London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 27 November 2015

Concert programme2015/16 London Seasonlpo.org.uk

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI*Principal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADALeader pIETER SChOEMAN†Composer in Residence MAgNUS LINDbERgPatron hRh ThE DUKE OF KENT Kg

Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOThY WALKER AM

Contents

2 Welcome3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman6 Susanna Mälkki 7 Beatrice Rana9 Programme notes14 Sound Futures donors15 Supporters16 LPO administration

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

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation † supported by Neil Westreich

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

JTI Friday Series Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival hallFriday 27 November 2015 | 7.30pm

Liadov From the Apocalypse (9’)

prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 in G minor, Op. 16 (31’)

Interval

Sibelius

Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 (38’)

Susanna Mälkki conductor

beatrice Rana piano

This concert is being broadcast live by the BBC on Radio 3 Live In Concert – live concerts every day of the week. Listen online in HD Sound for 30 days at bbc.co.uk/radio3

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Welcome

An easy way to support the Orchestra If you're about to make a purchase through amazon.co.uk, there's an easy way to support us as you shop. By clicking through to Amazon via the link on our webpage below, and placing items in your basket within 24 hours (and buying them within 90 days), the LPO receives a small percentage of your order. This applies to anything you buy from Amazon, not just LPO-related items. So when you're thinking of all the presents you have to buy, please remember us, too! Thank you for your support.lpo.org.uk/news/amazon.html

Classical Live The Orchestra is delighted to be part of Classical Live, a brand new online platform exclusively on Google Play showcasing the great orchestras of the world in recent live performances. It's yet another way the

Orchestra is able to expand its reach to new audiences across the globe. The first release is of a concert performed in March this year featuring excerpts from Prokofiev's Chout ('The Buffoon'), LPO Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Stravinsky's Petrushka. Vladimir Jurowski conducts. classical-live.com

Making a NOISEToday we welcome students who join us through the Orchestra's NOISE scheme that entitles students and under 26-year-olds to £4 and £8 seats to selected concerts in London and all four concerts in the Brighton season. As part of the scheme, we recruit student representatives at universities and colleges across London and Brighton to help publicise NOISE: in September we attended Freshers’ Fairs at Brighton University and Sussex University to get as many students signed up as possible, whilst successfully recruiting a student representative from Brighton University. To find out more visit:lpo.org.uk/noise

Welcome to Southbank Centre

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We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery are closed for essential refurbishment until 2017. During this period, our resident orchestras are performing in venues including St John's Smith Square. Find out more at southbankcentre.co.uk/sjss

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.

Orchestra News

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

On stage tonight

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* Leader

Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader

Ilyoung ChaeChair supported by an anonymous donor

Ji-Hyun LeeChair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin VarnagyChair supported by Sonja Drexler

Thomas EisnerMartin Höhmann

Chair supported by The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust

Geoffrey LynnChair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert PoolSarah StreatfeildYang ZhangRebecca ShorrockAlina PetrenkoCaroline FrenkelAmanda SmithGalina Tanney

Second ViolinsPhilippe Honore

Guest PrincipalKate Birchall

Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy ElanLorenzo Gentili-TedeschiFiona HighamNynke HijlkemaJoseph MaherAshley StevensDean WilliamsonSioni WilliamsHarry Kerr

Sheila LawElizabeth BaldeyStephen Stewart

ViolasDavid Quiggle

Guest Principal Cyrille Mercier

Co-PrincipalRobert DuncanGregory AronovichKatharine LeekSusanne MartensBenedetto PollaniEmmanuella ReiterLaura VallejoNaomi HoltDaniel CornfordMartin Fenn

CellosPei-Jee Ng PrincipalLaura DonoghueSantiago Carvalho†David LaleGregory WalmsleyElisabeth Wiklander

Chair supported by The Viney Family

Susanna RiddellTom RoffHelen RathboneSibylle Hentschel

Double bassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalTim Gibbs Co-PrincipalGeorge PenistonLaurence LovelleHelen RowlandsCharlotte KerbegianBen WolstenholmeLachlan Radford

FlutesCormac Henry

Guest PrincipalSue Thomas*

Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Stewart McIlwham

piccoloStewart McIlwham*

PrincipalChair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

OboesIan Hardwick* PrincipalAlice Munday

Cor AnglaisSue Böhling* Principal

ClarinetsRobert Hill* PrincipalThomas Watmough Paul Richards

bassoonsGareth Newman PrincipalLaura Vincent

ContrabassoonSimon Estell Principal

hornsDavid Pyatt* Principal

Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* PrincipalChair supported by Laurence Watt

Martin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth Mollison

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal

TrombonesMark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

bass TromboneLyndon Meredith Principal

TubasLee Tsarmaklis* PrincipalGeorge Ellis

TimpaniSimon Carrington* PrincipalJeremy Cornes

percussionAndrew Barclay* Principal

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Henry Baldwin Co-PrincipalChair supported by Jon Claydon

Keith MillarKaren HuttJames Bower

harpRachel Masters* Principal

KeyboardsCatherine Edwards

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

† Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose player is not present at this concert: Bianca and Stuart Roden


London Philharmonic Orchestra

Recognised today as one of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra balances a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-looking ensembles. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, releases CDs on its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and community groups.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. It has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is currently the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007. Andrés Orozco-Estrada took up the position of Principal Guest Conductor in September 2015. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence.

The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives over 30 concerts each season. Throughout 2014/15 the Orchestra gave a series of concerts entitled Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, a festival exploring the composer’s major orchestral

masterpieces. 2015/16 is a strong year for singers, with performances by Toby Spence and Anne Sofie von Otter amongst others; Sibelius enjoys 150th anniversary celebrations; distinguished visiting conductors include Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vasily Petrenko, with Robin Ticciati returning after his debut in 2015; and in 2016 the LPO joins many of London’s other leading cultural institutions in Shakespeare400, celebrating the Bard’s legacy 400 years since his death. The Orchestra continues its commitment to new music with premieres of commissions including Magnus Lindberg’s Second Violin Concerto, and works by Alexander Raskatov and Marc-André Dalbavie.

Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a

Vladimir Jurowski produced one of those utterly compelling performances where the London Philharmonic Orchestra seemed to be playing as if their lives depended on it.Bachtrack, September 2015 (4 Stars)


Western orchestra. Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2015/16 season include visits to Mexico City as part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture, Spain, Germany, Canary Islands, Belgium, a return to the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Orchestra’s premiere at La Scala, Milan.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 80 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 conducted by Stanisław Skrowaczewski and Messiaen’s Des Canyons Aux Étoiles.

In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics. In 2013 it was the winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians through an energetic programme of activities for young people. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the Young Composers Programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Its work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: 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

youtube.com/londonphilharmonic7

Pieter Schoemanleader

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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. He is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Pieter's chair in the London Philharmonic Orchestra is supported by Neil Westreich.


Susanna Mälkki’s versatility and broad repertoire have taken her to symphony and chamber orchestras, contemporary music ensembles and opera houses across the world. Appointed as the Chief Conductor of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, effective from the 2016/17 season, she has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Gulbenkian Orchestra since 2013, and was previously Music Director of the Ensemble intercontemporain and Artistic Director of Stavanger Symfoniorkester.

As a guest conductor Susanna Mälkki’s recent highlights include returns to the San Francisco Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Aldeburgh Festival where she conducted the UK premiere of A Pierre Dream: A Portrait of Pierre Boulez conceived by Gerard McBurney. Notable recent debuts include the Philadelphia, Cleveland and New York Philharmonic orchestras, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Teatro La Fenice.

Conducting is about communicating, so you need clarity above all else in your physical movements ... the whole grand maestro stuff has never really appealed to the Finnish psyche.Susanna Mälkki

Summer 2015 saw her return to the BBC Proms conducting the BBC Symphony Orchestra in the UK premiere of Francesconi’s Violin Concerto performed by Leila Josefowicz. This season's highlights include returns to the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, New World Symphony, Bayerischer Rundfunk, Vienna Symphony

at the Bregenzer Festival, London Sinfonietta and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras. She will also make her debut with the Orquesta y Coro Nacionales de España this month. A renowned opera conductor, Susanna performed The Marriage of Figaro with the Finnish National Opera in August 2014 and followed this with her Staatsoper Hamburg debut, conducting a revival of Janáček’s Jenůfa. In 2011 she made her debut at La Scala, Milan – the first woman to conduct a production there in the company’s history – and returned in 2014. Future highlights include conducting a Francesconi premiere at Opéra National de Paris, where she previously conducted the world premiere of Siddharta, a ballet by Bruno Mantovani, and in 2013 conducted Janáček’s The Makropolous Case.

