London Philharmonic Orchestra 23 Oct 2016 Eastbourne concert programme by London Philharmonic Orchestra

MUSIC IS OUR WORLD. WE WANT TO SHARE ITS ASTONISHING POWER AND WONDER WITH YOU in eastbourne. Concert programme Eastbourne Congress Theatre & Devonshire Park Theatre 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

Eastbourne Congress Theatre Sunday 23 October 2016 | 3.00pm

Grieg Two Elegiac Melodies for string orchestra, Op. 34 (7’) Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (34’) Interval (20’) Sibelius Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 (38’)

Adrian Prabava conductor* Alexander Sitkovetsky violin * Unfortunately Jamie Phillips is indisposed and has had to withdraw from today's performance. We are very grateful to Adrian Prabava for stepping in at short notice.

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN ASSOCIATION WITH EASTBOURNE BOROUGH COUNCIL

Contents 2 Welcome Orchestra news 3 On stage today 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Adrian Prabava 7 Alexander Sitkovetsky 8 Programme notes 12 Next LPO concerts 14 Supporters 16 LPO administration

Welcome

Orchestra news

Welcome to the Congress Theatre, Eastbourne

Welcome to the first LPO concert of the 2016/17 season at the Congress Theatre. This season will feature six LPO concerts, including an exciting new venture: three chamber concerts at the Devonshire Park Theatre, offering up some of the most exquisite gems in the chamber repertoire. Turn to page 12 for full details of this season's concerts and booking information, or browse the season and book online at lpo.org.uk/eastbourne. We hope you enjoy today's concert and look forward to seeing you again soon.

Artistic Director Chris Jordan General Manager Gavin Davis Welcome to this afternoon’s performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Please sit back and enjoy the concert and your visit here. As a courtesy to others, please ensure mobile phones and watch alarms are switched off during the performance. Thank you. We are excited to be hosting half this season at the Congress Theatre and half at the Devonshire Park Theatre. It is a wonderful opportunity to introduce the London Philharmonic Orchestra to our atmospheric Victorian playhouse and a chance to experience its delightful acoustics. We’ve worked closely with the Orchestra and its specialists to ensure the new venue enhances the orchestral sound and thank you, our audience, for continuing to support the concert series. We welcome comments from our customers. Should you wish to contribute, please speak to the House Manager on duty, email theatres@eastbourne.gov.uk or write to Gavin Davis, General Manager, Eastbourne Theatres, Compton Street, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 4BP.

This month’s LPO Label release: Wagner's Die Walküre Just released on the LPO Label is Act 1 of Wagner’s opera Die Walküre, recorded in 1991 at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall (LPO-0092). This marks conductor Klaus Tennstedt’s 16th release on the label, and also features soloists Eva-Maria Bundschuh (Sieglinde), René Kollo (Siegmund) and John Tomlinson (Hunding). Priced at £9.99, it is 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. Ravi Shankar’s Sukanya: May 2017 In May 2017 the Orchestra will take part in the first performances of an opera by Indian music legend Ravi Shankar. Shankar was composing his pioneering opera Sukanya at the time of his death in 2012, and it explores the common ground between the music, dance and theatrical traditions of India and the West. Conductor and collaborator David Murphy – who worked with Shankar for many years, notably conducting the world premiere of his Symphony with the LPO in 2010 – completed the opera with help from Anoushka Shankar, Ravi Shankar’s daughter. The four performances will take place at Leicester’s Curve (world premiere, 12 May), The Lowry, Salford (14 May), Symphony Hall Birmingham (15 May) and London’s Southbank Centre (19 May). lpo.org.uk/sukanya Sukanya is a co-production between The Royal Opera, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Curve, Leicester. The 19 May performance is a co-production between The Royal Opera, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Curve, Leicester in association with Southbank Centre. With generous philanthropic support from Arts Council England and the Bagri Foundation.

