0:00:06 > 0:00:09The reason why I wanted to start up
0:00:09 > 0:00:13a period-instrument orchestra, 25 years ago,
0:00:13 > 0:00:17called the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique,
0:00:17 > 0:00:19was because, at the time,
0:00:19 > 0:00:22symphony orchestras were still playing Beethoven
0:00:22 > 0:00:27as though he was a much later 19th-century Romantic composer,
0:00:27 > 0:00:32rather than the firebrand that we all know that he really was.
0:00:33 > 0:00:37And that's the quality that we are trying to capture
0:00:37 > 0:00:41in our rehearsals leading up to the performance of this symphony.
0:00:42 > 0:00:47And by performing his music on instruments that he himself
0:00:47 > 0:00:49would have heard and recognised,
0:00:49 > 0:00:52paradoxically, you're getting back to something much more raw,
0:00:52 > 0:00:57and much more immediate and contemporary, than the very plush,
0:00:57 > 0:00:59well-rounded sounds of a modern orchestra.
0:01:01 > 0:01:04Also, it was a continuity.
0:01:04 > 0:01:07It was a wonderful way of carrying my other orchestra,
0:01:07 > 0:01:11the English Baroque Soloists, into the 19th century.
0:01:11 > 0:01:14And the challenges are immense, because these
0:01:14 > 0:01:20instruments of Beethoven's are hugely fragile and compromised.
0:01:20 > 0:01:26If you push them too hard, they splinter, they crack, they squawk.
0:01:26 > 0:01:29You're using gut strings, which have a habit of cracking,
0:01:29 > 0:01:32and splitting and breaking under pressure.
0:01:32 > 0:01:35You are using woodwind instruments that are much less
0:01:35 > 0:01:40technically rounded and smooth than their modern counterparts.
0:01:40 > 0:01:42And you are using brass instruments that can't play
0:01:42 > 0:01:46the whole chromatic scale without - particularly the horns -
0:01:46 > 0:01:48without all sorts of kind of manipulations
0:01:48 > 0:01:51of the left hand inside the bell.
0:01:51 > 0:01:54I mean, those are extraordinary difficult technical challenges
0:01:54 > 0:01:58and yet they are marvellously rewarding if you can overcome them,
0:01:58 > 0:02:01because the result is that you get
0:02:01 > 0:02:04a much more multilayered strata of sounds,
0:02:04 > 0:02:07not all kind of curdling and amalgamating,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09in the way that they do, or they tend to do,
0:02:09 > 0:02:12in a modern symphony orchestra.
0:02:12 > 0:02:14So we're going to show you some of the processes
0:02:14 > 0:02:18that we have been going through before arriving at a performance.
0:02:27 > 0:02:28OK, OK.
0:02:31 > 0:02:35OK, OK, OK. Now, Michael, tell us about your instrument.
0:02:35 > 0:02:38Here's the classical instrument and the modern instrument.
0:02:38 > 0:02:41It will be higher and sharper, so don't get irritated.
0:03:00 > 0:03:02The same - this is from the first movement.
0:03:16 > 0:03:18To me, that's much more vocal.
0:03:19 > 0:03:22The first is wonderfully smooth and euphonious,
0:03:22 > 0:03:25and homogene, homogeneous.
0:03:25 > 0:03:27The second, the historical instrument,
0:03:27 > 0:03:29has a much more personal quality to it.
0:03:29 > 0:03:32Which is very, very good for darker...
0:03:32 > 0:03:35- So you've got a greater colour range, essentially.- Yes.
0:03:35 > 0:03:39David, talk us about this instrument that you're playing.
0:03:39 > 0:03:43This is a copy of a Viennese contrabassoon of 1810.
0:03:43 > 0:03:46So it's basically very, very similar to that.
0:03:46 > 0:03:49The reeds are much, much bigger than the modern contrabassoon,
0:03:49 > 0:03:51much bigger than the ordinary bassoon.
0:03:51 > 0:03:54They're absolutely huge - take a lot of control.
0:03:54 > 0:03:57- Do you want me to play something? - Yes, please do.
0:03:57 > 0:04:01- Show us the range and the colours. - OK, the range.
0:04:16 > 0:04:17Have you had enough?
0:04:17 > 0:04:20LAUGHTER
0:04:20 > 0:04:22But the amazing thing is the clarity.
0:04:22 > 0:04:25I mean, you know, with a modern set-up, you wouldn't get that.
0:04:25 > 0:04:28I mean, I've struggled with modern bassoons, contrabassoons,
0:04:28 > 0:04:30to get that degree of definition.
