2013 Summer-night Concert from Vienna

MUSIC: "The Grand March" from Aida by Verdi

APPLAUSE

A wonderful way to start this Summer Night's Concert

from the beautiful but rain-soaked gardens of the Schonbrunn Palace in Vienna.

The Grand March from the opera Aida by Verdi.

This year, the concert is a 200th birthday tribute

to Verdi and Wagner.

APPLAUSE

The overture to The Mastersingers of Nuremberg

played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

and Lorin Maazel.

Wagner's Mastersingers

is one of the longest works of German opera.

That overture is usually the start of a four-and-a-half hour marathon

in the opera house.

Appearing next is the Canadian tenor Michael Schade,

to sing a famous aria from one of Verdi's earlier operas,

I Lombardi.

It's a love song, "La Mia Letizia Infondere".

APPLAUSE

Michael Schade, the tenor, singing

the ardent love song "La Mia Letizia Infondere" by Verdi.

After Verdi, we come back to Wagner,

the other 200-year-old birthday boy, and the music

in Wagner's Tristan and Isolde

expresses an intoxicating blend of passionate love and death.

APPLAUSE

The Prelude and Liebestod from Wagner's Tristan and Isolde.

It's an opera full of overwhelmingly passionate music

and was played there by great fervour

by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

under the baton of the great maestro Lorin Maazel.

Despite the weather, we're still getting some extraordinary views

of these wonderful gardens at the Palace of Schonbrunn in Vienna.

We'll return now to Verdi,

the overture to his opera Luisa Miller,

based on a play by Schiller, the poet who wrote the Ode To Joy.

APPLAUSE

The overture to Luisa Miller

conducted by Lorin Maazel

and played by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Lovely playing by the principal clarinettist there.

Wagner's opera Lohengrin

is a tale of Knights of the Round Table, the Holy Grail,

chivalry, love and honour.

Michael Schade now returns to sing

that story of the hero Lohengrin

who cannot reveal his identity.

Towards the end of the opera,

he is forced to say who he is,

a servant of the Holy Grail,

and tragically, he must then leave the woman he loves.

APPLAUSE

Michael Schade singing that moving and powerful confessional

from the opera Lohengrin by Richard Wagner.

He was accompanied by Lorin Maazel

and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Next, we'll hear the overture to Verdi's opera The Force of Destiny.

It's a tragic melodrama

with music of driving intensity.

At the start of the overture,

we hear the Fate theme - three chords blasted out

by the brass.

APPLAUSE

The overture to Verdi's Force of Destiny, one of the wilder pieces

of music that he composed.

Well, if it's wildness you want, guess what's next.

Used in everything from circus music to propaganda,

from the film Apocalypse Now to The Simpsons,

it represents the crazed daughters of the god Wotan

galloping through the skies.

It has to be The Ride of the Valkyries.

APPLAUSE

Wagner's unmistakable Ride of the Valkyries,

played with the greatest panache by the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

and the conductor Lorin Maazel.

The Palace of Schonbrunn

has always hosted the greatest musicians.

At the time of the Empress Maria,

there were always musical gardens parties,

although probably held in slightly better conditions than this.

Mozart played here as a child prodigy

and then had one of his early operas premiered here.

So, the orchestra is in a long line of extraordinary musicians.

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

To get some warmth coursing through the audience's veins again,

the concert closes with Wiener Blut - "Vienna Blood".

No-one plays this music better than the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

with their concertmaster Rainer Kuchl.

To conduct them, here is Lorin Maazel once again.

APPLAUSE

What better way to end the summer concert from the gardens of

the Palace of Schonbrunn than a signature piece from Viennese

music tradition?

Wiener Blut - "Vienna Blood".

APPLAUSE CONTINUES

Lorin Maazel conducted the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

with their concertmaster Rainer Kuchl

and despite the weather, the orchestra played beautifully.

The eternally brave Austrians came to enjoy their final waltz

and we were able to see the glories of this extraordinary location.

We'll look forward to seeing this orchestra again

at the New Year's Day concert, 2014.

But from me, Katie Derham, goodbye.

APPLAUSE AND CHEERING

Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd