0:00:03 > 0:00:05Tonight's Prom is a meeting of greats. Proms legend
0:00:05 > 0:00:07Bernard Haitink conducts the Chamber Orchestra of Europe,
0:00:07 > 0:00:10treating us to music by Mozart and Schumann.
0:00:32 > 0:00:34Hello, and a very warm welcome from me,
0:00:34 > 0:00:37Roderick Williams, at the Royal Albert Hall.
0:00:37 > 0:00:39I'm taking a break from singing tonight to present for you
0:00:39 > 0:00:42an evening of eagerly anticipated music-making.
0:00:42 > 0:00:46Conductor Bernard Haitink - still going strong in his 88th year -
0:00:46 > 0:00:49makes a staggering 89th Proms appearance.
0:00:49 > 0:00:53His first was in 1966, the year that England won the World Cup.
0:00:53 > 0:00:55And I'm sure the England team would be envious
0:00:55 > 0:00:58of his international success since then.
0:00:58 > 0:00:59Born in Amsterdam,
0:00:59 > 0:01:02he's been principal conductor of a formidable list of
0:01:02 > 0:01:04world orchestras, and we are particularly fortunate
0:01:04 > 0:01:06to have enticed him to the UK,
0:01:06 > 0:01:08first with the London Philharmonic Orchestra,
0:01:08 > 0:01:09then to Glyndebourne,
0:01:09 > 0:01:13and then 15 years as Head of Music at the Royal Opera Covent Garden,
0:01:13 > 0:01:15where he made memorable contributions to the
0:01:15 > 0:01:18fly-on-the-wall documentary The House.
0:01:18 > 0:01:21And let's not forget the phenomenal Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
0:01:21 > 0:01:24Considered to be one of the finest chamber orchestras
0:01:24 > 0:01:26in the world, it was founded back in 1981
0:01:26 > 0:01:28by a group of young musicians
0:01:28 > 0:01:32who'd grown too old for the European Union Youth Orchestra.
0:01:32 > 0:01:3613 of the original members are still in the ensemble.
0:01:36 > 0:01:39Haitink and this orchestra create an amazing sound together,
0:01:39 > 0:01:43and tonight, the sound in the first half is all about Mozart -
0:01:43 > 0:01:46Isabelle Faust performs Mozart's Third Violin Concerto,
0:01:46 > 0:01:51but before that, it's the Prague Symphony No 38.
0:01:51 > 0:01:53The 30-year-old Mozart hadn't written a symphony in three years
0:01:53 > 0:01:57before he composed this one in 1786.
0:01:57 > 0:01:59Vienna was finding his music too complex,
0:01:59 > 0:02:03but he hoped for a more sophisticated audience in Prague.
0:02:03 > 0:02:06"My Praguers understand me," commented Mozart.
0:02:06 > 0:02:07And, indeed, they did,
0:02:07 > 0:02:09for it was the Prague Opera that commissioned him
0:02:09 > 0:02:12to write Don Giovanni, a work which has many a musical echo
0:02:12 > 0:02:18in this symphony, especially in the grand and ominous opening bars.
0:02:18 > 0:02:21Unusually, it has three movements instead of the customary four,
0:02:21 > 0:02:24as Mozart missed out on a minuet altogether.
0:02:24 > 0:02:27It also has more virtuoso passages and woodwind solos
0:02:27 > 0:02:29than in Mozart's previous symphonies.
0:02:29 > 0:02:32APPLAUSE
0:02:39 > 0:02:41And here he is, Bernard Haitink,
0:02:41 > 0:02:45to open tonight's Prom with Mozart's Prague Symphony.
0:31:15 > 0:31:18APPLAUSE
0:31:24 > 0:31:28Mozart's Prague Symphony, performed by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe,
0:31:28 > 0:31:32with the leader, Lorenza Borrani, and conducted by Bernard Haitink.
0:31:33 > 0:31:35What a delightful scamper that last movement is.
