:00:18. > :00:20.Symphony and Mozart's Requiem are tonight's indulgence. In the
:00:21. > :00:25.death-haunted tunes in the final unfinished work. Think again, and
:00:26. > :00:31.listen again, because this is music of shock, of revelation, of terror
:00:32. > :00:36.and of experimental expressive extramity. Or at least it ought to
:00:37. > :00:45.be in the hands of the performers we are going to hear tonight, the
:00:46. > :01:10.Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and Donald Runnicles the conductor.
:01:11. > :01:24.So, Beethoven's fourth first. This B flat major symphony is often vend --
:01:25. > :01:28.undervalued between the third and the fifth. How will tonight's music
:01:29. > :01:32.make it as energetic and visionary as I think it should be? I spoke to
:01:33. > :01:38.the leader of the Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and to tonight's
:01:39. > :01:43.conductor, Donald Runnicles. I never approach it thinking I have done it
:01:44. > :01:47.six times and the seventh time I will slow up there and do this
:01:48. > :01:53.faster or slower, like any great work of art you try to dig deeper
:01:54. > :01:57.and just find the essence. Laura, what are the chances for you, what
:01:58. > :02:01.is the essence for you? As a string player, because we are often
:02:02. > :02:06.imitating wonderful single wind lines and the amazing slow movement
:02:07. > :02:12.is a wonderful flute melody which we play on the first violins to emulate
:02:13. > :02:15.it. And it is played with such immaculate line and poise. It is a
:02:16. > :02:19.challenge to get a large force of people to do that, especially for
:02:20. > :02:24.our orchestra which is often playing strong, rich textures, it is a real
:02:25. > :02:29.challenge. But I think everyone is loving it, it is incredibly
:02:30. > :02:33.inventive, the more you delve the more you find. Something that was
:02:34. > :02:36.said about the slow movement which points to the extramity which
:02:37. > :02:43.perhaps we don't often think about in connection with this symphony, he
:02:44. > :02:50.described it as if it was the archangel Michael contemplating men
:02:51. > :02:54.collie the Cosmos, do you feel it like that? I don't think I have the
:02:55. > :03:00.nerve to begin that movement now. Thank you. Thank you Tom. We will
:03:01. > :03:04.start it without you, don't worry. I think Berl iOS e, the guy was
:03:05. > :03:12.constantly high, he was always smoking something, so he came out
:03:13. > :03:15.with the most picturesque and dramatic explanations for pieces of
:03:16. > :03:20.music. Where there is, jesting aside, there is an essence of truth
:03:21. > :03:23.there. You feel as if so often in these movements you are coming in on
:03:24. > :03:26.the middle of the movement, there is not a beginning. It began a long,
:03:27. > :03:32.long time ago. We have opened the door and come into this remarkable
:03:33. > :03:36.world, and even though it is the fourth symphony, the ninth symphony
:03:37. > :03:42.is lurking already. Where do you hear that? I hear it in the opening,
:03:43. > :03:46.the very opening, there is this feeling of if Beethoven had written
:03:47. > :03:51.a work called The Creation, I think that's how his creation would have
:03:52. > :03:58.begun. There is a feeling at the these mists that are grey and themes
:03:59. > :04:02.appearing and disappearing, then, of course, there is this feeling from
:04:03. > :04:08.darkness to night leading into the allegro. I know it well, it is like
:04:09. > :04:11.watching the San Francisco fog burn off. The day starts grey and you
:04:12. > :04:15.think this will never burn off and then it does and you feel as if each
:04:16. > :04:22.day you are experiencing the colour blue for the first time. Well that
:04:23. > :16:10.is an Analogy to what happens in this remarkable introduction.
:16:11. > :39:22.That's a performance to Scotch literally the idea that is the
:39:23. > :39:27.Cinderella symphony in Beethoven's canon. It looks forward to even the
:39:28. > :39:30.ninth symphony as we were saying before the performance, there are
:39:31. > :39:35.things that happen in that piece that happen only in that symphony.
