London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 19 March 2014 by London Philharmonic Orchestra

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 19 March 2014 | 7.30pm

Mozart Symphony No. 38 (Prague) (23’) R Strauss Burleske (20’) Interval J S Bach Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052 (24’) R Strauss Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration) (24’)

David Zinman conductor Emanuel Ax piano

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Programme £3 Contents 2 Welcome LPO 2014/15 season 3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader 6 David Zinman 7 Emanuel Ax 8 Programme notes 12 Next concerts 13 Orchestra news 14 Catalyst: Double Your Donation 15 Supporters 16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

This concert is being broadcast live by the BBC on Radio 3 Live In Concert – live concerts every day of the week. Listen online in HD Sound for 7 days at bbc.co.uk/radio3

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.

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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 Pieter Schoeman* Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

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

Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Grace Lee Galina Tanney Caroline Frenkel Ishani Bhoola Robert Yeomans Catherine van de Geest Second Violins Emily Davis 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 Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Alison Strange Ksenia Berezina

Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt Alistair Scahill Daniel Cornford Miriam Eisele Linda Kidwell Cellos Josephine Knight Guest Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† David Lale Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Elisabeth Wiklander Tom Roff Helen Rathbone Double Basses Tim Gibbs Principal George Peniston Richard Lewis Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Tom Walley Jeremy Watt Catherine Ricketts

Flutes Liset Pennings Guest Principal Sue Thomas* Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Stewart McIlwham*

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal

Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Ilid Jones

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal

Cor Anglais Sue Böhling Principal Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Emily Meredith Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal Bassoons Gareth Newman* Principal Emma Harding Contrabassoon Simon Estell Principal Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Harps Rachel Masters* Principal Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Emma Ramsdale * Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

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. We welcome 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

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 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.

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.

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.

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.

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

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. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

David Zinman conductor

David Zinman’s career has been distinguished by his extraordinarily broad repertoire, his strong commitment to the performance of contemporary music, and his introduction of historically informed performance practice. 2013/14 is his final season as Music Director of the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich. David Zinman has conducted all the leading North American orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, the Chicago and Boston symphony orchestras, and the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras. His European engagements have included the Berlin Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the London Philharmonic, London Symphony and Philharmonia orchestras, and the hr-Sinfonieorchester, Munich Philharmonic and WDR Sinfonieorchester. A highlight of David’s final season with the TonhalleOrchester Zürich is a tour to Japan next month; this follows his successful return last season to the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo, with whom he has an ongoing relationship. This season he also has European engagements with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre de Paris, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, North German Radio Symphony and Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestras. He also continues his regular relationship with the New York Philharmonic, with whom he appears each season, and appears with the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood. David Zinman’s extensive discography of more than 100 recordings has earned him numerous international honours including five Grammy Awards, two Grand Prix du Disque, two Edison Prizes, the Deutsche Schallplattenpreis and a Gramophone Award. He was also the 1997 recipient of the prestigious Ditson Award from Columbia University in recognition of his exceptional commitment to the performance of works by American composers.

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David Zinman and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich have most recently released a disc entitled Wagner in Switzerland, as well as collaborating with violinist Julia Fisher and Decca Classics for the Bruch and Dvořák concertos. Recently completed cycles with the orchestra include Schubert, Brahms and Mahler, all of which were highly acclaimed; the Mahler Symphony No. 8 disc receiving a 2011 ECHO Klassik Award. Together they have also recorded the Schumann symphonies and Strauss orchestral works, as well as a Beethoven cycle, which sold over a million copies. David Zinman, who studied conducting with Pierre Monteux, has held positions as Music Director of the Rotterdam, Rochester and Baltimore symphony orchestras and Principal Conductor of the Netherlands Chamber Orchestra. He was also Music Director of the Aspen Music Festival and School, and its American Academy of Conducting, for 13 years. In 2000 the French Ministry of Culture awarded David Zinman the title of Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres, and in 2002 the City of Zürich Art Prize was awarded to him for his outstanding artistic efforts, making him the first conductor and the first non-Swiss recipient of this award. More recently, he received the prestigious Thomas Theodore Award in recognition of outstanding achievement and extraordinary service to one’s colleagues in advancing the art and science of conducting. In 2008 he won the MIDEM Classical Artist of the Year Award for his work with the TonhalleOrchester Zürich.

