Just four notes...
OPENING STRAINS OF BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH
..and with them, music's most dramatic mic drop,
written by a man going deaf but destined to be heard forever.
Dramatic? Absolutely.
Subtle? Mm, not really his style.
A man who refused to play by the rules,
but who would become one of the most-performed composers
in Proms history.
So, come on in. You know you want to hear what all the drama is about.
It's time for Beethoven and his Fifth Symphony at the BBC Proms.
A very warm welcome to the Royal Albert Hall,
where tonight it's the turn of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra
to take to the stage,
conducted by young podium sensation Maxim Emelyanychev.
Together they bring us a blockbuster programme
of two classical music favourites.
Our headline piece is one of the most-performed works
in BBC Proms history.
It is, of course, Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
And after that, we're off to Africa with
Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No.5,
known as The Egyptian -
a musical travelogue of a sea voyage.
French pianist and star of
the Paris 2024 Olympics opening ceremony Alexandre Kantorow
is the soloist.
And I am thrilled to say that joining me tonight is
author and broadcaster Gyles Brandreth. Welcome!
I'm thrilled to be here. I love this building.
It's one of the great buildings of the world.
I know it very well because I was brought up -
brought up around the corner, living in South Kensington,
and have actually even performed here.
I once sang a duet with the great Dame Judi Dench onstage here. Wow!
And what's amazing - 5,000 and more people sit in the audience,
but the intimacy is extraordinary.
It is an amazing alchemy that happens.
That intimacy is something that's a kind of magic spell
this place casts, but, Gyles, you actually experienced
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony right here at the Proms, I think.
The first time I heard it was here at the Proms,
under the baton of the great Sir Malcolm Sergeant -
great conductor, in many ways the person who was the face of the Proms
from after the Second World War for 20 years.
He was such a showman,
and so I saw him conduct Beethoven's Fifth here
all those years ago. How fabulous.
And the man, of course, we have to thank for lots of the rituals
and traditions on the Last Night Of The Proms. Absolutely.
And the last night he ever appeared here - I think in 1967 -
I was here as, well. He wasn't conducting that night -
it was a few weeks, in fact, before he died.
He arrived in a suit and we thought,
"Oh, he's wearing a suit. Where are the tails?"
And he was looking very smart,
but it wasn't quite the Malcolm Sargeant we knew. Yes!
But a great man worth remembering tonight.
He really could work the tails.
Well, Beethoven is indeed our main man tonight.
When his Fifth Symphony burst onto the scene in 1808,
audiences had never heard anything like it.
Those iconic four opening notes -
well, Beethoven allegedly called them "fate knocking at the door",
and fate hadn't been kind.
Europe was at war, Beethoven was losing his hearing and
struggling financially,
yet out of that chaos, political and personal turmoil
came a defiant masterpiece.
Gyles, what must it have been like for audiences experiencing
Beethoven 5 at the time?
I have read what it was like, and that's why I brought my scarf
for the occasion. It was apparently freezing cold. It was in December.
Yes. It was a night to forget, in many ways. The concert went on
for more than four hours.
They got the order of the programme wrong.
They played Beethoven's Sixth before they played his Fifth,
and it was supposed to be the premiere of the Fifth.
The orchestra, apparently, were a lot of amateurs.
It was a really traumatic night.
But it seems to have stood the test of time.
Absolutely. And I'm very pleased that we have the correct
knitwear available tonight - which is fabulous, by the way.
I am loving the resplendent keyboard! Thank you.
Beethoven's deafness is ground well covered, really, but there is,
Gyles, don't you think, something quite powerful about the
figure of somebody for whom the world was becoming increasingly
silent, and yet his musical voice, from then through to now,
really has never been silenced?
Extraordinary, that. "I will hear in heaven," that famous line.
In some ways, I think it's sad that we see him through
the prism of his deafness. Of course, in his day,
deafness wasn't understood as it is now.
I think it is miraculous that Beethoven, like a star,
died all those years ago,
but the light still continues to this day.
Completely remarkable. I mean, he is a phenomenon.
The music is a phenomenon.
Though we're familiar with it, I think there's
a wonderful phrase about the security of known relationships,
We know this so well, Beethoven's Fifth,
and yet with a friend, with a relationship,
sometimes they can surprise you.
And I'm going to try to listen tonight to Beethoven
with fresh ears, with new attention, to see if I can find
some surprises in this old friend.
An old friend full of surprises.
Well, Beethoven may not have been able to experience out loud
the full impact of what he'd written in his Fifth Symphony,
but one thing is for sure -
this piece was revolutionary.
Beethoven's first symphony in a minor key,
it's built from a single motif that evolves and fights its way
from darkness to light - so C minor to C major.
And more than 200 years later,
that defiant message of triumph over adversity
certainly still resonates.
Its influence is everywhere - in later classical music,
Hollywood, even rock and roll,
and, of course, here in the Royal Albert Hall.
So let's hear it.
APPLAUSE
And the Scottish Chamber Orchestra is ready onstage.
Joining them now, their principal conductor Maxim Emelyanychev.
MUSIC: I. Allegro con brio by Ludwig van Beethoven
APPLAUSE
MUSIC: II. Andante con moto by Ludwig van Beethoven
APPLAUSE
MUSIC: III. Scherzo: Allegro by Ludwig van Beethoven
MUSIC: IV. Allegro by Ludwig van Beethoven
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Beethoven's Fifth Symphony
in a triumphant performance here at the BBC Proms by
the Scottish Chamber Orchestra,
conducted by this powerhouse, Maxim Emelyanychev,
their chief conductor,
who has given it everything in that performance,
standing almost in amongst the musicians,
podium-less,
commanding huge energy from them.
Here's a bit of a wunderkind, really, himself, Maxim,
a conductor and keyboard specialist -
not unlike Beethoven, actually.
He's a pianist, harpsichordist and organist, as well.
Still only in his mid-30s.
He made his conducting debut aged just 12.
Gyles, you referred to that symphony as an old friend earlier on -
a friend whom you first encountered here at the Proms,
a long time ago.
Did that friend have any surprises in store for you tonight?
As thrilling as ever - perhaps more thrilling than ever.
We're so familiar with it that it almost can begin
and seem like a cliche, but by the time we got to
the third movement, there felt...
I almost felt the shock of the new.
So thrilling, so exciting.
APPLAUSE CONTINUES
Now, life jackets at the ready and get that Factor 50 on.
It's time to cruise down the Nile with
Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No.5,
nicknamed "The Egyptian".
A musical globetrotter and international star with
a suitcase always packed,
French composer Saint-Saens loved to escape
the chilly Parisian winters.
His travels took him from Algeria to the Americas and as far afield
as Vietnam and Sri Lanka.
This concerto is a set of sonic postcards
from an 1896 trip to Egypt.
They brim with musical depictions of frogs croaking,
crickets chirping and boatmen singing.
The second movement, in particular,
ripples with a traditional love song that Saint-Saens heard on the Nile.
Elsewhere, there are hints of flamenco,
Middle Eastern influences
and echoes of Indonesian percussion,
before an energetic, ragtime-fuelled finale set to the thudding rhythms
of a paddle steamer - representing, said Saint-Saens,
"the joy of a sea crossing,
"a joy that not everyone shares"!
Well, Gyles Brandreth, the perils of sea travel aside,
as somebody who I know has had your fair share of travelling yourself,
there is something particularly special, isn't there,
about music and a sense of place?
Well, you're making this sound like a musical travelogue,
which I think it is... I think it is, yeah.
..because he actually wrote this in Cairo and Luxor, and evokes these.
What I think music can do so well is literally be a transport of delight.
It can take you to these places.
So, suddenly, rather like...
HE SNIFFS
..a smell takes you back, a sound takes you back,
and the music can take you to a particular place,
and I think this piece is going to do that for us.
And Saint-Saens is a bit of a specialist subject for you,
Gyles Brandreth. Well, for a reason - I...
The first school I went to was the Lycee Francais de Londres,
which is based not far from here. Yeah, pres d'ici. Exactly.
Tres pres d'ici! And indeed, Saint-Saens,
Camille Saint-Saens was one of
the first foreign performers ever to appear here, in 1871.
But at school we were brought up on everything that was French.
So I, for many years, thought the only three political figures
in the history of the world were
Charlemagne, Napoleon and President Charles de Gaulle.
Those were the only three.
And I only knew that there were French composers until I was
ten years of age,
and Saint-Saens was held in front of us as a role model,
because when we were ten, we were told that he was ten
and a child prodigy.
He could play the organ, he could play the piano
to a professional standard.
Yeah, he was incredible. He was extraordinary.
But better than that, he was also brilliant.
He could speak Latin. He could speak Greek.
He was good at algebra, geometry. He could do the lot.
So Saint-Saens was, for me, my childhood hero.
"Be more Saint-Saens" was the message of your childhood,
obviously, Gyles! But... So you were brought up amidst his music,
you were hearing about him all the time,
and you were very much immersed in the idea of pianos.
You've bought a piano with you in the form of that delectable...
And I have a piano at home, which other people now play!
I did learn the piano for a number of years,
and I learnt the cello, too.
My piano playing, I could just do a phrase or two from
the beginning of the Moonlight Sonata,
possibly, on a good day.
And look at that for bowing movement! My cello...
I think that's rather elegant.
The trouble was, when the bow hit the strings... Ah!
..it all went to pieces. But it looks so fluid, I love it.
Well, Gyles is off the hook because 28-year-old award-winning
French pianist Alexandre Kantorow is, of course, our soloist tonight.
He is one of the most exciting young musicians
on the classical stage right now,
in demand in concert halls around the world.
He made a sensational critically acclaimed Proms debut two years ago,
and now he's back, alongside conductor Maxim Emelyanychev.
They take to the stage to perform Saint-Saens' Egyptian love letter,
his Piano Concerto No.5.
APPLAUSE
MUSIC: Allegro Animato by Camille Saint-Saens
APPLAUSE
MUSIC: Andante by Camille Saint-Saens
MUSIC: Molto Allegro by Camille Saint-Saens
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
That was Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No.5, "The Egyptian".
Aleksander Kantorow, the pianist,
taking a bow alongside the Scottish Chamber Orchestra here at
the BBC Proms, conducted by Maxim Emelyanychev.
What a blur his hands were in the finale!
Gyles Brandreth... Wow! ..did that transport you... Whoa!
..to the Nile?
Oh, what a transport of delight!
What a performance, too!
Alexandre, we love you!
No wonder the rest of us gave up playing the piano!
GEORGIA LAUGHS I mean, that was extraordinary.
Drier conditions for Alexandre tonight here in
the Royal Albert Hall. He is a French superstar pianist,
but last seen playing a Steinway in a deluge to an audience on
a bridge over the Seine in that now very famous
Paris Olympics opening ceremony.
You can see from the style and panache
that he could handle a rainstorm, can't you? It is phenomenal.
He is phenomenal.
And the Proms is the place for this kind of evening.
I think we're going to get an encore.
MUSIC: Mon Coeur S'ouvre A Ta Voix by Cammille Saint-Saens
APPLAUSE
Alexandre Kantorow
holding the Royal Albert Hall in the palm of his hand -
or shall I say HANDS? - there with that piano arrangement of
an aria from Saint-Saens' great opera Samson and Delilah.
We heard Mon Coeur S'ouvre A Ta Voix -
Softly Awakes My Heart, or My Heart Opens To Your Voice.
Caressing the keys there, such a rising star, Alexandre,
described by Gramophone magazine as
"a fire-breathing virtuoso with a poetic charm".
He was only 22 when, in 2019, Alexandre became
the first French pianist to win the gold medal at
the Tchaikovsky Competition. That is a very big deal.
As well as the Grand Prix - that's been awarded only three times
before in the competition's history.
You call him a rising star - he's there tonight,
absolutely established in the firmament.
He does have a fantastically relaxed Gallic way about him,
caressing the keys in that Saint-Saens encore,
holding back and shaping the melody
in what I must say is an extremely French manner.
Well, that's about all we've got time for this evening.
Gyles, thank you so much for joining me. Oh, what a night!
What a night! There was magic in the air at the
Royal Albert Hall tonight, thanks to Alexandre.
That is why tonight, in my prayers,
I shall again remember Sir Henry Wood.
What an amazing evening this has been.
He gave us great music, but also that little bit extra.
That's what you come for. It is. Very special.
It's that special magic of the Proms. Thank you for
letting me be here. Absolutely, Gyles. Well, the Proms will be back
on television next weekend.
On BBC Four on Friday night,
the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
bring us Dvorak's much-loved New World Symphony,
while on Sunday night on BBC Two,
we celebrate the 200th birthday of the King of Waltz -
Johann Strauss the Younger.
And do be sure to tune in - Katie Derham will be dusting off
her dancing shoes with a very special guest.
In the meantime, a reminder that you can catch up on televised Proms
that you might have missed any time on the iPlayer.
Just search "BBC Proms".
Elsewhere, every concert is broadcast live
on BBC Radio 3 and BBC Sounds,
and you can also come down in person. Why not?
Day tickets are available for just £8.
We look forward to you joining us soon.
But for now, from me, my guest Gyles Brandreth,
and everyone here at the Royal Albert Hall,
a very goodnight.