Congress Theatre, Eastbourne 2013/14 season Concert programme
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
Brighton Dome Concert Hall Saturday 22 February 2014 | 7.30pm Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Sunday 23 February 2014 | 3.00pm
Berlioz Overture, Le Corsaire (9’) Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini (23’) Interval Brahms Symphony No. 2 in D major (39’)
Vasily Petrenko conductor Kirill Gerstein piano
The Steinway concert piano chosen and hired by the London Philharmonic Orchestra for these performances is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.
* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor CONCERTS PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN ASSOCIATION WITH BRIGHTON DOME AND EASTBOURNE BOROUGH COUNCIL
Programme £2.50 Contents 2 3 4 5 6 7 10 11 12
Welcome About the Orchestra On stage Vasily Petrenko Kirill Gerstein Programme notes Next concerts 2013/14 Eastbourne Appeal Supporters LPO administration
The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.
Saturday 22 February 2014
Sunday 23 February 2014
Welcome to Brighton Dome
Welcome to the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne
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. 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 22 February 2014 is presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with assistance from Brighton Dome.
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
2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Artistic Director Chris Jordan General Manager Gavin Davis
Welcome to this afternoon’s performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. We hope you enjoy the concert and your visit here. As a courtesy to others, please ensure mobile phones and watch alarms are switched off during the performance. Thank you. We are delighted and proud to have the London Philharmonic Orchestra reside at the Congress Theatre for the 17th year. Thank you, our audience, for continuing to support the concert series. Without you, these concerts would not be possible. We welcome comments from our customers. Should you wish to contribute, please speak to the House Manager on duty, email theatres@eastbourne.gov.uk or write to Gavin Davis, General Manager, Eastbourne Theatres, Compton Street, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 4BP.
London Philharmonic Orchestra
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, and since then its Principal Conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is the current 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 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 70 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; Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 with Bernard Haitink; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sarah Connolly and Toby Spence; and a disc of new works by the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson. In summer 2012 the Orchestra was invited to take part in The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, as well as being chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics.
The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives around inspiring the next generation through its BrightSparks 40 concerts each season. 2013/14 highlights include schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; a Britten centenary celebration with Vladimir the Leverhulme Young Jurowski including the War Composers programme; Requiem and Peter Grimes; and the Foyle Future world premieres of James Firsts orchestral MacMillan’s Viola Concerto Bachtrack.com training programme and Górecki’s Fourth 2 October 2013, Royal Festival Hall: Britten centenary concert for outstanding young Symphony; French repertoire players. Over recent with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; years, digital advances and social media have enabled and a stellar array of soloists including Evelyn Glennie, the Orchestra to reach even more people across the Mitsuko Uchida, Leif Ove Andsnes, Miloš Karadaglić, globe: all its recordings are available to download from Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Julia Fischer, iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel and regular Emanuel Ax and Simon Trpčeski. Throughout 2013 podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on the Orchestra collaborated with Southbank Centre on Facebook and Twitter. the year-long festival The Rest Is Noise, exploring the influential works of the 20th century. Find out more and get involved! The London Philharmonic Orchestra enjoys flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs lpo.org.uk regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, twitter.com/LPOrchestra performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide. Highlights of the 2013/14 season include visits to the USA, Romania, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, France and Spain.
The LPO are an orchestra on fire at the moment.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3
On stage
First Violins Igor Yuzefovich Guest Leader Ilyoung Chae Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett
Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler
Thomas Eisner Martin Höhmann Yang Zhang Galina Tanney Caroline Frenkel Ishani Bhoola Robert Yeomans Caroline Sharp Robert Pool* Anna Croad* Second Violins Victoria Sayles Guest Principal Joseph Maher Fiona Higham Ashley Stevens Nancy Elan Emma Wragg Sioni Williams Helena Nicholls Harry Kerr Stephen Stewart Nynke Hijlkema* Kate Birchall* Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller
Violas Gillianne Haddow Guest Principal Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens Isabel Pereira Daniel Cornford Sarah Malcolm* Claudio Cavalletti* Cellos Josephine Knight Guest Principal Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho‡ David Lale Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Sue Sutherley* Susanna Riddell* Double Basses Kevin Rundell† Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Laura Murphy Thomas Walley* Catherine Ricketts* Flutes Harry Winstanley Guest Principal Siobhan Grealy Stewart McIlwham†
Piccolo Stewart McIlwham† Principal
Cornets Tom Rainer David Hilton
Oboes Gareth Hulse Guest Principal Jinny Shaw
Trombones David Whitehouse Principal Andrew Connington
Cor Anglais Sue Böhling Principal
Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal
Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds
Clarinets Robert Hill† Principal Emily Meredith Bassoons Rebecca Mertens Guest Principal Gareth Newman† Horns John Ryan† Principal David Pyatt† Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey
Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Trumpets Paul Beniston† Principal Anne McAneney† Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann
Tom Rainer David Hilton
Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis† Principal Timpani Simon Carrington† Principal Percussion Andrew Barclay† Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport
Andrea Santasiere Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Harp Rachel Masters† Principal Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra
* 22 February only † Holds a professorial appointment in London ‡ Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco
Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: William & Alex de Winton Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp The Sharp Family
4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko
© Mark McNulty
conductor
Vasily Petrenko was born in 1976 and started his music education at the St Petersburg Capella Boys Music School – the oldest music school in Russia. He then studied at the St Petersburg Conservatoire and has also participated in masterclasses with such major figures as Ilya Musin, Mariss Jansons, Yuri Temirkanov and Esa-Pekka Salonen. Following considerable success in a number of international conducting competitions including the Fourth Prokofiev Conducting Competition in St Petersburg (2003), First Prize at the Shostakovich Choral Conducting Competition in St Petersburg (1997) and First Prize at the Sixth Cadaqués International Conducting Competition in Spain, he was appointed Chief Conductor of the St Petersburg State Academic Symphony Orchestra from 2004–07. The 2013/14 season marks his first as Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, alongside which he maintains his positions as Chief Conductor of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra (a position he adopted in 2009 as a continuation of his period as Principal Conductor since 2006), Principal Conductor of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Mikhailovsky Theatre (formerly the Mussorgsky Memorial Theatre of the St Petersburg State Opera and Ballet), where he began his career as Resident Conductor from 1994–97. In recent seasons, Petrenko has made critically acclaimed debuts with major orchestras including the London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Philharmonia, Russian National, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, NHK Symphony (Tokyo) and Sydney Symphony orchestras, the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, the Accademia di Santa Cecilia, and the Orchestre National de France. He has made frequent appearances at the BBC Proms, and toured with the European Union Youth Orchestra. Recent years have seen a series of highly successful North American debuts
including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and the San Francisco, Boston, Chicago and St Louis symphony orchestras. Highlights of the 2013/14 season and beyond include return visits to the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin, the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Finnish Radio Symphony, Chicago Symphony, San Francisco Symphony and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; tours in Europe and Asia with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and Russian National orchestras; and debut performances with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Cologne. Equally at home in the opera house, and with over 30 operas in his repertoire, Petrenko made his debuts in 2010 at Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Macbeth) and the Opera de Paris (Eugene Onegin), and in recent seasons has conducted The Queen of Spades at Hamburg State Opera, Boris Godunov at the National Reisopera, La bohème and Carmen at the Mikhailovsky Theatre, and Parsifal with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra. The 2013/14 season includes his debut at the Zurich Opera (Carmen), performances of Tosca with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, and The Flying Dutchman with the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and at the Mikhailovsky Theatre. Recordings with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra include a rare double-bill of Fleishman’s Rothschild’s Violin and Shostakovich’s The Gamblers; Rachmaninoff’s complete symphonies and piano concertos, along with his Symphonic Dances and The Isle of the Dead; and a critically acclaimed series of recordings for Naxos including Tchaikovsky’s Manfred (winner of the 2009 Gramophone Award for Best Orchestral Recording), the Liszt piano concertos, and an ongoing Shostakovich symphony cycle. In October 2007 Vasily Petrenko was named Young Artist of the Year at the annual Gramophone Awards, and in 2010 he won the Male Artist of the Year at the Classical Brit Awards. He is only the second person to have been awarded Honorary Doctorates by both the University of Liverpool and Liverpool Hope University (in 2009), and an Honorary Fellowship of the Liverpool John Moores University (in 2012), awards that recognise the immense impact he has had on the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra and the city’s cultural scene.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5
Kirill Gerstein
© Sasha Gusov
piano
The multifaceted pianist Kirill Gerstein has rapidly ascended into classical music’s highest ranks. Reaching beyond the classical genre with his unique background in jazz, coupled with a masterful technique, musical curiosity and an energetic and expressive musical personality, he has proven to be one of today’s most intriguing musicians. In January 2010, Kirill Gerstein was named the recipient of the Gilmore Artist Award – only the sixth pianist to have been so honoured. The Gilmore Award is given to an exceptional pianist who, regardless of age or nationality, possesses broad and profound musicianship and charisma and who can sustain a career as a major international concert artist. Kirill has since used the Award by commissioning boundary-crossing new works by Brad Mehldau, Chick Corea and Oliver Knussen, and this season he premieres another newly commissioned work by Timothy Andres, entitled Old Friend. Kirill Gerstein was also awarded an Avery Fisher Career Grant in April 2010, and received a 2002 Gilmore Young Artist Award as well as First Prize at the 2001 Arthur Rubinstein Piano Competition in Tel Aviv. Kirill Gerstein’s recent engagements in North America include performances with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, The Philadelphia Orchestra, and the Boston, Toronto, Montreal, Atlanta, Dallas, Baltimore, Seattle and Vancouver symphony orchestras. His festival appearances have included the Mann Music Center, Saratoga and Bravo! Vail with The Philadelphia Orchestra; Tanglewood with the Boston Symphony Orchestra; Blossom with The Cleveland Orchestra and at the Santa Fe Chamber Music Festival; and recitals in Vancouver, Miami, Detroit, at UC Berkeley, Washington’s Kennedy Center and New York’s 92nd St Y. In Europe, Kirill Gerstein has worked with such prominent orchestras as the Munich, Rotterdam and Royal Philharmonic orchestras, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the
6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Tonhalle-Orchestra Zurich, the Swedish Radio Orchestra, the WDR Cologne and the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, as well as the NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra in Caracas with Gustavo Dudamel. He has given recitals in Paris, Prague, Hamburg, at London’s Wigmore Hall and Queen Elizabeth Hall, and at the Liszt Academy in Budapest. He made his Salzburg Festival debut playing solo and two-piano works with András Schiff and has also appeared at the Verbier, Lucerne and Jerusalem Chamber Music festivals, as well as at the BBC Proms. Highlights of the 2013/14 season include performances with the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Czech Philharmonic, Finnish Radio, Danish Radio, Dresden Philharmonic, Melbourne Symphony and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras, and the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. North American engagements include subscription debuts with the New York Philharmonic and the Minnesota Orchestra; re-engagements with The Cleveland Orchestra and the Chicago, San Francisco, St Louis, Detroit, Cincinnati and Houston symphony orchestras; and return visits to Aspen and the Grant Park Music Festival. Named one of the Ten Best Recordings of 2010 by the New York Times, Kirill Gerstein’s first recording for Myrios Classics of recital works by Schumann, Liszt and Oliver Knussen was released in October 2010, followed by a duo recital disc with violist Tabea Zimmermann. Born in 1979 in Voronezh, Russia, Kirill Gerstein attended one of the country’s special music schools for gifted children and taught himself to play jazz by listening to his parents’ extensive record collection. He moved to the USA aged 14 to study jazz piano as the youngest student ever to attend Boston’s Berklee College of Music, where he also continued his classical studies. At the age of 16 he decided to focus on classical music and moved to New York City to attend the Manhattan School of Music, where he studied with Solomon Mikowsky and earned Bachelors and Masters of Music degrees. He continued his studies with Dmitri Bashkirov in Madrid and Ferenc Rados in Budapest. Kirill Gerstein became an American citizen in 2003 and is currently a Professor of Piano at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart.
Programme notes
Speedread This concert features three outwardly celebratory works. First comes Berlioz’s dashing evocation of Byron’s corsair on the high seas. Then Rachmaninoff takes centre stage with his virtuoso Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Finally, Brahms offers his Second Symphony, crowned in its final bars with fanfares and much festivity. Yet each of these works has a more
Hector Berlioz
muted alter ego, as described in the disarmingly lyrical passages of Berlioz’s overture, the Dies irae motif that haunts Rachmaninoff’s pianistic showcase, and the hushed, melancholic tones that often emerge in Brahms’s Symphony. Heard together, these works offer a diverse emotional and musical experience.
Overture, Le Corsaire
1803–69
If Berlioz has a literary equivalent, then it is Lord Byron. Byron’s ability to describe wild landscapes and equally feral heroes, with a mixture of self-loathing and selfaggrandisement, gained him a singular position among English Romantics. The picture he created of himself as a Romantic outsider, destined for doom, might well have been the kind of artist Berlioz sought to describe in his Symphonie fantastique and tried to emulate. Yet while Berlioz’s Mémoires are heavily indebted to the poet, Byron’s verse made an even more indelible mark on his music.
Berlioz’s overture is a vivid curtain-raiser (albeit to a non-existent drama). The opening rush of strings and syncopated woodwind response in C major brilliantly describe the hurly-burly of the high seas. This is followed by contrastingly heartfelt music in A flat major, with extended melodies providing a touching portrait of the intrepid Conrad, before the overture again builds to a stormy depiction of his life at sea.
Berlioz wrote Harold in Italy, his symphonic response to Byron’s Childe Harold’s Pilgrimage, in 1834. A decade later, at the height of his fame, he penned what would become Le Corsaire. It was performed at first as La Tour de Nice, acknowledging the city in which it was composed and which had provided its maritime backdrop. Later, Berlioz changed the title to Le Corsaire rouge, after a French translation of James Fenimore Cooper’s novel The Red Rover, before it was finally published in revised form in 1852 with its Byronic title, invoking the corsair Conrad, who has shunned his fellow man and in turn been rejected by society.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7
Programme notes continued
Sergei Rachmaninoff
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Kirill Gerstein piano
1873–1943
Introduction: Allegro vivace Variation I (Precedente) Tema: L’istesso tempo Variation 2: L’istesso tempo Variation 3: L’istesso tempo Variation 4: Più vivo Variation 5: Tempo precedente Variation 6: L’istesso tempo Variation 7: Meno mosso, a tempo moderato Variation 8: Tempo I Variation 9: L’istesso tempo Variation 10: L’istesso tempo Variation 11: Moderato Variation 12: Tempo di minuetto Variation 13: Allegro Variation 14: L’istesso tempo Variation 15: Più vivo scherzando Variation 16: Allegretto Variation 17: (Allegretto) Variation 18: Andante cantabile Variation 19: A tempo vivace Variation 20: Un poco più vivo Variation 21: Un poco più vivo Variation 22: Marziale. Un poco più vivo Variation 23: L’istesso tempo Variation 24: A tempo un poco meno mosso By the 1930s, Rachmaninoff was a major celebrity. His music was regularly performed, widely published and frequently recorded. Yet he had an uneasy relationship with his fame, often accepting and then rejecting offers to tour Europe and America. Finding himself exiled from post-Revolutionary Russia and his possessions, forced to support his family, Rachmaninoff was more or less obliged to perform when he could, leading to an
increasingly peripatetic life, which moved him between Stockholm and Copenhagen, on to New York and finally to a house on Lake Lucerne in Switzerland. It was there, in the summer of 1934, that Rachmaninoff wrote his Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, effectively forming his fifth piano concerto. The work is based on the last of virtuoso violinist Niccolò Paganini’s 24 Caprices. Rachmaninoff was not the first to use its terse little theme. Liszt, Brahms and Szymanowski, alongside other less celebrated names, had already tapped its potential and Rachmaninoff was to be succeeded by Lutosławski and Andrew Lloyd Webber, among others. Yet Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody remains arguably the most imaginative of these, not least because of its ingenious inversion of the original theme in the 18th variation and the highly expressive use of the orchestra throughout. Rather than opening with Paganini’s theme, Rachmaninoff begins his work with a sassy, chromatic introduction, followed by the first variation on the theme we are yet to hear. The tune proper finally appears and is played by the strings, echoing its original violin form, with the piano picking out various constituent notes, before providing more dazzling decoration. The opening ten variations form the outline of a first movement and during the seventh variation Rachmaninoff introduces a second theme, based on the plainchant Dies irae from the Requiem Mass. This motivic kernel appears in many of Rachmaninoff’s works – not least The Isle of the Dead and The Bells – chillingly reminding us that, in the midst of life, we are in death. After the tenth variation comes what is, effectively, a slow movement, completed by the glorious 18th variation in the luscious key of D flat major, before the Rhapsody closes with a challengingly virtuoso finale.
Interval – 20 minutes (A bell will be rung a few minutes before the end of the interval.) 8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Johannes Brahms 1833–97
For Brahms, indeed for many musicians working in Germany and Austria during the 19th century, the symphony was a benchmark musical genre. The significance and brilliance of Beethoven’s nine examples cast a significant retrospective shadow over the Romantic generation, and it was a brave composer who dared compete. It wasn’t until Brahms was 43 that his First Symphony in C minor was heard, a work that he had begun in his late twenties. While Brahms had already shown impressive symphonic credentials with his First Piano Concerto, confronting with the Beethoven legacy, particularly by writing a work in C minor – the same key as Beethoven’s paradigmatic Fifth Symphony – proved an enormous task. When Brahms’s First Symphony finally appeared, however, it was generally greeted as a masterpiece, which not only paid a debt of gratitude to its predecessors but also humbly forged ahead in its own right. After the drawn-out genesis of that work, Brahms composed its successor in the course of a single summer in 1877. He had escaped Vienna, finding respite in Pörtschach on the northern shore of the Wörthersee. There, surrounded by the light, air and space of the Carinthian countryside, Brahms wrote his Second Symphony. D major has tended to be a celebratory key, such as in Bach’s music for the great feasts of the Christian year or, in a more secular frame of mind, Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro or his ‘Prague’ Symphony. Brahms’s Second, however, begins in quietly noble terms. The lower strings introduce the opening Allegro, marked with a cautious ‘non troppo’. The theme has a slightly wistful alter ego, couched in the adjacent key of E minor. While this somewhat hesitant mood is only fleeting in the introduction, soon giving way to the free-flowing first subject proper, it often resurfaces, most notably in the
Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 73 1 2 3 4
Allegro non troppo Adagio non troppo Allegretto grazioso, quasi andantino Allegro con spirito
F sharp minor colouring of the second subject, which only subsequently moves to its relative A major (the dominant in the context of the Symphony’s overriding tonic). Rhythmically, too, things verge on the unstable and it is left to a horn to acknowledge these tensions in an outspoken, cathartic solo, before the movement comes to a subdued close. The lower strings again open the second movement. This is a brooding sonata-form Adagio, in which both the first full-voiced theme and the more delicate second subject are treated to a constant process of development and variation. This is particularly evident in the recapitulation, which features highly modified statements of both. The second half of the Symphony is generally lighter in mood, though it too has a propensity to brood. First comes a Ländler-like Allegretto, led by the woodwind and marked ‘grazioso’, as with the Adagio’s second subject. Despite the ostensible, bucolic security of this triple-time theme, it has a tendency to wander away from its G major roots, including to the tonic minor and then to E flat major. More settled is the Presto section that follows, Mendelssohnian, even Mozartian in its lightness of touch, before taking on a more heroic demeanour. Finally, as we reach the last movement, the tensions evident in the opening Allegro and Adagio appear to have vanished. After a hushed introduction, recalling the first steps of our symphonic journey, Brahms launches into one of his happiest sonata forms. Here the trumpeting glory of Bach and Mozart’s D major creations comes to the fore, now in decidedly Romantic garb. The second subject is more calm and collected in its joy. While there are diversions into more conflicted areas – not least in the darker development section Continued overleaf London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9
Programme notes continued
– these ultimately only serve to underline mounting feelings of delight, which become truly unbridled in the final bars.
Next London Philharmonic Orchestra concerts at the Congress Theatre
Programme notes © Gavin Plumley
Sunday 9 March 2014 | 3.00pm Dvořák Scherzo capriccioso Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Mahler Blumine Shostakovich Symphony No. 1
Next London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Brighton Dome Saturday 22 March 2014 | 7.30pm Wagner Siegfried Idyll Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 Joseph Swensen conductor Liza Ferschtman violin Tickets £10–£27.50 (Premium seats £32.50) Box Office 01273 709709 Book online at brightondome.org Transaction fee: £2.25 for telephone bookings, £1.75 for web bookings, no fee for booking in person
The Orchestra’s 2014/15 Brighton brochure will be available at the 22 March 2014 concert.
Ilyich Rivas conductor | Simon Trpčeski piano Sunday 27 April 2014 | 3.00pm Berlioz Roman Carnival Overture Saint-Saëns Violin Concerto No. 3 Ravel Le tombeau de Couperin Beethoven Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral) Timothy Redmond conductor Matthew Trusler violin Tickets £12–£28 plus £1 per ticket booking fee (up to £6 max) Box Office 01323 412000 Book online at eastbournetheatres.co.uk The Orchestra’s 2014/15 Eastbourne brochure will be available at the 27 April 2014 concert.
London Philharmonic Orchestra 2013/14 Eastbourne Appeal With the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2013/14 season at Eastbourne underway with another year of superb programming and an extraordinary array of guest artists, it is with great anticipation that we welcome Ilyich Rivas to make his Eastbourne debut with the Orchestra on 9 March 2014. Ilyich is the focus of this year’s Eastbourne Appeal. At only 20 years old, his appearance with the Orchestra at the Congress Theatre on Sunday 9 March is one that will mark an exciting milestone in this young man’s career and continue the Orchestra’s tradition of showcasing emerging young talent. Donations towards our Eastbourne Appeal help support exceptional young artists like Ilyich as well as securing our continued presence in Eastbourne for years to come. We are immensely grateful for the support Eastbourne patrons have shown over the years and as the 2013/14 season continues, we hope you will consider making a donation to the Orchestra. So far this season we have raised a total of £3,600 but with the aim of reaching £5,000 this year – more than ever before – we’re hoping our Eastbourne audiences will help us reach our goal. To donate please visit lpo.org.uk/eastbourneappeal or contact Sarah Fletcher: 020 7840 4225 / sarah.fletcher@lpo.org.uk
10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
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 & Kyrsia 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 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 | 11
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 Dr Manon Williams * Player-Director Advisory Council Victoria Sharp Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Baroness Shackleton Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Martin Southgate Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Elizabeth Winter American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. Jenny Ireland Co-Chairman William A. Kerr Co-Chairman Kyung-Wha Chung Alexandra Jupin Dr. Felisa B. Kaplan Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee Dr. Joseph Mulvehill Harvey M. Spear, Esq. Danny Lopez Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Sharp Hon. Director
Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP
Orchestra Personnel
Public Relations
Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager
Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)
Chief Executive
Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians (job-share)
Archives
Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director
Christopher Alderton Stage Manager
Finance David Burke General Manager and Finance Director
Development
David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager
Katherine Hattersley Charitable Giving Manager
Concert Management
Helen Searl Corporate Relations Manager
Roanna Gibson Concerts Director Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator Jo Cotter PA to the Chief Executive / Tours Co-ordinator Education and Community Isabella Kernot Education Director Alexandra Clarke Education and Community Project Manager Lucy Duffy Education and Community Project Manager Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer
12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Nick Jackman Development Director
Molly Stewart Development and Events Manager Sarah Fletcher Development and Finance Officer Rebecca Fogg Development Assistant Marketing Kath Trout Marketing Director Mia Roberts Marketing Manager Rachel Williams Publications Manager Samantha Kendall Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242) Libby Northcote-Green Marketing Co-ordinator Digital Projects Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant
Philip Stuart Discographer Gillian Pole Recordings Archive Professional Services Charles Russell Solicitors Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor London Philharmonic Orchestra 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 Fax: 020 7840 4201 Box Office: 020 7840 4242 Email: admin@lpo.org.uk lpo.org.uk The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045. Photographs of Rachmaninoff and Brahms courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Front cover photograph © Patrick Harrison. Printed by Cantate.