London Philharmonic Orchestra 25 November concert programme by London Philharmonic Orchestra

Concert programme 2015/16 London Season lpo.org.uk

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI* Principal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADA Leader pieter schoeman† Composer in Residence magnus lindberg Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Wednesday 25 November 2015 | 7.30pm

Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 (40’) Interval Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D (56')

Contents 2 Welcome 3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Andrés Orozco-Estrada 7 Johannes Moser 8 Programme notes 14 Sound Futures donors 15 Supporters 16 LPO administration

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

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Johannes Moser cello

Free pre-concert event 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Andrés Orozco-Estrada discusses his new role as the Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation † supported by Neil Westreich CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Welcome

Welcome to Southbank Centre We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance. Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Feng Sushi and Topolski, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall. 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. Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery are closed for essential refurbishment until 2017. During this period, our resident orchestras are performing in venues including St John's Smith Square. Find out more at southbankcentre.co.uk/sjss 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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Orchestra News

New Principal Guest Conductor: Andrés Orozco-Estrada Tonight we warmly welcome Andrés Orozco-Estrada as he makes his first appearance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in his role as Principal Guest Conductor. Colombian-born Orozco-Estrada first worked with us in November 2013 conducting a major tour of Germany. His impressive energy and musicianship, combined with the immediate rapport that formed between him and the players, made him a perfect successor to Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Of his appointment Andrés said 'it makes me immensely proud to be the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor. The LPO is a superb orchestra and combines its long tradition with many forward-looking projects.' And we look forward to many exciting concerts with Andrés! Classical Live The Orchestra is delighted to be part of Classical Live, a brand new recording program made exclusively for Google Play showcasing the great orchestras of the world in recent live performances. It's yet another way for the Orchestra to expand its reach to new audiences across the globe. The first release is of a concert performed in March this year featuring excerpts from Prokofiev's Chout ('The Buffoon'), LPO Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Stravinsky's Petrushka. Vladimir Jurowski conducts. classical-live.com New LPO label release For fans of Klaus Tennstedt, the perfect Christmas gift has just been released on the LPO label: a box set of Mahler symphonies with over seven glorious hours of music on 5 CDs. This box set documents the extraordinary relationship between Klaus Tennstedt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and reveals Tennstedt’s particular affinity with Mahler. The set is priced at £49.99. lpo.org.uk/recordings/recordings-gifts.html

On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by an anonymous donor Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler Catherine Craig Martin Höhmann Chair supported by The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Geoffrey Lynn Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Alina Petrenko Nilufar Alimaksumova Caroline Frenkel Galina Tanney Second Violins Victoria Sayles Guest Principal Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller Nancy Elan Lorenzo Gentili-Tedeschi Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Sheila Law John Dickinson Alison Strange Elizabeth Baldey Stephen Stewart

Violas David Quiggle Guest Principal Cyrille Mercier Co-Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Daniel Cornford Sarah Malcolm Pamela Ferriman Stanislav Popov Cellos Pei-Jee Ng Principal Francis Bucknall Santiago Carvalho† David Lale Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Chair supported by The Viney Family Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Helen Rathbone Sibylle Hentschel Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal George Peniston William Cole Thomas Walley Kenneth Knussen Ivan Rubido Gonzalez Charlotte Kerbegian Laura Murphy Flutes Cormac Henry Guest Principal Sue Thomas* Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE Stewart McIlwham* Clare Childs Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Alice Munday Jenny Brittlebank Sue Böhling*

Offstage Trumpets Niall Keatley John MacDomnic Simon Munday Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton David Whitehouse Emma Bassett

Cor Anglais Sue Böhling* Principal Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Thomas Watmough Emily Meredith Paul Richards

Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal

E-flat Clarinet Thomas Watmough Principal

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Henry Baldwin Chair supported by Jon Claydon

Bassoons Rebecca Mertens Guest Principal Gareth Newman Simon Estell Contrabassoon Simon Estell Principal Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey John Ryan* Principal Chair supported by Laurence Watt Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Stephen Nicholls Duncan Fuller Rebecca Hill

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Harp Rachel Masters* Principal * Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann Nicholas Betts Co-Principal Tony Cross Robin Totterdell

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose player is not present at this concert: Bianca and Stuart Roden

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London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski produced one of those utterly compelling performances where the London Philharmonic Orchestra seemed to be playing as if their lives depended on it. Bachtrack, September 2015 (4 Stars) Recognised today as one of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra balances a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most forwardlooking ensembles. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, releases CDs on its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and community groups. The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. It has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is currently the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007. Andrés Orozco-Estrada took up the position of Principal Guest Conductor in September 2015. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence. The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives over 30 concerts each season. Throughout 2014/15 the Orchestra gave a series of concerts entitled Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, a festival exploring the composer’s major orchestral

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masterpieces. 2015/16 is a strong year for singers, with performances by Toby Spence and Anne Sofie von Otter amongst others; Sibelius enjoys 150th anniversary celebrations; distinguished visiting conductors include Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vasily Petrenko, with Robin Ticciati returning after his debut in 2015; and in 2016 the LPO joins many of London’s other leading cultural institutions in Shakespeare400, celebrating the Bard’s legacy 400 years since his death. The Orchestra continues its commitment to new music with premieres of commissions including Magnus Lindberg’s Second Violin Concerto, and works by Alexander Raskatov and Marc-André Dalbavie. Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a

Pieter Schoeman leader

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

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 80 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 conducted by Stanisław Skrowaczewski and Messiaen’s Des Canyons Aux Étoiles. In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics. In 2013 it was the winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians through an energetic programme of activities for young people. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the Young Composers Programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Its work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter. Find out more and get involved! lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra

Western orchestra. Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2015/16 season include visits to Mexico City as part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture, Spain, Germany, Canary Islands, Belgium, a return to the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Orchestra’s premiere at La Scala, Milan.

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. He is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Pieter's chair in the London Philharmonic Orchestra is supported by Neil Westreich.

youtube.com/londonphilharmonic7

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Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor

An aspiring young conductor with the musical world at his feet.

Spiegel, May 2013

Andrés Orozco-Estrada was born in Colombia and trained in Vienna. This season he became the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor. In September 2014, he took up the positions of Music Director of the Houston Symphony and Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Andrés first came to international attention in 2004 when he took over a concert with the Tonkünstler Orchestra Niederösterreich at the Vienna Musikverein. Numerous engagements with many international orchestras followed, and since then, he has developed a highly successful musical partnership with the Tonkünstler Orchestra, serving as Music Director from the 2009/10 season until 2015. Between 2009 and 2013, Orozco-Estrada was also Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi (Basque National Orchestra). He has worked with some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, Norddeutscher Rundfunk Orchester in Hamburg (NDR), and the Orchestre National de France. In November 2012, Andrés Orozco-Estrada stepped in once again at short notice to replace Riccardo Muti with the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein, proving to be a 'stand-in worth his weight in gold' (Kurier) and 'an inspired master of communication' (Standard). During the 2013/14 season, he made his debuts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and St Louis Symphony orchestras and also made his conducting debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera with

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a production of Don Giovanni. Highlights of the 2014/15 season included returns to the Orchestre National de France, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic as well as debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras. This season sees his debuts with the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras and a return to the Gothenburg Symphony following a highly successful debut in 2014. Born in 1977 in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés OrozcoEstrada began his musical studies on the violin and had his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997, he moved to Vienna where he joined the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky, at the renowned Vienna Music Academy, completing his degree with distinction by conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Vienna Musikverein. While the emphasis of his artistic work lies in the Romantic repertoire and Viennese classics, at the same time, he shows a keen interest in contemporary music and regularly performs premieres of Austrian composers as well as new compositions of Spanish and South American origin. Andrés currently lives in Vienna with his wife and young daughter. orozcoestrada.com

