London Philharmonic Orchestra Brighton 17 Jan 2015 programme by London Philharmonic Orchestra

Brighton Dome Concert programme

lpo.org.uk

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

Brighton Dome Concert Hall Saturday 17 January 2015 | 7.30pm

Humperdinck Prelude, Hansel and Gretel (7’) Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2 in F minor (30’) Interval

Programme £2.50 Contents 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 11 12

Welcome On stage tonight About the Orchestra Leader: Pieter Schoeman Rory Macdonald Lambis Vassiliadis Programme notes Supporters LPO administration

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

Dvořák Symphony No. 8 in G major (36’)

Rory Macdonald conductor Lambis Vassiliadis piano

The Steinway concert piano chosen and hired by the London Philharmonic Orchestra for this performance is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation † supported by Neil Westreich CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN ASSOCIATION WITH BRIGHTON DOME

Ticket Office: 01273 709709 brightondome.org

Welcome

Welcome to Brighton Dome Chief Executive Andrew Comben We hope you enjoy the performance and your visit to Brighton Dome. For your comfort and safety, please note the following: LATECOMERS may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance. Some performances may contain no suitable breaks. SMOKING Brighton Dome is a no-smoking venue.

Next London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Brighton Dome Saturday 28 March 2015 | 7.30pm Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture) Elgar Cello Concerto Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade Jaime Martín conductor Andreas Brantelid cello

INTERVAL DRINKS may be ordered in advance at the bar to avoid queues. PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium. RECORDING is not allowed in the auditorium. MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before entering the auditorium. Thank you for your co-operation.

The concert at Brighton Dome on 17 January 2015 is presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with assistance from Brighton Dome.

Jaime Martín and Andreas Brantelid

‘This is some of the best music you will hear in Brighton, full stop, and I cannot wait for their next outing to the seaside.’ Howard Young, Brighton.co.uk Tickets £10–£27.50 (Premium seats £32.50) Ticket Office 01273 709709 Book online at brightondome.org There is a £2 per order charge for online and telephone bookings. Additional postage of 50p also applies if required. There is no charge for booking in person.

Brighton Dome gratefully acknowledges the support of Brighton & Hove City Council and Arts Council England. Brighton Dome is managed by Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, which also runs the annual threeweek Brighton Festival in May. brightondome.org brightonfestival.org

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LPO 2015/16 season at Brighton Dome Details of the Orchestra’s 2015/16 season at Brighton Dome will be announced on 28 March 2015: look out for our new season brochure at the next concert.

On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Martin Höhmann Geoffrey Lynn Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Rebecca Shorrock Caroline Frenkel Galina Tanney Katie Littlemore Maeve Jenkinson Peter Nall Kate Cole Jamie Hutchinson Gavin Davies Francesca Smith Second Violins Takane Funatsu Guest Principal Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Ashley Stevens Eugene Lee Floortje Gerritsen Sioni Williams Sheila Law Alison Strange Elizabeth Baldey Nicole Stokes

Violas Jon Thorne Guest Principal Gregory Aronovich Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter Daniel Cornford Sarah Malcolm Linda Kidwell Martin Fenn Stanislav Popov Cellos Josephine Knight Guest Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Double Basses Laurence Lovelle Principal George Peniston Thomas Walley Sebastian Pennar Jeremy Watt Helen Rowlands

Flutes Sue Thomas* Principal Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Joanna Marsh Stewart McIlwham* Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Trumpets Nicholas Betts Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Sarah Harper

Bass Trombone Sam Freeman

Cor Anglais Sarah Harper

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Thomas Watmough

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Bassoons Simon Estell Principal Ide Ni Chonaill

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal

Horns David Pyatt* Principal

Keith Millar

Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Stephen Nicholls Gareth Mollison

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

* Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: An anonymous donor Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

London Philharmonic Orchestra

The LPO’s playing throughout was exceptional in its warmth, finesse and detail. The Guardian, January 2013 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

Rory Macdonald conductor

Rory Macdonald’s conducting was admirably muscular and wholehearted, drawing fiercely impassioned playing from the orchestra. © Benjamin Ealovega

The Telegraph

One of the brightest stars of the younger generation of conductors, Rory Macdonald’s career was launched following assisting roles with Iván Fischer, Sir Mark Elder and Sir Antonio Pappano. Equally at home on the concert platform and in the opera house, he draws out distinctive interpretations of Classical and Romantic repertoire, and brings passion and intellectual insight to contemporary scores. Recent guest conducting engagements have included the BBC Symphony, BBC Scottish Symphony, Royal Philharmonic, Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony, Bergen Philharmonic, Vienna Chamber, Nagoya Philharmonic, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Adelaide Symphony and West Australian Symphony orchestras; the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; the Orchestre National Bordeaux Aquitaine; and the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. In December 2013, Rory stood in for Mariss Jansons for two concerts with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra at the National Centre for the Performing Arts in Beijing and at the Sydney Opera House, marking the end of the orchestra’s Asia and Australia section of a world tour celebrating its 125th anniversary. Tonight is Rory’s debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Other debuts this season and beyond include the Royal Flemish Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National, Vancouver Symphony, San Diego Symphony, Queensland Symphony and Japan Century Symphony orchestras. This summer he will tour China with the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland. Rory has also built up an extensive operatic repertoire and is in demand at some of the world’s leading opera houses. Following his North American debut with the Canadian Opera Company, he made his USA

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debut at the Lyric Opera of Chicago, conducting a new production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Subsequent USA appearances have included new productions of The Rape of Lucretia at Houston Grand Opera (where he returned for Carmen in 2014) and The Magic Flute at San Francisco Opera. In 2014 he made his debut at Santa Fé Opera conducting Carmen, and will return there in 2016/17. In 2011 he conducted The Barber of Seville and Hansel and Gretel at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden (where he has also conducted Fidelio, Das Rheingold, Owen Wingrave, A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Philip Glass’s Orphée), and opened English National Opera’s 2011/12 season with The Elixir of Love. In 2012 he conducted Delius’s A Village Romeo and Juliet at the Wexford Festival and The Cunning Little Vixen with the Bergen National Opera. In spring 2014 he conducted Britten’s The Turn of the Screw at the Vienna Konzerthaus with a cast including Mark Padmore. Future operatic highlights include The Magic Flute with both the Royal Danish Opera and the Lyric Opera of Chicago, The Barber of Seville with the Canadian Opera Company, Ariadne auf Naxos with Opera St Louis, and his debut with the Orchestra of Scottish Opera. Rory Macdonald studied music at Cambridge University, and plays violin and piano. While at university he studied under David Zinman and Jorma Panula at the American Academy of Conducting in Aspen. After graduating from Cambridge he was appointed Assistant Conductor to Iván Fischer at the Budapest Festival Orchestra (2001–03), and to Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé Orchestra (2006–08). He was also a member of the Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House (2004–06), where he worked closely with Sir Antonio Pappano on major projects such as the complete Ring Cycle, and conducted performances of several operas.

Lambis Vassiliadis

piano

Lambis Vassiliadis has an amazing technique, huge knowledge of the numerous music styles, and a really enormous palette of sound colours … It’s about an explosion of piano art, following the tradition of the young Horowitz. Dr Allen Sapp, composer

Lambis Vassiliadis represents a unique style of explosive pianism and artistic sensibility. Privileged to study with Yaltah Menuhin, Victor Merzhanov and James Tocco, he has received five academic degrees from universities and music academies around the world. He also holds a degree in Philosophy from the Aristotle University, Greece. Positions Lambis Vassiliadis has held include Director of the Synchrono Conservatory in Thessaloniki, Greece; Director of the Summer Academy of the Ionian University; Artistic Director of the Vertiskos International Summer Festival; and Co-ordinator of Piano Studies at the Conservatory of East Macedonia. Additionally he is the Representative of International Relationships at the Ionian University; Chair of the International Corfu Festival; and Co-ordinator of the International Music Days in Kiel, Germany. Lambis has won 11 awards in national and international piano competitions. Since his debut recording in 1993 by Koch-Discover International, his discs have garnered rave reviews from the international press for his exceptional technique and the depth of his interpretations. A CD of works by Bartók, Scriabin, Poulenc and Szymanowski was awarded four stars by BBC Music magazine, and his Schumann/Brahms recording was praised by Charles Timbrell in Fanfare magazine. The first recording of the Piano Sonatas by 20th-century American composer Allen Sapp was named as one of the Best Recordings of 2001 by the American Record Guide. Gramophone magazine included Lambis Vassiliadis’s Brahms recording in its ‘Best 30 Recordings of the 20th Century’. In a total of 15 CD recordings (on labels including Aardvark Media, Koch and Hellenic Classical), he has recorded Chopin, Liszt,

Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff. As a chamber musician he founded the Ionian Piano Quartet, with whom he has made two recordings including works by Brahms and Beethoven. Lambis Vassiliadis has appeared in numerous solo concerts, radio and television broadcasts in Greece, the UK, Germany, Poland, the USA, South Africa, Thailand, Italy and France. He has performed a variety of repertoire including Tchaikovsky’s Second Piano Concerto and Liszt’s Malédiction with such distinguished ensembles as the London Symphony Orchestra, the National Philharmonic Orchestra (Prague), the State Orchestra of Thessaloniki, the State Orchestra of Athens, the State Orchestra of Cyprus, the Chamber Philharmonic of Prague, the Thailand Symphony Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Tubingen (Germany). Lambis Vassiliadis is currently Professor of Piano at the Ionian University, Corfu.

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Programme notes

Speedread National identity contributes to the individual characters of all three works in tonight’s programme. Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto, composed at a time of high patriotic feeling in Poland, almost breaks into a mazurka in its finale, while the lyrical voice of Dvořák in his ever-popular Eighth Symphony

Engelbert Humperdinck

effortlessly evokes the sights and sounds of the Bohemian woods and fields. To open, the Prelude to Humperdinck’s operatic favourite Hansel and Gretel, based on the Grimm brothers’ fairytale, uses folk-like melodies to conjure the world of childhood in all its naivety, warmth and playfulness.

Prelude, Hansel and Gretel

1854–1921

The traditional status in Germany of Humperdinck’s opera Hansel and Gretel as a Christmas piece no doubt owes much to the fact that its premiere (conducted by Richard Strauss at the Munich Opera) took place on 23 December 1893. Having originated three years earlier in a request from Humperdinck’s sister to set four folk-songs from the Grimm brothers’ well-known – if somewhat gruesome – story for performance at home by her children, it had quickly expanded first into a small-scale domestic opera with spoken dialogue, and thence to a full-blown professional opera in three acts. Like other works in the Germanic fairytale opera (or Märchenoper) tradition, it is not specifically written for a child audience, but does evoke an innocence of atmosphere and a kinship with the worlds of folksong and nature. At the same time, it bears the marks of its age in the Wagnerian richness of its musical development and orchestral colourings. The Prelude, which Humperdinck characterised as ‘Children’s Life’, demonstrates these elements with dance tunes both urbane and toylike. These are intertwined with references to the solemn ‘Evening Hymn’ melody heard at the very opening, which will make strategically placed appearances throughout

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the opera to suggest the protective influence of divine providence. Sadly, the audience at the premiere was denied the pleasure of this charming and skilfully made overture: it was not performed on that occasion, as the orchestral parts had not yet arrived.

Frédéric Chopin 1810–49

Chopin’s Second Piano Concerto is in fact his first; it is only because it was published after the concerto now known as No. 1 that the numberings became forever swapped round. In fact, both works were written within a year of each other and both were intended to serve the same purpose, that of providing the young Chopin, not long out of the Warsaw Conservatory, with material with which to further his career as a concert pianist. In August 1829 he had visited Vienna, where he had scored a success with two other works for piano and orchestra – Krakowiak and the Variations on Mozart’s ‘Là ci darem la mano’ – and on returning to Poland he set about composing his first full-scale concerto, completing it early in 1830. After a private try-out at his father’s house in Warsaw at the beginning of March, the public premiere followed on 17 March at the National Theatre. Despite some audience complaints that Chopin played too quietly (something he would be accused of throughout his career), critical acclaim was high enough for the concert to be repeated only five days later. Chopin’s concertos are not in the mould of those by Mozart and Beethoven, in which soloist and orchestra engage in symphonic dialogue, and it would be inappropriate to judge them against such works. The object of the exercise for Chopin was to provide a vehicle for the display of his own virtuosity and musicianship. For this reason the piano is unapologetically the dominant partner in an unequal relationship with the orchestra, in much the same way as in concertos by other early 19th-century composer-pianists such as John Field, Ignaz Moscheles and (especially admired by Chopin) Johann Nepomuk Hummel. The emphasis is thus almost wholly on

Piano Concerto No. 2 3 in FD minor, minor, Op. Op. 21 30 Lambis Vassiliadis piano Simon Trpčeski piano 1 Maestoso 1 Allegro ma non tanto 2 Larghetto 2 Intermezzo: Adagio – 3 Allegro vivace Finale: Alla breve

pianistic inventiveness, eloquence and sparkle, and in these the 20-year-old Chopin was already a master. The first movement is perhaps the most conventional of the three: opening with a long orchestral exposition, it follows the expected sonata-form contour in which a succession of themes is presented by the orchestra and then restated by the piano, with a few new ones added along the way. A central development section next visits several new keys and finally the principal themes are recapitulated. The piano writing here is brilliant, intricate and innovative – one reason, perhaps, why Chopin felt no need to include the traditional solo cadenza towards the end. The piano has even more fine right-hand tracery in the slow movement, a Larghetto whose dreamy poetry is interrupted by a stormy recitative-like outburst from the piano, its urgency heightened by underlying string tremolos that seem to gasp like shocked onlookers. Chopin later admitted to a friend that the movement had been inspired by feelings for a singer named Konstancja Gładkowska, his first love. The Concerto concludes with a finale with a distinct folk flavour, nowhere more so than in the mazurka-like episode accompanied by the violins playing with the wood of the bow. After a climax, a horn blast heralds the closing section, now in F major. The nationalist flavour of this movement gratified Chopin’s compatriots at a time when Poland was partitioned under foreign rule, but prompted a more chilling political response from Schumann, who characterised it as ‘guns buried in roses’.

Interval – 20 minutes A bell will be rung a few minutes before the end of the interval.

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Programme notes continued

Antonín Dvořák 1841–1904

According to his principal biographer Otakar Šourek, Dvořák’s stated intention in his Eighth Symphony was to produce a work different from ‘the usual general adopted and recognised forms’, and ‘with individual thoughts worked out in a new way’. The Symphony is indeed one of his most original in formal terms, though that fact has tended to be masked by a conventional movement plan and an overall geniality that has brought it lasting popularity. Yet it was not Dvořák’s wish to create a symphony of self-conscious personal struggle; if anything, he had already done that in his powerful, decidedly Brahmsian Seventh. In the Eighth, his ‘new way’ took him not towards greater Germanic tautness but rather to that of confident, free-flowing nationalist melody. That it was a manner that came easily to him as he worked in his country cottage in Vysoká in southern Bohemia during a contented autumn in 1889 is suggested by the fact that it was composed quickly; the first ideas were sketched on 26 August, work began on 6 September, and the piece was finished in short score on the 23rd. The orchestration was completed on 8 November. ‘Melodies simply pour out of me’, he had written to a friend on 10 August as he worked on his Second Piano Quartet. In the Eighth the stream continued, yet at every turn is directed by Dvořák with unobtrusive formal skill. The Symphony is described as being in G major, so when it opens with a slow and serious cello melody in the minor, the feel is of its being an introduction. Yet neither the subsequent chirrupy major-key flute tune, nor the hymn-like melody that appears on violas and cellos after the first orchestral climax, seem to have the harmonic stability or sheer longevity to be ‘conventional’ main themes. In fact all three, though elusive, are significant, perhaps the ‘introductory’ one most of all; it reappears in a generous re-statement in more or less its original form to inaugurate the central development section, at the

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Symphony No. 8 in G major, Op. 88 1 Allegro con brio 2 Adagio 3 Allegretto grazioso – Molto vivace 4 Allegro ma non troppo

height of which it blares out on trumpets. It is then left to the flute theme, now sounded on cor anglais, to begin the process of recapitulation. The second-movement Adagio was characterised by the writer Alec Robertson as ‘a miniature tone-poem of Czech village life described by a highly sensitive man’. That sensitivity is evident in constant subtle majorminor shadings, at their most haunting in the way that the sleepy bird-calls of the flutes are answered by melancholy sighs from clarinets and strings. They are sighs, furthermore, that frequently deepen into a pain which not even two appearances of an altogether sunnier section in the major can banish. The scherzo is relaxed by Dvořák into a pair of delicately lilting waltzes, a minor-key one of typically melodic grace and charm heard twice, enclosing a major-key counterpart whose melody the composer borrowed from his early opera Tvrdé palice (‘The Stubborn Lovers’), and which returns in a speeded up duple-time version to make a coda. Dvořák chose a theme and variations to end the Symphony, though once again his treatment of it is imaginative. The theme itself is not the trumpet fanfare with which it opens but the broad melody that follows, and whose kinship to the first movement is obvious. What follows might seem like a loose sequence of variations, free transitional and developmental passages and at least one new tune, were it not lightly spread with such structural reinforcers as prominent returns of the main theme and the noisy, horn trill-ignited second variation. Towards the end the music winds down until nearly static, before a rumbustious coda based on the second variation rushes the movement to its end. Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp

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 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 British American Business Carter-Ruck Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP Charles Russell Speechlys 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 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 The Idlewild Trust 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 Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Spain in London Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust Polish Cultural Institute in London PRS for Music Foundation Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Romanian Cultural Institute 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 The Viney Family Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous

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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