0:31:35 > 0:31:38Everybody clearly enjoying themselves.
0:31:38 > 0:31:42Bernard Haitink hardly the picture of the tyrannical conductor,
0:31:42 > 0:31:45more a man at a gathering of old friends.
0:31:48 > 0:31:51Sir Simon Rattle said he could always tell
0:31:51 > 0:31:53when Haitink had conducted the Berlin Philharmonic
0:31:53 > 0:31:56because they sounded more relaxed, spacious and expressive.
0:31:56 > 0:31:59And you can really feel how responsive these world-class
0:31:59 > 0:32:01musicians are under his baton.
0:32:06 > 0:32:09Well, next tonight we're going to hear Mozart's Third Violin Concerto,
0:32:09 > 0:32:12with soloist Isabelle Faust.
0:32:12 > 0:32:15Written in 1775, when Mozart was just 19 -
0:32:15 > 0:32:18just a teenager still - he called this his Strasbourg Concerto -
0:32:18 > 0:32:21a reference to the Strasbourger,
0:32:21 > 0:32:23a folk tune that appears in the final movement.
0:32:23 > 0:32:26Throughout the piece, you can hear how Mozart takes delight
0:32:26 > 0:32:29in playing the soloist off against the orchestra,
0:32:29 > 0:32:31especially in the finale rondo, with its little echo games,
0:32:31 > 0:32:35or the wonderful extra gavotte that breaks out of a pizzicato strings.
0:32:35 > 0:32:38I'm often reminded of Mozart as a virtuosic keyboard player,
0:32:38 > 0:32:42with all his sonatas, concertos, or even in the glockenspiel part
0:32:42 > 0:32:45he used to improvise for Papageno in the Magic Flute.
0:32:45 > 0:32:48It's easy to forget that he was also a superb violinist.
0:32:48 > 0:32:51And we know from his letters that he performed the Strasbourg Concerto
0:32:51 > 0:32:55at least once, writing that his performance, "Went like oil.
0:32:55 > 0:32:57"Everyone praised my beautiful, pure tone."
0:32:59 > 0:33:01Our violinist tonight, Isabelle Faust,
0:33:01 > 0:33:02places particular emphasis
0:33:02 > 0:33:06on going back to primary sources to reach her interpretation.
0:33:06 > 0:33:09She says her goal in such intensive research is to
0:33:09 > 0:33:11get into what the composer wants.
0:33:11 > 0:33:15Isabelle will play in the tuttis, as is authentic to the period,
0:33:15 > 0:33:17and she's playing cadenzas written by
0:33:17 > 0:33:19the German fortepianist Andreas Staier.
0:33:28 > 0:33:31APPLAUSE
0:33:31 > 0:33:34Soloist Isabelle Faust takes the stage with her instrument,
0:33:34 > 0:33:39the 1704 Stradivarius, known as the Sleeping Beauty violin,
0:33:39 > 0:33:41to perform Mozart's Third Violin Concerto
0:33:41 > 0:33:43with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
0:57:17 > 0:57:20APPLAUSE
0:57:28 > 0:57:32Isabelle Faust, the soloist in Mozart's Third Violin Concerto,
0:57:32 > 0:57:34with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe,
0:57:34 > 0:57:36conducted by Bernard Haitink.
0:57:37 > 0:57:40Please excuse me if I react like a singer, but I thought
0:57:40 > 0:57:43she sang beautifully, especially in the second movement.
0:57:45 > 0:57:47It's also wonderful to see how the members
0:57:47 > 0:57:49of the Chamber Orchestra of Europe
0:57:49 > 0:57:51clearly enjoyed her playing throughout.
0:57:59 > 0:58:02Isabelle will be returning to the Proms later in the season,
0:58:02 > 0:58:05when she'll be playing Mendelssohn's lyrical Violin Concerto In E Minor
0:58:05 > 0:58:08with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales.
