Symphony: The development of the gramophone and broadcasting meant more people could hear music than ever before and it became possible to immortalise the symphony in sound. In a century driven by two World Wars, composers were caught up in the conflict. Vaughan Williams reflected the tragic loss he had witnessed as an ambulance orderly in World War I in his Pastoral Symphony. Simon investigates the extraordinary symphonic world of Shostakovich, the star composer of the new Soviet Union whose Leningrad Symphony was composed in a city under seige, and across the globe, Ives and Copland, were both in their different ways, creating a new American sound.

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Documentary