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Vienna 1876.
The place was a building site.

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The hub of an empire
and the symphony.

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The Emperor Franz Joseph had decided
the city walls should come down

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to be replaced by a prestigious
urban boulevard - The Ringstrasse.

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Another Ring,
Wagner's massive music drama

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with its Ride of the Valkyries,
was being created at the same time.

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Two ground-breaking moments

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and both Rings took about 30 years
to construct.

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The Austrian writer Karl Kraus said,

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"Vienna was being demolished
into a great city."

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With a classical Parliament
building, Athena presiding
at the front,

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a Gothic style town hall,
and a Renaissance-style university.

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But constructed before any of these,
in 1868, was the Opera House.

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Music remained of course an abiding
interest for the Viennese public

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and at the time debate was fierce
about whether new music should be

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descriptive or abstract -
Wagner versus Brahms.

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The symphony was at the centre
of this controversy.

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In this programme we'll see
how it emerged triumphant.

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How it became a vehicle
for nationalist sentiment and gained
genuine popular appeal.

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And how it became the means
of intense artistic self expression.

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We'll also see how composers
like Dvorak, Tchaikovsky

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and Sibelius came to
the expanding city of Vienna

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and exported the symphony
to new nations and new worlds.

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Why does a film about the symphony
start with an opera,

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and in particular an opera
by Wagner, who once declared

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emphatically that the symphony
was dead?

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MUSIC: Beethoven's Symphony No 9

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The problem was how to follow a
composer like Beethoven,

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who in his 9th Symphony in 1824
seemed to have taken the
classical four-movement form

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as far as it could go with its
ground-breaking choral finale.

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CHOIR SINGS

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Despite the attempts
of his successors,

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was Beethoven the final word
in symphonic writing?

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Richard Wagner certainly thought so,

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and when he held the first
performance of The Ring,
his massive music drama

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at his specially-built theatre
in Bayreuth, he began it with

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Beethoven's 9th, as if to say "roll
over Beethoven, now it's my turn."

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Wagner's Ring is a cycle of four
operas over four evenings.

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15 hours of music telling the story
of humanity from dawn to dusk.

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The premiere in 1876
wasn't just a musical event,

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but a political event,
attended by crowned heads of Europe.

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Everybody who was anybody was there.

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But all the drama over The Ring
made someone want to stand up
for the symphony.

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Johannes Brahms,
20 years Wagner's junior,

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was a classicist who was ready
to fight for pure symphonic music.

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The arena for this particular
contest was Vienna's new
concert hall, the Musikverein.

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The land was donated
by the Emperor Franz Joseph.

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It was built by the Gesellshaft
der Musik Freunde,

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the Society of Friends of Music,
and opened in 1870.

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MUSIC: Opening of Brahms' Symphony
No 1, 1st Movement.

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Brahms was from Hamburg in northern
Germany, brought up in

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the protestant Lutheran tradition,
although he didn't stay a believer.

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He'd been working on his first
symphony for 14 years,

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all the time he'd been in Vienna.

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Brahms had already made it clear
that writing a symphony after
Beethoven's 9th was no joke.

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You've no idea", he said, "how it
feels to hear behind you the tramp
of a giant like Beethoven.

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Although he was over 40 at this
stage and had certainly
taken his time,

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the fuss over Wagner's Ring
had made him determined to finish

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the symphony ready for a premiere
in 1876.

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After initial performances
in Germany, Brahms himself conducted

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his 1st symphony here at the
Musikverein on 17th December

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of that year as part of celebrations
for Beethoven's birthday.

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The hall was packed, but not with
the heads of state, who went

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to Wagner's premiere in Bayreuth.

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The decor may be opulent,

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but the Musikverein wasn't
built for the aristocracy,
but for the Viennese middle-class.

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When the hall was opened, it was
the first concert hall in Vienna,

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real, definite great concert hall.

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And every new work
was welcomed highly.

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The audience was very much interested
in hearing contemporary music

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because at that time the only
interesting things were new things.

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Brahms' new symphony
was written for what is now
the modern symphony orchestra.

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The music for this programme is
played by the BBC Symphony
Orchestra, conducted by Mark Elder.

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'By the time he started writing
his greatest pieces,

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'Brahms had mastered
the legacy of Beethoven'

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and turned it into something even
more muscular than Beethoven's music.

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But he had the vision of how great
symphonic masterpieces

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could aim at the highest
emotional planes.

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Every great symphonic writer takes
an audience on an emotional
narrative journey through the piece.

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For me, that's one of the definitions
of a great symphony.

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MUSIC: Brahms' Symphony No 1,
4th Movement.

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The French horn - such a symbol
of romantic energy - has an heroic
feel to it as well.

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And this is something that
possibly Brahms could have
taken from Beethoven.

84
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But underneath it,
the strings shimmer

85
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and that's something
I think that Beethoven wouldn't have
done in that same way.

86
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That sense of contacting nature -
just like the romantic paintings
of Caspar David Friedrich -

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is very vivid, memorable,
and superbly well done.

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That contact with nature
is then surprisingly

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interrupted by a chorale on
the trombones and this protestant,

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perhaps Lutheran chorale,

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recalling Brahms' musical past,
but also perhaps his own childhood,

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calms the soul.

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And from that sense of stillness

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sings the last movement's
main tune.

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Now this tune in C major,
the primary key,

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has a whiff of the great tune
of the last movement of Beethoven's
choral symphony

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that introduces the Ode to Joy.

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And when somebody pointed that out
to Brahms he said,
"Oh, any silly ass can see that!"

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Brahms' symphony was a great success

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and the enthusiasm was further
promoted by music critics.

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The most important
was Edward Hanslick,

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who also fanned the flames
of the Brahms/Wagner debate.

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The rise of the critic here in Vienna
was very important.

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It's inconceivable now, I think,

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to think of a major critic like
Hanslick writing a long article

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on the front page
of the Neue Freie Presse,

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which is the equivalent
of the London Times,

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going on to page two and page three,

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about the first performance
in Vienna of Brahms' 1st Symphony.

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Which he did.

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And people would read that at
breakfast alongside international
news on the front page of the paper.

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In his front page article, which
surprisingly hasn't been translated
into English before, Hanslick wrote,

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"It must be recognised by friend and
foe alike, that no other composer

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"has come as close to the greatest
creations of Beethoven as Brahms
has in the finale of his symphony."

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Hanslick, of course,

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was very much a friend of Brahms and
pure music and a foe of Wagner whom

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he felt was destroying melody and
form in favour of philosophising.

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Wagner's argument
was that music is not pure.

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One can use music politically as well
as aesthetically to raise all

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sorts of questions about society,
about people's psychology, what music

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does to them, what music can have an
effect on an audience in this space.

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00:11:30,080 --> 00:11:37,120
Just imagine the Gotterdammerung
music sounding in this space
against all these classical things.

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But the idea is to convey ideas
with the music

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and Wagner is a composer of ideas.

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In 1875,
Wagner himself had conducted

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excerpts from The Ring here
in the Musikverein to build up

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an appetite for the premiere
at Bayreuth.

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Mark Elder is demonstrating -
perhaps controversially -

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00:12:06,000 --> 00:12:09,120
that while Wagner was writing
mythological music dramas

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for the opera house,
he was also composing symphonically.

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In my view, Wagner was one
of the greatest symphonic composers,

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by that I mean he invented a number,
a large number of little themes,

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motifs associated with
the characters, the actions,
the events, even places, objects.

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And he wrote the opera,
he set his words, accompanied them

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with this enormously elaborate
orchestral texture.

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Can you give me an example
of a theme he might use?

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Yes, let's look at Siegfried and
Brunhilde, the heroine and the hero.

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When we first see them,
their music is very, very different

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and it's quite clear which pieces
belongs to which character.

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Here's one for Brunhilde...
PLAYS THEME

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Tender, loving, affectionate, gentle,

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big intervals expressing big emotions
but in a small dynamic.

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Now another one that he needs,
of course, is to portray his hero
Siegfried.

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Listen to this...
PLAYS THEME

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All together grander, heroic,
masculine in its strong rhythm

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and its clear cut idea.

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That little tune, short as it is,

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can then later on appear even shorter
when she speaks of their love,

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the things that draw them together
and he changes it
to suit the occasion.

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00:14:10,760 --> 00:14:17,400
Now this process of developing
the characters of the themes is what
I would call the symphonic process

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00:14:17,400 --> 00:14:19,040
that he was engaged in.

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And by the time he'd finished
the Ring he'd got the full

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flow of it and his attitude towards
how he used these little themes

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and musical ideas to suit the drama
became really loose, became

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very free and sometime we can't quite
understand why that particular

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little musical idea is embedded
in the jewellery of the texture.

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00:14:38,960 --> 00:14:42,040
So he released the themes
from the story? A bit, yes.

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He did in order to draw out
gorgeous symphonic music,

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00:14:44,920 --> 00:14:48,080
to build up the themes into great
architectural masses of sound.

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I mean really beautiful.

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MUSIC: Wagner's Gotterdammerung

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It's hard to appreciate now,
just how divided musical opinion

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across Europe was and how polarised
it became between two warring camps.

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00:15:32,800 --> 00:15:36,000
Wagner didn't just have fans,
he had worshippers.

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One of the most important was
a young organist and composer
called Anton Bruckner.

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00:15:42,360 --> 00:15:45,960
Bruckner was a provincial boy,
born near Linz.

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He became a choirboy

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and organist in the Augustinian
monastery of St Florian.

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He was a very devout Catholic.

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Mahler described him
as half simpleton, half God.

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00:16:02,920 --> 00:16:06,640
His 3rd Symphony was dedicated
to Wagner and premiered here

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00:16:06,640 --> 00:16:13,400
in the Musikverein in December 1877,
just one year after Brahms' 1st.

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00:16:42,040 --> 00:16:44,680
The effect of Wagner is huge,

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00:16:44,680 --> 00:16:47,520
not that Bruckner's music
sounds like Wagner - it doesn't.

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It's much more bold harmonically,

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but Wagner showed him how you can
organise huge spaces of music.

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00:16:57,920 --> 00:17:00,720
How you could use harmony

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00:17:00,720 --> 00:17:05,200
and expressiveness to fill out large
spaces of time in music.

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00:17:05,200 --> 00:17:07,240
It hadn't been done before.

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00:17:23,280 --> 00:17:27,520
His symphonies were built
with huge blocks of stone,

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00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:32,440
gradually being built up like
a cathedral, not a parish church.

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00:17:32,440 --> 00:17:36,320
And of course for many people, that
music takes them closer to their God.

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00:17:36,320 --> 00:17:41,880
The great spiritual dimension that he
as a man had is reflected in these
enormous edifices, musically.

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00:18:02,880 --> 00:18:06,360
The scale of Bruckner 3 -
it lasts for well over an hour -

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00:18:06,360 --> 00:18:09,560
is reflected in the urban expansion
of Vienna itself.

186
00:18:09,560 --> 00:18:12,840
Between 1860 and 1900
the city trebled in size

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00:18:12,840 --> 00:18:15,760
from half a million
to 1.5 million inhabitants.

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00:18:28,480 --> 00:18:32,360
The symphonies reflected more
the fears of what was going on

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rather than the triumph, which is
why, I think, Bruckner symphonies

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00:18:36,520 --> 00:18:39,240
took a long time
to get a foothold in Vienna.

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00:18:41,920 --> 00:18:46,600
Brahms had described the typical
Bruckner symphonies
like a massive boa constrictor

192
00:18:46,600 --> 00:18:49,600
and the concert,
here at the Musikverein,

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00:18:49,600 --> 00:18:53,560
was a disaster with much of the
audience walking out before the end.

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00:18:56,760 --> 00:19:01,800
Bruckner's eccentric, monumental
symphonies were eventually
accepted in Vienna, of course,

195
00:19:01,800 --> 00:19:08,920
but both Bruckner and Mahler didn't
really enter the international
repertoire until the 1960s and '70s.

196
00:19:08,920 --> 00:19:13,040
Their symphonies are long,
ground-breaking works -
full of ambition, but also anxiety.

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00:19:13,040 --> 00:19:16,400
Like the city in which
the composers lived.

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00:19:21,920 --> 00:19:28,240
This is Franz Joseph, depicted as
Caesar on the front of the
Parliament building in Vienna.

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00:19:28,240 --> 00:19:32,600
Franz Joseph ruled over 17 distinct
nationalities within
the Hapsburg Empire.

200
00:19:32,600 --> 00:19:38,120
But many of these weren't that
happy about being included in such
a vast conglomerate

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00:19:38,120 --> 00:19:40,080
and rose up in revolt in 1848.

202
00:19:40,080 --> 00:19:44,720
It was after this difficult time
that Franz Joseph, then only 18,

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00:19:44,720 --> 00:19:48,920
was placed on the throne and
began his long reign of 68 years.

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00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:53,800
But nationalist pressure wouldn't go
away - many demands went un-met

205
00:19:53,800 --> 00:19:58,800
and nationalist resentment
intensified, particularly
in Bohemia.

206
00:20:11,640 --> 00:20:14,280
"A year ago", wrote a Leipzig
newspaper in 1880,

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00:20:14,280 --> 00:20:17,560
"news flashed across
the German music world

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00:20:17,560 --> 00:20:20,200
"of a miraculous talent
residing in Prague."

209
00:20:21,280 --> 00:20:24,360
"What heightens the charm
of Dvorak's compositions

210
00:20:24,360 --> 00:20:27,400
"is the sharply etched nationality
that accompanies them."

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00:20:32,200 --> 00:20:35,000
In the symphonic world,
as in the political arena,

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00:20:35,000 --> 00:20:37,320
nationalism was becoming
a potent force.

213
00:20:41,360 --> 00:20:45,640
Dvorak's father was a butcher,
but he also ran the local inn.

214
00:20:45,640 --> 00:20:48,040
So the boy must have grown up
with the sounds

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00:20:48,040 --> 00:20:50,080
of celebratory singing and dancing.

216
00:20:50,080 --> 00:20:53,080
His Sixth Symphony was written
for the Vienna Philharmonic,

217
00:20:53,080 --> 00:20:57,760
but in fact it was premiered
here in Prague in 1881.

218
00:20:57,760 --> 00:21:01,920
The Vienna Philharmonic didn't
get around to playing it until 1942.

