0:00:28 > 0:00:30Music and love -
0:00:30 > 0:00:33two elements in the human experience that probably make us
0:00:33 > 0:00:35feel most alive.
0:00:35 > 0:00:38Tonight at the Proms, we have two pieces by Rachmaninoff
0:00:38 > 0:00:43and Nielsen that express the fullness of the human experience
0:00:43 > 0:00:46in tumultuous fashion, with power and conviction.
0:00:47 > 0:00:51Welcome to the first of BBC Four's Friday nights at the Proms,
0:00:51 > 0:00:52an evening when we'll be able
0:00:52 > 0:00:54to enjoy some popular classical favourites.
0:00:54 > 0:00:58Later, we'll be hearing a work which dramatically sweeps us
0:00:58 > 0:01:01into the natural world, Neilsen's Fourth Symphony.
0:01:01 > 0:01:05But before that, we have Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto,
0:01:05 > 0:01:11a piece that many associate profoundly with romantic love and desire...
0:01:12 > 0:01:17..and there is the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, settling now on stage,
0:01:17 > 0:01:18piano at the ready.
0:01:21 > 0:01:26Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto is regularly cited as the world's favourite,
0:01:26 > 0:01:30and its broad, sweeping melodies and rich, orchestral score
0:01:30 > 0:01:32make it undeniably seductive.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38To play the Rachmaninoff is a soloist who's making his Proms debut,
0:01:38 > 0:01:40and this really is an exciting one.
0:01:40 > 0:01:44The Japanese pianist, Nobuyuki Tsujii, is truly remarkable.
0:01:44 > 0:01:48He came to international prominence when he won the prestigious
0:01:48 > 0:01:52Van Cliburn competition in America in 2009 at the age of 20.
0:01:52 > 0:01:56Even more remarkable, he has reached superstar status
0:01:56 > 0:02:00as a classical pianist, despite being blind from birth.
0:02:00 > 0:02:02It is an extraordinary story.
0:02:02 > 0:02:07And we went to meet him when he was in rehearsal with the BBC Philharmonic in Salford.
0:02:17 > 0:02:20My name is Nobuyuki Tsujii, I am a pianist.
0:02:31 > 0:02:33HE PLAYS
0:02:46 > 0:02:49- TRANSLATION:- I do think that people who do play music,
0:02:49 > 0:02:54they are all doing so because they all feel something special that they want to convey.
0:03:00 > 0:03:08My parents have told me stories about me moving very rhythmically to music at eight months,
0:03:08 > 0:03:13or playing the piano at the age of two and being able to recognise
0:03:13 > 0:03:17different performers playing the same piece.
0:03:18 > 0:03:24Although I don't like to boast about myself, maybe I was born with a certain amount of talent,
0:03:24 > 0:03:31and that, combined with a lot of practice and effort, makes me the pianist that I am.
0:03:31 > 0:03:35And the winner is...Nobuyuki Tsujii.
0:03:35 > 0:03:37APPLAUSE
0:03:37 > 0:03:45I entered as a challenge for myself so I couldn't quite believe that I was in the final.
0:03:45 > 0:03:50And, of course, to have won it was an incredible experience.
0:03:54 > 0:04:01There are countless moments where I cannot believe I am doing what I'm doing.
0:04:01 > 0:04:04Winning the Van Cliburn, playing at Carnegie Hall,
0:04:04 > 0:04:06playing the BBC Proms,
0:04:06 > 0:04:09all of these things I never thought I would actually achieve,
0:04:09 > 0:04:13so I am still incredulous at most things that I'm doing.
0:04:18 > 0:04:20APPLAUSE
0:04:20 > 0:04:24I played with BBC Philharmonic for the first time in December 2010,
0:04:24 > 0:04:28which was followed by a tour of Japan in March 2011,
0:04:28 > 0:04:33but this tour had to be terminated halfway through because of the earthquake.
0:04:34 > 0:04:37We revisited Japan in April this year.
0:04:45 > 0:04:48I'm very glad that they seem to enjoy playing with me
0:04:48 > 0:04:53and I feel very privileged to have so many opportunities to play with the BBC Philharmonic.
0:04:58 > 0:05:06Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto Number Two - it's a very memorable piece for me, which I enjoy playing.
0:05:06 > 0:05:09It's one of my favourite piano concertos.
0:05:09 > 0:05:15I do focus and I guess I do get lost in the music, as the audience do.
0:05:17 > 0:05:24I think it's important to sense that I have moved them and they have enjoyed my music.
0:05:26 > 0:05:31It makes me very happy to play in front of such a big audience.
0:05:31 > 0:05:38I do play very often in front of maybe 2,000, 3,000 capacity halls in Japan,
0:05:38 > 0:05:44but it's very rare to play in front of such a large number of people,
0:05:44 > 0:05:48as in Royal Albert Hall and it's an honour to play in front of them.
0:05:48 > 0:05:54So I do hope that they will enjoy my performance and I'm looking forward to it very much myself.