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On stage today

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Eugene Tichindeleanu Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

Amelia Conway-Jones Galina Tanney Georgina Leo Maeve Jenkinson Miranda Allen Anna Croad Jacqueline Roche Kate Cole Joanne Chen Second Violins Andrew Storey Principal Tania Mazzetti Kate Birchall Fiona Higham Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley

Joseph Maher Sioni Williams Harry Kerr Sheila Law Elizabeth Baldey Alberto Vidal

Violas Jon Thorne Guest Principal Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter Stanislav Popov Martin Fenn Linda Kidwell Martin Wray Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Chair supported by Bianca & Stewart Roden

Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† Chair co-supported by Molly & David Borthwick

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

Flutes Stewart McIlwham* Principal Hannah Grayson

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney*

Piccolos Hannah Grayson Stewart McIlwham*

Robin Totterdell

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Oboes Tristan Cox Guest Principal Lydia Griffiths Clarinets Thomas Watmough Principal Paul Richards

Bass Trombone Barry Clements Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Bassoons Richard Skinner Guest Principal Laura Vincent

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal

Susanna Riddell Double Basses Sebastian Pennar Principal Laurence Lovelle Helen Rowlands Charlotte Kerbegian

Trombones David Whitehouse Principal Andrew Connington

Horns Stephen Nicholls Guest Principal Martin Hobbs Alex Wide Gareth Mollison Jonathan Quaintrell-Evans

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Henry Baldwin Co-Principal Harp Rachel Masters Principal * Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: An anonymous donor • William & Alex de Winton • Friends of the Orchestra • Dr Barry Grimaldi • Simon Robey • Victoria Robey OBE • Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp • Eric Tomsett • Laurence Watt

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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

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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 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 (see page 13).

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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Adrian Prabava conductor

Adrian Prabava is a creative conductor, whose approach to the composer’s score enables every instrument to be heard and every musician to be given their proper value.

GB Opera

Born in Indonesia, Adrian Prabava studied violin at the Hochschule für Musik Detmold and conducting with Eiji Oue at the Hochschule für Musik, Theater und Medien Hannover. He also attended masterclasses with Jorma Panula, who became his mentor, together with Kurt Masur and Bernard Haitink. Between 2006 and 2008 he was Resident Conductor and Associate Music Director at the Theater & Philharmonie Thüringen in Germany, where he received critical acclaim for a production of Shostakovich’s operetta Moskva, Cheremushki. He also appeared at the Komische Oper Berlin (Die Fledermaus; Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny), Theater Bonn (Hänsel und Gretel) and Theater Magdeburg (The Turn of the Screw). Adrian made his international breakthrough in 2005, when he was a finalist at the 49th International Competition for Young Conductors in Besançon. He then became assistant conductor to Kurt Masur at the Orchestre National de France in Paris from 2006–08, and subsequently became the first beneficiary of the Bernard Haitink Fund for Young Talent in 2007. In this position he worked closely with Bernard Haitink as assistant conductor at the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam until 2010. Adrian made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Brighton Dome in January 2016. Other highlights of last season included debuts with the Aalborg Symphony Orchestra, Bremen Philharmonic Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, Yaroslavl State Symphony Orchestra, Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Symphonique de Québec, National Symphony Orchestra of Taiwan and Philharmonic Orchestra Erfurt. Return engagements included the Antalya Symphony

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Orchestra, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille and Orquestra Sinfónica do Porto Casa da Música. Adrian was involved in two major opera productions last season: Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Konzert Theater Bern and a revival of Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Slovak National Theatre in Bratislava. In previous seasons Adrian Prabava made conducting debuts with, among others, the Athens State Orchestra, Brandenburgische Staatsorchester Frankfurt/ Oder, Deutsche Radio Philharmonie Saarbrücken Kaiserslautern, Deutsche Staatsphilharmonie Rheinland-Pfalz, Het Gelders Orkest, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Johannesburg Philharmonic, NDR Radiophilharmonie Hannover, Netherlands Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestre Philharmonique de Marseille, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, RundfunkSinfonieorchester Berlin, Sinfonieorchester Basel and Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Highlights of Adrian's 2016/17 season include debuts with the Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra, Bursa State Symphony Orchestra, Saarland State Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Sofia Philharmonic Orchestra. Return engagements include the Antalya Symphony Orchestra, Athens State Orchestra, Izmir State Symphony Orchestra, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra and Symphony Orchestra Novaya Rossiya. adrianprabava.com facebook.com/AdrianPrabava

Alexander Sitkovetsky violin

Sitkovetsky has a terrific technique to be sure, but his confident, entirely natural musicianship is what sets him apart from the crowd.

Gramophone

Alexander Sitkovetsky was born in Moscow into a family with an established musical tradition. His concerto debut came at the age of eight and the same year he moved to the UK to study at The Menuhin School. Lord Menuhin was Alexander's inspiration throughout his school years and they performed together on several occasions, including the Bach Double Concerto and Bartók duos at St James’s Palace, and a performance by Alexander of the Mendelssohn concerto under Menuhin’s baton. Alexander has gone on to perform with the Netherlands Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, Tokyo Symphony, Brussels Philharmonic and European Union Chamber orchestras; the Academy of St Martin in the Fields; Welsh National Opera; and the St Petersburg Symphony, Moscow Symphony and BBC Concert orchestras, among many others. Today is his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In recent seasons Alexander has made debuts with the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra, Munich Chamber Orchestra, Norwegian Chamber Orchestra and BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, as well as the Riga Sinfonietta, Poznań Philharmonic and Orquesta Filarmónica de Bolivia. He was a guest soloist in two UK tours with the Brussels Philharmonic and the St Petersburg Symphony, and also toured Australia as guest director with the Australian Chamber Orchestra. He performed a six-date series of sold-out concerts with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall. Forthcoming highlights include debuts with the Tonkünstler Orchestra, Royal Northern Sinfonia, Wrocławska Chamber Orchestra, New York Chamber Players, National Polish Radio Symphony and Russian State Philharmonic Orchestra.

Alexander's recording for CPO of Panufnik's Violin Concerto with the Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin to commemorate the composer's 100th birthday was critically acclaimed, and won the 2015 ICMA Special Achievement Award. In 2011 Alexander was awarded first prize at the Trio di Trieste Duo Competition with the pianist Wu Qian, with whom he subsequently embarked on a 20-concert tour of Italy as well as a recital in the Weill Hall at New York's Carnegie Hall. Alexander is also a member of the prestigious 'Chamber Music Society Two' programme at the Lincoln Centre in New York. Alexander is a founding member of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio, with whom he has won various prizes including the Mecklenburg Vorpommern Kammermusik Prize and performed all over the UK and Europe, including at the Frankfurt Alte Oper, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London's Wigmore Hall. Since 2012 he has also played in a string quartet project with Julia Fischer, meeting once a year to perform at some of Europe's most prestigious venues. Alexander has shared the stage with Julia Fischer, Janine Jansen, Maxim Rysanov, Alexander Chaushian, Misha Maisky, Natalie Clein, Eric Le Sage, Polina Leschenko, Julian Rachlin, Boris Brovtsyn and many others. He also performs regularly with the Razumovsky Ensemble and Ensemble Raro. facebook.com/AlexanderSitkovetsky @asitkovetsky

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Programme notes

Speedread Both the Norwegian Edvard Grieg and the Finn Jean Sibelius used elements of their respective countries' indigenous musical traditions in their works. For Grieg, discovering the musical potential of mountain song and farmyard fiddle-playing was nothing short of revelatory. His music took on a new purity and expressive directness when he focused on those elements, as in the two short pieces for strings that open this concert. In Finland, Sibelius was under rather more direct pressures: firstly from an artistic community desperate to realise some sense of ‘Finnishness’ in art as Russia tried to quash it, and secondly from a

Edvard Grieg

musical community who believed Sibelius’s music should throw off its parochial associations and become the international game-changer it had the potential to be. In the First Symphony, we hear Sibelius doing both. But we also hear the influence of Sibelius’s Russian neighbours in the Symphony, not so much in the way it sounds as the way it plots its course and carries itself. Sibelius once said that he recognised ‘a lot of Tchaikovsky’ in his own music. In between the Nordic music this evening we hear the concerto that rescued a Tchaikovsky in crisis and stands as a memorial to his superlative gift for melody.

Two Elegiac Melodies for string orchestra, Op. 34 (1880–81) 1 The Wounded Heart 2 Last Spring

1843–1907

As the scrappy geopolitics of the Nordic countries began to settle down in the 1800s, some territories caught a tantalising glimpse of independence on the horizon. Edvard Grieg’s Norway had to wait until 1905 to achieve full independence from Sweden, but thoughts of emancipation must have been on the composer’s mind throughout his career. He soon left Norway to study at the conservatory in Leipzig. Vital lessons were learned there, but back in Scandinavia Grieg became acutely aware of the need to give his countrymen some sort of national representation in music. From the mid-1860s, Grieg started to fill his scores with the songs, dance rhythms, fiddle tunes and harmonic tendencies that had characterised indigenous Norwegian music for centuries. He was 8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

convinced he could do this while still creating works that furthered continental ideas of Romanticism. Folk music from Norway is often built of simple means, referenced in the straightforwardly clear, moving melodies heard in these two pieces which are clearly influenced by mountain singing. They started life as two songs to texts by Aasmund Vinje which themselves set a vernacular style of the Norwegian verse. Grieg orchestrated them for the strings of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra very soon after they were written in 1881. ‘The deep melancholy of these poems accounts for the serious character of the music and prompted me … where the words are not heard, to bring out the meaning by giving the pieces more evocative titles’, wrote Grieg to his biographer, explaining why he

changed the titles of the two pieces from those of the original poems. Melancholic they might be, but there’s a touching and distinctly Norwegian sense of guarded optimism in these works, too – the silver lining to orchestral miniatures of intense focus.

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky

Violin Concerto in D major, Op. 35 (1878) Alexander Sitkovetsky violin

1840–93

1 Allegro moderato 2 Canzonetta: Andante 3 Finale: Allegro vivacissimo

Legend has it that Tchaikovsky had something of a phobia when it came to violins. The instrument featured in one of his most vivid childhood nightmares and during the first performances of Swan Lake a violinist reportedly punched the composer in the face. But in the spring of 1877, it was a violinist who came to Tchaikovsky’s rescue during one of the darkest periods in his life.

violin concerto in just 11 days. ‘From the day I began to write it, a favourable mood has not left me’, Tchaikovsky wrote; ‘In such a spiritual state composition loses all aspect of labour – it is a continuous delight.’ Nothing, it seemed, was a problem. When Kotek and Tchaikovsky’s confidante Natascha von Meck expressed concerns over the central slow movement, the usually hypersensitive composer simply wrote another. It only took him a day.

Earlier that year, Tchaikovsky had received a letter from a former pupil he barely remembered, named Antonina Milyukova. The young woman poured out her heart to Tchaikovsky, begging him to be her lover. For whatever reason – but most likely the idea that marriage to a young woman would divert attention from his homosexuality – Tchaikovsky went to meet Milyukova and proposed to her a day later. The marriage was doomed from the start.

Not everyone’s experience of the Concerto was so pleasurable. Tchaikovsky dedicated the piece to the great Hungarian virtuoso Leopold Auer, but Auer declared it unplayable. When it was eventually performed in December 1881 by Adolf Brodsky, two years after the planned premiere, the orchestra was unrehearsed and playing from error-strewn scores. The critic Eduard Hanslick went into overdrive, massacring the piece in his review (a review Tchaikovsky could apparently recite by heart for the rest of his life).

When the couple separated three months after tying the knot, Tchaikovsky suffered a complete mental breakdown and attempted suicide. He escaped first to St Petersburg, then to Italy, and eventually to Clarens in Switzerland. There, he was paid a visit by a pupil and friend named Yosif Kotek, who brought with him his violin and a suitcase full of music including the score for Édouard Lalo’s new Symphonie Espagnol for violin and orchestra. Tchaikovsky was taken with Lalo’s piece, enchanted by its focus on beauty rather than process. With the violinist Kotek at his side, the composer sketched out a

Tchaikovsky’s music was known and liked at the turn of the 1880s. Three symphonies, a piano concerto and his Rococo Variations had all been heard and, largely, enjoyed. But the Violin Concerto seemed a little different, not least when viewed against the moody Fourth Symphony, that work laced with tragedy that was written more-or-less at the same time. The Concerto is neither stormy nor as angst-ridden as Tchaikovsky’s personal circumstances at the time. It’s also decidedly more lyrical, or tune-oriented, than it is virtuosic (for all its technical difficulties). London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes continued

In fact, the Concerto is a testament to Tchaikovsky’s gift for melody. The key of D major – also the key of Lalo’s piece and the Violin Concerto by Brahms that was written across the Alps a few months later – resounds with particular splendour on the violin, which plays almost continuously throughout the first movement, introducing most of those melodies (the tune we hear first, from the orchestra, is actually a red herring that’s not heard again). The movement contains more material and breadth than many whole concertos. If there’s a sense of anguish in that movement, it shows even more of itself in the elegiac slow movement, which begins on gentle woodwinds and for which the

soloist places a mute on the strings of the instrument. But even here, in music that some say is Tchaikovsky’s confession of homosexuality, the mood is never doleful. The music has momentum deep within it, which the dovetailed finale picks up on and runs with. It launches immediately, almost by surprise, with the soloist’s nimble and intricate folk-like idea that is continuously interrupted by drone-like effects on lower strings playing open fifths. A dazzling array of tricks follows, but Tchaikovsky’s finger-twisting violin part only serves the tunes already heard. A final game of contrasts between the soloist and the orchestra is the Concerto’s final spectacle.

