London Philharmonic Orchestra 26 Oct 2016 concert programme by London Philharmonic Orchestra

MUSIC IS OUR WORLD. WE WANT TO SHARE ITS ASTONISHING POWER AND WONDER WITH YOU. Concert programme lpo.org.uk

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation Principal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADA Leader pieter schoeman supported by Neil Westreich Composer in Residence magnus lindberg Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Wednesday 26 October 2016 | 7.30pm

Elgar Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (26’) Sibelius Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63 (32’) Interval (20’) Sibelius Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 (31’)

Osmo Vänskä conductor Raphael Wallfisch cello

Free pre-concert performance 6:00–6:45pm | Royal Festival Hall The first concert by our 2016/17 Foyle Future Firsts, conducted by Osmo Vänskä, includes a rarely heard octet arrangement of Sibelius’s En Saga by Jaakko Kuusisto, plus a world premiere by Jonathan Brigg.

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 About the Orchestra 5 New on the LPO Label: Wagner 6 Osmo Vänskä 7 Raphael Wallfisch 8 Osmo Vänskä on Sibelius 9 Programme notes 12 Recommended recordings Next concerts 13 Sound Futures donors 14 Supporters 16 LPO administration

Welcome

Welcome to Southbank Centre We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance. Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Feng Sushi and Topolski, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall. If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250, or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk We look forward to seeing you again soon. Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery are closed for essential refurbishment until 2018. During this period, our resident orchestras are performing in venues including St John's Smith Square. Find out more at southbankcentre.co.uk/sjss A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:

LPO news

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). The disc was chosen by BBC Radio 3 as its Disc of the Week on 1 October. It 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 £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. 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.

PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium. LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance. RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre. Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended. MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.

LPO Foyle Future Firsts 2016/17 Before tonight’s concert, on the Royal Festival Hall stage at 6.00pm, this year’s Foyle Future Firsts will give their first performance. Foyle Future Firsts is an annual scheme for young professional musicians to help bridge the transition period between conservatoire and the professional platform. Participants benefit from lessons and mentoring from London Philharmonic Orchestra Principals and mock auditions. They also have opportunities to play in orchestral rehearsals, take part in chamber performances and work alongside LPO musicians on Education and Community projects. lpo.org.uk/futurefirsts The 2016/17 Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme is generously funded by The Foyle Foundation with additional support from The Mercers’ Company, Help Musicians UK and The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust.

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On stage tonight

First Violins Eugene Tichindeleanu Guest Leader Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

Thomas Eisner Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Tina Gruenberg Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Molly Cockburn Amanda Smith Galina Tanney Georgina Leo Caroline Frenkel Miranda Allen Second Violins Andrew Storey Principal Tania Mazzetti Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley

Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Erzsébet Rácz Harry Kerr Sheila Law Alison Strange Elizabeth Baldey Anna Croad

Violas Przemysław Pujanek Guest Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt Isabel Pereira Stanislav Popov Daniel Cornford Martin Fenn Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden

Pei-Jee Ng Co-Principal Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Chair supported by Drs Oliver & Asha Foster

Flutes Juliette Bausor Principal Stewart McIlwham*

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal

Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal

David Whitehouse

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal

Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Alice Munday

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Timpani Antoine Bedewi Guest Principal

Clarinets Thomas Watmough Principal Paul Richards Bassoons Jonathan Davies Principal Gareth Newman Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey

Sue Sutherley Philip Taylor Iain Ward Jonathan Kitchen Katie Burke Victoria Harrild

John Ryan* Principal

Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Sebastian Pennar Sub-Principal George Peniston Laurence Lovelle Damián Rubido González Charlotte Kerbegian Sam Rice Ben Wolstenholme

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney*

Chair supported by Laurence Watt

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

* Holds a professorial appointment in London Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Christopher Hart

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: An anonymous donor • Molly & David Borthwick • Friends of the Orchestra • Dr Barry Grimaldi • Victoria Robey OBE • Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp • Neil Westreich

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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,

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. 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 right).

