Friday 17 February 2023 | 6.00pm
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Ensemble of LPO Junior Artists, Foyle Future Firsts & LPO musicians
Gabriella Teychenné conductor
Stravinsky Suite No. 1 for small orchestra
Elgar Chanson de Nuit and Chanson de Matin
Conrad Asman The Diary of Phileas Fogg (world premiere)
Bartók Hungarian Peasant Songs
LPO Junior Artists is the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s annual orchestral experience programme for eight talented young musicians from backgrounds currently underrepresented in professional UK orchestras. The programme offers support, advice and professional insight to exceptional players of orchestral instruments aged 15–19 and at a minimum Grade 8 playing standard. Junior Artists become part of the London Philharmonic Orchestra family for a year, getting to know our musicians, staff and artists, as well as members of our Rising Talent schemes and former LPO Junior Artists.
This concert showcases the talent and achievement of current and past LPO Junior Artists, performing alongside LPO musicians and members of our Foyle Future Firsts development programme.
The LPO Junior Artists Programme is generously funded by the Kirby Laing Foundation, TIOC Foundation, The Victoria Wood Foundation and those who wish to remain anonymous.
Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971)
Suite No. 1 for small orchestra (1925)
1 Andante
2 Napolitana
3 Española
4 Balalaïka
The second movement of the Stravinsky has a really nice part for the horn. I start off having lots of loud stuff which is fun to play, then I have this nice soloistic bit with some of the other instruments. The piece just generally is really good, it’s sprightly, exciting!
Alex (horn), LPO Junior Artist
Igor Stravinsky spent the years immediately following The Rite of Spring (1914–20) exiled in Switzerland. The First World War had necessitated a temporary pause in the Paris operations of the Ballets Russes, the composer’s primary source of income, but he remained productive. He concentrated mainly on works for smaller ensembles and further refining his compositional voice, delving more deeply into the language and folk heritage of his Russian homeland.
In 1914 and 1915 he wrote three easy ‘teaching pieces’ for piano duet, following these the next year with a series of five more, the second set for his elder children, Theodore and Mika. The two Suites derived from these pieces are scored for small orchestra and were published in 1925 and 1921 respectively. In this First Suite, a quiet, meandering Andante is followed by the boisterous Italian street song of the Napolitana (which quotes the popular song ‘Funiculì, funiculà’; a souvenir of a visit by the composer to Naples in 1917). Then we are thrown into the spicy, unpredictable rhythms of the Española, inspired by a trip to Spain in 1916, before the Slavic dance of the Balalaïka concludes the Suite.
Edward Elgar (1857–1934)
Chanson de Nuit (1889/90)
Chanson de Matin (1889/90)
The Elgar has lots of layers and some luscious textures. Listen out for the hidden elements behind the tune.
LPOJunior Artists
During 1897, Edward Elgar first became acquainted with AJ Jaeger, an employee of the publishers Novello & Co, who became ‘Nimrod’ of the Enigma Variations. From the start, they were frank in their exchange of views. In October of that year, Elgar, who by this time already had a number of comparative successes under his belt, wrote to Jaeger bemoaning the lack of financial reward he had received for his works.
Within ten days of his letter, Elgar sent to Novello a short piece for violin and piano which he called Evensong, although he suggested to the publisher that they might prefer the name ‘Vespers’. In the event, believing that French titles sold better, they published it as Chanson de Nuit. Elgar no doubt regarded it as little more than a pot-boiler, a quick way of earning much-needed funds, although the work contains a depth of sincerity and emotion not commonly found in pot-boilers then or since.
In 1899, shortly after completing the orchestration of the Enigma Variations, Elgar sent to Novello another short piece for violin and piano. He claimed to have recently rediscovered and completed it, having originally intended it as a companion piece to Evensong. He therefore suggested that they publish it as Chanson de Matin, which they did. In January 1901, Elgar sent Novello orchestral arrangements of the two works. This helped accelerate their rising popularity, and it is in this form that they are usually heard today.
Programme note courtesy of The Elgar Society
The Diary of Phileas Fogg (world premiere)
Commissioned for the LPO Junior Artists
You can hear lots of different characters from aspects of [Phileas Fogg’s] journey, that come out quite strongly in the music.
Haniya (harp), LPO Junior Artist
This short work for strings, winds and harp explores exploration itself – the want to wander, and the differences between the physical, emotional and mental adventures one takes throughout one’s life, especially those of Jules Verne’s fictitious fin-de-siècle explorer Phileas Fogg, who bravely turns on his regular life of luxury and opulence as an English gentleman (albeit initially for a wager) and embarks on circumnavigating the world in less than 80 days. This is an unsurprising decision, given that I was watching the recent BBC TV adaptation of the novel at the time of writing this work!
The emotional progression that Fogg makes along his journey is hinted at throughout the piece, with overarching themes of naive exploration evolving into deeper, slower, more thoughtful contemplations. Overall, I see this piece as a possible collection of diary entry extracts from any adventurer, who takes said adventure for any reason; be it wanderlust, security, wellbeing, protection, danger, change or perhaps just pure intrigue.
This piece, however, was not created by one person. Instead, it represents the artistic output of all the LPO Junior Artists you see on stage tonight. These artists all took part in several workshops with me, testing out various musical and extramusical ideas, and it was the artistic judgement and decisions that these artists made that all helped me sculpt the piece into its final form. This piece represents music that is truly ‘today-years-old’, thanks to the brilliant collaboration between these gifted Junior Artists and myself, of which I was honoured to be a part.
Conrad Asman
Béla Bartók (1881–1945)
Hungarian Peasant Songs (1914–18, orch. 1933)
1 Ballade
2 Hungarian Peasant Dances
I like the Bartók because it’s really exciting and exhilarating. Listen out for the oboe drone. It’s really enjoyable and lively – it’s folk music and really lives up to that name.
Charlie (oboe), LPO Junior Artist
Prior to the First World War, Béla Bartók travelled extensively, collecting and arranging folk music. He was spared from service in the Austro-Hungarian Army after failing several medicals, and spent much of the war continuing to collect folksongs, at first from the army’s diverse ranks, later from Slovak villages, Romanian-speaking parts of Transylvania, and Hungarian peasant communities. This fieldwork provided the raw material for the Hungarian Peasant Songs, a set of 15 short piano pieces, which he began during the war’s early months and worked on over the next four years.
In the early 1930s, Bartók resolved to compose some orchestral pieces that would be easy to play and thus could be performed more often than his other demanding, musically and technically difficult scores. So in 1933 he returned to his Hungarian Peasant Songs, nine of which he orchestrated, intending to make the prettiest folk melodies he had collected at the beginning of the century accessible to a larger audience.
The mentor sessions are one of the most valuable elements of the scheme for me. My mentor’s orchestral experience is […] something that I am so grateful to have access to.
Haniya
(harp), LPO Junior ArtistFirst Violins
Kate Oswin*
Teagan Craggs#
Vivek Dinesh Ramanan§
Second Violins
Vera Beumer‡
Dahlia Radji#
Caroline Heard‡
Violas
Martin Wray*
Danya Rushton§
Lukas Bowen‡
Cellos
Shaina Vadher#
Francis Bucknall*
Double Bass
Thea Sayer‡
Flutes
Daniel Pengelly#
Stewart McIlwham*
On stage tonight
Piccolo
Stewart McIlwham*
Oboes
Alice Munday*
Charlie Golder#
Rhea Jo#
Cor Anglais
Alice Munday*
Clarinets
Amalia Beeko§
Méline LeCalvez‡
Bass Clarinet
Meline LeCalvez‡
Bassoons
Connor Huss§
Bruce Parris‡
Horns
Alex Rowsell Ryan#
Mark Vines*
With thanks to LPO Junior Artist Mentors 2022/23:
Trumpets
Emily Ashby‡
Paul Beniston*
Trombones
Gemma Riley‡
David Whitehouse*
Tuba
Alex Miller#
Timpani & Percussion
Ignacio Molins°
Harp
Haniya Glazebrook#
# LPO Junior Artist 2022/23
‡ Foyle Future First 2022/23
§ LPO Junior Artist alumni
* LPO member
° LPO guest
Kate Oswin (violin), Susanna Riddell (cello), Pei-Jee Ng (cello), Stewart McIlwham (flute), Alice Munday (oboe), Mark Vines (horn) & Rachel Masters (harp)
I feel like I’ve developed so much as a musician since starting the Junior Artists programme.
Daniel (flute), LPO Junior Artist
Performing alongside the LPO was an unforgettable opportunity.
Shaina (cello), LPO Junior Artist
Applications will open in early March for LPO Junior Artists 2023/24, so keep an eye on our website for details. Applicants should be aged 15–18 in September 2023, play an orchestral instrument to Grade 8+ standard, and identify as being from a background currently under-represented in professional UK orchestras. Find out more at lpo.org.uk/juniorartists
Photos © Benjamin Ealovega