Antonio Vivaldi's Summer.
MUSIC: Summer by Antonio Vivaldi
You probably know it, and you might be one of the millions who love it.
Astor Piazzolla's Summer.
MUSIC: Summer by Astor Piazzolla
You might not know it but, by the end of this evening,
you will almost certainly love it.
Tonight, Joshua Bell presents The Four Seasons - served two ways.
Welcome to the BBC Proms!
A very warm welcome from the Royal Albert Hall
on this summer's evening.
Tonight, two men who lived centuries and continents apart
are brought together by one very famous piece of music -
The Four Seasons.
Its composer - and perhaps the finest violinist of his age -
Vivaldi wrote intricate concertos which challenged the soloist
to show off just what the violin could do.
First heard in the 1720s,
The Four Seasons will be directed and performed tonight
by a virtuoso of our own age -
the American violinist Joshua Bell -
together with the chamber orchestra,
The Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Vivaldi's simple but brilliant premise has inspired
countless other musicians, including the 20th-century Argentinian
composer and performer Astor Piazzolla.
Infused with his trademark tango sound, Piazzolla started
composing his Seasons in 1965 for performance with his tango band.
We mark what would have been Piazzolla's centenary year
with a performance of his Four Seasons Of Buenos Aires
arranged for solo violin and strings.
Joshua Bell will interweave the two different takes
on the Four Seasons in what promises to be
one extraordinary evening of music.
Joining me this evening is Guillermo Willis,
the Argentinian music specialist
who regularly performs in the tango clubs of London.
Guillermo, welcome to The Proms.
Good evening, it's my pleasure to be here tonight.
Well, you're the man to ask -
why is Piazzolla such an important composer?
Well, Piazzolla was so rooted
into the tango from the '30s and the '40s
and the tango orchestra's music.
But he actually brought together some influences from jazz,
from classical music, as well.
And he created new compositions, something different,
that was not only able to be danced in a tango hall,
but also listened to in a concert.
What does tango mean to Argentinians? Personally...
I like saying it's...somehow like the soundtrack of the city
of Buenos Aires. People - as me - that come from there,
we are usually able to quote tango lyrics
in any occasion that merits it. JOSIE CHUCKLES
But usually what tango means...
Tango unfolded with the city, as well, during the 20th century,
with the immigration currents, as well,
so it took its shape at the same time as the city.
There's a saying, isn't there, in Argentina -
that "everything may change, except the tango".
Piazzolla flew in the face of this rule
by creating what he called New Tango.
As he told the BBC in 1990,
his defiance came with some dangerous consequences.
My music has all the primitive tango,
from the bordellos until today.
I try to do good music but, underneath that, I think
it's in my blood that I am a man of tango.
The old, traditional tango was very boring.
There have been no changes in that music for at least 40 or 50 years -
until I come in.
And when I come in, I'm taking away the tango, that people...
In 1954, it was like a war.
They were all against me in that moment.
They gave me a beating once in the street
because I was changing the music.
And if you decided to change music,
you better know something about boxing or a little karate
and all that - it's very important, too.
Dangerous stuff.
Well, Piazzolla might have changed the music, but he kept centre stage
the instrument that is considered to be the soul of tango.
We saw Piazzolla playing the bandoneon -
which is apparently so difficult
that he once described it as "diabolical".
Guillermo didn't let that put him off -
you learnt the bandoneon and you have it there.
Can we hear you play a little bit? Sure - why not?
Bravo. You can see its organ origins, can't you?
It does look a little bit like an accordion.
Is it related to the accordion?
Well, it's closely related.
It works the same way, but the quality of sound is different.
As you were saying, the organ quality of sound.
But there are also different timbres between the left hand
and the right hand.
This one sounds mellower.
The right hand sounds brilliant, really.
And there is also a different arrangement of the batons,
which makes it very complicated to get into the first scales
when you're learning the instrument.
How did you come to play the bandoneon?
Well, I remember being a teenager and hearing this
magnificent musician playing a solo arrangement for bandoneon,
of Astor Piazzolla, and I was captivated about it.
And then I knew I needed to get an instrument myself
and then started learning it.
But I guess most musicians of my generation were inspired
in the same way by Astor Piazzolla's music and compositions.
Well, of course, he arranged his Four Seasons
to play on the bandoneon with his tango band.
So can we hear a little bit now of the original composition?
Sure, I'm going to be playing the theme of the Summer of Buenos Aires.
OK, yeah.
What a powerful sound.
Well, tonight, we will hear The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires
in an arrangement for solo violin and strings made in the 1990s
after Piazzolla's death by the Russian composer Leonid Desyatnikov.
Tango grew out of the multicultural melting pot that was Buenos Aires,
and the violin has been a part of tango since its earliest days.
We spoke to tonight's musical director and soloist, Joshua Bell,
about the violin's ability to conjure vastly different worlds.
You do see the violin in so many cultures in their music,
and I think it's because the violin is so close to the human voice,
and not only can it do what a voice does, it has a much wider range.
A musician is an explorer in a way,
and we explore different kinds of music and that's what I enjoy.
And getting outside of your comfort zone is also very important
as an artist, and not just to do what you're comfortable with.
Both the Piazzolla the and Vivaldi allow for embellishments
and ornamentation and improvisation.
There will be things in the moment that I might do on stage
that the orchestra might not have heard before.
The Vivaldi and the Piazzolla make the violin and the other instruments
in the orchestra do things that you might not normally hear.
The Vivaldi is full of these effects that evoke the seasons.
And then there's icy sounds that we do by playing closer to the bridge
or windy sounds that we play by playing more over the fingerboard.
There's a dog barking that the viola plays.
In the Piazzolla, we do very a crunchy sound and we slap the bass.