A former student at the Sibelius Academy, she studied with Jorma Panula and Leif Segerstam. Prior to her conducting studies, she had a successful career as a cellist and from 1995 to 1998 was one of the principals of the Gothenburg Symphony. In June 2010 she was elected a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music in London and she is also a member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. In 2011, Susanna was awarded the Pro Finlandia Medal of the Order of the Lion of Finland, one of Finland’s highest honours.

This evening marks Susanna Mälkki’s debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Susanna Mälkkiconductor

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Whether in the brisk forcefulness she brought to Mars or the frigid stillness she found in the Saturn movement [from Holst's The Planets], this was a strikingly strong and fresh performance.

John Allison, The Telegraph, July 2015


Beatrice Ranapiano

Beatrice Rana has earned international critical acclaim and attracted audiences worldwide after winning the Silver Medal and the Audience Award at the prestigious Van Cliburn competition in 2013. Two years earlier, when aged 18, she was awarded the First Prize as well as special prizes at the Montreal International Competition. She was recently announced as a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist (2015–17).

Beatrice has appeared in recital in major venues and festivals around the globe, including Tonhalle Zurich, Wigmore Hall in London, Kennedy Center in Washington DC, Portland Piano Festival, Lied Center of Kansas, Spivey Hall in Morrow, Società dei Concerti in Milan, Ferrara Musica and Vancouver Recital Society.

In the 2014/15 season, she made her debuts with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Detroit Symphony and performed with the Philadelphia Orchestra, RAI Symphony Orchestra and Accademia di Santa-Cecilia and Filarmonica della Scala in Milan. Among conductors Beatrice has collaborated with are Yannick Nézet-Seguin, Sir Antonio Pappano, Riccardo Chailly, Fabio Luisi, Leonard Slatkin, Fabien Gabel, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Susanna Mälkki, Trevor Pinnock and Zubin Mehta.

In 2014, Beatrice Rana was selected to perform at the International Music Festival of the Orpheum Foundation for advancement of Young Soloists at Zurich’s Tonhalle, with the Maggio Musicale Fiorentino conducted by Zubin Mehta.

Beatrice now records exclusively for Warner Classics and her debut album with Antonio Pappano and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, featuring Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 and

Beatrice Rana possesses an old soul that belies her 20 years, and more than a touch of genius.

Gramophone, January 2014

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Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto is due to be released this month. Previous recordings inlcudes her first CD with Chopin’s Preludes and Scriabin’s Sonata No. 3 which was released on ATMA Classique in 2012 to great international acclaim. A year later, harmonia mundi released a live recording of her performances of Schumann, Ravel and Bartók.

My approach to music is very personal and I found in music what I couldn’t find anywhere else, which is expressing myself without fear or without being intimidated. For me it’s very difficult to speak in front of people or do something else, but on stage I have no limits.beatrice Rana, taken from an intereview with Warner Classics

Born to a family of musicians Beatrice Rana made her debut as a soloist at the age of nine. She began her musical studies aged four and graduated under Benedetto Lupo at the Nino Rota Conservatory of Music in Monopoli where she also studied composition with Marco della Sciucca. Beatrice currently studies with Arie Vardi in Hannover, Germany.

@beatriceRana

hear beatrice perform prokofiev piano Concerto No. 2 again: lpo.uk/beatriceranappc2

beatriceranapiano.com


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Strange, sinister magic haunts both the Russian works in the first half of this concert. Anatoly Liadov’s incomplete From the Apocalypse conjures up the tremulous awe and fantastical imagery of the Biblical Book of Revelation, then just when it seems that a real ‘revelation’ is at hand, the music fades tantalisingly to nothingness. Some things, Liadov seems to say, are best left unspoken. As well as being ferociously demanding for the soloist, Prokofiev’s Second Concerto is one of his most wickedly provocative, devilishly dazzling scores. But at its heart is a more personal, dark utterance. The Concerto is dedicated to a brilliant but intensely depressive friend who killed himself whilst Prokofiev was writing the

score. The revised version, made ten years later, draws out the elegiac side of the work, most movingly in the finale, where at last the diabolical magician reveals his lyrical heart. Sibelius’s First Symphony also conveys an elegiac message, from its dreamlike opening clarinet solo to its grim, unmistakably tragic ending. But Sibelius refused to be drawn as to what kind of tragedy inspired the music. In any case, as an achievement the First Symphony is also a triumph: the first truly great Finnish symphony, undoubtedly speaking in the accents of Sibelius’s then-oppressed homeland. The radiant optimism of his Second Symphony, begun just two years later, is only just around the corner.