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

Jean Sibelius 1865–1957

How far can – or should – we hear Sibelius’s music through the prism of his country’s landscape, folk tradition and political plight? It’s nearly impossible not to open that particular can of worms when exploring the composer’s symphonies, and the First Symphony is a particularly interesting case in point. First, the politics. At the start of 1899 Czar Nicholas II delivered the so-called February Manifesto, tightening control over Finland, a grand duchy of Russia. The decree effectively stripped the Finnish parliament of its legislative power and proposed Russian as an official language. Feelings among those who had pinned hopes on Finnish independence, Sibelius among them, ran high. Plenty of patriots at the Symphony’s premiere on

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Symphony No. 1 in E minor, Op. 39 (1898–99) 1 2 3 4

Andante ma non troppo – Allegro energico Andante ma non troppo lento Scherzo. Allegro Finale (Quasi una fantasia). Andante – Allegro molto

26 April 1899 heard the work as a rallying cry for Finns (they would hear the same in the Second Symphony when it was introduced three years later). The following year, on a tour of Europe, Sibelius was happy to tout the piece as a hymn of protest against the Russians. But is that really how the composer conceived the Symphony’s music? Yes and no. Initially, it was planned as a programmatic or ‘storytelling’ symphony focussing on particular geological features in Finland and the country’s Christian triumph over paganism. But seven years after the success of his choral-orchestral work based on Finnish folklore, Kullervo, friends and critics were urging the composer to think more symphonically.

What Finland needed, they believed, was a symphony that stood its ground as just that – a symphony. In other words, Finland needed art that was international rather than parochial. That’s what makes Sibelius’s First Symphony so musically interesting, irrespective of contextual events. In his student days in Vienna and Berlin, Sibelius’s teachers had stressed to their pupil the importance of ‘working through’ his musical themes – continuously shaping and sanding them, like a sculptor might, until they were fit for purpose. Sibelius seems to have taken this advice to heart and, arguably, to a whole new level – one that couldn’t have been anticipated by those instructors. So, in the First Symphony, we begin to see Sibelius handling his material in that distinctive way that would shape his later works and make them sound different from anyone else’s. The Symphony’s misty opening on a solitary clarinet doesn’t just prepare us, the audience, for the energetic shock of the movement’s fast-paced Allegro that immediately follows; it infiltrates the work’s future musical ideas on a level that some say not even Sibelius was aware of. The shape of that clarinet’s theme can be detected in numerous fragments and presented melodies right up to the Symphony’s ending. The last movement launches with a transfigured version of it on thrusting, declamatory strings. In that gesture is another key to what made Sibelius’s symphonic conception so different – his response to the capabilities of the orchestra. Put simply, the Germanic approach to developing a symphony’s conversation was largely about the notes; it could be plotted on a piano before being transferred to orchestra ‘on paper’. Sibelius, however, allows the function of his instruments to dictate the form and progress of his music. He lets orchestral sonorities move the music forward, not just harmonic and melodic building blocks. Like, for example, the static harmonies in the central movements – long-held bass notes (or ‘pedal’ notes) in the slow Andante and then the harmonically consistent pizzicatos in the following Scherzo. Like the opening clarinet solo, too. There wasn’t much (if any) orchestral music sounding like this in 1899, which might have led the critic Ernest Newman to say that ‘every page of [the First Symphony] breathes of another manner of