Piazzolla really does all kinds of fun things
and I think Vivaldi would have enjoyed it.
And I think the audience will get a kick out of it.
I hope to bring even a laugh.
So this programme tonight really shows a lot,
I think, that the violin can do.
In tonight's concert,
Joshua and the orchestra will interweave Vivaldi's Four Seasons
with Piazzolla's Argentinian take on the classic work.
We start in Vivaldi's Spring, move onto Piazzolla's Summer,
followed by Vivaldi's Summer, and continue alternating
through the year before we complete the cycle in Piazzolla's Spring.
Now, remarkable as it sounds to us today,
Vivaldi's work fell into obscurity after his death,
before a chance rediscovery in the 20th century.
Baroque music - and Vivaldi especially -
exploded in popularity in the '60s -
the decade when Piazzolla started composing his own Seasons.
So if you listen very carefully, there are subtle Vivaldi-esque
traces in Piazzolla's original compositions -
most obviously at the end of Winter, when Pachelbel's Canon
even makes a cameo appearance!
Then, when Leonid Desyatnikov
arranged The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires in the '90s,
he applied a bit of artistic license
and explicitly "Vivaldified" Piazzolla's piece
by weaving in about 15 musical quotes from Vivaldi's Seasons -
so there's plenty of these to listen out for this evening.
We're looking forward to it, aren't we, Guillermo?
I'm looking forward to it - yes, absolutely.
APPLAUSE
Joshua Bell, tonight's soloist
and Music Director of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
He'll be directing its string orchestra from the violin.
They'll perform Antonio Vivaldi's Four Seasons
and Astor Piazzolla's Cuatro Estaciones Portenas -
which translates to the Four Seasons of Buenos Aires.
It was arranged for violin and strings by Leonid Desyatnikov.
They begin tonight in Italy with Vivaldi's Spring.
SCATTERED APPLAUSE
APPLAUSE
APPLAUSE CONTINUES
APPLAUSE
HARPSICHORD PLAYS VIVALDI
GENTLE LAUGHTER
APPLAUSE
Joshua Bell and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields
complete their marathon
with Spring from The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires by Astor Piazzolla,
arranged by Leonid Desyatnikov.
It rounds off tonight's commemoration
of Piazzolla's centenary year.
Of course, they also performed Vivaldi's timeless classic,
The Four Seasons - a piece he continues to return to,
saying that the scope for ornamentation and improvisation
ensures no two performances are the same.
What an astonishing performer he is.
This is a piece written to show off the violin -
well, Joshua Bell is your man to do that, isn't he, Guillermo?
It was wonderful, it was absolutely amazing,
what he managed to do with the violin tonight.
And the whole orchestra. The whole orchestra - I couldn't agree more.
He said he wanted to make the audience laugh -
well, that cheeky harpsichord at the end certainly did the trick.
A standing ovation for Joshua this evening -
and well deserved.
What an energetic, engaging and elegant performance that was.
Beautiful cello solos in that piece
from the guest principal cellist Caroline Dale.
The orchestra were, in fact,
the first to perform Vivaldi's Four Seasons as a complete cycle
at The Proms back in 1984.
So it's only fitting that they do it again for us today.
Come on, Joshua, take another bow - you deserve it!
I can't thank you all enough for coming out tonight.
This is the first time I'm playing with this orchestra
in about a year and a half
and I'm so happy to be back.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
For us to play for all of you - and thank you for coming out -
it's just a... It's very moving and a wonderful experience for us
in this incredible venue,
so thank you so much.
And we have a tiny little extra piece to play for you tonight.
LAUGHTER, APPLAUSE, CHEERING
Tonight you've heard two Summers so far,
and we have another one that's, I think, appropriate -
at least in title.
It's another beloved piece of - this time -
the great American composer George Gershwin.
MURMURS OF RECOGNITION
This is...
..Summertime.
APPLAUSE
MUSIC: Summertime by George Gershwin
A perfect encore - Summertime by the American composer George Gershwin.
Written for Porgy and Bess - his 1935 opera set in South Carolina.
Tonight's performance by Joshua Bell,
who also directed the strings of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.
Joshua Bell is a Proms regular, and 20 years ago at The Proms
he performed for the first time on his beloved
1713 Huberman Stradivarius violin.
It was a brave move, as he'd only just come across it by chance
earlier that very same day at a violin shop in London!
He loved it immediately and vowed to buy it -
which he did, soon after the Prom.
How he can make that instrument sing!
Tonight's Prom has celebrated virtuoso performers
of the past and present - Vivaldi and Joshua on violin
and Piazzolla on the bandoneon.
Well, that was simply wonderful.
Thank you to my guest, Guillermo Willis, who's joined me
on that astounding musical journey
through the seasons of Italy, Buenos Aires, and finally Summer in the US.
Guillermo, was that a fitting celebration of Piazzolla
in his centenary year?
It was more than fitting.
And it's not simply just putting Piazzolla along with Vivaldi -
it makes people more interested each time in Piazzolla's music.
I absolutely agree. Well, thank you so much.
Well, we're back on BBC Four on Sunday next,
when Katie Derham presents the ever-popular Family Prom -
this year featuring the seven talented Kanneh-Mason siblings
in The Carnival of the Animals by Saint-Saens.
Children's author Sir Michael Morpurgo joins them on stage,
alongside poet Lemn Sissay.
And don't forget, there's a Prom every evening
between now and the Last Night - on 11 September -
and you can listen live to every concert on BBC Radio 3
or BBC Sounds, and watch every televised Prom on the BBC iPlayer.
But, for now - from what's been a memorable summer's night
in the Royal Albert Hall - goodnight!
MUSIC: Winter by Astor Piazzolla