Speedread

From the Apocalypse Anatoly Liadov

1855–1914

‘A new talent has appeared in our midst, a genuine, thoroughly original, thoroughly Russian talent.' With these words the pioneering nationalist Modest Mussorgsky announced the arrival of the 18-year-old Anatoly Liadov on the St Petersburg musical stage. Fellow composers Cui and Borodin were equally impressed, as was the influential critic Vladimir Stasov. Before long even the initially dubious Tchaikovsky was won over. It all promised so well. But three decades later, as Liadov was approaching 50, another critic, Vyacheslav Karatyghin, noted sadly: ‘He has every conceivable gift: marvellous technique, originality, genuine poetic fancy, abundance of rare humour… and the most he gives us, year in year out, is about ten pages of music.’ Towards the end of his life, Liadov was approached by the impresario Serge Diaghilev to write the music for the Ballets Russes production

of The Firebird. But all too predictably the score failed to materialise, and Diaghilev turned instead to a young, then virtually unknown composer named Igor Stravinsky.

Liadov’s upbringing – or lack of it – was partly to blame. His mother died when he was very young, his father when he was 13. Even before then life was chaotic and unsupervised. As a student he was so erratic he was eventually expelled. Understandably, depression was a recurring problem: the world, Liadov wrote, was ‘tedious, disappointing, trying, purposeless, terrible’, and increasingly he sought escape in alcohol. Fortunately, a few musical gems did make it to completion – or, in the case of From the Apocalypse – near-completion. The nine minutes of music we have were composed during 1910–12. It seems Liadov genuinely intended to

Programme notes


If Prokofiev’s Second Piano Concerto has never been as popular as the First and Third, there is one very good reason: it is ferociously challenging for the pianist. ‘Disgracefully difficult and mercilessly tiring’ was Prokofiev’s own verdict, as he struggled to learn the piano part for the Petersburg premiere in 1913. Three of its four movements are energetic, intense, edge-of-the-seat fast movements, while the first movement’s relatively relaxed opening – a handful of notes thrown down by clarinets and muted pizzicato strings – turns out to be a kind of bluff. Very soon the piano is working long and hard, and at the heart of this movement comes a hair-raising passage for piano alone – not so much a cadenza as a central climax in which the piano is expected to outdo the orchestra in power and textural richness.

There is, however, far more to the Second Concerto’s ‘difficulty’ than athleticism. Much of this music shows Prokofiev at his most wickedly provocative, delighting in the kind of sinister magic that was to prove so unsettling in his opera The Fiery Angel, begun six years later. Few composers seem to have revelled in adversity as thoroughly as Prokofiev did, at least in his younger days. The St Petersburg Gazette reported the premiere like this:

‘A youth with the face of a high school student appears on the platform. It is Sergei Prokofiev. He seats himself at the piano and starts either wiping the keyboard or testing the keys. All this is done with a dry, sharp touch. The audience is bewildered. Some people are indignant. One couple

Programme notes continued

compose a final section, but death intervened, and so this brilliant, weirdly atmospheric fragment ends with a portentous drum-roll, eventually dying to nothing. The music vividly evokes the spirit and imagery of these lines from the Biblical Book of Revelation:

‘And I saw another mighty angel come down from heaven, clothed with a cloud: and a rainbow was upon his head, and his face was as it were the sun, and his feet as pillars of fire: And he has in his hand a little book open: and he set his right foot upon the sea, and his left foot on the earth, and cried with a loud voice, as when a lion roareth: and when he had cried, seven thunders uttered their voices.’

But what it is that the seven thunders utter – that is left tantalisingly unsaid.

piano Concerto No. 2 in g minor, Op. 16

beatrice Rana piano

1 Andantino2 Scherzo: Vivace3 Intermezzo: Allegro moderato4 Finale: Allegro tempestoso

Sergeiprokofiev

1891–1953

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works

Liadov: From the ApocalypseBBC Philharmonic | Vassily Sinaisky[Chandos]

prokofiev: piano Concerto No. 2Nikolai Demidenko | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Alexander Lazarev [Hyperion]

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet | BBC Philharmonic | Gianandrea Noseda [Chandos]

Sibelius: Symphony No. 1Vienna Philharmonic | Lorin Maazel [Decca]

Minnesota Orchestra | Osmo Vänskä [Bis]


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

gets up and moves towards the exit, exclaiming “Such music is enough to drive you mad”. More listeners follow the first couple. Prokofiev plays the second movement of his concerto. The more daring members of the audience stay to hiss.’

Prokofiev’s response was to play an encore!

At the same time, there is more to the Second Piano Concerto’s dark tone than devilish naughtiness. The Concerto is dedicated to the pianist Max Schmidthof, a very close friend of the composer. (In fact the composer’s first wife Lina wondered if they were more than just friends.) Schmidthof was wonderfully entertaining company, but also prone to deep depression. While Prokofiev was working on his Second Piano Concerto he learned that Schmidthof had killed himself, and shortly afterwards he received a farewell letter in Schmidthof’s hand, with what feeling we can only guess.

The real heart of the [Second Piano] Concerto lies in the fourth movement in my opinion, where the tragedy can be understood through the heart of Prokofiev.beatrice Rana

Many believe that the Second Piano Concerto is shadowed by this devastating loss, and that those shadows deepen in the familiar revised version of the score Prokofiev made in 1923–4 – perhaps not so much in the opening Andantino, despite the melancholy tinge of its opening piano melody, nor even in the tiny but manically articulate Scherzo that follows. But the sense of foreboding grows in the thuggish Intermezzo, and reaches its fruition in the beautiful and deeply serious tune that emerges from the Finale’s initial frenzy, and in the piano’s haunting funereal bell sounds later on. Prokofiev summons another display of wicked high spirits for the very ending, but the lasting impression is ambiguous, as though a mask had been temporarily dropped, and at the last minute hurriedly replaced.


Programme notes continued

When Sibelius’s First Symphony appeared in 1899, he was still in the process of freeing himself from the spell of late romanticism. He may have put Wagner firmly behind him, but the allure of Tchaikovsky was harder to resist: ‘There is much in that man that I recognise in myself’, he wrote to Aino that same year. For all his close involvement in his native Finland’s attempts to break free from Russian political domination, music was another matter. Tchaikovskian touches aren’t hard to find in Sibelius’s First: the sumptuous, languishing major-minor tune that opens the slow movement strongly recalls Tchaikovsky’s 'Pathétique' Symphony, that Sibelius had heard twice in Helsinki since its Russian premiere in 1893 – as does the First Symphony’s tragic ending, firmly in the dark minor key.

And yet, despite these clear resemblances, what is most striking about the First Symphony is how much Sibelius is already his own man. Now there is no literary programme to ‘explain’ the form and character: the musical argument must convince on its own terms. His decision to wait until his 30s before tackling his official ‘Symphony No. 1’ is fully justified: although there are elements that invite interpretation – perhaps even hints of some underlying ‘storyline’ – the drama convinces ultimately as music, leaving the listener’s imagination free to dream for him- or herself. The very opening is like nothing else in the 19th-century symphonic repertoire: a quiet drum-roll introduces a long-breathed, mournful, quasi-improvisatory melody on solo clarinet – for many Finns this is strongly evocative of ancient folk-lament. The clarinet finishes its meditation alone, as if lost in thought; then a high violin tremolando announces a striking new motif, echoed by high low strings. This builds to a rock-like climax, with the original string motif now hammered out by brass and timpani.

The second theme is expertly contrasted: shimmering strings and harp forming a magical haze around delicate, elfin woodwind phrases. The opposition of these two very different elements develops in a gripping musical drama, culminating in another granite-like brassy fortissimo, then a huge crescendo drum-roll is brusquely truncated by two E minor chords from pizzicato strings and harp.

The slower second movement also exploits the contrast between two themes: the ‘languishing’ Tchaikovskian tune mentioned above, and a more resolute chordal tune introduced by woodwind and horns. Soon we are in territory that could only be Sibelius: the bare woodwind writing for woodwind alone, the eerie passage for flutes, oboes, timpani and solo cello that follows the first big climax, the rising and falling string figures recalling wind in the tree-tops, or perhaps waves on a storm-tossed sea, look forward to the elemental drama of the tone poem Oceanides or the icy forestscape of his last masterpiece, Tapiola. At last the Tchaikovsky-like tune returns, but in mid-phrase, bringing a kind of uneasy repose.

Pulsating pizzicato string chords and a sharply rhythmic motif for timpani launch the pounding dance of the Scherzo. Here the debt is more to Bruckner than Tchaikovsky, though the modal flavouring of the music and the orchestral colours are unmistakably Nordic. Again Sibelius provides strong dramatic contrast in the slower and quieter Trio section, introduced by a plangent motif from horns, tuba, bassoons and cello. But soon the elemental dance returns still more powerfully, this time building to a characteristically brusque conclusion. Sibelius marks his Finale ‘Quasi una Fantasia’ (‘Like a fantasy’) – a direct comparison

JeanSibelius

1865–1957

Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39

1 Andante ma non troppo – Allegro energico 2 Andante (ma non troppo lento) 3 Scherzo: Allegro – Lento (ma non troppo) – Tempo I 4 Finale (Quasi una Fantasia): Andante – Allegro molto


with Beethoven’s two Op. 27 piano sonatas (including the famous 'Moonlight'), which both treat conventional forms with unusual freedom. But Sibelius was surely also thinking of Tchaikovsky’s ‘Fantasy Overture’ Romeo and Juliet, and the still more tragic ‘Symphonic Fantasy’ Francesca da Rimini. The Finale’s ardent opening theme for strings is in fact another version of the long clarinet melody that began the first movement, and the sense

of the Symphony coming full circle is underlined by the ending. The ardent second theme builds to a huge climax, then a massive drum-roll fades into two pizzicato string chords of E minor, echoing and intensifying the end of the first movement, now even more final.

Programme notes © Stephen Johnson

Friday 4 December 2015 | 7.30pmJTI FRIDAY SERIES

puccini Tosca (excerpts) Rota Suite, La Strada Respighi Pines of Rome

Enrique Mazzola conductor Maria Luigia borsi Tosca Thiago Arancam Cavaradossi Vittorio Vitelli Scarpia

pLAYINg ThE bARD

In collaboration with some of London’s leading cultural, creative and educational institutions, the London Philharmonic Orchestra joins Shakespeare400 with a series of concerts in 2016

celebrating the Bard’s love of music, culminating in an Anniversary Gala Concert directed by Simon Callow on 23 April. Join the LPO at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and dive into a musical world born of the words of the legendary William Shakespeare.

FIND OUT MORE: LpO AND ShAKESpEARE400 lpo.org.uk/shakespeare

Wednesday 9 December 2015 | 7.30pm

Wagenaar Overture, Cyrano de BergeracMagnus Lindberg Violin Concerto No. 2 (world premiere)* beethoven Symphony No. 7

Jaap van Zweden conductor Frank peter Zimmermann violin

*Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the generous support of Victoria Robey OBE, Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Radio France and New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert, Music Director

Our last concerts of 2015 at Royal Festival Hall 2016 Highlight

Tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65)

London philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office: 020 7840 4242 Monday–Friday 10.00am–5.00pm | lpo.org.uk Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone.


Sound FutureS donorS

We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to our Sound Futures campaign. Thanks to their support, we successfully raised £1 million by 30 April 2015 which has now been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. This has enabled us to create a £2 million endowment fund supporting special artistic projects, creative programming and education work with key venue partners including our Southbank Centre home. Supporters listed below donated £500 or over. For a full list of those who have given to this campaign please visit lpo.org.uk/soundfutures.

