LPO concert programme: 26 Mar 2023 Eastbourne - Romantic Journeys (Patrick Hahn/Tom Borrow)

2022/23 concert season at Congress Theatre

Where music takes you

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

Congress Theatre, Eastbourne

Sunday 26 March 2023 | 3.00pm

Romantic Journeys

Mendelssohn

Symphony No. 3 in A minor (Scottish) (43’)

Interval (20’)

Rachmaninoff

Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor (44’)

Patrick Hahn conductor

Tom Borrow

piano

The Steinway concert piano chosen and hired by the London Philharmonic Orchestra for this performance is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.

Contents 2

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

Welcome to the Congress Theatre

Theatre Director Chris Jordan

Welcome to this afternoon’s performance. As always, we are pleased to welcome back the London Philharmonic Orchestra and its patrons to the Congress Theatre. Whether this is your first visit or you are a season regular, we hope you enjoy your experience at our venue.

The Congress Theatre and the London Philharmonic Orchestra have a wonderful history together: the LPO gave the first ever performance at this Grade II listed building when it originally opened in 1963, and the first performance when it re-opened after refurbishment in 2017. The Orchestra has now performed over 350 concerts here, and as it celebrates its 90th anniversary this season we look forward to strengthening our relationship even further in the years to come and creating many more musical memories together.

The historic theatre in which you are now seated is unique in that it is conceived to be a perfect cube and has fantastic acoustics to enhance your experience of live music.

We thank you for continuing to support the concert series. Please sit back in your seats and enjoy the concert and your visit here. As a courtesy to others, please ensure mobile phones are switched off during the performance. Please also note that photography and recording are not allowed in the auditorium unless announced from the stage. Thank you.

Final concert this season at the Congress Theatre

Imaginary Landscapes

Sunday 16 April 2023 | 3.00pm

Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture

Dvořák Violin Concerto

Brahms Symphony No. 3

Chloé van Soeterstède conductor

Tai Murray violin‘

‘Technically flawless ... vivacious and scintillating ... With a debut record this outstanding, it can safely be assumed that she will exceed many expectations – she’s certainly exceeded mine.’

Chloé van Soeterstède & Tai Murray

Muso Magazine on Tai Murray

On stage today

First Violins

Alice Ivy-Pemberton Leader

Lasma Taimina

Chair supported by Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik

V. G. Cave

Catherine Craig

Elizaveta Tyun

Alice Hall

Amanda Smith

Katherine Waller

Will Hillman

Alison Strange

Kay Chappell

Simon-Philippe Allard

Maria Fiore Mazzarini

Second Violins

Vera Beumer Guest Principal

Ashley Stevens

Fiona Higham

Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley

Claudia Tarrant-Matthews

Sioni Williams

Lyrit Milgram

Emma Purslow

Rebecca Dinning

Nicole Stokes

Violas

Rebecca Chambers Guest Principal

Benedetto Pollani

Kate De Campos

Toby Warr

James Heron

Jill Valentine

Mark Gibbs

Julia Doukakis

Cellos

Kristina Blaumane Principal

Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden

Ariana Kashefi

Susanna Riddell

Helen Thomas

George Hoult

Laura Donoghue

Double Basses

Sebastian Pennar Principal

George Peniston

Tom Walley

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Johnson

Flutes

Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Camilla Marchant

Oboes

Ruth Bolister Guest Principal

Rachel Ingleton

Clarinets

Thomas Watmough Principal

Chair supported by Roger Greenwood

James Maltby

Bassoons

John McDougall Guest Principal

Emma Harding

Horns

Mark Vines Principal

Martin Hobbs

Duncan Fuller

Gareth Mollison

Oliver Johnson

Trumpets

Paul Beniston* Principal

Anne McAneney*

Trombones

Mark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

Andrew Cole

Bass Trombone

Lyndon Meredith Principal

Tuba

Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Timpani

Nigel Thomas Guest Principal

Percussion

Karen Hutt Guest Principal

Feargus Brennan

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

The LPO also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert:

Gill & Garf Collins

Sonja Drexler

Dr Barry Grimaldi

Sir Simon Robey

Victoria Robey OBE

Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Eric Tomsett

Neil Westreich

London Philharmonic Orchestra

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 home is at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, where we’re at the beating heart of London’s cultural life. You’ll also find us at our resident venues here in Eastbourne, in Brighton, and in 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.

