The Sunday Prom: Richard Strauss Celebration BBC Proms

On tonight's Sunday Prom, drama, passion

and late-Romantic nostalgia as we celebrate the 150th year

of the birth of the great German composer, Richard Strauss.

Tonight we are in for a treat

as the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

takes to the stage with their chief conductor Vasily Petrenko.

The celebrated Danish soprano, Inger Dam-Jensen,

will perform Strauss' haunting Four Last Songs,

and the BBC Singers will take on the challenge of his magnificent

choral piece, the Deutsche Motette, the German motet.

We'll finish with a touch of British nostalgia -

Edward Elgar's sublime Second Symphony.

But to kick off proceedings,

the Festival Prelude by our birthday boy, Richard Strauss.

It was written in 1913 for the opening gala of

Vienna's concert house, and the inauguration of its organ.

But tonight, the Royal Albert Hall's famous centrepiece will take centre stage,

supporting their huge orchestra with its 9,997 speaking pipes.

ORCHESTRA TUNES

Do listen out for the heckelephone, too,

and if you have never heard of one, there it is - an oboe with

a wider bore and a heavier and more penetrating tone.

APPLAUSE

And here he comes, Vasily Petrenko, to conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

in the mighty Festival Prelude by Richard Strauss.

APPLAUSE

ORGAN PLAYS

APPLAUSE

What can only be described as a rousing start to tonight's Prom.

Richard Strauss' Festival Prelude featuring organist Ian Tracey,

the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,

led tonight by James Clark,

and conducted by Vasily Petrenko.

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

Richard Strauss was also a celebrated conductor, you know.

He made his debut at the tender age of 20 conducting his own music.

His last time conducting in London was in 1947,

right here at the Royal Albert Hall.

Well, tonight's opening works really show Strauss' range

and versatility as a composer.

Written back-to-back in 1913 they conjure up completely different soundscapes.

Feted as a composer for the voice, our next piece is Strauss'

most notoriously difficult choral work.

The Deutsche Motette is a rich

and complex setting of the Friedrich Ruckert poem All Creation Is At Rest.

Written in 16 parts with four main soloists,

it really pushes the singers to their very limits, and as a result it's rarely performed.

But tonight's ensemble, the BBC Singers,

have made this something of a showpiece, as we'll hear.

It's really special to be doing this Strauss Prom

because it's the anniversary of his birth,

but it's also the 90th anniversary of the founding of the BBC Singers.

Well, being in the BBC Singers is an extremely varied experience.

This Prom we are doing Richard Strauss' great Deutsche Motette,

whereas the previous Prom we did was a new piece by the Pet Shop Boys.

The BBC Singers are singing together every day. We're a full-time choir.

And we're so used to working together, and I think that the piece

really does demand a very high professional standard.

Shall we have a policy decision on that, then?

You need extremely low basses,

and also you need sopranos who can sing very high in a very

sustained and quiet way, and you need everybody to be able to keep it in tune.

THEY SING

Terrific, basses, terrific!

Strauss' choral music is often conceived

rather like writing for an orchestra of voices,

and there are moments, such as in the Deutsche Motette,

where you feel he might be thinking of a part of an orchestra -

a high woodwind section or something like that,

but making it work for voices.

THEY SING

Sometimes you're horns, sometimes you're cellos,

and to be part of the texture

and contributing in such an instrumental way,

I think is the unique thing about singing this piece.

For the BBC Singers to be performing this great work

in their 90th anniversary season,

in the 150th anniversary of Strauss' birth,

in the Albert Hall, in the Proms...

Well, it's all set up to be an extremely special occasion.

ORCHESTRA TUNES

APPLAUSE

And here to join the BBC Singers, our soloists this evening -

soprano Suzanne Shakespeare, mezzo-soprano Tara Erraught.

Tenor Adrian Dwyer, and bass, Brindley Sherratt.

And they are all conducted by Vasily Petrenko

to perform the demanding but sumptuous tour de force,

the Deutsche Motette.

SINGING ENDS

APPLAUSE

Vasily Petrenko conducting the BBC Singers in that

intensely beautiful work by Richard Strauss, his Deutsche Motette.

The soloists there, Suzanne Shakespeare and Tara Erraught.

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

And the tenor, Adrian Dwyer, and bass, Brindley Sherratt.

Two soloists there from the BBC Singers, Olivia Robinson

and Elizabeth Poole.

And there's the other soloist from the Singers,

the alto Cherith Millburn-Fryer.

Wonderful performance by the BBC Singers in this,

their 90th birthday year.

And the chorus master, Paul Brough.

And I think they're right to be very pleased with themselves after that performance.

The setting, there, of the poetry of Friedrich Ruckert,

whose words were a powerful inspiration to so many composers.

You know, there are over 100 settings of his poems,

including music by Schubert and Brahms, Schumann and Mahler.

But tonight it's all about Richard Strauss

and a warm response here in the Royal Albert Hall to the BBC Singers

and those marvellous soloists and Vasily Petrenko, the conductor.

Such a tough work. As we heard from the BBC Singers earlier,

the vast vocal range of the Deutsche Motette

is really challenging - four complete octaves

from the bottom C of the bassist to the soprano's top D flat.

150 years after his birth,

Richard Strauss remains one of the most celebrated

and controversial composers of the late Romantic and early modern eras.

Writing as a German composer throughout the turbulent

first half of the twentieth century, Strauss came to write our next piece

in the aftermath of the Second World War.

