Julian Lloyd Webber, Chi-chi Nwanoku, David Pickard BBC Proms

It is the return of the magnificent seven, seven whole weeks of Proms

extra. Tonight it is all about contemplation, Paradise and

spirituality, we worship with Elgar and Faure and the Gospel Prom for

your pleasure. Welcome to Proms Extra, the dashing

consort to the very regal Proms, and the season opened with a poignant

tribute. What a first week, and the Proms has

more in store for you over the next seven weeks, just stay with us. I

couldn't do the show alone, why would I! Joining us, in a studio in

the Royal College of music, three distinguished guests. First up, a

guest who has been doing her own orchestral manoeuvres, last year

launching her own orchestra and last week she played in one of her three

Proms with an orchestra, the age of Enlightenment.

Welcome back to Proms Extra family member! For more than four decades

this gentleman was one of the leading cellists in the world,

before 2014, when you retired because of a neck injury, he is

still involved in music, working tirelessly in education, he got the

first licence to bask in the London Underground, did you know that?

Neither did I! He works still in the Birmingham preparatory. --

conservatory. One of the toughest jobs in broadcasting, becoming

director of the BBC Proms, leaving Glyndebourne, consequently, everyone

around here would like to be his friend, for some strange reason(!)

David Picard. Performing at the end of the show, an emerging new talent,

who will be getting his own invitation to perform at the Proms

in the near future, he has just finished his AS-level is and happens

to be the winner of BBC Young Musician 2016, Sheku Kanneh-Mason.

-- AS Levels. Extremely busy year for you. Multi-busy! Fantastic array

of different practices. You were a student here. This is your old

stomping ground. If Walls could talk... I am not going to tell you

what they would say! But, I'm having... I miss playing a lot, but

I do not have much time to miss it at the moment, I have an

extraordinary job and I love it there. Wonderful news. Extraordinary

first week for you as director of the Proms. Wonderful variety but

also a key decision that you had to make on the first night, making a

big change to the programming, putting in a tribute to the victims

of Nice. It is not how I expected the first concert of my first season

to start, I woke up with everybody else to hear the terrible news...

This is a moment when music can speak louder than words, and to play

that, without any introduction, for everybody to understand what that

meant, that is the wonderful thing that music can do. Every body was on

their feet immediately, when you played La Marseillaise. --

everybody. It can really bring people together in an incredible

way, rather like nothing else can. I'm looking forward to our

discussions this evening, do not hold back, thank you for being here.

Without further ado, the deep ocean that is the first night of the

Proms, let's dive in, after the tribute to the Nice victims, it

began with Romeo + Juliet overture by Tchaikovsky, marking the 400th

anniversary of Shakespeare's death. Dosing, Prokofiev, and Nicky Samuels

between the two, and launching the first of many Proms cello

performances was Elgar's Cello Concerto, what is it about this that

makes it resonate so much with audiences. -- closing. It is one of

the test of a great piece of music, that it can take many different

interpretations, I feel that strongly about Elgar, incredibly

responsive work, different concert halls, different audiences and

conductors. Although I have probably played it more than any other

concerto, it was always different, and I think that is one of the great

qualities about this work, for Elgar himself, he said, when he first

heard it played, he said, I never knew that my music or sound so

international, nobody was ever sure if that was a condiment, but it

showed, when it was played by Pablo Casals, that it can be done in

different ways. And in the reflective passages, what we heard,

I really enjoyed it, she did very clever things with the Royal Albert

Hall acoustics, one of the problems for the cello, it can only play to a

certain volume, it is not a trumpet or a violin, that soars above the

orchestra, so you cannot do too much fortissimo in the Albert Hall, that

is the victimisation, it is such a big hall, you want to play out all

the time, but Sol really did it, and that is what you have got to do, you

have got to draw the listeners in. Let's listen to the performance from

the first night, the Argentinian star, rising star, Sol Gabetta,

making her Proms debut. APPLAUSE

With a flourish, Sol Gabetta. Firmly in the spotlight, the cello. Ten

will be performed. Was that a good choice for the first night?

