London Philharmonic Orchestra 14 Dec 2016 concert progr by London Philharmonic Orchestra

MUSIC IS OUR WORLD. WE WANT TO SHARE ITS ASTONISHING POWER AND WONDER WITH YOU. Concert programme lpo.org.uk

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation Principal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADA Leader pieter schoeman supported by Neil Westreich 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 14 December 2016 | 7.30pm

Glinka Waltz Fantasy (6’) Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (39’) Interval (20’) Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 (41’)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Jan Lisiecki piano

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Contents 2 Welcome LPO news 3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Vladimir Jurowski 7 Jan Lisiecki 8 Programme notes 11 Recommended recordings 12 2016 FUNharmonics Appeal 13 Sound Futures donors 14 Supporters 16 LPO administration

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 2018. 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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LPO news

Season’s greetings from the LPO! Tonight is our final concert of 2016 at Royal Festival Hall – later this week we’ll travel to Germany and Austria to give repeat performances of tonight’s programme in Dortmund on Sunday 18 December, Vienna on Monday 19, Stuttgart on Tuesday 20 and Freiburg on Wednesday 21, before returning to the UK for a well-earned Christmas break. Our next Royal Festival Hall concert is on Friday 13 January, when violinist Ray Chen will join us to perform Brahms’s Violin Concerto, paired with the composer’s Symphony No. 1 under conductor Manfred Honeck. Then on Saturday 21 January we embark on the year-long Belief and Beyond Belief festival in partnership with Southbank Centre, beginning with a semi-staged performance of Beethoven’s only opera Fidelio conducted by Vladimir Jurowski. See full details of all our spring 2017 concerts and book online at lpo.org.uk

2016 FUNharmonics Appeal Last month saw the launch of our 2016 Annual Appeal, which this year is supporting our series of FUNharmonics family concerts. Comprising hour-long fun, interactive concerts designed especially for children, plus pre-concert ‘have a go’ sessions and hands-on craft workshops themed around the concert repertoire, FUNharmonics offer an amazing way for children and their families to experience orchestral music. We’re asking you to help us make these experiences accessible to as many people as possible. Give to the appeal and fund the elements that make up a FUNharmonics day, supporting us in keeping the pricing of these concerts affordable for all. See page 12 for more details or visit lpo.org.uk/appeal

LPO 2017/18 season launch The 2017/18 LPO season will be launched on Thursday 26 January 2017, when all details of concerts and events will be available on our website. Booking opens on Wednesday 8 February online and via the LPO Box Office. To take advantage of priority booking (from Tuesday 31 January), become a Friend of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for as little as £50 a year. Call Rosie Morden on 020 7840 4225 or visit lpo.org.uk/support/memberships

On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Liana Gourdjia Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by the Candide Trust

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

Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt Alistair Scahill Daniel Cornford Stanislav Popov Sarah Malcolm

Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Caroline Sharp Caroline Frenkel Georgina Leo

Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal

Second Violins Andrew Storey Principal Helena Smart Jeongmin Kim

David Lale Elisabeth Wiklander

Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Tania Mazzetti Kate Birchall Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley

Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Robin Wilson Harry Kerr Sheila Law

Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden

Pei-Jee Ng Co-Principal Francis Bucknall Santiago Carvalho† Chair co-supported by Molly & David Borthwick

Chair supported by Drs Oliver & Asha Foster

Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Helen Rathbone Sibylle Hentschel Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Sebastian Pennar Sub-Principal George Peniston Laurence Lovelle Damián Rubido González Thomas Walley Lowri Morgan Charlotte Kerbegian

Flutes Juliette Bausor Principal Sue Thomas* Sub-Principal Chair co-supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Stewart McIlwham* Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal

Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Alice Munday

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Clarinets Timothy Lines Guest Principal Thomas Watmough Sub-Principal

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Bassoons Jonathan Davies Principal Gareth Newman 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

Henry Baldwin Co-Principal Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Martin Owens Assistant Conductor Kelly Lovelady * 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

Toby Street

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Sonja Drexler • Dr Barry Grimaldi • Eric Tomsett

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Jurowski and the LPO can stand alongside the top international orchestras with pride. Richard Fairman, Financial Times, September 2015

