:00:15. > :00:20.APPLAUSE Hello, and welcome to the Royal
:00:20. > :00:24.Albert Hall. I'm standing high up in the gallery down below the stage
:00:24. > :00:27.and arena are filling up, and there's a real buzz of expectation.
:00:27. > :00:30.Tonight at the BBC Proms, the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra
:00:30. > :00:34.are here with their British Principal Conductor Roger
:00:34. > :00:38.Norrington. There's just one work on the programme: Mahler's last
:00:38. > :00:41.completed symphony, the 9th, a piece forged from three personal
:00:41. > :00:44.hammer blows of fate - the death of Mahler's child, the loss of his job
:00:44. > :00:48.as director of the Vienna Opera and the discovery of the illness which
:00:48. > :00:51.would soon end his life. As so often, Mahler downloads his
:00:51. > :00:59.tortured state of mind directly into the music, but the 9th
:00:59. > :01:01.Symphony isn't overloaded with death and despair. Sure, it's full
:01:01. > :01:05.of neurotic bombast and bitter, ironic humour, but there's hope
:01:05. > :01:09.also, and at the end a kind of serene acceptance. Earlier today I
:01:09. > :01:12.spoke to Roger Norrington and asked him if he thought this symphony
:01:13. > :01:19.really was Mahler's life laid bare. I don't think he ever wrote a bar
:01:19. > :01:24.which wasn't felt by him and wasn't about him in some sort of way. I
:01:24. > :01:29.think that's absolutely right. People say the first four
:01:29. > :01:33.symphonies were programmatic and after that it was and tract music.
:01:34. > :01:37.He didn't write abstract music. He wrote film music, and he was the
:01:37. > :01:40.star. Mall Earl often uses musical quotes in his material and also in
:01:41. > :01:45.the 9th Symphony. What do you make of that? I think it's very
:01:45. > :01:52.important. There are wonderful quotation in the last movement and
:01:52. > :02:00.particularly one from Kintentotne Leader, but the one that has taken
:02:00. > :02:08.a century to find is in the 1st movement because five times in this
:02:08. > :02:15.movement he quote a Strauss Jr waltz from 1870. It was written for
:02:15. > :02:25.the Opening Ball in Vienna, and Mahler evidently connected it with
:02:25. > :02:25.
:02:25. > :02:30.his youth. He studied in the music, If einne building. He quotes it,
:02:30. > :02:33.and the name of the waltz is Enjoy Life. And of course, that's exactly
:02:33. > :02:37.what he couldn't do once he had been diagnosed with heart trouble,
:02:37. > :02:42.so it's very, very touching. This tune keeps coming back and spurring
:02:43. > :02:47.him on again, and a mixture of nostalgia and pure love. Of course,
:02:47. > :02:57.the movement is in four, so he's putting it in four-time, which is
:02:57. > :02:57.
:02:57. > :03:05.unusual, but there is this extraordinary - da, da, da, dum
:03:06. > :03:13.# Da, de # Ya da, da, da #
:03:13. > :03:14.That's all it is. It keeps coming back. There's little interval in
:03:15. > :03:17.there - # Farewell
:03:17. > :03:23.# Farewell # Which you hear over and over again
:03:23. > :03:27.in the movement. This is a symphony of farewell. Roger Norrington, who
:03:27. > :03:31.tonight conducts his last concert as conductor of the Stuttgart Radio
:03:31. > :03:34.Symphony Orchestra. Sadly, Mahler never lived to hear his 9th
:03:34. > :03:42.Symphony performed. He completed the orchestration in 1910 and died
:03:42. > :03:44.the following year just short of his 51st birthday, and it wasn't
:03:44. > :03:51.performed until 1912 when Bruno Walter, Mahler's assistant and
:03:51. > :03:54.protege, conducted it in Vienna. Now, if you want to know more about
:03:54. > :03:57.the symphony, you can access the programme online. Just go to
:03:57. > :04:01.bbc.co.uk, and there's loads of information about the composer, the
:04:01. > :04:06.music and the musicians, and also, if you want to follow the
:04:06. > :04:09.conductor's every beat, just press your red button to access
:04:09. > :04:14.MaestroCam with live commentary. If you have anything you want to share
:04:14. > :04:22.with us about The Proms, join us on Facebook. Hey, why don't we try to
:04:23. > :04:25.get Mahler trending on Twitter? So to conduct Mahler's great 9th
:04:25. > :04:35.Symphony, here's Sir Roger Norrington.
:04:35. > :04:35.
:04:35. > :20:24.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 4549 seconds
:20:24. > :20:30.It is terrifying and paralysing as the strands of sound disintegrate -
:20:30. > :20:34.the words of the great Mahlerian conductor Leonard Bernstein on
:20:34. > :20:36.Mahler's Symphony No 9 given in tonight's performance by the
:20:36. > :20:44.Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra, leader Natalie Chee, conductor, Sir
:20:44. > :20:51.Roger Norrington. I don't know about you, but for me the sound of
:20:51. > :20:54.this orchestra is a revelation in Mahler, minimal use of vibrato,
:20:54. > :21:04.incredibly bright woodwinds. The result is intensely bracingly
:21:04. > :21:06.
:21:06. > :21:11.coloured. And here comes Sir Roger Norrington once again, an historic
:21:11. > :21:21.night for him, his last night as Principal Conductor for this
:21:21. > :21:23.
:21:23. > :21:26.orchestra. Thank you very much, ladies and gentlemen. One doesn't
:21:26. > :21:30.usually do an encore after Mahler 9th.
:21:30. > :21:40.LAUGHTER But I just feel like doing one
:21:40. > :21:43.
:21:43. > :21:50.tonight. And I thought the very piece would
:21:51. > :21:56.be an elegy. It was written in 1909, exactly the same time that Mahler
:21:56. > :22:03.was writing the symphony you've just heard, and it was written by a
:22:03. > :22:08.great English composer almost exactly the same age as Mahler. Of
:22:08. > :22:12.course I mean Edward Elgar, so I think this is a fitting tribute to
:22:12. > :22:22.our Mahler year, and I hope you find it as moving as I do.
:22:22. > :22:22.
:22:22. > :27:42.Apology for the loss of subtitles for 4549 seconds
:27:42. > :27:44.Elgar's Elegy for Strings, Roger Norrington's own farewell gift with
:27:44. > :27:54.the Stuttgart Radio Symphony Orchestra as he steps down as their
:27:54. > :27:58.Principal Conductor. APPLAUSE
:27:58. > :28:02.So we say farewell to this wonderful guest orchestra from
:28:02. > :28:07.Germany. We'll be back at The Proms tomorrow night with the London
:28:07. > :28:12.Philharmonic Orchestra as we move east from Mahler's Vienna to
:28:12. > :28:19.Hungary and music from three giants of 20th century music, Kodaly,