Absolutely perfect. Perfect choice. You know where you are. Really

interesting to hear the quote from Elgar, because I associate this

piece with Jacqueline du Preez, and English countryside and

performances, everything that looks and sounds English, but of course,

it is everybody's peace. -- Jacqueline du Pre. They say that it

went to a slow start, but everybody played, all of the big cellists,

they all had to play it. That is a mark of being a great cellist, those

great players want to play it. What did you think of the performance by

Sol Gabetta? did you think of the performance by

Sol Wonderful, and getting back to what makes a great piece of music,

Elgar, we have always associated with English conductors and soloists

but is now a favourite of all of international conductors, we have

not thought about the conductor, so beautiful. What I have seen doing at

the Barbican, the Elgar Symphony is, sublime, having a Finnish conductor

and an Argentinian soloist, and later we will have a Spaniard as

well... It is really something which the world owns, and not just this

country. Much of the season was programmed before you started, but

are you delighted to see cello in the spotlight? I was a very poor

amateur cellist. I have heard that you still play... My speciality is

this one, playing that with an orange, that gives you an idea of...

You are frowning, I think you can see what it does to the strings!

What does it do to the orange?! I was party animal cellist rather than

serious cellist, but I love the instrument, and everybody loves the

cello, I inherited two or three new Cello Concertos and I was told I had

the option, either not put any more in or out a few more. The great

thing is to not do all the same old ones, how many... Altogether...

Five, I think. And, as you say, the other nice thing, the majority of

the rest are from the 20th or 21st-century. -- all together.

Semi-people writing for the cello, that goes to show what inspiration

it gives to composers. You can continue to relive Elgar's Cello

Concerto and the first night of the Proms for many more nights or

mornings, by going to the BBC Proms website. If you did not already

know, the Proms is not just about listening and going to concerts,

there is talks, singing sessions, films, lots of opportunities to be

involved with the season, and presumably, participation in

classical music is a big thing, something you want to develop. It is

key to me, the whole principle behind the Proms, about bringing the

best of classical music to the widest possible audience, that is as

true today as it was in 1895, we have got to think about what that

audience is and participation is one brilliant way, I think, of getting

young people engaged with classical music. Wings like the ten pieces

project, contributions from all around the country, from young

people, somebody yesterday was speaking so enthusiastically about

it, in the peace they have created around it, it is really brilliant,

the way that people are discovering the world for the first time.

Julian? I wish they would get shown on BBC One at peak time, some great

stuff, they will you deserve to be, brilliant films. You and I have

spent a lot of time with amateur orchestras over the last few months.

We have seen first-hand how people love to play. More than 800 amateur

orchestras in the UK, can you believe it? So many came forward and

wanted to be part of this, and they do not even audition to get into the

orchestra, if they turn up they are welcome. Putting themselves forward,

this series has been something where they want to up their game, expand

their game, it has been fantastic. This is a new series called

altogether now, amateur orchestra competition coming to the BBC very

soon, that is my plug over, in case you did not know, gentlemen. Really

good example of how participation is happening but should be in courage

all the more, especially with young people. If you fancy doing something

different, why not take part in the new initiative by the BBC, Get

Playing, which aims to inspire people to pick up an instrument and

learn it all reacquaint yourself with it, I know that it might be in

the attic, under the bed... Go to the website, and you can get playing

to find out more. You too can join the BBC virtual orchestra, even I am

having a go, be warned! We have a performance coming up by the cellist

Sheku Kanneh-Mason which you will not want to miss. And David Owen

Norris will be returning with Chord of the Week. A lot of noise in the

Albert Hall, at the Proms, you, the audience at home, or listening on

Radio 3, have some of the best seats in the house when it comes to

experiencing the sound from the concert but what if you are in the

velvet seats or standing in the gallery or the arena of the Royal

Albert Hall? With an air to the ground, the wall and ceiling, we

went to find out what it takes to help all come alive with the sound

of music. -- to help the hall, live the sound of music. -- come alive.

