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
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Saturday 21 March 2015 | 7.30pm
Prokofiev Chout (excerpts) (16’) Magnus Lindberg Piano Concerto No. 2 (UK premiere) (30’) Interval Stravinsky Petrushka (1911 version) (34’)
Contents 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 14 15 16
Welcome LPO 2014/15 season On stage tonight About the Orchestra Leader: Pieter Schoeman Vladimir Jurowski Yefim Bronfman Programme notes Supporters Sound Futures donors LPO administration
The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.
Vladimir Jurowski conductor Yefim Bronfman piano
Free pre-concert event 6.15pm–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Dame Monica Mason, former Director of the Royal Ballet, discusses the Golden Age of Russian Ballet.
* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation † supported by Neil Westreich CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Welcome
Welcome to Southbank Centre We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance. Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete, Feng Sushi and Topolski, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery. If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250, or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk We look forward to seeing you again soon.
London Philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season LPO Premieres Welcome to this evening’s concert at Royal Festival Hall featuring the UK premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 performed by Yefim Bronfman. The Orchestra strenuously promotes new music, having recently given the world premiere of Julian Anderson’s work for solo violin and orchestra, In lieblicher Bläue, and will present another world premiere, that of James Horner’s new work for four horns, on Friday 27 March. To book and find out more visit lpo.org.uk/whats-on-and-tickets.
More Piano Concertos with the LPO at Royal Festival Hall Wednesday 25 March 2015 | 7.30pm
A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium. LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance. RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre. Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended. MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.
Mozart Symphony No. 36 (Linz) Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 1 (final version) Dvořák Symphony No. 8 Ilyich Rivas conductor | Dmitry Mayboroda piano Part of Rachmaninoff: Inside Out
Wednesday 15 April 2015 | 7.30pm Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 Bruckner Symphony No. 4 (Romantic) (Nowak Edition) Robin Ticciati conductor Javier Perianes* piano Please note change of advertised artist 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.
2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
On stage tonight
First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by an anonymous donor 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 Yang Zhang Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Alina Petrenko Galina Tanney Elizabeth Pigram
Violas Jon Thorne Guest Principal Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter Laura Vallejo Isabel Pereira Naomi Holt Daniel Cornford Sarah Malcolm Martin Fenn
Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Jenny Brittlebank Rachel Ingleton Sue Böhling*
Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† David Lale Elisabeth Wiklander Sue Sutherley Helen Rathbone Tom Roff Sibylle Hentschel
E-flat Clarinet Thomas Watmough Principal
Second Violins Philippe Honore Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller Nancy Elan Lorenzo Gentili-Tedeschi Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Floortje Gerritsen Dean Williamson Helena Nicholls Alison Strange
Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Tim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Richard Lewis Tom Walley Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Flutes Michael Cox Guest Principal Sue Thomas* Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE Julia Crowell Stewart McIlwham Piccolos Stewart McIlwham* Principal Julia Crowell
Cornets Nicholas Betts David Hilton Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton Matthew Lewis
Cor Anglais Sue Böhling* Principal Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Thomas Watmough Emily Meredith Paul Richards
Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal
Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal
Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport Keith Millar Sarah Mason James Bower Scott Lumsdaine Toby Kearney Feargus Brennan
Bassoons Michael Kaulartz Guest Principal Gareth Newman Emma Harding Simon Estell Contrabassoon Simon Estell Principal
Harps Rachel Masters* Principal Lucy Haslar
Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison
Piano Catherine Edwards Celeste John Alley
Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann Nicholas Betts Co-Principal
* 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 supporter whose player is not present at this concert: Sonja Drexler London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Full marks to the London Philharmonic for continuing to offer the most adventurous concerts in London. The Financial Times, 14 April 2014 The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic and forward-looking ensembles in the UK. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, releases CDs on its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and community groups. The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. It has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is currently the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007. From September 2015 Andrés Orozco-Estrada will take up the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence. The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since the Hall’s opening in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 30 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and
4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
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.
