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THEY PLAY OPENING NOTES OF
BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH SYMPHONY

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Ludwig van Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony may be

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one of the greatest
pieces of music ever written.

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It's certainly
one of the most famous.

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And those first four notes,
once heard, are never forgotten.

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The traditional wisdom has been
that in the Fifth,

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Beethoven is railing against fate
and his increasing deafness.

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But conductor
John Eliot Gardiner believes

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that it contains a hidden,
radical message.

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Expressing the
composer's sympathy with

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the ideals of the French Revolution.

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Liberty, equality and brotherhood.

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It's not just a matter
of his expressing his inner turmoil,

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it's also him nailing his colours
to the political mast

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of the French Revolution.

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"I believe in the rights of man,

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"I believe in the brotherhood
of all men

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"and I believe
in political freedom."

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I'm going to look at the evidence

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for this
revolutionary interpretation

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of the Fifth Symphony.

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I'll visit France, where in 1789,

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the world order
was turned upside down.

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I'll be exploring Bonn, where
Beethoven grew up

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and was exposed to radical ideas.

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And I'll travel to Vienna,

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the imperial capital
that was Beethoven's home

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as the Revolutionary and Napoleonic
Wars convulsed Europe.

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We'll see how these extraordinary
events affected Beethoven,

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both as a man and a musician,
and how his passion for the ideals

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of freedom and brotherhood
fuelled the Fifth Symphony.

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With my Orchestre Revolutionnaire
et Romantique,

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we're going to perform Beethoven's
Fifth Symphony,

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and we're going to try to
incorporate the emotional turmoil

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and passion
and the republican political fervour

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which informs this great symphony.

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So, are you all sitting comfortably?

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You're not meant to be.

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Ludwig van Beethoven wrote his
Fifth Symphony here in Vienna,

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the Austrian capital,

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where the composer lived and worked
for most of his life.

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It's become a timeless musical
monument, but it was directly shaped

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by the troubled times in
which Beethoven lived.

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And this may have been
underestimated

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in the centuries
since it was written.

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There's no better place to start an
exploration of how and why

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this happened than the place where
the symphony was heard

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for the very first time
in December 1808.

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I'm here at the Theater an der Wien,

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a very important place
for Beethoven,

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and it's connected
with a number of his great works.

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But it was in this very theatre that
the Fifth Symphony had its premiere.

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Beethoven was 38 and at the
height of his creative powers.

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The premiere of the Fifth was
scheduled towards the end

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of a benefit concert for himself,

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a packed recital
of his great works.

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Beethoven was the first successful
freelance composer,

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not employed by the court, so he
needed the money more than most.

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It turned out to be
a very interesting evening

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How does it go, this huge event,
the Beethoven programme?

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It's a disaster.

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It's a complete disaster,
unfortunately. It's too long.

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Imagine, it takes four hours,

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so it lasts
until 10.30 in the night.

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Unfortunately, the musicians
and Beethoven had a row,

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so he didn't actually talk to the
orchestra himself,

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he only talked to the conductors.

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And the conductors then
talked to the orchestra.

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LAUGHING: Right!
It's a nightmare.

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What had they had a row about?
About the rehearsal conditions

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and about Beethoven being very
late on delivering the score.

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Apparently, there were also
mistakes, because they didn't have

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enough time to rehearse, and at some
point, Beethoven actually

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stopped the concert and started
again from the beginning.

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IAN LAUGHS
Was it full?

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No. No? Half-full only,
unfortunately.

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No, unfortunately,
the same night there was

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another concert going on,
for widows and orphans.

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A benefit concert,
similarly as this was

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a benefit concert for Beethoven
personally. For himself.

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Exactly. So now, unfortunately,
it was only half-filled. Tough luck.

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He didn't earn as much
money as he would have hoped.

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Beethoven has become the
classic example of

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the intense, tortured artist.

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But he was capable of great kindness
as well as terrible tantrums,

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compassion as well as passion,

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the composer of
deeply sensitive pieces

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as well as what became known
as heaven-storming works.

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As we'll see, the Fifth Symphony's
four movements

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display all these aspects
of its creator.

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But the symphony's opening was not
a soothing composition

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that the theatre audience could
sit back, relax and enjoy.

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It was meant to jolt them out
of their seats.

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The Fifth - especially the first
four notes - has become

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so well-known that it's difficult
to recreate the shock

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and disorientation that
Beethoven intended.

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Difficult, but not impossible.

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Over the centuries, Beethoven's
masterpiece has been performed

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in ways that the bad-tempered
maestro might well have hated.

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But for over 25 years, conductor
Sir John Eliot Gardiner and his

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Orchestre Revolutionnaire et
Romantique have been on a mission

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to play Beethoven's symphonies in
just the way he intended.

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Here at St John's Smith Square in
London, they have recorded

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a performance of the Fifth Symphony
especially for us,

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with all the pace and the ferocity

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that the audience at
the premiere would have experienced.

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Right, here we go.

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If there is any single
piece of Beethoven's

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that really, really sort of
sets one's pulse racing,

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it's the Fifth Symphony.

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Because there is something
completely implacable about it.

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It's so full-on,
and it leaves you breathless,

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because there is this searing
energy right from the off.

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And then once he is in
his full stride,

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he just never lets up
and it's inexorable.

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I think the thing about tempo is

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that it has to be done
with total conviction.

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And if you feel, as I do,
that Beethoven is impatient

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to get his ideas over,
then it's going to come over fast.

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John Eliot plays the Fifth Symphony
at 108 beats per minute -

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the tempo Beethoven himself
decided for it.

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The composer famously started losing
his hearing when he was

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in his twenties,
and specified this tempo

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years after composing the Fifth,
when he had become entirely deaf.

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108bpm is SO fast that many
conductors and performers

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have ignored this marking.

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So this metronome is set at...?

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108bpm.

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Right. And this is a new invention.

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Beethoven was excited,
and he would be, bound to be,

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because if he had no means of
conveying to performers...

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Because he wasn't
a conductor and he was deaf

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and he couldn't convey his ideas...
Yeah, he could tell them

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how fast how fast or slow to go.
He could tell them.

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But...sitting here
and listening to that is one thing.

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Actually standing in front
of an orchestra

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and playing the music is
quite different.

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But that's why you play it
so fast, isn't it?

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I do, I think it's a good guideline,

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and I may even go a bit quicker than
that, depends...

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Well, it depends on the set-up.
It depends on the hall.

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In the Albert Hall, you know,
you don't want to go

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at such a lick that the music

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doesn't have a chance to register
with an audience.

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Whereas if you're doing
it in a small studio,

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you can get closer to Beethoven.

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Over the centuries, many conductors
have played the Fifth

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at much slower tempi.

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All through the early part
of the 20th century,

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the great maestri of the day tended
to expand it

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and be very self-indulgent,
and to pull around the tempo.

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OPENING NOTES
OF FIFTH SYMPHONY, MUCH SLOWER

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One recording even slowed it down
to close to 74bpm.

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OK, this is now at 74,
how does that strike you?

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Bit of a bore,
bit of a snore, actually.

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How can one...?

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How can you galvanise
an orchestra...?

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# Da-da-da-dee...

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"Ugh..."

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# Da-da-da-dee... #

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I mean, they'd absolutely fall
asleep in their chairs.

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METRONOME TICKS

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It's having that effect now! Well...

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And he uses that kind of motto
or icon, as it were,

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the "ba-ba-ba-bam",

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those four notes which...

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Given in that rhythm as a constant
right the way through the symphony.

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So, what message could Beethoven
be trying to convey

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with a furiously fast performance
of his four-note motif?

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By the time he composed the Fifth,
Beethoven had accepted

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that his deafness was incurable.

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The terrible realisation came
during a stroll

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with a friend, Ferdinand Ries.

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Ries says "Master, listen to that
shepherd blowing on his pipe."

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And Beethoven realises
he can see the chap playing the pipe

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but he can't hear him,

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and that's
the first time that we know of

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that it's not just someone talking
that he can't hear,

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but it's music -
and what else is he but a musician?

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This is why many have believed
that the four notes

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are the composer railing
against his deafness.

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But not everyone.

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John Eliot thinks differently.

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So what do YOU think Beethoven was
saying in the Fifth Symphony?

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Well, I think he's really
trying to convey

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his deeply-held political beliefs
at the time.

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I mean, Beethoven's political
beliefs went up and down,

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but at the particular time
he was writing the symphony,

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in the early 1800s,

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he was completely under the spell
of the French Revolution

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and even contemplated moving from
Bonn and Vienna to Paris.

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And it always amuses me,

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the thought of Beethoven
prowling around in Paris

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and not speaking a word of French -
or very little -

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and you know, how
would musical history

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have developed
if he had become a Frenchman?

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It would have been... Yes.
..a bit different.

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Could the revolution provide
the secret to the Fifth Symphony?

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If so, the answer
will be here, in France.

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Fontainebleau Palace just outside
Paris is a perfect example

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of the world that the
revolution revolted against.

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Monarchies with a divine right
to rule,

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absolute power and the privileges
that came with it.

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Privileges like this
1,500-room chateau,

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property of the French royalty
since the Middle Ages.

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The French monarchy was the most
entrenched in Europe

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and appeared to be everlasting.

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And this was just
one of their playgrounds.

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As far back as the 12th century,
French kings and queens

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and their families
and their guests

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and their servants
and their retinues

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had come here
to escape the heat of Paris.

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And walking around out here,
that sense of solidity,

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of confidence, of complacency even,
is very apparent.

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And that's just the exteriors.

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Compared to the interiors,
this is...understatement.

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The 18th century diplomat
Talleyrand said,

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"Those who have not lived
through the years around 1789

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"cannot know what is meant
by the pleasure of life."

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Here in Fontainebleau, you can
understand what he was getting at.

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The French King Louis XVI
and his bride, Marie Antoinette,

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stayed here between
October and November 1786.

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Among the lavish festivities laid
on, the royal couple attended

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a specially-staged ballet here in
this beautiful ballroom.

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They also had a chance to examine
some new building work,

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including this room, a gift from
the King to his Queen.

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This exquisite room,
with its own en-suite bathroom,

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was Marie Antoinette's
private retreat.

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It's all set in silver, which you
can see on the wall coverings there,

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and there's more
silver in these two pieces -

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which are both original,
they were here.

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This roll-top desk
and this hopper table.

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And it's silver, and it's
mother-of-pearl,

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and there's brass and there's bronze
and there's boxwood.

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I mean, they are quite beautiful.

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On her first visit to Paris,
the 14-year-old Austrian princess

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was greeted like some sort of
rock star or celebrity.

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00:15:25,580 --> 00:15:29,140
Tens of thousands of people turned
out to see her

239
00:15:29,140 --> 00:15:32,940
and 30 of them
were trampled to death in the crush.

240
00:15:32,940 --> 00:15:38,660
But by 1789, stories of this
sort of luxurious excess

241
00:15:38,660 --> 00:15:41,500
had turned public opinion
against her.

242
00:15:43,900 --> 00:15:45,820
ANGRY SHOUTS

243
00:15:49,900 --> 00:15:52,980
The queen's lavish lifestyle did not
go down well with a population

244
00:15:52,980 --> 00:15:56,100
struggling with years of
bad harvests,

245
00:15:56,100 --> 00:15:57,540
high taxes and corruption.

246
00:15:59,020 --> 00:16:04,020
Resentment against the aristocracy
and the clergy grew.

247
00:16:04,020 --> 00:16:07,700
And with it came a hunger for
change, for freedom.

248
00:16:11,340 --> 00:16:16,980
In the long hot summer of 1789, the
discontent reached breaking point

249
00:16:16,980 --> 00:16:21,060
and Paris was consumed by chaos,
riots and looting.

250
00:16:21,060 --> 00:16:25,180
Then on the 14th of July, a mob
stormed the Bastille,

251
00:16:25,180 --> 00:16:28,420
a fortress and prison that stood as
a symbol of royal power.

252
00:16:30,060 --> 00:16:35,540
Paris was now in rebel hands.
Fontainebleau Palace was plundered.

253
00:16:35,540 --> 00:16:37,740
The French revolution had begun.

254
00:16:42,020 --> 00:16:46,700
This is Le Cafe Procope, Paris'
oldest cafe, and supposedly

255
00:16:46,700 --> 00:16:51,940
the place where Voltaire drank
over 40 cups of coffee a day.

256
00:16:51,940 --> 00:16:55,380
It's also the place where the
leaders of the French Revolution

257
00:16:55,380 --> 00:17:00,460
met regularly - Danton, Robespierre
and Marat sat here

258
00:17:00,460 --> 00:17:03,020
plotting the events
that would etch themselves

259
00:17:03,020 --> 00:17:05,180
in the imagination of a generation.

260
00:17:05,180 --> 00:17:07,780
Across the continent, those inspired

261
00:17:07,780 --> 00:17:11,060
included Europe's leading
thinkers and artists -

262
00:17:11,060 --> 00:17:13,740
Shelley, Coleridge,
Goethe, Schiller.

263
00:17:13,740 --> 00:17:15,740
And of course, Beethoven.

264
00:17:19,300 --> 00:17:21,460
The English poet Wordsworth wrote,

265
00:17:21,460 --> 00:17:23,940
"Bliss was it in
that dawn to be alive

266
00:17:23,940 --> 00:17:26,300
"but to be young was very heaven."

267
00:17:26,300 --> 00:17:28,740
Beethoven was just 19.

268
00:17:30,380 --> 00:17:33,300
The old feudal order -
the Ancien Regime -

269
00:17:33,300 --> 00:17:36,700
was to be abolished,
and its privileges, hierarchies,

270
00:17:36,700 --> 00:17:40,540
laws, courts and taxes
would all be swept away.

271
00:17:40,540 --> 00:17:44,780
On August 26th, 1789,
the National Assembly,

272
00:17:44,780 --> 00:17:47,260
based in this building here,

273
00:17:47,260 --> 00:17:52,100
issued a guiding founding manifesto
for how it would work.

274
00:17:52,100 --> 00:17:56,380
It was called the Declaration of
the Rights of Man and the Citizen.

275
00:17:58,260 --> 00:18:01,020
In England, in Germany,
and right across Europe,

276
00:18:01,020 --> 00:18:04,460
there were many, including
Beethoven, who hoped that this

277
00:18:04,460 --> 00:18:08,780
might be the start of a new era,
this might be year zero,

278
00:18:08,780 --> 00:18:12,500
where the Enlightenment ideal
of a system of governance based

279
00:18:12,500 --> 00:18:18,260
on freedom, equality and common good
would finally become a reality.

280
00:18:23,060 --> 00:18:26,060
It's generally accepted
that Beethoven believed

281
00:18:26,060 --> 00:18:29,900
in the ideals of the revolution
during these heady early days.

282
00:18:29,900 --> 00:18:33,140
But what's the evidence that those
ideals later found their way

283
00:18:33,140 --> 00:18:36,180
into the Fifth Symphony's
first four notes?

284
00:18:37,820 --> 00:18:41,420
I think it's a clandestine,
subversive way

285
00:18:41,420 --> 00:18:45,740
of articulating
immensely strongly-held beliefs

286
00:18:45,740 --> 00:18:50,020
and the fact is that there is this
French Revolutionary Hymn

287
00:18:50,020 --> 00:18:54,900
by Cherubini, the Hymne du Pantheon,
which has a sort of rabble rousing

288
00:18:54,900 --> 00:19:00,580
little chorus - "Nous jurons tous,
le fer en main" - we all swear,

289
00:19:00,580 --> 00:19:03,500
sword in hand - "De mourir pour la
Republique" -

290
00:19:03,500 --> 00:19:05,620
to die for the Republic -

291
00:19:05,620 --> 00:19:08,500
"et pour les droits du genre
humain" - and for the rights of man.

292
00:19:08,500 --> 00:19:11,940
In rehearsals,
John Eliot and his orchestra

293
00:19:11,940 --> 00:19:13,660
performed this chorus for us.

294
00:19:13,660 --> 00:19:16,620
# Nous jurons tous

295
00:19:16,620 --> 00:19:20,260
# Nous jurons tous le fer en main. #

296
00:19:20,260 --> 00:19:23,940
OK, slowly. One and two and one...

297
00:19:23,940 --> 00:19:26,300
# Nous jurons tous le fer en main

298
00:19:26,300 --> 00:19:29,860
# Nous jurons tous le fer en
main... #

299
00:19:29,860 --> 00:19:33,860
John Eliot sees a similarity to
Beethoven's opening notes.

300
00:19:33,860 --> 00:19:38,540
MUSIC PLAYS: Symphony No. 5
by Beethoven

301
00:19:42,140 --> 00:19:43,860
Sounds familiar, doesn't it?

302
00:19:43,860 --> 00:19:47,740
It's not just simply against fate
or death or disaster,

303
00:19:47,740 --> 00:19:53,380
it's exuberant, an enormous
feeling of, "Yeah, we can do it.

304
00:19:53,380 --> 00:19:56,020
"It's within human capacity
to do it."

305
00:19:56,020 --> 00:19:58,900
Where did you get the idea
originally

306
00:19:58,900 --> 00:20:00,900
that this is what
he was up to?

307
00:20:00,900 --> 00:20:03,980
It's not in the least bit original.
I'm afraid I read it

308
00:20:03,980 --> 00:20:06,700
when I was a student in Paris
in the late '60s

309
00:20:06,700 --> 00:20:11,220
and it was a German musicologist
Arnold Schmitz who had

310
00:20:11,220 --> 00:20:15,540
suggested there might be a rapport
between or a link between his views

311
00:20:15,540 --> 00:20:19,340
and the French revolutionary hymns
which were in circulation.

312
00:20:19,340 --> 00:20:21,780
And so I went off to the
Bibliotheque nationale

313
00:20:21,780 --> 00:20:25,860
and did a bit of sleuthing there and
sure enough, the music kind of fits

314
00:20:25,860 --> 00:20:29,620
the themes that Beethoven introduces
in the first movement in the famous

315
00:20:29,620 --> 00:20:35,260
"ba-ba-ba-baam" which goes, "Nous
jurons tous, le fer en main," which

316
00:20:35,260 --> 00:20:40,180
gives you a sort of clue to the type
of rhetoric and the tempo, actually.

317
00:20:40,180 --> 00:20:46,060
MUSIC PLAYS: Symphony No. 5
by Beethoven

318
00:20:46,060 --> 00:20:49,220
Luigi Cherubini, an Italian
composer who supported the

319
00:20:49,220 --> 00:20:53,300
revolution and settled in France,
wrote his hymn in honour of

320
00:20:53,300 --> 00:20:56,540
this building in the heart
of Paris - the Pantheon.

321
00:20:59,580 --> 00:21:03,460
Its history is steeped in the ideal
of fraternite - brotherhood -

322
00:21:03,460 --> 00:21:07,420
that John Eliot believes drives the
Fifth Symphony's first movement.

323
00:21:11,980 --> 00:21:14,060
The Pantheon was built as a church.

324
00:21:14,060 --> 00:21:18,700
But, in 1791, was transformed
into an altar of liberty

325
00:21:18,700 --> 00:21:21,540
and a secular shrine for great men.

326
00:21:22,660 --> 00:21:25,740
In the crypt below are buried
two French philosophers

327
00:21:25,740 --> 00:21:27,620
who inspired the revolution.

328
00:21:27,620 --> 00:21:31,180
Here's the man known as Voltaire.

329
00:21:31,180 --> 00:21:34,100
And just across the way,
Jean Jacques Rousseau.

330
00:21:36,580 --> 00:21:39,660
It's the perfect place
to find out more about

331
00:21:39,660 --> 00:21:43,100
the French revolutionary music
that Beethoven may have drawn on.

332
00:21:44,260 --> 00:21:47,340
There were many hymns
written for the revolution.

333
00:21:47,340 --> 00:21:52,140
So the one by Cherubini is
particular in that it was

334
00:21:52,140 --> 00:21:57,740
especially grand and it called
for a huge orchestra -

335
00:21:57,740 --> 00:22:01,020
77 players, which was
very big at the time.

336
00:22:01,020 --> 00:22:04,260
Would Beethoven have known
Cherubini's work?

337
00:22:04,260 --> 00:22:08,260
Beethoven certainly knew Cherubini's
works because they were

338
00:22:08,260 --> 00:22:12,860
published and they were there
for everyone to read and play from.

339
00:22:12,860 --> 00:22:17,180
He would also have known him because
Beethoven was in contact with French

340
00:22:17,180 --> 00:22:22,260
musicians like Kreutzer, who gave
his name to the Kreutzer Sonata.

341
00:22:22,260 --> 00:22:27,740
So I'm sure that these musicians
didn't only make music together

342
00:22:27,740 --> 00:22:30,980
but they must have talked
and read music and discussed it.

343
00:22:30,980 --> 00:22:36,260
There's a very touching
anecdote about French soldiers

344
00:22:36,260 --> 00:22:39,940
visiting Beethoven
and making music with him.

345
00:22:39,940 --> 00:22:44,420
So if I could go back in time,

346
00:22:44,420 --> 00:22:46,900
this is one of the things
I'd like to witness.

347
00:22:46,900 --> 00:22:51,100
And what do you think the appeal to
Beethoven was of this music?

348
00:22:51,100 --> 00:22:57,020
There is the elan. There is
the energy, as you say,

349
00:22:57,020 --> 00:23:03,540
and "energie" was one of the key
words of philosophy at the time.

350
00:23:03,540 --> 00:23:08,780
The revolution was
a time of energy after

351
00:23:08,780 --> 00:23:11,060
the decadence of the Ancien Regime.

352
00:23:11,060 --> 00:23:16,900
Music was public by definition
in these occasions

353
00:23:16,900 --> 00:23:19,980
and it served the function
of creating a sense of collective

354
00:23:19,980 --> 00:23:22,380
feeling around the revolution.

355
00:23:25,340 --> 00:23:27,900
So it seems likely that Beethoven
did know

356
00:23:27,900 --> 00:23:31,180
about this new, radical form
of music, a public art

357
00:23:31,180 --> 00:23:34,140
that could express powerful
political messages.

358
00:23:34,140 --> 00:23:36,620
And if John Eliot's theory
is correct,

359
00:23:36,620 --> 00:23:40,300
that was exactly the
effect that Beethoven was after.

360
00:23:40,300 --> 00:23:43,740
Rouget de Lille who composed
La Marseillaise,

361
00:23:43,740 --> 00:23:47,380
he was an officer
and not a professional musician.

362
00:23:47,380 --> 00:23:51,020
There's a famous painting
showing Rouget de Lille

363
00:23:51,020 --> 00:23:54,500
declaiming his Marseillaise
when he first had the idea.

364
00:23:54,500 --> 00:23:58,980
But then it became
a kind of national anthem.

365
00:23:58,980 --> 00:24:05,460
MUSIC PLAYS: La Marseillaise
by Rouget de Lille

366
00:24:07,100 --> 00:24:11,540
But he hit on this fantastic tune,

367
00:24:11,540 --> 00:24:17,100
which is characterised by its elan,

368
00:24:17,100 --> 00:24:19,060
the way it goes for the high notes.

369
00:24:19,060 --> 00:24:21,900
# Allons enfants de la Patrie. #

370
00:24:21,900 --> 00:24:25,540
And although nobody
can sing it properly

371
00:24:25,540 --> 00:24:28,020
because the note is
a bit too high.

372
00:24:28,020 --> 00:24:30,260
It's too high, yeah, and then it
goes very low again -

373
00:24:30,260 --> 00:24:32,740
# Mugir ces feroces soldats. #

374
00:24:32,740 --> 00:24:35,780
Especially on football fields
it's rather painful.

375
00:24:39,060 --> 00:24:42,020
It's precisely this "energie",

376
00:24:42,020 --> 00:24:45,300
a kind of musical call to arms,
that John Eliot tries to

377
00:24:45,300 --> 00:24:50,540
capture and communicate in his own
performance of Beethoven's Fifth.

378
00:24:50,540 --> 00:24:53,380
Schmitz' theory, which
I profoundly believe in

379
00:24:53,380 --> 00:24:57,900
and I feel it gives tremendous
edge in the performance, it's not

380
00:24:57,900 --> 00:25:02,940
provable in absolute
terms. It's a way in

381
00:25:02,940 --> 00:25:06,300
and I think it's a good corrective
or it's a helpful corrective

382
00:25:06,300 --> 00:25:11,700
to the rather wishy-washy, you know,
fate and all the rest of it.

383
00:25:11,700 --> 00:25:18,340
MUSIC PLAYS: Symphony No. 5
by Beethoven

384
00:25:33,460 --> 00:25:37,060
Beethoven himself was far from
a wishy-washy character.

385
00:25:37,060 --> 00:25:40,860
He was a notoriously tough
and turbulent personality.

386
00:25:40,860 --> 00:25:44,220
But if he was also a radical who
supported French revolutionary

387
00:25:44,220 --> 00:25:47,220
ideals, where did all that
come from?

388
00:25:47,220 --> 00:25:50,900
Perhaps the answer lies in the
composer's early life in Germany.

389
00:25:52,100 --> 00:25:55,820
Never an easy man, Beethoven,
and this is the archetypal

390
00:25:55,820 --> 00:26:01,140
portrayal of him - intense, furious,
brooding, heaven-storming.

391
00:26:01,140 --> 00:26:02,940
And this extraordinary,

392
00:26:02,940 --> 00:26:08,340
contrary personality was shaped here
in Bonn during an unhappy childhood

393
00:26:08,340 --> 00:26:13,420
and a troubled youth, which made its
mark on him as man and as artist.

394
00:26:19,500 --> 00:26:21,700
Beethoven was born in 1770,

395
00:26:21,700 --> 00:26:26,380
and grew up here at what's now
called the Beethoven Haus.

396
00:26:26,380 --> 00:26:30,020
The infant Beethoven joined
a musical family

397
00:26:30,020 --> 00:26:32,100
in a very musical city.

398
00:26:32,100 --> 00:26:34,740
His beloved grandfather
was Kapellmeister,

399
00:26:34,740 --> 00:26:36,940
resident composer at Bonn's court.

400
00:26:38,020 --> 00:26:41,260
But he died when the boy
was only three.

401
00:26:41,260 --> 00:26:44,100
So, how happy a home was the
Beethoven Haus?

402
00:26:45,900 --> 00:26:47,780
This is it, is it?

403
00:26:47,780 --> 00:26:50,820
Yeah. We believe this
is the birth room,

404
00:26:50,820 --> 00:26:55,700
but in fact we are sure this is
the bedroom of the parents.

405
00:26:55,700 --> 00:27:02,940
Right. His father has been not
so gifted as his grandfather.

406
00:27:02,940 --> 00:27:05,460
This has perhaps been a problem.

407
00:27:05,460 --> 00:27:08,260
If you have a great father
and a great son,

408
00:27:08,260 --> 00:27:10,700
being in the middle of it's
not very easy.