:39:36. > :39:38.The churning dissonance where you feel the strings are fighting each
:39:39. > :39:43.other and moments in the slow and first movement too. There is a
:39:44. > :39:47.harmonic thing that happens, the music seems to go down and down into
:39:48. > :39:54.the bowels of the earth and there is an aftershock and some of the
:39:55. > :39:57.sparist and most orchesteral rising Beethoven ever achieved. This isn't
:39:58. > :40:00.a piece that matters because it is about something else or because it
:40:01. > :40:06.is going somewhere else, it is simply completely itself. The next
:40:07. > :40:14.and final piece on tonight's programme, in more ways than one is
:40:15. > :40:19.Mozart Requiem, we are also going to hear the massed voices of the
:40:20. > :40:23.National Youth Choir of Scotland and four world class British soloists.
:40:24. > :40:29.And it is not just vocal solos either, instrumental ones too are
:40:30. > :40:34.really important in this piece. Becky Smith is the orchestra's
:40:35. > :40:39.second trombone player. The movement is manic and fast and loud, it
:40:40. > :40:44.finishing abruptly and then it is silence and then you have to start.
:40:45. > :40:50.So that's quite challenging! You have got the instrument with you
:40:51. > :40:54.now? I have. We are surrounded by the Proms queue. They could be very
:40:55. > :40:58.lucky if you were going to play us, or give us a sneak preview. OK.
:40:59. > :41:49.Shall I do it? I will give it a go. A round of applause everyone for
:41:50. > :41:54.Becky! That was the trombone solo from the tuba from Requiem,
:41:55. > :41:58.consoling music that comes after the lashing hellish strokes. That is a
:41:59. > :42:03.musical fragment that comes from a bigger fragment, the music that
:42:04. > :42:09.Mozart actually managed to finish of the Requiem, which isn't actually
:42:10. > :42:14.that much. After his death on the fifth December 1791 his widow needed
:42:15. > :42:20.to get the Requiem completed, and the task fell to Souzmeyer, we won't
:42:21. > :42:25.hear that version, which is still the one most often performed.
:42:26. > :42:32.Instead Donald Runnicles has chosen the version, The Completion by
:42:33. > :42:38.Robert D Levin. It is a journey, there is still a feeling from the
:42:39. > :42:44.beginning of the work to the end of this work, each of us performing or
:42:45. > :42:52.listening to it has been taken on an important journey, this is the world
:42:53. > :42:59.of Don Giovanni, his finest opera. You have this picture of the one
:43:00. > :43:05.that comes in and shakes Don Giovanni's hand and goodbye. I liked
:43:06. > :43:10.film Amadeus, I hope it was like that. I love a good conspiracy
:43:11. > :43:15.theory. But I think more importantly that that is once again something
:43:16. > :43:18.that is always very successfully managed to capture, is this dark
:43:19. > :43:24.world, the specter which is always there no matter how beautiful or
:43:25. > :43:28.certificate Rhone or tranquil. All of a sudden, isn't that Mozart's
:43:29. > :43:32.genius, within a couple of bars you are suddenly reminded there is a
:43:33. > :43:37.dark side to it all. There is not a last word on this because the last
:43:38. > :43:41.word would have been with the composer who sadly left before it
:43:42. > :43:48.was ended. Not the last word but at least the next word on Mozart
:43:49. > :43:53.Requiem, at the Royal Albert Hall. Tonight's singers, the vociferous
:43:54. > :44:01.voices of the National Youth Choir from Scotland aren't standing up on
:44:02. > :44:07.the stage thinking about the competing versions of Mozart's
:44:08. > :44:08.Requiem, they want to take ounce the journey of Mozart and everyone
:44:09. > :34:12.else's music. Nanograms about the This piece really is, not just a
:34:13. > :34:16.meditation, but it is a confrontation with death, with
:34:17. > :34:23.mortality, with Mozart's own and the rest of us too. And tonight,
:34:24. > :34:28.watching those young people go absolutely defiantly and fearlessly
:34:29. > :34:35.through the veil of Mozart's music with such complete conviction. It
:34:36. > :35:09.was shatteringly powerful that. It will stay with me a long time.