LPO programme: 17 Nov 2024 Eastbourne - Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony
2024/25 season at Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre
CONCERT
PROGRAMME
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner supported by Aud Jebsen
Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis
Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski KBE Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG
Artistic Director Elena Dubinets Chief Executive David Burke
Leader Pieter Schoeman supported by Neil Westreich
Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Sunday 17 November 2024 | 3.00pm
Rachmaninoff’s Second Symphony
Tchaikovsky
Violin Concerto (34’)
Interval (20’)
Rachmaninoff
Symphony No. 2 (54’)
Alevtina Ioffe conductor
Blake Pouliot violin
The
Welcome to the Congress Theatre
Theatre Director Chris Jordan General Manager Neil Jones
We extend a warm welcome to the members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and to the artists making their debuts with the Orchestra today – and of course to every one of you, our valued audience members.
The historic theatre in which you are now seated is unique in that it is conceived to be a perfect cube and has fantastic acoustics to enhance your experience of live music. Whether this is your first concert or you are a season regular, we hope you enjoy your experience at our venue. Please speak to a member of our staff if you have any comments you’d like to make about your visit. We thank you for continuing to support the concert series. Please sit back in your seats and enjoy your afternoon with us.
As a courtesy to others, please ensure mobile phones are switched off during the performance. Please also note that photography and recording are not allowed in the auditorium unless announced from the stage. Thank you.
LPO news
LPO in the community: Age Concern Eastbourne
This Thursday, 21 November, London Philharmonic Orchestra musicians will give a free afternoon chamber concert at Age Concern Eastbourne for members and their families at the charity’s drop-in Venton Centre on Junction Road. This event is part of our ongoing commitment to enriching the local community, fostering engagement through music and ensuring cultural experiences are accessible to everyone in Eastbourne. We’re excited to continue collaborating with Age Concern to bring the joy of music to all!
Our next schools’ concert in Eastbourne
Our first ever BrightSparks schools’ concert at the Congress Theatre last season was a great success, and we’re thrilled to be returning on Thursday 12 June 2025! This daytime performance is an opportunity for Key Stage 2 children to experience the thrill of hearing a full orchestra. With the chosen music and engaging presentation designed especially for school audiences, a presenter will break down the music in a fun and engaging way, while a big screen behind the Orchestra picks out key elements from the music or story. Tickets are £3 per pupil (accompanying teachers free). This includes a free INSET session and written resources for teachers. Booking opens in the spring –sign up for updates at lpo.org.uk/brightsparks
BrightSparks 2024/25 is generously funded by Candide Trust, Dunard Fund, Rivers Foundation, Gill and Julian Simmonds and Garfield Weston Foundation.
The paper used for all LPO brochures and concert programmes has been sourced from responsibly managed forests, certified in accordance with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). It is also Carbon Balanced, meaning the carbon impact of its production is offset by the World Land Trust through the purchase and preservation of ecologically important forestry under imminent threat of clearance.
First Violins
Vesselin Gellev Leader
Lasma Taimina
Chair supported by Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik
V. G. Cave
Cassandra Hamilton
Martin Höhmann
Elizaveta Tyun
Nilufar Alimaksumova
Alice Hall
Daniel Pukach
Maeve Jenkinson
Tayfun Bomboz
Gavin Davies
Inês Delgado
Second Violins
Coco Inman Guest Principal
Fiona Higham
Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley
Joseph Maher
Sioni Williams
Sheila Law
Olivia Ziani
Alison Strange
Nicole Stokes
Jeremy Metcalfe
Matthew Bain
Violas
Philip Hall Guest Principal
Laura Vallejo
Benedetto Pollani
Alistair Scahill
Stanislav Popov
James Heron
Terry Nettle
Mark Gibbs
Cellos
Kristina Blaumane Principal
Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden
Leo Melvin
Wallis Power
Helen Thomas
Colin Alexander
Tamaki Sugimoto
On stage today
Double Basses
Kevin Rundell* Principal
Simon Oliver
Michael Fuller
Catherine Ricketts
Flutes
Tom Hancox Guest Principal
Camilla Marchant
Stewart McIlwham*
Piccolo
Stewart McIlwham* Principal
Oboes
Helen Barker Guest Principal
Luiz De Campos
Ben Marshall
Cor Anglais
Ben Marshall
Clarinets
Benjamin Mellefont* Principal
Chair supported by Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
Thomas Watmough
Chair supported by Roger Greenwood
Bass Clarinet
Paul Richards* Principal
Bassoons
John McDougall Guest Principal
Gareth Humphreys
Horns
Mark Vines Principal
Martin Hobbs
Amadea Dazeley-Gaist
Gareth Mollison
Duncan Fuller
Trumpets
Paul Beniston* Principal
Tom Nielsen Co-Principal
Anne McAneney*
Chair supported in memory of Peter Coe
Trombones
Mark Templeton* Principal
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
David Whitehouse
Bass Trombone
Lyndon Meredith Principal
Tuba
Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
Timpani
Simon Carrington* Principal
Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE
Percussion
Andrew Barclay* Principal
Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins
Karen Hutt
Feargus Brennan Ignacio Molins
*Professor at a London conservatoire
The LPO also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert:
Uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating to watch and hear, the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since Sir Thomas Beecham founded it in 1932. Our mission is to share wonder with the modern world through the power of orchestral music, which we accomplish through live performances, online, and an extensive education and community programme, cementing our position as a leading orchestra for the 21st century.