© Patrick Harrison
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
Vladimir Jurowski Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor
Jurowski seems to have reached the magic state when he can summon a packed house to hear anything he conducts with the LPO, however unfamiliar.
© Thomas Kurek
Geoff Brown, The Arts Desk, February 2015
One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow and studied at the Music Academies of 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 Principal Conductor in 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 previously 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). He is a regular guest with many leading orchestras in both Europe and North America, including the Berlin, New York and St Petersburg Philharmonic orchestras; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; The Philadelphia Orchestra; The Cleveland Orchestra; the Boston, San Francisco and Chicago symphony orchestras; and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
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His opera engagements have included Rigoletto, Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades, Hansel and Gretel and Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opéra national de Paris; Eugene Onegin at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and numerous operas at Glyndebourne including Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Cunning Little Vixen, Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons, and Ariadne auf Naxos. lpo.org.uk/about/jurowski
Explore the LPO’s current season with Vladimir Jurowski: lpo.org.uk/whats-on/season14-15.html
Yefim Bronfman piano
What made time pass quickly was Mr Bronfman’s astonishing performance. He mastered every challenge.
© Dario Acosta
Anthony Tommasini, The New York Times, May 2012 review of world premiere of Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2
Yefim Bronfman is widely regarded as one of the most talented virtuoso pianists performing today winning consistent critical and public acclaim. This season’s highlights include performances in the US with the symphony orchestras of Chicago (with whom he also appears in Carnegie Hall), St Louis and Dallas, and the New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras. His commitment to contemporary composers included the world premiere of a concerto written for him by Jörg Widmann with the Berlin Philharmonic last December as well as tonight’s performance of Magnus Lindberg’s Concerto No. 2, which he has also performed with the Gothenburg Symphony. After a break of many years, he will return to Japan for recitals and orchestral concerts with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen. He will also tour Asia and Australia. In the spring he will join Anne-Sophie Mutter and Lynn Harrell for their first US tour together. Yefim Bronfman works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, including Daniel Barenboim, Herbert Blomstedt, Christoph von Dohnányi, Charles Dutoit, Christoph Eschenbach and Valery Gergiev. Summer engagements have regularly taken him to the major festivals of Europe and the US. He has given numerous solo recitals in the leading halls of North America, Europe and the Far East, including acclaimed debuts at Carnegie Hall in 1989 and Avery Fisher Hall in 1993. In 1991 he was awarded the prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest honours given to American instrumentalists. In 2010 he was honoured as the recipient of the Jean Gimbel
Lane prize in piano performance from Northwestern University. Widely praised for his solo, chamber and orchestral recordings, he was nominated for a 2009 Grammy® Award for his Deutsche Grammophon recording of Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Piano Concerto with Salonen conducting. His most recent CD releases are the 2014 Grammy® nominated Magnus Lindberg Piano Concerto No. 2 performed by the New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert on the Da Capo label, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Mariss Jansons and the Bayerischer Rundfunk, a recital disc, Perspectives, complementing Yefim Bronfman’s designation as a Carnegie Hall ‘Perspectives’ artist for the 2007-08 season. Born in Tashkent in the former Soviet Union in 1958, Yefim Bronfman immigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, where he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the US, he studied at The Juilliard School, Marlboro and the Curtis Institute, and with Rudolf Firkusny, Leon Fleisher and Rudolf Serkin. Yefim Bronfman became an American citizen in July 1989.
yefimbronfman.com Yefim Bronfman performing Bach, revealing his pianistic virtuosity and incredibly moving musicality when still a teenager. bit.ly/1wLO1tH
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7
Programme notes
Speedread In April 1915 in Milan, Sergei Diaghilev, the impresario of the touring Ballets Russes, brought together two of the leading young Russian composers of the day, Igor Stravinsky and Sergei Prokofiev. The two composers played a piano duet version of Stravinsky’s Petrushka, the ballet he had written for Diaghilev in 1911, in which puppets come to life and enact scenes of jealousy and murder against the vividly depicted background of the Shrovetide Fair in St Petersburg. Stravinsky and Diaghilev urged Prokofiev to concentrate on Russian subject-matter, and Stravinsky lent Prokofiev a collection of Russian folk tales. It was on some of these tales that Prokofiev based his ballet Chout, eventually performed by the Ballets Russes in 1921, a knockabout story of a ‘buffoon’ who plays profitable tricks on all around him.
Sergei Prokofiev 1891–1953
Chout – properly Skazka pro shuta, or ‘The Tale of the Buffoon’ – was Prokofiev’s second attempt at writing a ballet score for the touring Ballets Russes. The first, the ‘primitive’ Ala and Lolli, had been commissioned in 1914 by the company’s impresario Sergei Diaghilev, but then rejected by him the following year after he had heard Prokofiev play his sketches. Instead, at a meeting in Milan in April 1915 also attended by Stravinsky, Diaghilev urged Prokofiev to find a subject from Russian folklore. Stravinsky gave Prokofiev a copy of Afanasiev’s collection of folk tales, and from a group of these stories Diaghilev and Prokofiev devised a scenario for a ballet in six scenes about the traditional character of the
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In tonight’s programme, excerpts from the Suite that Prokofiev drew from Chout and the original, lavishly scored, version of Petrushka frame the UK premiere of a recent work by the LPO’s new Composer in Residence, Magnus Lindberg. His Piano Concerto No. 2 was written towards the end of his previous residency with the New York Philharmonic, and was first performed in New York in May 2012, with the virtuoso solo part taken, as tonight, by Yefim Bronfman. One reviewer wrote that ‘it took all of [Bronfman’s] technique and stamina to dispatch this monster concerto, a surging, mercurial 32-minute work in three contrasting sections that unfold continuously’.
Chout – ballet suite, Op. 21bis: excerpts 1 4 9 10 12
The Buffoon and his Wife The Buffoon as a Young Woman The Young Woman has become a Goat Fifth Entr’acte and Burial of the Goat Final Dance
buffoon. Prokofiev drafted the score the same year, but it was then shelved while the company was in abeyance during the First World War. In 1920, by which time he had left post-Revolutionary Russia for the USA, Prokofiev made substantial revisions to the score at Diaghilev’s suggestion, in particular adding entr’actes between the scenes so that the work could play continuously. Chout was first performed in Paris in May 1921, and repeated in London the following month, on both occasions with the composer conducting. The ballet, nearly an hour long in its final form, did not hold a place in the repertoire. But Prokofiev had fashioned a concert Suite from it, which received its first performance in Brussels
in 1924. However, at about 35 minutes this was also an awkward length for programming, so Prokofiev indicated that conductors could make a selection from its 12 movements. The ballet, and with it the first movement of the Suite, begins with an introduction that establishes the work’s prevailing character, brittle and grotesque. Snatches of Russian-sounding melody and busy chromatic scales depict ‘The Buffoon and his Wife’: she is washing the floor, while he is sitting on the stove and devising a plot. They are expecting a visit from seven other Buffoons; when they come, he will pretend to kill her and then to bring her back to life with three strokes of a whip. They laugh at the plan. The seven Buffoons arrive, the plot is enacted, and as planned the Buffoons offer to buy the ‘magic’ whip at an exorbitant price. But when they get home and try it out, they kill their wives and cannot revive them. Seeking revenge, they return to the Buffoon’s house, but find only ‘The Buffoon as a Young Woman’: a girl, or so she seems, sitting and spinning calmly, who says she is the Buffoon’s sister. The Buffoons carry ‘her’ off, weeping, to be their cook.
When a rich Merchant comes to visit the Buffoons, in search of a wife among their seven daughters, his eye is caught instead by the cook. In the bridal chamber on the wedding night, the ‘bride’ professes not to feel well, and asks to be lowered out of the window on a sheet. But when the Merchant hauls the sheet back up again, thanks to another piece of trickery ‘The Young Woman has become a Goat’. The Merchant calls for help to break the apparent spell; but when his servants arrive, they shake the goat until it is dead. The Fifth Entr’acte, harking back to the themes of the Buffoon and the arrival of the goat, is followed by the solemn music for the ‘Burial of the Goat’. The Buffoon arrives, now in his own clothes and accompanied by seven soldiers, and accuses the Merchant of murdering his sister. The Merchant offers him a generous sum in compensation. In the accelerating ‘Final Dance’, the Buffoon and his wife celebrate, while the seven soldiers make merry with the seven Buffoons’ daughters.
New on the LPO label: Eschenbach conducts Messiaen’s Des canyons aux étoiles Messiaen Des canyons aux étoiles Christoph Eschenbach conductor Tzimon Barto piano | John Ryan horn Andrew Barclay xylorimba | Erika Öhman glockenspiel London Philharmonic Orchestra ‘An extraordinary achievement ... the playing of the LPO is exemplary, with special plaudits for the horn playing of John Ryan.’ LPO–0083
Andrew McGregor, BBC Radio 3 CD Review, February 2015 Available on iPlayer until 27 March bbc.co.uk/programmes/b053zr20
Available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets Available to download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and others.
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Programme notes continued
Magnus Lindberg: LPO’s Composer in Residence Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer in Residence from the beginning of the 2014/15 season. As well as this evening’s UK premiere of his Second Piano Concerto, the Orchestra performed the world premiere of Accused, with soprano Barbara Hannigan in January. Lindberg will also play an active role in the Orchestra’s education activities, mentoring the four participants on the LPO Young Composers scheme. He will also conduct the annual Debut Sounds concert on 10 June 2015. Lindberg was born in Helsinki in 1958. Following piano studies, he entered the Sibelius Academy where his composition teachers included Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen. His compositional breakthrough came with two large-scale works, Action–Situation– Signification (1982) and Kraft (1983–85), which were inextricably linked with his founding with Esa-Peka Salonen of the experimental Toimii Ensemble. Lindberg was Composer in Residence of the New York Philharmonic between 2009 and 2012, with new works including the concert-opener EXPO premiered to launch Alan Gilbert’s tenure as the orchestra’s Music Director, Al Largo for orchestra, Souvenir for ensemble, and Piano Concerto No. 2 premiered by Yefim Bronfman in 2012. Lindberg’s music has been recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Ondine, Da Capo and Finlandia labels. He is published by Boosey & Hawkes. Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes
Yefim Bronfman and Alan Gilbert , New York Philharmonic Music Director discuss Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 bit.ly/1KxU2jv
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Magnus Lindberg
Piano Concerto No. 2 (UK premiere) Yefim Bronfman piano
born 1958
Magnus Lindberg’s Piano Concerto No. 2 was commissioned by the New York Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam and Gothenburg Symphony. The New York Philharmonic performed the world premiere in May 2012 at the Lincoln Center, New York with Yefim Bronfman, conducted by Alan Gilbert. The composer spoke about his work to David Allenby, a representative of his publishers, Boosey & Hawkes. Twenty years have passed since your first piano concerto. What prompted a return to the genre? I always had in mind the idea of returning to write another piano concerto, but I was first occupied with a series of concertos for other instruments: cello, clarinet and violin. It was when I got to know pianist Yefim Bronfman in New York that things came together. It seemed the ideal situation that the work should be the last major commission under my residency with the New York Philharmonic, as I wanted to write a half hour concerto with full symphony orchestra and I had got to know Yefim’s special pianistic world and the players in the orchestra. Your first piano concerto explored the French sensibility of Ravel and Debussy: is this the territory of your second? The First Concerto was written for Paul Crossley, an outstanding exponent of the music of Ravel, Debussy and Messiaen, so those composers inevitably shaped that soundworld. Yefim Bronfman also plays French music, but is equally associated with the more muscular works of Bartók and Prokofiev and the Romanticism of Rachmaninoff, so the Second Concerto needed to have wider-ranging roots. If the First Concerto looks to Ravel’s G major Concerto, the second is closer in spirit
to his Left Hand Concerto. I also wanted the new work to survey my own pianistic experience, from Kraft in the mid-80s through Related Rocks to the present. How does being a pianist yourself influence your writing? For me, writing for the piano is a direct, physical activity. So, I didn’t want to approach the work in an abstract way, almost ignoring the characteristics of the instrument. The span of the piano repertoire is overwhelming compared to other instruments and comes with a lot of baggage. I worked through a lot of styles when performing as a pianist, including ten years playing in a keyboard duo, and had to get to grips with pieces by Cage, Stockhausen, Berio and Zimmermann. I don’t believe it is easy or even fruitful any more for a composer to invent a completely new universe for the instrument but, rather, the complexity of pianistic history needs to be absorbed into a personal language. I’ve tried to achieve this, not through post-modern stylehopping, but rather through a structure that creates a tension between different modes of expression. What is the relationship between the soloist and the orchestra? In my first piano concerto, the constellation of possible relationships is explored, so in the first movement there is a traditional classical dialogue, in the second an extreme opposition between soloist and orchestra, and in the third the orchestra wins the battle subsuming the soloist into becoming an orchestral instrument. However, as I’ve progressed through the cello, clarinet and violin concertos I’ve developed a much less rigid approach. In the new concerto, the piano leads with its own world and the interaction with the orchestra is more about how the material itself is communicated.
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Programme notes continued
How does the soloist’s material reflect the piano’s unusual ability to cover both the vertical and horizontal dimensions? Of all instruments, the piano can provide everything without the need of the orchestra: chords and melodies, percussive and lyrical writing. So it is definitely the leading voice, stating material or providing rapid passage work, with the orchestra in pursuit. An extreme case of this would be the Lisztian idea of the concerto, but I haven’t gone that far. I haven’t sought extreme virtuosity as an ambition for the solo part, but rather hope the virtuosity is transmitted instead through the music as a whole. As in the Ravel Left Hand Concerto, where there are only eight minutes of tutti in the entire work, I haven’t been afraid to let the soloist play alone. When together, I’ve had to be careful of balance with such a large orchestra, making sure the solo texture is differentiated from that of the ensemble. How does the concerto relate to traditional threemovement expectations? Though the concerto runs continuously, there
are three clear sections, which evolved naturally during composition. The first presents everything in expository fashion, the second is a contrasting slow movement with cadenza, and the third is a more direct, straightforward finale. The sections are bound together because they all use the same material, but the later movements are not traditional variations of the first. As in the Clarinet Concerto you’ll hear recognisable, exclamatory motives, almost like characters in a drama. The tension and structure comes from the journeys and points of arrival and departure, with blurs and blends of identity as I explored in GRAFFITI. Do you have any plans to add the new concerto to your repertoire, as you did with the first? When I wrote the first piano concerto I had no plans to perform it, but then ten years later I accepted the challenge and took a taste of my own medicine. It’s the same here. Who knows what happens in the future perhaps I may come to regret making it so demanding! That’s why, at present, I’m more than happy to have it safely under the expert fingers of Yefim Bronfman.
Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.
Igor Stravinsky 1882–1971
Petrushka is the central panel in the great triptych of large-scale ballets on Russian subjects that Stravinsky composed in the years before the First World War. It was first performed by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes at the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris in June 1911, and soon became one of the most successful pieces in the company’s repertoire. The score had begun life the previous year as a sketch for a concert piece for piano and orchestra, already inspired by the ballet’s central idea of a puppet endowed with life. Diaghilev
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Piano Petrushka: Concerto burlesque No. 3 in inDfour minor, scenes Op. 30 (1911 version) Simon Trpčeski piano
Scene I: The Shrovetide Fair – 1 Allegro non tanto Scene II: Inma Petrushka’s Cell – 2 Intermezzo: Scene III: In theAdagio Moor’s –Cell – 3 Finale: AllaShrovetide breve Scene IV: The Fair (evening)
seized on the theatrical possibilities of the subject, and encouraged Stravinsky to develop the work as a ballet, set at the Shrovetide Fair in the home city of both men, St Petersburg. The detailed scenario was drawn up by the composer in collaboration with the artist and designer Alexandre Benois, another native of St Petersburg and a lover of the puppet theatre. The choreographer was Mikhail Fokine, and the title role was danced by the legendary Vaclav Nijinsky.
The score is one of Stravinsky’s most colourful and wide-ranging. It incorporates several Russian folk songs and a French music-hall tune in the outer scenes, and two waltz melodies by the Viennese composer Joseph Lanner in Scene III. These give the work a distinctively popular flavour, without compromising Stravinsky’s individual style at the time. Harmonically, this is based firmly on the common chord, though with untraditional accretions and superimpositions – as in Petrushka’s doleful fanfare, which consists of simultaneous arpeggios of C major and F sharp major. Rhythmically, the score is full of life, but with longer stretches of regular dance rhythms and fewer rapid changes of metre than in The Rite of Spring of two years later. Formally, the most remarkable feature of the work is its continuity, which imitates the then new medium of film in its use of musical ‘jump cuts’ and ‘dissolves’. In 1946, Stravinsky made a revised version of the score, substantially reducing the original very large orchestra (for example, from quadruple to triple woodwind) and enhancing the prominent role played by the piano. At the same time, he simplified some of the rhythmic notation, and added counter-melodies – with the intention, writers on the composer have suggested, of adding interest to concert performances at the expense of the theatrical directness of the original version. The revision is widely played, but tonight’s performance is of the 1911 original. The first of the four scenes is set on Admiralty Square in St Petersburg on a bright winter’s day in the 1830s. The Shrovetide Fair is in full swing, with merry-makers moving tipsily among the crowds. Two rival street musicians, each accompanied by a dancer, set up in competition, one playing a barrel organ and the other a music box. The revelry is interrupted by thunderous drumming from a little theatre booth, heralding the entrance of an old Showman. He plays a magical flute cadenza which brings to life his three puppets, the sad-faced Petrushka, a Ballerina, and a Moor. After performing a ‘Russian Dance’ in their booth, they step out into the crowd, to general amazement. More drumming, offstage in the theatre, links the scenes – the second of which is set in the modest cell occupied by Petrushka. Having been given human feelings by the Showman’s magic, he is bitterly aware of his ugliness and his dependence on his master. He has feelings of love for the Ballerina; but when she comes
into the cell, she is dismayed by his uncouth behaviour, and soon leaves. In despair, he curses the Showman. The third scene is set in the much more luxurious quarters of the stupid and self-satisfied Moor. He in turn is visited by the Ballerina, who dances alone, cornet in hand, and then waltzes with him. The jealous Petrushka interrupts their love scene, and is unceremoniously thrown out by the Moor. The final scene takes place at the Shrovetide Fair on the evening of the same day. Among the crowds are a group of wet-nurses, a peasant playing a shrill pipe for a performing bear, a rich merchant who accompanies two dancing gypsy girls on the accordion, a group of coachmen and stable-boys, later joined by the wetnurses, and a party of masqueraders, who induce the crowd to dance with them. The dance is interrupted by a scuffle breaking out behind the scenes of the Showman’s booth; the Moor chases Petrushka out into the open and strikes him down with his scimitar. Petrushka dies in the midst of the astonished crowd. A policeman fetches the Showman, who reassuringly demonstrates that Petrushka is a mere thing of wood and sawdust. But as night falls and the crowd disperses, the Showman is startled to see the ghost of Petrushka mocking him from the roof of the booth. Programme notes (except Lindberg) © Anthony Burton
Recommended recordings of tonight’s works Prokofiev: Chout – Ballet Suite Royal Scottish National Orchestra / Neeme Järvi [Chandos] Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 2 Yefim Bronfman / New York Philharmonic Orchestra/ Alan Gilbert [Dacapo] Stravinsky: Petrushka London Philharmonic Orchestra / Bernard Haitink [Philips]
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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 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 Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook David Ellen Mr Daniel Goldstein Drs Frank & Gek Lim 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 Laurence Watt 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 Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Peter Mace 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 Simon Turner Howard & Sheelagh Watson 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 BTO Management Consulting AG 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
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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 London Stock Exchange Group Foundation 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 The Radcliffe Trust Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust RVW Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Romanian Cultural Institute Schroder Charity Trust Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter 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
Sound Futures Donors We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to Sound Futures, which will establish our first ever endowment. Donations from those below have already been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. By May 2015 we aim to have raised £1 million which, when matched, will create a £2 million fund supporting our Education and Community Programme, our creative programming and major artistic projects at Southbank Centre. We thank those who are helping us to realise the vision. Masur Circle Arts Council England Dunard Fund Victoria Robey OBE Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Underwood Trust Welser-Möst Circle William & Alex de Winton John Ireland Charitable Trust The Tsukanov Family Foundation Neil Westreich Tennstedt Circle Richard Buxton Simon Robey Simon & Vero Turner The late Mr K Twyman Solti Patrons Ageas John & Manon Antoniazzi Georgy Djaparidze Mrs Mina Goodman and Miss Suzanne Goodman Mr James R D Korner Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski The Rothschild Foundation Haitink Patrons Dr Christopher Aldren Mark & Elizabeth Adams Mrs Pauline Baumgartner Lady Jane Berrill Mr Frederick Brittenden David & Yi Yao Buckley Gill & Garf Collins Mr John H Cook Bruno de Kegel Mr Gavin Graham
Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Karima & David G Mr Daniel Goldstein Mr Derek B Gray Mr Roger Greenwood Mr J Douglas Home Honeymead Arts Trust Mrs Dawn Hooper Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Mr Geoffrey Kirkham Peter Leaver Wg Cdr & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Drs Frank & Gek Lim Peter Mace Mr David Macfarlane Geoff & Meg Mann Dr David McGibney Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner John Montgomery Rosemary Morgan Paris Natar Mr Roger H C Pattison The late Edmund Pirouet Mr Michael Posen Sarah & John Priestland Mr Christopher Queree Mr Alan Sainer Tim Slorick Pritchard Donors Lady Valerie Solti Ralph and Elizabeth Aldwinckle Timothy Walker AM Michael and Linda Blackstone Laurence Watt Conrad Blakey OBE Mr R Watts Dr Anthony Buckland Christopher Williams Business Events Sydney Peter Wilson Smith Lady June Chichester John Childress & Christiane Wuillamie Victoria Yanakova Mr Anthony Yolland Paul Collins Mr Alistair Corbett And all other donors who wish to Mr David Edgecombe remain anonymous David Ellen Moya Greene Mrs Dorothy Hambleton Tony and Susie Hayes Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle Mrs Philip Kan Rose and Dudley Leigh Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons Miss Jeanette Martin Duncan Matthews QC Diana and Allan Morgenthau Charitable Trust Dr Karen Morton Mr Roger Phillimore Ruth Rattenbury The Reed Foundation Sir Bernard Rix David Ross and Line Forestier (Canada) Carolina & Martin Schwab Tom and Phillis Sharpe Dr Brian Smith Mr & Mrs G Stein Dr Peter Stephenson Miss Anne Stoddart TFS Loans Limited Lady Marina Vaizey Ms Jenny Watson Guy & Utti Whittaker
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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
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London Philharmonic Orchestra 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 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 Magnus Lindberg courtesy of Boosey & Hawkes. Photographs of Prokofiev and Stravinsky courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.
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