Proms on Four: Friday Night at the Proms - BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra BBC Proms

It's Friday Night At The Proms and tonight we're celebrating

quite possibly the most musical city on the planet - Vienna,

which for much of the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries,

was home to the world's leading composers.

We'll be hearing from two of them tonight -

music by Beethoven and Johann Strauss.

Beethoven's frontier-smashing music stunned Vienna

and it confirmed the city's status as a revolutionary hub.

We'll be hearing his Coriolan Overture and fifth symphony tonight.

Vienna, though, was also a conservative town

and we start this evening with a piece

written at the height of the Habsburg Empire.

The composer, Johann Strauss Jr, wrote more than 500 waltzes,

polkas, quadrilles and gallops

for the cream of Viennese society,

and we're going to hear the most famous of them tonight, his waltz,

By The Beautiful Blue Danube.

It's the kind of piece that serious music lovers

aren't really meant to like.

It's far too sweet and melodic,

the musical equivalent of a large piece of sachertorte,

or Viennese chocolate cake.

But there is a good reason why this piece was such a hit.

It opens with a slow introduction that almost teases you,

and then unleashes a tune of such ear-catching, toe-tapping force

that you are simply swept up in the swirl of the ballroom.

It's heady, intoxicating stuff.

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra is on stage already

and here comes their leader, Laura Samuel, to take her place.

APPLAUSE

The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra,

conducted this evening by chief conductor Donald Runnicles,

a man with a deep passion for Viennese music.

It's Strauss' Blue Danube Waltz.

MUSIC: "On The Beautiful Blue Danube" by Johann Strauss Jr

APPLAUSE

See, I told you it was a hit, then and now.

That was By The Beautiful Blue Danube, by Johann Strauss Jr,

the unofficial second national anthem of Austria.

The piece was written, at first, with words,

which were dropped by the always-pragmatic Strauss,

once he realised what a hit he had on his hands.

Let's maybe forget the fact that the Danube tends to be a rather

murky grey and not remotely blue. It was certainly sparkling there.

Well, if Strauss' Blue Danube

is a, kind of, love song to Viennese tradition,

the next piece on the bill also puts Vienna very firmly on the map,

but as a centre of cultural revolution,

a place where new musical ground was going to be broken.

And one man who sent out to do just that was Ludwig van Beethoven.

We're going to hear his Coriolan Overture,

a piece that was meant not to soothe,

but to provoke, its audience.

And it was his sense of struggle that drove both the man

and his music.

The drama and intensity

of Beethoven's music are hallmarks of his art.

Those mood swings are sometimes so violent you might wonder

what kind of man could produce music like this.

It's well known that Beethoven struggled,

both with profound deafness and mental ill-health from his mid-20s.

It was so appalling that he felt compelled to write a document

known as The Heiligenstadt Testament.

This isn't actually a suicide note,

but it was a letter written to his brothers that expressed

a sense of deep shame,

and the reasons that made Beethoven consider killing himself.

"It would have needed little for me to put an end to my life.

"It was art only that held me back.

"Though it seemed to me to be impossible to leave the world

"before I had brought forth all that I felt destined to bring forth."

Donald, we often talk about this sense of struggle in Beethoven.

Is it there? Does it really pervade the music?

Oh, I think so.

In a colossal way. I mean, we know of his own

personal life,

his personal tragedy, of course - the biggest of which is the deafness,

which afflicted him at such a young age.

In some ways, Ludwig van Beethoven

was the first of the romantic composers,

in the sense that it was no longer music written for people, generally,

it was more an expression of himself -

of the struggles in his life, both personal and professional.

It's all very much, yes, a struggle.

Doctors in our own time have retrospectively looked at

a case like Beethoven's and said it's quite possible he was bipolar,

that he suffered from depression.

They have read a degree of mental illness into his life state.

When you look back at documents like The Heiligenstadt Testament -

this, essentially, a, sort of, suicide note -

how much do you read that into the music when you're performing it?

It is the miracle,

the genius of this music that, while the drama is

Ludwig van Beethoven's drama in his own life,

when I am conducting a fifth symphony or a Coriolan,

on some level, I'm also relating to the struggle.

I mean, we've all...

I believe bring our personality to music and, on some level,

if music begins where words leave off,

there's much perhaps I'm expressing about my own life,

about where I've come from and where my journey now leads

or we have all experienced loss.

Ludwig van Beethoven's music gives me the ability,

and all the musicians the ability,

to tap into something deep within themselves,

which, I believe, is what always breathes life into this music

and why every performance is unique.

In the Coriolan Overture,

this is Beethoven looking back to a story of ancient Rome.

It's a story about personal turmoil and struggle.

Do we read Beethoven into this?

The feeling that the music is hewn out of granite,

the way it just bursts onto scene,

that first octave, you feel...

You sense a beheading in that third bar.

And yet, amidst all this turmoil,

there emerges one of the most gorgeous melodies in all music -

a four-bar melody, which you hear for the first time with the violins.

And I...

I can't find the words to express it.

But it's because of the drama, it's because of this turmoil,

this seismic activity with which this overture begins,

and then, all of a sudden, this theme is there, as if to say,

"In all of this, there's a silver lining.

"In all of this, there is goodness."

And there's just these brief glimpses and then you're back into the...

You're plunged back into this world of high drama.

It's... And this is in eight minutes.

He achieves in eight minutes what others could have 80 minutes

to express and wouldn't be able to.

Conductor Donald Runnicles.

Well, next it's Beethoven's Coriolan Overture.

Now, do not be misled by the fact he called this piece an overture.

It is no jolly curtain-raiser.

Instead, what you get is eight minutes of pure distilled drama.

The piece tells the story of Coriolanus,

a Roman patrician who plans an attack on his native city,

only to regret it all and try and save his honour by killing himself.

The overture is, essentially, a kind of interior dialogue

between Coriolanus' mind and his soul,

expressed as a, kind of, relentless orchestral turbulence.

APPLAUSE

Here now comes Donald Runnicles,

chief conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Beethoven's Coriolan Overture.

MUSIC: "Coriolan Overture" by Ludwig van Beethoven

APPLAUSE

The Coriolan Overture, by Beethoven,

conducted by Donald Runnicles

and played by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.

Well, it's more music by Beethoven next

and pretty much the best-known piece of music ever written.

It's his fifth symphony, a work that shook Vienna

when it was first heard there in 1808.

It's continued to send out tremors to the wider world ever since.

It's not an exaggeration, I think,

to say this piece changed the state of music, in an instant.

Everything about this symphony was charged

with a, kind of, explosive energy that had never been imagined,

let alone heard, before.

It all starts with four, now famous, opening notes

and everything that follows is just as severe and lean.

Even the orchestra, stripped back to its barest essentials.

The ideas are terse, the music keeps stopping and starting.

Beethoven is urging us to sit up and take notice.

Well, I talked to conductor Donald Runnicles earlier

about this symphony that shook the world.

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

'The first movement'

is unrelenting, in its energy.

It most certainly has darkness to it.

It most certainly is -

once again we come back to this word -

the struggle, whatever that means to us all, individually.

And there are moments of light. Glimpses through these storm clouds,

the sun breaks through and you have these glimpses of, perhaps,

the end of whatever journey you imagine yourself on.

But the first movement ends as dramatically and as darkly

as it begins.

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

Wonderful, wonderful entry. Buh-buh-buh-bum at the end.

Altogether now, "Thank you, maestro."

LAUGHTER

'The second movement is more... It's idyllic, serene, beautiful.

'In some ways, triumphant.

'Once again it's a glimpse of what will happen in the finale.'

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

It's a, sort of,

an idealised world, if you like.

Going on.

'We go to into the third movement,'

which is the traditional scherzo,

but we're back very much to this slightly more mysterious...

How can I say?

Spectres of the first movement

'appear and, of course,

'this predominant motive that we heard from the very outset,

'those four notes permeate almost every bar of this piece.'

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

The third movement, then,

becomes dark, mysterious and then, out of this darkness emerges

this phenomenal, triumphant finale.

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

'And even in that finale, we're not quite finished.'

He draws us back into the world of the first movement.

But, as I said earlier, it ends

in a breathlessly exciting way.

Wonderfully optimistic and, yeah,

it's like any great music or any great symphony.

'I hope we, as performers, take the audience on the journey

'that we find ourselves on

'because there's a narrative,

and each and every one amongst us, I think, brings'

their personal narrative to this.

And it is, as you say, it's essentially a message of hope.

That out of the darkest despair,

you can get to a wonderful place, by the end.

Yes, and we may not experience this glorious end.

I mean, I'm not suggesting that darkness always ends in light.

There are many questions that we all grapple with in life.

And there were many questions that will perhaps never be answered

and who knows...

..how this will all end

or how we all end or what's in the future?

In this case, with this remarkable fifth symphony...

it's worth the struggle.

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

Excellent. Excellent, excellent, excellent.

Terrific work. Thank you all very much, indeed.

Have a good concert tonight. Bravo.

HE TAPS HIS BATON

Donald Runnicles, tonight's conductor.

Beethoven's fifth symphony, then, a journey that takes us

from despair to ecstasy,

from darkness to light,

struggle to release.

One of the most important pieces

in the whole development of music history,

a symphony whose opening has sometimes been compared

to fate knocking at the door.

This is music that drives us forward,

right from its opening bars.

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

SILENCE

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

SILENCE

MUSIC: "Symphony No 5" by Ludwig van Beethoven

APPLAUSE

An epic journey from tragedy to triumph.

Beethoven's fifth symphony,

performed by the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra

and chief conductor, Donald Runnicles.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Donald Runnicles said to me in our conversation earlier that,

after all Beethoven's personal difficulties

in this symphony, he has the strength and grace to show us

that the struggle has been worth it.

What an ecstatic end to such an intense piece of music.

As light succeeds him, dispelling the darkness for good.

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

Well, this symphony has a long pedigree here at the Proms.

It featured in the very first season of Promenade concerts,

conducted by legendary founder, Sir Henry Wood,

and it was played here every year, until the late 1970s.

Well, that is it for tonight.

Next Friday Night At The Proms, join me for a concert

from the English baroque soloist and conductor, Sir John Eliot Gardiner,

JS Bach's Oratorios for Easter and Ascension.

Tomorrow evening on BBC Two, you can catch Katie Derham and guests

for another Proms Extra at seven o'clock

and tomorrow, here in the Royal Albert Hall,

it's the Urban Prom 2013 -

the BBC Symphony Orchestra,

with a fantastic line-up of urban music artists,

including Fazer, Laura Mvula and Maverick Sabre.

It's live on BBC Radio 3

and Radio's 1 and 1Xtra.

You can also see it on TV on BBC Three at nine o'clock.

So, no excuse to miss that!

But for now, from me, Suzy Klein,

and all of us here at the Royal Albert Hall, good night.

Subtitles By Red Bee Media Ltd