London Philharmonic Orchestra 21 Oct 2016 concert programme 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

JTI FRIDAY SERIES Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Friday 21 October 2016 | 7.30pm

Sibelius Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52 (26’) Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending: romance for violin and orchestra (13’) Interval (20’) Sibelius Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 (44’)

Osmo Vänskä conductor Yu-Chien Tseng violin

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

Contents 2 Welcome Sibelius Symphony Cycle 3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Osmo Vänskä 7 Yu-Chien Tseng 8 Osmo Vänskä on Sibelius 9 Programme notes 12 Recommended recordings Sibelius on the LPO Label 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.

symphony cycle still to come this october at southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall

wednesday 26 October 2016 7.30pm Elgar Cello Concerto Sibelius Symphony No. 4 Sibelius Symphony No. 5 Osmo Vänskä conductor Raphael Wallfisch cello

Free pre-concert event | 6:00pm The first concert with our 2016/17 Foyle Future Firsts, conducted by Osmo Vänskä, includes a rarely heard octet arrangement of Sibelius’s En Saga, by Jaakko Kuusisto.

friday 28 October 2016 7.30pm Sibelius The Oceanides Walton Violin Concerto Sibelius Symphony No. 6 Sibelius Symphony No. 7 Osmo Vänskä conductor Tasmin Little violin

Book now lpo.org.uk 020 7840 4242 2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

jti friday series

On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Eugene Tichindeleanu Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Martin Höhmann Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Amanda Smith Jacqueline Martens Caroline Sharp Georgina Leo Miranda Allen John Dickinson Second Violins Helena Smart Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Tania Mazzetti Nancy Elan Lorenzo Gentili-Tedeschi Fiona Higham Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley

Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Ashley Stevens Robin Wilson Philip Brett Sheila Law Alison Strange Elizabeth Baldey

Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt Daniel Cornford Stanislav Popov Richard Cookson Martin Fenn Sarah Malcolm Cellos Pei-Jee Ng Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† Chair co-supported by Molly & David Borthwick

David Lale Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Chair supported by Drs Oliver & Asha Foster

Flutes Juliette Bausor Principal Sue Thomas*

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

Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Simon Baker Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal

Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Alice Munday

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Clarinets Thomas Watmough Principal Paul Richards

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Bassoons Gareth Newman Principal Simon Estell* Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* Principal Chair supported by Laurence Watt

Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff

Martin Hobbs Gareth Mollison Duncan Fuller

Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Sebastian Pennar Sub-Principal George Peniston Laurence Lovelle Rodrigo Moro Martin Charlotte Kerbegian Ben Wolstenholme Laura Murphy

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Philip Cobb Guest Principal Anne McAneney*

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

* Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: An anonymous donor • Dr Barry Grimaldi • Bianca & Stuart Roden • Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

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London Philharmonic Orchestra

Everything about this performance ... was perfect ... one of the best pieces of orchestral playing I have heard in quite a long time. Seen and Heard international, February 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

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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 Bruckner’s Symphony No. 5 with veteran maestro Stanisław Skrowaczewski; a disc of Stravinsky works with Vladimir Jurowski; and Act 1 of Wagner’s Die Walküre with Klaus Tennstedt.

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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Osmo Vänskä conductor

Vänskä confirms his status as our greatest living Sibelian. Irreplaceable.

The Times, July 2016

Osmo Vänskä is recognised for his compelling interpretations of repertoire from all ages. Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra for over a decade, he has led the orchestra on five major European tours including festivals and venues such as the BBC Proms, Edinburgh International Festival, the Barbican, the Royal Concertgebouw, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Tivoli Copenhagen and Vienna’s Musikverein. In 2015 he took the Minnesota Orchestra on a historic trip to Cuba, the first visit by a major US orchestra since the normalisation of relations between the two governments. With the same orchestra he has recorded complete Beethoven and Sibelius symphony cycles for BIS, garnering rave reviews internationally, while 2016 has also seen Vänskä and the orchestra return to Europe, taking in the Edinburgh International Festival, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Tivoli Copenhagen and Sibelius Hall Lahti. Throughout October 2016 Vänskä conducts a complete Sibelius Symphony Cycle with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (see page 2). This season will also see recordings of Mahler’s Second and Sixth Symphonies with the Minnesota Orchestra, continuing a cycle begun in June 2016. He will make his debut with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and return to the Israel and Helsinki philharmonics and the New World and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras. Much in demand as a guest conductor, Vänskä has appeared with the New York and Los Angeles philharmonics, The Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras and the Boston, Chicago and San Francisco symphony orchestras; and in Europe with the Berlin Philharmonic, BBC Symphony Orchestra, London Symphony Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Vienna

