LPO programme: 24 Jan 2024 - Symphonie fantastique (Ryan Bancroft/Inon Barnatan) by London Philharmonic Orchestra

2023/24 concert season at the Southbank Centre

Free concert programme

Principal Conductor Edward Gardner supported by Aud Jebsen Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG Artistic Director Elena Dubinets Chief Executive David Burke Leader Pieter Schoeman supported by Neil Westreich

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Wednesday 24 January 2024 | 7.30pm

Symphonie fantastique Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (33’) Interval (20’) Berlioz Symphonie fantastique (48’) Ryan Bancroft conductor Inon Barnatan piano

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. Concert presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Contents 2

Welcome LPO news 3 On stage tonight 4 London Philharmonic Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Ryan Bancroft 7 Inon Barnatan 9 Programme notes 11 Recommended recordings 12 Next concerts 13 Sound Futures donors 14 Thank you 16 LPO administration

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Welcome

LPO news

Welcome to the Southbank Centre

Spring at St John’s Waterloo Join us at St John’s Church in Waterloo this spring for a series of unique chamber concerts showcasing the talents of our musicians. The next concert takes place on Wednesday 7 February at 6.30pm, when we present ‘Jazz Roots, Soul Branches’. The evening will feature chamber arrangements of Duke Ellington’s most-loved tunes, Carl Davis’s reimagining of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess, an homage to Miles Davis, and tributes to Stevie Wonder and Chaka Khan, whose chart-topping hits will be experienced afresh as an LPO bassoon quartet breathe new life into ‘Ain’t Nobody’ and ‘Superstition’.

We’re the largest arts centre in the UK and one of the nation’s top visitor attractions, showcasing the world’s most exciting artists at our venues in the heart of London. We’re here to present great cultural experiences that bring people together, and open up the arts to everyone. The Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Hayward Gallery, National Poetry Library and Arts Council Collection. We’re one of London’s favourite meeting spots, with lots of free events and places to relax, eat and shop next to the Thames.

Tickets are available from £12: book at lpo.org.uk

We hope you enjoy your visit. If you need any information or help, please ask a member of staff. You can also write to us at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, or email hello@southbankcentre.co.uk

FUNharmonics Family Concert: Goal! Sunday 3 March Our FUNharmonics family concerts at the Royal Festival Hall are the perfect way to introduce the joy of classical music to the whole family. Each hour-long concert is presented in a fun and engaging way, with plenty of audience participation guaranteed to get everyone joining in! Your concert ticket includes free musical activities in the foyer spaces at the Royal Festival Hall, so the family can make a day of your visit.

Subscribers to our email updates are the first to hear about new events, offers and competitions. Just head to our website to sign up.

Drinks You are welcome to bring drinks from the venue’s bars and cafés into the Royal Festival Hall to enjoy during tonight’s concert. Please be considerate to fellow audience members by keeping noise during the concert to a minimum, and please take your glasses with you for recycling afterwards. Thank you.

Our next FUNharmonics concert, ‘Goal!’, is on Sunday 3 March at 12 noon, and includes the European premiere of É Gol! by Brazilian-American composer Clarice Assad, imagining a day in the life of legendary Brazilian footballer Marta Vieira da Silva as she gets ready for the big game. Created for orchestra and audience, this piece offers the whole family a chance to perform with the LPO throughout, using your voices, breath and body percussion. The concert includes Clarice introducing all the music and leading audience participation, and other exciting music to get you in the sporty mood!

Enjoyed tonight’s concert? Help us to share the wonder of the LPO by making a donation today. Use the QR code to donate via the LPO website, or visit lpo.org.uk/donate. Thank you.

This concert and activities are suitable for children aged 6+. Book now at lpo.org.uk/funharmonics

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

On stage tonight First Violins

Pieter Schoeman* Leader

Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Kate Oswin Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Lasma Taimina

Chair supported by Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave

Minn Majoe Katalin Varnagy

Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

Elizaveta Tyun Yang Zhang Martin Höhmann Thomas Eisner Cassandra Hamilton Chu-Yu Yang Thea Spiers Nilufar Alimaksumova Rasa Zukauskaite Alison Strange

Second Violins

Tania Mazzetti Principal Emma Oldfield Co-Principal Claudia Tarrant-Matthews Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Helena Smart Marie-Anne Mairesse Joseph Maher Fiona Higham Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley

Nynke Hijlkema Kate Birchall Sioni Williams Sarah Thornett Kate Cole Jessica Coleman Lyrit Milgram

Violas

Oboes

Da Kyung Kwak

Ian Hardwick* Principal Eleanor Sullivan

Guest Principal

Martin Wray Benedetto Pollani Katharine Leek Laura Vallejo Lucia Ortiz Sauco Stanislav Popov Alistair Scahill Shiry Rashkovsky Kate de Campos Daniel Cornford Julia Doukakis

Offstage Oboe Alice Munday

Cor Anglais

Sue Böhling* Principal Chair supported by Dr Barry Grimaldi

Clarinets

Benjamin Mellefont* Principal

Cellos

Thomas Watmough

Kristina Blaumane Principal

Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden

E-flat Clarinet

Henry Shapard David Lale Gregory Walmsley Sue Sutherley Tom Roff Helen Thomas Jane Lindsay Auriol Evans Henry Hargreaves

Thomas Watmough Principal

Chair supported by Roger Greenwood

Bassoons

Jonathan Davies* Principal Chair supported by Sir Simon Robey

Dominic Tyler Emma Harding Simon Estell*

Double Basses

Kevin Rundell* Principal Sebastian Pennar

Horns

Co-Principal

Hugh Kluger George Peniston Laura Murphy Lowri Estell Charlotte Kerbegian Elen Roberts

John Ryan* Principal Annemarie Federle

Flutes

Trumpets

Principal

Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison

Paul Beniston* Principal Tom Nielsen Co-Principal Anne McAneney*

Juliette Bausor Principal Stewart McIlwham*

Piccolo

Cornets

Stewart McIlwham*

Tom Nielsen David Hilton

Principal

Trombones

Mark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Bass Trombone

Lyndon Meredith Principal

Tubas

Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Stuart Beard

Timpani

Simon Carrington* Principal

Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE

Feargus Brennan

Percussion

Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins

Karen Hutt

Chair supported by Mr B C Fairhall

Jeremy Cornes Oliver Butterworth Ignacio Molins

Harps

Rachel Masters Principal Sally Pryce Patrizia Meier Tomos Xerri *Professor at a London conservatoire

The LPO also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose player is not present at this concert: Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Our conductors

Uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating to watch and hear, the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since Sir Thomas Beecham founded it in 1932. With every performance we aim to bring wonder to the modern world and cement our position as a leading orchestra for the 21st century.

Our Principal Conductors have included some of the greatest historic names like Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2021 Edward Gardner became our 13th Principal Conductor, taking the Orchestra into its tenth decade. Vladimir Jurowski became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his impact as Principal Conductor from 2007–21. Karina Canellakis is our current Principal Guest Conductor and Tania León our Composer-in-Residence.

Our home is here at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, where we’re at the beating heart of London’s cultural life. You’ll also find us at our resident venues in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and on tour throughout the UK and internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. Each summer we’re resident at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, combining the magic of opera with Glyndebourne’s glorious setting in the Sussex countryside.

Soundtrack to key moments Everyone will have heard the London Philharmonic Orchestra, whether it’s playing the world’s National Anthems at every medal ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, our iconic recording with Pavarotti that made Nessun Dorma a global football anthem, or closing the flotilla at The Queen’s Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. And you’ll almost certainly have heard us on the soundtracks for major films including The Lord of the Rings.

Sharing the wonder You’ll find us online, on streaming platforms, on social media and through our broadcast partnership with Marquee TV. During the pandemic period we launched ‘LPOnline’: over 100 videos of performances, insights and introductions to playlists, which led to us being named runner-up in the Digital Classical Music Awards 2020. During 2023/24 we’re once again be working with Marquee TV to broadcast selected live concerts, so you can share or relive the wonder from your own living room.

We also release live, studio and archive recordings on our own label, and are the world’s most-streamed orchestra, with over 15 million plays of our content each month.

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Pieter Schoeman Leader

There’s nothing we love more than seeing the joy of children and families enjoying their first musical moments, and we’re passionate about equipping schools and teachers through schools’ concerts, resources and training. Reflecting our values of collaboration and inclusivity, our OrchLab and Open Sound Ensemble projects offer music-making opportunities for adults and young people with special educational needs and disabilities. Our LPO Junior Artists programme is leading the way in creating pathways into the profession for young artists from under-represented communities, and our LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes support the next generation of professional musicians, bridging the transition from education to professional careers. We also recently launched the LPO Conducting Fellowship, supporting the development of outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds currently under-represented in the profession.

Next generations

Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002. He is also a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance.

Looking forward

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 the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. As a chamber musician he regularly appears at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. His chamber music partners have included Anne-Sophie Mutter, Veronika Eberle, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Boris Garlitsky, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Martin Helmchen and Julia Fischer.

The centrepiece of our 2023/24 season is our spring 2024 festival The Music in You. Reflecting our adventurous spirit, the festival embraces all kinds of expression – dance, music theatre, and audience participation. We’ll collaborate with artists from across the creative spectrum, and give premieres by composers including Tania León, Julian Joseph, Daniel Kidane, Victoria Vita Polevá, Luís Tinoco and John Williams. Rising stars making their debuts with us in 2023/24 include conductors Tianyi Lu, Oksana Lyniv, Jonathon Heyward and Natalia Ponomarchuk, accordionist João Barradas and organist Anna Lapwood. We also present the long-awaited conclusion of Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski’s Wagner Ring Cycle, Götterdämmerung, and, as well as our titled conductors Edward Gardner and Karina Canellakis, we welcome back classical stars including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Robin Ticciati, Christian Tetzlaff and Danielle de Niese.

Pieter has performed numerous times as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights have included an appearance as both conductor and soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Royal Festival Hall, the Brahms Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and the Britten Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the LPO Label to great critical acclaim. Pieter has appeared as Guest Leader with the BBC, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon and Baltimore symphony orchestras; the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras; and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.

lpo.org.uk

Pieter’s chair in the LPO is generously supported by Neil Westreich.

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Ryan Bancroft conductor

performances in previous seasons with the Minnesota, Baltimore, Houston and Dallas symphony orchestras. The 2023/24 season also sees Ryan make debuts with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra with Joshua Bell, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Castilla y León with Martin Fröst, and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic with Bomsori Kim, as well as returning to the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Renaud Capuçon. This follows a series of debuts at major international venues in the 2022/23 season, including at Tokyo’s Suntory Hall with the New Japan Philharmonic and Midori, and at the Royal Concertgebouw with the Netherlands Philharmonic. Since winning the Malko Competition Ryan has conducted a number of other leading European orchestras including the BBC Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Rai Torino and the Ensemble Intercontemporain.

Ryan Bancroft grew up in Los Angeles and first came to international attention in April 2018 when he won both the First Prize and Audience Prize at the prestigious Malko Competition for Young Conductors in Copenhagen. Since September 2021 Ryan has been Principal Conductor of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Following his first visit to work with the Tapiola Sinfonietta in Finland, he was invited to become their Artist in Association from the 2021/22 season onwards.

Ryan has a particular passion for contemporary music and has performed with Amsterdam’s acclaimed Nieuw Ensemble; assisted Pierre Boulez in a performance of his Sur Incises in Los Angeles; premiered works by Sofia Gubaidulina, John Cage, James Tenney and Anne LeBaron; and worked closely with improvisers such as Wadada Leo Smith and Charlie Haden.

In 2021 Ryan was announced as Chief Conductor Designate of the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra, and he took up the Chief Conductor position in September 2023. He opened his first season in September with the orchestra’s first performance of Sven-David Sandström’s The High Mass, together with the Eric Ericson Chamber Choir. Throughout the season he will continue to conduct a wide range of repertoire with the orchestra, including premieres by Daniel Börtz and Anders Hillborg, and working with soloists including Emanuel Ax and Seong-Jin Cho.

Ryan Bancroft studied trumpet at the California Institute of the Arts, alongside additional studies in harp, flute, cello, and Ghanaian music and dance. He then went on to receive an MMus in Orchestral Conducting from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. While studying in Scotland he played trumpet with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra on many occasions. He continued his conducting studies in the Netherlands and is a graduate of the prestigious Nationale Master Orkestdirectie, run jointly by the Conservatorium van Amsterdam and the Royal Conservatoire of The Hague. As a student, his main mentors were Edward Carroll, Kenneth Montgomery, Ed Spanjaard and Jac van Steen.

Ryan Bancroft made his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in April 2021, when he conducted an online streamed concert from the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall featuring works by Mozart, Tchaikovsky and Arvo Pärt with violin soloist Gil Shaham. Ryan returned to Los Angeles in August 2023 to make his Hollywood Bowl debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra and Eric Lu, before making his debut with The Cleveland Orchestra at Blossom Festival alongside Mao Fujita. This season he makes debuts with the San Francisco and Cincinnati symphony orchestras, and returns to the Toronto Symphony, following

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Inon Barnatan piano

Den Norske Opera, Leeds international Concert Season and Wigmore Hall. Inon Barnatan has released a number of albums on the Pentatone label. The most recent is ‘Rachmaninoff Reflections’, released in November 2023, the centrepiece of which is his own new piano arrangement of the composer’s Symphonic Dances. © Marco Borggreve

The recipient of an Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, Inon Barnatan is also a sought-after recitalist and chamber musician, and in 2019 he embarked on his first season as music director of La Jolla Music Society’s Summerfest in California, one of the foremost music festivals in the US.

‘One of the most admired pianists of his generation’ (The New York Times), Inon Barnatan has established a unique and varied career, equally celebrated as a soloist, curator and collaborator. He is a regular soloist with many of the world’s foremost orchestras and conductors, and served as the New York Philharmonic’s inaugural Artist-in-Association for three seasons. Inon Barnatan last appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in November 2021, when he performed Gershwin’s Piano Concerto in F under Karina Canellakis at the Royal Festival Hall, in a concert that was subsequently broadcast on Marquee TV. Inon has performed with the symphony orchestras of Minnesota, Dresden, Barcelona, Stockholm, Ottawa, Innsbruck, Tenerife and Los Angeles, as well as recreating Beethoven’s legendary 1808 concert with the Cincinnati Symphony. Passionate about contemporary music, he has commissioned and performed works by many living composers, premiering pieces by Thomas Adès, Sebastian Currier, Avner Dorman and Andrew Norman, among many others. Recent concerto highlights include debuts with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Montreal Symphony orchestras, as well as performances with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Auckland Philharmonia, Philharmonie Zuidnederland, LA Philharmonic, Philadelphia Orchestra and San Diego Symphony Orchestra, and recitals and chamber music concerts in Ostrava and Schwetzingen. The 2023/34 season sees Inon make return visits to the Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He will also give recitals at

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Programme notes Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840–93

Piano Concerto No. 1 in B flat minor, Op. 23 1874 Inon Barnatan piano 1 Allegro non troppo e molto maestoso – Allegro con spirito 2 Andantino semplice – Prestissimo 3 Allegro con fuoco

Photo courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London

Tchaikovsky was always terribly vulnerable to criticism. So one can readily imagine the effect on him when the pianist and composer Nikolai Rubinstein pronounced judgement on his newly completed First Piano Concerto. From the start, Tchaikovsky had been particularly keen that Rubinstein perform the Concerto in one of his prestigious concerts. But when Tchaikovsky played the first movement to Rubinstein, on Christmas Eve 1874, the response was withering. ‘It turned out that my concerto was worthless and unplayable’, Tchaikovsky recalled soon afterwards, ‘passages were so fragmented, so clumsy, so badly written that they were beyond rescue; the work itself was bad, vulgar; in places I had stolen from other composers; only two or three pages were worth preserving; the rest must be thrown away or completely rewritten.’ Fortunately for us, Tchaikovsky didn’t follow Rubinstein’s advice and destroy the Concerto; instead he recovered his nerve and sent it to the German pianist and conductor Hans von Bülow, whose reaction could hardly have been more different: the Concerto, Bülow replied, was ‘so original in thought (yet never affected), so noble, so strong, so interesting in details ... In short, this is a real pearl and you deserve the gratitude of all pianists.’ And that, broadly speaking, is how posterity has come to view the First Piano Concerto. Even so, Tchaikovsky did make some revisions after hearing the work in concert. Bülow made a few recommendations, as did the pianist Edward Dannreuther. Dannreuther’s

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Programme notes comments in particular must have been made with great tact, because the normally touchy Tchaikovsky thanked him for his ‘very sensible and practical suggestions’, and took them to heart when he revised the Concerto in 1878 – and possibly when he refined it further in 1888. That is the version we hear regularly today.

this tune turns out to contain the seeds of many important themes to come. The long first movement is also striking for the way it dramatises the relationship between piano and orchestra – sometimes an heroic struggle, sometimes closer to a tender or turbulent love affair. After this, the Andantino middle movement offers gentle relief, its faster central section based on a French folk-tune Tchaikovsky used to sing with his brothers Modest and Anatoly, ‘One must have fun, dance and sing’. Then the finale is a terrific, exhilarating workoutcum-fireworks-display based on a Ukrainian folksong, with another splendid ‘Big Tune’, which returns in triumph to end this passionate, stunningly theatrical Concerto.

Bülow’s comments about originality and nobility are borne out right from the start. A few bars of dark fanfare, led by the horns, are swept aside by the piano’s sonorous major-key chords, then one of Tchaikovsky’s grandest and most glorious long melodies surges in on strings. After a period of extended development this theme is dropped, never to return again – to the disappointment of some first-time listeners, yet in fact

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

@ ST JOHN’S CHURCH, WATERLOO WEDNESDAY 7 FEBRUARY 2024, 6.30PM

Jazz Roots, Soul Branches RE-IMAGINED CLASSICS AND CHAMBER ARRANGEMENTS, FROM GERSHWIN TO DUKE ELLINGTON, STEVIE WONDER & CHAKA KHAN

TICKETS FROM £12 LPO.ORG.UK 9

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Programme notes Hector Berlioz 1803–69

Symphonie fantastique 1830

1 Rêveries – Passions [Reveries – Passions] 2 Un Bal [A Ball] 3 Scène aux Champs [Scene in the Country] 4 Marche au Supplice [March to the Scaffold] 5 Songe d’une Nuit du Sabbat [Dream of a Witches Sabbath]

If there is one composer above all who deserves that ultimate romantic tribute, ‘Byronic’, then it has to be Hector Berlioz. Here was a composer who from early childhood was prone to tempestuous mood-swings; a bold, some would say reckless innovator; a gloriously unabashed self-dramatiser whose life and work mirror each other in so many ways that it’s often hard to tell where one ends and the other begins. Many composers have fallen passionately, hopelessly in love. Some have attempted to work through those intense feelings in music. But how many would invite the object of their desire to a performance of a symphony in which the nature of that love is publicly, even graphically displayed in all its ecstasies and agonies? That is exactly what the 26-year-old Berlioz did in his wild and brilliant Symphonie fantastique (1830). Three years earlier, in 1827, he had seen the young Irish actress Harriet Smithson playing in Shakespeare at the Odéon Theatre, Paris. Instantly, violently, he fell in love, both with Shakespeare as poet and dramatist, and with Harriet, the playwright’s beautiful advocate. He tried to meet her, but she fended off his advances. So instead Berlioz threw his frustrated passion for Harriet into one of the most vivid pieces of musical storytelling ever penned. Described in Berlioz’s written programme note as the representation of an ‘opium dream’, the Symphonie fantastique tells how the rejected lover’s longings and despair, his subsequent feelings of loneliness and rejection, finally turn nasty. He dreams

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Programme notes that he has killed his beloved, and that he is being executed for her murder. She then returns, horrifically, in a grotesque ‘Witches Sabbath’, where she gloats over the apparently still conscious body of her former admirer. Hardly a guaranteed way to a girl’s heart, you might think, but it worked. Ten months after the Symphonie’s 1832 premiere, Berlioz and Harriet were married. It would be lovely to say that they lived happily ever after, but alas the marriage was a disaster. For Berlioz, Harriet was an idea, not a real woman: mutual disillusionment was virtually inevitable.

The thunder then morphs into the sound of military drums for the ‘March to the Scaffold’, and we can imagine the roars of the crowd as the hero is dragged to his death. Just before the end we hear the idée fixe theme again on high clarinet. But it is suddenly cut off – like the hero’s head – by a sharp guillotine-like orchestral chord, followed by quick descending string pizzicatos (the head falls into the basket?) and roars of righteous approval from the onlookers (full orchestra) sounding through massed drums. Still more audacious, however, is the idée fixe’s final transformation, after the finale’s eerie slow introduction, on shrill high clarinet and piccolo, with crude gurgling laughter from four bassoons. The theme, once beautiful, has become an object of obscene parody. Tubas bellow out the old Requiem chant Dies Irae (‘Day of Wrath’) through chiming bells, then the witches dance furiously, at one point massed violins and violas tap out crazed rhythms on their strings with the wood of their bows. At the end all is brazen uproar – a tad self-indulgent perhaps, but thrilling in its sheer exultant shamelessness.

For all its truly ‘fantastic’ extremes, the Symphonie fantastique isn’t all nerve-jangling gothic excess. When the German poet Heinrich Heine called Berlioz ‘an immense nightingale, a lark as great as an eagle’, he was paying tribute to the poet in Berlioz as much as to the theatrical sound-wizard. The first movement’s long, slow (or mostly slow) introduction is a touchingly tender portrayal of the pain of rejected love. The volatile rise and fall of passionate unrequited yearning is represented in a kind of realistic psychological ebband-flow then rarely experienced outside the opera house – and not often even there. As the tempo changes to a surging Allegro agitato e appassionato assai (‘Lively, agitated and very impassioned’) we hear a lovely, elegantly arching violin melody which, Berlioz’s programme note tells us, represents the beloved herself – or rather the composer’s obsession with her: his ‘idée fixe’. Throughout the movement the music seems to reach out ardently towards this theme, only to fall back repeatedly in despair.

Programme notes © Stephen Johnson

Recommended recordings by Laurie Watt Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No. 1 Martha Argerich | Berlin Philharmonic | Claudio Abbado (Deutsche Grammophon)

The liquid tinkling of the two harps in the waltz-like ‘Ball’ movement (the first use of this instrument in a symphony) creates a dreamlike haze, perfect for this half-hallucinogenic ballroom scene in which the lover searches for his beloved. A change of key, tremulous strings, and we see her again, delicately evoked by flute and clarinet. But she remains tantalisingly elusive, and towards the end a frantic note enters the dance music. Still more poignant is the ‘Scene in the Country’, the Symphonie’s emotional heart and dramatic turning point. At first the cor anglais calls to an offstage oboe, like male and female shepherds piping to each other across alpine distances, while muted violas nervously shimmer in the background. One can imagine the artisthero shouting and crying his feelings into huge empty spaces in the music that follows. But the ending is still more remarkable. The cor anglais calls again, but instead of the answering oboe, we hear distant rumbles of thunder on four timpani, a sound heavy with portentous dread.

Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique Los Angeles Philharmonic | Gustavo Dudamel (Deutsche Grammophon) or (on period instruments) Les Siècles | François-Xavier Roth (Harmonia Mundi)

We’d love to hear from you We hope you enjoyed tonight’s concert. Could you spare a few moments to complete a short survey about your experience? Your feedback is invaluable to us and will help to shape our future plans. Just scan the QR code to begin the survey. Thank you!

Next LPO concerts at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall BEETHOVEN’S SEVENTH Saturday 27 January 2024 | 7.30pm Wagner Overture, The Flying Dutchman Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20, K466 Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Anja Bihlmaier conductor Martin James Bartlett piano

FRANK PETER ZIMMERMANN PLAYS ELGAR Saturday 3 February 2024 | 7.30pm Elgar Violin Concerto R Schumann Symphony No. 2 Edward Gardner conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

OKSANA LYNIV CONDUCTS DVOŘÁK Friday 9 February 2024 | 7.30pm

Janáček Suite, The Cunning Little Vixen Victoria Vita Polevá The Bell - Symphony No. 4 for Cello and Orchestra (UK premiere)* Dvořák Symphony No. 8 Oksana Lyniv conductor Inbal Segev cello *Co-commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Dallas Symphony Orchestra

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

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 CBE Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Underwood Trust

Welser-Möst Circle William & Alex de Winton John Ireland Charitable Trust The Tsukanov Family Foundation Neil Westreich

Tennstedt Circle Valentina & Dmitry Aksenov Richard Buxton The Candide Trust Michael & Elena Kroupeev Kirby Laing Foundation Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Alexey & Anastasia Reznikovich Sir Simon Robey Bianca & Stuart Roden Simon & Vero Turner The late Mr K Twyman

Solti Patrons Ageas John & Manon Antoniazzi Gabor Beyer, through BTO Management Consulting AG Jon Claydon Mrs Mina Goodman & Miss Suzanne Goodman Roddy & April Gow The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Mr James R.D. Korner Christoph Ladanyi & Dr Sophia Ladanyi-Czernin Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski The Maurice Marks Charitable Trust

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Carolina & Martin Schwab Dr Brian Smith Lady Valerie Solti Mr & Mrs G Stein Dr Peter Stephenson Miss Anne Stoddart TFS Loans Limited Marina Vaizey Jenny Watson Guy & Utti Whittaker

Pritchard Donors Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Mrs Arlene Beare Mr Patrick & Mrs Joan Benner Mr Conrad Blakey Dr Anthony Buckland Paul Collins Alastair Crawford Mr Derek B. Gray Mr Roger Greenwood The HA.SH Foundation Darren & Jennifer Holmes Honeymead Arts Trust Mr Geoffrey Kirkham Drs Frank & Gek Lim Peter Mace Mr & Mrs David Malpas Dr David McGibney Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Mr Christopher Querée The Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer Charitable Trust Timothy Walker CBE AM Christopher Williams Peter Wilson Smith Mr Anthony Yolland and all other donors who wish to remain anonymous

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

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

The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Anonymous donors Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet Aud Jebsen In memory of Mrs Rita Reay Sir Simon & Lady Robey CBE

Orchestra Circle

William & Alex de Winton Edward Gardner & Sara Övinge Patricia Haitink Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle Mr & Mrs Philip Kan Neil Westreich

Principal Associates

An anonymous donor Richard Buxton Gill & Garf Collins In memory of Brenda Lyndoe Casbon In memory of Ann Marguerite Collins Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave George Ramishvili The Tsukanov Family Mr Florian Wunderlich

Associates

Mrs Irina Andreeva In memory of Len & Edna Beech Steven M. Berzin The Candide Trust John & Sam Dawson HSH Dr Donatus, Prince of Hohenzollern Stuart & Bianca Roden In memory of Hazel Amy Smith

Gold Patrons

David & Yi Buckley In memory of Allner Mavis Channing Sonja Drexler Peter & Fiona Espenhahn Mr B C Fairhall Hamish & Sophie Forsyth Virginia Gabbertas MBE Mr Roger Greenwood Malcolm Herring Julian & Gill Simmonds Eric Tomsett The Viney Family Guy & Utti Whittaker

Silver Patrons

Andrew T Mills Denis & Yulia Nagy Andrew Neill Jamie Njoku-Goodwin Peter & Lucy Noble Oliver & Josie Ogg Mr Stephen Olton Simon & Lucy Owen-Johnstone Mr Roger Phillimore Mr Michael Posen Saskia Roberts John Romeo Priscylla Shaw Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Karina Varivoda Grenville & Krysia Williams Joanna Williams

Dame Colette Bowe David Burke & Valerie Graham Clive & Helena Butler Cameron & Kathryn Doley Ulrike & Benno Engelmann Dmitry & Ekaterina Gursky The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust John & Angela Kessler Mrs Elena & Mr Oleg Kolobova Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva Mikhail Noskov & Vasilina Bindley Tom & Phillis Sharpe Mr Joe Topley & Ms Tracey Countryman Andrew & Rosemary Tusa Jenny Watson CBE Laurence Watt

Principal Supporters

Anonymous donors Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Mr John D Barnard Roger & Clare Barron Dr Anthony Buckland Dr Simona Cicero & Mr Mario Altieri Mr Alistair Corbett Guy Davies David Devons Igor & Lyuba Galkin Prof. Erol & Mrs Deniz Gelenbe In memory of Enid Gofton Alexander Greaves Prof. Emeritus John Gruzelier Michael & Christine Henry Mrs Maureen Hooft-Graafland Per Jonsson Mr Ian Kapur Ms Elena Lojevsky Dr Peter Mace Pippa Mistry-Norman Mrs Terry Neale John Nickson & Simon Rew Mr James Pickford Filippo Poli Mr Robert Ross Martin & Cheryl Southgate Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr Rodney Whittaker Christopher Williams

Bronze Patrons

Anonymous donors Chris Aldren Michael Allen Mrs A Beare Mr Anthony Blaiklock Lorna & Christopher Bown Mr Bernard Bradbury Simon Burke & Rupert King Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Deborah Dolce Ms Elena Dubinets David Ellen Cristina & Malcolm Fallen Christopher Fraser OBE Mr Daniel Goldstein David & Jane Gosman Mr Gavin Graham Lord & Lady Hall Mrs Dorothy Hambleton Iain & Alicia Hasnip Eugene & Allison Hayes J Douglas Home Molly Jackson Mrs Farrah Jamal Mr & Mrs Jan Mr & Mrs Ralph Kanza Mr Peter King Jamie & Julia Korner Rose & Dudley Leigh Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Drs Frank & Gek Lim Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Mr Gordon McNair

Supporters

Anonymous donors Mr Francesco Andronio Julian & Annette Armstrong Mr Philip Bathard-Smith Emily Benn Mr Julien Chilcott-Monk Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington Mr Peter Coe Mr Joshua Coger Miss Tessa Cowie Caroline Cox-Johnson Mr Simon Edelsten Will Gold Mr Stephen Goldring Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh Mr Geordie Greig Mr Peter Imhof The Jackman Family Mr David MacFarlane Paul & Suzanne McKeown Nick Merrifield Simon & Fiona Mortimore Dame Jane Newell DBE Mr David Peters Nicky Small Mr Brian Smith Mr Michael Timinis Mr & Mrs Anthony Trahar Tony & Hilary Vines Dr June Wakefield Mr John Weekes Mr Roger Woodhouse Mr C D Yates

Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd

Hon. Life Members Alfonso Aijón Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Robert Hill Keith Millar Victoria Robey CBE Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE Timothy Walker CBE AM Laurence Watt

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

Thank you

Thomas Beecham Group Members

Trusts and Foundations

German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce Lazard Natixis Corporate Investment Banking Sciteb Ltd Walpole

ABO Trust The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust BlueSpark Foundation The Boltini Trust Borrows Charitable Trust Cockayne – Grants for the Arts The London Community Foundation Dunard Fund Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation Foyle Foundation Garrick Charitable Trust The Golsoncott Foundation Idlewild Trust Institute Adam Mickiewicz John Coates Charitable Trust John Horniman’s Children’s Trust John Thaw Foundation Kirby Laing Foundation The Kurt Weill Foundation for Music The Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Lucille Graham Trust The Marchus Trust PRS Foundation The R K Charitable Trust The Radcliffe Trust Rivers Foundation Rothschild Foundation Scops Arts Trust TIOC Foundation The Thriplow Charitable Trust Vaughan Williams Foundation The Victoria Wood Foundation The Viney Family

Preferred Partners

and all others who wish to remain anonymous.

David & Yi Buckley Gill & Garf Collins William & Alex de Winton Sonja Drexler Mr B C Fairhall The Friends of the LPO Roger Greenwood Dr Barry Grimaldi Mr & Mrs Philip Kan John & Angela Kessler Sir Simon Robey Victoria Robey CBE Bianca & Stuart Roden Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds Eric Tomsett Neil Westreich Guy & Utti Whittaker

Corporate Donor Barclays

LPO Corporate Circle Principal

Bloomberg Carter-Ruck Solicitors French Chamber of Commerce

Tutti

Board of the American Friends of the LPO We are grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who assist with fundraising for our activities in the United States of America: Simon Freakley Chairman Kara Boyle Jon Carter Jay Goffman Alexandra Jupin Natalie Pray MBE Damien Vanderwilt Marc Wassermann Elizabeth Winter Catherine Høgel Hon. Director Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP

LPO International Board of Governors Natasha Tsukanova Co-Chair Martin Höhmann Co-Chair Mrs Irina Andreeva Steven M. Berzin Shashank Bhagat HSH Dr Donatus, Prince of Hohenzollern Aline Foriel-Destezet Irina Gofman Olivia Ma George Ramishvili Sophie Schÿler-Thierry Florian Wunderlich

Jeroboams Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Neal’s Yard OneWelbeck Sipsmith Steinway

In-kind Sponsor Google Inc

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 24 January 2024 • Symphonie fantastique

London Philharmonic Orchestra Administration Board of Directors

General Administration

Dr Catherine C. Høgel Chair Martin Höhmann* President Mark Vines* Vice-President Emily Benn Kate Birchall* David Burke Deborah Dolce Elena Dubinets Tanya Joseph Hugh Kluger* Katherine Leek* Minn Majoe* Tania Mazzetti* Jamie Njoku-Goodwin Andrew Tusa Neil Westreich Simon Freakley (Ex officio – Chairman of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra) *Player-Director

Elena Dubinets Artistic Director

Advisory Council Roger Barron Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass Helen Brocklebank YolanDa Brown OBE David Buckley Simon Burke Simon Callow CBE Desmond Cecil CMG Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Guillaume Descottes Cameron Doley Christopher Fraser OBE Jenny Goldie-Scot Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Marianna Hay MBE Nicholas Hely-Hutchinson DL Amanda Hill Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Geoff Mann Andrew Neill Nadya Powell Sir Bernard Rix Victoria Robey CBE Baroness Shackleton Thomas Sharpe KC Julian Simmonds Barry Smith Martin Southgate Chris Viney Laurence Watt Elizabeth Winter

Education and Community Talia Lash Education and Community Director

David Burke Chief Executive Chantelle Vircavs PA to the Executive and Employee Relations Manager

Lowri Davies Education and Community Project Manager Hannah Smith Education and Community Co-ordinator

Concert Management Roanna Gibson Concerts and Planning Director

Claudia Clarkson Regional Partnerships Manager

Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager Maddy Clarke Tours Manager Madeleine Ridout Glyndebourne and Projects Manager Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator Robert Winup Concerts and Tours Assistant

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Siân Jenkins Corporate Relations Manager

Mr Chris Aldren Honorary ENT Surgeon

Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager

Mr Simon Owen-Johnstone Hon. Orthopaedic Surgeon

Sophie Harvey Marketing Manager

Finance

Rachel Williams Publications Manager

Frances Slack Finance Director

Gavin Miller Sales and Ticketing Manager

Dayse Guilherme Finance Manager

Ruth Haines Press and PR Manager

Jean-Paul Ramotar Finance and IT Officer

Hayley Kim Residencies and Projects Marketing Manager

Professional Services

Dr Barry Grimaldi Honorary Doctor

Kath Trout Marketing and Communications Director

Felix Lo Orchestra and Auditions Manager

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

Rosie Morden Individual Giving Manager

Marketing

Benjamin Wakley Assistant Stage Manager

Philip Stuart Discographer

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors

Kirstin Peltonen Development Associate

Stephen O’Flaherty Deputy Operations Manager