Friday Night at the Proms: Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto BBC Proms

Hello, and welcome to the last in our series of Friday Night Proms!

During this Proms season, we've had more orchestras

from around the world than ever before,

many here for the first time.

And tonight, the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra makes its Proms debut.

They'll be conducted by their music director Han-Na Chang,

a superstar in her own right, more about that and the orchestra later.

In an evening of high romanticism,

they'll be performing two of the world's most popular classics -

Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto,

famously used to great effect in the film Brief Encounter

and afterwards, Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.

When we think of romanticism today,

some of us may visualise candlelight and roses,

but when it was written,

this music was actually a rather daring form of expression.

The Rachmaninov concerto was ground-breaking in its writing for piano,

achieving the most expressive qualities from the instrument,

whilst pushing the technical level to its limit.

Rachmaninov performed the concerto himself at the premiere in 1901.

In fact, he even performed the concerto right here

in the Royal Albert Hall in 1938

conducted by Sir Henry Wood.

Danni, he must have been the most incredible musician?

Absolutely! At the piano,

Rachmaninov was himself a great pianist.

I consider him a virtuoso in the calibre of Liszt even.

He was brilliant at achieving the most expressive qualities in the instrument.

Perhaps due to the fact that Rachmaninov had quite a troubled life.

His inner turmoil was expressed deeply through his music.

As a composer who performed his own pieces,

Rachmaninov had a gigantic hand span.

His hands were so big he could span 13 keys on the piano,

quite useful for a pianist!

-For a violinist, perhaps not as useful!

-No.

I've listened to some recordings of Rachmaninov, there are a few,

and what strikes me is the freedom with which he makes music.

There are some Chopin recordings,

the Minute Waltz has got an incredible time taken.

He must've been a communicator, and yet, at the same time,

he was able to focus on music in such a unique way.

One of my favourite things about this Rachmaninov concerto

is the passing of the main motif between the instruments.

I think Rachmaninov is wonderful at creating a true dialogue.

He passes between the instruments even sometimes in "mid-sentence".

As a singer, when I do my concerts,

I always talk with the orchestra about the idea of the "give and take".

I always say, "You're not accompanying me. Don't be soft, we're in this together."

I feel this piano concerto makes it almost impossible

for the orchestra not to take a proactive role in the piece

because of the passing of the melody between them.

It's interesting you say "back and forth", but the opening of the piece is very unusual.

The pianist comes in completely on his own.

There are not many concertos that start that way,

and so this amazing concentration at the beginning of that piece,

I think, also decides how the piece will go.

And we have a wonderful Russian virtuoso, Denis Matsuev, today.

Winner of the Tchaikovsky Competition, somebody very much in the mould of Rachmaninov.

-Also, I think, a pretty big fellow by all accounts!

-Yes!

APPLAUSE

And here comes soloist Denis Matsuev with conductor Han-Na Chang

to perform Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto Number 2.

SILENCE DESCENDS

MOVEMENT ENDS

APPLAUSE

SILENCE DESCENDS

PIECE ENDS

LOUD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Denis Matsuev was the soloist in Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto Number 2,

performed by the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Han-Na Chang.

-And what a glorious performance that was!

-Oh, that was amazing!

Quite swift, as well, if I may say. I just love this piece.

I feel like this piece is about Rachmaninov sort of surrounded

almost by mirrors of himself,

and the orchestra are sort of the mirrors,

showing him the different sides of himself

and as he plays the piano,

he comments on all of these musings of his soul.

-A very, very original and very, very personal performance of that magnificent concerto.

-Absolutely.

Those chords, I think they pulsated so intensively through him at the beginning

-that I thought he was going to have whiplash!

-Yes!

It was very, very intense. He let it go through his entire body.

Well, for me, I think this music will always be associated with Brief Encounter.

Especially that love theme, the unrequited love.

And it seems to fit so beautifully to the feeling of Rachmaninov.