Latest release on the LPO Label

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

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

Wagner: Die Walküre (Act 1) Klaus Tennstedt conductor René Kollo tenor (Siegmund) Eva-Maria Bundschuh soprano (Sieglinde) John Tomlinson bass (Hunding) London Philharmonic Orchestra

£9.99 | LPO-0092

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

youtube.com/c/londonphilharmonicorchestra instagram.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

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Osmo Vänskä conductor

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

The Times, July 2016

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

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Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, having previously held the position of Music Director, and was also formerly Music Director of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra and Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. Vänskä is a distinguished recording artist, primarily for the BIS label. In 2014 his album with the Minnesota Orchestra of Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 won a Grammy award for Best Orchestral Performance, following the nomination of Symphonies Nos. 2 and 5 the year before. Recordings of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos with Yevgeny Sudbin, again with the Minnesota Orchestra, also garnered worldwide praise. Vänskä began his career as a clarinettist, occupying, amongst others, the co-principal chair of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. In recent years he has enjoyed a return to the clarinet, including on a 2012 recording of Kalevi Aho’s chamber works. Before this evening’s concert he will play clarinet with the LPO Foyle Future Firsts in their free pre-concert performance of an octet arrangement of Sibelius’s En Saga at Royal Festival Hall (see page 1). Vänskä is the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Finlandia Foundation’s Arts and Letters Award, and the 2010 Ditson Award from Columbia University. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Minnesota and was named Musical America’s 2005 Conductor of the Year. In 2013 he received the Annual Award from the German Record Critics’ Award Association for his involvement in BIS’s recordings of the complete works by Sibelius.

Raphael Wallfisch cello

Any more compellingly idiomatic or richly seasoned cello playing than this would be hard to contemplate.

International Record Review

Raphael Wallfisch was born in London into a family of distinguished musicians, his mother the cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch and his father the pianist Peter Wallfisch. At an early age Raphael was greatly inspired by hearing Zara Nelsova play and, guided by a succession of fine teachers including Amaryllis Fleming, Amadeo Baldovino and Derek Simpson, it became apparent that the cello was to be his life’s work. While studying with the great Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky at the Thornton School of Music in California, Raphael was chosen to perform chamber music with Jascha Heifetz in the informal recitals that Piatigorsky held at his home. Aged 24 he won the Gaspar Cassadó International Cello Competition in Florence. Since then he has enjoyed a worldwide career playing with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, London Symphony, BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, English Chamber, Hallé, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Berlin Symphony, Westdeutscher Rundfunk, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Indianapolis Symphony, Warsaw Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic orchestras, among many others.

Konzerthaus Orchester Berlin and the record label CPO involving the recording of eight concertos by exiled Jewish composers. Raphael also greatly enjoys touring with his very successful piano trio – Trio Shaham Erez Wallfisch – which he and his colleagues Hagai Shaham (violin) and Arnon Erez (piano) founded in 2009. The Trio was received extremely well internationally from the very start, and has been a regular guest in famous venues such as the Amsterdam Concertgebouw and London’s Wigmore Hall ever since. ‘They never get in the music’s way. It flows out of them unimpeded, as if balancing a piano trio were the easiest thing in the world, which goodness knows it is not.’ (The Arts Desk; live at Wigmore Hall, January 2016) Raphael Wallfisch plays a 1760 Gennaro Gagliano, the 1733 Montagnana ‘Ex-Romberg’ and an exquisite modern instrument built especially for him by the French luthier Patrick Robin.

Teaching is one of Raphael Wallfisch’s passions: he holds professorships in Switzerland at the Zürich Winterthur Konservatorium, and teaches masterclasses all over the world. His extensive discography includes recordings with EMI, Chandos, Black Box, ASV, Naxos and Nimbus. Raphael Wallfisch is especially well-known for his research and recording of concertos by English composers and for (re)discovering unknown or forgotten concertos in general. He recently embarked on a project with the

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Osmo Vänskä on Sibelius

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

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

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

Programme notes

Speedread Nobody much enjoyed the 1910s. Edward Elgar and Jean Sibelius were no exception. For the latter, it was a particularly bleak decade. Seriously ill from a throat tumour, hopelessly depressed as his beloved Finland appeared further than ever from independence, Sibelius made the typically Finnish decision to indulge his melancholy even further by visiting a place that was cold, bleak and inhospitable. Perhaps, in his Fourth Symphony, we see just how cathartic that decision proved. There was little point in trying to out-think his problems; maybe the best course of action for Sibelius was to write a symphony that itself teetered on complete breakdown. In the event, his new symphony made some quantum musical leaps at the same time.

Edward Elgar 1857–1934

When Elgar’s Cello Concerto was first performed on 27 October 1919, it took its audience at the Queen’s Hall in London by surprise. To them, the music simply didn’t sound much like Elgar’s. It’s well documented that the performance that night was a little ropey. But if the orchestra felt its way hesitantly through Elgar’s score ‘as if it seemed not to have any idea of what the composer wanted’ (in the words of the critic Ernest Newman), then perhaps it reflected the nature of Elgar’s stylistic shift as it did so. Gone were the victorious swagger of the composer’s symphonies and the rhapsodic virtuosity of his Violin Concerto. In their place was a musical conversation founded on shyness and economy and a virtuosity that spoke of reactive anger and even bitterness.

In Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony, the insurmountable gloom of his Fourth appears to be overcome. Once again, nature was an inspiration. But this time, the composer didn’t give voice to his innermost fears by reflecting a bleak, desolate landscape. Instead, he pinned his fleeting hopes on the musical depiction of a flock of swans soaring up and away for their migration. Before both symphonies, we hear a concerto from four years after Sibelius’s Fifth and from a composer who was just as fearful – shellshocked, perhaps, from the upheavals of the First World War. Much of Edward Elgar’s music wears its Edwardian heart on its sleeve. But in his brittle, bitter Cello Concerto, Elgar feels like a changed man.

Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85 (1919) Raphael Wallfisch cello 1 Adagio – Moderato 2 Lento – Allegro molto 3 Adagio 4 Allegro – Moderato – Allegro, ma non troppo

Was it the shattering impact of the First World War, the nostalgia-tinged angst of old age, or simply a new aesthetic directness that lay behind the Cello Concerto’s style and shape? All three, probably. Besides, any cello concerto is bound by some basic science. The instrument’s range and tonal capacities render it inaudible against full-blown orchestral textures, and in this Concerto the solo cello sounds more-orless continuously. That helps explain Elgar’s taut orchestration. More surprising is the conciseness with which the composer deals with his musical material. The Concerto encompasses a great deal in its emotional range, but it also appears to have shaken off anything superfluous. Beautiful orchestral colours are achieved by simple means. Continued overleaf London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes continued

The Concerto opens with a brave, angry statement from the soloist with hints of oration, almost like an operatic recitative. The idea is referenced again at the first movement’s close and again towards the end of the last movement. Elgar marks the passage noblimente (‘nobly’), but it often sounds more like an outburst. Deep-toned violas then introduce the rocking, worldweary melody that is later taken up by the soloist and then the entire orchestra. There’s no better example of Elgar’s creative use of minimal material than the opening of his second movement. The cello’s main statement – another recitative-like idea that flutters up and down (a minor third) and then down and up (a single tone) – sounds five times; each time Elgar asks for different expressions

Jean Sibelius 1865–1957

The Fourth Symphony is Sibelius’s most challenging and disturbing symphonic creation. For some, it’s a masterpiece. For the musicians of the Vienna Philharmonic, it was a nemesis. They gave up rehearsing the work’s bleak, threatening and silence-stalked opening movement in 1912 and didn’t return to it for five decades. When the Symphony was first performed in Finland on 3 April 1911, one critic compared it to Barkbröd – a period of famine in the country which had forced the populace to eat the bark from trees. Even after he’d become the darling of Finland and a rallying voice for Finnish independence, Sibelius retained his weaknesses – namely alcohol, cigars, raucous socialising and poor financial management. In 1908 he had undergone several operations to remove a tumour in his throat. The event and resulting enforced abstinence from alcohol and tobacco constituted ‘a frightening warning from above’ for Sibelius. It had practical side effects, too. As he set to work on the

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from the soloist. That sort of quick-wit continues until a beautifully distilled Adagio, a soliloquy with a broad, elegiac theme. Perhaps we glimpse the confident swagger of the prewar Elgar in the malleable, whistle-able main theme of the Concerto’s final movement. But the music is troubled as well as joyous, the cello frequently left in isolation by an orchestra that offers it redemption but snarls with anger too. If there is any of the ‘massive hope for the future’ of Elgar’s First Symphony, or even a sweet nostalgia in the soaring theme in which the orchestra eventually supports the cello, it’s quashed: just after the reprise of the Concerto’s opening statement, Elgar slams the door of his Concerto shut.

