1 00:00:02,560 --> 00:00:06,040 This is the story of the past 100 years in Britain 2 00:00:06,040 --> 00:00:08,640 as you've never heard it before - 3 00:00:08,640 --> 00:00:12,000 told through our love of classical music. 4 00:00:13,880 --> 00:00:18,440 It's been the soundtrack to a century of extraordinary change, 5 00:00:18,440 --> 00:00:21,320 from some of the biggest events in our history 6 00:00:21,320 --> 00:00:25,680 to our shared ambitions and private passions. 7 00:00:25,680 --> 00:00:30,000 In the midst of all this, classical music has been there for us, 8 00:00:30,000 --> 00:00:32,200 reflecting and shaping Britain, 9 00:00:32,200 --> 00:00:36,120 bringing us comfort, solace and joy. 10 00:00:36,120 --> 00:00:40,040 And I think more than rock and pop, jazz or folk, 11 00:00:40,040 --> 00:00:44,600 it is the drama, the emotion, the scale of classical music 12 00:00:44,600 --> 00:00:49,600 that has truly brought us together at the key moments in our history. 13 00:00:52,080 --> 00:00:57,040 Throughout this series, I'll meet some of our favourite musical stars 14 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:02,120 to discover how classical music held up a mirror to our hopes and dreams 15 00:01:02,320 --> 00:01:05,360 and won its place in the soul of the nation. 16 00:01:07,600 --> 00:01:10,240 What I'm doing is still touching people out there, 17 00:01:10,240 --> 00:01:12,520 which is the most you could ask for. 18 00:01:13,680 --> 00:01:17,800 In this episode, I'll explore how our relationship to classical music 19 00:01:17,800 --> 00:01:22,000 changed dramatically in the period between two coronations 20 00:01:22,000 --> 00:01:24,000 separated by conflict. 21 00:01:26,600 --> 00:01:31,080 I'll be joined by John Simpson, the BBC's world affairs correspondent. 22 00:01:32,120 --> 00:01:34,200 There's a sniper just above our heads. 23 00:01:35,280 --> 00:01:39,240 Everywhere I've been, all those wars and revolutions, 24 00:01:39,240 --> 00:01:41,360 I carried this with me. 25 00:01:41,360 --> 00:01:44,560 It's got every single piece of classic music 26 00:01:44,560 --> 00:01:47,200 that I would ever want to listen to. 27 00:01:47,200 --> 00:01:50,240 Together, we'll discover how classical music 28 00:01:50,240 --> 00:01:53,560 came to the nation's aid during the Second World War. 29 00:01:53,560 --> 00:01:55,720 How it raised morale. 30 00:01:55,720 --> 00:01:58,720 We were all moved and transported by it. 31 00:01:58,720 --> 00:02:00,640 Helped us resist. 32 00:02:00,640 --> 00:02:04,200 It must have made everybody feel very...proud and very British. 33 00:02:04,200 --> 00:02:06,600 BIG BEN CHIMES 34 00:02:06,600 --> 00:02:09,960 And how, once the fighting stopped and peace came, 35 00:02:09,960 --> 00:02:12,600 classical music led the way, 36 00:02:12,600 --> 00:02:15,840 helping to forge a bright new British future. 37 00:02:16,880 --> 00:02:20,160 This was our classical century. 38 00:02:20,160 --> 00:02:24,520 MUSIC: The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten 39 00:02:29,600 --> 00:02:33,560 This is where one of our most famous pieces of classical music 40 00:02:33,560 --> 00:02:37,320 had its grand unveiling over 80 years ago. 41 00:02:37,320 --> 00:02:40,560 MUSIC: Crown Imperial by William Walton 42 00:03:07,280 --> 00:03:10,520 Crown Imperial was written by William Walton 43 00:03:10,520 --> 00:03:13,000 for the coronation of George VI 44 00:03:13,000 --> 00:03:16,760 here at Westminster Abbey in 1937. 45 00:03:16,760 --> 00:03:19,760 MUSIC: Crown Imperial by William Walton 46 00:03:28,280 --> 00:03:32,520 It's music to make you stand a little bit straighter. 47 00:03:32,520 --> 00:03:35,240 It's confident, it's imperious, 48 00:03:35,240 --> 00:03:37,080 it's very British. 49 00:03:37,080 --> 00:03:39,080 CHEERING 50 00:03:46,320 --> 00:03:49,840 The Royal Family had endured a rocky few years. 51 00:03:49,840 --> 00:03:53,760 The abdication of Edward, the man who was supposed to be king, 52 00:03:53,760 --> 00:03:56,600 had destabilised the monarchy. 53 00:03:56,600 --> 00:04:01,280 This coronation was all about showing it was business as usual. 54 00:04:01,280 --> 00:04:04,280 And music would play its part. 55 00:04:05,760 --> 00:04:08,240 ALL: God save the king! 56 00:04:08,240 --> 00:04:10,800 God save the king! 57 00:04:16,600 --> 00:04:20,600 William Walton was asked for a piece of music that would exude 58 00:04:20,600 --> 00:04:24,800 the pomp, circumstance and grandeur of Edward Elgar. 59 00:04:26,320 --> 00:04:29,840 This was a turn of events for Walton, who had made his name 60 00:04:29,840 --> 00:04:34,040 writing music for a rather different family from the Windsors - 61 00:04:34,040 --> 00:04:39,040 the Sitwells, and they were a rum bunch of eccentrics. 62 00:04:40,080 --> 00:04:44,640 "The Sitwells were always full of ideas," said William Walton. 63 00:04:44,640 --> 00:04:47,800 "Some of which were really strange." 64 00:04:47,800 --> 00:04:50,640 MUSIC: Mariner Man by William Walton 65 00:04:50,640 --> 00:04:53,080 # "What are you staring at, mariner man 66 00:04:53,080 --> 00:04:55,920 # Wrinkled as sea-sand and old as the sea?" 67 00:04:55,920 --> 00:04:58,560 # "Those trains will run over their tails if they can 68 00:04:58,560 --> 00:05:00,600 # "Snorting and sporting like porpoises. 69 00:05:00,600 --> 00:05:02,600 # "Flee 70 00:05:02,600 --> 00:05:05,160 # "The burly, the whirligig wheels of the train 71 00:05:05,160 --> 00:05:07,840 # "As round as the world and as large again 72 00:05:07,840 --> 00:05:10,080 # "Running half the way over to Babylon, 73 00:05:10,080 --> 00:05:13,080 # "Down through fields of clover to gay Troy town 74 00:05:13,080 --> 00:05:15,600 # "A-puffing their smoke as grey as the curl 75 00:05:15,600 --> 00:05:19,200 # "On my forehead as wrinkled as sands of the sea 76 00:05:19,200 --> 00:05:21,920 # "But what can that matter to you, my girl? 77 00:05:21,920 --> 00:05:24,280 # "And what can that matter to me?" # 78 00:05:28,600 --> 00:05:32,280 Called Facade, William Walton's music accompanied 79 00:05:32,280 --> 00:05:35,320 unconventional poetry by Edith Sitwell. 80 00:05:35,320 --> 00:05:39,080 Edith, along with her brothers, Osbert and Sacheverell, 81 00:05:39,080 --> 00:05:43,000 were leading lights on London's artistic circuit in the 1920s. 82 00:05:43,000 --> 00:05:45,600 Left-field wealthy aristocrats, 83 00:05:45,600 --> 00:05:49,080 they befriended the penniless William Walton and roped him into 84 00:05:49,080 --> 00:05:53,280 shaking up an art scene they saw as distinctly old-fashioned. 85 00:05:53,280 --> 00:05:55,600 I've never seen Facade performed. 86 00:05:55,600 --> 00:05:59,520 I've heard it before, but it is a very strange beast. 87 00:05:59,520 --> 00:06:01,480 How would you describe what it is? 88 00:06:01,480 --> 00:06:03,560 It is an early version of rap. 89 00:06:03,560 --> 00:06:06,800 It doesn't sound like modern rap but the component parts are there. 90 00:06:06,800 --> 00:06:09,880 So it's this beautiful fusion of music and words 91 00:06:09,880 --> 00:06:12,600 but it has to be seen to be believed, really. 92 00:06:12,600 --> 00:06:16,560 How much do we know about the earliest performances of this? 93 00:06:16,560 --> 00:06:19,080 The first performance was in the drawing room. 94 00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:22,600 There was a curtain design behind which the band would hide 95 00:06:22,600 --> 00:06:26,520 and this singerphone, which is an elongated version of a megaphone, 96 00:06:26,520 --> 00:06:28,520 appeared through that curtain. 97 00:06:28,520 --> 00:06:33,000 Then the decision was made to perform Facade in public. 98 00:06:33,000 --> 00:06:35,600 That performance was a bit of a shambles. 99 00:06:35,600 --> 00:06:38,320 Certainly, the press coverage was pretty damning. 100 00:06:38,320 --> 00:06:41,680 I think the Mirror wrote that it was "Drivel they paid to hear". 101 00:06:41,680 --> 00:06:44,600 What is it in the music that you hear 102 00:06:44,600 --> 00:06:47,600 that sort of makes you sense that Walton 103 00:06:47,600 --> 00:06:50,480 was going to become a great composer? 104 00:06:50,480 --> 00:06:53,240 What Walton has is this extraordinary capacity 105 00:06:53,240 --> 00:06:56,040 to conjure up little musical moments 106 00:06:56,040 --> 00:06:59,840 that from nowhere, within seconds, create an atmosphere. 107 00:06:59,840 --> 00:07:02,840 MUSIC: Mariner Man by William Walton 108 00:07:07,080 --> 00:07:10,800 William Walton and Edith Sitwell set out deliberately 109 00:07:10,800 --> 00:07:15,240 to shock audiences with their "dining room entertainment", 110 00:07:15,240 --> 00:07:16,800 as they called it. 111 00:07:16,800 --> 00:07:20,960 Written in the '20s, Facade was a fusion of music hall parody, 112 00:07:20,960 --> 00:07:24,080 jazz age fun and performance poetry. 113 00:07:24,080 --> 00:07:27,760 It was so modern, it was way ahead of its time. 114 00:07:42,080 --> 00:07:47,080 By the 1930s, parody was no longer the order of the day. 115 00:07:47,240 --> 00:07:50,400 The world was a more serious place. 116 00:07:50,400 --> 00:07:53,320 CHEERING DROWNS OUT SPEECH 117 00:07:54,360 --> 00:07:57,320 And Walton settled on a traditional style, 118 00:07:57,320 --> 00:08:00,520 in tune with the more sombre times. 119 00:08:00,520 --> 00:08:04,240 He was now seen as the inheritor of the tradition of great composers 120 00:08:04,240 --> 00:08:06,040 like Edward Elgar - 121 00:08:06,040 --> 00:08:10,520 a composer to stir the country's heart during the coronation. 122 00:08:11,560 --> 00:08:14,520 The moment that we wait for in these marches 123 00:08:14,520 --> 00:08:17,520 is the appearance of the big melody. 124 00:08:17,520 --> 00:08:19,640 In Elgar's case, of course, 125 00:08:19,640 --> 00:08:22,560 it's the very famous... Land of Hope and Glory. 126 00:08:23,560 --> 00:08:26,520 MUSIC: Land of Hope and Glory by Edward Elgar 127 00:08:44,520 --> 00:08:47,320 What Walton does is very similar to this. 128 00:08:47,320 --> 00:08:50,720 It has the same hymn-like, noble, understated quality. 129 00:08:50,720 --> 00:08:53,760 MUSIC: Crown Imperial by William Walton 130 00:09:13,080 --> 00:09:15,760 It could almost be by Elgar. 131 00:09:25,600 --> 00:09:28,800 The music for this coronation was vital. 132 00:09:28,800 --> 00:09:31,800 The first to be broadcast live on radio, 133 00:09:31,800 --> 00:09:35,080 it was heard all over the British Empire. 134 00:09:35,080 --> 00:09:38,280 A rousing soundtrack filling the airwaves 135 00:09:38,280 --> 00:09:41,560 helped convey the message all was well. 136 00:09:41,560 --> 00:09:44,560 MUSIC: Crown Imperial by William Walton 137 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:53,480 The coronation of a king or queen is an important moment 138 00:09:53,480 --> 00:09:55,600 in the history of our nation 139 00:09:55,600 --> 00:10:00,520 and the music that accompanies it has to be a kind of distillation 140 00:10:00,520 --> 00:10:02,640 of the national character. 141 00:10:02,640 --> 00:10:06,240 That's what Sir William Walton achieved magnificently 142 00:10:06,240 --> 00:10:08,520 with Crown Imperial. 143 00:10:08,520 --> 00:10:11,520 MUSIC: Crown Imperial by William Walton 144 00:10:17,240 --> 00:10:21,080 Music to keep calm and carry on to. 145 00:10:21,080 --> 00:10:25,800 But what the new king and the crowds gathered outside didn't realise, 146 00:10:25,800 --> 00:10:29,800 this would be the last national celebration for a long while. 147 00:10:30,840 --> 00:10:35,880 And classical music would soon take on an even more critical role. 148 00:10:36,520 --> 00:10:38,600 BIG BEN CHIMES 149 00:10:41,280 --> 00:10:45,320 RADIO: This morning, the British ambassador in Berlin 150 00:10:45,320 --> 00:10:49,600 handed the German government a final note 151 00:10:49,600 --> 00:10:54,600 stating that unless we heard from them by 11 o'clock 152 00:10:54,840 --> 00:10:59,880 that they were prepared at once to withdraw their troops from Poland, 153 00:11:00,080 --> 00:11:03,560 a state of war would exist between us. 154 00:11:03,560 --> 00:11:05,600 SIREN 155 00:11:10,040 --> 00:11:14,040 With war declared in September 1939, 156 00:11:14,040 --> 00:11:17,880 Britain was an immediate target for German bombs. 157 00:11:17,880 --> 00:11:21,880 In cities all over the country, air raid shelters were built, 158 00:11:21,880 --> 00:11:25,040 gas masks issued, children evacuated 159 00:11:25,040 --> 00:11:27,920 and families broken up. 160 00:11:27,920 --> 00:11:32,880 Emergency orders also required that all theatres, cinemas and galleries 161 00:11:33,240 --> 00:11:35,280 were to be closed. 162 00:11:38,040 --> 00:11:42,040 This 1927 rosewood Steinway grand 163 00:11:42,040 --> 00:11:45,800 belonged to one of Britain's most distinguished pianists. 164 00:11:45,800 --> 00:11:48,080 It's called Myra. 165 00:11:48,080 --> 00:11:51,520 MUSIC: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Johann Sebastian Bach 166 00:12:06,760 --> 00:12:09,840 It's named after Myra Hess. 167 00:12:09,840 --> 00:12:12,640 And that is the music that made her famous. 168 00:12:12,640 --> 00:12:16,120 It's called Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. 169 00:12:16,120 --> 00:12:18,840 Written originally by Bach in the 18th century, 170 00:12:18,840 --> 00:12:21,800 but Myra did that arrangement especially for the piano 171 00:12:21,800 --> 00:12:23,600 when she was young. 172 00:12:23,600 --> 00:12:26,480 Now, that arrangement of hers really came into its own 173 00:12:26,480 --> 00:12:28,560 during the Second World War. 174 00:12:28,560 --> 00:12:33,080 It was calm and peaceful, beautiful and dignified. 175 00:12:33,080 --> 00:12:37,560 And it became balm for the soul of the British nation 176 00:12:37,560 --> 00:12:40,600 and Myra Hess' signature tune. 177 00:12:40,600 --> 00:12:43,520 MUSIC: Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring by Johann Sebastian Bach 178 00:13:08,600 --> 00:13:13,080 Britain's best known and most loved pianist when war broke out, 179 00:13:13,080 --> 00:13:15,800 Myra told her friends how dismayed she was 180 00:13:15,800 --> 00:13:19,600 that nothing cultural was happening to keep up morale. 181 00:13:19,600 --> 00:13:23,360 One suggested holding a lunchtime concert, but where? 182 00:13:23,360 --> 00:13:26,600 "Buckingham Palace? St Paul's?" they joked. 183 00:13:26,600 --> 00:13:29,520 Then someone suggested the National Gallery. 184 00:13:29,520 --> 00:13:32,120 It was empty but was it available? 185 00:13:33,600 --> 00:13:37,040 So Myra came here to meet the Gallery's young director, 186 00:13:37,040 --> 00:13:38,760 Kenneth Clark. 187 00:13:46,080 --> 00:13:49,520 Myra Hess met Kenneth Clark and suggested giving 188 00:13:49,520 --> 00:13:52,040 the occasional lunchtime concert. 189 00:13:52,040 --> 00:13:56,240 "You must not give one single concert in the gallery," 190 00:13:56,240 --> 00:13:57,800 he said to her. 191 00:13:57,800 --> 00:14:00,320 "You must give one every day." 192 00:14:01,320 --> 00:14:06,400 After she recovered from the shock, Myra agreed it could be done. 193 00:14:06,600 --> 00:14:11,040 The first concert took place on the 10th of October 1939. 194 00:14:11,040 --> 00:14:14,080 Fearful that nobody would turn up, 195 00:14:14,080 --> 00:14:18,320 Myra supposed she could at least rely on her friends to come along. 196 00:14:18,320 --> 00:14:21,600 She needn't have worried. It was a sell-out. 197 00:14:21,600 --> 00:14:24,560 MUSIC: Piano Concerto No 17 by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart 198 00:14:56,160 --> 00:14:59,360 Kenneth Clark later wrote about this event. 199 00:14:59,360 --> 00:15:03,480 "What sort of people were these who felt more hungry for music 200 00:15:03,480 --> 00:15:05,560 "than for their lunches? 201 00:15:05,560 --> 00:15:08,600 "All sorts - young and old, smart and shabby, 202 00:15:08,600 --> 00:15:12,560 "Tommies in uniform, old ladies with ear trumpets, 203 00:15:12,560 --> 00:15:15,080 "civil servants, office boys. 204 00:15:15,080 --> 00:15:18,600 "All sorts had come because they were longing for something 205 00:15:18,600 --> 00:15:22,760 "to take them out of the muddle and uncertainty of the present 206 00:15:22,760 --> 00:15:26,040 "and into a realm of dignity, order 207 00:15:26,040 --> 00:15:29,200 "and unassailable independence." 208 00:15:31,080 --> 00:15:35,560 For many, this was their first experience of classical concerts. 209 00:15:35,560 --> 00:15:37,600 Some brought their own lunch 210 00:15:37,600 --> 00:15:40,040 and the gallery sold exotic sandwiches, 211 00:15:40,040 --> 00:15:42,640 a particular favourite being honey and raisin. 212 00:15:42,640 --> 00:15:47,640 They heard Mozart, Beethoven, Haydn and of course Bach. 213 00:15:48,000 --> 00:15:50,880 It was a daily lunchtime event. 214 00:15:51,920 --> 00:15:53,840 It was very convenient. 215 00:15:53,840 --> 00:15:57,520 The 88 bus from Clapham to Trafalgar Square. 216 00:15:57,520 --> 00:16:01,560 There were big crowds and the music was wonderful and it was a... 217 00:16:02,600 --> 00:16:06,240 It was a kind of affirmation that there was... 218 00:16:07,520 --> 00:16:10,560 ..music and beauty 219 00:16:10,560 --> 00:16:12,560 and quiet... 220 00:16:12,560 --> 00:16:17,000 in a noisy, rather turbulent world at that time. 221 00:16:17,000 --> 00:16:19,240 I loved those concerts. 222 00:16:19,240 --> 00:16:21,360 What was Myra Hess herself like? 223 00:16:21,360 --> 00:16:23,520 What sort of impression did she make? 224 00:16:23,520 --> 00:16:25,280 A feeling of total... 225 00:16:26,240 --> 00:16:27,840 ..mastery. 226 00:16:27,840 --> 00:16:31,640 Which chimes absolutely with her, sort of, signature tune 227 00:16:31,640 --> 00:16:34,760 of Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. Did you hear her play that? 228 00:16:34,760 --> 00:16:36,240 Yes. Oh, yes. 229 00:16:36,240 --> 00:16:39,240 I think it encapsulated all that people would... 230 00:16:39,240 --> 00:16:41,840 How they would like to feel. 231 00:16:41,840 --> 00:16:45,400 We were all moved and transported by it. 232 00:16:45,400 --> 00:16:47,560 It was the contrast, really, 233 00:16:47,560 --> 00:16:52,080 between the lives we were all leading and the music. 234 00:16:52,080 --> 00:16:55,840 It seems to me, in a way, from this perspective of now, 235 00:16:55,840 --> 00:16:59,320 to look back and think of what Myra Hess and Kenneth Clark were doing... 236 00:16:59,320 --> 00:17:02,800 Yes. ..was so ambitious, was so much... It was visionary. 237 00:17:02,800 --> 00:17:04,560 It was visionary. 238 00:17:04,560 --> 00:17:09,600 There was a very strong feeling that you would have been letting 239 00:17:09,840 --> 00:17:14,080 the Germans win, if they stopped you, 240 00:17:14,080 --> 00:17:16,840 just as people feel about terrorism today. 241 00:17:16,840 --> 00:17:20,040 People still go out and people are still saying, 242 00:17:20,040 --> 00:17:25,040 we mustn't let them win by affecting our lives too much. 243 00:17:25,040 --> 00:17:27,560 That was a very strong feeling. 244 00:17:27,560 --> 00:17:31,080 I think that these things had to be kept going. 245 00:17:32,560 --> 00:17:36,560 For Myra Hess, music was an integral part of the life 246 00:17:36,560 --> 00:17:38,280 of the entire nation. 247 00:17:38,280 --> 00:17:41,560 Along with her London concerts, she also toured Britain. 248 00:17:41,560 --> 00:17:44,560 "Everybody was very busy during the war," she said. 249 00:17:44,560 --> 00:17:47,600 "There was nobody to tell the people classical music 250 00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:51,360 "was over their heads, so they came and they liked it." 251 00:17:51,360 --> 00:17:53,320 She'd often end her recitals 252 00:17:53,320 --> 00:17:56,080 with Bach's Jesu, Joy of Man's Desiring. 253 00:17:56,080 --> 00:17:58,920 Once, a soldier was overheard whistling the tune. 254 00:17:58,920 --> 00:18:02,240 "Are you interested in Bach?" someone asked him. 255 00:18:02,240 --> 00:18:04,040 "No, said the soldier. 256 00:18:04,040 --> 00:18:06,600 "But you're whistling one of his tunes." 257 00:18:06,600 --> 00:18:11,160 "That's not Bach," said the soldier, "That's Myra Hess." 258 00:18:16,080 --> 00:18:20,000 During the war, there were over 1,500 performances 259 00:18:20,000 --> 00:18:23,560 enjoyed by more than 800,000 people. 260 00:18:23,560 --> 00:18:26,600 With air raid sirens and bombs falling, 261 00:18:26,600 --> 00:18:30,000 it's remarkable that the concerts ran uninterrupted. 262 00:18:30,000 --> 00:18:32,560 This clamour for classical music, 263 00:18:32,560 --> 00:18:35,560 its soothing and morale-boosting effect 264 00:18:35,560 --> 00:18:38,040 was being felt elsewhere too, 265 00:18:38,040 --> 00:18:42,600 but not all venues enjoyed the National Gallery's good fortune. 266 00:18:42,600 --> 00:18:45,800 RADIO: The raiding Huns cared nothing for the hallowed atmosphere 267 00:18:45,800 --> 00:18:47,560 of a temple of music. 268 00:18:47,560 --> 00:18:49,800 To them, it was just another building 269 00:18:49,800 --> 00:18:52,240 marked down for ruthless destruction. 270 00:18:53,280 --> 00:18:57,040 The Queen's Hall was visited by the world's most famous orchestras, 271 00:18:57,040 --> 00:18:58,920 musicians and artists. 272 00:18:58,920 --> 00:19:02,080 It was the mecca of all that was noblest in music. 273 00:19:02,080 --> 00:19:05,600 On the afternoon of May the 10th, 1941, 274 00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:09,280 a sell-out audience heard Elgar's Dream of Gerontius 275 00:19:09,280 --> 00:19:11,600 in London's Queen's Hall, 276 00:19:11,600 --> 00:19:14,800 one of the greatest concert venues in the world. 277 00:19:14,800 --> 00:19:17,800 Home of the Proms for nearly 50 years, 278 00:19:17,800 --> 00:19:20,800 this hall brought wonderful music to millions. 279 00:19:20,800 --> 00:19:23,720 It was the centre of our classical universe. 280 00:19:23,720 --> 00:19:25,800 EXPLOSIONS 281 00:19:34,320 --> 00:19:39,080 Hours later, London experienced its worst night of the Blitz. 282 00:19:39,080 --> 00:19:43,960 Over 500 German planes dropped 700 tons of bombs 283 00:19:43,960 --> 00:19:46,720 in a raid lasting seven hours. 284 00:19:46,720 --> 00:19:50,560 Thousands were killed, major landmarks damaged, 285 00:19:50,560 --> 00:19:54,600 including the Queen's Hall, which burned to the ground. 286 00:20:00,040 --> 00:20:04,560 When Sir Henry Wood, the conductor who had made Queen's Hall famous 287 00:20:04,560 --> 00:20:08,280 the world over, saw the ruins, he wept. 288 00:20:08,280 --> 00:20:13,280 Standing amongst the debris, he spotted his bronze bust. 289 00:20:13,280 --> 00:20:16,320 "So I'm still here," he exclaimed. 290 00:20:17,480 --> 00:20:19,720 He was determined the end of the Hall 291 00:20:19,720 --> 00:20:22,240 must not mean the end of the Proms. 292 00:20:22,240 --> 00:20:24,680 They just needed a new venue. 293 00:20:27,520 --> 00:20:29,480 Hi. Albert Hall, please. 294 00:20:29,480 --> 00:20:31,040 Thanks. 295 00:20:35,480 --> 00:20:38,600 Every year, before the start of the Proms season, 296 00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:43,520 there's a very special delivery from the Royal Academy of Music 297 00:20:43,520 --> 00:20:45,560 to the Royal Albert Hall. 298 00:20:45,560 --> 00:20:48,800 And here it is. Here he is. 299 00:20:48,800 --> 00:20:52,560 Because it's the bronze bust of Sir Henry Wood 300 00:20:52,560 --> 00:20:57,600 which was salvaged from the ruins of the Queen's Hall back in 1941. 301 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:01,400 It's placed in the back of a black cab 302 00:21:01,400 --> 00:21:03,840 and driven around to the Albert Hall, 303 00:21:03,840 --> 00:21:07,560 where it stays for the entire duration of the Proms. 304 00:21:10,320 --> 00:21:14,120 The Royal Albert Hall was the only space available. 305 00:21:14,120 --> 00:21:18,040 Not known for its acoustic properties, a notorious echo 306 00:21:18,040 --> 00:21:22,320 led one critic to say it was the only venue where a conductor 307 00:21:22,320 --> 00:21:25,520 could hear his performance twice in the same evening. 308 00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:30,600 Very gently. So line him up so he's facing forwards. 309 00:21:30,600 --> 00:21:33,920 And then just sit him back on the back panel here. 310 00:21:35,000 --> 00:21:38,240 Undeterred, Sir Henry stepped on to this podium 311 00:21:38,240 --> 00:21:41,080 on the 12th of July, 1941, 312 00:21:41,080 --> 00:21:44,520 to conduct the 47th season of the Proms. 313 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:50,280 Well, this is the programme from that Albert Hall Prom, 314 00:21:50,280 --> 00:21:54,080 and the first item which is really interesting, I think, 315 00:21:54,080 --> 00:21:58,960 is Elgar's Cockaigne Overture (In London Town). 316 00:21:58,960 --> 00:22:02,080 In the notes, it says this is a reference 317 00:22:02,080 --> 00:22:05,800 to London's imperturbable cheerfulness. 318 00:22:05,800 --> 00:22:10,800 It was the best way possible for British music to respond 319 00:22:11,600 --> 00:22:16,360 to the destruction of the Queen's Hall just a few months before. 320 00:22:16,360 --> 00:22:19,560 MUSIC: Cockaigne Overture by Edward Elgar 321 00:22:46,560 --> 00:22:48,800 First performed in 1901, 322 00:22:48,800 --> 00:22:52,240 Elgar's Overture Cockaigne (In London Town) 323 00:22:52,240 --> 00:22:54,880 was his love letter to the capital. 324 00:22:54,880 --> 00:22:59,360 A huge success, it became one of his most popular works. 325 00:22:59,360 --> 00:23:02,760 What sort of view of London does Elgar give us? 326 00:23:02,760 --> 00:23:05,080 He gives us a very busy view. 327 00:23:05,080 --> 00:23:08,760 What's fascinating about the piece is that in the first two minutes 328 00:23:08,760 --> 00:23:11,040 we have idea after idea, 329 00:23:11,040 --> 00:23:14,320 and he's so anxious to get on to the next London scene 330 00:23:14,320 --> 00:23:16,880 that we barely have time to finish one. 331 00:23:16,880 --> 00:23:20,440 At the very beginning, we have this, which Elgar said it should be played 332 00:23:20,440 --> 00:23:22,600 with an air of humorous distinction. 333 00:23:22,600 --> 00:23:25,600 So you get your beginning... PLAYS OPENING PART 334 00:23:25,600 --> 00:23:28,800 ..and the next minute, you're... PLAYS FASTER SECTION 335 00:23:28,800 --> 00:23:30,960 ..in a completely different key. 336 00:23:30,960 --> 00:23:33,320 And what pictures is he creating there? 337 00:23:33,320 --> 00:23:35,760 Here, I think, this seems to me like a Londoner. 338 00:23:35,760 --> 00:23:37,800 This is a person, don't you think? 339 00:23:37,800 --> 00:23:39,600 PLAYS OPENING PART 340 00:23:39,600 --> 00:23:41,840 With a sort of... A bit of a saunter. 341 00:23:41,840 --> 00:23:44,280 A bit of a grimace, a bit of a saunter, 342 00:23:44,280 --> 00:23:47,280 a bit of something in... that sort of thing. 343 00:23:47,280 --> 00:23:49,560 So it's a sort of Cockney character. 344 00:23:49,560 --> 00:23:51,520 PLAYS A LOWER/SLOWER SECTION 345 00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,600 And I seem there to see a London omnibus 346 00:23:55,600 --> 00:23:58,320 being pulled along by great big shire horses. 347 00:23:58,320 --> 00:24:00,960 With his lovers, there's a beautiful tune... 348 00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:03,520 PLAYS A MORE UPBEAT SECTION 349 00:24:09,600 --> 00:24:13,560 But that's it. It's just a little flavour of the lovers. 350 00:24:13,560 --> 00:24:15,560 And we know they are lovers...? 351 00:24:15,560 --> 00:24:17,760 Many people have said that they were lovers 352 00:24:17,760 --> 00:24:19,880 and Elgar never contradicted them. 353 00:24:19,880 --> 00:24:24,600 It must have been a really tremendous thing to listen to 354 00:24:24,600 --> 00:24:28,240 a few weeks after the Queen's Hall had been bombed. 355 00:24:28,240 --> 00:24:31,240 Absolutely. And it must have made everybody feel 356 00:24:31,240 --> 00:24:33,520 very, very proud and very British. 357 00:24:33,520 --> 00:24:35,080 I'm sure it did. 358 00:24:38,560 --> 00:24:42,800 40 years after it was composed, Sir Henry Wood was using 359 00:24:42,800 --> 00:24:46,840 Elgar's Cockaigne Overture to symbolise the spirit 360 00:24:46,840 --> 00:24:49,840 that triumphs over the savagery of war. 361 00:24:49,840 --> 00:24:54,360 Or, to put it more bluntly, this was two fingers up to the Germans. 362 00:24:54,360 --> 00:24:57,440 MUSIC: Cockaigne Overture by Edward Elgar 363 00:25:05,840 --> 00:25:09,240 Rising from the debris of the Queen's Hall, 364 00:25:09,240 --> 00:25:12,080 the Proms move was a huge success. 365 00:25:12,080 --> 00:25:16,560 Audiences doubled to fill this new, larger space. 366 00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:19,040 This was no longer about raising morale, 367 00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:22,080 we were saying, "Our spirit cannot be overcome". 368 00:25:22,080 --> 00:25:24,040 It was almost Churchillian. 369 00:25:24,040 --> 00:25:27,040 "We shall go on, not flag or fail." 370 00:25:28,480 --> 00:25:32,240 Something London wasn't alone in declaring. 371 00:25:34,600 --> 00:25:38,560 Early in July 1942, a top-secret document, 372 00:25:38,560 --> 00:25:41,240 considered crucial to the war effort, 373 00:25:41,240 --> 00:25:44,040 was copied onto 35mm film 374 00:25:44,040 --> 00:25:47,560 and flown on a transport aircraft to Tehran. 375 00:25:48,600 --> 00:25:51,040 It was put on a British armoured car, 376 00:25:51,040 --> 00:25:54,040 which then began a long overland journey 377 00:25:54,040 --> 00:25:56,520 right across Iraq and Jordan, 378 00:25:56,520 --> 00:25:59,560 down to the Egyptian Canal Zone 379 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:01,720 and then on to Cairo. 380 00:26:05,080 --> 00:26:08,720 From Cairo, it was flown over the Mediterranean to Gibraltar 381 00:26:08,720 --> 00:26:10,800 before landing in Cornwall 382 00:26:10,800 --> 00:26:14,360 and whisked to its final destination, London. 383 00:26:14,360 --> 00:26:16,040 BIG BEN CHIMES 384 00:26:16,040 --> 00:26:18,520 So what was on this mysterious microfilm? 385 00:26:18,520 --> 00:26:20,760 Was it secret intelligence? 386 00:26:20,760 --> 00:26:23,520 Information from the front line? 387 00:26:23,520 --> 00:26:25,720 Or signals reporting? 388 00:26:25,720 --> 00:26:27,840 No, it was this. 389 00:26:27,840 --> 00:26:32,520 Page after page after page of quavers, semiquavers, 390 00:26:32,520 --> 00:26:34,520 clefs and so forth. 391 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:40,600 It all goes to make up one of the world's most famous symphonies. 392 00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:44,000 It happens to be one of my favourites too. 393 00:26:44,000 --> 00:26:48,000 Dmitri Shostakovich's 7th Symphony. 394 00:26:48,000 --> 00:26:50,000 The Leningrad. 395 00:26:50,000 --> 00:26:52,000 EXPLOSIONS 396 00:26:54,320 --> 00:26:59,040 Dmitri Shostakovich's 7th Symphony was written by candlelight 397 00:26:59,040 --> 00:27:03,000 during the siege on his beloved home of Leningrad. 398 00:27:03,000 --> 00:27:06,040 MUSIC: Symphony No. 7 by Dmitri Shostakovich 399 00:27:06,040 --> 00:27:10,600 The Germans had the city surrounded, cut off from the outside world 400 00:27:10,600 --> 00:27:14,240 in an attempt to starve its citizens to death. 401 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:20,080 Their plight was followed closely in Britain, where the 7th Symphony 402 00:27:20,080 --> 00:27:24,560 became a symbol of hope - of good triumphing over evil. 403 00:27:48,280 --> 00:27:52,080 Shostakovich said his weapon was his music. 404 00:27:52,080 --> 00:27:56,600 The 7th Symphony was seen as a heroic work of resistance. 405 00:27:56,600 --> 00:27:59,600 After the score was smuggled out of Russia, 406 00:27:59,600 --> 00:28:02,560 there was a race among the world's leading conductors 407 00:28:02,560 --> 00:28:06,120 to be the first to perform it, in a sign of solidarity 408 00:28:06,120 --> 00:28:08,800 and friendship with the Russian people. 409 00:28:08,800 --> 00:28:11,200 Henry Wood and the Proms won. 410 00:28:14,080 --> 00:28:18,600 The Albert Hall was sold out, just as it is this evening. 411 00:28:18,600 --> 00:28:22,240 There was a real air of anticipation, 412 00:28:22,240 --> 00:28:24,600 of excitement, that night. 413 00:28:24,600 --> 00:28:29,280 Everybody wanted to know what the young Shostakovich had written 414 00:28:29,280 --> 00:28:31,680 in defence of his country. 415 00:28:33,560 --> 00:28:37,360 RADIO: It is fitting that this work should receive its first performance 416 00:28:37,360 --> 00:28:40,800 in this country on the anniversary of Germany's treacherous attack 417 00:28:40,800 --> 00:28:42,320 on Russia. 418 00:28:42,320 --> 00:28:46,080 It was written between July and December last year 419 00:28:46,080 --> 00:28:48,560 in the besieged fortress of Leningrad 420 00:28:48,560 --> 00:28:50,840 with the enemy close at its gates. 421 00:28:50,840 --> 00:28:54,280 The symphony is to be played by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 422 00:28:54,280 --> 00:28:56,520 leader Jean Pougnet. 423 00:28:56,520 --> 00:28:58,680 Sir Henry Wood is conducting. 424 00:28:58,680 --> 00:29:02,800 Symphony No. 7, The Leningrad, in C, 425 00:29:02,800 --> 00:29:05,040 by Dmitri Shostakovich. 426 00:29:06,040 --> 00:29:09,040 MUSIC: Symphony No. 7 by Dmitri Shostakovich 427 00:29:29,760 --> 00:29:32,280 The Leningrad's debut at the Proms 428 00:29:32,280 --> 00:29:35,320 was heard by tens of thousands on the radio 429 00:29:35,320 --> 00:29:39,560 and a packed-out audience inside the Royal Albert Hall. 430 00:29:39,560 --> 00:29:42,800 Their applause lasted long into the night. 431 00:29:42,800 --> 00:29:45,440 It's still a regular favourite here. 432 00:29:45,440 --> 00:29:48,480 MUSIC: Symphony No. 7 by Dmitri Shostakovich 433 00:30:08,520 --> 00:30:10,600 It's a huge symphony. 434 00:30:10,600 --> 00:30:15,320 Well over an hour long and requiring more than 100 musicians to play it. 435 00:30:15,320 --> 00:30:18,760 And right from the off, this music is heavy with symbolism, 436 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:22,000 not least the invasion theme of the first movement 437 00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:24,480 featuring one of the most famous drum parts 438 00:30:24,480 --> 00:30:26,800 in the whole of classical music. 439 00:31:13,240 --> 00:31:17,520 That is a relentless kind of wall of sound coming at you. 440 00:31:17,520 --> 00:31:19,320 It's, erm... It's terrifying. 441 00:31:19,320 --> 00:31:22,320 This two-bar phrase repeated over and over again 442 00:31:22,320 --> 00:31:25,280 that goes from the quietest level of dynamic 443 00:31:25,280 --> 00:31:29,720 right the way up to the most you could ever play, I think. 444 00:31:29,720 --> 00:31:31,960 It's an extraordinary story, of course, 445 00:31:31,960 --> 00:31:34,320 the Seventh Symphony, isn't it? 446 00:31:34,320 --> 00:31:37,840 And the way that the music was smuggled out. 447 00:31:37,840 --> 00:31:42,880 Does the story of it matter to you when you're playing? 448 00:31:42,960 --> 00:31:46,680 It's great to know what was the composer's intention 449 00:31:46,680 --> 00:31:49,720 and the background around that piece. 450 00:31:49,720 --> 00:31:52,640 I like to have that picture in my mind 451 00:31:52,640 --> 00:31:56,480 of what he was obviously really going through and feeling 452 00:31:56,480 --> 00:31:58,920 because it's a very emotional piece. 453 00:31:58,920 --> 00:32:02,400 It's one of THE iconic parts for a percussionist. Absolutely. 454 00:32:02,400 --> 00:32:06,480 To get that role in a symphony is almost, you know, 455 00:32:06,480 --> 00:32:10,760 the most important thing you're going to do in symphonic repertoire 456 00:32:10,760 --> 00:32:13,800 because it's so quiet for so long. 457 00:32:13,800 --> 00:32:16,600 It really does test you as a player. 458 00:32:16,600 --> 00:32:19,840 You can't move your hands when you're playing really quietly. 459 00:32:19,840 --> 00:32:21,480 You've just... 460 00:32:21,480 --> 00:32:24,520 The slightest movement will change the tone of the drum. 461 00:32:31,240 --> 00:32:34,280 So I'm literally just moving the sticks a slight bit. 462 00:32:34,280 --> 00:32:37,240 If I move them further the dynamic immediately comes up 463 00:32:37,240 --> 00:32:38,960 and the sound changes. 464 00:32:38,960 --> 00:32:41,680 That's actually really hard to do on the snare drum. 465 00:32:41,680 --> 00:32:43,600 I've been in a battle. 466 00:32:43,600 --> 00:32:47,080 I haven't been in a battle as big, of course, as Leningrad. 467 00:32:47,080 --> 00:32:49,920 But I have been in battles with artillery 468 00:32:49,920 --> 00:32:52,840 and planes coming over and dropping bombs 469 00:32:52,840 --> 00:32:57,880 and there is nothing that I know outside this symphony 470 00:32:58,080 --> 00:33:01,440 which brings that same sensation. 471 00:33:01,440 --> 00:33:04,040 This is the real thing. 472 00:33:04,040 --> 00:33:08,360 Well, I think that's the fantastic way Shostakovich manages to create 473 00:33:08,360 --> 00:33:10,400 this sound from nothing, 474 00:33:10,400 --> 00:33:14,640 the siege music starting very quietly, almost imperceptible, 475 00:33:14,640 --> 00:33:17,160 and then gradually increasing to the point 476 00:33:17,160 --> 00:33:20,120 where all the bombs are going off, everything is in chaos 477 00:33:20,120 --> 00:33:22,120 and it's such a wall of sound. 478 00:33:24,440 --> 00:33:27,200 MUSIC: Symphony No. 7 by Dmitri Shostakovich 479 00:33:54,680 --> 00:33:57,680 For many, this piece of classical music was proof 480 00:33:57,680 --> 00:34:01,040 of the humanity of the Russians, our friends and allies, 481 00:34:01,040 --> 00:34:04,040 and the inhumanity of the Germans. 482 00:34:10,760 --> 00:34:14,400 Shostakovich was now regarded as a wartime hero. 483 00:34:17,280 --> 00:34:20,880 But not all musicians enjoyed such exalted status. 484 00:34:32,040 --> 00:34:36,840 England's most promising young composer lived here in Aldeburgh. 485 00:34:36,840 --> 00:34:40,120 Benjamin Britten was a conscientious objector 486 00:34:40,120 --> 00:34:45,080 who had gone to America in 1939, convinced that Europe was finished. 487 00:34:45,200 --> 00:34:49,120 Alienated by the flag-waving fervour of wartime, 488 00:34:49,120 --> 00:34:52,840 his failure to return home at the outbreak of hostilities 489 00:34:52,840 --> 00:34:56,720 angered patriots and his name was mud in some quarters. 490 00:34:58,240 --> 00:35:02,440 But a longing for what he called "this grim and exciting coastline" 491 00:35:02,440 --> 00:35:05,440 and a desperation to be part of British culture 492 00:35:05,440 --> 00:35:08,760 led to his return in 1942. 493 00:35:08,760 --> 00:35:12,960 He set about writing the opera that would save his reputation - 494 00:35:12,960 --> 00:35:14,480 Peter Grimes. 495 00:35:15,680 --> 00:35:17,800 And woven into the score 496 00:35:17,800 --> 00:35:21,320 are four exceptional orchestral Sea Interludes. 497 00:35:21,320 --> 00:35:24,240 MUSIC: Four Sea Interludes by Benjamin Britten 498 00:36:19,440 --> 00:36:22,160 I have never listened to the Sea Interludes 499 00:36:22,160 --> 00:36:24,160 actually sitting on a beach. 500 00:36:25,240 --> 00:36:29,800 And you just realise how clever Benjamin Britten is. 501 00:36:29,800 --> 00:36:32,160 If you take the first of them, Dawn, 502 00:36:32,160 --> 00:36:35,640 you get this very multi-layered picture of the sea. 503 00:36:35,640 --> 00:36:39,720 So there's this very high unison line of flutes and violins 504 00:36:39,720 --> 00:36:43,200 that to me sound like sea birds, probably quite nasty seagulls, 505 00:36:43,200 --> 00:36:46,120 kind of screaming around up there in the sky. 506 00:36:46,120 --> 00:36:47,960 Then you get this next idea 507 00:36:47,960 --> 00:36:50,320 which is obviously about the surface of the sea. 508 00:36:50,320 --> 00:36:51,880 It's quite choppy. 509 00:36:51,880 --> 00:36:55,320 This babbling, burbling line with the clarinets, violas and harps. 510 00:36:55,320 --> 00:36:59,560 And then deep down, this ominous sound of bassoons 511 00:36:59,560 --> 00:37:02,600 and low brass and low strings. 512 00:37:02,600 --> 00:37:07,560 And to do that, to have those three viewpoints of the sea, 513 00:37:07,560 --> 00:37:11,200 from up high, from the surface and from the dark deep, 514 00:37:11,200 --> 00:37:13,560 it's just so clever. 515 00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:19,240 MUSIC: Four Sea Interludes by Benjamin Britten 516 00:37:28,600 --> 00:37:31,240 This is the coastline of my childhood, 517 00:37:31,240 --> 00:37:33,480 which Britten captures perfectly. 518 00:37:37,440 --> 00:37:41,240 Like the Sea Interludes, the story has several perspectives. 519 00:37:41,240 --> 00:37:45,800 Peter Grimes is a fisherman who falls under suspicion and gossip 520 00:37:45,800 --> 00:37:49,800 after a tragedy when his apprentice goes missing. 521 00:37:49,800 --> 00:37:51,960 Grimes is an outsider 522 00:37:51,960 --> 00:37:55,400 at odds with the society in which he finds himself. 523 00:37:55,400 --> 00:37:59,400 Something that Benjamin Britten, as a pacifist and a gay man, 524 00:37:59,400 --> 00:38:01,560 understood all too well. 525 00:38:18,480 --> 00:38:20,120 # Steady 526 00:38:21,480 --> 00:38:23,400 # There you are 527 00:38:23,400 --> 00:38:25,440 # Nearly home 528 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:30,840 # What is home 529 00:38:33,760 --> 00:38:37,040 # Calm as deep water 530 00:38:37,040 --> 00:38:40,080 # Where's my home 531 00:38:42,320 --> 00:38:47,000 # Deep in calm water 532 00:38:48,680 --> 00:38:51,720 # Water will drink my sorrows dry 533 00:38:53,480 --> 00:38:57,960 # And the tide will turn. # 534 00:39:01,200 --> 00:39:03,440 It's only obviously, it's the excerpt, 535 00:39:03,440 --> 00:39:05,800 but you have to carry all of the weight 536 00:39:05,800 --> 00:39:09,160 of what he's gone through in the opera in the two and a half hours 537 00:39:09,160 --> 00:39:11,560 to really be at that point successfully, I think. 538 00:39:11,560 --> 00:39:14,640 So it does get quite emotionally draining. 539 00:39:14,640 --> 00:39:18,560 But this is where he's really falling apart. Absolutely, yes. 540 00:39:19,680 --> 00:39:21,960 # Peter Grimes 541 00:39:21,960 --> 00:39:23,760 # Here you are 542 00:39:23,760 --> 00:39:25,440 # Here I am 543 00:39:25,440 --> 00:39:27,400 # Hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry, hurry 544 00:39:28,440 --> 00:39:30,760 # Now is gossip put on trial 545 00:39:30,760 --> 00:39:34,400 # Bring the branding iron and knife for what's done now is done for life 546 00:39:34,400 --> 00:39:36,160 # Come on 547 00:39:36,160 --> 00:39:39,800 # Land me. # 548 00:39:41,120 --> 00:39:43,680 Just listening to you singing that, 549 00:39:43,680 --> 00:39:48,720 it strikes me just the way Britten uses notes to create a sense 550 00:39:50,000 --> 00:39:53,320 of a man being shattered from the inside out. 551 00:39:53,320 --> 00:39:55,000 It's amazing. 552 00:39:55,000 --> 00:39:57,600 It is truly remarkable, this whole scene. 553 00:39:57,600 --> 00:40:00,760 There are so many notes, so much of what Britten does 554 00:40:00,760 --> 00:40:05,320 where it centres around two or three at different ends of the octave, but two or three notes. 555 00:40:05,320 --> 00:40:07,960 They're worrying away at each other, aren't they? 556 00:40:07,960 --> 00:40:10,680 They do. They constantly bump against each other. 557 00:40:10,680 --> 00:40:15,720 His ability to write theatrically for human emotion 558 00:40:16,160 --> 00:40:20,120 is pretty much unparalleled, I think. 559 00:40:20,120 --> 00:40:22,800 It feels to me like a strange piece in a way 560 00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:25,880 to be a big success after a war because it has so much darkness. 561 00:40:25,880 --> 00:40:29,320 You'd think people would want a big flag-waving jamboree of a piece, 562 00:40:29,320 --> 00:40:31,080 but that's not what they got. 563 00:40:31,080 --> 00:40:32,880 But it was a huge hit. 564 00:40:32,880 --> 00:40:36,600 I think one of the reasons is the message is so universal. 565 00:40:36,600 --> 00:40:39,080 If you've been on a school playground, 566 00:40:39,080 --> 00:40:41,840 at some point you've been the one 567 00:40:41,840 --> 00:40:45,760 that all the other kids are pointing at and throwing stuff at 568 00:40:45,760 --> 00:40:49,480 and you've been part of a group that's done it to someone else. 569 00:40:49,480 --> 00:40:54,560 But why is it that we find Grimes so much a part of us? 570 00:40:55,760 --> 00:40:57,960 Why do we sympathise with him? 571 00:40:57,960 --> 00:41:00,560 Because he's not an attractive character. 572 00:41:00,560 --> 00:41:04,960 He's quite confused about, things about, 573 00:41:04,960 --> 00:41:07,440 I don't understand why they don't like me. 574 00:41:07,440 --> 00:41:09,840 I've never done anything to any of them. 575 00:41:09,840 --> 00:41:13,680 I stay out of the way, I go and do my thing, I'm good at what I do. 576 00:41:13,680 --> 00:41:16,920 So what could I possibly have done 577 00:41:16,920 --> 00:41:21,280 to earn the ire of this entire community? 578 00:41:21,280 --> 00:41:23,640 Because he's not part of the community. 579 00:41:30,920 --> 00:41:34,600 Britten said Grimes had more of him, the sea, Suffolk 580 00:41:34,600 --> 00:41:38,640 and the worry of 20th-century life than anything he'd ever done. 581 00:41:38,640 --> 00:41:41,600 He finished writing it as the war ended 582 00:41:41,600 --> 00:41:44,760 and its premiere was the cause of feverish excitement. 583 00:41:44,760 --> 00:41:47,280 London's famous Sadlers Wells Theatre 584 00:41:47,280 --> 00:41:49,640 is opening for the first time since the Blitz 585 00:41:49,640 --> 00:41:52,800 with a new work by the young British composer Benjamin Britten. 586 00:41:52,800 --> 00:41:54,760 His first opera. 587 00:41:54,760 --> 00:41:58,400 The opera in question makes news and musical history. 588 00:41:58,400 --> 00:42:01,560 The occasion an important one for British music. 589 00:42:08,200 --> 00:42:11,560 Once the curtain went up, I was completely transfixed. 590 00:42:11,560 --> 00:42:14,600 The very first scene, the inquest scene, 591 00:42:14,600 --> 00:42:18,400 when poor Grimes is interrupted all the time by this menacing person, 592 00:42:18,400 --> 00:42:22,800 that was almost Gestapo sort of interrogation from the war. 593 00:42:25,160 --> 00:42:27,000 # Peter Grimes 594 00:42:27,000 --> 00:42:29,440 # We are here to investigate the cause of death 595 00:42:29,440 --> 00:42:31,880 # Of your apprentice William Spode 596 00:42:33,120 --> 00:42:36,440 # Whose body you brought ashore from your boat The Boy Billy. # 597 00:42:36,440 --> 00:42:41,240 And also that sense that British opera had been non-existent really 598 00:42:41,240 --> 00:42:44,840 since the late 17th century, since Henry Purcell. Exactly. 599 00:42:44,840 --> 00:42:46,800 And that it was so unfashionable, 600 00:42:46,800 --> 00:42:49,560 so difficult to set the language, all sorts of problems, 601 00:42:49,560 --> 00:42:51,960 and yet Britten just came and announced himself. 602 00:42:51,960 --> 00:42:54,840 The operas one had seen before that were Sadlers Wells. 603 00:42:54,840 --> 00:42:57,680 They had been touring with these rather tired old operas 604 00:42:57,680 --> 00:43:02,440 and suddenly here was new music which was rather shattering. 605 00:43:02,440 --> 00:43:06,480 And it absolutely hit London. Everybody was talking about it. 606 00:43:06,480 --> 00:43:09,320 The 38 bus conductor used to call, 607 00:43:09,320 --> 00:43:12,040 "Alight here, Sadlers Wells, 608 00:43:12,040 --> 00:43:14,960 "for Peter Grimes the sadistic fisherman." 609 00:43:14,960 --> 00:43:18,480 So it obviously got through to all the, sort of, people. 610 00:43:18,480 --> 00:43:21,640 There was this idea that we were going to be a new country 611 00:43:21,640 --> 00:43:25,640 and everything was going to be all right and this was a symbol of that. 612 00:43:32,080 --> 00:43:34,840 Peter Grimes was a huge hit. 613 00:43:34,840 --> 00:43:39,520 Full of relatable characters that audiences could identify with, 614 00:43:39,520 --> 00:43:43,200 it attracted people put off by more traditional opera. 615 00:43:45,440 --> 00:43:49,280 Now the war was over, the government was looking to the future 616 00:43:49,280 --> 00:43:53,480 and the role that music could play in creating a post-war society. 617 00:43:54,600 --> 00:43:58,200 After the community spirit it had helped incubate during the war, 618 00:43:58,200 --> 00:44:01,840 there was a real desire to make music available to all. 619 00:44:01,840 --> 00:44:04,720 So if Benjamin Britten could bring people 620 00:44:04,720 --> 00:44:07,200 who'd previously not liked classical music 621 00:44:07,200 --> 00:44:09,760 to the opera house and the concert hall, 622 00:44:09,760 --> 00:44:11,600 who else might he entice? 623 00:44:25,640 --> 00:44:30,640 When I was a kid of about 11, this was my favourite recording. 624 00:44:30,920 --> 00:44:34,480 A Young Person's Guide To The Orchestra, by Benjamin Britten. 625 00:44:34,480 --> 00:44:39,040 I absolutely loved it and it became really the basis 626 00:44:39,040 --> 00:44:42,560 of a lifelong interest in classical music. 627 00:44:42,560 --> 00:44:45,080 It was a revelation to me. 628 00:44:45,080 --> 00:44:48,360 Who knew that you could have such fun 629 00:44:48,360 --> 00:44:51,840 in blowing, banging and scraping instruments? 630 00:44:52,960 --> 00:44:56,760 The sounds in an orchestra are produced in three different ways. 631 00:44:56,760 --> 00:44:59,800 By the musicians either blowing, 632 00:44:59,800 --> 00:45:02,720 scraping or banging. 633 00:45:02,720 --> 00:45:07,720 Benjamin Britten's Young Person's Guide was born in 1945. 634 00:45:07,920 --> 00:45:11,000 Now, the blowing instruments, some are made of wood 635 00:45:11,000 --> 00:45:13,560 and are called the woodwind. 636 00:45:17,840 --> 00:45:21,280 It was for a film introducing children to the instruments 637 00:45:21,280 --> 00:45:24,720 of an orchestra by breaking it down into parts 638 00:45:24,720 --> 00:45:27,760 to showcase each individual sound. 639 00:45:29,880 --> 00:45:32,240 Now for the scraping instruments. 640 00:45:32,240 --> 00:45:35,240 These are played with a bow or plucked with the fingers 641 00:45:35,240 --> 00:45:37,520 and are called the strings. 642 00:45:42,280 --> 00:45:47,000 It was part of a post-war consensus education drive. 643 00:45:48,480 --> 00:45:51,000 Finally, the banging instruments. 644 00:45:51,000 --> 00:45:52,840 The percussion. 645 00:45:56,880 --> 00:45:59,040 And here, in the British Library, 646 00:45:59,040 --> 00:46:02,040 is something deemed to be so significant for the study 647 00:46:02,040 --> 00:46:06,240 of British music, the Government wanted it kept in the country. 648 00:46:07,320 --> 00:46:11,040 Da-da-dum-da-da-da-da-da-da-dum, dum-da-da-du-dum-dum-di. 649 00:46:11,040 --> 00:46:14,320 This is Benjamin Britten's first draft 650 00:46:14,320 --> 00:46:17,600 for The Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. 651 00:46:17,600 --> 00:46:20,560 He's already thinking about the orchestration. 652 00:46:20,560 --> 00:46:22,560 At the beginning he writes "tutti", 653 00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:25,280 which means everybody's playing - the whole orchestra. 654 00:46:25,280 --> 00:46:27,560 Then, later on, strings only. 655 00:46:27,560 --> 00:46:29,280 And then wind only. 656 00:46:30,240 --> 00:46:32,560 And then... 657 00:46:32,560 --> 00:46:34,600 flute, clarinet, bassoon. 658 00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:37,560 Why was he so good at composing for children? 659 00:46:37,560 --> 00:46:42,120 He did say once that he thought of himself as always being 13 660 00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:44,760 and so he was always able to identify with children 661 00:46:44,760 --> 00:46:46,600 when he was writing for them. 662 00:46:46,600 --> 00:46:48,800 He knew exactly what children would want. 663 00:46:48,800 --> 00:46:51,600 Do you think that Britten would be proud of the fact 664 00:46:51,600 --> 00:46:54,880 that this is still very influential? Would he have liked that? 665 00:46:54,880 --> 00:46:58,600 Oh, no question that he would have liked it very much. 666 00:46:58,600 --> 00:47:01,600 He meant it as a young person's guide 667 00:47:01,600 --> 00:47:04,560 and he'd be thrilled that young people are still learning 668 00:47:04,560 --> 00:47:06,760 about the orchestra from this piece. 669 00:47:10,840 --> 00:47:13,800 It's still Benjamin Britten's most popular 670 00:47:13,800 --> 00:47:16,240 and frequently performed piece. 671 00:47:20,840 --> 00:47:24,560 The Young Person's Guide is still taught in schools and today, 672 00:47:24,560 --> 00:47:27,400 here at the wonderful Birmingham Symphony Hall, 673 00:47:27,400 --> 00:47:30,520 they are playing host to a very special performance. 674 00:47:33,320 --> 00:47:35,920 They're putting on a schools concert today. 675 00:47:35,920 --> 00:47:39,080 The kids I'm here with, they've never heard an orchestra live, 676 00:47:39,080 --> 00:47:42,560 they've never been to this hall before and they are super excited. 677 00:47:42,560 --> 00:47:46,000 They get to see glockenspiels and double basses and contrabassoons 678 00:47:46,000 --> 00:47:47,920 up close and personal. 679 00:47:49,200 --> 00:47:52,040 Excited to hear all kinds of different instruments 680 00:47:52,040 --> 00:47:54,440 and professional people play. Yeah. 681 00:47:54,440 --> 00:47:57,560 My brother does play a bass guitar. 682 00:47:57,560 --> 00:47:59,560 Do you fancy learning anything? 683 00:47:59,560 --> 00:48:02,560 Wait until the end of the concert. You might find something that 684 00:48:02,560 --> 00:48:05,320 you really like the sound of that you fancy picking up. 685 00:48:05,320 --> 00:48:07,600 I really like drums. You love drums? 686 00:48:07,600 --> 00:48:10,040 How long have you been playing the drums? 687 00:48:10,040 --> 00:48:12,120 Erm, two to three years. 688 00:48:12,120 --> 00:48:14,080 APPLAUSE 689 00:48:18,560 --> 00:48:22,440 MUSIC: A Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra by Benjamin Britten 690 00:48:41,000 --> 00:48:44,600 There is no tale or story 691 00:48:44,600 --> 00:48:48,560 other than the presentation of the orchestra. 692 00:48:48,560 --> 00:48:52,400 Every single moment is full of content 693 00:48:52,400 --> 00:48:55,160 and full of expression. 694 00:48:56,800 --> 00:49:01,840 And is there a hope that you will just make that lasting impression, 695 00:49:02,280 --> 00:49:05,800 something that really sticks with them for life? I am sure. 696 00:49:05,800 --> 00:49:09,520 This is an experience they all will carry with them. 697 00:49:10,600 --> 00:49:14,520 The more of those experiences we can share with them 698 00:49:14,520 --> 00:49:18,720 while they are so young, 699 00:49:18,720 --> 00:49:21,760 the greater it will be for all of us. 700 00:49:37,600 --> 00:49:39,640 APPLAUSE 701 00:49:43,320 --> 00:49:48,040 This piece came in the wake of the 1944 Butler Education Act, 702 00:49:48,040 --> 00:49:51,320 which ensured all children had free secondary education 703 00:49:51,320 --> 00:49:54,520 and put music on to the curriculum for the very first time. 704 00:49:56,480 --> 00:49:58,840 Despite fighting a war, 705 00:49:58,840 --> 00:50:01,200 the Government was still thinking about 706 00:50:01,200 --> 00:50:04,520 how to introduce the next generation to classical music. 707 00:50:05,960 --> 00:50:10,080 There must have been thousands upon thousands of young people 708 00:50:10,080 --> 00:50:13,360 who, like me, were brought to classical music 709 00:50:13,360 --> 00:50:16,560 by Britten's Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra. 710 00:50:16,560 --> 00:50:19,600 But there was something else about those years too. 711 00:50:19,600 --> 00:50:23,120 Just think about it. The Government was saying to the nation, 712 00:50:23,120 --> 00:50:26,520 "We're going to give you welfare, we going to give you education, 713 00:50:26,520 --> 00:50:28,800 "we're going to give you health." 714 00:50:28,800 --> 00:50:31,120 And there was something else too. 715 00:50:31,120 --> 00:50:34,240 "We're going to give you classical music." 716 00:50:34,240 --> 00:50:37,400 Now that really was extraordinary. 717 00:50:42,320 --> 00:50:47,160 This was a huge change for the role of the state in post-war Britain. 718 00:50:47,160 --> 00:50:52,160 The culture of the country was now seen as a government responsibility. 719 00:50:52,280 --> 00:50:56,840 During the war, classical music had gone from accompanying grand events 720 00:50:56,840 --> 00:51:00,080 to being a vital lifeline to normality. 721 00:51:00,080 --> 00:51:04,320 It would now play a central role in the nation's reconstruction. 722 00:51:04,320 --> 00:51:07,040 It would make Britain a better place. 723 00:51:07,040 --> 00:51:10,800 REPORTER: Rising rapidly from the war debris of the South Bank, 724 00:51:10,800 --> 00:51:13,520 London's great new concert hall by Hungerford Bridge 725 00:51:13,520 --> 00:51:15,720 is taking recognisable shape. 726 00:51:15,720 --> 00:51:20,200 I hope that this concert hall will give the opportunity 727 00:51:20,200 --> 00:51:22,560 for the finest music, 728 00:51:22,560 --> 00:51:27,320 the greatest singers and players to be heard, 729 00:51:27,320 --> 00:51:31,320 and to give pleasure and refreshment of the soul 730 00:51:31,320 --> 00:51:34,840 to generations of Londoners yet unborn. 731 00:51:34,840 --> 00:51:37,000 APPLAUSE 732 00:51:39,600 --> 00:51:44,080 That a new concert venue to be called the Royal Festival Hall 733 00:51:44,080 --> 00:51:47,600 was the first major building work since the end of the war 734 00:51:47,600 --> 00:51:50,480 showed our commitment to classical music. 735 00:51:50,480 --> 00:51:54,240 It would be the centrepiece of the Festival of Britain 736 00:51:54,240 --> 00:51:56,960 when it opened in 1951. 737 00:51:58,600 --> 00:52:02,040 Just imagine the excitement, the anticipation. 738 00:52:02,040 --> 00:52:06,600 You've had to endure years of horror and violence from the war, 739 00:52:06,600 --> 00:52:11,040 then austerity, and finally you get to enjoy a day out 740 00:52:11,040 --> 00:52:12,800 as a normal family. 741 00:52:12,800 --> 00:52:15,000 And this is what awaits you. 742 00:52:15,000 --> 00:52:17,480 This stunningly beautiful 743 00:52:17,480 --> 00:52:19,520 people's palace. 744 00:52:25,520 --> 00:52:28,320 People came here to see the future. 745 00:52:28,320 --> 00:52:31,240 The festival was showcasing a radical vision 746 00:52:31,240 --> 00:52:33,360 of what Britain might be. 747 00:52:33,360 --> 00:52:37,200 It was all about innovation, design, science, technology. 748 00:52:38,840 --> 00:52:42,520 And central to that new beginning was classical music. 749 00:52:42,520 --> 00:52:45,320 Boy, was there a lot of it here. 750 00:52:49,800 --> 00:52:53,920 The Festival of Britain began with a series of inaugural concerts 751 00:52:53,920 --> 00:52:58,320 here at the Royal Festival Hall, which opened almost ten years 752 00:52:58,320 --> 00:53:01,320 to the day of the destruction of the Queen's Hall. 753 00:53:02,720 --> 00:53:05,680 COMMENTARY: London hasn't had a really good concert hall 754 00:53:05,680 --> 00:53:09,440 since the Queen's Hall was destroyed by bombs in 1941. 755 00:53:09,440 --> 00:53:14,200 But now, once again, London possesses a fine concert hall. 756 00:53:14,200 --> 00:53:17,600 We're waiting for the conductor, Sir Malcolm Sargent. 757 00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:20,240 RIPPLE OF APPLAUSE 758 00:53:20,240 --> 00:53:23,920 Symphony No. 1 in C by Beethoven. 759 00:53:36,400 --> 00:53:40,680 Just to give you an idea of how much music we are talking about, 760 00:53:40,680 --> 00:53:44,480 in London alone over the summer of 1951, 761 00:53:44,480 --> 00:53:47,080 there were 300 concerts. 762 00:53:47,080 --> 00:53:51,760 And if you think about it, a Proms season of concerts - 80, 90 gigs. 763 00:53:51,760 --> 00:53:56,560 This is three time as much music, so it's incredibly ambitious. 764 00:53:56,560 --> 00:54:00,720 And it was a very German critic who very famously called Britain, 765 00:54:00,720 --> 00:54:05,000 "Das land ohne musik" - the land without music. 766 00:54:05,000 --> 00:54:08,400 Well, after the Festival of Britain opening in 1951, 767 00:54:08,400 --> 00:54:11,880 one critic quipped that Britain was now - 768 00:54:11,880 --> 00:54:15,080 "Das land mit almost too much music." 769 00:54:25,400 --> 00:54:29,360 Britain was sending a message that unlike the enemy 770 00:54:29,360 --> 00:54:32,880 we'd just defeated, we were a deeply cultured nation. 771 00:54:32,880 --> 00:54:35,360 It was a message that was about to be broadcast 772 00:54:35,360 --> 00:54:36,840 even louder to the world. 773 00:54:38,440 --> 00:54:41,680 For the first time in history, through the medium of television, 774 00:54:41,680 --> 00:54:44,640 the ancient and noble rite of a coronation service 775 00:54:44,640 --> 00:54:47,400 will be witnessed by millions of Her Majesty's subjects. 776 00:54:47,400 --> 00:54:51,840 After it was announced that the 1953 coronation would be shown 777 00:54:51,840 --> 00:54:55,400 live on television, sales soared. 778 00:54:55,400 --> 00:54:59,360 Over 2.5 million homes now had a television set. 779 00:55:03,280 --> 00:55:07,720 On the day itself, over 20 million watched, 780 00:55:07,720 --> 00:55:11,040 many crowding round friends' and neighbours' sets. 781 00:55:11,040 --> 00:55:13,800 Soundtracking those images, 782 00:55:13,800 --> 00:55:17,760 a collection of the best of British classical music. 783 00:55:17,760 --> 00:55:21,720 There was Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams, Purcell 784 00:55:21,720 --> 00:55:24,120 and Handel's Zadok the Priest. 785 00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:28,480 MUSIC: Zadok the Priest by Handel 786 00:55:51,640 --> 00:55:58,480 God save the Queen! 787 00:55:58,480 --> 00:56:03,480 There was also a new piece - William Walton's Orb and Sceptre. 788 00:56:03,800 --> 00:56:06,600 MUSIC: Orb and Sceptre by William Walton 789 00:56:15,360 --> 00:56:19,040 Just as he'd done for her father in 1937, 790 00:56:19,040 --> 00:56:22,880 William Walton created a new coronation march for Elizabeth. 791 00:56:26,360 --> 00:56:29,960 Thrillingly tuneful and full of grandeur, 792 00:56:29,960 --> 00:56:33,840 the march melded the great tradition of British regal music 793 00:56:33,840 --> 00:56:36,120 with a fresh, forward-looking optimism. 794 00:56:39,000 --> 00:56:42,960 This was music fit for a new Elizabethan age. 795 00:56:45,400 --> 00:56:47,440 This was a very different Britain 796 00:56:47,440 --> 00:56:50,800 from the one that Elizabeth's father had ruled. 797 00:56:50,800 --> 00:56:55,440 And William Walton doesn't write a big imperial march here - 798 00:56:55,440 --> 00:56:59,280 what he does is create something much more youthful-sounding 799 00:56:59,280 --> 00:57:04,000 for our new, young queen, and for a Britain that felt very different, 800 00:57:04,000 --> 00:57:08,760 driven by a new spirit of community, nationhood and family. 801 00:57:09,800 --> 00:57:12,480 MUSIC: Nimrod by Edward Elgar 802 00:57:16,280 --> 00:57:20,160 This coronation showcased our best classical music 803 00:57:20,160 --> 00:57:22,920 to its biggest ever audience. 804 00:57:22,920 --> 00:57:25,920 It was the greatest collection of music for a monarch 805 00:57:25,920 --> 00:57:27,880 in over 150 years. 806 00:57:31,920 --> 00:57:36,600 Between Elizabeth's coronation and that of her father back in 1937, 807 00:57:36,600 --> 00:57:39,840 Britain had undergone a radical transformation. 808 00:57:41,320 --> 00:57:44,840 From the dark days of war, we'd emerged bloodied 809 00:57:44,840 --> 00:57:47,840 but still standing, optimistic of a bright future, 810 00:57:47,840 --> 00:57:52,560 and all through that time, classical music was there for us. 811 00:57:56,280 --> 00:57:59,960 It had been a time of terrible uncertainty. 812 00:57:59,960 --> 00:58:01,920 Our monarchy, our democracy, 813 00:58:01,920 --> 00:58:05,120 our very way of life had been threatened, 814 00:58:05,120 --> 00:58:09,800 and classical music shone a light through those darkest of days, 815 00:58:09,800 --> 00:58:13,360 comforting us, strengthening us, uniting us. 816 00:58:13,360 --> 00:58:17,640 This was our soundtrack to resistance and resilience. 817 00:58:21,760 --> 00:58:24,360 And when peace finally came, 818 00:58:24,360 --> 00:58:29,400 classical music helped us to create a new future for the country. 819 00:58:29,960 --> 00:58:32,680 You see, for people of my generation, 820 00:58:32,680 --> 00:58:36,720 the immediate post-war generation that is, classical music 821 00:58:36,720 --> 00:58:41,600 wasn't the elitist business that it had been before the war. 822 00:58:41,600 --> 00:58:45,280 From now on, we saw it as our birthright.