Mark Elder Conducts the Halle BBC Proms

Legendary conductor Sir Mark Elder plus the wonderful Halle Orchestra

and truly inspiring music from Berlioz, Mahler and Colin Matthews.

Sounds like the formula for a perfect concert.

Hello and a very warm welcome from me, Hannah French,

at the Royal Albert Hall.

As a musicologist,

I'm delighted to be indulging my passion and profession this evening

and we're going to be enjoying some amazing music.

French early-Romantic Hector Berlioz' Overture King Lear,

Austrian late-Romantic Gustav Mahler's masterwork Das Lied von der Erde

and the beautifully poignant Berceuse for Dresden

by contemporary composer Colin Matthews,

who'll also be giving an insight

into his work later in the programme.

First this evening, Berlioz's King Lear.

It's 1831 and hothead Berlioz is en route from Rome to Paris,

where he intends to assassinate his fiancee, also her mother

who broke off the engagement and the newly intended husband.

He has a disguise and a plan, but he stops off in Nice.

He decides it's foolish and, instead,

he indulges his love of Shakespeare,

composing an overture to one of the most tragic of tragedies, King Lear.

It's not a retelling of the play,

but a general representation of its mood

with events and characters worked into a logical musical sequence.

You can hear the strong influence of Beethoven in the opening theme,

the low strings which begin a long introduction

start in proud strength, but die away to an abstracted mutter,

clearly portraying the stubborn, once masterful king.

Listen out, too, for Cordelia -

she's represented by the oboe -

and the entrance of Lear into the council chamber,

announced on the timpani.

The intensity of the music certainly mirrors the atmosphere of the play -

the storm on the heath, the prison scene and, later, Cordelia's lament.

APPLAUSE

Sir Mark Elder to conduct the Halle

with the leader of the orchestra, Lyn Fletcher,

in Berlioz's Overture King Lear.

APPLAUSE

Sir Mark Elder and the Halle in that invigorating performance

of Berlioz's Overture King Lear in this,

the 400th year since Shakespeare's death.

Sir Mark has been musical director of the Halle since 2000.

It's clearly a lasting relationship with bags of mutual respect.

Still to come is Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

Often described as a "song symphony",

it's an emotional rollercoaster into Mahler's feelings

on love, loss, life and death.

But before that, we've got the London premiere

of Colin Matthews' Berceuse for Dresden

with German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich.

In February 1945, Allied forces' bombing of Dresden

destroyed its baroque jewel, the Frauenkirche.

In the aftermath,

the church was left in ruins as a stark war memorial,

but, following the reunification of Germany in 1990,

it was rebuilt and finally reconsecrated

just over ten years ago.

To mark the event, the Friends Of Dresden Music Foundation

commissioned British composer Colin Matthews

to write an orchestral piece.

The result, Berceuse for Dresden for cello and orchestra,

is a lamenting lullaby that weaves the sounds of the Frauenkirche bells

into an atmospheric wash of orchestral colours.

The creative process and the story behind this work

reflects the theme of reconciliation,

as Colin Matthews himself now explains.

I wrote the piece for the rebuilding of the Frauenkirche

and the concept was to have a German cellist,

a British composer and an American orchestra -

the New York Philharmonic - as a sort of gesture of reconciliation.

EXPLOSIONS

-NEWSREEL:

-'As night falls, bombers of the British Royal Air Force

'and darkness of Dresden, the capital of Saxony, becomes a fantasy

'of the destructive pyrotechnics of the air war.'

The first performance was one of the most moving experiences of my life -

to see, in particular, what it meant to the people of Dresden

to see this symbol, which had been a ruin for so long, rebuilt

and the gesture of reconciliation

between the three nationalities was something very special.

A berceuse is...

You might call it a "cradle song" and I deliberately chose that title

and that form because I wanted it to be lyrical for the soloist

to almost sing with the orchestra.

I absolutely resisted the idea of writing anything that was fierce.

I wanted the feeling of reconciliation

to be part of the piece so although it builds to a big swelling climax,

the cello writing is never virtuosic.

It sings along with the orchestra.

BELLS PEAL

I wanted to use the bells of the Frauenkirche

because they seem to be such a symbol of the church

and they're remarkable.

Of course, they've all been recast.

The originals were all completely destroyed

and I used their pitches - there are eight of them -

to underlie the whole structure of the piece and then, halfway through,

the bells themselves come in and gradually build up to a huge peal,

which almost overwhelms the orchestra.

BELLS PEAL

I haven't yet heard it in the Albert Hall itself,

but the bells have been rearranged

so that they are on separate tracks

and will be on speakers from the gallery, where I hope

they will have the sort of sound as if they were from a cathedral.

I think that the Albert Hall is the ideal place for it.

APPLAUSE

Soloist cellist Leonard Elschenbroich

with conductor Sir Mark Elder.

The Halle performing the London premiere

of Colin Matthews' Berceuse for Dresden.

BELLS PEAL

BELLS PEAL

BELLS PEAL

APPLAUSE

Sir Mark Elder and the Halle performing the London premiere

of Colin Matthews' Berceuse for Dresden -

the soloist, German cellist Leonard Elschenbroich.

An exquisite performance

from the former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist.

There's Colin Matthews, the composer.

He was Benjamin Britten's last musical assistant

and, interestingly, he completed his doctorate on Mahler

and assisted Deryck Cooke

on his completion of Mahler's Tenth Symphony.

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

This is Colin Matthews' second appearance at the Proms this year.

His first was for Pluto in the National Youth Orchestra Prom.

Matthews' Berceuse captures the essence of the place

and all it stands for now.

Prior to the fall of the Berlin Wall,

the ruins of the Frauenkirche became a symbol for the peace movement

in East Germany - a place where people would gather

in non-violent protest.

And back to take a second bow, Leonard Elschenbroich.

SHE LAUGHS

He looks like he's being encouraged by the composer.

Coming up next, the Halle conducted by Sir Mark Elder

will perform Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde

with mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and tenor Gregory Kunde.

Mahler wrote Das Lied von der Erde or The Song of the Earth

in a frenzied two months in 1908.

It was a response to a heartbreaking trio of tragedies.

He'd just left his post as director of the Vienna Court Opera

under bitter circumstances.

His eldest daughter had died of scarlet fever and diphtheria

and he himself was diagnosed with an incurable heart valve defect.

He found solace in a book of poetry, Hans Bethge's The Chinese Flute,

which was derived from Tang Dynasty literature, and Mahler was inspired

to write a series of songs, which he originally titled The Jade Flute.

The Prommers are in good voice this evening.

The six songs with soloists alternating tenor and alto -

or mezzo-soprano, as it is this evening -

took on symphonic proportions and could have also evolved

into his Ninth Symphony, but Mahler was superstitious and all too aware

that Beethoven and Bruckner had died writing their ninth symphonies.

So, Das Lied von der Erde became known as a symphonic song cycle,

as it fuses the forces and the form of a symphony

with a collection of themed songs

and Mahler returned to numbering symphonies

when he believed the danger was passed.

Through Mahler's intense writing,

the six songs soar the heights and plumb the depths of emotion,

from meditating and reflecting to celebrating and joshing,

and, ultimately, saying farewell with poignancy and hope.

The Halle-Colin Matthews relationship

also continues in this performance.

The first song, Das Trinklied vom Jammer der Erde,

The Drinking Song of the Earth's Sorrow,

always presents challenges in the balance

between orchestra and soloist

so, in 2012, at Sir Mark's bidding, Matthews re-orchestrated it

and that's the version we'll be hearing this evening.

APPLAUSE

The Prommers giving a warm welcome to our soloists,

mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and tenor Gregory Kunde.

Sir Mark Elder with the Halle

for tonight's performance of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

APPLAUSE

Sir Mark Elder and the Halle in Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde.

The soloists - mezzo-soprano Alice Coote and tenor Gregory Kunde.

CHEERING

"Imprinted on the atmosphere"

is how Benjamin Britten described Der Abschied,

which is exactly how it feels tonight.

You could hear a pin drop in the Royal Albert Hall

as Alice Coote's final "ewig" faded into silence.

Sir Henry Wood was a champion of Mahler's music.

He gave the British premiere of Das Lied in 1914

and described it in his memoirs

as "accessibly modern, but very beautiful".

CHEERING

Alice Coote has said Der Abschied would work

as the soundtrack to her life.

She used to listen to it

when feeling disgruntled at music college.

Such versatility in her voice,

as well known for singing Mahler and Strauss

as she is for the operas of Handel.

And Gregory, this is his Proms debut.

Such a warm applause for Sir Mark Elder.

CHEERING

It's been a busy evening for the woodwind,

Mahler such a wizard of orchestration.

He writes so magnificently for them.

CHEERING

Mahler's closest friend, the conductor Bruno Walter,

called Das Lied Mahler's most personal work,

perhaps the most personal in music.

And Mahler himself never heard a public performance.

Well, that's it for this evening from me, Hannah French,

in the Royal Albert Hall.

I hope you enjoyed the concert as much as we did here.

If you've caught the Mahler bug,

set yourself a reminder for Friday the 2nd of September,

when Sir Simon Rattle will be performing Symphony No. 7

with the Berlin Philharmonic

and the Proms are back on your screen tomorrow evening

with a Mozart double bill,

starting with the Aurora Orchestra

performing the Jupiter Symphony from memory,

but, for now, a very good evening.