Sharing the wonder

We’re always at the forefront of technology, finding new ways to share our music globally. 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 2022/23 we’ll be working once again with Marquee TV to broadcast selected live concerts, so you can share or relive the wonder from your own living room.

Our conductors

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 Brett Dean our Composer-in-Residence.

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

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. Recent releases include the first volume of a Stravinsky series with Vladimir Jurowski; Tippett’s complete opera The Midsummer Marriage under Edward Gardner, captured in his first concert as

© Benjamin Ealovega

LPO Principal Conductor in September 2021; and James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio, recorded at the work’s UK premiere performance in December 2021.

Next generations

We’re committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians and music-lovers: 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. Today’s young instrumentalists are the orchestral members of the future, so we’re committed to offering them opportunities to progress. 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.

2022/23 and beyond

We believe in the relevance of our music, and that our programmes must reflect the narratives of modern times. This season we’re exploring themes of belonging and displacement in our series ‘A place to call home’, delving into music by composers including Austrians Erich Korngold and Paul Hindemith, Hungarian Béla Bartók, Cuban Tania León, Ukrainian Victoria Vita Polevá and Syrian Kinan Azmeh. As we celebrate our 90th anniversary we perform works premiered by the Orchestra during its illustrious history. This season also marks Vaughan Williams’s 150th anniversary and we’ll be celebrating with four of his works, as well as both symphonies by Elgar and music by Tippett and Thomas Adès. Our commitment to everything new and creative includes premieres by Brett Dean and Heiner Goebbels, as well as new commissions from composers from around the world including Agata Zubel, Elena Langer and Vijay Iyer.

Alice Ivy-Pemberton Leader

lpo.org.uk

Alice Ivy-Pemberton joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Co-Leader in February 2023.

Praised by The New York Times for her ‘sweet-toned playing’, Alice has performed as a soloist, chamber and orchestral musician to international acclaim. While growing up in New York City and studying with Nurit Pacht, Alice made a nationally televised Carnegie Hall debut aged ten, and was a finalist at the Menuhin International Competition at the age of 12.

Alice earned her Bachelors and Masters degrees at The Juilliard School under the tutelage of Itzhak Perlman and Catherine Cho as a fully-funded recipient of the Kovner Fellowship. During her studies she won Juilliard’s Violin Concerto Competition, performed extensively with the New York Philharmonic and The Philadelphia Orchestra, and led orchestras under the baton of Barbara Hannigan, Xian Zhang and Matthias Pintscher. Upon graduating in 2022 she was awarded the Polisi Prize and a Benzaquen Career Advancement Grant in recognition of ‘tremendous talent, promise, creativity, and potential to make a significant impact in the performing arts’.

An avid chamber musician, Alice has collaborated with Itzhak Perlman, Anthony Marwood, Gil Shaham and members of the Belcea, Doric, Juilliard and Brentano string quartets, and performed with the Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center. Festival appearances include Music@Menlo, Moritzburg and Yellow Barn. Also a passionate advocate for new music and its social relevance, Alice created Drowning Monuments, a noted multimedia project on climate change that brought together five world premieres for solo violin.