It's sadness, and yet, happiness at the same time.

Wonderful ovation here for Denis Matsuev -

rightly so after that magnificent performance.

But it's so tragic, Rachmaninov,

he's so plagued by his own self-doubt.

He never felt that his music was good enough and today,

-that seems absolutely impossible to believe, doesn't it?

-It really does.

I wonder if anyone can hear in the second movement,

there's a theme in there

that echoes a song called All By Myself by Eric Carmen.

Some people remember that it was used in Bridget Jones!

LOUD CHEERING

And I think he's going to give us an encore.

SILENCE DESCENDS

PIECE ENDS

LOUD APPLAUSE

Denis Matsuev performed

Rachmaninov's Prelude Number 5 in G Minor, Opus 23 -

a particular favourite with pianists.

Rachmaninov himself premiered the piece

on 10th February, 1903, in Moscow.

I don't know about you, but I have the feeling, when I listen to Rachmaninov's music,

-it's as if even when he smiles, it's somehow through tears.

-Absolutely.

There's always tragedy and yet, that's a phenomenal performance

by Denis Matsuev again, rousing to the end!

In the second half of tonight's Prom,

Han-Na Chang and the Qatar Philharmonic

will be playing music by another great Russian romantic.

But before we leave the world of Rachmaninov,

there's one more fact about his Second Piano Concerto that's intrigued scholars for decades -

he dedicated it to his hypnotist Dr Nikolay Dahl,

who helped him to overcome a creative block lasting almost three years.

The trigger had been the catastrophic premiere

of his First Symphony in St Petersburg in 1897.

There were accounts that the conductor was drunk at the time of the premiere,

that there wasn't enough rehearsal time, they changed the venue,

and as a result of all of those factors, the reviews were awful

and Rachmaninov took it quite badly.

-I'm convinced there's been no drinking going on with the Qatar Philharmonic.

-No, definitely not.

-Obviously, they've had lots of rehearsal time and sound fantastic.

-They do.

But as a singer as you are, I'm a violinist, I mean,

-to work so hard to create something and for it to be such a failure, I mean...

-Yeah.

-What can that have felt like to...?

-We don't often talk about our worst performances,

but a bad performance, a bad review, a bad reception of something that's very personal,

it can really ruin your confidence.

And, I suppose, if you're a singer and you get a bad review,

you might be able to say to yourself,

"OK, well, maybe it's just the interpretation that I gave of the particular work."

With a composer, the interpretation is 100% your creation,

so a bad review can be incredibly destructive,

and in the case of Rachmaninov, he was very affected by all of this

and he fell into an abyss of drinking and depression.

-It became very toxic.

-But he turned to hypnotherapy.

-Yeah.

-At least, that's what we're told.

-It's pretty interesting.

It actually took place over three months

and there are some accounts that say that he may have

just gone over there to court Dr Dahl's lovely young daughter.

He was a family friend though. I mean, what do you think?

-Which one do you think was true?

-It's very difficult, in hindsight,

but he did dedicate the piece to Dr Dahl.

-I think the fact that he came out of it, a comeback, if you like...

-Absolutely!

..and with such a phenomenal piece!

Thank goodness Rachmaninov recovered!

-Well, it was ultimately a huge success, wasn't it?

-Yes.

-So it all worked out in the end.

-Yeah.

There's another success story here tonight -

the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra

and its music director, Han-Na Chang, from South Korea.

She's fast emerging as one of the brightest conducting talents of her generation,

but she initially achieved remarkable success

as a cellist, winning both the First prize

and the Contemporary Music Prize

in the Fifth Rostropovich International Cello Competition in Paris

in 1994 at the age of just 11.

Well, I was born into a very musical family.

My mother is a composer and my father loves music,

and I'm an only child!

So, we always had music in the home

and my parents thought that it would be lovely

to have music as a lifelong friend.

At the age of three, I started to play around on the piano.