Emanuel Ax

piano

Born in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with his family when he was a young boy. His studies at The Juilliard School were supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of America, and he subsequently won the Young Concert Artists Award. He also attended Columbia University, where he majored in French. He captured public attention in 1974 when he won the first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Competition in Tel Aviv and in 1979 he won the coveted Avery Fisher Prize in New York. Emanuel Ax has been an exclusive Sony Classical artist since 1987. His notable recordings include the Grammy Award-winning albums of Haydn piano sonatas, and Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for cello and piano

INGOLF WUNDER

NIKOLAI LUGANSKY

CRISTINA ORTIZ Masterclass

KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI

Thursday 20 March

Sunday 23 March

MAURIZIO POLLINI Wednesday 2 April

FEDERICO COLLI Tuesday 22 April

SERGIO TIEMPO Tuesday 29 April

Wednesday 14 May

In recent years, Emanuel Ax has turned his attention to the music of 20th-century composers, giving premieres of works by John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Krzysztof Penderecki, Bright Sheng and Melinda Wagner. He is also devoted to chamber music and has worked regularly with such artists as Young Uck Kim, Cho-Liang Lin, Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Peter Serkin, Jaime Laredo and the late Isaac Stern. Emanuel Ax lives in New York with his wife, the pianist Yoko Nozaki, and their two children, Joseph and Sarah. He is a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and holds honorary doctorates of music from Yale and Columbia universities.

Khatia Buniatishvili © Julia Wesely

International Piano Series Spring 2014

with Yo-Yo Ma. Recent releases feature Mendelssohn’s trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Itzhak Perlman, Strauss’s Enoch Arden narrated by Patrick Stewart, and discs of twopiano music by Brahms and Rachmaninoff with Yefim Bronfman. His other recordings include the concertos of Liszt, Schoenberg, Chopin and Brahms; the premiere recording of John Adams’s Century Rolls with The Cleveland Orchestra (for Nonesuch); three solo Brahms albums; and an album of tangos by Piazzolla.

Wednesday 4 June international piano series 2014/15 on sale now SAVE UP TO 20% WHEN YOU BOOK MULTIPLE CONCERTS TICKETS 0844 847 9929 SOUTHBANKCENTRE.CO.UK

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

Programme notes

Speedread Two of tonight’s works received their premieres in the same concert, yet represent different stages in the career of their one composer, Richard Strauss. Burleske was already four years old when Strauss conducted its premiere in Eisenach in 1890, and closed the apprenticeship years of a naturally brilliant composer still discovering what suited him best; while the more newly minted Death and Transfiguration was the second in the sequence of outstandingly imaginative works in the genre in which he would become acknowledged as a master – the tone-poem.

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

The other two works tonight are also ‘new starts’ of a kind: in 1786 Mozart had been writing symphonies for over 20 years, but the ‘Prague’ was the first of a final group of four in which he raised the intellectual and emotional scope of the symphony to new levels; and Bach’s D minor Concerto is one of a compact body of compositions in which he achieved nothing less than the creation of the keyboard concerto, soon to become one of the most popular of orchestral genres.

Symphony No. 38 in D major, K504 (Prague) 1 Adagio – Allegro 2 Andante 3 Presto

1756–91

Because it was not one of the three great symphonies Mozart composed in the summer of 1788 (Nos. 39–41), the ‘Prague’ has not always received its due share of praise, yet it is a symphony fully worthy of comparison with those more famous early masterpieces of the genre, and one no less Mozartian or advanced for its time. Indeed, completed in December 1786 for the composer’s forthcoming trip to Prague, its level of sophistication is outstanding for a work that predates the first of Haydn’s London symphonies by five years, and may well have been composed in ignorance of his recent, state-of-the-art Paris set as well. In this one three-movement work we find examples of so many of the things Mozart had learned since his move to Vienna in 1781: the imaginative use of woodwind colours; the telling but thoroughly integrated use of counterpoint (recently heightened by a growing acquaintance with the music of Bach); and the easy assimilation into orchestral writing of ‘chamber’ textures whose mysteries he had conquered in, among other works, the six string quartets 8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

dedicated to Haydn. At the same time, there are clear links with Mozart’s operatic world: the shadow of the soon-to-be-created Commendatore, Don Giovanni’s nemesis, falls over the slow introduction’s minor-key outburst; the chattering counterpoint of the Allegro looks forward to the overture to The Magic Flute; and the finale recalls the versatile buffo atmosphere of The Marriage of Figaro, premiered in Vienna seven months earlier. The first movement is the real marvel of the ‘Prague’, the longest of any of Mozart’s symphonic movements and one of the most intellectually forceful too. The effort such a taut motivic structure demanded of its normally fluent composer is attested by the survival of an unusual number of sketches, but this is a movement in which a triumphant mixture of grandeur and lyricism casts out any suggestion that themes are being overworked. Everything seems natural and right, even in the tough contrapuntal battleground of the central development section. And, as so often in mature Mozart, there is emotional complexity and

ambiguity too, apparent in the major-minor shadings of the Adagio introduction and the Allegro’s second subject. The Andante may not strike the listener as being as profound as some other movements by Mozart, but again it is tinted with the subtlest of wind-colourings, and there are times when it achieves a strain of Schubertian poetry. In the finale dynamic contrast, lightness and quick-wittedness are the essential ingredients, allowing the Symphony to go out in a burst of energy.

Richard Strauss

Burleske Emanuel Ax piano

1864–1949

It is probable that not many people think of Strauss as a pianist, but in fact he was a highly accomplished one, despite a lack of formal conservatoire training. When, at the age of 21, he was surprisingly handed the opportunity to work as assistant conductor to Hans von Bülow at the Meiningen court orchestra, he also found himself getting opportunities as a piano soloist, and on one occasion performed Mozart’s C minor Concerto with new cadenzas of his own. Bülow himself was not only the foremost conductor of the day, but also one of the 19th century’s greatest pianistic lions, and it may well be this that encouraged Strauss to compose in 1885–86 a Scherzo for piano and orchestra. Alas, Bülow declared it ‘unplayable’ and Strauss, looking at it again, concluded for himself that it was ‘utter nonsense’ and put it aside. Four years later he had moved on from Meiningen and, more importantly, reached higher in the ranks of musical celebrity thanks to his growing reputation as a conductor and the triumphant premiere in January 1890 of the tone-poem Don Juan. Now

another virtuoso pianist, Eugen d’Albert, asked to see the Scherzo and this time the reaction was enthusiastic. Retitled Burleske, the work was premiered by d’Albert and Strauss at a concert in Eisenach on 21 June 1890. It is not unplayable, of course, and while Strauss himself was not always convinced of its quality, his only composition for piano and orchestra has gained in popularity as the years have passed. The pianowriting is Brahmsian almost to the point of parody, but the abiding impressions of this 20-minute work are of wit, sparkle and a touch of grotesquerie. It opens in the most unexpected way with a four-bar theme announced quietly by the timpani, followed soon after by braying laughs from orchestra and piano, and when this sequence is recapitulated later on Strauss teasingly re-orders its elements. Contrast is provided by slower waltz-like episodes at the heart of the work and again in the long coda, but even here playfulness is never far away.

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

Programme notes continued

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750

Bach’s keyboard concertos of the 1730s occupy an important position in the history of music. Not only were they probably the first compositions of their type, but their level of influence was boosted by the subsequent cultivation and dissemination of the genre by Bach’s sons. Yet none of them was originally composed for a keyboard instrument (which in Bach’s day would have been harpsichord), and it is unlikely that their composer had any specific intention of creating something new. All are transcriptions, made for performance at the gatherings of the Leipzig concert society that Bach took over in 1729, of concertos written for other instruments during his time as Kapellmeister to the Prince of Anhalt-Cöthen between 1717 and 1723. Quite simply, concertos were needed, and adapting older works – albeit with typically Bachian thoroughness – was probably the quickest way to do it. Whatever the composer’s intentions, the fact is that the keyboard concerto, non-existent in 1700, had become a firmly established presence by the time of his death 50 years later. The original versions of Bach’s keyboard concertos are sometimes clear enough – the violin concertos and the Fourth ‘Brandenburg’ all exist in keyboard form – but for most, the identity of the original solo instrument can only be conjectured. Some may have gone through several different incarnations, including adaptations as instrumental movements or even choruses in cantatas, and such a work is the D minor Concerto, BWV 1052. The keyboard concerto that survives today is possibly the second or third reworking of the original, generally thought to have been a violin concerto composed at Cöthen. (Reworkings of the first two movements, this time with organ solo – and, in the case of the Adagio, four-part chorus as well – also appear in a church cantata of 1728.) But nevertheless uncertainties remain: it has been suggested that a still-earlier version,

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Piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, BWV 1052 Emanuel Ax piano 1 Allegro 2 Adagio 3 Allegro

possibly for viola d’amore, may have been written during the composer’s time in Weimar (1708–17), while doubts have even been voiced about Bach’s authorship of the original work at all. This last proposition must be the hardest to swallow, for the evidence of one’s ears seems to suggest only one possible author. This is noble and powerful music, conceived on a scale that surely signals Bach’s hand. Its robust virtuosity, together with the undemonstrative but persistently demonic quality of the outer movements, as well as a brooding seriousness in the central one (in the cantata it accompanies words concerning entry into the Kingdom of God through tribulation), have long made it the most frequently performed of the Bach keyboard concertos.

Richard Strauss

Tod und Verklärung (Death and Transfiguration)

Burleske was not the only Strauss work premiered at that concert in Eisenach in 1890; also on the programme was his latest tone-poem, a bold depiction in music of the dying moments of an idealistic artist. Although on his own deathbed 60 years later Strauss remarked that ‘dying is just as I composed it in Tod und Verklärung’, he did not have himself in mind when he wrote the piece in 1888–9, just after Don Juan. But even if the original inspiration for the work is unknown, it is clear that it did have some personal significance for him; he later quoted from it in the more transparently autobiographical tone-poem Ein Heldenleben (‘A Hero’s Life’) and at the question ‘is this perhaps death?’ at the end of ‘Im Abendrot’ from the Four Last Songs.

the idealism theme rises to dominate the work’s radiant closing pages, reaching ever higher as the soul takes flight, ‘in order’, said Strauss, ‘to find gloriously achieved in everlasting space those things which could not be fulfilled here below’.

Tod und Verklärung is in sonata form with a slow introduction and a (significant) coda, and Strauss provided a detailed programme for it. At the beginning a sick man lies asleep, his faltering breathing represented by irregular rhythms on strings and timpani. A solo oboe leads off a section in which he is comforted by ‘agreeable dreams’ before a convulsive start to the main Allegro section of the work shows him wracked with pain and shivering with fear. Eventually the pains ease and a broad new theme is heard, characterised by an up-and-over octave leap; symbolic of the artist’s ideals, this is the theme Strauss re-used in those later works.

Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp

New for 2013/14 – LPO mini film guides This season we’ve produced a series of short films introducing the pieces we’re performing. We’ve picked one work from each concert, creating a bitesized introduction to the music and its historical background. Watch Patrick Bailey introduce Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html

In the central development section there are representations of the dying man’s memories of childhood, youthful exploits and a passionate love scene, while the idealism theme makes three differing and widely separated statements. After a while the music subsides along with the memories and we are returned to the fitful palpitations of the opening. A final stab of pain climaxes in kindly gong-strokes to signal the moment of death, but out of this darkness

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 26 March 2014 | 7.30pm

Saturday 12 April 2014 | 7.30pm

Poulenc Organ Concerto Berlioz Les nuits d’été Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (Organ)

Tansman Stèle in memoriam Igor Stravinsky Stravinsky Violin Concerto Górecki Symphony No. 4 (Tansman Episodes) (world premiere)

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Sarah Connolly mezzo soprano* James O’Donnell organ This concert is supported by Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française. * Sarah Connolly replaces Anna Caterina Antonacci for scheduling reasons.

Free pre-concert discussion 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall William McVicker and guests discuss the restoration of the Royal Festival Hall organ.

Friday 28 March 2014 | 7.30pm JTI Friday Series Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No. 1 Mahler Symphony No. 9 Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Nicholas Angelich piano

Wednesday 9 April 2014 | 7.30pm

Andrey Boreyko conductor Julian Rachlin violin Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Renowned Górecki expert, Professor Adrian Thomas, discusses the world premiere of Symphony No. 4.

Wednesday 16 April 2014 | 7.30pm Zimmermann Photoptosis Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Brahms Symphony No. 4 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Mitsuko Uchida piano Free pre-concert performance 6.00–6.45pm | 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 and Dance and local music services. Tonight’s performance of music written by the group is the culmination of their recent course.

Schumann Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No. 8 (Haas edition) Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor Renaud Capuçon violin

Booking details 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

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestra news

Glyndebourne Festival 2014 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. 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.

The Rest Is Noise wins Sky Arts Award We are delighted at the recent news that The Rest Is Noise, Southbank Centre’s 2013 festival of 20thcentury music, was awarded the South Bank Sky Arts Classical Award. As the major orchestral partner of The Rest Is Noise, the LPO dedicated our entire 2013 programme to chronologically charting some of the most influential works of the 20th century, whilst exploring the political and social contexts that gave rise to these great pieces. It was a truly exciting project to be a part of and we are thrilled with the news of the award.

Browse the full performance schedule and buy tickets online at glyndebourne.com or call the Box Office on 01273 813813.

New CD release: Carmina Burana

Forthcoming tours: Dortmund and Moscow

This month’s release 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 and soloists Sarah Tynan, Andrew Kennedy and Rodion Pogossov.

On Saturday 29 March the Orchestra will visit Dortmund in Germany with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and pianist Nicholas Angelich. There they will perform Mendelssohn’s Piano Concerto and Mahler’s Symphony No. 9, a repeat of the previous evening’s concert here at Royal Festival Hall.

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.

A few days later the Orchestra will travel to Moscow to give a performance of Britten’s War Requiem at the Tchaikovsky Concert Hall on 4 April, with international soloists Alexandrina Pendatchanska, Ian Bostridge and Matthias Goerne, as well as distinguished Russian choirs. The following evening, the Orchestra will accompany soloist Nicholas Angelich in Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2. The programme will also feature Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2. Both concerts will be conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. This LPO tour forms part of the UK-Russia Year of Culture, an initiative showcasing the best of each country’s cultural heritage during 2014.

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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 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 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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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 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 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 Don Kelly & Ann Wood 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 Ken Follett 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

Trusts and Foundations

Silver: AREVA UK Berenberg Bank British American Business Carter-Ruck Thomas Eggar LLP

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

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

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 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 Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

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

Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Sharp Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP Chief Executive Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director Finance David Burke General Manager and Finance Director David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager Concert Management

* Player-Director

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Advisory Council

Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager

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

Orchestra Personnel

Public Relations

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians (job-share)