Concert programme 2013/14 season
Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI* Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Leader pieter schoeman Composer in Residence JULIAN ANDERSON Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Wednesday 16 April 2014 | 7.30pm
Programme £3
The Thomas Beecham Group Concert
2 3 4 6 7 8 11 12 13 14 15 16
Zimmermann Photoptosis (13’) Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor (34’) Interval Brahms Symphony No. 4 in E minor (40’)
Vladimir Jurowski conductor Mitsuko Uchida piano Generously supported by Dunard Fund
Free pre-concert performance 6.00pm–6.45pm | The Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall Animate Orchestra, a young person’s orchestra for the 21st century, is a partnership between the LPO, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance and local music services. Tonight’s performance of music written by the group is the culmination of their recent course.
* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Contents Welcome LPO 2014/15 season On stage tonight About the Orchestra Vladimir Jurowski Mitsuko Uchida Programme notes Brahms on the LPO Label Next concerts Tickets Please! LPO 2013/14 Annual Appeal Catalyst: Double Your Donation Supporters LPO administration
The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.
Welcome
Welcome to Southbank Centre
LPO 2014/15 season now on sale
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.
Browse and book online at lpo.org.uk or call us on 020 7840 4242 to request a season brochure. Highlights of the new 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 lesser-known works (see page 5).
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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.
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Yannick Nézet-Séguin presents masterpieces by three great composers from the AustroGerman 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.
LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance.
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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.
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 outgoing 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 James Horner (a double-Oscar winner for his score to the film Titanic).
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Legendary pianist Menahem Pressler – a founding member of the Beaux Arts Trio – joins Robin Ticciati to perform Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4.
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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.
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 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.
MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.
2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
On stage tonight
First Violins Laurence Jackson Guest Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Ilyoung Chae Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett
Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Martin Höhmann Geoffrey Lynn Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp
Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Second Violins Philippe Honoré Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller
Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Floortje Gerritsen Sioni Williams Helena Nicholls Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter Laura Vallejo Daniel Cornford Naomi Holt
Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue David Lale Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell
Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Emily Meredith Duncan Gould Paul Richards Basset Horns Emily Meredith Duncan Gould
David Whitehouse Andrew Connington
Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Tim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Richard Lewis Kenneth Knussen
Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal
Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal
Bassoons Sebastian Stevensson Guest Principal Gareth Newman* Simon Estell
Tuba David Kendall Guest Principal
Flutes Michael Cox Guest Principal Sue Thomas* Chair supported by the Sharp Family
Stewart McIlwham* Katie Bicknell Piccolos Stewart McIlwham* Principal Katie Bicknell Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Lucie Sprague Sue Böhling Cor Anglais Sue Böhling Principal Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds
Contrabassoon Simon Estell Principal Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey
John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Wagner Tuba John Ryan Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann
Nicholas Betts Co-Principal Daniel Newell
Bass Trumpet David Whitehouse Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport
Karen Hutt Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Harp Rachel Masters* Principal Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra
Piano/Celeste Catherine Edwards Organ Clíodna Shanahan Assistant Conductor Marius Stravinsky * Holds a professorial appointment in London
Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporter whose player is not present at this concert: Sonja Drexler
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The LPO are an orchestra on fire at the moment. Bachtrack.com, 2 October 2013, Royal Festival Hall: Vladimir Jurowski conducts Britten
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. It has since been headed by many of the greatest names in the conducting world, 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, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin is Principal Guest Conductor. Julian Anderson 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 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 40 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and soloists. 2013/14 highlights include a Britten centenary celebration with Vladimir Jurowski; world premieres of James MacMillan’s Viola 4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Concerto and Górecki’s Fourth Symphony; French repertoire with Yannick Nézet-Séguin including Poulenc, Dutilleux, Berlioz, and Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony; and two concerts of epic film scores. The season features soloists including Evelyn Glennie, Mitsuko Uchida, Leif Ove Andsnes, Miloš Karadaglić, Renaud Capuçon, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Julia Fischer and Simon Trpčeski, and a distinguished line-up of conductors including Christoph Eschenbach, Osmo Vänskä, Vasily Petrenko, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Stanisław Skrowaczewski. 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. 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 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. Touring remains a large and vital part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights this season include visits to
London Philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season
Rachmaninoff: Inside Out A year-long exploration of the composer’s life and music the USA, Moscow, Romania, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, France and Spain, and plans for 2014/15 include returns to many of the above plus visits to Turkey, Iceland, the USA (West and East Coast), Canada, China and Australia. 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 75 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 with Vladimir Jurowski; Orff’s Carmina Burana with Hans Graf; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sarah Connolly and Toby Spence; and a disc of 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 of musicians and audiences through an energetic programme of activities for young people. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; fusion ensemble The Band; the Leverhulme Young Composers project; 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.
Friday 3 October 2014 The Isle of the Dead | Piano Concerto No. 1 (original version) | Symphonic Dances
Wednesday 29 October 2014 Piano Concerto No. 3 | Symphony No. 2
Friday 7 November 2014 Piano Concerto No. 4 (final version)
Friday 28 November 2014 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Wednesday 3 December 2014 Symphony No. 1
Wednesday 21 January 2015 The Miserly Knight
Saturday 7 February 2015 Three Russian Songs | Spring
Wednesday 11 February 2015 Piano Concerto No. 2 | The Bells
Friday 13 February 2015 Piano Concerto No. 4 (original version)
Wednesday 25 March 2015 Piano Concerto No. 1 (final version)
Wednesday 29 April 2015 Four Pieces | Ten Songs | Symphony No. 3 Rachmaninoff Inside Out is presented in co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.
Find out more and get involved! lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra
lpo.org.uk
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5
Vladimir Jurowski
© Chris Christodoulou
Principal 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.
6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
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 its LPO Live label, including Brahms’s complete symphonies; 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.
Mitsuko Uchida
© Richard Avedon
piano
Mitsuko Uchida is a performer who brings a deep insight into the music she plays through her own search for truth and beauty. She is renowned for her interpretations of Mozart, Schubert, Schumann and Beethoven, both in the concert hall and on CD, and has also illuminated the music of Berg, Schoenberg, Webern and Boulez for a new generation of listeners. Her recording of the Schoenberg Piano Concerto with Pierre Boulez and The Cleveland Orchestra won four awards, including the Gramophone Award for Best Concerto. Among many current projects, Mitsuko has recently recorded a selection of Mozart’s piano concertos with The Cleveland Orchestra, directing from the piano: all of the discs in this series have received critical acclaim, and one won a Grammy Award in 2011. Highlights this season include performances with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, The Cleveland Orchestra and Leon Fleisher, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons, and the Tonhalle Orchestra with David Zinman. She will undertake a recital tour of venues including Paris’s Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Vienna’s Musikverein, Chicago’s Symphony Center and New York’s Carnegie Hall; and a tour of Japan.
Lucerne Festival and with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, where she performed a series of chamber music concerts and a Beethoven Piano Concertos cycle with Sir Simon Rattle. Mitsuko Uchida records exclusively for Decca. Her recordings include the complete Mozart piano sonatas and piano concertos; the complete Schubert piano sonatas; Debussy’s Études; the five Beethoven piano concertos with Kurt Sanderling; a CD of Mozart sonatas for violin and piano with Mark Steinberg; Schubert’s song-cycle Die schöne Müllerin with Ian Bostridge; the final five Beethoven piano sonatas; and a 2008 recording of Berg’s Chamber Concerto with Ensemble Intercontemporain, Pierre Boulez and Christian Tetzlaff. Her most recent releases are CDs of Mozart’s concertos K488 and K491, a second disc of K466 and K595, and a third disc of K271 and K467, all with Uchida directing The Cleveland Orchestra from the piano; and two acclaimed discs of Schumann’s solo piano music. A DVD featuring a live performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire at the Salzburg Festival and an accompanying documentary was released last season by Bel Air and Film+co, in the centenary year of this pivotal work. Mitsuko Uchida has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to aiding the development of young musicians and is a trustee of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, an organisation that helps outstanding young musicians to develop and sustain international careers. She is also Director of the Marlboro Music Festival in Vermont, USA. In June 2009 she was made a Dame Commander of the Order of the British Empire and in May 2012 she was awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal.
Mitsuko Uchida performs with the world’s finest orchestras and musicians. A recent highlight has been her residency at The Cleveland Orchestra, where over a number of seasons she directed all the Mozart concertos from the keyboard. She has also been the focus of a Carnegie Hall ‘Perspectives’ series entitled Mitsuko Uchida: Vienna Revisited. She has featured in the Royal Concertgebouw’s ‘Carte Blanche’ series where she collaborated with Ian Bostridge, the Hagen Quartet, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as directing from the piano a performance of Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire. She has also been Artist in Residence at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Salzburg Mozartwoche, the London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7
Programme notes
Speedread Photoptosis, written in 1968 by the maverick German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann, traces a progression from blurred shade to brilliant light, with a central interlude bringing together quotations drawn from a vast span of musical history, from plainchant to Scriabin. The other two works in tonight’s programme also draw on musical history, in more obvious ways. Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto, completed in 1803, is modelled in
Bernd Alois Zimmermann
many respects on the piano concertos of Mozart, and in particular on Mozart’s Concerto No. 24 in the same dramatic key of C minor – though Beethoven makes his presence felt in some characteristic strokes of adventure and innovation. And Brahms’s sombre Fourth and last Symphony, of 1884/5, has as its finale a movement in the Baroque form of the passacaglia, based over and around a repeated theme adapted from a cantata by Bach.
Photoptosis: prelude for large orchestra
1918–70
Bernd Alois Zimmermann was an isolated figure in German music after the Second World War. Although he became involved in the activities of the post-war avant-garde, such as the Darmstadt summer courses, he was a significant few years older than the pacemakers Stockhausen and Boulez, and temperamentally averse to their new certainties. At the same time, for all his deep knowledge and love of musical tradition, he was never a conservative; instead, his questioning spirit led him to a continuous renewal of his techniques. The more austere side of Zimmermann’s complex character – which he once described memorably as ‘a Rhenish mixture of monk and Dionysian’ – also induced in him a profound unease with the increasingly materialist society around him. This was one of the factors that contributed to his suicide at the age of 52. Zimmermann wrote Photoptosis two years before that untimely death, in November 1968. It was the result of a bold commission from the Municipal Savings Bank of the city of Gelsenkirchen, in the Ruhr, to celebrate its centenary. The work, about 13 minutes long, makes use
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of a large orchestra, including several rare instruments such as basset horn and bass trumpet, and with an important part for organ. The Greek title Photoptosis signifies ‘the incidence of light’. Zimmermann explained that the work was suggested by the artist Yves Klein’s monochrome wall panels in the Gelsenkirchen opera house, the Musiktheater im Revier, and the way in which their appearance changed according to the way light fell on them – a process that he translated into terms of tone-colour. The piece is thus a study in instrumental and harmonic colour and texture, without traditional themes or developments, and indeed without a traditional sense of movement. It begins in shade, with long-sustained string harmonics and wind chords, punctuated by little flurries of movement in different sections; much of the writing is in quarter-tones, which gives it a blurred, out-of-focus character. Gradually brighter elements intervene, and the quarter-tones disappear, until eventually the work ends in brilliantly lit full-orchestral colour.
An apparent interruption in this progression is a short central episode introducing and combining several quotations. Zimmermann had developed the idea of collage – independently from Luciano Berio, whose Sinfonia with its central collage scherzo also dates from 1968 – out of a belief in the unity of time, the coexistence of present, past and future. Here, he begins his collage with the famous discordant fanfare from Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony, and follows that with another theme from the same work and fragments of
Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy, Wagner’s Parsifal, Bach’s First Brandenburg Concerto and Tchaikovsky’s Nutcracker, together with the plainchant Veni creator spiritus in very long notes. This may simply be a gathering of a selection of musical ideas from the past in a way appropriate to the celebration of an anniversary. But in the context of the piece as a whole, it suggests Zimmermann invoking the aid of the ‘Creator Spirit’, and of some of his great forebears, to assist in the difficult transition from shadow to light.
Ludwig van Beethoven
Piano Concerto No. 3 in C minor, Op. 37
1770–1827
Mitsuko Uchida piano 1 Allegro con brio 2 Largo 3 Rondo: Allegro
Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto was begun in the late 1790s, completed and revised over the next few years, and finally made ready for its first performance by the composer at a concert in Vienna in 1803 – a lengthy affair that also included, among other things, the first performances of the Second Symphony and the oratorio Christ on the Mount of Olives. It is the last of Beethoven’s concertos to be modelled in its overall proportions on the concertos of Mozart: that is, with each of its three movements a separate entity and carrying roughly equal weight. Subsequently, in the Triple Concerto, the Violin Concerto and the last two Piano Concertos, he adopted a radically different scheme, in which the slow movement is short and leads straight into the finale, and these two movements together balance an expansive opening Allegro.
customary breather in the coda, and keeping the piano in action until the end of the movement. Despite the Mozartian precedent, though, this is actually one of the most characteristically Beethovenian passages in the entire score, with its repeated timpani references to the opening theme, its mysterious atmosphere, and its surging crescendo to the final fortissimo.
The C minor Concerto also has some more specifically Mozartian features. It is in the same key as one of Mozart’s most dramatic piano concertos, No. 24 (K491), shares many of its moods, and begins similarly with a quiet, pregnant theme in bare octaves. And after his first-movement cadenza (written, incidentally, as late as 1809), Beethoven takes the same unusual step that Mozart took in K491 of denying the soloist his or her
After the rarefied atmosphere of this slow movement, the main theme of the rondo finale seems to bring us back to more familiar Mozartian ground; and the beginning of the second of the three episodes sounds remarkably like a fragment of a Mozart wind serenade, with clarinet and bassoon taking the melodic lead in the warm key of A flat major. But later in this episode the little developmental fugato, the piano’s brief excursion
It is succeeded by another equally distinctive moment: the start of the slow movement, in the remote key of E major, with a meditative piano solo. The piano writing throughout the movement is extremely ornate, but in the middle section – unexpectedly in G major, approached by a brusque orchestral modulation – the soloist’s arpeggios take second place to the melody unfolded as a duet between flute and bassoon.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9
Programme notes continued
into E major (harking back to the key of the Largo), and the long preparation for the eventual return of the main theme are all Beethoven fingerprints. And there is another moment of quintessential Beethoven at the end of the third episode: fragments of the rondo theme, three big chords and the simplest of decelerating cadenzas herald a turn simultaneously to C major, 6/8 time and Presto tempo for the coda, in which the rondo theme makes a final appearance in a completely new guise.
Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.
Johannes Brahms 1833–97
The Fourth Symphony, written in the summers of 1884 and ’85, was Brahms’s farewell to symphonic form. After it, his only other orchestral work was the Double Concerto of 1887; then in the last decade of his life he wrote nothing but chamber music, choral music, solo keyboard pieces and songs. In his final symphony, Brahms’s intentions seem to have been to write a work so cohesive in its thematic processes and interconnections, so lucid in its formal organisation, that in performance its progress would seem to be inevitable; and he reinforced this in the finale by adopting an archaic form with a built-in element of inevitability, that of the passacaglia. The opening movement begins with a theme constructed almost entirely out of the intervals of the descending third and its counterpart the rising sixth – an idea that was to recur in Brahms’s autumnal Clarinet Trio, and find its final expression in the Four Serious Songs, to the words ‘O death, how bitter art thou’. After the initial presentation of the material, this first theme
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Symphony No. 4 in E minor, Op. 98 1 2 3 4
Allegro non troppo Andante moderato Allegro giocoso Allegro energico e passionato
is repeated exactly, as if the first section is going to be repeated, before the movement moves on into its wideranging development section. But at the beginning of the recapitulation, the first two phrases of the theme are stretched into much longer note-values, in bare woodwind octaves – a moment of great solemnity, but also serenity. Solemnity and serenity equally characterise the E major slow movement. The solemnity is there from the beginning, in the introductory wind figure (in the ancient Phrygian mode rather than the major or minor) which anticipates the first main theme; the serenity comes to the fore in the glorious cello melody that forms the second subject. Yet these contrasting ideas are worked together into the movement’s powerful climax. This movement is followed not by the relaxed intermezzo that comes third in Brahms’s other symphonies, but by a scherzo, a C major Allegro giocoso
(giocoso meaning ‘jocular’ or ‘humorous’). However, this is not a Classical scherzo and trio, but a continuous movement with its own central development section, and it is in 2/4 rather than the traditional triple time. The orchestra is enlivened by the colouring of piccolo, contrabassoon and triangle. The finale – with contrabassoon again, and also three trombones – is in the Baroque form of the passacaglia, in which a single theme is repeated throughout in different parts of the texture. Brahms adapted his theme from a choral Ciacona in Bach’s early Cantata No. 150, where it has the words ‘My days of sorrow God brings to an end in joy’. The movement is given a clear overall shape by the way in which four of the variations form a slower central interlude, most of it in the major key. But the bonds of the passacaglia form, however much Brahms obscures them by concealing the theme in inner parts and overlapping it with countermelodies, are loosened only in the stern coda. Programme notes by Anthony Burton © 2014
Jurowski conducts Brahms on the LPO Label New!
Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2
Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4
£10.99 (2CDs) | LPO-0043
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‘The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s strings combine passion and poise, and the woodwinds are exquisite ... The LPO’s principal conductor marries the best of tradition with the best of modern practice.’ Financial Times, 24 January 2014
CDs 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.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11
Last LPO concerts this season at Royal Festival Hall
Friday 25 April 2014 | 7.30pm JTI Friday Series Rimsky-Korsakov Russian Easter Festival Overture Rodrigo Concierto de Aranjuez Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Miloš Karadaglić guitar
Sunday 11 May 2014 | 12.00pm FUNharmonics Family Concert: Noses With Roald Dahl’s The Ant-Eater, a musical feast by Benjamin Wallfisch. Stuart Stratford conductor Tickets £10–£18 adults; £5–£9 children
Saturday 26 April 2014 | 7.30pm
Unless otherwise stated, tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65)
Marko Nikodijevic La lugubre gondola (UK premiere) Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique)
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
Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leif Ove Andsnes piano
Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm southbankcentre.co.uk
Generously supported by Dunard Fund
Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone. No transaction fee for bookings made in person
The Orchestra’s 2014/15 season is now on sale: see page 2 for highlights, call 020 7840 4242 to request a season brochure, or browse online at lpo.org.uk.
Glyndebourne Festival 2014
Latest LPO CD release: Carmina Burana
Tickets for Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s 80th anniversary season are now on sale. The season, which opens on 17 May 2014 and runs until 24 August, also marks the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 50th anniversary as Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne.
Recently released on the LPO Label is Orff’s Carmina Burana conducted by Hans Graf (LPO-0076). It was recorded live in concert at Royal Festival Hall on 6 April 2013, as part of Southbank Centre’s yearlong The Rest Is Noise festival, and also features the London Philharmonic Choir, Trinity Boys Choir and soloists Sarah Tynan, Andrew Kennedy and Rodion Pogossov.
This summer the Orchestra will give performances of Richard Strauss’s Der Rosenkavalier under the Festival’s new Music Director Robin Ticciati; Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin under Israeli conductor Omer Meir Wellber in his Glyndebourne debut; Mozart’s Don Giovanni under Andrés Orozco-Estrada, the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor from 2015, also making his Glyndebourne debut; and Verdi’s La traviata under Sir Mark Elder. Browse the full performance schedule and buy tickets online at glyndebourne.com or call the Box Office on 01273 813813.
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Priced £9.99, the CD is also available from lpo.org.uk/shop (where you can listen to soundclips before you buy), the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD retailers. Alternatively you can download it from iTunes, Amazon and others, or stream via Spotify.
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. We want to offer free tickets to 2,500 children from the most disadvantaged schools and we need your help to make this happen. A donation of just £9 will allow a child from one of south London’s most disadvantaged schools to attend our schools’ concerts for free. If you would like to donate more, you could secure 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 secure, or call Katherine Hattersley on 020 7840 4212 to donate over the phone. Thank you for supporting Tickets Please!
Tickets Please! has now raised over £15,000. This amount means that over 1,600 children will be able to attend our schools’ concerts for free. We would like to say a big thank you to everyone who has already donated, and in particular to the following donors: Dr Christopher Aldren, Adrian Clark, Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington, Garf & Gill Collins, Roger Greenwood, Lord & Lady Hall, Rose & Dudley Leigh, Rivers Foundation, Dr Peter Stephenson, Mr & Mrs J C Tucker, and those who wish to remain anonymous.
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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: • More visionary artistic projects like The Rest Is Noise at Southbank Centre • Educational and outreach activities for young Londoners like this year’s Noye’s Fludde performance project • Increased touring to venues around the UK that might not otherwise have access to great orchestral music To give, call Development Director Nick Jackman on 020 7840 4211, email support@lpo.org.uk or visit www.lpo.org.uk/support/double-your-donation.html
Catalyst Endowment Donors Masur Circle Arts Council England Dunard Fund Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Sharp Family The Underwood Trust Welser-Möst Circle John Ireland Charitable Trust Tennstedt Circle Simon Robey The late Mr K Twyman Solti Patrons Anonymous Suzanne Goodman The Rothschild Foundation Manon Williams & John Antoniazzi Haitink Patrons Mark & Elizabeth Adams Lady Jane Berrill Moya Greene Tony and Susie Hayes Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons Diana and Allan Morgenthau Charitable Trust Ruth Rattenbury Sir Bernard Rix
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Kasia Robinski TFS Loans Limited The Tsukanov Family Foundation Guy & Utti Whittaker Pritchard Donors Anonymous Linda Blackstone Michael Blackstone Yan Bonduelle Richard and Jo Brass Britten-Pears Foundation Desmond & Ruth Cecil Lady June Chichester Lindka Cierach Mr Alistair Corbett Mark Damazer David Dennis Bill & Lisa Dodd Mr David Edgecombe David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel Goldstein Mrs Mina Goodman and Miss Suzanne Goodman Ffion Hague Rebecca Halford Harrison Michael & Christine Henry Honeymead Arts Trust
John Hunter Ivan Hurry Tanya Kornilova Howard & Marilyn Levene Mr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Dr Frank Lim Peter Mace Geoff & Meg Mann Ulrike Mansel Marsh Christian Trust John Montgomery Rosemary Morgan John Owen Edmund Pirouet Mr Michael Posen John Priestland Tim Slorick Howard Snell Stanley Stecker Lady Marina Vaizey Helen Walker Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock Christopher Williams Victoria Yanakova Mr Anthony Yolland
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 Anonymous William and Alex de Winton Simon Robey The Sharp Family Julian & Gill Simmonds Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett Jane Attias John & Angela Kessler Guy & Utti Whittaker Manon Williams & John Antoniazzi 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 Mr & Mrs David Malpas Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard 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 Mr David Edgecombe Mr Richard Fernyhough Tony & Susan Hayes Michael & Christine Henry Malcolm Herring Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr R K Jeha Per Jonsson
Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Dr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Brian Marsh Andrew T Mills John Montgomery Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Martin and Cheryl Southgate Professor John Studd Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue 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 Thomas Eggar LLP Bronze: Lisa Bolgar Smith and Felix Appelbe of Ambrose Appelbe Appleyard & Trew LLP Berkeley Law 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
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 Ernest Cook Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund Embassy of Spain, Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs The Equitable Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation J Paul Getty Junior Charitable Trust Lucille Graham Trust The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Help Musicians UK The Hinrichsen Foundation The Hobson Charity The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The Leverhulme Trust Marsh Christian Trust The Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians
Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable 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 The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust 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 Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Youth Music & others who wish to remain anonymous
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Administration
Board of Directors Victoria Sharp Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann* George Peniston* Sir Bernard Rix Kevin Rundell* Julian Simmonds Mark Templeton* Natasha Tsukanova Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Neil Westreich Dr Manon Williams * Player-Director Advisory Council Victoria Sharp Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham 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 Sharp Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP
Education and Community
Public Relations
Isabella Kernot Education Director
Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930) Archives
Chief Executive
Alexandra Clarke Education and Community Project Manager
Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director
Lucy Duffy Education and Community Project Manager
Finance
Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer
David Burke General Manager and Finance Director
Development
David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager
Nick Jackman Development Director
Concert Management
Katherine Hattersley Charitable Giving Manager
Roanna Gibson Concerts Director
Helen Searl Corporate Relations Manager
Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager
Molly Stewart Development and Events Manager
Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager
Sarah Fletcher Development and Finance Officer
Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator Jo Cotter PA to the Chief Executive / Tours Co-ordinator Orchestra Personnel Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians (job-share) Christopher Alderton Stage Manager Ellie Swithinbank Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager
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Rebecca Fogg Development Assistant Marketing Kath Trout Marketing Director Mia Roberts Marketing Manager Rachel Williams Publications Manager Samantha Kendall Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242) Libby Northcote-Green Marketing Co-ordinator Penny Miller Intern Digital Projects Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant
Philip Stuart Discographer Gillian Pole Recordings Archive Professional Services Charles Russell Solicitors Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor London Philharmonic Orchestra 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 Fax: 020 7840 4201 Box Office: 020 7840 4242 Email: admin@lpo.org.uk lpo.org.uk The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045. Photograph of Zimmermann © Schott Promotion. Photographs of Beethoven and Brahms courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Front cover photograph © Patrick Harrison. Printed by Cantate.