Masur CircleArts Council EnglandDunard FundVictoria Robey OBEEmmanuel & Barrie RomanThe Underwood Trust

Welser-Möst CircleWilliam & Alex de Winton John Ireland Charitable TrustThe Tsukanov Family FoundationNeil Westreich

Tennstedt CircleValentina & Dmitry Aksenov Richard BuxtonThe Candide TrustMichael & Elena KroupeevKirby Laing FoundationMr & Mrs MakharinskyAlexey & Anastasia ReznikovichSimon RobeyBianca & Stuart RodenSimon & Vero TurnerThe late Mr K Twyman

Solti patronsAgeas John & Manon AntoniazziGabor Beyer, through BTO

Management Consulting AGJon ClaydonMrs Mina Goodman & Miss

Suzanne GoodmanRoddy & April GowThe Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris

Charitable Trust Mr James R.D. KornerChristoph Ladanyi & Dr Sophia

Ladanyi-CzerninRobert Markwick & Kasia RobinskiThe Maurice Marks Charitable TrustMr Paris Natar

The Rothschild FoundationTom & Phillis SharpeThe Viney Family

haitink patronsMark & Elizabeth AdamsDr Christopher AldrenMrs Pauline BaumgartnerLady Jane BerrillMr Frederick BrittendenDavid & Yi Yao BuckleyMr Clive ButlerGill & Garf CollinsMr John H CookMr Alistair CorbettBruno de KegelGeorgy DjaparidzeDavid EllenChristopher Fraser OBE & Lisa FraserDavid & Victoria Graham FullerGoldman Sachs InternationalMr Gavin GrahamMoya GreeneMrs Dorothy HambletonTony & Susie HayesMalcolm HerringCatherine Høgel & Ben MardleMrs Philip KanRehmet Kassim-Lakha de MorixeRose & Dudley LeighLady Roslyn Marion LyonsMiss Jeanette MartinDuncan Matthews QCDiana & Allan Morgenthau

Charitable TrustDr Karen MortonMr Roger PhillimoreRuth RattenburyThe Reed FoundationThe Rind FoundationSir Bernard RixDavid Ross & Line Forestier (Canada)

Carolina & Martin SchwabDr Brian SmithLady Valerie SoltiMr & Mrs G SteinDr Peter StephensonMiss Anne StoddartTFS Loans LimitedLady Marina Vaizey Jenny WatsonGuy & Utti Whittaker

pritchard DonorsRalph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Mrs Arlene BeareMr Patrick & Mrs Joan BennerMr Conrad BlakeyDr Anthony BucklandPaul CollinsAlastair CrawfordMr Derek B. GrayMr Roger GreenwoodThe HA.SH FoundationDarren & Jennifer Holmes Honeymead Arts TrustMr Geoffrey KirkhamDrs Frank & Gek LimPeter MaceMr & Mrs David MalpasDr David McGibneyMichael & Patricia McLaren-TurnerMr & Mrs Andrew NeillMr Christopher QuereeThe Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer

Charitable TrustTimothy Walker AMChristopher WilliamsPeter Wilson SmithMr Anthony Yolland

And all other donors who wish to remain anonymous


We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas beecham group patrons, principal benefactors and benefactors:

Thomas beecham group

The Tsukanov Family Foundation

Neil Westreich

William and Alex de Winton Mrs Philip Kan* Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBE Bianca & Stuart Roden Laurence Watt

Anonymous Jon Claydon Garf & Gill Collins* Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds* Eric Tomsett The Viney Family

John & Manon Antoniazzi Jane Attias John & Angela Kessler Guy & Utti Whittaker

* BrightSparks Patrons: instead of supporting a chair in the Orchestra, these donors have chosen to support our series of schools’ concerts.

principal benefactorsMark & Elizabeth AdamsDavid & Yi Yao BuckleyDesmond & Ruth CecilMr John H CookMr Bruno de KegelDavid EllenMr Daniel GoldsteinDrs Frank & Gek LimPeter MacDonald EggersDr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry SciardMr & Mrs David MalpasMr & Mrs G SteinMr & Mrs John C TuckerMr & Mrs John & Susi UnderwoodLady Marina VaizeyGrenville & Krysia WilliamsMr Anthony Yolland

benefactorsMr Geoffrey BatemanMrs A BeareMs Molly BorthwickDavid & Patricia BuckMrs Alan CarringtonMr & Mrs Stewart CohenMr Alistair CorbettMr Timothy Fancourt QCMr Richard FernyhoughMr Gavin GrahamWim and Jackie Hautekiet-ClareTony & Susan HayesMr Daniel Heaf and Ms Amanda HillMichael & Christine HenryMalcolm Herring