0:05:59 > 0:06:04You know, when we recorded that interview just three days before this Prom,
0:06:04 > 0:06:09it was the first time conductor and soloist had met, and when they were playing together,
0:06:09 > 0:06:14Nobuyuki follows the conductor's breathing to make sure they are in sync.
0:06:14 > 0:06:17APPLAUSE
0:06:18 > 0:06:21What a prospect for this evening, then,
0:06:21 > 0:06:26Japanese pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii coming on stage now
0:06:26 > 0:06:30with the chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena,
0:06:30 > 0:06:35to perform the Second Piano Concerto of Sergei Rachmaninoff.
0:39:32 > 0:39:35APPLAUSE
0:39:48 > 0:39:52Overwhelming applause for the remarkable Japanese pianist
0:39:52 > 0:39:59Nobuyuki Tsujii, who played the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto Number Two
0:39:59 > 0:40:01with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra
0:40:01 > 0:40:04and their Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena.
0:40:30 > 0:40:34There is such great affection between this orchestra and Nobuyuki,
0:40:34 > 0:40:37and it's been forged out of intense experience.
0:40:41 > 0:40:45It was during the tour of Japan in 2011 that their visit was abandoned
0:40:45 > 0:40:49because of the earthquake and tsunami, and in April this year
0:40:49 > 0:40:55they all returned to Japan as a gesture of healing using the power of music.
0:40:57 > 0:41:01APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:41:08 > 0:41:14The sound of the emotion here, having played this remarkably emotion-brimming concerto...
0:41:16 > 0:41:21..the audience here giving a welcome and a rapturous round of applause
0:41:21 > 0:41:26for a truly amazing performance...
0:41:28 > 0:41:30..and an amazing player.
0:41:51 > 0:41:57And here he comes again accompanied by the Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic.
0:42:02 > 0:42:04APPLAUSE AND CHEERING
0:46:11 > 0:46:13APPLAUSE
0:46:18 > 0:46:22Nobuyuki Tsujii, the Japanese pianist, playing his encore there -
0:46:22 > 0:46:25the beautiful showpiece La Campanella by Liszt.
0:46:25 > 0:46:27And what a debut at the Proms. RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE
0:46:27 > 0:46:28Just listen to it.
0:46:45 > 0:46:48La Campanella is one of the set of studies Liszt wrote
0:46:48 > 0:46:52that test the technical and musical limits of piano players.
0:46:52 > 0:46:56Those virtuosic leaps back and forth across the keyboard
0:46:56 > 0:46:58were something of a speciality of Liszt's.
0:46:58 > 0:47:01It is considered one of the most difficult pieces
0:47:01 > 0:47:05ever written for the piano and do you know what? Not for Nobuyuki.
0:47:05 > 0:47:08He says he honestly doesn't find them hard at all.
0:47:08 > 0:47:13Because, he says, the piano, for him, is just an extension of his body.
0:47:17 > 0:47:20CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
0:48:08 > 0:48:11Well, after that excitement and brimming emotion, we have
0:48:11 > 0:48:13a fabulous and life-enhancing symphony.
0:48:13 > 0:48:18In fact, that is both the subject matter and the effect of the music.
0:48:18 > 0:48:22Carl Nielsen, the Danish composer, wanted to write a symphony
0:48:22 > 0:48:26that somehow encompassed the craving for life that exists in nature.
0:48:26 > 0:48:30Neilsen's Fourth Symphony is called the Inextinguishable.
0:48:30 > 0:48:33It's a symphony in four movements, but played without a break,
0:48:33 > 0:48:38and it sweeps us forward in a seemingly nonstop flow of musical ideas.
0:48:38 > 0:48:42Carl Neilsen wrote that he wanted to express the life force
0:48:42 > 0:48:47or inextinguishable forces that exist in the natural world.
0:48:47 > 0:48:50The piece was written during the First World War,
0:48:50 > 0:48:54and there is a brutal acknowledgement in the last movement
0:48:54 > 0:48:57of the terrible conflict that was playing out over Europe.
0:48:57 > 0:49:00Two sets of timpani thrash wildly against each other
0:49:00 > 0:49:04and against the orchestra's attempts at normality.
0:49:04 > 0:49:07It's a tremendously exciting piece to listen to
0:49:07 > 0:49:12and the members of the BBC Philharmonic actually love playing it.
0:49:12 > 0:49:14It is great writing for the viola, you know,
0:49:14 > 0:49:18there's lots of rich and luscious writing, it's great to play.
0:49:18 > 0:49:19This one demands
0:49:19 > 0:49:21an enormous amount of stamina.
0:49:21 > 0:49:22There is an incredible amount
0:49:22 > 0:49:23of very, very loud playing,
0:49:23 > 0:49:26and as you progress through the symphony, you can
0:49:26 > 0:49:28feel the lactic acid build up in your right arm.
0:49:28 > 0:49:30It is quite a feat of endurance, even though
0:49:30 > 0:49:33it is not that long a symphony by modern terms.