Symphony No. 4 in A minor, Op. 63 (1909–11) 1 Tempo molto moderato, quasi adagio 2 Allegro molto vivace 3 Il tempo largo 4 Allegro

Fourth Symphony in May 1909, Sibelius was informed that his debts now amounted to a colossal 100,000 Finnish marks. The Fourth Symphony could be said to combine Sibelius’s internal pain and anguish with the physical terrain of a particular area of Karelia, the district of eastern Finland that was a stronghold of the country’s folk tradition. Before starting work on the piece, Sibelius had visited the bleak outpost of Koli with his brotherin-law. Maybe Koli’s remoteness and colourlessness (in winter) are heard in music that has been described as ‘sketched’ rather than ‘painted’. Also significant is Koli’s distinctive light. In early autumn, when Sibelius visited, the glowing, 22-hour light of summer makes way for the unsure, cool, day-long darkness of winter. Excerpts from Sibelius’s diary make disturbing reading against the music of the Fourth Symphony; the composer appears near mental collapse just as

his music does close to harmonic meltdown as it struggles to maintain a hold on the home key of A minor. But while the work’s stark textures and periods of hesitance can feel disorientating against the busy journeying of the Fifth Symphony, there is plenty of Sibelius’s ‘miraculous logic’ at work in the way the piece develops its material. The eerie ‘tritone’ interval that opens the Symphony (a C, D and F sharp growled-out on low strings) is a constant reference point, while other material is developed extensively from small fragments heard along the way. The opening movement is the most desolate of the four, and perhaps the most affecting. It searches hesitantly for light, which is occasionally forthcoming in a series of rich chilling shafts of brass. Like the finale, the second movement looks at first as though it might initiate

a thaw. But its gaiety turns to inner turmoil as a brass salvo from the first movement re-appears, sinisterly transformed. The movement is halted by three abrupt strokes on timpani, the large tuned drums at the back of the orchestra. The noncommittal nature of those timpani strokes is chilling and disorientating. But the manner in which Sibelius ends his Symphony, with eight A major chords, is even more so. Tchaikovsky and Bruckner initiated something of a trend for ending symphonies on a pianissimo (very quiet) rather than the traditional forte (loud). But never had a multi-movement piece halted so uneasily as this. It’s not despair and it’s certainly not resolution. It feels, more, like the sudden disappearance of a figure at close range into thick, enveloping fog.

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

Jean Sibelius

Symphony No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 82 (1915) 1 Tempo molto moderato – Allegro moderato 2 Andante mosso, quasi allegretto 3 Allegro molto – Un pochettino largamente

1865–1957

In the early 1910s Sibelius could add to his own financial and health problems those of his beloved Finland itself. Russia was strengthening its grip on the province, suspending parliament and attempting to drive out the Finnish language. As Europe slipped towards war, Finland, aligned with Russia, faced mass slaughter and the annihilation of its timber exporting industry. ‘In a deep mire again, but already I am beginning to see dimly the mountain that I shall ascend’, wrote a knowing Sibelius, ‘God opens his door for a moment and his orchestra is playing the Fifth Symphony.’ So, the new symphony was rapidly forming in Sibelius’s mind. Themes included the onset of spring and the spirit of the composer’s country home at Järvenpää.

Then, on 12 April 1914, Sibelius witnessed a sight that would affect him profoundly and write the Fifth Symphony’s main theme for him. It was a flock of 16 swans, soaring upwards from the Järvenpää lake for their migration. ‘One of my greatest experiences’, Sibelius wrote in his diary, ‘the Fifth Symphony’s final theme … legato in the trumpets.’ At the time of the Symphony’s Helsinki premiere on 8 December 1915 there were four movements. Sibelius later amalgamated his first movement and scherzo into the opener that was eventually published and that we know now. After the initial, blossoming theme on glowing horns and woodwinds the music gains momentum and folds outwards, the orchestra falling

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Programme notes continued over itself in contrary motion towards the proclamation of a major fourth by the trumpet. The opening motif soon appears again, returning in another form as the Symphony is injected with optimism by an upwardpining theme – again in the trumpets. Those gestures sow the seeds for Sibelius’s finale, in which the double basses are soon heard spelling out a fifth that augments as the bottom note drops twice, stepping back up in the manner of an ostinato. Here are the Järvenpää swans. As it’s taken up by the horns, the theme gains the pace and grandeur of flight, like the rise and fall of an avian wing. Suddenly, the music shifts key: Sibelius’s long-held bass note or ‘pedal note’ disappears like the falling away of a runway. The swans – magically, gloriously – take flight. Soon they can be heard in the distance again, returning as if for a last farewell. Once more they soar upwards, cutting through a tangling, churning orchestral texture as if to break free from earthly concerns. Six stern orchestral jabs bid them a final salute, an unequivocal resolution to those murky chords with which the Fourth Symphony disappeared so mysteriously. Programme notes © Andrew Mellor