219
00:21:01,920 --> 00:21:05,480
Dvorak used Brahms'
symphonies as his model,

220
00:21:05,480 --> 00:21:09,120
but instead of the typical scherzo
or intermezzo movement, he wrote

221
00:21:09,120 --> 00:21:14,040
a furiant, a Bohemian folkdance that
became his distinctive calling card.

222
00:21:14,040 --> 00:21:16,880
FOLK MUSIC

223
00:21:21,480 --> 00:21:24,080
What gives the furiant its bounce
is the way it shifts

224
00:21:24,080 --> 00:21:26,600
between two-beat
and three-beat rhythms,

225
00:21:26,600 --> 00:21:29,240
which stems from
the nature of the dance.

226
00:21:38,000 --> 00:21:41,240
The man here
is performing his masculinity

227
00:21:41,240 --> 00:21:45,720
and he takes advantage
of this 2/4 measure

228
00:21:45,720 --> 00:21:48,360
to show how he is strong,

229
00:21:48,360 --> 00:21:50,920
how he is proud, how he is clever.

230
00:21:55,840 --> 00:22:00,320
And it's always during this
3/4 measure that it's the dancing

231
00:22:00,320 --> 00:22:04,480
in the couple and about
the dancing of the woman also.

232
00:22:10,080 --> 00:22:13,320
Dvorak understood very well
the nature of the dance,

233
00:22:13,320 --> 00:22:15,760
what was the spirit of the dance,

234
00:22:15,760 --> 00:22:18,600
so I think, in this way,
he was very accurate.

235
00:22:22,600 --> 00:22:25,960
I notice that the dance
was a bit slower.

236
00:22:25,960 --> 00:22:29,400
Dvorak speeded it up
quite a lot, didn't he?

237
00:22:29,400 --> 00:22:34,640
Yes, because it was virtuosity
that he wanted to show.

238
00:22:34,640 --> 00:22:37,680
But it was not written for a dance.

239
00:22:37,680 --> 00:22:42,840
So when you need to dance
the music has to be slower.

240
00:22:42,840 --> 00:22:47,080
Why did he include this dance
in this symphony?

241
00:22:47,080 --> 00:22:50,640
Because it had the meaning
of the national feeling,

242
00:22:50,640 --> 00:22:53,880
so I think this was important
for them to show

243
00:22:53,880 --> 00:22:58,200
the national identity in the music.

244
00:23:13,480 --> 00:23:16,920
What Dvorak is trying to do
is to take the symphony away

245
00:23:16,920 --> 00:23:21,600
from the elite audience
to a much wider audience.

246
00:23:21,600 --> 00:23:24,480
And, in this, he is
a very modern composer

247
00:23:24,480 --> 00:23:26,560
although he's not regarded
as that today.

248
00:23:38,240 --> 00:23:40,680
This is Vysoka,
60km south-west of Prague,

249
00:23:40,680 --> 00:23:44,080
where Dvorak had a summerhouse.

250
00:23:44,080 --> 00:23:46,680
He came here during the summer
months to compose,

251
00:23:46,680 --> 00:23:49,880
to escape the pressures
of a busy life in the city.

252
00:23:49,880 --> 00:23:51,840
The house remains
in the Dvorak family

253
00:23:51,840 --> 00:23:56,400
and has been left very much
as it was when Dvorak died in 1904.

254
00:23:58,960 --> 00:24:03,000
This is my grandmother,
Dvorak's wife.

255
00:24:03,000 --> 00:24:05,640
when she married.

256
00:24:05,640 --> 00:24:08,520
She was 18 years old in this time.

257
00:24:08,520 --> 00:24:10,760
She was three months pregnant.

258
00:24:10,760 --> 00:24:15,800
It was unusual in this time
but it was the reality.

259
00:24:17,400 --> 00:24:19,800
This desk,
is this where he wrote?

260
00:24:19,800 --> 00:24:25,720
Sitting at this little table,
Dvorak wrote many great opuses.

261
00:24:25,720 --> 00:24:27,400
It's tiny, it's very small. Yes.

262
00:24:28,920 --> 00:24:32,480
The Eighth Symphony
was written here in Vysoka.

263
00:24:41,440 --> 00:24:45,480
Very interesting is this picture
of Dvorak's family

264
00:24:45,480 --> 00:24:50,560
on the steps on the 17th
East Street in New York.

265
00:24:50,560 --> 00:24:54,000
Here is my grandfather
and here are two boys.

266
00:24:54,000 --> 00:24:57,640
One of these boys is my father.

267
00:24:57,640 --> 00:24:59,440
You didn't know your grandfather?

268
00:24:59,440 --> 00:25:04,160
I was born 25 years after his death.

269
00:25:05,400 --> 00:25:07,560
That's a wonderful picture.

270
00:25:10,680 --> 00:25:14,120
This picture
is Dvorak sitting on a bench

271
00:25:14,120 --> 00:25:16,120
and feeding his pigeons here.

272
00:25:16,120 --> 00:25:20,000
Is that here? Here. It's down there.

273
00:25:20,000 --> 00:25:22,840
Yes. Yes, this is here.

274
00:25:25,880 --> 00:25:29,560
This has various scores on it.

275
00:25:29,560 --> 00:25:32,600
Manuscripts and other, yes.

276
00:25:32,600 --> 00:25:36,080
Dvorak came to popularity
through his Slavonic Dances,

277
00:25:36,080 --> 00:25:39,160
following the success of Brahms
with his Hungarian Dances.

278
00:25:44,600 --> 00:25:48,240
Brahms, of course, was imitating
Hungarian Gypsies

279
00:25:48,240 --> 00:25:52,320
he'd heard in Vienna,
but Dvorak penned his furiants

280
00:25:52,320 --> 00:25:55,760
and other Slavic
dances with national pride.

281
00:25:58,600 --> 00:26:03,880
This room
was the dining room of the family.

282
00:26:03,880 --> 00:26:06,520
Very special is this picture.

283
00:26:06,520 --> 00:26:09,560
Dvorak and his two friends -

284
00:26:09,560 --> 00:26:13,760
Tchaikovsky and Johannes Brahms.

285
00:26:13,760 --> 00:26:19,320
Especially Johannes Brahms was a
very good friend of my grandfather

286
00:26:19,320 --> 00:26:23,600
and Brahms don't believe in God

287
00:26:23,600 --> 00:26:30,600
and Dvorak said once about him
"How it is possible that Brahms

288
00:26:30,600 --> 00:26:34,560
"composed such nice music
when he don't believe?!"

289
00:26:50,240 --> 00:26:52,640
Brahms admired Dvorak's music

290
00:26:52,640 --> 00:26:54,680
and did a great deal
to help the composer.

291
00:26:54,680 --> 00:26:58,520
But, in general, the attitude of
the Viennese musical establishment

292
00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:00,960
was condescending
if not downright dismissive.

293
00:27:00,960 --> 00:27:04,000
For the Austrians, nationalist
composers like Tchaikovsky

294
00:27:04,000 --> 00:27:06,840
and Dvorak were colourful,
but not serious.