409
00:27:10,700 --> 00:27:14,500
He had some problems with alcohol.

410
00:27:14,500 --> 00:27:17,020
You would say Beethoven had
a complex relationship

411
00:27:17,020 --> 00:27:18,340
with his father?

412
00:27:18,340 --> 00:27:21,460
Yes, it is certainly true.
It's not a normal family.

413
00:27:21,460 --> 00:27:25,500
Beethoven's father had to train him
on music, on keyboard,

414
00:27:25,500 --> 00:27:31,460
on violin and Beethoven
had to learn this,

415
00:27:31,460 --> 00:27:35,580
and the method of the time
is punishment...

416
00:27:35,580 --> 00:27:37,100
Involved hitting him?

417
00:27:37,100 --> 00:27:39,500
Yeah. For all children,
not only for Beethoven.

418
00:27:39,500 --> 00:27:43,220
Beethoven as a child,
he doesn't seem to have been happy.

419
00:27:43,220 --> 00:27:47,660
He played with his brothers.
He played with other children,

420
00:27:47,660 --> 00:27:49,140
but not very much.

421
00:27:49,140 --> 00:27:52,980
He had to practise very much
and he was very shy

422
00:27:52,980 --> 00:27:55,780
because he didn't go to school
a very long time

423
00:27:55,780 --> 00:27:59,260
so he was very unsure of himself.

424
00:28:02,820 --> 00:28:04,940
When Beethoven was ten,

425
00:28:04,940 --> 00:28:08,420
his father took him out of school
to concentrate on music.

426
00:28:08,420 --> 00:28:12,620
He hired a teacher, Christian
Gottlob Neefe, who some believe

427
00:28:12,620 --> 00:28:16,740
influenced not only Beethoven's
music, but his political ideas.

428
00:28:19,220 --> 00:28:22,820
This is Bonn's Palace Chapel,
the rather grand venue

429
00:28:22,820 --> 00:28:27,500
where Neefe, who was court organist,
taught the young Ludwig to play.

430
00:28:29,900 --> 00:28:33,300
Beethoven played the viola,
the piano and the organ,

431
00:28:33,300 --> 00:28:38,700
all brilliantly, but he wasn't
an infant prodigy as a composer.

432
00:28:38,700 --> 00:28:41,980
He wasn't like the young Mozart,
who by the age of ten

433
00:28:41,980 --> 00:28:44,540
had knocked out
a series of symphonies

434
00:28:44,540 --> 00:28:46,740
and concertos and even an opera.

435
00:28:46,740 --> 00:28:49,940
No, this was a boy
who needed nurturing.

436
00:28:49,940 --> 00:28:52,020
And Neefe was the man for the job.

437
00:28:52,020 --> 00:28:54,140
He'd had problems
with his own parents,

438
00:28:54,140 --> 00:28:57,940
and he helped give the young boy
a voice of his own,

439
00:28:57,940 --> 00:29:00,060
both as a player and as a composer,

440
00:29:00,060 --> 00:29:02,340
away from the influence
of his father.

441
00:29:03,980 --> 00:29:07,820
And when at the age of 12 or
13, the boy said to his teacher,

442
00:29:07,820 --> 00:29:10,940
"Look, I actually want to write some
piano sonatas,"

443
00:29:10,940 --> 00:29:14,100
being a composer himself,
he said, "Go for it,"

444
00:29:14,100 --> 00:29:16,860
and Beethoven did and
we have, at the age of 13,

445
00:29:16,860 --> 00:29:19,500
his first three piano sonatas,
absolutely incredible.

446
00:29:19,500 --> 00:29:23,380
Neefe occasionally let Ludwig
stand in for him

447
00:29:23,380 --> 00:29:28,660
as court organist, playing here
for Bonn's ruler, the elector.

448
00:29:28,660 --> 00:29:31,340
Neefe introduced him to
the works of JS Bach,

449
00:29:31,340 --> 00:29:35,340
who at the time was considered
difficult, or was just unknown.

450
00:29:35,340 --> 00:29:39,420
And it wasn't only unorthodox music
that interested Neefe.

451
00:29:39,420 --> 00:29:43,060
He was a member of the Freemasons,
of the Illuminati,

452
00:29:43,060 --> 00:29:47,540
of something called the Reading
Group, which were slightly secretive

453
00:29:47,540 --> 00:29:51,580
groups of intelligent young men
who were playing with ideas that

454
00:29:51,580 --> 00:29:56,260
would make the owners of these sorts
of palaces distinctly uncomfortable.

455
00:29:58,540 --> 00:30:04,020
At the time the boy Ludwig was
studying music with Neefe,

456
00:30:04,020 --> 00:30:09,060
the enlightenment was sweeping
Europe in all branches of the arts.

457
00:30:09,060 --> 00:30:14,780
Literature, the theatre, music,
philosophy and, for the first time,

458
00:30:14,780 --> 00:30:19,660
the theory of the divine right of
the monarchy was being questioned.

459
00:30:19,660 --> 00:30:22,860
"Hang on a minute, these people
don't have a divine right

460
00:30:22,860 --> 00:30:25,260
"to be ruling over us."

461
00:30:25,260 --> 00:30:27,740
And Neefe,
a born revolutionary at heart,

462
00:30:27,740 --> 00:30:31,980
he's bound to have just chatted
to Ludwig and as a 12-year-old boy,

463
00:30:31,980 --> 00:30:34,060
you're going to listen impressed,
aren't you?

464
00:30:34,060 --> 00:30:37,700
So I think Neefe was more than just
a teacher for the young Ludwig -

465
00:30:37,700 --> 00:30:39,860
he was a kind of guru.

466
00:30:39,860 --> 00:30:43,180
This guru had no time
for the Catholic Church,

467
00:30:43,180 --> 00:30:46,940
but he was religious and
also had faith that mankind

468
00:30:46,940 --> 00:30:49,700
could create a better society.

469
00:30:49,700 --> 00:30:52,540
It's possible to detect
the influence of these views

470
00:30:52,540 --> 00:30:56,180
in the second movement of his
pupil's Fifth Symphony.

471
00:30:56,180 --> 00:30:58,900
THEY PLAY SECOND MOVEMENT

472
00:31:17,980 --> 00:31:23,180
It's very gentle and lissom
and in the other movements,

473
00:31:23,180 --> 00:31:26,860
there's often incredible
beauty and a softness.

474
00:31:40,060 --> 00:31:43,780
The other thing that is
so new with Beethoven

475
00:31:43,780 --> 00:31:49,020
and so sort of enticing
about the Fifth Symphony

476
00:31:49,020 --> 00:31:53,620
is the extraordinary kind
of humanity of the man,

477
00:31:53,620 --> 00:31:55,700
the humanity of his
breadth of vision.

478
00:32:05,860 --> 00:32:09,340
We don't know a lot about
Beethoven's religious views.

479
00:32:09,340 --> 00:32:15,620
One senses that he
had religious views

480
00:32:15,620 --> 00:32:18,860
that were optimistic.

481
00:32:28,620 --> 00:32:33,860
And you get a kind of foretaste
of that in this second movement

482
00:32:33,860 --> 00:32:36,900
of the Fifth Symphony
that it feels like a prayer.

483
00:32:43,700 --> 00:32:48,580
In contrast to the struggle
and the strife of the first movement

484
00:32:48,580 --> 00:32:52,380
that Beethoven is suggesting
that in humanity,

485
00:32:52,380 --> 00:32:56,140
there is a capacity
to perfect itself.

486
00:33:01,540 --> 00:33:05,780
So that it's a prayer in
that sense for a better soul,

487
00:33:05,780 --> 00:33:06,980
a better human being.

488
00:33:13,100 --> 00:33:16,820
In his mission to express the real
meaning of the Fifth Symphony,

489
00:33:16,820 --> 00:33:19,980
John Eliot and his orchestra
insist on using instruments

490
00:33:19,980 --> 00:33:22,420
from Beethoven's time.

491
00:33:22,420 --> 00:33:25,980
They were in transition between
baroque and modern design,

492
00:33:25,980 --> 00:33:28,700
and the musical experience
is very different,

493
00:33:28,700 --> 00:33:30,580
for the audience and the players.

494
00:33:32,380 --> 00:33:36,700
I mean, of course one can play
this music on a modern set-up,

495
00:33:36,700 --> 00:33:41,300
but it produces a different type
of ethos, doesn't it?

496
00:33:41,300 --> 00:33:44,940
Pete, can you show us?
It's a different sound.

497
00:33:44,940 --> 00:33:48,660
Yes, this is a lovely old Italian
violin with all gut strings on,

498
00:33:48,660 --> 00:33:54,620
including an original type
of G-string and it's sort of...

499
00:34:04,300 --> 00:34:09,540
There is a definite purity about
that, which I find very attractive.

500
00:34:09,540 --> 00:34:12,180
So everybody in the orchestra
has these strings

501
00:34:12,180 --> 00:34:16,220
and it changes the string
sound tremendously, I think.

502
00:34:16,220 --> 00:34:18,860
It's more layered, isn't it?
You get more different textures.

503
00:34:18,860 --> 00:34:21,740
It's a different feel and
a different sort of sensitivity

504
00:34:21,740 --> 00:34:23,780
that's required. I have got here...

505
00:34:26,020 --> 00:34:27,460
..exactly the same maker,

506
00:34:27,460 --> 00:34:30,060
but this one has got
modern strings on.

507
00:34:30,060 --> 00:34:32,940
They're sort of nylon, metal.

508
00:34:42,540 --> 00:34:44,580
It's a completely different
type of sound,

509
00:34:44,580 --> 00:34:46,340
you have to play it
in a different way.

510
00:34:46,340 --> 00:34:48,780
It's more powerful,
it's more fruity,

511
00:34:48,780 --> 00:34:52,820
it's got more sheer density,
hasn't it?

512
00:34:52,820 --> 00:34:53,940
But that one...

513
00:34:55,340 --> 00:34:57,300
..just go back to that,
cos that has...

514
00:34:57,300 --> 00:34:58,780
It's got a purer sort of...

515
00:35:18,420 --> 00:35:26,340
The result is that you get a much
more multi-layered strata of sounds,

516
00:35:26,340 --> 00:35:28,780
not all kind of curdling
and amalgamating

517
00:35:28,780 --> 00:35:30,340
in the way that they do,

518
00:35:30,340 --> 00:35:33,020
or they tend to do in a
modern symphony orchestra.

519
00:35:35,180 --> 00:35:36,580
That's the good news,

520
00:35:36,580 --> 00:35:39,740
but playing on these instruments
has its challenges too.

521
00:35:43,180 --> 00:35:44,820
And a thing like this,

522
00:35:44,820 --> 00:35:48,260
which hasn't altered much
in structure or in shape

523
00:35:48,260 --> 00:35:53,180
since Monteverdi's day
and is only held together, what...?

524
00:35:53,180 --> 00:35:56,500
By a block of wood and some cord
holding the thing together.

525
00:35:56,500 --> 00:35:58,620
There is no soldered bits
or anything like that.

526
00:35:58,620 --> 00:36:00,260
Not like a modern set-up.

527
00:36:00,260 --> 00:36:02,700
It feels like it is going to
come to pieces in your hands.

528
00:36:07,780 --> 00:36:09,620
And the challenges are immense

529
00:36:09,620 --> 00:36:11,540
because these instruments
of Beethoven's

530
00:36:11,540 --> 00:36:17,140
are hugely fragile and compromised.

531
00:36:17,140 --> 00:36:20,980
If you push them too hard, they
splinter, they crack, they squawk.

532
00:36:27,340 --> 00:36:30,260
With these instruments,
because of their fragility

533
00:36:30,260 --> 00:36:34,780
and their technical fallibility, you
have to push them to the nth degree.

534
00:36:45,260 --> 00:36:49,220
I had a conversation with a friend
of mine who runs a Formula One team

535
00:36:49,220 --> 00:36:52,660
and he was saying that his
ultimate Formula One car,

536
00:36:52,660 --> 00:36:55,900
the moment it crosses
that finish line,

537
00:36:55,900 --> 00:36:57,700
it would fall to pieces.

538
00:36:57,700 --> 00:37:01,300
You know, it couldn't go another
metre and when we play this music

539
00:37:01,300 --> 00:37:03,740
on these instruments,
I feel we are the same.

540
00:37:17,820 --> 00:37:20,380
I mean, this is...

541
00:37:20,380 --> 00:37:23,740
This is indomitable, relentless,

542
00:37:23,740 --> 00:37:26,580
unreasonable music
and Beethoven seems to me

543
00:37:26,580 --> 00:37:28,180
a very unreasonable man

544
00:37:28,180 --> 00:37:31,260
who makes unreasonable demands
of these instruments

545
00:37:31,260 --> 00:37:33,500
and we couldn't give it
any more on these.

546
00:37:59,020 --> 00:38:02,140
This unreasonable,
rebellious side developed

547
00:38:02,140 --> 00:38:05,780
when Beethoven enrolled at
Bonn University in 1789.

548
00:38:08,260 --> 00:38:10,860
The French Revolution
took place that very year

549
00:38:10,860 --> 00:38:14,420
and the young Beethoven immersed
himself in the radical ideas

550
00:38:14,420 --> 00:38:16,460
that swept through the university.

551
00:38:18,020 --> 00:38:20,220
Like students before and since,

552
00:38:20,220 --> 00:38:22,820
Beethoven spent time
in the town's taverns,

553
00:38:22,820 --> 00:38:26,620
where his fellows debated
philosophy and literature.

554
00:38:26,620 --> 00:38:29,100
And, of course,
tried to seduce young women.

555
00:38:31,780 --> 00:38:36,140
This tavern's claim to fame is that
it was here that the young Beethoven

556
00:38:36,140 --> 00:38:39,540
danced with his first love,
Barbe Koch.

557
00:38:39,540 --> 00:38:43,260
It's a charming image, but from
what we know about Beethoven,

558
00:38:43,260 --> 00:38:47,820
not terribly likely, given that
he was notoriously badly coordinated

559
00:38:47,820 --> 00:38:51,140
and socially awkward,
particularly around women.

560
00:38:51,140 --> 00:38:54,540
Light-hearted flirtation
was not really his thing,

561
00:38:54,540 --> 00:38:56,780
more unrequited anguish.

562
00:38:56,780 --> 00:38:59,500
But his personality perfectly suited

563
00:38:59,500 --> 00:39:02,260
the prevailing arts movement
of the time,

564
00:39:02,260 --> 00:39:06,340
Sturm und Drang, Storm and Strife.

565
00:39:07,900 --> 00:39:09,940
You couldn't get more
Sturm and Drang

566
00:39:09,940 --> 00:39:12,660
than the German playwright
Friedrich Schiller

567
00:39:12,660 --> 00:39:15,460
and he would have a lasting
influence on Beethoven

568
00:39:15,460 --> 00:39:17,460
and his Fifth Symphony.

569
00:39:17,460 --> 00:39:18,540
Danke schoen.

570
00:39:19,820 --> 00:39:23,180
Beethoven went to see a production
of Schiller's The Robbers

571
00:39:23,180 --> 00:39:24,700
here in Bonn.

572
00:39:24,700 --> 00:39:29,900
This was an epic melodrama which
featured a hero who was a student,

573
00:39:29,900 --> 00:39:33,940
a revolutionary who decided
to rebel against what he saw as

574
00:39:33,940 --> 00:39:39,260
the hypocrisy of class and religion
and economic inequality in Germany.

575
00:39:39,260 --> 00:39:43,420
You can imagine Beethoven was a fan,
but it was more than that.

576
00:39:43,420 --> 00:39:48,100
When the play premiered at Mannheim
in 1782, an eyewitness wrote,

577
00:39:48,100 --> 00:39:51,620
"The theatre was like a madhouse
with people rolling their eyes

578
00:39:51,620 --> 00:39:55,380
"and clenching their fists
and outcries from the audience.

579
00:39:55,380 --> 00:39:58,580
"Strangers fell with sobs
into each other's arms,

580
00:39:58,580 --> 00:40:01,980
"women became unconscious
and had to leave the theatre.

581
00:40:01,980 --> 00:40:05,460
"It was a general uproar, a chaos."

582
00:40:05,460 --> 00:40:09,300
That was the effect that real art
could have on an audience.

583
00:40:13,180 --> 00:40:15,260
This is not entertainment
for people,

584
00:40:15,260 --> 00:40:19,660
this is a form of experience,
of drama,

585
00:40:19,660 --> 00:40:24,740
of perhaps, at that time, almost
unparalleled power and strength.

586
00:40:24,740 --> 00:40:27,780
I think that gives Beethoven
a vision of what an artist

587
00:40:27,780 --> 00:40:29,420
can do with an audience.

588
00:40:30,420 --> 00:40:34,100
I can't prove it, but the
relationship of how audiences felt

589
00:40:34,100 --> 00:40:39,940
about Schiller's The Robbers
in about 1780 or 1790 or so

590
00:40:39,940 --> 00:40:44,020
and Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
is unmistakable.

591
00:40:44,020 --> 00:40:47,100
Beethoven remained less lucky
in love than music,

592
00:40:47,100 --> 00:40:50,540
but he never stopped believing
in the possibility of romance.

593
00:40:51,940 --> 00:40:57,260
Beethoven's history with women
is not a hugely successful story.

594
00:40:57,260 --> 00:41:00,700
We know for sure that he proposed
marriage three times

595
00:41:00,700 --> 00:41:04,980
to three different women. We know
he was turned down each time.

596
00:41:04,980 --> 00:41:09,860
Some experts believe Beethoven
may have died a reluctant virgin

597
00:41:09,860 --> 00:41:13,780
and it's very possible that he
channelled his unrequited passion

598
00:41:13,780 --> 00:41:17,660
into his music, or into his
politics, or perhaps both.

599
00:41:19,740 --> 00:41:22,740
Until the revolution,
Beethoven's own compositions

600
00:41:22,740 --> 00:41:24,700
had been rather conservative,

601
00:41:24,700 --> 00:41:27,300
but after it,
he began to take more risks,

602
00:41:27,300 --> 00:41:29,700
writing more challenging works.

603
00:41:29,700 --> 00:41:32,180
Some of them were overtly political

604
00:41:32,180 --> 00:41:36,220
and one of these feeds directly
into the Fifth Symphony.

605
00:41:36,220 --> 00:41:42,140
# Wer, wer ist ein freier Mann...? #

606
00:41:42,140 --> 00:41:48,740
In 1792, Beethoven set The Free Man,
a poem by Gottlieb Konrad Pfeffel,

607
00:41:48,740 --> 00:41:49,700
to music.

608
00:41:51,420 --> 00:41:54,940
# Wer ist ein freier Mann?

609
00:41:54,940 --> 00:41:57,660
# Ein freier, freier Mann? #

610
00:41:58,780 --> 00:42:00,620
This is the first published edition

611
00:42:00,620 --> 00:42:04,460
of the score of some early
Beethoven compositions,

612
00:42:04,460 --> 00:42:07,700
including Der Freie Mann,

613
00:42:07,700 --> 00:42:11,380
a definition of
what makes a free man

614
00:42:11,380 --> 00:42:15,220
and, really, it's a description
of Beethoven himself.

615
00:42:15,220 --> 00:42:19,620
The words go like this:
"Wer ist ein freier Mann?" -

616
00:42:19,620 --> 00:42:21,740
"Who is a free man?

617
00:42:21,740 --> 00:42:28,060
"One who, enclosed within himself,
can set at naught the venal favour

618
00:42:28,060 --> 00:42:33,340
"of great and small alike -
he is a free man."

619
00:42:33,340 --> 00:42:34,940
It's pretty heady stuff,

620
00:42:34,940 --> 00:42:39,020
but this wasn't just some youthful
folly on Beethoven's part.

621
00:42:39,020 --> 00:42:43,460
The opening bars of
Der Freie Mann are identical

622
00:42:43,460 --> 00:42:46,700
to the opening of the fourth
movement of the Fifth Symphony,

623
00:42:46,700 --> 00:42:49,020
also set in C major.

624
00:42:49,020 --> 00:42:53,060
# Wer ist ein freier Mann...? #

625
00:42:53,060 --> 00:42:57,740
Beethoven first introduces this
musical motif of freedom achieved

626
00:42:57,740 --> 00:43:00,540
in the second movement
of his Fifth Symphony.

627
00:43:00,540 --> 00:43:02,540
# Ein freier, freier Mann. #

628
00:43:08,700 --> 00:43:12,140
Der Freie Mann dates
from many years earlier

629
00:43:12,140 --> 00:43:16,820
and surely prefigures the Fifth

630
00:43:16,820 --> 00:43:22,020
in a certain, at least embryonic,
but nevertheless significant way.

631
00:43:22,020 --> 00:43:22,900
Already here...

632
00:43:27,780 --> 00:43:33,620
..is the rising triadic idea
which has some parallel

633
00:43:33,620 --> 00:43:37,860
already in that early song
The Free Man.

634
00:43:46,340 --> 00:43:49,060
THEY PLAY SECOND MOVEMENT

635
00:44:07,780 --> 00:44:10,620
Even though he's hinting at
the C Major of the triumph

636
00:44:10,620 --> 00:44:13,660
that's going to eventually
come in the last movement,

637
00:44:13,660 --> 00:44:19,260
the eclat triomphal to which
we're all moving towards,

638
00:44:19,260 --> 00:44:23,820
it's a foretaste
and yet it's aborted.

639
00:44:30,060 --> 00:44:34,180
No sooner have they arrived at
that chord than it disappears,

640
00:44:34,180 --> 00:44:37,420
it's sort of like a puff of smoke,
it's gone into the ether.

641
00:44:48,180 --> 00:44:51,340
So one could say that the goal
of the symphony - freedom -

642
00:44:51,340 --> 00:44:52,940
has not yet been reached.

643
00:44:59,300 --> 00:45:04,020
In 1792, Beethoven
left Bonn for good.

644
00:45:04,020 --> 00:45:08,140
The ambitious 22-year-old was keen
to make his musical mark,

645
00:45:08,140 --> 00:45:10,940
so he moved to Vienna,
the Austrian capital,

646
00:45:10,940 --> 00:45:13,980
where he would write
the Fifth Symphony in 1807.

647
00:45:16,020 --> 00:45:18,740
By this time, the revolution
that Beethoven supported

648
00:45:18,740 --> 00:45:21,300
was spreading across Europe

649
00:45:21,300 --> 00:45:23,300
and it made his trip a troubled one.

650
00:45:25,540 --> 00:45:28,820
Beethoven was travelling
through the middle of a war.

651
00:45:28,820 --> 00:45:31,260
France was trying to export
the revolution,

652
00:45:31,260 --> 00:45:33,100
with which he sympathised,

653
00:45:33,100 --> 00:45:36,300
into the country where
he wanted to live and work.

654
00:45:38,340 --> 00:45:41,820
French troops, many of them
marching to the Marseillaise,

655
00:45:41,820 --> 00:45:44,700
were advancing into Germany
and towards Austria,

656
00:45:44,700 --> 00:45:48,580
and defending troops were
massing in the Rhineland.

657
00:45:48,580 --> 00:45:53,700
Beethoven records in his diary that
he had to tip his driver one thaler

658
00:45:53,700 --> 00:45:56,620
because, "The fellow drove us
at the risk of a whipping

659
00:45:56,620 --> 00:45:59,620
"right through the Hessian lines,"
which were the German troops,

660
00:45:59,620 --> 00:46:01,220
"going like crazy."

661
00:46:02,540 --> 00:46:04,660
There are calmer ways
to do the journey.

662
00:46:07,740 --> 00:46:11,060
It would be surprising if Beethoven
didn't have mixed feelings

663
00:46:11,060 --> 00:46:14,140
as French troops threatened
the city of his childhood

664
00:46:14,140 --> 00:46:17,100
and it was becoming harder for him
to support the realities

665
00:46:17,100 --> 00:46:18,580
of the Revolution in France.

666
00:46:20,740 --> 00:46:23,660
Events there were taking
a much darker turn.

667
00:46:23,660 --> 00:46:27,900
In 1793, just four years after
the fall of the Bastille,

668
00:46:27,900 --> 00:46:29,940
the ruling National Convention
declared

669
00:46:29,940 --> 00:46:33,380
that counter-revolutionaries
would be executed.

670
00:46:33,380 --> 00:46:36,060
King Louis XVI and his queen,
Marie Antoinette,

671
00:46:36,060 --> 00:46:38,900
were arrested and held captive.

672
00:46:38,900 --> 00:46:41,540
And they weren't the only ones.

673
00:46:41,540 --> 00:46:44,620
This grim-looking building
is La Conciergerie,

674
00:46:44,620 --> 00:46:47,020
used by the National Convention
as a prison.

675
00:46:48,420 --> 00:46:50,020
With no artificial light,

676
00:46:50,020 --> 00:46:54,620
this must have been an even more
forbidding and gloomy place.

677
00:46:59,820 --> 00:47:02,660
Enemies of the Revolution
were imprisoned here...

678
00:47:05,700 --> 00:47:09,180
..before being dispatched by a
specially invented new machine,

679
00:47:09,180 --> 00:47:11,180
the guillotine.

680
00:47:11,180 --> 00:47:13,100
At the time, the Convention,

681
00:47:13,100 --> 00:47:15,900
who were ruling France
in the name of the people,

682
00:47:15,900 --> 00:47:19,740
congratulated itself on
this humane form of execution.

683
00:47:21,020 --> 00:47:26,260
On January 21st, 1793,
the deposed king himself, Louis XVI,

684
00:47:26,260 --> 00:47:30,900
was executed, publicly,
and humanely.

685
00:47:36,180 --> 00:47:40,220
And this is the chapel
where his queen, Marie Antoinette,

686
00:47:40,220 --> 00:47:44,380
prayed whilst imprisoned
and awaiting her fate.

687
00:47:45,860 --> 00:47:51,620
This is the original floor and this
is the exact spot where she knelt.

688
00:47:53,100 --> 00:47:56,300
On October 16th, 1793,

689
00:47:56,300 --> 00:47:59,820
Marie Antoinette was
dispatched to the guillotine.

690
00:47:59,820 --> 00:48:05,020
And when the blade descended,
the crowd shouted, "Vive La Nation!"

691
00:48:08,020 --> 00:48:10,100
During the two-year
Reign of Terror,

692
00:48:10,100 --> 00:48:14,780
more than 2,700 people appeared
before the Revolutionary Tribunal

693
00:48:14,780 --> 00:48:17,220
in La Conciergerie's grand chamber.

694
00:48:19,220 --> 00:48:23,300
The condemned prisoners were held
in batches in that compound,

695
00:48:23,300 --> 00:48:25,420
behind those gates,

696
00:48:25,420 --> 00:48:29,780
and their relatives were allowed
to come in and say a last goodbye.

697
00:48:32,460 --> 00:48:36,060
The Revolution had begun
to devour its own children,

698
00:48:36,060 --> 00:48:40,340
and Schiller and the English poets
publicly recanted,

699
00:48:40,340 --> 00:48:45,060
and Coleridge even called for the
restoration of the Ancien Regime.

700
00:48:45,060 --> 00:48:48,700
Beethoven was as horrified as
anyone else by the excesses

701
00:48:48,700 --> 00:48:51,100
thrown up by the French Revolution,

702
00:48:51,100 --> 00:48:55,500
but he didn't lose faith with the
ideals and the principals behind it.

703
00:49:02,900 --> 00:49:07,340
Vienna in 1793 was an unlikely
setting to write a symphony

704
00:49:07,340 --> 00:49:10,020
supporting the ideals of
the French Revolution.

705
00:49:14,020 --> 00:49:18,100
It was the capital of
the centuries-old European
dynastic power,

706
00:49:18,100 --> 00:49:22,420
the Habsburg Empire, which was a
major force in a military coalition

707
00:49:22,420 --> 00:49:24,260
battling the French armies.

708
00:49:28,700 --> 00:49:32,980
Viennese society was under threat,
yet the paranoid upper classes

709
00:49:32,980 --> 00:49:35,820
distracted themselves
with fun and frivolity.

710
00:49:38,140 --> 00:49:42,300
I suspect Beethoven would have seen
plenty to disapprove of here,

711
00:49:42,300 --> 00:49:44,380
but he also had very good reasons

712
00:49:44,380 --> 00:49:46,860
to keep such political views
to himself.

713
00:49:53,700 --> 00:49:57,140
In a letter from August 1794,
Beethoven wrote,

714
00:49:57,140 --> 00:50:00,220
"I believe that as long as an
Austrian can get his brown ale

715
00:50:00,220 --> 00:50:03,220
"and his little sausages,
he is not likely to revolt."

716
00:50:05,180 --> 00:50:07,300
But he added ominously,

717
00:50:07,300 --> 00:50:09,700
"People say that the gates
leading to the suburbs

718
00:50:09,700 --> 00:50:11,780
"are to be closed at 10pm.

719
00:50:11,780 --> 00:50:15,060
"The soldiers have loaded
their muskets with ball.

720
00:50:15,060 --> 00:50:16,860
"You dare not raise your voice here

721
00:50:16,860 --> 00:50:19,300
"or the police will take you
into custody."

722
00:50:21,100 --> 00:50:23,540
Austria seemed a bit
like a police state.

723
00:50:26,380 --> 00:50:30,860
So, why did the Austrians react
so strongly to the events in France?

724
00:50:30,860 --> 00:50:33,100
There was these family connections

725
00:50:33,100 --> 00:50:35,100
between the French
and the Austrian monarchy,

726
00:50:35,100 --> 00:50:39,180
Marie Antoinette
being an Austrian princess.

727
00:50:39,180 --> 00:50:41,220
Right,
so it was coming straight home?

728
00:50:41,220 --> 00:50:43,460
And so, it was really
coming straight home

729
00:50:43,460 --> 00:50:46,740
and hitting the Habsburg family.

730
00:50:46,740 --> 00:50:52,620
Did they clamp down on any
sort of radical thinking?

731
00:50:52,620 --> 00:50:56,540
The police was reorganised
and much more centralised.

732
00:50:56,540 --> 00:51:01,380
The idea was to involve
as many people as possible

733
00:51:01,380 --> 00:51:04,180
in spying on as many people
as possible.

734
00:51:04,180 --> 00:51:07,700
Do you think Beethoven would
have been an obvious suspect?

735
00:51:07,700 --> 00:51:13,620
I think he would have been
a kind of an obvious target.

736
00:51:13,620 --> 00:51:18,180
One can easily understand
why he himself

737
00:51:18,180 --> 00:51:22,620
tried to keep a low profile
in his writings.

738
00:51:22,620 --> 00:51:25,140
They would open letters,
read letters.

739
00:51:25,140 --> 00:51:27,620
I think he was quite aware of that

740
00:51:27,620 --> 00:51:32,820
and probably kept also here
a rather low profile.

741
00:51:32,820 --> 00:51:36,740
The letters have jokes in them,
but there's nothing dangerous there.

742
00:51:36,740 --> 00:51:39,660
I think, you know, it's
quite likely that they were

743
00:51:39,660 --> 00:51:44,900
watching him as they were watching
a lot of people. So we don't know?

744
00:51:44,900 --> 00:51:47,020
But we have very good
reasons to guess.

745
00:51:49,060 --> 00:51:51,740
It turns out that the police
definitely kept files

746
00:51:51,740 --> 00:51:55,980
about Beethoven from 1815 to 1821.

747
00:51:55,980 --> 00:51:59,420
This makes it very likely that they
would have kept an eye on him

748
00:51:59,420 --> 00:52:00,660
well before that.

749
00:52:02,060 --> 00:52:05,740
So it's not surprising that
Beethoven's letter of 1794

750
00:52:05,740 --> 00:52:09,980
about police arrests is his last
mention of politics for a long time.

751
00:52:11,380 --> 00:52:14,060
The glamorous city did
have its dark side

752
00:52:14,060 --> 00:52:17,500
and Beethoven clearly felt
sufficiently under surveillance

753
00:52:17,500 --> 00:52:19,820
to be careful with what he said.

754
00:52:19,820 --> 00:52:23,180
And the bulk of what
he really thought and felt

755
00:52:23,180 --> 00:52:24,780
I think he kept for his music.

756
00:52:38,300 --> 00:52:40,260
And Vienna was the only place to be

757
00:52:40,260 --> 00:52:43,460
for an ambitious young
composer like Beethoven.

758
00:52:43,460 --> 00:52:46,540
It was home to the two musical
giants of the age,

759
00:52:46,540 --> 00:52:49,380
the men who Beethoven
aimed to match:

760
00:52:49,380 --> 00:52:53,460
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart,
who'd died here in 1791,

761
00:52:53,460 --> 00:52:55,900
and Joseph Haydn, still alive,

762
00:52:55,900 --> 00:52:58,140
and the composer of
over 100 symphonies.

763
00:53:00,340 --> 00:53:03,860
Beethoven never held a paid post
within the Imperial Court,

764
00:53:03,860 --> 00:53:05,860
the centre of the
city's music making.

765
00:53:07,020 --> 00:53:09,620
Instead, he carved out
a pioneering place

766
00:53:09,620 --> 00:53:11,900
as a freelance composer
and musician.

767
00:53:13,980 --> 00:53:17,260
So without having
a salaried position,

768
00:53:17,260 --> 00:53:20,260
Beethoven needed to find an
alternative source of income

769
00:53:20,260 --> 00:53:21,940
while he composed.

770
00:53:21,940 --> 00:53:24,740
Fortunately, there were
plenty of opportunities

771
00:53:24,740 --> 00:53:29,580
for the ambitious musician to gain
patronage from Vienna's aristocrats.

772
00:53:32,100 --> 00:53:35,100
Unfortunately, Beethoven
had very mixed feelings

773
00:53:35,100 --> 00:53:37,540
about being dependent
on the upper classes.

774
00:53:39,220 --> 00:53:43,340
And he had a patchy record with the
Viennese rules of social etiquette.

775
00:53:43,340 --> 00:53:45,660
One upper-class lady noted sniffily

776
00:53:45,660 --> 00:53:49,540
that while Haydn would arrive
"most carefully attired",

777
00:53:49,540 --> 00:53:51,980
Beethoven came "negligently dressed

778
00:53:51,980 --> 00:53:55,620
"in the freer fashion
of the Upper Rhine" -

779
00:53:55,620 --> 00:53:57,020
in other words, scruffy.

780
00:53:59,460 --> 00:54:01,140
Tell me where we are.

781
00:54:01,140 --> 00:54:05,140
This is the town palace
of Prince Lobkowitz and his wife.

782
00:54:05,140 --> 00:54:08,380
Concerts were the main
purpose of this room,

783
00:54:08,380 --> 00:54:12,700
because they had a private
concert every week.

784
00:54:12,700 --> 00:54:15,300
That's him, is it? Yeah, yeah.

785
00:54:15,300 --> 00:54:20,500
The young and very ambitious
nobility of the time,

786
00:54:20,500 --> 00:54:24,540
they wanted, really...
There was a fun factor to it.

787
00:54:24,540 --> 00:54:27,740
They invested in a guy
who did good music,

788
00:54:27,740 --> 00:54:32,420
it was like the rock
concerts of the time.

789
00:54:32,420 --> 00:54:37,660
I mean, you had brilliant new music,
a very bizarre style -

790
00:54:37,660 --> 00:54:43,180
they were really lifted up
by this kind of new experience.

791
00:54:43,180 --> 00:54:48,420
About 80% of his compositions
are dedicated to noblemen.

792
00:54:48,420 --> 00:54:55,340
And it's because
he was very into, um...

793
00:54:55,340 --> 00:54:57,780
Um... Being paid?

794
00:54:57,780 --> 00:55:01,380
..being paid and he
networked very, very well

795
00:55:01,380 --> 00:55:03,260
and he was working
very hard on that.

796
00:55:03,260 --> 00:55:05,700
Do you think he found that annoying?

797
00:55:05,700 --> 00:55:07,940
That he needed patrons?

798
00:55:07,940 --> 00:55:11,180
What I think is that it
was too much for him.

799
00:55:11,180 --> 00:55:13,660
For example, his relationship
with another patron,

800
00:55:13,660 --> 00:55:17,700
Prince Lichnowsky,
who wanted him to eat with him.

801
00:55:19,140 --> 00:55:23,860
Well, regularly at four o'clock
in the afternoon, yes, we know that.

802
00:55:23,860 --> 00:55:25,780
And he sometimes refused that.

803
00:55:26,980 --> 00:55:29,780
He was older than Beethoven,
about 17 years older.

804
00:55:29,780 --> 00:55:32,900
Yes, he looks grander. Yes, he
was already a patron of Mozart.

805
00:55:32,900 --> 00:55:35,380
I mean, he allowed Beethoven
in his house,

806
00:55:35,380 --> 00:55:38,540
but he was with all the other
servants at the beginning,

807
00:55:38,540 --> 00:55:42,900
he was in not very agreeable rooms,
and then he...

808
00:55:42,900 --> 00:55:46,380
He became his equal through
his own talent? Yes.

809
00:55:46,380 --> 00:55:50,820
Then they would dine
once in a while together.

810
00:55:50,820 --> 00:55:53,300
And then the situation
changed again,

811
00:55:53,300 --> 00:55:55,500
that Beethoven sometimes
said, "Oh, no, please,

812
00:55:55,500 --> 00:55:57,700
"I just can't deal
with it any more."

813
00:55:57,700 --> 00:56:00,940
So, Beethoven can't do small talk,
he doesn't dress properly,

814
00:56:00,940 --> 00:56:03,380
he doesn't turn up to dinner
when you ask him.

815
00:56:03,380 --> 00:56:04,780
Why did everyone put up with him?

816
00:56:04,780 --> 00:56:07,060
Because he was a brilliant composer.

817
00:56:07,060 --> 00:56:08,620
They just loved his music.

818
00:56:11,700 --> 00:56:15,780
I'm getting a clear picture of a man
whose attitude to Viennese society

819
00:56:15,780 --> 00:56:18,620
was complex and conflicted.

820
00:56:18,620 --> 00:56:22,460
On the one hand, he was
genuinely fond of his patrons,

821
00:56:22,460 --> 00:56:24,500
but on the other,
he was a meritocrat

822
00:56:24,500 --> 00:56:27,700
working in an aristocratic system.

823
00:56:27,700 --> 00:56:31,020
He famously wrote
to Prince Lichnowsky:

824
00:56:31,020 --> 00:56:34,180
"what you are, you are
by accident of birth.

825
00:56:34,180 --> 00:56:37,340
"What I am, I am by myself.

826
00:56:37,340 --> 00:56:40,340
"There are, and will be,
a thousand princes.

827
00:56:40,340 --> 00:56:42,220
"There is only one Beethoven."

828
00:56:43,300 --> 00:56:45,820
Is this just egotistical,

829
00:56:45,820 --> 00:56:49,300
or is this evidence of
the old, firebrand radical

830
00:56:49,300 --> 00:56:50,700
still in there somewhere?

831
00:56:53,140 --> 00:56:57,180
But his patrons' generosity paid
for Beethoven to compose

832
00:56:57,180 --> 00:56:59,260
and by the early 1800s,

833
00:56:59,260 --> 00:57:03,500
he had written concertos, sonatas
and his first two symphonies.

834
00:57:03,500 --> 00:57:04,980
To boost his income,

835
00:57:04,980 --> 00:57:08,740
Beethoven taught piano
to young upper-class women.

836
00:57:08,740 --> 00:57:11,980
There was something of a
love-hate relationship here too.

837
00:57:14,260 --> 00:57:16,300
He hated teaching,
but he needed the money.

838
00:57:16,300 --> 00:57:18,740
One can imagine in that
confined situation,

839
00:57:18,740 --> 00:57:22,420
sitting next to a young attractive
woman, and that's where most often

840
00:57:22,420 --> 00:57:25,660
he fell in love and, of course,
he fell in love frequently.

841
00:57:28,300 --> 00:57:32,780
One failed infatuation led to
Beethoven's famous piano piece,

842
00:57:32,780 --> 00:57:34,580
the Moonlight Sonata.