0:58:08 > 0:58:11That will be on Sunday, 3rd September, live on Radio 3.
0:58:19 > 0:58:21She started playing the violin at the age of five,
0:58:21 > 0:58:24two years after her father started learning as an amateur.
0:58:24 > 0:58:28"He asked me if I would like to do the same thing," Faust recalls.
0:58:28 > 0:58:31"I said yes, and went with him to one of his lessons."
0:59:41 > 0:59:44So, still to come, Schumann's Second Symphony performed
0:59:44 > 0:59:47by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and conducted by Bernard Haitink.
0:59:47 > 0:59:50And let's talk a little bit more about Bernard Haitink.
0:59:50 > 0:59:53I don't expect he'd remember my solo Proms debut
0:59:53 > 0:59:55under his baton 21 years ago.
0:59:55 > 0:59:57It was in Verdi's Don Carlos,
0:59:57 > 0:59:59and my tiny role lasted only eight bars.
0:59:59 > 1:00:02But the occasion left quite an impression on me -
1:00:02 > 1:00:05I have to admit I was a little bit starstruck.
1:00:05 > 1:00:08Haitink is loved the world over by musicians and audiences alike,
1:00:08 > 1:00:11and his relationship with the Proms is a particularly close one,
1:00:11 > 1:00:14going way back to 1966.
1:00:14 > 1:00:17So, before the second part of this concert, let's take
1:00:17 > 1:00:21a look at one of his very first televised appearances here.
1:00:36 > 1:00:39I don't believe in too much democracy,
1:00:39 > 1:00:42but I don't believe at all in too much dictatorship.
1:00:47 > 1:00:50The profession of an orchestra musician is extremely difficult
1:00:50 > 1:00:52because you can't do things by yourself,
1:00:52 > 1:00:56you have always to do something another man will ask of you.
1:01:02 > 1:01:04An orchestra player will always do his best
1:01:04 > 1:01:09when he feels that the man who conducts him has a musical ID.
1:01:16 > 1:01:19So when I don't get what I ask, I try to explain it -
1:01:19 > 1:01:22not with words, I don't believe at all in words -
1:01:22 > 1:01:25but you can do it with your hands, with your face.
1:01:30 > 1:01:33Bernard Haitink conducting Mendelssohn in 1973.
1:01:34 > 1:01:36Now, onwards with tonight's concert.
1:01:36 > 1:01:40In September 1845, Robert Schumann wrote to his friend
1:01:40 > 1:01:42Felix Mendelssohn, saying "For several days,
1:01:42 > 1:01:46"drums and trumpets in the key of C have been sounding in my mind.
1:01:46 > 1:01:48"I have no idea what will come of it."
1:01:48 > 1:01:50Well, we're about to find out,
1:01:50 > 1:01:53as Schumann's Second Symphony is coming up next.
1:01:53 > 1:01:56That C major key is the first thing that's fascinating
1:01:56 > 1:01:57about this symphony.
1:01:57 > 1:01:59Such a bright, optimistic key.
1:01:59 > 1:02:03Now, you might well think that's rather plain and unremarkable,
1:02:03 > 1:02:05except that Schumann spent so much of his life
1:02:05 > 1:02:08enduring the very opposite of C major optimism.
1:02:08 > 1:02:10He was beset by mental illness -
1:02:10 > 1:02:14he would now maybe be diagnosed as bipolar - as well as being
1:02:14 > 1:02:18tormented by physical conditions from tinnitus to syphilis.
1:02:18 > 1:02:22By choosing the open, heroic simplicity of C major it's as if
1:02:22 > 1:02:24he was trying to dominate his mental struggles.
1:02:24 > 1:02:26Schumann himself said,
1:02:26 > 1:02:30"My resistant spirit has a visible influence on the Second Symphony,
1:02:30 > 1:02:34"and it is through that that I sought to fight my condition."
1:02:34 > 1:02:36Such can be the power of music indeed.
1:02:37 > 1:02:40My own experience of Schumann's music is mostly through miniatures,
1:02:40 > 1:02:42songs that last a matter of minutes,
1:02:42 > 1:02:44even if they eventually build into song cycles
1:02:44 > 1:02:46that can last half an hour.
1:02:46 > 1:02:49But in his symphonies Schumann is seeking to express
1:02:49 > 1:02:51himself on a grander scale.
1:02:51 > 1:02:53And let's not forget the wider context in which Schumann
1:02:53 > 1:02:55was writing the Second Symphony.
1:02:55 > 1:02:59We've moved on two generations from the Mozart we heard in part one.
1:02:59 > 1:03:03And now the shadow of the mighty symphonist Beethoven loomed large.
1:03:03 > 1:03:06One can only imagine the pressure that Schumann - a fellow German -
1:03:06 > 1:03:10must have felt at the Second's premiere in November 1846.
1:03:10 > 1:03:13In the event, Mendelssohn, Schumann's devoted champion,
1:03:13 > 1:03:17conducted, but it still wasn't well received.
1:03:17 > 1:03:20Nowadays, Schumann's symphonies are far better understood
1:03:20 > 1:03:23and revered within the context of his life's work.
1:03:23 > 1:03:26And who better to bring the symphony to life tonight
1:03:26 > 1:03:27than Bernard Haitink?
1:03:32 > 1:03:35APPLAUSE
1:03:38 > 1:03:42And here he is, to conduct the Chamber Orchestra of Europe
1:03:42 > 1:03:44with the leader, Lorenza Borrani,
1:03:44 > 1:03:46in Schumann's Second Symphony.
1:41:46 > 1:41:50APPLAUSE
1:41:59 > 1:42:04Schumann's Second Symphony comes to a triumphant close there.
1:42:04 > 1:42:07Bernard Haitink conducting the Chamber Orchestra of Europe
1:42:07 > 1:42:10in a wonderful performance of that symphony.
1:42:20 > 1:42:22Schumann said that he had started to feel better
1:42:22 > 1:42:24by the time he wrote the final movement,
1:42:24 > 1:42:28and it certainly sounds that way with the triumphant finale.
1:42:40 > 1:42:42Bernard Haitink returning to the stage.
1:42:42 > 1:42:45The 88-year-old man has said,
1:42:45 > 1:42:48"Every conductor, including myself, has a sell-by date."
1:42:48 > 1:42:51Well, judging by the vigour with which he conducted
1:42:51 > 1:42:52that final movement,
1:42:52 > 1:42:54he's certainly not reached that stage yet.
1:42:59 > 1:43:03And Bernard Haitink, not content to take the applause himself,
1:43:03 > 1:43:07is raising members of the chamber orchestra who played
1:43:07 > 1:43:09so phenomenally throughout this evening.
1:43:26 > 1:43:29And he seems to be returning to the podium.
1:43:38 > 1:43:41MUSIC: Scherzo from A Midsummer Night's Dream by Felix Mendelssohn
1:48:13 > 1:48:15APPLAUSE
1:48:27 > 1:48:30Special recognition there for Josine Buter
1:48:30 > 1:48:33and Clara Andrada, the two flautists there,
1:48:33 > 1:48:36scampering through the scherzo from Mendelssohn's
1:48:36 > 1:48:39Midsummer Night's Dream.
1:48:39 > 1:48:40A perfect encore,
1:48:40 > 1:48:43nearly 50 years after that archive performance we saw earlier.
1:48:45 > 1:48:48What a sparkling finish to a fantastic concert
1:48:48 > 1:48:51from Bernard Haitink and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
1:48:51 > 1:48:54The Proms will be back on BBC 4 next Friday
1:48:54 > 1:48:56with a special celebration of another Proms legend -
1:48:56 > 1:48:58Sir Malcolm Sargent.
1:48:58 > 1:49:02But, for now, from me, Roderick Williams, good night.