0:49:33 > 0:49:35From the...a baby's first breath
0:49:35 > 0:49:38to their dying gasp on the deathbed,
0:49:38 > 0:49:39life is breath,
0:49:39 > 0:49:43and the woodwind represents, I think, for him,
0:49:43 > 0:49:47not just in this piece but throughout his writing,
0:49:47 > 0:49:48the sigh and the breath of life.
0:49:48 > 0:49:53That's what we can offer...the orchestral texture, in this sense,
0:49:53 > 0:49:55and I think that is why he gives a prominence to this section
0:49:55 > 0:49:57in this symphony.
0:49:57 > 0:50:00In this fourth symphony, the last movement, Neilsen, it's...
0:50:00 > 0:50:01he writes a very famous part.
0:50:01 > 0:50:04It is where, almost I suppose, we're engaged
0:50:04 > 0:50:05in a sort of battle, and it's a face-off.
0:50:05 > 0:50:08Musically, it's very clever how he does it.
0:50:08 > 0:50:09I'll play one theme or motif
0:50:09 > 0:50:13and the other player will play the same theme or motif,
0:50:13 > 0:50:18but slightly displaced rhythmically, so it's quite unnerving, quite unsettling,
0:50:18 > 0:50:21so it is a real battle, it's a real angst - we're, in musical terms,
0:50:21 > 0:50:24fighting each other all the way through it.
0:50:24 > 0:50:27It was written in 1916, right in the middle of the first World War
0:50:27 > 0:50:31and Nielsen was watching the world tear itself apart.
0:50:31 > 0:50:32He had, on the one hand,
0:50:32 > 0:50:34the fact that there was this dreadful fear
0:50:34 > 0:50:37that the world was going to end, and on the other hand,
0:50:37 > 0:50:42the inextinguishable part of the symphony, which is that life, in the end, does win.
0:50:42 > 0:50:47And so we are trying to present these conflicting emotions to the public,
0:50:47 > 0:50:49so you have terrifying battle scenes
0:50:49 > 0:50:54as evidenced by the two timpani, and extraordinarily beautiful melodies,
0:50:54 > 0:50:56which we're privileged enough to play.
0:50:56 > 0:50:58It is the inextinguishable force of life,
0:50:58 > 0:51:00so whether it's having been through
0:51:00 > 0:51:06the harsh, cold Scandinavian winters and then the rebirth of nature and life in the spring,
0:51:06 > 0:51:10or the atrocities and horrors of the First World War,
0:51:10 > 0:51:14but still, after that, there was a rebirth of life.
0:51:16 > 0:51:19APPLAUSE
0:51:19 > 0:51:25So here now is Juanjo Mena, Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra,
0:51:25 > 0:51:28with their leader, Yuri Torchinsky,
0:51:28 > 0:51:34in Symphony Number Four by Carl Neilsen, the Inextinguishable.
1:25:20 > 1:25:23APPLAUSE
1:25:34 > 1:25:37The Symphony Number Four by Carl Neilsen.
1:25:37 > 1:25:44"If the whole world was destroyed, nature would, once again, begin to beget new life.
1:25:44 > 1:25:49"These inextinguishable forces are what I have tried to represent."
1:25:49 > 1:25:51The words of the composer himself.
1:25:53 > 1:25:58The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with their Chief Conductor, Juanjo Mena,
1:25:58 > 1:26:01at the end of that completely absorbing symphony.
1:26:03 > 1:26:09It's music that grips you with its energy, and that battle at the end there with the two sets of timpani,
1:26:09 > 1:26:10awe-inspiring.
1:26:12 > 1:26:16It's a piece that expresses so much about what it means to be a human being -
1:26:16 > 1:26:23struggle and resolution, convention and freedom and unity with the world around us.
1:26:54 > 1:27:00Conductor Juanjo Mena is returning to the Proms with the BBC Philharmonic in a couple of weeks
1:27:00 > 1:27:05to conduct a concert that includes a performance of Ravel's Bolero
1:27:05 > 1:27:09with a Spanish dance troupe. Do join me for that.
1:27:09 > 1:27:14It's on Friday 2nd August here on BBC Four,
1:27:14 > 1:27:17and all the Proms can be heard live, of course, on BBC Radio 3.
1:27:30 > 1:27:35That brings to an end the first Friday night at the Proms here on BBC Four.
1:27:35 > 1:27:38At this time next week, Clemency Burton-Hill will be here
1:27:38 > 1:27:42to welcome the National Youth Orchestra of the USA,
1:27:42 > 1:27:44conducted by Valery Gergiev.
1:27:44 > 1:27:50This coming Sunday, Tom Service will start his exploration of 20th-century classics,
1:27:50 > 1:27:53with Stravinsky's revolutionary Rite of Spring.
1:27:53 > 1:27:56That's on Sunday at 7.30,
1:27:56 > 1:28:02but for now, from the Royal Albert Hall, good night.
1:28:24 > 1:28:26Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd