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Principal Conductor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Leader PIETER SCHOEMAN Composer in Residence MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER
AM†
JTI FRIDAY SERIES
PROGRAMME £3
RACHMANINOFF GALA CONCERT
CONTENTS
SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Friday 28 May 2010 | 7.30 pm
2 3 4 5 6 8 12 13 14 15 16
NEEME JÄRVI conductor ALEXEI LUBIMOV piano RACHMANINOFF (orch. Dumbraveanu) Variations on a Theme of Corelli (19’) RACHMANINOFF Concerto 4 for piano and orchestra (revised version) INTERVAL RACHMANINOFF Symphony 1 in D minor
(41’)
Presented in co-operation with
†
supported by Macquarie Group
CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
List of Players Orchestra History Leader Neeme Järvi Alexei Lubimov Programme Notes Recordings Supporters Southbank Centre Administration Final Concert
The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. (24’)
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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
FIRST VIOLINS Pieter Schoeman* Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Julia Rumley Chair supported by Mrs Steven Ward
Katalin Varnagy Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Martin Hรถhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz
Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Florence Schoeman Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Alain Petitclerc Peter Nall Galina Tanney SECOND VIOLINS Clare Duckworth Principal Chair supported by Richard and Victoria Sharp
Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David and Victoria Graham Fuller
Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Heather Badke Stephen Stewart Mila Mustakova Sheila Law VIOLAS Steven Burnard Guest Principal Robert Duncan Anthony Byrne Chair supported by John and Angela Kessler
Emmanuella Reiter Naomi Holt Isabel Pereira Daniel Cornford Alistair Scahill Sarah Malcolm
CLARINETS Robert Hill* Principal Emily Sutcliffe
CELLOS Kristina Blaumane Principal
BASSOONS John Price Principal Gareth Newman*
Chair supported by Simon Yates and Kevin Roon
Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Sabino Carvalho + Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp
Gregory Walmsley Liubov Ulybesheva Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff DOUBLE BASSES Kevin Rundell* Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Tom Walley Roger Linley Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Louis Garson FLUTES Robert Winn Guest Principal Julian Coward Stewart McIlwham* PICCOLO Stewart McIlwham* Principal OBOES Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick COR ANGLAIS Sue Bohling Principal
Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani
2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Chair supported by Julian and Gill Simmonds
BASS CLARINET Emily Sutcliffe
HARP Rachel Masters* Principal CELESTA Catherine Edwards
CONTRA BASSOON Simon Estell Principal HORNS John Ryan Principal Stephen Stirling Guest Principal Martin Hobbs Nicolas Wolmark Gareth Mollison TRUMPETS Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff and Meg Mann
Nicholas Betts Co-Principal TROMBONES Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse BASS TROMBONE Lyndon Meredith Principal TUBA Lee Tsarmaklis Principal TIMPANI Simon Carrington* Principal PERCUSSION Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport
Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Ignacio Molins Sacha Johnson
* Holds a professorial appointment in London +
Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco
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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
© Richard Cannon
Seventy-seven years after Sir Thomas Beecham founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra, it is recognised today as one of the finest orchestras on the international stage. Following Beecham’s influential founding tenure the Orchestra’s Principal Conductorship has been passed from one illustrious musician to another, amongst them Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. This impressive tradition continued in September 2007 when Vladimir Jurowski became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, and in a further exciting move, the Orchestra appointed Yannick Nézet-Séguin, its new Principal Guest Conductor from September 2008. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall since it opened in 1951, becoming Resident Orchestra in 1992. It plays there around 40 times each season with many of the world’s most sought after conductors and soloists. Concert highlights in 2009/10 include Between Two Worlds – an exploration of the music and times of Alfred Schnittke; a Sibelius symphony cycle with Osmo Vänskä in January/February 2010; a performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah conducted by Kurt Masur and dedicated to the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall; and new works by Rautavaara, Philip Glass, Ravi Shankar and the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Mark-Anthony Turnage.
Imaginative programming and a commitment to new music are at the heart of the Orchestra’s activity, with regular commissions and world première performances. In addition to its London season, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. It is unique in combining these concert activities with esteemed opera performances each summer at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been the Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs to enthusiastic audiences all round the world. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 it made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring continues to form a significant part of the Orchestra's schedule and is supported by Aviva, the International Touring Partner of
‘This pulsating concert was the best possible advertisement for the rest of Osmo Vänskä’s Sibelius cycle ... If any musical event this season has a better Finnish than this, I’m a Norseman.’ RICHARD MORRISON, THE TIMES, 29 JANUARY 2010
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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
PIETER SCHOEMAN LEADER
the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Tours in 2009/10 included visits to Germany, Australia, France, China, the Canaries and the USA. Having long been embraced by the recording, broadcasting and film industries, the London Philharmonic Orchestra broadcasts regularly on domestic and international television and radio. It also works extensively with the Hollywood and UK film industries, recording soundtracks for blockbuster motion pictures including the Oscar-winning score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and scores for Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East. The Orchestra also enjoys strong relationships with the major record labels and in 2005 began reaching out to new global audiences through the release of live, studio and archive recordings on its own CD label. Recent additions to the catalogue have included acclaimed releases of early Britten works conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Mahler’s Symphony 6 under the baton of Klaus Tennstedt; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1 and 6 conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Sir Thomas Beecham recordings of Mozart, Delius and Rimsky-Korsakov from the 1930s; a CD of John Ireland’s works taken from his 70th Birthday Concert in 1949; and Dvo˘rák’s Requiem conducted by Neeme Järvi. The Orchestra’s own-label releases are available to download by work or individual track from its website: www.lpo.org.uk/shop. The Orchestra reaches thousands of Londoners through its rich programme of community and school-based activity in Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, which includes the offshoot ensembles Renga and The Band, its Foyle Future Firsts apprenticeship scheme for outstanding young instrumentalists, and regular family and schools concerts. To help maintain its high standards and diverse workload, the Orchestra is committed to the welfare of its musicians and in December 2007 received the Association of British Orchestras/Musicians Benevolent Fund Healthy Orchestra Bronze Charter Mark. There are many ways to experience and stay in touch with the Orchestra’s activities: visit www.lpo.org.uk, subscribe to our podcast series and join us on Facebook.
4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
In 2002, Pieter Schoeman joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Co-Leader. In 2008 he was appointed Leader. Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra at the age of ten. He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions, including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in America. In 1987 he was offered the Heifetz Chair of Music scholarship to study with Edouard 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 Schoeman has performed as a soloist and recitalist throughout the world 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 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, he has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto and Benjamin Britten’s Double Concerto, which was recorded for the Orchestra’s own record label. Most recently he also played concertos with the Wiener Concertverein and Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. In 1995 Pieter Schoeman became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. During his tenure there he performed frequently as Guest Leader with the symphony orchestras of Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. A frequent guest of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in London, Pieter Schoeman returned in October 2006 to lead that orchestra on a three week tour of Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai, Singapore and Kuala Lumpur. Pieter Schoeman has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, the BBC and for American film and television. He led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He teaches at Trinity College of Music.
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NEEME JÄRVI CONDUCTOR
currently Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest (The Hague, Netherlands) and Conductor Laureate and Artistic Advisor of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra. He also holds the titles of Music Director Emeritus of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor Emeritus of the National Orchestra of Sweden – Göteborgs Symfoniker, First Principal Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. From the 2010/11 season he will become Principal Conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra. The head of a musical dynasty, Maestro Neeme Järvi is one of today’s most respected conductors. He conducts many of the world’s most prominent orchestras and works alongside soloists of the highest calibre. A prolific recording artist, he has amassed a discography of over 440 recordings. Future engagements include concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and the major orchestras of Scandinavia. In the USA he is regularly invited to conduct the Chicago and Detroit Symphony Orchestras, the Philadelphia Orchestra and the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington. His operatic engagements have taken him to the Metropolitan Opera, the Opéra de Paris (Bastille), San Francisco Opera and the Téatro Colon in Buenos Aires. He has collaborated with soloists including Janine Jansen, Hélène Grimaud, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Truls Mørk and Radu Lupu. This season saw him opening the Bergen Filharmoniske Orkester’s season and returning to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and the Göteborgs Symfoniker. He also made two journeys to China: first, for a tour with the Residentie Orkest and then later in the season to conduct the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra.
Highlights of an impressive discography include critically acclaimed complete symphony cycles of Prokofiev, Sibelius, Nielsen and Brahms. Neeme Järvi has also championed less widely known composers such as Wilhelm Stenhammar, Hugo Alfvén and Niels Gade; and composers from his native Estonia including Rudolf Tobias, Eduard Tubin and Arvo Pärt. He has recorded with Chandos, Deutsche Grammophon, BIS and EMI to name a few. His recent Chandos disc of Wagner’s The Ring – An Orchestral Adventure (arranged by Henk de Vlieger), received rave reviews; Edward Greenfield described it as ‘an excellent disc’ in Gramophone magazine. Many international accolades and awards have been bestowed upon Neeme Järvi. In Estonia these include an honorary doctorate from the Music Academy of Estonia in Tallinn, and the Order of the National Coat of Arms from the President of the Republic of Estonia, Mr Lennart Meri. The mayor of Tallinn presented Maestro Järvi with the city’s first-ever ceremonial sash and coat of arms insignia, and he has been named one of the ‘Estonians of the Century’. Neeme Järvi holds an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Detroit’s Wayne State University and the University of Michigan, as well as honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music. He has also received the Commander of the North Star Order from King Karl Gustav XVI of Sweden.
During his long and highly successful career he has held positions with orchestras across the world. He is
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ALEXEI LUBIMOV PIANO
Hogwood, Janovski, Järvi, Kondrashin, Mackerras, Nagano, Norrington, Pletnev, Salonen, Saraste and Tortelier. He has given historic performances with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Wiener Akademie and the Collegium Vocale Gent. In the world of chamber music, he performs regularly with famous soloists and ensembles at festivals throughout the world.
Born in Moscow, pianist Alexei Lubimov is one of the most strikingly original musicians performing today. His large repertoire combined with his dedication to musical principles make him a notable exception in today’s music scene. Following studies with Heinrich Neuhaus, Alexei Lubimov established an early dual passion for baroque music performed on traditional instruments and also for 20th century composers such as Schoenberg, Webern, Stockhausen, Boulez, Ives, Ligeti, Schnittke, Gubaidulina, Silvestrov and Pärt. He has premièred many contemporary pieces in Russia and founded the ‘Alternativa’ music festival there. He formed a quartet dedicated to baroque music during the 1970s when international travel became impossible. Performing old and new music well, however, did not stop Alexei Lubimov from being an outstanding performer of classical and romantic repertoire as his many recordings show. As political restrictions were lifted in Russia during the 1980s, Alexei Lubimov soon emerged among the first rank of international pianists giving concerts in Europe, North America and Japan. He has appeared with such orchestras as the Helsinki, Israel, Los Angeles, Munich and St Petersburg Philharmonics, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in London, Russian National Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, Toronto Symphony Orchestra and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin under the most important international conductors including Ashkenazy,
6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
In recent seasons he has given concerts with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Russian National Orchestra in Moscow and Tonkünstlerorchester in the Great Hall of Vienna’s Musikverein and given innumerable solo recitals. He toured with the Haydn Sinfonietta playing Mozart concertos and also played Mozart with the Orchestra della Svizzera Italiana under Robert King, Haydn with the Camerata Salzburg under Sir Roger Norrington in New York, and Pärt’s Lamentate with RSO Vienna under Andrey Boreyko at the Musikverein and with the Tampere Philharmonic under John Storgards. Other highlights have included performances of Scriabin’s Prometheus at the Salzburg Festival and in Copenhagen, Beethoven with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Silvestrov with the Munich Philharmonic, and Pärt with the SWR Stuttgart, DSO Berlin and Danish National Symphony Orchestra. This year he performs in Brussels, Utrecht, Budapest, Lille, London and New York. His recordings have been issued on various labels including Melodia, Erato, BIS and Sony, and feature the complete Mozart sonatas as well as works by Schubert, Chopin, Beethoven and Brahms and music of the 20th century. Since 2003 he has recorded regularly for ECM producing some unusual CDs of particular note: Der Bote with music by Liszt, Glinka and CPE Bach alongside John Cage and Tigran Mansurian; Arvo Pärt's Lamentate with the Stuttgart Radio Symphony; Messe Noir with music by Stravinsky, Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Scriabin; and Misteriosos with music by Silvestrov, Pärt and Ustvolskaya. His recording of Schubert’s Impromptus Op. 90 and Op. 142 was released in 2009 by Harmonia Mundi.
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to everyone’s ever yone’ yone s e ears ars Every Friday in 1953, music lovers young and old came to enjoy a night of classical music from the London Philharmonic Orchestra. At just five shillings (25p) a seat, the concerts almost always sold out. The Orchestra has maintained accessible ticket prices for its Friday concerts for more than half a century. Today, thanks to the support of JTI and the launch of the ‘JTI Friday Series’, it can continue to make its high quality live musical performances available to everyone.
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PROGRAMME NOTES
SPEEDREAD Serge Rachmaninoff was one of the most prodigiously gifted musicians who has ever lived. As a virtuoso pianist his reputation was second to none; before leaving Russia at the end of 1917 he was equally famous as a conductor; and his music’s place in the standard repertoire seems unassailable. Yet as a human being he was chronically insecure, and many of his best-known works were completed only after agonizing self-doubts; in performance he would often make cuts in his own
Serge RACHMANINOFF
works, fearful of boring his audience; and in his correspondence he constantly reproached himself for laziness. Yet the fusion of colossal talent and chronic selfdissatisfaction is one of the things that makes his music unique. It certainly fuels his ill-fated First Symphony, which he withdrew after its disastrous première. And it resurfaces in his Fourth Piano Concerto, which only found its definitive form at the third attempt, and again in the Corelli Variations, the only piece he composed for solo piano after leaving Russia.
VARIATIONS ON A THEME OF CORELLI, OP. 42
1873-1943 orchestrated by Corneliu Dumbraveanu
In 1931, during one of his European summer breaks, Rachmaninoff composed his only work for solo piano since leaving Russia in 1917. He chose the old dance melody known as La Folia, not actually composed by Corelli, but used by him in his Violin Sonata No. 12. This was the first time Rachmaninoff had chosen the apparently constraining form of variations on a given theme. But it was not to be the last, for his very next work was the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, for piano and orchestra, and anyone who knows that famous work will hear premonitions of it in several of the Corelli Variations. Not entirely convinced of the success of his composition, Rachmaninoff generally omitted some of the 20 variations in performance, and in three instances (Nos 11, 12 and 19) he even allowed that option in the score. Yet the design works well enough without such surgery, the variations grouping themselves into a quasi-four-movement sonata, in which the ‘slow movement’ begins in the major mode after a cadenzalike ‘Intermezzo’.
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‘I was guided by the coughing of the audience. Whenever the coughing increased, I would skip the next variation. Whenever there was no coughing, I would play them in the proper order.’ RACHMANINOFF TO NICOLAS MEDTNER, 1931
The extent to which the Corelli Variations served as a testing-ground for the Paganini Rhapsody is brought home by its instrumentation at the hands of the Romanian conductor Corneliu Dumbraveanu. This makes canny use of the orchestral families to point contrasts, holding back heavy brass, percussion and cor anglais for key structural and expressive moments, and rising to the challenge of the flourish at the end of the Intermezzo by deploying the xylophone. Dumbraveanu’s orchestration was recorded by Neeme Järvi for Chandos Records in 1993.
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PROGRAMME NOTES
Serge RACHMANINOFF
CONCERTO 4 FOR PIANO AND ORCHESTRA (REVISED VERSION), OP. 40 ALEXEI LUBIMOV piano Allegro vivace | Largo | Allegro vivace
1873-1943
Rachmaninoff composed some 40 major works before leaving Russia for ever after the November 1917 Revolution; in the 26 years from then until his death he managed a mere half dozen, and not one of these was completed during his first nine years abroad. The dual culture-shock of exile and post-war trauma played its part in this hiatus. But there were more mundane factors too. Cut off from his former relatively privileged lifestyle, Rachmaninoff had to begin a new career as an international concert pianist in order to provide for his family (and in due course to subsidize an increasing number of needy relations and friends). The demands of a rapidly expanding repertoire, together with the rigours of travel and recording, squeezed out the spare time that might otherwise have been devoted to composition.
one of his 1911 Etudes-tableaux (for piano solo), probably because he had already formed the intention to rework it as part of the concerto’s slow movement.
In 1926 he finally succeeded in taking a sabbatical year from performance in order to complete his Fourth Piano Concerto. Ideas for the work had been taking shape since 1914, and he had even withheld from publication
The result is a concerto that seems riddled with doubt but is all the more fascinating for that. It has one of the most inspired opening gambits in the repertoire, with the piano entering as though on the crest of a wave. And the traditional proportions of the first movement are subtly adjusted throughout, so that grand statements ignite suddenly, rather than having to go through the motions of elaborate rhetorical build-up. On the other hand, the final bars of this movement are strangely throw-away, while the entire slow movement hovers indecisively between expansive statement and the modesty of an interlude. As for the finale, it constantly shies away from the Dance of Death that seems to be its main business.
‘I feel like a ghost wandering in a world grown alien. I cannot cast out the old way of writing, and I cannot acquire the new. I have made intense efforts to feel the musical manner of today, but it will not come to me.’ RACHMANINOFF IN INTERVIEW, 1939
Putting his ideas for the concerto into shape proved to be fraught with difficulty, in part simply because he had to relearn the habit of composition, in part because he was sufficiently influenced by the tempo of life in the Roaring Twenties to have become wary of his own natural grandiloquence. Hardly was the Fourth Concerto complete than he began trimming it. 114 bars were shorn off in the summer of 1927, following the tepidly received first performances (given with the Philadelphia Orchestra conducted by Eugene Ormandy), and a further 78 bars were sacrificed in summer 1941, just before Rachmaninoff recorded the work.
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PROGRAMME NOTES
INTERVAL 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.
Serge RACHMANINOFF
SYMPHONY 1 IN D MINOR, OP. 13 Grave. Allegro ma non troppo | Allegro animato | Larghetto | Allegro con fuoco
1873-1943
‘Vengeance is mine. I will repay.’ MOTTO TO THE SCORE
Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony dates from 1895, when the 22-year-old composer was looking to build on the unexpected success of his graduation-piece opera, Aleko. The first performance was arranged by the famous patron of the arts, Mitrofan Belyayev, for his Russian Symphony Concerts in St Petersburg, and it took place on 15 March 1897 at the Hall of Nobility, later to become the Philharmonic Hall. It proved a disaster, mainly because Alexander Glazunov, as all reports agree, conducted with an almost total lack of interest and understanding. (The story that he was drunk, though certainly plausible, was not circulated until much later and may be a myth.) César Cui’s memorably vitriolic review, comparing the symphony to the Seven Plagues of Egypt, is sometimes blamed for the composer’s ensuing three-year creative block (to be overcome, after consultations with a hypnotherapist, in the Second Piano Concerto). But this depression almost certainly had more to do with Rachmaninoff’s overdeveloped self-critical faculties. By comparison with his best works the First Symphony may indeed bite off
rather more than it can chew; but its failings were greatly magnified in his mind. The portentous opening sets the emotional tone and lays out the main musical material for the entire work. Its chromatic snarl and the defiant response in the strings are both destined to reappear in manifold guises. Together they bear a striking resemblance to the motif of ‘Wotan’s Frustration’ from Act 2 of Die Walküre; but the musical journeys they are taken on are more reminiscent of Tchaikovsky, who had died two years earlier and whose mantle was awaiting worthy shoulders. In true Tchaikovskian fashion the first movement unfolds as the drama of an anguished soul, played out within the bounds of academically correct sonata form. There is a gypsy-inflected second subject, heard on the oboe after a winding transition in the violins, and the central section kicks off with a shortlived but wirily determined fugue (a discipline Rachmaninoff loathed as a student). Next comes an unassuming scherzo, all half-lights and wistful charm, at least until the snarling motif returns and the strings remove their mutes. The main idea of the slow movement, played in turn by clarinet, oboe and flute, is a reworking of the gypsy-inflected theme from
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PROGRAMME NOTES
the first movement. Once again the snarling motif makes its presence felt, not only at the outset but also in a dark-hued central episode. At the head of the finale stands a march-like transformation of the first movement’s main idea, once familiar in Britain as the theme tune for the current affairs programme Panorama. Disappointingly, perhaps, little more is heard of this as the movement proceeds. Instead Rachmaninoff comes up with the first of his ‘big tunes’, which seems destined to purge the prevailing tone of storm and stress. In this instance, though, there is to be no easy triumph, and the forces of light and dark are held in precarious balance until almost the last moment.
after the death of his sister-in-law’s housekeeper in 1925. (There are reports that it survives in private hands.) He never made moves to have it performed again, but he did incorporate its main idea into his late masterpiece, the Symphonic Dances of 1940, with an achingly beautiful harmonisation that suggests he retained a strong affection for the ill-fated work. Two years after his death, the symphony was reconstructed from orchestral parts discovered in the Leningrad Conservatory. Its second performance was given at the Moscow Conservatoire on 17 October 1945, and it proved to be the beginning of a triumphant posthumous rehabilitation.
Programme notes by David Fanning © 2010 Rachmaninoff left the manuscript of the symphony in Russia when he emigrated in 1917, and it disappeared
RECORDINGS ON THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S OWN RECORD LABEL
LPO-0004 Vladimir Jurowski conducts Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead and Symphonic Dances ‘... dramatic and focused ... Jurowski’s slow-burning Rachmaninoff is irresistible.’
LPO-0036 Osmo Vänskä conducts Rachmaninoff’s Symphony 3 and Bax’s Tintagel ‘Vänskä’s account of the Third Symphony is a marvel of measured, uninflated eloquence.’ PAUL DRIVER, THE SUNDAY TIMES, 23 NOVEMBER 2008
INDEPENDENT ON SUNDAY
The recordings may be downloaded in high quality MP3 format from www.lpo.org.uk/shop. They may also be purchased from all good retail outlets or through the London Philharmonic Orchestra: telephone 020 7840 4242 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm) or visit the website www.lpo.org.uk
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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 Mr & Mrs Richard & Victoria Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds Mrs Steven Ward Simon Yates & Kevin Roon
Guy & Utti Whittaker
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Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Marika Cobbold & Michael Patchett-Joyce Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Edgecombe Mr Richard Fernyhough
Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller Richard Karl Goeltz John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett
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Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE
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Trusts and Foundations Adam Mickiewicz Institute Allianz Cultural Foundation The Andor Charitable Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation Borletti-Buitoni Trust The Candide Charitable Trust The John S Cohen Foundation The Coutts Charitable Trust The Dorset Foundation The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Ernest Cook Trust The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Henry Smith Charity The Idlewild Trust John Lyon’s Charity John Thaw Foundation The Jonathan & Jeniffer Harris Trust
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SOUTHBANK CENTRE
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: MDC music and movies, Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, CaffĂŠ Vergnano 1882, Skylon and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery. If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact our Head of Customer Relations at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, by phone on 020 7960 4250 or by email at 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
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ADMINISTRATION
BOARD OF DIRECTORS
GENERAL ADMINISTRATION
Martin Höhmann Chairman Stewart McIlwham Vice-Chairman Sue Bohling Simon Carrington Lord Currie* Jonathan Dawson* Anne McAneney George Peniston Sir Bernard Rix* Kevin Rundell Sir Philip Thomas* Sir John Tooley* The Rt Hon. Lord Wakeham DL* Timothy Walker AM †
Timothy Walker AM † Chief Executive and Artistic Director Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager Julius Hendriksen Assistant to the Chief Executive and Artistic Director FINANCE David Burke General Manager and Finance Director
*Non-Executive Directors
David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager
THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC TRUST
CONCERT MANAGEMENT
Pehr Gyllenhammar Chairman Desmond Cecil CMG Richard Karl Goeltz Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann Angela Kessler Clive Marks OBE FCA Victoria Sharp Julian Simmonds Timothy Walker AM † Laurence Watt Simon Yates AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, INC. We are very grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for its support of the Orchestra’s activities in the USA. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Charles Russell Solicitors Horwath Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor
EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMME
ARCHIVES Edmund Pirouet Consultant
Matthew Todd Education and Community Director
Philip Stuart Discographer
Anne Newman Education Officer
Gillian Pole Recordings Archive
Isobel Timms Community Officer LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Alec Haylor Education and Community Assistant
89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 Fax: 020 7840 4201 Box Office: 020 7840 4242
Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer DEVELOPMENT
Roanna Chandler Concerts Director Ruth Sansom Artistic Administrator Graham Wood Concerts, Recordings and Glyndebourne Manager
Nick Jackman Development Director Phoebe Rouse Corporate Relations Manager Sarah Tattersall Corporate Relations and Events Manager
www.lpo.org.uk Visit the website for full details of London Philharmonic Orchestra activities. The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045.
Alison Jones Concerts Co-ordinator
Melissa Van Emden Corporate Relations and Events Officer
Photographs of Rachmaninoff courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.
Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant
Anna Gover Charitable Giving Officer
Photograph on the front cover by Benjamin Ealovega.
ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL
MARKETING
Programmes printed by Cantate.
Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager
Kath Trout Marketing Director
Sarah Thomas Librarian
Ellie Dragonetti Marketing Co-ordinator
Michael Pattison Stage Manager
Frances Cook Publications Manager
Camilla Begg Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager
Samantha Kendall Box Office Administrator (Tel: 020 7840 4242)
Ken Graham Trucking Instrument Transportation (Tel: 01737 373305)
Valerie Barber Press Consultant (Tel: 020 7586 8560) INTERN Jo Langston Marketing
†Supported by Macquarie Group
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FINAL CONCERT OF 2009/10 SEASON AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL
Thursday 1 July 2010 | 7.30pm Glyndebourne Festival Opera
Adams Shaker Loops Glass Violin Concerto 1 Shankar Symphony (world première)
Last week, the London Philharmonic Orchestra started its 2010 season as Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera.
David Murphy conductor Robert McDuffie violin Anoushka Shankar sitar FREE Pre-Concert Event 6.15pm | Royal Festival Hall An introduction to the music of Ravi Shankar.
David Murphy and Robert McDuffie
TO BOOK
Tickets £9-£38 / Premium seats £55 London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 | www.lpo.org.uk Mon-Fri 10am-5pm; no booking fee Southbank Centre Ticket Office | 0844 847 9920 www.southbankcentre.co.uk/lpo Daily, 9am-8pm. £2.50 telephone / £1.45 online booking fees; no fee for Southbank Centre members
Glyndebourne’s first ever production of Britten’s Billy Budd conducted by Mark Elder opened the season. The Orchestra will also play for a revival of the 2007 production of Verdi’s Macbeth conducted by Vasily Petrenko, a revival of the 2008 production of Humperdinck’s Hänsel und Gretel conducted by Robin Ticciati, and a revival of the 1975 David Hockney production of Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. The London Philharmonic Orchestra opens its 2010/11 Southbank Centre season on Wednesday 22 September. Vladimir Jurowski will conduct a programme comprising Zemlinsky’s Six Maeterlinck Songs and Mahler’s Symphony 3 with soloist Petra Lang, the London Philharmonic Choir and Trinity Boys Choir. For full details pick up a brochure in the foyer or telephone 020 7840 4242.
London Philharmonic Orchestra Recording Archive As late spring / early summer is a good time to check through your record collections, we hope you might find some recordings you feel you could part with and would like to donate to the Orchestra’s Recording Archive. We recently had a wonderful windfall of 30 LPs, all in tip-top condition, from a very dedicated London Philharmonic Orchestra supporter, Mr Arthur J Jones, and were delighted to receive these for the Archive. If you have any recordings which you think would be of interest, please get in touch with Gillian Pole at the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP.
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