LPO programme 5 Mar 2025 - Renée Fleming sings Strauss
2024/25 season at the Southbank Centre FREE CONCERT PROGRAMME
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner supported by Aud Jebsen
Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis
Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski KBE Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG
Artistic Director Elena Dubinets Chief Executive David Burke
Leader Pieter Schoeman supported by Neil Westreich
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Wednesday 5 March 2025 | 7.30pm
Renée Fleming sings Strauss
Wagner
Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde (17’)
R Strauss
Four Last Songs (25’)
Interval (20’)
Wagner
Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser (24’)
Wagner
Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin (7’)
Wagner
Overture from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (10’)
Thomas Guggeis conductor
Renée Fleming soprano
Welcome LPO news
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Gly ndebourne Festival 2025: on sale now
This summer, we return to sunny Sussex for our annual residency at Glyndebourne’s famous opera festival. There we’ll reunite with Glyndebourne Music Director Robin Ticciati for performances of Janáček’s Káťa Kabanová, and the Festival’s first ever staging of Wagner’s epic final opera, Parsifal. We’ll also perform in Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia under conductor Rory Macdonald – a revival of Annabel Arden’s lively and colourful production – and Verdi’s Falstaff conducted by Sian Edwards – a revival of Richard Jones’s 2009 production, in which Verdi’s Elizabethan comedy is transformed into a post-war romp.
Glyndebourne Festival 2025 runs from 16 May–4 August, and tickets are on sale now: glyndebourne.com/festival
The Chamber Sessions: LPO at St John’s Waterloo
This Friday, 7 March, is your last chance this season to catch ‘The Chamber Sessions’, a series of hourlong 6.30pm concerts at St John’s Church, Waterloo, bringing audiences closer to the music and highlighting the talents of our musicians in a more intimate setting.
This Friday’s concert, ‘Echoes of Now’, sees a chamber ensemble of six LPO string and wind players immerse themselves in the contemporary culture of Britain and the USA; hear them break away, jump for joy and hit the dancefloor in a concert of music by five composers who defy convention and genre: LPO Composer-inResidence Tania León, former LPO Young Composers Daniel Kidane and Hannah Kendall, and award-winning American composers Jessie Montgomery and Brian Raphael Nabors.
Tickets are £12–£15: find out more and book now at lpo.org.uk/thechambersessions
First Violins
Pieter Schoeman* Leader
Chair supported by Neil Westreich
Alice Ivy-Pemberton Co-Leader
Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader
Kate Oswin
Chair supported by Eric Tomsett
Lasma Taimina
Chair supported by Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave
Minn Majoe
Chair supported by Dr Alex & Maria Chan
Thomas Eisner
Chair supported by Ryze Power
Cassandra Hamilton
Yang Zhang
Martin Höhmann
Katalin Varnagy
Nilufar Alimaksumova
Grace Lee
Elodie Chousmer-Howelles
Alice Apreda Howell
Second Violins
Tania Mazzetti Principal
Chair supported by The Candide
Trust
Emma Oldfield Co-Principal
Claudia Tarrant-Matthews
Nynke Hijlkema
Kate Birchall
Joseph Maher
Marie-Anne Mairesse
Fiona Higham
Chair supported by David & Yi
Buckley
Ashley Stevens
Sioni Williams
Vera Beumer
Ricky Gore
Sarah Thornett
Caroline Heard
Violas
On stage tonight
Fiona Winning
Guest Principal
Katharine Leek
Lucia Ortiz Sauco
Benedetto Pollani
Laura Vallejo
Martin Wray
Chair supported by David & Bettina Harden
James Heron
Alistair Scahill
Pamela Ferriman
Richard Cookson
Cellos
Kristina Blaumane Principal
Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden
Waynne Kwon
David Lale
Hee Yeon Cho
Francis Bucknall
Henry Hargreaves
Sue Sutherley
Tom Roff
Helen Thomas
George Hoult
Double
Basses
Sebastian Pennar* Principal
George Peniston
Tom Walley
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
Adam Wynter
Charlotte Kerbegian
Cathy Colwell
Catherine Ricketts
Flutes
Juliette Bausor Principal
Daniel Shao
Stewart McIlwham*
Ruth Harrison
Piccolos
Stewart McIlwham* Principal
Ruth Harrison
Oboes
Ian Hardwick* Principal Alice Munday
Cor Anglais
Ben Marshall
Clarinets
Benjamin Mellefont* Principal
Chair supported by Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
Thomas Watmough Chair supported by Roger Greenwood
Bass Clarinet
Paul Richards* Principal
Bassoons
Jonathan Davies* Principal Chair supported by Sir Simon Robey
Helen Storey*
Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra
Simon Estell*
Contrabassoon
Simon Estell* Principal
Horns
John Ryan* Principal
Annemarie Federle Principal
Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE
Martin Hobbs
Mark Vines Co-Principal
Gareth Mollison
Trumpets
Paul Beniston* Principal
Tom Nielsen Co-Principal
Anne McAneney*
Chair supported in memory of Peter Coe
Trombones
Mark Templeton* Principal
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
Jamie Tweed
Bass Trombone
Lyndon Meredith Principal
Tuba
Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
Timpani
Simon Carrington* Principal
Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE
Jeremy Cornes
Percussion
Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins
Karen Hutt Co-Principal
Oliver Yates
Feargus Brennan
Harp
Tamara Young Guest Principal
Celeste
Catherine Edwards
*Professor at a London conservatoire
The LPO also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert:
Ian Ferguson & Susan Tranter Dr Barry Grimaldi
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating to watch and hear, the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since Sir Thomas Beecham founded it in 1932. Our mission is to share wonder with the modern world through the power of orchestral music, which we accomplish through live performances, online, and an extensive education and community programme, cementing our position as a leading orchestra for the 21st century.
Our home is at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, where we’re at the beating heart of London’s cultural life. You’ll also find us at our resident venues in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and on tour worldwide. In 2024 we celebrated 60 years as Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, combining the magic of opera with Glyndebourne’s glorious setting in the Sussex countryside.
Soundtrack to key moments
Everyone will have heard the Grammy-nominated London Philharmonic Orchestra, whether it’s playing the world’s National Anthems for every medal ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, our iconic recording with Pavarotti that made Nessun Dorma a global football anthem, or closing the flotilla at The Queen’s Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. And you’ll almost certainly have heard us on the soundtracks for major films including The Lord of the Rings
Sharing the wonder worldwide
We’re one of the world’s most-streamed orchestras, with over 15 million plays of our content each month. In 2023 we were the most successful orchestra worldwide on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, with over 1.1m followers across all platforms, and in spring 2024 we featured in a TV documentary series on Sky Arts: ‘Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’, still available to watch via Now TV. During 2024/25 we’re once again working with Marquee TV to broadcast selected live concerts to enjoy from your own living room.
Our conductors
Our Principal Conductors have included some of the greatest historic names like Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2021 Edward Gardner became our 13th Principal Conductor, and Vladimir Jurowski became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his impact as Principal Conductor from 2007–21. Karina Canellakis is our current Principal Guest Conductor, and Tania León our Composer-in-Residence.
Next generations
We’re committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians and music-lovers: we love seeing the joy of children and families experiencing their first musical moments, and we’re passionate about inspiring schools and teachers through dedicated concerts, workshops,
resources and training. Reflecting our values of collaboration and inclusivity, our OrchLab and Open Sound Ensemble projects offer music-making opportunities for adults and young people with disabilities and special educational needs.
Today’s young instrumentalists are the orchestra members of the future, and we have a number of opportunities to support their progression. Our LPO Junior Artists programme leads the way in creating pathways into the profession for young artists from under-represented communities, and our LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes support the next generation of professional musicians, bridging the transition from education to professional careers. We also recently launched the LPO Conducting Fellowship, supporting the development of two outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds under-represented in the profession.
2024/25 season
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner leads the Orchestra in an exciting 2024/25 season, with soloists including Joyce DiDonato, Leif Ove Andsnes, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Víkingur Ólafsson and Isabelle Faust, and works including Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis joins us for three concerts including Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, and Mozart with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. We’ll also welcome back Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski, as well as guest conductors including Mark Elder, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Robin Ticciati and Kevin John Edusei.
Throughout the season we’ll explore the relationship between music and memory in our ‘Moments Remembered’ series, featuring works like Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Strauss’s Metamorphosen and John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls. During the season there’ll be the chance to hear brand new works by composers including Freya Waley-Cohen and David Sawer, as well as performances by renowned soloists violinist Gidon Kremer, sarod player Amjad Ali Khan, soprano Renée Fleming and many more. The season also features tours to Japan, the USA, China and across Europe, as well as a calendar bursting with performances and community events in our Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden residencies. lpo.org.uk
Pieter Schoeman Leader
Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002. He is also a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance.
Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninoff Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. As a chamber musician he regularly appears at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. His chamber music partners have included Anne-Sophie Mutter, Veronika Eberle, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Boris Garlitsky, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Martin Helmchen and Julia Fischer.
Pieter has performed numerous times as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights have included an appearance as both conductor and soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Royal Festival Hall, the Brahms Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and the Britten Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the LPO Label to great critical acclaim.
Pieter has appeared as Guest Leader with the BBC, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon and Baltimore symphony orchestras; the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras; and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Pieter’s chair in the LPO is generously supported by Neil Westreich.
German conductor Thomas Guggeis has served as General Music Director of Oper Frankfurt and Artistic Director of the Frankfurt Museum Concerts since the 2023/24 season. He made his debut in Frankfurt in May 2021 with Mozart’s Requiem, which was followed by Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos. This season in Frankfurt, he will lead new productions of Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Lulu, Macbeth and Parsifal, as well as a revival of Der Rosenkavalier. As part of the Frankfurt Museum Concerts this season, he conducts Mahler’s Third Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, Bruckner’s Fifth Symphony and Mendelssohn’s Second Symphony, among others.
Tonight is Thomas Guggeis’s debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This season he has also made symphonic debuts with the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestra dell’ Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, Hamburg Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Cologne’s Gürzenich Orchestra and the Nuremberg State Philharmonic. In January 2025 he made his concert debut with the Vienna Philharmonic at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg, and this season he will also return to the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Bavarian State Orchestra.
Recent seasons have seen appearances at, among others, the Teatro alla Scala with Die Entführung aus dem Serail; the Metropolitan Opera with Der fliegende Holländer; the Vienna State Opera with Die tote Stadt, Salome, La traviata, Ariadne auf Naxos and Falstaff; the Berlin State Opera with Daphne, Salome, Samson et Dalila, Der Ring des Nibelungen, Káťa Kabanová, La traviata, Der fliegende Holländer, Die Zauberflöte, Lohengrin, Ariadne auf Naxos, Hänsel und Gretel,
Don Giovanni, Elektra, Falstaff and The Merry Wives of Windsor; and at the Theater an der Wien with Oberon and Peter Grimes
Much sought-after on the concert stage, Thomas has appeared with leading orchestras including the Staatskapelle Dresden, Staatskapelle Berlin, Munich Philharmonic, Vienna Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Beethoven Orchestra Bonn, Dresden Philharmonic, Copenhagen Philharmonic, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Orchestra Sinfonica Nazionale della RAI, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Orchestra della Toscana, Bern Symphony Orchestra, Essen Philharmonic, Swedish Radio Orchestra and the Boulez Ensemble, among others.
Earlier in his career, Thomas Guggeis served as Staatskapellmeister at the Berlin State Opera and as First Kapellmeister at the Stuttgart State Opera, before which he studied conducting in Munich and Milan.
Renée Fleming is one of the most highly acclaimed singers of our time, performing on the stages of the world’s great opera houses and concert halls. A 2023 Kennedy Center Honoree, winner of five Grammy Awards and the US National Medal of Arts, she has sung for momentous occasions from the Nobel Peace Prize ceremony to the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace. A groundbreaking distinction came in 2008 when she became the first woman in the 125-year history of New York’s Metropolitan Opera to solo headline an opening night gala. In 2023, the World Health Organization appointed her as a Goodwill Ambassador for Arts and Health, and this year she became an inaugural member of the World Economic Forum’s Global Arts and Culture Council.
Renée’s latest recital and concert programme, Voice of Nature: the Anthropocene, inspired by her 2023 Grammy-winning album, includes an original film created by the National Geographic Society to reflect the musical selections. In 2024 at the Metropolitan Opera, she reprised her role in The Hours, an opera by Kevin Puts based on Michael Cunningham’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel and the subsequent award-winning film. In 2023, she portrayed Pat Nixon in a new production of John Adams’s Nixon in China at the Opéra de Paris.
Renée’s anthology, Music and Mind: Harnessing the Arts for Health and Wellness, was published in 2024. A prominent advocate for research at the intersection of arts, health and neuroscience, as Artistic Advisor to the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, Renée launched the first ongoing collaboration between America’s national cultural centre and its largest health research institute, the National Institutes of Health. She created her own program called ‘Music and the
Mind’, which she has presented in more than 50 cities around the world. She is now an advisor for major initiatives in this field, including the Sound Health Network at the University of California San Francisco, and the NeuroArts Blueprint at Johns Hopkins University.
Renée has recorded everything from complete operas and song recitals to indie rock and jazz. In 2023, Decca released a special double-length album of live recordings from her greatest performances at the Metropolitan Opera. The same year, Renée received the Grammy Award for Best Classical Vocal Solo for her album Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene, with Yannick Nézet-Séguin as pianist. Known for bringing new audiences to classical music and opera, Renée has sung not only with Luciano Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli, but also with Elton John, Paul Simon, Sting, Josh Groban and Joan Baez. Her voice is featured on the soundtracks of Best Picture Oscar-winners The Shape of Water and The Lord of the Rings
Co-Artistic Director of the Aspen Opera Center and VocalArts at the Aspen Music Festival, Renée Fleming is also Advisor for Special Projects at LA Opera. Her other awards include the 2023 Crystal Award from the World Economic Forum in Davos, the Fulbright Lifetime Achievement Medal, Germany’s Cross of the Order of Merit, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize, and honorary doctorates from ten major universities.
Renée Fleming’s jewelry is by Ann Ziff for Tamsen Z.
Rightly or wrongly, Mathilde Wesendonck has gone down in history as the inspiration for Richard Wagner’s erotic masterpiece Tristan und Isolde. Certainly, there was a time when Wagner thought he was in love with Mathilde, the pretty, intelligent and cultured wife of a Zurich-based silk merchant who had given Wagner much-needed assistance after his flight into political exile in 1849. Mathilde was clearly delighted to be muse to such a fascinating, charismatic, if somewhat demanding creative personality. But Tristan had already been conceived in Wagner’s mind before his feelings for Mathilde had fully ripened, and in any case, from the start he saw the opera as an expression of something rather different from normal, real-life erotic fulfilment. On New Year’s Day 1855 he had written to his friend Franz Liszt:
‘Since I have never, in my entire life, tasted the true happiness of love, I intend raising a monument to that most beautiful of dreams, in which this love shall, for once, be utterly fulfilled. This is the plan I have in mind for Tristan and Isolde …’
Some writers are now inclined to believe that Wagner’s relationship with Mathilde was never fully consummated. If so, that might partly explain why the music of Tristan often sounds like a sustained ode to the unattainable: sometimes ecstatic, sometimes desperate, always restless. Of course, tragic operas do tend to end in death rather than in blissful union, but Wagner’s rapturous final hymn to death as the true goal of love –the famous Liebestod – is without parallel in its oceanic
intensity, or in the ambiguous release of its ending. But, as Wagner said in his letter to Liszt, this yearning had been lifelong. Listening to the opera’s Prelude, one may sense that this astonishing, mould-breaking expression of unappeasable desire, of emotional as well as physical hunger, had been long in preparation in Wagner’s mind. The aching opening cello phrase, and the exquisitely painful woodwind dissonances that grow from it, have together become the most potent symbol of longing in the classical repertoire.
When it comes to ‘last works’, it is rare for composers to hand in their notice and close up their stall – more often, we are left with half-finished masterpieces and tantalising glimpses into the mind of a composer cut off mid-sentence. But when, in 1942, Richard Strauss introduced his opera Capriccio to the stage, the 78-year-old composer thought the work would be one of his last, and announced his retirement to his publishers. It came as something of a surprise, then, that the years that followed were some of the most fruitful of his life. What is more, with a more mature perspective he began to compose works that were more deeply heartfelt and more personal than anything that had come before.
In 1946, Strauss made some sketches for a setting of Joseph von Eichendorff’s poem Im Abendrot (‘At Sunset’), which depicts an old couple looking at the sunset and wondering, after a long and eventful life
together, ‘Can this perhaps be death?’ He completed the song two years later and, together with three other songs on texts by Hermann Hesse – Frühling (‘Spring’), September, and Beim Schlafengehen (‘Going to Sleep’) – they were published posthumously in 1950 as the Four Last Songs.
Although they were written as individual entities, together they create a compelling set – songs of farewell not just to life but also to friends, work, love and art. Strauss may not have known that they were to be his last completed series of works, but there is an unmistakable trace of leave-taking in both the choice of texts and in Strauss’s approach to their musical settings. Most poignantly of all, Strauss quotes from his earlier tone-poem Tod und Verklärung (‘Death and Transfiguration’) in the closing strains of Im Abendrot; a year later, he would declare calmly from his deathbed: ‘Dying is just like I composed it in Tod und Verklärung.’
An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.
Four Last Songs: text & translation
1 Frühling
In dämmrigen Grüften träumte ich lang Von deinen Bäumen und Blauen Lüften Von deinem Duft und Vogelgesang. Nun liegst du erschlossen in Gleiss und Zier Von Licht übergossen wie ein Wunder vor mir. Du kennst mich wieder, du lockst mich zart; Es zittert durch all meine Glieder deine selige Gegenwart.
Hermann Hesse
2 September
Der Garten trauert, Kühl sinkt in die Blumen der Regen.
Der Sommer schauert, still seinem Ende entgegen. Golden tropft Blatt um Blatt nieder vom hohen Akazienbaum.
Sommer lächelt erstaunt und matt in den sterbenden Gartentraum.
Lange noch bei den Rosen bleibt er stehen, sehnt sich nach Ruh.
Langsam tut er die müdgewordnen Augen zu.
Hermann Hesse
3 Beim Schlafengehen
Nun der Tag mich müd’ gemacht, Soll mein sehnliches Verlangen Freundlich die gestirnte Nacht Wie ein müdes Kind empfangen.
Hände lasst von allem Tun, Stirn vergiss du alles Denken, Alle meine Sinne nun Wollen sich in Schlummer senken.
Und die Seele unbewacht Will in freien Flügen schweben, Um im Zauberkreis der Nacht Tief und tausendfach zu leben.
Hermann Hesse
Spring
In halflight I waited, dreamed all too long of trees in blossom, those flowing breezes, that fragrant blue and thrushes’ song. Now streaming and glowing from sky to field With light overflowing, all these charms are revealed. Light gilds the river, light floods the plain; Spring calls me: and through me there quivers life’s own loveliness returned.
September
These mournful flowers, rain-drenched in the coolness are bending, While summer cowers, mute as he waits for his ending. Gravely each golden leaf falls from the tallest acacia tree;
Summer marvels and smiles to see his own garden grow faint with grief. Lingering still, near the roses long he stays, longs for repose; Languid, slow to the last, his weary eyelids close.
Going to Sleep
Now the day has wearied me, All my gain and all my longing Like a weary child’s shall be Night, whose many stars are thronging.
Hands, now leave your work alone; Brow, forget your idle thinking; All my thoughts, their labour done, Softly into sleep are sinking.
High the soul will rise in flight, Freely gliding, softly swaying, In the magic realms of night, Deeper laws of life obeying.
Four Last Songs: text & translation
4 Im Abendrot
Wir sind durch Not und Freude gegangen Hand in Hand;
Vom Wandern ruhen wir nun überm stillen Land. Rings sich die Täler neigen, es dunkelt schon die Luft.
Zwei Lerchen nur noch steigen nach träumend in den Duft.
Tritt her und lass sie schwirren, bald ist es Schlafenzeit.
Dass wir uns nicht verirren in dieser Einsamkeit. O weiter, stiller Friede! So tief im Abendrot
Richard Strauss: Five Songs Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme Salome (excerpts)
Klaus Tennstedt conductor
Jessye Norman soprano
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 4 May 1986
Available on CD, and to download or stream via all major platforms. Scan the QR code to listen now.
Programme notes
Richard Wagner
1813–83
Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser
1845
Tannhäuser und der Sängerkrieg auf Wartburg (‘Tannhäuser and the Singing Contest on the Wartburg’) was Wagner’s fifth opera, first produced at the Dresden Court Theatre in October 1845. Its plot combines two German medieval subjects – the legendary crusader knight and minstrel Tannhäuser, and a singing contest – to fashion a story of the pull between sacred and earthly love. After discovering Venus’s underground realm (the Venusberg) and enjoying its excesses, Tannhäuser tears himself away, but when he takes part in a song competition at the Wartburg (where he hopes to win the hand of the Landgrave’s daughter Elisabeth) he sacrilegiously offers a hymn to Venus. He is sent on a pilgrimage to Rome to seek forgiveness, but in the end it is only the death of the heartbroken, ever-loving Elisabeth that brings redemption.