If acoustics are right, you do not notice them, it supports the

orchestra, makes the music sound more beautiful, when it is wrong,

when there is an echo, when it is too dry, when you can hear

background noise, when it is wrong, you just know. A bit too soft... We

really need them... Every venue has its own challenges.

It is our job to work out how you best get that experience. In the

rehearsal the conductor will be experimenting with the acoustics and

balance, making it all work. You also want to have somebody in

the audience chairs listening to that rehearsal saying, maybe the

brass should come down, they are too allowed, or maybe have a look at the

orchestral layout. -- too loud. If you have the horns playing onto a

hard surface, of course, the noise was flecked backwards. Depending on

where they are sitting it can be too allowed. -- deflects backwards. You

would not want to play very fast music in a very reverberant church,

because it would get lost in the venue.

They have walls, floors, and ceiling that completely absorbed the sound.

That means when you play the sound goes from the instrument of the

microphone and you do not hear any reflections. The chamber gives us a

sense of what is happening when you take all of the reverberation away.

It is not what you would want from a concert hall. In contrast, you have

the reverberation chamber where you get that wonderful blooming of the

sound. But that is too reverberant and everything turned into a marsh.

The ideal venue somewhere the two here. -- mush.

Science has given us precise details of what an acoustic should be like.

You need this reverberant where you can hear the sound lingering for a

couple of seconds in the space before dying away. But that is going

on all the time. The big acoustic change to the Royal

Albert Hall was in the 1960s when they brought in the mushrooms to

block off the dome. Otherwise the noise would be reflected back onto

the audience and you would hear multiple trumpet and multiple

singers, and that is what the mushrooms on the ceiling are there

to do. Modern acoustic science has shown that people are split into two

groups. Some like clarity where all of the details are obvious. For them

it is better to sit near the front, so they don't get too much

reverberant and they can pick out all of the detail. But there is

another group of people who like to be enveloped in this wash of

reverberation. For them it is better to be maybe up on the first gallery

where you are hearing more of the room and less of the distinct

clarity. We want the audience to have a fantastic experience of the

concept. They have really good music played fantastically and to be

thrilled by the experience of hearing live music.

CHEERING Wonderful. When you are playing in a

big venue, what are you hoping for from the acoustic? A response. A

personal response. Every time you touch the string you want to know

you are making the most beautiful sound possible. And you get an

immediate sensation of, my sound is only going that far, or you get a

feel back from the room and you want to know how you can fill that room.

But I'm also very aware of how it sounds. Quite different when you're

on your own on a stage, which I am sometimes, and sometimes you cannot

always tell how you sound. I remember in the old Festival Hall

feeling terrified in concerts because you felt as though you your

own. It is great in one way because you can hear what you are doing. But

you can be quite terrified. You think everyone can hear what I am

doing in amongst an orchestra. As a member of the audience, did that

mean they were able to clearly pick out individual instruments? I think

they don't, actually. Not necessarily. Julian is shaking his

head. You are right. It was and still is a very strange feeling on

that platform. You feel alone. You can only really hear yourself. But

in the audience it does not sound like that. I think Festival Hall is

a good concert hall because I think it makes people up their game. I

have had some of the best performances of my life there. Also,

we are talking about acoustics, but atmosphere is a crucial part of it.

The Royal Albert Hall is a good case in point. It isn't the perfect

acoustic for every type of music. But it is a fantastic atmosphere

whatever it is. Actually, if you play solo on stage, you would think

a cello would get completely lost in a 6000 seater. But actually it fills

the hall. It is a beautiful sound. You are right, those smaller

groups... Last year I was in the gallery. I was interested if you

could hear all the way up there. It's campaigning across. It can be

fantastic for smaller pieces. -- it is pinging across. Everyone has been

on there, even as diverse as Frank Sinatra. Talking about atmosphere

and acoustics, I think they are linked to the visual aspect of being

in a concert hall. There are some holes in the world where the

audiences are completely blacked out -- halls. I find that I'm helpful. I

think it is a communicative experience for both sides. In the

Royal Albert Hall you can... You would them to be slightly dim, but

you need to know they are there, you don't agree.

