London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 15 Jan 2014

Concert programme 2013/14 season

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI*Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUINLeader pIETER SChOEMANComposer in Residence JULIAN ANDERSONPatron hRh ThE DUKE OF KENT KG

Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOThY WALKER AM

programme £3

Contents

2 Welcome / Leader3 About the Orchestra 4 On stage tonight5 Vladimir Jurowski6 Lawrence Power7 Programme notes11 Next concerts12 2013/14 Annual Appeal13 Orchestra news14 Catalyst: Double Your Donation15 Supporters16 LPO administration

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival hallWednesday 15 January 2014 | 7.30pm

James MacMillanViola Concerto (world premiere) (25’)

Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

Interval

MahlerSymphony No. 6 in A minor (75’)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Lawrence power viola

Free pre-concert event 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival hallJames MacMillan discusses his new Viola Concerto.

This concert is being broadcast live by the BBC on Radio 3 Live In Concert. Listen online in HD Sound for 7 days at bbc.co.uk/radio3

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Welcome

Welcome to Southbank Centre

We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance.

Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete, Feng Sushi and Topolski, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery.

If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250, or email [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:

phOTOGRAphY is not allowed in the auditorium.

LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance.

RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre. Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended.

MOBILES, pAGERS AND WATChES should be switched off before the performance begins.

© P

atri

ck H

arri

son

Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the LPO in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002.

Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra.

He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in the US. In 1987 he was offered the Heifetz Chair of Music scholarship to study with Eduard Schmieder in Los Angeles and in 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman, who recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. In 1994 he became her teaching assistant at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles, and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. As a chamber musician he regularly performs at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall.

As a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pieter has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky, Brahms’s Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, and Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim. He has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television, and led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras.

Pieter is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

Pieter Schoemanleader

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic and forward-looking orchestras in the UK. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, has its own successful CD label, and enhances the lives of thousands of people every year through activities for schools and local communities.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then its Principal Conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is the current Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin is Principal Guest Conductor. Julian Anderson is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence.

The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives around 40 concerts each season. 2013/14 highlights include a Britten centenary celebration with Vladimir Jurowski including the War Requiem and Peter Grimes; world premieres of James MacMillan’s Viola Concerto and Górecki’s Fourth Symphony; French repertoire with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and a stellar array of soloists including Evelyn Glennie, Mitsuko Uchida, Leif Ove Andsnes, Miloš Karadaglić, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Julia Fischer, Emanuel Ax and Simon Trpčeski. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra collaborated with Southbank Centre on the year-long festival The Rest Is Noise, exploring the influential works of the 20th century.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra enjoys flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide. Highlights of the 2013/14 season include visits to the USA, Romania, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, France and Spain.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission and East is East to Hugo, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 70 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 with Vladimir Jurowski; Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 with Bernard Haitink; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sarah Connolly and Toby Spence; and a disc of new works by the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson.

In summer 2012 the Orchestra was invited to take part in The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, as well as being chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation through its BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts;

the Leverhulme Young Composers programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Over recent

years, digital advances and social media have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people across the globe: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more and get involved!

lpo.org.uk

facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

twitter.com/LpOrchestra

The LPO are an orchestra on fire at the moment. Bachtrack.com

2 October 2013, Royal Festival Hall: Britten centenary concert


On stage tonight

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* LeaderVesselin Gellev* Sub-Leader

Chair supported by John & Angela Kessler

Ilyoung ChaeJi-Hyun Lee

Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin VarnagyChair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine CraigThomas EisnerMartin HöhmannGeoffrey Lynn

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert PoolSarah StreatfeildYang ZhangRebecca Shorrock Alina Petrenko Galina TanneyCaroline Frenkel

Second ViolinsRebecca Chan

Guest PrincipalJeongmin KimJoseph MaherKate Birchall

Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy ElanFiona HighamNynke HijlkemaMarie-Anne MairesseAshley StevensRaja HalderHelena NichollsAlison StrangeStephen RowlinsonJohn DickinsonDean WilliamsonSioni Williams

ViolasDavid Quiggle

Guest PrincipalCyrille MercierRobert DuncanGregory AronovichSusanne MartensBenedetto PollaniLaura VallejoIsabel PereiraMichelle Bruil Naomi HoltAlistair Scahill Helen BevinSarah MalcolmMartin Fenn

CellosKristina Blaumane PrincipalFrancis BucknallLaura DonoghueSantiago Carvalho†David LaleGregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Sue SutherleySusanna Riddell Helen Rathbone Tae-Mi SongSibylle Hentschel

Double BassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalTim Gibbs Co-PrincipalLaurence LovelleGeorge PenistonRichard LewisKenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Jeremy Watt Tom WalleyCatherine Ricketts

FlutesMaría José Ortuño Benito

Guest PrincipalSue Thomas

Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Stewart McIlwham*Julia CrowellFrancis Nolan

piccoloStewart McIlwham*

Principal

OboesIan Hardwick PrincipalJenny BrittlebankSue BöhlingAngela TennickMax Spiers

Cor AnglaisSue Böhling Principal

Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds

ClarinetsRobert Hill* PrincipalEmily Meredith Douglas Mitchell

E-flat ClarinetCharys Green

Bass ClarinetPaul Richards Principal

BassoonsJoost Bosdijk Guest PrincipalGareth Newman*Stuart Russell Laura Vincent

ContrabassoonSimon Estell Principal

hornsJohn Ryan* PrincipalDavid Pyatt* Principal

Chair supported by Simon Robey

Martin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth Mollison Alex Edmundson Meilyr Hughes Duncan Fuller Anthony Chidell

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-PrincipalDaniel Newell David Hilton Tony Cross Tom Rainer

TrombonesMark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William and Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Bass TrombonesLyndon Meredith PrincipalLewis Edney

TubaLee Tsarmaklis* Principal

TimpaniSimon Carrington* PrincipalJames Bower

percussionAndrew Barclay* Principal

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

David JacksonKeith MillarJeremy Cornes Ignacio Molins Sarah Mason Sarah Stuart

harpsRachel Masters* Principal

Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Lucy Haslar

CelestesCatherine EdwardsJohn Alley

Assistant ConductorMarius Stravinsky

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

† Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco


© C

hri

s C

hri

stod

oulo

u

Vladimir JurowskiPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

One of today’s most sought-after and dynamic conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow, and completed the first

part of his musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany, continuing his studies at the High Schools of Music in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Nabucco.

Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003, becoming the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in September 2007. He also holds the titles of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. He has also held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper, Berlin (1997–2001); Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03); Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005–09); and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001–13).

Vladimir Jurowski has appeared on the podium with many leading orchestras in Europe and North America including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the Staatskapelle Dresden. Highlights of the 2013/14 season and beyond include his debuts with the New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Tokyo) and San Francisco Symphony orchestras; tours with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; and return visits to the Chicago Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Jurowski made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1999 with Rigoletto, and has since returned for Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades and Hansel and Gretel. He has conducted Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opera National de Paris; Eugene Onegin at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and Iolanta and Die Teufel von Loudon at the Dresden Semperoper, as well as The Magic Flute, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress, The Cunning Little Vixen, Ariadne auf Naxos and Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In autumn 2013 he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Die Frau ohne Schatten, and future engagements include Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper Berlin and The Fiery Angel at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of the cantata Exil by Giya Kancheli for ECM; Meyerbeer’s L’étoile du Nord for Marco Polo; Massenet’s Werther for BMG; and a series of records for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has released a wide selection of his live recordings on the LPO Label, including Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1, 4, 5, 6 and Manfred; and works by Turnage, Holst, Britten, Shostakovich, Honegger and Haydn. His tenure as Music Director at Glyndebourne has been documented in CD releases of La Cenerentola, Tristan und Isolde and Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and DVD releases of his performances of La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight. Other DVD releases include Hansel and Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera; his first concert as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor featuring works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler; and DVDs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Strauss and Ravel), all released by Medici Arts.

Vladimir Jurowski’s position as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra is generously supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor.


© Ja

ck L

iebe

ck

Lawrence Powerviola

Lawrence Power is one of the foremost violists today and in 2011 was shortlisted for the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award. He is regularly invited to perform with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including

the Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Stockholm Philharmonic, Warsaw Philharmonic and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras.

Engagements have included Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra conducted by Sir Mark Elder and with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra; Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Philharmonia Orchestra at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Music Festival, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; the York Bowen Concerto with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester in Mainz; Takemitsu’s concerto A String Around Autumn with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra; and the Rózsa Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras. He has performed Penderecki’s Viola Concerto in a series of concerts with Camerata Salzburg conducted by the composer, and has made critically acclaimed orchestral debuts in Australia.

Most recently Lawrence Power has performed with the Stuttgart Radio, Hessischer Rundfunk, BBC Scottish and Göttingen symphony orchestras, the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, the Orquesta del Principado de Asturias, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and The Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He has given recitals across the UK including in London, Glasgow and Cardiff, and in Stavanger, Zurich and Vienna. A keen champion of contemporary music, he gave the UK premiere of Olga Neuwirth’s concerto Remnants of Song with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Susanna Mälkki at the 2012 BBC Proms; the world premiere of Luke Bedford’s Wonderful Two-headed Nightingale with the Scottish Ensemble; and the world premiere of Charlotte Bray’s Invisible Cities at the 2012 Verbier Festival.

His recordings for Hyperion include the Bartók, Rózsa, Walton and Rubbra concertos; the Shostakovich and Brahms sonatas; and York Bowen’s complete works for viola and piano with Simon Crawford-Phillips. His three-disc Hindemith survey has become a benchmark recording of this repertoire. Recent releases include Strauss’s Don Quixote with the Gürzenich Orchestra under Markus Stenz; the Britten Double Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ilan Volkov and Anthony Marwood; and Vaughan Williams’s Concerto with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Martyn Brabbins. In October 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra released a CD of works by Mark-Anthony Turnage featuring Lawrence Power’s performance of the viola concerto On Opened Ground (LPO-0066).

Lawrence continues to enjoy a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, with whom he has also performed the Walton Concerto conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Britten’s Lachrymae conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

Appearances in the 2013/14 season include the Walton, Rózsa and Schnittke concertos with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and the Tiroler Symphonieorchester respectively. He performs a chamber music programme at the Barbican with Maxim Vengerov, returns to the Verbier Festival, and performs Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante at the Lincoln Center in New York with Joshua Bell and the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra under David Zinman.

Lawrence Power has been appointed International Professor of Viola at the Zurich Hochschule der Kunst. He is also founder and Artistic Director of the West Wycombe Chamber Music Festival.


Programme notes

James MacMillan’s Viola Concerto and Gustav Mahler’s Sixth Symphony pay homage to the past. In MacMillan’s new work, written for tonight’s soloist, Lawrence Power, the viola is often accompanied by a quartet of two violas and two cellos, which MacMillan feels ‘has an archaic quality, like a consort of viols’. Mahler’s Sixth Symphony similarly gazes

over its shoulder, recalling the Classical roots of the symphony and looking nostalgically (if fruitlessly) for a paradise that once was. Yet for all their backward glances, the works equally look forward. MacMillan’s Viola Concerto journeys from hymn-like assurance towards happy playfulness, while Mahler’s Symphony offers a much bleaker worldview.

Speedread

JamesMacMillan

born 1959

Viola Concerto (world premiere)

Lawrence power viola

IIIIII

Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Adelaide Symphony Orchestra.

My viola concerto was written in 2013 and is dedicated to the soloist Lawrence Power. It is composed in three movements.

The first movement is based on a simple cadential figure, sounding as if it is a standard tonic/dominant statement, but is undermined by foreign notes in the bass which create a sense of unresolved tension. From this grows a lyrical and expressive line for the soloist, always underpinned by the two note/two chord tread in the accompaniment.

A metric modulation heralds the transition to the second main idea. Oboe and cor anglais play tentative fragments at a faster pace, and this leads to a dance-like theme on the brass. This in turn sends the soloist off on a new, terse little tune in semiquavers, low on the instrument. A lot of the accompaniment from here is carried by a quartet of two violas and two cellos, sometimes with a ‘walking’ solo bass. The quartet sometimes has an archaic quality, like a consort of viols.

After a development of these elements the original cantabile theme returns, but within a very different accompanying context. The original key is reached again, but using the second idea as a coda.

The second movement begins with an outburst in brass, woodwind and percussion. From this emerges a dreamy, muted string tread – a soft cushion of sound on which sits the song-like viola theme. The idea of the two adjacent notes that dominated the first movement is now back as a shaping ingredient in the melodic material of this movement too.

There is a subliminal hymn-like quality to this music, which is made more explicit when the oboe enters in counterpoint to the solo line. The first section is completed with another outburst and settles to the second main paragraph, where the lyrical material is now developed. The climax of the work involves a third, more extended version of the opening violence, but gives way to a serene and mysterious fading away.

The character of the last movement is joyful, humorous and fast. It involves the soloist in a playful interplay with the string section, answered eventually by a simple rhythmic episode on woodwind and brass.

Continued overleaf


James MacMillan on the LpO Label

Something approaching an accompanied cadenza follows this, but the solo line is shaped by a new take on the two-note leitmotif. This time its melody is dominated by close minor seconds on double-stops. The strings have a chordal sequence against this, which implodes rhythmically.

Variations of these ideas then wind down to a tranquil middle section where the ‘viol quartet’ comes back as the principal accompaniment. Also prominent here is a solo flute that nods towards the influence of the Japanese shakuhachi.

Eventually the playfulness returns with added wind and tuned percussion and we hear the main ideas in new guises. Some of the most virtuosic solo music is reserved for the final few moments of the work.

© James MacMillan, 2014

Programme notes continued

Interval – 20 minutesAn announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.

James MacMillan (born 1959)

James MacMillan read music at Edinburgh University and took Doctoral studies in composition at Durham University with John Casken. After working as a lecturer at Manchester University, he returned to Scotland and settled in Glasgow. The successful premiere of Tryst at the 1990 St Magnus Festival led to his appointment as Affiliate Composer of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Between 1992 and 2002 he was Artistic Director of the Philharmonia Orchestra's ‘Music of Today’ series of contemporary music concerts. He worked as Composer/Conductor with the BBC Philharmonic between 2000 and 2009, and was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Chamber Philharmonic from 2010. He was awarded a CBE in January 2004.

In addition to The Confession of Isobel Gowdie, which launched MacMillan's international career at the 1990 BBC Proms and was recorded on the LPO Label under Marin Alsop in 2006, his orchestral output includes the percussion concerto Veni, Veni, Emmanuel, premiered by Evelyn Glennie in 1992. The work has since been performed over 400 times worldwide, including by Glennie and the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall last month.

First performances in 2012 included festive settings of the Gloria (to mark the 50th anniversary of the consecration of Coventry Cathedral) and of the Credo, which received its world premiere at the 2012 BBC Proms. 2014 will see the world premiere of MacMillan’s St Luke Passion at the Amsterdam Concertgebouw conducted by Markus Stenz (15 March); and US premieres of the orchestral work The Death of Oscar in Seattle (17 April) and Since it was the day of Preparation... for chamber ensemble, choir and bass solo in New York (4 May).

Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes

James MacMillanThe Confession of Isobel GowdieThomas Adès Chamber SymphonyJennifer higdonPercussion Concerto

Marin Alsop conductor Colin Currie percussion

£9.99 | LPO-0035

CDs available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Box Office (020 7840 4242), all good CD outlets, and the Royal Festival Hall shop.

Download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify and others.


GustavMahler

1860–1911

Symphony No. 6 in A minor (ed. Reinhold Kubik)

1 Allegro energico, ma non troppo. Heftig, aber markig.2 Andante moderato3 Scherzo: Wuchtig4 Finale: Sostenuto – Allegro moderato – Allegro energico

Mahler’s Fifth Symphony closes with a rush of hope. Its glorious ending, recalling the tonality and bright hurrah of the First Symphony, leaves the audience uplifted. Yet those who listen closely will realise that its message is equivocal, constantly undermined by painful, nostalgic music, which the Finale desperately tries to supersede. Such underlying dark language cannot be kept at bay and it comes right to the fore in the Sixth Symphony, which is bleak, brusque and terrifying. Mahler allows brief access to havens high in the mountains of his adopted Austria, but they are mere illusions of what once was or indeed might never have been.

The impact of this Symphony on Mahler’s own nerves was marked. His wife Alma, though often unreliable, gives a vivid account of the piece’s premiere in Essen in May 1906:

‘None of his works moved him so deeply at its first hearing as this. We came to the last rehearsal, the dress rehearsal – to the last movement with its three blows of fate. When it was over, Mahler walked up and down in the artists’ room, sobbing, wringing his hands, unable to control himself.’

The Symphony is certainly alarming. It is cold and objective at times, but also has at its centre the solitary voice of a brilliant man, simultaneously self-abasing and self-aggrandising, railing, Prometheus-like, against the world.

The opening Allegro begins in a martial mood. A chugging march, with snapping snare drum, introduces a bold theme with a doggedly immovable bass line. Once the march ebbs away, a linking ‘motto’ burns through the texture: an A major chord turning sharply to A minor, underpinned by stony timpani. This motif will haunt the entire Symphony. After a brief chorale in

the woodwind, the violins depart from the tragic mood, striding out with a luxurious, romantic theme.

The development section – appearing after a ‘Classical’ repeat of the exposition – has no truck with such lyricism, returning once more to the march rhythms, which are given an even more macabre note by trilling woodwind and xylophone. Persistent drumming injects unrelenting forward motion. Suddenly, Mahler pulls our focus away from this deathly procession and we find ourselves high in the mountains. Cowbells sound against a shimmer of celeste and tremolando strings, though even here that ominous motto shift from major to minor can be heard in the horns. A hopeful theme emerges, first on the oboe, then a solo horn and solo violin. Yet as soon as it has become established, Mahler throws us back into the hurly-burly (now in a distant key). When the march returns proper, it is more ferocious still, though the romantic theme also has a renewed conviction. Slowly Mahler moves towards his conclusion, making a premature bid for victory. The second subject triumphs, before the very last bar of the movement describes an eerily prognostic descent. This, in Aristotelian terms, shows the dizzy heights from which the whole Symphony will fall.

The Andante is a welcome relief after the ferocious machinations of the preceding movement. Mahler had originally conceived the Symphony with the Scherzo as its second movement, compounding the Allegro’s sense of encroaching doom. He changed his mind during the rehearsals for the premiere in Essen, and the second published score appeared with the Andante as the succeeding movement. Mahler performed the work in that order in Munich and again in Vienna (though a couple of local critics confusingly referred to the Scherzo first). During Mahler’s lifetime the Dutch conductor and his close associate Wilhelm Mengelberg preserved


the composer’s adopted Andante–Scherzo order, but after Mahler’s death, on the instruction of Alma, he too then changed his mind. The order has been debated by musicologists and conductors ever since. Tonight Vladimir Jurowski opts for the order Mahler himself adopted in performance, with the Andante coming first. Written in E flat major, a tritone away from the overriding tonic of A minor, this is achingly subjective music. Longing and regret pour out of the confluence of its thematic lines, conspiring in full-blooded outbursts from the strings. After a brief view of the mountains (again with the distant jangle of cowbells), all is finally tranquil and resigned.

That refuge is brutally destroyed by the Scherzo. Employing screaming woodwind, braying horns and the jangle of xylophone, Mahler unfolds a macabre dance, clearly echoing the opening movement. The Trio, marked ‘old-fashioned’, stutters and stumbles through various metres. The occasional knock of the timpani threatens under the surface, making for a nervy exchange, before the Scherzo carps at the Trio’s naivety. A final return to the Trio suggests it has some resilience, though it has now been soured by the Scherzo and the movement ends sullenly.

The Finale is a vast summation of what has gone before. Against the metallic shimmer of harp and celeste, the first violins utter a yearning theme, which is silenced by a statement of the major-minor motto. The mood is uncertain, with thematic fragments appearing from an ominous melée of sounds. A chorale comes through in the brass and lower woodwind, though this only prefaces another statement of the motto. Mahler then launches into another ghastly march in which the whole orchestra colludes. An almost celebratory mood emerges, yet like all the hopeful music in this Symphony, it is just a mirage. The cowbells are heard again, jangling against an eerie wash of harp harmonics and celeste, as if in a nightmare. These components come together and build to the first hammer blow. It is a deafening punch to the stomach and unleashes more horror still. The second hammer blow sneaks in after a calmer passage, though it likewise triggers a torrent of sound, including a last-gasp statement of the yearning theme from the opening of the Finale. It is cut dead by the major-minor motto. Silence. The bass tuba and trombones make one last attempt at rebuilding. The double basses and cellos reply, but their submission is smashed by the motto, now devoid of its major colouring, driving the final nail into the coffin. Programme note © Gavin Plumley

Programme notes continued

New for 2013/14 – LpO mini film guides

This season we’ve produced a series of short films introducing the pieces we’re performing. We’ve picked one work from each concert, creating a bite-sized introduction to the music and its historical background.

Watch Patrick Bailey introduce Mahler’s Symphony No. 6: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html


Friday 17 January 2014 | 7.30pmJTI Friday Series

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1Beethoven Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral)

Vladimir Jurowski conductorYulianna Avdeeva piano

Wednesday 22 January 2014 | 7.30pm

J S Bach Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 104hartmann Concerto funebreBeethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)

Vladimir Jurowski conductorLeonidas Kavakos violin

Generously supported by the Sharp Family.

Wednesday 29 January 2014 | 7.30pm

Kodály Dances of GalántaGrieg Piano ConcertoDvořák Symphony No. 7

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductorRudolf Buchbinder piano

Friday 14 February 2014 | 7.30pmJTI Friday Series

Valentine’s Day Concert

Dvořák Carnival Overture Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture)

Stuart Stratford conductorSa Chen piano

Wednesday 19 February 2014 | 7.30pm

Balakirev Islamey (Oriental Fantasy)Khachaturian Piano ConcertoKalinnikov Symphony No. 1

Osmo Vänskä conductorMarc-André hamelin piano

Free pre-concert discussion6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival hallDavid Nice discusses the evening’s programme.

Friday 21 February 2014 | 7.30pmJTI Friday Series

Berlioz Overture, Le CorsaireRachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of PaganiniElgar Symphony No. 2

Vasily petrenko conductorKirill Gerstein piano

Wednesday 26 February 2014 | 7.30pm

Brahms Double Concerto for violin and celloBruckner Symphony No. 2

Vladimir Jurowski conductorJulia Fischer violinDaniel Müller-Schott cello

Booking details Tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65) London philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Monday–Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.ukTransaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone

Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm southbankcentre.co.ukTransaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone No transaction fee for bookings made in person

Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall


London Philharmonic Orchestra Annual Appeal 2013/14

Tickets please!

Do you remember the first time you saw a symphony orchestra live on stage?

Every year the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s schools’ concerts allow over 16,000 young people to see and hear the Orchestra live. The LPO is the only orchestra in the UK to offer specific and tailored orchestral concerts for all ages – from primary school children aged five, through to 18-year-old A-level students. Six out of ten children attending the concerts will be experiencing an orchestra for the very first time.

Tickets for the concerts cost £9. We want to offer free tickets to 2,500 children from the most disadvantaged schools and we need your help to make this happen.

For a donation of just £9 you could buy a ticket for a child to attend one of our schools’ concerts. If you would like to donate more, you could buy tickets for three children (£27), a row of seats in the stalls (£108), or a whole class to attend (£270). Every donation of any size from our supportive audience will help us to fill our concert hall with new young audience members.

Please visit lpo.org.uk/ticketsplease, where you can select the seats you wish to buy, or call Katherine Hattersley on 020 7840 4212 to donate over the phone.

Thank you for supporting Tickets please!


2014/15 season launch Booking for our 2014/15 season opens on Thursday 6 February 2014. From 27 January those involved in our membership schemes will be able to take advantage of priority booking, which provides access to tickets before the general public and the best chance of securing preferred seats.

Our memberships start from as little as £50 and offer a wealth of opportunities to become closer to the musicians and to be more involved in the day-to-day life of the Orchestra. Membership allows you to support the Orchestra, helps us to maintain the high standards that you hear and see on the concert platform, and benefits thousands of people through our Education and Community Programme.

To show our thanks, we offer a range of benefits for you to enjoy, from priority booking and regular newsletters to private recitals in your home by our musicians, with an increase in exclusivity for those able to make major supporting gifts. However you are able to help us, we look forward to welcoming you into the orchestral family.

Call Sarah Fletcher on 020 7840 4225 or visit lpo.org.uk/support/memberships

Spring tours This Saturday (18 January) the Orchestra will travel to Madrid with conductor Vladimir Jurowski to give two concerts at the city’s Auditorio Nacional de Música. The second of these will include the Spanish premiere of James MacMillan’s Viola Concerto with soloist Lawrence Power, following tonight’s world premiere here at Royal Festival Hall.

Next month, the Orchestra, along with Glyndebourne Festival Opera soloists and chorus under Sir Mark Elder, will take Britten’s Billy Budd on tour to New York, where they will give four performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. The cast includes Jacques Imbrailo as Billy Budd, Brindley Sherratt as Claggart and Mark Padmore as Captain Vere. These performances mark Glyndebourne’s first US tour in more than a decade.

Other tours this spring include visits to Paris to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Vladimir Jurowski; Germany with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and pianist Nicholas Angelich; and a tour to Moscow for a performance of Britten’s War Requiem ,also with Jurowski.

Orchestra news

The Rest Is Noise nominated for South Bank Sky Arts Awards

The Rest Is Noise, Southbank Centre’s year-long festival of 20th-century music that took place throughout 2013, featuring the LPO as the major orchestral partner, is among the nominees for the 2014 South Bank Sky Arts Awards. This is the only awards ceremony to celebrate the UK’s achievements across all genres of the arts.

The Rest Is Noise is nominated in the Classical Music category alongside Harrison Birtwistle’s Songs from the Same Earth at the Aldeburgh Festival and Thomas Adès’s Totentanz at the BBC Proms.