I moved onto the cello at the age of six,

thanks to my parents, who gave me the instrument as a gift.

And, a few years later, when I was 11 years old,

I went to play for Rostropovich at the Rostropovich competition.

Won the first prize,

and that started my career off.

The move from cello to conducting was very natural for me, actually.

It didn't happen overnight. There were all these great symphonies

I wanted to perform and then I started learning conducting,

studying the technique of conducting.

I remember hearing this wonderful interview from Herbert von Karajan,

when he said, "A mark of the great orchestra

"is that they are able to give back to the conductor,

"something greater than what the conductor expected."

And I look forward every single day,

to every single orchestra rehearsal that I do

because always there's anticipation.

This is what I came here with, this is my vision,

this is what I suggest to you.

Now, give me that sound, the early morning,

the sun just about rising and birds starting to sing. That kind of sound?

And, what do they give back to me!

I cannot wait. It's like opening a gift!

Opening a present, you know!

We have 30 different nationalities in the orchestra.

But all within a similar generation.

It's a young orchestra, naturally,

and I was asked to become their music director from September 2013.

Our common language during the rehearsals is English,

everybody speaks English very well.

But, what unites us is the music.

The heartbeat of the music that we're performing.

The members must agree with the music director's vision,

suggestion of sound

and I think we've done great work collaborating together

to finding this sound.

For example, same part of the bow,

the same speed of bow, breathe together.

If one of your colleagues are playing a little bit flat, then adjust!

That kind of thing that one takes for granted in an orchestra

with a long tradition, we cannot take for granted.

We work for it very hard and it's been a journey of discovery.

Allegro vivace, no?

SHE VOCALISES

Shorter! If you're in doubt, don't play longer than your colleagues.

Allegro vivace, please.

Quite a few European orchestras, they just say,

"We don't invite female conductors." Period.

And my manager has heard this from two or three, four orchestras.

So, this kind of mentality, I hope will go away within the next 20-30 years for the next generation.

I had the most amazing experience three months ago in Qatar

when I had a 12-year-old Qatari girl come up to me and say,

"You're my role model. I'm going to be a conductor when I grow up."

And I was just so happy and thrilled to hear this! That's the way to go!

That's why we are here! To share music and joy of music making.

Her eyes were sparkling and I was just so happy to hear that.

Han-Na Chang.

She'll be back on stage shortly

to conduct one of my favourite works -

Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.

Tchaikovsky wrote it at his summer house near Moscow -

and unlike his Fourth Symphony,

composed a decade earlier,

it was written at a fairly stable time in his personal life.

He'd recently finished an international tour conducting his own music.

And the idyllic summer location proved helpful to inspiration,

although he was plagued by self-doubt

and even described the introduction to the symphony as "a complete resignation before fate."

The audience, however, loved the Fifth Symphony,

but after the premiere -

which Tchaikovsky conducted himself in St Petersburg in 1888 - the critics reacted negatively.

Tchaikovsky later wrote, "Having played my symphony twice in Petersburg

"and once in Prague, I have come to the conclusion that it is a failure."

Fortunately, he did manage to recover and yet,

there's a great parallel between these two composers.

That's why I think this programme is so great tonight.

They both went through depressions in earlier life,

they both went through an artistic block.

-And they did know each other, even though there was a difference in years?

-Yes, they did meet.

Tchaikovsky was already a famous and established composer

at the time, but Rachmaninov was only 12.

They met at the home of Rachmaninov's piano teacher,

a man by the name of Nikolay Tzverev.

Very severe teacher, but a very good teacher.

Tchaikovsky took a liking to him immediately and saw his great talent

and watched over Rachmaninov during his schooling at the conservatory.

His piano composition for his final in school,

Tchaikovsky gave him five stars and then added four little pluses

to the score on his paper.

-That's wonderful.

-A stunning grade from someone like Tchaikovsky.

Of course, he was duly devastated after his death.