CHUCKLES It does help to an extent. I used to

fill the output hall -- fill the Royal Albert Hall, it almost looked

like playing at home. You cannot take in that number. Whereas if you

are playing in a small room, all of your friends and family are there,

it can be more nerve wracking. That is intimidating. The Proms is going

to go to the someone a maker theatre. An exquisite gem of a

theatre. -- Sam Wannamaker. It was about putting music in different

settings. Where music might have a connection. I suppose Shakespeare

and the Globe is kind of a gift in this anniversary year. You would not

necessarily want to hear every single piece of music in that car

park. But actually, with that concrete around it, and the very

enclosed sound, and you... I have played there. With John Adams. It

was the... When I arrived I thought, what have I agreed to do? I had to

park my car, going around, all the way to the top floor. When I got

there it was the most fantastic atmosphere. I think I was the oldest

person there. The rest of the orchestra were the same age as my

children. They were looking at me thinking, what is she doing here?

But as soon as we started playing it was great. Before we leave the

subject of acoustics. When you work basking in the Tube how was that?

That was great. I've played in many extraordinary places, but I never

played in the bat car park. I am regretting it. Let's turn to matters

of spirituality. Gabrielle Faure, and one of his best works, Requiem.

It is a piece about Solas, comfort, and the notion that one should not

look upon death as fear, but as a joyful delivery, a yearning for the

happiness of the beyond. You played as the double bassist in the age of

Enlightenment, and I felt it was a special performance. It was. --

Orchestra of Enlightenment. We were told it would be as a tribute to

those who lost their lives recently in Nice. It was something which was

very personal. I always find this Requiem a very personal experience,

unlike Verdi, and the ones which are loud. But this one, especially with

this early version of it, my dear friend and colleague calls it the

70% chocolate version. CHUCKLES

And it is very warm and touching. And everybody has a very unique,

singular space to express themselves. As you say, Gabriel

Faure's experience of it being a joyful deliverance, rather than

doom, gloom, death, ending it all. And it is all about what paradise

can be like. Very happy. Let's listen to the King's College choir.

At the baton, Roderick Williams. That was severely performed by the

choir of King's College Cambridge and Roderick Williams was

accompanied by the Orchestra of the Age of Entitlement. It is

interesting. We just did the Verdi Requiem in Birmingham. It was so

different. This one is a lot more small-scale. It is heavenly,

unworldly, a fantastic piece. Yet, quite a departure from Gabriel

Faure. He hadn't written such a big work before. Yes. That's right. He

certainly handles it well. Although, you could say that the sections are

quite small. But it is an apt salute the gorgeous piece of music. I am a

huge fan of Roderick Williams. I think we all are. He has done a lot

for British music. He is quite a specialist. We will stay with

Gabriel Faure a bit longer as David Owen Norris explores how the great

composer delivered his audience into heaven and kept them there courtesy

of horde of the week. -- called the week.

Paradise, eternity, how does Gabriel Faure go about composing eternity?

The opposite would be a stop, and the opposite to that is a perfect

cadence. What the Americans call a full close. One way of composing

eternity would be to avoid C Sharp. Gabriel Faure begins with gentle

rocking cause, no hint of a C Sharp. -- chords. And as we expect this,

with a nice C Sharp, he twists it to a C natural. More heavenly chords.

And now, the obvious thing would be... But once again, he side steps

to a C natural. And when at last he does run into C Sharp, he makes it

rich and strange with a minor chord. And we arrived at eternity. Gabriel

Faure sweeps us to defeat of the angels as the hearts join in. -- the

feet. It is a piece which need never end. And perhaps it is still going

on... Somewhere. STUDIO: How we have missed him!