0:04:30 > 0:04:31And you get it.
0:04:31 > 0:04:33How is it with the trumpet, Neil?
0:04:33 > 0:04:38I'll just demonstrate quickly that passage from the slow movement.
0:04:58 > 0:05:00It's like on the field of battle, isn't it?
0:05:00 > 0:05:01That's like a clarion call.
0:05:01 > 0:05:04If I were to play the same thing on the modern instrument
0:05:04 > 0:05:07at the same volume, that fits with the orchestra,
0:05:07 > 0:05:09it's not such an exciting sound.
0:05:21 > 0:05:24So to get that exciting sound on the modern trumpet,
0:05:24 > 0:05:25you've really got to give it one.
0:05:25 > 0:05:30HE PLAYS LOUDLY
0:05:36 > 0:05:38Which is goodnight to the rest of the orchestra!
0:05:38 > 0:05:42Yeah, it completely wipes the whole orchestra out.
0:06:00 > 0:06:02'But the wonderful thing of doing the symphony
0:06:02 > 0:06:04'with the Orchestre Revolutionnaire et Romantique is
0:06:04 > 0:06:08'that they all get excited by the music as much as I do.
0:06:08 > 0:06:10'There's nothing routine.
0:06:10 > 0:06:13'There's nothing kind of perfunctory about it.
0:06:13 > 0:06:15'It's very committed
0:06:15 > 0:06:19'and it's hugely exciting, therefore, to conduct this piece.'
0:06:29 > 0:06:30C'est beau.
0:06:33 > 0:06:35Yum...
0:06:38 > 0:06:40Good. That's lovely.
0:06:41 > 0:06:43It's the first symphony I ever played,
0:06:43 > 0:06:45with the Fife Youth Orchestra when I was 13,
0:06:45 > 0:06:47and I can't imagine how terrible it sounded
0:06:47 > 0:06:51but the effect it had on me as a kid was just mind-blowing.
0:06:51 > 0:06:55The Fifth Symphony is much more about all of us as individuals,
0:06:55 > 0:07:01and what contours, what terrible ups and downs our lives take.
0:07:01 > 0:07:05This music gives you the space to actually improvise every time
0:07:05 > 0:07:09and especially on these instruments that we play, you know,
0:07:09 > 0:07:11because you have to reconnect to the present,
0:07:11 > 0:07:14you have to reconnect to the state of the wood.
0:07:14 > 0:07:19It just gives you the space to just be wild and be who you are.
0:07:19 > 0:07:23And with this music, when I start to play it,
0:07:23 > 0:07:26I have to make it my life, basically.
0:07:26 > 0:07:30I have to talk about my life, and if I'm honest in my playing,
0:07:30 > 0:07:33the listener has something to connect to.
0:07:57 > 0:08:04How do we overcome the grisly overfamiliarity of the music?
0:08:04 > 0:08:07It's a bit like having an old Rembrandt painting or something,
0:08:07 > 0:08:09or a wonderful great work.
0:08:09 > 0:08:10You keep looking at it,
0:08:10 > 0:08:13and there is always something there for you to see.
0:08:13 > 0:08:18And I think this Beethoven Fifth Symphony is a classic...
0:08:18 > 0:08:21work of art that will never die.
0:08:21 > 0:08:24Wonderful though a Rembrandt is, or a Bernini statue,
0:08:24 > 0:08:27or a Caravaggio or whatever it is, it stays the same.
0:08:27 > 0:08:30You walk round it, you look at it from different angles,
0:08:30 > 0:08:32in different lights, but it's the same. You can't alter it.
0:08:32 > 0:08:34But we can.
0:08:34 > 0:08:38We have this ability as musicians to bring to life in the instant,
0:08:38 > 0:08:41in a specific timeframe, in a new context,
0:08:41 > 0:08:45music that looks dead and on the page is nothing,
0:08:45 > 0:08:50but becomes a living tissue, a series of tissues, and that is...
0:08:50 > 0:08:55That is a huge privilege and an enormous challenge that we have.
0:08:55 > 0:08:56And... You know...
0:08:56 > 0:08:59For me, this music of Beethoven
0:08:59 > 0:09:03is as urgent now as it's ever been in my lifetime,
0:09:03 > 0:09:06and probably even in his.
0:09:06 > 0:09:10It has an outreach, and an applicability, and a relevance,
0:09:10 > 0:09:13and an ability to transform life,
0:09:13 > 0:09:16if we really, really let rip.