295
00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:10,240
Once, when someone expressed
his admiration for Dvorak's skilful

296
00:27:10,240 --> 00:27:14,280
and brilliant orchestration,
Bruckner said, "You can paint a pair

297
00:27:14,280 --> 00:27:18,240
"of sausages blue and green, but
they're still a pair of sausages."

298
00:27:53,360 --> 00:27:56,800
In 1890 a young composer
came from much farther afield

299
00:27:56,800 --> 00:27:59,440
to continue his studies in Vienna.

300
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:01,360
Jean Sibelius came from Finland -

301
00:28:01,360 --> 00:28:04,120
way beyond the reach
of the Austro-Hungarian Empire,

302
00:28:04,120 --> 00:28:07,600
but Vienna was the place properly
to study the symphonic tradition.

303
00:28:07,600 --> 00:28:10,760
He was a huge fan of Wagner,
but also admired Beethoven's Ninth

304
00:28:10,760 --> 00:28:14,040
and Bruckner's Third and here,
in this symphonic hothouse,

305
00:28:14,040 --> 00:28:17,520
it was inevitable that he should
set about to write a symphony.

306
00:28:17,520 --> 00:28:20,360
And, as with Dvorak,
it took on national overtones.

307
00:28:20,360 --> 00:28:23,840
Sibelius looked for inspiration
to the Finnish national epic,

308
00:28:23,840 --> 00:28:25,240
the Kalevala.

309
00:28:41,520 --> 00:28:44,760
Elias Lonnrot,
who compiled the Kalevala,

310
00:28:44,760 --> 00:28:47,840
published his final version in 1849.

311
00:28:47,840 --> 00:28:50,880
He'd travelled extensively
into remote parts of Karelia -

312
00:28:50,880 --> 00:28:53,880
an area that covers
parts of eastern Finland and Russia

313
00:28:53,880 --> 00:28:57,120
- where he collected folk
songs and poetry from peasant bards

314
00:28:57,120 --> 00:29:01,920
and reworked these into a long
rambling tale of over 22,000 verses.

315
00:29:01,920 --> 00:29:04,800
With the figure
of the bard Vainamoinen,

316
00:29:04,800 --> 00:29:06,880
a sort of Finnish Orpheus,
at its heart,

317
00:29:06,880 --> 00:29:09,320
the Kalevala became
a major inspiration

318
00:29:09,320 --> 00:29:14,080
for artists, musicians and advocates
of a Finnish national identity.

319
00:29:19,080 --> 00:29:24,000
This is the autograph score
of Kullervo by Jean Sibelius.

320
00:29:24,000 --> 00:29:27,120
From the mass of different stories
and mythological characters

321
00:29:27,120 --> 00:29:30,680
in the Kalevala, Sibelius focused
on the tragic, anti-hero Kullervo

322
00:29:30,680 --> 00:29:32,680
in his choral symphony.

323
00:29:32,680 --> 00:29:39,040
Here you can see the programme
text, the Kalevala, in the score.

324
00:29:39,040 --> 00:29:40,640
Here we go.

325
00:29:40,640 --> 00:29:43,440
Here we go, here is the first.

326
00:29:43,440 --> 00:29:44,880
It's always so exciting.

327
00:29:44,880 --> 00:29:46,120
Music page.

328
00:29:46,120 --> 00:29:49,560
Now, why was the Kalevala
so important

329
00:29:49,560 --> 00:29:54,040
to Finnish national aspirations?

330
00:29:54,040 --> 00:29:57,680
First of all because
it was in Finnish

331
00:29:57,680 --> 00:30:00,480
and it was Finnish folk poetry.

332
00:30:00,480 --> 00:30:04,280
It has been said that
Kalevala showed to us Finns

333
00:30:04,280 --> 00:30:07,640
that Finland had its own history

334
00:30:07,640 --> 00:30:14,120
already before the Christian era,
or the Swedish or the Russian era.

335
00:30:20,440 --> 00:30:24,920
After six centuries of Swedish
domination, the Grand Duchy

336
00:30:24,920 --> 00:30:28,920
of Finland became part of the
Russian Empire in 1809 and Helsinki

337
00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:32,720
became something of a showcase for
the Russian emperor Alexander I.

338
00:30:32,720 --> 00:30:35,040
The central Senate Square
of the city

339
00:30:35,040 --> 00:30:37,680
is very much in
the St Petersburg style.

340
00:30:37,680 --> 00:30:42,440
This statue of Alexander II
was built in 1894.

341
00:30:42,440 --> 00:30:45,800
He was remembered as
"the good tsar", a reformer.

342
00:30:45,800 --> 00:30:48,560
Unlike most nationalities
within the Russian Empire,

343
00:30:48,560 --> 00:30:51,960
the Finns enjoyed a degree of
autonomy, but during the 1890s,

344
00:30:51,960 --> 00:30:55,360
the Russians began to limit
this and this inevitably fuelled

345
00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:57,800
the Finnish nationalist movement.

346
00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:01,040
With Kullervo written in 1892
and, of course, Finlandia,

347
00:31:01,040 --> 00:31:05,400
his patriotic piece par excellence,
which was composed in 1899,

348
00:31:05,400 --> 00:31:09,600
Sibelius found himself
a national, even nationalist figure.

349
00:31:12,280 --> 00:31:16,080
This painting, called Symposium,
depicts a gathering of artists

350
00:31:16,080 --> 00:31:17,920
and musicians of the time.

351
00:31:17,920 --> 00:31:20,520
It shows Sibelius on the right,
Robert Kajanus,

352
00:31:20,520 --> 00:31:23,760
who conducted the premiere of
the Kullervo Symphony, next to him.

353
00:31:23,760 --> 00:31:26,520
The figure worse for wear
is a music critic,

354
00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:28,880
oblivious to everything
and the fourth character

355
00:31:28,880 --> 00:31:31,800
is the artist himself,
Akseli Gallen-Kallela,

356
00:31:31,800 --> 00:31:34,760
a good friend of Sibelius.

357
00:31:34,760 --> 00:31:37,200
He is famous
for his Kalevala paintings

358
00:31:37,200 --> 00:31:39,840
and I went to the Ateneum Gallery
to find out more.

359
00:31:43,640 --> 00:31:48,400
There are statistics about
the popularity of Kalevala stories

360
00:31:48,400 --> 00:31:54,160
in Finnish art, visual art
and culture in general

361
00:31:54,160 --> 00:31:59,200
and through all times, Kullervo,
his very tragic story,

362
00:31:59,200 --> 00:32:03,640
has been the most popular story
and motif from Kalevala.

363
00:32:03,640 --> 00:32:08,480
And thinking about the times
when Kullervo has been most popular

364
00:32:08,480 --> 00:32:13,360
was exactly the time of young
Sibelius, young Gallen-Kallela,

365
00:32:13,360 --> 00:32:16,400
the turn of the 19th century, 1890s.

366
00:32:16,400 --> 00:32:20,240
So there is a strong link
to the times

367
00:32:20,240 --> 00:32:24,120
when Finnish national identity
was being threatened.

368
00:32:35,280 --> 00:32:39,400
Sibelius' Kullervo Symphony
tells the tragic story

369
00:32:39,400 --> 00:32:42,000
of Kullervo seducing
a woman he meets,

370
00:32:42,000 --> 00:32:43,840
who he finds out later
is his sister.

