2024/25 season at the Southbank Centre FREE CONCERT PROGRAMME
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner supported by Aud Jebsen
Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis
Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski KBE Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG
Artistic Director Elena Dubinets Chief Executive David Burke
Leader Pieter Schoeman supported by Neil Westreich
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Saturday 28 September 2024 | 7.00pm
Rachmaninoff
Piano Concerto No. 3 (44’)
Interval (20’)
Rachmaninoff
The Bells (35’)
Edward Gardner conductor
Generously supported by Aud Jebsen
Leif Ove Andsnes
piano
Kristina Mkhitaryan soprano
Dmytro Popov tenor
Kostas Smoriginas bass-baritone
London Philharmonic Choir
Artistic Director: Neville Creed
This concert is being recorded for broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on Wednesday 9 October at 7.30pm. It will remain available for 30 days after that on BBC Sounds.
Tonight’s concert is being filmed for future broadcast on Marquee TV. We would be grateful if audience noise during the performance could be kept to a minimum, and if audience members could kindly hold applause until the end of the work. Thank you for your co-operation.
We’re the largest arts centre in the UK and one of the nation’s top visitor attractions, showcasing the world’s most exciting artists at our venues in the heart of London. We’re here to present great cultural experiences that bring people together, and open up the arts to everyone.
The Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Hayward Gallery, National Poetry Library and Arts Council Collection. We’re one of London’s favourite meeting spots, with lots of free events and places to relax, eat and shop next to the Thames.
We hope you enjoy your visit. If you need any information or help, please ask a member of staff. You can also email hello@southbankcentre.co.uk or write to us at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX.
Subscribers to our email updates are the first to hear about new events, offers and competitions. Just head to our website to sign up.
The paper used for all LPO brochures and concert programmes has been sourced from responsibly managed forests, certified in accordance with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). It is also Carbon Balanced, meaning the carbon impact of its production is offset by the World Land Trust through the purchase and preservation of ecologically important forestry under imminent threat of clearance.
If you don’t want to take your programme home, please make use of the recycling bins in the Royal Festival Hall foyers. Please also use these bins to recycle any plastic drinks glasses after the concert. Thank you.
You might have seen the news earlier this month that Edward Gardner has renewed his contract as LPO Principal Conductor until at least 2028. Karina Canellakis has also extended her Principal Guest Conductor contract until 2027, which – along with Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski – means we retain our enviable conductor lineup for years to come. We’re all looking forward to the musical adventures ahead!
Scan to watch a video of Ed talking about his contract extension and what he loves about the LPO.
Once again this season, a selection of our Royal Festival Hall concerts will be filmed for broadcast on Marquee TV. Tonight’s concert is being filmed for broadcast on Saturday 9 November 2024 at 7pm, and will remain available to watch free of charge for 48 hours without a Marquee TV subscription.
If you would like to subscribe for unlimited access to Marquee TV’s extensive range of music, opera, theatre and dance productions, you can enjoy 50% off an annual subscription with code 50LPO. Visit discover.marquee.tv/50lpo to find out more or subscribe.
We’re thrilled to welcome our new cohort of LPO Junior Artists as guests at tonight’s concert, following their first day on the scheme.
LPO Junior Artists is our annual orchestral experience programme for eight talented young musicians from backgrounds currently under-represented in professional UK orchestras. The programme offers support, advice and professional insight to exceptional players of orchestral instruments aged 15–19 and at a minimum Grade 8 playing standard. Junior Artists become part of the London Philharmonic Orchestra family for a year, getting to know our musicians, staff and artists, as well as members of our Rising Talent schemes. They also take part in events to inspire younger generations of musicians. lpo.org.uk/juniorartists
First Violins
Pieter Schoeman* Leader
Chair supported by Neil Westreich
Alice Ivy-Pemberton Co-Leader
Kate Oswin
Chair supported by Eric Tomsett
Lasma Taimina
Chair supported by Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave
Minn Majoe
Chair supported by Dr Alex & Maria
Chan
Thomas Eisner
Chair supported by Ryze Power
Martin Höhmann
Katalin Varnagy
Chair supported by Sonja Drexler
Yang Zhang
Cassandra Hamilton
Elizaveta Tyun
Amanda Smith
Nilufar Alimaksumova
Gabriel Opacka
Eleanor Bartlett
Camille Buitenhuis
Second Violins
Tania Mazzetti Principal
Emma Oldfield Co-Principal
Coco Inman
Kate Birchall
Nancy Elan
Fiona Higham
Chair supported by David & Yi
Buckley
Nynke Hijlkema
Marie-Anne Mairesse
Claudia Tarrant-Matthews
Ricky Gore
Sarah Thornett
Emma Crossley
Charlie MacClure
José Nuno Cabrita Matias
Violas
Fiona Winning
Guest Principal
Martin Wray
Chair supported by David & Bettina
Harden
Benedetto Pollani
Laura Vallejo
Lucia Ortiz Sauco
Stanislav Popov
Linda Kidwell
Lukas Bowen
Julia Doukakis
Kate De Campos
Daniel Cornford
Michelle Bruil
Kristina Blaumane Principal
Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart
Roden
Leo Melvin
Waynne Kwon
George Hoult
David Lale
Sibylle Hentschel
Francis Bucknall
Auriol Evans
Sue Sutherley
Tom Roff
Double Basses
Kevin Rundell* Principal
Sebastian Pennar
Co-Principal
Hugh Kluger
George Peniston
Tom Walley
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
Laura Murphy
Elen Roberts
Colin Paris
Flutes
Juliette Bausor Principal
Marie Sato
Ruth Harrison
Piccolo
Stewart McIlwham* Principal
Oboes
Ian Hardwick* Principal