843
00:57:34,580 --> 00:57:37,060
MUSIC: Moonlight Sonata

844
00:57:37,060 --> 00:57:40,660
Indeed, his finest work often
arose from personal crisis.

845
00:57:40,660 --> 00:57:44,540
In 1802 came the most
devastating of all:

846
00:57:44,540 --> 00:57:49,020
Beethoven accepted that his hearing
loss was probably untreatable.

847
00:57:49,020 --> 00:57:51,260
He would go deaf.

848
00:57:51,260 --> 00:57:53,940
Many believe this is
"fate knocking at the door",

849
00:57:53,940 --> 00:57:57,860
the secret behind the four-note
motif at the Fifth Symphony's heart.

850
00:57:58,980 --> 00:58:01,460
But not everyone agrees.

851
00:58:01,460 --> 00:58:04,700
He sits down at his table
in this cottage,

852
00:58:04,700 --> 00:58:07,300
I imagine with a carafe
of red wine there,

853
00:58:07,300 --> 00:58:09,380
knocks it back to
give himself strength

854
00:58:09,380 --> 00:58:12,660
and writes his last
will and testament.

855
00:58:12,660 --> 00:58:16,220
And I imagine him staring at the
paper before he writes the words.

856
00:58:16,220 --> 00:58:21,020
He writes, "Ich bin taub" -
"I am deaf."

857
00:58:21,020 --> 00:58:22,660
And he stares at those words

858
00:58:22,660 --> 00:58:25,220
and I imagine they were
leaping out at him.

859
00:58:25,220 --> 00:58:30,060
More wine and he's admitted it
to himself for the first time,

860
00:58:30,060 --> 00:58:33,500
and so we have the famous
Heiligenstadt Testament.

861
00:58:33,500 --> 00:58:37,380
He's confronted his deafness by
writing those three little words

862
00:58:37,380 --> 00:58:41,020
and by confronting it,
he's overcome it, he's beaten it

863
00:58:41,020 --> 00:58:42,380
and he never looks back.

864
00:58:45,180 --> 00:58:48,060
If this is right, then it seems
unlikely that the Fifth

865
00:58:48,060 --> 00:58:51,180
is merely Beethoven railing
against his deafness -

866
00:58:51,180 --> 00:58:54,020
he has already in some way
come to terms with it.

867
00:58:55,620 --> 00:58:59,300
So began what's known as
Beethoven's "heroic period",

868
00:58:59,300 --> 00:59:02,340
where the composer produced
masterpiece after masterpiece,

869
00:59:02,340 --> 00:59:05,060
the Fifth Symphony among them.

870
00:59:05,060 --> 00:59:07,460
The outlines of many
of these great works

871
00:59:07,460 --> 00:59:10,660
can be found in one of
Beethoven's musical sketchbooks,

872
00:59:10,660 --> 00:59:13,300
called Landsberg 6.

873
00:59:13,300 --> 00:59:17,580
This definitive edition has been put
together by Professor Lewis Lockwood

874
00:59:17,580 --> 00:59:19,420
and his colleague, Alan Gosman.

875
00:59:21,020 --> 00:59:22,660
Now, what's in this sketchbook?

876
00:59:22,660 --> 00:59:24,940
All the sketches for all the works

877
00:59:24,940 --> 00:59:30,380
from very late in 1802
to the beginning of 1804.

878
00:59:30,380 --> 00:59:33,820
Now, very late in 1802 is
only a couple of months after

879
00:59:33,820 --> 00:59:35,900
the Heiligenstadt Crisis.

880
00:59:35,900 --> 00:59:39,300
The sketchbook reveals that
Beethoven has already decided

881
00:59:39,300 --> 00:59:41,220
on the Cherubini-inspired motif.

882
00:59:42,340 --> 00:59:46,420
On the next page and significantly
marked "symphonia",

883
00:59:46,420 --> 00:59:49,540
so he writes them a note to say,
"This is what I'm writing,

884
00:59:49,540 --> 00:59:51,180
"I'm writing a symphony now,"

885
00:59:51,180 --> 00:59:56,180
and we find the first idea for the
first movement of the Fifth Symphony

886
00:59:56,180 --> 01:00:01,260
in what appears to be
a fairly developed form

887
01:00:01,260 --> 01:00:03,140
for the basic themes
of the exposition,

888
01:00:03,140 --> 01:00:06,300
the first theme...
HE HUMS OPENING NOTES

889
01:00:06,300 --> 01:00:10,820
..continuing and then the second
contrasting theme,

890
01:00:10,820 --> 01:00:14,260
second subject...
HE HUMS NOTES

891
01:00:14,260 --> 01:00:15,660
..et cetera.

892
01:00:15,660 --> 01:00:17,740
The rest is not clear yet,

893
01:00:17,740 --> 01:00:22,580
but we have the beginning
of the first movement, basic ideas,

894
01:00:22,580 --> 01:00:25,620
and then some scattered ideas
for what might come next.

895
01:00:26,860 --> 01:00:29,100
And Beethoven sketched
a rough version

896
01:00:29,100 --> 01:00:32,940
of the beginning of
the third movement, the scherzo.

897
01:00:32,940 --> 01:00:34,340
At the bottom of the page,

898
01:00:34,340 --> 01:00:38,220
late in the sketchbook, we find
some interesting new material

899
01:00:38,220 --> 01:00:41,860
which turns out to be a primordial
version of the scherzo

900
01:00:41,860 --> 01:00:43,980
of the Fifth Symphony.

901
01:00:45,340 --> 01:00:47,340
And that continues
on the next page,

902
01:00:47,340 --> 01:00:51,580
where the trio of that scherzo
in primitive form is present.

903
01:00:52,660 --> 01:00:56,700
We have a sort of scherzo trio idea
pretty well formed.

904
01:00:57,780 --> 01:00:59,740
Now, the third movement
in a symphony

905
01:00:59,740 --> 01:01:02,180
is normally something light -

906
01:01:02,180 --> 01:01:05,740
a dance, a minuet,
something relaxed, jolly.

907
01:01:05,740 --> 01:01:08,620
But Beethoven had other ideas.

908
01:01:08,620 --> 01:01:11,300
THIRD MOVEMENT IS PLAYED

909
01:01:26,660 --> 01:01:29,420
It starts off very unconventionally
as a lyrical,

910
01:01:29,420 --> 01:01:33,060
slightly ambling figure
in the cellos and basses

911
01:01:33,060 --> 01:01:37,580
and that is just a preamble
to the opening rhythm, the motto,

912
01:01:37,580 --> 01:01:40,460
that's been there right from
the start of the first movement,

913
01:01:40,460 --> 01:01:44,860
but now given in slow,
whole notes by the horns.

914
01:02:01,300 --> 01:02:07,580
And it's such a vigorous
tramp of music,

915
01:02:07,580 --> 01:02:10,940
as though Beethoven is saying,
"This is how it's going to be.

916
01:02:10,940 --> 01:02:12,860
"This is what I really believe in."

917
01:02:15,140 --> 01:02:18,940
And it really does feel as though
humanity is on the march again here.

918
01:02:34,820 --> 01:02:37,460
And then he does something
quite extraordinary.

919
01:02:37,460 --> 01:02:40,660
In the place of a trio - the trio
is usually the kind of contrast

920
01:02:40,660 --> 01:02:43,340
to the minuet in a Mozart
or Haydn symphony -

921
01:02:43,340 --> 01:02:46,740
he goes completely berserk,
totally berserk.

922
01:02:46,740 --> 01:02:50,260
He sets off the cellos
and basses and violas.

923
01:02:50,260 --> 01:02:52,700
HE HUMS NOTES RAPIDLY

924
01:02:58,260 --> 01:03:00,820
And you think,
"What on earth is going on here?"

925
01:03:06,700 --> 01:03:12,180
It's as though this inexorable march
of the troops going into battle

926
01:03:12,180 --> 01:03:16,420
has suddenly been diverted
by a few complete hooligans

927
01:03:16,420 --> 01:03:18,580
who are dashing off into
the undergrowth saying,

928
01:03:18,580 --> 01:03:20,420
"No, no, no, we're not
going on this route,

929
01:03:20,420 --> 01:03:22,820
"we're going somewhere
completely different."

930
01:03:42,860 --> 01:03:44,900
It's a kind of distraction

931
01:03:44,900 --> 01:03:48,140
and then you go back to
the security of the march tune.

932
01:04:07,100 --> 01:04:11,100
Here in the third movement,
it's everybody coming together,

933
01:04:11,100 --> 01:04:14,580
as though asserting
that there is an end

934
01:04:14,580 --> 01:04:16,580
to this long march of the symphony

935
01:04:16,580 --> 01:04:20,660
and there will be
something of a conclusion.

936
01:04:20,660 --> 01:04:23,460
Who knows at that stage
what it's going to be?

937
01:04:40,100 --> 01:04:42,380
So the scherzo seems
to be revolutionary

938
01:04:42,380 --> 01:04:45,020
in more than just musical form.

939
01:04:45,020 --> 01:04:47,660
Maybe Cherubini's motif here
is a reminder

940
01:04:47,660 --> 01:04:50,500
that the fight for
the rights of man continued,

941
01:04:50,500 --> 01:04:53,540
as did Beethoven's own struggles
in repressive Vienna.

942
01:04:54,980 --> 01:04:59,540
Despite the personal risks, in the
late 1790s, he attended the salons

943
01:04:59,540 --> 01:05:04,460
of the French ambassador, mixing
with radicals and French musicians.

944
01:05:04,460 --> 01:05:07,780
It's most likely here that
Beethoven was first introduced

945
01:05:07,780 --> 01:05:11,220
to the work of Cherubini and
other revolutionary composers.

946
01:05:12,900 --> 01:05:16,100
France and its republican ideals
seem to have been very much

947
01:05:16,100 --> 01:05:20,540
on Beethoven's mind
in the early 1800s, too.

948
01:05:20,540 --> 01:05:23,420
The Landsberg 6 sketchbook
also contains

949
01:05:23,420 --> 01:05:26,660
the first outlines
of his only opera, Fidelio,

950
01:05:26,660 --> 01:05:31,140
that was inspired by the fall
of the Bastille prison in 1789.

951
01:05:33,140 --> 01:05:36,980
Beethoven also wrote very detailed
sketches for his third symphony,

952
01:05:36,980 --> 01:05:39,460
the Eroica - the "heroic" symphony.

953
01:05:39,460 --> 01:05:43,060
MUSIC: Symphony No. 3

954
01:05:43,060 --> 01:05:47,580
It was originally named directly
after this man - Napoleon Bonaparte.

955
01:05:47,580 --> 01:05:50,100
As a young general,
Napoleon had masterminded

956
01:05:50,100 --> 01:05:53,660
the French Revolutionary Army's
military success across Europe,

957
01:05:53,660 --> 01:05:55,780
sweeping away old regimes

958
01:05:55,780 --> 01:05:58,580
in the name of liberty,
equality and brotherhood.

959
01:06:00,580 --> 01:06:04,020
Napoleon symbolised
the triumph of the individual,

960
01:06:04,020 --> 01:06:06,660
the obscure Corsican
who came from nowhere

961
01:06:06,660 --> 01:06:09,100
in an incredibly short
period of time

962
01:06:09,100 --> 01:06:13,180
to make himself
the most important man in Europe.

963
01:06:13,180 --> 01:06:16,700
There's obviously a degree of
self-identification with Beethoven.

964
01:06:16,700 --> 01:06:20,100
They were both self-made men,
they were the same age,

965
01:06:20,100 --> 01:06:22,100
they were even the same height.

966
01:06:22,100 --> 01:06:24,340
But the important thing
for Beethoven,

967
01:06:24,340 --> 01:06:26,620
as with so many others at the time,

968
01:06:26,620 --> 01:06:30,220
was that Napoleon was
the new standard bearer

969
01:06:30,220 --> 01:06:32,260
for the ideals of the Revolution.

970
01:06:33,900 --> 01:06:35,580
But for many across Europe,

971
01:06:35,580 --> 01:06:39,820
Napoleon was becoming a parody of
all he was supposed to believe in.

972
01:06:39,820 --> 01:06:43,980
In England, caricaturists began
developing the satirical stereotype

973
01:06:43,980 --> 01:06:46,740
of Bonaparte that has
lasted up to this day.

974
01:06:47,900 --> 01:06:50,940
And the caricaturists'
main line of attack

975
01:06:50,940 --> 01:06:53,220
is that Napoleon is very small.

976
01:06:53,220 --> 01:06:55,700
Yes. In fact, he wasn't very small.

977
01:06:55,700 --> 01:06:59,500
He was 5'6", which is
a perfectly decent height,

978
01:06:59,500 --> 01:07:03,140
average height for a Frenchman
at the time.

979
01:07:03,140 --> 01:07:04,780
But if you show him as very small,

980
01:07:04,780 --> 01:07:07,020
then we don't have to be
that frightened of him.

981
01:07:07,020 --> 01:07:10,300
You also show him as evil,
so we have to fight him.

982
01:07:10,300 --> 01:07:14,100
Small, evil person. Small, evil
person who we can overthrow, yep.

983
01:07:14,100 --> 01:07:17,140
So he became known as "Little
Boney"? "Little Boney", yeah.

984
01:07:17,140 --> 01:07:18,980
And there he is. And who is this?

985
01:07:18,980 --> 01:07:21,420
This is Marianne,
the genius of France,

986
01:07:21,420 --> 01:07:25,300
this horrible harridan,
blood-soaked, of course,

987
01:07:25,300 --> 01:07:28,940
and she is dangling him
as a little child on her hand.

988
01:07:28,940 --> 01:07:32,780
And these are...
Again, he's very, very small,

989
01:07:32,780 --> 01:07:35,260
but these are reproduced on mugs.
These are on mugs.

990
01:07:35,260 --> 01:07:39,700
These show what will happen
if Napoleon did arrive in London

991
01:07:39,700 --> 01:07:43,140
and he's standing outside
the print shop, of course,

992
01:07:43,140 --> 01:07:44,660
of Mr Fores in Piccadilly

993
01:07:44,660 --> 01:07:48,100
and he's pointing to lots
of prints of buildings in London

994
01:07:48,100 --> 01:07:50,460
and he's pointing to
the Bank of England

995
01:07:50,460 --> 01:07:52,980
and saying, "Can I have that one?"

996
01:07:52,980 --> 01:07:56,780
The huge volunteer soldier
is saying,

997
01:07:56,780 --> 01:07:58,980
"No fear..." "No."
"..off you go."

998
01:07:58,980 --> 01:08:01,220
And he's at least double his size.

999
01:08:01,220 --> 01:08:03,460
There is no threat.
Of course, no threat.

1000
01:08:05,900 --> 01:08:08,140
Beethoven developed his own doubts.

1001
01:08:08,140 --> 01:08:09,980
As he became more powerful,

1002
01:08:09,980 --> 01:08:14,180
Napoleon had the royal
Fontainebleau Palace refurbished

1003
01:08:14,180 --> 01:08:15,860
for his own personal use.

1004
01:08:17,900 --> 01:08:21,100
It's what they called,
"La vie de chateau".

1005
01:08:21,100 --> 01:08:22,540
Quite agreeable, really.

1006
01:08:25,660 --> 01:08:30,300
In 1799, a coup made Napoleon
France's First Consul.

1007
01:08:30,300 --> 01:08:34,140
Elections were suspended and he
assumed near dictatorial powers.

1008
01:08:35,580 --> 01:08:38,420
Napoleon had this beautiful
room redesigned,

1009
01:08:38,420 --> 01:08:41,740
after he had seamlessly taken
over the king's old palace

1010
01:08:41,740 --> 01:08:43,900
and placed himself in it.

1011
01:08:43,900 --> 01:08:45,940
Beethoven, like many others
at the time,

1012
01:08:45,940 --> 01:08:49,420
had a love-hate relationship
with Napoleon,

1013
01:08:49,420 --> 01:08:53,220
wavering between
admiration and disgust.

1014
01:08:55,100 --> 01:08:58,340
But he clung on to the hope
that, somehow, the French leader

1015
01:08:58,340 --> 01:09:01,220
could make the ideals of
the Revolution a reality.

1016
01:09:02,420 --> 01:09:05,700
In 1803, he planned on
naming his third symphony

1017
01:09:05,700 --> 01:09:07,260
directly after Napoleon.

1018
01:09:08,980 --> 01:09:10,780
A friend of Beethoven's wrote,

1019
01:09:10,780 --> 01:09:13,940
"At the time, Beethoven held him
in the highest esteem.

1020
01:09:13,940 --> 01:09:16,540
"I saw a copy of the score
lying on his table -

1021
01:09:16,540 --> 01:09:20,260
"at the head of the title page
was the word 'Bonaparte'."

1022
01:09:23,740 --> 01:09:25,740
But the final straw
for Beethoven came

1023
01:09:25,740 --> 01:09:29,740
when Napoleon was
crowned emperor in 1804.

1024
01:09:29,740 --> 01:09:33,220
All in the cause of revolutionary
ideals, obviously...

1025
01:09:37,180 --> 01:09:41,380
Even at home at Fontainebleau,
Napoleon liked to have a throne.

1026
01:09:41,380 --> 01:09:45,020
In the actual ceremony,
Napoleon wasn't crowned by the Pope.

1027
01:09:45,020 --> 01:09:49,700
He took the crown from the Pope
and put it on his own head.

1028
01:09:49,700 --> 01:09:51,540
And to rub salt into the wound,

1029
01:09:51,540 --> 01:09:56,620
as he did so, he swore an oath
to liberty and equality.

1030
01:09:56,620 --> 01:09:58,540
It is said that when
Beethoven heard this,

1031
01:09:58,540 --> 01:10:01,260
he flew into an absolute rage

1032
01:10:01,260 --> 01:10:04,340
and began a foul-mouthed rant
about Napoleon.

1033
01:10:04,340 --> 01:10:05,540
Beethoven shouted,

1034
01:10:05,540 --> 01:10:09,020
"He will trample over all human
rights to humour his ambition!

1035
01:10:09,020 --> 01:10:12,660
"He will place himself above
all others and become a tyrant!"

1036
01:10:13,700 --> 01:10:16,740
And he also scribbled
out Napoleon's name

1037
01:10:16,740 --> 01:10:18,780
from the cover of the front page

1038
01:10:18,780 --> 01:10:22,500
of the Third Symphony, and he
scribbled so hard in his anger

1039
01:10:22,500 --> 01:10:24,580
that he went right
through the paper.

1040
01:10:30,140 --> 01:10:34,580
Sometime later that year, Beethoven
changed the name of the work

1041
01:10:34,580 --> 01:10:37,660
to Sinfonia Eroica,
the "Heroic Symphony."

1042
01:10:37,660 --> 01:10:41,900
But he still dedicated it
to the memory of a great man

1043
01:10:41,900 --> 01:10:45,140
and some believe that great man
was still Napoleon.

1044
01:10:47,300 --> 01:10:49,820
It can't have been an easy time
for Beethoven,

1045
01:10:49,820 --> 01:10:52,660
seeing his hopes for the
French Revolution raised

1046
01:10:52,660 --> 01:10:54,940
and then disappointed
for a second time.

1047
01:10:56,260 --> 01:10:59,980
So perhaps we can see this crisis
of faith reflected

1048
01:10:59,980 --> 01:11:01,900
in the Fifth Symphony's scherzo.

1049
01:11:17,180 --> 01:11:19,660
Beethoven is in some
eerie terrain here.

1050
01:11:21,060 --> 01:11:25,580
To me, it's like looking at
an image in a cracked mirror.

1051
01:11:39,500 --> 01:11:42,420
The stopped sounds the horns
are obliged to make

1052
01:11:42,420 --> 01:11:47,500
produce this very pinched
and unearthly sound.

1053
01:11:56,820 --> 01:12:02,140
It's like a sort of stray bird
of prey, a falcon or a crow

1054
01:12:02,140 --> 01:12:05,420
or a rook coming by and cawing...

1055
01:12:08,620 --> 01:12:13,100
..and it creates a sort of
sensation of a barren landscape,

1056
01:12:13,100 --> 01:12:14,500
a God-forsaken landscape.

1057
01:12:18,660 --> 01:12:21,420
It seems that after
Napoleon's coronation,

1058
01:12:21,420 --> 01:12:24,260
Beethoven lost faith in
the disillusioning realities

1059
01:12:24,260 --> 01:12:25,900
of revolutionary politics.

1060
01:12:28,540 --> 01:12:31,780
So how is the Fifth Symphony,
written four years later,

1061
01:12:31,780 --> 01:12:34,060
a political symphony
in a wider sense?

1062
01:12:35,140 --> 01:12:39,220
A clue may lie in the later work of
Beethoven's great intellectual idol,

1063
01:12:39,220 --> 01:12:40,420
Friedrich Schiller.

1064
01:12:42,260 --> 01:12:45,340
He felt that the French Revolution
had failed

1065
01:12:45,340 --> 01:12:51,140
and he wrote dismissively, "A great
moment has found a little people."

1066
01:12:51,140 --> 01:12:54,580
But he did think alternatively
that art could be used

1067
01:12:54,580 --> 01:12:56,780
to enlighten humanity.

1068
01:12:56,780 --> 01:13:00,900
He called this the
"aesthetic education of man".

1069
01:13:00,900 --> 01:13:05,300
This vision of moral character
being improved by art,

1070
01:13:05,300 --> 01:13:08,940
including music,
had a huge impact on Beethoven.

1071
01:13:14,060 --> 01:13:20,540
He ascribed strongly to the
Schillerian idea of the artwork

1072
01:13:20,540 --> 01:13:26,780
which would embody
a power to inspire

1073
01:13:26,780 --> 01:13:33,220
present and future generations,
even through periods of repression.

1074
01:13:33,220 --> 01:13:37,020
And so we find, actually,
that in Beethoven's career,

1075
01:13:37,020 --> 01:13:39,220
there's this Schillerian trend

1076
01:13:39,220 --> 01:13:45,740
whereby his tragic works
very rarely end in a tragic mode -

1077
01:13:45,740 --> 01:13:53,260
rather, they posit an alternative
to the dark forces.

1078
01:13:53,260 --> 01:13:59,020
And there's perhaps no single work
that does that quite so powerfully

1079
01:13:59,020 --> 01:14:00,660
as Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.

1080
01:14:03,980 --> 01:14:07,260
Schiller's theory had breathed
new life into the ideals

1081
01:14:07,260 --> 01:14:09,100
that Beethoven had long held dear.

1082
01:14:11,180 --> 01:14:13,980
I think this may well be
what Beethoven had in mind

1083
01:14:13,980 --> 01:14:16,780
when he finally sat down
to write the Fifth Symphony

1084
01:14:16,780 --> 01:14:18,420
in the summer of 1807.

1085
01:14:20,300 --> 01:14:22,900
We've talked a lot about
the historical context

1086
01:14:22,900 --> 01:14:24,220
of the Fifth Symphony,

1087
01:14:24,220 --> 01:14:28,220
about the motivation behind
writing it, the influences on it.

1088
01:14:28,220 --> 01:14:30,860
But here we are,
this is the location

1089
01:14:30,860 --> 01:14:34,140
where Beethoven actually
sat down and wrote it.

1090
01:14:34,140 --> 01:14:39,460
This is the somewhat unlikely
crucible of that extraordinary work.

1091
01:14:42,420 --> 01:14:45,100
The building is called
the Pasqualati House,

1092
01:14:45,100 --> 01:14:46,860
after Beethoven's landlord.

1093
01:14:53,860 --> 01:14:57,860
This recreated apartment
is beautifully clean now,

1094
01:14:57,860 --> 01:15:01,460
but that wasn't the case
when Beethoven was writing here.

1095
01:15:01,460 --> 01:15:05,820
Then, it was heroically messy
and filthy.

1096
01:15:05,820 --> 01:15:08,980
Beethoven was known
for living in squalor.

1097
01:15:08,980 --> 01:15:13,340
The Baron de Tremont
wrote after an 1809 visit,

1098
01:15:13,340 --> 01:15:16,140
"Picture to yourself
the most disorderly

1099
01:15:16,140 --> 01:15:18,980
"and dirty place imaginable -

1100
01:15:18,980 --> 01:15:23,380
"an old grand piano,
on which dust vied for place

1101
01:15:23,380 --> 01:15:26,980
"with various pieces of manuscript
and engraved music

1102
01:15:26,980 --> 01:15:30,060
"and under the piano,
I do not exaggerate,

1103
01:15:30,060 --> 01:15:31,980
"an unemptied chamber pot."

1104
01:15:35,740 --> 01:15:38,860
That's one period detail
which the Pasqualati House

1105
01:15:38,860 --> 01:15:40,940
have chosen not to recreate.

1106
01:15:45,340 --> 01:15:48,660
Back in 1807, it wasn't
just Beethoven's apartment

1107
01:15:48,660 --> 01:15:52,060
that was in a mess. There were
personal problems, as well.

1108
01:15:54,100 --> 01:15:56,780
About the time he is
writing his Fifth Symphony,

1109
01:15:56,780 --> 01:16:00,300
his private life is in turmoil -
yet another failed love affair.

1110
01:16:00,300 --> 01:16:02,420
He'd fallen in love with
a young pupil of his,

1111
01:16:02,420 --> 01:16:04,820
and her sister wrote back saying no.

1112
01:16:06,540 --> 01:16:10,020
And Beethoven's great patron
in Vienna, Prince Lichnowsky,

1113
01:16:10,020 --> 01:16:13,820
said, "Ludwig, I've invited some
French officers to dinner tonight -

1114
01:16:13,820 --> 01:16:16,260
"why don't you join us?"

1115
01:16:16,260 --> 01:16:19,740
Beethoven, he had seen Vienna
invaded by the French.

1116
01:16:19,740 --> 01:16:22,500
The last thing he wanted to do,
this great revolutionary

1117
01:16:22,500 --> 01:16:25,580
and freedom lover, was sit down
to dinner with French officers.

1118
01:16:26,780 --> 01:16:29,900
And the conversation went around
and one of the officers said...

1119
01:16:29,900 --> 01:16:32,460
IN FRENCH ACCENT: "I hear you
are a very good pianist

1120
01:16:32,460 --> 01:16:35,380
"and composer, Herr Beethoven -
will you give us a tune?"

1121
01:16:35,380 --> 01:16:39,700
Beethoven stood up and said,
"I do not play for people like you,"

1122
01:16:39,700 --> 01:16:41,900
stormed out into the night

1123
01:16:41,900 --> 01:16:45,300
and would not have anything more
to do with Lichnowsky.

1124
01:16:48,100 --> 01:16:50,180
So it's probably not too surprising

1125
01:16:50,180 --> 01:16:53,260
that Beethoven was scrabbling
for commissions in 1807.

1126
01:16:55,660 --> 01:16:58,060
This aristocrat said,
"Look, I say, Herr Beethoven,

1127
01:16:58,060 --> 01:17:00,700
"you wouldn't write
another symphony, would you?

1128
01:17:00,700 --> 01:17:04,180
"Perhaps even dedicate it to me.
I'll pay you five hundred florins."

1129
01:17:04,180 --> 01:17:06,420
Beethoven actually said,
"I'll do it".

1130
01:17:07,860 --> 01:17:10,580
Is it possible that the main
motivation for Beethoven

1131
01:17:10,580 --> 01:17:14,340
writing his Fifth Symphony
was simply to pay the rent?

1132
01:17:14,340 --> 01:17:15,420
I don't think so

1133
01:17:15,420 --> 01:17:18,620
and not when you look at this
portrait which was painted

1134
01:17:18,620 --> 01:17:23,020
just after he had written the first
sketches for the Fifth Symphony.

1135
01:17:23,020 --> 01:17:26,900
He's looking suitably
Romantic and radical

1136
01:17:26,900 --> 01:17:30,620
and this was a time in Vienna
when one author wrote,

1137
01:17:30,620 --> 01:17:36,580
"Simply to have sideburns meant that
one was suspected of Jacobinism."

1138
01:17:36,580 --> 01:17:39,580
It's a pretty good
pair of sideburns.

1139
01:17:39,580 --> 01:17:43,820
And he did keep the
Cherubini-inspired first four notes

1140
01:17:43,820 --> 01:17:46,340
from those first sketches

1141
01:17:46,340 --> 01:17:49,700
and he kept the draft
of the third movement.

1142
01:17:55,020 --> 01:17:57,700
In that sketchbook,
Beethoven was vague

1143
01:17:57,700 --> 01:18:01,500
about the form that the Fifth
Symphony's finale would take.

1144
01:18:01,500 --> 01:18:04,940
"Maybe some kind of march,"
he scribbled

1145
01:18:04,940 --> 01:18:07,780
and after the scherzo's
gloomy conclusion,

1146
01:18:07,780 --> 01:18:09,380
a march it was,

1147
01:18:09,380 --> 01:18:12,460
one based on the music
of the French Revolution

1148
01:18:12,460 --> 01:18:14,900
and containing another
coded message.

1149
01:18:18,420 --> 01:18:21,340
There's a very hushed feeling,

1150
01:18:21,340 --> 01:18:24,380
as though something ominous
is about to happen.

1151
01:18:24,380 --> 01:18:27,180
It's really that sort
of the calm before the storm.

1152
01:18:37,180 --> 01:18:43,140
And eventually the timpani, the
kettle drums, emerge from the gloom

1153
01:18:43,140 --> 01:18:48,660
with a crescendo and then the whole
sky erupts with this blaze of sound

1154
01:18:48,660 --> 01:18:50,580
and you're into the last movement.

1155
01:19:08,900 --> 01:19:11,140
And he takes what seems to be

1156
01:19:11,140 --> 01:19:14,940
a fairly straightforward march
of the French Revolution.

1157
01:19:14,940 --> 01:19:17,340
He then, in typical
Beethoven fashion,

1158
01:19:17,340 --> 01:19:22,300
writes variations
and elaborations of it.

1159
01:19:22,300 --> 01:19:26,180
Subversively and surreptitiously,

1160
01:19:26,180 --> 01:19:28,780
he introduces a new theme

1161
01:19:28,780 --> 01:19:34,300
which turns...
HE HUMS NEW THEME

1162
01:19:35,460 --> 01:19:38,540
And thanks to dear old Mr Schmitz
back in the 1920s,

1163
01:19:38,540 --> 01:19:41,380
we can pinpoint the origins of that

1164
01:19:41,380 --> 01:19:46,060
and it's Mr Rouget de Lisle,
Hymne Dithyrambique.

1165
01:19:46,060 --> 01:19:48,580
Rouget de Lisle was the French
revolutionary composer

1166
01:19:48,580 --> 01:19:51,860
who composed the La Marseillaise
and, sure enough, it's...

1167
01:19:51,860 --> 01:19:54,620
HE SINGS: # Chantons la liberte,
la liberte. #

1168
01:19:55,940 --> 01:19:58,580
During his rehearsals
for the Fifth Symphony,

1169
01:19:58,580 --> 01:20:03,900
John Eliot showed us what
this revolutionary song sounds like.

1170
01:20:03,900 --> 01:20:07,820
# Chantons la liberte

1171
01:20:07,820 --> 01:20:11,260
# Couronnons sa statue

1172
01:20:11,260 --> 01:20:15,140
# Comme un nouveau Titan

1173
01:20:15,140 --> 01:20:19,020
# Le crime est foudroye... #

1174
01:20:21,020 --> 01:20:25,700
If you listen carefully, in the last
movement of the Fifth Symphony,

1175
01:20:25,700 --> 01:20:27,100
this is what you hear...

1176
01:20:28,140 --> 01:20:30,740
THEY PLAY FOURTH MOVEMENT

1177
01:20:30,740 --> 01:20:33,620
THEY PLAY MELODY SIMILAR
TO "HYMNE DITHYRAMBIQUE"

1178
01:20:38,300 --> 01:20:43,180
So there you have a completely
impossible statement,

1179
01:20:43,180 --> 01:20:49,020
a paean to liberty, to freedom,
in repressive Vienna.

1180
01:21:02,700 --> 01:21:06,020
That gets submerged in
so many conventional performances.

1181
01:21:09,340 --> 01:21:12,700
I think it's really crucial
that the audience clocks that,

1182
01:21:12,700 --> 01:21:14,060
that they register it.

1183
01:21:24,380 --> 01:21:27,860
We had a political tract
in the opening movement

1184
01:21:27,860 --> 01:21:29,660
all about the rights of man

1185
01:21:29,660 --> 01:21:31,100
and here we have liberty.

1186
01:21:40,460 --> 01:21:45,540
So Beethoven is doing
two of the great

1187
01:21:45,540 --> 01:21:49,380
three-motto symbols
of the French Revolution.

1188
01:21:53,580 --> 01:21:57,260
But could it just be coincidence
that Beethoven uses this theme?

1189
01:21:57,260 --> 01:22:00,380
How do we know that the musical
reference to Rouget de Lisle

1190
01:22:00,380 --> 01:22:01,580
is deliberate?

1191
01:22:03,380 --> 01:22:05,620
John Eliot believes
that the proof lies

1192
01:22:05,620 --> 01:22:08,860
in Beethoven's handwritten score
for the Fifth Symphony.

1193
01:22:11,740 --> 01:22:14,180
It's extraordinarily moving
looking at this facsimile

1194
01:22:14,180 --> 01:22:15,980
of Beethoven's score
of the Fifth Symphony

1195
01:22:15,980 --> 01:22:23,300
because, on the face of it, it's
anarchic, it's completely zany.

1196
01:22:23,300 --> 01:22:28,460
It's like a sort of force-ten gale
going through a forest of bamboos

1197
01:22:28,460 --> 01:22:32,580
with all these crossings out
and things leaning forward

1198
01:22:32,580 --> 01:22:35,700
and we're right in the thick
of the last movement

1199
01:22:35,700 --> 01:22:38,140
and here, for the first time,

1200
01:22:38,140 --> 01:22:42,820
Beethoven insinuates
through the textures

1201
01:22:42,820 --> 01:22:48,420
this little quotation from Rouget
de Lisle's Hymne Dithyrambique,

1202
01:22:48,420 --> 01:22:52,420
with the critical words
"freedom", "la liberte".

1203
01:22:52,420 --> 01:22:56,820
HE SINGS: # "La liberte,
la liberte. #

1204
01:22:56,820 --> 01:23:00,460
It stands out very, very clearly

1205
01:23:00,460 --> 01:23:04,660
in contrast to all this
rather messy ornamentation

1206
01:23:04,660 --> 01:23:06,780
and elaboration and crossings out,

1207
01:23:06,780 --> 01:23:10,660
So it's as though they
are like structural girders

1208
01:23:10,660 --> 01:23:15,380
that hold the whole fabric and the
edifice of the building into place.

1209
01:23:21,100 --> 01:23:23,660
And from then onwards,
it's a great sprint to the line,

1210
01:23:23,660 --> 01:23:30,220
it's a huge celebration of
an individual quest for freedom,

1211
01:23:30,220 --> 01:23:34,420
but also the realisation
of a political utopia.

1212
01:23:51,860 --> 01:23:55,940
He bought into the values
of the French Revolution

1213
01:23:55,940 --> 01:23:59,820
at a time when those ideas
were incendiary in Europe.

1214
01:24:01,460 --> 01:24:06,500
So he comes up with this brilliant,
but extremely dangerous strategy,

1215
01:24:06,500 --> 01:24:09,620
of investing his abstract music

1216
01:24:09,620 --> 01:24:13,220
with deeply subversive
political content.

1217
01:24:17,260 --> 01:24:19,500
So what was the public reaction
at the premiere

1218
01:24:19,500 --> 01:24:21,900
to this musical call to arms?

1219
01:24:21,900 --> 01:24:25,500
Did it have the same revolutionary
impact as Schiller's The Robbers,

1220
01:24:25,500 --> 01:24:27,420
as Beethoven may have hoped?

1221
01:24:28,740 --> 01:24:30,980
Back to Vienna's Theater an der Wien

1222
01:24:30,980 --> 01:24:35,660
to find out what happened on
that evening in December 1808.

1223
01:24:38,540 --> 01:24:42,420
What do you think the audience
thought of the Fifth?

1224
01:24:42,420 --> 01:24:43,580
They didn't like it.

1225
01:24:43,580 --> 01:24:48,940
We know that it was received
well, as in friendly, you know?

1226
01:24:48,940 --> 01:24:52,220
They said it wasn't bad, but they
were not enthusiastic about it.

1227
01:24:52,220 --> 01:24:57,180
Right. Also, later, we have accounts
of Goethe, you know, the big poet,

1228
01:24:57,180 --> 01:25:00,100
who said "You know, it's nice,
but it's too much.

1229
01:25:00,100 --> 01:25:04,460
"It's sort of a house
breaking down."

1230
01:25:04,460 --> 01:25:07,820
So it's too loud, it's too much,
it's over the top.

1231
01:25:07,820 --> 01:25:12,300
So people were not exactly
happy about what they heard.

1232
01:25:12,300 --> 01:25:14,780
At the end of all that,
how did Beethoven feel?

1233
01:25:14,780 --> 01:25:19,780
Was he disappointed or cross?
Well, how cross was he?

1234
01:25:19,780 --> 01:25:22,940
Well, quite cross. I don't think
he was very happy at all.

1235
01:25:26,940 --> 01:25:30,220
It was a few years before the Fifth
began to be appreciated

1236
01:25:30,220 --> 01:25:34,380
in Central Europe, as the perfect
example of Romantic individualism,

1237
01:25:34,380 --> 01:25:37,380
with the emphasis on Beethoven's
personal struggle.

1238
01:25:39,380 --> 01:25:41,620
But the response at
the premiere in Paris,

1239
01:25:41,620 --> 01:25:45,220
birthplace of the ideals of
the Revolution, was very different.

1240
01:25:47,900 --> 01:25:51,300
The audience there recognised
the musical references

1241
01:25:51,300 --> 01:25:54,380
and embraced the symphony
wholeheartedly.

1242
01:25:54,380 --> 01:25:57,420
From then on, the Fifth
became a firm favourite

1243
01:25:57,420 --> 01:25:59,660
with French audiences.

1244
01:25:59,660 --> 01:26:03,100
I think I'm with them
and with John Eliot Gardiner

1245
01:26:03,100 --> 01:26:06,380
in seeing the ideals of
the French Revolution

1246
01:26:06,380 --> 01:26:10,620
as intrinsic to the power, to
the force, of the Fifth Symphony.

1247
01:26:10,620 --> 01:26:12,900
That was certainly
the view of one listener

1248
01:26:12,900 --> 01:26:15,100
at that first Paris performance.

1249
01:26:15,100 --> 01:26:18,740
He was an old soldier,
a veteran of the Napoleonic Wars,

1250
01:26:18,740 --> 01:26:21,540
and he listened to the piece
and at the end of the finale,

1251
01:26:21,540 --> 01:26:25,540
he rose to his feet and shouted,
"C'est l'Empereur!

1252
01:26:25,540 --> 01:26:27,180
"Vive l'Empereur!"

1253
01:26:33,060 --> 01:26:35,780
When you're actually performing it

1254
01:26:35,780 --> 01:26:39,060
you're caught up in his vision,

1255
01:26:39,060 --> 01:26:44,980
you're caught up with his hugely
daring exposition of human capacity

1256
01:26:44,980 --> 01:26:47,180
to overcome the slings and arrows
of fate.

1257
01:26:55,500 --> 01:26:59,580
And if you give it your all,
as this orchestra does,

1258
01:26:59,580 --> 01:27:02,580
and as I try to do
when performing this piece,

1259
01:27:02,580 --> 01:27:08,100
the rewards are immense,
but you feel total identification

1260
01:27:08,100 --> 01:27:12,980
with the vision that actually
is inspiring the piece

1261
01:27:12,980 --> 01:27:14,180
as it's unfolding.

1262
01:27:21,100 --> 01:27:25,540
He's moulding clay, musical clay in
such a way that it can only create

1263
01:27:25,540 --> 01:27:29,140
a monument of
extraordinary conviction

1264
01:27:29,140 --> 01:27:31,700
and that's really the secret

1265
01:27:31,700 --> 01:27:35,300
and that's the real substance
of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.