Melvyn Bragg will act as Master of Ceremonies at the event on Monday 27 January at the Dorchester Hotel in London. The awards will be broadcast on Sky Arts 1 on Thursday 30 January at 9.30pm.

sky.com/tv/show/south-bank-awards

Billy’s Band: new book by LpO trumpeter Dan Newell

LPO trumpet player Dan Newell has recently written and published The Jewel Thief, the second book in his ‘Billy’s Band’ series. The book and CD set is designed for teachers and parents of Key Stage 1 children (age 5–7) to help explore musical ideas. The accompanying CD includes fun activities in which

Billy guides children through vocal and rhythmic exercises, improvisation, tempo, pitch and different musical genres.

The CD features Simon Callow as the voice of Billy, and violinist Nicola Benedetti.

To find out more visit billysband.co.uk


Catalyst: Double Your Donation

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is building its first ever endowment fund, which will support the most exciting artistic collaborations with its partner venues here in London and around the country.

Thanks to a generous grant pledge from Arts Council England’s Catalyst programme, the Orchestra is able to double the value of all gifts from new donors up to a maximum value of £1 million. Any additional gifts from existing generous donors will also be matched.

By the end of the campaign we aim to have created an endowment with a value of £2 million which will help us work with partners to provide a funding injection for activities across the many areas of the Orchestra’s work, including:

• Morevisionaryartisticprojectslike The Rest Is Noise at Southbank Centre• EducationalandoutreachactivitiesforyoungLondonerslikethisyear’sNoye’s Fludde performance project• IncreasedtouringtovenuesaroundtheUKthatmightnototherwisehaveaccesstogreatorchestralmusic

To give, call Development Director Nick Jackman on 020 7840 4211, email [email protected] or visit www.lpo.org.uk/support/double-your-donation.html

Masur CircleArts Council England Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Sharp FamilyThe Underwood Trust

Welser-Möst CircleJohn Ireland Charitable Trust

Tennstedt CircleSimon Robey The late Mr K Twyman

Solti patronsAnonymousSuzanne GoodmanThe Rothschild Foundation Manon Williams & John Antoniazzi

haitink patronsLady Jane Berrill Moya Greene Tony and Susie HayesLady Roslyn Marion LyonsDiana and Allan Morgenthau

Charitable TrustSir Bernard Rix TFS Loans LimitedThe Tsukanov Family Foundation Guy & Utti Whittaker

Catalyst Endowment Donors

pritchard DonorsAnonymousLinda BlackstoneMichael BlackstoneJan BonduelleRichard and Jo BrassBritten-Pears FoundationLady June ChichesterLindka CierachMr Alistair CorbettMark DamazerDavid DennisBill & Lisa DoddMr David EdgecombeDavid Ellen Commander Vincent EvansMr Daniel GoldsteinFfion HagueRebecca Halford HarrisonMichael & Christine HenryHoneymead Arts TrustJohn HunterIvan HurryTanya KornilovaHoward & Marilyn LeveneMr Gerald Levin Dr Frank LimGeoff & Meg Mann

Ulrike ManselMarsh Christian TrustJohn MontgomeryRosemary MorganJohn OwenEdmund PirouetMr Michael PosenJohn PriestlandRuth RattenburyTim SlorickHoward SnellStanley SteckerLady Marina VaizeyHelen WalkerLaurence WattDes & Maggie WhitelockVictoria YanakovaMr Anthony Yolland


We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group patrons, principal Benefactors and Benefactors:

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged:

Corporate Members

Silver: AREVA UKBritish American BusinessCarter Ruck Thomas Eggar LLP

Bronze: Lisa Bolgar Smith and Felix Appelbe of

Ambrose AppelbeAppleyard & Trew LLP Berenberg BankBerkeley LawCharles RussellLeventis Overseas preferred partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli LtdSipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind SponsorsGoogle IncSela / Tilley’s Sweets

Trusts and Foundations

Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Ambache Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini TrustBorletti-Buitoni TrustBritten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The Ernest Cook TrustThe Coutts Charitable TrustThe D’Oyly Carte Charitable TrustDunard FundEmbassy of Spain, Office for Cultural

and Scientific AffairsThe Equitable Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable TrustThe Foyle FoundationJ Paul Getty Junior Charitable Trust Lucille Graham TrustThe Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris

Charitable TrustThe Hobson Charity The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing FoundationThe Leverhulme TrustMarsh Christian Trust The Mayor of London’s Fund for Young

Musicians

Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet TrustMaxwell Morrison Charitable TrustMusicians Benevolent FundThe Ann and Frederick O’Brien

Charitable TrustPalazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique

romantique françaisePolish Cultural Institute in London PRS for Music Foundation The R K Charitable TrustSerge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust Schroder Charity Trust Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable TrustThe John Thaw FoundationThe Tillett TrustSir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary

SettlementGarfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable TrustYouth Music

and others who wish to remainanonymous

Thomas Beecham GroupThe Tsukanov Family Foundation Anonymous

William and Alex de Winton Simon Robey The Sharp FamilyJulian & Gill Simmonds

Garf & Gill CollinsAndrew Davenport Mrs Sonja DrexlerDavid & Victoria Graham FullerJohn & Angela KesslerMr & Mrs MakharinskyGeoff & Meg MannCaroline, Jamie & Zander SharpEric Tomsett

Guy & Utti Whittaker Manon Williams & John Antoniazzi

principal BenefactorsMark & Elizabeth AdamsJane AttiasLady Jane BerrillDesmond & Ruth CecilMr John H CookDavid Ellen

Commander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel GoldsteinDon Kelly & Ann WoodPeter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David MalpasMr Maxwell MorrisonMr Michael PosenMr & Mrs Thierry SciardMr & Mrs G SteinMr & Mrs John C TuckerMr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Howard & Sheelagh WatsonMr Anthony Yolland

BenefactorsMrs A BeareMrs Alan CarringtonMr & Mrs Stewart CohenMr Alistair Corbett Mr David EdgecombeMr Richard FernyhoughKen FollettMichael & Christine HenryMalcolm HerringIvan HurryMr Glenn HurstfieldMr R K Jeha Per Jonsson

Mr Gerald LevinSheila Ashley LewisWg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAFDr Frank LimPaul & Brigitta LockMr Brian Marsh Andrew T MillsJohn Montgomery Mr & Mrs Andrew NeillEdmund Pirouet Martin and Cheryl Southgate Professor John StuddMr Peter TausigMrs Kazue Turner Mr Laurie WattDes & Maggie WhitelockChristopher WilliamsBill Yoe and others who wish to remain

anonymous

hon. BenefactorElliott Bernerd

hon. Life MembersKenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G GyllenhammarMrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE


Administration

Board of Directors

Victoria Sharp Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman*

Vice-PresidentRichard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. HøgelMartin Höhmann* George Peniston* Sir Bernard RixKevin Rundell* Julian SimmondsMark Templeton*Natasha TsukanovaTimothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Dr Manon Williams

* Player-Director

Advisory Council

Victoria Sharp Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Lord David CurrieAndrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Baroness ShackletonLord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Martin SouthgateSir Philip ThomasChris VineyTimothy Walker AMElizabeth Winter

American Friends of the London philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.

Jenny Ireland Co-ChairmanWilliam A. Kerr Co-ChairmanKyung-Wha ChungAlexandra JupinDr. Felisa B. KaplanJill Fine MainelliKristina McPhee Dr. Joseph MulvehillHarvey M. Spear, Esq.Danny Lopez Hon. ChairmanNoel Kilkenny Hon. DirectorVictoria Sharp Hon. Director

Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA,

EisnerAmper LLP

Chief Executive

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager andFinance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager

Concert Management

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Graham WoodConcerts and Recordings Manager

Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager

Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager

Alison JonesConcerts and Recordings Co-ordinator

Jo CotterPA to the Chief Executive / Tours Co-ordinator

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Education and Community

Alexandra ClarkeEducation and Community Project Manager

Lucy DuffyEducation and Community Project Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Orchestra personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah Holmes Sarah ThomasLibrarians ( job-share)

Christopher AldertonStage Manager

Brian HartTransport Manager

Julia BoonAssistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Helen Searl Corporate Relations Manager

Katherine HattersleyCharitable Giving Manager

Molly Stewart Development and Events Manager

Sarah Fletcher Development and Finance Officer

Rebecca FoggDevelopment Assistant

Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Mia RobertsMarketing Manager

Rachel WilliamsPublications Manager

Samantha KendallBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Libby Northcote-GreenMarketing Co-ordinator

Ivan RaykovIntern

Digital projects

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager

public Relations

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

professional Services

Charles RussellSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

London philharmonic Orchestra89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TPTel: 020 7840 4200Fax: 020 7840 4201Box Office: 020 7840 4242Email: [email protected]

The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045.

Photograph of James MacMillan © Philip Gatward.

Front cover photograph © Patrick Harrison.

Printed by Cantate.

London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 15 Jan 2014

Documents

Transcript of London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 15 Jan 2014