The Overture to Tannhäuser has long been one of the most popular Wagnerian extracts in the concert hall, and presents a strongly characterised opposition of the story’s main strands using music from the opera itself, in the manner Wagner learned from Gluck, Beethoven and Weber. The opening is a solemn march for the pilgrims, intoned quietly at first before swelling to a majestic restatement with a string accompaniment fluttering like pennants. As this subsides, however, a quicker tempo suggests the first stirrings of sensual love, before leading to the bold and forthright melody that is Tannhäuser’s hymn to Venus. A tranquil central passage then shows Tannhäuser languishing in the Venusberg, but after things have hotted up even more, it is the pilgrims’ march that finally re-emerges to end the Overture in noble triumph.
After Tannhäuser’s premiere in Dresden, and subsequent performances across Europe and in New York, Wagner substantially amended the opera for its French premiere by the Paris Opéra in 1861. It was for this production that he composed the ‘Venusberg Music’. Directly following the Overture, this was inserted to align with the expectations of French Grand Opera, which often featured elaborate ballet
sequences. Set in a mystical grotto, the music is filled with swirling, seductive melodies and increasingly frenzied rhythms, painting a vivid picture of nymphs, satyrs and fauns caught in a wild, ecstatic dance. As the revelry intensifies into an orgiastic climax, the arrival of the Three Graces gradually restores calm, allowing the music to dissolve into tranquility.
Wagner’s ‘romantic opera’ Lohengrin was written shortly after Tannhäuser, between 1845 and 1848, and was first performed under Franz Liszt in Weimar in August 1850. The libretto, by the composer, is based on medieval legends. Lohengrin is a knight who comes to the aid of the princess Elsa of Brabant, and marries her, but insists on preserving his anonymity; when he is forced to reveal his identity as one of the guardians of the Holy Grail, he has to return to their home at the castle of Montsalvat.
The Prelude to Act I is a representation of the Grail – the sacred vessel that held Christ’s blood at the Crucifixion – being carried by a host of angels as it gradually materialises ‘out of the clear blue ether’. This picture is wonderfully conveyed by Wagner’s scoring, with high, much divided violins at the beginning and end, and a noble climax led by the brass.
Wagner called Die Meistersinger a ‘grand comic opera’, and it is undoubtedly his most light-hearted stage work. Set in 16th-century Germany, it tells the story of Walther, a young aristocrat who can only gain the hand of the woman he loves by winning a song contest organised by the local guild of mastersingers. He is untutored in their arcane rules and regulations, but the passion and sincerity of his singing eventually wins him his bride. Wagner composed the Overture before writing the rest of the opera, and conducted it in a concert in Leipzig in 1862, six years before the premiere of the completed work.
The Overture is one of the most sumptuous in the repertoire: its grandiloquent opening theme is followed by others suggestive of the mastersingers themselves in their majesty and self-important pedantry, and also by a noble and sinuous theme low in the violins, based in part on Walther’s prize-winning song.
London Philharmonic Orchestra • 5 March 2025 • Renée Fleming sings Strauss
Recommended
recordings of tonight’s works by
Laurie Watt
Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde
Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra | Mariss Jansons (Warner)
R Strauss: Four Last Songs
Renée Fleming (soprano) | Houston Symphony
Christoph Eschenbach (RCA)
Wagner: Overture and Venusberg Music from Tannhäuser & Overture to Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
London Philharmonic Orchestra | Klaus Tennstedt (LPO Label LPO-0003: see below)
Wagner: Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin
Vienna Philharmonic | Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon download, available via Presto Music)
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Wagner highlights on the LPO Label
Klaus Tennstedt conductor
Die Walküre, Act I
René Kollo tenor (Siegmund)
Eva-Maria Bundschuh soprano (Sieglinde)
John Tomlinson bass (Hunding)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, London, on 7 and 10 October 1991
Orchestral excerpts from Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Rienzi, Götterdämmerung, Die Walküre & Tannhäuser
Klaus Tennstedt conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded by BBC Radio 3 live at the Royal Albert Hall, London, on 20 August 1992
Available on CD, and to download or stream via all major platforms. Scan the QR codes to listen now.
Crossing Generations
Wednesday 12 March 2025
Queen Elizabeth Hall (Please note venue)
Zappa The Dog Breath Variations/Uncle Meat; Outrage at Valdez; G-Spot Tornado
London Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir | Andrey Boreyko conductor | Kristina Blaumane cello A whimsical cantata based on Edward Lear’s nonsense poem
Recorded at the world premiere at the Royal Festival Hall, 18 March 2023
Available to download or stream via Spotify, Apple Music, Presto Music and others. Scan the QR code to listen now or find out more.
Sound Futures donors
We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to our Sound Futures campaign. Thanks to their support, we successfully raised £1 million by 30 April 2015 which has now been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. This has enabled us to create a £2 million endowment fund supporting special artistic projects, creative programming and education work with key venue partners including our Southbank Centre home. Supporters listed below donated £500 or over. For a full list of those who have given to this campaign please visit lpo.org.uk/soundfutures
Masur Circle
Arts Council England
Dunard Fund
Victoria Robey CBE
Emmanuel & Barrie Roman
The Underwood Trust
Welser-Möst Circle
William & Alex de Winton
John Ireland Charitable Trust
The Tsukanov Family Foundation
Neil Westreich
Tennstedt Circle
Valentina & Dmitry Aksenov
Richard Buxton
The Candide Trust
Michael & Elena Kroupeev
Kirby Laing Foundation
Mr & Mrs Makharinsky
Alexey & Anastasia Reznikovich
Sir Simon Robey
Bianca & Stuart Roden
Simon & Vero Turner
The late Mr K Twyman
Solti Patrons
Ageas
John & Manon Antoniazzi
Gabor Beyer, through BTO
Management Consulting AG
Jon Claydon
Mrs Mina Goodman & Miss Suzanne Goodman
Roddy & April Gow
The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris
Charitable Trust
Mr James R.D. Korner
Christoph Ladanyi & Dr Sophia Ladanyi-Czernin
Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski
The Maurice Marks Charitable Trust
Mr Paris Natar
The Rothschild Foundation
Tom & Phillis Sharpe
The Viney Family
Haitink Patrons
Mark & Elizabeth Adams
Dr Christopher Aldren
Mrs Pauline Baumgartner
Lady Jane Berrill
Mr Frederick Brittenden
David & Yi Yao Buckley
Mr Clive Butler
Gill & Garf Collins
Mr John H Cook
Mr Alistair Corbett
Bruno De Kegel
Georgy Djaparidze
David Ellen
Christopher Fraser OBE
David & Victoria Graham Fuller
Goldman Sachs International
Mr Gavin Graham
Moya Greene
Mrs Dorothy Hambleton
Tony & Susie Hayes
Malcolm Herring
Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle
Mrs Philip Kan
Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe
Rose & Dudley Leigh
Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons
Miss Jeanette Martin
Duncan Matthews KC
Diana & Allan Morgenthau
Charitable Trust
Dr Karen Morton
Mr Roger Phillimore
Ruth Rattenbury
The Reed Foundation
The Rind Foundation
Sir Bernard Rix
David Ross & Line Forestier
(Canada)
Carolina & Martin Schwab
Dr Brian Smith
Lady Valerie Solti
Mr & Mrs G Stein
Dr Peter Stephenson
Miss Anne Stoddart
TFS Loans Limited
Marina Vaizey
Jenny Watson
Guy & Utti Whittaker
Pritchard Donors
Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle
Mrs Arlene Beare
Mr Patrick & Mrs Joan Benner
Mr Conrad Blakey
Dr Anthony Buckland
Paul Collins
Alastair Crawford
Mr Derek B. Gray
Mr Roger Greenwood
The HA.SH Foundation
Darren & Jennifer Holmes
Honeymead Arts Trust
Mr Geoffrey Kirkham
Drs Frank & Gek Lim
Peter Mace
Mr & Mrs David Malpas
Dr David McGibney
Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner
Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill
Mr Christopher Querée
The Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer Charitable Trust
Timothy Walker CBE AM
Christopher Williams
Peter Wilson Smith
Mr Anthony Yolland
and all other donors who wish to remain anonymous
Thank you
As a registered charity, we are extremely grateful to all our supporters who have given generously to the LPO over the past year to help maintain the breadth and depth of the LPO’s activities, as well as supporting the Orchestra both on and off the concert platform.
Artistic Director’s Circle
Anonymous donors
The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
William & Alex de Winton
Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle
Aud Jebsen
In memory of Mrs Rita Reay
Sir Simon & Lady Robey CBE
Orchestra Circle
Mr & Mrs Philip Kan
Neil Westreich
Principal Associates
An anonymous donor
Mrs Irina Andreeva
Steven M. Berzin
Richard Buxton
Gill & Garf Collins
In memory of Brenda Lyndoe Casbon
In memory of Ann Marguerite Collins
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave
Patricia Haitink
George Ramishvili
In memory of Kenneth Shaw
The Tsukanov Family
Mr Florian Wunderlich
Associates
In memory of Len & Edna Beech
Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
The Candide Trust
Stuart & Bianca Roden
In memory of Hazel Amy Smith
Gold Patrons
An anonymous donor
David & Yi Buckley
Dr Alex & Maria Chan
In memory of Allner Mavis Channing
In memory of Peter Coe
Michelle Crowe Hernandez
Gini Gabbertas
Jenny & Duncan Goldie-Scot
Mr Roger Greenwood
Malcolm Herring
Julian & Gill Simmonds
Mr Brian Smith
Mr Jay Stein
Eric Tomsett
The Viney Family
Guy & Utti Whittaker
Silver Patrons
David Burke & Valerie Graham
Clive & Helena Butler
John & Sam Dawson
Ulrike & Benno Engelmann
Fiona Espenhahn in memory of Peter
Luke Gardiner
Prof. Erol & Mrs Deniz Gelenbe
The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris
Charitable Trust
Iain & Alicia Hasnip
John & Angela Kessler
Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva
Dr Irene Rosner David
Tom & Phillis Sharpe
Jenny Watson CBE
Laurence Watt
Bronze Patrons
Anonymous donors
Chris Aldren
Michael Allen
Alexander & Rachel Antelme
Annie Berglof
Nicholas Berwin
Lorna & Christopher Bown
Mr Bernard Bradbury
Richard & Jo Brass
Desmond & Ruth Cecil
Mr John H Cook
Emmanuelle & Thierry d’Argent
Mrs Elizabeth Davies
Guy Davies
Cameron & Kathryn Doley
Ms Elena Dubinets
David Ellen
Cristina & Malcolm Fallen
Mr Daniel Goldstein
David & Jane Gosman
Mr Gavin Graham
Mrs Dorothy Hambleton
Eugene & Allison Hayes
J Douglas Home
Mr & Mrs Jan
Mr & Mrs Ralph Kanza
Mrs Elena Kolobova & Mr Oleg
Kolobov
Rose & Dudley Leigh
Wg. Cdr. M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF
Drs Frank & Gek Lim
Andrew T Mills
Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill
John Nickson & Simon Rew
Peter Noble & Lucy Vella
Mikhail Noskov & Vasilina Bindley
Simon & Lucy Owen-Johnstone
Andrew & Cindy Peck
Mr Roger Phillimore
Nigel Phipps & Amanda McDowall
Mr Michael Posen
Marie Power
Sir Bernard Rix
Baroness Shackleton
Tim Slorick
Sir Jim Smith
Mrs Maria Toneva
Mr Joe Topley & Ms Tracey
Countryman
Mr & Mrs John C Tucker
Andrew & Rosemary Tusa
Galina Umanskaia
Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood
The Viney Family
Mr Rodney Whittaker
Grenville & Krysia Williams
Joanna Williams
Principal Supporters
Anonymous donors
Julian & Annette Armstrong
Chris Banks
Mr John D Barnard
Roger & Clare Barron
Mr Geoffrey Bateman
Mrs A Beare
Chris Benson
Peter & Adrienne Breen
Dr Anthony Buckland
Mr Julien Chilcott-Monk
David & Liz Conway
Mr Alistair Corbett
David Devons
Deborah Dolce
In memory of Enid Gofton
Prof Emeritus John Gruzelier
Mrs Farrah Jamal
Bruce & Joanna Jenkyn-Jones
Per Jonsson
Tanya Joseph
Mr Ian Kapur
Jozef & Helen Kotz
Dr Peter Mace
Peter Mainprice
Miss Rebecca Murray
Mrs Terry Neale
Mr Stephen Olton
Mr James Pickford
Neil & Karen Reynolds
Mr Robert Ross
Kseniia Rubina
Mr Andrea Santacroce & Olivia Veillet-Lavallée
Penny Segal
Priscylla Shaw
Michael Smith
Erika Song
Mr & Mrs G Stein
Dr Peter Stephenson
Ben Valentin KC
Sophie Walker
Christopher Williams
Liz Winter
Elena Y Zeng
Supporters
Anonymous donors
Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle
Robert & Sarah Auerbach
Dr Simona Cicero & Mr Mario Altieri
Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington
Sarah Connor
Miss Tessa Cowie
Andrew Davenport
Stephen Denby
Mr Simon Edelsten
Steve & Cristina Goldring
In memory of Derek Gray
Nick Hely-Hutchinson
The Jackman Family
Molly Jackson
Jan Leigh & Jan Rynkiewicz
Mr David MacFarlane
Simon Moore
Simon & Fiona Mortimore
Dana Mosevicz
Dame Jane Newell DBE
Diana G Oosterveld
Mr David Peters
Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh
Clarence Tan
Tony & Hilary Vines
Dr June Wakefield
Mr John Weekes
Mr Roger Woodhouse
Mr C D Yates
Hon. Benefactor
Elliott Bernerd
Hon. Life Members
Alfonso Aijón
Carol Colburn Grigor CBE
Pehr G Gyllenhammar
Robert Hill
Keith Millar
Victoria Robey CBE
Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE
Cornelia Schmid
Timothy Walker CBE AM
Laurence Watt
Thomas Beecham
Group
Members
Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda
Gratton
David & Yi Buckley
In memory of Peter Coe
Dr Alex & Maria Chan
Garf & Gill Collins
William & Alex de Winton
The Friends of the LPO
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G.
Cave
Mr Roger Greenwood
Barry Grimaldi
David & Bettina Harden
Mr & Mrs Philip Kan
Mr & Mrs John Kessler
Sir Simon Robey
Victoria Robey OBE
Stuart & Bianca Roden
Julian & Gill Simmonds
Eric Tomsett
Neil Westreich
Guy & Utti Whittaker
LPO Corporate Circle
Principal
Bloomberg
Carter-Ruck Solicitors
French Chamber of Commerce
Natixis Corporate & Investment
Banking
Ryze Power
Tutti
German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce
Lazard
Walpole
Preferred Partners
Jeroboams
Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd
Mayer Brown
Neal’s Yard Remedies
OneWelbeck
Sipsmith
Steinway & Sons
In-kind Sponsor
Google Inc
Thank you
Trusts and Foundations
ABO Trust
Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
BlueSpark Foundation
The Boltini Trust
Candide Trust
Cockayne Grants for the Arts in London
Dunard Fund
Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
Foyle Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation
Garrick Charitable Trust
The Golsoncott Foundation
Jerwood Foundation
John Coates Charitable Trust
John Horniman’s Children’s Trust
John Thaw Foundation
Idlewild Trust
Institute Adam Mickiewicz
Kirby Laing Foundation
The John S Cohen Foundation
The Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust
Kurt Weill Foundation
Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust
Lucille Graham Trust
The Marchus Trust
Maria Bjӧrnson Memorial Fund
The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
PRS Foundation
The R K Charitable Trust
The Radcliffe Trust
Rivers Foundation
Rothschild Foundation
Scops Arts Trust
Sir William Boreman’s Foundation
TIOC Foundation
Vaughan Williams Foundation
The Victoria Wood Foundation
The Viney Family
The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust
and all others who wish to remain anonymous.
Board of the American Friends of the LPO
We are grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who assist with fundraising for our activities in the United States of America:
Hannah Young Chair
Kara Boyle
Jon Carter Jay Goffman
Alexandra Jupin
Natalie Pray MBE
Damien Vanderwilt
Marc Wassermann
Elizabeth Winter
Catherine Høgel Hon. Director
LPO International Board of Governors
Natasha Tsukanova Chair
Mrs Irina Andreeva
Steven M. Berzin
Shashank Bhagat
Irina Gofman
Olivia Ma
George Ramishvili Florian Wunderlich
London Philharmonic Orchestra Administration
Board of Directors
Dr Catherine C. Høgel Chair
Nigel Boardman Vice-Chair
Mark Vines* President
Kate Birchall* Vice-President
Emily Benn
David Buckley
David Burke
Michelle Crowe Hernandez
Deborah Dolce
Elena Dubinets
Simon Estell*
Tanya Joseph
Katherine Leek*
Minn Majoe*
Tania Mazzetti*
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin
Neil Westreich
David Whitehouse*
*Player-Director
Advisory Council
Roger Barron Chairman
Christopher Aldren
Kate Birchall
Richard Brass
Helen Brocklebank
YolanDa Brown OBE
David Burke
Simon Burke
Simon Callow CBE
Desmond Cecil CMG
Jane Coulson
Andrew Davenport
Guillaume Descottes
Cameron Doley
Elena Dubinets
Lena Fankhauser
Christopher Fraser OBE
Jenny Goldie-Scot
Nick Hely-Hutchinson DL
Dr Catherine C. Høgel
Martin Höhmann
Jamie Korner
Andrew Neill
Nadya Powell
Sir Bernard Rix
Victoria Robey CBE
Baroness Shackleton
Thomas Sharpe KC
Julian Simmonds
Daisuke Tsuchiya
Mark Vines
Chris Viney
Laurence Watt
Elizabeth Winter
New Generation Board
Ellie Ajao
Peter De Souza
Vivek Haria
Rianna Henriques
Pasha Orleans-Foli
Zerlina Vulliamy
General Administration
Elena Dubinets
Artistic Director
David Burke
Chief Executive
Ineza Grabowska
PA to the Executive & Office Manager
Concert Management
Roanna Gibson
Concerts & Planning Director
Graham Wood
Concerts & Recordings Manager
Maddy Clarke
Tours Manager
Madeleine Ridout
Glyndebourne & Projects Manager
Alison Jones
Concerts & Artists
Co-ordinator
Dora Kmezić
Concerts & Recordings
Co-ordinator
Tom Cameron
Concerts & Tours Assistant
Matthew Freeman
Recordings Consultant
Andrew Chenery
Orchestra Personnel Manager
Helen Phipps
Orchestra & Auditions Manager
Sarah Thomas
Martin Sargeson
Librarians
Laura Kitson
Stage & Operations Manager
Stephen O’Flaherty
Deputy Operations Manager
Benjamin Wakley
Deputy Stage Manager
Finance
Frances Slack
Finance Director
Dayse Guilherme
Finance Manager
Jean-Paul Ramotar
IT Manager & Finance Officer
Education & Community
Talia Lash
Education & Community Director
Lowri Davies
Eleanor Jones
Education & Community Project Managers
Hannah Smith
Education & Community Co-ordinator
Claudia Clarkson
Regional Partnerships Manager
Development
Laura Willis
Development Director (maternity leave)
Olivia Highland Development Director (maternity cover)
Rosie Morden
Senior Development Manager
Eleanor Conroy
Development Events Manager
Owen Mortimer Corporate Relations Manager
Anna Quillin
Trusts & Foundations Manager
Al Levin
Development Co-ordinator
Holly Eagles Development Assistant
Nick Jackman
Campaigns & Projects Director
Kirstin Peltonen
Development Associate
Marketing & Communications
Kath Trout
Marketing & Communications Director
Sophie Lonergan
Senior Marketing Manager
Georgie Blyth
Press & PR Manager
Josh Clark Data, Insights & CRM Manager
Greg Felton
Digital Creative
Alicia Hartley
Digital & Marketing Manager
Gavin Miller
Sales & Ticketing Manager
Rachel Williams Publications Manager
Isobel Jones
Marketing Co-ordinator
Archives
Philip Stuart Discographer
Gillian Pole
Recordings Archive
Professional Services
Charles Russell Speechlys Solicitors
Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP
Auditors
Dr Barry Grimaldi
Honorary Doctor
Mr Chris Aldren
Honorary ENT Surgeon
Mr Simon Owen-Johnstone
Hon. Orthopaedic Surgeon
London Philharmonic Orchestra
89 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TP
Tel: 020 7840 4200
Box Office: 020 7840 4242
Email: admin@lpo.org.uk lpo.org.uk
Cover photograph Jason Bell
2024/25 season design
JMG Studio
Printer John Good Ltd
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