Germany was in tatters and the repercussions of the devastation

were felt worldwide.

And during this time he wrote some of his most profound music,

including our next work, the Four Last Songs,

one of the final works of a very old man.

We spoke to soloist Inger Dam-Jensen earlier today

after her rehearsal.

I think there's something about sopranos and Strauss

and he had a great feeling of how to put the voice, the tessitura,

and the way it's moving all the time, so it never gets stopped,

it's very natural to sing.

And for me it's perfect because it goes up

and it goes down and there's a great flow.

They are really big songs, for me. They are both very lyric

and very deep.

SHE SINGS

The first one is about spring.

It's thrilling, of course, and you have this...

this fire in the orchestra.

And I like them to do it a little faster than you usually hear them,

because I like them to be fresh at the same time.

And the second one is about autumn.

And everything is getting calmer and then you are having

the two last songs,

Beim Schlafengehen

and the last one, going towards death.

SHE SINGS

And I think he was quite confident going into that

because he sees this light towards the end.

And he's amazed by it.

I think actually the Four Last Songs, they collect every feeling.

It's... And I get the goose bumps here, now, because it's really,

it's really about life. And death.

APPLAUSE

And here she is, the soloist Inger Dam-Jensen to sing

Richard Strauss's Four Last Songs,

with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic

conducted by Vasily Petrenko.

MUSIC ENDS

ORCHESTRA RESUMES

MUSIC ENDS

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Strauss's Four Last Songs.

Performed by Inger Dam-Jensen, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic.

Conducted by Vasily Petrenko.

Just lovely.

The leader, James Clark, there,

who played that exquisite violin solo in the third song,

When Falling Asleep...

..which becomes that, sort of,

sinuous duet with the soloist.

A magic moment.

In fact, James had said it is one of the great melodic masterpieces

written for solo violin.

It must be a real high point for any orchestra musician

to be able to play something like that.

Inger Dam-Jensen, always a favourite here at the Proms.

This is her tenth appearance, since making her debut in 1997,

when, coincidentally, she was also singing Strauss.

The Six Songs, on that occasion.

SUSTAINED APPLAUSE CONTINUES

Bated breath, here in the hall, while she was singing.

The premiere of Strauss's Four Last Songs was given eight months

after his death. And it was given here, at the Royal Albert Hall,

on 22 May, 1950, and the soprano on that occasion was Kirsten Flagstad,

and the Philharmonia Orchestra was conducted

by the great Wilhelm Furtwangler.

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

Those four songs dedicated by the composer,

each one, to a different friend.

One of those friends was the celebrated soprano, Maria Jeritza.

Of course, Strauss loved writing for the soprano voice.

He was married to a soprano and this, I think, surely,

one of his greatest works for a soprano to sing.

Now, we move on to a composer who Richard Strauss

saw as a ground-breaker in English music.

The contemporary he was referring to was none other than Sir Edward Elgar

and we finish tonight's programme with his glorious Second Symphony.

It was dedicated to King Edward VII,

who had died almost exactly a year before.

The end of the Edwardian era marked a time of rapid change and upheaval,

with increasing tensions that would eventually lead

to the First World War and, in many ways, the rather strange

and unsettled atmosphere of the symphony

is a reflection of the time in which it was written.

Elgar conducted the premiere himself, in 1911,

and he was rather shocked when it received cold reviews.

He was often subject to bouts of depression

and was known to worry about the reception of his music.

With the excitement of the coronation of George V

less than a month away, perhaps audiences had expected something

more uplifting or jubilant, not inward-looking and nostalgic.

But after it was championed by conductor Adrian Boult in 1920,

it became one of Elgar's best-loved works -

its four movements describing, in Elgar's words,

"the passionate pilgrimage of a soul".

APPLAUSE

And here comes Vasily Petrenko,

to conduct the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

in Elgar's Second Symphony.

APPLAUSE

ORCHESTRA RESUMES

MUSIC FADES AND CEASES

ORCHESTRA RESUMES

CRESCENDO

MUSIC ENDS ABRUPTLY

ORCHESTRA RESUMES

MUSIC BUILDS

MUSIC FADES TO CLOSE

APPLAUSE

Vasily Petrenko emotionally drained

at the end of that performance of Elgar's Second Symphony...

CHEERING AND APPLAUSE

..conducting the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra,

as ever, with precision and passion.

A fascinating piece of work.

Elgar wrote that piece in less than two months.

He told a friend that he worked at "fever heat" to get it finished.

He headed the symphony

with a quote from the poet Shelley, which said,

"Rarely, rarely, comest thou,

"Spirit of Delight!"

And it's thought that Elgar felt that this piece was an attempt to

give that reticent "Spirit of Delight" a hint

that he really would rather like it to appear more often.

APPLAUSE CONTINUES UNABATED

Vasily Petrenko bringing

all the different sections of the orchestra to their feet.

Warmly congratulating the leader there - James Clark.

INAUDIBLE CONVERSATION

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

I don't know who looks more exhausted.

Alice Elgar, Elgar's wife, thought the symphony was wonderful

and she wrote that "one is led away to regions beyond worlds".

But, as Vasily Petrenko comes out to take another bow, it is time

for us to say goodbye.

That brings us to the end of tonight's Prom.

I hope, though, that you will be able to join me again next Saturday

from Proms Extra on BBC Two.

Tom Service will be with you on Thursday night, here on BBC Four,

with Beethoven's Fourth Symphony and Mozart's Requiem.

It should be great.

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

good night.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING CONTINUE