Our home is at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, where we’re at the beating heart of London’s cultural life. You’ll also find us at our resident venues in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and on tour worldwide. In 2024 we celebrated 60 years as Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, combining the magic of opera with Glyndebourne’s glorious setting in the Sussex countryside.
Soundtrack to key moments
Everyone will have heard the Grammy-nominated London Philharmonic Orchestra, whether it’s playing the world’s National Anthems for every medal ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, our iconic recording with Pavarotti that made Nessun Dorma a global football anthem, or closing the flotilla at The Queen’s Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. And you’ll almost certainly have heard us on the soundtracks for major films including The Lord of the Rings
Sharing the wonder worldwide
We’re one of the world’s most-streamed orchestras, with over 15 million plays of our content each month. In 2023 we were the most successful orchestra worldwide on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, with over 1.1m followers across all platforms, and in spring 2024 we featured in a TV documentary series on Sky Arts: ‘Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’, still available to watch via Now TV. During 2024/25 we’re once again working with Marquee TV to broadcast selected live concerts to enjoy from your own living room.
Our conductors
Our Principal Conductors have included some of the greatest historic names like Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2021 Edward Gardner became our 13th Principal Conductor, and Vladimir Jurowski became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his impact as Principal Conductor from 2007–21. Karina Canellakis is our current Principal Guest Conductor, and Tania León our Composer-in-Residence.
Next generations
We’re committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians and music-lovers: we love seeing the joy of children and families experiencing their first musical moments, and we’re passionate about inspiring schools and teachers through dedicated concerts, workshops,
resources and training. Reflecting our values of collaboration and inclusivity, our OrchLab and Open Sound Ensemble projects offer music-making opportunities for adults and young people with disabilities and special educational needs.
Today’s young instrumentalists are the orchestra members of the future, and we have a number of opportunities to support their progression. Our LPO Junior Artists programme leads the way in creating pathways into the profession for young artists from under-represented communities, and our LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes support the next generation of professional musicians, bridging the transition from education to professional careers. We also recently launched the LPO Conducting Fellowship, supporting the development of two outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds under-represented in the profession.
2024/25 season
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner leads the Orchestra in an exciting 2024/25 season, with soloists including Joyce DiDonato, Leif Ove Andsnes, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Víkingur Ólafsson and Isabelle Faust, and works including Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis joins us for three concerts including Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, and Mozart with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. We’ll also welcome back Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski, as well as guest conductors including Mark Elder, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Robin Ticciati and Kevin John Edusei.
Throughout the season we’ll explore the relationship between music and memory in our ‘Moments Remembered’ series, featuring works like Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Strauss’s Metamorphosen and John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls. During the season there’ll be the chance to hear brand new works by composers including Freya Waley-Cohen and David Sawer, as well as performances by renowned soloists violinist Gidon Kremer, sarod player Amjad Ali Khan, soprano Renée Fleming and many more. The season also features tours to Japan, the USA, China and across Europe, as well as a calendar bursting with performances and community events in our Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden residencies.
