1 00:00:05,300 --> 00:00:07,760 On the 8th of May, 1906, 2 00:00:07,760 --> 00:00:12,040 a young music fan treated himself to a night at the Viennese opera. 3 00:00:15,600 --> 00:00:17,000 He was in luck. 4 00:00:17,000 --> 00:00:21,560 Wielding the conductor's baton was one of Europe's greatest musicians, 5 00:00:21,560 --> 00:00:24,200 Gustav Mahler. 6 00:00:24,200 --> 00:00:26,240 Famously flamboyant, 7 00:00:26,240 --> 00:00:29,840 Mahler commanded the orchestra with an extravagant passion 8 00:00:29,840 --> 00:00:32,400 that perfectly matched the soaring music. 9 00:00:37,560 --> 00:00:41,480 That evening stayed with the young fan for life. 10 00:00:41,480 --> 00:00:43,800 His name was Adolf Hitler. 11 00:00:47,120 --> 00:00:51,240 Years later, Hitler would take to a podium of his own, where he brought 12 00:00:51,240 --> 00:00:54,280 to his speeches an intense physicality 13 00:00:54,280 --> 00:00:57,320 and almost operatic, maniacal energy. 14 00:00:57,320 --> 00:00:59,400 And when you look at them side by side, 15 00:00:59,400 --> 00:01:01,520 it's not difficult to see how Mahler, 16 00:01:01,520 --> 00:01:04,200 the great maestro with his arms soaring 17 00:01:04,200 --> 00:01:06,560 and his fists pumping the air, 18 00:01:06,560 --> 00:01:09,280 might well have inspired the Fuhrer's own 19 00:01:09,280 --> 00:01:12,720 volcanic, fatally compelling style. 20 00:01:16,200 --> 00:01:18,360 But when Hitler came to power, 21 00:01:18,360 --> 00:01:21,640 Mahler's music was banned because he was Jewish. 22 00:01:25,520 --> 00:01:30,200 This time, I'm exploring the power of music in the dark 1930s, when 23 00:01:30,200 --> 00:01:33,360 the soundtracks to Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia 24 00:01:33,360 --> 00:01:35,560 were exploited to forge 25 00:01:35,560 --> 00:01:38,960 national identity and prop up violent ideologies. 26 00:01:41,720 --> 00:01:44,400 You don't decide what the music of the Soviet Union is. 27 00:01:44,400 --> 00:01:45,520 WE decide. 28 00:01:47,120 --> 00:01:49,920 I'll show how music was an instrument 29 00:01:49,920 --> 00:01:53,000 of repression and resistance. 30 00:01:53,000 --> 00:01:56,480 Our life was so cut. 31 00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:58,360 It gave us hope for a short time. 32 00:02:00,560 --> 00:02:03,400 How, for composers, every piece became a battle ground. 33 00:02:05,080 --> 00:02:09,000 You can hear Shostakovich slapping Stalin in the face. 34 00:02:09,000 --> 00:02:11,160 Bam, bam, Bam! 35 00:02:11,160 --> 00:02:13,000 And I'll also be asking whether 36 00:02:13,000 --> 00:02:15,200 music itself has a moral case to answer. 37 00:02:17,000 --> 00:02:21,560 What fascinates me is music's uncanny ability to stir us up, 38 00:02:21,560 --> 00:02:26,400 to calm us down, to express every possible human emotion. 39 00:02:26,400 --> 00:02:31,120 It bypasses language and reason and aims instead directly for our souls, 40 00:02:31,120 --> 00:02:34,600 and that's what makes music so incredibly powerful 41 00:02:34,600 --> 00:02:38,720 and also potentially incredibly dangerous. 42 00:02:56,240 --> 00:02:58,360 In the medieval city of Nuremberg, 43 00:02:58,360 --> 00:03:00,760 the cultural heartland of Germany, 44 00:03:00,760 --> 00:03:04,640 the Nazi party, newly in power in 1933, 45 00:03:04,640 --> 00:03:07,480 gathered together for a rally of victory. 46 00:03:13,400 --> 00:03:15,640 Here, the nation's rich past would 47 00:03:15,640 --> 00:03:18,160 be symbolically linked to the glorious 48 00:03:18,160 --> 00:03:22,240 Nazi future, and music would be crucial. 49 00:03:25,520 --> 00:03:29,200 A performance of Wagner's opera The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg 50 00:03:29,200 --> 00:03:31,440 was to kick off the celebrations there, 51 00:03:31,440 --> 00:03:33,480 and the new Fuhrer, Adolf Hitler, 52 00:03:33,480 --> 00:03:36,960 issued party officials with 1,000 free tickets. 53 00:03:40,760 --> 00:03:42,640 When he arrived in the theatre, 54 00:03:42,640 --> 00:03:46,680 Adolf Hitler was appalled to find that it was nearly empty. 55 00:03:46,680 --> 00:03:50,200 Faced with four-and-a-half hours of heavy-duty opera, 56 00:03:50,200 --> 00:03:52,240 most of the Nazi party rank-and-file 57 00:03:52,240 --> 00:03:56,200 had skived off to one of the numerous beer houses nearby. 58 00:03:56,200 --> 00:03:58,760 The Fuhrer was furious, 59 00:03:58,760 --> 00:04:02,600 and he sent out a patrol to haul them all back to face the music. 60 00:04:02,600 --> 00:04:05,880 For him, this wasn't just an evening of entertainment. 61 00:04:05,880 --> 00:04:10,000 Germany's musical heritage, its great composers like Bach, 62 00:04:10,000 --> 00:04:13,800 Beethoven and Brahms, were what made the country unique, 63 00:04:13,800 --> 00:04:15,520 made it superior. 64 00:04:15,520 --> 00:04:16,920 In Hitler's Third Reich, 65 00:04:16,920 --> 00:04:21,760 music would be instrumental again in making Germany great. 66 00:04:24,600 --> 00:04:27,760 Richard Wagner was Hitler's favourite composer, 67 00:04:27,760 --> 00:04:29,520 and the Fuhrer even liked to claim 68 00:04:29,520 --> 00:04:32,000 it was Wagner's music that had inspired 69 00:04:32,000 --> 00:04:33,920 him to enter politics. 70 00:04:33,920 --> 00:04:36,280 MUSIC: Ride Of The Valkyries by Wagner 71 00:04:39,440 --> 00:04:42,320 Hitler loved Wagner because the music 72 00:04:42,320 --> 00:04:44,360 had a kind of grandeur and mysticism 73 00:04:44,360 --> 00:04:47,960 and he could lose himself in the kind of passion and intensity of 74 00:04:47,960 --> 00:04:49,000 the work. 75 00:04:50,960 --> 00:04:55,600 Wagner allows the audience to be kind of seduced into not thinking 76 00:04:55,600 --> 00:04:57,200 and just being overwhelmed. 77 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:09,920 It wasn't just the emotive seduction of the music that the Fuhrer adored 78 00:05:09,920 --> 00:05:13,800 but also the stories of Wagner's operas, 79 00:05:13,800 --> 00:05:16,680 epic German fantasies about nationhood, 80 00:05:16,680 --> 00:05:21,280 destiny and sacrifice with immortals like the Valkyries riding across 81 00:05:21,280 --> 00:05:24,480 the sky, inciting men to make war. 82 00:05:36,280 --> 00:05:37,800 The music of Wagner is creating 83 00:05:37,800 --> 00:05:44,200 a different world and speaks of gods and speaks of power 84 00:05:44,200 --> 00:05:48,200 and speaks of very grand feelings, very heroic feelings, 85 00:05:48,200 --> 00:05:51,720 something that, of course, attracted Hitler very much, 86 00:05:51,720 --> 00:05:55,440 creating myths and creating a society, creating an idea... 87 00:05:57,080 --> 00:05:58,800 ..inhuman, in a way. 88 00:06:15,760 --> 00:06:21,080 Wagner had also been a fervent nationalist and anti-Semite. 89 00:06:21,080 --> 00:06:24,120 Hitler venerated his whole worldview. 90 00:06:26,040 --> 00:06:29,280 Wagner had been the great champion of the Gesamtkunstwerk, 91 00:06:29,280 --> 00:06:33,680 a total work of art where music, drama, costume, 92 00:06:33,680 --> 00:06:38,640 stunning visuals, all came together to create an epic and intoxicating 93 00:06:38,640 --> 00:06:42,440 spectacle, and that was exactly what Hitler wanted to achieve, 94 00:06:42,440 --> 00:06:45,440 to turn the Third Reich into a grand opera. 95 00:06:45,440 --> 00:06:48,080 For the Nazis, politics itself would 96 00:06:48,080 --> 00:06:50,520 become a new kind of performance art. 97 00:06:54,560 --> 00:06:56,000 BAND PLAYS 98 00:06:59,640 --> 00:07:04,360 It was music that underpinned Nazi pomp and pageantry, 99 00:07:04,360 --> 00:07:07,880 creating a powerful display of national unity. 100 00:07:20,760 --> 00:07:25,760 This was the stage set for those immersive Nazi spectaculars, 101 00:07:25,760 --> 00:07:29,320 party rallies immaculately choreographed to music, 102 00:07:29,320 --> 00:07:34,760 bands playing, tens of thousands of people marching perfectly in unison, 103 00:07:34,760 --> 00:07:37,080 and Hitler up there on the podium, 104 00:07:37,080 --> 00:07:40,480 waving his arms about like the supreme conductor. 105 00:07:41,920 --> 00:07:43,520 HE SPEAKS IN GERMAN 106 00:07:45,680 --> 00:07:48,760 When he addressed the crowds here in 1933, 107 00:07:48,760 --> 00:07:52,000 Hitler intentionally used the phrase that closes 108 00:07:52,000 --> 00:07:55,440 Wagner's opera The Mastersingers Of Nuremberg. 109 00:07:55,440 --> 00:07:58,200 "Wach auf," he said - "Awake!" 110 00:07:58,200 --> 00:08:01,840 He'd taken the Gesamtkunstwerk out of the opera house 111 00:08:01,840 --> 00:08:06,760 and created an emotional, spiritual, almost religious experience 112 00:08:06,760 --> 00:08:10,080 to rouse the entire German nation. 113 00:08:46,320 --> 00:08:50,560 The rebirth of German culture was to include bringing the musical 114 00:08:50,560 --> 00:08:54,440 tradition to the masses, and the Nazis invested heavily. 115 00:08:56,560 --> 00:09:00,800 It was an idea of a long-term education of the people. 116 00:09:00,800 --> 00:09:04,360 They spent a lot of money giving concert tickets very cheaply, 117 00:09:04,360 --> 00:09:06,840 giving a lot of money to the concerts. 118 00:09:06,840 --> 00:09:09,760 For example, the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 119 00:09:09,760 --> 00:09:11,840 would not, could not have survived otherwise. 120 00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:15,360 And if one speaks to elderly people today, they say, yes, 121 00:09:15,360 --> 00:09:17,680 Hitler was not in principle very good, 122 00:09:17,680 --> 00:09:19,840 but he did some good things, 123 00:09:19,840 --> 00:09:22,160 this was he brought work for the people, 124 00:09:22,160 --> 00:09:25,760 he built the autobahn and he had wonderful music. 125 00:09:25,760 --> 00:09:27,920 It's like, what have the Nazis ever done for us? 126 00:09:27,920 --> 00:09:31,120 I mean, forget the fact that they rewrote cultural history and human 127 00:09:31,120 --> 00:09:34,240 history, but we have still got the Berlin Philharmonic! 128 00:09:36,880 --> 00:09:41,440 Classical music gave the Nazis a veneer of respectability. 129 00:09:41,440 --> 00:09:44,240 These weren't thugs, they were civilised people, 130 00:09:44,240 --> 00:09:47,440 they loved Bach and Beethoven and Wagner. 131 00:09:47,440 --> 00:09:50,080 The problem with that, for me, 132 00:09:50,080 --> 00:09:53,760 is that I also love Bach and Beethoven and Wagner. 133 00:09:53,760 --> 00:09:57,800 And it makes me realise, I think, at a very subconscious level, 134 00:09:57,800 --> 00:10:00,080 that I think I've always assumed 135 00:10:00,080 --> 00:10:02,920 that classical music was a good thing. 136 00:10:02,920 --> 00:10:07,120 That it's somehow noble or civilised to love it. 137 00:10:07,120 --> 00:10:10,080 And yet, when you think about the relationship between music and 138 00:10:10,080 --> 00:10:13,520 National Socialism, that is patently nonsense. 139 00:10:13,520 --> 00:10:17,120 Merely listening to or loving classical music 140 00:10:17,120 --> 00:10:19,960 does not make you a good person. 141 00:10:43,120 --> 00:10:46,680 The Nazi enthusiasm for classical music didn't mean 142 00:10:46,680 --> 00:10:48,800 they loved all of it. 143 00:11:13,200 --> 00:11:17,640 You'd have thought something as simply beautiful as that could not 144 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:20,320 be considered politically dangerous. 145 00:11:20,320 --> 00:11:24,320 But in Nazi Germany, this music was prohibited because Mendelssohn, 146 00:11:24,320 --> 00:11:26,200 its composer, had Jewish heritage. 147 00:11:26,200 --> 00:11:30,320 Never mind that he was long dead and had been baptised as a Christian. 148 00:11:30,320 --> 00:11:32,640 When the Nazis came to power, 149 00:11:32,640 --> 00:11:36,440 they set about creating institutions that would censor and control the 150 00:11:36,440 --> 00:11:40,120 kind of music that would be played and the people who would play it. 151 00:11:40,120 --> 00:11:45,080 Anything they considered undesirable was labelled "Entartete Musik" - 152 00:11:45,080 --> 00:11:46,680 degenerate music. 153 00:11:49,960 --> 00:11:52,760 No surprise that, to the racist Nazis, 154 00:11:52,760 --> 00:11:56,640 music with a Jewish connection was considered degenerate, 155 00:11:56,640 --> 00:11:59,080 a threat to German cultural purity. 156 00:12:00,920 --> 00:12:03,600 The Nazis said music was 157 00:12:03,600 --> 00:12:07,360 an instrument to educate the racial soul. 158 00:12:07,360 --> 00:12:12,240 They thought that Jewish blood would influence the character of the music 159 00:12:12,240 --> 00:12:14,640 and something bad would come. 160 00:12:14,640 --> 00:12:16,960 Because it's not racially pure? 161 00:12:16,960 --> 00:12:18,880 I mean, it's nuts, it's like craziness. 162 00:12:18,880 --> 00:12:21,440 It is crazy. Mendelssohn sounded very Germanic 163 00:12:21,440 --> 00:12:24,160 but it was not. They said it looks like Germanic, 164 00:12:24,160 --> 00:12:26,440 it sounds like Germanic but it is not. 165 00:12:26,440 --> 00:12:28,360 The real Germanic is only Bach, 166 00:12:28,360 --> 00:12:31,400 Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and so on. 167 00:12:31,400 --> 00:12:36,160 And if we only play good German music, 168 00:12:36,160 --> 00:12:39,200 then the Germanic people will be a better people. 169 00:12:42,600 --> 00:12:44,960 As increasing Nazi persecution 170 00:12:44,960 --> 00:12:48,960 targeted Jews in every aspect of daily life, 171 00:12:48,960 --> 00:12:51,560 music by Jewish composers ceased to be played 172 00:12:51,560 --> 00:12:54,920 and Jewish musicians were prevented from working. 173 00:12:58,040 --> 00:13:02,480 To avoid musical contamination spreading unchecked, 174 00:13:02,480 --> 00:13:05,800 there were even handy reference books with thousands of entries. 175 00:13:07,920 --> 00:13:11,800 So, this is the utterly compelling Music And Race, 176 00:13:11,800 --> 00:13:14,480 something to send you to sleep at night, if you need that. 177 00:13:14,480 --> 00:13:17,520 This is a very catchy title, this one. 178 00:13:17,520 --> 00:13:20,480 "Judentum und Musik" - Jews and Music ABC. 179 00:13:20,480 --> 00:13:24,240 This is the Nazis' attempt at a comprehensive blacklist 180 00:13:24,240 --> 00:13:27,520 of everybody they thought was musically verboten. 181 00:13:27,520 --> 00:13:31,400 So, you get everybody in here, from the piano teacher up the road, 182 00:13:31,400 --> 00:13:35,960 to the kind of biggest international figures anywhere on the music scene. 183 00:13:35,960 --> 00:13:40,160 If I just take a look at some Kleins, none of them any relation, 184 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:44,760 but let's see, we've got Bernard Klein from Berlin, composer. 185 00:13:44,760 --> 00:13:49,160 Charles Klein, who is a librettist from London, Saul Klein, 186 00:13:49,160 --> 00:13:52,240 pop music composer from New York. 187 00:13:52,240 --> 00:13:55,640 I mean, there is literally anybody you could possibly think of here. 188 00:13:55,640 --> 00:13:58,200 Gustav Mahler gets quite a lengthy entry 189 00:13:58,200 --> 00:14:02,280 and, of course, Felix Mendelssohn is in there. 190 00:14:02,280 --> 00:14:04,480 It's just, to me, 191 00:14:04,480 --> 00:14:08,320 a kind of stunning testament to how powerful the Nazis must have felt 192 00:14:08,320 --> 00:14:12,960 Jewish influence in music was - it NEEDED to be silenced. 193 00:14:15,680 --> 00:14:20,240 The Third Reich's cultural establishment was soon "Judenfrei" - 194 00:14:20,240 --> 00:14:22,000 free of Jews. 195 00:14:52,760 --> 00:14:55,760 But whatever propaganda chief Joseph Goebbels claimed, 196 00:14:55,760 --> 00:14:58,240 the Nazis were depriving music-loving Germans 197 00:14:58,240 --> 00:15:00,680 of some of their favourite tunes. 198 00:15:00,680 --> 00:15:02,520 MUSIC: Wedding March by Mendelssohn 199 00:15:13,000 --> 00:15:15,120 I'm sure you recognise this piece. 200 00:15:15,120 --> 00:15:17,880 Maybe you walked down the aisle to it. 201 00:15:17,880 --> 00:15:20,400 It's Mendelssohn's famous Wedding March 202 00:15:20,400 --> 00:15:21,920 from A Midsummer Night's Dream. 203 00:15:31,760 --> 00:15:33,880 It was, of course, banned. 204 00:15:33,880 --> 00:15:37,480 But so much missed that the Nazis tried to fill the void by paying 205 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:41,120 approved composers to write alternatives. 206 00:15:41,120 --> 00:15:45,240 More than 40 new scores for A Midsummer Night's Dream were 207 00:15:45,240 --> 00:15:46,960 tried, but none of them won over the public. 208 00:15:48,280 --> 00:15:52,040 It seems you can't just magic up musical genius. 209 00:15:58,360 --> 00:16:00,040 MUSIC: The Mooche by Duke Ellington 210 00:16:04,720 --> 00:16:08,840 To the Nazis, it wasn't just Jewish blood that was degenerate, 211 00:16:08,840 --> 00:16:10,960 they also tried to silence music 212 00:16:10,960 --> 00:16:13,920 that was avant-garde, somehow left wing, 213 00:16:13,920 --> 00:16:16,200 or, like this Duke Ellington track, 214 00:16:16,200 --> 00:16:18,480 what the Nazis called "Negermusik". 215 00:16:24,280 --> 00:16:28,080 In 1938, all that was judged a corrupting influence 216 00:16:28,080 --> 00:16:29,440 on German music, 217 00:16:29,440 --> 00:16:33,600 was even gathered together in a truly weird exhibition. 218 00:16:36,120 --> 00:16:38,360 The catalogue cover sums it up, 219 00:16:38,360 --> 00:16:42,560 a caricature of a black man with the Jewish Star of David and a gypsy 220 00:16:42,560 --> 00:16:44,880 earring playing jazz. 221 00:16:48,040 --> 00:16:51,920 Showcasing the inferiority of the supposed degenerates, 222 00:16:51,920 --> 00:16:53,760 the Nazis thoughtfully provided 223 00:16:53,760 --> 00:16:56,880 audio booths where you could hear banned music. 224 00:17:01,040 --> 00:17:05,160 Ironically, long queues formed of Germans eager for a taste 225 00:17:05,160 --> 00:17:07,760 of forbidden musical fruit. 226 00:17:11,480 --> 00:17:14,560 The only other way to hear it was if you were Jewish. 227 00:17:18,120 --> 00:17:23,160 Berlin's Rykestrase Synagogue became one of the venues for 228 00:17:23,160 --> 00:17:24,880 the Kulturbund, a new cultural society. 229 00:17:27,200 --> 00:17:28,680 Set up in 1933, 230 00:17:28,680 --> 00:17:32,480 here Jewish musicians and actors who had been thrown out of work, 231 00:17:32,480 --> 00:17:36,320 were allowed to perform, though only to fellow Jews. 232 00:17:40,120 --> 00:17:43,160 The Nazis strictly controlled their repertoire. 233 00:17:44,960 --> 00:17:49,160 Kulturbund concerts were shut tight behind closed doors. 234 00:17:49,160 --> 00:17:51,720 Non-Jews were not allowed to attend, 235 00:17:51,720 --> 00:17:55,960 Jewish performers could play, say, Mendelssohn, but Aryan composers, 236 00:17:55,960 --> 00:17:59,200 Beethoven, Bruckner, Wagner, were banned. 237 00:17:59,200 --> 00:18:03,360 This was musical apartheid, a kind of sonic ghetto. 238 00:18:06,160 --> 00:18:10,680 Soon, over a third of Germany's half a million Jews had joined 239 00:18:10,680 --> 00:18:12,240 the Kulturbund. 240 00:18:15,720 --> 00:18:19,120 Music became a kind of a refuge from the persecutions 241 00:18:19,120 --> 00:18:20,960 of their daily lives. 242 00:18:23,800 --> 00:18:26,840 95-year-old Margot Friedlander 243 00:18:26,840 --> 00:18:30,480 performed with the Berlin Kulturbund in the 1930s. 244 00:18:32,120 --> 00:18:35,480 Was there one particular production or a show that you did 245 00:18:35,480 --> 00:18:38,640 that you really loved doing? 246 00:18:38,640 --> 00:18:40,200 Yes, Grafin Mariza. 247 00:18:40,200 --> 00:18:43,280 Emmerich Kalman's... Emmerich Kalman's Grafin Mariza. 248 00:18:43,280 --> 00:18:46,000 So that's a great, fun operetta. 249 00:18:46,000 --> 00:18:50,320 It was great fun, and every evening was a fun evening. 250 00:18:50,320 --> 00:18:54,480 When we played, we had to wear these short pants 251 00:18:54,480 --> 00:18:56,120 and I had wonderful legs. 252 00:18:56,120 --> 00:18:58,160 But it was wonderful. 253 00:18:58,160 --> 00:19:04,200 It was something that is very hard for me 254 00:19:04,200 --> 00:19:06,520 to describe 255 00:19:06,520 --> 00:19:09,600 what it meant for us. 256 00:19:09,600 --> 00:19:13,240 It gave us a hope 257 00:19:13,240 --> 00:19:15,560 for a short time. 258 00:19:15,560 --> 00:19:18,480 You came from this very cultured world... 259 00:19:18,480 --> 00:19:22,120 Yes. ..which almost overnight kind of disappeared. 260 00:19:22,120 --> 00:19:29,160 Yes, you were not allowed to be in the street any more after eight. 261 00:19:29,160 --> 00:19:33,040 You're not allowed to buy newspapers. 262 00:19:33,040 --> 00:19:38,680 You're not allowed to have animals, cats or dogs. 263 00:19:38,680 --> 00:19:44,760 You cannot go shopping except from four to five in the afternoon. 264 00:19:44,760 --> 00:19:51,840 Our life was so cut into nothing. 265 00:19:51,840 --> 00:19:55,160 What was there for us? 266 00:19:55,160 --> 00:19:57,280 The Kulturbund could 267 00:19:57,280 --> 00:20:01,040 give us Jews 268 00:20:01,040 --> 00:20:02,040 a home. 269 00:20:03,800 --> 00:20:11,080 Could give us something that we loved and naturally missed. 270 00:20:11,080 --> 00:20:15,520 And it gave us the feeling we are alive. 271 00:20:18,200 --> 00:20:22,720 Margot was eventually sent to the Theresienstadt concentration camp. 272 00:20:25,080 --> 00:20:27,800 She was the only member of her family to survive. 273 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:38,920 Even a musician considered Aryan to the core 274 00:20:38,920 --> 00:20:42,680 could find working under the Nazis politically perilous. 275 00:20:45,280 --> 00:20:49,040 The choice, to collaborate or risk the consequences. 276 00:20:50,600 --> 00:20:53,440 Garmisch-Partenkirchen was the home of Germany's 277 00:20:53,440 --> 00:20:56,280 greatest living composer, Richard Strauss. 278 00:20:58,080 --> 00:21:02,080 He would find himself on a moral precipice as the Nazis sought to 279 00:21:02,080 --> 00:21:05,440 capitalise on his international reputation. 280 00:21:08,600 --> 00:21:13,040 Never a modest man, Strauss was always convinced of his own genius, 281 00:21:13,040 --> 00:21:18,080 the last in a line, as he saw it, of great German composers like Bach, 282 00:21:18,080 --> 00:21:20,320 Beethoven, Schubert and Brahms. 283 00:21:20,320 --> 00:21:24,680 "I am the final mountain of a large mountain range," he once said, 284 00:21:24,680 --> 00:21:26,640 with typical self-deprecation. 285 00:21:26,640 --> 00:21:29,720 "After me, come the flatlands." 286 00:21:33,840 --> 00:21:39,280 Strauss was asked in 1933 to become the official face of German music, 287 00:21:39,280 --> 00:21:43,440 president of the Reich Music Chamber, the RMK. 288 00:21:45,600 --> 00:21:48,560 By accepting, he seemed to give credibility 289 00:21:48,560 --> 00:21:51,600 to the Nazi's repressive music policies. 290 00:21:54,640 --> 00:21:57,400 Why did Richard Strauss take the job? 291 00:21:57,400 --> 00:22:00,160 He was already famous, he didn't need the money, 292 00:22:00,160 --> 00:22:03,200 and he certainly wasn't a card-carrying Nazi, 293 00:22:03,200 --> 00:22:05,840 he wasn't remotely interested in politics. 294 00:22:05,840 --> 00:22:08,120 I think this was about vanity. 295 00:22:08,120 --> 00:22:13,720 For Strauss, what mattered most was German culture and his place in it. 296 00:22:13,720 --> 00:22:17,200 He had been banging on for years about issues that were close to 297 00:22:17,200 --> 00:22:19,800 his heart, things like copyright, royalties, 298 00:22:19,800 --> 00:22:21,600 German music youth education, 299 00:22:21,600 --> 00:22:24,080 and nobody had really paid him much attention. 300 00:22:24,080 --> 00:22:26,720 Maybe now things would be different. 301 00:22:26,720 --> 00:22:31,560 When Hitler came to power, Strauss's response was, "Thank God, 302 00:22:31,560 --> 00:22:36,160 "at last a Reich Chancellor who is interested in art." 303 00:22:39,320 --> 00:22:42,880 In his role as head honcho of the Reich Music Chamber, 304 00:22:42,880 --> 00:22:45,480 Strauss socialised with Nazi leaders, 305 00:22:45,480 --> 00:22:47,640 appeared at state occasions, 306 00:22:47,640 --> 00:22:50,480 and sometimes stepped in to replace Jewish conductors 307 00:22:50,480 --> 00:22:52,080 who had been ousted. 308 00:22:56,200 --> 00:22:57,560 This is his family home, 309 00:22:57,560 --> 00:23:00,240 and it's still owned by his grandson, Christian. 310 00:23:02,400 --> 00:23:04,840 What kind of a grandfather was he? 311 00:23:04,840 --> 00:23:06,960 What kind of a man do you remember him being? 312 00:23:22,640 --> 00:23:26,800 For many years, there was a taint that hung over him 313 00:23:26,800 --> 00:23:30,160 because of the 1930s, the 1940s. 314 00:23:30,160 --> 00:23:33,200 Thinking back to the decisions he had to make, 315 00:23:33,200 --> 00:23:35,400 how hard was that for him? 316 00:24:16,960 --> 00:24:19,000 This was a dangerous game, 317 00:24:19,000 --> 00:24:21,400 playing along with the Nazi regime 318 00:24:21,400 --> 00:24:24,000 while also trying to keep his distance. 319 00:24:27,040 --> 00:24:32,200 Strauss wanted prestige, but to protect his family too. 320 00:24:32,200 --> 00:24:36,280 His daughter-in-law, glimpsed in this home movie, was Jewish. 321 00:24:57,920 --> 00:25:00,400 If your grandfather hadn't taken that job with the RMK, 322 00:25:00,400 --> 00:25:02,120 what would've happened to him? 323 00:25:11,680 --> 00:25:17,560 Strauss's troubles would come to a head in 1935 over his new opera, 324 00:25:17,560 --> 00:25:19,960 Die Schweigsame Frau - The Silent Woman. 325 00:25:23,000 --> 00:25:27,320 He had chosen to work with a famous Austrian writer, Stefan Zweig, 326 00:25:27,320 --> 00:25:28,360 who was Jewish. 327 00:25:32,000 --> 00:25:34,040 Stefan Zweig wrote to Strauss, 328 00:25:34,040 --> 00:25:36,480 complaining about the terrible treatment 329 00:25:36,480 --> 00:25:38,680 of his fellow Jews in Germany. 330 00:25:38,680 --> 00:25:41,760 Strauss writes a response which goes like this. 331 00:25:41,760 --> 00:25:46,720 "Do you believe that Mozart was consciously Aryan when he composed? 332 00:25:46,720 --> 00:25:50,680 "Do you believe that I am guided by the notion of being Germanic? 333 00:25:50,680 --> 00:25:53,160 "For me, there are only two types of people, 334 00:25:53,160 --> 00:25:55,680 "those with talent and those with none. 335 00:25:55,680 --> 00:25:58,120 "It has nothing to do with politics". 336 00:25:59,560 --> 00:26:02,920 Unfortunately, for Strauss, it had everything to do with politics. 337 00:26:02,920 --> 00:26:05,560 This letter was intercepted by the Gestapo 338 00:26:05,560 --> 00:26:07,480 and then, just a few days later, 339 00:26:07,480 --> 00:26:10,560 there was a huge row about the opera that Zweig and Strauss 340 00:26:10,560 --> 00:26:13,560 had been working on together, Die Schweigsame Frau, 341 00:26:13,560 --> 00:26:17,200 because the Nazis wanted to take Zweig's name off any of the posters, 342 00:26:17,200 --> 00:26:20,400 any of the programmes, to deny that he had any part in it. 343 00:26:20,400 --> 00:26:24,280 Strauss went ballistic, insisted that Zweig's name was put back. 344 00:26:24,280 --> 00:26:26,280 And here it is on the programme. 345 00:26:26,280 --> 00:26:29,480 But a line had been crossed for the Nazis. 346 00:26:29,480 --> 00:26:31,800 Richard Strauss had critiqued them in public, 347 00:26:31,800 --> 00:26:35,600 he had insisted that a Jewish colleague's name appear in print. 348 00:26:35,600 --> 00:26:38,960 And he lost his job and his opera was banned. 349 00:26:41,840 --> 00:26:45,360 With his ego wounded and fearful for his family, 350 00:26:45,360 --> 00:26:48,760 Strauss still tried to maintain his relationship with the Nazis. 351 00:26:51,400 --> 00:26:54,160 He wrote a grovelling letter of apology to Hitler 352 00:26:54,160 --> 00:26:57,240 and continued to conduct at high-profile events 353 00:26:57,240 --> 00:27:00,040 like the 1936 Berlin Olympics. 354 00:27:11,160 --> 00:27:13,680 But he never fully found his way back into favour. 355 00:27:15,600 --> 00:27:17,600 The conductor Toscanini once said, 356 00:27:17,600 --> 00:27:21,440 "To Richard Strauss the composer, I take off my hat, 357 00:27:21,440 --> 00:27:24,720 "to Richard Strauss the man, I put it back on again." 358 00:27:24,720 --> 00:27:26,120 Now, I'm not sure we can judge 359 00:27:26,120 --> 00:27:28,880 Strauss in black-and-white like that. It's not that simple. 360 00:27:28,880 --> 00:27:32,480 After all, if you were living under the regime, what would you do? 361 00:27:32,480 --> 00:27:35,920 I know I would do everything that I could to protect my family, 362 00:27:35,920 --> 00:27:37,680 to protect my livelihood. 363 00:27:37,680 --> 00:27:39,320 I would work within that system. 364 00:27:39,320 --> 00:27:42,360 It's not very brave, it's not very moral, 365 00:27:42,360 --> 00:27:46,160 but it is what real people do when they're living in a nightmare. 366 00:27:51,120 --> 00:27:53,200 We tend to put these composers on a pedestal. 367 00:27:53,200 --> 00:27:56,520 We expect them to behave better than other people. 368 00:27:56,520 --> 00:27:59,240 I think that's wrong, actually. 369 00:27:59,240 --> 00:28:03,160 Why should a composer necessarily be more or less selfish than 370 00:28:03,160 --> 00:28:04,840 any ordinary other person? 371 00:28:09,440 --> 00:28:12,400 I do think we're allowed to judge the composer, 372 00:28:12,400 --> 00:28:14,800 I do think we're allowed to do that. 373 00:28:14,800 --> 00:28:19,840 And I think as soon as you express yourself in a way that's political 374 00:28:19,840 --> 00:28:24,840 or that has influence in society, 375 00:28:24,840 --> 00:28:27,480 you have the responsibility to make the right choices. 376 00:28:39,400 --> 00:28:43,680 Strauss's difficult choices haunted him. 377 00:28:43,680 --> 00:28:46,960 In Metamorphosen, written in the closing months of the war, 378 00:28:46,960 --> 00:28:49,840 he seems to reflect upon his shattered hopes 379 00:28:49,840 --> 00:28:53,880 and the painful complexities of his experiences. 380 00:28:59,960 --> 00:29:02,600 It's music of anguish and sorrow, 381 00:29:02,600 --> 00:29:07,120 foreshadowing Strauss's own imminent death and lamenting the destruction 382 00:29:07,120 --> 00:29:11,120 of the Germany he knew and the culture he loved. 383 00:30:02,560 --> 00:30:06,120 If being a composer in Nazi Germany was difficult, 384 00:30:06,120 --> 00:30:09,480 in the Soviet Union, it could be terrifying. 385 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:14,240 Nearly two decades after the revolution, 386 00:30:14,240 --> 00:30:18,760 its idealistic promise of a brave new world had given way to the firm 387 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,640 grip of totalitarian control. 388 00:30:27,240 --> 00:30:30,680 In January 1936, Dmitri Shostakovich, 389 00:30:30,680 --> 00:30:33,960 the young superstar of Soviet music, 390 00:30:33,960 --> 00:30:38,040 arrived at the theatre in a state of nervous excitement. 391 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:45,000 His opera Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk 392 00:30:45,000 --> 00:30:48,280 was already a huge hit with the public, 393 00:30:48,280 --> 00:30:52,240 but, tonight, there would be a special guest in the audience. 394 00:30:53,880 --> 00:30:55,360 Imagine the scene, 395 00:30:55,360 --> 00:30:58,440 Shostakovich scanning the audience and in particular the box where he 396 00:30:58,440 --> 00:31:01,440 could see several influential members of the politburo 397 00:31:01,440 --> 00:31:04,120 laughing and chatting before the curtain went up. 398 00:31:04,120 --> 00:31:06,080 They seemed to be enjoying themselves. 399 00:31:06,080 --> 00:31:09,400 But Shostakovich was acutely aware that also up in that box, 400 00:31:09,400 --> 00:31:11,400 concealed behind a curtain, 401 00:31:11,400 --> 00:31:16,000 was a small, moustachioed man whose reaction could make or break 402 00:31:16,000 --> 00:31:18,680 his career. Josef Stalin. 403 00:31:21,080 --> 00:31:25,600 The supreme leader's opinion was all-important. 404 00:31:25,600 --> 00:31:29,120 Stalin, like Hitler, took a keen interest in culture, 405 00:31:29,120 --> 00:31:31,920 believing it played a crucial role in society. 406 00:31:45,280 --> 00:31:48,800 Lady Macbeth Of Mtsensk is a pretty grisly tale. 407 00:31:48,800 --> 00:31:52,000 An adulterous Russian housewife murders her husband, 408 00:31:52,000 --> 00:31:54,520 kills her father-in-law with rat poison, 409 00:31:54,520 --> 00:31:58,240 gets sent to a Siberian labour camp and ends up dead. 410 00:31:58,240 --> 00:32:00,600 It is a brilliant, hard-hitting piece. 411 00:32:10,320 --> 00:32:14,040 Shostakovich was on the edge of his seat, nervous, excited, 412 00:32:14,040 --> 00:32:17,280 to see what the general secretary made of his opera. 413 00:32:17,280 --> 00:32:20,920 His stomach dropped when he looked up to the box and saw that Stalin 414 00:32:20,920 --> 00:32:23,360 had walked out before the show was over. 415 00:32:26,080 --> 00:32:29,800 Shostakovich left the theatre feeling, as he said to a friend, 416 00:32:29,800 --> 00:32:31,240 "sick at heart". 417 00:32:35,000 --> 00:32:37,200 And he was right to be worried. 418 00:32:37,200 --> 00:32:41,240 Two days later, Pravda, the official Communist Party newspaper, 419 00:32:41,240 --> 00:32:45,000 printed an anonymous article condemning Lady Macbeth. 420 00:32:46,720 --> 00:32:50,720 And anyone who was anyone read Pravda. 421 00:32:50,720 --> 00:32:54,760 This is one of the most important musical documents of the whole of 422 00:32:54,760 --> 00:32:56,240 the 20th century. 423 00:32:56,240 --> 00:32:57,920 I've known about this, 424 00:32:57,920 --> 00:33:00,520 I've read about this for the best part of a quarter of a century, 425 00:33:00,520 --> 00:33:05,960 so to have an original from 1936 in my hands is genuinely very exciting. 426 00:33:05,960 --> 00:33:07,880 And it's also really chilling, 427 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:11,080 because this marks a turning point 428 00:33:11,080 --> 00:33:14,920 in the relationship between the state and its creative artists. 429 00:33:14,920 --> 00:33:18,160 The headline here is "Muddle, instead of music." 430 00:33:18,160 --> 00:33:22,440 And right from the start, it is the most blistering attack. 431 00:33:22,440 --> 00:33:26,040 "Here is music deliberately turned inside out. 432 00:33:26,040 --> 00:33:28,360 "It quacks, grunts and growls. 433 00:33:28,360 --> 00:33:32,440 "It tickles the perverted taste of the bourgeoisie. 434 00:33:32,440 --> 00:33:35,200 "The composer has ignored the demands of Soviet culture 435 00:33:35,200 --> 00:33:38,520 "that all coarseness and savagery be abolished 436 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:41,360 "from every corner of Soviet life." 437 00:33:41,360 --> 00:33:44,800 This wasn't just a bad review, this was a crushing blow, 438 00:33:44,800 --> 00:33:46,800 and it came from the very top. 439 00:33:46,800 --> 00:33:49,040 They were rumours that Stalin himself wrote this. 440 00:33:49,040 --> 00:33:52,120 At the very least, it had his full support. 441 00:33:52,120 --> 00:33:56,200 For Shostakovich, one phrase was particularly frightening - 442 00:33:56,200 --> 00:34:02,200 "this is a clever game of ingenuity that may end very badly." 443 00:34:04,280 --> 00:34:09,960 Shostakovich knew a bad end in Stalin's brutal Soviet Union could 444 00:34:09,960 --> 00:34:11,960 be terminal. 445 00:34:11,960 --> 00:34:18,720 Stalin was paranoid, obsessed with destroying all potential opponents. 446 00:34:18,720 --> 00:34:23,400 He had begun a mass purge in which millions were arrested on trumped up 447 00:34:23,400 --> 00:34:27,880 charges, and then sent to the slave labour camps of the Gulag, 448 00:34:27,880 --> 00:34:29,400 or executed. 449 00:34:31,720 --> 00:34:33,960 Everyone lived in fear. 450 00:34:37,640 --> 00:34:39,480 This was the Great Terror, 451 00:34:39,480 --> 00:34:43,960 violent political repression on an unprecedented scale. 452 00:34:52,800 --> 00:34:56,400 The public attack on Shostakovich signalled that the arts were under 453 00:34:56,400 --> 00:34:58,880 fierce scrutiny too. 454 00:34:58,880 --> 00:35:03,200 Writing the wrong notes could make a composer an enemy of the state. 455 00:35:06,440 --> 00:35:11,200 Stalin demanded that all creative artists should be instruments of his 456 00:35:11,200 --> 00:35:14,000 vision of the new Soviet society. 457 00:35:16,360 --> 00:35:18,840 Their duty was to create a culture 458 00:35:18,840 --> 00:35:21,920 imbued with positive Soviet values that the masses 459 00:35:21,920 --> 00:35:24,320 could easily understand. 460 00:35:31,640 --> 00:35:35,800 In the visual arts, that meant bright and cheerful paintings 461 00:35:35,800 --> 00:35:37,520 of well-fed, happy Russians. 462 00:35:39,960 --> 00:35:45,160 And statues like these, of heroic soldiers and contented peasants. 463 00:35:49,960 --> 00:35:54,040 This approved style was called Socialist realism. 464 00:35:55,640 --> 00:35:57,840 Now the same was to apply to music. 465 00:36:00,200 --> 00:36:03,880 The problem for Shostakovich and his fellow composers was that while 466 00:36:03,880 --> 00:36:07,520 everybody knew what socialist realist art should look like, 467 00:36:07,520 --> 00:36:10,240 nobody had the foggiest what socialist realist music 468 00:36:10,240 --> 00:36:11,640 should sound like. 469 00:36:11,640 --> 00:36:13,880 There was a long list of no-nos, of course, 470 00:36:13,880 --> 00:36:16,680 you couldn't write anything to modern, too formalist, 471 00:36:16,680 --> 00:36:21,000 too reactionary, too gloomy, too romantic, too Western. 472 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:25,600 No, what Stalin was after was something that the regular Russian 473 00:36:25,600 --> 00:36:29,200 music lover, a man like himself, perhaps, could really enjoy. 474 00:36:29,200 --> 00:36:33,240 And if you got that wrong, everybody knew the consequences. 475 00:36:35,840 --> 00:36:41,520 Shostakovich lived with his suitcase packed, in constant fear of arrest. 476 00:36:42,680 --> 00:36:45,200 But he never stopped composing. 477 00:36:45,200 --> 00:36:48,280 "Even if they chop my hands off," he said to a friend, 478 00:36:48,280 --> 00:36:50,560 "I will continue to compose music, 479 00:36:50,560 --> 00:36:54,200 "even if I have to hold the pen in my teeth." 480 00:36:57,760 --> 00:37:00,240 Nearly two years after the Pravda attack, 481 00:37:00,240 --> 00:37:02,200 knowing it was make or break, 482 00:37:02,200 --> 00:37:05,520 Shostakovich offered up his Fifth Symphony. 483 00:37:07,280 --> 00:37:10,240 MUSIC: Allegro Non Troppo from Fifth Symphony by Shostakovich 484 00:37:24,720 --> 00:37:27,720 Had Shostakovich succeeded in creating the happy, 485 00:37:27,720 --> 00:37:31,400 optimistic socialist realism Stalin wanted? 486 00:37:48,040 --> 00:37:51,360 It certainly seemed a dramatic change in style 487 00:37:51,360 --> 00:37:53,040 from his Lady Macbeth. 488 00:37:57,880 --> 00:38:03,400 But was Shostakovich's change of tune for or against Stalin? 489 00:38:05,280 --> 00:38:08,440 I hear the victory. I hear the fanfares. 490 00:38:08,440 --> 00:38:10,800 I hear the Russian exhibition of power. 491 00:38:18,560 --> 00:38:23,360 You can hear the symphony as a big triumph for Stalin himself, 492 00:38:23,360 --> 00:38:29,480 or as Russia being the strongest and the best nation in the world. 493 00:38:33,840 --> 00:38:35,280 At the same time, 494 00:38:35,280 --> 00:38:39,640 you can also imagine somebody hearing that music as someone 495 00:38:39,640 --> 00:38:43,280 slapping Stalin in the face, bam, bam, bam, saying, 496 00:38:43,280 --> 00:38:45,920 "Listen, what you are doing is totally wrong." 497 00:39:00,080 --> 00:39:03,360 To me, this music feels like being mauled by a dog 498 00:39:03,360 --> 00:39:05,560 that won't let you go. 499 00:39:05,560 --> 00:39:07,920 It's intense and ferocious. 500 00:39:27,200 --> 00:39:29,520 In the relentless finale, 501 00:39:29,520 --> 00:39:32,800 Shostakovich layers on contradictory harmonies, 502 00:39:32,800 --> 00:39:34,960 neither major nor minor. 503 00:39:34,960 --> 00:39:37,400 Ambiguous to the last. 504 00:39:51,560 --> 00:39:54,560 We can't be sure what Shostakovich intended, 505 00:39:54,560 --> 00:39:58,280 or how each member of the audience interpreted the music. 506 00:39:58,280 --> 00:40:00,160 Triumph or terror? 507 00:40:12,360 --> 00:40:17,080 What we do know is that the premiere ended with wild applause. 508 00:40:25,960 --> 00:40:30,760 This time, the press response wasn't a damning attack from Stalin, 509 00:40:30,760 --> 00:40:34,000 but a serving of humble pie from the composer himself. 510 00:40:35,920 --> 00:40:38,040 Shortly after that first performance, 511 00:40:38,040 --> 00:40:39,840 Shostakovich wrote a newspaper article 512 00:40:39,840 --> 00:40:42,880 stating that his Fifth Symphony was a public apology 513 00:40:42,880 --> 00:40:45,960 for the errors that he'd made in his opera Lady Macbeth. 514 00:40:45,960 --> 00:40:49,840 Only, this being Shostakovich, it wasn't quite as clear cut as that. 515 00:40:49,840 --> 00:40:53,160 He wrote, "If I have succeeded in embodying in music 516 00:40:53,160 --> 00:40:55,240 "all that I have thought and felt 517 00:40:55,240 --> 00:40:57,800 "since that critical article in Pravda, 518 00:40:57,800 --> 00:41:00,680 "if the demanding listener can identify in my music 519 00:41:00,680 --> 00:41:04,600 "a greater clarity and simplicity, then I am satisfied." 520 00:41:04,600 --> 00:41:08,360 And that's a lot of ifs for somebody who's really trying to say sorry. 521 00:41:08,360 --> 00:41:11,400 Shostakovich was learning the subtleties and nuances 522 00:41:11,400 --> 00:41:13,160 of playing the political game. 523 00:41:15,840 --> 00:41:20,640 For now, at least, he'd hit the right notes with the authorities, 524 00:41:20,640 --> 00:41:22,200 and evaded the Gulag. 525 00:41:24,080 --> 00:41:26,320 There is one way in which Shostakovich 526 00:41:26,320 --> 00:41:29,960 undoubtedly left a message in his music, and it's this... 527 00:41:34,960 --> 00:41:37,600 It's a really odd, haunting little sequence of four notes, 528 00:41:37,600 --> 00:41:39,280 and it turns up all over the place. 529 00:41:39,280 --> 00:41:41,240 It's in several of his pieces. 530 00:41:41,240 --> 00:41:45,320 Now, composers for hundreds of years have loved the idea of making music 531 00:41:45,320 --> 00:41:48,000 a kind of code, where the notes are ciphers, 532 00:41:48,000 --> 00:41:50,800 that correspond to letters of the alphabet. 533 00:41:50,800 --> 00:41:53,520 Bach did it, so did Brahms, so did Schumann, 534 00:41:53,520 --> 00:41:58,280 and Shostakovich's cryptogram is absolutely essential for him. 535 00:41:58,280 --> 00:41:59,400 Let's hear it again... 536 00:42:03,040 --> 00:42:06,520 D, E flat, C, B natural. 537 00:42:06,520 --> 00:42:08,720 Now, in the German system, those notes 538 00:42:08,720 --> 00:42:11,520 correspond to the letters D, S, C, H. 539 00:42:11,520 --> 00:42:14,840 D - Dmitri, S C H - Shostakovich. 540 00:42:14,840 --> 00:42:17,080 And this is his way of saying, 541 00:42:17,080 --> 00:42:20,960 I am putting myself right into the fabric of this music, 542 00:42:20,960 --> 00:42:24,720 and whatever you take it to mean, you cannot obliterate me. 543 00:42:48,960 --> 00:42:51,680 I love those musical cryptograms, 544 00:42:51,680 --> 00:42:56,120 the clues composers leave behind to tantalise us. Crack the code, 545 00:42:56,120 --> 00:42:58,200 we think, and we might just understand 546 00:42:58,200 --> 00:43:01,040 their innermost thoughts and feelings. 547 00:43:01,040 --> 00:43:03,000 Only music isn't that simple. 548 00:43:03,000 --> 00:43:04,880 There are no literal answers, 549 00:43:04,880 --> 00:43:07,440 it allows us to make of it what we will. 550 00:43:07,440 --> 00:43:11,720 And Shostakovich fully exploits that ambiguity in his work. 551 00:43:11,720 --> 00:43:16,600 His music is just a masterpiece of grey areas and doublespeak. 552 00:43:16,600 --> 00:43:19,160 It's a chimera, a shape shifter. 553 00:43:19,160 --> 00:43:23,880 And even someone as all-powerful as Stalin couldn't control that. 554 00:43:34,120 --> 00:43:38,600 Control was exactly what the Soviet authorities demanded. 555 00:43:38,600 --> 00:43:43,040 Music was the perfect tool to inspire enthusiasm and loyalty. 556 00:43:44,400 --> 00:43:47,280 And in organisations like the Young Pioneers, 557 00:43:47,280 --> 00:43:49,000 a kind of communist Scouts, 558 00:43:49,000 --> 00:43:51,640 music helped to instruct the next generation 559 00:43:51,640 --> 00:43:54,000 into the collective way of life. 560 00:44:14,880 --> 00:44:18,760 Julia Maximovar was a Young Pioneer in the 1950s. 561 00:44:31,920 --> 00:44:32,960 It's very... 562 00:44:35,600 --> 00:44:40,480 It is the kind of music to make you want to stand up and march in line. 563 00:44:40,480 --> 00:44:45,120 How much did it instil a sense of belonging in the Young Pioneers, 564 00:44:45,120 --> 00:44:46,280 that music? 565 00:45:03,200 --> 00:45:04,800 Looking back at it now, do you 566 00:45:04,800 --> 00:45:08,160 feel that they really believed in the power of music to get to young 567 00:45:08,160 --> 00:45:10,120 people's minds, and their emotions? 568 00:45:43,520 --> 00:45:49,560 In May 1936, an audience of Young Pioneers was treated to a new piece 569 00:45:49,560 --> 00:45:51,520 written specially for children. 570 00:46:00,920 --> 00:46:03,440 Peter And The Wolf by Sergei Prokofiev 571 00:46:03,440 --> 00:46:05,760 ticked all the right Soviet boxes. 572 00:46:07,200 --> 00:46:10,040 It's a jolly, tuneful, accessible story 573 00:46:10,040 --> 00:46:13,680 about a Young Pioneer who sets out beyond the safety of 574 00:46:13,680 --> 00:46:17,440 his grandfather's gate, on a big adventure. 575 00:46:33,360 --> 00:46:37,720 Gutsy young Peter's Pioneer skills are put to the test as he tries to 576 00:46:37,720 --> 00:46:39,880 escape a wolf in the forest. 577 00:47:14,480 --> 00:47:17,760 The classic musical fairy tale is also a political lesson. 578 00:47:20,320 --> 00:47:22,320 The subtext of Peter And The Wolf 579 00:47:22,320 --> 00:47:26,240 is just absolutely standard Stalinist propaganda, 580 00:47:26,240 --> 00:47:30,640 as delivered in schools all over the country and in Pioneer camps. 581 00:47:30,640 --> 00:47:31,720 Who is the Wolf? 582 00:47:31,720 --> 00:47:35,320 The Wolf is the capitalist saboteur. 583 00:47:35,320 --> 00:47:37,440 Who are the three hunters? 584 00:47:37,440 --> 00:47:40,840 That was the standard depiction of the defence forces. 585 00:47:40,840 --> 00:47:43,320 And the grumpy grandfather who says, 586 00:47:43,320 --> 00:47:47,400 what do you think about going out there, you shouldn't be doing that, 587 00:47:47,400 --> 00:47:49,360 and Peter says I can look after myself - 588 00:47:49,360 --> 00:47:51,240 it's the older generation, 589 00:47:51,240 --> 00:47:53,640 who won't allow the younger generation to take full 590 00:47:53,640 --> 00:47:56,280 responsibilities as a Soviet citizen. 591 00:47:56,280 --> 00:47:57,960 And Peter makes the correct decision, 592 00:47:57,960 --> 00:48:00,840 he disobeys the grandfather. 593 00:48:00,840 --> 00:48:03,400 You've got to give your first loyalty to your school, 594 00:48:03,400 --> 00:48:07,080 to the Pioneers and to Stalin, which is exactly what Peter does. 595 00:48:09,200 --> 00:48:11,920 Peter And The Wolf's composer, Sergei Prokofiev, 596 00:48:11,920 --> 00:48:14,640 would regularly turn his genius for writing 597 00:48:14,640 --> 00:48:18,480 crowd-pleasing melodies to suit the Soviet regime. 598 00:48:21,280 --> 00:48:23,720 Prokofiev was internationally famous, 599 00:48:23,720 --> 00:48:26,080 and had spent the 1920s living abroad. 600 00:48:28,160 --> 00:48:32,240 But he was deeply homesick for Russia, and in 1936, 601 00:48:32,240 --> 00:48:35,920 lured by the promise of prestige and lucrative commissions, 602 00:48:35,920 --> 00:48:38,160 he'd chosen to return. 603 00:48:41,080 --> 00:48:44,440 I think my grandfather really wanted to be back at home. 604 00:48:44,440 --> 00:48:47,440 In his teens and 20s, he'd been a young star, 605 00:48:47,440 --> 00:48:49,760 and had been really successful in Russia. 606 00:48:49,760 --> 00:48:53,200 And he'd never quite recovered that level of success. 607 00:48:53,200 --> 00:48:55,200 I think, like any artist, you want... 608 00:48:55,200 --> 00:48:58,120 you need to be where you are most appreciated. 609 00:48:58,120 --> 00:48:59,680 You need to go where the work is, 610 00:48:59,680 --> 00:49:01,760 and the work was definitely in Russia. 611 00:49:04,520 --> 00:49:08,440 Back in the USSR, Prokofiev was given a swanky apartment, 612 00:49:08,440 --> 00:49:11,880 in one of the most desirable blocks in central Moscow. 613 00:49:11,880 --> 00:49:15,560 He had a maid, a chauffeur, a holiday home. 614 00:49:15,560 --> 00:49:18,680 He was well known for driving around town in a blue car, 615 00:49:18,680 --> 00:49:21,080 when everyone else's was regulation black, 616 00:49:21,080 --> 00:49:24,280 and for sporting flamboyant Parisian clothes. 617 00:49:24,280 --> 00:49:28,000 He must have cut quite a dash in the drab grey atmosphere 618 00:49:28,000 --> 00:49:29,520 of 1930s Moscow. 619 00:49:33,280 --> 00:49:35,760 Prokofiev knew privilege came at a price, 620 00:49:35,760 --> 00:49:37,920 and that to survive under Stalin, 621 00:49:37,920 --> 00:49:40,880 he'd have to prove his commitment to the regime. 622 00:49:42,720 --> 00:49:47,600 He composed overt propaganda pieces, like this, Toast To Stalin, 623 00:49:47,600 --> 00:49:49,960 celebrating the beloved leader's birthday. 624 00:50:06,280 --> 00:50:09,160 That was the best solution, he could just knock something out and then 625 00:50:09,160 --> 00:50:11,000 carry on doing what he wanted to do. 626 00:50:11,000 --> 00:50:15,560 Maybe he might have to do some works that would appease the state, 627 00:50:15,560 --> 00:50:17,520 would fit into requirements. 628 00:50:17,520 --> 00:50:20,560 But, being such a prolific composer, that wasn't difficult for him. 629 00:50:20,560 --> 00:50:24,200 I think he'd always believed somehow that he was invincible and that 630 00:50:24,200 --> 00:50:28,840 people appreciated his talent enough to never come down hard on him. 631 00:50:32,960 --> 00:50:37,240 Prokofiev's phenomenal ability to compose quickly to order, 632 00:50:37,240 --> 00:50:41,320 made him perfect for another Soviet propaganda mission, 633 00:50:41,320 --> 00:50:45,760 reaching the masses in their millions by writing music for film. 634 00:50:48,200 --> 00:50:51,920 There was a huge culture of cinemas, even in the smallest towns. 635 00:50:53,840 --> 00:50:59,480 Cinema really dominated both actual musical culture in the Soviet Union 636 00:50:59,480 --> 00:51:04,480 and the authorities' determination to control it. 637 00:51:04,480 --> 00:51:06,240 Working for the cinema was 638 00:51:06,240 --> 00:51:09,280 the principal occupation of Soviet composers. 639 00:51:12,120 --> 00:51:13,720 In the early 1940s, 640 00:51:13,720 --> 00:51:18,280 Prokofiev worked with pioneering director Sergei Eisenstein, 641 00:51:18,280 --> 00:51:22,120 who had been commissioned by the state to make a film about 642 00:51:22,120 --> 00:51:24,440 the 16th century tyrant, Ivan the Terrible. 643 00:51:26,960 --> 00:51:28,640 Stalin idolised Ivan the Terrible 644 00:51:28,640 --> 00:51:30,640 and he felt there were powerful lessons 645 00:51:30,640 --> 00:51:32,320 to be learned from his reign, 646 00:51:32,320 --> 00:51:34,800 so Eisenstein and Prokofiev knew their film 647 00:51:34,800 --> 00:51:36,960 had to have a positive spin. 648 00:51:44,400 --> 00:51:50,760 Prokofiev created a Wagnerian theme for Ivan. Muscular and heroic, 649 00:51:50,760 --> 00:51:53,160 the music conveys regal power. 650 00:52:03,240 --> 00:52:05,560 Ivan had unified Russia, 651 00:52:05,560 --> 00:52:09,400 but through a notoriously bloody reign of terror. 652 00:52:12,120 --> 00:52:16,880 For Stalin, that ruthlessness was something to be admired. 653 00:52:16,880 --> 00:52:22,000 The victims of his own cruel regime now numbered millions. 654 00:52:25,760 --> 00:52:30,240 Stalin was delighted with the film and awarded it a prestigious and 655 00:52:30,240 --> 00:52:31,920 highly lucrative Stalin prize 656 00:52:31,920 --> 00:52:34,400 to be shared between the director and composer. 657 00:52:34,400 --> 00:52:36,240 Thrilled by their success, 658 00:52:36,240 --> 00:52:39,240 Eisenstein and Prokofiev got to work on a follow-up, 659 00:52:39,240 --> 00:52:41,040 Ivan The Terrible Part Two. 660 00:52:43,560 --> 00:52:47,000 This time, they took a more psychological approach, 661 00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:51,160 Ivan comes across as tyrannical and a bit mad. 662 00:52:51,160 --> 00:52:54,120 But that wasn't the message Stalin wanted. 663 00:52:58,000 --> 00:53:00,960 "This is not a film, it's some kind of nightmare," 664 00:53:00,960 --> 00:53:03,560 said Stalin when he saw the movie. 665 00:53:03,560 --> 00:53:06,680 "Ivan the Terrible was very cruel," he went on. 666 00:53:06,680 --> 00:53:08,440 "You can show he was cruel, 667 00:53:08,440 --> 00:53:13,160 "but you must show why it was essential to be cruel." 668 00:53:15,120 --> 00:53:20,080 Predictably, Stalin banned the film and Prokofiev never composed for 669 00:53:20,080 --> 00:53:21,680 the cinema again. 670 00:53:24,080 --> 00:53:26,320 However hard he tried to please, 671 00:53:26,320 --> 00:53:30,240 he found it impossible to strike the right notes every time. 672 00:53:33,520 --> 00:53:37,000 Targeted after the war in a new round of attacks, 673 00:53:37,000 --> 00:53:40,200 Prokofiev spent his final years humiliated. 674 00:53:42,560 --> 00:53:48,000 In a savage twist of fate, he died the very same day as Josef Stalin. 675 00:53:49,600 --> 00:53:55,640 The florists sold out as vast crowds mourned their beloved leader, 676 00:53:55,640 --> 00:54:00,000 leaving no fresh flowers for Prokofiev's grave. 677 00:54:06,480 --> 00:54:11,560 Making music for the great dictators had proved to be a minefield. 678 00:54:11,560 --> 00:54:16,400 Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Richard Strauss, they all suffered. 679 00:54:19,640 --> 00:54:22,000 But what of the music itself? 680 00:54:22,000 --> 00:54:24,680 Has it been stained by the violence and tyranny 681 00:54:24,680 --> 00:54:27,120 of the place and time that produced it? 682 00:54:31,440 --> 00:54:36,440 There's one piece written in the 1930s that I think more than 683 00:54:36,440 --> 00:54:39,160 any other captures the toxic spirit of the age. 684 00:54:43,560 --> 00:54:45,600 THEY SING IN LATIN 685 00:54:49,240 --> 00:54:53,240 Carmina Burana by Carl Orff stirs us up to feel tense excitement 686 00:54:53,240 --> 00:54:55,360 with its violent power. 687 00:55:25,600 --> 00:55:28,200 It's hypnotic rhythms chimed brilliantly 688 00:55:28,200 --> 00:55:31,520 with the frenetic atmosphere of Nazi Germany, 689 00:55:31,520 --> 00:55:34,160 where it swept the crowds off their feet. 690 00:55:38,920 --> 00:55:42,320 The Nazi party newspaper called it, "The kind of clear, 691 00:55:42,320 --> 00:55:46,040 "stormy and yet disciplined music our time requires." 692 00:55:49,720 --> 00:55:52,320 The Nazis were very against intellectual music, 693 00:55:52,320 --> 00:55:55,680 and, of course, Carl Orff's music isn't intellectual, 694 00:55:55,680 --> 00:55:57,360 it appeals to the senses, 695 00:55:57,360 --> 00:55:58,360 it's primitive. 696 00:56:00,240 --> 00:56:05,160 When somebody hits a bass drum, you feel the vibrations in your body. 697 00:56:05,160 --> 00:56:07,440 You cannot escape that music. 698 00:56:07,440 --> 00:56:11,040 You feel the tension and you enjoy the tension, 699 00:56:11,040 --> 00:56:15,600 and, at the right moment, there's this big releasing of this tension. 700 00:56:44,640 --> 00:56:47,880 Carmina Burana has become one of the most performed pieces 701 00:56:47,880 --> 00:56:49,400 of classical music. 702 00:56:49,400 --> 00:56:53,760 A staple of popular culture, used by film, TV and advertising. 703 00:56:53,760 --> 00:56:57,000 A cliche of macho, apocalyptic glory. 704 00:57:13,880 --> 00:57:18,360 The music has long outlived the politics of the time. 705 00:57:18,360 --> 00:57:22,640 But is there something inherently fascist about the bombastic, 706 00:57:22,640 --> 00:57:26,800 unreflective emotion written into its very notes? 707 00:57:29,800 --> 00:57:33,920 We might like to think that the music we still love today 708 00:57:33,920 --> 00:57:38,640 has nothing to do with the dark and distant politics of a terrible time. 709 00:57:38,640 --> 00:57:41,440 But I'm not sure it's quite that simple. 710 00:57:42,920 --> 00:57:45,520 I suppose if listening to music can't make you 711 00:57:45,520 --> 00:57:47,400 a better, more moral person, 712 00:57:47,400 --> 00:57:51,840 nor can it by the same token make you an immoral person. 713 00:57:51,840 --> 00:57:54,280 That said, Carmina Burana, for me, 714 00:57:54,280 --> 00:57:57,080 is the ultimate piece of empty music. 715 00:57:57,080 --> 00:58:00,440 A load of sound and fury signifying nothing. 716 00:58:00,440 --> 00:58:05,680 It pushes our buttons and it tries to provoke our basest emotions. 717 00:58:05,680 --> 00:58:10,280 I cannot help but hear the hate-filled ideology it grew out of 718 00:58:10,280 --> 00:58:11,760 when I hear those notes. 719 00:58:11,760 --> 00:58:15,040 And our willingness today to still submit to its power 720 00:58:15,040 --> 00:58:18,480 carries with it, I think, a real health warning. 721 00:58:18,480 --> 00:58:22,360 That when we embrace music like this, we also have to recognise that 722 00:58:22,360 --> 00:58:26,200 it came out of a profoundly evil regime. 723 00:58:31,720 --> 00:58:35,680 Next time, as Europe is engulfed by war, 724 00:58:35,680 --> 00:58:38,920 how will music play its part in the battle... 725 00:58:42,400 --> 00:58:46,320 ..and the moral and spiritual collapse that is yet to come?