London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 22 Jan 2014

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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 22 January 2014 | 7.30pm

J S Bach Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041 (16’) Hartmann Concerto funebre, for violin and string orchestra (20’) Interval Beethoven Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Eroica) (47’)

Programme £3 Contents 2 3 4 5 6 7 9 11 12 13 14 15 16

Welcome / Leader About the Orchestra On stage tonight Vladimir Jurowski Leonidas Kavakos Programme notes 2014/15 season launch Next concerts Annual Appeal: Tickets Please! Orchestra news Catalyst: Double Your Donation Supporters LPO administration

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

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin

Generously supported by the Sharp Family

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


Welcome

Pieter Schoeman leader

Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the LPO in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002.

Welcome to Southbank Centre

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. 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.

© Patrick Harrison

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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. 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. Pieter is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra


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.

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On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Chair supported by John & Angela Kessler

Ilyoung Chae Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

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

Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Second Violins Rebecca Chan Guest Principal Joseph Maher Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Ashley Stevens Raja Halder Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Alison Strange Kate Birchall

Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter Laura Vallejo Michelle Bruil Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† David Lale Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Sue Sutherley Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Tim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Richard Lewis Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Jeremy Watt

Flutes Harry Winstanley Guest Principal Sue Thomas Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Jenny Brittlebank Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Emily Meredith Bassoons Joost Bosdijk Guest Principal Gareth Newman*

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

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Assistant Conductor Marius Stravinsky

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

Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal

Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Helena Nicholls

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Andrew Davenport William & Alex de Winton Julian & Gill Simmonds

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra


Vladimir Jurowski

© Chris Christodoulou

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

One of today’s most sought-after and dynamic conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow, and completed the first part of his musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany, continuing his studies at the High Schools of Music in 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 the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in September 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 also 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). Vladimir Jurowski has appeared on the podium with many leading orchestras in Europe and North America including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the Staatskapelle Dresden. Highlights of the 2013/14 season and beyond include his debuts with the New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Tokyo) and San Francisco Symphony orchestras; tours with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; and return visits to the Chicago Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Jurowski made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1999 with Rigoletto, and has since returned for Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades and Hansel and Gretel. He has conducted Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opera National de Paris; Eugene Onegin at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and Iolanta and Die Teufel von Loudon at the Dresden Semperoper, as well as The Magic Flute, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress, The Cunning Little Vixen, Ariadne auf Naxos and Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In autumn 2013 he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Die Frau ohne Schatten, and future engagements include Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper Berlin and The Fiery Angel at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich. Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of the cantata Exil by Giya Kancheli for ECM; Meyerbeer’s L’étoile du Nord for Marco Polo; Massenet’s Werther for BMG; and a series of records for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has released a wide selection of his live recordings on its LPO Live label, including Brahms’s complete symphonies; Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1, 4, 5, 6 and Manfred; and works by Turnage, Holst, Britten, Shostakovich, Honegger and Haydn. His tenure as Music Director at Glyndebourne has been documented in CD releases of La Cenerentola, Tristan und Isolde and Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and DVD releases of his performances of La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight. Other DVD releases include Hansel and Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera; his first concert as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor featuring works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler; and DVDs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Strauss and Ravel), all released by Medici Arts. Vladimir Jurowski’s position as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra is generously supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor.

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Leonidas Kavakos

© Marco Borggreve

violin

Leonidas Kavakos is recognised across the world as a violinist and artist of rare quality, known at the highest level for his virtuosity, his superb musicianship and the integrity of his playing. Born in Athens into a musical family, he studied at the Hellenic Conservatory with Stelios Kafantaris, one of three important mentors in his life along with Josef Gingold and Ferenc Rados. He won three major competitions before the age of 21: the Sibelius Competition in 1985, and the Paganini and Naumburg competitions in 1988. These successes led to him recording the original Sibelius Violin Concerto (1903/4) for the first time in history, recognised with a Gramophone Award; and to the honour of performing on the famous ‘Il Cannone’ Guarneri del Gesù, which belonged to Paganini. Leonidas Kavakos’s international career has allowed him to develop close relationships with the world’s major orchestras and conductors, such as the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Mariss Jansons; the London Symphony Orchestra and Valery Gergiev; and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Riccardo Chailly. Last season he had residencies with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic, and performed with Jansons and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra on its Jubilee tour with a concerto originally premiered by the Orchestra: Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 2. Earlier this month Kavakos made his debut with the Vienna Philharmonic under Chailly. In the USA, he performs regularly with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, Philadelphia and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras. In his burgeoning career as a conductor, Leonidas Kavakos has worked with the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and the Vienna Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Finnish Radio Symphony and Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestras. In the USA he has conducted the Boston, Atlanta and St 6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Louis symphony orchestras. This season’s conducting highlights include return engagements with the Boston Symphony, Budapest Festival, Gothenburg Symphony and Maggio Musicale Fiorentino orchestras, as well as important conducting debuts with the London Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France. Since 2012, Leonidas Kavakos has been an exclusive Decca Classics recording artist. His first release on the label, the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas with Enrico Pace, won the ‘Instrumentalist of the Year’ award at the 2013 ECHO Klassik Awards. His second disc with Decca, released in October 2013, was the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Riccardo Chailly. His third disc for the label, Brahms Violin Sonatas with pianist Yuja Wang, will be released later this spring. During this season and next, Kavakos and Wang will give a series of Brahms recitals in major European cities. Following the Sibelius and other early recordings for Dynamic, BIS and ECM, Kavakos made several discs for Sony Classical including live recordings of Mozart’s five Violin Concertos and Symphony No. 39 with Camerata Salzburg; and the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto, for which in 2009 he received an ECHO Klassik ‘Best Concerto Recording’ award. For the past two years Kavakos has curated an annual violin and chamber music masterclass in Athens, attracting violinists and ensembles from all over the world and reflecting his deep commitment to the handing on of musical knowledge and traditions. Leonidas Kavakos is also passionate about the art of violin- and bow-making, both past and present. He plays the ‘Abergavenny’ Stradivarius violin of 1724.


Programme notes

Speedread For Vivaldi, the solo violin was a vehicle for virtuosity and description. For Bach, it was one for devotion and introspection. When the two composers’ worlds collided in the 1710s, you might not have guessed that Bach would be the one paying ‘homage’, getting all excited about Vivaldi’s spectacular fiddle writing and creating his own concertos based on Vivaldi’s crowd-pleasing stylistic models. Naturally, Bach’s violin concertos – the A minor work performed tonight included – combined that new-found love for Vivaldian high-jinks with their own unfathomable intellect and profundity. And which of them could have guessed that just over two centuries later, a lone violin pitted against an ensemble of strings could play notes that embodied all the complex beauty, political strife and emotional complexity of the human condition? Karl Amadeus

Johann Sebastian Bach 1685–1750

Conventional wisdom places Bach and Vivaldi at opposite ends of Baroque music’s style spectrum. One was a fiery red-headed virtuoso with a full-on Italian temperament; the other a sober, Lutheran organist whose music looked inwards rather than outwards. But the reality is rather more complicated. Bach admired both Vivaldi’s virtuosity and his propensity towards musical innovation. When the latter composer’s landmark set of violin concertos nicknamed L’estro armonico began to circulate in northern Europe during the 1710s, that admiration morphed into something like adulation. Working in Weimar from 1708–17, Bach transcribed every Vivaldi concerto he could get his hands on,

Hartmann might be nearly forgotten today, but he was one of 20th-century music’s most principled and noble figures. His 1939 Concerto funebre is a eulogy for lost lives and ideals but an inspiring gesture of hope, too. It’s rather more easy to connect Hartmann’s politically fuelled concerto with what’s possibly the first ever overtly political symphony: Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’. Ludwig van Beethoven didn’t just have new ideas about music, he had new ideas about society too – about liberating the oppressed and overthrowing the stifling old orders that held sway in Europe. He hoped to do just that with his ‘Eroica’ Symphony, but it just so happens that he changed the nuts-and-bolts reality of how ‘symphonies’ could be conceived and built at the same time.

Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 1041 Leonidas Kavakos violin 1 (Allegro moderato) 2 Andante 3 Allegro assai

arranging them for different instrumental combinations so they could be performed by his musicians. Then, in 1717, Bach got a new job in Cöthen where he had the chance to work with a crack orchestra of 17 players led by an able soloist, Joseph Speiss. Now was the time for Bach to try his own hand at writing concertos on Vivaldi’s three movement fast–slow–fast model. It wasn’t just the speeds that Bach imitated. He absorbed Vivaldi’s tendency to write memorable themes using short musical motifs upon which the soloist could build. He also created long, song-like melodies that were more emotionally charged than the devotional music he’d been writing in Weimar. That, and he fully adopted Vivaldi’s use of ‘ritornello’ form – the London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7


Programme notes continued

alternating of a full-ensemble ‘ritornello’ (a recurring passage subjected to variation in key and length) with episodes where the soloist is introducing new material. One element Bach arguably worked on with more success than Vivaldi was his integration of the solo instrument with the orchestra, which from the energetic first movement of Bach’s A minor Concerto appear to be in dialogue rather than pitted against each other as contrasting elements (here, in fact, the soloist is even directed to play along with the ensemble). The music moves into the major for the more freely sung central movement, structured over a revolving ostinato (a sort of cyclic pattern) in low strings that controls the

Karl Amadeus Hartmann 1905–63

If you haven’t heard of Karl Amadeus Hartmann, you may well have Karl Amadeus Hartmann to thank. Described recently by one British critic as ‘a musical and moral colossus’, Hartmann’s stringent anti-fascist principles led him to forbid performances of his works in his native Germany while the Nazis governed. When Nazism was finally toppled, Hartmann leapt into action promoting music by other composers who’d seen their creations banned by the regime. With typical generosity, he thought of his own music last. That music owed as much to Bruckner and Mahler as it did to the advances of Bartók, Stravinsky and emerging trends in jazz. Hartmann had rigorous teachers in Hermann Scherchen and Anton Webern, but he always sought to strike a balance between aesthetic progress and a clearly decipherable human message. ‘An essential part of my work consists of reconciling these inimical elements and creating a state of balance in which neither triumphs over the other’, the composer himself wrote. The result is often music of impeccable

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movement and forms a convention against which the soloist can cheekily kick with playful figurations. Bach the intellectual is more obviously apparent in the finale, in which the ensemble ritornello is, in fact, the introduction of a fugue. Despite that, Bach casts the movement as a lighthearted nine-in-a-bar dance (some say it’s Bach tentatively embracing the ‘gigue’) and creates a telling moment of dramatic tension towards the end of the movement when the music hovers on the ‘dominant’ key of A minor before lunging into the final rendition of the ritornello.

Concerto funebre, for violin and string orchestra Leonidas Kavakos violin 1 2 3 4

Introduction: Largo – Adagio – Allegro di molto – Chorale: Langsamer Marsch

design, sophisticated and stretched (yet still mostly tonal) harmonies and heart-on-sleeve expression. The Concerto funebre is Hartmann’s most performed and recorded piece. He started it in 1939 just after Hitler began to break up and take control of the thenCzechoslovakia. The piece could be viewed as a concerto in which the solo violin becomes the mouthpiece for Hartmann’s sense of shock, despair and forlorn hope as the world lurched towards the global conflict he so feared. But it has also been described as a ‘threnody’ for Czechoslovakia itself. That’s probably because Hartmann makes extensive use of the Czech ‘chorale’ (or hymn) tune Kdož jste Boží bojovníci (‘Come ye soldiers of God’, also used by Dvořák and Smetana). Right at the start of the Concerto the soloist intones the chorale over 15 bars, the orchestra not so much accompanying as flinging supporting harmonies at the natural cadence points. ‘The intellectual and spiritual hopelessness of the period


is contrasted with an expression of hope found in the chorales at the beginning and the end [of] the piece’, wrote Hartmann in his own programme note. So, the unchanged chorale is to return, but not before the arrival without a break of the two central movements. An intense, rhapsodic Adagio follows first, described by Hartmann as ‘a lament’ and using a refracted version of the chorale tune. In the Allegro third movement the sense of confrontation rises, the violin seeming to become an instrument of virtuoso resistance and active struggle. The mood calms in the final movement as the unaltered chorale returns in the form of a slow march. But it’s not the only well-known tune Hartmann uses in his final chapter. The sense of mourning is underlined by the theme of a Russian revolutionary dirge, ‘Immortal Sacrifice’. The music appears to wind itself down before the work’s sudden and uneasy resolution: a final, dissonant tutti chord.

Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.

London Philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season launch Our 2014/15 season will be announced tomorrow, Thursday 23 January. To see full listings for the new season visit lpo.org.uk or look out for your season brochure in the post. Online and telephone booking opens on Thursday 6 February. To take advantage of priority booking (from Monday 27 January), join one of our membership schemes for as little as £50 a year. Our memberships offer a wealth of opportunities to become closer to the musicians and to be more involved in the day-to-day life of the Orchestra. Membership allows you to support the Orchestra, helps us to maintain the high standards that you hear and see on the concert platform, and benefits thousands of people through our Education and Community Programme. To show our thanks, we offer a range of benefits for you to enjoy, from priority booking and regular newsletters to private recitals in your home by our musicians, with an increase in exclusivity for those able to make major supporting gifts. However you are able to help us, we look forward to welcoming you into the orchestral family. For more information please call Sarah Fletcher on 020 7840 4225 or visit lpo.org.uk/support/memberships

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Programme notes continued

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827

Symphony No. 3 in E flat major (Eroica) 1 2 3 4

Allegro con brio Marcia funebre: Adagio assai Scherzo: Allegro vivace – Trio Finale: Allegro molto – Poco Andante – Presto

If Beethoven’s first two symphonies hinted at the revolutionary character of their creator, the third unleashed it in a veritable torrent. It was the turn of the 19th century, and Beethoven found himself inspired by acts of heroism throughout Europe. One young leader in particular caught his eye – Napoleon Bonaparte, who Beethoven saw as a force for good; a social revolutionary who would lift the burden of the oppressed.

Beethoven’s second movement is a huge funeral march complete with double fugue which metamorphoses into celebration. A lament for Napoleon, or General Abercrombie – another of Beethoven’s heroic icons? It’s impossible to say. The offhand remark at the time of Napoleon’s actual death recorded by Anton Schindler, in which Beethoven allegedly claimed to have ‘written the music for that sad event some 17 years ago’, is both tenuous and unreliable.

It was more the ideal of social heroism that fired Beethoven’s imagination in forging the ‘Eroica’ Symphony, rather than any one individual – which made the composer’s eventual removal of Napoleon’s name from the head of the score a pretty incidental act (Napoleon declared himself Emperor in 1804, which didn’t chime with Beethoven’s libertarian stance). Persistence, endurance and fortitude may be features Beethoven associated with such an ideal, and they’re all evident here – not least in the Symphony’s length: it’s almost twice that of any by Mozart or Haydn, the most significant symphonists who preceded Beethoven.

In the following Scherzo you can sense an explosion lurking from the opening notes, and it soon arrives – as insistent and heroic as the Symphony’s opening, rallied by the hunting calls of the three horns in a gesture that seems to pine towards the classical spirit of Mozart and Haydn. Beethoven’s last movement actually comes in shorter than the first and second, but puts a definitive full-stop on the work nonetheless. It’s based on a little dance tune that had been proving a personal motto for the composer for some years, and which creeps in wittily after the opening cascade and is then subjected to musical variations. Along the way the theme gains sobriety, introspection and emotional gravitas, and eventually wraps up the Symphony with inspiring heroism.

The colossal opening movement is prefaced by two orchestral jabs (apparently added as an afterthought by Beethoven), after which the main theme launches – a motif that seems to embody persistence as it rocks back and forth through the notes of a major-key arpeggio. As the movement continues, this main theme gains momentum and variance (and is joined by five others), while Beethoven interrupts the discourse on two standout occasions: firstly with a set of lurching, gatecrashing low discords and secondly with the ‘false’ heralding of the return of the main theme by a horn. Both dumbfounded critics, musicians and audiences at the work’s Vienna premiere in April 1805.

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Programme notes by Andrew Mellor © 2014

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 Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html


Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 29 January 2014 | 7.30pm

Wednesday 26 February 2014 | 7.30pm

Kodály Dances of Galánta Grieg Piano Concerto Dvořák Symphony No. 7

Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello Bruckner Symphony No. 2

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Rudolf Buchbinder piano

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Julia Fischer violin Daniel Müller-Schott cello

Friday 14 February 2014 | 7.30pm

Saturday 1 March 2014 | 7.30pm

JTI Friday Series Valentine’s Day Concert Dvořák Carnival Overture Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture) Stuart Stratford conductor Sa Chen piano

Wednesday 19 February 2014 | 7.30pm Balakirev Islamey (Oriental Fantasy) Khachaturian Piano Concerto Kalinnikov Symphony No. 1 Osmo Vänskä conductor Marc-André Hamelin piano Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall David Nice discusses the evening’s programme.

Julian Anderson Alleluia Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Choral) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Emma Bell soprano Anna Stéphany mezzo soprano John Daszak tenor Gerald Finley baritone London Philharmonic Choir

Friday 7 March 2014 | 7.30pm JTI Friday Series Dvořák Scherzo capriccioso Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Mahler Blumine Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 Ilyich Rivas conductor Simon Trpčeski piano

Booking details

Friday 21 February 2014 | 7.30pm JTI Friday Series Berlioz Overture, Le Corsaire Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Elgar Symphony No. 2 Vasily Petrenko conductor Kirill Gerstein piano

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11


London Philharmonic Orchestra Annual Appeal 2013/14

Tickets Please! Do you remember the first time you saw a symphony orchestra live on stage? Every year the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s schools’ concerts allow over 16,000 young people to see and hear the Orchestra live. The LPO is the only orchestra in the UK to offer specific and tailored orchestral concerts for all ages – from primary school children aged five, through to 18-year-old A-level students. Six out of ten children attending the concerts will be experiencing an orchestra for the very first time.

Tickets for the concerts cost £9. We want to offer free tickets to 2,500 children from the most disadvantaged schools and we need your help to make this happen.

For a donation of just £9 you could buy a ticket for a child to attend one of our schools’ concerts. If you would like to donate more, you could buy tickets for three children (£27), a row of seats in the stalls (£108), or a whole class to attend (£270). Every donation of any size from our supportive audience will help us to fill our concert hall with new young audience members.

Please visit lpo.org.uk/ticketsplease, where you can select the seats you wish to buy, or call Katherine Hattersley on 020 7840 4212 to donate over the phone. Thank you for supporting Tickets Please!

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra


Orchestra news

New CD release: Jurowski conducts Brahms Just released on the LPO Label is Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. This CD completes Jurowski’s survey of Brahms’s four symphonies – his previous Brahms disc, of Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 (Feb 2010), received great critical acclaim including BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Disc of the Month’ and the recommended version of Symphony No. 2 by BBC Radio 3’s ‘Building a Library’. Priced £9.99, the new CD is also available from lpo.org.uk/shop, 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.

Spring tours Last weekend the Orchestra travelled to Madrid with conductor Vladimir Jurowski to give two concerts at the city’s Auditorio Nacional de Música. Yulianna Avdeeva performed Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1, and the Orchestra gave the Spanish premiere of James MacMillan’s Viola Concerto with soloist Lawrence Power, following the world premiere here at Royal Festival Hall last week. Next month, the Orchestra, along with Glyndebourne Festival Opera soloists and chorus under Sir Mark Elder, will take Britten’s Billy Budd on tour to New York, where they will give four performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. The cast includes Jacques Imbrailo as Billy Budd, Brindley Sherratt as Claggart and Mark Padmore as Captain Vere. Other tours this spring include visits to Paris to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Vladimir Jurowski; Germany with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and pianist Nicholas Angelich; and Moscow for a performance of Britten’s War Requiem, also with Jurowski.

Animate Orchestra Do you know an instrumentalist in school years 5–8 who lives or goes to school in the London boroughs of Greenwich, Lambeth, Lewisham or Southwark? Animate Orchestra offers young musicians the opportunity to play together and create their own music in a ‘Young Person’s Orchestra for the 21st Century’. It’s for young people who play an instrument, from any musical background and with any level of experience. Animate Orchestra is a partnership between the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance, and participating music hubs. The next Animate Orchestra courses will take place during February half term (17–21 February). To find out more, visit animateorchestra.org.uk Animate Orchestra is generously funded by The Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians, Youth Music, Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and Lewisham Council.

NOISE: discount tickets for students and under-26s Are you a student or under 26? Come along to the London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday 26 February and enjoy Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 and Brahms’s Double Concerto for just £4 (students) or £8 (under-26). Conductor Vladimir Jurowski is joined by violinist Julia Fischer and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott for what promises to be a fantastic concert of irresistible orchestral music. Call the LPO Box Office on 020 7840 4242 and quote NOISE £4 or NOISE £8 to book tickets.* Plus, we’ll even throw in a free beer at our post-concert NOISE bar courtesy of the Orchestra’s Principal Beer Sponsor, Heineken. lpo.org.uk/noise * Student ID/proof of age required

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13


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 Sir Bernard Rix TFS Loans Limited The Tsukanov Family Foundation Guy & Utti Whittaker

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Pritchard Donors Anonymous Linda Blackstone Michael Blackstone Jan Bonduelle Richard and Jo Brass Britten-Pears Foundation 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 Ffion Hague Rebecca Halford Harrison Michael & Christine Henry Honeymead Arts Trust John Hunter Ivan Hurry Tanya Kornilova Howard & Marilyn Levene Mr Gerald Levin Dr Frank Lim Geoff & Meg Mann

Ulrike Mansel Marsh Christian Trust John Montgomery Rosemary Morgan John Owen Edmund Pirouet Mr Michael Posen John Priestland Ruth Rattenbury Tim Slorick Howard Snell Stanley Stecker Lady Marina Vaizey Helen Walker Laurence Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock 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 John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett Guy & Utti Whittaker Manon Williams & John Antoniazzi Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias 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 Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Anthony Yolland Benefactors Mrs A Beare 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 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 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 The Hobson Charity The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The Leverhulme Trust Marsh Christian Trust The Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians

Bronze: Lisa Bolgar Smith and Felix Appelbe of Ambrose Appelbe Appleyard & Trew LLP Berenberg Bank 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

Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund 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

Chief Executive

Orchestra Personnel

Public Relations

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

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930) Archives

Finance

Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians (job-share)

David Burke General Manager and Finance Director

Christopher Alderton Stage Manager

David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager

Julia Boon Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

* 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 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

Philip Stuart Discographer Gillian Pole Recordings Archive Professional Services

Development

Charles Russell Solicitors

Nick Jackman Development Director

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors

Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager

Katherine Hattersley Charitable Giving Manager

Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor

Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager

Helen Searl Corporate Relations Manager

Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager

Molly Stewart Development and Events Manager

Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator

Sarah Fletcher Development and Finance Officer

Jo Cotter PA to the Chief Executive / Tours Co-ordinator

Rebecca Fogg Development Assistant

Concert Management Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Marketing Digital Projects Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant Education and Community Alexandra Clarke Education and Community Project Manager Lucy Duffy Education and Community Project Manager Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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 Ivan Raykov Intern

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. Photograph of Beethoven courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Front cover photograph © Patrick Harrison. Printed by Cantate.


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