rostropovich, much of the more recent music for cello
0:32:12 > 0:32:14simply wouldn't exist.
0:32:15 > 0:32:20Many composers wrote pieces for him and in 1960 Shostakovich arrived
0:32:20 > 0:32:24in London to hear the cello Concerto he'd written for his friend.
0:32:24 > 0:32:27In this rare archive we can see
0:32:27 > 0:32:31Rostropovich's amazing technique as the rehearsals get underway.
0:33:22 > 0:33:25Rostropovitch was all about commitment and concentration
0:33:25 > 0:33:27even when he wasn't playing.
0:33:45 > 0:33:48A year later, Rostropovitch was invited by the BBC to perform
0:33:48 > 0:33:51to perform the complete concerto in the studio.
0:33:51 > 0:33:55Sir Charles Groves conducted the London Symphony Orchestra.
0:33:55 > 0:33:58Here to play the Cello Concerto by Shostakovich,
0:33:58 > 0:34:00is Mstislav Rostropovitch.
0:34:00 > 0:34:01APPLAUSE
0:36:21 > 0:36:24Rostropovich had rarely been seen on British television
0:36:24 > 0:36:27and this performance was a revelation, inspiring
0:36:27 > 0:36:30a whole generation of which is cellists, myself included.
0:36:41 > 0:36:42APPLAUSE
0:36:59 > 0:37:03We move back to the 1920s for another of my key influences,
0:37:03 > 0:37:07Beatrice Harrison - the most renowned British cellist of her day.
0:37:07 > 0:37:10Her playing was admired by both Elgar and Delius
0:37:10 > 0:37:12and I love her recordings.
0:37:12 > 0:37:15Strangely enough, the style of Beatrice Harrison's playing
0:37:15 > 0:37:19probably influenced me nearly as much as Rostropovitch.
0:37:19 > 0:37:21There was a kind of freedom about her playing that seemed to be
0:37:21 > 0:37:25no limits to what she could do on the cello and she would kind
0:37:25 > 0:37:28of fly into flights of fantasy.
0:37:28 > 0:37:30It was just captivating.
0:37:33 > 0:37:37Harrison became one of the first stars of BBC radio
0:37:37 > 0:37:40after an extraordinary moment in broadcasting history.
0:37:40 > 0:37:45Beatrice would practice cello in her garden and one day, to her great
0:37:45 > 0:37:49surprise, a nightingale started to sing along with her cello.
0:37:49 > 0:37:51NIGHTINGALE TWEETS
0:38:05 > 0:38:10So on 19 May 1924, a team of BBC engineers was dispatched
0:38:10 > 0:38:12to Surry to try and capture the magic of
0:38:12 > 0:38:14the cello and the nightingale
0:38:14 > 0:38:17together on their very primitive equipment.
0:38:17 > 0:38:21The nightingale was decidedly bashful that night but it
0:38:21 > 0:38:25finally started to sing moments before they had to go home.
0:38:28 > 0:38:32It was the first of a series of garden broadcasts and records which
0:38:32 > 0:38:36made Beatrice Harrison one of the most famous cellists in the world.
0:38:40 > 0:38:41NIGHTINGALE TWEETS THROUGHOUT
0:39:36 > 0:39:38- BEATRICE:- And then he left.
0:39:47 > 0:39:50One of the things that will definitely emerge from this
0:39:50 > 0:39:53programme is the many different styles in which you can play the cello.
0:39:53 > 0:39:57For example, you might get a player who doesn't like to do very
0:39:57 > 0:39:59much vibrato and it will sort of sound like this.
0:39:59 > 0:40:01HE PLAYS SMOOTHLY
0:40:04 > 0:40:07Cold, and then you warm the sound up with...
0:40:07 > 0:40:09HE PLAYS A WARMER TONE
0:40:13 > 0:40:16And immediately, the sound rings out and of course,
0:40:16 > 0:40:19you can play the cello like a guitar.
0:40:19 > 0:40:23You can pluck the strings and there's lots of effects
0:40:23 > 0:40:25on a cello like harmonics...
0:40:25 > 0:40:26HE PLAYS A HARMONIC
0:40:26 > 0:40:28It can be a very eerie instrument.
0:40:34 > 0:40:39At the 2016 Proms, the Argentinian cellist Sol Gabetta created
0:40:39 > 0:40:42one of the most memorable moments of the season by playing an
0:40:42 > 0:40:46extraordinary piece exploiting many of these techniques and more.
0:42:55 > 0:42:57SOPRANO SINGS
0:44:46 > 0:44:48APPLAUSE
0:44:48 > 0:44:52In comparison with the piano and the violin at the start of
0:44:52 > 0:44:56the 20th century little music was composed specifically for the cello.
0:44:56 > 0:44:59So the Russian born American cellist Gregor Piatigorsky,
0:44:59 > 0:45:03a 6' 4" giant of a man, commissioned one of the best-known
0:45:03 > 0:45:07composers of the day, Sir William Walton, to write a Concerto for him.
0:45:07 > 0:45:11Queen Elizabeth, the Queen Mother was at the Royal Festival Hall
0:45:11 > 0:45:14to hear its European premiere with the BBC Symphony Orchestra
0:45:14 > 0:45:17conducted by Sir Malcolm Sargent.
0:47:37 > 0:47:38APPLAUSE
0:47:38 > 0:47:41And here come Mischa Maisky and Dmitry Sitkovetsky to perform
0:47:41 > 0:47:44one of the most glorious works in the Romantic orchestral repertoire.
0:47:46 > 0:47:49Mischa is actually the only cellist who can say that
0:47:49 > 0:47:51he studied with both Rostropovitch and Piatigorsky.
0:47:51 > 0:47:54But that's not what makes him special.
0:47:54 > 0:47:58He has an incredibly individual style of playing as you can
0:47:58 > 0:48:02hear in this extract from the Brahms Concerto For Violin And Cello.
0:50:30 > 0:50:33Before leaving the Brahms Double Concerto,
0:50:33 > 0:50:35here's another beautiful performance,
0:50:35 > 0:50:37this time featuring Leonard Rose,
0:50:37 > 0:50:40the most influential American cellist and teacher of his time.
0:50:40 > 0:50:43He's playing with his friend the violinist and Isaac Stern
0:50:43 > 0:50:47and we join them towards the end of the slow movement.
0:51:45 > 0:51:48Our next classic cellist is Maurice Gendron.
0:51:48 > 0:51:51He was perhaps less of a showman than some of the others.
0:51:51 > 0:51:53Gendron had a style that's perhaps
0:51:53 > 0:51:56a little bit different to anything we've heard so far.
0:51:56 > 0:51:58It was a very clean way of playing,
0:51:58 > 0:52:02very pure and always a beautiful sound as you'll hear in this
0:52:02 > 0:52:05performance of the last movement of Haydn's Concerto In D.
0:54:54 > 0:54:56APPLAUSE
0:54:59 > 0:55:03I hope you've enjoyed this programme of classic cellists at the BBC,
0:55:03 > 0:55:06a celebration of this most personal instrument
0:55:06 > 0:55:09played by some of its very greatest practitioners.
0:55:09 > 0:55:13And they don't come any greater than Rostropovich with his great
0:55:13 > 0:55:16collaborator Benjamin Britten playing the finale
0:55:16 > 0:55:19of Tchaikovsky's Variations On A Rococo Theme.
0:57:16 > 0:57:18APPLAUSE