0:00:30 > 0:00:33It's Friday Night At The Proms and tonight we're celebrating
0:00:33 > 0:00:37quite possibly the most musical city on the planet - Vienna,
0:00:37 > 0:00:41which for much of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries,
0:00:41 > 0:00:44was home to the world's leading composers.
0:00:44 > 0:00:46We'll be hearing from two of them tonight -
0:00:46 > 0:00:49music by Beethoven and Johann Strauss.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53Beethoven's frontier-smashing music stunned Vienna
0:00:53 > 0:00:56and it confirmed the city's status as a revolutionary hub.
0:00:56 > 0:01:00We'll be hearing his Coriolan Overture and fifth symphony tonight.
0:01:00 > 0:01:03Vienna, though, was also a conservative town
0:01:03 > 0:01:05and we start this evening with a piece
0:01:05 > 0:01:07written at the height of the Habsburg Empire.
0:01:07 > 0:01:12The composer, Johann Strauss Jr, wrote more than 500 waltzes,
0:01:12 > 0:01:14polkas, quadrilles and gallops
0:01:14 > 0:01:17for the cream of Viennese society,
0:01:17 > 0:01:20and we're going to hear the most famous of them tonight, his waltz,
0:01:20 > 0:01:23By The Beautiful Blue Danube.
0:01:23 > 0:01:25It's the kind of piece that serious music lovers
0:01:25 > 0:01:27aren't really meant to like.
0:01:27 > 0:01:29It's far too sweet and melodic,
0:01:29 > 0:01:33the musical equivalent of a large piece of sachertorte,
0:01:33 > 0:01:34or Viennese chocolate cake.
0:01:34 > 0:01:38But there is a good reason why this piece was such a hit.
0:01:38 > 0:01:42It opens with a slow introduction that almost teases you,
0:01:42 > 0:01:46and then unleashes a tune of such ear-catching, toe-tapping force
0:01:46 > 0:01:50that you are simply swept up in the swirl of the ballroom.
0:01:50 > 0:01:53It's heady, intoxicating stuff.
0:01:56 > 0:02:00The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is on stage already
0:02:00 > 0:02:03and here comes their leader, Laura Samuel, to take her place.
0:02:08 > 0:02:13APPLAUSE
0:02:13 > 0:02:15The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra,
0:02:15 > 0:02:18conducted this evening by chief conductor Donald Runnicles,
0:02:18 > 0:02:22a man with a deep passion for Viennese music.
0:02:22 > 0:02:24It's Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz.
0:02:48 > 0:02:53MUSIC: "On The Beautiful Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss Jr
0:13:18 > 0:13:22APPLAUSE
0:13:22 > 0:13:24See, I told you it was a hit, then and now.
0:13:24 > 0:13:29That was By The Beautiful Blue Danube, by Johann Strauss Jr,
0:13:29 > 0:13:33the unofficial second national anthem of Austria.
0:13:34 > 0:13:36The piece was written, at first, with words,
0:13:36 > 0:13:39which were dropped by the always-pragmatic Strauss,
0:13:39 > 0:13:42once he realised what a hit he had on his hands.
0:13:44 > 0:13:47Let's maybe forget the fact that the Danube tends to be a rather
0:13:47 > 0:13:50murky grey and not remotely blue. It was certainly sparkling there.
0:13:55 > 0:13:57Well, if Strauss' Blue Danube
0:13:57 > 0:14:00is a, kind of, love song to Viennese tradition,
0:14:00 > 0:14:03the next piece on the bill also puts Vienna very firmly on the map,
0:14:03 > 0:14:06but as a centre of cultural revolution,
0:14:06 > 0:14:10a place where new musical ground was going to be broken.
0:14:10 > 0:14:13And one man who sent out to do just that was Ludwig van Beethoven.
0:14:13 > 0:14:16We're going to hear his Coriolan Overture,
0:14:16 > 0:14:18a piece that was meant not to soothe,
0:14:18 > 0:14:20but to provoke, its audience.
0:14:20 > 0:14:23And it was his sense of struggle that drove both the man
0:14:23 > 0:14:25and his music.
0:14:31 > 0:14:33The drama and intensity
0:14:33 > 0:14:37of Beethoven's music are hallmarks of his art.
0:14:37 > 0:14:41Those mood swings are sometimes so violent you might wonder
0:14:41 > 0:14:44what kind of man could produce music like this.
0:14:45 > 0:14:47It's well known that Beethoven struggled,
0:14:47 > 0:14:52both with profound deafness and mental ill-health from his mid-20s.
0:14:52 > 0:14:56It was so appalling that he felt compelled to write a document
0:14:56 > 0:14:58known as The Heiligenstadt Testament.
0:15:01 > 0:15:03This isn't actually a suicide note,
0:15:03 > 0:15:07but it was a letter written to his brothers that expressed
0:15:07 > 0:15:08a sense of deep shame,
0:15:08 > 0:15:12and the reasons that made Beethoven consider killing himself.
0:15:14 > 0:15:17"It would have needed little for me to put an end to my life.
0:15:17 > 0:15:20"It was art only that held me back.
0:15:20 > 0:15:24"Though it seemed to me to be impossible to leave the world
0:15:24 > 0:15:28"before I had brought forth all that I felt destined to bring forth."
0:15:31 > 0:15:35Donald, we often talk about this sense of struggle in Beethoven.
0:15:35 > 0:15:38Is it there? Does it really pervade the music?
0:15:38 > 0:15:40Oh, I think so.
0:15:40 > 0:15:44In a colossal way. I mean, we know of his own
0:15:44 > 0:15:45personal life,
0:15:45 > 0:15:51his personal tragedy, of course - the biggest of which is the deafness,
0:15:51 > 0:15:53which afflicted him at such a young age.
0:15:55 > 0:15:57In some ways, Ludwig van Beethoven
0:15:57 > 0:15:59was the first of the romantic composers,
0:15:59 > 0:16:04in the sense that it was no longer music written for people, generally,
0:16:04 > 0:16:07it was more an expression of himself -
0:16:09 > 0:16:13of the struggles in his life, both personal and professional.
0:16:13 > 0:16:17It's all very much, yes, a struggle.
0:16:17 > 0:16:20Doctors in our own time have retrospectively looked at
0:16:20 > 0:16:25a case like Beethoven's and said it's quite possible he was bipolar,
0:16:25 > 0:16:26that he suffered from depression.
0:16:26 > 0:16:30They have read a degree of mental illness into his life state.
0:16:30 > 0:16:33When you look back at documents like The Heiligenstadt Testament -
0:16:33 > 0:16:36this, essentially, a, sort of, suicide note -
0:16:36 > 0:16:40how much do you read that into the music when you're performing it?
0:16:40 > 0:16:43It is the miracle,
0:16:43 > 0:16:49the genius of this music that, while the drama is
0:16:49 > 0:16:53Ludwig van Beethoven's drama in his own life,
0:16:53 > 0:16:56when I am conducting a fifth symphony or a Coriolan,
0:16:56 > 0:16:59on some level, I'm also relating to the struggle.
0:16:59 > 0:17:01I mean, we've all...
0:17:01 > 0:17:07I believe bring our personality to music and, on some level,
0:17:07 > 0:17:11if music begins where words leave off,
0:17:11 > 0:17:14there's much perhaps I'm expressing about my own life,
0:17:14 > 0:17:18about where I've come from and where my journey now leads
0:17:18 > 0:17:20or we have all experienced loss.
0:17:20 > 0:17:23Ludwig van Beethoven's music gives me the ability,
0:17:23 > 0:17:25and all the musicians the ability,
0:17:25 > 0:17:29to tap into something deep within themselves,
0:17:29 > 0:17:33which, I believe, is what always breathes life into this music
0:17:33 > 0:17:36and why every performance is unique.
0:17:36 > 0:17:37In the Coriolan Overture,
0:17:37 > 0:17:40this is Beethoven looking back to a story of ancient Rome.
0:17:40 > 0:17:44It's a story about personal turmoil and struggle.
0:17:44 > 0:17:46Do we read Beethoven into this?
0:17:46 > 0:17:48The feeling that the music is hewn out of granite,
0:17:48 > 0:17:50the way it just bursts onto scene,
0:17:50 > 0:17:53that first octave, you feel...
0:17:53 > 0:17:58You sense a beheading in that third bar.
0:17:58 > 0:18:01And yet, amidst all this turmoil,
0:18:01 > 0:18:06there emerges one of the most gorgeous melodies in all music -
0:18:06 > 0:18:10a four-bar melody, which you hear for the first time with the violins.
0:18:12 > 0:18:13And I...
0:18:13 > 0:18:15I can't find the words to express it.
0:18:15 > 0:18:20But it's because of the drama, it's because of this turmoil,
0:18:20 > 0:18:23this seismic activity with which this overture begins,
0:18:23 > 0:18:27and then, all of a sudden, this theme is there, as if to say,
0:18:27 > 0:18:29"In all of this, there's a silver lining.
0:18:29 > 0:18:31"In all of this, there is goodness."
0:18:31 > 0:18:35And there's just these brief glimpses and then you're back into the...
0:18:35 > 0:18:40You're plunged back into this world of high drama.
0:18:40 > 0:18:42It's... And this is in eight minutes.
0:18:42 > 0:18:46He achieves in eight minutes what others could have 80 minutes
0:18:46 > 0:18:49to express and wouldn't be able to.
0:18:49 > 0:18:51Conductor Donald Runnicles.
0:18:51 > 0:18:54Well, next it's Beethoven's Coriolan Overture.
0:18:54 > 0:18:57Now, do not be misled by the fact he called this piece an overture.
0:18:57 > 0:18:59It is no jolly curtain-raiser.
0:18:59 > 0:19:04Instead, what you get is eight minutes of pure distilled drama.
0:19:04 > 0:19:07The piece tells the story of Coriolanus,
0:19:07 > 0:19:10a Roman patrician who plans an attack on his native city,
0:19:10 > 0:19:14only to regret it all and try and save his honour by killing himself.
0:19:14 > 0:19:18The overture is, essentially, a kind of interior dialogue
0:19:18 > 0:19:21between Coriolanus' mind and his soul,
0:19:21 > 0:19:24expressed as a, kind of, relentless orchestral turbulence.
0:19:24 > 0:19:29APPLAUSE
0:19:29 > 0:19:32Here now comes Donald Runnicles,
0:19:32 > 0:19:37chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
0:19:37 > 0:19:38Beethoven's Coriolan Overture.
0:19:52 > 0:19:56MUSIC: "Coriolan Overture" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:27:36 > 0:27:41APPLAUSE
0:27:43 > 0:27:45The Coriolan Overture, by Beethoven,
0:27:45 > 0:27:46conducted by Donald Runnicles
0:27:46 > 0:27:51and played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
0:27:59 > 0:28:01Well, it's more music by Beethoven next
0:28:01 > 0:28:05and pretty much the best-known piece of music ever written.
0:28:05 > 0:28:08It's his fifth symphony, a work that shook Vienna
0:28:08 > 0:28:10when it was first heard there in 1808.
0:28:10 > 0:28:14It's continued to send out tremors to the wider world ever since.
0:28:14 > 0:28:16It's not an exaggeration, I think,
0:28:16 > 0:28:20to say this piece changed the state of music, in an instant.
0:28:20 > 0:28:22Everything about this symphony was charged
0:28:22 > 0:28:26with a, kind of, explosive energy that had never been imagined,
0:28:26 > 0:28:28let alone heard, before.
0:28:28 > 0:28:31It all starts with four, now famous, opening notes
0:28:31 > 0:28:35and everything that follows is just as severe and lean.
0:28:35 > 0:28:38Even the orchestra, stripped back to its barest essentials.
0:28:38 > 0:28:42The ideas are terse, the music keeps stopping and starting.
0:28:42 > 0:28:46Beethoven is urging us to sit up and take notice.
0:28:46 > 0:28:48Well, I talked to conductor Donald Runnicles earlier
0:28:48 > 0:28:51about this symphony that shook the world.
0:28:53 > 0:28:58MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:29:00 > 0:29:03'The first movement'
0:29:03 > 0:29:05is unrelenting, in its energy.
0:29:05 > 0:29:08It most certainly has darkness to it.
0:29:08 > 0:29:10It most certainly is -
0:29:10 > 0:29:12once again we come back to this word -
0:29:12 > 0:29:15the struggle, whatever that means to us all, individually.
0:29:15 > 0:29:19And there are moments of light. Glimpses through these storm clouds,
0:29:19 > 0:29:23the sun breaks through and you have these glimpses of, perhaps,
0:29:23 > 0:29:26the end of whatever journey you imagine yourself on.
0:29:26 > 0:29:30But the first movement ends as dramatically and as darkly
0:29:30 > 0:29:32as it begins.
0:29:32 > 0:29:35MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:29:43 > 0:29:46Wonderful, wonderful entry. Buh-buh-buh-bum at the end.
0:29:46 > 0:29:48Altogether now, "Thank you, maestro."
0:29:48 > 0:29:49LAUGHTER
0:29:57 > 0:30:02'The second movement is more... It's idyllic, serene, beautiful.
0:30:02 > 0:30:03'In some ways, triumphant.
0:30:03 > 0:30:07'Once again it's a glimpse of what will happen in the finale.'
0:30:07 > 0:30:10MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:30:16 > 0:30:17It's a, sort of,
0:30:17 > 0:30:19an idealised world, if you like.
0:30:19 > 0:30:20Going on.
0:30:24 > 0:30:26'We go to into the third movement,'
0:30:26 > 0:30:27which is the traditional scherzo,
0:30:27 > 0:30:31but we're back very much to this slightly more mysterious...
0:30:33 > 0:30:34How can I say?
0:30:36 > 0:30:37Spectres of the first movement
0:30:37 > 0:30:39'appear and, of course,
0:30:39 > 0:30:42'this predominant motive that we heard from the very outset,
0:30:42 > 0:30:45'those four notes permeate almost every bar of this piece.'
0:30:45 > 0:30:49MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:30:54 > 0:30:56The third movement, then,
0:30:56 > 0:30:59becomes dark, mysterious and then, out of this darkness emerges
0:30:59 > 0:31:03this phenomenal, triumphant finale.
0:31:03 > 0:31:06MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:31:09 > 0:31:11'And even in that finale, we're not quite finished.'
0:31:11 > 0:31:14He draws us back into the world of the first movement.
0:31:14 > 0:31:17But, as I said earlier, it ends
0:31:17 > 0:31:20in a breathlessly exciting way.
0:31:22 > 0:31:24Wonderfully optimistic and, yeah,
0:31:24 > 0:31:27it's like any great music or any great symphony.
0:31:27 > 0:31:32'I hope we, as performers, take the audience on the journey
0:31:32 > 0:31:33'that we find ourselves on
0:31:33 > 0:31:34'because there's a narrative,
0:31:34 > 0:31:40and each and every one amongst us, I think, brings'
0:31:40 > 0:31:42their personal narrative to this.
0:31:42 > 0:31:44And it is, as you say, it's essentially a message of hope.
0:31:44 > 0:31:46That out of the darkest despair,
0:31:46 > 0:31:49you can get to a wonderful place, by the end.
0:31:49 > 0:31:53Yes, and we may not experience this glorious end.
0:31:53 > 0:31:57I mean, I'm not suggesting that darkness always ends in light.
0:31:57 > 0:32:02There are many questions that we all grapple with in life.
0:32:02 > 0:32:05And there were many questions that will perhaps never be answered
0:32:05 > 0:32:07and who knows...
0:32:09 > 0:32:10..how this will all end
0:32:10 > 0:32:13or how we all end or what's in the future?
0:32:15 > 0:32:19In this case, with this remarkable fifth symphony...
0:32:19 > 0:32:21it's worth the struggle.
0:32:21 > 0:32:23MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:32:37 > 0:32:40Excellent. Excellent, excellent, excellent.
0:32:40 > 0:32:42Terrific work. Thank you all very much, indeed.
0:32:42 > 0:32:44Have a good concert tonight. Bravo.
0:32:44 > 0:32:47HE TAPS HIS BATON
0:32:47 > 0:32:50Donald Runnicles, tonight's conductor.
0:32:50 > 0:32:53Beethoven's fifth symphony, then, a journey that takes us
0:32:53 > 0:32:55from despair to ecstasy,
0:32:55 > 0:32:56from darkness to light,
0:32:56 > 0:32:58struggle to release.
0:32:58 > 0:33:00One of the most important pieces
0:33:00 > 0:33:02in the whole development of music history,
0:33:02 > 0:33:05a symphony whose opening has sometimes been compared
0:33:05 > 0:33:07to fate knocking at the door.
0:33:07 > 0:33:09This is music that drives us forward,
0:33:09 > 0:33:11right from its opening bars.
0:33:18 > 0:33:20MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:40:34 > 0:40:36SILENCE
0:41:04 > 0:41:08MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
0:50:40 > 0:50:41SILENCE
0:51:15 > 0:51:18MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven
1:06:39 > 1:06:42APPLAUSE
1:06:54 > 1:06:58An epic journey from tragedy to triumph.
1:06:58 > 1:07:00Beethoven's fifth symphony,
1:07:00 > 1:07:03performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
1:07:03 > 1:07:06and chief conductor, Donald Runnicles.
1:07:06 > 1:07:09CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
1:07:09 > 1:07:13Donald Runnicles said to me in our conversation earlier that,
1:07:13 > 1:07:15after all Beethoven's personal difficulties
1:07:15 > 1:07:19in this symphony, he has the strength and grace to show us
1:07:19 > 1:07:21that the struggle has been worth it.
1:07:21 > 1:07:25What an ecstatic end to such an intense piece of music.
1:07:25 > 1:07:29As light succeeds him, dispelling the darkness for good.
1:07:29 > 1:07:33APPLAUSE CONTINUES
1:07:42 > 1:07:46Well, this symphony has a long pedigree here at the Proms.
1:07:46 > 1:07:49It featured in the very first season of Promenade concerts,
1:07:49 > 1:07:52conducted by legendary founder, Sir Henry Wood,
1:07:52 > 1:07:56and it was played here every year, until the late 1970s.
1:08:02 > 1:08:05Well, that is it for tonight.
1:08:05 > 1:08:08Next Friday Night At The Proms, join me for a concert
1:08:08 > 1:08:13from the English baroque soloist and conductor, Sir John Eliot Gardiner,
1:08:13 > 1:08:17JS Bach's Oratorios for Easter and Ascension.
1:08:17 > 1:08:21Tomorrow evening on BBC Two, you can catch Katie Derham and guests
1:08:21 > 1:08:23for another Proms Extra at seven o'clock
1:08:23 > 1:08:26and tomorrow, here in the Royal Albert Hall,
1:08:26 > 1:08:29it's the Urban Prom 2013 -
1:08:29 > 1:08:31the BBC Symphony Orchestra,
1:08:31 > 1:08:34with a fantastic line-up of urban music artists,
1:08:34 > 1:08:38including Fazer, Laura Mvula and Maverick Sabre.
1:08:38 > 1:08:41It's live on BBC Radio 3
1:08:41 > 1:08:43and Radio's 1 and 1Xtra.
1:08:43 > 1:08:47You can also see it on TV on BBC Three at nine o'clock.
1:08:47 > 1:08:49So, no excuse to miss that!
1:08:49 > 1:08:51But for now, from me, Suzy Klein,
1:08:51 > 1:08:54and all of us here at the Royal Albert Hall, good night.
1:08:54 > 1:08:57Subtitles By Red Bee Media Ltd