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Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, having previously held the position of Music Director, and was also formerly Music Director of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Vänskä is a distinguished recording artist, primarily for the BIS label. In 2014 his album with the Minnesota Orchestra of Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 won a Grammy award for Best Orchestral Performance, following the nomination of Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 the year before. Recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with Yevgeny Sudbin, again with the Minnesota Orchestra, also garnered worldwide praise. Vänskä 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 clarinet, including on a 2012 recording of Kalevi Aho’s chamber works. On 26 October he will play clarinet with the LPO Foyle Future Firsts in their free pre-concert performance of an octet arrangement of Sibelius’s En Saga at Royal Festival Hall (see page 2). 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.

Yu-Chien Tseng violin

In just his opening three notes, Tseng conveyed an essence of a wintry Scandinavian landscape, over which he breathed fire and drama. Singapore International Violin Competition 2015

Taiwanese violinist Yu-Chien (Benny) Tseng is rapidly building an international reputation as an emerging young soloist of enormous promise, praised for his grace, poise and blistering virtuosity. Following his recent German debut with the Saarbrucken Radio Orchestra, one critic warmly praised his performance of the Beethoven Violin Concerto: ‘Classically balanced without showing off; sensitive, discreet nuances; highly cultured sound; graceful and playful; relaxed elegance without attitude – exemplary!’ In July 2015 he won the top prize for violin at the XV International Tchaikovsky Violin Competition. A student of Aaron Rosand and Ida Kavafian at the Curtis Institute of Music in Philadelphia, Yu-Chien previously won first prizes at both the Singapore International Violin Competition and the Sarasate Violin Competition in Pamplona, Spain. Yu-Chien Tseng’s international career is already developing rapidly, and he has appeared with such orchestras as The Philadelphia Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Belgium, the Taipei Symphony Orchestra, the National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarra and the Orchestre Royal de Chambre de Wallonie. At the Tchaikovsky Competition, his winning performances in the final round featured two of the violin repertoire’s most iconic concertos, by Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. In an earlier round he received high praise for the elegance and poise in his rendition of Mozart’s final violin concerto (‘Turkish’), attracting the attention of Maestro Valery Gergiev. He reprised the ‘Turkish’ Concerto at the Competition’s Moscow Gala Concert with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Gergiev. At the St Petersburg Gala, he performed the Tchaikovsky concerto. He was also invited to perform under Gergiev at the maestro’s festival in Mikkeli, Finland, and performed both the Tchaikovsky

and Brahms concertos with Gergiev and the Munich Philharmonic on their tour of Taiwan in November 2015. Earlier this year Yu-Chien performed Beethoven’s Violin Concerto at the Menuhin Festival in Gstaad, in a special 100th birthday concert in memory of Yehudi Menuhin. Again as a guest of Maestro Gergiev, Yu-Chien performed at the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg and at the First Far East Festival in Vladivostok. Yu-Chien graduated from the Curtis Institute in spring 2016, and continues advanced studies in the USA. This autumn he makes a series of major debut orchestral appearances, including tonight’s debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as with the Munich Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic orchestras. He will also give recitals in Asia, America and Europe. Yu-Chien’s debut recording (2012) was an album of French violin sonatas (Franck, Ravel and Debussy) on the Fuga Libera label. Deutsche Grammophon will release a new recital album this December featuring works by Mozart, Tartini, Ernst, Chopin, Tchaikovsky and Wieniawski. Yu-Chien plays the Giuseppe Guarneri del Gesu 1732 Ex ‘Castelbarco-Tarisio’, on loan from the Chi-Mei Culture Foundation, Taiwan. facebook.com/yuchien.tseng

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Osmo Vänskä on Sibelius

Andrew Mellor talks to the Finnish conductor about this autumn’s symphonic journey

AM: Why did you decide to pair Sibelius’s symphonies with British string concertos in these concerts? OV: It’s a natural direction to go in. England was one of the first countries where Sibelius’s music was played and understood, and we wanted an extra strand to these concerts: it was more about the audience than anything musicological. These concertos were written during Sibelius’s lifetime, and two of them – Britten’s and Walton’s – after he stopped composing, during his famous silence. Music was advancing without him … Yes, there is a chronological connection, and in some cases a musical one too. I think you can hear something in the way Walton uses the orchestra that might be connected to Sibelius’s Sixth and Seventh Symphonies and a late piece like Tapiola. Walton was an international composer like Sibelius – more so than Vaughan Williams – a composer whose music is coming from somewhere discernable but doesn’t stay there. The symphonies present quite a journey. The First and Seventh are separated by a quarter of a century and a huge stylistic gulf … … but the First Symphony is quite a statement, no? It’s a wild piece by a young composer who really wanted to announce his arrival. That is why the tempo markings are so important. Sibelius stipulated extremely fast speeds that almost nobody does, but they are important as they underline the Symphony’s provenance. With slower speeds, the Symphony sounds as though it was composed by an old master, which it wasn’t. 8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

It’s fascinating what follows – the very different sort of momentum of the Seventh Symphony and before that, the occasional inertia of the Fourth. That work’s silence and space is something that orchestras have struggled with … An orchestra’s struggle is connected always to a conductor’s struggle! And that’s the thing. Sometimes if there’s something you don’t understand the easiest thing is to speed up, and wait for a passage that you understand better. But I’m stubborn enough to believe in the score and to follow the score even if I don’t understand it. That way of thinking can deliver great results. You’re famous for following the score to the letter, so has anything changed in your approach to these pieces since your last complete cycle with the LPO in 2010? We get older, and even the same ideas can sound different. I don’t know what it is exactly, but when I’m conducting nowadays I sometimes feel as though I have more time – more time to breathe. So perhaps the ideas are the same, but the colours have altered slightly. And are those things you talk to the Orchestra about in rehearsal – or do they stay in your head? Mostly in my head. I sometimes try to tell the musicians how I feel, to explain why I’m asking them to do something and perhaps to encourage them to go deeper. Musicians hate conductors who talk too much. But a piece like the Fourth Symphony needs some explanation – the fact that Sibelius really thought he was going to die. You can use that to explain how some passages should be as slow and as minimalistic as possible. But some things are more difficult to explain – like the flow of the Sixth and Seventh Symphonies, where the orchestra really has to listen, as if there’s no conductor at all … That’s one of the reasons why it’s important to do the symphonies as chronologically as possible, because by the time you come to the Sixth and Seventh, you’ve learnt so many things from their predecessors. I think it’s possible to put everything together from the score’s tempo markings, dynamics, phrasing and such. If you do that well, you get that natural flow. If the music sounds like it’s man-made – if you don’t feel that it’s about life – then maybe something is wrong. Watch a video of Osmo and Andrew in conversation lpo.org.uk/sibelius

Programme notes

Speedread Jean Sibelius and Ralph Vaughan Williams, near-contemporaries from Finland and England respectively, both came to music via the violin. Vaughan Williams found freedom and joy in the instrument after struggling for some years on the piano. The rhapsodic, free-spirited flight of the soloist in his ‘meditation’ on George Meredith’s poem The Lark Ascending tells us more about that than any words could. Either side of The Lark Ascending, our cycle of Sibelius symphonies continues with the Second and Third Symphonies. When the Second was unveiled in March 1902, it was soon seen as a rallying call for Finland’s increasingly precarious battle for independence from

Jean Sibelius

Russia. In reality, the Symphony’s battles were rather more personal and altogether more tragic. You could argue that Sibelius really found his symphonic voice in the Third Symphony. If we think of the composer’s symphonies as maintaining a steady flow through varying landscapes – musical material feeding into the orchestral conversation like tributaries into a larger river – the Third Symphony represents something of a breakthrough. Some think of it as Sibelius’s ‘London’ Symphony; others as his response to Wagner’s opera Parsifal. But all over this contained score – from the ‘dual speed’ of its middle movement to the little viola revolution of its last one – are sounds that could only have come from Sibelius.

Symphony No. 3 in C major, Op. 52 (1907) 1 Allegro moderato 2 Andantino con moto, quasi allegretto 3 Moderato – Allegro (ma non tanto)

1865–1957

It was here in London, visiting his friend the composer Granville Bantock, that Jean Sibelius committed the last notes of his Third Symphony to paper. At least one Finnish conductor claims to hear the bustle of the UK capital in the Symphony’s tumbling opening discourse. But the geographical context for Sibelius’s conceptual formation of the Symphony was rather different. Back in Finland where the Symphony was started, Sibelius and his family had recently moved from urban Helsinki to the quiet solitude of their newly built villa on the shores of Lake Järvenpää, some 23 miles away. In his diary Sibelius wrote of the clarity of the night sky and his occasional sightings of the Northern Lights. City partying had been replaced, at Sibelius’s wise but heavy-hearted request, with a new life of countryside

domesticity. For musicologist Daniel Grimley, it proved nothing short of an ‘ecological epiphany’ for Sibelius. It also coincided with one of the most salient developments in Sibelius’s rationale as a composer, summarised by the much-quoted remark he made to Gustav Mahler shortly before starting work on the Symphony. He spoke to his Austrian counterpart of ‘the profound logic that creates a connection between the motifs.’ The idea of a symphony as a seamless and inevitable conversation generated from short musical fragments, and the use of a subtle yet complex rhythmic dynamism to unlock and propel those fragments forward, emerges properly in the Third Symphony. These were the techniques that would lie behind Sibelius’s late symphonic masterpieces. Continued overleaf London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes continued

On the surface, the symphonic gear-change might have seemed obvious to the audience gathered in Helsinki on 25 September 1907 to hear Sibelius himself conduct the first performance of the Symphony. The Second Symphony, big-boned and radiant, had been hailed as a hymn to Finnish nationalism and independence. In the Third, Sibelius reduced his orchestra in size and adopted the straightforwardly ‘classical’ key of C major (‘only God writes in C major these days’ remarked one French music critic). These acts of distillation countered the rich, dense scores that the arch-Romantics of central Europe were churning out at the time. More importantly, the more translucent, ‘pure’ textures in the Third Symphony were connected to two ideas already mentioned: physical surroundings and musical construction. The building-block music that opens the Symphony on the cellos appears to develop at its own natural pace towards the first musical horizon: a glowing, tumbling yet nonchalant theme championed by the horns akin to an awakening orchestral yawn. From that emerges another steady rhythm that could have been operating, undetected, all along. Sibelius’s comments about the clear nights at Järvenpää come to mind in the second movement, which has been

Ralph Vaughan Williams

likened to both ‘a folksong creeping in the twilight’ and ‘a delicately restrained symphonic waltz’. The composer again plays with rhythm to create a feeling of free journeying – in this case the gentle combination of twoand three-in-a-bar metres – and again he creates his material out of the opening bars: the pizzicato motif on low strings (itself taken from a brass passage in the first movement) comes to form the movement’s theme. The lively, scherzo-style section that opens the final movement immediately establishes a feeling of strange, quiet velocity – as if the music is operating at a sort of inaudible meta-speed. After a mysterious passage that evokes forest murmurings, the violas seize upon a musical idea suggested earlier by more non-committal horns. What follows is as remarkable as it is strange. The violas – the unlikely heroes in what feels like a grassroots orchestral revolution – tenaciously persuade the cellos and then the entire orchestra to take up their partisan song. Pumping strings appear to power the theme home in an act of heartening determination and resolve, before a blazing final paragraph pushes the orchestra outwards in contrary motion towards the return of that frank, unassuming but hopeful key of C major.

The Lark Ascending: romance for violin and orchestra (1914) Yu-Chien Tseng violin

1872–1958

As a child, Ralph Vaughan Williams struggled to learn a number of instruments but excelled when he finally discovered the violin, describing it as ‘my musical salvation’. The violin became the focus of the young man’s expression. If he found some freedom and joy in the instrument, that’s certainly reflected in his most famous response to it, The Lark Ascending. Vaughan Williams wrote the piece in August 1914 but revised it six years later in 1920. Shortly after that it was given its first performance, in December of that year, by the 10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

then-prominent violinist Marie Hall. At the Public Hall in Shirehampton near Bristol, she played a reduction of the score for violin and piano accompanied by George Mendham. On 14 June 1921, Hall and conductor Adrian Boult joined an assembled orchestra for the first performance of the orchestral score at the Queen’s Hall in London. The Lark Ascending was conceived as a meditation on George Meredith’s poem of the same name. It begins

like this: ‘He rises and begins to round, / He drops the silver chain of sound, / Of many links without a break, / In chirrup, whistle, slur and shake.’ Vaughan Williams subtitled his piece ‘Romance for violin and orchestra’, which suggests a free response to Meredith’s words rather than a line-for-line tracking of them. Still, in the outer sections of the piece the violin’s free-feeling cadenzas – its solo flights – do appear to enact the song and ascent of a lark as the poet describes them. In the central section, however, the music appears to distance itself from the scene with a new, folk-like melody introduced by the flute; this has the effect, says musicologist Christopher Mark, of ‘shifting focus from sky to ground level’ and forming a sort of musical

commentary on the lark’s flight and Meredith’s words. Perhaps that’s how the music evokes such a powerful sense of loss and removal. But Vaughan Williams is also clever with his use of modal scales and harmonies, exploring the idea of a ‘lost world’ of English folksong against which the lark tweets innocently. Those modal scales allow Vaughan Williams to utilise another evocative trick: using ‘unresolved’ chords (as in, discords) that halt the harmonic progress of the music, creating a feeling of time suspended. That, and some breathtakingly rapt violin writing that remains unique in Vaughan Williams’s output, makes The Lark Ascending a piece that climbs to far greater heights than Meredith’s rather pedestrian poem.