Vesselin Gellev
Today’s Leader
Bulgarian violinist Vesselin Gellev has been the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Sub-Leader since 2007.
Praised by The New York Times for his ‘warmth and virtuosic brilliance’, Vesselin has been a featured soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Spoleto Festival Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra and Juilliard Orchestra, among others. He won First Prize at the Concert Artists Guild Competition in New York as a member of the Antares Quartet, and has recorded several albums and toured worldwide as Concertmaster of Kristjan Järvi’s Grammy-nominated Absolute Ensemble.
Prior to joining the LPO, Vesselin was Leader of the New Haven Symphony Orchestra in the USA and the Spoleto Festival Orchestra in Italy. He performs regularly as Guest Leader with numerous orchestras in the UK and abroad including the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony Orchestra, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Orchestra of the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Vesselin received Bachelor and Master of Music degrees from The Juilliard School, New York, as a student of Robert Mann. He has served on the violin and chamber music faculties of Cornell University in Ithaca, NY, and the Eleazar de Carvalho Music Festival in Fortaleza, Brazil.
Alevtina Ioffe conductor
Alevtina Ioffe is the new Chief Conductor of the Bern Opera, effective from summer 2025. One of the most versatile and exciting conductors of her generation, she is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Staatskapelle Weimar. In October 2023 she made her symphonic US debut with the Seattle Symphony, following her successful US debut conducting Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro at the Seattle Opera in May 2022, and she returned to the helm of the Seattle Symphony last month.
Alevtina conducts regularly at the Komische Oper Berlin, the Staatstheater in Stuttgart – where she made her debut with Hänsel und Gretel – and the Gothenburg Opera, where she returned last season for a new production of The Flying Dutchman. In December 2022 she made her debut at the Opernhaus Zürich, conducting a new production of Hans van Manen’s ballet On the Move.
Alevtina Ioffe is equally successful in symphonic repertoire: in France, she regularly conducts the Orchestre National de Lille and the Orchestre National de l’Île-de-France (both at the Cité de la Musique and at the Philharmonie de Paris), and she made her debut with the Orchestre National de Lyon in August 2024, leading a concert at La Chaise-Dieu festival. Alevtina is also a regular presence in Italy, where she has conducted the Orchestra della Toscana, the Orchestra del Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, and the Haydn Orchestra. Conducting music by Stravinsky and Holst, she made her debut at the Oregon Bach Festival in the USA in summer 2024.
Today’s concert with the London Philharmonic Orchestra is Alevtina’s debut in the UK. This season she also makes her debut with the Niedersächsische Staatsorchester Hannover in Germany, while in Switzerland, as well as returning to the Bern Symphony Orchestra she also makes her debut with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.
In December 2023 Alevtina Ioffe conducted an incredibly successful seven-city European tour celebrating the 100th anniversary of the Hungarian National Philharmonic Orchestra, with concerts in Zagreb, Ljubljana, Budapest, Munich, Innsbruck, Linz and Athens.
Born in Moscow, Alevtina Ioffe studied choral conducting, classical singing and piano. For a decade, until 2021, she was Music Director of the State Opera and Ballet Theatre for Young Audience ‘Natalia Sats’ in Moscow, where she engaged in a significant number of educational projects and developed a vast operatic repertoire. From February 2021 to July 2022 she was Music Director of the Mikhailovsky Theatre in St Petersburg – the first woman to lead an important musical institution in Russia. She currently lives in Berlin.
Described as ‘immaculate, at once refined and impassioned’, (Arts Atlanta), Canadian violinist Blake Pouliot (‘Pool-YACHT’) has anchored himself among the ranks of classical phenoms. A tenacious young artist with a passion that enraptures his audience in every performance, he has established himself as ‘one of those special talents that comes along once in a lifetime’ (Toronto Star).
Blake’s 2024/25 symphonic highlights include performances with the San Diego Symphony, as well as debuts with the LA Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl, and with the Rhode Island Philharmonic and the San Antonio Symphony. Today’s concert is his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and this season Blake further expands his presence in Europe, performing with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe alongside cellist Alisa Weilerstein, the Kymi Sinfonietta in Finland, and the Orchestre national des Pays de la Loire in France.
Recital performances this season include a Carnegie Hall recital debut and La Jolla Music Society. As a chamber musician, Blake will return to Seattle Chamber Music Society, Austin Chamber Music Festival and Charlottesville Chamber Music Festival, and with violinist Simone Porter and pianist Hsin-I Huang he will perform at the Van Cliburn Concerts in Fort Worth, Texas and BroadStage in Santa Monica, California.
During his time as Soloist-in-Residence of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal) in 2020/21, Blake performed Mozart’s Violin Concerto No. 5 and Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons under Yannick Nézet-Séguin. This led to his 2022 debut with The Philadelphia Orchestra at the city’s Kimmel Center, performing John Corigliano’s The Red Violin (Chaconne for Violin and Orchestra), again with
Nézet-Séguin. Highlights elsewhere include Beethoven’s Triple Concerto with Angela Hewitt, Bryan Cheng and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal in 2022/23, as well as performances of the Paganini, Mendelssohn and Saint-Saëns concerti and Bruch’s Scottish Fantasy in subscription series across North America.
Blake Pouliot released his debut album, on Analekta Records, in 2019. Featuring Ravel’s Tzigane and Violin Sonata in G, and Debussy’s Violin Sonata in G minor and Beau Soir, the recording received critical acclaim including a five-star rating from BBC Music Magazine and a 2019 Juno Award nomination for Best Classical Album.
Since his orchestral debut aged 11, Blake Pouliot has performed in North America with the orchestras of Aspen, Atlanta, Detroit, Dallas, Madison, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco and Seattle, among many others. Internationally, he has performed as soloist with the Sofia Philharmonic in Bulgaria and the Orchestras of the Americas on its South American tour, and was the featured soloist for the first ever joint tour of the European Union Youth Orchestra and National Youth Orchestra of Canada. He has collaborated with many musical luminaries including conductors David Afkham, David Danzmayr, JoAnn Falletta, Pablo Heras-Casado, Marcelo Lehninger, Nicholas McGegan, Alexander Prior, Vasily Petrenko, Thomas Søndergård, and the late Sir Neville Marriner.
Blake Pouliot has been featured twice on Rob Kapilow’s ‘What Makes it Great?’ series on the WWFM radio network in the USA, and has been NPR’s ‘Performance Today’ Artist-in-Residence in Minnesota (2017/18), Hawaii (2018/19), and across Europe (2021/22). Prior to that, he won the Grand Prize at the 2016 Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal Manulife Competition, and was named First Laureate of both the 2018 and 2015 Canada Council for the Arts Musical Instrument Bank.
Blake performs on the 1729 Guarneri del Gesù, on generous loan from an anonymous donor.
If there is a sense of reawakening, perhaps even of rebirth, to the start of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto, it is an entirely appropriate one. Only days before he started composing it in March 1878, he had been picking at a new piano sonata with scant success: ‘Am I played out?’, he wrote in a letter. ‘I have to squeeze out of myself weak and worthless ideas and ponder every bar.’ He was writing from the house at Clarens near Lake Geneva, where he was staying as part of his sixmonth escape from Russia following the personal disaster and resultant mental breakdown (there had even been a suicide attempt) provoked by his illconsidered marriage the previous year. In that period of wandering, he had completed both the Fourth Symphony and the opera Eugene Onegin, but begun very little that was new in itself.
It was now, however, that the arrival of Josef Kotek, a violinist and former pupil from the Moscow Conservatory (and possibly a former lover), brought a recovery in the composer’s spirits. The two spent much time playing chamber music together, and within three days Tchaikovsky was enthusiastically at work on the Violin Concerto. The sketches were completed eleven days later and the scoring a fortnight after that, by which time Tchaikovsky had also managed to provide a new slow movement to replace the original (which survives as Méditation for violin and piano). The work got a lukewarm reception at its first performance in Vienna in 1881 with Adolf Brodsky as soloist, but the
Programme notes
Russian premiere in Moscow nine months later set it firmly on the way to the popularity it enjoys today.
Of the pieces Tchaikovsky and Kotek played through together, one that particularly impressed the composer was Édouard Lalo’s new Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra, both for its ‘freshness’ and for the fact that ‘like Léo Delibes and Bizet, [Lalo] does not strive for profundity, but carefully avoids the routine, seeks out new forms, and thinks more about musical beauty than observing established traditions, as the Germans do’. That freshness certainly finds its way into Tchaikovsky’s Concerto, which inhabits a very different world from the tortured emotionalism of his recent symphony and opera. But there is something here, too, of the unforced and unassuming formal simplicity of Lalo’s approach, though this is not to say that it is without craft. The first movement is a sonata form with an elegant introduction and two clearly discernible big melodies amid some
more fleeting themes, all bound together by subtly glinting thematic connections. ‘Musical beauty’ is also present; like Mendelssohn in his Violin Concerto –whose formal quirk of a cadenza placed before the moment of recapitulation it also recalls – Tchaikovsky manages effortlessly to make natural partners of lyrical grace and virtuoso brilliance.
Tchaikovsky’s designation of the G minor slow movement as a Canzonetta acknowledges its essentially song-like nature (complete with woodwind introduction and play-out), but does little to hint at its Slavic melancholy. That Russian flavour is then raised to a newly boisterous level in a Finale that sports two dance-like themes, the first excitably athletic, the second a more lyrical one whose innate soulfulness quickly overcomes the rustic drones with which it first appears.
Interval – 20 minutes
Coming soon on the LPO Label: Edward Gardner conducts Tippett
An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval. Available on CD, and to download or stream via Spotify, Apple Music, Presto Music and others. Scan the QR code to pre-add or find out more.
Tippett Piano Concerto Tippett Symphony No. 2
Edward Gardner conductor
Steven Osborne piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Recorded live in concert at the Royal Festival Hall
Released 29 November 2024
Programme notes
Serge Rachmaninoff
1873–1943
Symphony No. 2 in E minor, Op. 27
1907–08
1
Largo — Allegro moderato
2
Scherzo: Allegro molto
3 Adagio
4 Finale: Allegro vivace
Thanks largely to the concertos, Rachmaninoff is usually thought of primarily as a composer for the piano, but before he left Russia for the last time in 1917 he was more widely recognised as a composer of vocal, chamber and orchestral music, and a gifted conductor active both in the concert hall and the opera house. The Third Piano Concerto came well into a period of heartening success that had served to wipe away the creatively crippling depression caused by the disastrous premiere of the First Symphony ten years earlier: 1901 had seen him return to form with the Second Piano Concerto; in 1902 he had married, his wife giving birth to a daughter the following year; and 1904 had brought a conducting post at the Bolshoi Opera in Moscow, where, early in 1906, he presided over well-received premieres of his operas Francesca da Rimini and The Miserly Knight
By this time, however, Rachmaninoff was beginning to feel the strain of celebrity, and made the decision to give himself more breathing space by removing himself and his family to Dresden. It was there that he composed his Second Symphony, in such secrecy that even his closest friends were unaware of the fact until they read about it in the press. ‘I have completed a symphony, it’s true!’, he wrote to one of them in February 1907. ‘It’s only ready in draft. I finished it a month ago and immediately put it aside. It was a severe worry to me and I am not going to think about it any more.’
The score was eventually completed early the following year and the premiere took place in St Petersburg on
Programme notes
8 February 1908, with Rachmaninoff himself conducting.
The Second Symphony is both one of Rachmaninoff’s most popular orchestral compositions and one of his finest, a work of relaxed expansiveness and easy melodic flow, yet also one of great expressive power and sweep. Rachmaninoff’s talent for memorable melody is as present as ever here, but it never descends into facility; like Tchaikovsky (whose influence is unmistakable), he was able to move the listener with a big tune, but also to mould his melodies into great architectural spans with a subtlety that makes them appear totally natural. This Symphony is in fact shot through with motivic connections and links, but so organic do they seem that the listener could be forgiven for hardly noticing.
Three important thematic cells are set out in the Symphony’s opening eight bars. The first, a weighty, undulating figure heard in the cellos and basses, is closely followed by a lightly syncopated stab from the woodwind and horns, and then by a downward-winding line in the violins. All are significant to the work as a whole, but for the moment they serve to initiate a sombre slow introduction which is lengthy enough to include a powerful climax before subsiding on to a cor anglais solo. The main Allegro section of the movement features two themes, the first a dreamy transformation of the opening cello-and-bass figure, and the second (heralded by a brief clarinet solo) a romantic dialogue between wind and strings with links to the syncopated second motif. Reminders of all three motifs then continue to appear as the music drives forward through a Tchaikovskian climax in the central development section (built largely on the first motif), warm restatements of the principal themes, and on to an impassioned finish.
The second movement starts out as a breezily confident Scherzo. Simpler in design than its companions, it is in three sections, the third of which is essentially a reprise of the first. The outer sections oppose a striding main theme and a lovingly lyrical second for strings, while the central one introduces a contrasting texture of closely worked, chattering counterpoint. Towards the end of the reprise, the brass interrupt with an apparition of the first movement’s second motif, and the Scherzo ends in unexpectedly ominous mood.
The Adagio that forms the third movement is one of Rachmaninoff’s most generous melodic creations, a worthy cousin to the slow movement of the Second Piano Concerto, to which it bears similarities. Strangely, its two main themes are presented almost on top of each other, the initial arpeggio-based string melody being immediately followed by a long and languid solo clarinet tune, but both are given ample space to breathe in the course of the ravishing movement that follows, as Rachmaninoff handles their leisurely juxtaposition with great skill and expressive control, decorating them here and there with glistening remembrances of the by-now familiar motifs.
The Finale announces its intentions in joyously whirling, carnivalesque music whose textural complexities carry numerous thematic references to what has gone before. Rachmaninoff does not intend to let the movement run away with him, however, and before long introduces a noble violin theme to calm things down. It is an uplifting new presence, and proves even more heartswellingly so when – following a nostalgic reminiscence of the slow movement and a mountingly exciting section built on descending scales – it makes its majestic return as the Symphony’s crowning glory.
We hope you enjoyed today’s concert. Could you spare a few moments afterwards to complete a short survey about your experience? Your feedback is invaluable to us and will help to shape our future plans. Just scan the QR code to begin the survey. Thank you!
Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto on the LPO Label
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Lalo Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra
Augustin Hadelich violin
Vasily Petrenko conductor (Tchaikovsky)
Omer Meir Wellber conductor (Lalo)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
LPO-0094
‘Hadelich was radically passionate, magnificently virtuosic in his rendition of the Tchaikovsky concerto ... he set the orchestra positively aflame with his blazing bow.’
Der Tagesspiegel, Berlin, March 2017
Available on CD, and to download or stream via Spotify, Apple Music, Presto Music and others. Scan the QR code to listen now.
BrightSparks Schools’ Concert
Returning to Eastbourne in 2025!
Thursday 12 June 2025
Congress Theatre, Eastbourne
Following the success of our first ever BrightSparks schools’ concert at the Congress Theatre in May 2024, we’re thrilled to be returning in 2025! This daytime performance is an opportunity for Key Stage 2 children to experience the thrill of hearing a full orchestra.
Tickets £3 per pupil (accompanying teachers free of charge).
This includes a free INSET session and written resources for teachers.
Booking for schools opens in spring 2025 –for updates sign up at lpo.org.uk/brightsparks
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
Anonymous donors
The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
William & Alex de Winton
Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle
Aud Jebsen
In memory of Mrs Rita Reay
Sir Simon & Lady Robey CBE
Orchestra Circle
Mr & Mrs Philip Kan
Neil Westreich
Principal Associates
An anonymous donor
Mrs Irina Andreeva
Steven M. Berzin
Richard Buxton
Gill & Garf Collins
In memory of Brenda Lyndoe Casbon
In memory of Ann Marguerite
Collins
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G.
Cave
Patricia Haitink
George Ramishvili
In memory of Kenneth Shaw
The Tsukanov Family
Mr Florian Wunderlich
Associates
In memory of Len & Edna Beech
Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
The Candide Trust
Stuart & Bianca Roden
In memory of Hazel Amy Smith
Gold Patrons
An anonymous donor
David & Yi Buckley
Dr Alex & Maria Chan
In memory of Allner Mavis Channing
In memory of Peter Coe
Michelle Crowe Hernandez
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Silver Patrons
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Fiona Espenhahn in memory of Peter
Prof. Erol & Mrs Deniz Gelenbe
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Charitable Trust
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Kolobov
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Bindley
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In memory of Enid Gofton
Prof Emeritus John Gruzelier
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Priscylla Shaw
Michael Smith
Mr & Mrs G Stein
Dr Peter Stephenson
Ben Valentin KC
Sophie Walker
Christopher Williams
Liz Winter
Elena Y Zeng
Supporters
Anonymous donors
Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle
Robert & Sarah Auerbach
Dr Simona Cicero & Mr Mario Altieri
Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington
Sarah Connor
Miss Tessa Cowie
Andrew Davenport
Stephen Denby
Mr Simon Edelsten
Steve & Cristina Goldring
In memory of Derek Gray
Nick Hely-Hutchinson
The Jackman Family
Molly Jackson
Jan Leigh & Jan Rynkiewicz
Mr David MacFarlane
Simon Moore
Simon & Fiona Mortimore
Dana Mosevicz
Dame Jane Newell DBE
Diana G Oosterveld
Mr David Peters
Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh
Clarence Tan
Tony & Hilary Vines
Dr June Wakefield
Mr John Weekes
Mr Roger Woodhouse
Mr C D Yates
Hon. Benefactor
Elliott Bernerd
Hon. Life Members
Alfonso Aijón
Carol Colburn Grigor CBE
Pehr G Gyllenhammar
Robert Hill
Keith Millar
Victoria Robey CBE
Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE
Cornelia Schmid
Timothy Walker CBE AM Laurence Watt
Thomas Beecham
Group Members
Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
David & Yi Buckley
In memory of Peter Coe
Dr Alex & Maria Chan
Garf & Gill Collins
William & Alex de Winton
The Friends of the LPO
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G.
Cave
Mr Roger Greenwood
Barry Grimaldi
David & Bettina Harden
Mr & Mrs Philip Kan
Mr & Mrs John Kessler
Sir Simon Robey
Victoria Robey OBE
Stuart & Bianca Roden
Julian & Gill Simmonds
Eric Tomsett
Neil Westreich
Guy & Utti Whittaker
LPO Corporate Circle
Principal
Bloomberg
Carter-Ruck Solicitors
French Chamber of Commerce
Ryze Power
Tutti
German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce
Lazard
Natixis Corporate Investment
Banking
Walpole
Thank you
Preferred Partners
Jeroboams
Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd
Neal’s Yard Remedies
OneWelbeck
Sipsmith
Steinway & Sons
In-kind Sponsor Google
Inc
Trusts and Foundations
ABO Trust
Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
BlueSpark Foundation
The Boltini Trust
Candide Trust
Cockayne Grants for the Arts in London
Dunard Fund
Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
Foyle Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation
Garrick Charitable Trust
The Golsoncott Foundation
Jerwood Foundation
John Coates Charitable Trust
John Horniman’s Children’s Trust
John Thaw Foundation
Idlewild Trust
Institute Adam Mickiewicz
Kirby Laing Foundation
The John S Cohen Foundation
The Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust
Kurt Weill Foundation
Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust
Lucille Graham Trust
The Marchus Trust
Maria Bjӧrnson Memorial Fund
PRS Foundation
The R K Charitable Trust
The Radcliffe Trust
Rivers Foundation
Rothschild Foundation
Scops Arts Trust
Sir William Boreman’s Foundation
TIOC Foundation
Vaughan Williams Foundation
The Victoria Wood Foundation
The Viney Family
The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust
and all others who wish to remain anonymous.
Board of the American Friends of the LPO
We are grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who assist with fundraising for our activities in the United States of America:
Simon Freakley Chairman
Kara Boyle
Jon Carter
Jay Goffman
Alexandra Jupin
Natalie Pray MBE
Damien Vanderwilt
Marc Wassermann
Elizabeth Winter
Catherine Høgel Hon. Director
LPO International Board of Governors
Natasha Tsukanova Chair
Mrs Irina Andreeva
Steven M. Berzin
Shashank Bhagat
Irina Gofman
Olivia Ma
George Ramishvili
Florian Wunderlich
London Philharmonic Orchestra Administration
Board of Directors
Dr Catherine C. Høgel Chair
Nigel Boardman Vice-Chair
Mark Vines* President
Kate Birchall* Vice-President
Emily Benn
David Buckley
David Burke
Michelle Crowe Hernandez
Deborah Dolce
Elena Dubinets
Simon Estell*
Tanya Joseph
Katherine Leek*
Minn Majoe*
Tania Mazzetti*
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin
Neil Westreich
David Whitehouse*
Simon Freakley (Ex officio –Chairman of the American Friends of the LPO)
*Player-Director
Advisory Council
Roger Barron Chairman
Christopher Aldren
Kate Birchall
Richard Brass
Helen Brocklebank
YolanDa Brown OBE
David Burke
Simon Burke
Simon Callow CBE
Desmond Cecil CMG
Jane Coulson
Andrew Davenport
Guillaume Descottes
Cameron Doley
Elena Dubinets
Lena Fankhauser
Christopher Fraser OBE
Jenny Goldie-Scot
Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS
Nicholas Hely-Hutchinson DL
Dr Catherine C. Høgel
Martin Höhmann
Jamie Korner
Andrew Neill
Nadya Powell
Sir Bernard Rix
Victoria Robey CBE
Baroness Shackleton
Thomas Sharpe KC
Julian Simmonds
Daisuke Tsuchiya
Mark Vines
Chris Viney
Laurence Watt
Elizabeth Winter
New Generation Board
Ellie Ajao
Peter De Souza
Vivek Haria
Rianna Henriques
Pasha Orleans-Foli
Zerlina Vulliamy
General Administration
Elena Dubinets
Artistic Director
David Burke
Chief Executive
Ineza Grabowska
PA to the Executive & Office Manager
Concert Management
Roanna Gibson
Concerts & Planning Director
Graham Wood
Concerts & Recordings Manager
Maddy Clarke Tours Manager
Madeleine Ridout
Glyndebourne & Projects Manager
Alison Jones
Concerts & Artists Co-ordinator
Dora Kmezić
Concerts & Recordings Co-ordinator
Tom Cameron
Concerts & Tours Assistant
Matthew Freeman
Recordings Consultant
Andrew Chenery
Orchestra Personnel Manager
Helen Phipps
Orchestra & Auditions Manager
Sarah Thomas
Martin Sargeson Librarians
Laura Kitson
Stage & Operations Manager
Stephen O’Flaherty
Deputy Operations Manager
Benjamin Wakley
Deputy Stage Manager
Finance
Frances Slack
Finance Director
Dayse Guilherme Finance Manager
Jean-Paul Ramotar Finance & IT Officer
Education & Community
Talia Lash
Education & Community Director
Lowri Davies
Eleanor Jones
Education & Community Project Managers
Hannah Smith
Education & Community Co-ordinator
Claudia Clarkson
Regional Partnerships Manager
Development
Laura Willis
Development Director
Rosie Morden
Individual Giving Manager
Owen Mortimer
Corporate Relations Manager
Anna Quillin
Trusts & Foundations Manager
Eleanor Conroy
Development Events Manager
Al Levin
Development Co-ordinator
Holly Eagles Development Assistant
Nick Jackman
Campaigns & Projects Director
Kirstin Peltonen
Development Associate
Marketing
Kath Trout
Marketing & Communications Director
Sophie Lonergan (née Harvey)
Marketing Manager
Rachel Williams
Publications Manager
Gavin Miller
Sales & Ticketing Manager
Josh Clark Data, Insights & CRM Manager
Georgie Blyth
Press & PR Manager
Greg Felton
Digital Creative
Alicia Hartley
Digital & Marketing Co-ordinator
Isobel Jones
Marketing Co-ordinator
Archives
Philip Stuart Discographer
Gillian Pole
Recordings Archive
Professional Services
Charles Russell Speechlys Solicitors
Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors
Dr Barry Grimaldi
Honorary Doctor
Mr Chris Aldren
Honorary ENT Surgeon
Mr Simon Owen-Johnstone
Hon. Orthopaedic Surgeon
London Philharmonic Orchestra
89 Albert Embankment
London SE1 7TP
Tel: 020 7840 4200
Box Office: 020 7840 4242
Email: admin@lpo.org.uk lpo.org.uk
Printer John Good Ltd
Cover photograph Jason Bell
2024/25 season design
JMG Studio
Printer John Good Ltd
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