J. Douglas HomeIvan HurryMr Glenn HurstfieldPer JonssonMr Gerald LevinWg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAFPaul & Brigitta LockMr Peter MaceMs Ulrike ManselMr Robert Markwick and Ms Kasia Robinski Mr Brian MarshAndrew T MillsDr Karen MortonMr & Mrs Andrew NeillMr Michael PosenAlexey & Anastasia ReznikovichMr Konstantin SorokinMartin and Cheryl SouthgateMr Peter TausigSimon and Charlotte WarshawHoward & Sheelagh WatsonDes & Maggie WhitelockChristopher WilliamsBill Yoeand others who wish to remainanonymous

hon. benefactorElliott Bernerd

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

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

Corporate Members

Silver: Accenture BerenbergCarter-Ruck We are AD

bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLPBTO Management Consulting AGCharles Russell SpeechlysLazardLeventis Overseas

preferred partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria

In-kind SponsorsGoogle Inc

Trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation The Bernarr Rainbow Trust The Boltini TrustBorletti-Buitoni TrustThe Candide Trust Cockayne – Grants for the Arts The D’Oyly Carte Charitable TrustDunard FundThe Equitable Charitable Trust The Foyle FoundationLucille Graham TrustThe Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris

Charitable TrustHelp Musicians UK The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The Leche Trust The London Community Foundation London Stock Exchange Group FoundationLord and Lady Lurgan Trust Marsh Christian TrustAdam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust

The Ann and Frederick O’BrienCharitable Trust

Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs ofthe Embassy of Spain in London

The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust The Stanley Picker Trust The Radcliffe TrustRivers Foundation The R K Charitable TrustRVW TrustSerge Rachmaninoff Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter Charitable Trust The John Thaw FoundationThe Tillett Trust UK Friends of the Felix-Mendelssohn-

Bartholdy-Foundation The Viney FamilyGarfield Weston FoundationThe Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust

and all others who wish to remain anonymous


Administration

board of DirectorsVictoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-PresidentDr Manon Antoniazzi Roger BarronRichard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Amanda Hill Dr Catherine C. Høgel Rachel Masters* George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Natasha Tsukanova Mark Vines*Timothy Walker AM Laurence WattNeil Westreich David Whitehouse** Player-Director

Advisory CouncilVictoria Robey OBE Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson William de Winton Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Sir Bernard Rix Baroness ShackletonLord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Thomas Sharpe QC Julian Simmonds Martin SouthgateSir Philip Thomas Sir John TooleyChris VineyTimothy Walker AMElizabeth Winter

American Friends of the London philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.Jenny Ireland Co-ChairmanWilliam A. Kerr Co-ChairmanKyung-Wha ChungAlexandra JupinJill Fine MainelliKristina McPhee Harvey M. Spear, Esq.Danny Lopez Hon. ChairmanNoel Kilkenny Hon. DirectorVictoria Robey OBE Hon. DirectorRichard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA,EisnerAmper LLP

Stephanie Yoshida

Chief Executive

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Amy SugarmanPA to the Chief Executive / Administrative Assistant

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager and Finance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager

Dayse GuilhermeFinance Officer

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 CotterTours Co-ordinator Orchestra personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah Holmes Sarah ThomasLibrarians ( job-share)

Christopher AldertonStage Manager

Damian Davis Transport Manager

Madeleine Ridout Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Education and Community

Isabella Kernot Education Director (maternity leave)

Clare Lovett Education Director (maternity cover)

Talia LashEducation and Community Project Manager

Lucy DuffyEducation and Community Project Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Catherine Faulkner Development Events Manager

Kathryn HagemanIndividual Giving Manager

Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations Manager

Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager

Rebecca FoggDevelopment Co-ordinator

Helen Yang Development Assistant

Kirstin PeltonenDevelopment Associate

Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Libby Northcote-GreenMarketing Manager

Rachel WilliamsPublications Manager (maternity leave)

Sarah BreedenPublications Manager (maternity cover)

Samantha CleverleyBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Anna O’ConnorMarketing Co-ordinator

Natasha Berg Marketing Intern

Digital projects

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Director

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant public Relations

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930) Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive professional Services

Charles Russell SpeechlysSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

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

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

Composer photographs courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Front cover photograph: Katalin Varnagy, First Violin © Benjamin Ealovega. Cover design/ art direction: Ross Shaw @ JMG Studio.

Printed by Cantate.

London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 27 November 2015

Documents

Transcript of London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 27 November 2015