371
00:32:43,840 --> 00:32:46,880
But Sibelius' depiction of this,
with its aggressive brass,

372
00:32:46,880 --> 00:32:48,720
is remarkable in 19th century music

373
00:32:48,720 --> 00:32:51,440
and makes it sound
more like rape than seduction.

374
00:32:56,360 --> 00:32:59,480
Here we arrive at the climax
of the third movement,

375
00:32:59,480 --> 00:33:03,960
the very powerful culmination
of the movement.

376
00:33:03,960 --> 00:33:07,800
Ah, yes, all the brass here playing
very, very loudly indeed. Yes.

377
00:33:27,560 --> 00:33:30,160
Sibelius arrived
just at the right time

378
00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:34,440
as the Finns were really dying
to get out from underneath

379
00:33:34,440 --> 00:33:38,440
the yoke of being dominated
and run by Russia.

380
00:33:38,440 --> 00:33:44,800
And there was this extraordinary
rough, wild, undisciplined,

381
00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:47,120
unreliable individual.

382
00:33:47,120 --> 00:33:53,120
And he found, through his long
life, a way to express

383
00:33:53,120 --> 00:33:58,360
the feeling in his people
and in his love for his country.

384
00:33:58,360 --> 00:34:02,440
But he never wanted to be
thought of as a nationalist composer,

385
00:34:02,440 --> 00:34:05,400
he never wanted to have
a political message.

386
00:34:05,400 --> 00:34:08,760
His music came from
his own rigour inside himself

387
00:34:08,760 --> 00:34:11,760
that he eventually
worked at and found,

388
00:34:11,760 --> 00:34:15,640
and through his own natural
gifts of drama in music.

389
00:35:04,400 --> 00:35:08,360
Sibelius wanted his music
to express a nationalism,

390
00:35:08,360 --> 00:35:11,480
but also be internationally

391
00:35:11,480 --> 00:35:13,840
well-known as well.

392
00:35:13,840 --> 00:35:16,840
And he was so popular in England
and America

393
00:35:16,840 --> 00:35:21,720
because, unlike Germany, these two
countries also did not have

394
00:35:21,720 --> 00:35:25,840
a great institutional musical
culture behind them.

395
00:35:25,840 --> 00:35:28,960
When you think about Germany,
an opera house in every city,

396
00:35:28,960 --> 00:35:31,880
a symphony orchestra and so forth,
it's not the case in England

397
00:35:31,880 --> 00:35:34,160
and it's certainly not
the case in America.

398
00:35:34,160 --> 00:35:36,760
So you have someone with
Beethovenian ambitions

399
00:35:36,760 --> 00:35:40,400
trying to establish something
meaningful in the symphony

400
00:35:40,400 --> 00:35:43,400
that is an alternative
to the German tradition.

401
00:35:43,400 --> 00:35:45,200
MUSIC: Sibelius' Symphony No. 2

402
00:36:35,080 --> 00:36:38,240
In 1907, Gustav Mahler
came to Helsinki

403
00:36:38,240 --> 00:36:39,880
to conduct a concert

404
00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:42,040
and he met the painter
Gallen-Kallela,

405
00:36:42,040 --> 00:36:44,520
whom he knew from an exhibition
in Vienna,

406
00:36:44,520 --> 00:36:46,800
and he met Sibelius.

407
00:36:46,800 --> 00:36:51,040
Taking a walk one day, the two
composers discussed symphonic form.

408
00:36:51,040 --> 00:36:54,880
Sibelius said that he admired
the severity and logic of the form

409
00:36:54,880 --> 00:36:58,120
that created inner connections
between the motifs.

410
00:36:58,120 --> 00:37:01,200
Mahler replied that his opinion
was very different.

411
00:37:01,200 --> 00:37:04,800
"A symphony should be
like the world," he said.

412
00:37:04,800 --> 00:37:07,520
"It should embrace everything."

413
00:37:07,520 --> 00:37:10,520
MUSIC: Mahler's Symphony No.2,
1st Movement

414
00:37:41,200 --> 00:37:44,480
This is the Secession building
in Vienna,

415
00:37:44,480 --> 00:37:47,280
one of the finest examples
of an artistic movement

416
00:37:47,280 --> 00:37:49,520
known as jugendstil,
the Young Style.

417
00:37:49,520 --> 00:37:54,280
And here is Gustav Mahler as
a heroic knight in shining armour,

418
00:37:54,280 --> 00:37:57,160
painted by his friend
Gustav Klimt.

419
00:37:57,160 --> 00:38:00,480
This frieze, which pictures
Beethoven's 9th Symphony

420
00:38:00,480 --> 00:38:03,160
as seen through Wagner's eyes,
was painted

421
00:38:03,160 --> 00:38:05,800
for a great Beethoven exhibition
in 1902

422
00:38:05,800 --> 00:38:09,240
at which Mahler conducted
an arrangement of the 9th Symphony.

423
00:38:09,240 --> 00:38:12,680
Mahler's 3rd symphony picks up
on the idea

424
00:38:12,680 --> 00:38:16,200
of Beethoven's Ode to Joy. But as
well as harking back to that,

425
00:38:16,200 --> 00:38:19,160
it looks out with ferocious energy
onto a new world.

426
00:38:28,920 --> 00:38:32,000
Klimt's vision, like Mahler's,
is a very personal one.

427
00:38:32,000 --> 00:38:35,240
The first wall represents
heroic ambition.

428
00:38:35,240 --> 00:38:37,400
Featuring Mahler, of course.

429
00:38:37,400 --> 00:38:42,080
The second wall represents
the obstacles that mankind

430
00:38:42,080 --> 00:38:44,960
has to overcome,
including animal instincts.

431
00:38:44,960 --> 00:38:48,520
And the final section, taking its
cue from Schiller's lyrics

432
00:38:48,520 --> 00:38:49,640
in the Ode to Joy,

433
00:38:49,640 --> 00:38:51,440
shows the kiss to the whole world

434
00:38:51,440 --> 00:38:53,640
that comes at the end
of Beethoven's 9th.

435
00:39:08,480 --> 00:39:12,080
Mahler's 3rd is a symphony that
pushed the form to its limits.

436
00:39:12,080 --> 00:39:15,000
It has six movements and at nearly
100 minutes in length,

437
00:39:15,000 --> 00:39:17,880
it's one of the longest symphonies
in the repertoire.

438
00:39:17,880 --> 00:39:21,560
The first movement represents
the unstoppable forces of nature.

439
00:39:21,560 --> 00:39:25,400
Summer is the victor amidst
all that is blooming and growing.

440
00:39:25,400 --> 00:39:29,320
It's about the whole of creation.
Mahler moves on to flowers, animals,

441
00:39:29,320 --> 00:39:30,840
mankind and the angels.

442
00:39:30,840 --> 00:39:33,600
But, of course, it's
really about Mahler himself.

443
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:36,120
This, after all,
is the Vienna of Freud

444
00:39:36,120 --> 00:39:39,160
and the symphony has become
a vehicle for self expression

445
00:39:39,160 --> 00:39:42,280
and a picture of the artist's
vision of the world around him.