Johannes Moser cello

The range of Moser’s sound is almost operatic, from deep, husky growls to floating, white pianissimos stripped of vibrato. Natasha Gauthier, Ottawa Citizen, October 2015

German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as the Chicago Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Tokyo Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. He works regularly with conductors of the highest level including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Franz Welser-Möst, Manfred Honeck, Christian Thielemann, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Jarvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Gustavo Dudamel. This season, highlights include returns to the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Nashville, San Diego, Vancouver, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and debuts with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Russian National Orchestra. He has a passion for new music and over the next season looks forward to working on new works with Julia Wolfe and Andrew Norman. In October 2012 he premiered Magnetar, a concerto for electric cello by Enrico Chapela, which Moser performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and in the 2013/14 season, he continued this relationship with the orchestra performing Michel van der Aa's cello concerto Up-close. From his 2010 American tour with toy pianist Phyllis Chen 'Sounding Off: A Fresh Look at Classical Music', to outreach activities on campuses and performances in alternative venues, Moser aims to present classical music in ways with which listeners of all ages can engage and connect.

A dedicated chamber musician, Moser has performed with Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Menahem Pressler, James Ehnes, Midori and Jonathan Biss. He is also a regular at festivals including the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad and Kissinger festivals, the Mehta Chamber Music Festival, and the Colorado, Seattle and Brevard music festivals. He was a recipient of the prestigious 2014 Brahms prize and his recordings have earned him two ECHO Klassik awards and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. He recently signed an exclusive contract with Pentatone and this autumn he released his first recording for the label, a disc of Dvořák and Lalo cello concertos. He has recorded the Britten Cello Symphony and Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, conducted by Pietari Inkinen and released in January 2012. Born into a musical family in 1979 as a dual citizen of Germany and Canada, Johannes Moser began studying the cello aged eight and became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations. In what little spare time he has, he is a voracious reader of everything from Kafka to Collins, and a keen hiker and mountain biker. johannes-moser.com

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Programme notes

Speedread Echoes of Bohemia and youthful love resound in tonight’s programme. Dvořák’s Cello Concerto – one of the greatest examples of its kind – was composed when he was 54 and nearing the end of his time as Director of the National Conservatoire in New York, and while the finale hints at the folk music of the country to which he was about to return, the central movement is a remembrance of a former beloved.

Antonín Dvořák 1841–1904

Few people are surprised today when a composer chooses to write a cello concerto. As the great examples by Dvořák, Elgar, Schumann, Walton and Shostakovich show, this noble, rich-toned, soulfully expressive and remarkably agile instrument makes a splendid concerto soloist. But when the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák wrote his Cello Concerto in 1894–5, even connoisseurs were surprised. When Johannes Brahms – composer of one of the greatest violin concertos in the repertoire – first saw Dvořák’s score, he exclaimed, ‘Why on earth didn’t I know that one could write a cello concerto like this? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago!’ Actually there’s no reason why Brahms should have known: in his and Dvořák’s day the cello was rarely played well as a solo instrument. In fact the situation

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Mahler’s First Symphony is the surging creation of a man in his 20s who is already looking back to the world of his own Austro-Bohemian childhood, marvelling at nature and recalling early love-affairs. And while, as so often in his music, Mahler shows that life’s heartless ironies are there to be engaged, the work ends in what seems a blazing statement of a young man’s belief in the future.

Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 Johannes Moser cello 1 Allegro 2 Adagio ma non troppo 3 Allegro moderato

seems to have lasted for some time after Dvořák’s death. As late as 1939, the famous Manchester Guardian critic Neville Cardus complained of ‘the wasp-in-thewindow effect which most times we have to put up with whenever a cellist gets to work.’ But there is also the issue of balance. The cello may seem to have a powerful voice, but its lower notes in particular can easily be overwhelmed if the orchestral accompaniment is too rich and strong. But Dvořák copes superbly with this potential problem. Though he uses a relatively large orchestra, the cello soloist rarely has to contend with anything like its full force. There are loud, impressive orchestral tuttis, but in these passages the cellist is mostly silent. The result is that, given a reasonably strong player, every note of the cello part should be audible. That must have been one of the Concerto’s features that so impressed Brahms.