thought, another way of living, even another landscape and seascape of ours.’ But there are tangible nationalistic elements at work in the Symphony as well. The use of ‘recitation’ – a note repeating itself like something half-sung, a ‘recitative’ in musical jargon – had its roots in the runic singing tradition of Finland and had been developed by Sibelius in Kullervo (it remained one of the composer’s hallmarks). The first movement’s main theme has the feeling of a runic chant, as do numerous other instances in the Symphony. More recently, many Finns have noted the Scherzo’s distinctive Finno-Ugric sense of bravado. Sibelius, however, had international ears. As odd as it may seem given the political context, there’s a sprinkling of Russian characteristics in the First Symphony. Many have heard a link with Tchaikovsky in the opening clarinet solo (Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony of 1888, in the same key, opens the same way), in the fur-wrapped melancholy of the slow movement and even in the feverish way with which the Symphony erupts in its final movement. In that final movement, though, we also hear Sibelius at his most unique and exploratory. First of all, that organic treatment of themes continues (it opens with a version of the first movement’s clarinet solo, now on strings, and closes with the same E minor pizzicato chords that closed that movement too). But also, the movement appears to reconcile the Symphony’s dual ‘energetic’ versus ‘static’ states in a way that only Sibelius could have conceived, cleverly transitioning between speeds and even using two speeds at the same time (another feature that would be developed later on). This is Sibelius forging his ‘stubbornly separatist, regionally resonant musical idiom’, in the words of musicologist James Hepokoski. Perhaps that’s what led Finns to hear the work as one that spoke of independence. Programme notes © Andrew Mellor

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Still to come this season at Eastbourne Congress Theatre & Devonshire Park Theatre

NORTH MEETS SOUTH Sunday 27 November 2016 3.00pm

THE FOUR SEASONS Sunday 5 FEBRUARY 2017 3.00pm

TRAGEDY TO JOY Sunday 23 APRIL 2017 3.00pm

Glinka Waltz Fantasy Walton Cello Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4

J S Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 J S Bach Concerto for Two Violins Vivaldi The Four Seasons

Brahms Horn Trio Schubert Piano Quintet in A major (‘Trout’)

Dima Slobodeniouk conductor Dane Johansen cello

Pieter Schoeman violin Andrew Storey violin

Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra

BEETHOVEN'S FIFTH Sunday 4 DECEMBER 2016 3.00pm

ENCHANTMENT AND ROMANCE Sunday 12 MARCH 2017 3.00pm

Weber Overture, Der Freischütz Mozart Clarinet Concerto Beethoven Symphony No. 5

R Strauss Sextet from Capriccio Mozart Clarinet Quintet Mendelssohn Octet

Michael Seal conductor Raphaël Sévère clarinet

Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra

CONGRESS THEATRE

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

DEVONSHIRE PARK THEATRE

Book now eastbournetheatres.co.uk 01323 412000 Tickets £13–£29

Series discounts of up to 25% available

New CD release on the LPO Label Wagner: Die Walküre (Act 1)

BBC Radio 3's Disc of the Week, 1 October 2016

Klaus Tennstedt conductor René Kollo tenor (Siegmund) Eva-Maria Bundschuh soprano (Sieglinde) John Tomlinson bass (Hunding) London Philharmonic Orchestra

£9.99 | LPO-0092

Wagner’s Die Walküre is one of the world’s most popular operas. Act 1 is often performed alone in concert; it is a rich concentration of human love, loyalty and blood ties, packed full of thrilling music, revealing Wagner’s assured grasp of orchestral colouring and musical opulence.

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

Eastbourne Symphony Orchestra Autumn Concert 2016

www.eso.org.uk

St Saviour’s Church, South Street, Eastbourne, BN21 4UT

7pm Sunday 30 October Conductor Graham Jones, Leader Lisa Wigmore

Brahms Academic Festival Overture Mozart Sinfonia Concertante for Four Winds Glière Horn Concerto ‘A musical Bear Grylls’ (Huffington Post) Soloist Ben Goldscheider Winner of brass category final in 2016 BBC Young Musician Finalist in 2016 ESO Young Soloist Competition

Glière is a direct heir to the Russian romantic tradition and forms a link between Tchaikowsky and the next generation of Russian/ Soviet composers including Prokofiev and Khachaturian. The most important element of his music is his expressive melody. The horn concerto (1951), a major work in the horn repertoire, is written in an engaging traditional style and for a large orchestra. This and the attractive Sinfonia Concertante provide an opportunity to hear two rarely performed works.

£14 in advance, £15 on the door • concertmanager@eso.org.uk 07780 993801 Reid and Dean, 43–45 Cornfield Road BN21 4QG • Seats are not reserved

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