As I think so many people were. It was unexpected.

And Rachmaninov went straight to the piano

and sat down and started to write his second piano trio

which he dedicated to the memory of "a great artist".

To Tchaikovsky. And I think it's important to say

that it's impossible to get away from Tchaikovsky, even nowadays.

The two main concert halls in Moscow are named after Tchaikovsky

and the Russians, if I may say so, are very good at collective grief.

Especially when it comes to major figures, major musical figures.

And I think this overwhelmed so many people.

I think it took Rachmaninov a long time before he got over this terrible loss.

I think Rachmaninov was deeply dependent on Tchaikovsky

who was obviously his idol.

But I think he was also haunted by his reputation.

How was he ever going to measure up to his idol?

A man who has had many halls named after him.

If I can say, Tchaikovsky was also a man with a heavy burden,

homosexuality was illegal in Russia at the time.

And he had to keep his sexuality a secret, a very heavy burden to bear.

Not just illegal in Russia, but in England and many countries, in fact.

We know that he suffered as a result.

But this symphony, the Fifth,

perhaps not as popular as the Sixth, and yet, people do love it. I certainly love it.

That horn theme in the second movement, for one.

-Oh! The opening, as well, it's so haunting.

-It's incredible.

Apparently, even in 1941, there was a performance of the Fifth

in Leningrad as the bombs were falling.

And this was, in fact, broadcast live to London.

And, the orchestra stayed at their seats

even though everything was coming down.

And also because it's a symphony about the triumph over grief and over angst,

and in the end, there is some kind of triumph.

-That's correct.

-And so, they held on to the bitter end.

I think that says a lot about what the Russian people felt,

and perhaps, still feel about this piece.

You know, not many people know that Tchaikovsky

had a wealthy Patron Of The Arts. Her name was Nadejzhda von Meck

who paid him 6,000 roubles a year. She was deeply stirred by his music

but she was sort of in awe of him.

She put him on a pedestal and stipulated that they should never meet.

And I think he'd written to her at one point,

"You are the only person in the world whom I'm not ashamed to ask for money.

"First, you are very kind and generous. And second, you are rich."

And thank goodness she supported him!

APPLAUSE

So here comes Han-Na Chang to conduct the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra

in Tchaikovsky's Symphony Number 5.

SILENCE DESCENDS

MOVEMENT ENDS

MURMURING

SILENCE DESCENDS

MOVEMENT ENDS

MURMURING

SILENCE DESCENDS

WILD CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Han-Na Chang conducted the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra

in that performance of Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.

And huge applause here for the orchestra.

Han-Na Chang has appeared twice before at the Proms as a cellist,

but tonight has been her first Prom as a conductor.

-A very successful debut for the Qatar Philharmonic Orchestra, I would say.

-Absolutely.

Well, from dark to light, from tragedy to triumph - what a piece!

Talk about Ha-Na Chang, she's little,

but there's a powerhouse packed inside that small frame!

She really is a powerhouse. She was really going for it.

-What a fantastic performance!

-Gosh, just incredible!

It just confirms what a great season this has been

with so many orchestras from around the world.

Oh, it's been incredible tonight,

playing two very closely linked composers as we've seen.

A wonderful programme.

A culmination of all of the emotion in Russian music.

And that brings us to the end of this evening's Prom -

and the last Prom here on BBC FOUR.

Tomorrow night, I hope you'll tune in to the climax of the season -

The Last Night Of The Proms, starting at 7.30 on BBC TWO.

Katie Derham will be here with music ranging

from the late Sir John Tavener's iconic Song For Athene

to William Walton's Facade.

And the grand finale continues on BBC ONE at 9.10.

Don't miss the Mary Poppins sing-along around the UK

as we celebrate the 50th anniversary of that classic Walt Disney film.

There'll be all the traditional favourites, too.

-But for now, from Daniel and myself, good night.

-Good night.