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works Many of our recommended recordings, where available, are on sale this evening at the Foyles stand in the Royal Festival Hall foyer. Elgar: Cello Concerto Paul Tortelier | Sir Adrian Boult | London Philharmonic Orchestra (EMI) or Jacqueline du Pré | London Symphony Orchestra | Sir John Barbirolli (EMI) Sibelius: Symphony No. 4 Osmo Vänskä | Minnesota Symphony Orchestra (BIS) Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 Paavo Berglund | London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO Label, LPO-0065) or Osmo Vänskä | Lahti Symphony Orchestra (BIS)

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Next concerts at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall friday 28 October 2016 7.30pm

jti friday SERIES · sibelius symphony cycle Sibelius The Oceanides Walton Violin Concerto Sibelius Symphony No. 6 Sibelius Symphony No. 7 Osmo Vänskä conductor Tasmin Little violin

tuesday 1 november 2016 7.30pm Meow Meow’s Pandemonium International siren and comedienne extraordinaire Meow Meow brings her glorious brand of subversive and sublime performance to Royal Festival Hall. Iain Grandage conductor Thomas M. Lauderdale piano Members of Pink Martini London Philharmonic Orchestra

saturday 5 november 2016 7.30pm Beethoven Missa Solemnis Sir Mark Elder conductor Lucy Crowe soprano Paula Murrihy mezzo soprano Allan Clayton tenor Peter Rose bass London Philharmonic Choir

Book now lpo.org.uk 020 7840 4242

Sound Futures donors

We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to our Sound Futures campaign. Thanks to their support, we successfully raised £1 million by 30 April 2015 which has now been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. This has enabled us to create a £2 million endowment fund supporting special artistic projects, creative programming and education work with key venue partners including our Southbank Centre home. Supporters listed below donated £500 or over. For a full list of those who have given to this campaign please visit lpo.org.uk/soundfutures. Masur Circle Arts Council England Dunard Fund Victoria Robey OBE Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Underwood Trust

The Rothschild Foundation Tom & Phillis Sharpe The Viney Family

Haitink Patrons Mark & Elizabeth Adams Dr Christopher Aldren Mrs Pauline Baumgartner Welser-Möst Circle Lady Jane Berrill William & Alex de Winton Mr Frederick Brittenden John Ireland Charitable Trust David & Yi Yao Buckley The Tsukanov Family Foundation Mr Clive Butler Neil Westreich Gill & Garf Collins Tennstedt Circle Mr John H Cook Valentina & Dmitry Aksenov Mr Alistair Corbett Richard Buxton Bruno de Kegel The Candide Trust Georgy Djaparidze Michael & Elena Kroupeev David Ellen Kirby Laing Foundation Christopher Fraser OBE & Lisa Fraser Mr & Mrs Makharinsky David & Victoria Graham Fuller Alexey & Anastasia Reznikovich Goldman Sachs International Simon Robey Mr Gavin Graham Bianca & Stuart Roden Moya Greene Simon & Vero Turner Mrs Dorothy Hambleton The late Mr K Twyman Tony & Susie Hayes Malcolm Herring Solti Patrons Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle Ageas Mrs Philip Kan John & Manon Antoniazzi Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe Gabor Beyer, through BTO Rose & Dudley Leigh Management Consulting AG Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons Jon Claydon Miss Jeanette Martin Mrs Mina Goodman & Miss Duncan Matthews QC Suzanne Goodman Diana & Allan Morgenthau Roddy & April Gow Charitable Trust The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Dr Karen Morton Charitable Trust Mr Roger Phillimore Mr James R.D. Korner Ruth Rattenbury Christoph Ladanyi & Dr Sophia The Reed Foundation Ladanyi-Czernin The Rind Foundation Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski The Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Sir Bernard Rix David Ross & Line Forestier (Canada) Mr Paris Natar

Carolina & Martin Schwab Dr Brian Smith Lady Valerie Solti Mr & Mrs G Stein Dr Peter Stephenson Miss Anne Stoddart TFS Loans Limited Lady Marina Vaizey Jenny Watson Guy & Utti Whittaker Pritchard Donors Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Mrs Arlene Beare Mr Patrick & Mrs Joan Benner Mr Conrad Blakey Dr Anthony Buckland Paul Collins Alastair Crawford Mr Derek B. Gray Mr Roger Greenwood The HA.SH Foundation Darren & Jennifer Holmes Honeymead Arts Trust Mr Geoffrey Kirkham Drs Frank & Gek Lim Peter Mace Mr & Mrs David Malpas Dr David McGibney Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Mr Christopher Queree The Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer Charitable Trust Timothy Walker AM Christopher Williams Peter Wilson Smith Mr Anthony Yolland and all other donors who wish to remain anonymous

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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

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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 Antonia Romeo Hon. Chairman 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.

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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