Hello and welcome to what promises to be
a tidal wave of glorious music. Led by Andrew Manze,
the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and BBC Choruses
are going to take us on a nautical-themed musical journey,
so sit back, relax, and let the music wash over your soul.
Welcome to the BBC Proms.
Good evening. I'm Georgia Mann and it's my pleasure to welcome you
to the Royal Albert Hall for an atmospheric and watery programme
with the sea at its very centre.
We are setting sail with Andrew Manze at the helm,
a conductor renowned for his interpretations
and recordings of the music of Vaughan Williams.
And in this, the composer's 150th year,
he brings us the epic masterpiece for orchestra and chorus,
A Sea Symphony.
But we kick off tonight's concert with a duo of musical sea pictures
from two often neglected 20th-century female composers.
A nautical overture from ground-breaking composer
Doreen Carwithen will open proceedings,
receiving its long overdue Proms premiere in her centenary year.
That's followed by a surging seascape
from pioneering Welsh composer Grace Williams,
one of Vaughan Williams's star pupils.
And with me to soak up - see what I did there? -
the evocative programme are two very special guests,
writer and musicologist Leah Broad,
and Linton Stephens, bassoonist and broadcaster,
which has an excellent ring to it. Thank you both.
I feel like we should have
some waterproofs to hand, frankly, this evening.
Leah, you've just written a book on Doreen Carwithen,
so you must feel that you know her pretty well.
Just how exciting is it to have her music
and Grace Williams's music on the programme tonight, together?
Oh, I mean, it's unbelievably exciting because, you know,
I have just written a book about her
and so I do feel like I know her incredibly well
and I will go to great lengths to hear her music.
Nonetheless, this is still only the second time
that I will hear Bishop Rock live, ever. It's mad! It's ridiculous.
These are two of the most exciting composers of the 20th century,
and we hear their music so rarely,
so that for me is wonderful, to hear this great music.
And then, you know, also historically
there is a really lovely personal connection on this programme as well
because Vaughan Williams knew both women.
Grace Williams was one of his students,
they were close friends, and he knew Carwithen through films,
and they bonded over a shared love of cats. Oh!
So there we go. I could have joined in with that, to be honest.
Some of them called him Uncle Ralph,
and I want to think about him that way as well. Or Uncle Rafe.
Linton, what stands out most for you in tonight's programme?
Well, I think, Georgia, Vaughan Williams is a staple
of any classical musician's repertoire,
and what's really interesting is
when you know what the impetus
for a composer writing a piece of music was.
It can help you as a performer
to help you understand how you want to play it.
And we've got three very different pieces,
all based around the same subject,
so first of all it's really interesting to see and hear
how they interpret the sea, but also it's going to be really interesting
because it will tell a lot about what they thought
about this subject as well and how they kind of see the sea.
Absolutely. So three very personal takes on the sea,
and very different, even though we're talking about
quite a similar period in time.
So coming up are, as we were saying, three pieces
and three unique interpretations of the sea,
that ever-present constant
in the cultural life and national identity of our island nation.
Classical orchestral repertoire is awash with
arresting maritime depictions - Debussy's La Mer,
Mendelssohn's Hebrides Overture, and Wagner's The Flying Dutchman.
And British composers have also contributed to this collection,
including Ethel Smyth's The Wreckers, Elgar's Sea Pictures,
and Britten's Four Sea Interludes, to name just a few.
But why has the sea been such a source of inspiration
for so many composers over the centuries?
Well, who better to take a deep dive into the subject
than our own musical mariner Tom Service?
Why is there so much music inspired by the sea?
Well, it's because both our oceans and our music
share a deep physical connection - waves.
The waves of the sea, the tides that control everything
about our world - the weather, the erosion, the environment around us.
And in our music, sound waves.
Every part of our human biology has been absolutely forensically
and exquisitely evolved to resonate with sound waves.
Our skin and everything inside us, and our hearing mechanisms.
So that means when composers are making music inspired by the sea,
they're not creating a sonic postcard
about what we all do by the seaside,
in fact, they're activating that fundamental connection of physics.
Inside our cochlea,
our inner ears - that's Greek for a spiral shell,
a spiral shell just like these -
there's a miniature ocean of fluid,
and little tiny, tiny hairs within that fluid, within that reservoir,
resonate with sound frequencies,
and it's the electrical impulses that they make which means
that our brains interpret everything we hear as sound and as music.
Another miracle, too.
When I put this gorgeous Triton to my ear...
WAVES WHOOSHING
It's not that I'm hearing the Atlantic or the Pacific,
we can't actually hear the sound of the sea there,
but in fact the truth is still more mysterious and wonderful.
There is an even greater magic at play.
I'm hearing an echo of my own hearing -
the spiral shell, the tiny ocean inside my ear,
resonating with the acoustic of the shell outside.
We are ocean. We are music.
Behold the sea!
Tom Service there,
echoing the first line of text in Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony,
and can we take a moment to admire that shell-bedecked shirt? Yes, Tom.
But tonight is not just about the sea.
The first half of this concert is also about championing
somewhat neglected musicians. In this case, we're hearing from
two pioneering 20th-century female composers,
Doreen Carwithen and Grace Williams.
Linton, coming at this from a performance perspective,
just how important is it that we continue to champion those
whose music might otherwise - and in this case very nearly did -
get forgotten?
Well, I think the thing is that
an orchestra exists for the sake of the community,
so it's really important that they reflect that.
I think the other thing as well is that kind of historically,
and I'm thinking of Carwithen, only kind of 70 years ago,
there were a lot of generalisations made
about composers who were female,
even before they put any music out there in the world,
and as we kind of progress as a society,
we're starting to realise that some of that
doesn't matter any more, or wasn't true in the first place.
So we're at a really important time because we can dig back
into this treasure trove of amazing pieces,
and we're starting to pick out all these jewels and gems,
and it's given us a much more fully rounded history of classical music,
which is only adding to this kind of rich culture that we already have.
Leah, in their time, Doreen Carwithen and Grace Williams,
just to lean on the old seafaring metaphors again,
they really did make quite a splash, didn't they?
There was a big impact at the start of their careers.
Not just a splash, a tidal wave! Go for it!
Let's get the tidal wave in. Yeah. They were, and particularly in film.
So Grace Williams is the first woman
to score a full-length British feature film,
but she pips Carwithen to the post by mere months
to be the first woman to do that.
Carwithen scores a number of films throughout her career.
But having said that, what I love about these two composers
is how very different they are.
Carwithen is a born film composer, you know, her music is pictorial,
almost kind of narrative, right?
Grace Williams favours the concert hall a little bit more,
I think, and we're going to hear that this evening
with these two works. Very different.
Well, we begin tonight's concert
with Doreen Carwithen's expressive Bishop Rock Overture.
Despite being premiered in 1952,
when the composer was just 29 years old,
it's taken until her centenary year to receive its Proms premiere.
It's a musical depiction of Bishop Rock, which forms
the westernmost point of England, about 30 miles off Land's End.
The lonely lighthouse perched upon the rock
is the last sight of home when heading into the Atlantic,
and for the seafarers returning, its light is a sign of welcome.
So a welcoming sight for those seafarers, Leah,
but what do we hear in the piece?
Well, we're going to hear the sea in two very different moods,
both in storm and on a calm day.
So it opens - a very dramatic piece,
we're going to open mid-tempest with a repeated horn motif
that evokes the lighthouse blazing out over the Atlantic.
Then for the central section, this is the calm section,
we're going to hear that heralded by a violin,
then we close with the storm again.
And this is pretty muscular music, isn't it?
It's going to absolutely lay waste
to the idea of women writing polite, small-scale stuff.
APPLAUSE
And the applause begins
for Andrew Manze, heading to the stage
alongside the BBC National Orchestra of Wales
to conjure up the ebb and flow of an Atlantic swell
as it strikes Bishop Rock.
APPLAUSE
That was Doreen Carwithen's Bishop Rock Overture
receiving its Proms premiere, unbelievably enough,
in the Albert Hall tonight in this, Doreen Carwithen's centenary year.
Well, next up we have the second in our seagoing couplet,
from another 20th-century female composer
who's seeing a resurgence in popularity.
It's Grace Williams's Sea Sketches.
Born in 1906 in the south-west coastal town of Barry,
made famous of course by Gavin & Stacey,
Grace was encouraged to follow her musical passion
by her schoolteacher parents. In fact, her father William
was a highly regarded amateur choral director in his own right.
Leah, what makes Grace Williams so distinctive
as a 20th-century composer?
Well, for me I think it's the way that she manages to marry
Welsh influences with European modernism.
Because, you know, she grows up in Wales,
she originally studies at Cardiff University
before she then goes to the Royal College in London
to study with Vaughan Williams,
who then in turn suggests she study abroad.
So she goes to Vienna, where she soaks up composers
like Berg and Schoenberg,
and we can really hear that melting pot of influences in her music.
Quite. And then the filmic influences
that we were talking about, Linton,
with Carwithen, also present for Williams. Yeah.
I mean, there were composers that didn't like to write
programmatic music or music for film.
They kind of wrote academically.
But the beauty of music that's written to depict something
is that even though it's portraying something very specific,
it will mean something different to everybody.
So if you talk to me about a beach,
for me that conjures images of going to Llandudno when I was little
with my six brothers and sisters, and that was our holiday.
But I'm sure the beach means something,
conjures entirely different images for you.
So I think that's the beauty of it.
Everybody sat in that orchestra playing
is thinking of something different,
which creates this magic multitude of sound
that then gets mixed up and goes out to the audience.
APPLAUSE
Andrew Manze returns to the stage
for the second stop on our seafaring journey this evening.
We are going to hear Sea Sketches by Grace Williams.
MUSIC STOPS
APPLAUSE
That was Sea Sketches by Grace Williams.
Despite being written in 1944 in war-torn London,
it is a musical love letter to the composer's home in South Wales,
and her love of the sea evident in every note.
Sea Sketches first premiered by the BBC's Welsh orchestra,
the precursor to today's BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
who very appropriately perform it again tonight,
75 years later, at the Proms.
Linton, that felt to me like a very personal take on the sea.
Kind of gave you a feel of just how mysterious
and unfathomable the ocean is. Yeah, I mean,
it was very inward-looking, wasn't it, I felt.
I mean, it was tempestuous and calm
and unpredictable all rolled into one, I think.
And Leah, I think you can get a sense of the modernism
that was bubbling up in Europe,
where you mention Grace Williams studied. Yeah.
I mean, this is European modernism with a Welsh twist
and I love the way she creates the shimmering in the strings
that just makes... I mean, you can imagine the light over the sea.
It's an absolutely wonderful piece of music, I think.
Well, now it's time to turn our attention
to Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Born 150 years ago, he played the piano, violin,
viola and organ from an early age,
but was surprisingly discouraged from pursuing an orchestral career
by his family.
Nonetheless, he studied at the newly founded Royal College of Music,
just next door, actually, from us here at the Royal Albert Hall,
and went on to become one of the most influential
and best-loved British composers of the 20th century.
The Sea Symphony began life in 1903,
when Vaughan Williams was relatively unknown
and hadn't yet made an imprint on the musical world.
It was premiered in 1910, and it's fair to say it really made,
you know what I'm going to say, waves. Sorry!
I can't really help myself. Oh!
Leah, what can we expect in this almighty work?
Oh, my gosh. Drama.
And lots of it. You know, this is a work that...it's bold,
it is a dramatic work, it's daring.
This is a composer who is trying to make waves
with his first symphony.
And what's really distinctive about this piece is that the chorus
is used throughout, which is unusual for a symphony.
And he's setting text by the American poet Walt Whitman,
who was super fashionable at the time. I love Walt Whitman.
You are not alone in the early 20th century!
Vaughan Williams is so on-trend, setting Whitman's poetry.
And so he was introduced to these poems by one of his friends,
the philosopher Bertrand Russell,
these really are some quite philosophical texts.
You know, they deal with God, they deal with humanity's
place in the world, and everything in between.
And there's also a tremendous freedom to the poetry,
because he was pretty much pioneering free verse,
and presumably that was quite an appealing prospect
to a composer trying to do something new.
Oh, for sure. It has a musicality about the language
which I think would have really, really appealed to Vaughan Williams
and indeed so many other composers.
Yeah. Linton, you've played this symphony.
Give us a bassoon-eye view.
I mean, what happens in each of these four movements?
They're permeated by these really evocative musical images of the sea.
Yeah, OK. I'll tell you from my point of view,
sat in the bassoon seat.
So first of all, as you say,
there's four movements - now let me see if I can remember them.
There's A Song To All Seas Or Ships,
On The Beach At Night Alone,
The Waves, and The Explorers.
So in the first movement, for me, the most memorable point happens
within the first ten seconds, and it's where the choir enters
and they sing really powerfully "Behold the sea."
It's massive, isn't it? Yeah, it's huge, huge.
And it starts with this kind of moody minor
and then suddenly explodes into this triumphant major,
and it paints this really vivid image for me.
So it's like coming up onto deck and it's a really sunny day
and as your eyes adjust you just see all around you,
and this is the turning to the major,
just this vast expanse of sea.
Everywhere you look is, on the horizon, it's sea.
And then it kind of carries on and goes into this lament
for those that are lost at sea,
and I think that's a very humbling reminder that we are,
we're never in control of this liquid that covers 71% of the Earth.
I'm really chuffed that I remembered that. Well done! Top stat.
Well, I wish I was in the bassoons for this now.
A Sea Symphony calls for two world-class operatic soloists,
and we're privileged tonight to have soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn
and baritone Jacques Imbrailo
joining the orchestra and chorus on stage.
Now Jacques, who was not originally scheduled to perform here tonight,
actually answered the call while overseas,
and we were lucky enough to catch up with him during rehearsals.
JACQUES SINGING
I was on holiday last week in South Africa when I got the call,
and having not quite thought
or remembered how the piece goes exactly, I said yes anyway,
thinking that'll be fine. Then in the evening
I went to bed and said to my wife, "I probably should've said no,
"because I've remembered now it is quite a big thing
"and it's quite complicated." But here I am.
So we got back from holiday yesterday,
but it's a privilege to be able to do it.
JACQUES SINGING
I first performed the piece in 2006, freshly out of college,
and haven't done it since, so it sort of feels like it's new again.
Some things vocally then were easier than they are now,
and the quieter bit I found easier back then just because I had
a naturally lighter voice. Now the quieter bits are the harder bits.
JACQUES SINGING
But also there is just a maturity of personality.
I can bring something more of that to the piece this time round, where
as a young man - a younger man - I didn't necessarily understand
that much of it because it is such an emotionally deep piece.
It's got a very wide range of dynamics,
and considering that you've got a huge orchestra
and a huge chorus as well, to achieve all those dynamics
I think is the main challenge.
The dynamics in the sense of lighter and softer,
but also in terms of tempo changes and mood changes,
it's got a wide range.
UP-TEMPO MUSIC
I've loved Vaughan Williams all my life.
He uses the chorus and the big instrumentation
and the duet between the soloists and things beautifully
to depict the various qualities and the various ways that the sea
and the ocean reflect human life, human society.
There has to be a real sort of almost emotional and technical bond
between the conductor, the choir, and the orchestra as well.
I'm always excited to be part of the Proms,
and, you know, it's a lovely surprise.
I've been in South Africa the last couple of weeks
and shouting at the rugby last week, and now
I'm singing the Albert Hall, so I can't complain.
Jacques Imbrailo there.
Linton, as an orchestral player,
what stands out most for you about A Sea Symphony?
What do you relish about playing Vaughan Williams's music here?
OK, so for me, I categorise a really good piece...
Well, there's three categories for a good piece.
Either it's got an amazing bassoon part - challenging or a good tune
or something like that - or you're in an amazing,
an incredible sound world, and if you're really lucky
you get both, and that is this piece.
It's a combination of a great bassoon part
and just incredibly evocative music.
You must feel so submerged in it all.
Leah, Sea Symphony was well received at the time,
wasn't it, but it did feel like he was always trying to do
something new, something very exciting here.
Yeah, and you know, in some ways he really is, because Vaughan Williams
is part of a generation of composers who were really
kind of blowing up expectations about what British music was
and what it could be, so I'm thinking of composers like
Ethel Smyth, Samuel Coleridge Taylor, Frederick Delius,
and Vaughan Williams is one of those. And between them
they're kind of reinventing what British music means.
So if we take the chorus in the symphony, for example,
that is unusual, but not so much from...
I think what Vaughan Williams is doing is sort of drawing
on a really rich tradition of choral music-making in England.
You know, certainly I hear in this symphony
the influence of his own tutor Hubert Parry,
who wrote an awful lot of choral music.
And Vaughan Williams once said, you know, Parry had
passed on the choral torch for future generations to keep alight.
And I think we can kind of hear Vaughan Williams
trying to do that in this symphony.
APPLAUSE
And the orchestra on their feet. Conductor Andrew Manze
returning to the stage for the final time tonight
ahead of this Vaughan Williams classic, alongside
soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, baritone Jacques Imbrailo.
The BBC National Orchestra of Wales
now joined by the combined forces of the BBC Symphony Chorus
and the BBC National Chorus of Wales for Vaughan Williams's Sea Symphony.
# Behold!
# The sea itself!
# And on its limitless heaving breast
# On its limitless heaving breast
# See! Where their white
# See! Where their white sails
Their white sails
# See! Where their white sails
# See!
# See! Where their white sails
# See! See the, see the
# Coming and going Coming
# See! See!
# Come and go Come and go
# See! See!
# See! See their long pennants of smoke
# See their long pennants of smoke!
# Behold!
# The sea itself!
# And on its limitless
# Heaving breast
# Thy ships
# Today a rude brief recitative
# Of ships sailing the seas
# Each with its special flag or ship-signal
# Of unnamed heroes in the ships
# Of waves spreading and spreading
# Far as the eye can reach
# Of dashing sprays
# And the winds piping and blowing
# Dashing spray and the winds piping and blowing
# Today a rude brief recitative
# Of ships sailing the seas
# Each with its special flag or ship-signal
# Of unnamed heroes in the ships
# Of waves spreading and spreading
# Far as the eye can reach
# Of dashing spray
# And the winds piping and blowing
# Of dashing spray
# Of the winds piping and blowing
# And out of these
# A chant for the sailors
# Of all the nations And out of these
# A chance for the sailors
# Of all nations
# Fitful, like a surge Fitful
# Like a surge
# Of sea-captains young or old
# And the mates And of all intrepid sailors
# Intrepid sailors
# Of all intrepid sailors Of the few, very choice
# Taciturn
# Whom fates can never surprise
# Nor death dismay
# Whom fates can never surprise
# Nor death dismay
# Pick'd sparingly
# Without noise by the old ocean
# Pick'd sparingly
# Without noise by the old ocean
# Chosen by thee
# Thou sea that pickest and cullest the race in time
# And united the nations The nations
# Suckled by thee
# Old husky nurse
# Embodying thee
# Indomitable
# Untamed as thee Untamed
# As thee
# Flaunt out O sea
# Your separate flags of nations
# Flaunt out O sea
# Your separate flags of nations
# Flaunt out visible as ever
# Your various flags and ship-signals!
# Flaunt out visible as ever
# The various flags and ship-signals
# But do you reserve especially for yourself
# And for the soul of man Soul of man
# For the soul of man
# Above all the rest
# One flag
# Above all A spiritual woven signal
# The rest A spiritual
# Woven signal
# A spiritual woven signal
# Above all the rest
# A woven signal
# For all nations Emblem of man, elate above
# Token of all brave captains
# And all intrepid sailors and mates
# Token of all brave captains
# And all intrepid sailors and mates
# And all that went down doing their duty
# Token of all brave captains
# And all intrepid sailors and mates
# And all that went down doing their duty
# Reminiscent of them
# Twined from all intrepid captains young or old
# Token of all brave captains
# All that went down doing their duty
# Token of all brave captains
# Reminiscent of them
# Token of all brave captains
# And all intrepid sailors and mates
# Token of all brave captains
# Young or old
# And all intrepid sailors and mates
# And all that went down doing their duty
# And all that went down
# Reminiscent of them
# Twined from all intrepid captains
# Reminiscent of them
# Twined from all intrepid captains
# Young or old
# All that went down doing their duty
# Reminiscent of them
# Twined from all intrepid captains
# Young or old... #
OVERLAPPING HARMONIES
HARMONIES CRESCENDO
HARMONIES QUIETEN
# A pennant universal
# Subtly waving all time
# O'er all brave sailors
# A pennant universal
# Subtly waving all time
# O'er all brave sailors
# A pennant universal
# Subtly waving all time
# O'er all brave sailors
# A pennant universal
# O'er all brave sailors
# Above all the rest
# One flag! #
OVERLAPPING HARMONIES
# Above all the rest
# The sea itself
# Behold, the sea itself
# And on its limitless, heaving breast
# The ships
# All seas, all ships
# Behold, the sea
# All the ships
# The ships. #
# On the beach at night alone
# A night alone
# As the old mother sways her to and fro
# Singing her husky song
# As the old mother sways her to and fro
# Singing her husky song
# As I watch the bright stars shining
# I think a thought of the clef
# Of the universes
# And of the future
# A vast similitude interlocks all
# Interlocks all
# All distances of space however wide
# All distances of space
# All distances of time
# All souls
# All living bodies
# All souls, all living bodies
# All living bodies
# All souls, all living bodies
# Though they be ever so different
# Ever so different
# All nations
# All identities All identities
# That have existed
# Or may exist
# All lives and deaths
# All of the past, present, future
# This vast similitude spans them
# And always has spann'd
# And shall forever span them
# And shall compactly hold and enclose them!
# On the beach at night alone
# At night alone. #
# After the sea-ship, after the whistling winds
# After the white-grey sails taut to their spars and ropes
# Below, a myriad, myriad waves hastening
# After the sea-ship, after the whistling winds!
# Below, a myriad, myriad waves hastening, hastening
# Lifting up their necks
# Tending in ceaseless flow
# Toward the track of the ship
# Waves of the ocean bubbling
# And gurgling, blithely prying
# Waves, undulating waves
# Liquid, uneven, emulous waves
# Liquid, uneven, emulous waves... #
OVERLAPPING UNDULATING HARMONIES
# Toward that whirling current
# Laughing and buoyant, with curves
# Where the great vessel sailing
# Where the vessel's sailing
# And tacking displaced the surface
# Larger and smaller waves in the spread of the ocean
# Yearnfully flowing
# The wake of the sea-ship
# After she passes
# After she passes!
# Flashing and frolicsome
# Under the sun!
# Flashing and frolicsome
# Under the sun...
# A motley procession
# With fleck of foam
# Foam and many fragments
# Fleck of foam and many fragments
# A motley procession
# With fleck of foam
# Many fragments
# After the sea-ship After the sea-ship
# After the whistling winds After the whistling winds
# After the sea-ship After the whistling winds
# After the white-grey sails taut to their spars and ropes
# Below, a myriad, myriad waves hastening
# Below, a myriad hastening
# Lifting up their necks
# Lifting up their necks!
# The stately and rapid ship, in the wake following
# Following
# A motley procession
# With many a fleck of foam
# And many fragments
# A motley procession
# With many a fleck of foam
and many fragments
# Following the stately and rapid ship
# In the wake following
# Following
# Following! #
# O vast Rondure, swimming in space
# Cover'd all over with visible power and beauty
# Alternate light and day and the teeming spiritual darkness
# Alternate light and day
# And the teeming spiritual darkness
# Unspeakable high processions of sun and moon
# And countless stars above
# Unspeakable high processions
# High processions
# Of sun and moon
# And countless stars above
# Below
# The manifold grass and waters
# With inscrutable purpose
# Some hidden prophetic intention
# Now first it seems
# My thought begins to span thee
# Down from the gardens of Asia descending
# Adam and Eve appear
# Then their myriad progeny after them
# Wandering
# Yearning
# With restless explorations
# With questionings
# Baffled
# Formless
# Feverish
# With never-happy hearts
# With that sad incessant refrain
# Wherefore unsatisfied soul?
# Whither O mocking life?
# Ah, who shall soothe these feverish children?
# Who justify these restless explorations?
# Who speak the secret of impassive Earth?
# Wherefore unsatisfied soul?
# Whither O mocking life?
# Yet soul be sure the first intent remains
# And shall be carried out
# Yet soul be sure the first intent remains
# And shall be carried out Whither O mocking life?
# Perhaps even now the time has arrived
# After the seas are all cross'd
# After the great captains have accomplish'd their work
# After the noble inventors
# Finally
# Shall come the poet
# Worthy that name
# The true son of God shall come
# Singing his songs
# Singing
# Singing his songs Singing his songs
# Singing, singing his songs
# Singing, singing
# Singing his songs
# Singing!
# Singing, singing
# His songs! #
# O, we can wait no longer
# We too take ship, O soul
# Joyous, we too launch out on trackless seas
# O, we can wait no longer We too take ship, O soul
# We too launch out on trackless seas
# Fearless for unknown shores
# On waves of ecstasy to sail
# Amid the wafting waves
# Thou pressing me to thee O soul
# Thou pressing me to thee
# Carolling free
# Singing our song of God
# Chanting our chant of pleasant exploration
# Of pleasant exploration
# O soul, thou pleasest me
# I thee
# Sailing these seas Or on the hills
# Or waking in the night
# Thoughts, silent thoughts
# Of Time and Space and Death
# Like waters flowing
# Bear me indeed
# As through the regions infinite
# Whose air I breathe
# Whose ripples hear
# Lave me all over
# Bathe me, O God, in thee
# Mounting to thee
# I and my soul
to range in range of thee
# O Thou transcendent
# Nameless, the fibre and the breath
# Light of the light
# Shedding forth universes
# Thou centre of them
# Swiftly I shrivel at the thought of God
# At Nature and its wonders
# Time and Space and Death
# But that I, turning
# Call to thee, O soul, thou actual me
# And lo, thou gently masterest the orbs
# Thou matest Time
# Smilest content at Death
# And fillest, swellest full the vastnesses of Space
# Greater than suns or stars
# Bounding, O soul, thou journeyest forth. #
# Away! Away, O soul
# Away!
# Hoist instantly the anchor!
# Away, O soul
# Away!
# Away, O soul
Away, O soul
# Cut the hawsers! Haul out! Shake out every sail!
# Shake out, shake out!
# Shake out, shake out every sail!
# Sail forth!
# Steer for the deep waters only!
# Reckless, O soul, exploring
# I with thee, and thou with me I with thee, and thou with me
# Reckless, O soul, exploring Reckless, O soul, exploring
# I with thee, and thou with me I with thee, and thou with me
# Steer for the deep waters only! Steer for the deep waters only!
# For we are bound where mariner has not yet dared to go
# Reckless, O soul, exploring I with thee, and thou with me
# And we will risk the ship, ourselves and all
# And we must risk the ship, ourselves and all
# Steer for the deep waters only!
# Sail forth!
# Sail forth! Sail forth!
# O my brave soul
# O farther sail
# O farther
# O my brave soul
# O farther sail O farther sail
# O farther sail
# O farther, farther sail
# O farther, farther
# O daring joy, but safe O daring joy
# O daring joy Are they not all the seas of God?
# O farther sail
O farther sail
# O farther sail
# O farther O farther sail
# O farther, farther, farther sail
O farther sail
# O farther, farther O farther sail
# O farther sail. #
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
That was Vaughan Williams's mighty Sea Symphony,
his first symphony, performed for us here at the Proms this evening
by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales,
the combined forces of the BBC Symphony Chorus
and BBC National Chorus of Wales.
Soprano Elizabeth Llewellyn, soaring above the sea just then,
and baritone Jacques Imbrailo.
All under the baton of conductor Andrew Manze.
Added magnificence from the organ this evening,
played by Michael Bawtree.
The orchestra led tonight by Nick Whiting.
Linton, those voices, when you are in the orchestra,
when you're in the wind section playing the bassoon,
what's it like to be absolutely submerged?
CHEERING Listen to that audience reaction!
Wow! It's amazing to be enveloped by that sound.
It's one thing to have all these incredible musicians around you
playing instruments, but then, to have a choir over the top of it,
it's such an amazing added dynamic.
It's just incredible.
And, Leah, it's always amazing to experience a piece
like that because it's so all-enveloping.
Did it change the experience of the Vaughan Williams for you
after hearing Doreen Carwithen and Grace Williams?
Absolutely, and, indeed, hearing their music in the context of his.
And I think this Prom this evening just shows how important it is
that we have variety in our programming because this...
We have an incredibly rich musical history and, you know,
there's something about sea music, I don't what it is,
but it seems to allow composers
to kind of unleash their musical fantasies
and we have got three such different visions here.
And what a shame it would be to miss out
on any one of those, I think. Absolutely.
It really is wonderful to hear them together.
And for you to be able to play it, Linton.
Thank you both for your insights,
and for putting up with my terrible seafaring puns tonight.
Well, having been musically transported
across the mighty seas and oceans,
everyone here needs to metaphorically dry off, I think.
But while we do that - sorry! -
don't forget that every Prom is broadcast
live from the Royal Albert Hall on BBC Radio 3,
and you can always catch up on any of our Proms
that might have got away from you, either on BBC Sounds or the iPlayer.
And on Sunday evening, you can join Petroc Trelawny
for an evening of Puccini and Respighi
with the world-famous Halle Orchestra
conducted by Sir Mark Elder. Don't miss it.
For now, though, from me,
my guests and everybody here at the Royal Albert Hall, goodnight.
APPLAUSE CONTINUES