Another Chord of the Week next week. That will be on BBC One player, but

sadly, not for eternity. Last Tuesday, saxophonist Yolanda Brown,

to name but a few, this was the night of the Gospel Prom is

returning to the Royal Albert Hall. Performing the blood, Michelle

Williams, on stage with an elite super quiet, made up from the best

vocalists from the top gospel choirs all around the country, near is a

fact, the first use of the term gospel, referring to this music,

1874, a good ten years before the Requiem was composed by Faure! A lot

of joy in the hall, do you think you need to be religious to enjoy that

kind of music? I don't think so, it has come from the African slave,

from the fields, of America, where, at the end of the day, people would

gather and sing under trees, they would have the leader of the pack

calling and answering. Coded songs of a better life, escape, deep

river... Steal away... All of these things... Anybody with a human

heart... And knowing what is behind all of this... Can be moved and

transported. Does gospel music move you? I went up to Harlem once, by

chance, I saw this gospel choir up there, massive church. It was one of

the most extraordinary things I have ever seen. Actually, one of the

things I noticed about the concert the other night, they are so

together, they are really absolutely on beat all of the time. Incredible,

so many different things in that concert, and I think what I liked

best was the vocal and the saxophone, the improvising, that was

great. A lesson for us all, not just one type of gospel music, lovely

thing about my job, I'm discovering these things at the same time as the

rest of the audience, I had a similar experience to you, in New

York City, a gospel choir, it was extraordinary, I had no idea about

the variety and the different aspects, I did not know the

background of the text, a fascinating world. The audience

clearly loved it, rocking night in the Albert Hall, packed with an

audience who were not your standard Proms audience, would you agree?

That is absolutely right, and I think those non-classical concerts

that we do in the Albert Hall are a very important way of getting people

into the hall to hear something like that and getting them engaged with

the whole experience of live music, I met one or two people coming to

the Albert Hall, they had clearly never been there before, they did

not know where they were going. I am sorry they did not know where they

were going but I thought, yes, coming ever the first time! As the

new director of the Proms, you will have to get used this line of

questioning a when we have a themed prom, like the Gospel Prom,

like the Ibiza Prom, people will say that it is dumbing down, and they

will say it is not classical music. Well the Vienna Philharmonic, and

Gershwin, I love both of them, they are both at the top of their field.

I like that quote, it is about the quality of the people coming in. We

had the capital to strictly Prom, they thought it would be a collision

of world too long, and I suspect you may have been dancing! -- Strictly

Prom. Thank you for being a part of it and an important part of putting

it together, that is a very good example of something where the

audience last night heard music by so many different people, including

Debussy and Strauss. A lot of them may have seen the television

programme and now for the first time in their lives were hearing an

amazing orchestra, the BBC concert Orchestra, playing that stuff, and

the dancers were thrilled to be playing with a full-sized August,

and what they were playing was indeed classical. I hope that the

people that came to the first time will come back, that is the key.

That is what we have got to work at, it is no use pulling an audience

from somewhere else in and then they go back, it is a real challenge, we

should not underestimate how hard it is to do. I am determined that at

the Proms we will do what we can to address that. I'm going to be

self-indulgent, let's have a look at the Royal Albert Hall from last

night, in full on sparkle mode! You can still see the spray tan

marks on the podium, if you look hard enough(!) if you want to see

that all the Gospel Prom is, both on the eye player, that is almost hit

for this evening, we will be back next evening, looking at the ten

pieces to prom and a child of our time, both can be seen tomorrow. We

have a performance by an instrumentalist very shortly whose

world has changed from school boy to music star in the making when he

became BBC Young Musician 2016 back in May, near is about to perform

this evening, it remains to me to thank my guests,. -- to thank my

guess is. -- guests. Performing for us now, Sheku Kanneh-Mason.