GET
closer
2018/19 Concert Season
AT brighton dome concert hall
concert programme
Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI Principal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADA Leader PIETER SCHOEMAN supported by Neil Westreich Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Friday 5 April 2019 | 7.30pm Brighton Dome Concert Hall Saturday 6 April 2019 | 7.30pm Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Sunday 7 April 2019 | 3.00pm Bax Tintagel (14’) Grieg Piano Concerto, Op. 16 (30’) Interval (20’) Sibelius Suite, Belshazzar’s Feast, Op. 51 (14’)
ISLE OF
NOISES Contents 2 Welcome 3 Orchestra news 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Osmo Vänskä 7 Jan Lisiecki 8 On stage 9 Programme notes 12 Recommended recordings 14 Isle of Noises 16 Next London concerts 17 2019/20 Brighton & Eastbourne seasons 18 2019/20 London season 19 LPO Player Appeal 2018/19 20 LPO Eastbourne Appeal 2018/19 21 Sound Futures donors 22 Supporters 24 LPO administration
Sibelius Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 (31’) Osmo Vänskä conductor Jan Lisiecki piano
The Steinway concert piano chosen and hired by the London Philharmonic Orchestra for the 6 & 7 April performances is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London. The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. CONCERTS PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN ASSOCIATION WITH BRIGHTON DOME (6 APRIL) & EASTBOURNE BOROUGH COUNCIL (7 APRIL).
The 5 April concert is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on Tuesday 9 April at 7.30pm and will be available for 30 days after broadcast on BBC Sounds; simply search for Radio 3 in Concert.
Welcome
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Brighton Dome
Friday 5 April
Saturday 6 April
We hope you enjoy your visit to Southbank Centre. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries, please ask a member of staff for assistance.
Chief Executive Andrew Comben
Eating, drinking and shopping? Enjoy fresh seasonal food for breakfast and lunch, coffee, teas and evening drinks with riverside views at Concrete Cafe, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Riverside Terrace Cafe, Level 2, Royal Festival Hall. Visit our shops for products inspired by our artistic and cultural programme, iconic buildings and central London location. Explore across the site with Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, wagamama, YO! Sushi, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Spiritland, Honest Burger, CĂ´te Brasserie, Skylon and Topolski. 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 us on 020 3879 9555, or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk We look forward to seeing you again soon. A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:
We hope you enjoy the performance and your visit to Brighton Dome. For your comfort and safety, please note the following: LATECOMERS may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance. Some performances may contain no suitable breaks. SMOKING Brighton Dome is a no-smoking venue. INTERVAL DRINKS may be ordered in advance at the bar to avoid queues. PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium. RECORDING is not allowed in the auditorium. MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before entering the auditorium. Thank you for your co-operation. The concert at Brighton Dome on 6 April 2019 is presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra in association with Brighton Dome. Brighton Dome gratefully acknowledges the support of Brighton & Hove City Council and Arts Council England.
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 AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.
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Brighton Dome is managed by Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, which also runs the annual threeweek Brighton Festival in May. brightondome.org | brightonfestival.org
Orchestra news
Congress Theatre, Eastbourne
New LPO Residency at Saffron Hall
Sunday 7 April
In September 2019 the London Philharmonic Orchestra takes up a brand-new residency at Saffron Hall – the world-class concert hall in the Essex town of Saffron Walden. As well as providing top-quality symphonic music to concertgoers in the region, the Orchestra will be heavily involved in Saffron Hall’s groundbreaking education programme.
Artistic Director Chris Jordan General Manager Gavin Davis Welcome to this afternoon’s performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. We are excited to once again receive the players in this now restored historic theatre. To further your enjoyment of this wonderful performance space, the new seating has undergone a professional acoustic review and all side wall panels now contain acoustic panelling, all designed to enhance the experience of listening to live music in this venue. In addition, a large proportion of the new lighting is now LED which is far cooler and thus further ensures the instruments used on stage remain at a constant temperature, so as not to affect sound quality. All of the changes within the auditorium were only able to happen once assurances had been received that they would not negatively impact on the desired acoustics. Please sit back and enjoy the concert and your visit here. As a courtesy to others, please ensure mobile phones are switched off during the performance. Thank you. eastbournetheatres.co.uk
The Orchestra will give four performances at Saffron Hall each year, including a FUNharmonics family concert. In the first season we will involve Saffron Walden County High School students in our LPO Soundworks project – a creative platform for teenage musicians to collaborate with young people from other artforms. LPO musicians will give masterclasses to students at the County High School and coach young people at the Saffron Centre for Young Musicians. The LPO will also work and perform with local community music groups. Conductors involved in the first season of the Saffron Hall residency include Vladimir Jurowski, Marin Alsop and Antonio Pappano. saffronhall.com
Glyndebourne 2019 Booking is now open for the 2019 Glyndebourne Festival, which opens on 18 May. This summer Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust makes its Festival debut in a new production by Richard Jones, in which the Orchestra will be conducted by Glyndebourne Music Director Robin Ticciati. Later in the season Ticciati conducts the Orchestra in Dvořák’s Rusalka, a revival of Melly Still’s much-loved production. Another first this year is Massenet’s ‘Cinderella’ opera Cendrillon, in its Festival debut directed by Fiona Shaw and conducted by John Wilson. Making a welcome return to the Festival is opera’s greatest comedy, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in Annabel Arden’s stylish production, conducted by Rafael Payare. Book online at glyndebourne.com or call the Glyndebourne box office on Box Office on 01273 815000.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic’s closing concert took excellence and courageous programme planning to levels of expectation and emotional intensity more than once defying belief. Here was an orchestra in terrific form, rising to every challenge. Classicalsource.com (LPO at Royal Festival Hall, 2 May 2018: Panufnik, Penderecki & Prokofiev)
One of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra balances a long and distinguished history with its reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-looking ensembles. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and local communities. 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 the Orchestra’s current Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, and in 2017 we celebrated the tenth anniversary of this extraordinary partnership. Andrés Orozco-Estrada took up the position of Principal Guest Conductor in 2015. The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives around 40 concerts each season. Throughout 2018 we explored
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the life and music of Stravinsky in our series Changing Faces: Stravinsky’s Journey, charting the life and music of one of the 20th century’s most influential composers. In 2019 we celebrate the music of Britain in our festival Isle of Noises, exploring a range of British and Britishinspired music from Purcell to the present day. 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 Western orchestra. Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2018/19 season include a major tour of Asia including South Korea, Taiwan and China, as well as performances in Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Switzerland and the USA.
Pieter Schoeman leader
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. In 2017/18 we celebrated the 30th anniversary of our Education and Community department, whose work over three decades has introduced so many people of all ages to orchestral music and created opportunities for people of all backgrounds to fulfil their creative potential. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the LPO Young Composers programme; the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme; and the LPO Junior Artists scheme for talented young musicians from communities and backgrounds currently underrepresented in professional UK orchestras. The Orchestra’s work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled it to reach even more people worldwide: as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on social media. lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra youtube.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra instagram.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra
Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002. © Benjamin Ealovega
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 100 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5 under the late Kurt Masur, and a film music disc under Dirk Brossé.
Born in South Africa, Pieter made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. Five years later he won the World Youth Concerto Competition in Michigan. Aged 17, he moved to the US to further his studies in Los Angeles and Dallas. In 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman who, after several consultations, recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. 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 appears at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. At the invitation of Yannick Nézet-Séguin he has been part of the ‘Yannick and Friends’ chamber group, performing at festivals in Dortmund and Rheingau. Pieter has performed several times as a soloist with the LPO, and his live recording of Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov was released on the Orchestra’s own label to great critical acclaim. He has also recorded numerous violin solos for film and television, and led the LPO 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. In April 2016 he was Guest Leader with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for Kurt Masur’s memorial concert. 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.
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Osmo Vänskä conductor
Vänskä isn’t only about meticulous preparation. In concert he’s a wiry dynamo: lean, whippy and indefatigably energetic. His interpretations are the same. He never stops probing and pushing.
© Joel Larson
The Times
Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra for 15 years, Osmo Vänskä has led the Orchestra on five major European tours, as well as an historic trip to Cuba in 2015 – the first visit by an American orchestra since the two countries announced steps to re-establish diplomatic relations. In 2018 he returned with the Orchestra to the BBC Proms, before embarking on a five-city tour of South Africa as part of the worldwide celebration of Nelson Mandela’s centenary. Other key highlights of Vänskä’s tenure with the Minnesota Orchestra include 17 album recordings (winning a Grammy Award in 2014 for Best Orchestral Performance for their second Sibelius album, and a 2018 nomination for their recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 5); initiating and conducting the annual Future Classics concert; and various educational and outreach projects in Minneapolis and other cities. Also in great demand as a guest conductor, the 2018/19 season includes re-invitations to the Chicago and New World symphony and Seoul Philharmonic orchestras, and a return to China to work with the Shanghai Symphony, and China, Hangzhou and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras. In Europe he appears with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Helsinki Philharmonic, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic and Iceland Symphony orchestras. Last season Vänskä made his debuts with the RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin, the SWR Sinfonieorchester and the Toronto and National Taiwan symphony orchestras, and returned to the Orchestre de Paris, the San Francisco and Pittsburgh Symphony orchestras, and the Seoul and Helsinki Philharmonic orchestras.
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Alongside his musical directorship of the Minnesota Orchestra, Osmo Vänskä has been Principal Guest Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra since 2014, having previously served as Chief Conductor from 1993–96. Concurrently he is Conductor Laureate of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra (having previously been its Music Director), and was Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra from 1996–2002. A distinguished recording artist, primarily for the BIS label, his most recent recordings are of Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6 with the Minnesota Orchestra, to be followed later this year by Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2, continuing a cycle dedicated to the composer. Vänskä studied conducting at Finland’s Sibelius Academy and was awarded First Prize in the 1982 Besançon Competition. He began his career as a clarinettist, occupying, amongst others, the co-principal chair of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. In recent years he has enjoyed a return to the instrument, including regular chamber music performances and a recording of Kalevi Aho’s chamber works in 2012. Vänskä is the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Finlandia Foundation’s Arts and Letters Award, and the 2010 Ditson Award from Columbia University. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Minnesota, and was named Musical America’s 2005 Conductor of the Year. In 2013 he received the Annual Award from the German Record Critics’ Award Association for his involvement in BIS’s recordings of the complete works by Sibelius.
Jan Lisiecki piano
Jan Lisiecki. Remember the name.
© Christoph Köstlin
The Financial Times
At 24, Jan Lisiecki is already recognised as one of the greatest pianists of our time. Acclaimed for his extraordinary interpretive maturity, distinctive sound and poetic sensibility, he is ‘a pianist who makes every note count’ (The New York Times). Lisiecki’s insightful interpretations, refined technique and natural affinity for art give him a musical voice that belies his age.
In the 2018/19 season Jan returns to Carnegie Hall for a performance with The Philadelphia Orchestra, and tours in Europe with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra, as well as in Germany with the Czech Philharmonic. Other collaborations include the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, and concerts in Salzburg with the Mozarteum Orchestra.
In 2017 Jan received the ECHO Klassik, Germany’s most significant classical music award, as well as the JUNO Award – the most prestigious recognition in the Canadian music industry – honouring his fourth recording for Deutsche Grammophon, featuring Chopin’s rarely-performed works for piano and orchestra with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Krzysztof Urbański. His latest album for the label, released in February 2019, features both Mendelssohn concertos with the Orpheus Chamber Orchestra as well as selected solo works.
In 2013 Jan Lisiecki became the youngest ever recipient of Gramophone’s Young Artist award, and also received the Leonard Bernstein Award at the SchleswigHolstein Music Festival. In 2012 he was named UNICEF Ambassador to Canada. He is an exclusive recording artist with Deutsche Grammophon.
Jan Lisiecki performs with the world’s most prestigious orchestras on major stages and has worked closely with prominent conductors including Antonio Pappano, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Daniel Harding and Claudio Abbado. Recent highlights include recital tours of Europe and Asia and subscription debuts with the Boston Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony, Vienna Symphony and Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, among others. Jan celebrated great success with his highly acclaimed recital programme ‘Night Music’, which he continues to perform in the 2018/19 season. His recent Beethoven concerto cycle with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields at the Berlin Konzerthaus was also received enthusiastically by both the audience and media.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7
On stage
Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp
Violas David Quiggle Principal Robert Duncan Ting-Ru Lai Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt Alistair Scahill Daniel Cornford Stanislav Popov Susanne Martens
Yang Zhang
Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins
Chair supported by Eric Tomsett
Martin Wray
First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich
Kevin Lin Co-Leader Chair supported by The Candide Trust
Kate Oswin Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler
Catherine Craig Martin Hรถhmann Geoffrey Lynn
Tina Gruenberg Rebecca Shorrock Georgina Leo Essi Kiiski Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Katherine Waller Miranda Allen Second Violins Lasma Taimina Guest Principal Helena Smart Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley
Joseph Maher Marie-Anne Mairesse Emma Oldfield Ioana Forna Emma Wragg Jamie Hutchinson Gavin Davies John Dickinson Kate Birchall Nynke Hijlkema
Cellos Pei-Jee Ng Principal Victoria Simonsen Susanna Riddell Tom Roff Helen Rathbone Jon Kitchen Leo Melvin Katie Burke Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal George Peniston Tom Walley Lowri Morgan Charlotte Kerbegian Laurence Lovelle Jakub Cywinski Cathy Colwell Flutes Sue Thomas* Principal Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE
Imogen Royce Stewart McIlwham*
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Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal
Trombones David Whitehouse Principal Charlotte Van Passen
Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Jennifer Brittlebank Henry Clay
Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal
Cor Anglais Henry Clay Clarinets Benjamin Mellefont Guest Principal Thomas Watmough Chair supported by Roger Greenwood
Paul Richards* Bass Clarinet Paul Richards* Principal Bassoons Jonathan Davies Principal Gareth Newman
Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Henry Baldwin Principal Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Harp Lucy Haslar Guest Principal * Holds a professorial appointment in London Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players
Contrabassoon Simon Estell* Principal Horns John Ryan* Principal Chair supported by Laurence Watt
Martin Hobbs Adam Howcroft Gareth Mollison Joseph Ryan Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Philip Cobb Guest Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann
The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at these concerts: Andrew Davenport William & Alex de Winton Friends of the Orchestra Dr Barry Grimaldi Countess Dominique Loredan Sir Simon Robey Bianca & Stuart Roden
Programme notes
Speedread The British composer Arnold Bax was raised in Lambeth, but looked far beyond London for creative inspiration – to Cornwall, to Ireland and even to Finland. Despite the title of his orchestral seascape Tintagel, it was probably the heavy beating of Bax’s own romantic heart that powered forward the music of his brief orchestral rhapsody. Bax was fascinated by the music of his Finnish counterpart Jean Sibelius, a composer who also took inspiration from his country’s surroundings. Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony takes off with the majestic flight of Finland’s national bird, the swan. But Sibelius was also enchanted and fascinated by the musical styles
Arnold Bax
of far-off lands, notably the Middle East. We hear that fascination, filtered through Sibelius’s own distilled musical style, in his musical depiction of Belshazzar’s Feast. It took a fellow Norwegian to persuade Edvard Grieg to look to his own country for creative inspiration. When Grieg did so, he started to produce music of genuine brilliance. The clean air of Norway breathes through his Piano Concerto, but the piece speaks a universal language that would influence composers from around the world – and make it one of the best-loved concertos ever written.
Tintagel
1883–1953
Arnold Bax was born in Streatham and went to school in Balham. But, ever the romantic, he looked far beyond the confines of smoggy London town. Initially he considered himself an honorary Irishman and moved to Dublin, where he wrote poetry and fiction under the pseudonym Dermot O’Byrne. After the First World War, Bax became fascinated by Nordic culture. He dedicated his Symphony No. 5 to the Finnish composer Jean Sibelius. Before that, another obsession occupied the composer: a beautiful young pianist named Harriet Cohen. Bax fell for Cohen, a pupil, and spent the summer of 1917 with her on Cornwall’s Atlantic coast. There, the already-married Bax channelled his emotional turmoil
into a rhapsodic orchestral work depicting the ruins of Tintagel Castle, which sit splendidly on a rocky outcrop beyond the cliffs. The piece was first performed in Bournemouth on 20 October 1921. Bax was upfront about the work’s subject: the big brass tune represents the ‘ancient, weather-worn castle’, the long string melody ‘the serene and limitless space of the ocean’. But there was something more personal in this passionate and restless score, too. When the oboe and lead violin become entwined in a solo, they reference a theme from Wagner’s Cornish opera of forbidden love, Tristan und Isolde. Bax might have been painting a picture of the Cornish coast, but he was opening a window onto his own soul too.
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Programme notes continued
Edvard Grieg 1843–1907
At the age of 15, the talented young Edvard Grieg was dispatched to Leipzig to be schooled in composition German-style. But the Leipzig lessons left the composer cold. Later on in Copenhagen, the hub for Nordic composers in the 19th century, Grieg met fellow Norwegian Richard Nordraak, who introduced him to the many folk songs and national dances that he’d been collecting from the mountains and fjords back home. That, together with the suggestion from the Norwegian composer Ole Bull that he explore his own heritage, prompted Grieg’s sudden awakening to his musical destiny: ‘to find expression for something that lay thousands of miles from Leipzig and its atmosphere’. By that, Grieg meant the striking but melancholiatinged natural scenery of Norway. Grieg would mostly write his own tunes, but would cast them in the atmospheric and harmonic mood of the folk music he had discovered – the mood of a small country ‘full of mystery and promise’ that showed little interest in rushing headlong into modernity. Not that Grieg shunned the German tradition altogether. When he came to write his Piano Concerto while holidaying in the Danish countryside in 1868, Grieg took his cue from the concerto by Robert Schumann. ‘Each tempo is indelibly imprinted on my soul,’ Grieg said of Schumann’s piece, which famously captured the composer’s love for his wife just as Grieg felt the glow of married life to Nina Hagerup (and the arrival of their daughter) as he started to write his own work. Formally, he found in Schumann’s concerto the inspiration behind his own work’s opening flourish and
Piano Concerto, Op. 16 Jan Lisiecki piano 1 Allegro molto moderato 2 Adagio 3 Allegro moderato molto e marcato
the marked contrast between the initial (perky) theme and the secondary (song-like) one in the first movement. What we don’t hear in Schumann’s concerto is that straightforward Nordic tenderness that Grieg captures so convincingly. He communicates it mostly through direct harmonies and song-like themes that carry an almost naïve simplicity. The Concerto’s very first musical idea, enshrined in that opening piano flourish, is built on a descending third – an interval that infests Norwegian folk song. Its finale is Grieg’s personal homage to the Halling, a swift Norwegian ‘fling’ dance. Perhaps in the aching beauty of the slow movement, though, Grieg gets closest to the purity of spirit – the Norwegian mountain air – he was trying to convey. In the years after its first performance on 3 April 1869 in Copenhagen (Edmund Neupert, not Grieg, was the soloist), the Piano Concerto put Norway on the musical map and made its creator famous. In 1870 Grieg had the chance to show the score to Franz Liszt, who played it through at sight and made no attempt to hide his delight at it. Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninoff would go on to imitate the grand, hymn-like repeat of the secondary tune that closes the final movement. But what Liszt really loved was the touch of sadness Grieg brought to that passage: when the full orchestra plays the sloweddown big tune for the second time, just after the pianist hammers it out in huge, ground-shaking chords, the third note is changed – suddenly dropped a semitone from a G sharp to a G natural. It gives the majestic tune the colour of a minor key, and a dignified hesitance that speaks so much of Norway and its national psyche.
Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.
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Jean Sibelius
Suite, Belshazzar’s Feast, Op. 51 1 Oriental Procession 2 Solitude 3 Nocturne 4 Khadra’s Dance
1865–1957
In between his Second and Third Symphonies, Sibelius was handed the chance to indulge a fascination with Orientalism that was sweeping through the Nordic countries in the first decade of the 20th century. His friend Hjalmar Procopé had written a play for Helsinki’s Swedish Theatre adapted from the biblical story of the downfall of Belshazzar, whose fate was sealed by the eponymous ‘writing on the wall’. Sibelius, who always seized opportunities to write short pieces to order, was asked to write incidental music for the performance and duly agreed. The play was dull, but that only increased the effect of Sibelius’s to-the-point music. In 1907, the year after the staging, the composer arranged a suite of four movements from the ten numbers he had written for orchestra, complete with the extended percussion section that had become obligatory for Western composers dabbling in Orientalism.
Music history is littered with kitsch attempts on behalf of Western composers to capture exotic Eastern sounds, but Sibelius at least managed to imbue his music with genuine atmosphere and narrative tension. The opening march depicts the arrival of Belshazzar in procession, combining Oriental percussive sounds with melodies built on adjacent notes (typical of Sibelius) but given Eastern inflections. ‘Solitude’ is an adaptation of Sibelius’s song given to a lonely Jewish girl hoping to return to Jerusalem. The tortured flute of ‘Nocturne’ conveys the anguish of Leschanah, the woman sent to assassinate Belshazzar. ‘Khadra’s Dance’ combines two dances from the original score, in which the condemned slave girl dances in celebration of life (flutes and clarinets) and in the face of death (low clarinet).
Vänskä conducts Bax’s Tintagel on the LPO Label Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3 Bax Tintagel Osmo Vänskä conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra £9.99 | LPO-0065
'Vänskä and the LPO are firing on all cylinders in this invigorating live pairing … His Tintagel has real fire in its belly’ Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone
CDs available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the Royal Festival Hall shop, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets. Download or stream online via Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify and others.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11
Programme notes continued
Jean Sibelius
Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 1 Tempo di moderato – Allegro moderato 2 Andante mosso, quasi allegretto 3 Allegro molto – Un pochettino largamente
1865–1957
In the early 1910s Sibelius could add to his own financial and health problems those of his beloved Finland itself. Russia was strengthening its grip on the province, suspending parliament and attempting to drive out the Finnish language. As Europe slipped towards war, Finland, aligned with Russia, faced mass slaughter and the annihilation of its timber exporting industry. ‘In a deep mire again, but already I am beginning to see dimly the mountain that I shall ascend’, wrote a knowing Sibelius in his diary, ‘God opens his door for a moment and his orchestra is playing the Fifth Symphony.’ So, a new symphony was rapidly forming in Sibelius’s mind. Themes included the onset of spring and the spirit of the composer’s country home at Järvenpää. Then, on 12 April 1914, Sibelius witnessed a sight that would affect him profoundly and write the Fifth Symphony’s main theme for him. It was a flock of 16 swans, soaring upwards from the Järvenpää lake for their migration. ‘One of my greatest experiences’ Sibelius wrote in his diary, ‘the Fifth Symphony’s final theme … legato in the trumpets.’ At the time of the Symphony’s premiere in Helsinki on 8 December 1915, there were four movements. Sibelius later amalgamated his first movement and scherzo into the opening movement that was eventually published and that we know today. After the initial, blossoming theme on glowing horns and woodwinds, the music gains momentum and folds outwards towards the proclamation of two notes separated by a distinctive interval – a major fourth – by the trumpet. The opening motif soon appears again, returning in another form as the Symphony is injected with optimism by an upwardpining theme – again in the trumpets.
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Those gestures sow the seeds for Sibelius’s finale. The double basses are soon heard spelling out a fifth, which augments as the bottom note drops twice, stepping back up in the manner of an ostinato. Here are the Järvenpää swans. As it’s taken up by the horns, the theme gains the pace and grandeur of flight, like the rise and fall of a bird’s wing. Suddenly, the music shifts key: Sibelius’s firm bass note or ‘pedal note’ disappears like the falling away of a runway. The swans – magically, gloriously – take flight. Soon they can be heard in the distance again, returning as if for a last farewell. Once more they soar upwards, cutting through a tangling, churning orchestral texture as if to break free from earthly concerns. Six stern jabs from the whole orchestra bid them a final farewell. Programme notes © Andrew Mellor
Recommended recordings by Laurie Watt Bax: Tintagel London Philharmonic Orchestra | Osmo Vänskä (LPO Label LPO-0036: see page 11) Grieg: Piano Concerto Leif Ove Andsnes | Berlin Philharmonic | Mariss Jansons (Warner) Sibelius: Suite: Belshazzar’s Feast Turku Philharmonic Orchestra | Leif Segerstam (Naxos) Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 London Philharmonic Orchestra | Paavo Berglund (LPO Label LPO-0065: see right) or London Philharmonic Orchestra | Jukka-Pekka Saraste (LPO Label LPO-0057: see right) or Lahti Symphony Orchestra | Osmo Vänskä (BIS)
Sibelius Symphonies on the LPO Label
Sibelius Symphony No. 5 Sibelius Symphony No. 6 Sibelius The Swan of Tuonela
Sibelius Pohjola’s Daughter Sibelius Symphony No. 5 Lutosławski Concerto for Orchestra
Paavo Berglund conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra
Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra
£9.99 | LPO-0065
£9.99 | LPO-0057
Sibelius Symphony No. 2 Sibelius Symphony No. 7 Paavo Berglund conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra £9.99 | LPO-0005
CDs available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the Royal Festival Hall shop, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets. Download or stream online via Apple Music, Amazon, Spotify and others. Radio 3 Ad 150 X105 BW PRINT.pdf
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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13
ISLE OF
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01 9
NOISES 2 UA R E RY– B M DE C E
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dward Elgar never felt entirely comfortable at the top. As a new member of a London club, some time in the reign of Edward VII, a fellow composer – Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the well-connected head of the Royal College of Music – saw him dithering over the cheeseboard. ‘Why don’t you try the Port Salut?’ Mackenzie suggested, before lowering his voice to whisper, sarcastically ‘Salut d’Amour’. Elgar might have been knighted; he might have been acclaimed by Richard Strauss as Britain’s pre-eminent modern composer. But his clubbable, expensively-educated British colleagues quietly noticed his awkwardness and his Worcestershire vowels. As to the fact that he’d written bestselling salon favourites like Salut d’Amour; well, they were too polite to suggest that it was just a little bit – you know – common. But once in a while, they’d give him a quick kick in the shins – just to remind him. Elgar was a Roman Catholic – a faith that a mere 30 years before his birth had been denied full civil rights in the UK – and the more you dig into Elgar’s ‘Britishness’, the more complicated it gets. His music never quotes an English folk song even once; its roots are deep in the language of Brahms and Wagner. When Danny Boyle began the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony with ‘Nimrod’ from the Enigma Variations (performed by the LPO on 9 November 2019), it was supposed to evoke a traditional, rural England. In fact, ‘Nimrod’ is a musical portrait of Elgar’s great friend August Jaeger – a German immigrant. The composer meant it to evoke not green and pleasant fields, but a slow movement by Beethoven. For the ultimate statement of musical Britishness, it’s got surprisingly international roots. Our 2019 Isle of Noises festival takes that paradox and revels in it. This is a celebration of British music that understands that even the most familiar masterpieces
14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
For nine decades the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been at the heart of music-making in London, in the British Isles and in Europe – and we know that there’s never been any one thing called ‘British music’. Throughout 2019 at Royal Festival Hall we’ll be celebrating over three centuries of music in these islands: Richard Bratby introduces our new festival. have a fascinatingly diverse heritage. Gustav Holst came from an immigrant family, and The Planets (23 October) is a journey towards blissful dissolution (nibbāna, if you like) that takes its philosophical basis from his lifelong fascination with Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. Benjamin Britten might seem like the ultimate Establishment figure, and yes, he used to take tea at Sandringham with the Queen Mother. But the fact that a gay composer (and a conscientious objector into the bargain) could become such a national institution in his own lifetime gives pause for thought. His Violin Concerto (27 September) was written in the USA and draws on Britten’s interest in the Second Viennese School. It’s a story that you encounter again and again throughout British music. The best pieces are the unexpected and obstinate ones, the hybrids that push insolently up through the cracks. When Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his ballet Job (7 December), he called it a ‘Masque’, invoking the era of Purcell and Lawes because he didn’t like the idea of polite audiences commenting ‘oh, did you see God at the ballet?’ In the event, audiences expecting something soothing from the composer of The Lark Ascending saw a green, semi-naked Satan dancing to music of angular strangeness. The agnostic Vaughan Williams came from an oldestablished family
of liberal thinkers (he was related to Charles Darwin): he took his cues from William Blake. Meanwhile, up north: ‘You’ll never hear the thing again, my boy, why not throw in a couple of brass bands?’ said the conductor Thomas Beecham to the 29-yearold William Walton, as he began work on a choral commission for the 1931 Leeds Festival. Walton did just that, and the result – Belshazzar’s Feast (9 November) – is still a shocker: jazzy, raucous, shamelessly pagan. Walton’s chrome-plated self-assurance always played well in America. His Violin Concerto of 1939 (9 October) was written for the great American-Russian violinist Jascha Heifetz, and it has the streamlined, art-deco elegance of some great transatlantic liner. Not that British music needed to cross the Atlantic to hit the big time. The LPO’s evening of classic British film music (1 November) explores the curious fact that the most British love story of all time, Brief Encounter, uses music by Rachmaninoff – and that when another film, Dangerous Moonlight, tried to achieve the same effect, Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto proved almost indistinguishable from the real thing. Throughout the Edwardian era Edward Elgar worked on a colossal trilogy of New Testament oratorios, each of them conceived as an emotional drama closer in spirit to Wagner or Verdi than Mendelssohn or Parry. He was deeply invested in the story, consulting Jewish liturgical experts about the sound of the shofar in The Apostles (26 October). (He later incorporated this ancient instrument into the score). The result wasn’t just one of the earliest examples of cultural crossover in British music; it was frankly and uncompromisingly passionate. Vulgar, you might even say. ‘I’m told Mackenzie is foaming at the mouth about The Apostles’, wrote Jaeger to Elgar in 1903. This kind of thing just wasn’t British. But if vulgarity means vitality, originality, diversity, it’s been British music’s saviour. Today, the most exciting British composers are those who transgress boundaries and explore new worlds: the late, much missed Oliver Knussen’s fascination with that great Russian eccentric Scriabin, or anything at all by Thomas Adès – a composer who believes that ‘Grand failures are preferable to sneaky successes’. Not that the UK premiere of his Piano Concerto (23 October) is likely to be anything other than a major event (and what does it say that he’s chosen to pair it with The Planets?).
British composer Thomas Adès, whose Piano Concerto receives its UK premiere on 23 October 2019.
There’s no white-walled evasion of taste in Adès’s music. ‘We have a very highly developed nose for phoniness’, he says. ‘We won’t just accept something as sublime or whatever just because it tells us it is.’ In other words, we just have to listen – and if the music has something about it, it’ll speak to us. Isle of Noises ends with an outrage: the Dynamic Triptych by John Foulds (11 December). Foulds was born near Manchester, but moved to Delhi as head of music for the British Raj’s radio network. There, the servant of Empire let his own imagination be captured and transformed by the ancient culture he encountered, and although he died of cholera in 1939, leaving a trunkful of unperformed scores, the works he did complete are like nothing else in 20th-century music. It’s hard to describe the Dynamic Triptych. It’s an exuberant, supersophisticated, utterly vulgar mass of influences, ideas and contradictions – and it sounds fantastic. In other words, it couldn’t be more British. Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. This is your music – discover it. Richard Bratby writes about music for The Spectator, Gramophone and the Birmingham Post.
For full concert details Pick up an Isle of Noises series leaflet as you leave tonight’s concert, or browse the full series online at lpo.org.uk/isleofnoises
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15
GET
CLOSER
FINAL LPO CONCERTS THIS SEASON AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL 2019/20 SEASON ON SALE NOW – SEE PAGE 18
ISLE OF
NOISES
WEDNESDAY 10 APRIL 2019 7.30PM
Debussy Iberia from Images Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 (Egyptian) Ravel Mother Goose Suite Debussy La mer
SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2019 7.30PM
Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2* R Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks Elgar Falstaff Vladimir Jurowski conductor Yefim Bronfman piano
Edward Gardner conductor Stephen Hough piano
FRIDAY 3 MAY 2019 7.30PM
Brahms Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No. 3 (1877 revised version) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Janine Jansen violin Concert generously supported by Dior.
* Please note a change of concerto from previously advertised.
BOOK NOW AT LPO.ORG.UK OR CALL 020 7840 4242 SEASON DISCOUNTS OF UP TO 30% AVAILABLE
16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
2019/20 Concert season at Brighton Dome Concert Hall For full details, pick up a brochure as you leave tonight’s concert or visit brightondome.org Saturday 21 September 2019 7.30pm
Saturday 18 April 2020 7.30pm
Kensho Watanabe conductor Daniel Röhn violin
Matthew Coorey conductor Joanna MacGregor piano
Saturday 2 November 2019 7.30pm
Saturday 15 February 2020 7.30pm
Anthony Weeden conductor Piers Lane piano
Joshua Weilerstein conductor Leonard Elschenbroich cello
Beethoven, inc. Symphony No. 7
A Celebration of British Cinema
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony
Dvořák & Sibelius
Booking opens Monday 15 April Book online at brightondome.org or call 01273 709709 Season discounts of up to 20% available
2019/20 Concert season at Eastbourne Congress Theatre For full details, pick up a brochure as you leave today’s concert or visit eastbournetheatres.co.uk
Sunday 13 October 2019 3.00pm
Sunday 23 February 2020 3.00pm
Andrew Gourlay conductor Reinis Zariņš piano
Ben Glassberg conductor Fanny Clamagirand violin
Sunday 3 November 2019 3.00pm
Sunday 19 April 2020 3.00pm
Anthony Weeden conductor Piers Lane piano
Matthew Coorey conductor Igor Tchetuev piano
Sunday 19 January 2020 3.00pm
Sunday 19 April 2020 3.00pm
Thomas Blunt conductor Laura van der Heijden cello
Matthew Coorey conductor Joanna MacGregor piano
Rachmaninoff & Rimsky-Korsakov
A Celebration of British Cinema
Mendelssohn, Haydn & Brahms
Mozart, Sibelius & Dvořák
Tchaikovsky
Beethoven’s Pastoral Symphony
Booking opens Monday 15 April Book online at eastbournetheatres.co.uk or call 01323 412000 Season discounts of up to 25% available
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 17
OTHER WORLDS 2019/20 Concert season at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall 2020 Vision
A new strand of concerts featuring some of the most exciting works written since 2000, each combined in concert with pieces composed exactly 100 and 200 years earlier.
Beethoven 250th anniversary
Beethoven’s first six symphonies and rarer gems including his Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II.
Isle of Noises continues
Landmark classics inspired by the British Isles, including the music of Walton, Vaughan Williams, Britten and Foulds.
Celebrated artists
Including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Antonio Pappano, Susanna Mälkki, Edward Gardner, Igor Levit, Diana Damrau, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Nicola Benedetti and Anoushka Shankar.
ON SALE NOW LPO.ORG.UK/NEWSEASON
PLAYER APPEAL 2018/19 BE INSTRUMENTAL TO OUR FUTURE
At the London Philharmonic Orchestra we believe that together we are greater than the sum of our parts. Players, supporters, staff and audience members; this is your LPO and you’re the LPO. We want you to stand with us as we show and share with the world our rare and special passion for the timeless art of orchestral music.
WITH YOUR SUPPORT ...
WE CAN INVEST IN TALENT DEVELOPMENT
WE CAN MAINTAIN OUR GREAT OPERA HERITAGE
This feels incredibly relevant when working with the LPO’s Foyle Future Firsts and Young Composers. Performing side-by-side with young players, playing the music of new composers is crucial. Through my work with the LPO Junior Artists, musicians from currently underrepresented backgrounds, I see incredible talent in those young people. With your support we can help them navigate their journeys.
The players develop a real sense of camaraderie in the pit at Glyndebourne – how could we not when we’re that squashed in!? By contrast, being able to see and interact with singers when we do something like the Ring Cycle at Royal Festival Hall makes for an incredibly exciting experience and brings opera to a wider audience. Please give your support to help us maintain this incredible strand of opera in concert.
KEVIN LIN, CO-LEADER
JULIETTE BAUSOR, PRINCIPAL FLUTE
WE CAN TAKE RISKS AS WE EXPLORE ADVENTUROUS WORKS
WE CAN SHARE THE POWER AND WONDER OF ORCHESTRAL MUSIC WITH THE As an LPO player you never WIDER WORLD sit for long with the same set of notes. It’s a great challenge. We have to raise our game constantly. The demanding and exciting repertoire that you may associate with the LPO helps its players develop but also keeps our audiences on their toes and experiencing new things. With your support we can continue sharing these experiences. THOMAS WATMOUGH, PRINCIPAL E-FLAT CLARINET
I’ve played with the LPO in London, Eastbourne, Glyndebourne, Brighton and all over the world – it’s a thrilling ride! Performing around the UK and the world, concert experiences are always different – that’s what makes it exciting. Please help us ensure that we can continue creating special, shared experiences throughout the UK and around the world.
ELISABETH WIKLANDER, CELLO
We are asking you to be instrumental in our future and in our ability to continue doing all that you know us for. Donate online at lpo.org.uk/donate or call our Individual Giving Team on 020 7840 4212 or 020 7840 4225 to make a donation by credit or debit card.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 19
2018/19 LPO Eastbourne Appeal Congress Theatre, Sunday 7 April 2019
T
hank you for joining the LPO this afternoon at the Congress Theatre. We are thrilled to be back in the newly renovated hall; our home in Eastbourne. Not only this, but 2019 marks 85 years since our first ever concert in Eastbourne with Sir Thomas Beecham in 1934.
As we observe these exciting milestones we encourage you to play your part in celebrating our return to the Congress Theatre, and the longstanding relationship between the LPO and Eastbourne. A great deal has changed since our first concerts here, but the LPO is still as committed to bringing emerging and established artists and exceptional music to Eastbourne as we were under Beecham 85 years ago. We ask that you support the Orchestra’s Appeal this year as we step into a new era of our Eastbourne residency. We remain so very grateful for your ongoing support and our relationships here feel as strong as ever. Here’s to another 85 years! To donate to the 2018/19 Eastbourne Appeal please call Ellie Franklin, Development Assistant, on 020 7840 4225 or email ellie.franklin@lpo.org.uk. Thank you for your support.
20 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
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 Sir 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 The Rind Foundation Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski The Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Sir Bernard Rix David Ross & Line Forestier (Canada) Mr Paris Natar
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 AM Christopher Williams Peter Wilson Smith Mr Anthony Yolland and all other donors who wish to remain anonymous
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 21
Thank you
We are extremely grateful to all donors who have given generously to the LPO over the past year. Your generosity helps 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 An anonymous donor Sir Simon & Lady Robey OBE Orchestra Circle The Candide Trust Mr & Mrs Philip Kan Neil Westreich Dr James Huang Zheng (of Kingdom Music Education Group) Principal Associates Gabor Beyer, through BTO Management Consulting AG In memory of Ann Marguerite Collins Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Associates Steven M. Berzin Richard Buxton Kay Bryan William & Alex de Winton Mrs Irina Gofman Countess Dominique Loredan George Ramishvili Stuart & Bianca Roden In memory of Hazel Amy Smith Gold Patrons David & Yi Buckley John Burgess In memory of Allner Mavis Channing Gill & Garf Collins Andrew Davenport Sonja Drexler Mrs Gillian Fane Marie-Laure Favre-Gilly de Varennes de Beuill Hamish & Sophie Forsyth Virginia Gabbertas MBE Mr Roger Greenwood The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe Geoff & Meg Mann
Sally Groves & Dennis Marks Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski Melanie Ryan Julian & Gill Simmonds Eric Tomsett The Viney Family Laurence Watt Silver Patrons Dr Christopher Aldren Peter Blanc Georgy Djaparidze Ulrike & Benno Engelmann Peter & Fiona Espenhahn Will & Kate Hobhouse Matt Isaacs & Penny Jerram John & Angela Kessler The Metherell Family Simon Millward Mikhail Noskov & Vasilina Bindley Susan Wallendahl Guy & Utti Whittaker Bronze Patrons Anonymous donors Michael Allen Andrew Barclay Mr Geoffrey Bateman Peter & Adrienne Breen Mr Jeremy Bull Mr Alan C Butler Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Andrea d’Avack Bruno De Kegel Mr John L G Deacon David Ellen Ignor & Lyuba Galkin David Goldberg Mr Daniel Goldstein David & Jane Gosman Mrs Dorothy Hambleton Wim & Jackie Hautekiet-Clare Malcolm Herring Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle J Douglas Home Mr James R. D. Korner
22 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Rose & Dudley Leigh Drs Frank & Gek Lim Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva Maxim & Natalia Moskalev Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Peter & Lucy Noble Noel Otley JP & Mrs Rachel Davies Jacopo Pessina Mr Roger Phillimore Mr Michael Posen Tatiana Pyatigorskaya Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Tom & Phillis Sharpe Mr Christopher Stewart Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Andrew & Rosemary Tusa Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Marina Vaizey Ms Jenny Watson CBE Grenville & Krysia Williams Christopher Williams Ed & Catherine Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Principal Supporters Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Margot Astrachan Mr Philip Bathard-Smith Mr Edwin Bisset Dr Anthony Buckland Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Sir Alan Collins KCVO David & Liz Conway Mr Alistair Corbett Mrs Alina Davey Guy Davies Henry Davis MBE Mr Richard Fernyhough Patrice & Federica Feron Ms Kerry Gardner Ivan Hurry Per Jonsson Mr Ralph Kanza Ms Katerina Kashenceva Vadim & Natalia Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF
Mr Christopher Little Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Peter Mace Patricia & Michael McLarenTurner Mr John Meloy Andrew T Mills Dr Karen Morton Mrs Jennifer Oxley Dr Wiebke Pekrull Mr James Pickford Andrew & Sarah Poppleton Natalie Pray Mr Christopher Querée Martin & Cheryl Southgate Ms Nadia Stasyuk Matthew Stephenson & Roman Aristarkhov Louise Walton Howard & Sheelagh Watson Des & Maggie Whitelock Liz Winter Bill Yoe Supporters Mr John D Barnard Mr Keith Bolderson Mr Bernard Bradbury Mr Richard Brooman Mrs Alan Carrington Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington Mr Joshua Coger Mr Geoffrey A Collens Miss Tessa Cowie Lady Jane Cuckney OBE Mr David Devons Samuel Edge Manuel Fajardo & Clémence Humeau Mrs Janet Flynn Christopher Fraser OBE Mr and Mrs Gofton Will Gold Mr Peter Gray Mrs Maureen HooftGraafland The Jackman Family Mr David MacFarlane Mr Frederic Marguerre Mr Mark Mishon
Mr Stephen Olton Mr David Peters Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh Mr David Russell Mr Kenneth Shaw Ms Elizabeth Shaw Ms Natalie Spraggon & Mr David Thomson Mr John Weekes Mr Trevor Weston Joanna Williams Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Alfonso Aijón Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Robert Hill Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE Laurence Watt LPO International Board of Governors Natasha Tsukanova Chair Steven M. Berzin (USA) Gabor Beyer (Hungary) Kay Bryan (Australia) Marie-Laure Favre Gilly de Varennes de Bueil (France) Irina Gofman (Russia) Joyce Kan (China/Hong Kong) Countess Dominique Loredan (Italy) Olivia Ma (Greater China Area) Olga Makharinsky (Russia) George Ramishvili (Georgia) Victoria Robey OBE (USA) Dr James Huang Zheng (of Kingdom Music Education Group) (China/ Shenzhen)
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: Simon Freakley Chairman Xenia Hanusiak Alexandra Jupin William A. Kerr Kristina McPhee Natalie Pray Stephanie Yoshida Antony Phillipson Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP Corporate Donors Arcadis Christian Dior Couture Faraday Fenchurch Advisory Partners IMG Pictet Bank Steppes Travel White & Case LLP Corporate Members Gold freuds Sunshine Silver After Digital Berenberg Carter-Ruck French Chamber of Commerce Bronze Ageas Lazard Russo-British Chamber of Commerce Walpole
Preferred Partners Fever-Tree Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd London Orthopaedic Clinic Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsor Google Inc Trusts and Foundations The Bernarr Rainbow Trust The Boltini Trust Sir William Boreman’s Foundation Borletti-Buitoni Trust Boshier-Hinton Foundation The Candide Trust The Chalk Cliff Trust The Ernest Cook Trust Diaphonique, Franco-British Fund for contemporary music The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Fidelio Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation Lucille Graham Trust Help Musicians UK John Horniman’s Children’s Trust The Idlewild Trust Embassy of the State of Israel to the United Kingdom Kirby Laing Foundation The Lawson Trust The Leverhulme Trust Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation London Stock Exchange Group Foundation Lord & Lady Lurgan Trust Marsh Christian Trust The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute Newcomen Collett Foundation
The Stanley Picker Trust The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust PRS For Music Foundation The Radcliffe Trust Rivers Foundation Romanian Cultural Institute The R K Charitable Trust The Sampimon Trust Schroder Charity Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust Spears-Stutz Charitable Trust John Thaw Foundation The Thistle Trust UK Friends of the FelixMendelssohn-BartholdyFoundation The Clarence Westbury Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust The William Alwyn Foundation and all others who wish to remain anonymous.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 23
Administration
Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Dr Catherine C. Høgel Vice-Chairman Henry Baldwin* Roger Barron Richard Brass David Buckley Bruno De Kegel Martin Höhmann* Al MacCuish Susanne Martens* Pei-Jee Ng* Andrew Tusa Timothy Walker AM Neil Westreich David Whitehouse* * Player-Director Advisory Council Martin Höhmann Chairman Rob Adediran Christopher Aldren Dr Manon Antoniazzi Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport William de Winton Cameron Doley Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Amanda Hill Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Geoff Mann Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Andrew Neill Nadya Powell Sir Bernard Rix Victoria Robey OBE Baroness Shackleton Thomas Sharpe QC Julian Simmonds Barry Smith Martin Southgate Andrew Swarbrick Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Elizabeth Winter
General Administration Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director
Education and Community Isabella Kernot Education and Community Director
David Burke General Manager and Finance Director
Talia Lash Education and Community Manager
Lucas Dwyer PA to the Chief Executive/ Administrative Assistant
Emily Moss Education and Community Project Manager
Finance Frances Slack Finance and Operations Manager
Hannah Tripp Education and Community Project Co-ordinator
Dayse Guilherme Finance Officer
Development Nick Jackman Development Director
Concert Management Roanna Gibson Concerts Director
Vicky Moran Development Events Manager
Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager Sophie Richardson Glyndebourne and Projects Manager (maternity leave) Fabio Sarlo Glyndebourne and Projects Manager (maternity cover) Grace Ko Tours Manager Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator Jo Cotter Tours Co-ordinator Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians Christopher Alderton Stage Manager Damian Davis Transport Manager Hannah Verkerk Orchestra Co-ordinator and Auditions Administrator Laura Kitson Assistant Transport & Stage Manager
24 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Christina McNeill Corporate Relations Manager Rosie Morden Individual Giving Manager Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager Ellie Franklin Development Assistant Georgie Gulliver Development Assistant Kirstin Peltonen Development Associate Marketing Kath Trout Marketing Director Mairi Warren Marketing Manager
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Composer photographs courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.
Rachel Williams Publications Manager
Cover artwork Ross Shaw Printer Cantate
Rachel Smith Website Manager Greg Felton Digital Creative Alexandra Lloyd Marketing Co-ordinator Tom Wright Marketing Assistant