Beyond that, Brahms can hardly fail to have been impressed by Dvořák’s melodic writing. The Cello Concerto brims over with wonderful long tunes and characterful short motifs. Not all of these are initially identified with the cello. Like most concertos of the ‘classical’ era of Mozart and Beethoven, Dvořák begins the first movement with a long passage for orchestra alone. There is a darkly memorable theme for low woodwind at the start then, after the first big climax, a glorious long tune for solo horn. So when the cello enters for the first time, it not only has to cope with Dvořák’s technical assault course, it also has to establish a claim to these themes for itself.

Why on earth didn’t I know that one could write a cello concerto like Dvořák's? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago!’

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works Dvořák: Cello Concerto Mstislav Rostropovich | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Carlo Maria Giulini [EMI] Gregor Piatigorsky | Boston Symphony Orchestra | Charles Munch [RCA] Mahler: Symphony No. 1 London Philharmonic Orchestra | Klaus Tennstedt [LPO–0012 see below]

Johannes Brahms

In the slow movement, it is the cellist’s powers as an instrumental singer that are tested to the full. The first theme is relaxed and reflective, with strong suggestions of folksong. But this is interrupted by a darker minor-key central section. Here there is a definite autobiographical element. While Dvořák was working on the Concerto, he heard that his sister-in-law, Josefina Kaunitzova, was seriously ill – in his youth Dvořák had been in love with her. Josefina was particularly fond of Dvořák’s song ‘Leave me alone’ (Op. 82, No. 1), and in this slow movement he has the cello quote its melody just after the first stern entry of the trombones and tuba. This same melody re-appears near the end of the finale – this time in response to the news of Josefina’s death. The finale’s opening march theme does return in triumph to end the concerto, but that poignant reminiscence of lost love lingers in the memory – is this where the concerto’s heart truly lies? Programme note © Stephen Johnson

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

Klaus Tennstedt conducts Mahler on the LPO label Symphony No. 1 (with Songs of a Wayfarer) LPO–0012 | £9.99 Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) LPO–0044 | £10.99 (2 CDs) Symphony No. 8 LPO–0052| £10.99 (2-CDs) (Gramophone Choice) Symphony No. 6 LPO–0038 | £10.99 (2 CDs) Box Set: Mahler Symphonies – Live in Concert LPO–0100 | £49.99 (5 CDs) NEW RELEASE Available from lpo.org.uk/recordings and all good CD outlets. Available to download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and others.

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Programme notes continued

Mahler's Time Lindsay Kemp explores why Mahler Symphonies are appreciated more today than during the composer's own lifetime. Mahler’s symphonies are not just giants of the concert repertoire, they are supreme statements of human achievement in art. These are works any self-respecting orchestra needs to have in its repertoire, and which are popular with audiences too. But it was not always so. For the first 50 to 70 years of their existence (they were composed between 1884 and 1911, the year of Mahler’s death) they were widely denigrated as the overblown and eccentric final throes of late Romanticism. In the age first of Schoenberg and Stravinsky, and later Stockhausen and Boulez, musical opinion was suspicious of music conceived on such a lavish scale and with such apparently self-indulgent autobiographical content. ‘Absolute music’ was the more desirable goal, and Mahler’s searing emotionalism was scorned and banished to the margins.

them to be vital to the listener’s appreciation any more than Beethoven or Berlioz had before him – but their presence strengthens the music’s sense of direction and provides a way of binding together the disparate elements in symphonies lasting an hour or more. Mahler also extended the symphony’s communicative range by introducing into it song and song melody, with all the lyrical and textual enhancements that implies; and he developed pragmatic new movement schemes and took an adventurous approach to harmony and key relationships, often ending a symphony in a different key to the one in which it had started.

His flame was kept alive during this period thanks to the advocacy of certain conductors – including his protégés Bruno Walter in Vienna and later America, and Willem Mengelberg in Holland – yet his symphonies failed to win a wider presence in the concert hall. At the Proms, for instance, there were only eleven Mahler symphony performances before the 1960s, and six of those were of No. 4. Assessments such as that of Vaughan Williams – that Mahler was a ‘tolerable imitation of a composer’ – were common. In the last half-century, however, the change in fortune could hardly have been more complete. To take the Proms again as an example, there have been over 160 Mahler symphony performances since 1962, with five in the most recent season alone. Recordings and radio have of course been largely responsible by creating fuller access, but that alone would not have been enough if the music had not proved in itself to be of massive and lasting greatness.

What probably contributes most immediately to Mahler’s popularity today, however, is not so much its progressive features as that same subjective emotionalism for which he was originally condemned, and which finds realisation in symphonies of grand scale, vivid orchestration, ardent lyricism, probing harmony and vitalising counterpoint. His style is unique, unmistakable and fearlessly eclectic. Yearning romantic melodies jostle with Austrian folk-tunes, bugle calls and sounds from nature; vulgarity and distortion rub shoulders with warmth and beauty; and movements of monumental gravity, gut-wrenching terror or heaven-storming joy sit side-by-side with miniatures of exquisite tenderness and intimacy. The result is music that speaks to the open-minded listener with unfiltered power and directness. Over a century after they were written, the vagaries of musical fashion have fallen away and we are at the point where in Mahler’s music, as the conductor Lorin Maazel has put it, ‘we feel its moments of ecstatic rapture and catastrophic loss as if they were our own.’ ‘My time will come,’ Mahler once said. We are well and truly in it.

Wherein does that greatness lie? Well, part of Mahler’s achievement was to take the idea of the programmatic symphony and infuse it with the intense expressiveness of Wagner. The ‘programmes’ for his symphonies were more emotional trajectories than spelt-out narratives – and Mahler did not consider 10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

A symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything. Gustav Mahler to Jean Sibelius

Gustav Mahler

Symphony No. 1 in D

1860–1911

1 Langsam. Schleppend – Immer sehr gemächlich [Slow, held back – Always very leisurely] 2 Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell – Trio: Recht gemächlich [Moving strongly, but not too fast – Trio: leisurely] 3 Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen – Sehr einfach und schlicht wie eine Volksweise [Solemn and measured, without dragging – Very simple, like a folk melody] 4 Stürmich bewegt – Sehr gesangvoll [Tempestuously – Very melodious] Mahler once told a friend that his First Symphony was ‘the most spontaneous and daringly composed of my works’, a surprising remark when one considers that it probably took him over four years to write (from 1884 to 1888), and that even then it went through several revisions before reaching its final form. At its premiere in November 1889 in Budapest (where Mahler was at that time conductor of the Royal Opera), it had five movements and went under the title of ‘Symphonic Poem in two parts’; for subsequent performances in Hamburg and Weimar it acquired a title – ‘Titan’, after the novel by the German Romantic writer Jean Paul – and also a written programme; and it was not until its fourth performance, in Berlin in 1896, that it emerged as more or less the four-movement ‘Symphony’ we know today (and will hear tonight), without title or programme, and without the original second movement entitled ‘Blumine’ (‘Flowers’). Clearly his initial feeling that ‘it would be child’s play for performers and listeners’ was somewhat misplaced, and indeed audience reaction to the Symphony in its early years of existence was hostile. That may explain Mahler’s indecision over how to present it but, for all that, this debut by one of the greatest of all symphonists has a bursting energy and freshness to it that can make the blood run faster in the veins.

Mahler’s suppressed programme for the ‘Symphonic Poem’ labelled its two parts as ‘From the Days of Youth’ (movements 1 and 2) and the Dante-esque ‘Commedia humana’ (movements 3 and 4). Certainly there is a nostalgic feel to the first movement; even though Mahler was only in his mid-20s when he began it, it is filled with sounds remembered from his Moravian childhood, particularly in the spaciousness of the opening pages, which present a wide-open sonic landscape peppered by cuckoo cries and bugle calls from distant barracks. ‘The awakening of nature and early dawn’ was how Mahler described it in his programme, a phenomenon he may well have missed in his busy conducting career. Eventually the music coalesces into melody and moves into the main part of the movement, where again there is a sense of looking back as Mahler borrows a theme from ‘Ging heut' Morgen übers Feld’, one of his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ('Songs of a Wayfarer') composed around the same time as the Symphony was begun. The initially radiant but ultimately darkening song had recalled a youthful love gone wrong, and was inspired by just such an episode in Mahler’s own life. The symphonic movement, however, ends in optimistic vein. The second movement is rustic and strongly rhythmic, Mahler’s affectionate evocation of the rural dances of his childhood and their favourite form, the waltz-like Ländler. Again there is melodic material derived from a song – ‘Hans und Grethe’ from his Lieder and Gesänge of the early 1880s – though this time less overtly presented and without apparent specific significance. A central ‘Trio’ brings a more graceful mood, before the bucolic lurchings of the first section return. The ‘Human Comedy’ part of the Symphony opens with a funeral march, though one weirdly based on the nursery tune of ‘Frère Jacques’ (or ‘Bruder Martin’, London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

as Mahler would have known it), initially intoned by a glassily muted solo double bass and then taken up and adorned by the other instruments over stately-treading timpani and basses. Mahler’s programme explains that it was inspired by a well-known engraving from an Austrian children’s book, showing a huntsman’s funeral in which the coffin is attended by an assortment of woodland animals and village musicians. ‘The movement is intended to express alternately the moods of jesting irony and eerie brooding’, Mahler declared; the former can certainly be heard in the episode of Klezmer-like band music that appears twice, but there is also a central episode, based on another Gesellen song, ‘Die zwei blauen Augen’ which offers perhaps the most dreamily reposeful moments in the whole Symphony. The mood is shattered by the intrusion of the last movement – ‘Dall’ Inferno al Paradiso, as the sudden cry of a wounded heart’ according to the discarded programme. The movement brings together material from its predecessors, but there is more than a formal struggle going on here. The frenzied anguish of the opening gives way to a long and consoling string theme, but bursts out again, only to be challenged by a new version of the first theme, proposed quietly at first by the trumpets but then quickly growing in confidence. A return of the nature music of the Symphony’s opening questions the seeming inevitability of the direction things are taking, but eventually the main theme creeps back in on violins to begin its inexorable build towards a final peroration, which, when it comes, is as lifeaffirmingly emphatic as in any Mahler 02111.1 Programme note © Lindsay Kemp

Programme notes continued

LPO Principal Guest Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada

As Andrés Orozco-Estrada points out, Mahler knew at first-hand what a conductor needed from a score – and he provided it in spades. ‘My present to myself at Christmas 1997 was a score of Mahler’s First, and I was amazed by the German instructions he’d written all over the music’ he recalls. ‘There were just so many words – not only musical terms, but even how to conduct: saying where you need to beat in 8 or in 4, which melody or counter-melody to bring out. I started translating them all, but it was only a pocket score, so before long I’d covered the entire thing in Post-It® notes! I thought, this is a composer and a conductor in one.’ And yet the Symphony communicates with incredible directness and freshness. ‘When I first came to Vienna, I sang as a tenor in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony: I felt then that I had a deep emotional connection with Mahler’s music, and I wanted to explore his whole universe from the beginning. The opening of the First Symphony is like the entrance to that new universe. He marks it naturlaut – like a sound of nature – and once the movement gets going, it’s just very singable: in fact, the first theme is taken from one of his songs. That’s one of the very modern things about Mahler’s instrumental music – you can sing it’. Extract taken from Mahler the Teacher by Richard Bratby printed in the Autumn/Winter 2015 edition of Tune In, our free magazine. Copies are available at the Information Desk in the foyer or phone the LPO office on 020 7840 4200 to receive one in the post. Also available digitally: lpo.org.uk/explore/news/

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

at Royal Festival Hall Friday 27 November 2015 | 7.30pm JTI FRIDAY SERIES

Liadov From the Apocalypse Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 Sibelius Symphony No. 1 Susanna Mälkki conductor Beatrice Rana piano Live broadcast on BBC Radio 3

Friday 4 December 2015 | 7.30pm

Wednesday 9 December 2015 | 7.30pm Wagenaar Overture, Cyrano de Bergerac Magnus Lindberg Violin Concerto No. 2 (world premiere)* Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Jaap van Zweden conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin *Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

JTI FRIDAY SERIES

Puccini Tosca (excerpts) Rota Suite, La Strada Respighi Pines of Rome Enrique Mazzola conductor Maria Luigia Borsi Tosca Thiago Arancam Cavaradossi Vittorio Vitelli Scarpia

playing the bard in 2016 In collaboration with some of London’s leading cultural, creative and educational institutions, the London Philharmonic Orchestra joins Shakespeare400 with a series of concerts in 2016 celebrating the Bard’s love of music, culminating in an Anniversary Gala Concert directed by Simon Callow on 23 April. Join the LPO at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and dive into a musical world born of the words of the legendary William Shakespeare. find out more: lpo and shakespeare400 lpo.org.uk/shakespeare

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.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

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 OBE Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Underwood Trust

The Rothschild Foundation Tom & Phillis Sharpe The Viney Family

Haitink Patrons Mark & Elizabeth Adams Dr Christopher Aldren Mrs Pauline Baumgartner Welser-Möst Circle Lady Jane Berrill William & Alex de Winton Mr Frederick Brittenden John Ireland Charitable Trust David & Yi Yao Buckley The Tsukanov Family Foundation Mr Clive Butler Neil Westreich Gill & Garf Collins Tennstedt Circle Mr John H Cook Valentina & Dmitry Aksenov Mr Alistair Corbett Richard Buxton Bruno de Kegel The Candide Trust Georgy Djaparidze Michael & Elena Kroupeev David Ellen Kirby Laing Foundation Christopher Fraser OBE & Lisa Fraser Mr & Mrs Makharinsky David & Victoria Graham Fuller Alexey & Anastasia Reznikovich Goldman Sachs International Simon Robey Mr Gavin Graham Bianca & Stuart Roden Moya Greene Simon & Vero Turner Mrs Dorothy Hambleton The late Mr K Twyman Tony & Susie Hayes Malcolm Herring Solti Patrons Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle Ageas Mrs Philip Kan John & Manon Antoniazzi Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe Gabor Beyer, through BTO Rose & Dudley Leigh Management Consulting AG Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons Jon Claydon Miss Jeanette Martin Mrs Mina Goodman & Miss Duncan Matthews QC Suzanne Goodman Diana & Allan Morgenthau Roddy & April Gow Charitable Trust The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Dr Karen Morton Charitable Trust Mr Roger Phillimore Mr James R.D. Korner Ruth Rattenbury Christoph Ladanyi & Dr Sophia The Reed Foundation Ladanyi-Czernin Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski The Rind Foundation The Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Sir Bernard Rix David Ross & Line Forestier (Canada) Mr Paris Natar

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Carolina & Martin Schwab Dr Brian Smith Lady Valerie Solti Mr & Mrs G Stein Dr Peter Stephenson Miss Anne Stoddart TFS Loans Limited Lady 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 Queree The Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer Charitable Trust Timothy Walker AM Christopher Williams Peter Wilson Smith Mr Anthony Yolland And all other donors who wish to remain anonymous

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors: Thomas Beecham Group The Tsukanov Family Foundation Neil Westreich William and Alex de Winton Mrs Philip Kan* Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBE Bianca & Stuart Roden Laurence Watt Anonymous Jon Claydon Garf & Gill Collins* Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds* Eric Tomsett The Viney Family John & Manon Antoniazzi Jane Attias John & Angela Kessler Guy & Utti Whittaker * BrightSparks Patrons: instead of supporting a chair in the Orchestra, these donors have chosen to support our series of schools’ concerts.

Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams David & Yi Yao Buckley Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mr Bruno de Kegel David Ellen Mr Daniel Goldstein Drs Frank & Gek Lim Peter MacDonald Eggers Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Mr & Mrs David Malpas Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Grenville & Krysia Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Benefactors Mr Geoffrey Bateman Mrs A Beare Ms Molly Borthwick David & Patricia Buck Mrs Alan Carrington Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Mr Richard Fernyhough Mr Gavin Graham Wim and Jackie Hautekiet-Clare Tony & Susan Hayes Mr Daniel Heaf and Ms Amanda Hill Michael & Christine Henry Malcolm Herring

J. Douglas Home Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Per Jonsson Mr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Peter Mace Ms Ulrike Mansel Mr Robert Markwick and Ms Kasia Robinski Mr Brian Marsh Andrew T Mills Dr Karen Morton Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Mr Michael Posen Alexey & Anastasia Reznikovich Mr Konstantin Sorokin Martin and Cheryl Southgate Mr Peter Tausig Simon and Charlotte Warshaw Howard & Sheelagh Watson Des & Maggie Whitelock Christopher Williams Bill Yoe and others who wish to remain anonymous Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged: Corporate Members Silver: Accenture Berenberg Carter-Ruck We are AD Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP BTO Management Consulting AG Charles Russell Speechlys Lazard Leventis Overseas Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsors Google Inc

Trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation The Bernarr Rainbow Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust The Candide Trust Cockayne – Grants for the Arts The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation Lucille Graham Trust The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Help Musicians UK The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The Leche Trust The London Community Foundation London Stock Exchange Group Foundation Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Marsh Christian Trust Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust

The Ann and Frederick O’Brien Charitable Trust Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Spain in London The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust The Stanley Picker Trust The Radcliffe Trust Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust RVW Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter Charitable Trust The John Thaw Foundation The Tillett Trust UK Friends of the Felix-MendelssohnBartholdy-Foundation The Viney Family Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust and all others who wish to remain anonymous

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Administration Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Dr Manon Antoniazzi Roger Barron Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Amanda Hill Dr Catherine C. Høgel Rachel Masters* George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Natasha Tsukanova Mark Vines* Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Neil Westreich David Whitehouse* * Player-Director Advisory Council Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson William de Winton Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Sir Bernard Rix Baroness Shackleton Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Thomas Sharpe QC Julian Simmonds Martin Southgate Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Elizabeth Winter American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. Jenny Ireland Co-Chairman William A. Kerr Co-Chairman Kyung-Wha Chung Alexandra Jupin Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee Harvey M. Spear, Esq. Danny Lopez Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP Stephanie Yoshida

Chief Executive

Education and Community

Digital Projects

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Isabella Kernot Education Director (maternity leave)

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Director

Amy Sugarman PA to the Chief Executive / Administrative Assistant

Clare Lovett Education Director (maternity cover)

Finance

Talia Lash Education and Community Project Manager

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Lucy Duffy Education and Community Project Manager

Philip Stuart Discographer

David Burke General Manager and Finance Director David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager Dayse Guilherme Finance Officer

Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

Concert Management

Development

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Nick Jackman Development Director

Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager

Catherine Faulkner Development Events Manager

Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator

Kathryn Hageman Individual Giving Manager Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations Manager Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager Rebecca Fogg Development Co-ordinator

Jo Cotter Tours Co-ordinator

Helen Yang Development Assistant

Orchestra Personnel

Kirstin Peltonen Development Associate

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians (job-share) Christopher Alderton Stage Manager

Marketing Kath Trout Marketing Director Libby Northcote-Green Marketing Manager

Damian Davis Transport Manager

Rachel Williams Publications Manager (maternity leave)

Madeleine Ridout Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah Breeden Publications Manager (maternity cover)

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Samantha Cleverley Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242) Anna O’Connor Marketing Co-ordinator Natasha Berg Marketing Intern

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant Public Relations