NARRATOR: The idea was ambitious... [ Horns honking ] ...the best musicians in the United States, one momentous week in New York City, performing in this all-star orchestra exclusively for our cameras to explore the most exciting music ever written to produce a television series... MAN: [ Snaps fingers ] NARRATOR: ...of masterpieces from music director Gerard Schwarz and for an audience of just you.

♪♪♪ SCHWARZ: Welcome to "The All-Star Orchestra."

We're so happy you've joined us.

Today's program features a landmark of the symphonic repertoire, the third symphony of Johannes Brahms and the overture to "Béatrice et Bénédict" by Hector Berlioz.

♪♪♪ Among the last works that Berlioz wrote was his opera "Béatrice et Bénédict," based on Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing."

Berlioz had two loves: one in poetry -- Shakespeare -- and one in music -- Beethoven.

He believed that those words and that music transcended everything that one could ever imagine.

Interestingly about Shakespeare, Berlioz loved Shakespeare in English, and he didn't speak English.

When he was 24, he went to two performances of Shakespeare plays -- "Hamlet" and "Romeo and Juliet" -- and the star, Ophelia and Juliet, was Harriet Smithson.

He not only fell in love with Shakespeare, but he fell in love with Harriet -- and he pursued her for two years.

Harriet also didn't speak French, but somehow he found her and they hooked up and they married -- unfortunately, there was more than a language problem and that marriage didn't last, but it gives you an idea of the romantic spirit that Berlioz had.

Berlioz was also one of the great orchestrators.

He was the most imaginative in terms of harmony, melody -- but orchestration, especially.

♪♪♪ This overture is a delight.

It starts out in this effervescent, energetic way.

CHEN: Berlioz always keeps the orchestra on its toes.

There's something about his music that is inventive.

I'm always surprised by the sounds that he, um, incorporates with each other.

J. SCHWARZ: You learn to expect the unexpected.

HUGHES: There are so many twists and turns in there, um, you know, Berlioz was not a traditionally trained musician, so he has a completely different mindset and approach to music.

♪♪♪ G. SCHWARZ: Then comes this beautiful, melancholy section, not that long.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ And then Berlioz brings back the opening material again, and there you go, it's over.

♪♪♪ LEE: One of many things I love about the "Beatrice" overture is how much it says in so little time.

And it's just very exhilarating and exciting and cheerful.

J. SCHWARZ: I find the whole piece to be very charming.

MORTIMORE: I love playing Berlioz 'cause the piccolo parts are so sparkling and it's just so fanciful and sprite-like.

J. SCHWARZ: It's always engaging.

YOUNG: Berlioz has a lot, it's tricky, it's fast, it's loud, and it's fun!

G. SCHWARZ: One of the great overtures ever written by one of the more extraordinary masters of the 19th century.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ G. SCHWARZ: The Brahms Third Symphony, as far as I'm concerned, is one of the greatest masterpieces of the symphonic repertoire.

Brahms was, of course, one of the greatest composers of all time, in fact, he wrote only great pieces.

The reason why he only wrote great pieces is because everything that he didn't think was great, he destroyed.

And they say that he destroyed as many as 30 string quartets that he wasn't happy with.

When he was 20, he was anointed by Robert Schumann to be the next great composer after Beethoven.

That's a wonderful thing -- imagine what that was like for him.

On the one hand, it's the greatest compliment a composer could ever -- I mean, Robert Schumann saying, "You're the next Beethoven."

But think of the pressure on Johannes Brahms: he's 20 years old thinking, "Am I gonna write a symphony now, after Beethoven's almost nine symphonies, and is it gonna be up to the standard?"

So, he delayed writing any symphonies.

That's not to say he didn't write music for orchestra: he did, and quite successfully.

He wrote two serenades, a piano concerto, German requiem, and the Variations on a Theme by Haydn.

He wrote his symphony in his early forties.

So, that's quite a long them, when you consider that Robert Schumann, when he was 20, said he was the next great Beethoven.

And then the second symphony came quite quickly.

But it was six years before the third symphony came.

And the third symphony, of the four, is the least performed.

It's a little bizarre but the reason is because people used to be afraid of playing it because it ended softly.

Think how bizarre that is.

♪♪♪ The symphony is cast in four movements.

It's interesting because it has the juxtaposition between tremendous agitation and that calm.

♪♪♪ RALSKE: Right out from the get-go, I think, the third symphony has, um, much more drama.

J. SCHWARZ: It feels like this is Brahms's most closely guarded secret, expressed in a symphony.

G. SCHWARZ: This -- this agitation, you don't really hear it, you feel it.

♪♪♪ And yet, when the second theme comes in -- in this case, with the theme introduced by the clarinet -- it is -- it is so beautiful, idyllic.

♪♪♪ And that's what that first movement is about -- it's about tremendous agitation and tremendous beauty.

The second movement is, um, andante -- again, starts with the clarinet.

It's one of his, if not his favorite, wind instrument, and it sounds like chamber music.

♪♪♪ CHEN: There's a quality of conversation in the Brahms symphonies.

♪♪♪ G. SCHWARZ: In a symphony, the third movement is often a scherzo, or something fast and lighthearted.

In the case of the third symphony, it's not that at all.

HARNEY: The third movement is one of my favorite Brahms symphony movements in all of the repertoire -- it's just minor and it's incredible inner voices.

CHEN: They use the word "autumnal" -- something bittersweet about the music.

J. SCHWARZ: The cello section has the opening solo, and that's one of Brahms's most easily recognizable melodies.

GROSSMAN: It's just this extremely beautiful melody, which the cellos start off.

♪♪♪ G. SCHWARZ: And then, section by section, everybody plays it -- the violins play it, and the woodwinds play it, the oboe plays it.

MAN: Every time the theme comes, it's a little different.

G. SCHWARZ: And then, at the center of this movement, it is played by the horn -- oh, what a moment that is.

♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ ♪♪♪ RALSKE: It has a, suddenly, maybe because I'm the one behind the horn, it feels a little lonelier.

♪♪♪ HUGHES: The French horn plays it immediately before the oboe.

And the French horn -- so rich, so glorious, so...fat and beautiful and warm, and -- and then, as an oboe, you come in after that, and we have to show a slightly different side of things than the horn can do.

MAN: Oboe's playing the melody, the bassoon is answering that, and that is one of my favorite moments in the whole movement.

It's that amazing, every time gets me.

♪♪♪ G. SCHWARZ: An extraordinary movement.

And the last movement, of course, is allegro, but at the end he writes an indication that says, "Un poco sostenuto."

Which means it's gonna go a little sustained, a little slower.

♪♪♪ LEE: The symphony starts so triumphantly, but none of the movements end triumphantly, they all end quietly and -- and, uh -- yeah, I always just thought that that extremely, you know, touching.

♪♪♪ YOUNG: It's quite amazing, and every time you play it, there's something new that you haven't -- either you haven't noticed, or you appreciate again, and just, they're timeless, I mean, you never get tired of Brahms.

G. SCHWARZ: Again, to me, one of the great masterpieces of symphonic repertoire.

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On our next program, we will feature music by Richard Wagner, Alberto Ginastera, and Valerie Coleman.

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