Patrick Hahn conductor

This concert is Patrick’s debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. As a guest conductor, this season he also makes his first appearances at Oper Frankfurt with La Cenerentola, the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin and the Bamberg Symphony, as well as the Tanztheater Pina Bausch with The Rite of Spring Previous seasons’ highlights include a new production of Der Freischütz by Kirill Serebrennikov at Dutch National Opera with the Concertgebouw Orchestra, a residency at the Kissinger Sommer Festival with the Vienna Symphony, and his much-acclaimed new production of Tannhäuser at Oper Wuppertal, as well as concerts with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra & Choir and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. Within the field of contemporary music, he has also enjoyed a close relationship with Klangforum Wien.

General Music Director of the Sinfonieorchester und Oper Wuppertal, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Munich Radio Orchestra and of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Patrick Hahn is one of the most sought-after and exciting conductors of his generation.

In this, his second season in Wuppertal, Patrick welcomes soloists Martin Grubinger, Alexei Volodin, Angela Hewitt, Leia Zhu, Marlis Petersen, Bo Skovhus and Benjamin Bruns, for programmes ranging from a concert version of Wagner’s Die Walküre to Zimmermann’s Ich wandte mich und sah an alles Unrecht, das geschah unter der Sonne. Operas this season include Lehár’s The Merry Widow, Verdi’s Rigoletto and Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

After successful concerts, productions and recordings in his first season as the Munich Radio Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor in 2021/22, including an acclaimed recording of Ullmann’s Der Kaiser von Atlantis on the BR-Klassik label, Patrick continues to work on exciting programmes with the orchestra this season. Highlights include Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy, a walk through the Danube metropolis under the title ‘Wien, Wien, nur Du allein’, and Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Requiem in the orchestra’s ‘Paradisi gloria’ series.

Opening his final season as Principal Guest Conductor of the Borusan Istanbul Philharmonic Orchestra, Patrick was joined by pianist Olga Scheps at the city’s Is Sanat Hall in October 2022. Later in the season he presents programmes with Martin Grubinger and Marlis Petersen including Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5, Berg’s Seven Early Songs and Schmitt’s La tragédie de Salomé

Aside from his work in classical music, Patrick Hahn accompanies himself on the piano singing cabaret songs by the Austrian satirist and composer Georg Kreisler. In Kreisler’s centenary year in 2022, Patrick performed his programme ‘Weil ich unmusikalisch bin’ at the Vienna Konzerthaus, the Bayer Kultur stARTfestival and Oper Wuppertal, as well as in Neuss and Mönchengladbach. As a jazz pianist, he received awards from the Chicago Jazz Festival and the ‘Outstanding Soloist Award’ from the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse as the best jazz pianist of the 37th Annual Jazz Festival.

© C G Pictures

Tom Borrow piano

of Music at Tel Aviv University. Tom has been regularly mentored by Murray Perahia through the Jerusalem Music Centre’s programme for outstanding young musicians. He has also participated in masterclasses under the instruction of Sir András Schiff, Christoph Eschenbach, Richard Goode, Menahem Pressler and Tatiana Zelikman, among many others.

Tom has won every national piano competition in Israel, including first prize at the Israeli Radio & Jerusalem Symphony Young Artist Competition, and three first prizes at the ‘Piano Forever’ competition in Ashdod (in three different age categories). In 2018 he won the prestigious Maurice M. Clairmont Award, given to a single promising artist once every two years by the America-Israel Cultural Foundation and Tel Aviv University.

In January 2019 Tom Borrow was called on to replace renowned pianist Khatia Buniatishvili in a series of 12 concerts with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. At only 36 hours’ notice, he performed Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G to sensational public and critical acclaim. The chief music critic of the Israel Broadcasting Corporation, Yossi Schifmann, hailed his performance as ‘brilliant ... outstanding’, ending his review with the words: ‘Tom Borrow is already a star and we will all surely hear more about him.’

Following this successful series, Tom was further presented by the Israel Philharmonic in gala concerts in London and Mexico City, and reinvited for a second subscription series. Later that year, International Piano magazine named him its ‘One to Watch’ and soon afterwards, Gramophone gave him the same accolade (‘an exciting young pianist ... individuality and elegance’). In December 2021, after a hugely praised US debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, Musical America named Tom its ‘New Artist of the Month’.