446
00:39:42,280 --> 00:39:45,320
Music: Mahler's Symphony No.3,
1st Movement

447
00:40:01,800 --> 00:40:04,040
Mahler was fascinated
at the opportunity

448
00:40:04,040 --> 00:40:06,800
of stretching the orchestra,

449
00:40:06,800 --> 00:40:10,720
making it do things that no one else
had dared go to.

450
00:40:10,720 --> 00:40:14,800
And his interest in these very, very
extreme sound worlds

451
00:40:14,800 --> 00:40:19,080
came from everything that he was,
a very complex personality.

452
00:40:19,080 --> 00:40:22,800
A man who gave up his Jewish faith
to become a Christian,

453
00:40:22,800 --> 00:40:26,160
to help himself do better in Vienna
and run the opera.

454
00:40:26,160 --> 00:40:29,720
A man who was brought up in a tiny
village, way out in the countryside

455
00:40:29,720 --> 00:40:32,040
that had a very substantial
barracks in it.

456
00:40:32,040 --> 00:40:35,880
And so his childhood was full of
military marching music

457
00:40:35,880 --> 00:40:38,400
and strange, out of tune fanfares.

458
00:40:38,400 --> 00:40:41,360
Now this is pretty rare,
isn't it, everybody?

459
00:40:41,360 --> 00:40:43,400
This little word - roh!

460
00:40:43,400 --> 00:40:46,720
It does not stand for
Royal Opera House.

461
00:40:46,720 --> 00:40:49,760
It stands for the word
which means unrefined.

462
00:40:49,760 --> 00:40:51,520
Raw, yeah?

463
00:40:51,520 --> 00:40:52,800
Strident.

464
00:40:52,800 --> 00:40:54,960
It's not so much that it
needs to be very loud,

465
00:40:54,960 --> 00:40:58,640
it just needs to have a particular
bite or edge to it, doesn't it?

466
00:40:58,640 --> 00:41:00,680
Tuk! Tuk! Tuk! Yeah?

467
00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:03,960
Not wholly musical. Can I hear it?
Two, three, four...

468
00:41:03,960 --> 00:41:05,960
ORCHESTRA PLAYS

469
00:41:08,920 --> 00:41:10,600
ORCHESTRA STOPS PLAYING

470
00:41:10,600 --> 00:41:12,800
OK, good. That's better.

471
00:41:12,800 --> 00:41:16,320
If the horns are a bit softer
and a little bit edgier,

472
00:41:16,320 --> 00:41:19,080
I think it would be better.
And also earlier.

473
00:41:19,080 --> 00:41:21,200
It's late. Two, three, four...

474
00:41:21,200 --> 00:41:23,120
ORCHESTRA PLAYS

475
00:41:28,080 --> 00:41:31,360
Let me just address what the oboes
are going to do.

476
00:41:31,360 --> 00:41:33,560
Could I just hear it, the three Fs?

477
00:41:33,560 --> 00:41:35,760
OBOES PLAY

478
00:41:35,760 --> 00:41:37,160
Yeah, yeah.

479
00:41:37,160 --> 00:41:41,680
It says "grell."
Well, that just means shrill.

480
00:41:41,680 --> 00:41:44,960
This sounds like loud oboe playing.
Sounds great, sounds quality.

481
00:41:44,960 --> 00:41:47,800
It shouldn't sound quality,
it should sound strident

482
00:41:47,800 --> 00:41:50,440
and exaggerated. It's been suggested
that the best way

483
00:41:50,440 --> 00:41:53,480
to do it is to actually
put the reed further in the mouth.

484
00:41:53,480 --> 00:41:56,320
Just put it all further in.
Would you try that?

485
00:41:56,320 --> 00:41:59,320
Don't worry if it sounds distorted,
that's what he wants.

486
00:41:59,320 --> 00:42:00,920
One, two, three...

487
00:42:00,920 --> 00:42:02,920
OBOES PLAY SHRILLY

488
00:42:04,840 --> 00:42:07,080
That's it, that's better.

489
00:42:07,080 --> 00:42:08,920
LAUGHTER

490
00:42:08,920 --> 00:42:10,760
One, two, three...

491
00:42:10,760 --> 00:42:12,880
ORCHESTRA PLAYS

492
00:42:30,880 --> 00:42:33,960
'What he was trying to do
was experiment'

493
00:42:33,960 --> 00:42:36,120
with how far the orchestra
could be taken

494
00:42:36,120 --> 00:42:39,840
and in this way, of course, he was
a great successor to Berlioz

495
00:42:39,840 --> 00:42:42,120
who wanted to do the same thing
in his time.

496
00:42:42,120 --> 00:42:44,880
And in a way, that makes Mahler
the first

497
00:42:44,880 --> 00:42:47,400
of the great 20th century composers.

498
00:43:29,960 --> 00:43:32,200
Mahler composed during his holidays.

499
00:43:32,200 --> 00:43:34,080
His day job was here,

500
00:43:34,080 --> 00:43:38,080
as conductor and director
of the Court Opera.

501
00:43:38,080 --> 00:43:41,480
Born in Bohemia and raised as a
Jew, Mahler was always the outsider.

502
00:43:41,480 --> 00:43:44,360
Being a Jew, he said, was like
being born with a short arm

503
00:43:44,360 --> 00:43:46,400
and having to swim twice as hard.

504
00:43:46,400 --> 00:43:48,480
Indeed, despite his obvious talents,

505
00:43:48,480 --> 00:43:51,480
he came up against anti-Semitism.

506
00:43:51,480 --> 00:43:52,960
But salvation was at hand.

507
00:43:52,960 --> 00:43:56,680
Symphonic culture had become all
the rage a thousand miles away

508
00:43:56,680 --> 00:44:00,000
and Mahler, along with nationalist
composers Dvorak, Tchaikovsky

509
00:44:00,000 --> 00:44:05,120
and Sibelius, was imported to plant
the seed of a new musical culture.

510
00:44:05,120 --> 00:44:07,840
MUSIC: Dvorak's Symphony No.9,
'New World'

511
00:44:20,200 --> 00:44:23,120
America, and particularly New York,
provided a new

512
00:44:23,120 --> 00:44:26,440
and highly lucrative
market for European musical culture.

513
00:44:26,440 --> 00:44:28,440
Tchaikovsky was invited to attend

514
00:44:28,440 --> 00:44:30,840
the opening of the Carnegie Hall
in 1891,

515
00:44:30,840 --> 00:44:33,640
Mahler came to conduct the New York
Symphony Orchestra

516
00:44:33,640 --> 00:44:38,000
and The Metropolitan Opera,
and Dvorak was asked to head
The National Conservatory

517
00:44:38,000 --> 00:44:41,680
where his annual salary of $15,000
was nearly 30 times more

518
00:44:41,680 --> 00:44:44,840
than he was earning at
the conservatoire in Prague.

519
00:44:44,840 --> 00:44:47,880
Most significantly however,

520
00:44:47,880 --> 00:44:51,000
it was here in New York that Dvorak
composed his symphony No 9,

521
00:44:51,000 --> 00:44:55,360
from the New World which was
premiered in 1893.

522
00:45:41,920 --> 00:45:46,400
Clive, on Dec 16, 1893,

523
00:45:46,400 --> 00:45:49,520
the New World Symphony was premiered
here at Carnegie Hall.

524
00:45:49,520 --> 00:45:52,960
First of all, can you tell me
something about Mr Carnegie?

525
00:45:52,960 --> 00:45:56,040
He was possibly the most successful
industrialist of his age.

526
00:45:56,040 --> 00:45:59,000
At one time, he was reckoned to be
the richest man in the world.

527
00:45:59,000 --> 00:46:02,520
He was a steelmaker, but also
an unbelievable philanthropist

528
00:46:02,520 --> 00:46:04,760
and, of course,
he created Carnegie Hall.

529
00:46:04,760 --> 00:46:07,800
But that came about because his wife
sang in a chorus

530
00:46:07,800 --> 00:46:10,200
and there was no concert hall.
So, as you do,

531
00:46:10,200 --> 00:46:12,480
she asked him
to build a concert hall for her.

532
00:46:12,480 --> 00:46:16,120
Instead of going to the greatest
architect of the day,

533
00:46:16,120 --> 00:46:19,040
he went to the guy who was
treasurer of the choral society.

534
00:46:19,040 --> 00:46:22,000
He was a cellist, he was a musician,
he wasn't well known.

535
00:46:22,000 --> 00:46:24,880
He asked him to build a concert
hall. He'd never built one

536
00:46:24,880 --> 00:46:28,520
in his life before. He sent him
to Europe to look at
all the concert halls

537
00:46:28,520 --> 00:46:31,640
and he came back and built something
unlike anything he'd seen.

538
00:46:31,640 --> 00:46:34,600
Now the concert itself,
it was conducted by Anton Seidl

539
00:46:34,600 --> 00:46:37,040
who was a big international figure.
Absolutely.

540
00:46:37,040 --> 00:46:39,120
He was assistant to Hans Richter,

541
00:46:39,120 --> 00:46:42,120
assisted with conducting
the Ring Cycle in Bayreuth.

542
00:46:42,120 --> 00:46:45,640
He came here, in fact he was a great
Wagnerian, so he conducted

543
00:46:45,640 --> 00:46:49,120
a lot of Wagner here as well.
So he made a huge impact here.

544
00:46:49,120 --> 00:46:51,560
He was the most important
musician in New York.

545
00:46:51,560 --> 00:46:54,520
Despite being built by a novice,

546
00:46:54,520 --> 00:46:57,680
Carnegie Hall was praised
for its acoustics and it soon became

547
00:46:57,680 --> 00:47:01,000
the landmark in American cultural
life that it remains today.

548
00:47:02,680 --> 00:47:03,960
All across America,

549
00:47:03,960 --> 00:47:07,120
in Boston and Chicago, for instance,
symphony halls were built

550
00:47:07,120 --> 00:47:09,560
and a new entrepreneurial
and middle class

551
00:47:09,560 --> 00:47:12,400
went to the symphony
to hear symphonies.

552
00:47:12,400 --> 00:47:14,280
And Dvorak was there to help them

553
00:47:14,280 --> 00:47:17,200
Americanise a European
musical culture.

554
00:47:38,600 --> 00:47:40,080
Dvorak was important

555
00:47:40,080 --> 00:47:44,520
because, as a Czech,
he had created Czech culture,

556
00:47:44,520 --> 00:47:49,800
by, in a sense, taking international
culture, which was really German,

557
00:47:49,800 --> 00:47:53,040
taking out the Germanisms
and putting in Czechisms.

558
00:47:53,040 --> 00:47:57,720
It was hoped that he would come
to the United States, take out
the Czechisms, put in Americanisms

559
00:47:57,720 --> 00:48:00,720
and be a kind of object lesson
for American composers

560
00:48:00,720 --> 00:48:04,160
about how one makes national
music that belongs to them,

561
00:48:04,160 --> 00:48:06,880
rather than to
some other distant culture.

562
00:48:08,480 --> 00:48:11,880
Dvorak stayed in America
for two and a half years.

563
00:48:11,880 --> 00:48:14,440
He was taken to
Buffalo Bill's Wild West Show,

564
00:48:14,440 --> 00:48:17,000
which also included
Native American musicians.

565
00:48:18,120 --> 00:48:20,400
And amongst his pupils
at the conservatory

566
00:48:20,400 --> 00:48:24,160
were several African Americans,
notably the singer Henry T Burleigh

567
00:48:24,160 --> 00:48:28,120
and composer Will Marion Cook,
who went on to teach Duke Ellington.

568
00:48:29,560 --> 00:48:33,200
"In the negro melodies
of America," Dvorak said,

569
00:48:33,200 --> 00:48:37,280
"I discover all that is needed for
a great and noble school of music."

570
00:48:38,920 --> 00:48:40,320
When he arrived in America,

571
00:48:40,320 --> 00:48:42,800
Dvorak was given articles
and musical material

572
00:48:42,800 --> 00:48:45,360
that he might use
in his compositions.

573
00:48:47,280 --> 00:48:51,320
One of the most famous was
a journal called Negro Music,

574
00:48:51,320 --> 00:48:54,680
with an article by somebody
with the improbable name

575
00:48:54,680 --> 00:49:00,280
of Johann Tonsor, that had
six examples of black music.

576
00:49:00,280 --> 00:49:04,520
And it seems that Dvorak
certainly drew on these

577
00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:07,560
for the composition
of the New World Symphony.

578
00:49:07,560 --> 00:49:11,600
Here's one fragment of
Swing Low Sweet Chariot...

579
00:49:11,600 --> 00:49:14,200
PLAYS MAIN MELODY

580
00:49:16,920 --> 00:49:19,760
..which is very much like
the New World Symphony.

581
00:49:19,760 --> 00:49:21,720
PLAYS SIMILAR SEQUENCE

582
00:49:23,720 --> 00:49:27,080
And do we know anything about
the author, this Johann Tonsor?

583
00:49:27,080 --> 00:49:29,280
Johann Tonsor doesn't exist.

584
00:49:29,280 --> 00:49:34,560
Johann Tonsor was a name
made up by a wonderful woman,

585
00:49:34,560 --> 00:49:38,200
who was an ethnographer
of Afro-American music from Kentucky

586
00:49:38,200 --> 00:49:40,880
named Mildred Hill, who was,
I think, the only person

587
00:49:40,880 --> 00:49:44,720
Dvorak came into contact with whose
music was more famous than Dvorak's

588
00:49:44,720 --> 00:49:47,960
because she wrote Happy Birthday.
Ah-ha!

589
00:50:11,640 --> 00:50:13,400
The other American culture

590
00:50:13,400 --> 00:50:17,000
that attracted Dvorak's interest
was that of the Native Americans.

591
00:50:17,000 --> 00:50:18,760
He didn't hear much of their music,

592
00:50:18,760 --> 00:50:21,480
but was captivated
by the Hiawatha story.

593
00:50:26,440 --> 00:50:32,280
Dvorak became deeply involved with
Longfellow's Song of Hiawatha.

594
00:50:32,280 --> 00:50:34,800
He'd known it as a young man -

595
00:50:34,800 --> 00:50:37,920
the Czech translator
was a friend of his.

596
00:50:37,920 --> 00:50:41,400
Dvorak told the critic Henry Krehbiel

597
00:50:41,400 --> 00:50:46,280
that the Largo was based on a chapter
called Hiawatha's Wooing,

598
00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:51,040
and I believe it represents
Hiawatha and Minnehaha's journey

599
00:50:51,040 --> 00:50:53,800
through primeval American spaces.

600
00:50:54,920 --> 00:50:56,640
It was originally faster,

601
00:50:56,640 --> 00:51:02,720
but under the influence of the
Wagnerian conductor Anton Seidl,

602
00:51:02,720 --> 00:51:07,600
it turned from probably
an andante to a larghetto.

603
00:51:07,600 --> 00:51:09,800
Then we see it crossed out
on the manuscript.

604
00:51:09,800 --> 00:51:11,880
Larghetto crossed out,

605
00:51:11,880 --> 00:51:16,720
largo finally appearing
there as the speed,

606
00:51:16,720 --> 00:51:20,640
with some equation
between the slowness

607
00:51:20,640 --> 00:51:23,600
and the deep expressivity
of the passage.

608
00:51:40,760 --> 00:51:43,360
We've arrived up here,
in fact where Dvorak sat.

609
00:51:43,360 --> 00:51:45,200
In Box 10. Absolutely.

610
00:51:45,200 --> 00:51:48,520
So how was it received?
It was received incredibly.

611
00:51:48,520 --> 00:51:49,840
Everybody loved the music.

612
00:51:49,840 --> 00:51:53,320
I think what was important was
it related to them as well.

613
00:51:53,320 --> 00:51:55,040
There were American themes.

614
00:51:55,040 --> 00:51:59,200
It was a piece for America,
and of America, in America.

615
00:51:59,200 --> 00:52:02,440
MUSIC: "Symphony No 9 New World"
by Dvorak

616
00:53:01,320 --> 00:53:03,880
APPLAUSE

617
00:53:03,880 --> 00:53:06,440
Writing about the premier,
James Gibbons Huneker,

618
00:53:06,440 --> 00:53:09,640
the journalist who'd given Dvorak
the article with Negro Tunes,

619
00:53:09,640 --> 00:53:11,720
acknowledged the new hybrid soil

620
00:53:11,720 --> 00:53:14,560
in which this musical culture
was taking root.

621
00:53:14,560 --> 00:53:17,600
"Dvorak's symphony is American,
is it?

622
00:53:17,600 --> 00:53:20,640
"Themes from negro melodies
composed by a Bohemian,

623
00:53:20,640 --> 00:53:22,120
"conducted by a Hungarian

624
00:53:22,120 --> 00:53:26,160
"and played by Germans
in a hall built by a Scotchman.

625
00:53:27,160 --> 00:53:29,160
"It will probably be many years

626
00:53:29,160 --> 00:53:33,640
"before a concert will be talked
and written about as was this one."

627
00:53:37,520 --> 00:53:41,960
The New York Conservatory folded
during the depression in the 1930s.

628
00:53:41,960 --> 00:53:45,000
The house where Dvorak lived
and composed the New World Symphony

629
00:53:45,000 --> 00:53:47,040
was demolished in 1991.

630
00:53:47,040 --> 00:53:49,640
But his influence
on American music was lasting.

631
00:53:49,640 --> 00:53:53,160
His famous largo sounds so much
like a negro spiritual

632
00:53:53,160 --> 00:53:57,480
that it was given words by one of
his pupils, William Arms Fisher,

633
00:53:57,480 --> 00:54:01,080
and famously recorded by African
American singer Paul Robeson.

634
00:54:01,080 --> 00:54:04,720
# ..I'm just going home... #

635
00:54:04,720 --> 00:54:07,440
It's become a piece of
American popular music.

636
00:54:07,440 --> 00:54:18,360
# ..I'm just going home. #

637
00:54:18,360 --> 00:54:21,600
MUSIC: Symphony No 6, 3rd Movement
by Tchaikovsky

638
00:54:33,160 --> 00:54:35,480
At this time,
having a symphonic tradition

639
00:54:35,480 --> 00:54:37,880
proved you were a proper nation.

640
00:54:37,880 --> 00:54:41,080
That's why America wanted
Dvorak to create one.

641
00:54:41,080 --> 00:54:44,320
Just as the powerful Russian Empire
had done a generation earlier

642
00:54:44,320 --> 00:54:46,720
using elements of their folk music.

643
00:54:49,400 --> 00:54:52,040
Here in St Petersburg,
most successful at combining

644
00:54:52,040 --> 00:54:55,720
the national soul with Germanic
tradition was Tchaikovsky -

645
00:54:55,720 --> 00:54:59,240
writing symphonic music
that was passionate and emotional.

646
00:55:12,200 --> 00:55:16,440
In October 1893, Tchaikovsky's
latest symphony, his 6th,

647
00:55:16,440 --> 00:55:19,680
had its premiere here
at the Philharmonic Hall,

648
00:55:19,680 --> 00:55:22,520
conducted by the composer himself.

649
00:55:22,520 --> 00:55:24,720
Partly because of
its immense popularity,

650
00:55:24,720 --> 00:55:27,440
Tchaikovsky's music
is often dismissed.

651
00:55:27,440 --> 00:55:30,040
But this symphony,
known as the Pathetique,

652
00:55:30,040 --> 00:55:33,480
is one of the most original
and deeply personal ever written.

653
00:55:43,360 --> 00:55:46,080
Tchaikovsky may have been
using a public form,

654
00:55:46,080 --> 00:55:49,160
but it's a work
that's full of private emotion.

655
00:56:55,360 --> 00:56:59,000
What Tchaikovsky did in the
Pathetique that was so unusual

656
00:56:59,000 --> 00:57:03,640
was to replace an uplifting finale
with a searing slow movement,

657
00:57:03,640 --> 00:57:06,040
descending into despair.

658
00:57:12,320 --> 00:57:15,880
The last movement seems to be
an epitaph or a farewell.

659
00:57:15,880 --> 00:57:19,200
Full of the most glorious
melodic material

660
00:57:19,200 --> 00:57:21,960
that rises to a desperate climax,

661
00:57:21,960 --> 00:57:26,640
as if he was ridding himself
of some deep, deep hidden pain,

662
00:57:26,640 --> 00:57:30,680
before allowing itself to come to
rest in the final bars, so movingly.

663
00:57:37,000 --> 00:57:40,200
No symphony before
had ever ended like this.

664
00:57:40,200 --> 00:57:42,920
And, of course, it has
since acquired an even greater power

665
00:57:42,920 --> 00:57:47,560
because Tchaikovsky died
just nine days after the premiere.

666
00:57:47,560 --> 00:57:51,400
There was something very personal
that Tchaikovsky wanted to say
in this piece,

667
00:57:51,400 --> 00:57:55,680
but, in retrospect, it also seems
like a requiem for the old Europe,

668
00:57:55,680 --> 00:57:58,080
which couldn't last much longer,

669
00:57:58,080 --> 00:58:00,760
with big destructive changes
to come -

670
00:58:00,760 --> 00:58:03,800
which is what
we'll be looking at next time.

671
00:58:17,200 --> 00:58:20,520
To go deeper into the music and
unravel the secrets of the symphony,

672
00:58:20,520 --> 00:58:26,520
follow the links to
the Open University at...

673
00:58:48,680 --> 00:58:50,720
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

674
00:58:50,720 --> 00:58:52,880
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk