(atmospheric music) GEMMA NEW: What's so great about orchestral playing is that we are sensitive to each other.

We're listening carefully and we're sympathizing.

And I think that collective experience is what makes music so special.

(audience applauding) (wind blowing) (upbeat music) (upbeat music continues) (upbeat music continues) We'll go back to the beginning, if you don't mind.

You know, the one very clear message he had was resignation before fate, completely, for the Symphony.

But this first movement is very much about, "well, could we give up?

Are we going to resign to that, or should we fight it?"

And we still have that fighting spirit, of course.

When you meet the orchestra for the first time, you have a foundation that you build almost immediately.

You've got to build beautiful relationship of trust and listening to each other and responding to each other- this back-and-forth communication.

It's not just between the conductor and player or the section; it's reall between all the string sections, looking at each other at certain moments, or the winds resonating, o who has what line harmonically and then what kind of sound we want, what character.

Let's go from the top one more time.

(upbeat orchestral music) (upbeat orchestral music continues) (upbeat orchestral music continues) I love the way you relax and question two after D, and then get excited, and then, ah, as we fall in a heap by nine after D- that's 63 for everyone.

I think it needs to relax almost entirely, (Gemma imitates orchestra playing) so it sounds very tired after the... (Gemma imitates orchestra playing) and (imitates orchestra playing).

So, we start that very slowly for the winds as well.

(gentle music) The performance of a musical work is to bring it to life.

Composers have their intent.

Yet, how you write it on the page is always a question.

Notes have a start, a middle, and an end, and how we shape each individual note, it has to be really decided upon.

But of course, we don't have all that time to have a big discussion about it.

It's felt.

So, yes, we have all the notes on the page, but we're exploring exactly what is going on, and there is so much going on- all the dynamics, what instruments have been chosen for color combinations there are, what the harmony suggests.

So, when we're unlocking all these secrets in the score, we're thinking, "well, why is it there?

What is the story?

What does it mean to us?"

There's so many communications, connections and emotions that we need to resonate with onstage together and experiencing that, that's what makes the performance.

There's a lot going on here (laughs), as you can hear.

We're working hard to prepare for Tchaikovsky's Fifth Symphony.

And what I love is that the strings and the winds are playing in harmony so sensitively and hand-in-hand.

They are being romantic to each other and supporting each other.

It's a very generous piece of emotion.

Every time we meet at the piece, we're at a different point of our lives.

Maybe we've had a lot of coffee this morning, or maybe we've just run a marathon.

So, we have this differen relationship between each other.

And because it's all about how we play together in this piece, how we connect with each other, it's always going to be slightly different, but it has to be most genuine to how we feel on the spot.

It's quite impetuous in that way.

Sometimes it's very volatile, and so we could go in any direction, which makes it very exciting and also a great risk.

(dramatic orchestral music) (dramatic orchestral music continues) (dramatic orchestral music continues) Each note needs a bell-tone accent on it, and then come right back so that we hear the chord in the background.

(dramatic orchestral music continues) Allow it to ease up a little in terms of dynamic, not tempo and two bars of decrescendo three and four after T, so that five after T, we then know where we're going.

We have more direction.

(dramatic orchestral music) (dramatic orchestral music continues) (dramatic orchestral music continues) Every time you have this, it starts from a place of tenderness and goes to, "Oh, yes!"

(upbeat orchestral music) During the pandemic, we didn't have an audience.

We weren't able to perform and I thought it really gave us an answer: we need classical music more than ever because we need to be together as human beings.

We can't be lonely and divided.

(dramatic orchestral music) The best example of how a community can work together is an orchestra because we come together in harmony and we work together in harmony, respecting each other, sympathetically listening and valuing everyone's contribution.

And we create something that we can't do by ourselves.

(atmospheric orchestral music) (atmospheric orchestral music co So we have 68 for the strings- again, seize the day.

This was something in the beginning.

I just want us to have it from the very first time you play it on the string.

And if we work from the back so that our section, we want to have that wow experience there.

Can we get something a bit more immediate as we get to the contrast of 68?

It's (imitates orchestra playing), grip and seize the day.

Trombones, from the beginning now of your part, it tends to be slightly late for everyone, just a bit further away.

It's not just you, but we're starting here.

So, let's have that in mind to keep connected to the front.

Listening to music where we can close our eyes and we can dream.

It's our space.

It's very personal and I think it can help us a lot with healing.

It allows us to maybe take us to memories of absolute darkness, or it can take us to most happy and warm, romantic memories.

And then it can give us that cathartic journey to give us strength for the future.

(uplifting orchestral music) We have had so much music from all over the world.

Its language of emotion tha brings us as a world together, and we need this music.

I guess that's why music is such a great thing, because we can take it as a reflection of our own memories and also bring us energy for the future.

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