Tom is a BBC New Generation Artist for 2021–23, a highly prestigious scheme that will see him perform with all the BBC orchestras at Wigmore Hall, and many more, during the two-year tenure, including multiple BBC broadcasts. In July 2021 Tom made his debut at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, performing Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Martyn Brabbins.

Born in Tel Aviv in 2000, Tom Borrow has performed as soloist with all major orchestras of his native country. He began studying piano aged five with Dr Michal Tal at the Givatayim Music Conservatory, and then with with Prof. Tomer Lev of the Buchmann-Mehta School

Following his Israel Philharmonic success, Tom has been invited by major orchestras around the world – today’s concert is his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Other recent and forthcoming engagements include with the Cleveland Orchestra, Baltimore Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Santa Cecilia Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, São Paulo Symphony, Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano, Basque National Orchestra, English Chamber Orchestra and others, and he has received invitations from leading conductors including Semyon Bychkov, Fabio Luisi, Sakari Oramo, Thierry Fischer, Xian Zhang, Robert Trevino, Peter Oundjian and Maxim Emelyanychev. Tom has also toured to Eastern Europe with the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, to regular standing ovations, and to South Korea with the Tel Aviv Soloists.

Equally in-demand on the chamber music and recital stage, Tom has been invited to the Verbier Festival, Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Berlin Konzerthaus, Ruhr Piano Festival, Alte Oper Frankfurt, Vancouver Recital Society, Festival Piano Aux Jacobins (Toulouse), Aldeburgh Festival, Cheltenham Festival and Bolzano Concert Society (Italy).

WWFM Radio in the US has featured Tom as an outstanding young talent, and Interlude magazine named him its ‘Artist of The Month’. International Piano livestreamed Tom’s recital for the Rubinstein Virtual PianoFest, RAI Television livestreamed his concert with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov, and ETB Television (Spain) broadcast a performance of Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 2 with the Basque National Orchestra under Robert Trevino.

© Michael Pavia

Programme notes

Felix Mendelssohn

1809–47

Symphony No. 3 in A minor (Scottish)

1842

1 Andante con moto – Allegro un poco agitato – Assai animato – Andante come prima

2 Vivace non troppo –

3 Adagio –

4 Allegro vivacissimo – Allegro maestoso assai

There is little disputing that Mendelssohn was among the most Classically-minded composers of the Romantic era. Yet although he never relinquished his concern for formal clarity and balance, he was not afraid to push at the envelope, and, within certain limits, be innovative; indeed, his instrumental compositions are those of a man constantly questing for new solutions to problems inherent in existing forms. At the same time he was not immune to the kinds of extra-musical stimuli that affected his more overtly Romantic colleagues; brought up in a cultured family environment, from an early age he drew musical inspiration from Shakespeare and Goethe, and from landscape, legend and history. Perhaps few among his works accommodate the competing compositional interests of formal logic and evocative pictorialism more comfortably than the ‘Scottish’ Symphony.

Its inspiration lies in one of the great obsessions of the early Romantic imagination: the grey mists and mountains of Scotland. Mendelssohn himself had read the novels of Sir Walter Scott, and would also have known the ancient bardic poems of ‘Ossian’ (actually 18th-century fakes), so it is not hard to guess the kind of scene he was looking for when he arrived in Scotland for a holiday in July 1829. He found it too. After visiting the ruined royal palace of Holyrood, just outside Edinburgh, he wrote to his family:

Courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London

Programme notes

In the deepening twilight we went today to the palace where Queen Mary lived and loved … The nearby chapel is now roofless, overgrown with grass and ivy, and at the broken altar Mary was crowned Queen of Scotland. Everything is broken and decayed, and the bright sky shines in. I believe that today I have found the beginning of my ‘Scottish’ Symphony.

Few symphonies have their moment of inspiration so precisely recorded, yet having sketched the opening bars Mendelssohn set this one aside, and it was left to the Hebrides Overture, completed in 1832, to stand as his most immediate response to the Scottish experience. By then he had fallen under another picturesque influence, caused by a visit to Italy which, he said, made it ‘impossible to return to my misty Scottish mood’; another symphony, the ‘Italian’ (No. 4) now occupied him, and it was not until 1842 that he finally completed the ‘Scottish’. Mendelssohn conducted the premiere in Leipzig in March of the following year, and brought it to London three months later. In 1844 it was published with a dedication to another Scotlandlover – Queen Victoria.

The Symphony opens with a lengthy slow introduction in which the ‘Holyrood’ theme conjures a gloomy and romantic mood, and it is largely on a restlessly lilting transformation of this that the subsequent main body of the movement is based – indeed, several of the themes which occur in later movements are related to this opening theme. Throughout the first movement stormy episodes (reminders of rough seas and bad weather, no doubt) mingle with calmer passages, but despite the opportunities presented by a robust central development section, it is in the long coda that the tempest really breaks. The movement ends, however, with an atmospheric return to the music of the introduction.

Mendelssohn indicated that the four movements of the ‘Scottish’ should be played without a break, and thus it is that the second creeps in almost before you can notice it. Effectively a scherzo (though untypically in duple- rather than triple-time), it is also the most overtly ‘Scottish’ music of the whole Symphony, yet while it is clearly suggestive of folk merriment there are also reminders here of that magical and unique elf-world that Mendelssohn had already explored in the Midsummer Night’s Dream Overture and numerous other works besides. The movement is brief, however, and soon we find ourselves in the Adagio, a yearningly beautiful movement in which a wistful song-melody is several times beset by passages of Schubertian menace before ultimately winning through, relatively unscathed.

Mendelssohn gave the finale an additional performance indication of ‘Allegro guerriero’ – fast and warlike – and if it does not seem to be exactly battle music, we can suppose that it reflects memories of another sight that impressed him, that of Highlanders in resplendent costume. The movement is full of ingeniously contrasted and combined themes, but the composer chooses to end not with a grand swirling climax, but rather, having slowed the music down, with a final, warmly comforting transformation of the ‘Holyrood’ theme. Thus, for all the work’s conscious Scottish-isms, its formal coherence is effortlessly maintained.

Interval – 20 minutes

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

‘Few of my Swiss memories can compare to [Scotland]: everything here looks so solemn and powerful.’

– Felix Mendelssohn

Programme notes

Serge Rachmaninoff

1873–1943

Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 1909

Tom Borrow piano

1 Allegro ma non tanto

2 Intermezzo: Adagio –

3 Finale: Alla breve

Although not as popular as its predecessor, and not as well-stocked with Romantically lingering tunes, Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto is in many other ways his most admired. This was not always the case; ‘dry, difficult and unappealing’ was how the young Prokofiev heard it (he preferred the ‘charming’ First and Second), and many of the earlier performances and recordings of the work (including the composer’s own, made in 1939) were afflicted by damaging cuts. Prokofiev was right about it being difficult, though. The Third is one of the most technically daunting of all the major piano concertos, its 45-minute span demanding of its executant heroic feats of virtuosity, stamina and power, while at the same time challenging them to show the more musicianly qualities of precision, clarity and line.

Rachmaninoff composed it at his family estate in Ivanovka in the autumn of 1909 specifically for his forthcoming first tour to the USA, and he was the soloist at its premiere with the New York Symphony Orchestra on 28 November with Walter Damrosch conducting. An even more memorable performance, however, must have been the one Rachmaninoff gave with the New York Philharmonic the following January, when the conductor was Gustav Mahler. ‘Mahler touched my composer’s heart straight away’, Rachmaninoff wrote, ‘by devoting himself to my concerto until the accompaniment, which is rather complicated, had been practised to the point of perfection.’

Programme notes

A recapitulation of this theme in its original form follows, but the movement is nearly done now, and the end arrives with a few quiet echoes of the second theme.

– A critic at the Concerto’s premiere in New York, 28 November

The complexity that Rachmaninoff refers to is due not only to the orchestral accompaniment’s richness, but also to the important role it plays in the work’s construction. While he may not have been the composer to reproduce the taut motivic discourse of a Schoenberg or a Bartók, in this Concerto Rachmaninoff achieves a satisfying sense of unity through laid-back but persistent allusion to themes outlined in the first movement. Of these, none is more of a presence than the long, tender melody uncurled by the piano right at the start. Its restless Russian melancholy is unmistakable, but Rachmaninoff denied suggestions that it had origins in folksong or Orthodox chant: ‘It simply wrote itself’, he said. ‘I was thinking only of the sound. I wanted to “sing” the melody on the piano, as a singer would sing it.’ Whether naturally arising or not, this theme and its lilting accompaniment inform many of the melodic outlines that follow, giving the whole work the flavour of ongoing, seamless development.

Eventually a second theme appears, introduced with a new rhythmic impulse that seems almost like a fanfare in the circumstances, but soon settling down to more expansive lyricism under the pianist’s hands. The development section starts with a reprise of the opening, though naturally one that takes new turns. The music builds to a climax, then subsides, the texture thinning until the piano is left to embark on a long solo cadenza whose own powerful climax is in turn calmed by snippets of the first theme on solo winds.

The title of the second movement, Intermezzo, suggests a desire to relax the atmosphere, as does the drop in key to D flat major. In fact the free variations on the sombre melody introduced by the orchestra at the outset encompass both textural detail and much Romantic warmth, while a faster and lighter section turns out to be a waltz-like, major-key transformation of the first-movement theme in which brilliant piano figuration accompanies the woodwind. A brief and passionate return to the original theme is broken off, however, by a commanding interposition by the pianist, who whips things up and pitches us decisively into the Finale.

Here the dominant element is a vigorous, twitching line made from an inversion of the rocking accompaniment figure from the opening of the Concerto. The somewhat militaristic flavour it now gives off is contrasted with another soaringly Romantic second theme, but it returns, along with a melancholy lower-string reminiscence of the first movement’s main theme, in a skittish development section. The recapitulation begins after a moment of near stillness, but, after the soaring theme has returned in glory, the Concerto ends in an exhilarating dash to the finish.

Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp

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‘A mood of honesty and simplicity and the single pursuit of musical beauty, without the desire to baffle or astonish, dominated Mr Rachmaninoff’s playing of his new concerto. The pianist’s touch had the loving quality that holds something of the creative, and his execution was sufficiently facile to meet his self-imposed test.

1909

Rachmaninoff on the LPO Label

Rachmaninoff The Isle of the Dead Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

London Philharmonic Orchestra

LPO-0004

Recorded live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 8 December 2004 (The Isle of the Dead) & 29 October 2003 (Symphonic Dances).

‘Jurowski miraculously goes to the heart of the autumnal spirit of this music, and the playing is responsive to all his demands.’

The Sunday Telegraph, May 2005

Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2

Aldo Ciccolini piano

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor

London Philharmonic Orchestra

LPO-0102

Recorded live at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 27 May 2009 (Rachmaninoff) and 12 October 2011 (Mozart).

‘Romantically glowing and tender, and with plenty of thrilling impulse when needed; music-making that draws you in – and back – for this is not a brief encounter.’

Classical Source, 2018

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Mr Nicholas Little

Geoff & Meg Mann

Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva

Andrew T Mills

Peter & Lucy Noble

Mr Roger Phillimore

Mr Michael Posen

Mr Anthony Salz

Ms Nadia Stasyuk

Charlotte Stevenson

Joe Mr Joe Topley & Ms Tracey

Countryman

Mr & Mrs John C Tucker

Timothy Walker CBE AM

Jenny Watson CBE

Grenville & Krysia Williams

Principal Supporters

Anonymous donors

Dr Manon Antoniazzi

Julian & Annette Armstrong

Mr John D Barnard

Mr Geoffrey Bateman

Mr Philip Bathard-Smith

Mrs A Beare

Dr Anthony Buckland

Dr Simona Cicero & Mr Mario

Altieri

Mr Peter Coe

Mrs Pearl Cohen

David & Liz Conway

Mr Alistair Corbett

Ms Mary Anne Cordeiro

Ms Elena Dubinets

Mr Richard Fernyhough

Jason George

Mr Christian Grobel

Prof Emeritus John Gruzelier

Mark & Sarah Holford

Mrs Maureen Hooft-Graafland

Per Jonsson

Mr Ian Kapur

Ms Kim J Koch

Ms Elena Lojevsky

Mrs Terry Neale

John Nickson & Simon Rew

Oliver & Josie Ogg

Ms Olga Ovenden

Mr James Pickford

Filippo Poli

Sir Bernard Rix

Mr Robert Ross

Priscylla Shaw

Martin & Cheryl Southgate

Mr & Mrs G Stein

Dr Peter Stephenson

Joanna Williams

Christopher Williams

Ms Elena Ziskind

Supporters

Anonymous donors

Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle

Mr & Mrs Robert Auerbach

Mrs Julia Beine

Harvey Bengen

Miss YolanDa Brown OBE

Miss Yousun Chae

Mr Julien Chilcott-Monk

Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington

Mr Joshua Coger

Miss Tessa Cowie

Mr David Devons

Patricia Dreyfus

Mr Martin Fodder

Christopher Fraser OBE

Will Gold

Ray Harsant

Mr Peter Imhof

The Jackman Family

Mr David MacFarlane

Dame Jane Newell DBE

Mr Stephen Olton

Mari Payne

Mr David Peters

Ms Edwina Pitman

Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh

Mr Giles Quarme

Mr Kenneth Shaw

Mr Brian Smith

Ms Rika Suzuki

Tony & Hilary Vines

Dr June Wakefield

Mr John Weekes

Mr C D Yates

Hon. Benefactor

Elliott Bernerd

Hon. Life Members

Alfonso Aijón

Kenneth Goode

Carol Colburn Grigor CBE

Pehr G Gyllenhammar

Robert Hill

Victoria Robey OBE

Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

Timothy Walker CBE AM

Laurence Watt

Thomas Beecham Group Members

David & Yi Buckley

Gill & Garf Collins

William & Alex de Winton

Sonja Drexler

The Friends of the LPO

Irina Gofman

Roger Greenwood

Dr Barry Grimaldi

Mr & Mrs Philip Kan

John & Angela Kessler

Sir Simon Robey

Victoria Robey OBE

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

French Chamber of Commerce

Tutti

Lazard

Natixis Corporate Investment

Banking

Sciteb Ltd

Walpole

Preferred Partners

Gusbourne Estate

Jeroboams

Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd

OneWelbeck

Steinway

In-kind Sponsor

Google Inc

Thank you

Trusts and Foundations

ABO Trust

BlueSpark Foundation

The Boltini Trust

Borrows Charitable Trust

The Candide Trust

Cockayne – Grants for the Arts

The London Community Foundation

The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust

Dunard Fund

Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation

Foyle Foundation

Garrick Charitable Trust

John Coates Charitable Trust

John Horniman’s Children’s Trust

John Thaw Foundation

Institute Adam Mickiewicz

Kirby Laing Foundation

Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust

Lucille Graham Trust

The Marchus Trust

PRS Foundation

The Radcliffe Trust

Rivers Foundation

Rothschild Foundation

Scops Arts Trust

Sir William Boremans’ Foundation

The John S Cohen Foundation

The Stanley Picker Trust

The Thriplow Charitable Trust

TIOC Foundation

Vaughan Williams Foundation

The Victoria Wood Foundation

The Viney Family

The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust

and all others who wish to remain anonymous.

Board of the American Friends of the LPO

We are grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who assist with fundraising for our activities in the United States of America:

Simon Freakley Chairman

Kara Boyle

Jon Carter

Jay Goffman

Alexandra Jupin

Natalie Pray

Damien Vanderwilt

Marc Wasserman

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

Veronika Borovik-Khilchevskaya

Marie-Laure Favre Gilly de Varennes de Bueil

Aline Foriel-Destezet

Irina Gofman

Countess Dominique Loredan

Olivia Ma

George Ramishvili

Sophie Schÿler-Thierry

Jay Stein

Florian Wunderlich

London Philharmonic Orchestra Administration

Board of Directors

Dr Catherine C. Høgel Chair

Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Vice-Chair

Martin Höhmann* President

Mark Vines* Vice-President

Kate Birchall*

David Buckley

David Burke

Bruno De Kegel

Deborah Dolce

Elena Dubinets

Tanya Joseph

Hugh Kluger*

Katherine Leek*

Al MacCuish

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

Advisory Council

Martin Höhmann Chairman

Christopher Aldren

Dr Manon Antoniazzi

Roger Barron

Richard Brass

Helen Brocklebank

YolanDa Brown OBE

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

Rehmet Kassim-Lakha

Jamie Korner

Geoff Mann

Clive Marks OBE FCA

Stewart McIlwham

Andrew Neill

Nadya Powell

Sir Bernard Rix

Victoria Robey OBE

Baroness Shackleton

Thomas Sharpe KC

Julian Simmonds

Barry Smith

Martin Southgate

Chris Viney

Laurence Watt

Elizabeth Winter

General Administration

Elena Dubinets

Artistic Director

David Burke Chief Executive

Chantelle Vircavs

PA to the Executive

Concert Management

Roanna Gibson

Concerts and Planning Director

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

Matthew Freeman

Recordings Consultant

Andrew Chenery

Orchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah Thomas

Martin Sargeson

Librarians

Laura Kitson Stage and Operations Manager

Stephen O’Flaherty

Deputy Operations Manager

Felix Lo Orchestra and Auditions Manager

Finance

Frances Slack

Finance Director

Dayse Guilherme

Finance Manager

Jean-Paul Ramotar

Finance and IT Officer

Education and Community

Talia Lash

Education and Community Director

Lowri Davies

Hannah Foakes

Education and Community

Project Managers

Hannah Smith

Education and Community Co-ordinator

Development

Laura Willis

Development Director

Rosie Morden

Individual Giving Manager

Siân Jenkins

Corporate Relations Manager

Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager

Katurah Morrish

Development Events Manager

Eleanor Conroy

Al Levin

Development Assistants

Nick Jackman

Campaigns and Projects Director

Kirstin Peltonen Development Associate

Marketing

Kath Trout

Marketing and Communications Director

Sophie Harvey

Marketing Manager

Rachel Williams

Publications Manager

Harrie Mayhew

Website Manager

Gavin Miller

Sales and Ticketing Manager

Ruth Haines

Press and PR Manager

Greg Felton

Digital Creative

Hayley Kim

Marketing Co-ordinator

Alicia Hartley

Marketing Assistant Archives

Philip Stuart Discographer

Gillian Pole

Recordings Archive

Professional Services

Charles Russell Speechlys Solicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP

Auditors

Dr Barry Grimaldi

Honorary Doctor

Mr Chris Aldren

Honorary ENT Surgeon

Mr Simon Owen-Johnstone

Hon. Orthopaedic Surgeon

London Philharmonic Orchestra

89 Albert Embankment

London SE1 7TP

Tel: 020 7840 4200

Box Office: 020 7840 4242

Email: admin@lpo.org.uk lpo.org.uk

Cover illustration

Simon Pemberton/Heart

2022/23 season identity

JMG Studio

Printer John Good Ltd