London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 12 Nov 2014 by London Philharmonic Orchestra

Concert programme lpo.org.uk

Winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation Leader pieter schoeman supported by Neil Westreich Composer in Residence magnus lindberg Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Wednesday 12 November 2014 | 7.30pm

Pierné Overture and Suite, Ramuntcho* (23’) Poulenc Concerto for two pianos and orchestra (19’) Interval Ravel Rapsodie espagnole (15’) Debussy La mer (23’)

Contents 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 12 13 14 15 16

Welcome LPO 2014/15 season On stage tonight About the Orchestra Leader: Pieter Schoeman Juanjo Mena Katia and Marielle Labèque Programme notes Recommended recordings Next concerts Supporters Sound Futures donors LPO administration

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

Juanjo Mena conductor Katia Labèque piano Marielle Labèque piano

* Supported by

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE 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 customer@southbankcentre.co.uk

London Philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season Welcome to tonight’s London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. Whether you’re a regular concert-goer, new to the Orchestra or just visiting London, we hope you enjoy your evening with us. Browse the full season online at lpo.org.uk/performances or call 020 7840 4242 to request a copy of our 2014/15 brochure. Highlights of the season include: •

A year-long festival, Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, exploring the composer’s major orchestral masterpieces including all the symphonies and piano concertos, alongside some of his lesserknown works.

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Appearances by today’s most sought-after artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati.

•

Yannick Nézet-Séguin presents masterpieces by three great composers from the Austro-German tradition: Brahms, Schubert and Richard Strauss.

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The UK premiere of Harrison Birtwistle’s piano concerto Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless, performed by Pierre-Laurent Aimard.

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Soprano Barbara Hannigan joins Vladimir Jurowski and the Orchestra for a world premiere from our new Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg.

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Premieres too of a Violin Concerto by former Composer in Residence Julian Anderson, a children’s work, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Colin Matthews, and a new piece for four horns by Titanic composer James Horner.

•

Choral highlights with the London Philharmonic Choir include Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles, Verdi’s Requiem, Rachmaninoff’s Spring and The Bells, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass.

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.

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On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by an anonymous donor

Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Martin Höhmann Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Alina Petrenko Galina Tanney Robin Wilson Ishani Bhoola Elizabeth Pigram Second Violins Philippe Honoré Guest Principal Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Ashley Stevens Dean Williamson Alison Strange Elizabeth Baldey John Dickinson Stephen Stewart Nilufar Alimaksumova Jamie Hutchinson

Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt Isabel Pereira Daniel Cornford Sarah Malcolm Martin Fenn Cellos Kristaps Bergs Guest Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† David Lale Elisabeth Wiklander Sue Sutherley Tom Roff Sybille Hentschel Philip Taylor Double Basses Tim Gibbs Principal William Cole George Peniston Tom Walley Helen Rowlands Lowri Morgan Catherine Ricketts Charlotte Kerbegian Flutes Alja Velkaverh Guest Principal Sue Thomas* Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Piccolos Stewart McIlwham* Principal Julia Crowell Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Jenny Brittlebank Cor Anglais Sue Böhling Principal Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Thomas Watmough Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal Bassoons Jos Lammerse Guest Principal Gareth Newman Laura Vincent Contrabassoon Luke Whitehead Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Trumpets Nicholas Betts Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Daniel Newell David Geoghegan

Cornets Daniel Newell John MacDomnic Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Mike Tetreault Keith Millar Sarah Mason Martin Owens Barnaby Archer Harps Rachel Masters* Principal Stephanie Beck Celeste Catherine Edwards * Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Sonja Drexler | Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Full marks to the London Philharmonic for continuing to offer the most adventurous concerts in London. The Financial Times, 14 April 2014 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 ensembles in the UK. 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. From September 2015 Andrés Orozco-Estrada will take up the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence. The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since the Hall’s opening in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 30 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and

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soloists. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra collaborated with Southbank Centre on the year-long The Rest Is Noise festival, charting the influential works of the 20th century. 2014/15 highlights include a seasonlong festival, Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, exploring the composer’s major orchestral masterpieces; premieres of works by Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, Colin Matthews, James Horner and the Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence, Magnus Lindberg; and appearances by many of today’s most soughtafter artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati. Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer it 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 Western orchestra.

Pieter Schoeman leader

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

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 organ works by Poulenc and Saint-Saëns with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Strauss’s Don Juan and Ein Heldenleben with Bernard Haitink; Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 6 & 14 and Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy with Vladimir Jurowski; and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Hans Graf. 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.

Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2014/15 season include appearances across Europe (including Iceland) and tours to the USA (West and East Coasts), Canada and China.

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.

Find out more and get involved! lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra youtube.com/londonphilharmonic7

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. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

Juanjo Mena conductor

Mena loves to put a singing quality into phrases, to find little bends and breaths within a tempo, to make as big an effort for delicious pianissimos as for thunderous explosions. Baltimore Sun

Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic in Manchester, Juanjo Mena is one of Spain’s most distinguished international conductors. He has been Artistic Director of the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra, Chief Guest Conductor of the Orchestra del Teatro Carlo Felice in Genoa and Principal Guest Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with many other prestigious orchestras such as the Orchestre National de France; the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala (Milan); the Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI (Turin); the Münchner Rundfunkorchester; the Dresden Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Netherlands Radio Philharmonic orchestras; and the Danish National and Gothenburg symphony orchestras. Tonight is Juanjo Mena’s first concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This season he also makes his debut with the Nash Ensemble of London, as well as giving concerts in Europe with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National de France, the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orquesta Nacional de España and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra. Following his recent concerts with the symphony orchestras of Los Angeles, Boston, St Louis, Cincinnati and Toronto, Juanjo Mena’s busy North American 2014/15 season includes return visits to Los Angeles, Boston, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, as well as debuts with the New York Philharmonic, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Montreal Symphony Orchestra.

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A guest of international festivals, Mena has appeared at the Stars of the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, the Hollywood Bowl, Grant Park (Chicago), Tanglewood, and La Folle Journée (Nantes). He recently led the BBC Philharmonic on two tours of Europe and Spain including performances in Cologne, Frankfurt, Munich, Vienna and Madrid, and performs with them every year at the BBC Proms in London. His operatic work includes The Flying Dutchman, Salome, Elektra, Ariadne auf Naxos, Duke Bluebeard’s Castle and Erwartung, and productions including Eugene Onegin in Genoa, The Marriage of Figaro in Lausanne and Billy Budd in Bilbao. Mena has made several recordings with the BBC Philharmonic, including a disc of works by de Falla, which was a BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month; Pierné, which was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice; and recent releases of music by Montsalvatge, Weber and Turina, which have also received excellent reviews from the music press. He has also recorded a collection of Basque symphonic music with the Bilbao Symphony Orchestra for Naxos, and a critically acclaimed rendering of Messiaen’s Turangalîla Symphony for Hyperion with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra. His Messiaen interpretation is said to ‘utterly redefine the terms under which past/current/future Turangalîlas need to be judged’. (Gramophone, October 2012). juanjomena.com/en

Katia and Marielle Labèque pianos

The best piano duet in front of an audience today.

New York Times

Katia and Marielle Labèque are sibling pianists renowned for their synchronicity and energy. Daughters of Ada Cecchi (who was, herself, a pupil of Marguerite Long), Katia and Marielle had a childhood filled with music. Their musical ambitions started at an early age and they rose to international fame with their contemporary rendition of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (one of the first gold records in classical music), and have since developed a stunning career with performances worldwide.

The Labèques have played at renowned venues worldwide including the Vienna Musikverein, Hamburg Musikhalle, Munich Philharmonie, Carnegie Hall, La Scala, Berlin Philharmonie, Hollywood Bowl, and at the Blossom, Lucerne, Ludwigsburg, Mostly Mozart, BBC Proms, Ravinia, Ruhr, Tanglewood and Salzburg festivals. In 2005 a record audience of more than 33,000 attended a gala concert with the Berlin Philharmonic conducted by Sir Simon Rattle at Berlin’s Waldbühne, now available on DVD on the Medici label.

They are regular guests with the most prestigious orchestras such as the Berlin Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, Leipzig Gewandhaus, London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Filarmonia della Scala, Philadelphia Orchestra, Dresden Staatskapelle and Vienna Philharmonic, under the direction of Semyon Bychkov, Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Miguel Harth-Bedoya, Kristjan Järvi, Zubin Mehta, Seiji Ozawa, Sir Antonio Pappano, Georges Prêtre, Sir Simon Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas and the late Sir Colin Davis.

Katia and Marielle recently released a new recording of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue and Bernstein’s West Side Story on their own label, KML Recordings. They have also launched the KML Foundation, which aims to further research and develop awareness of the duo piano repertoire through meetings between artists from various fields. 2014 highlights have included the release of a documentary, The Labèque Way, produced by El Deseo (Pedro Almodóvar) and filmed by Félix Cábez.

The sisters have also appeared with Baroque music ensembles such as the English Baroque Soloists with Sir John Eliot Gardiner, Il Giardino Armonico with Giovanni Antonini, Musica Antica with Reinhard Goebel and Venice Baroque with Andrea Marcon, and recently toured with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Sir Simon Rattle. Katia and Marielle have also had the privilege of working with composers including Louis Andriessen, Luciano Berio, Pierre Boulez, Philippe Boesmans, Osvaldo Golijov, György Ligeti and Olivier Messiaen.

labeque.com twitter.com/KMLabeque facebook.com/labeque.official

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Programme notes

Speedread Compositional success in 19th-century France was often determined by whether or not a particular individual had won the prestigious composition prize, the Prix de Rome. Debussy won it in 1884; Ravel entered five times but never got anywhere. In 1882, a teenager named Gabriel Pierné threw his hat into the ring and triumphed, earning himself a year of study in the Italian capital in the process. Pierné’s music is a relative rarity these days but his atmospheric score for the play Ramuntcho neatly displays both the delicacy and individuality of his craft. It was an undeniably conservative one, however, especially when viewed against the upheavals of Claude Debussy. Debussy’s superimposition of short, fragmentary musical ideas to achieve shifting, shimmering textures of light and colour reached its apex in La mer. The technique saw Debussy cited as the musical voice of the Impressionist movement, and recognised as the first Western composer

Gabriel Pierné 1863–1937

As his life progressed, Gabriel Pierné became better known as a conductor than a composer, which in part explains the relative scarcity of his music now. But he was a renowned talent in his day, mourned alongside Ravel and Roussel in 1937 (the year all three died) and known as the natural heir to Massenet in his grace and delicacy – even if he matched that elegance with the orchestral panache of Saint-Saëns. In 1908 Pierné was commissioned to write incidental music for a stage adaptation of Pierre Loti’s 1897

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to abandon traditional harmonic and thematic principles. In between, we hear from composers who were rather less concerned with changing the musical landscape of Europe despite their innovative credentials. Perhaps it was Maurice Ravel’s preoccupation with beauty and texture – with small details that might have seemed irrelevant to some laid over relatively traditional structures – that saw him overlooked for the Prix de Rome. Ravel was his own man, one born in the Basque region (as depicted by Pierné in Ramuntcho) whose preoccupation with Spanish culture spawned countless gems including the Rapsodie espagnole. Before that piece we hear another sparkling musical celebration. Where the great Romantic concertos spoke of the pain of love and life, the concerto for two pianos by Francis Poulenc seemed simply to express the joy and liberty of playing music, or just experiencing it being played.

Piano Overture Concerto and No. Suite, 3 in Ramuntcho D minor, Op. 30 1 Overture Simon Trpčeski piano 2 Le Jardin de Gracieuse 1 3 Fandango Allegro ma non tanto Rapsodie Basque 2 4 Intermezzo: Adagio – 3 Finale: Alla breve

novel Ramuntcho, a story set in the Basque region of France and soaked in its distinctive scenery a singular combination of languor, passionate romance and religious fervour. Pierné’s music captures those characteristics uncannily, as well as the humble tragedy of the story. It concerns the young hero Ramuntcho, who returns to his village after serving in the army to discover that his betrothed Gracieuse has been enrolled in a convent. She, challenged by the Mother Superior to choose between God and her lover, is overwhelmed by her predicament and drops dead.

In 1910, Pierné fashioned two suites from the music he wrote for the play and tonight Juanjo Mena conducts movements from both. The Overture launches with a traditional Basque ‘Zortzico’ dance with its distinctive five-in-a-bar time signature before moving into Gracieuse’s garden (‘Le Jardin de Gracieuse’), the idyllic mood established by two flutes. There follows a

Fandango depicting the village dances at which the pair met (piccolos and a drum depict the ‘pipe and tabor’ bands of the Basque region) and finally, from the second of Pierné’s suites, a rhapsody on Basque tunes that takes in another Zortzico (this one heralded by a piccolo) before ending with the unofficial Basque anthem, ‘Gernikako arbola’.

Francis Poulenc

Concerto for Two Pianos and Orchestra

1899–1963

Katia Labèque piano Marielle Labèque piano 1 Allegro ma non troppo 2 Larghetto 3 Finale: Allegro molto

Francis Poulenc was seen by many as the clown of the French music scene, a figure unlikely to further the art of composing whose works told of an aloof, unworldly joy and childish mischief. Someone who did recognise Poulenc’s remarkable individuality and poignancy as a composer was Princesse Edmond de Polignac (aka Winaretta Singer, heiress to the sewing machine empire). She commissioned a string of works from the most respected Parisian composers of the early 20th century (Stravinsky, Fauré, Falla and Satie) and in August 1931 she turned to Poulenc.

In an age of intellectualisation and over-complication, here was a piece that dared to be conventional and simplistic. Underneath all its enthusiasm and playfulness were the clarity and refinement of Mozart and Chopin; Poulenc added to that his mischievous peasant humour and shades of the neo-Classicism of Stravinsky and Satie. But the most prominent figure behind the notes is the smiling Poulenc himself. Where the great Romantic concertos spoke of the pain of love and life, this one seemed simply to express the joy and liberty of playing music.

The princess apparently saw beyond Poulenc’s outer gaiety and fixed smile into his romantic core often concealed by frigidity and irony (in both a personal and musical sense). She asked the composer to write a concerto for two pianos ‘in order to have it carry more weight’. Two and a half months after starting work on the Concerto in the summer of 1932, Poulenc had finished it. A performance followed on 5 September in Venice, with Jacques Février joining the composer as a soloist and the orchestra of La Scala behind them. A performance in Paris followed on 21 March 1933. The Concerto was a hit with those first two audiences.

That begins in the opening Allegro, full of diverse musical ideas and sprinkled with geographical influences including the Iberian and the Far Eastern. The more exotic sounds towards the end of the movement were inspired by the Balinese music Poulenc had heard in Paris in 1931. The Larghetto that follows is usually spoken of as Poulenc paying homage to Mozart, with its clean, singing melodic line (there’s also a quote from Mozart’s ‘Coronation’ piano concerto). The finale is full of fantasy, a fast ride through another contagious assortment of stylistic references that has all the spontaneity of an improvisation.

Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes continued

Maurice Ravel 1875–1937

Maurice Ravel was born in the Basque region depicted in Pierné’s Ramuntcho, albeit the French part. Many French composers of the 20th century reached for the exotic-sounding harmonies and rhythms of Spain as a means of expanding their musical language, but for Ravel the Iberian obsession was rather more umbilical. His mother was Spanish, and the composer Manuel de Falla once commented that Ravel ‘learned Spanishness … in an idealised form from her’. That influence would saturate the whole of Ravel’s composing career but was first realised in a piano duet of 1895, Habanera. Ravel’s fascination with the art of instrumentation prompted him to transform many of his piano works with orchestral clothing, and when he came to write his Rapsodie espagnole in 1907, he used an orchestrated version of that piano work as the basis of his third movement. By that time Ravel was becoming known for his brilliance as an orchestral colourist and for his ability to capture specific moods through his choice of harmonies and instrumental timbres. He combined that with a radical new interpretation of the established classical ‘forms’: while Debussy’s music grew organically, Ravel’s often laid his discreetly sumptuous musical textures over established sonata or dance forms (from the Baroque or from folk music). The central movements of the Rapsodie are good examples. The ‘Malagueña’ is a fandango-like dance (including cellos masquerading as guitars) from the Malaga province contrasted in the movement of that name by a lolling cor anglais solo; the following ‘Habanera’ evokes that famous folk dance with its insistent repetitions of an underpinning pedal note but delicious and fastidious orchestrations above it. Either side, Ravel conjures a scented, nocturnal atmosphere