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

Jean Sibelius 1865–1957

In the early months of 1901 Jean Sibelius and his family escaped the harsh Finnish winter in Rapallo, a small town on the west coast of Italy not far from Genoa. Sibelius borrowed a study up in the mountains, surrounded by ‘magnolia, cypresses, vine, palm trees and a manifold variety of flowers.’ In this Mediterranean setting the composer was reminded of the legend of Don Juan, and began to sketch a symphonic poem on the famous narrative entitled ‘Festival.’ Physically and artistically, Sibelius was indulging in little more than escapism and he knew it; dark clouds remained in his life. His daughter Ruth was recovering from dangerous illness, a tormenting situation for the composer and his wife Aino who had lost a child the previous year. Meanwhile, Finland’s journey towards

Symphony No. 2 in D major, Op. 43 (1901–02) 1 Allegretto 2 Tempo andante, ma rubato 3 Vivacissimo 4 Finale

freedom from Russian rule had suffered yet another blow: in the wake of the 1899 February Manifesto, the Russians had begun the incorporation of the Finnish army into their own, a huge weakening of Finland’s status. It was back home in May 1901 that Sibelius began serious work on the piece he’d conceived amid the flowers of Rapallo – now planned as an abstracted symphony uncontrolled by the Don Juan narrative but cast in the bright, floral key of D major. By the following spring it was complete, the composer conducting four successive performances in Helsinki starting with the premiere on 8 March. Robert Kajanus, director of the Helsinki Philharmonic, concluded that the piece was an ode to Finnish nationalism – a stirring hymn London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

Programme notes continued

to strengthen and inspire the programme of passive resistance that many artists (including Sibelius) had initiated. You can hear why Kajanus might have reached such a conclusion, but according to Sibelius he was way off the mark. The composer’s annotations and working processes reveal struggles rather more private and personal: the second theme of the Andante was apparently inspired by Ruth’s recovery and the more subdued, lamenting theme of the final movement was dedicated to Elli Järnefelt, Sibelius’s sister-in-law, who had recently committed suicide. Technically speaking, the Symphony consolidates some musical practices that would soon become Sibelius hallmarks. Perhaps the most important of these – alongside his particular use of ‘stepping’ string motifs and his fondness for themes based on adjacent notes – is the coherence of those themes, which appear to relate more naturally to one another, as if tributaries to the same river. That’s immediately recognisable in the pastoral opening movement, which is controlled entirely by the three upward-stepping notes that are heard right at the beginning. The residue of the Don Juan tale lurks amid the conflicts of the second movement. Sibelius pits a theme he called ‘death’ (first heard on bassoons playing in unison but an octave apart) against one he called ‘Christus’ (the ‘Ruth’ theme, which emerges from jagged strings). The third movement has been described as a ‘call to arms’, and is a stormy dance that eventually – after twice visiting a more saddened trio section – collapses back into the three upward-stepping notes that formed the Symphony’s opening. With this, the Symphony slips inevitably into its final movement and the mustering of a heroic, striving tune soaked in optimism and renewal in its journey from a cautious harmonisation to a brilliantly confident one. The tune, again born of those upwardly-stepping notes, lightens the dark shadows of the troubling Elli Järnefelt theme to suggest the blossoming of life anew, in all its richness and colour. Programme notes © Andrew Mellor

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Recommended recordings of tonight’s works Many of our recommended recordings, where available, are on sale this evening at the Foyles stand in the Royal Festival Hall foyer. Sibelius: Symphony No. 3 Osmo Vänskä | Minnesota Symphony Orchestra (BIS) Vaughan Williams: The Lark Ascending Sarah Chang | Bernard Haitink | London Philharmonic Orchestra (Warner/EMI) or David Nolan | Vernon Handley | London Philharmonic Orchestra (EMI Eminence) Sibelius: Symphony No. 2 Paavo Berglund | London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO Label, LPO-0005)

Sibelius on the LPO Label Sibelius: Symphonies Nos. 2 & 7 Paavo Berglund conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra £9.99 | LPO-0005

‘A performance of overwhelming intensity … very special.’ International Record Review

Available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets Download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and others

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

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 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 Mrs Virginia Slaymaker 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 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 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 Robert Ross 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 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 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.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

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 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