Earlier this month, the BBC embarked on a landmark season exploring how the symphony evolved over the last three centuries and became one of the most complex forms of musical expression. Simon Russell Beale hosts four programmes broadcast on BBC Four in which he looks at the lives and the times of the composers who created these masterpieces and explores how the symphony was shaped by the world around it, and in turn, how it shaped the world.
Throughout the series the lives of some of the greatest composers – Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Berlioz, Schubert, Brahms, Bruckner, Dvorak, Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Sibelius, Copland, Stravinsky and Shostakovich – are brought to life with readings from their letters and diaries through key moments and places linking to their symphonic journeys.Sir Mark Elder conducts specially filmed music performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hallé and the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
To complement the symphony programmes, Simon Russell Beale introduces four great archive symphonic performances: Nick Dear's award-winning film Eroica with a soundtrack conducted by Sir John Elliot Gardiner; Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's classic Proms performance of Beethoven's monumental Ninth Symphony; a rare performance of Sibelius's first symphonic masterpiece Kullervo conducted by Sir Colin Davis; and Sir Roger Norrington's radical take on Mahler's epic Ninth Symphony from this year's Proms season.
Click here for programme information .
To coincide with the season on BBC Four, BBC Radio 3 invites listeners in a month-long celebration from 4 November to 2 December to hear complete performances of over 60 symphonies, including each symphony featured in the BBC Four series, from Haydn to Shostakovich. Click here for more information .
Nick Dear’s award winning film about the creation of Beethoven’s third symphony Eroica is available on Opus Arte as are DVDs of ground-breaking live performances by the Romanian maestro Sergiu Celibidache, who would have celebrated his 100th birthday next year: Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique, Bruckner’s 9th Symphony , Mozart’s 39th & Schubert’s 2nd Symphonies and Prokofiev’s 5th Symphony coupled with Strauss’ Death and Transfiguration.
To further explore the symphonic repertoire, why not try the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig under Riccardo Chailly’s recent complete recording of Beethoven’s symphonies; the complete symphonies by Anton Bruckner in the magisterial interpretation by the late Günter Wand and the Cologne Radio Symphony Orchestra; or the complete symphonies by Finnish maverick Jean Sibelius with the Berlin Philharmonic and Herbert von Karajan.