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Piano Rapsodie Concerto espagnole No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 1 Prélude a la nuit: Très modéré Simon Trpčeski piano 2 Malagueña: Assez vif Habanera: Asses lent e d’un rythme las 1 3 Allegro ma non tanto Feria: Assez animé– 2 4 Intermezzo: Adagio 3 Finale: Alla breve

in the Prélude, which introduces an arching theme that will recur in the later movements including the finale, ‘Feria’. Here the music soon gathers strength after its delicate opening towards a blazing festive climax and a plunge into the brightness of C major.

Ravel on the LPO Label

Ravel Daphnis et Chloé Bernard Haitink conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra John Alldis Choir LPO-0059 | £9.99

‘An ‘on the wing’ performance, finely honed, played with sensitivity and virtuosity ... a compelling realisation of a great score that well repays interest.’ Colin Anderson, Classical Source

Available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242), the Royal Festival Hall shop and all good CD outlets. Available to download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and others.

Claude Debussy 1862–1918

Claude Debussy’s re-imagining of musical purpose and orchestral potential came to the fore in his 1893 depiction of a woodland faun’s erotic fantasies, the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. In Debussy’s eyes, Romanticism had been wrung for everything it was worth by a succession of composers from Beethoven to Wagner – from the former’s compelling command to the sonic ecstasy of the latter’s never-resolving harmonies. In the musical ‘Impressionism’ of the Prélude (the composer disliked the term, but it’s useful to an extent), Debussy discovered an orchestral language of implication. Impressionist painters had used short, built-up brush strokes and multiple colours in creating the visual equivalent – leaving explicit details to the imagination of the observer while conjuring a new sense of light and movement. Debussy’s orchestra, too, became a medium of exotic beauty and colour; through his move away from traditional harmonic ‘preparation’ and ‘resolution’, his superimposition of short motifs and his emphasis on passing, shifting textures, Debussy created a language of suggestion – of free thought and mood evocation rather than narrative angst and forthright explanation. Fast forward 12 years, and Debussy was working on the major orchestral work that is often seen as the Prélude’s sister: La mer (The Sea). By this time, though, fate was dealing the composer a rather different hand to the carefree but determined ambition he’d experienced when writing the Prélude. The composer had walked away from his life – leaving his wife for Emma Bardac, the wife of a wealthy banker, and abandoning the family home in Paris. In so doing he lost almost all of his friends. He travelled to England in search of emotional respite, and it was in an Eastbourne hotel, overlooking the English Channel, that he put the finishing touches to La mer.

Piano La merConcerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 1 De l’aube à midi sur la mer (From Dawn to Noon on Simon Trpčeski piano the Sea) 2 Allegro Jeux de ma vagues 1 non(Play tantoof Waves) 3 Intermezzo: Dialogue du Adagio vent et –de la mer (Dialogue between the 2 Finale: Wind and Sea) 3 Allathe breve

When La mer was first performed in Paris on 15 October 1905 it slightly wrong-footed both the paying audience and the critics who were mapping the composer’s style. From the title of the piece – and those of its three movements – many expected a straightforwardly evocative ‘sea’ piece in the vein of the Grotto Scene from Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande or ‘Sirènes’ from his Nocturnes. What they got wasn’t a programmatic tone poem but rather a full advancing of the musical principles suggested by the Prélude; the three ‘symphonic sketches’ contain a series of complex episodes and superimposed patterns that encompass a huge descriptive range. The focus, even more than before, is on texture: ‘From Dawn to Noon on the Sea’ sees instruments suggesting a collage of fragmentary ideas but the orchestra as a whole moving together tidally through visions of the sea at different times of day (‘I particularly liked the bit at quarter to eleven’ proffered the biting wit of Erik Satie). While beautiful fragmentary ideas emerge from the horn and oboe (among others) in ‘Play of Waves’, the movement is one of rhythmic irregularity without much in the way of standard harmonic progression or melodic line. Perhaps the most Impressionistic movement of the three, this world of surface spray and isolated happenings is notably evocative of the seascapes of the Impressionist painters. In the wild, elemental and mysterious exchanges of the ‘Dialogue between the Wind and the Sea’ (this title itself could be a Turner homage), a soaring melodic idea tries to break from the surface, but is drowned by the power of the colliding elements and a final oceanic surge from the orchestra – a forthright break for freedom from Debussy, perhaps, against the waves of criticism levied at him over the Emma Bardac affair. Programme notes © Andrew Mellor

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Recommended recordings

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works

Mini film guides to this season’s works

Poulenc: Concerto for two pianos and orchestra François-René Duchable/ Jean-Philippe Collard/ Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra/James Conlon [Warner]

For the 2014/15 season we’ve produced a series of short films introducing the pieces we’re performing. Watch Patrick Bailey introduce Debussy’s La mer: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html

Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole Orchestre de Paris/Herbert von Karajan [EMI] Debussy: La mer Berlin Philharmonic/Herbert von Karajan [Deutsche Grammophon]

PALAZZETTO BRU ZANE The vocation of the Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française is to favour the rediscovery of the French musical heritage of the years 1780-1920 and obtain international recognition for that repertoire. Housed in Venice in a palazzo dating from 1695, specially restored for the purpose, the Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française is one of the achievements of the Fondation Bru. Combining artistic ambition with high scientific standards, the Centre reflects the humanist spirit that guides the actions of that foundation. The Palazzetto Bru Zane’s main activities, carried out in close collaboration with numerous partners, are research, the publication of books and scores, the organisation and international distribution of concerts, support for teaching projects and the production of CD recordings. BRU-ZANE.COM

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 19 November 2014 | 7.30pm

Saturday 6 December 2014 | 7.30pm

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 Schubert Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished) R Strauss Don Juan

Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920 version) Harrison Birtwistle Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless, for piano and orchestra (UK premiere)† Messiaen Oiseaux exotiques Stravinsky Orpheus

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Lars Vogt piano

Friday 28 November 2014 | 7.30pm JTI Friday Series Rachmaninoff: Inside Out* Wagner Overture, Tannhäuser Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 David Zinman conductor Behzod Abduraimov piano Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Acclaimed film director Tony Palmer discusses the enduring popularity of Rachmaninoff’s music.

Wednesday 3 December 2014 | 7.30pm Rachmaninoff: Inside Out*

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano Free pre-concert event 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall LPO Soundworks, a collaborative arts project for young people, presents a performance of new music and dance. † Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk Musica Viva, Casa da Musica Porto, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and PRS for Music Foundation.

Wednesday 21 January 2015 | 7.30pm Rachmaninoff: Inside Out* Wagner Das Rheingold (excerpts) Rachmaninoff The Miserly Knight (semi-staged; sung in Russian with English surtitles)

Szymanowski Concert Overture† Scriabin Piano Concerto Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Annabel Arden director Lucy Carter lighting designer Joanna Parker design consultant

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Igor Levit piano

For full performer details see lpo.org.uk

Free pre-concert event 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Professor Stephen Downes, a specialist in 20th-century music, looks at the influence of Scriabin. † Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London.

Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Director Annabel Arden discusses her semi-staging of The Miserly Knight. * Rachmaninoff: Inside Out is presented in co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

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 Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBE Julian & Gill Simmonds* Anonymous Garf & Gill Collins* Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller Mrs Philip Kan* Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett 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 Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel Goldstein Peter MacDonald Eggers Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Mr & Mrs David Malpas Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Grenville & Krysia Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Benefactors Mrs A Beare David & Patricia Buck Mrs Alan Carrington Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Georgy Djaparidze Mr David Edgecombe Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Mr Richard Fernyhough Tony & Susan Hayes Michael & Christine Henry Malcolm Herring J. Douglas Home Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield

Per Jonsson Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Dr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Ms Ulrike Mansel Robert Markwick Mr Brian Marsh Andrew T Mills John Montgomery Dr Karen Morton Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Tom & Phillis Sharpe Martin and Cheryl Southgate Professor John Studd Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Simon Turner Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock Christopher Williams Bill Yoe and others who wish to remain anonymous Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged: Corporate Members Silver: AREVA UK Berenberg Bank British American Business Carter-Ruck Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP Charles Russell Leventis Overseas Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Sela / Tilley’s Sweets

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Ambache Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The Peter Carr Charitable Trust, in memory of Peter Carr The Ernest Cook Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation Lucille Graham Trust The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Help Musicians UK The Hinrichsen Foundation The Hobson Charity Kirby Laing Foundation The Leche Trust Marsh Christian Trust

The Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust The Ann and Frederick O’Brien Charitable Trust Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française Polish Cultural Institute in London PRS for Music Foundation Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Schroder Charity Trust Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The John Thaw Foundation The Tillett Trust UK Friends of the Felix-MendelssohnBartholdy-Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous

Sound Futures Donors We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to Sound Futures, which will establish our first ever endowment. Donations from those below, as well as many who have chosen to remain anonymous, have already been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. By May 2015 we aim to have raised £1 million which, when matched, will create a £2 million fund supporting our Education and Community Programme, our creative programming and major artistic projects at Southbank Centre. We thank those who are helping us to realise the vision. Masur Circle Arts Council England Dunard Fund Victoria Robey OBE Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Underwood Trust

David Ross and Line Forestier (Canada) Tom and Phillis Sharpe Mr & Mrs G Stein TFS Loans Limited The Tsukanov Family Foundation Guy & Utti Whittaker

Welser-Möst Circle John Ireland Charitable Trust Neil Westreich

Pritchard Donors Anonymous Linda Blackstone Michael Blackstone Yan Bonduelle Richard and Jo Brass Britten-Pears Foundation Business Events Sydney Desmond & Ruth Cecil Lady June Chichester John Childress & Christiane Wuillamie Lindka Cierach Paul Collins Mr Alistair Corbett Dolly Costopoulos Mark Damazer Olivier Demarthe David Dennis Bill & Lisa Dodd Mr David Edgecombe David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Christopher Fraser OBE Karima & David G Lyuba Galkina David Goldberg Mr Daniel Goldstein Ffion Hague Rebecca Halford Harrison Michael & Christine Henry Honeymead Arts Trust

Tennstedt Circle Simon Robey Simon & Vero Turner The late Mr K Twyman Solti Patrons Ageas Anonymous John & Manon Antoniazzi Georgy Djaparidze Mrs Mina Goodman and Miss Suzanne Goodman Robert Markwick The Rothschild Foundation Haitink Patrons Mark & Elizabeth Adams Lady Jane Berrill David & Yi Yao Buckley Bruno de Kegel Goldman Sachs International Moya Greene Tony and Susie Hayes Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons Diana and Allan Morgenthau Charitable Trust Dr Karen Morton Ruth Rattenbury Sir Bernard Rix Kasia Robinski

John Hunter Ivan Hurry Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Tanya Kornilova Peter Leaver Mr Mark Leishman LVO and Mrs Fiona Leishman Howard & Marilyn Levene Mr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Dr Frank Lim Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Peter Mace Geoff & Meg Mann Ulrike Mansel Marsh Christian Trust John Montgomery Rosemary Morgan Paris Natar John Owen The late Edmund Pirouet Mr Michael Posen Sarah & John Priestland Victoria Provis William Shawcross Tim Slorick Howard Snell Lady Valerie Solti Stanley Stecker Lady Marina Vaizey Helen Walker Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock Brian Whittle Christopher Williams Peter Wilson Smith Victoria Yanakova Mr Anthony Yolland

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Administration

Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Dr Manon Antoniazzi Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann* George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Julian Simmonds Mark Templeton* Natasha Tsukanova Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Neil Westreich * Player-Director Advisory Council Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jamie Korner Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Sir Bernard Rix Baroness Shackleton Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Thomas Sharpe QC Martin Southgate Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Elizabeth Winter American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. Jenny Ireland Co-Chairman William A. Kerr Co-Chairman Kyung-Wha Chung Alexandra Jupin Dr. Felisa B. Kaplan Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee Dr. Joseph Mulvehill Harvey M. Spear, Esq. Danny Lopez Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP

Chief Executive

Education and Community

Digital Projects

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Isabella Kernot Education Director

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Director

Alexandra Clarke Education and Community Project Manager

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Amy Sugarman PA to the Chief Executive / Administrative Assistant Finance David Burke General Manager and Finance Director

Lucy Duffy Education and Community Project Manager

Public Relations Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer