1
00:00:09,480 --> 00:00:12,080
Vienna, 1912.

2
00:00:12,080 --> 00:00:15,200
The certainties of Empire were
falling away

3
00:00:15,200 --> 00:00:17,920
and cataclysmic wars were looming.

4
00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:21,200
Through the course
of the 20th century

5
00:00:21,200 --> 00:00:24,240
the world would change
faster than ever before.

6
00:00:24,240 --> 00:00:29,040
MUSIC: "Symphony No.9"
by Gustav Mahler

7
00:00:29,040 --> 00:00:32,960
And composers responded
to those changes, too.

8
00:00:32,960 --> 00:00:35,080
The symphony
now connected continents,

9
00:00:35,080 --> 00:00:37,240
reached vast new audiences

10
00:00:37,240 --> 00:00:39,880
and inevitably ended up
in the front line.

11
00:00:39,880 --> 00:00:45,840
MUSIC: "Symphony No.9"
by Gustav Mahler

12
00:00:53,760 --> 00:00:57,440
Mahler's 9th Symphony, his last,
was given its first performance

13
00:00:57,440 --> 00:01:01,840
here in Vienna in 1912,
a year after the composer's death.

14
00:01:01,840 --> 00:01:04,360
In part,
a radical new musical vision,

15
00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:07,000
in part,
a nostalgic yearning for the past.

16
00:01:07,000 --> 00:01:10,720
the last bars of the piece fade away
gently into silence.

17
00:01:10,720 --> 00:01:14,080
The time for the triumphant
apotheosis at the end of symphony,

18
00:01:14,080 --> 00:01:16,680
as in Beethoven's 9th, was over.

19
00:01:16,680 --> 00:01:18,880
But for how long?

20
00:01:18,880 --> 00:01:23,480
BELL TOLLS

21
00:01:31,360 --> 00:01:37,680
MUSIC: "Symphony No.1"
by Dmitri Shostakovich

22
00:01:37,680 --> 00:01:41,080
In the first decades
of the 20th century,

23
00:01:41,080 --> 00:01:43,120
Russia was in turmoil.

24
00:01:44,800 --> 00:01:48,080
Here in St Petersburg,
then called Petrograd,

25
00:01:48,080 --> 00:01:50,480
revolutionaries deposed the Tsar

26
00:01:50,480 --> 00:01:52,280
with the hope of creating
a new world.

27
00:01:57,680 --> 00:02:00,040
The composer Dmitri Shostakovich

28
00:02:00,040 --> 00:02:03,080
claimed that as a boy he was here
at the Finland railway station

29
00:02:03,080 --> 00:02:08,080
when Lenin returned to Russia
in 1917 to lead the revolution.

30
00:02:08,080 --> 00:02:14,800
MUSIC: "Symphony No.1"
by Dmitri Shostakovich

31
00:02:14,800 --> 00:02:18,720
Shostakovich remembered walking
on Nevsky Prospekt

32
00:02:18,720 --> 00:02:21,760
in a funeral procession
for victims of the revolution

33
00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:23,960
and he composed
a funeral march for them.

34
00:02:26,280 --> 00:02:27,920
He was a musical prodigy,

35
00:02:27,920 --> 00:02:31,960
enrolling at the music conservatoire
aged only 13 in 1919.

36
00:02:31,960 --> 00:02:35,160
His 1st Symphony
was his graduation piece

37
00:02:35,160 --> 00:02:38,200
and the first significant
music of the Soviet regime.

38
00:02:40,400 --> 00:02:46,120
MUSIC: "Symphony No.1"
by Dmitri Shostakovich

39
00:02:49,840 --> 00:02:53,160
At Shostakovich's old apartment
in St Petersburg

40
00:02:53,160 --> 00:02:56,440
I met Olga Digonskaya, who looks
after the archive of his music.

41
00:03:01,680 --> 00:03:05,400
IN DIALECT

42
00:03:34,880 --> 00:03:40,800
MUSIC: "Symphony No.1"
by Dmitri Shostakovich

43
00:03:47,840 --> 00:03:51,080
When Shostakovich was 16
his father died,

44
00:03:51,080 --> 00:03:53,560
and to earn money for the family

45
00:03:53,560 --> 00:03:55,400
he started playing the piano
for silent movies

46
00:03:55,400 --> 00:03:57,800
at this cinema
just around the corner

47
00:03:57,800 --> 00:03:59,880
from the Shostakovich apartment.

48
00:03:59,880 --> 00:04:06,440
MUSIC: "Symphony No.1"
by Dmitri Shostakovich

49
00:04:21,640 --> 00:04:23,600
IN DIALECT

50
00:04:43,920 --> 00:04:46,760
Gareth, try a little softer
at the beginning, sweeter,

51
00:04:46,760 --> 00:04:48,200
and then as we go, I broaden out

52
00:04:48,200 --> 00:04:50,720
in the second bar for you
so you fill out the sound.

53
00:04:50,720 --> 00:04:53,840
Mark Elder is working with the
BBC Symphony Orchestra on the highly

54
00:04:53,840 --> 00:04:56,120
contrasted music of this symphony.

55
00:04:56,120 --> 00:04:59,320
OK? Let's have another go.
Just play four, everybody.

56
00:04:59,320 --> 00:05:04,640
STRINGS PLAY SWEEPING MELODY

57
00:05:07,040 --> 00:05:09,720
This first symphony seems to me

58
00:05:09,720 --> 00:05:12,520
to be the soundtrack
for a silent movie.

59
00:05:12,520 --> 00:05:14,400
I don't know what the story is,

60
00:05:14,400 --> 00:05:17,880
but he uses the orchestra
as a cast of characters.

61
00:05:17,880 --> 00:05:20,560
It's very funny. He had
such a wicked sense of humour,

62
00:05:20,560 --> 00:05:23,520
something, of course, Stalin knocked
out of him completely

63
00:05:23,520 --> 00:05:24,720
later on in his life.

64
00:05:24,720 --> 00:05:27,600
Just once again.
Two, three, four, one.

65
00:05:27,600 --> 00:05:32,280
'And a man so influenced
by the other art forms,

66
00:05:32,280 --> 00:05:35,120
'in the theatre and in cinema.'

67
00:05:35,120 --> 00:05:38,560
And all that comes
together in this first symphony.

68
00:05:38,560 --> 00:05:44,200
BRASS AND WOODWIND PLAY LOUDLY

69
00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:50,000
STRINGS PLAY TOGETHER DISCORDANTLY

70
00:05:55,080 --> 00:05:57,360
In these early
years of the revolution,

71
00:05:57,360 --> 00:05:59,720
art was integral to the message.

72
00:05:59,720 --> 00:06:03,720
Agit-prop poster art took propaganda
to the villages.

73
00:06:03,720 --> 00:06:07,000
STRINGS BOW QUICKLY IN UNISON

74
00:06:07,000 --> 00:06:09,240
And in Petrograd,

75
00:06:09,240 --> 00:06:12,240
the concert halls, music halls
and cinemas played

76
00:06:12,240 --> 00:06:14,320
to a new proletarian audience.

77
00:06:14,320 --> 00:06:19,080
I think it's easy to forget now
that the avant-garde was

78
00:06:19,080 --> 00:06:21,600
an international phenomenon
in the 1920s

79
00:06:21,600 --> 00:06:23,880
that also reached the Soviet Union.

80
00:06:23,880 --> 00:06:27,080
People in the theatre were
still doing radical things

81
00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:30,120
in Moscow and St Petersburg.

82
00:06:31,280 --> 00:06:34,200
There was also a feeling
that the 1920s were

83
00:06:34,200 --> 00:06:36,440
the beginning and the end of an era,

84
00:06:36,440 --> 00:06:39,480
so there was this kind of dark cloud

85
00:06:39,480 --> 00:06:42,560
hanging over the era as well.

86
00:06:42,560 --> 00:06:45,400
So you have
in Shostakovich's 1st Symphony

87
00:06:45,400 --> 00:06:48,000
both of these things together.

88
00:06:48,000 --> 00:06:52,480
VIOLIN PLAYS MOURNFUL MELODY

89
00:06:53,640 --> 00:06:57,040
Artists in Russia during the 1920s
were experimenting

90
00:06:57,040 --> 00:06:59,560
with the radical and the innovative.

91
00:06:59,560 --> 00:07:01,440
But it wasn't to last.

92
00:07:01,440 --> 00:07:06,120
Under Stalin, Socialist Realism
became state policy in 1932,

93
00:07:06,120 --> 00:07:09,320
and composers were expected
to serve society

94
00:07:09,320 --> 00:07:12,240
and reflect the life around them
in the most optimistic light.

95
00:07:12,240 --> 00:07:15,840
It was a requirement that was
to cause Shostakovich problems

96
00:07:15,840 --> 00:07:17,760
on several occasions.

97
00:07:17,760 --> 00:07:24,560
MUSIC: "Symphony No.1"
by Dmitri Shostakovich

98
00:07:37,800 --> 00:07:41,040
'In the fourth movement,
Shostakovich shows himself

99
00:07:41,040 --> 00:07:44,520
'to be the master of,
already at the age of 19,

100
00:07:44,520 --> 00:07:47,160
'the portrayal of terror.'

101
00:07:47,160 --> 00:07:50,160
'More than any other
20th-century composer in my view,'

102
00:07:50,160 --> 00:07:53,400
'he is able to put into sound'

103
00:07:53,400 --> 00:07:57,920
the feelings that we all have
after a nightmare,

104
00:07:57,920 --> 00:08:01,440
after being frightened by some
unexpected event in our lives.

105
00:08:02,560 --> 00:08:04,200
And let's face it,

106
00:08:04,200 --> 00:08:08,480
the Soviets knew a lot
about living under terror.

107
00:08:08,480 --> 00:08:14,120
BRASS PLAY ENERGETIC MELODY IN UNISON

108
00:08:14,120 --> 00:08:18,520
STRINGS JOIN THE MELODY

109
00:08:18,520 --> 00:08:24,480
WHOLE ORCHESTRA JOINS TOGETHER
FOR FINAL CLIMAX

110
00:08:34,480 --> 00:08:37,720
Although it was a 19-year-old's
graduation piece,

111
00:08:37,720 --> 00:08:41,000
Shostakovich's First Symphony
was a huge success.

112
00:08:41,000 --> 00:08:44,600
Within a year it was performed
in Berlin, Vienna, Philadelphia

113
00:08:44,600 --> 00:08:46,080
and Buenos Aires.

114
00:08:46,080 --> 00:08:49,520
Nikolai Malko, who conducted
the premiere, wrote in his diary,

115
00:08:49,520 --> 00:08:51,720
"I feel as if we have started
a new page

116
00:08:51,720 --> 00:08:53,960
"in the history of symphonic music."

117
00:08:57,040 --> 00:09:02,120
MUSIC: "Washington's Birthday"
from Holiday Symphony by Charles Ives

118
00:09:02,120 --> 00:09:04,560
Whilst Shostakovich was quickly
picked up

119
00:09:04,560 --> 00:09:06,880
as the musical face
of Communist Russia,

120
00:09:06,880 --> 00:09:10,040
Charles Ives,
a composer in capitalist America,

121
00:09:10,040 --> 00:09:13,760
was so ahead of his time, his music
still isn't well-known today.

122
00:09:13,760 --> 00:09:20,760
MUSIC: "Washington's Birthday"
from Holiday Symphony by Charles Ives

123
00:09:20,760 --> 00:09:23,200
Born in New England,

124
00:09:23,200 --> 00:09:27,200
Ives drew on the folk, popular and
church music he heard around him,

125
00:09:27,200 --> 00:09:31,680
putting them together in a new way
in pieces like his Holiday Symphony.

126
00:09:31,680 --> 00:09:39,080
MUSIC: "Holiday Symphony"
by Charles Ives

127
00:09:39,080 --> 00:09:42,280
This is the house
in Danbury, Connecticut,

128
00:09:42,280 --> 00:09:45,760
where Charles Ives was born in 1874.

129
00:09:45,760 --> 00:09:48,680
Ives is one of history's
more eccentric composers.

130
00:09:48,680 --> 00:09:50,840
A true American original.

131
00:09:50,840 --> 00:09:54,080
While Shostakovich, as a boy,
composed a funeral elegy

132
00:09:54,080 --> 00:09:55,840
for victims of the revolution,

133
00:09:55,840 --> 00:09:59,000
Ives composed a funeral elegy
for his pet cat,

134
00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,000
and after popular acclamation,
wrote other elegies

135
00:10:02,000 --> 00:10:03,840
for his neighbours' animals.

136
00:10:06,720 --> 00:10:10,160
This is the bed
where Charles Ives was born

137
00:10:10,160 --> 00:10:12,800
October 20th, 1874.

138
00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:15,480
That rocking chair
I know is original.

139
00:10:15,480 --> 00:10:17,120
And this is very special.

140
00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:20,160
This is the cradle,
and he was laid in that cradle.

141
00:10:20,160 --> 00:10:23,720
And that was the beginning
of the Charles Ives that we all know

142
00:10:23,720 --> 00:10:25,240
and many of us love.

143
00:10:25,240 --> 00:10:29,240
TRUMPETS PLAY A FANFARE

144
00:10:29,240 --> 00:10:32,720
Charles Ives received
an impeccable musical education.

145
00:10:32,720 --> 00:10:36,720
His father, George Ives,
was a music teacher and band leader.

146
00:10:43,880 --> 00:10:49,520
George's Ives' band would play
for marches and for holidays,

147
00:10:49,520 --> 00:10:52,200
memorial services.

148
00:10:52,200 --> 00:10:56,720
He was considered
Danbury's brass band.

149
00:11:01,760 --> 00:11:06,280
We're sitting in the parlour
and surrounding us is Main Street.

150
00:11:06,280 --> 00:11:08,640
And Charles Ives' father, George,

151
00:11:08,640 --> 00:11:11,440
who had been the youngest band
director in the Union Army

152
00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:12,560
in the Civil War,

153
00:11:12,560 --> 00:11:16,600
he used to rehearse the kids
and the adults who played

154
00:11:16,600 --> 00:11:18,200
in these community bands,

155
00:11:18,200 --> 00:11:21,040
and they would march back and forth
up and down the hill.

156
00:11:21,040 --> 00:11:23,240
And Charles Ives absolutely absorbed

157
00:11:23,240 --> 00:11:25,520
everything that happened
on Main Street.

158
00:11:25,520 --> 00:11:30,160
MUSIC: "Holiday Quickstep"
by Charles Ives

159
00:11:30,160 --> 00:11:34,560
The piece we're playing tonight
is called Holiday Quickstep,

160
00:11:34,560 --> 00:11:37,640
one of the very first things
that Charles Ives wrote.

161
00:11:37,640 --> 00:11:39,640
He was 17 years-old
when he wrote it.

162
00:11:39,640 --> 00:11:43,760
MUSIC: "Holiday Quickstep"
by Charles Ives

163
00:11:46,360 --> 00:11:47,880
It's quite well constructed

164
00:11:47,880 --> 00:11:50,200
for somebody that young.
It's a nice piece of music.

165
00:11:54,960 --> 00:11:59,240
Charles Ives was in his mid-30s when
he composed his Second Symphony,

166
00:11:59,240 --> 00:12:02,840
a decade before his more radical
Holiday Symphony.

167
00:12:02,840 --> 00:12:04,720
Completed in 1909,

168
00:12:04,720 --> 00:12:08,560
it didn't get its first performance
until 1951,

169
00:12:08,560 --> 00:12:10,800
with Leonard Bernstein conducting.

170
00:12:10,800 --> 00:12:14,400
FRENCH HORNS PLAY IN UNISON

171
00:12:14,400 --> 00:12:17,680
STRINGS PLAY SWEEPING MELODY

172
00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:22,760
'He was an incredible visionary.

173
00:12:22,760 --> 00:12:26,880
'He wanted to try and find
a sort of American beauty,

174
00:12:26,880 --> 00:12:31,920
'one that would represent to him
the voice of his people and his land.

175
00:12:33,160 --> 00:12:35,720
'He wanted to write
a European symphony

176
00:12:35,720 --> 00:12:38,080
'with the movements
corresponding roughly'

177
00:12:38,080 --> 00:12:43,120
to the scale and proportions
and colours of a European model,

178
00:12:43,120 --> 00:12:46,920
but he wanted all the material
to be American tunes...

