London Philharmonic Orchestra 27 Oct 2017 concert programme by London Philharmonic Orchestra

b e m ov e d 2017/18 Season at Southbank Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Royal Festival Hall Concert programme

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 Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Friday 27 October 2017 | 7.30pm

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 (Emperor) (38’) Interval (20’) Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 (Leningrad) (71’)

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Inon Barnatan piano* * Generously supported by the Embassy of the State of Israel to the United Kingdom.

Free pre-concert event 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall ‘I couldn’t not write it’, Shostakovich said; ‘War was all around’. Dr Kate Kennedy looks at the astonishing story of the ‘Leningrad’ Symphony with its portrayal of a city under siege and a people’s extraordinary willpower to exist as a nation. The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Contents 2 Welcome 3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Andrés Orozco-Estrada 7 Inon Barnatan 8 Programme notes 11 Recommended recordings 12 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 3879 9555, or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk We look forward to seeing you again soon. Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery are closed for essential refurbishment until 2018. During this period, our resident orchestras are performing in venues including St John's Smith Square. Find out more at southbankcentre.co.uk/sjss A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium. LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance.

Das Rheingold: A Golden Gala Evening Saturday 27 January 2018 6.00pm Royal Festival Hall

Wagner Das Rheingold Vladimir Jurowski conductor with soloists including Sofia Fomina, Anna Larsson, Matthias Goerne and Matthew Rose

Celebrate Vladimir Jurowski’s 10th year as LPO Principal Conductor by joining us for this Golden Gala Evening at Royal Festival Hall. As well as standard concert tickets, we are offering special packages including pre- and post-concert receptions and the chance to meet the musicians who will bring Wagner’s great music drama to the stage.

lpo.org.uk/vj10

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. Generously supported by members of the Orchestra’s Ring Cycle Syndicate and patrons of our Golden Gala Evening.

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Kevin Lin Co-Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader JiJi Lee Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine Craig Martin Höhmann Geoffrey Lynn Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert Pool Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Eunsley Park Joseph Devalle Amelia Conway-Jones Ioana Forna Jacqueline Roche Second Violins Tania Mazzetti Principal Kate Birchall Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley

Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Robin Wilson Harry Kerr John Dickinson Nicole Stokes Alberto Vidal Suzannah Quirke Violas David Quiggle Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt

Daniel Cornford Alistair Scahill Isabel Pereira Martin Fenn Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden

Pei-Jee Ng Co-Principal Francis Bucknall Santiago Carvalho† Chair co-supported by Molly & David Borthwick

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

Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff Sibylle Hentschel Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Sebastian Pennar George Peniston Laurence Lovelle Damián Rubido González Jakub Cywinski Lowri Morgan Charlotte Kerbegian Flutes Juliette Bausor Principal Sue Thomas* Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Stewart McIlwham* Alto Flute Sue Thomas* Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Cor Anglais Patrick Flanaghan

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal

Clarinets Peter Sparks Guest Principal Massimo Di Trolio Thomas Watmough Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse Blair Sinclair Andrew Connington Charlotte Van Passen Bass Trombones Lyndon Meredith Principal Simon Minshall

E flat Clarinet Thomas Watmough Principal

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Bassoons Jonathan Davies Principal Gareth Newman

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Contrabassoon Simon Estell* Principal

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal

Horns David Pyatt* Principal

Henry Baldwin Co-Principal

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Chair supported by Sir Simon Robey

Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Chair supported by Laurence Watt

Gareth Mollison Stephen Nicholls Jonathan Quaintrell-Evans Duncan Fuller Alex Wide Adam Howcroft Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Jason Lewis Matthew Williams Robin Totterdell Anthony Cross Catherine Knight

Keith Millar James Bower Giles Harrison Feargus Brennan Jude Carlton Harps Rachel Masters Principal Lucy Haslar Piano Catherine Edwards * Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Alice Munday

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: The Candide Trust • Dr Barry Grimaldi

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

London Philharmonic Orchestra

The LPO musicians really surpassed themselves in playing of élan, subtlety and virtuosity. Matthew Rye, Bachtrack, 24 September 2017 (Enescu’s Oedipe at Royal Festival Hall) 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. Celebrating its 85th anniversary this season, 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 the Orchestra’s current Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, and this season we celebrate the tenth anniversary of this extraordinary partnership. Andrés Orozco-Estrada took up the position of Principal Guest Conductor in September 2015. The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives around 40 concerts each season. Our year-long Belief and Beyond Belief festival in partnership with Southbank Centre

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

continues to the end of 2017, exploring what it means to be human in the 21st century. Then, in 2018, we explore the life and music of Stravinsky in our new series Changing Faces: Stravinsky’s Journey, charting the life and music of one of the 20th century’s most influential composers. 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: the 2016/17 season included visits to New York, Germany, Hungary, Spain, France, Belgium, The Netherlands and Switzerland, and tours in 2017/18 include Romania, Japan, China, the Czech Republic, Germany, Belgium, Austria, Spain, Italy and France.

Pieter Schoeman leader

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. In 2017/18 we celebrate the 30th anniversary of our Education and Community department, whose work over three decades has introduced so many people of all ages to orchestral music and created opportunities for people of all backgrounds to fulfil their creative potential. 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 and social media has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as regular concert streamings and a popular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on social media. lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra youtube.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra instagram.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002. © Benjamin Ealovega

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 Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 conducted by Kurt Masur; Dvořák’s Symphonies 6 & 7 conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 3 and Fidelio Overture conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

Born in South Africa, Pieter made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. Five years later he won the World Youth Concerto Competition in Michigan. Aged 17, he moved to the US to further his studies in Los Angeles and Dallas. In 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman who, after several consultations, recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. As a chamber musician he regularly appears at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. At the invitation of Yannick Nézet-Séguin he has been part of the ‘Yannick and Friends’ chamber group, performing at festivals in Dortmund and Rheingau. Pieter has performed several times as a soloist with the LPO, and his live recording of Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov was released on the Orchestra’s own label to great critical acclaim. He has also recorded numerous violin solos for film and television, and led the LPO in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras. In April 2016 he was Guest Leader with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for Kurt Masur’s memorial concert. He is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Pieter’s chair in the London Philharmonic Orchestra is supported by Neil Westreich.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

Andrés Orozco-Estrada Principal Guest Conductor

Orozco-Estrada plunges in with a lean, period-conscious performance ... His tempos are never extreme, and he draws playing of cultivated buoyancy from the LPO, tightening the dramatic screw to produce a gripping climax. © Martin Sigmund

The Telegraph, June 2014 (Don Giovanni at Glyndebourne)

Andrés Orozco-Estrada first worked with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in November 2013, conducting a major tour of Germany. His impressive energy and musicianship, and the immediate rapport that formed between him and the players, combined with such success that it led quickly to the announcement that he would take up the position of Principal Guest Conductor from September 2015. Born in Medellín, Colombia and trained in Vienna, Andrés is one of the most sought-after conductors of his generation. In 2014 he became Music Director of the Houston Symphony and Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Andrés Orozco-Estrada first came to international attention in 2004 when he took over a concert with the Tonkünstler Orchestra Niederösterreich at the Vienna Musikverein, and was celebrated by the Viennese press as a ‘wonder from Vienna’. Numerous engagements with many international orchestras followed, and since then, Orozco-Estrada has developed a highly successful musical partnership with the Tonkünstler Orchestra, serving as Music Director from 2009–15. Andrés Orozco-Estrada now appears with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Vienna Philharmonic, the Munich Philharmonic, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome and the Orchestre National de France.

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Recent successful debuts have included The Philadelphia Orchestra, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and Israel Philharmonic orchestras. In 2014 he made his debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera conducting Don Giovanni with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2015 he made his debut at the Salzburg Festival followed by a re-invitation for 2016 with Il templario. In April 2017 he made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent CDs released on Pentatone are generating a great deal of attention and include Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Richard Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben and Macbeth, both with the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra. Andrés has also recorded Dvořák’s Symphonies Nos. 6–9 with the Houston Symphony. Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical studies on the violin and had his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997 he moved to Vienna, where he studied at the renowned Vienna Music Academy and completed his degree with distinction by conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Musikverein. He currently lives in Vienna.

Inon Barnatan piano

One of the most admired pianists of his generation.

The New York Times

The 2016/17 season saw American-Israeli pianist Inon Barnatan complete his third and final year as the New York Philharmonic’s inaugural Artist-inAssociation, and give debut performances with the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester (under Alan Gilbert), the Chicago Symphony (Jesús López-Cobos), the Baltimore Symphony (Vasily Petrenko), the Seattle Symphony (Ludovic Merlot), and the BBC Symphony Orchestra (with Kazushi Ono at the BBC Proms). Tonight’s concert is Inon’s debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and tomorrow evening he will give a second performance of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto with the Orchestra at Brighton Dome. Other highlights this season include his debut with the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra, and returns to the Cincinnati Symphony, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl. Inon will also return to London’s Wigmore Hall and New York’s Carnegie Hall for recitals; embark on a major tour of South East Asia; and continue his longstanding duo collaboration with cellist Alisa Weilerstein.

A passionate advocate for contemporary music, Inon Barnatan has premiered works by Matthias Pintscher, Sebastian Currier and Avner Dorman; music by Thomas Adès and Ronald Stevenson featured alongside Ravel and Debussy on his critically acclaimed album Darknesse Visible, which made The New York Times ‘Best of 2012’ list. Inon is currently recording the complete Beethoven piano concertos with the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, whom he recently led as soloist/director on tour throughout the US. Born in Tel Aviv in 1979, Inon Barnatan went on to study at London’s Royal Academy of Music. He is a recipient of both the Avery Fisher Career Grant and Lincoln Center’s Martin E. Segal Award, and currently lives in New York. inonbarnatan.com facebook.com/inonbarnatanpiano @IBarnatan

Since giving his first concerto performance at the age of 11, Inon Barnatan has performed with The Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, the San Francisco Symphony, the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin and the Royal Stockholm Symphony Orchestra, building strong relationships with conductors such as Gustavo Dudamel, James Gaffigan, Manfred Honeck, Susanna Mälkki, Thomas Søndergård, Michael Tilson Thomas and Jaap van Zweden.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

Programme notes

Speedread Two works of heroic spirit make up tonight’s programme. Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto was his last, marking both the end of his own career as a concert pianist – his increasing deafness having made public performance with other musicians impossible, this was the first piano concerto that he did not premiere himself – and the achievement of a new level of boldness and grandeur for the concerto form. Yet if the powerfully extrovert gestures of the outer movements give it its most immediately striking moments, the hushed, awe-inspiring serenity

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827

One has to wonder whether the organisers of the concert at which Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto received its Viennese premiere in February 1812 – the actual premiere having taken place in Leipzig the previous November – provided the ideal audience. A contemporary report of the combined concert and art exhibition mounted by the Society of Noble Ladies for Charity tells us that ‘the pictures offer a glorious treat; a new pianoforte concerto by Beethoven failed’. And it is true that, while it was later to become as familiar a piano concerto as any, in its early years the ‘Emperor’ struggled for popularity. Perhaps its leonine strength and symphonic sweep were simply too much for everyone, not just the Noble Ladies. Cast in the same key as the ‘heroic’ Third Symphony, it breathes much the same majestically confident air, though in a manner one could describe as more macho. Composed in the first few months of 1809, with war brewing between Austria and France, this is Beethoven in what must have seemed overbearingly optimistic mood.

8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

of the central slow movement is no less memorable. Shostakovich’s rousing, epic Seventh Symphony was composed amidst the horrors of the siege of Leningrad in 1941 and won admiration throughout the free world, but while he explicitly linked it at the time to the subject of the survival of the Russian national creative spirit at a time of mortal threat from outside, it has come over the years to be seen as a mighty expression of defiance and mourning for a country no less in peril from its own leaders.

Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, Op. 73 (Emperor) Inon Barnatan piano 1 Allegro 2 Adagio un poco mosso – 3 Rondo: Allegro

The Concerto is certainly not reticent about declaring itself. The first movement opens with extravagant flourishes from the piano punctuated by stoic orchestral chords, leading us with unerring sense of direction towards the sturdy first theme. This march-like tune presents two important thematic reference-points in the shape of a melodic turn and a tiny figure of just two notes (a long and a short) which Beethoven refers to constantly in the course of the movement. The latter ushers in the chromatic scale with which the piano re-enters, and the same sequence of events later serves to introduce the central development section. Here the turn dominates, dreamily passed around the woodwind, but the two-note figure emerges ever more strongly, eventually firing off a stormy tirade of piano octaves. The air quickly clears, however, and reappearances of the turn lead back to a recapitulation of the opening material. Towards the end of the movement Beethoven makes his most radical formal move. In the early 19th century it was still customary at this point in a concerto for the soloist to improvise a solo passage (or cadenza), but in this work

Beethoven for the first time includes one which is not only fully written out, but involves the orchestra as well. It was an innovation that many subsequent composers, glad of the extra control it allowed them, would adopt. The second and third movements together take less time to play than the first. The Adagio opens with a serene, hymn-like tune from the strings, which the piano answers with a theme of its own before itself taking up the opening one in ornamented form. This in turn leads to an orchestral reprise of the same theme, now with greater participation from the winds and with piano decoration. At the end, the music dissolves, then eerily drops down a semitone as the piano toys idly with some quiet, thickly scored chords. In a flash, these are then transformed and revealed to be the main theme of the bouncy Rondo finale, which has followed without a break. Physical joins between movements were a trend in Beethoven’s music

at this time, but so too were thematic ones. At one point in this finale, with the main theme firmly established, the strings gently put forward the ‘experimental’ version from the end of the slow movement, as if mocking the piano’s earlier tentativeness. The movement approaches its close, however, with piano and timpani in stealthy cahoots before, with a final flurry, the end is upon us. The Concerto’s nickname was not chosen by Beethoven, and, given the composer’s angry reaction to Napoleon’s self-appointment as Emperor in 1804, it may seem more than usually inappropriate. Yet there is an appositeness to it if we take the music’s grandly heroic stance as a picture of what, perhaps, an emperor ought to be. Beethoven once remarked that if he had understood the arts of war as well as he had those of music, he could have defeated Napoleon. Who, listening to this Concerto, could doubt that?

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

Leif Ove Andsnes

Tuesday 31 October 2017 Sibelius, Widmann, Schubert, Beethoven, Chopin

Víkingur Ólafsson

Wednesday 15 November 2017 Bach, Chopin, Brahms

Mitsuko Uchida Tuesday 28 November & Friday 1 December 2017 Schubert

Paul Lewis

Tuesday 23 January 2018 Haydn, Beethoven, Brahms

Martin Helmchen

Wednesday 7 February 2018 Schumann, Beethoven

Boris Giltburg

Wednesday 28 February 2018 Liszt, Rachmaninov

southbankcentre.co.uk 020 3879 9555

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes continued

Dmitri Shostakovich

Symphony No. 7 in C major, Op. 60 (Leningrad) 1 Allegretto 2 Moderato (poco allegretto) 3 Adagio – 4 Allegro non troppo

1906–75

It is one of the great stories of 20th-century classical music. Shostakovich, working at his desk in the darkening months of 1941 on a symphony of ‘war, struggle, and the heroism of the Soviet people’ as the bombs fell on Leningrad. The premiere the following March in Kuibyshev, where the composer had been evacuated. The loudspeakers in the streets of Leningrad relaying the performance to the people of the stillbesieged city. The microfilm copy of the score smuggled passed the Germans to the West, where Henry Wood conducted the British premiere with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in June 1942 (see right), and major conductors vied for the first US performance. The rapturous reception when Toscanini performed it in New York in July, an event that landed a photo of Shostakovich (wearing his firewatcher’s helmet) on the cover of Time magazine and, together with 60 or so more performances of the work in the USA during the 1942/43 season alone, helped fortify the new anti-Nazi alliance of USA and USSR. ‘What devil could vanquish a nation capable of creating such music!’, one American newspaper enthused. This was modern classical music out there in the world and making a difference. Shostakovich’s own pronouncements at the time must have left few in doubt as to what the work signified. In an article in Pravda not long after the premiere, he wrote that ‘I wanted to compose a piece about today, about our life and our heroic people, fighting and conquering the enemy.’ A few weeks later in another article he told of how he had composed the first three movements quickly between July and September, his inspiration sharpened by the sounds of gunfire and explosions. And his programme note for the Moscow premiere described it as ‘a programmatic work inspired by the threat of events in 1941’. Yet, as has now been long recognised, Shostakovich was careful what he said and how he said it, whether in words or musical notes. Living and working

10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

as he did in a totalitarian state which had enlisted art as an instrument of social control and in which the slightest miscarriage of that purpose could quite literally prove fatal, he yet sought to create powerful and meaningful music worthy of his mighty creative personality. So yes, in a time of war, when the mother country is under threat of conquest by another, palpably worse dictatorship, a symphony of stirring patriotism has its place. But could it also be more than that? In Testimony, the memoir of Shostakovich ‘as related to and edited by’ Solomon Volkov, the composer reveals that ‘the Seventh Symphony had been planned before the war, and consequently it cannot be seen as a reaction to Hitler’s attack … I suffer for everyone who was tortured, shot or starved to death. There were millions of them in our own country before the war with Hitler began’. The authority of Testimony has been questioned ever since it was published four years after Shostakovich’s death, but once immediate thoughts of invading Nazis have become distanced, it is possible to see not only that such an alternative view of the piece is entirely plausible, but that the lamenting of Stalin’s Russia and sympathy for its victims could exist in it alongside the immediate experience of fear of, and resistance to, military destruction. According to Volkov, Shostakovich said that ‘the majority of my symphonies are tombstones’, and multi-faceted though the composer’s expressive powers were, human compassion was usually stronger in him than triumphalism. The ‘Leningrad’ is surely less war story than (as Ian MacDonald has put it) ‘a civic requiem’. The first movement is undoubtedly the most programmatic in feel. In his programme note Shostakovich said that it depicted ‘the happy lives of our people’, presumably shown in the confidently striding opening theme and the peaceful and lyrical second.

But then a quietly rattling side-drum sets on its way a trite march theme, which over the course of long and terrifying repetition grows to an almost unbearable height of intensity and menace. When at last this gives way, it is to a climax of searing tragedy and grief which gradually relents to war-worn transformations of the original second theme. Some sense of repose is eventually reached, though not without the disturbance of occasional reminders of the march. The second movement is a kind of scherzo, though one that – for all its gestures towards playfulness – seems sad and heavy-laden. A central episode tries to raise the spirits, but the screaming woodwinds succeed only in conjuring a grotesque totentanz before the music returns to the weary world whence it came. ‘Ecstasy in life and admiration of nature’ was the Mahlerian subjectmatter suggested by Shostakovich for the slow third movement, though it is Stravinsky’s soundworld that is echoed in its stark opening chord sequence, and if nature had never been mentioned one might think the mood of the movement less pastoral than funerary – lyrically and sometimes heroically so in the keen-aired string lines and gracefully winding solos for flute and viola of its outer panels; despairingly so in the tortured, driving central section. The finale follows without a break, gradually easing the music from sombre depths into a jaunty but determined march. Shostakovich originally had ‘victory’ lined up as a subtitle for it, but this is far from being an exhibition of uncomplicated joy, with any moves towards open celebration reined in until we near the end. Even in these clamorous final pages, however, for all the strength they show, there is a weight that suggests that events have not left this massively resilient human spirit unchanged. ‘I never thought about exultant finales’, Volkov reported Shostakovich as saying, ‘for what exultation could there be?’ Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp

Evening Standard review from the UK premiere of the ‘Leningrad’ Symphony, given by the LPO under Sir Henry Wood on 22 June 1942

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. Beethoven: Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) Leif Ove Andsnes piano/director | Mahler Chamber Orchestra (Sony) or Alfred Brendel piano | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Bernard Haitink Shostakovich: Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad) London Philharmonic Orchestra | Bernard Haitink (Decca)

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

be m ov e d Next concerts at Southbank Centreâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s Royal Festival Hall

Saturday 4 november 2017 7.30pm

wednesday 8 november 2017 7.30pm

wednesday 22 november 2017 7.30pm

Bruckner Symphony No. 8 (Haas edition)

Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture Schumann Violin Concerto Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)

Bridge Summer Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 (Winter Daydreams)

Lawrence Renes conductor* *Please note a change to the conductor from previously advertised.

Alain Altinoglu conductor Patricia Kopatchinskaja violin

Michail Jurowski conductor Beatrice Rana piano

Book now at lpo.org.uk or call 020 7840 4242 Season discounts of up to 30% available

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

Thank you

We are extremely grateful to all donors who have given generously to the LPO over the past year. Your generosity helps maintain the breadth and depth of the LPO’s activities, as well as supporting the Orchestra both on and off the concert platform.

Artistic Director’s Circle An anonymous donor Victoria Robey OBE Orchestra Circle The Tsukanov Family Principal Associates An anonymous donor The Candide Trust Alexander & Elena Djaparidze Mr & Mrs Philip Kan Sergey Sarkisov & Rusiko Makhashvili Julian & Gill Simmonds Neil Westreich Associates Kay Bryan William & Alex de Winton Virginia Gabbertas Oleg & Natalya Pukhov Sir Simon Robey Stuart & Bianca Roden Gold Patrons Evzen & Lucia Balko David & Yi Buckley Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport Sonja Drexler Mrs Gillian Fane Hamish & Sophie Forsyth Sally Groves & Dennis Marks The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust John & Angela Kessler Vadim & Natalia Levin Countess Dominique Loredan Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Tom & Phillis Sharpe The Viney Family Laurence Watt Guy & Utti Whittaker

Silver Patrons Michael Allen Mrs Irina Gofman David Goldberg Mr Gavin Graham Pehr G Gyllenhammar Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle Matt Isaacs & Penny Jerram Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva The Metherell Family Jacopo Pessina Brian & Elizabeth Taylor Bronze Patrons Anonymous donors Dr Christopher Aldren Mrs Margot Astrachan Mrs A Beare Richard & Jo Brass Peter & Adrienne Breen Mr Jeremy Bull Richard Buxton John Childress & Christiane Wuillaimie Mr Geoffrey A Collens Mr John H Cook Bruno De Kegel Georgy Djaparidze David Ellen Ulrike & Benno Engelmann Ignor & Lyuba Galkin Mr Daniel Goldstein Mr Roger Greenwood Mrs Dorothy Hambleton Martin & Katherine Hattrell Wim & Jackie Hautekiet-Clare Michael & Christine Henry J Douglas Home Mr Glenn Hurstfield Rose & Dudley Leigh Elena Lileeva & Adrian Pabst Drs Frank & Gek Lim Peter MacDonald Eggers Isabelle & Adrian Mee Maxim & Natalia Moskalev Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Peter & Lucy Noble

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Noel Otley JP & Mrs Rachel Davies Roderick & Maria Peacock Mr Roger Phillimore Mr Michael Posen Sir Bernard Rix Mr Robert Ross Anonymous Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Barry & Gillian Smith Anna Smorodskaya Lady Valerie Solti Mr & Mrs G Stein Mrs Anne Storm Sergei & Elena Sudakov Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Marina Vaizey Grenville & Krysia Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Principal Supporters An anonymous donor Roger & Clare Barron Mr Geoffrey Bateman Gabor Beyer, through BTO Management Consulting AG David & Patricia Buck Dr Anthony Buckland Mr Alan C Butler Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr Peter Cullum CBE Mr Timonthy Fancourt QC Marie-Laure Favre-Gilly de Varennes de Beuill Mr Richard Fernyhough Mr Derek B. Gray Malcolm Herring Ivan Hurry Per Jonsson Mr Ralph Kanza Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe Mr Colm Kelleher Peter Kerkar

Mr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr John Long Mr Peter Mace Brendan & Karen McManus Kristina McPhee Andrew T Mills Randall & Maria Moore Dr Karen Morton Olga Pavlova Dr Wiebke Pekrull Mr James Pickford Andrew & Sarah Poppleton Tatiana Pyatigorskaya Martin & Cheryl Southgate Matthew Stephenson & Roman Aristarkhov Mr Christopher Stewart Andrew & Rosemary Tusa Anastasia Vvedenskaya Howard & Sheelagh Watson Des & Maggie Whitelock Holly Wilkes Christopher Williams Mr C D Yates Bill Yoe Supporters Anonymous donors Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Mrs Alan Carrington Miss Siobhan Cervin Gus Christie Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington Mr Joshua Coger Timothy Colyer Miss Tessa Cowie Lady Jane Cuckney OBE Mr David Devons Cameron & Kathryn Doley Stephen & Barbara Dorgan Mr Nigel Dyer Sabina Fatkullina Mrs Janet Flynn Christopher Fraser OBE The Jackman Family Mrs Irina Tsarenkov

Mr David MacFarlane Mr John Meloy Mr Stephen Olton Robin Partington Mr David Peters Mr Ivan Powell Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh Mr Christopher Queree Mr David Russell Mr Kenneth Shaw Ms Natalie Spraggon Michael & Katie Urmston Damien & Tina Vanderwilt Timothy Walker AM Mr John Weekes Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Alfonso Aijón Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Robert Hill Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE Laurence Watt 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: William A. Kerr Chairman Xenia Hanusiak Alexandra Jupin Kristina McPhee David Oxenstierna Natalie Pray Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP Stephanie Yoshida

Corporate Donors Arcadis Christian Dior Couture Fenchurch Advisory Partners Giberg Goldman Sachs Pictet Bank White & Case LLP Corporate Members Gold Sunshine Silver After Digital Berenberg Carter-Ruck French Chamber of Commerce Bronze Accenture Ageas BTO Management Consulting AG Lazard Russo-British Chamber of Commerce Willis Towers Watson Preferred Partners Fevertree Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd London Orthopaedic Clinic Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsor Google Inc

Trusts and Foundations ABO Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust Boshier-Hinton Foundation The Candide Trust The Ernest Cook Trust Diaphonique, Franco-British Fund for contemporary music The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Foyle Foundation Lucille Graham Trust Help Musicians UK John Horniman’s Children’s Trust The Idlewild Trust Embassy of the State of Israel to the United Kingdom Kirby Laing Foundation The Leverhulme Trust Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation London Stock Exchange Group Foundation Marsh Christian Trust The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute Newcomen Collett Foundation The Stanley Picker Trust The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust PRS For Music Foundation Rivers Foundation Romanian Cultural Institute The R K Charitable Trust The Sampimon Trust Schroder Charity Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust Spears-Stutz Charitable Trust The John Thaw Foundation

UK Friends of the FelixMendelssohn-BartholdyFoundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust and all others who wish to remain anonymous.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Administration

Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Henry Baldwin* Roger Barron Richard Brass David Buckley Bruno De Kegel Al MacCuish Susanne Martens* George Peniston* Natasha Tsukanova Mark Vines* Timothy Walker AM Neil Westreich David Whitehouse* * Player-Director Advisory Council Martin Höhmann Chairman Rob Adediran Christopher Aldren Dr Manon Antoniazzi Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport William de Winton Cameron Doley Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Amanda Hill Dr Catherine C. Høgel Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Geoff Mann Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Nadya Powell Sir Bernard Rix Victoria Robey OBE Baroness Shackleton Thomas Sharpe QC Julian Simmonds Barry Smith Martin Southgate Andrew Swarbrick Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Elizabeth Winter

General Administration

Education and Community

Public Relations

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Isabella Kernot Education and Community Director

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

David Burke General Manager and Finance Director

Talia Lash Education and Community Project Manager