The Sunday Prom: Elgar's Cello Concerto BBC Proms

APPLAUSE

Sex, death, despair and drugs.

It could only be an evening at the BBC Proms.

Good evening, or rather g'day, and welcome to this prom

by one of the great orchestras of the southern hemisphere,

the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

They are conducted by the British chief conductor

and all-time Proms favourite, Sir Andrew Davis.

They have travelled across the globe to bring us

three pieces exploring the extremities of human emotion

from obsessive love to unimaginable loss

as the orchestra from down under make their Proms debut.

Tonight they will be performing Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique,

telling the story of the opium-fuelled despair

of an unhappy lover.

We've also got Elgar's autumnal Cello Concerto,

written after the horrors of the First World War.

But first, we continue the 150th birthday celebrations of Richard Strauss

with his tone poem Don Juan.

Strauss was just 24 when he rocketed onto the international scene

with this work, based on the old Spanish legend of the notorious womaniser.

Strauss was inspired by a version of the story by the Austrian poet Nikolaus Lenau,

in which the Don's promiscuity isn't just for fun

but simply shows his determination to keep on looking

until he finds the ideal woman, who obviously doesn't exist.

The Don gives up, disillusioned,

and allows himself to be killed in a duel.

APPLAUSE

So dramatic stuff in store, then,

and to conduct it, Sir Andrew Davis,

conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

in Richard Strauss's Don Juan.

APPLAUSE

That sweeping and dramatic performance of Richard Strauss's Don Juan.

Sir Andrew Davis conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

in their Proms debut, here at the Royal Albert Hall.

Notoriously difficult music, Don Juan.

After the first ever rehearsal,

a horn player apparently came up to Strauss,

sweat pouring from his brow, and said, "Good God,

"in what way have we sinned

"that you should have sent us this scourge?"

SHOUTS OF "BRAVO!"

Cheers for the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra,

brought to their feet by their chief conductor, Sir Andrew Davis, there.

Obviously enjoying every minute.

They were showing off their command

of this gorgeously voluptuous music, weren't they,

depicting Don Juan's love conquests.

The composer told the musicians at the first rehearsal,

"I would ask those of you who are married to play

"as if you were engaged, then all will be well."

Sir Edward Elgar was 57 when the First World War was declared.

He was too old to serve.

But the horrors of the war affected him deeply

and when he came to compose a cello concerto in the summer of 1919,

what resulted was a masterpiece suffused with sadness.

At the end of the score, Elgar wrote "RIP"

and this proved to be doubly moving,

referring not just to the millions who lost their lives in the war

but also putting a seal on the end of his long composing career.

In the remaining 15 years of his life,

he never finished another substantial work.

Yesterday in rehearsal,

Sir Andrew Davis went walkabout

with the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra's Australian associate conductor,

Ben Northey, to discuss the work.

With the Cello Concerto, there's this wonderful...

um...

melancholy about it,

this sort of tenderness that I think is...

very English quality and it's certainly a very Elgarian quality.

I always feel it's sort of private.

He is sort of baring his soul,

almost more than any other piece that he wrote.

-Yes. Very inward...inward looking.

-Yeah.

-And introspective.

It is very sparse, isn't it, actually, in the way that it opens.

-Absolutely.

-You know, this openness of that first movement,

of course, the slow movement.

Yes, and actually,

the orchestral colours

are very much more severe, in a way...

The opulence of the symphonies is a thing of the past.

Hearing Elgar in Australia which,

as you know, is rich in numbers of British expatriates

and, you know, people who have had experience with this music at home,

-you can see the effect that that has on British people...

-Yes.

But interestingly,

it has a very similar effect on Australians as well.

They feel very bonded to this music because of the great traditions

that we have and all of those things that we share,

all of those...the wartime experiences...

Yes, and which is also, you know,

the First World War had really affected him very profoundly.

You can see that from the letters and this sense that he saw this,

-the world as he knew it, sort of crumbling around him.

-Yes.

And Elgar sort of became part of a generation that was no longer

relevant to a lot of people.

This was clearly the end of a big chapter in English music, wasn't it?

Well, it was sort of the end of a chapter in world history, really.

And Elgar reflects that in a very touching way, I think.

It's a piece that says goodbye to a world that he had known

and it does open a new chapter,

just because of the intimacy of the piece

and the scaling down of the piece,

it kind of looks towards the future.

It is, indeed, the end of an era.

APPLAUSE

And here comes tonight's soloist, the Norwegian cellist Truls Mork,

with Sir Andrew Davis to conduct

the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra in Elgar's Cello Concerto.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

It never fails to touch and stir the emotions, that, does it?

Elgar's Cello Concerto, performed there by Truls Mork,

visibly moved, frequently, throughout the performance,

as, indeed, were many of the audience.

Sir Andrew Davis conducting the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Elgar began work on his Cello Concerto in 1919

but it had been on his mind for a while.

In 1918 he'd had an operation - not a minor one, either.

When he came round from the anaesthetic,

he asked for a pencil and paper and he sketched down

what was to become the first theme of his Cello Concerto.

APPLAUSE

You know, he always says that he thinks the cello is basically

a singing instrument, the instrument that mimics the human voice most closely,

having the same register, the same melodic qualities.

And he certainly made it sing tonight.

HE BEGINS TO PLAY A SOLO PIECE

APPLAUSE

That was a piece called Declamato,

the first movement of Benjamin Britten's Cello Suite Number 2,

Truls Mork's encore here at the BBC Proms.

Written in 1968, almost 50 years after Elgar's Cello Concerto,

the second Cello Suite was dedicated to Britten's great friend,

the Russian cellist Mstislav Rostropovich.

The Melbourne Symphony Orchestra is Australia's oldest orchestra,

founded in 1906.

It has a long, distinguished history

and, as you can see from this remarkable photo from 1913,

they've always had a very enlightened approach.

I think there are more women than men,

an unusual state of affairs for an orchestra even today, let alone 100 years ago.

And it might surprise you that despite tours to the USA

and Canada and Japan and China and all over Europe,

this is the very first time they have performed at the Proms.

Well, earlier today, I met up with a couple of the players

from the orchestra during a break in the rain

here at the Royal Albert Hall.

How would you describe the sound of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

to people who haven't heard them before?

Well, the first word that comes into my mind is warm.

-A warm sound.

-And free. I think free.

-Warm, embracing.

-Yes.

It must exciting being here with your new chief conductor, Sir Andrew Davis.

We have a wonderful relationship with Sir Andrew,

a beautiful relationship, so it's great to celebrate that here.

-Has he changed the way the orchestra play, do you think?

-Absolutely.

I think there's incredible trust between the orchestra and Sir Andrew

and I think everyone feels free and...ecstatic.

We're going to hear you perform the Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique,

which is a great orchestral showpiece.

Tell me what the highlights are for you in this fantastic piece.

It's such a fascinating journey from the moment it starts until the end.

It just involves the audience as well as all the players,

up to such a level. It's just incredible.

And when you come out onto the stage at the Albert Hall

-for the first time, what are the feelings going to be?

-I think I'll be...

It'll be pretty hard to keep the tears back, I think.

So the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra finish off their Proms debut

with Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique.

It is music with a story behind it,

a sort of sonic novel in five chapters,

telling of an artist who falls in love with

the ideal woman - no doubt the same one Strauss's Don Juan was after.

Berlioz's hero is tortured by her vision at a grand ball

and he tries to escape to the countryside.

He dreams of her murder before finally poisoning himself with opium.

But the dose is too weak and he has a ghoulish hallucination

of his love dancing with witches at a devilish orgy.

And if you think that sounds crazy, wait until you hear the music.

Berlioz brings every ounce of his epic imagination

and inspired ambition to this score,

pushing the boundaries of what an orchestra can do

and what a symphony can be.

APPLAUSE

And it's time to strap yourselves in for one of the strangest,

most remarkable pieces of music ever written -

Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique conducted by Sir Andrew Davis.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

A triumphant flourish there from Sir Andrew Davis

at the end of that wonderful performance

of that extraordinary work, Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique,

performed with obvious delight by the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

in this, their Proms debut.

It is Sir Andrew Davis's 70th birthday this year.

You would never guess it, having seen him conducting.

And you'll remember that we last saw him here

on the first night of the Proms, conducting Elgar.

But what a performance from the Melbourne Symphony

and listen to the response they've got here in the Royal Albert Hall.

CHEERING

Sir Andrew Davis bringing all the different sections to their feet.

They said to me earlier how much they love playing for their new chief conductor.

CHEERING

LIGHT-HEARTED ORCHESTRAL PIECE BEGINS

APPLAUSE

And most appropriately, that was a piece by Melbourne's

most famous musical son, Percy Grainger,

his portrait of Handel In The Strand,

and it was arranged by Sir Henry Wood, the co-founder of the Proms.

Well, that is it for now at the BBC Proms.

Tom Service will be back here on BBC4 on Thursday

with a programme of 20th-century masterworks

played by the National Youth Orchestra.

But for now, goodnight from all of us here at the Royal Albert Hall.