179
00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:50,240
TROMBONES PLAY MAIN THEME

180
00:12:50,240 --> 00:12:54,320
'..to prove that America could hold
its head high and do something

181
00:12:54,320 --> 00:12:57,800
'worthy of Beethoven and Brahms and
all the others that had come before.'

182
00:12:57,800 --> 00:13:03,520
MUSIC: "Symphony No.2"
by Charles Ives

183
00:13:05,640 --> 00:13:09,720
Although he took the European
symphony as his starting point,

184
00:13:09,720 --> 00:13:14,000
Ives certainly wasn't slavish in his
admiration for that tradition.

185
00:13:14,000 --> 00:13:17,680
"You can learn more from a day in
a Kansas wheat field," he once said,

186
00:13:17,680 --> 00:13:19,520
"than three years in Europe."

187
00:13:19,520 --> 00:13:21,280
And when told by his father

188
00:13:21,280 --> 00:13:24,760
that a symphony generally finished
in the same key it started in,

189
00:13:24,760 --> 00:13:28,640
he replied that was just as silly
as having to die in the same house

190
00:13:28,640 --> 00:13:30,040
you were born in.

191
00:13:37,000 --> 00:13:40,440
He didn't want to make
his living with music because

192
00:13:40,440 --> 00:13:43,040
if he had to make a living in music,

193
00:13:43,040 --> 00:13:45,160
he had to be able to sell
what he wrote.

194
00:13:45,160 --> 00:13:49,080
And he had no intention of having
to write to cater to your taste

195
00:13:49,080 --> 00:13:51,240
or to my taste or anybody's taste.

196
00:13:51,240 --> 00:13:52,960
It was more important to him

197
00:13:52,960 --> 00:13:55,840
to write music that maybe
people would like someday.

198
00:13:55,840 --> 00:13:59,280
Sure, everybody likes to be liked.
But he didn't really care.

199
00:13:59,280 --> 00:14:02,440
So what did he do instead?
He went and he sold insurance.

200
00:14:02,440 --> 00:14:06,440
As a matter of fact, he became
a millionaire selling insurance,

201
00:14:06,440 --> 00:14:10,840
and in doing that, he didn't have
to worry about selling his music.

202
00:14:10,840 --> 00:14:15,720
Much of Ives' experimentalism
came directly from his father,

203
00:14:15,720 --> 00:14:19,000
who, amongst other things,
got him to sing and play the piano

204
00:14:19,000 --> 00:14:21,120
in two different keys
at the same time.

205
00:14:29,880 --> 00:14:32,080
One of his father's experiments

206
00:14:32,080 --> 00:14:35,720
that I know Charles Ives was really
interested in,

207
00:14:35,720 --> 00:14:37,480
because it's well documented.

208
00:14:37,480 --> 00:14:41,680
His dad had one band march out
of St Peter Church on Main Street...

209
00:14:43,360 --> 00:14:46,560
..and then he had another band
coming from Richfield

210
00:14:46,560 --> 00:14:48,960
and they were marching the opposite
direction

211
00:14:48,960 --> 00:14:51,080
playing two different
pieces of music.

212
00:14:53,920 --> 00:14:58,000
And the effect of the two
different pieces of music,

213
00:14:58,000 --> 00:15:01,880
you can hear it in almost everything
Charles Ives later wrote.

214
00:15:05,880 --> 00:15:08,920
BANDS PLAY TWO DIFFERENT PIECES

215
00:15:18,160 --> 00:15:20,880
He was the first person,
certainly in America,

216
00:15:20,880 --> 00:15:23,920
to write two different things going
on at the same time.

217
00:15:23,920 --> 00:15:25,600
One or two of his pieces,

218
00:15:25,600 --> 00:15:28,840
I find, work best when you have two
conductors and you say

219
00:15:28,840 --> 00:15:31,840
to part of the orchestra,
"Follow the other guy."

220
00:15:31,840 --> 00:15:33,920
And you somehow try
and meet in the middle.

221
00:15:33,920 --> 00:15:37,320
Because he had this
idea of overlapping musical events

222
00:15:37,320 --> 00:15:39,000
then finally coming together.

223
00:15:40,840 --> 00:15:44,120
'Some of his favourite march tunes,
popular songs

224
00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:46,200
'and above all, one of his
favourites,

225
00:15:46,200 --> 00:15:47,760
Columbia Gem Of The Ocean.

226
00:15:47,760 --> 00:15:50,320
'which comes at the end of the
symphony

227
00:15:50,320 --> 00:15:51,760
'roaring out on all the trombones.'

228
00:16:05,200 --> 00:16:09,440
'So he needs to bring all
this to a finale'

229
00:16:09,440 --> 00:16:12,120
and there's this great moment
when three or four tunes

230
00:16:12,120 --> 00:16:16,200
are played by different parts of the
orchestra all at the same time.

231
00:16:41,720 --> 00:16:45,040
The farewell gesture is a raspberry.

232
00:16:45,040 --> 00:16:49,480
Now the thing about this is that he
wrote a short note "bah"

233
00:16:49,480 --> 00:16:54,600
as if it was a slap across the face,
with this strange dissonant chord.

234
00:16:54,600 --> 00:16:58,520
And then I listened to
Lennie Bernstein's performance which

235
00:16:58,520 --> 00:17:03,920
is so wonderful and so inspiring
and, blow me down, he extended it.

236
00:17:03,920 --> 00:17:06,520
It was like a "bluurgh" rather than
a "bah"

237
00:17:06,520 --> 00:17:08,560
and I think it works best that way.

238
00:17:25,920 --> 00:17:27,280
That's great!

239
00:17:28,920 --> 00:17:32,920
Back in Europe, the Austro-Hungarian
empire had imploded

240
00:17:32,920 --> 00:17:35,320
in the First World War and Vienna

241
00:17:35,320 --> 00:17:38,440
was no longer the musical centre
it had been.

242
00:17:38,440 --> 00:17:42,040
The symphony had been taken
up by new national voices.

243
00:17:43,520 --> 00:17:47,600
In Britain, the "land without music"
as the Germans dubbed it,

244
00:17:47,600 --> 00:17:51,520
the musical world received a new
lease of life through

245
00:17:51,520 --> 00:17:52,680
the work of Edward Elgar,

246
00:17:52,680 --> 00:17:57,400
whose First Symphony was extremely
well received, even in Germany.

247
00:17:57,400 --> 00:18:00,440
A new generation of composers
sprang up, among them

248
00:18:00,440 --> 00:18:04,440
Ralph Vaughan Williams, who studied
here at the Royal College of Music.

249
00:18:04,440 --> 00:18:08,120
He felt strongly the need to
create a "national style",

250
00:18:08,120 --> 00:18:09,320
whatever that might mean.

251
00:18:09,320 --> 00:18:11,040
"We English composers,"

252
00:18:11,040 --> 00:18:14,400
he said, "are always saying,
Here are Wagner and Brahms,

253
00:18:14,400 --> 00:18:17,040
"and Grieg and Tchaikovsky, what
fine fellows they are.

254
00:18:17,040 --> 00:18:20,840
"Let us try and do something like
this at home. Always forgetting

255
00:18:20,840 --> 00:18:22,720
"that it will not sound at all

256
00:18:22,720 --> 00:18:26,000
"like this when transplanted from
its native soil."

257
00:18:26,000 --> 00:18:28,800
He was passionately
interested in folk song, of course,

258
00:18:28,800 --> 00:18:31,040
and this permeates his music.

259
00:18:31,040 --> 00:18:34,120
Although it also, of course,
led to accusations of parochialism

260
00:18:34,120 --> 00:18:37,520
in some of his pieces
like the Pastoral Symphony.

261
00:19:08,040 --> 00:19:11,640
'Many people dismiss
a lot of the romantic English music

262
00:19:11,640 --> 00:19:13,800
'written in the first
half of the 20th century'

263
00:19:13,800 --> 00:19:16,760
with the unfortunate label of
"cow-pat music".

264
00:19:19,800 --> 00:19:21,960
'And I think one has to find
the strength

265
00:19:21,960 --> 00:19:26,120
'and the spine in this music
and not allow it to meander

266
00:19:26,120 --> 00:19:29,920
'just like a little stream drifting
through a landscape.'

267
00:19:33,440 --> 00:19:36,440
'And of course the countryside
in this symphony doesn't mean

268
00:19:36,440 --> 00:19:39,480
'sheep and shepherds
and Arcadia at all.

269
00:19:39,480 --> 00:19:42,000
'It means the countryside
of the First World War, the Somme,

270
00:19:42,000 --> 00:19:43,800
'northern France,'

271
00:19:43,800 --> 00:19:47,280
where Vaughan Williams went as a
stretcher-bearer

272
00:19:47,280 --> 00:19:49,400
working with the
ambulance corps.

273
00:20:02,280 --> 00:20:05,520
You have this feeling of something
never sitting, always shifting.

274
00:20:07,320 --> 00:20:10,960
Many of the melodies being in modes
rather than in keys.

275
00:20:12,400 --> 00:20:16,840
The modes that came from originally
religious music or folk songs.

276
00:20:16,840 --> 00:20:21,520
And it's not at all the landscape

277
00:20:21,520 --> 00:20:25,400
of cherished abundancy.

278
00:20:25,400 --> 00:20:27,640
It's the landscape of death.

279
00:20:38,600 --> 00:20:41,440
'And in the middle of this
desecrated landscape, he heard

280
00:20:41,440 --> 00:20:45,560
'somebody practising the bugle,
distantly, in a trench.'

281
00:20:46,840 --> 00:20:49,800
'It was a haunting sound.'

282
00:20:55,440 --> 00:20:57,480
'And he's put it into this

283
00:20:57,480 --> 00:21:01,520
'landscape of the second movement.
Which is very, very sad music.'

284
00:21:06,040 --> 00:21:09,000
'You have to play it on a special
instrument which won't have

285
00:21:09,000 --> 00:21:11,720
'all the notes necessarily in tune,
like a natural horn or

286
00:21:11,720 --> 00:21:14,760
'a natural trumpet,
so it sounds a bit bitter-sweet.'

287
00:21:36,080 --> 00:21:40,160
Because many modernist composers
in the 1920s rejected the symphony

288
00:21:40,160 --> 00:21:44,200
as a 19th century form, composers
like Vaughan Williams who wrote

289
00:21:44,200 --> 00:21:48,280
nine in total were often dismissed
as old-fashioned and conservative.

290
00:21:53,800 --> 00:21:56,800
'The symphony has
always been a public genre'

291
00:21:56,800 --> 00:22:01,680
where you have to talk to a lot of
people through music in a big space.

292
00:22:01,680 --> 00:22:05,040
People like Vaughan
Williams, Elgar and Sibelius,

293
00:22:05,040 --> 00:22:08,600
they are not necessarily not modern.

294
00:22:08,600 --> 00:22:11,680
In my view they are actually more
important than the avant garde

295
00:22:11,680 --> 00:22:15,520
in many ways, because they are
saying very important things about

296
00:22:15,520 --> 00:22:19,720
modernity to this large audience,
sometimes very disconcerting things.

297
00:22:24,640 --> 00:22:27,880
Since the 19th century, there had
been a continuing debate

298
00:22:27,880 --> 00:22:31,560
about whether symphonies needed to
say anything at all.

299
00:22:33,440 --> 00:22:37,840
Whilst Ives was kicking up a storm
with his popular American marches,

300
00:22:37,840 --> 00:22:42,040
and Shostakovich was celebrating
the October Revolution and May 1st,

301
00:22:42,040 --> 00:22:44,160
in his second and third symphonies,

302
00:22:44,160 --> 00:22:47,000
in Finland, Sibelius was pursuing

303
00:22:47,000 --> 00:22:49,840
the old classical idea of
pure music.

304
00:22:49,840 --> 00:22:53,960
In 1904 he moved here to a specially
built house where he could

305
00:22:53,960 --> 00:22:57,240
work in peace in the landscape that
he loved so much.

306
00:22:57,240 --> 00:23:01,640
And it was here, in 1924, that he
produced his seventh symphony.

307
00:23:01,640 --> 00:23:05,880
A symphony distilled into one
continuous movement.

308
00:23:05,880 --> 00:23:09,520
After the vast canvases of Bruckner
and Mahler,

309
00:23:09,520 --> 00:23:13,360
here was Sibelius paring things
down, and producing a symphony

310
00:23:13,360 --> 00:23:15,800
that was just 20 minutes long.

311
00:23:21,320 --> 00:23:25,760
Ainola, Sibelius'
house is just 40km from Helsinki...

312
00:23:27,560 --> 00:23:28,960
..but feels a world away.

313
00:23:28,960 --> 00:23:32,280
He lived here for the last 50 years
of his life.

314
00:23:34,120 --> 00:23:40,600
Let's have a look at Sibelius'
last study and bedroom

315
00:23:40,600 --> 00:23:45,840
and Sibelius wrote most of his pieces
on this desk, not on the piano.

316
00:23:45,840 --> 00:23:49,320
It's quite simple, isn't it?
Ah, there's his cigars. Yes.

317
00:23:49,320 --> 00:23:51,080
Everywhere in this house...

318
00:23:51,080 --> 00:23:52,600
He loved smoking. Cigar boxes.

319
00:23:52,600 --> 00:23:55,240
There's his tuning fork. Yes, yes.

320
00:23:55,240 --> 00:23:57,840
So this is where he composed
all his symphonies?

321
00:23:57,840 --> 00:24:02,680
He made long day walks
around here, many hours thinking

322
00:24:02,680 --> 00:24:07,000
and composing in his head
and when he had something...

323
00:24:07,000 --> 00:24:08,040
He came back here.

324
00:24:08,040 --> 00:24:09,760
Yes. Marvellous.

325
00:24:18,200 --> 00:24:22,440
This is the autographed score of
Sibelius' last symphony,

326
00:24:22,440 --> 00:24:24,560
Symphony Number 7.

327
00:24:24,560 --> 00:24:27,280
Here you can see the original title
of the work,

328
00:24:27,280 --> 00:24:30,160
Fantasia Symphonica, Number One.

329
00:24:30,160 --> 00:24:33,440
And later Sibelius changed
the title.

330
00:24:33,440 --> 00:24:37,040
He wanted it to be
one of his numbered symphonies.

331
00:24:45,040 --> 00:24:49,960
It's quite wild, the writing,
isn't it? Yes. Angry? Yes.

332
00:24:49,960 --> 00:24:56,240
And of course he was, as usual, in
haste when writing this score.

333
00:24:57,680 --> 00:25:03,720
Now what's intriguing about this
is its length, it's short,

334
00:25:03,720 --> 00:25:05,720
and one movement? Mm.

335
00:25:05,720 --> 00:25:11,800
He was very consciously trying to
find a new kind of symphonic form

336
00:25:11,800 --> 00:25:14,240
and the 7th Symphony is,
of course,

337
00:25:14,240 --> 00:25:17,000
the final product of this
development.

338
00:25:32,960 --> 00:25:36,480
The progress through the seven
symphonies

339
00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,720
is a very clear line to me.

340
00:25:38,720 --> 00:25:44,920
For him the compositional process
was paring back, paring down.

341
00:25:44,920 --> 00:25:48,080
The beauty of the 7th Symphony
is in this crystallisation.

342
00:26:02,400 --> 00:26:07,680
'His processes are not like those
of Beethoven and Brahms.

343
00:26:07,680 --> 00:26:12,760
'Sibelius' way is to make things
organically develop, all the time.'

344
00:26:16,400 --> 00:26:19,120
'It goes from one mood - it might
be a light hearted,

345
00:26:19,120 --> 00:26:23,120
'vivacious gaiety and he builds
it up'

346
00:26:23,120 --> 00:26:29,120
and up into something more epic
and more austere perhaps, grander.

347
00:26:29,120 --> 00:26:31,800
'And his ability to do that was
second to none.'

348
00:26:49,920 --> 00:26:51,920
Despite its organic sound,

349
00:26:51,920 --> 00:26:54,360
writing music was often
a struggle for Sibelius.

350
00:26:54,360 --> 00:26:59,080
He had periods of depression
and a fondness for cigars and drink.

351
00:26:59,080 --> 00:27:02,400
He called alcohol his
most faithful companion...

352
00:27:05,960 --> 00:27:09,840
..that is alongside his wife Aino,
who persuaded him

353
00:27:09,840 --> 00:27:12,920
to move to this more isolated
life in the country.

354
00:27:14,160 --> 00:27:18,160
They were married over 65 years.

355
00:27:18,160 --> 00:27:19,800
And Sibelius said that

356
00:27:19,800 --> 00:27:23,280
"Without Aino, I couldn't make
any of my symphonies".

357
00:27:23,280 --> 00:27:26,840
Aino was his supporter,
understanding.

358
00:27:35,040 --> 00:27:38,720
So this is the famous portrait of
Sibelius by Gallen-Kallela? Yes.

359
00:27:38,720 --> 00:27:40,320
Beautifully dressed.

360
00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:44,760
Yes he was always very well
dressed, but the hair!

361
00:27:44,760 --> 00:27:48,600
He never combed his hair! Yes.
How old was he here?

362
00:27:48,600 --> 00:27:49,840
30.

363
00:27:49,840 --> 00:27:51,040
He was good looking. Yes.

364
00:27:51,040 --> 00:27:54,880
He was very handsome,
he had extremely blue eyes.

365
00:27:54,880 --> 00:27:56,120
Piercing eyes. Yes.

366
00:27:59,440 --> 00:28:02,040
After finishing his seventh
symphony in 1924,

367
00:28:02,040 --> 00:28:06,720
Sibelius lived another 30 years, but
never completed another symphony.

368
00:28:06,720 --> 00:28:09,760
He worked for years on an eighth,
promising it to Koussevitzky

369
00:28:09,760 --> 00:28:13,040
and the Boston Symphony Orchestra,
but it was never finished.

370
00:28:13,040 --> 00:28:15,840
He destroyed the manuscript
before anyone could hear it.

371
00:28:19,720 --> 00:28:23,360
So he burnt his eighth symphony?
Yes.

372
00:28:23,360 --> 00:28:26,800
The manuscript in this stove in
1945? Yes.

373
00:28:26,800 --> 00:28:30,760
He was very, very depressed
with his eighth symphony.

374
00:28:30,760 --> 00:28:34,200
People was waiting, waiting always.

375
00:28:34,200 --> 00:28:35,960
Expectation for it? Yes.

376
00:28:35,960 --> 00:28:40,240
Because after, after the burning,
and destroying,

377
00:28:40,240 --> 00:28:44,280
he was very happy and relaxed.

378
00:28:46,360 --> 00:28:47,880
It's odd it still feels warm.

379
00:28:47,880 --> 00:28:51,360
Yes, Sibelius is still at home.

380
00:28:51,360 --> 00:28:56,600
Sibelius can step in from the garden.

381
00:28:56,600 --> 00:28:58,840
That's a scary idea. Yes.

382
00:29:10,080 --> 00:29:15,160
'I would say that his symphonies
are, in a way, timeless.'

383
00:29:15,160 --> 00:29:20,320
They continue the classic,
romantic symphonic tradition

384
00:29:20,320 --> 00:29:22,880
without being conservative.

385
00:29:22,880 --> 00:29:27,240
And they look ahead
without being modernist.

386
00:29:46,000 --> 00:29:48,120
It's impossible
to know whether it was

387
00:29:48,120 --> 00:29:50,080
because of his acute self criticism,

388
00:29:50,080 --> 00:29:52,560
whether he came to feel outside
the mainstream

389
00:29:52,560 --> 00:29:54,200
of 20th century symphonic music,

390
00:29:54,200 --> 00:29:57,080
or whether he simply wanted
to take it easy in his sauna.

391
00:29:57,080 --> 00:29:58,880
But for whatever reason,

392
00:29:58,880 --> 00:30:02,560
Sibelius' 7th Symphony represents
a kind of conclusion.

393
00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:05,520
And for the remaining
30-years of his life,

394
00:30:05,520 --> 00:30:07,520
he effectively lapsed into silence.

395
00:30:09,400 --> 00:30:12,280
But by the time the 7th Symphony
had been completed,

396
00:30:12,280 --> 00:30:16,320
new technological developments meant
that symphonic music

397
00:30:16,320 --> 00:30:19,720
would be heard by far more people
than ever before.

398
00:30:21,400 --> 00:30:23,800
The first revolution
was the gramophone,

399
00:30:23,800 --> 00:30:25,960
introduced around
the turn of the century,

400
00:30:25,960 --> 00:30:29,520
which meant that recorded music
could be consumed at home.

401
00:30:29,520 --> 00:30:31,720
MUSIC PLAYS

402
00:30:36,240 --> 00:30:40,040
But the recording process wasn't
well suited to orchestral music.

403
00:30:40,040 --> 00:30:41,480
This is the first recording

404
00:30:41,480 --> 00:30:44,520
of Beethoven's 5th made in Berlin
in 1910.

405
00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,960
MUFFLED, SCRATCHY RECORDING

406
00:30:49,520 --> 00:30:52,920
For symphonic music,
the real revolution came in 1925

407
00:30:52,920 --> 00:30:56,120
with the introduction
of the electric microphone.

408
00:30:56,120 --> 00:30:58,800
A wider range of instruments
could now be recorded

409
00:30:58,800 --> 00:31:00,640
and in larger groups.

410
00:31:00,640 --> 00:31:04,840
MUSIC: "Symphony No. 5"
by Beethoven

411
00:31:10,360 --> 00:31:14,800
This is Richard Strauss
conducting Beethoven's 5th in 1928.

412
00:31:24,440 --> 00:31:27,880
Decent orchestral recordings could
now be made for the first time.

413
00:31:27,880 --> 00:31:31,040
All ready? Right.

414
00:31:33,200 --> 00:31:36,560
MUSIC: "Pomp And Circumstance
March No. 1" by Elgar

415
00:31:44,440 --> 00:31:47,680
Sir Edward Elgar inaugurating
the new Abbey Road

416
00:31:47,680 --> 00:31:49,560
recording studios in 1931.

417
00:31:49,560 --> 00:31:52,520
A veteran composer ushering in
a new age.

418
00:32:00,720 --> 00:32:03,240
Although he was conservative
in his compositions,

419
00:32:03,240 --> 00:32:06,400
Elgar was forward-looking
in one way.

420
00:32:06,400 --> 00:32:10,640
He was the first great composer
to record his own symphonies.

421
00:32:10,640 --> 00:32:12,080
Although he was in his 70s

422
00:32:12,080 --> 00:32:15,120
and hadn't written anything
significant for a decade,

423
00:32:15,120 --> 00:32:18,320
he made an effort to create
a recorded legacy of his work,

424
00:32:18,320 --> 00:32:21,640
much of it done here
in the new Abbey Road studios.

425
00:32:21,640 --> 00:32:25,720
He made the first recording
of his 2nd Symphony in 1927.

426
00:32:35,080 --> 00:32:38,320
Elgar's 2nd symphony had been
written back in 1911

427
00:32:38,320 --> 00:32:42,360
and while he was writing it
King Edward VII died.

428
00:32:42,360 --> 00:32:46,400
As the Master of the King's Music,
Elgar dedicated the symphony

429
00:32:46,400 --> 00:32:50,400
to his memory with the heavy tread
of its stately funeral march.

430
00:32:50,400 --> 00:32:53,560
MUSIC: "Symphony No. 2"
by Elgar

431
00:33:05,880 --> 00:33:09,560
Behind the pomp of that
formidable moustache

432
00:33:09,560 --> 00:33:13,000
and the circumstance of being
the Master of the King's Music,

433
00:33:13,000 --> 00:33:17,320
there was a very shy, introverted,
insecure man.

434
00:33:17,320 --> 00:33:21,760
Now in the 2nd Symphony,
we see a man pouring out his heart

435
00:33:21,760 --> 00:33:23,960
in a way that he,
as a man in society,

436
00:33:23,960 --> 00:33:25,600
found very difficult to do.

437
00:33:25,600 --> 00:33:28,360
The work is dedicated
to the memory of the king

438
00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:30,880
who died while he was writing
the piece.

439
00:33:30,880 --> 00:33:33,120
But the truth is that this
slow movement,

440
00:33:33,120 --> 00:33:35,760
which is such a great epitaph,

441
00:33:35,760 --> 00:33:39,200
is not a movement of national
mourning,

442
00:33:39,200 --> 00:33:43,640
because it had already been
written before the king died.

443
00:33:43,640 --> 00:33:45,400
It was his personal epitaph

444
00:33:45,400 --> 00:33:48,320
for a very surprising death
of a very dear friend.

445
00:33:48,320 --> 00:33:51,000
His name was Rodewald,

446
00:33:51,000 --> 00:33:54,240
a man who had supported him
before he was at all known.

447
00:33:54,240 --> 00:33:57,800
And really believed in him
and really gave him confidence.

448
00:34:07,480 --> 00:34:11,720
'The main melody is, of course,
the melody of a funeral march

449
00:34:11,720 --> 00:34:14,560
'and it has the trudge
of a funeral march.

450
00:34:14,560 --> 00:34:16,760
'But over and above the tune
you hear the oboe...'

451
00:34:21,480 --> 00:34:26,280
..completely free,
keening for this lost friendship.

452
00:34:26,280 --> 00:34:29,880
And that's so bold and unmistakable.

453
00:34:41,160 --> 00:34:47,080
'And when the orchestra cries out,
screams out about that loss,'

454
00:34:47,080 --> 00:34:50,200
it's one of the most moving things
that I think exist

455
00:34:50,200 --> 00:34:52,040
in our nation's musical life.

456
00:35:32,760 --> 00:35:36,640
The arrival of electric recording
in the 1920s meant the rapid growth

457
00:35:36,640 --> 00:35:38,920
of the recording industry
and broadcasting,

458
00:35:38,920 --> 00:35:40,680
which began around the same time.

459
00:35:40,680 --> 00:35:44,080
Symphonies were no longer confined
to the concert hall,

460
00:35:44,080 --> 00:35:46,560
but could now be heard by millions.

461
00:35:46,560 --> 00:35:50,400
The BBC Symphony Orchestra,
which plays the music for this film,

462
00:35:50,400 --> 00:35:52,480
was founded in 1930.

463
00:35:52,480 --> 00:35:55,200
And these developments
in the musical world led also

464
00:35:55,200 --> 00:35:56,720
to the rise of conductors

465
00:35:56,720 --> 00:35:59,360
as transmitters of music
to a much wider world.

466
00:35:59,360 --> 00:36:02,840
And as Elgar was quick to recognise,
to the establishing

467
00:36:02,840 --> 00:36:05,880
of a musical canon,
old as opposed to new music.

468
00:36:05,880 --> 00:36:09,120
These great works of the past
took on more and more weight

469
00:36:09,120 --> 00:36:11,760
as superstar conductors
travelled the world

470
00:36:11,760 --> 00:36:15,320
with a vast symphonic repertoire
at the tip of their batons.

471
00:36:21,920 --> 00:36:24,200
Bruno Walter was a protege
of Mahler's

472
00:36:24,200 --> 00:36:26,440
and it was he who had conducted
the premiere

473
00:36:26,440 --> 00:36:28,000
of his 9th Symphony in Vienna.

474
00:36:30,240 --> 00:36:32,480
He also conducted
the Berlin premiere

475
00:36:32,480 --> 00:36:34,920
of Shostakovich's First Symphony.

476
00:36:39,880 --> 00:36:42,360
Leopold Stokowski,
was born in Britain,

477
00:36:42,360 --> 00:36:44,000
but made his name in the US.

478
00:36:47,120 --> 00:36:50,520
And the Italian Arturo Toscanini
was described by Mussolini as

479
00:36:50,520 --> 00:36:53,240
the greatest conductor in the world.

480
00:36:53,240 --> 00:36:56,520
But Toscanini
was no supporter of Mussolini

481
00:36:56,520 --> 00:36:59,040
and he went to America in 1939.

482
00:37:05,040 --> 00:37:10,160
One of the biggest conducting stars
of the time was Wilhelm Furtwangler,

483
00:37:10,160 --> 00:37:13,600
seen here conducting
for Hitler's birthday in 1942.

484
00:37:17,040 --> 00:37:22,040
Hitler wasn't present, but Goebbels,
the Nazi's propaganda minister was,

485
00:37:22,040 --> 00:37:25,640
and made a point of congratulating
Furtwangler at the end.

486
00:37:29,200 --> 00:37:33,440
As conductors got caught up
in the politics of the time,

487
00:37:33,440 --> 00:37:36,520
composers too were conscripted.

488
00:37:43,000 --> 00:37:46,720
The outbreak of World War II
increased the pressure on composers

489
00:37:46,720 --> 00:37:49,280
to make public statements
with their work.

490
00:37:49,280 --> 00:37:52,120
The symphony inevitably
became a propaganda tool.

491
00:37:52,120 --> 00:37:54,120
Never was this a more urgent
requirement

492
00:37:54,120 --> 00:37:57,200
than during one of the most painful
periods of Russian history,

493
00:37:57,200 --> 00:38:01,640
the siege of Leningrad, which is
commemorated here at this museum.

494
00:38:01,640 --> 00:38:04,280
The city was blockaded
by Nazi forces

495
00:38:04,280 --> 00:38:07,160
for two-and-a-half years. 872 days.

496
00:38:07,160 --> 00:38:10,360
A third of the population died,
from enemy bombardment,

497
00:38:10,360 --> 00:38:11,800
cold and starvation.

498
00:38:11,800 --> 00:38:14,400
People received information
from the radio,

499
00:38:14,400 --> 00:38:17,240
which, in this city of musicians,

500
00:38:17,240 --> 00:38:19,720
was reduced to broadcasting

501
00:38:19,720 --> 00:38:23,000
the sound of a ticking metronome
to reassure people that

502
00:38:23,000 --> 00:38:26,760
despite everything
Leningrad was still alive.

503
00:38:28,640 --> 00:38:30,920
Shostakovich, in the besieged city,

504
00:38:30,920 --> 00:38:33,360
was composing and also
working as a fireman.

505
00:38:37,160 --> 00:38:40,200
It was under these extraordinary
circumstances

506
00:38:40,200 --> 00:38:43,680
that Shostakovich wrote
his Leningrad Symphony

507
00:38:43,680 --> 00:38:47,920
which was performed here
in the city in August 1942.

508
00:38:53,080 --> 00:38:55,080
Propaganda aside,
it was an act of heroism

509
00:38:55,080 --> 00:38:57,120
with an orchestra assembled

510
00:38:57,120 --> 00:39:00,600
by bringing musicians back
from the front line,

511
00:39:00,600 --> 00:39:02,080
granted extra rations,

512
00:39:02,080 --> 00:39:05,600
and the music defiantly relayed
on speakers in the street.

513
00:39:08,680 --> 00:39:14,160
And into that world tiptoes
this distant strange little drum.

514
00:39:19,360 --> 00:39:24,120
'Taking my cue from Mravinsky,
Shostakovich's favourite conductor,

515
00:39:24,120 --> 00:39:28,600
'it's a side drum without snares,
not the sound of a military drum.'

516
00:39:28,600 --> 00:39:33,600
It's easier for it to be very quiet
if it's played without the snare

517
00:39:33,600 --> 00:39:36,600
and it sounds more ominous
and ghostly.

518
00:39:43,480 --> 00:39:47,480
And on top of this endlessly
repeating little drum,

519
00:39:47,480 --> 00:39:51,920
the orchestra one by one join in
and play this silly little tune.

520
00:40:00,000 --> 00:40:01,880
IN DIALECT

521
00:40:53,920 --> 00:40:58,680
'This silly little tune goes on and
on and gets nearer and nearer.'

522
00:40:58,680 --> 00:41:04,040
And changes from being trivial
into something so threatening

523
00:41:04,040 --> 00:41:07,360
and overpowering and vulgar and hard,

524
00:41:07,360 --> 00:41:12,160
that one wonders who is being
referred to.

525
00:41:32,360 --> 00:41:38,000
At the climax of this march,
not content with his large orchestra,

526
00:41:38,000 --> 00:41:41,560
He adds ten extra brass players
just to roar,

527
00:41:41,560 --> 00:41:44,640
'to scream in repetition,

528
00:41:44,640 --> 00:41:49,520
'in fierce, uncompromising violence.'

529
00:42:02,640 --> 00:42:05,880
Unusually, Shostakovich wrote
a programme note for this symphony

530
00:42:05,880 --> 00:42:08,640
saying he didn't want to write
battle music,

531
00:42:08,640 --> 00:42:12,080
but to depict the ominous force
of war.

532
00:42:15,160 --> 00:42:20,120
Nevertheless debate is raised
whether the unstoppable march

533
00:42:20,120 --> 00:42:23,680
represents the Nazi invader
or an evil closer to home.

534
00:42:26,520 --> 00:42:28,960
IN DIALECT

535
00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,880
'Throughout his life,
however weak he was physically,

536
00:43:07,880 --> 00:43:11,840
'his will to compose what
he wanted to compose never left him.

537
00:43:11,840 --> 00:43:15,280
'On the one hand,
he had to speak to his people

538
00:43:15,280 --> 00:43:18,080
'and make sure he said something
they would be moved by.

539
00:43:18,080 --> 00:43:19,360
'But on the other hand,

540
00:43:19,360 --> 00:43:21,520
'he had to do it without
offending too much,

541
00:43:21,520 --> 00:43:23,200
'the apparatchiks, the KGB,

542
00:43:23,200 --> 00:43:25,840
'the cultural bureau
that surrounded them all.

543
00:43:25,840 --> 00:43:30,120
'When people would ask, "What's it
about, we didn't quite understand?"'

544
00:43:30,120 --> 00:43:33,520
He would say, "Oh, just listen,
you'll hear it",

545
00:43:33,520 --> 00:43:36,280
or "For those who can hear,
I think it's clear."

546
00:43:49,400 --> 00:43:51,600
Whatever Shostakovich's intention,

547
00:43:51,600 --> 00:43:54,280
the Leningrad Symphony had
an astonishing impact,

548
00:43:54,280 --> 00:43:56,320
and not just in Russia.

549
00:43:56,320 --> 00:43:58,960
As war raged on, the Soviets
microfilmed the score

550
00:43:58,960 --> 00:44:01,560
and sent it via Tehran
and an American naval ship

551
00:44:01,560 --> 00:44:03,240
to the US, their ally.

552
00:44:03,240 --> 00:44:07,880
It was conducted by Toscanini
at Radio City in New York,

553
00:44:07,880 --> 00:44:11,400
the first of 60 performances
in America in 1942.

554
00:44:11,400 --> 00:44:14,480
It was just the sort of public
gesture the allies wanted.

555
00:44:17,240 --> 00:44:22,120
This is a presentation for soldiers
at a desert airbase in California.

556
00:44:22,120 --> 00:44:25,360
ARCHIVE VOICEOVER: 'Guest of honour
is Madame Ivy Litvinoff,

557
00:44:25,360 --> 00:44:28,960
'wife of the Russian ambassador
to the United States.'

558
00:44:28,960 --> 00:44:31,080
CHEERING

559
00:44:31,080 --> 00:44:36,720
I understand that you give me
this wonderful welcome

560
00:44:36,720 --> 00:44:39,960
because you greet the brave
and gallant men and women

561
00:44:39,960 --> 00:44:43,040
and soldiers of the Red Army
in the Soviet Union.

562
00:44:45,040 --> 00:44:48,200
'Also on hand is Edward G Robinson.'

563
00:44:48,200 --> 00:44:52,800
Now this music was written
by a soldier, a Russian soldier,

564
00:44:52,800 --> 00:44:55,680
one who fought the Siege of
Leningrad.

565
00:44:55,680 --> 00:44:58,680
And Dmitri Shostakovich
is still in it.

566
00:44:58,680 --> 00:45:02,040
CHEERING

567
00:45:02,040 --> 00:45:04,920
ANNOUNCEMENTS IN RUSSIAN

568
00:45:11,840 --> 00:45:14,160
This is the annual veterans parade

569
00:45:14,160 --> 00:45:16,920
along Nevsky Prospekt
in St Petersburg,

570
00:45:16,920 --> 00:45:19,440
when people gather
to remember and celebrate

571
00:45:19,440 --> 00:45:22,880
the heroism and sacrifice of those
who died in the Second World War.

572
00:45:22,880 --> 00:45:25,240
ANNOUNCEMENTS IN RUSSIAN

573
00:45:32,600 --> 00:45:35,640
Shostakovich's Leningrad symphony
ended, of course,

574
00:45:35,640 --> 00:45:40,520
with a triumphant finale depicting
the victory of the people of Russia

575
00:45:40,520 --> 00:45:43,240
in the great patriotic war.

576
00:45:46,600 --> 00:45:51,480
"As at no time before, I realised
the public significance of my work",

577
00:45:51,480 --> 00:45:55,000
wrote Shostakovich,
"and my work was not in vain.

578
00:45:55,000 --> 00:45:57,160
"The music helped
the struggle for justice."

579
00:46:04,040 --> 00:46:08,120
PEOPLE CHANT: Leningrad!

580
00:46:17,680 --> 00:46:21,760
In the US, America's
leading composer, Aaron Copland,

581
00:46:21,760 --> 00:46:25,960
had been impressed by the mass
appeal of the Leningrad Symphony,

582
00:46:25,960 --> 00:46:30,040
and wrote a symphony of his own
to celebrate the Allied victory.

583
00:46:46,280 --> 00:46:47,520
Copland's Third Symphony

584
00:46:47,520 --> 00:46:49,760
incorporates his
Fanfare For The Common Man

585
00:46:49,760 --> 00:46:51,200
which had been commissioned

586
00:46:51,200 --> 00:46:53,520
when America first became involved
in the war.

587
00:47:20,720 --> 00:47:24,920
Here is the first page of Copland's

588
00:47:24,920 --> 00:47:28,360
Fanfare For The Common Man.

589
00:47:28,360 --> 00:47:32,440
Even if you can't read music you see
there aren't very many notes

590
00:47:32,440 --> 00:47:33,680
on the page at all.

591
00:47:33,680 --> 00:47:38,680
And the thing that I love about
it is this real juxtaposition,

592
00:47:38,680 --> 00:47:42,360
kind of magic, between
the austerity on the one hand

593
00:47:42,360 --> 00:47:45,040
and the magnificence of the music.

594
00:48:04,960 --> 00:48:07,960
Why the title?
Why Fanfare For The Common Man?

595
00:48:07,960 --> 00:48:09,960
'Fanfare For The Common Man

596
00:48:09,960 --> 00:48:15,280
'is so reflective of his innate
egalitarianism.

597
00:48:15,280 --> 00:48:17,840
'He really felt it was the
foot soldiers

598
00:48:17,840 --> 00:48:21,160
'that were going to be
carrying the burden of the war.'

599
00:48:36,000 --> 00:48:39,240
This is the house outside New York
that Copland bought in 1960

600
00:48:39,240 --> 00:48:41,920
and where he spent
the last 30 years of his life.

601
00:48:41,920 --> 00:48:43,640
He was a man who lived very frugally

602
00:48:43,640 --> 00:48:45,320
and he spent much of his life

603
00:48:45,320 --> 00:48:48,600
moving from apartment to apartment
back in the big city.

604
00:48:48,600 --> 00:48:51,880
But he was also someone who
appreciated the serenity,

605
00:48:51,880 --> 00:48:54,840
isolation and closeness to nature
that he found here.

606
00:48:57,080 --> 00:48:59,760
As comfortable as this house is,

607
00:48:59,760 --> 00:49:02,880
it's very unassuming
and unpretentious.

608
00:49:02,880 --> 00:49:05,520
It's completely unostentatious.

609
00:49:05,520 --> 00:49:07,480
It has certain modernist touches,

610
00:49:07,480 --> 00:49:13,400
kind of frugal, simple, practical.

611
00:49:13,400 --> 00:49:16,520
We have his work desk off
to the side which is just

612
00:49:16,520 --> 00:49:20,480
wide plank barn wood
made by a local farmer.

613
00:49:20,480 --> 00:49:22,080
And that's where Copland worked.

614
00:49:22,080 --> 00:49:24,520
He was looking for simplicity
and practicality

615
00:49:24,520 --> 00:49:25,960
and I think I this was it.

616
00:49:32,120 --> 00:49:34,120
Copland's Third Symphony has become

617
00:49:34,120 --> 00:49:36,880
the most performed of all
American symphonies.

618
00:49:36,880 --> 00:49:40,800
Perhaps because, like his ballets
Appalachian Spring and Rodeo,

619
00:49:40,800 --> 00:49:43,040
it has a distinctly American sound.

620
00:49:56,440 --> 00:49:59,280
'It's something Copland really
started out to do,'

621
00:49:59,280 --> 00:50:03,360
quite intentionally,
back in the mid-1920s,

622
00:50:03,360 --> 00:50:06,800
when he felt that there was
no such thing

623
00:50:06,800 --> 00:50:10,520
as a recognisably American
musical idiom.

624
00:50:16,680 --> 00:50:22,040
There is something very open
and spare about his textures.

625
00:50:22,040 --> 00:50:26,680
His chords seem to have
a lot of air in them...

626
00:50:29,160 --> 00:50:35,400
..which does convey something
of the size and scope of the country.

627
00:50:44,800 --> 00:50:47,040
'I often feel that last movement'

628
00:50:47,040 --> 00:50:50,440
is really about not just the
landscape,

629
00:50:50,440 --> 00:50:52,840
but what you build on the landscape.

630
00:50:52,840 --> 00:50:56,160
It's like building a frontier town.

631
00:50:56,160 --> 00:50:57,800
Like Once Upon A Time In The West.

632
00:50:57,800 --> 00:51:00,240
It's what you build on
the landscape that matters.

633
00:51:11,720 --> 00:51:13,400
And it's also about democracy,

634
00:51:13,400 --> 00:51:18,120
it's the old Dvorak idea of bringing
the symphony to the common man.

635
00:51:18,120 --> 00:51:20,920
So it's not for nothing that
this Fanfare,

636
00:51:20,920 --> 00:51:23,360
which has this ruggedness about it,

637
00:51:23,360 --> 00:51:26,000
should be built into the last
movement.

638
00:51:36,160 --> 00:51:42,520
'He translated this notion
of egalitarianism into his art'

639
00:51:42,520 --> 00:51:47,160
by consciously trying to reach
a wider audience

640
00:51:47,160 --> 00:51:50,800
with works that might be more popular
on the one hand,

641
00:51:50,800 --> 00:51:56,680
more accessible on the one hand, but
on the other would still allow him

642
00:51:56,680 --> 00:51:59,720
to do the kinds of things
he wanted to do artistically.

643
00:52:26,200 --> 00:52:29,560
This is the monument
to the Defenders of Leningrad

644
00:52:29,560 --> 00:52:32,440
in Victory Square in St Petersburg.

645
00:52:32,440 --> 00:52:34,520
Of course, it was in Soviet Russia

646
00:52:34,520 --> 00:52:37,920
that a big victory symphony
was expected, indeed required.

647
00:52:37,920 --> 00:52:39,960
Many people awaited Shostakovich's

648
00:52:39,960 --> 00:52:42,000
Ninth Symphony with eager
anticipation

649
00:52:42,000 --> 00:52:45,240
and with the fearsome precedent
of Beethoven's 9th in their minds,

650
00:52:45,240 --> 00:52:46,680
they must have been looking

651
00:52:46,680 --> 00:52:49,240
for something equally
ground-breaking and heroic.

652
00:52:56,200 --> 00:52:58,840
But Shostakovich's Ninth Symphony

653
00:52:58,840 --> 00:53:02,000
wasn't what the authorities
wanted at all.

654
00:53:09,840 --> 00:53:13,480
IN DIALECT

655
00:54:11,760 --> 00:54:16,000
It was part of Shostakovich's
personality, I get the feeling,

656
00:54:16,000 --> 00:54:19,760
that he was a clown for his people.

657
00:54:19,760 --> 00:54:23,120
Or that he was the person
who could open up truths

658
00:54:23,120 --> 00:54:26,000
like the fool in King Lear.

659
00:54:26,000 --> 00:54:31,040
That he saw himself in a way,
crying and joking at the same time.

660
00:54:33,520 --> 00:54:37,440
Now the bassoon is the instrument,
better than any other,

661
00:54:37,440 --> 00:54:40,240
that can express satire and pathos.

662
00:54:42,840 --> 00:54:46,920
No other wind instrument has
the ability to change so quickly.

663
00:54:53,000 --> 00:54:58,320
'Now what this says or speaks,
I can't possibly say,

664
00:54:58,320 --> 00:55:03,120
'but I know that it is keening,
it is crying out.'

665
00:55:08,960 --> 00:55:11,280
And when this has been exhausted
and said,

666
00:55:11,280 --> 00:55:17,240
there is a moment of suspension and
we suddenly start the last movement.

667
00:55:24,880 --> 00:55:26,720
It's in a completely different mood,

668
00:55:26,720 --> 00:55:29,240
in a completely different tempo,
as if to say,

669
00:55:29,240 --> 00:55:32,600
"I was only joking.
Actually, everything's fine!"

670
00:55:35,040 --> 00:55:38,760
And the sardonic, ironic character
of the bassoon little tune,

671
00:55:38,760 --> 00:55:40,720
which seems so trivial and so like

672
00:55:40,720 --> 00:55:44,000
trying to banish all the tragedy
that we've just shared,

673
00:55:44,000 --> 00:55:45,560
is very remarkable.

674
00:55:49,880 --> 00:55:54,920
And of course it's nothing like
the spectacular, grandiose finale

675
00:55:54,920 --> 00:55:56,320
of Beethoven's Ninth.

676
00:56:01,680 --> 00:56:05,920
He did something quite different
which was to really go back to Haydn.

677
00:56:05,920 --> 00:56:09,560
He wanted to write something that is
seemingly light-hearted,

678
00:56:09,560 --> 00:56:11,920
but really very tragic underneath.

679
00:56:11,920 --> 00:56:14,880
And what was he trying to say both
to his audience and the authorities?

680
00:56:14,880 --> 00:56:16,520
I think it's in a way a goodbye

681
00:56:16,520 --> 00:56:19,960
to the great musical symphonic
tradition in Germany

682
00:56:19,960 --> 00:56:23,560
and the feeling that this has now
come to an end.

683
00:56:39,160 --> 00:56:41,080
At the end of the Second World War,

684
00:56:41,080 --> 00:56:43,920
Germany, the country which had
seen itself as the guardian

685
00:56:43,920 --> 00:56:45,920
of the symphonic tradition,
was in ruins.

686
00:56:48,560 --> 00:56:52,800
And here was Shostakovich looking
back at it in a sardonic farewell.

687
00:56:52,800 --> 00:56:55,720
Certainly the war is virtually
the last event

688
00:56:55,720 --> 00:56:59,080
that seems to have
demanded a symphonic response.

689
00:57:00,800 --> 00:57:04,040
It was here, in the heart of the old
imperial city of Vienna,

690
00:57:04,040 --> 00:57:06,080
that the notion of a
cycle of symphonies,

691
00:57:06,080 --> 00:57:10,200
often ending with that fateful
number 9, was born.

692
00:57:10,200 --> 00:57:12,560
But after the Second World War,
Vienna,

693
00:57:12,560 --> 00:57:16,000
like Berlin, was divided into four
zones of military occupation.

694
00:57:16,000 --> 00:57:18,800
This is the memorial in the city
to the Red Army

695
00:57:18,800 --> 00:57:20,680
and this perhaps foreshadows

696
00:57:20,680 --> 00:57:23,320
the subsequent democratisation
of music

697
00:57:23,320 --> 00:57:27,360
and its diversification
into many new forms.

698
00:57:32,800 --> 00:57:35,200
Over 250 years, we've made
an incredible journey,

699
00:57:35,200 --> 00:57:37,120
from small groups of musicians

700
00:57:37,120 --> 00:57:40,600
in the palaces of princes to
orchestras more than 100 strong,

701
00:57:40,600 --> 00:57:43,560
through works that are both personal
and public.

702
00:57:47,680 --> 00:57:52,320
And the symphony has become to music
what Shakespeare is to literature,

703
00:57:52,320 --> 00:57:54,040
a cultural monument

704
00:57:54,040 --> 00:57:57,600
that is continually redeveloped
through new interpretations.

705
00:57:57,600 --> 00:58:02,760
It still has the power to enchant,
challenge, move me,

706
00:58:02,760 --> 00:58:08,360
and, in the 21st century, a larger
and wider audience than ever before.

707
00:58:15,520 --> 00:58:19,760
To go deeper into the music and
unravel the secrets of the symphony,

708
00:58:19,760 --> 00:58:23,200
follow the links to the Open
University at bbc.co.uk/symphony.

709
00:58:48,200 --> 00:58:51,480
Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

710
00:58:51,480 --> 00:58:54,280
E-mail subtitling@bbc.co.uk