1 00:00:07,700 --> 00:00:12,020 This is the story of the past hundred years of British history 2 00:00:12,020 --> 00:00:13,780 as you've never heard it before... 3 00:00:15,180 --> 00:00:18,020 ..told through our love of classical music. 4 00:00:19,700 --> 00:00:23,780 It's been the soundtrack to a century of turbulent change, 5 00:00:23,780 --> 00:00:26,780 from some of the biggest events in our history, 6 00:00:26,780 --> 00:00:30,340 to our shared ambitions and private passions. 7 00:00:32,340 --> 00:00:37,380 In the midst of all this, classical music has been there for us, 8 00:00:37,380 --> 00:00:40,060 reflecting and shaping Britain, 9 00:00:40,060 --> 00:00:43,100 bringing us comfort, solace and joy. 10 00:00:43,100 --> 00:00:47,180 And I think, more than rock and pop, jazz or folk, 11 00:00:47,180 --> 00:00:51,940 it is the drama, the emotion, the scale of classical music 12 00:00:51,940 --> 00:00:56,380 that has truly brought us together at the key moments in our history. 13 00:00:57,660 --> 00:01:00,780 In this episode, I'll be joined by the broadcaster 14 00:01:00,780 --> 00:01:04,300 and classical music lover Joan Bakewell. 15 00:01:04,300 --> 00:01:06,940 Tonight, the Sunday night programme on BBC One 16 00:01:06,940 --> 00:01:10,540 celebrated the 50th birthday of Yehudi Menuhin. 17 00:01:10,540 --> 00:01:13,860 Together, we'll explore how, in the post-war years, 18 00:01:13,860 --> 00:01:17,140 a generation of charismatic, visionary stars 19 00:01:17,140 --> 00:01:21,460 took classical music to places it had never been before - 20 00:01:21,460 --> 00:01:24,780 on to our televisions, and into the movies. 21 00:01:26,140 --> 00:01:29,460 And we'll discover why classical music in Britain 22 00:01:29,460 --> 00:01:34,180 not only survived but thrived in the pop culture revolution. 23 00:01:34,180 --> 00:01:37,900 That is the world of Debussy, and Ravel... Yeah. ..and David Bowie, 24 00:01:37,900 --> 00:01:40,340 and all these different people coming together. 25 00:01:41,940 --> 00:01:44,420 It was a time of irresistible talent, 26 00:01:44,420 --> 00:01:47,780 unlikely collaborations and musical adventures. 27 00:01:48,780 --> 00:01:52,140 This was Our Classical Century. 28 00:02:07,220 --> 00:02:12,020 On the 2nd of June, 1953, 10 million people were gripped 29 00:02:12,020 --> 00:02:16,820 by the spectacle and splendour of Elizabeth II's coronation. 30 00:02:16,820 --> 00:02:19,260 The Arch-bishop lifts the crown of St Edward 31 00:02:19,260 --> 00:02:21,660 and holds it for a moment above the Queen's head. 32 00:02:22,740 --> 00:02:26,340 This was the first time the public had been able to experience 33 00:02:26,340 --> 00:02:30,820 both the sight and the sound of this ancient British ceremonial ritual. 34 00:02:35,500 --> 00:02:37,900 The BBC broadcast of this national event 35 00:02:37,900 --> 00:02:40,220 was a breakthrough moment for TV. 36 00:02:42,500 --> 00:02:44,540 But now that the nation was watching, 37 00:02:44,540 --> 00:02:47,300 the question was - what came next? 38 00:02:49,540 --> 00:02:52,260 In the wake of the success of the coronation, 39 00:02:52,260 --> 00:02:56,460 the BBC decided it would stage an annual last night at the Proms, 40 00:02:56,460 --> 00:02:58,620 and put it on television. 41 00:02:58,620 --> 00:03:02,220 But, if it was going to guarantee it had a success on its hands, 42 00:03:02,220 --> 00:03:05,340 they'd have to make sure it wasn't just a musical spectacle, 43 00:03:05,340 --> 00:03:07,300 but a visual feast, too. 44 00:03:10,100 --> 00:03:12,260 Television's star was rising, 45 00:03:12,260 --> 00:03:15,300 and producers were aware that their audiences wanted more 46 00:03:15,300 --> 00:03:18,180 than just televised radio. 47 00:03:18,180 --> 00:03:21,740 Luckily, the arrival of the TV cameras at the Royal Albert Hall 48 00:03:21,740 --> 00:03:25,180 coincided with the rise of Flash Harry... 49 00:03:25,180 --> 00:03:27,900 ..The Proms' charismatic new chief conductor. 50 00:03:30,180 --> 00:03:33,820 # For he's a jolly good fellow 51 00:03:33,820 --> 00:03:36,820 # And so say all of us... # 52 00:03:36,820 --> 00:03:41,660 Malcolm Sargent was a charmer, and familiar voice from the radio. 53 00:03:41,660 --> 00:03:44,020 Your generosity is almost equal to your good looks. 54 00:03:44,020 --> 00:03:45,260 THEY CHEER 55 00:03:45,260 --> 00:03:49,420 He instinctively knew what worked on the small screen. 56 00:03:49,420 --> 00:03:53,860 A bit of showmanship, an injection of matinee idol glitz and glamour. 57 00:03:55,900 --> 00:03:58,820 His formula - get the punters involved... 58 00:04:07,940 --> 00:04:11,460 ..and a dose of patriotic flag-waving. 59 00:04:11,460 --> 00:04:17,140 # Rule, Britannia! Britannia, rule the waves! 60 00:04:17,140 --> 00:04:22,580 # Britons never, never, never shall be slaves 61 00:04:22,580 --> 00:04:28,100 # Rule, Britannia! Britannia... # 62 00:04:28,100 --> 00:04:31,180 Malcolm Sargent transformed the last night 63 00:04:31,180 --> 00:04:34,300 into the noisy TV extravaganza we know today. 64 00:04:39,220 --> 00:04:42,660 Good afternoon. Welcome again to The Brain's Trust. 65 00:04:42,660 --> 00:04:45,380 We're very happy to have with us Sir Malcolm Sargent. 66 00:04:45,380 --> 00:04:47,780 Would the musicians please say whether the presence 67 00:04:47,780 --> 00:04:50,420 of the audience helps them to give a better performance? 68 00:04:50,420 --> 00:04:51,540 From my point of view, 69 00:04:51,540 --> 00:04:54,260 the audience has an enormous effect on the orchestra. 70 00:04:54,260 --> 00:04:57,700 The difference of going into a studio and whipping an orchestra up 71 00:04:57,700 --> 00:05:01,540 to a sense of fervour and intensity for ordinary broadcast 72 00:05:01,540 --> 00:05:04,300 is very different from when you go on when they're already there, 73 00:05:04,300 --> 00:05:06,260 the place is packed with people, 74 00:05:06,260 --> 00:05:09,100 the orchestra is already on its toes 75 00:05:09,100 --> 00:05:13,300 and the conductor's work is made easier because of the audience. 76 00:05:14,540 --> 00:05:17,100 JOAN: Sargent was now a household name, 77 00:05:17,100 --> 00:05:21,580 ably supported for 20 years by his private secretary, Sylvia Darley. 78 00:05:22,780 --> 00:05:25,540 What attitude did he take to The Proms? 79 00:05:25,540 --> 00:05:29,500 Oh, I always think it was sort of a love affair 80 00:05:29,500 --> 00:05:32,780 between the promenaders and himself. 81 00:05:32,780 --> 00:05:34,940 God willing we all meet again, the end. 82 00:05:34,940 --> 00:05:36,340 Three cheers for Sir Malcolm! 83 00:05:36,340 --> 00:05:39,780 AUDIENCE: Hip-hip hooray! 84 00:05:39,780 --> 00:05:40,980 They did adore him. 85 00:05:40,980 --> 00:05:42,780 Oh, they did adore him, yes. 86 00:05:42,780 --> 00:05:47,220 It was definitely a two-way thing between him and the promenaders. 87 00:05:47,220 --> 00:05:49,260 They became great friends. 88 00:05:51,780 --> 00:05:53,740 I'm well-established in the queue here. 89 00:05:53,740 --> 00:05:56,300 I'm probably in about the tenth place. 90 00:05:56,300 --> 00:05:58,500 Erm...may I ask you how long you've been here? 91 00:05:59,660 --> 00:06:02,420 Erm...I got here at about ten to eight on Friday morning. 92 00:06:02,420 --> 00:06:03,860 And what time did you get here? 93 00:06:03,860 --> 00:06:06,220 I got here about one o'clock, quarter past. 94 00:06:06,220 --> 00:06:08,980 Oh, you're lucky to be so far ahead in the queue, then. I am, very much. 95 00:06:08,980 --> 00:06:11,220 Where do you come from? I come from Finchley. 96 00:06:11,220 --> 00:06:15,740 In his day, they were under-25s. 97 00:06:15,740 --> 00:06:19,020 I think there was a cultural feeling that music, classical music 98 00:06:19,020 --> 00:06:23,980 was high-brow and that only the upper classes could appreciate it. 99 00:06:23,980 --> 00:06:25,220 I'm afraid so, yes. 100 00:06:25,220 --> 00:06:28,260 Well, how did he come to realise that that wasn't the case? 101 00:06:28,260 --> 00:06:29,980 Cos he wasn't upper class himself. 102 00:06:29,980 --> 00:06:32,940 No. Music is for everybody. 103 00:06:32,940 --> 00:06:35,140 And that's what he wanted to sort of put over. 104 00:06:37,180 --> 00:06:39,020 They were filled from the gods, 105 00:06:39,020 --> 00:06:42,060 to those, whatever you call them, in the lower region. 106 00:06:42,060 --> 00:06:44,660 CROWD CHEERS 107 00:06:44,660 --> 00:06:47,820 He said he wanted the public to trust him 108 00:06:47,820 --> 00:06:51,660 that any music he conducted, he believed in. 109 00:06:51,660 --> 00:06:58,940 CROWD SINGS 110 00:07:02,500 --> 00:07:04,540 As the audience... 111 00:07:04,540 --> 00:07:07,180 ..begins to leave, you think... 112 00:07:07,180 --> 00:07:09,700 ..of the wonderful feast of music it has provided, 113 00:07:09,700 --> 00:07:12,500 and of the thousands upon thousands of people 114 00:07:12,500 --> 00:07:15,180 who have been enriched by its offerings. 115 00:07:15,180 --> 00:07:18,540 Televising the last night was a huge success. 116 00:07:18,540 --> 00:07:22,260 Today, it's a permanent fixture in our cultural calendar, 117 00:07:22,260 --> 00:07:25,620 and the biggest celebration of its kind in the world. 118 00:07:25,620 --> 00:07:27,900 Goodnight, everybody, from Royal Albert Hall. 119 00:07:35,100 --> 00:07:39,820 But while classical music had found a new home on the small screen... 120 00:07:39,820 --> 00:07:43,100 ..orchestral music was about to be taken to new heights 121 00:07:43,100 --> 00:07:45,180 by the huge power and big bucks... 122 00:07:46,820 --> 00:07:48,140 ..of the movies. 123 00:07:50,860 --> 00:07:54,140 Classical music had long been a feature of films, 124 00:07:54,140 --> 00:07:57,140 but David Lean's Brief Encounter in 1945 125 00:07:57,140 --> 00:08:00,100 was the first motion picture where the soundtrack 126 00:08:00,100 --> 00:08:02,180 became a psychological player... 127 00:08:04,180 --> 00:08:07,500 ..Rachmaninoff's second piano concerto expressing 128 00:08:07,500 --> 00:08:11,260 the suppressed emotions that the characters on screen couldn't. 129 00:08:14,780 --> 00:08:18,380 Lean understood the subliminal power of film music, 130 00:08:18,380 --> 00:08:21,420 and soon moved away from using existing scores, 131 00:08:21,420 --> 00:08:23,940 to getting specially commissioned soundtracks. 132 00:08:25,900 --> 00:08:28,980 He started to work with classically trained composers 133 00:08:28,980 --> 00:08:31,580 to deliver the complex musical elements 134 00:08:31,580 --> 00:08:33,700 his cinematic vision demanded. 135 00:08:36,140 --> 00:08:38,460 In 1958, a Brit won an Oscar 136 00:08:38,460 --> 00:08:42,500 for creating one of the most evocative and influential 137 00:08:42,500 --> 00:08:44,740 movie scores of all-time. 138 00:08:50,900 --> 00:08:52,940 Lean's Bridge On The River Kwai 139 00:08:52,940 --> 00:08:55,980 tells the story of prisoners of war in a Japanese camp, 140 00:08:55,980 --> 00:08:58,340 building a bridge for the Burma railway. 141 00:08:59,620 --> 00:09:01,620 If you work hard... 142 00:09:01,620 --> 00:09:04,540 ..you will be treated well. 143 00:09:04,540 --> 00:09:08,300 A cinematic tour-de-force, Lean's direction immersed audiences 144 00:09:08,300 --> 00:09:11,220 in the sweat and suffering of forced labour. 145 00:09:11,220 --> 00:09:12,580 Stand fast in the ranks! 146 00:09:13,940 --> 00:09:17,140 And the music, by the British composer Malcolm Arnold, 147 00:09:17,140 --> 00:09:18,980 intensified the experience. 148 00:09:24,820 --> 00:09:27,060 Arnold was unashamedly eclectic. 149 00:09:27,060 --> 00:09:30,660 A gifted musician who could turn his hand to almost anything. 150 00:09:33,940 --> 00:09:35,980 And he brought a precision, 151 00:09:35,980 --> 00:09:40,060 an instinct for mapping emotional terrain to his movie music. 152 00:09:46,020 --> 00:09:50,180 This feeling of a kind of plodding music, it's very Malcolm Arnold. 153 00:09:50,180 --> 00:09:51,820 He's clever with this sort of thing. 154 00:09:51,820 --> 00:09:53,540 He's been given two jobs to do with this. 155 00:09:53,540 --> 00:09:57,940 One is to make it clear to us how much pain Jack Hawkins is in. 156 00:09:57,940 --> 00:10:00,060 But he's also got to stop every now and then, 157 00:10:00,060 --> 00:10:02,420 because there's moments where Hawkins rests, 158 00:10:02,420 --> 00:10:04,620 there's little bits of dialogue. 159 00:10:04,620 --> 00:10:09,100 And I really like the fact that he fills in the space, as he does here, 160 00:10:09,100 --> 00:10:13,340 he fills in the space with interesting orchestral ideas. 161 00:10:13,340 --> 00:10:16,420 There's lots of texture going on in there. 162 00:10:16,420 --> 00:10:18,380 MUSIC CONTINUES 163 00:10:23,460 --> 00:10:25,220 And you can hear the trumpets 164 00:10:25,220 --> 00:10:27,860 are kind of slightly overlaying each other. 165 00:10:34,700 --> 00:10:36,940 Then you can also hear the woodwind coming in, 166 00:10:36,940 --> 00:10:40,660 there's vibraphone coming in - lots of filled-in orchestral sound. 167 00:10:40,660 --> 00:10:44,140 It feels like a very inconsequential moment, in a way, for a movie. 168 00:10:44,140 --> 00:10:46,860 It's a few blokes walking up a hill. Exactly. 169 00:10:46,860 --> 00:10:49,340 But the music gives it a totally different dimension. 170 00:10:49,340 --> 00:10:52,660 It does, because it shows his mind is flying all over the place. 171 00:10:52,660 --> 00:10:56,220 He's in pain. It also gives us this sense of a kind of courage 172 00:10:56,220 --> 00:10:59,740 that's pushing him on, which is of course what the whole film is about. 173 00:10:59,740 --> 00:11:02,060 But the music is telling you that as well. It is. 174 00:11:02,060 --> 00:11:04,500 In just the same way as the music gives us the shark in Jaws, 175 00:11:04,500 --> 00:11:05,980 in a way the real one can't, 176 00:11:05,980 --> 00:11:10,460 Jack Hawkins cannot act well enough to make us feel the pain 177 00:11:10,460 --> 00:11:12,980 that Malcolm Arnold makes us feel in the music. 178 00:11:12,980 --> 00:11:14,940 And what he uses to really bring that out 179 00:11:14,940 --> 00:11:16,660 is those two clashing trumpets. 180 00:11:16,660 --> 00:11:18,100 MIMICS TRUMPETS 181 00:11:18,100 --> 00:11:21,540 He puts them together, and that's very Malcolm Arnold. 182 00:11:24,980 --> 00:11:27,380 And he builds that and builds it and builds it. 183 00:11:27,380 --> 00:11:29,300 That... I don't know any other composer 184 00:11:29,300 --> 00:11:31,780 who basically distresses the orchestra 185 00:11:31,780 --> 00:11:36,620 in order to make a distressing moment like that work. 186 00:11:36,620 --> 00:11:39,500 But he's a master orchestrator. 187 00:11:39,500 --> 00:11:42,060 RECORDING OF ARNOLD: The Bridge Over The River Kwai, 188 00:11:42,060 --> 00:11:45,260 I scored all the military band stuff 189 00:11:45,260 --> 00:11:48,620 and all the orchestral stuff myself. 190 00:11:48,620 --> 00:11:52,540 I've never had an orchestrator or amanuensis. 191 00:11:52,540 --> 00:11:55,700 And I did that in ten days. 192 00:11:56,860 --> 00:11:58,660 What was it about him as a musician 193 00:11:58,660 --> 00:12:01,180 that made him right for doing that sort of work? 194 00:12:01,180 --> 00:12:03,980 Two things, really. One is he has this amazing facility 195 00:12:03,980 --> 00:12:09,500 for very short, clever, original, hook-y musical ideas. 196 00:12:09,500 --> 00:12:12,300 So he'll come up with a tune, bang, and it's in. 197 00:12:12,300 --> 00:12:15,860 The other is that he is actually quite a damaged person. 198 00:12:19,380 --> 00:12:22,860 There's no two ways about it. He had alcoholism problems, 199 00:12:22,860 --> 00:12:25,220 he had mental problems throughout most of his life. 200 00:12:25,220 --> 00:12:27,020 So he has a real dark side. 201 00:12:30,260 --> 00:12:33,500 And that dark side can't help but come through. 202 00:12:33,500 --> 00:12:36,380 So he writes the soundtrack in '57. 203 00:12:36,380 --> 00:12:39,300 What's happening just in a wider sense 204 00:12:39,300 --> 00:12:42,260 in terms of movie music at that moment? 205 00:12:42,260 --> 00:12:46,700 Well, mid '50s is when you start to get this big explosion 206 00:12:46,700 --> 00:12:50,580 in people buying new LPs 207 00:12:50,580 --> 00:12:54,100 and record players, and even sheet music, 208 00:12:54,100 --> 00:12:56,580 of the films that they go and see. 209 00:12:56,580 --> 00:12:59,740 So they are actually able to take home for the first time 210 00:12:59,740 --> 00:13:01,700 a chunk of a movie they've liked. 211 00:13:03,380 --> 00:13:08,300 So film music becomes part of the national culture. 212 00:13:10,780 --> 00:13:14,180 And then Malcolm Arnold scores a film score 213 00:13:14,180 --> 00:13:18,540 unlike any that had been done for a British war film before. 214 00:13:18,540 --> 00:13:23,860 And I just think, in soundtrack terms, it marks a cusp between... 215 00:13:23,860 --> 00:13:30,180 ..what had been assumed to be popular, whistle-able film music before that, 216 00:13:30,180 --> 00:13:34,660 to something much deeper and much more psychological. 217 00:13:34,660 --> 00:13:37,300 And both the film and the soundtrack 218 00:13:37,300 --> 00:13:40,300 point the way to where movie soundtracks are going to go 219 00:13:40,300 --> 00:13:42,580 in the '60s and '70s. 220 00:13:48,540 --> 00:13:51,380 Arnold was a towering figure in British music. 221 00:13:51,380 --> 00:13:54,380 A composer with a foot in both the classical and film worlds, 222 00:13:54,380 --> 00:13:58,060 he was able to capture something deeper, truer 223 00:13:58,060 --> 00:14:00,300 than the traditional hero's story. 224 00:14:02,700 --> 00:14:06,020 His score helped to expose the fundamental darkness 225 00:14:06,020 --> 00:14:08,860 at the heart of our Second World War experience. 226 00:14:15,420 --> 00:14:18,380 Something that Arnold, who had lost his brother in the war, 227 00:14:18,380 --> 00:14:20,020 knew only too well. 228 00:14:23,020 --> 00:14:24,780 EXPLOSIONS 229 00:14:24,780 --> 00:14:28,100 More than 500 people were killed. 230 00:14:28,100 --> 00:14:31,940 2,000 buildings were totally destroyed. 231 00:14:31,940 --> 00:14:33,780 As we entered the '60s, 232 00:14:33,780 --> 00:14:36,140 Britain was ready to look back at the war 233 00:14:36,140 --> 00:14:38,620 and take stock of the sacrifices and suffering. 234 00:14:38,620 --> 00:14:40,100 BELL TOLLS 235 00:14:40,100 --> 00:14:45,340 Cities like Coventry had been hammered by German air raids. 236 00:14:45,340 --> 00:14:47,660 Much of it centre had been destroyed, 237 00:14:47,660 --> 00:14:51,660 and its imposing medieval cathedral practically obliterated. 238 00:14:55,700 --> 00:14:59,140 In the post-war years, the city looked to rebuild 239 00:14:59,140 --> 00:15:03,380 not only with bricks and mortar, but with the healing power of music. 240 00:15:08,140 --> 00:15:11,220 The composer Benjamin Britten, who had emerged after the war 241 00:15:11,220 --> 00:15:14,580 as the new young face of British classical music, 242 00:15:14,580 --> 00:15:19,940 was chosen to create a new piece for the reopening of Coventry Cathedral. 243 00:15:19,940 --> 00:15:22,340 But he was a controversial choice. 244 00:15:22,340 --> 00:15:24,140 A conscientious objector, 245 00:15:24,140 --> 00:15:26,980 he was to many the very opposite of a war hero. 246 00:15:26,980 --> 00:15:31,420 In an era of protests against the Cold War nuclear arms race, 247 00:15:31,420 --> 00:15:35,620 Britten composed music that resounded with pacifist sentiment. 248 00:15:35,620 --> 00:15:38,020 He wanted his new piece for Coventry 249 00:15:38,020 --> 00:15:41,540 to acknowledge the heavy price of conflict and war. 250 00:16:06,580 --> 00:16:09,580 This is where Britten wrote the War Requiem, 251 00:16:09,580 --> 00:16:11,580 at his home, the Red House, 252 00:16:11,580 --> 00:16:15,540 in the little town of Aldeburgh on the Suffolk coast. 253 00:16:15,540 --> 00:16:19,380 I've been coming to Aldeburgh annually for at least 15 years, 254 00:16:19,380 --> 00:16:22,300 so of course every inch of the place is imbued for me 255 00:16:22,300 --> 00:16:24,140 with Benjamin Britten's music. 256 00:16:24,140 --> 00:16:26,860 Oh, and the memory of some pretty wonderful parties 257 00:16:26,860 --> 00:16:29,940 here at the Red House. 258 00:16:29,940 --> 00:16:32,660 MUSIC: War Requiem by Benjamin Britten 259 00:16:35,020 --> 00:16:38,060 This is the score of the War Requiem, 260 00:16:38,060 --> 00:16:40,300 in Britten's hand, of course. 261 00:16:40,300 --> 00:16:43,820 And it not only gave him the chance to respond to the invitation 262 00:16:43,820 --> 00:16:46,700 for the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral, 263 00:16:46,700 --> 00:16:49,260 it gave him the private opportunity 264 00:16:49,260 --> 00:16:52,700 to express his own feelings about war. 265 00:16:52,700 --> 00:16:56,620 MUSIC CONTINUES 266 00:16:58,540 --> 00:17:03,580 The invitation to compose something for the opening of a cathedral 267 00:17:03,580 --> 00:17:08,180 in memory of war must have been an absolute gift for him. 268 00:17:08,180 --> 00:17:10,300 The real purpose of this 269 00:17:10,300 --> 00:17:14,020 was to warn people of the inhumanity of war 270 00:17:14,020 --> 00:17:16,220 and its terrible consequences. 271 00:17:22,020 --> 00:17:25,620 Britten brought together the still fresh memories of World War II, 272 00:17:25,620 --> 00:17:27,820 the deeper wounds of World War I, 273 00:17:27,820 --> 00:17:31,260 and the vivid nightmare of the early 1960s - 274 00:17:31,260 --> 00:17:35,220 fear of an apocalyptic, nuclear World War III. 275 00:17:38,020 --> 00:17:40,580 He was the one who concocted the idea 276 00:17:40,580 --> 00:17:44,780 of putting a pacifist stance on the piece itself. 277 00:17:44,780 --> 00:17:47,980 This was the height of the Cold War. 278 00:17:47,980 --> 00:17:52,540 Cuba crisis was looming, terrible tensions between America and Russia. 279 00:17:52,540 --> 00:17:54,620 A really dangerous time. Exactly. 280 00:17:54,620 --> 00:17:56,700 Even inherent in the title, 281 00:17:56,700 --> 00:18:00,060 the notion of war was something that was in the public imagination. 282 00:18:00,060 --> 00:18:02,100 We had the nuclear impact, the nuclear threat, 283 00:18:02,100 --> 00:18:04,380 which was really quite terrifying. 284 00:18:05,860 --> 00:18:11,660 In May 1962, Britten presented his Requiem to the people of Coventry. 285 00:18:11,660 --> 00:18:13,940 What was the atmosphere like that night? 286 00:18:13,940 --> 00:18:17,820 Oh, incredibly expectant. I mean, everyone was terribly excited. 287 00:18:19,620 --> 00:18:23,340 And, well, it was late, so I think that increased the tension, 288 00:18:23,340 --> 00:18:26,420 and everything else - we didn't know quite to expect. 289 00:18:26,420 --> 00:18:30,700 MUSIC: War Requiem by Benjamin Britten 290 00:18:32,660 --> 00:18:36,500 What was your emotional response to hearing this music 291 00:18:36,500 --> 00:18:38,900 for the first time, in this place? 292 00:18:38,900 --> 00:18:43,340 Oh, immense. I think anybody could not fail to be moved. 293 00:18:43,340 --> 00:18:46,620 And so the performance came to its close... Yes. 294 00:18:46,620 --> 00:18:49,660 ...and what happened after those final notes died away? 295 00:18:49,660 --> 00:18:51,820 Total silence. 296 00:18:51,820 --> 00:18:55,780 I think everybody was...gobsmacked, really. 297 00:18:55,780 --> 00:19:00,340 There's not much anybody could say, so just total silence. 298 00:19:00,340 --> 00:19:03,820 SILENCE 299 00:19:08,060 --> 00:19:11,340 The most striking aspect of the Requiem was that Britten 300 00:19:11,340 --> 00:19:15,140 had stitched the searing anti-war poetry of Wilfred Owen 301 00:19:15,140 --> 00:19:19,100 into a score based on a traditional Latin Mass. 302 00:19:21,340 --> 00:19:24,420 MAN SINGING: 303 00:20:26,380 --> 00:20:29,620 In the performances that I have taken part in, 304 00:20:29,620 --> 00:20:33,220 often choirs find that opening interval of the tritone 305 00:20:33,220 --> 00:20:35,740 really quite awkward to get a grip on. 306 00:20:35,740 --> 00:20:38,340 Give us a tritone, then. Tell us how it sounds. 307 00:20:38,340 --> 00:20:40,820 HE SINGS TRITONE 308 00:20:42,540 --> 00:20:45,700 Straight off the bells, which are quite difficult to pitch off. 309 00:20:45,700 --> 00:20:48,500 So the bells give us the note and then the chorus have to grab that. 310 00:20:48,500 --> 00:20:50,900 BELLS TOLL 311 00:20:50,900 --> 00:20:53,940 CHOIR SINGS 312 00:20:56,980 --> 00:20:59,180 And when the orchestra comes in 313 00:20:59,180 --> 00:21:03,020 with this kind of lopsided quintuplet figure... 314 00:21:03,020 --> 00:21:05,100 HE MIMICS ORCHESTRA 315 00:21:07,980 --> 00:21:10,860 ORCHESTRA PLAYS SAME PART 316 00:21:21,260 --> 00:21:23,940 I can feel around me often in performances 317 00:21:23,940 --> 00:21:26,420 the entire sort of orchestral string section 318 00:21:26,420 --> 00:21:28,620 nervously following the leader and the conductor 319 00:21:28,620 --> 00:21:31,300 to try and negotiate their way around these quintuplets. 320 00:21:31,300 --> 00:21:34,620 It's just that everybody is kind of on edge. 321 00:21:34,620 --> 00:21:36,260 But that's right. 322 00:21:36,260 --> 00:21:38,860 I'm sure that's what he was after. 323 00:21:38,860 --> 00:21:41,180 MUSIC CONTINUES 324 00:21:47,460 --> 00:21:52,140 That final poem, Strange Meeting, is one that I've found... 325 00:21:52,140 --> 00:21:56,380 Most times I've sung it I've found it overwhelming. 326 00:21:56,380 --> 00:22:00,100 So I've had to draw myself small cartoons in my copy 327 00:22:00,100 --> 00:22:03,620 in order to take myself out of the moment. 328 00:22:03,620 --> 00:22:05,580 If I let myself stay in the moment too much 329 00:22:05,580 --> 00:22:07,020 then I won't be able to sing. 330 00:22:07,020 --> 00:22:09,140 My throat closes and I can't sing it. 331 00:22:09,140 --> 00:22:19,140 # I am the enemy you killed, my friend 332 00:22:22,140 --> 00:22:26,340 # I knew you in this dark... # 333 00:22:26,340 --> 00:22:29,420 It seems to me a really rebellious streak in him, 334 00:22:29,420 --> 00:22:32,780 that said, "This is not going to be an easy ride for anyone." 335 00:22:34,140 --> 00:22:37,580 But I think the endgame is worth everyone's effort. 336 00:22:39,860 --> 00:22:42,980 How powerful, then, as a piece of music, 337 00:22:42,980 --> 00:22:45,020 is it in terms of its activism? 338 00:22:45,020 --> 00:22:47,940 I often feel at the end of this piece, 339 00:22:47,940 --> 00:22:53,100 having participated in it, it would be hard to pick up another weapon. 340 00:22:53,100 --> 00:22:56,700 And yet at any given time, there is a conflict 341 00:22:56,700 --> 00:22:58,740 while this piece is being performed. 342 00:22:58,740 --> 00:23:02,340 But I feel this is a beautifully personal testament 343 00:23:02,340 --> 00:23:04,260 on Britten's part. 344 00:23:04,260 --> 00:23:06,540 WAVES LAP, SEABIRDS CALL 345 00:23:16,660 --> 00:23:21,060 Britten received a letter from Harold Owen, Wilfred's brother, 346 00:23:21,060 --> 00:23:23,700 and he gave Britten two gifts. 347 00:23:23,700 --> 00:23:26,180 One of which was a photograph of Wilfred when he was a boy, 348 00:23:26,180 --> 00:23:29,140 and the other one was this rather extraordinary document. 349 00:23:29,140 --> 00:23:31,420 This is a draft of the Anthem For Doomed Youth. 350 00:23:33,420 --> 00:23:37,580 And of course here, in its genesis, 351 00:23:37,580 --> 00:23:39,340 you can actually see the working 352 00:23:39,340 --> 00:23:41,380 and the reworking that he went through. 353 00:23:41,380 --> 00:23:45,140 "For you who die in herds"? Yes. 354 00:23:46,980 --> 00:23:50,180 Instead of "you who die as cattle". Exactly, yeah. 355 00:23:50,180 --> 00:23:52,060 How extraordinary. 356 00:24:03,740 --> 00:24:07,620 Owen had made a huge impact on Britten's life, and for someone 357 00:24:07,620 --> 00:24:11,380 whose ideals were so driven by pacifism, by the notion of peace, 358 00:24:11,380 --> 00:24:14,060 I can't really think of a more important gift 359 00:24:14,060 --> 00:24:15,660 and a greater treasure. 360 00:24:15,660 --> 00:24:17,260 No, it's immeasurable, isn't it? 361 00:24:17,260 --> 00:24:21,260 APPLAUSE AND CHEERING 362 00:24:24,900 --> 00:24:27,340 The War Requiem was both a warning 363 00:24:27,340 --> 00:24:29,740 and an act of rehabilitation and reconciliation 364 00:24:29,740 --> 00:24:31,380 for post-war Britain. 365 00:24:35,660 --> 00:24:38,500 While we were still coming to terms with the fallout of war, 366 00:24:38,500 --> 00:24:40,700 we were also eager to look forward. 367 00:24:42,100 --> 00:24:45,980 # I don't know what it is that makes me love you so... # 368 00:24:45,980 --> 00:24:48,980 We wanted some glamour back in our lives. 369 00:24:48,980 --> 00:24:51,300 # Cos you've started something... # 370 00:24:51,300 --> 00:24:56,020 By the 1960s, Britain was a nation greedily embracing consumerism. 371 00:24:56,020 --> 00:24:58,580 # It happens to be true... # 372 00:24:58,580 --> 00:25:02,060 Across the country, homes shook to the sound of television, 373 00:25:02,060 --> 00:25:04,580 radio, and record players. 374 00:25:04,580 --> 00:25:07,420 And alongside the crooners and rock'n'rollers, 375 00:25:07,420 --> 00:25:10,540 there was a brilliant new classical star. 376 00:25:10,540 --> 00:25:12,340 SHE LAUGHS 377 00:25:14,500 --> 00:25:16,180 Jacqueline du Pre. 378 00:25:29,060 --> 00:25:33,140 Offstage, she was lively, attractive, outgoing. 379 00:25:33,140 --> 00:25:35,580 Onstage, she was all of those things, 380 00:25:35,580 --> 00:25:39,340 but she was also focused, intense, romantic. 381 00:25:39,340 --> 00:25:42,780 And the public took her to their hearts. 382 00:25:52,180 --> 00:25:54,060 Her relationship to the instrument, I mean, 383 00:25:54,060 --> 00:25:57,100 she almost wrestles with the cello, doesn't she? Yes. 384 00:25:57,100 --> 00:25:59,020 I mean, her elbows are high, 385 00:25:59,020 --> 00:26:02,260 and her head movements, I mean, it's athletic. Mmm. 386 00:26:03,980 --> 00:26:05,340 She was big, 387 00:26:05,340 --> 00:26:10,740 and her whole relationship with the instrument was incredibly physical. 388 00:26:10,740 --> 00:26:14,780 It was like she was riding a horse or something, you know. 389 00:26:14,780 --> 00:26:18,380 Cellist Moray Welsh was a close friend of Jackie's. 390 00:26:20,220 --> 00:26:24,700 The combination of her personality 391 00:26:24,700 --> 00:26:28,740 and her total physical connection with the instrument, 392 00:26:28,740 --> 00:26:35,780 as well as her amazing musicality, that was a huge new thing, really. 393 00:26:35,780 --> 00:26:40,180 Because all the cellists who had been around before her 394 00:26:40,180 --> 00:26:43,420 tended to be much older men. 395 00:26:43,420 --> 00:26:48,020 # Ba ba-ba-ba ba-ba-ba-ba-ba... # 396 00:26:52,900 --> 00:26:56,060 When she came along, everybody sat up. 397 00:26:56,060 --> 00:26:58,340 And she was just a slip of a girl. 398 00:26:58,340 --> 00:27:01,460 I know. Establishing her style. 399 00:27:01,460 --> 00:27:05,180 But as a cellist yourself, what was it you found so remarkable? 400 00:27:05,180 --> 00:27:09,540 I think it was just this total way 401 00:27:09,540 --> 00:27:12,620 in which she could find what she wanted to say about the music. 402 00:27:12,620 --> 00:27:15,420 It was like there were no inhibitions, 403 00:27:15,420 --> 00:27:19,300 but the music was absolutely paramount to her. 404 00:27:19,300 --> 00:27:21,740 And it was just spellbinding. 405 00:27:37,420 --> 00:27:40,500 Jacqueline was a teenager when she performed the piece 406 00:27:40,500 --> 00:27:45,340 that would forever define her, Elgar's Cello Concerto. 407 00:27:45,340 --> 00:27:49,140 When her interpretation was released, it sold millions. 408 00:27:49,140 --> 00:27:50,580 Her startling virtuosity 409 00:27:50,580 --> 00:27:53,180 meant she appealed to lovers of classical music, 410 00:27:53,180 --> 00:27:56,820 but her vibrant personality drew a wider audience. 411 00:28:01,180 --> 00:28:06,660 And this is the recording that made Jacqueline du Pre globally famous. 412 00:28:06,660 --> 00:28:09,540 It also revived interest in a piece of music 413 00:28:09,540 --> 00:28:13,380 with which she would be always associated - a 50-year-old work 414 00:28:13,380 --> 00:28:15,500 by an Edwardian composer 415 00:28:15,500 --> 00:28:18,140 written in the saddest days of his life. 416 00:28:21,100 --> 00:28:25,060 The concerto is a long way from Elgar's more rousing works. 417 00:28:25,060 --> 00:28:27,580 It's tinged with a deep sadness, 418 00:28:27,580 --> 00:28:29,980 written after the First World War, 419 00:28:29,980 --> 00:28:32,780 while mourning the loss of friends in that conflict. 420 00:28:32,780 --> 00:28:35,980 MUSIC: Cello Concerto by Elgar 421 00:28:50,460 --> 00:28:53,540 The cello cuts a lonely figure through the score. 422 00:28:55,860 --> 00:28:59,140 And often the problem with cello concertos 423 00:28:59,140 --> 00:29:00,860 is that the orchestra is too loud. 424 00:29:02,300 --> 00:29:05,660 In Elgar's case, he's very cunningly 425 00:29:05,660 --> 00:29:08,860 made things below and above the cello, 426 00:29:08,860 --> 00:29:11,540 so the cello has this line going through the whole thing 427 00:29:11,540 --> 00:29:14,180 and is very easily heard. It's brilliantly scored. 428 00:29:14,180 --> 00:29:17,980 MUSIC CONTINUES 429 00:29:34,580 --> 00:29:36,740 Jacqueline du Pre's recording came, 430 00:29:36,740 --> 00:29:41,180 which I suppose took it to another level in terms of popularity. 431 00:29:41,180 --> 00:29:42,940 Tell me about her performance. 432 00:29:42,940 --> 00:29:46,180 I mean, hers is a very personal interpretation. 433 00:29:46,180 --> 00:29:50,260 And she was the one to do that, and it came from within herself. 434 00:29:50,260 --> 00:29:51,700 You can't copy that. 435 00:29:51,700 --> 00:29:54,740 That recording was a very hard act to follow. 436 00:29:54,740 --> 00:29:57,420 Whoever records it is always compared against that. 437 00:30:33,700 --> 00:30:35,860 Sheku Kanneh-Mason is one of 438 00:30:35,860 --> 00:30:37,900 Britain's most exciting young talents. 439 00:30:44,980 --> 00:30:49,220 Winner of the BBC's Young Musician competition, his energetic, 440 00:30:49,220 --> 00:30:52,940 passionate performances have been compared to Jacqueline du Pre. 441 00:30:54,900 --> 00:30:57,340 Sheku, where, in your 19 years, 442 00:30:57,340 --> 00:31:00,940 did you first hear the Elgar Cello Concerto? 443 00:31:00,940 --> 00:31:03,980 There were three pieces of music we used to listen to a lot in the car. 444 00:31:03,980 --> 00:31:07,260 There was Elgar's Cello Concerto, Beethoven Violin Concerto 445 00:31:07,260 --> 00:31:09,500 and Rachmaninoff second piano concerto. 446 00:31:11,140 --> 00:31:13,380 And that was your parents' choice? Yes. 447 00:31:13,380 --> 00:31:16,980 They were pieces that they just knew very well and loved to listen to. 448 00:31:16,980 --> 00:31:20,260 And so, they'd get played round and round again? Yes, all the time. 449 00:31:20,260 --> 00:31:22,500 So I grew up with these pieces of music all the time. 450 00:31:22,500 --> 00:31:24,980 So, which recording did you first hear? 451 00:31:24,980 --> 00:31:30,540 The first recording of this piece was Jacqueline du Pre's recording. 452 00:31:30,540 --> 00:31:34,900 And it still is a recording that I listen to all the time. 453 00:32:25,180 --> 00:32:28,220 Jacqueline du Pre's recording made her a star. 454 00:32:28,220 --> 00:32:32,220 After its release, she met and fell in love with Daniel Barenboim, 455 00:32:32,220 --> 00:32:35,340 a young Argentinian conductor and musical prodigy. 456 00:32:41,740 --> 00:32:46,180 Their shining talent and whirlwind romance attracted a celebrity 457 00:32:46,180 --> 00:32:48,540 until then unknown in the classical world. 458 00:32:51,940 --> 00:32:55,620 I met them at the time. They were indeed a golden couple. 459 00:32:56,740 --> 00:33:00,220 Although illness would tragically cut short Jacqueline's life, 460 00:33:00,220 --> 00:33:03,860 during this period, they were classical music's future. 461 00:33:03,860 --> 00:33:07,460 Attracting legions of new fans to the music. 462 00:33:16,260 --> 00:33:18,820 But it wasn't just youngsters seducing people 463 00:33:18,820 --> 00:33:21,540 with their brilliant performances. 464 00:33:21,540 --> 00:33:25,500 More established figures were about to break out of the old-school 465 00:33:25,500 --> 00:33:29,380 white tie and tails and whisk the classical world into the future. 466 00:33:33,540 --> 00:33:38,340 Leading the way, one of the biggest classical stars of the century. 467 00:33:38,340 --> 00:33:41,140 Yehudi Menuhin, the great violinist. 468 00:33:43,340 --> 00:33:45,820 When Albert Einstein saw his debut, he said, 469 00:33:45,820 --> 00:33:48,660 "The day of miracles is not over. 470 00:33:48,660 --> 00:33:50,860 "Our dear old Jehovah is still on the job." 471 00:34:12,420 --> 00:34:15,020 By the 1960s, he was inviting a whole new 472 00:34:15,020 --> 00:34:18,820 generation of fans into the world of classical music. 473 00:34:18,820 --> 00:34:23,500 And he was about to take them on a journey into uncharted territory. 474 00:34:27,100 --> 00:34:31,220 Yehudi Menuhin's insatiable curiosity drew him to the East. 475 00:34:37,340 --> 00:34:41,420 And in 1966, he took part in an extraordinary session with 476 00:34:41,420 --> 00:34:43,700 a star from India called Ravi Shankar. 477 00:34:46,660 --> 00:34:49,460 Together, they created a ground-breaking synthesis 478 00:34:49,460 --> 00:34:51,380 of Eastern and Western music. 479 00:34:55,580 --> 00:34:59,260 # Ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba-ba. 480 00:34:59,260 --> 00:35:02,180 # Ba-ba-ba-ba, ba-ba, ba-ba-ba-ba. 481 00:35:02,180 --> 00:35:04,660 VIOLIN MIMICS VOCAL 482 00:35:04,660 --> 00:35:07,180 # Ba-ba-ba-ba... 483 00:35:07,180 --> 00:35:09,420 # Baa-baa. 484 00:35:09,420 --> 00:35:11,740 # Baa-baa. # 485 00:35:15,220 --> 00:35:18,700 When did Ravi Shankar start kind of emerging on the scene, 486 00:35:18,700 --> 00:35:21,940 and what was special and different about what he was doing? 487 00:35:21,940 --> 00:35:25,500 Um...Pandit Ravi Shankar was working in, 488 00:35:25,500 --> 00:35:28,900 I think even as early as the '20s, in Paris. 489 00:35:28,900 --> 00:35:32,940 And he also was working, you know, around the Hot Club of France, 490 00:35:32,940 --> 00:35:36,260 which came out with amazing luminaries like Stephane Grappelli 491 00:35:36,260 --> 00:35:38,380 and Django Reinhardt. Django Reinhardt. Amazing. 492 00:35:43,060 --> 00:35:47,780 While in Paris, Shankar also heard Western classical music for the first time. 493 00:35:51,740 --> 00:35:55,060 And on his return to India, he took up the sitar, 494 00:35:55,060 --> 00:35:57,180 the bedrock of Indian classical music. 495 00:36:00,180 --> 00:36:04,860 He spent seven years in total devotion to a sitar master, 496 00:36:04,860 --> 00:36:07,500 and he went through this whole period of practising 497 00:36:07,500 --> 00:36:10,300 up to 16 hours a day, where you would do very little else. 498 00:36:10,300 --> 00:36:13,980 You'd maybe do some yoga and you would just play your instrument. 499 00:36:13,980 --> 00:36:16,900 So it's a total devotional time. 500 00:36:16,900 --> 00:36:19,820 Now, I'm aware that I'm talking about an incredibly rich 501 00:36:19,820 --> 00:36:21,460 and ancient tradition. Mm. 502 00:36:21,460 --> 00:36:24,780 Give me my potted history of the building blocks 503 00:36:24,780 --> 00:36:28,820 of what you need to understand if you're going to start investigating 504 00:36:28,820 --> 00:36:32,820 Indian classical music. Right. Well, there are... Ha! That's... 505 00:36:32,820 --> 00:36:35,380 Yeah, you're right. There's a lot to get into. 506 00:36:35,380 --> 00:36:39,940 Well, I mean, one thing is, um...you can look at certain time cycles. 507 00:36:39,940 --> 00:36:44,340 So, um...you know, if I choose one which is a 10-beat cycle, 508 00:36:44,340 --> 00:36:46,060 you would clap it like this. 509 00:36:46,060 --> 00:36:50,860 One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten. 510 00:36:50,860 --> 00:36:55,340 And the different, um...beats that I'm clapping 511 00:36:55,340 --> 00:36:59,660 actually are demonstrating, I suppose, how the cycle works. 512 00:36:59,660 --> 00:37:02,940 And you also have to be able to calculate 513 00:37:02,940 --> 00:37:07,380 from any point in the given time cycle where you are in the cycle. 514 00:37:07,380 --> 00:37:10,660 So the complexity of doing that spontaneously in your mind 515 00:37:10,660 --> 00:37:13,100 as you're playing and sticking to all the rules 516 00:37:13,100 --> 00:37:16,300 that are associated with that are incredible. 517 00:37:16,300 --> 00:37:22,260 So, if I wanted to have a go, have a go at playing something... Right. 518 00:37:22,260 --> 00:37:24,620 Let's try clapping it together first. Yeah. After four. 519 00:37:24,620 --> 00:37:26,820 One, two, three, four. 520 00:37:26,820 --> 00:37:29,580 One, two, three, four, five, six, 521 00:37:29,580 --> 00:37:31,820 seven, eight, nine, ten. 522 00:37:35,740 --> 00:37:38,700 What did you have for breakfast this morning? Nothing. 523 00:37:38,700 --> 00:37:41,740 HE LAUGHS Don't ask me stuff! That's mean! 524 00:37:41,740 --> 00:37:45,420 I can't talk and do it! So then, if I'm playing this... 525 00:37:51,020 --> 00:37:55,020 So I've hit my one there. See if you can play that. No way! 526 00:37:55,020 --> 00:37:57,060 So let's try this one first. 527 00:37:57,060 --> 00:37:59,340 One, two, three, four. 528 00:38:04,700 --> 00:38:07,980 Argh! I got lost! That's all right. I screwed up, as well, actually. 529 00:38:07,980 --> 00:38:11,780 So you can try both together, if you want. Give it a shot. 530 00:38:11,780 --> 00:38:14,060 It's really difficult. 531 00:38:19,260 --> 00:38:21,580 Ha-ha-ha! I cheated! Yeah... 532 00:38:21,580 --> 00:38:25,580 I couldn't get it! It's so difficult! 533 00:38:27,140 --> 00:38:30,460 You're listening to the two rhythms against each other. 534 00:38:30,460 --> 00:38:33,300 That's exactly what would've happened with Yehudi Menuhin 535 00:38:33,300 --> 00:38:35,980 meeting Pandit Ravi Shankar. 536 00:38:35,980 --> 00:38:40,580 Ravi Shankar found in Yehudi Menuhin the perfect partner. 537 00:38:40,580 --> 00:38:43,100 He said he was not only a genius, 538 00:38:43,100 --> 00:38:47,420 but a man with an unique respect for other art forms and cultures. 539 00:39:03,700 --> 00:39:07,420 I think it was about the fact that these two great artists 540 00:39:07,420 --> 00:39:11,300 were able to respect and explore each other's forms. 541 00:39:15,140 --> 00:39:18,620 And the harmony and precision of Western classical music 542 00:39:18,620 --> 00:39:21,740 probably appealed very much to Pandit Ravi Shankar, 543 00:39:21,740 --> 00:39:24,420 just as the freedom and improvisational abilities 544 00:39:24,420 --> 00:39:26,140 of Indian classical music 545 00:39:26,140 --> 00:39:29,300 probably appealed very much to Yehudi Menuhin. 546 00:39:31,060 --> 00:39:34,300 Together, they released the legendary album, West Meets East. 547 00:39:37,740 --> 00:39:42,820 A huge success, it hit number one in the classical music charts, 548 00:39:42,820 --> 00:39:46,260 won a Grammy, the first for a piece of Asian music, 549 00:39:46,260 --> 00:39:49,460 and introduced Western audiences to Indian sounds. 550 00:39:51,220 --> 00:39:54,380 Why did it feel that the '60s was a moment where 551 00:39:54,380 --> 00:39:58,180 Westerners were ready for Indian classical music? 552 00:39:58,180 --> 00:40:02,100 I think there was a real interest in Eastern spirituality. 553 00:40:02,100 --> 00:40:05,660 I think people were searching for answers. 554 00:40:16,060 --> 00:40:20,580 And there was a real sense of liberation across the West 555 00:40:20,580 --> 00:40:24,540 that became quite fascinated with Eastern philosophy, 556 00:40:24,540 --> 00:40:29,340 but also, I think there was a desire to explore new ideas. 557 00:40:29,340 --> 00:40:32,620 And I think that was something very much that came out of the '60s. 558 00:40:41,900 --> 00:40:44,340 But there was one point where there was a real gap 559 00:40:44,340 --> 00:40:48,180 in understanding between the Western audience and Ravi Shankar, 560 00:40:48,180 --> 00:40:51,020 in that he very famously once was tuning his sitar 561 00:40:51,020 --> 00:40:53,460 and the entire audience started to applaud. 562 00:40:53,460 --> 00:40:56,900 And he said, "No, I'm just tuning the instrument. I haven't started playing yet." 563 00:41:00,540 --> 00:41:04,460 Working alongside Ravi Shankar, Yehudi Menuhin was the first Western 564 00:41:04,460 --> 00:41:08,620 musician to take the rich heritage of Asian music into the mainstream. 565 00:41:12,020 --> 00:41:15,580 Just as Britain was becoming a multicultural society 566 00:41:15,580 --> 00:41:18,860 and home to many people from the Indian subcontinent, 567 00:41:18,860 --> 00:41:20,860 these two musical geniuses 568 00:41:20,860 --> 00:41:24,500 were creating their own multicultural landmark. 569 00:41:24,500 --> 00:41:27,620 And that openness to freedom and experimentation 570 00:41:27,620 --> 00:41:30,860 was part of a growing desire among British musicians. 571 00:41:39,380 --> 00:41:42,980 A generation of ferociously-talented young musicians 572 00:41:42,980 --> 00:41:45,820 who in a previous era, might have gone to a conservatoire, 573 00:41:45,820 --> 00:41:48,420 were now succumbing to the tempting trinity 574 00:41:48,420 --> 00:41:51,220 of sex, drugs and rock and roll. 575 00:41:51,220 --> 00:41:54,500 But they weren't altogether finished with the grandeur 576 00:41:54,500 --> 00:41:56,820 and the drama that classical music offered. 577 00:41:58,940 --> 00:42:02,940 It happened in London. It happened in the Royal Albert Hall. 578 00:42:02,940 --> 00:42:06,420 The world premier of a new musical event. 579 00:42:06,420 --> 00:42:08,660 On 24th September, 1969, 580 00:42:08,660 --> 00:42:13,300 the worlds of heavy metal and classical music met head-on. 581 00:42:13,300 --> 00:42:15,420 It was the brainchild of Jon Lord, 582 00:42:15,420 --> 00:42:19,460 the classically-trained keyboardist of the band Deep Purple. 583 00:42:19,460 --> 00:42:21,660 He wanted to bring classical excellence 584 00:42:21,660 --> 00:42:23,900 into an embrace with hard rock. 585 00:42:23,900 --> 00:42:26,780 And for the thousands of people who packed the Royal Albert Hall, 586 00:42:26,780 --> 00:42:28,620 it was an unique occasion. 587 00:42:28,620 --> 00:42:30,700 At the helm of the Royal Philharmonic 588 00:42:30,700 --> 00:42:32,940 was the open-minded musician 589 00:42:32,940 --> 00:42:36,500 who'd already brought classical music to the movies, Malcolm Arnold. 590 00:42:39,740 --> 00:42:41,780 It was the management that said, er... 591 00:42:41,780 --> 00:42:44,820 "We're doing a concert at the Royal Albert Hall 592 00:42:44,820 --> 00:42:48,220 "and it's going to be Jon's Concerto for Group and Orchestra." 593 00:42:48,220 --> 00:42:50,740 And we were all a bit miffed about it. 594 00:42:52,580 --> 00:42:54,980 Ironically, our reaction was exactly the same 595 00:42:54,980 --> 00:42:59,660 as the Royal Philharmonic's reaction. 596 00:42:59,660 --> 00:43:02,860 So we were not impressed with each other. 597 00:43:02,860 --> 00:43:05,860 There was a mutual disaffection, I think. 598 00:43:08,620 --> 00:43:10,660 The orchestra didn't speak to us at all. 599 00:43:12,660 --> 00:43:14,740 I think they collectively held their noses 600 00:43:14,740 --> 00:43:16,860 as we walked into the rehearsal room. 601 00:43:19,540 --> 00:43:23,740 After the dress rehearsal, Malcolm Arnold shouted at the orchestra. 602 00:43:23,740 --> 00:43:26,540 He said, "These young men are making fools of you. 603 00:43:26,540 --> 00:43:30,500 "You're playing like a load of..." bad words. 604 00:43:30,500 --> 00:43:36,580 And showing evident distaste for being in the same universe as us, 605 00:43:36,580 --> 00:43:39,460 let alone the same rehearsal room. 606 00:43:39,460 --> 00:43:42,220 What's it feel like, playing with us squares? 607 00:43:42,220 --> 00:43:45,700 Squares? Wrong word, wrong word. 608 00:43:45,700 --> 00:43:47,580 MALCOLM CHUCKLES 609 00:43:47,580 --> 00:43:49,620 It's been very exciting. It has for me. 610 00:43:49,620 --> 00:43:54,300 Malcolm was a modern...a modern guy. He was all for it. 611 00:43:54,300 --> 00:43:56,820 He was encouraging Jon all the way. 612 00:43:56,820 --> 00:43:59,500 Put them over there. MALCOLM CHUCKLES 613 00:43:59,500 --> 00:44:03,220 You've been involved with Deep Purple, haven't you? Yes. 614 00:44:03,220 --> 00:44:04,900 We did a concert only a few weeks ago. 615 00:44:04,900 --> 00:44:08,260 A new piece by the organist, Jon Lord. 616 00:44:08,260 --> 00:44:10,540 And what strikes me 617 00:44:10,540 --> 00:44:15,620 is the tremendous musical integrity of these people. 618 00:44:15,620 --> 00:44:20,180 They won't do anything that they don't honestly believe in. 619 00:44:28,900 --> 00:44:33,860 Jon Lord's 75-minute fusion of blistering, bluesy hard rock 620 00:44:33,860 --> 00:44:36,180 and soaring symphony orchestra 621 00:44:36,180 --> 00:44:39,460 rather stunned both musicians and the audience. 622 00:44:49,260 --> 00:44:51,700 It was not understood by any of us at the time. 623 00:44:51,700 --> 00:44:54,500 Only Jon understood it, and Malcolm Arnold, I think. 624 00:44:56,940 --> 00:45:01,860 Jon had placed the protagonists, a young, brash rock group... 625 00:45:03,500 --> 00:45:07,780 ..against the classical monster, the Royal Philharmonic. 626 00:45:09,540 --> 00:45:11,500 You know, chest to chest. 627 00:45:19,460 --> 00:45:23,140 It wasn't the start of a long-lasting happy relationship... 628 00:45:23,140 --> 00:45:25,060 # What shall I do...? # 629 00:45:25,060 --> 00:45:28,300 ..but for that brief moment, the onstage chemistry of band 630 00:45:28,300 --> 00:45:31,580 and orchestra shone through. 631 00:45:31,580 --> 00:45:38,100 # Look at the floor and be oh, so cool... # 632 00:45:39,580 --> 00:45:42,580 Everyone in our world was saying, "What the hell are you doing that for?" 633 00:45:42,580 --> 00:45:46,420 And everyone in their world was saying, "What the hell are you doing that for?" 634 00:45:46,420 --> 00:45:50,580 With nobody seeing exactly the genius of what Jon had written. 635 00:45:58,620 --> 00:46:01,820 There were great melodies and there was always texture 636 00:46:01,820 --> 00:46:03,540 and dynamics in the music, 637 00:46:03,540 --> 00:46:08,180 which I think set it apart from the average thrash rock band. 638 00:46:08,180 --> 00:46:10,300 It was...it was subtle. 639 00:46:10,300 --> 00:46:13,420 And it had nuances that, um... 640 00:46:13,420 --> 00:46:17,460 It had humour, it had soul and jazz, big band swing, blues, 641 00:46:17,460 --> 00:46:20,180 orchestral composition and all those elements in it 642 00:46:20,180 --> 00:46:22,740 that gave it the identity of what it was. 643 00:46:33,540 --> 00:46:35,820 RAPTUROUS APPLAUSE 644 00:46:39,100 --> 00:46:42,580 I was so enthusiastic when they asked me to conduct it. 645 00:46:42,580 --> 00:46:46,260 They're thorough musicians, all of them. 646 00:46:46,260 --> 00:46:48,020 I love working with them. 647 00:46:50,140 --> 00:46:53,140 Neither pure rock nor strictly classical, 648 00:46:53,140 --> 00:46:55,500 the culture clash Jon Lord had created 649 00:46:55,500 --> 00:46:57,860 was a sign of things to come. 650 00:47:09,980 --> 00:47:13,380 Welcome to the world of capes, keyboards and classical music. 651 00:47:20,460 --> 00:47:23,100 You've come here sans-cape today, 652 00:47:23,100 --> 00:47:26,940 but the theatricality element of it, I imagine that that, 653 00:47:26,940 --> 00:47:29,740 working with an orchestra, that sense of drama, 654 00:47:29,740 --> 00:47:33,780 the kind of operatic scale of it, must appeal. It does. 655 00:47:33,780 --> 00:47:38,540 I have to say, it does. I like big. I've always liked big. 656 00:47:38,540 --> 00:47:43,180 This is where rock meets classical grandeur and operatic staging. 657 00:47:48,420 --> 00:47:50,340 My best memory, really, of cape and orchestra... 658 00:47:50,340 --> 00:47:51,740 SHE LAUGHS 659 00:47:51,740 --> 00:47:53,620 That would be a great title for an album, 660 00:47:53,620 --> 00:47:55,380 Cape and Orchestra. I like that. 661 00:47:57,980 --> 00:48:00,620 Rick Wakeman was a Royal College of Music dropout, 662 00:48:00,620 --> 00:48:04,660 but he didn't want to leave the power of classical music behind completely. 663 00:48:04,660 --> 00:48:08,180 Instead, he used it to construct the epic soundscapes 664 00:48:08,180 --> 00:48:10,780 of progressive rock. 665 00:48:10,780 --> 00:48:15,100 There's something phenomenal about being onstage... 666 00:48:19,020 --> 00:48:21,180 ..with an orchestra behind you. 667 00:48:21,180 --> 00:48:23,420 It's a feeling that I still love to this day. 668 00:48:23,420 --> 00:48:26,660 I do quite a few orchestral concerts every year 669 00:48:26,660 --> 00:48:29,460 and there's very little to beat it. 670 00:48:31,860 --> 00:48:34,780 In 1971, another musician was in the studio 671 00:48:34,780 --> 00:48:37,860 in search of his own epic sound. 672 00:48:37,860 --> 00:48:41,580 David Bowie was a fan of composers like Stravinsky and Holst, 673 00:48:41,580 --> 00:48:43,580 and he wanted the scope and the harmonies 674 00:48:43,580 --> 00:48:46,940 of modern classicism in his latest song. 675 00:48:46,940 --> 00:48:49,820 He knew exactly who to call. 676 00:48:49,820 --> 00:48:52,340 With Bowie, Life On Mars is very classical. Yeah. 677 00:48:52,340 --> 00:48:54,420 RICK PLAYS LIFE ON MARS 678 00:49:25,340 --> 00:49:27,660 Etc. It's, um... And David, that's... 679 00:49:27,660 --> 00:49:30,860 Don't et cetera me! Sorry. It's such a... 680 00:49:30,860 --> 00:49:33,100 I mean, it's such a massive moment in music to me 681 00:49:33,100 --> 00:49:36,260 because that is the world of Debussy and Ravel and David Bowie 682 00:49:36,260 --> 00:49:38,780 and all these different people coming together. 683 00:49:38,780 --> 00:49:41,100 I mean, that's an amazing moment. 684 00:49:41,100 --> 00:49:43,020 David was very, very kind. 685 00:49:43,020 --> 00:49:45,940 He gave me complete carte blanche to play what I liked. 686 00:49:45,940 --> 00:49:48,140 He just said, "You play it as if it was a piano solo, 687 00:49:48,140 --> 00:49:49,820 "how you would like to play it". 688 00:49:49,820 --> 00:49:52,300 He was very generous like that. 689 00:49:52,300 --> 00:49:55,660 # Take a look at the lawman 690 00:49:55,660 --> 00:49:58,300 # Beating up the wrong guy 691 00:49:58,300 --> 00:50:02,540 # Oh, man, wonder if he'll ever know 692 00:50:04,820 --> 00:50:07,500 # He's in the best selling show. # 693 00:50:07,500 --> 00:50:10,260 Bowie's stricken operatic vocals, 694 00:50:10,260 --> 00:50:14,380 combined with lush strings, winds, drums, guitars 695 00:50:14,380 --> 00:50:19,780 and Rick Wakeman's piano, melding the worlds of classical and rock. 696 00:50:19,780 --> 00:50:22,900 Life On Mars was a revolutionary song. 697 00:50:22,900 --> 00:50:24,660 The sound of classical music 698 00:50:24,660 --> 00:50:27,900 colliding with modern pop brilliance. 699 00:50:39,660 --> 00:50:42,780 CHANTING: What do we want?! 700 00:50:42,780 --> 00:50:46,140 I want to speak to you simply and plainly 701 00:50:46,140 --> 00:50:48,860 about the grave emergency now facing our country. 702 00:50:50,500 --> 00:50:55,100 David Bowie's music, infused with alienation and despair, 703 00:50:55,100 --> 00:50:59,860 seemed to sound out the sour reality of British life in the early '70s. 704 00:50:59,860 --> 00:51:02,780 The country had plunged into political crisis, 705 00:51:02,780 --> 00:51:05,140 amid angry industrial disputes 706 00:51:05,140 --> 00:51:08,420 between the government and the miners' union. 707 00:51:08,420 --> 00:51:11,020 All the noise and fury left a lot of people 708 00:51:11,020 --> 00:51:14,980 yearning for the imagined serenity of the past. 709 00:51:14,980 --> 00:51:20,700 A TV ad first shown in 1973 conjured this bygone era. 710 00:51:20,700 --> 00:51:22,820 Bringing together, ironically, 711 00:51:22,820 --> 00:51:25,300 the emotive sound of British mining villages 712 00:51:25,300 --> 00:51:28,700 with a powerfully-evocative classical composition. 713 00:51:30,100 --> 00:51:32,660 Last stop on t'round would be Old Ma Peggoty's place. 714 00:51:34,260 --> 00:51:37,620 'Twas like taking bread to the top of the world. 715 00:51:37,620 --> 00:51:40,740 ..And you'll be going up that hill as fast as you come down. 716 00:51:40,740 --> 00:51:44,100 Hovis still has many times more wheat germ than ordinary bread. 717 00:51:44,100 --> 00:51:46,100 Sir Frank Lowe was the man responsible. 718 00:51:46,100 --> 00:51:48,780 What had happened was that, er... 719 00:51:48,780 --> 00:51:52,620 ..the '60s changed completely in music, of course, 720 00:51:52,620 --> 00:51:55,380 and, er...advertising changed completely... 721 00:51:55,380 --> 00:51:58,300 So, no more jingles? No more jingles 722 00:51:58,300 --> 00:52:01,780 and no more happy housewife talking to their next-door neighbour 723 00:52:01,780 --> 00:52:03,940 about how wonderful the washing powder was. 724 00:52:03,940 --> 00:52:06,660 We couldn't do any of that. So, you had to think of a new way... 725 00:52:06,660 --> 00:52:09,300 We had to think of a new way of doing it. 726 00:52:09,300 --> 00:52:12,340 'Twas a grand ride back, though. 727 00:52:12,340 --> 00:52:16,340 I knew t'baker'd have t'kettle on and doorsteps of hot Hovis ready. 728 00:52:17,460 --> 00:52:21,100 It was the first real example of nostalgia 729 00:52:21,100 --> 00:52:24,140 in British advertising, looking back. 730 00:52:24,140 --> 00:52:26,900 There is always a feeling of nostalgia in Britain. 731 00:52:26,900 --> 00:52:30,460 We always believe it was better yesterday than it was today. 732 00:52:30,460 --> 00:52:34,740 And there was an extraordinary feeling in that post-war period 733 00:52:34,740 --> 00:52:37,780 which I think was a very evocative, 734 00:52:37,780 --> 00:52:40,820 emotional time for all the people of this country. 735 00:52:40,820 --> 00:52:44,660 But it's also the New World Symphony. It is. 736 00:52:44,660 --> 00:52:48,500 With...brass band... Brass band, yep. 737 00:52:50,780 --> 00:52:53,020 The brass band, I felt, was very important 738 00:52:53,020 --> 00:52:56,900 because they use a cornet rather than a trumpet. 739 00:52:56,900 --> 00:53:00,700 It makes a more soulful, mournful sound. 740 00:53:00,700 --> 00:53:05,420 So we got hold of the Black Dyke Mills and went up to record them. 741 00:53:05,420 --> 00:53:07,700 They were still there, and we recorded it, 742 00:53:07,700 --> 00:53:10,540 and that's how it became the Hovis music. 743 00:53:10,540 --> 00:53:13,300 And, of course, it did become the Hovis music. 744 00:53:28,060 --> 00:53:31,140 The Hovis tune may have felt quintessentially British, 745 00:53:31,140 --> 00:53:36,260 but its origins lie far from an Arcadian ideal of village life. 746 00:53:40,140 --> 00:53:42,500 The New World Symphony was actually written by 747 00:53:42,500 --> 00:53:46,860 a middle-European as he travelled through the heartland of America 748 00:53:46,860 --> 00:53:49,220 at the end of the 19th century. 749 00:53:55,860 --> 00:53:59,060 Czech composer Antonin Dvorak was inspired by the natural 750 00:53:59,060 --> 00:54:01,220 grandeur of the American landscape. 751 00:54:08,340 --> 00:54:11,340 But he was also deeply affected by the music of the people 752 00:54:11,340 --> 00:54:13,220 he met on his journeys, 753 00:54:13,220 --> 00:54:17,460 especially the Christian spirituals of the African-American communities. 754 00:54:18,900 --> 00:54:21,900 Songs born in the hardship of slavery. 755 00:54:27,580 --> 00:54:30,220 He was moved to write a piece that is brim-full of longing 756 00:54:30,220 --> 00:54:34,300 for better times and for distant homelands. 757 00:54:45,140 --> 00:54:47,860 His famous tune was clearly influenced by the sound 758 00:54:47,860 --> 00:54:50,140 of traditional spirituals. 759 00:54:50,140 --> 00:54:52,980 So much so that one of his students created lyrics for it 760 00:54:52,980 --> 00:54:55,060 and a new spiritual was born. 761 00:55:32,020 --> 00:55:36,100 Well, that is fantastically moving, there's no doubt about it. 762 00:55:36,100 --> 00:55:39,300 How much, then, do you think he captures the flavour 763 00:55:39,300 --> 00:55:42,500 and the atmosphere of American music of spirituals? 764 00:55:42,500 --> 00:55:47,180 When he was introduced to, um...black folk music, 765 00:55:47,180 --> 00:55:51,380 Dvorak decided to incorporate it in his New World Symphony. 766 00:55:51,380 --> 00:55:55,180 And he does a tremendous job of achieving that. 767 00:55:55,180 --> 00:55:57,700 But also, those chords, I mean, when you're playing them, 768 00:55:57,700 --> 00:55:59,100 are incredibly spaced out. 769 00:55:59,100 --> 00:56:01,660 That's one of those real characteristics of American music, 770 00:56:01,660 --> 00:56:03,580 whether it's Aaron Copland, or indeed, this, 771 00:56:03,580 --> 00:56:05,420 borrowing the spirituals, that you get... 772 00:56:05,420 --> 00:56:07,020 SHE PLAYS PIANO ..or you get this... 773 00:56:07,020 --> 00:56:08,780 SHE PLAYS PIANO 774 00:56:10,500 --> 00:56:12,580 Now, that's a very simple... 775 00:56:12,580 --> 00:56:14,620 But when you space it out like that, 776 00:56:14,620 --> 00:56:17,100 loads of room in between those notes, 777 00:56:17,100 --> 00:56:19,540 that feels, to me, very American. 778 00:56:19,540 --> 00:56:22,580 Those kind of wide-open plains. That's the sound of American music. 779 00:56:22,580 --> 00:56:26,140 All his music, he had a vested interest. 780 00:56:26,140 --> 00:56:28,900 He went to the places, he lived there, he lived, he breathed. 781 00:56:28,900 --> 00:56:31,580 He spoke to the African-Americans. 782 00:56:31,580 --> 00:56:34,460 So when he was using the music, 783 00:56:34,460 --> 00:56:37,300 he was using it from a point of being informed. 784 00:56:37,300 --> 00:56:40,020 And it really touched he'd him, it was heartfelt. 785 00:56:40,020 --> 00:56:43,980 And this music is so nostalgic. 786 00:56:43,980 --> 00:56:47,620 It's packed full of an overpowering homesickness. 787 00:56:47,620 --> 00:56:50,620 So, he was homesick for Europe...? Exactly. 788 00:56:50,620 --> 00:56:54,580 And he used that to express this wonderful music. Yeah. 789 00:56:56,340 --> 00:56:59,980 It's ironic that a piece written as a paean to the new world of America 790 00:56:59,980 --> 00:57:04,300 came to symbolise a wistful longing for old-world Britain. 791 00:57:06,380 --> 00:57:08,900 So, you don't think of yourself as messing around with 792 00:57:08,900 --> 00:57:13,180 the New World Symphony, you think of yourself as re-orchestrating it? 793 00:57:13,180 --> 00:57:18,100 It's really playing a tribute to a fantastic piece of music, 794 00:57:18,100 --> 00:57:20,700 and it certainly got it out to a bigger audience 795 00:57:20,700 --> 00:57:23,460 than would have heard the New World Symphony. 796 00:57:23,460 --> 00:57:25,700 And it sold a lot of flour. 797 00:57:29,220 --> 00:57:32,060 The Hovis ad would become one of the nation's favourite, 798 00:57:32,060 --> 00:57:34,860 and showed vividly that classical music in Britain 799 00:57:34,860 --> 00:57:36,700 had found a new power. 800 00:57:38,260 --> 00:57:40,220 LAUGHTER 801 00:57:40,220 --> 00:57:44,540 When harnessed to the imagery of advertising, film and television, 802 00:57:44,540 --> 00:57:48,580 classical music could become a shorthand for how we saw Britain. 803 00:57:50,340 --> 00:57:52,860 Even if we occasionally sent ourselves up. 804 00:57:52,860 --> 00:57:54,620 LAUGHTER 805 00:57:54,620 --> 00:57:56,460 Me grandad always used to say 806 00:57:56,460 --> 00:58:00,220 it were a bloody long way to go for a loaf of bread. 807 00:58:00,220 --> 00:58:02,100 APPLAUSE 808 00:58:03,500 --> 00:58:05,860 BRASS BAND RECITAL 809 00:58:07,660 --> 00:58:11,260 Classical music had seen us through post-war blues 810 00:58:11,260 --> 00:58:14,100 and into the heady optimism of the '60s. 811 00:58:15,180 --> 00:58:18,100 Along the way, it spawned international celebrities 812 00:58:18,100 --> 00:58:20,940 and incredible musical collaborations. 813 00:58:23,540 --> 00:58:26,100 And when times became more uncertain, 814 00:58:26,100 --> 00:58:28,940 it served up a comfortable dish of nostalgia. 815 00:58:30,340 --> 00:58:32,700 Classical music was everywhere. 816 00:58:32,700 --> 00:58:36,060 Its stars had broken out of the confines of the concert hall 817 00:58:36,060 --> 00:58:38,580 to become international celebrities. 818 00:58:38,580 --> 00:58:41,540 It was on TV and film, it featured in adverts 819 00:58:41,540 --> 00:58:43,980 and was riding high in the charts. 820 00:58:43,980 --> 00:58:48,060 And I think more than anywhere else in Europe, or indeed America, 821 00:58:48,060 --> 00:58:50,820 it was here in Britain that we had truly taken 822 00:58:50,820 --> 00:58:54,300 classical music to our hearts.