Proms on Four: Friday Night at the Proms - BBC Philharmonic Orchestra BBC Proms

Tonight's Friday Night at the Proms is all about movement.

The impulse to dance as expressed in music.

On stage already is the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra,

waiting for their chief conductor, Juanjo Mena, to come to the podium.

There's excitement in the Royal Albert Hall,

because in the second half,

the Antonio Marquez Dance Company from Spain

will join the orchestra on stage to perform Ravel's famous Bolero

and de Falla's Three-Cornered Hat.

But before that, we shall be treated to Beethoven's 7th Symphony.

A piece described by Wagner as, "The apotheosis of the dance."

Beethoven's 7th Symphony was one of the composer's own favourite works.

He loved both its energy and its rhythmic drive.

And it was perhaps those two elements that combined

to give the feeling of dance movement that Wagner alluded to.

The symphony starts with a ground and balanced opening, and soon

flings itself into an energetic and unpredictable first movement.

There are these obsessive rhythms and primal musical elements,

from which Beethoven builds the four movements of this epic symphony.

It is fabulous music.

APPLAUSE

Here now is the chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic, Juanjo Mena,

coming on stage to conduct Beethoven's 7th Symphony.

MUSIC: "Symphony No. 7 - Poco Sostenuto Vivace" by Beethoven

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: "Symphony No. 7 - Allegretto" by Beethoven

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: "Symphony No. 7 - Presto Assai Meno Presto" by Beethoven

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: "Symphony No. 7 - Allegro Con Brio" by Beethoven

APPLAUSE

A wild bacchanal to end Beethoven's 7th Symphony.

How appropriate that it was actually the very first use

of orchestral music of the triple forte - fff.

Very, very loud indeed.

The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra with the conductor Juanjo Mena.

This is only the third season

that Juanjo Mena has been with the orchestra,

but they're clearly having a ball together.

Next in this Prom, the BBC Philharmonic will be joined

by the Antonio Marquez Dance Company from Madrid

for de Falla's ballet The Three-Cornered Hat

and Ravel's Bolero.

Tonight is all about that urge to dance,

so we decided to find out what it is about music

that can make us want to move our bodies.

Is it just the rhythm or are there other factors?

Everyone can dance. You can two-step, you can feel the music.

It's just how it is. It's life.

Movement is universal, we all know what it says, what it feels like.

It's just a thing that all humans share.

I think, for me, dancing is the most natural instinctive way of being

and often it allows me to express things better than I could in words.

At the most basic level, most music has a, kind of, regular pulse.

A beat.

And there is this really, it seems to me,

very fundamental, innate urge to entrain with the beat.

You could say that our urge to dance is motivated by that.

Inside your body, you have your heartbeat,

which has always got a constant beat, on and on and on.

And your walking has a rhythm, so it's like

one, two, one, two, one, two.

Even if you miss a step, you still have that offbeat.

So you continually have music within your day-to-day life.

From a psychological and neuroscientific perspective,

dance and music are really interesting.

They're a domain in which humans are developing

really fine motor control,

so to use our fingers and our bodies extremely well.

And that obviously has great rewards for any organism,

to be able to manipulate your environment is great.

And music is a way of developing those skills, as is dance.

For me, it's the emotional connection I have with it.

So I could be walking down the street listening to music,

and I'll just start moving without even realising,

cos it just has this sort of connection with me.

It takes hold of me, in a sense.

When he was hitting the ground and I saw his excitement from him

banging the music, I'm just like, "Wow, he's really into it.

"I'm really going to get into it as well."

So it's kind of like feeding off the energy.

It feels like I'm in a bubble,

but everything is flying towards me, and it's up to me how I react.

So if I have a piece of music that's coming to me, I can grab it,

throw it up, catch it and be able to just move along with it.

If I have some strings...

strings tend to float, so you kind of float with the strings.

You can bring them in. It's kind of just playing in your bubble.

There's no right, there's no wrong.

It's how you want and what you want.

When I'm really into a piece of music,

when the music has really taken over me

and I'm in that world where no-one else exists

and I'm just feeling all those things...

Obviously, my mind isn't blank,

but you could take me off-stage or take the music away after

however long it is, and I wouldn't be able to tell you what I was thinking.

It's weird. I don't know what happened for those minutes.

-NICOLA:

-Its phrases, its melodies, its rhythms.

Its textures, the tensions, the relaxations in the music.

All of those are being expressed by our bodies

when we listen to music and move to it.

I hope that's got you in the mood for dancing.

So next we're going to hear and see

The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel de Falla,

a comedy ballet created for Sergei Diaghilev

and his Ballets Russes in 1919.

It uses folk song music from southern Spain,

and there's a female soloist

who sings in a rather mournful flamenco style.

The story is a kind of simple pantomime about a magistrate trying

to seduce a miller's wife

and eventually getting his comeuppance.

So to join the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra

on stage at the Proms,

here comes the Spanish mezzo-soprano Clara Mouriz

and conductor Juanjo Mena.

APPLAUSE

And they'll be joined shortly by members

of the Antonio Marquez Dance Company.

MUSIC: "The Three-Cornered Hat" by Manuel de Falla

SHE SINGS IN SPANISH

SHE SINGS IN SPANISH

QUIET AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

SHE SINGS IN SPANISH

APPLAUSE

APPLAUSE

LOUD APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

WOMAN SINGS OFF-STAGE

SINGING CONTINUES

QUIET AUDIENCE LAUGHTER

HE SNEEZES

LAUGHTER

HE EXCLAIMS

HE EXCLAIMS

HE EXCLAIMS

LOUD APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

The castanets brought to an end there the remarkable performance

of The Three-Cornered Hat by Manuel de Falla.

The Antonio Marquez Company dancing here at the Proms

with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Juanjo Mena conducting.

What a conjunction of Spanish performers.

And the magistrate here - Jairo Rodriguez.

Elena Mino playing the miller's wife.

And here comes the miller, Antonio Marquez, who set up

this remarkable dance company back in 1995.

And the mezzo-soprano, Clara Mouriz, who was embedded

in the orchestra, making her Proms debut, taking her bow.

After the brilliance,

comedy and colour of that performance,

the Antonio Marquez Company will be returning for one

of the iconic pieces of the 20th century, Ravel's Bolero.

It was originally composed as a ballet

but has generated its own life in the concert hall.

Bolero starts with a famously hypnotic rhythm on the side drum,

a rhythm which remains constant throughout which is joined

by a mesmerising melody snaking its way

through the different instruments until the whole orchestra

is involved in a cataclysmic conclusion.

A simple idea but a work of genius,

which has become Ravel's most famous musical composition.

Let's go back to the Antonio Marquez Dance Company

with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and Juanjo Mena for Ravel's Bolero.

APPLAUSE

MUSIC: "Bolero" by Maurice Ravel

WILD APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

You'll have heard Bolero before, but I'm sure you've never seen it

quite like this before.

The Antonio Marquez Dance Company in Ravel's Bolero

with the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra.

And it's exciting to see how youthful this company is

with the youngest just 19.

But there are no concessions to youth - Marquez has been performing

with total conviction and supreme bravura.

You feel they really do represent the future of Spanish dance.

AUDIENCE CLAP IN RHYTHM WITH MUSIC

You know, earlier,

I spoke to Cristina Gargot of the Antonio Marquez dancers,

and she spoke of her joy at performing here

at the Royal Albert Hall, particularly when thinking about

all the historical performances that have taken place on this stage.

The experience of dancing with the orchestra

so close behind her is incredibly exciting, she said.

Antonio Marquez, the director

and the principal dancer of this company.

Born in Seville, he trained at Spain's National Ballet School

before making a name for himself in traditional dance.

He absolutely embodies the fabulous fusion of traditional and new,

classical and folk that we saw tonight.

Vivid and dynamic.

That's it from the BBC Proms for tonight.

Next Friday Night at the Proms, two of the most famous classical pieces ever -

Beethoven's 5th Symphony and Johann Strauss's Blue Danube.

Over on BBC Two tomorrow evening at seven o'clock,

Katie Derham will be here with Proms Extra. And this coming Sunday,

Tom Service continues his exploration

of 20th Century Classics.

As ever, you can listen to the Proms live every night

of the summer on Radio 3.

But for now, from me, Samira Ahmed, good night.

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd