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MUSIC: Beethoven's Symphony No. 5

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Fate knocking at the door.
V for victory.

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The most famous sequence of notes
in the whole of music...

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..from Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

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MUSIC CONTINUES

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In this series, we'll discover
how the symphony emerged

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from the world
of aristocratic privilege.

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How it accompanied the rise
of nations and the fall of empires.

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How it became a symbol of freedom
and a tool of totalitarianism.

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How the symphony taught
the orchestra how to speak.

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MUSIC: Beethoven's Symphony No. 40:
First Movement

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And how it established
itself as the ultimate expression
of the composer as an artist.

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MUSIC: Berlioz's Symphonie:
Fantastique March Of The Scaffold,
4th Movement

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It's an epic journey that takes us
from bands of musicians
playing in the palaces of princes

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to orchestras of well over 100
performing in vast concert halls.

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MUSIC: Beethoven's Symphony No. 9:
4th Movement

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But how, ultimately,
alongside these public statements

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it became the vehicle
for the most profound expression
of private thoughts and emotions

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that we, the audience,
can understand and relate to today.

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MUSIC: Beethoven's Symphony No. 3:
Eroica, Fourth Movement

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Above all,
it's the story of great composers.

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In this first episode
we'll meet Ludwig van Beethoven,

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the epitome of the great composer,
the artist as hero.

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I think he felt that he had
an heroic capacity as a creator

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to take music to a place that
nobody thought it could ever go.

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Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,

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the genius who wrote his first
symphony at the age of eight...

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..and Joseph Haydn,
the giant of 18th century music

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who was dubbed
the Father of the Symphony.

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It's New Year's Day 1791.

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The Austrian composer Joseph Haydn,
58 years old, in rude health,

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is sailing from Calais to Dover.

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It's a voyage
that will take a full ten hours.

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He'd left home a month earlier.

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This is his first trip
beyond the borders of his home

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in a small corner of
the vast Austro-Hungarian empire.

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Leaving the security
of three decades of service

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as a musician for
the aristocratic Esterhazy family,

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he's jolted over 800 miles
in a horse-drawn coach,

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bad weather, bad roads,
probably bad food,

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and across Europe, the rumblings
from the aftermath of the French
Revolution are still being heard.

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Haydn was, as ever, pragmatic,
but he was also very excited.

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"I remained on deck," he said,

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"so as to gaze my fill of that
mighty monster, the ocean.

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"Then when the highest waves
were whipped up by the wind,
I became a little frightened,

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"but I overcame it all
and arrived on shore without,
excuse me, vomiting."

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MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No. 104:
London, 4th Movement

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He's come with a large trunk
of scores but, unfortunately, during
the chaos of the luggage transfer,

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he's lost one vital
symphonic manuscript.

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But this epic journey
was nearly over.

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In just two days' time,
he'd be welcomed into London,

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more than welcomed.

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He'd be received as the first ever
bona-fide musical superstar.

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His first six months
will be non-stop,

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contracted to deliver six symphonies
and already missing one score,

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but Haydn is no ordinary composer.

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He is the most
extraordinary of ordinary men.

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And here he is.

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Joseph Haydn, painted in the year
of his arrival in England in 1791

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by the society portraitist
John Hoppner

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on the orders of King George III
himself,

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as a sign of the man's celebrity.

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Haydn came from a humble background,

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but here he holds himself
with immense self-assurance.

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Is there the sharp light
of curiosity in his eyes?

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Haydn was always enthusiastic about
exploring the world around him.

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Today, his name is associated
above all with the symphony,

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the form he more than anybody in
the 18th century worked to develop.

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In his hands, the symphony became
what the dictionary
now defines it as:

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a large-scale work, usually
in four sections or movements,

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and regarded as the most
exalted form a composer can use.

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And his London symphonies were
to bring the works of his genius

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to the widest possible audience.

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Haydn had this capacity to write
music that would speak immediately
to all hearers.

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What comes out
more than anything else

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is a sense of a new sound world.

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London was the most prosperous and
fastest growing city in the world.

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By the 1790s, the fashion for opera
that had dominated upper class taste

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for most of the 18th century
was now on the wane
and the new middle class,

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who felt that they'd earned their
wealth rather than inherited it,
was keen for something new

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that would reflect their sense
of themselves
as discerning and cultured.

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MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No 95, LPO

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Haydn was intensely interested
in all aspects of British life.

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He visited palaces
and naval dockyards.

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He was horrified by the levels
of public drunkenness he witnessed,

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and he kept detailed notes
about the people that he met

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and the music that they listened to.

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He stayed with
one short interval for four years.

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The invitation
had come from the violinist,

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composer and concert organiser
Johann Peter Salomon,

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a German by birth

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and a man known to be highly
efficient in business matters.

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Salomon had assembled
the finest musicians in the city,

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and hired a recently-opened
elegant concert hall

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on the corner of Hanover Square
in fashionable Mayfair.

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The series of concerts
the two men would now promote here,

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with Haydn as composer
and Salomon as orchestra leader,

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would position the symphony
at the centre of London's rapidly
growing social and cultural life.

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This site
occupies the exact footprint

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of the Hanover Square Rooms
when Haydn first saw them in 1791.

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Salomon had taken a canny commercial
gamble with this concert season,
but it would more than pay off.

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"All the modish world appear
fond of nothing else, my dear.

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"Folks of fashion eager seek
16 concerts in a week."

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And this is the kind of orchestra
that you might have found

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in the Hanover Rooms
in the early 1790s,

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and this combination and arrangement
of instruments

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established a blueprint
for the symphonic repertoire
for the next 100 years or so.

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At the back, we have the woodwind,
the brass, the percussion sections.

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They were raised on a platform,
a novelty in Haydn's time,

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no doubt enhanced the
visual excitement as well as
helped with the balance of sound.

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In front, we have the string
section, double basses, cellos,
violas, violins.

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He would divide them
into two sections,
the seconds and the firsts.

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In the front sat the leader,
who on this occasion is Maggie,

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but for many of Haydn's concerts
would have been Salomon himself.

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And in the centre was Haydn
the composer, leading the operation,

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but not conducting in the way
we might understand it today.

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These symphonies were designed to be
shared by the audience and the
players together. And to be seen.

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To be seen - the drama inherent in,

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"How will Mr Haydn
treat his orchestra in this?
What surprises will we get?"

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Symphony 98 is one of
the greatest London symphonies.

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Actually written in England
to replace the one he'd lost
crossing the channel,

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it contains
a typical Haydn surprise.

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His take on
the British National Anthem.

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In the second of four movements,
he takes this tune, varies it,
transforms it,

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and this is the key
to the symphony in Haydn's hands.

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He takes a musical idea
on a journey,

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and through the course of
that journey, everything changes.

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Haydn's sense of playing around is
very evident in the 98th Symphony,
isn't it?

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Oh, yes.

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And he knew how to respond
to the occasion too, didn't he?

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And his music produced
such incredible reactions
of joy and delight and surprise.

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It's difficult to imagine nowadays,
isn't it,

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the way audiences always behave
very po-faced and quiet.

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And anybody who coughs
is criticised.

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If you liked something
in a Haydn symphony,

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everybody exclaimed and clapped.

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MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No. 98:
4th Movement

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Haydn and Salomon's
symphony concerts
were an unprecedented success,

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but it wasn't long
before the composer needed
some time to himself.

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And this house deep
in the Lee Valley in Hertfordshire

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was where he stayed
for the summer of 1791.

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Of all the places Haydn lived
and worked
during his four-year stay,

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this one, Roxford,
is the only survivor,

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and it was here
that he composed Symphony 98.

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It was a retreat
from the social whirl

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that he was very much
caught up in London

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to a sort of countryside life

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that he would have been
familiar with from Austria,

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back to a place where he could
think about people he'd met,

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he could think about
musical interests of people

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00:11:04,960 --> 00:11:08,680
and he could write
the kind of compositions
that they were interested in.

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"I work industriously,"
he wrote to a friend,

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and then added
with a touch of homesickness,

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"Early every morning
when I walk alone in the wood
with my English grammar,

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"I think of my creator and of
my family and friends left behind."

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Despite his homesickness,

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the last movement of Symphony 98
is full of playfulness and joy

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with a whole series
of startling ideas and effects.

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MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No. 98:
4th Movement

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The last movement is very fast
and lively -

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presto, it's marked, which is
as fast as you can get.

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It's like a motor rhythm
that never wants to stop,

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it powers its way forward,
and it's just when you're expecting
a repeat of the theme,

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because you've already heard it,
he then takes you by surprise.

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00:12:00,480 --> 00:12:03,520
And they start again
with the theme a bit slower.

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But he's got...
he's got the ace up his sleeve.

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He makes himself play
on the forte piano.

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A little, very trivial, little
sort of inner voice as the violins
play the tune for the last time.

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And it's so lovely that it would
have delighted the audience.

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You can imagine, "Oh, tonight,"
you know,

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"the great Doctor Haydn gave us
a little virtuoso display
on the forte piano."

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You almost don't hear
it at first, do you?
You think oh, my gosh...

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Yes, it's like
it's inside, isn't it?

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It's the sort of haemoglobin
of the music,
keeping the whole thing alive.

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So where did Haydn's genius
spring from?

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Indeed, where did
the symphony itself come from?

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I'm going to travel back in time
to Haydn's early life
and career in rural Austria.

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A journey that will allow us
to understand the development of
the symphony in the 18th century.

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He was born not far
from the Hungarian border

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in the spring of 1732,
the second eldest of 17 children.

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His father was a wheelwright, and
both his parents sang for pleasure.

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Sent to a local school, he learned
to read and write and to sing.

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"They taught me so much," he said,

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"although I received more thrashings
than food."

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Then one day, the school was visited
by the choirmaster from Vienna's
main cathedral, St Stephens,

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and eight-year-old Joseph
was auditioned.

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So the small, talented boy
from the provinces

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00:14:11,880 --> 00:14:14,520
joined the mighty Stephansdom Choir
in Vienna.

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00:14:14,520 --> 00:14:16,080
We can picture him,

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00:14:16,080 --> 00:14:20,040
an undistinguished looking little
fellow, even at the age of nine
wearing a wig.

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00:14:20,040 --> 00:14:23,240
MUSIC: Poglietti's
Ave Reginia Coelorum

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00:14:23,240 --> 00:14:24,920
When his voice begins to break,

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00:14:24,920 --> 00:14:29,400
the priest suggests castrating him
in order to preserve
his beautiful treble.

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00:14:29,400 --> 00:14:32,520
But luckily for little Joseph,
his father intervenes.

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00:14:32,520 --> 00:14:35,840
Finally, he's dishonourably
discharged from the choir

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00:14:35,840 --> 00:14:39,440
after an incident which sees him
cutting off another boy's pigtail.

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00:14:42,920 --> 00:14:46,840
For the next few years he struggles,
hungry to the point of starvation

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00:14:46,840 --> 00:14:50,480
and tormented by the affluent
city life he sees around him.

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00:14:50,480 --> 00:14:54,520
MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No. 1:
3rd Movement

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00:14:54,520 --> 00:14:59,400
Joseph Haydn's life
was saved by his talent.

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00:15:01,760 --> 00:15:07,760
Once his first compositions began to
be played around Vienna's salons
and beer gardens,

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00:15:07,760 --> 00:15:11,400
it didn't take long for him to be
singled out as someone special,

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00:15:11,400 --> 00:15:16,080
and by the time he was 25,
his hungry years were over.

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00:15:20,080 --> 00:15:24,240
In the 18th century,
artists generally were employed by
the Church,

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00:15:24,240 --> 00:15:26,640
a royal court
or a member of the aristocracy.

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00:15:26,640 --> 00:15:30,320
No king, prince or nobleman worth
his salt was without his house band.

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00:15:30,320 --> 00:15:33,640
And Haydn was fortunate
in that he was asked to work for

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00:15:33,640 --> 00:15:37,560
one of the most noble and wealthiest
families in Europe, the Esterhazys.

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00:15:39,240 --> 00:15:44,960
MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No. 12:
3rd Movement

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00:15:44,960 --> 00:15:49,160
The family palace was in
the remote location of Eisenstadt
in Eastern Austria,

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00:15:49,160 --> 00:15:52,880
but having his own orchestra
gave Haydn exactly what he needed.

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00:15:52,880 --> 00:15:56,680
As well as being able to fulfil
all the normal duties of a composer,

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00:15:56,680 --> 00:15:58,920
such as church music and opera,

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00:15:58,920 --> 00:16:02,360
he was able to experiment
with new instrumental forms.

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00:16:07,840 --> 00:16:10,280
He arrived in 1761,

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00:16:10,280 --> 00:16:14,360
just as Nikolaus I
inherited the Esterhazy title.

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00:16:14,360 --> 00:16:17,800
The new prince was rich, extravagant
and, crucially,

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00:16:17,800 --> 00:16:21,800
his palace
had a particularly fine music room.

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00:16:21,800 --> 00:16:25,880
So here it is, the crucible
of Haydn's laboratory.

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00:16:25,880 --> 00:16:30,280
No, not just the crucible,
the Large Hadron Collider.

221
00:16:38,120 --> 00:16:41,160
Over 70 symphonies and 30 years,

222
00:16:41,160 --> 00:16:45,360
Prince Nikolaus was obsessed with
music, and in order to feed
his veracious appetite,

223
00:16:45,360 --> 00:16:49,800
Haydn needed to find a form
that would show off the full range
and virtuosity

224
00:16:49,800 --> 00:16:51,480
of the prince's orchestra.

225
00:16:51,480 --> 00:16:56,200
At the beginning, they were only
a tiny group of musicians,
no more than 14 of them,

226
00:16:56,200 --> 00:17:00,280
and yet Haydn was inspired by both
the quality of their playing

227
00:17:00,280 --> 00:17:04,920
and the beauty of the music room to
produce extraordinary symphonies.

228
00:17:04,920 --> 00:17:06,720
One of the first is Le Matin.
Morning.

229
00:17:08,200 --> 00:17:10,200
It starts with a sunrise that,

230
00:17:10,200 --> 00:17:15,720
in its detailed, tiny way is a
little masterpiece in its own right.

231
00:17:15,720 --> 00:17:19,960
MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No. 6:
Le Matin, 1st Movement

232
00:17:43,040 --> 00:17:45,160
In the course of
this little masterpiece,

233
00:17:45,160 --> 00:17:48,200
various members of this little
ensemble get moments of glory.

234
00:17:58,960 --> 00:18:01,200
It wasn't just the size
of Haydn's house band

235
00:18:01,200 --> 00:18:04,240
that was so different
from a modern symphony orchestra.

236
00:18:04,240 --> 00:18:06,240
It was the instruments as well.

237
00:18:09,360 --> 00:18:12,920
The early brass and woodwind
were primitive and hard to play,

238
00:18:12,920 --> 00:18:16,760
but Haydn's solo writing
demonstrates that he could

239
00:18:16,760 --> 00:18:19,080
count on some real virtuosity
from his players.

240
00:18:40,400 --> 00:18:45,320
Before Haydn, the symphony certainly
existed, but what precisely was it?

241
00:18:45,320 --> 00:18:50,160
The word "symphony" literally means
"sounding together", making music.

242
00:18:50,160 --> 00:18:54,200
Its earliest use was to distinguish
between vocal church music,

243
00:18:54,200 --> 00:18:55,640
the sound of angels perhaps,

244
00:18:55,640 --> 00:18:59,120
and the music that instrumentalists
might play by themselves

245
00:18:59,120 --> 00:19:02,040
as their contribution
to a church service.

246
00:19:02,040 --> 00:19:06,520
Earthly music, music that grounds us
in the world of the here and now

247
00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:11,880
before the choir claims our souls,
imaginations and our ears for God.

248
00:19:11,880 --> 00:19:15,760
MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No. 22:
1st Movement

249
00:19:24,680 --> 00:19:28,120
Haydn wrote symphonies on demand
for a variety of occasions.

250
00:19:28,120 --> 00:19:32,600
One of his greatest early Eisenstadt
works is a church symphony,

251
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:35,880
No. 22,
written to be performed during Mass.

252
00:19:35,880 --> 00:19:38,840
It later acquired the nickname
of The Philosopher,

253
00:19:38,840 --> 00:19:42,760
possibly because its first movement
is exceptionally solemn,

254
00:19:42,760 --> 00:19:48,120
demonstrating the emotional depths
of which the symphony was going to
be capable in Haydn's hands.

255
00:19:52,720 --> 00:19:57,480
The form of early symphonies came
from the opera house originally,

256
00:19:57,480 --> 00:20:01,360
when the instrumental movements
at the beginning of an evening

257
00:20:01,360 --> 00:20:05,120
constituted a suite not designed
to be an artistic whole,

258
00:20:05,120 --> 00:20:08,040
but a way to lead the audience
in to the entertainment.

259
00:20:08,040 --> 00:20:10,000
Now, from those beginnings,

260
00:20:10,000 --> 00:20:13,080
Haydn realised that
he could extend the contrasts

261
00:20:13,080 --> 00:20:15,760
into making a four movement package.

262
00:20:21,360 --> 00:20:25,840
Very often, this could be fast,
then a long, slow movement

263
00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:28,440
that gave a sense of gravitas
to the whole event.

264
00:20:28,440 --> 00:20:31,120
Then a dancing minuet
to sort of clear the air,

265
00:20:31,120 --> 00:20:32,760
and then a final fast movement.

266
00:20:45,960 --> 00:20:50,040
The Esterhazy Palace in Eisenstadt
truly was Haydn's laboratory.

267
00:20:50,040 --> 00:20:55,600
The symphony as he developed it
draws from a combination of
church music, the world of opera

268
00:20:55,600 --> 00:20:59,320
and having talented musicians
to write for.

269
00:20:59,320 --> 00:21:01,600
With all these factors in place,

270
00:21:01,600 --> 00:21:04,440
he was able to perfect
the four movement symphony.

271
00:21:08,280 --> 00:21:11,200
And beyond that
he experimented with other elements,

272
00:21:11,200 --> 00:21:15,000
the unexpected juxtaposition
of mood, unusual instrumentation,

273
00:21:15,000 --> 00:21:18,000
theatrical effects,
surprises, jokes.

274
00:21:18,000 --> 00:21:21,080
The symphony became a finely wrought
interplay of forces,

275
00:21:21,080 --> 00:21:23,720
each one a unique
and enthralling journey.

276
00:21:28,400 --> 00:21:31,960
As a symphonist, Haydn is
in many ways like a master chef

277
00:21:31,960 --> 00:21:35,520
who combines different ingredients
to create new dishes.

278
00:21:35,520 --> 00:21:37,520
In his kitchen garden in Eisenstadt,

279
00:21:37,520 --> 00:21:41,200
he planted out his own selection of
herbs, and here I met Sigrid Weiss,

280
00:21:41,200 --> 00:21:43,840
who is an expert on Baroque cookery.

281
00:21:43,840 --> 00:21:47,080
How lovely to meet you.
This is gorgeous.

282
00:21:47,080 --> 00:21:49,720
Let me walk you around a little.
So what do we have here?

283
00:21:49,720 --> 00:21:51,240
Here we have thyme...

284
00:21:51,240 --> 00:21:55,240
'The lean and hungry years of his
youth gave Haydn an obsession
with food.

285
00:21:55,240 --> 00:21:59,120
'In his letters,
he's always either praising
or complaining about his diet.'

286
00:21:59,120 --> 00:22:04,200
They liked to use these
strong smelling herbs
on the meat in the Baroque,

287
00:22:04,200 --> 00:22:08,160
because of course they had
no refrigerators so their meat
was not always as fresh.

288
00:22:09,400 --> 00:22:10,760
Mint here.

289
00:22:10,760 --> 00:22:13,640
'Haydn the gardener
and Haydn the gourmet

290
00:22:13,640 --> 00:22:17,160
'are all part of
the complete picture
of Haydn the master craftsman.'

291
00:22:17,160 --> 00:22:20,080
And this one? Roman sorrel.
Can we eat it?

292
00:22:20,080 --> 00:22:23,960
'We could liken
symphonic development
in one of Haydn's opening movements

293
00:22:23,960 --> 00:22:26,280
'to the preparation of
a carefully balanced meal

294
00:22:26,280 --> 00:22:28,600
'of the sort
which the composer often enjoyed.'

295
00:22:28,600 --> 00:22:31,360
Oh, it's lovely.
It's like lemon.

296
00:22:38,600 --> 00:22:42,320
All the themes are gathered together
at the beginning of the piece

297
00:22:42,320 --> 00:22:47,000
in the same way one might gather
and prepare ingredients
then cook a simple starter.

298
00:22:49,560 --> 00:22:52,600
This is what's called
the exposition,

299
00:22:52,600 --> 00:22:57,160
a tasty first course that whets
your appetite for what's to come.

300
00:22:57,160 --> 00:22:59,600
Thank you very much.

301
00:22:59,600 --> 00:23:01,640
Guten appetit!

302
00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:07,760
The next stage, the development,

303
00:23:07,760 --> 00:23:12,800
blends together, reshapes
and cooks up all these ingredients,
allowing new flavours to emerge.

304
00:23:15,040 --> 00:23:20,600
Finally, in the recapitulation,
all the themes and harmonies
are brought together and resolved,

305
00:23:20,600 --> 00:23:23,160
just like the finished main course.

306
00:23:23,160 --> 00:23:27,440
This is one of Haydn's particular
favourites - braised rabbit
with dumplings and cherries.

307
00:23:27,440 --> 00:23:29,440
Fantastic!

308
00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:32,560
That looks
totally delicious. Wow!

309
00:23:35,360 --> 00:23:39,720
In the 1760s,
Prince Nikolaus decided to build an
elaborate new pleasure palace

310
00:23:39,720 --> 00:23:45,120
50 kilometres east from Eisenstadt,
over the Hungarian border.

311
00:23:45,120 --> 00:23:49,280
So every summer the entire court,
including Haydn and his orchestra,

312
00:23:49,280 --> 00:23:52,200
decamped to the fairytale palace
of Esterhaza.

313
00:23:54,440 --> 00:23:58,080
However, although there were
music rooms, ball rooms,

314
00:23:58,080 --> 00:24:00,960
banqueting pavilions
and a full scale opera house,

315
00:24:00,960 --> 00:24:05,000
there was only very limited
accommodation
for the many musicians.

316
00:24:05,000 --> 00:24:07,880
Families had to stay in Eisenstadt.

317
00:24:09,880 --> 00:24:12,440
No wives, no girlfriends,
no families.

318
00:24:12,440 --> 00:24:15,000
The musicians
were understandably miserable.

319
00:24:15,000 --> 00:24:19,840
But Haydn came up with his own
rather witty version
of industrial action.

320
00:24:19,840 --> 00:24:22,480
MUSIC: Haydn's Symphony No. 45:
4th Movement, The English Concert

321
00:24:22,480 --> 00:24:25,120
Symphony 45 was
one of the three dozen symphonies

322
00:24:25,120 --> 00:24:29,000
written for
the summer festivities at Esterhaza.

323
00:24:29,000 --> 00:24:31,200
It's a serious,
sometimes stormy work,

324
00:24:31,200 --> 00:24:34,320
but at the end
comes Haydn's protest,

325
00:24:34,320 --> 00:24:38,400
a gesture that gives the work its
familiar nickname, The Farewell.

326
00:24:40,320 --> 00:24:43,880
As the last restless movement
comes to a close,

327
00:24:43,880 --> 00:24:45,840
the music suddenly slows down

328
00:24:45,840 --> 00:24:48,880
and the players begin to leave
the stage, one by one,

329
00:24:48,880 --> 00:24:52,520
each snuffing out the candle
on his music stand as he goes.

330
00:24:52,520 --> 00:24:56,280
Finally, there are just two violins
left playing pianissimo,

331
00:24:56,280 --> 00:24:59,880
and the music
evaporates into silence.

332
00:25:01,680 --> 00:25:05,240
The prince took the hint.

333
00:25:05,240 --> 00:25:10,200
The following day,
the court returned home to
the domestic comforts of Eisenstadt.

334
00:25:13,840 --> 00:25:17,520
Haydn was to stay in Esterhazy
for nearly 30 years,

335
00:25:17,520 --> 00:25:19,040
but this was very unusual.

336
00:25:19,040 --> 00:25:22,800
Most composers of the time
led a much more nomadic existence,

337
00:25:22,800 --> 00:25:24,640
moving from place to place,

338
00:25:24,640 --> 00:25:27,840
and this was of course
how musical ideas were moved around.

339
00:25:27,840 --> 00:25:31,200
One of these travelling musicians
was Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,

340
00:25:31,200 --> 00:25:37,440
and in 1764, not long after
Haydn had arrived in Eisenstadt,
he visited London.

341
00:25:37,440 --> 00:25:41,480
MUSIC: Mozart's Symphony No. 1:
1st Movement

342
00:25:41,480 --> 00:25:45,160
Mozart spent
a large part of his childhood
on an interminable tour of Europe

343
00:25:45,160 --> 00:25:47,920
accompanied by his father
and his older sister.

344
00:25:47,920 --> 00:25:52,880
The family arrived here in London
and moved into lodgings
above a barber's shop,

345
00:25:52,880 --> 00:25:59,560
which now, delightfully,
is an antiquarian booksellers
specialising in music.

346
00:26:02,600 --> 00:26:05,920
The whole thing
must have been a bit of an ordeal.

347
00:26:05,920 --> 00:26:10,080
There were reports
of all three of them being ill
at one time or another.

348
00:26:10,080 --> 00:26:13,400
But it did produce
at least one unexpected benefit.

349
00:26:13,400 --> 00:26:19,040
Whilst his father was bedridden,
the eight-year-old Wolfgang
decided to write his first symphony.

350
00:26:40,600 --> 00:26:42,880
Now remember, he was eight.

351
00:26:42,880 --> 00:26:45,880
This symphony has been
criticised as being derivative,

352
00:26:45,880 --> 00:26:48,080
and some have said
it was written by his father,

353
00:26:48,080 --> 00:26:50,480
and I'm sure his father helped him
a great deal.

354
00:26:50,480 --> 00:26:53,200
But the important point, surely,
is that it's a symphony

355
00:26:53,200 --> 00:26:56,360
written by an eight-year-old,
and it's structurally perfect,

356
00:26:56,360 --> 00:26:59,560
exquisitely balanced
and very, very nice to listen to.

357
00:27:14,520 --> 00:27:18,160
In his teens,
Mozart criss-crossed Europe,

358
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:20,520
picking up ideas wherever he went.

359
00:27:20,520 --> 00:27:24,240
One of the key centres
was Mannheim in South West Germany,

360
00:27:24,240 --> 00:27:29,360
where the court orchestra was
a finely tuned, virtuoso ensemble.

361
00:27:29,360 --> 00:27:31,160
The court composer
was Johann Stamitz,

362
00:27:31,160 --> 00:27:34,240
who wrote 60 proto-type
symphonies for them.

363
00:27:40,280 --> 00:27:43,560
They became well known
for their novel, dynamic effects,

364
00:27:43,560 --> 00:27:45,280
an opening coups d'archet,

365
00:27:45,280 --> 00:27:47,840
a loud bang at the beginning
of a piece of music

366
00:27:47,840 --> 00:27:51,080
that would wake the audience up
and grab their attention.

367
00:27:51,080 --> 00:27:52,520
The Mannheim Rocket,

368
00:27:52,520 --> 00:27:55,960
a cluster of notes that soared
thrillingly heavenwards,

369
00:27:55,960 --> 00:27:59,440
and a big orchestral crescendo
that was so unexpected

370
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:03,280
that apparently
ladies in the audience
used to faint with excitement.

371
00:28:13,360 --> 00:28:17,600
In preparing the music with
the Orchestra of the Age
of Enlightenment,

372
00:28:17,600 --> 00:28:22,840
Mark Elder was keen to work
on some of the effects achieved by
these symphonic pioneers.

373
00:28:22,840 --> 00:28:25,720
Obviously what we've got to try
and show in this,

374
00:28:25,720 --> 00:28:29,360
this very exciting music,
is the style.

375
00:28:29,360 --> 00:28:33,920
And they were specialists
in a sort of bravura attack.
Here it is.

376
00:28:33,920 --> 00:28:36,360
THEY PLAY

377
00:28:39,840 --> 00:28:43,680
And the coups d'archet
was the way everybody attacked

378
00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,000
the bow in the same way,
as they all did there.

379
00:28:46,000 --> 00:28:47,960
Can we just try that once again?

380
00:29:10,120 --> 00:29:12,720
Bravo, well done.

381
00:29:12,720 --> 00:29:14,480
The idea of getting louder

382
00:29:14,480 --> 00:29:18,880
from playing very soft
and going to very loud is something
we're all so familiar with.

383
00:29:18,880 --> 00:29:22,720
We do it all the time. But the idea
that this was a new way
of musicians together

384
00:29:22,720 --> 00:29:28,760
expressing the same energy
and the same emotion gave the music
a new excitement and a new daring.

385
00:29:46,680 --> 00:29:50,000
So celebrated did Mannheim become
that in 1777,

386
00:29:50,000 --> 00:29:53,680
the 22-year-old Wolfgang Mozart
visited the orchestra,

387
00:29:53,680 --> 00:29:56,200
bringing with him
the score of his latest symphony.

388
00:30:02,440 --> 00:30:06,560
When Mozart decided to premiere
this symphony, his 31st,

389
00:30:06,560 --> 00:30:09,640
with them in this very room, he was
test-driving his work,

390
00:30:09,640 --> 00:30:12,440
which included several
of the crowd-pleasing

391
00:30:12,440 --> 00:30:14,680
Mannheim special effects.

392
00:30:22,000 --> 00:30:26,160
At this stage in his life
Mozart really needed a success.

393
00:30:26,160 --> 00:30:30,320
In Paris there were many
wealthy, sophisticated music lovers

394
00:30:30,320 --> 00:30:32,960
and his carefully crafted symphony

395
00:30:32,960 --> 00:30:36,560
might land him a commission
or even a job.

396
00:30:40,520 --> 00:30:42,480
Paris in the middle
of the 18th century

397
00:30:42,480 --> 00:30:44,760
was very different from
the modern city.

398
00:30:44,760 --> 00:30:46,880
The Eiffel Tower
and the famous boulevards

399
00:30:46,880 --> 00:30:48,600
weren't built
until the 19th century.

400
00:30:48,600 --> 00:30:51,880
And in 1778, when Mozart arrived,

401
00:30:51,880 --> 00:30:54,080
the area around here
was dominated

402
00:30:54,080 --> 00:30:56,520
by a vast Renaissance palace,
the Tuileries,

403
00:30:56,520 --> 00:30:59,360
where the fashionable
and cultured aristocracy -

404
00:30:59,360 --> 00:31:03,480
this was before the Revolution,
remember - flocked to hear music.

405
00:31:08,680 --> 00:31:13,160
Mozart's symphony, later to become
known as the Paris Symphony,

406
00:31:13,160 --> 00:31:16,040
was first heard here in June 1778.

407
00:31:21,320 --> 00:31:25,240
Every detail was honed to accord
with contemporary Parisian taste.

408
00:31:25,240 --> 00:31:27,120
"In the middle of the first movement

409
00:31:27,120 --> 00:31:30,640
"is a section I knew would excite
them," he later wrote to his father.

410
00:31:30,640 --> 00:31:33,640
Sure enough, the audience
was carried away by it.

411
00:31:33,640 --> 00:31:37,240
"Since I knew when I wrote it that
it would have this sort of effect,

412
00:31:37,240 --> 00:31:39,960
"I used it again at the end."

413
00:31:48,920 --> 00:31:52,800
The symphony was a mild success.

414
00:31:52,800 --> 00:31:55,240
Perhaps he'd so conformed
to local taste

415
00:31:55,240 --> 00:31:57,680
that the work
didn't particularly stand out.

416
00:31:57,680 --> 00:32:00,240
After the concert, he wrote,
"I was happy,

417
00:32:00,240 --> 00:32:03,840
"so as soon as the concert was over
I rushed over to the Palais-Royal,

418
00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:08,240
"ordered myself a large ice cream,
said my rosary and went home."

419
00:32:13,520 --> 00:32:16,960
Mozart wasn't the only symphonist
keen to conquer

420
00:32:16,960 --> 00:32:19,600
the discerning
audiences of Paris.

421
00:32:19,600 --> 00:32:23,440
Five years later, half a dozen
new symphonies by Joseph Haydn

422
00:32:23,440 --> 00:32:25,880
arrived to great acclaim.

423
00:32:27,720 --> 00:32:31,400
Although Prince Esterhazy didn't
allow his composer to travel,

424
00:32:31,400 --> 00:32:35,240
he was happy for Haydn's scores
to spread his fame.

425
00:32:37,560 --> 00:32:39,720
And when Mozart,
now living in Vienna,

426
00:32:39,720 --> 00:32:41,720
heard these Paris Symphonies,

427
00:32:41,720 --> 00:32:45,480
they were to inspire his final
great symphonic outpouring.

428
00:32:51,960 --> 00:32:55,840
In 1788, a year before
revolution convulsed France,
and indeed Europe,

429
00:32:55,840 --> 00:32:58,720
Mozart preformed here
in this Viennese cafe,

430
00:32:58,720 --> 00:33:00,520
but perhaps more significantly

431
00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:03,480
he also wrote three symphonies
in a matter of weeks -

432
00:33:03,480 --> 00:33:05,120
the noble No. 39,

433
00:33:05,120 --> 00:33:08,480
the dark, turbulent No. 40,
unusually in a minor key,

434
00:33:08,480 --> 00:33:11,200
and the extrovert No. 41,

435
00:33:11,200 --> 00:33:13,160
later nicknamed The Jupiter,

436
00:33:13,160 --> 00:33:16,680
a piece of almost extravagant
technical virtuosity.

437
00:33:27,600 --> 00:33:30,200
Mozart's final years
are something of a mystery.

438
00:33:30,200 --> 00:33:31,800
We have lots of small details,

439
00:33:31,800 --> 00:33:34,520
how frequently
he changed apartment, for instance,

440
00:33:34,520 --> 00:33:37,440
but about the bigger picture
there's nothing at all.

441
00:33:37,440 --> 00:33:40,040
What he thought about the music
he was writing,

442
00:33:40,040 --> 00:33:42,240
his ambitions,
his hopes and his fears,

443
00:33:42,240 --> 00:33:45,000
and about the last few symphonies,
no information.

444
00:33:51,800 --> 00:33:54,040
These symphonies were completed

445
00:33:54,040 --> 00:33:57,040
three years before his sudden
and tragic early death.

446
00:33:58,720 --> 00:34:01,480
But we have no idea
what occasioned them

447
00:34:01,480 --> 00:34:05,720
and there is no record of them
ever having been actually performed
in his lifetime.

448
00:34:12,120 --> 00:34:14,960
These last symphonies
are emotionally rich

449
00:34:14,960 --> 00:34:19,240
and full of sadness,
just when you least expect it.

450
00:34:34,080 --> 00:34:38,720
The palate of emotional intensity

451
00:34:38,720 --> 00:34:42,480
is very, very marked.

452
00:34:42,480 --> 00:34:43,840
And one feels that,

453
00:34:43,840 --> 00:34:48,040
whether or not he could have written
any more symphonies, that these were

454
00:34:48,040 --> 00:34:50,720
a summation for him of what
he could achieve in the form.

455
00:34:50,720 --> 00:34:54,320
And each of them
has such a different character.

456
00:34:54,320 --> 00:34:57,960
Now, to me, the character
comes from the choice of key.

457
00:34:57,960 --> 00:35:01,480
And we know, before he wrote them,
that he received a new score

458
00:35:01,480 --> 00:35:03,920
of three of Haydn's symphonies

459
00:35:03,920 --> 00:35:07,040
and that they were in these
same three keys -

460
00:35:07,040 --> 00:35:11,240
E flat, G minor and C major -
which are the keys of
Mozart's last three symphonies.

461
00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:20,200
He was inspired
and wanted to give something

462
00:35:20,200 --> 00:35:22,640
to the form
that he hadn't hitherto managed.

463
00:35:30,920 --> 00:35:33,800
Mozart clearly admired
the symphonic innovations

464
00:35:33,800 --> 00:35:37,480
that Haydn had discovered in his
laboratory in Eisenstadt,

465
00:35:37,480 --> 00:35:41,880
and when the two composers met for
the first time in the late 1780s,

466
00:35:41,880 --> 00:35:43,560
Haydn repaid the compliment.

467
00:35:43,560 --> 00:35:47,000
"Some have said that I might have
some genius," he remarked,

468
00:35:47,000 --> 00:35:49,280
"but Mozart is always my superior."

469
00:35:50,600 --> 00:35:54,360
Suddenly in 1790 everything changed.

470
00:35:54,360 --> 00:35:58,640
Prince Nikolaus died unexpectedly
and the next prince, his son Anton,

471
00:35:58,640 --> 00:36:00,800
immediately began to dismantle

472
00:36:00,800 --> 00:36:04,280
his father's extravagant
and expensive musical establishment.

473
00:36:04,280 --> 00:36:05,920
Despite a generous pension,

474
00:36:05,920 --> 00:36:08,720
Haydn must have wondered
what the future would bring.

475
00:36:08,720 --> 00:36:11,160
And then one night as he was
sitting at home,

476
00:36:11,160 --> 00:36:13,400
there was a loud knock
on the front door.

477
00:36:19,480 --> 00:36:21,520
A stranger was let in
and declared boldly,

478
00:36:21,520 --> 00:36:24,320
"I am Salomon of London
and I have come to fetch you."

479
00:36:31,880 --> 00:36:33,800
It was a decisive moment
in Haydn's life

480
00:36:33,800 --> 00:36:35,520
and in the history of the symphony.

481
00:37:03,080 --> 00:37:05,800
Just before setting off on his epic
journey,

482
00:37:05,800 --> 00:37:09,320
Haydn joined Salomon and Mozart
for a farewell meal.

483
00:37:09,320 --> 00:37:12,640
Salomon was keen to sign Wolfgang
up for a British tour,

484
00:37:12,640 --> 00:37:16,600
but the young composer
seemed more concerned
about his colleague's welfare.

485
00:37:16,600 --> 00:37:18,520
"You're not young any more,"
he said.

486
00:37:18,520 --> 00:37:21,240
"But I'm still in good health,"
Haydn replied.

487
00:37:21,240 --> 00:37:26,000
"You're too unworldly and speak
too few languages," Mozart said.

488
00:37:26,000 --> 00:37:31,280
"No," Haydn replied firmly,
"my language is understood
all over the world."

489
00:37:36,960 --> 00:37:38,920
And now we're back where we started

490
00:37:38,920 --> 00:37:41,120
in the last decade
of the 18th century

491
00:37:41,120 --> 00:37:44,000
with Haydn's triumphal
arrival in London.

492
00:37:44,000 --> 00:37:47,240
After 30 years as a sort of
musical servant in Austria,

493
00:37:47,240 --> 00:37:51,080
he's welcomed here as
the greatest composer of his age.

494
00:37:52,280 --> 00:37:55,080
As the Sun newspaper of 1794 put it,

495
00:37:55,080 --> 00:37:59,760
"His music is exquisite, rich,
fanciful, bold and impressive."

496
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:14,840
London gave Joseph Haydn
a new lease of life.

497
00:38:19,040 --> 00:38:21,560
Four years
of wildly successful concerts,

498
00:38:21,560 --> 00:38:26,040
twelve new symphonies premiered,
the last in 1795

499
00:38:26,040 --> 00:38:30,320
here at the Theatre Royal
Music Rooms in the Haymarket.

500
00:38:30,320 --> 00:38:32,680
As one enamoured critic gushed,

501
00:38:32,680 --> 00:38:36,600
"Would Haydn ever get to
the bottom of his genius box?"

502
00:38:36,600 --> 00:38:39,440
Well, the answer to that
surely must be no.

503
00:38:48,080 --> 00:38:51,040
Although he would write
over 100 symphonies

504
00:38:51,040 --> 00:38:53,360
over the course of
a long working life,

505
00:38:53,360 --> 00:38:56,320
Haydn himself
would have recognised neither

506
00:38:56,320 --> 00:38:58,320
the dizzying upward spiral
of numbers -

507
00:38:58,320 --> 00:39:01,480
from his first
Symphony in D Major written in 1759

508
00:39:01,480 --> 00:39:04,440
to his 104th
written some 40 years later -

509
00:39:04,440 --> 00:39:08,320
nor the affectionate nicknames
that some of the pieces acquired -

510
00:39:08,320 --> 00:39:12,960
The Philosopher, The Farewell,
The Surprise, The Military.

511
00:39:19,400 --> 00:39:21,320
For the first time in his life,

512
00:39:21,320 --> 00:39:25,560
Haydn had escaped the aristocratic
bubble of Eisenstadt.

513
00:39:25,560 --> 00:39:29,960
The London symphonies reflect both
his new experiences of the world

514
00:39:29,960 --> 00:39:32,720
and his encounters with
a wider audience.

515
00:39:37,160 --> 00:39:40,800
In London there was hunger
for music that spoke to

516
00:39:40,800 --> 00:39:44,880
the tensions around
the French Revolution

517
00:39:44,880 --> 00:39:47,720
and the anxieties
that the British had

518
00:39:47,720 --> 00:39:51,760
when revolution turned into
attack on other countries.

519
00:40:07,600 --> 00:40:10,640
Now symphonies were not only
being played in public,

520
00:40:10,640 --> 00:40:14,240
but becoming public statements
in themselves.

521
00:40:21,440 --> 00:40:24,640
The Military Symphony,
the eighth of the London symphonies,

522
00:40:24,640 --> 00:40:28,640
written in 1794 and a masterpiece.

523
00:40:28,640 --> 00:40:32,000
It was Haydn's greatest success
during his visit to England.

524
00:40:32,000 --> 00:40:35,920
It's war music that the audience
regarded as acutely topical.

525
00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:37,880
It's difficult with our modern ears

526
00:40:37,880 --> 00:40:40,720
to grasp the impact this work
had on the British public.

527
00:40:40,720 --> 00:40:42,960
Amongst other things,
Haydn shocked them

528
00:40:42,960 --> 00:40:46,560
with his use for the first time
of Turkish percussion.

529
00:41:05,280 --> 00:41:09,360
"Encore, encore, encore,"
resounded from every seat,

530
00:41:09,360 --> 00:41:12,560
the ladies themselves
could not forbear.

531
00:41:16,080 --> 00:41:19,280
It is the advance into battle
and the march of men.

532
00:41:20,320 --> 00:41:23,160
The sounding of the charge,
the thundering of the onset.

533
00:41:34,280 --> 00:41:37,400
The clash of arms,
the groans of the wounded

534
00:41:37,400 --> 00:41:40,240
and what may be called
the hellish roar of war

535
00:41:40,240 --> 00:41:43,280
increases to a climax
of horrid sublimity.

536
00:41:58,720 --> 00:42:01,400
Haydn writing for London audiences

537
00:42:01,400 --> 00:42:04,400
in the 1790s was very much aware

538
00:42:04,400 --> 00:42:07,840
that they saw themselves
as a manly, military society

539
00:42:07,840 --> 00:42:11,320
and Haydn absolutely captured that.

540
00:42:11,320 --> 00:42:14,360
When Haydn left London
to return home to Austria

541
00:42:14,360 --> 00:42:17,520
he made a brief stop along the way

542
00:42:17,520 --> 00:42:19,800
in the provincial German town
of Bonn.

543
00:42:19,800 --> 00:42:23,080
Here he was to meet
for the first time the composer

544
00:42:23,080 --> 00:42:27,240
who would carry the symphony
forward into the next century -

545
00:42:27,240 --> 00:42:28,960
Ludwig van Beethoven.

546
00:42:31,000 --> 00:42:34,480
Haydn was 60
and the sullen young viola player -

547
00:42:34,480 --> 00:42:37,720
he was a member of the Elector
Of Bonn's Orchestra - was 22.

548
00:42:37,720 --> 00:42:40,360
He was already
showing some promise as a composer.

549
00:42:40,360 --> 00:42:43,440
He'd written two
attention-grabbing Imperial Cantatas

550
00:42:43,440 --> 00:42:45,960
and Haydn agreed to take him on
as a student.

551
00:42:47,240 --> 00:42:49,520
It was never an easy relationship.

552
00:42:49,520 --> 00:42:53,160
"You will have thoughts that
no-one has had before," said Haydn,

553
00:42:53,160 --> 00:42:57,080
"but the rules will always be
sacrificed to your moods."

554
00:43:00,800 --> 00:43:04,560
England had changed Haydn.
Mozart had died whilst he was away

555
00:43:04,560 --> 00:43:07,360
and he returned to Austria
an old man.

556
00:43:07,360 --> 00:43:09,440
Papa Haydn
they now started calling him.

557
00:43:12,280 --> 00:43:15,920
He left behind him the court
at Esterhazy and came to Vienna

558
00:43:15,920 --> 00:43:19,840
to take up his rightful place as a
senior member of Viennese society.

559
00:43:19,840 --> 00:43:23,000
And significantly
he stopped writing symphonies

560
00:43:23,000 --> 00:43:25,840
but he had by no means retired.

561
00:43:29,080 --> 00:43:32,760
Before he left London,
Salomon had given him a manuscript,

562
00:43:32,760 --> 00:43:37,160
an anonymous libretto in English
based partly on the Book Of Genesis

563
00:43:37,160 --> 00:43:40,040
and partly on Milton's poem
Paradise Lost.

564
00:43:44,120 --> 00:43:45,760
The result was The Creation,

565
00:43:45,760 --> 00:43:48,400
a large, complex, elegant work

566
00:43:48,400 --> 00:43:51,840
that brought together the very
best of Haydn's symphonic technique

567
00:43:51,840 --> 00:43:54,840
with his love of writing for voices.

568
00:43:58,640 --> 00:44:02,000
It was to prove
both popular and influential.

569
00:44:07,000 --> 00:44:11,680
This vast, ambitious, cosmic work,
although not itself a symphony,

570
00:44:11,680 --> 00:44:14,600
opens up a myriad of possibilities
for orchestral music.

571
00:44:16,680 --> 00:44:19,480
On the threshold of the new century,

572
00:44:19,480 --> 00:44:21,800
Haydn demonstrated
that music could be

573
00:44:21,800 --> 00:44:24,600
more than entertainment
at a polite social gathering

574
00:44:24,600 --> 00:44:27,200
and become a profound
and thought-provoking

575
00:44:27,200 --> 00:44:29,400
dramatic experience
for its audience.

576
00:44:40,400 --> 00:44:42,520
The last performance
Haydn attended

577
00:44:42,520 --> 00:44:45,480
was here in a room at
the Austrian Academy of Sciences

578
00:44:45,480 --> 00:44:49,400
on 27th March, 1808,
a year before he died.

579
00:44:49,400 --> 00:44:50,960
It was his 76th birthday

580
00:44:50,960 --> 00:44:55,240
and the aged and ill composer
was brought in to loud acclamation.

581
00:44:55,240 --> 00:44:59,480
His former pupil Beethoven was also
here and apparently wept during
the performance.

582
00:44:59,480 --> 00:45:01,920
At the point early on in the piece,

583
00:45:01,920 --> 00:45:06,240
when God creates light, the audience
burst out into spontaneous applause.

584
00:45:06,240 --> 00:45:11,280
But Haydn, in response, indicated
upwards, as if to say,
"Not from me."

585
00:45:11,280 --> 00:45:14,040
"Everything comes from up there."

586
00:45:28,560 --> 00:45:33,920
He became known as the father
of the symphony,
ie, not necessarily the first,

587
00:45:33,920 --> 00:45:38,040
but the person who gave us
so many great symphonies

588
00:45:38,040 --> 00:45:43,840
that he managed to explore
the potential of the symphonic
orchestra of his day.

589
00:45:43,840 --> 00:45:47,040
And that would take the idea of what
a symphony could be

590
00:45:47,040 --> 00:45:49,680
further and further along the path.

591
00:45:49,680 --> 00:45:54,720
Haydn, over the course of a long
40-year career, turned out over 100.

592
00:45:54,720 --> 00:45:57,800
Mozart, in his short life,
wrote about 40.

593
00:45:57,800 --> 00:46:00,440
Ludwig Van Beethoven
wrote only nine.

594
00:46:00,440 --> 00:46:04,320
But each symphony redrew
the musical landscape

595
00:46:04,320 --> 00:46:08,360
and threw down a challenge
that no future symphonist
could possibly ignore.

596
00:46:08,360 --> 00:46:11,800
In 1800, as Europe stood on
the threshold of a new century,

597
00:46:11,800 --> 00:46:15,240
the Viennese public were treated
to the premiere of a new work -

598
00:46:15,240 --> 00:46:18,360
Beethoven's first symphony
in C Major,

599
00:46:18,360 --> 00:46:22,560
which, much to their surprise,
began with a discord.

600
00:46:22,560 --> 00:46:26,200
MUSIC: Symphony No 1:
1st Movement by Beethoven

601
00:46:40,360 --> 00:46:44,040
At this point, the symphony
was seen primarily as a means
of entertainment,

602
00:46:44,040 --> 00:46:47,680
not as the vehicle
for the exploration of political,
social and moral ideas.

603
00:46:49,960 --> 00:46:55,920
In 1790, the philosopher Kant
dismissed instrumental
music as more pleasure than culture.

604
00:46:55,920 --> 00:47:00,160
His grounds for this remark were
the fact that music couldn't
incorporate concepts.

605
00:47:00,160 --> 00:47:04,800
Any ideas it might seem to generate
were in his words "accidents".

606
00:47:31,240 --> 00:47:32,760
If you say to me,

607
00:47:32,760 --> 00:47:37,080
"Sum up what makes Beethoven
different in one sentence."

608
00:47:37,080 --> 00:47:38,920
He broke the rules.

609
00:47:50,760 --> 00:47:54,560
This is pure Beethoven,
but it is a youthful Beethoven.

610
00:47:54,560 --> 00:47:58,000
But, having said that, he did not
complete his first symphony

611
00:47:58,000 --> 00:47:59,800
until he was 29 years of age.

612
00:47:59,800 --> 00:48:03,160
Now, in prodigy terms,
that's middle-aged.

613
00:48:03,160 --> 00:48:07,400
Haydn and Mozart had knocked off
loads of symphonies
by the time they were 29.

614
00:48:07,400 --> 00:48:15,160
Why did Beethoven wait so long?
Because he was aware of the legacy
of the likes of Mozart and Haydn.

615
00:48:26,880 --> 00:48:29,920
If the first symphony represents
a noble and steady start,

616
00:48:29,920 --> 00:48:33,000
then the second is a sudden wrench
forwards into the future.

617
00:48:33,000 --> 00:48:37,400
MUSIC: # Symphony No 2, Scherzo
from the 3rd Movement by Beethoven

618
00:48:39,200 --> 00:48:42,120
Premiered in the year that Britain
declared war on France

619
00:48:42,120 --> 00:48:46,800
it has at its heart the 31-year-old
Beethoven's first major
symphonic innovation.

620
00:48:46,800 --> 00:48:49,840
He replaces the old-fashioned
aristocratic dance movement,

621
00:48:49,840 --> 00:48:53,400
the minuet, with a scherzo,
which literally means "joke".

622
00:48:53,400 --> 00:48:56,120
An energetic and sometimes
confrontational movement

623
00:48:56,120 --> 00:48:59,600
that captures the speed and violence
of early 19th-century urban life.

624
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:06,680
This is a joke which, repeated
often enough, begins
to sound like a threat.

625
00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:17,600
It is a crude monster, like a
wounded dragon that refuses to die,

626
00:49:17,600 --> 00:49:22,280
writhing and bleeding,
lashing out furiously with its tail.

627
00:49:31,600 --> 00:49:35,840
The summer of 1802 he spends
in a rural village north of Vienna

628
00:49:35,840 --> 00:49:37,440
called Heiligenstadt.

629
00:49:37,440 --> 00:49:40,440
He's composing his second symphony,
but, as he works,

630
00:49:40,440 --> 00:49:44,400
he becomes more and more aware that
his hearing is starting to fail.

631
00:49:46,280 --> 00:49:50,080
Heiligenstadt was for Beethoven
a place of despair.

632
00:49:50,080 --> 00:49:52,280
"Dissatisfied with many things,"
he wrote,

633
00:49:52,280 --> 00:49:56,280
"more susceptible than any other
person and tormented
by my deafness,

634
00:49:56,280 --> 00:49:59,360
I find only suffering
in the company of others."

635
00:50:00,520 --> 00:50:03,160
He's acknowledged
to himself he's deaf

636
00:50:03,160 --> 00:50:06,640
and the great miracle of art is that
the moment he's acknowledged it,

637
00:50:06,640 --> 00:50:10,760
we enter what's cornily called
the heroic period.

638
00:50:10,760 --> 00:50:15,040
We get the great, great works of art,
because he's overcome it.

639
00:50:15,040 --> 00:50:18,200
MUSIC # Symphony No 3:
1st Movement by Beethoven

640
00:50:21,880 --> 00:50:26,320
To tell the next part of the story,
we need to return to Paris

641
00:50:26,320 --> 00:50:28,120
and to a hero's grave.

642
00:50:30,560 --> 00:50:33,720
Just as Beethoven
defined his era in music,

643
00:50:33,720 --> 00:50:38,040
so Napoleon Bonaparte towered
over his era in world politics

644
00:50:38,040 --> 00:50:41,800
although, of course,
he himself was quite a small man.

645
00:50:41,800 --> 00:50:46,000
The name of Napoleon was so potent,
his military prowess
was so fearsome,

646
00:50:46,000 --> 00:50:50,320
that he dominated and terrorised
Europe for over a dozen years.

647
00:50:50,320 --> 00:50:55,560
After his successful coups d'etat
in 1799, he appointed himself
First Consul,

648
00:50:55,560 --> 00:50:57,040
a man of the French people,

649
00:50:57,040 --> 00:51:01,280
devoted to restoring the republican
virtues of liberty, equality and
fraternity

650
00:51:01,280 --> 00:51:06,240
after a decade of gross
mismanagement and institutionalised
terror so widespread

651
00:51:06,240 --> 00:51:09,760
that the guillotine earned
the nickname "the national razor".

652
00:51:14,280 --> 00:51:19,520
Beethoven had found the subject
for his third
and most radical symphony yet.

653
00:51:19,520 --> 00:51:22,760
A work so massive,
that its first movement alone

654
00:51:22,760 --> 00:51:25,920
is as long as many
of Haydn's early symphonies.

655
00:51:25,920 --> 00:51:29,920
Eroica, the heroic symphony.

656
00:51:29,920 --> 00:51:35,400
The Eroica is an extraordinary,
huge advance on anything anyone
had done before.

657
00:51:35,400 --> 00:51:38,240
He was a man of the people,
creating art for the people

658
00:51:38,240 --> 00:51:41,240
and he thought that was
what Napoleon represented.

659
00:51:41,240 --> 00:51:47,560
The Eroica comes to stand for what
symphonic composers want to achieve

660
00:51:47,560 --> 00:51:49,200
through their musical works.

661
00:51:52,680 --> 00:51:55,960
The Eroica was
a revolutionary piece of work.

662
00:51:55,960 --> 00:52:01,120
Beethoven needed new techniques
if he was to express adequately
his thoughts about Napoleon,

663
00:52:01,120 --> 00:52:05,280
a man who was affecting
such rapid and sweeping changes
across Europe,

664
00:52:05,280 --> 00:52:10,760
a man who many believed would bring
peace, security and liberty
to a troubled continent.

665
00:52:10,760 --> 00:52:15,800
There was no way that Europe could
possibly return to life
as it was in the days before 1789

666
00:52:15,800 --> 00:52:19,880
and there was no looking back
to old models for Beethoven.

667
00:52:19,880 --> 00:52:24,840
The new work just had to be radical,
its first performance explosive,

668
00:52:24,840 --> 00:52:27,760
and this is the room
where it all happened.

669
00:52:53,360 --> 00:52:55,400
Beethoven's friend, Ferdinand Ries,

670
00:52:55,400 --> 00:52:59,480
said the composer wrote his symphony
with Napoleon Bonaparte in mind,

671
00:52:59,480 --> 00:53:01,920
but Napoleon as First Consul.

672
00:53:01,920 --> 00:53:04,360
He held him in great esteem
and compared him

673
00:53:04,360 --> 00:53:06,560
to the greatest consuls
of ancient Rome.

674
00:53:07,760 --> 00:53:11,640
Ferdinand Ries himself saw
a beautifully copied manuscript
of the symphony

675
00:53:11,640 --> 00:53:14,120
lying on Beethoven's
table and, on the front page,

676
00:53:14,120 --> 00:53:18,800
were inscribed the names "Napoleon"
at the top and "Beethoven"
at the bottom.

677
00:53:18,800 --> 00:53:22,480
But when Beethoven was told
that Napoleon had crowned himself
Emperor

678
00:53:22,480 --> 00:53:27,400
he flew into a rage and screamed,
"So now he is no more than
a common mortal."

679
00:53:27,400 --> 00:53:30,120
"Now he will tread
on all the rights of man,

680
00:53:30,120 --> 00:53:33,760
"indulge only his ambition, think
himself superior to all men,

681
00:53:33,760 --> 00:53:35,240
"become a tyrant."

682
00:53:35,240 --> 00:53:37,920
He went to the table, picked up
the manuscript,

683
00:53:37,920 --> 00:53:41,000
ripped the front page in half
and threw it on the floor.

684
00:54:16,040 --> 00:54:20,920
Napoleon I, Emperor of the French,
still had 16 more years to live.

685
00:54:20,920 --> 00:54:23,240
But, for Beethoven, it was clear,

686
00:54:23,240 --> 00:54:26,600
his greatness had died
on the day of his coronation.

687
00:54:28,000 --> 00:54:32,200
The second movement of the Eroica
is a funeral march,

688
00:54:32,200 --> 00:54:35,280
perhaps mourning the loss of a hero.

689
00:54:37,960 --> 00:54:41,760
When the symphony was published
three years later,
it bore an inscription -

690
00:54:41,760 --> 00:54:44,400
to celebrate the memory
of a great man.

691
00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:53,800
Beethoven lived in more than
60 different places during
his 35 years in Vienna.

692
00:54:57,920 --> 00:55:02,200
I joined musicologist Professor
John Deathridge to visit this one,

693
00:55:02,200 --> 00:55:05,200
which is typically cramped
and out of the way.

694
00:55:06,400 --> 00:55:11,400
But wherever the composer lodged,
there were always
two inevitable objects -

695
00:55:11,400 --> 00:55:14,120
a piano and a treasured portrait.

696
00:55:15,600 --> 00:55:20,560
This is a picture of Beethoven
at about the time he wrote his third
symphony, the Eroica. Is that right?

697
00:55:20,560 --> 00:55:25,520
That's correct. Painted by a friend
of his called Willibrord Mahler,

698
00:55:25,520 --> 00:55:29,080
he played the last movement
to the painter

699
00:55:29,080 --> 00:55:32,200
and then he continued on improvising
for two hours.

700
00:55:33,440 --> 00:55:40,960
What Mahler was interested in was
capturing something of
the mythological side of the Eroica.

701
00:55:40,960 --> 00:55:42,840
And this rather awkward stance.
Yes.

702
00:55:42,840 --> 00:55:48,280
A little bit like the Mona Lisa,
in a sort of country landscape.

703
00:55:48,280 --> 00:55:53,520
And the eyes are looking askance.
I often think that this hand here,

704
00:55:53,520 --> 00:55:55,000
it's a very strong hand,

705
00:55:55,000 --> 00:55:58,040
has something to do
with his impression of Beethoven

706
00:55:58,040 --> 00:56:01,920
playing the last movement
of the Eroica.

707
00:56:01,920 --> 00:56:06,400
It was clearly a very important
painting for Beethoven because
he took it with him everywhere.

708
00:56:06,400 --> 00:56:10,120
Why did he like it?
I'm tempted to say vanity.
He looks rather good in this.

709
00:56:10,120 --> 00:56:15,320
It represents for him, I think,
something very important about
his role as a symphonic composer.

710
00:56:15,320 --> 00:56:20,160
"I am here in the world
as a composer and this is what
my symphonies are going to be."

711
00:56:48,640 --> 00:56:55,400
I feel that the third symphony
is like on the threshold
of another age.

712
00:56:55,400 --> 00:56:58,400
It's written
because he wanted to answer

713
00:56:58,400 --> 00:57:03,080
what he felt was the scale
of Napoleon's achievements

714
00:57:03,080 --> 00:57:06,200
and the normal symphony
wouldn't have been enough.

715
00:57:13,160 --> 00:57:15,400
Do you think
he saw himself as a hero?

716
00:57:16,720 --> 00:57:19,440
That's a very difficult
question to answer.

717
00:57:19,440 --> 00:57:23,160
I feel sure that he knew
he had the capacity in him

718
00:57:23,160 --> 00:57:29,200
that was given to very few
other creators and that he owed
it to himself

719
00:57:29,200 --> 00:57:34,640
to find the extent of the depth
of his talent,

720
00:57:34,640 --> 00:57:39,840
which is why he kept pushing
the boundaries further and further
to create more emotional truth.

721
00:57:39,840 --> 00:57:45,840
I think he felt that he had
an heroic capacity as a creator

722
00:57:45,840 --> 00:57:48,640
to take music to a place that nobody
thought it could ever go.

723
00:57:54,120 --> 00:57:56,240
And he would not stop here.

724
00:57:56,240 --> 00:57:58,560
There were six more symphonies
still to come.

725
00:57:58,560 --> 00:58:02,120
His encroaching deafness
would strengthen
his almost heroic willpower

726
00:58:02,120 --> 00:58:07,400
and give his music a sense
of profound, universal compassion.

727
00:58:07,400 --> 00:58:09,760
After the Eroica,
anything was possible.

728
00:58:09,760 --> 00:58:14,120
And he symphony took its place
as music's most expressive
and articulate form.

729
00:58:18,160 --> 00:58:19,800
To go deeper into the music

730
00:58:19,800 --> 00:58:22,040
and unravel the secrets
of the symphony,

731
00:58:22,040 --> 00:58:28,360
follow the links to
the Open University at:

732
00:58:36,640 --> 00:58:38,720
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

733
00:58:38,720 --> 00:58:40,840
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk