Tonight, to celebrate conductor Martyn Brabbins' 60th birthday,
14 composers have created a new set of orchestral variations
inspired by Elgar's Enigma Variations.
And with a mystery all of their own,
tonight we're going to hear both works.
Welcome to the BBC Proms.
Hello, I'm Suzy Klein.
And I'm Anna Meredith, and we have an extra-special Prom here for
you tonight at the Royal Albert Hall. We do, indeed.
We are celebrating the 60th birthday of one of our most loved
British conductors, Martyn Brabbins,
with an orchestra that's very close to his heart -
the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, of which he was
principal conductor for 11 years.
And he has found, it's fair to say,
a rather unusual way to mark the occasion.
A brand-new work -
Pictured Within - Birthday Variations For MCB,
which is Martyn's initials,
has been created, taking inspiration from Elgar's Enigma Variations.
Now, in Elgar's famous work, we hear 14 musical portraits based on a
theme and dedicated to his "friends pictured within",
and it of course includes the perennial favourite, Nimrod.
So, a clever thing that Elgar did
was to create lasting mystery and intrigue around HIS Variations
by naming the theme Enigma - but telling no-one why.
So generations have assumed there's a puzzle there to solve and they've
set about trying to solve it, but more about that later on.
OK, what about the new work?
Well, Martyn Brabbins decided to invert Elgar's model.
So rather than a single composer writing Variations about
several friends, here you get several composer friends
writing a new set of Variations for Martyn.
Anna, as a composer, I am interested in your take.
What is it that you think are the kinds of pitfalls, what are
the challenges, what's exciting for a composer about this new work?
You know what? I think it's a really interesting brief cos not only have
you got this theme to deal with, but you've also basically got one
of the most mega-famous pieces of all time.
So trying to draw on both of these things and find space for
yourself as a voice should be really, really difficult.
But the thing I really want to know is who wrote the theme.
Because Martyn's Birthday Variations have an enigma all of their own.
Apparently, the new theme that these Variations are based on
has been written by a well-known composer but it's simply
attributed to Anonymous in the score.
Martyn has revealed that the theme was a gift, but that's all
he's saying.
Yeah, I reckon speculation is going to be rife.
We know that we are meeting some of the named composers later
this evening, so stay tuned.
APPLAUSE
Here he is, the birthday boy himself, Martyn Brabbins,
striding out onto the podium here of the Royal Albert Hall to open
this special 60th birthday Prom.
APPLAUSE
The world premiere of
Pictured Within - Birthday Variations For MCB,
better known as Martyn Charles Brabbins, our conductor.
This concert at the Proms celebrating his 60th birthday.
Those Variations by composers - Kalevi Aho, Sally Beamish,
Sir Harrison Birtwistle, Richard Blackford,
Gavin Bryars, Brett Dean, Dai Fujikura -
it's like a who's who of contemporary composers -
Wim Henderickx, Colin Matthews, Anthony Payne, John Pickard,
David Sawyer, Iris ter Schiphorst and Judith Weir.
Those composers writing especially for tonight's orchestra,
the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra led by Laura Samuel.
Anna, writing specifically for these players, certainly something
you know cos you used to be composer in residence there.
They are just incredible.
I think they just manage to give such incredible commitment
and colour to each different composer.
You can see the composers, Judith Weir coming up to take her bow.
Sally Beamish, David Sawyer.
Everybody embracing the birthday boy, Martyn Brabbins.
You know what, the group bow is the hardest thing.
I mean, trying to do a group bow with a bunch of composers,
it's a nightmare. Look at them, they're doing so well.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Aced it.
Well, next we have a choral gem - Serenade To Music
by contemporary and pal of Elgar, Ralph Vaughan Williams.
Yes, not only was that piece premiered here at the
Royal Albert Hall by Sir Henry Wood in 1938, it was actually written
specifically for him, for a jubilee concert, celebrating
Wood's 50th year of conducting.
The story of how it came about has similarities to that of our
first and last pieces this evening.
Sir Henry had the idea of
commissioning a cantata involving 16 solo singers,
each of them long-standing colleagues.
And, just like Elgar did with his
Enigma Variations, Vaughan Williams marked the score with the
initials of each of the original soloists alongside his or her lines.
Yeah, but knowing that the logistical challenges of
assembling 16 solo singers would hamper the chances of future
performances, he cleverly created alternative versions
that would make it just that much easier to perform,
including the one we're going to hear tonight,
which features just four soloists and a chorus - a smart move.
Yes, indeed.
Vaughan Williams wrote this piece while he was spellbound by
a talented young poet he'd just met.
She was called Ursula Wood.
And the attraction between the two of them was so instant, she was
his muse for more than two decades before they were finally free to
marry one another,
following the deaths of each of their former spouses.
Oh, it's music all about love! Yes.
The words, "How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank"
come from Act V of The Merchant Of Venice -
newly-weds Lorenzo and Jessica sit listening to music,
gazing at the stars and
revelling in the magic of the night.
Oh! We caught up with one of our soloists tonight,
Nadine Benjamin, to find out a bit more.
# With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear... #
This is my Proms debut and I'm so excited to be here.
It's such an honour and the pure buzz and excitement of being
at the Proms is just such a wonderful feeling.
So, to actually be on the stage...
..oh!
I love it!
It was really scary for me on the first day because it was the
first moment,
I walked into the room, I had one minute and then I had to sing,
# Of sweet harmony. #
And Martyn Brabbins yesterday when we all spoke to him, you could see
how he really made all of us feel included and we all felt like
we were in the music and he was in our voices and we were
just all one, and that was really, really exciting.
# And wake Diana with a hymn... #
The piece, Serenade To Music,
was originally written for 16 soloists as a tribute.
And so, you get these individual kind of lines, and so for me as a
soprano, doing it just as those four sopranos, I had to really
think about how I was going to deliver them.
So, my kind of characterisation of them
is to think of the first one as an angel,
the second one as kind of like an Amazon warrior,
the third one as a grieving widow,
and then, the fourth one as a wise woman,
and then we go back to the angel again.
It's just the only way that I could think how I could vocally
bring about a different colour to honour those four singers.
In the music, then, we get this kind of bleeding of joy and
sensitivity and we get a colour of warmth and joy and unity and,
yeah, it's the harmonic structure of it, it's just wonderful.
Walking out on that stage tonight, I'm just going to feel blessed,
you know, I will feel a bit nervous and I will feel excited.
And I know that we will be able to share this music in the most
honest way possible with the audience tonight.
APPLAUSE
Nadine Benjamin talking to us earlier.
She's about to take centre stage here at the Royal Albert Hall,
along with the other soloists tonight -
Idunnu Munch, William Morgan, bass baritone David Ireland,
performing music by Ralph Vaughan Williams
here at the Proms with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
and conductor Martyn Brabbins.
# How sweet the moonlight
# How sweet the moonlight. #
APPLAUSE
Conductor Martyn Brabbins giving a well-deserved
hand to our four soloists,
who are all members of the Harewood Artists scheme
at English National Opera.
They are the soprano, Nadine Benjamin.
Beautiful singing from the mezzo-soprano - Idunnu Munch.
Tenor, William Morgan.
And bass-baritone, David Ireland.
We also saw the fantastic leader of the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Laura Samuel, a fifth soloist
in this performance of Serenade To Music by Vaughan Williams.
Fabulous playing, I thought, from all of the
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
Particularly Laura there, leading the orchestra.
The four soloists, as you said, Anna, I mean, just lovely.
And Martyn Brabbins evidently sort of having a bit of a moment there.
He just held the end of that piece, he really wanted to enjoy it.
You could feel a pin drop.
There was, like, electricity running right through the hall.
It was just an incredible moment at the end of that piece.
Such a moving piece of music.
I know Rachmaninov was here at the very first performance of
this piece, when he also performed his own Second Piano Concerto,
apparently he wept when he heard that work and he said
he'd never been so moved by a piece of music.
The ENO Chorus and BBC Singers, who provided an amazing colour
to this performance.
Well, that brings us to the end of the first half of tonight's Prom.
And joining us up here for the interval are some of the
composers of the Variations we heard earlier on -
Judith Weir, Dai Fujikura and Sally Beamish.
Congratulations and welcome to all of you.
Judith, can you tell us a little bit about how this piece came about?
What's the background to it?
Really, just that Martyn Brabbins got in touch, I think,
with each of us some few years ago, I guess,
two or three years ago, and sent us a theme, a mystery theme... Wow.
..and told us which Elgar variation
from the Enigma Variations we should kind of shadow.
So, that gave you a guide as to whether you were writing a
fast variation, a short one, a loud one.
Mine, for instance, is Dorabella,
it's a light kind of scherzo-type movement.
Beautiful colour. Well, thank you very much.
But, in a way, a lot of the clues were there in the Elgar.
Dai, how much did you stick to the clues you were given from the
Elgar, or how much were you thinking,
"I'm just going to take what I want from it"?
Well, first of all,
Martyn asked me, do I know Enigma Variation by Elgar?
I said, "No, I've never heard it."
Yeah, so he asked me, "Can you find out and can you do
"the Variation I?"
So, I went online and just heard Theme
and Variation I of the Enigma Variation. That's it, cut.
From Variation II onwards, not my problem. Not interested.
So I just heard two tracks, let's say, and then I tried to study the
shape of Variation I by Elgar.
It has even two minutes and a half, but it has some kind of
little climax in Elgar's version. And also Martyn said that...
I don't know, he says, maybe he thinks that I'm a lyrical composer
or something because Variation I is quite
lyrical by Elgar, so please stick to that.
And also Martyn said, "Please don't go too far from the theme
"because Variation I..."
So, there's a lot of wishes from birthday boy,
which I was happy to listen to, what he asked me to do.
Sally, Martyn's a conductor you have a close relationship with.
Is it hard to try and work with your friends and try and pull your
relationship with them into a piece of music?
I think all my music has come from relationships with performers
and that's just the most important thing for a composer, is to
have those close relationships with superb performers.
And Martyn's been someone who's conducted my work for years
and years and who really encouraged me when I was just starting out.
So it was a lovely thing to be asked to do.
And also, if anything, for me, it makes it easier to write
music if I have lots and lots of boundaries. And it was so specific.
It was very clever because he took...
I mean, the structure of the Elgar is just so perfect,
and he took that structure and made sure that we've stuck to that,
even though we didn't know what the others were doing.
Wow, well, it worked so well. Congratulations again to you all.
Well, Suzy has gone backstage to see Martyn himself.
Well, look where I am.
He might not want to talk to us in the interval,
he might want a bit of downtime.
He's not going to have it. Come with me.
Hello.
Come in. Good evening.
Come in, team. Right, Martyn.
Welcome to the birthday party. Hello. How are you? Very well.
That was just a little bit special. Well, I hope so.
I mean, gosh, it's a Prom, it's my 60th birthday
and it's amazing music.
I mean, the Vaughan Williams, of course, is sensationally
beautiful, and I think the new piece, or the new 15 pieces,
were quite... They hung together very well.
Trust you to be that ambitious.
"I'm going to do everything that I love, so I'm going to
"celebrate all of the great young artists at English National Opera,
"I'm going to celebrate all of the great new composers,
"I'm going to celebrate British music
"and I'm going to put it all together." I want to know,
genuinely, was combining all of your passions in
one Prom quite a difficult ask, in terms of what you had to weed out?
Not...
Once I came up with the idea of the commission,
so the Pictured Within,
it all fell into place, and David Pickard and I had some
lovely discussions about repertoire.
I really wanted to bring my favourite people together.
So, ENO Chorus, you know, I'm music director there,
four Harewood Artists, young artists with amazing...
I mean, they're already amazing, but their futures are assured.
Wonderful, wonderful. And this extraordinary music in...
I mean, there's nowhere like the Proms, so it's the best place
to do it. It's the best place.
And I have to ask you, the theme for Pictured Within,
it's a mystery, give us a tiny clue, a teeny clue.
A tiny clue to the mystery is that it's going to remain a mystery.
Oh, Martyn! Come on. Birthday spirit. Share!
But, I mean, in accord with the Elgar original, people are
still searching for the Enigma and it was written over 100 years ago.
So, I think we'll leave it like that.
But rest assured, it was a very well-known living composer wrote
that theme. And he...
He... There's a giveaway.
OK, we've narrowed it down to 50%-ish of the population, then.
So, he gifted the theme to me and it turned out to be a fantastic
resource for the Variations that followed.
It's got lots of nice ingredients, interesting intervals, lovely
harmonic progressions, and it ends in that beautiful C major chord.
So, it gave the composers all the freedom that they needed.
Now, most people do celebrate birthdays not with a load of work,
but, actually, with a bit of cake and a nice glass of something.
We can't offer you the glass of something, but we do have a
little something. Our official cake carrier, Zac.
Oh, Zac! Oh, look at that! Look, there we go. Beautifully done, Zac.
You were born to deliver cake.
"Happy birthday", it says, in chocolate and everything.
But I've been told I'm not allowed to light the six or the zero
because it's health and safety. Yes, well, that's fair enough.
I'll do that later with my family, if that's all right? Good. Enjoy it.
Happy birthday. Enjoy the second half. Thank you very much.
It's my pleasure.
And, actually, we've also got another little tribute up our
sleeves for Martyn.
Have a quick look at this.
And wild cheers now for Martyn Brabbins coming on stage.
I always think if I was an orchestral player, I would
particularly love to play under Martyn Brabbins.
He's got such beautiful clean technique.
The one and only Martyn Brabbins.
Well, still to come, Elgar's much-loved Enigma Variations.
But before that, some ground rather less well-trodden,
even here at the Proms.
It's a rare opportunity to hear Brahms' Song Of Destiny,
or Schicksalslied in German, first heard here in 1937.
This is only its fifth Proms appearance,
and the last one was over a quarter of a century ago.
Which I'm really surprised by because it's gorgeous. Yes.
It's based on a poem by Friedrich Holderlin.
Apparently, Brahms was so inspired when he heard the poem,
that he was out walking with his pals
and he just slipped away and started sketching the work immediately.
Which is, frankly, rude!
His friends found him sitting on a sand dune engrossed in his work,
which must have surprised them because
he was not a man known for his impulsiveness,
more for his fastidious habits and inflexibility.
But after such an initial creative spurt of activity, he got stuck
trying to figure out how to end the piece - we've all been there -
and it took him another three years to finish it.
So, in the piece, he vividly contrasts
the blissful lives of the Greek gods with
the dismal fate of man on Earth -
a favourite theme of Brahms', really.
He basically didn't believe that mankind could ever experience
true happiness - not in this life, anyway.
Brahms completed the piece in 1871.
And it opens with dreamlike music describing the land of the gods,
and the verses unfold leading up to a violent climax about
halfway through that seems to depict the suffering and
uncertainty of the human condition.
Throughout the piece, you can hear the beat of the timpani,
which feels a wee bit to me like a heartbeat,
perhaps reflecting impending doom.
And after grappling with that difficult ending
of the piece for so long,
Brahms concludes with the orchestra playing that ethereal music
of the gods once more.
APPLAUSE
Conductor Martyn Brabbins, the ENO Chorus and BBC Singers
in the Song Of Destiny by Brahms.
APPLAUSE
Brahms' Schicksalslied - his Song Of Destiny.
Performed by the chorus of English National Opera, the BBC Singers,
the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
and conductor Martyn Brabbins.
Such a beautiful end to that piece as it follows the arc of the
opening there.
Incredibly warm, such balmy harmonies that Brahms uses.
Well, next, the climax of this evening's Prom.
It's Elgar's Enigma Variations.
Judith, Dai and Sally, who composed three of the Birthday Variations
for Martyn Brabbins, are still here with us.
Judith, Elgar totally flummoxed us with this idea of the Enigma.
Just tell us what is the Enigma,
how does it work in this piece? What is it?
Well, I wish I knew. I'd probably earn a lot from that.
But this beautiful theme was improvised by Elgar,
and a little bit later he started calling it Enigma,
and he said it was a "dark saying"
and he further suggested that there was another tune that
would fit with his theme, and that this was a well-known tune.
All sorts of things have been suggested.
Loch Lomond, Auld Lang Syne, God Save The Queen.
Yeah, Pop Goes The Weasel, Rule Britannia. Yes.
I mean, like, literally every tune that's ever been heard of,
people have said, "That's the Enigma." Yes.
Was he having us all on? Does it matter?
It's my thought that maybe he was.
He loved pulling people's legs, he loved making things more
mysterious than they were. So, a bit of spin, maybe? I think so.
And it's worked, hasn't it? Here we are still talking about it.
I think, also, it's such a beautiful work, and the thought that you
would combine it with God Save The Queen is hideous, actually!
Let's never do that. No, let's just write that idea off.
Sally, what do you think it is about this piece?
Why do people just love it so much?
There is something, there's a bittersweetness about it.
And I can't help wondering if the whole "dark saying" thing was
the dark loneliness of the artist, and that perhaps that was the
overriding theme, and this idea that each of the friends
pictured within are offering a solution,
but maybe they are offering him light in his life,
and, maybe, that was the metaphor. Who knows?
But one thing that is so fantastic about the Enigma is the way
each player feels that they have something really great to play.
He was very conscious of his musicians,
and that gets the best performances.
And one final enigma this evening is that apparently Dai Fujikura
is the only person in the hall who's never heard the Enigma Variations.
That's despite being a composer. So, there you go.
There are still mysteries to behold in the 21st century!
Well, that is all about to change -
Dai, and indeed the rest of us,
are going to hear Elgar's Enigma Variations.
Martyn Brabbins conducting the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Wow.
Martyn Brabbins conducting an incredible performance of the
Enigma Variations, with the amazing BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra.
The organist Michael Bawtree.
And the leader of the orchestra, Laura Samuel.
Nearly 100 performances of Elgar's Enigma here at the Proms
over the years.
More than a third of them given by Henry Wood,
the founder of this music festival.
And it was the piece, really,
that cemented Elgar's reputation as a leading composer.
A hit for him from the word go when it was premiered in 1899.
Lead viola player Scott Dickinson taking a bow there,
as well as principal cellist Rudi de Groote.
And Martyn Brabbins bringing all the players to their feet.
These players who, of course, he knows so well, having been
principal conductor of this orchestra for more than a decade.
And players, of course, Anna, who you know so well,
having worked with them as composer in residence.
It's so lovely watching how much they are enjoying playing
with him and for him
and how much they clearly really love this music, as well.
They're such an incredible orchestra.
CHEERING CONTINUES
The thing is, you can't fake that chemistry,
and when you see players smiling like that, that is a conductor
they hugely admire and respect and evidently love working with.
Martyn looks so chuffed. It's great!
CHEERING
Everyone's going nuts.
I think they like him here.
Well, that brings this evening's Prom to a close, but join us
next Friday here on BBC Four when we
have two extraordinary Proms for you.
You can tune in at 7.30 when the actor Mathew Baynton teams up with
Nicholas Collon and Aurora Orchestra to bring you
Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique
as you have never seen or heard it before.
And as if that wasn't enough,
we're also bringing you a late-night Prom curated by the multi-talented
Radiohead guitarist and composer Jonny Greenwood, whose music I love.
Yes, me, too. Huzzah for that!
In the meantime, remember you can catch the Proms -
they are live every night on BBC Radio 3.
Or why not pop down here
in person and pick up one of those Promming tickets that are available
on the day for under a tenner -
it is the best bargain in town!
But, for now, from all of us here at the Royal Albert Hall tonight...
BOTH: Goodnight!