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 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 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 around 40 concerts each season. Throughout 2016 the LPO joined many of the UK’s other leading cultural institutions in Shakespeare400, celebrating the Bard’s legacy 400

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years since his death. In 2017 we will collaborate with Southbank Centre on Belief and Beyond Belief: a year-long multi-artform festival. Other 2016/17 season highlights include the return of Osmo Vänskä to conduct the Sibelius symphonies alongside major British concertos by Britten, Elgar, Walton and Vaughan Williams; Jurowski’s continuation of his Mahler and Brucker symphony cycles; landmark contemporary works by Steve Reich, Philip Glass, John Adams and Gavin Bryars; and premieres of new works by Aaron Jay Kernis and the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg. 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: last season included visits to Mexico,

Pieter Schoeman leader

Spain, Germany, the Canary Islands and Russia; and tours in 2016/17 include New York, Germany, Austria, Hungary, Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland.

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 has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as regular concert streamings and a popular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on social media. lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra youtube.com/c/londonphilharmonicorchestra instagram.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

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 90 releases available on CD and to download: recent additions include a disc of Stravinsky works with Vladimir Jurowski, Act 1 of Wagner’s Die Walküre with Klaus Tennstedt, and Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 with Kurt Masur.

Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002. 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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Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Jurowski’s performances with the LPO these days really are unmissable.

The Times, March 2015

One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow and studied at the Music Academies of Dresden and Berlin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Nabucco. Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003, becoming Principal Conductor in 2007. In October 2015 he was appointed the next Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Rundfunk-sinfonieorchester Berlin, a position he will take up in September 2017. Jurowski also maintains his position as Artistic Director of the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Svetlanov Symphony Orchestra). He has previously held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997–2001), Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03), Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005–09), and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001–13). He is a regular guest with many leading orchestras in both Europe and North America, including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Rome; the New York Philharmonic; The Philadelphia Orchestra; The Cleveland Orchestra; the Boston, San Francisco and Chicago symphony orchestras; and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

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His opera engagements have included Rigoletto, Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades, Hansel and Gretel and Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opéra National de Paris; Eugene Onegin at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; Moses und Aron at Komische and Iolanta and Die Teufel von Loudun at Semperoper Dresden, and numerous operas at Glyndebourne including Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Don Giovanni, The Cunning Little Vixen, Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons, and Ariadne auf Naxos. In 2015 he returned to the Komische Oper in Berlin for a universally acclaimed new production of Moses und Aron, and made his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich with Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel. Future highlights include his Salzburg Festival debut with Wozzeck, and his first return to Glyndebourne as a guest conductor, to lead the world premiere production of Brett Dean’s Hamlet. The Glyndebourne production of Wagner's Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, led by Vladimir Jurowski with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Glyndebourne Chorus, won the 2015 BBC Music Magazine Opera Award.

Watch a video of Vladimir discussing his highlights of the LPO 2016/17 season: lpo.org.uk/jurowski1617

Jan Lisiecki piano

Jan Lisiecki. Remember the name.

The Financial Times, 18 January 2016

Aged just 21, Canadian pianist Jan Lisiecki has won acclaim for his extraordinary interpretive maturity, distinctive sound and poetic sensibility. His insightful interpretations, refined technique and natural affinity for art give him a musical voice that belies his age. Jan was born to Polish parents in Canada in 1995. He began piano lessons at the age of five and made his concerto debut four years later, while always rebuffing the label of ‘child prodigy’. His approach to music is a refreshing combination of dedication, skill, enthusiasm and a realistic perspective on the career of a musician. ‘I might be lucky to have talent, but it is also about dedication and hard work’, says Jan. Jan came to international attention in 2010, after the Fryderyk Chopin Institute issued a recording of Chopin’s piano concertos; the release was awarded the prestigious Diapason Découverte. Confirming his status among the most imaginative and poetic pianists of his generation, Deutsche Grammophon signed an exclusive contract with Jan in 2011, when he was just 15. His first recording for DG, released in 2012, featured Mozart’s Piano Concertos K466 and K467, followed in 2013 by Chopin’s Études Op. 10 and 25. His third album was released in January 2016 and features Schumann’s works for piano and orchestra. In early 2017, Jan Lisiecki’s rendition of Chopin’s seldom-performed works for piano and orchestra with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester and Krzysztof Urbański will be released by DG. In March 2013 Jan stepped in at short notice for Martha Argerich, performing Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4 in Bologna with the Orchestra Mozart under Claudio Abbado. He crowned that season with Schumann’s Piano Concerto at the BBC Proms. The following year he

performed three Mozart concertos in one week with The Philadelphia Orchestra, also making his debuts with the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala in Milan, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, NHK Symphony Orchestra in Tokyo and Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin. The same season, Jan gave debut recitals at Wigmore Hall, Rome’s Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and in San Francisco. In January 2016 he made his debut in the main auditorium at New York’s Carnegie Hall with The Philadelphia Orchestra and Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Jan has cultivated relationships with prominent conductors including Sir Antonio Pappano, Daniel Harding and Pinchas Zukerman. This season he will appear extensively across the world: highlights include performing at the opening festival of the new Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Major radio and television networks in Europe and North America have broadcast Lisiecki’s performances; he was also the subject of the CBC National News documentary The Reluctant Prodigy. In 2013 he was named Gramophone magazine’s Young Artist of the Year. Jan is involved in charity work, donating his time and performance to such organisations as the David Foster Foundation, the Polish Humanitarian Organisation and the Wish Upon a Star Foundation. In 2012 he was named UNICEF Ambassador to Canada, having been a National Youth Representative since 2008. facebook.com/lisieckipiano twitter.com/janlisiecki

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Programme notes

Speedread National identity contributes to the individual characters of all three works in tonight’s programme. Chopin’s First Piano Concerto, composed at a time of high patriotic feeling in Poland, breaks into the rhythms of the dance known as the krakowiak in its finale, while Glinka, the ‘father of Russian music’, was the first to bring a Slavic tinge to the styles his

Mikhail Glinka

country had imported from the ballrooms and salons of Italy, Germany, Austria and France. Rachmaninoff’s adventurous First Symphony, long hidden from public view after a disastrous premiere, teems with that particular melodic flavour that is at once Russian and particular to its composer.

Waltz Fantasy (1839/1856)

1804–57

Though not as famous as later 19th-century Russian composers such as Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky or Rimsky-Korsakov, Mikhail Glinka was one of the most influential figures in the music of his country. Raised in St Petersburg in a culture where Russian music was becoming increasingly Westernised, he was the first to find ways of successfully reintroducing elements of indigenous music into his work, most notably in his two operas A Life for the Tsar and Ruslan and Lyudmila. Next to these, his Waltz Fantasy of 1839 may seem a more conventional thing, but there is nevertheless a touch of Russian poetry in it, and though essentially an organised string of waltz tunes in the manner of The Blue Danube, it could never be mistaken for a work by Strauss.

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The Waltz Fantasy was composed at a time when, with his marriage breaking down, he had fallen in love with a woman named Ekaterina Kern, and the piece was a present to her. Though it was originally written for piano, Glinka may have had an orchestral version in mind from the start, as its title page mentions a performance only months after it had been composed, in an arrangement by Josef Hermann, conductor of a fashionable summer concert series in St Petersburg. Later Glinka made his own orchestration for a concert in Paris, where it was reviewed by Berlioz, who found it ‘full of spirit and exceedingly piquant rhythmic coquetteries which are really new and superbly developed ... this talent is very rare.’ That orchestration, however, is lost, and the one we hear tonight is Glinka’s second, made in 1856.

Frédéric Chopin 1810–49

Chopin’s First Piano Concerto is in fact his second; it is only because it was published before the earlier concerto now known as No. 2 that the numberings became forever swapped round. In fact, both works were written within a year of each other and both were intended to serve the same purpose, that of providing the young Chopin, not long out of the Warsaw Conservatory, with material with which to further his career as a concert pianist. In August 1829 he had visited Vienna, where he had scored a success with two other works for piano and orchestra, Krakowiak and the Variations on Mozart’s ‘Là ci darem la mano’, and on returning to Poland he set about composing his first full-scale concerto, completing it early in 1830. His second, the work we hear tonight, followed later that year, and was premiered by Chopin in October at his last concert in Warsaw before leaving Poland for good, initially for Vienna and then for Paris. Chopin’s concertos are not in the mould of those by Mozart and Beethoven, in which soloist and orchestra engage in symphonic dialogue, and it would be inappropriate to judge them against such works. The object of the exercise for Chopin was to provide a vehicle for the display of his own virtuosity and musicianship, and for this reason the piano is unapologetically the dominant partner in an unequal relationship with the orchestra, in the same way as in concertos by other early 19th-century composer-pianists such as John Field, Ignaz Moscheles and (especially admired by Chopin) Johann Nepomuk Hummel. The emphasis is thus almost wholly on pianistic inventiveness, eloquence and sparkle, and in these the 20-year-old Chopin was already a master.

Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 (1830) Jan Lisiecki piano 1 Allegro maestoso 2 Romanze: Larghetto 3 Rondo: Vivace

The expansive first movement of Concerto No. 1 is heroic and dreamy by turns. Perhaps the most conventional of the three, it opens with a long orchestral exposition and follows the expected sonata-form contour in which a succession of themes is presented by the orchestra and then restated by the piano, with a few new ones added along the way. A central development section next visits several new keys, and finally the principal themes are recapitulated. The piano writing here is brilliant, intricate and innovative – one reason, perhaps, why Chopin felt no need to include the traditional solo cadenza towards the end. The piano has even more fine right-hand tracery in the slow movement, a Romanze conjuring all the intimacy of the composer’s solo piano music, but with the added silkiness of muted string accompaniment. Chopin, normally not much given to verbal explanations, wrote of it as ‘calm and melancholy, giving the impression of someone looking fondly towards a spot which calls to mind a thousand happy memories. It is a kind of reverie in the moonlight on a beautiful spring evening.’ Concerto No. 1 is also like No. 2 in that it ends with a distinct folk flavour. Where the finale of No. 2 took the mazurka as its inspiration, however, that of No. 1 prefers the playful sprung dance rhythms of the krakowiak. The nationalist flavour of these finales gratified Chopin’s compatriots at a time when Poland was partitioned under foreign rule. ‘Chopin knows what sounds are heard in our fields and woods’, wrote one critic; ‘he has listened to the song of the Polish villager, he has made it his own and united the tunes of his native soil in skilful compositions and elegant execution.’

Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes continued

Serge Rachmaninoff 1873–1943

It is one of music history’s most famous fiascos. 27 March 1897, and the promising young composer Sergey Rachmaninoff – who at the age of 24 has already produced a piano concerto, a number of piano and chamber compositions and a well-received one-act opera – delivers his first full-scale symphony to almost unanimous derision. The images of him lurking on an iron spiral staircase in the wings of the St Petersburg Philharmonic Hall while the most important premiere of his career heads for spectacular failure, and then hurrying out of the building by a back exit without taking a bow or speaking to anyone, are vivid and distressing. One can well imagine that many other composers of his age would have found it an ordeal from which there was no recovery. For Rachmaninoff the well-known end to the story is that he locked the score away before enduring a three-year crisis of confidence that only a course of hypnosis eventually dispelled, freeing him to achieve a resounding comeback success with the Second Piano Concerto. Yet there are signs that his mental turmoil was mixed with a measure of clear-eyed detachment; only two months after that premiere he was writing to a friend: ‘I am not at all affected by its lack of success, nor am I disturbed by the newspapers’ abuse; but I am deeply upset and heavily depressed by the fact that my Symphony, though I loved it very much, and love it now, did not please me at all after its first rehearsal.’ Having gone on to assign some of the blame (apparently with some justification) to the inept conducting of Alexander Glazunov, he concludes ‘I will not reject this Symphony, and after leaving it alone for six months I’ll look at it, perhaps correct it, and perhaps publish it, but perhaps by then my partiality for it will have passed. Then I’ll tear it up.’

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Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 (1895) 1 Grave – Allegro ma non troppo 2 Allegro animato 3 Larghetto 4 Allegro con fuoco

Maybe he did, eventually. Although he talked briefly of revising the work in 1908 and mentioned its existence again in a letter of 1917, his own score has never been found. In 1945, however, two years after his death, the original orchestral parts were discovered, enabling the Symphony to receive a second performance, this time in Moscow. A full score reassembled from these parts was published in 1947, since when this bright, youthful and in places exhilarating work has slowly but surely made its way into the repertoire. Listening to the Symphony today, it is hard to see quite how it could have stirred up such intemperate reviews as that of the composer César Cui, whose description of it as a grotesque amalgam of Wagner, Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov was only the most polite of his assessments. Rachmaninoff later admitted that the work contained ‘much that is weak, childish, strained and bombastic’, but maintained nevertheless that it had ‘some good music’. Probably few would deny that now, and if there are places where it can seem to lose its way, and others which may have sounded brash and disjointed to the ears of the 1890s, it is certainly true that this is a work whose striking personality is easily recognisable as that of Rachmaninoff. It is also a work of considerable motivic economy. Within a minute of the start we have heard most of the melodic fragments that will audibly dominate all four movements – the tight little curl of the first four woodwind notes, the five-note figure that follows immediately in the strings, a rippling semiquaver response first heard in the lower strings. Later, a longer undulating theme announced by a solo oboe after a winding, rhapsodic lead-in from the violins, is also significant. The central development is inaugurated by an orchestral ‘crash’ (based on the curling figure) and a vigorous fugue, and the main themes are then

Recommended recordings

recapitulated with changed scoring, before another crash kicks off the long coda.

Many of our recommended recordings, where available, are on sale this evening at the Foyles stand in the Royal Festival Hall foyer.

The curling figure returns to open the second movement, as it will do the third and fourth. In this case what follows is a scherzo with the characteristic light touch recognisable to anyone familiar with Rachmaninoff’s later music. If there is a feeling that the gloomy middle section of the slow third movement flags a little, surely few could find anything to criticise in the long-breathed, oriental-tinged woodwind melodies of its outer sections. The finale contains one of the Symphony’s most exciting and inspired passages in the fanfare-laden, martial extension of the first movement’s five-note theme, and Rachmaninoff shows considerable restraint in not bringing it back. Instead he opts to alternate rhythmic drive with broadly yearning Romantic melody, surging to a crashing tam-tam climax which clears the way for a slow but massively intense coda.

Glinka: Waltz Fantasy Vassily Sinaisky | BBC Philharmonic Orchestra (Chandos) Chopin: Piano Concerto No. 1 Arthur Rubinstein| London New Orchestra | Stanisław Skrowaczewski (RCA) or Emanuel Ax | Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment | Sir Charles Mackerras (Sony) Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1 Vladimir Ashkenazy | Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra (Decca)

Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp

I N T E R N AT I O N A L

PIA N O

Great solo p erfor mers from around the world at S o uthb ank Centre

S E R I ES 2 0 1 6 /1 7 P i e rre-L au rent A i mard & Tamara S tefanov i ch

Tue 24 Jan 2017 Brahms and Messiaen

M i t su ko U ch i d a

Tue 31 Jan 2017 Mozart and Schumann

M auri zi o Polli ni

Concerts at Royal Festival Hall and St John’s Smith Square

Boris Be rezovsky

Yuja Wan g

M auriz io Pollini

Alexander Gavrylyuk

Tue 28 Feb 2017 Liszt, Bartok and Ligeti Tue14 Mar 2017 Beethoven

Yulianna Avde eva Wed 29 Mar 2017 Beethoven and Liszt

Tue 11 Apr 2017 Beethoven Wed 3 May 2017 Bach, Haydn, Chopin, Prokofiev, Rachmaninov, Balakirev.

Richard G oode Wed 31 May 2017 Beethoven

Tue 21 Feb 2017 Debussy and Chopin

020 7960 4200 southbankcentre.co.uk/ips

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

HELP US CREATE MOMENTS OF WONDER 2016 FUNharmonics Appeal

At the London Philharmonic Orchestra we are more than our concert performances; we are greater than the musicians you see. We strive to create wonder in all that we do; sharing our vision with everyone, everywhere, regardless of age, background or income. FUNharmonics days offer an amazing way for children and their families to experience orchestral music and the LPO. Help us make these experiences accessible to as many people as possible. Give to the appeal and fund the elements that make up a FUNharmonics day – your support will help us cover the costs of offering these experiences: — £5 will pay for a pack of clarinet reeds for ‘have a go’ clarinet sessions — £10 will pay for one large creative pack for a pre-concert art workshop and will include fabrics, papers and other materials for making and decorating props — £20 will hire one woodwind instrument for a ‘have a go’ session — £25 will subsidise five tickets for a FUNharmonics Family concert, allowing us to keep ticket prices affordable — £50 will enable us to hire a harp for ‘have a go’ sessions — £70 will hire four brass instruments for ‘have a go’ sessions — £100 will pay for the production of 400 activity sheets

‘... WONDERFUL AND INSPIRING ... IT WORKS ON EVERY LEVEL. THREE CHEERS FOR THE LPO!’ ‘MY FAMILY AND I LOVE EVERY MINUTE OF IT. THE WHOLE EXPERIENCE IS ONE THAT NO CHILD SHOULD MISS OUT ON (OR GROWNUP EITHER).’ Audience members

— £250 will pay for the hire of half of the music the Orchestra needs for a concert — £500 will pay for the hire of all the music the Orchestra needs for a concert

If overfunded on the above any surplus will go towards other costs associated with FUNharmonics, including paying the incredibly talented LPO musicians.

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

lpo.org.uk/appeal Donate by phone: 020 7840 4225

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 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 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

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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 Victoria Robey OBE Orchestra Circle Natalia Semenova & Dimitri Gourji The Tsukanov Family Principal Associates An anonymous donor Mr Peter Cullum CBE Dr Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle Mr & Mrs Philip Kan Neil Westreich Associates Simon Robey Stuart & Bianca Roden Barry Grimaldi William & Alex de Winton Gold Patrons An anonymous donor Mrs Evzen Balko David & Yi Buckley Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport Georgy Djaparidze Sonja Drexler Mrs Gillian Fane Drs Oliver & Asha Foster Simon & Meg Freakley David & Victoria Graham Fuller Wim & Jackie Hautekiet-Clare The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Alexandra Jupin & John Bean James R D Korner Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds Virginia Slaymaker Eric Tomsett Laurence Watt Michael & Ruth West

Silver Patrons Mrs Molly Borthwick Peter & Fiona Espenhahn David Goldstone CBE LLB FRICS Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe John & Angela Kessler Vadim & Natalia Levin Mr Brian Smith The Viney Family Guy & Utti Whittaker Bronze Patrons Valentina & Dmitry Aksenov Dr Christopher Aldren Michael Allen Mr Jeremy Bull Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Bruno De Kegel David Ellen Mrs Marie-Laure Favre-Gilly de Varennes de Bueil Igor & Lyuba Galkin Mrs Irina Gofman Mr Daniel Goldstein Mr Gavin Graham Mrs Dorothy Hambleton Mr Martin Hattrell Mr Colm Kelleher Nino Kuparadze Drs Frank & Gek Lim Mrs Angela Lynch Peter MacDonald Eggers William & Catherine MacDougall Mr & Mrs David Malpas Mr Adrian Mee Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva Mrs Rosemarie Pardington Ms Olga Pavlova Mr Michael Posen Mrs Karmen Pretel-Martines Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Tom & Phillis Sharpe Mr & Mrs G Stein Sergei & Elena Sudakova Captain Mark Edward Tennant Ms Sharon Thomas Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Grenville & Krysia Williams

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Christopher Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Principal Supporters Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Mr Geoffrey Bateman Mrs A Beare Mr Charles Bott Mr Graham Brady Mr Gary Brass Mr Richard Brass Mr Frederick Brittenden David & Patricia Buck Dr Anthony Buckland Sir Terry Burns GCB Richard Buxton Mr Pascal Cagni Mrs Alan Carrington Dr Archibald E Carter The Countess June Chichester Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr Alfons Cortés Mr David Edwards Ulrike & Benno Engelmann Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Mr Richard Fernyhough Mr Roger Greenwood Mr Chris Grigg Malcolm Herring Amanda Hill & Daniel Heaf J Douglas Home Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr Peter Jenkins Per Jonsson Mr Frank Krikhaar Rose & Dudley Leigh Mr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr John Long Mr Nicholas Lyons Mr Peter Mace Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski Elena Mezentseva Andrew T Mills Dr Karen Morton Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill

Maestro Yannick Nézet-Séguin Pavel & Elena Novoselov Dr Wiebke Pekrull Mr Roger Phillimore Mr James Pickford Andrew & Sarah Poppleton Oleg Pukhov Miss Tatiana Pyatigorskaya Mr Robert Ross Martin & Cheryl Southgate Peter Tausig Mr Jonathan Townley Andrew & Roanna Tusa Lady Marina Vaizey Howard & Sheelagh Watson Des & Maggie Whitelock Bill Yoe Supporters Mr Clifford Brown Miss Siobhan Cervin Miss Lynn Chapman Mr Joshua Coger Mr Geoffrey A Collens Timothy Colyer Miss Tessa Cowie Lady Jane Cuckney OBE Ms Holly Dunlap Mr Nigel Dyer Ms Susanne Feldthusen Mrs Janet Flynn Mr Nick Garland Mr Derek B. Gray Dr Geoffrey Guy The Jackman Family Mrs Svetlana Kashinskaya Niels Kroninger Mrs Nino Kuparadze Mr Christopher Langridge Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington Miss S M Longson Mr David Macfarlane Mr John Meloy Miss Lucyna Mozyrko Mr Leonid Ogarev Mr Stephen Olton Mr David Peters Mr Ivan Powell Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh Mr Christopher Queree Mr James A Reece

Mr Olivier Rosenfeld Mr Kenneth Shaw Mr Barry Smith Ms Natalie Spraggon James & Virginia Turnball Michael & Katie Urmston Timothy Walker AM Mr Berent Wallendahl Edward & Catherine Williams Mr C D Yates Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Robert Hill Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE 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: Jenny Ireland Co-Chairman William A. Kerr Co-Chairman Xenia Hanusiak Alexandra Jupin Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee David Oxenstierna Natalie Pray Robert Watson Antonia Romeo Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP Stephanie Yoshida

Corporate Donors Fenchurch Advisory Partners LLP Goldman Sachs Linklaters London Stock Exchange Group Morgan Lewis Phillips Auction House Pictet Bank Corporate Members Gold Sunshine Silver Accenture After Digital Berenberg Carter-Ruck French Chamber of Commerce Bronze BTO Management Consulting AG Charles Russell Speechlys Lazard Russo-British Chamber of Commerce Willis Towers Watson Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd London Orthopaedic Clinic Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsor Google Inc

Trusts and Foundations Axis Foundation The Bernarr Rainbow Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust Boshier-Hinton Foundation The Candide Trust Cockayne – Grants for the Arts The Ernest Cook Trust Diaphonique, Franco-British Fund for contemporary music The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation The Goldsmiths’ Company Lucille Graham Trust Help Musicians UK Derek Hill Foundation John Horniman’s Children’s Trust The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The Leverhulme Trust The London Community Foundation London Stock Exchange Group Foundation Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Marsh Christian Trust The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Stanley Picker Trust The Radcliffe Trust Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust RVW Trust The Sampimon Trust Schroder Charity Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter Charitable Trust The John Thaw Foundation The Michael Tippett Musical Foundation UK Friends of the FelixMendelssohn-BartholdyFoundation

Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust and all others who wish to remain anonymous.

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Administration

Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Roger Barron Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Dr Catherine C. Høgel Rachel Masters* Al MacCuish Julian Metherell George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Natasha Tsukanova Mark Vines* Timothy Walker AM Neil Westreich David Whitehouse* * Player-Director Advisory Council Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Rob Adediran Christopher Aldren Dr Manon Antoniazzi Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Bruno de Kegel William de Winton Cameron Doley Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Amanda Hill Martin Höhmann 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 Barry Smith Martin Southgate Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Elizabeth Winter

Chief Executive

Education and Community

Public Relations

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Isabella Kernot Education Director

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Talia Lash Education and Community Project Manager