Alice Munday
Emily Cockbill
Cor Anglais
Sue Böhling* Principal
Chair supported by Dr Barry Grimaldi
Benjamin Mellefont* Principal
Chair supported by Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
Thomas Watmough
Chair supported by Roger Greenwood
Isha Crichlow
Bass Clarinet
Paul Richards* Principal
Bassoons
Jonathan Davies* Principal
Chair supported by Sir Simon Robey
Helen Storey
Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra
Ruby Collins
Contrabassoon
Simon Estell* Principal
Horns
John Ryan* Principal
Annemarie Federle
Principal
Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE
Martin Hobbs
Mark Vines Co-Principal
Gareth Mollison
Elise Campbell
Duncan Fuller
Trumpets
Paul Beniston* Principal
Tom Nielsen Co-Principal
Anne McAneney*
Chair supported by Peter Coe
Mark Templeton* Principal
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
David Whitehouse
Bass Trombone
Lyndon Meredith Principal
Tuba
Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
Timpani
Simon Carrington*
Principal
Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE
Andrew Barclay* Principal
Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins
Karen Hutt
Oliver Yates
Jeremy Cornes
Francesca Lombardelli
Harp
Sue Blair Guest Principal
Piano
Catherine Edwards
Celeste
Philip Moore
Organ
Clíodna Shanahan
Assistant Conductor
Matthew Lynch
*Professor at a London conservatoire
© Jason Bell
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. Our mission is to share wonder with the modern world through the power of orchestral music, which we accomplish through live performances, online, and an extensive education and community programme, cementing 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 in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and on tour worldwide. In 2024 we celebrated 60 years as Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, combining the magic of opera with Glyndebourne’s glorious setting in the Sussex countryside.
Everyone will have heard the Grammy-nominated London Philharmonic Orchestra, whether it’s playing the world’s National Anthems for 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’re one of the world’s most-streamed orchestras, with over 15 million plays of our content each month. In 2023 we were the most successful orchestra worldwide on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, with over 1.1m followers across all platforms, and in spring 2024 we featured in a TV documentary series on Sky Arts: ‘Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’, still available to watch via Now TV. During 2024/25 we’re once again working with Marquee TV to broadcast selected live concerts to enjoy from your own living room.
Our Principal Conductors have included some of the greatest historic names like Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2021 Edward Gardner became our 13th Principal Conductor, and Vladimir Jurowski became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his impact as Principal Conductor from 2007–21. Karina Canellakis is our current Principal Guest Conductor, and Tania León our Composer-in-Residence.
We’re committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians and music-lovers: we love seeing the joy of children and families experiencing their first musical moments, and we’re passionate about inspiring schools and teachers through dedicated concerts, workshops,
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 disabilities and special educational needs.
Today’s young instrumentalists are the orchestra members of the future, and we have a number of opportunities to support their progression. Our LPO Junior Artists programme leads the way in creating pathways into the profession for young artists from under-represented communities, and our LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes support the next generation of professional musicians, bridging the transition from education to professional careers. We also recently launched the LPO Conducting Fellowship, supporting the development of two outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds under-represented in the profession.
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner leads the Orchestra in an exciting 2024/25 season, with soloists including Joyce DiDonato, Leif Ove Andsnes, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Víkingur Ólafsson and Isabelle Faust, and works including Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis joins us for three concerts including Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, and Mozart with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. We’ll also welcome back Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski, as well as guest conductors including Mark Elder, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Robin Ticciati and Kevin John Edusei.
Throughout the season we’ll explore the relationship between music and memory in our ‘Moments Remembered’ series, featuring works like Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Strauss’s Metamorphosen and John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls. During the season there’ll be the chance to hear brand new works by composers including Freya Waley-Cohen and David Sawer, as well as performances by renowned soloists violinist Gidon Kremer, sarod player Amjad Ali Khan, soprano Renée Fleming and many more. The season also features tours to Japan, the USA, China and across Europe, as well as a calendar bursting with performances and community events in our Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden residencies. lpo.org.uk
Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002. He is also a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance.
Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninoff Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. As a chamber musician he regularly appears at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. His chamber music partners have included Anne-Sophie Mutter, Veronika Eberle, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Boris Garlitsky, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Martin Helmchen and Julia Fischer.
Pieter has performed numerous times as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights have included an appearance as both conductor and soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Royal Festival Hall, the Brahms Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and the Britten Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the LPO Label to great critical acclaim.
Pieter has appeared as Guest Leader with the BBC, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon and Baltimore symphony orchestras; the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras; and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Pieter’s chair in the LPO is generously supported by Neil Westreich.
Edward Gardner has been Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since September 2021, recently extending his contract until at least 2028. He is also Music Director of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet, and Honorary Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, following his tenure as Chief Conductor from 2015–24.
In 2024/25 – his fourth season as Principal Conductor –Edward conducts nine LPO concerts at the Royal Festival Hall. Next month he and the Orchestra embark on a major tour of the US with violinists Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Randall Goosby. Later in the season Edward is joined by more superb soloists including Víkingur Ólafsson, Isabelle Faust and Augustin Hadelich, and presents works including Strauss’s mighty Alpine Symphony, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 – an enormous end to the season.
Edward opened his inaugural season as Music Director of the Norwegian Opera & Ballet with concert performances of Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman and Mahler’s ‘Resurrection’ Symphony. He will later conduct two fully staged operas; Verdi’s La traviata and Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, following earlier productions of Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle, Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy and Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera
In demand as a guest conductor, this season Edward appears with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, Frankfurt Radio, Dallas Symphony, New World Symphony, Minnesota, Seoul Philharmonic, Sydney Symphony and West Australian Symphony orchestras. Debuts in recent seasons have included with the New York Philharmonic, the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, and the San Francisco Symphony, Staatskapelle Berlin, Berlin
Radio Symphony and Vienna Symphony orchestras. In the UK, he has had longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010-16, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whom he has conducted at both the First and Last Night of the BBC Proms.
In spring 2025 Edward returns to London’s Royal Opera House to conduct the world premiere of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Festen, and in June he returns to the Bavarian State Opera for Rusalka, following his debut with Peter Grimes in 2022 and Otello in 2023. Music Director of English National Opera for eight years (2007–15), Edward has also built a strong relationship with New York’s Metropolitan Opera, with productions of The Damnation of Faust, Carmen, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and Werther. Elsewhere, he has conducted at La Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra National de Paris.
In February this year, the LPO Label released a recording of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust with Edward Gardner, recorded live in February 2023 (LPO-0128). This follows his recording of Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage, which won the 2023 Gramophone Opera Award. A second Tippett disc (featuring Symphony No. 2 and the Piano Concerto with Steven Osborne) is planned for release in November 2024. In spring 2024 Edward and the LPO were the subject of a TV documentary series on Sky Arts: ‘Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’, still available to watch on Now TV.
A passionate supporter of young talent, Edward founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with the Juilliard School of Music, and with the Royal Academy of Music who appointed him their inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014.
Born in Gloucester in 1974, Edward was educated at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music, and gained early recognition as Assistant Conductor of the Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. His many accolades include the Royal Philharmonic Society Conductor of the Year Award (2008), an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2009) and an OBE for Services to Music in The Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).
Edward Gardner’s position at the LPO is generously supported by Aud Jebsen.
The New York Times calls Leif Ove Andsnes ‘a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight’, and The Wall Street Journal has named him ‘one of the most gifted musicians of his generation’. With his commanding technique and searching interpretations, the celebrated Norwegian pianist has won acclaim worldwide, performing concertos and recitals in the world’s leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, while building an esteemed and extensive discography. An avid chamber musician, he is the founding director of the Rosendal Chamber Music Festival in Norway, was co-artistic director of the Risør Festival of Chamber Music for nearly two decades, and was music director of California’s Ojai Music Festival in 2012. He was inducted into the Gramophone Hall of Fame in 2013, and has received honorary doctorates from the Universities of Bergen and Oslo, and New York’s Juilliard School.
Leif Ove Andsnes last appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in March 2023, when he performed Grieg’s Piano Concerto here at the Royal Festival Hall under Edward Gardner.
Two concertos figure prominently in Leif Ove’s 2024/25 season, one of which is tonight’s work, Rachmaninoff’s Third. After recent accounts with ensembles including the Philadelphia Orchestra, Pittsburgh Symphony and Orchestre de Paris, this season he also performs the concerto at Baden-Baden’s Easter Festival with the Berlin Philharmonic; on a North European tour with the Mahler Academy Orchestra; and with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Stuttgart Radio Symphony orchestras. Similarly, after recent performances of Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Concerto with ensembles including the New York Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, this season he reprises the work with
Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra, the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Rome’s Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and on tour with the Oslo Philharmonic. To complete the concert season, he joins the Czech Philharmonic and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic for performances of Grieg’s Concerto, the Barcelona Symphony for a pairing of Haydn and Franck, and the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra for Debussy’s Fantaisie at the Hamburg International Festival. With a solo programme combining Chopin’s 24 Preludes with sonatas by Norwegians Grieg and Geirr Tveitt, Leif Ove also embarks on an extensive transatlantic recital tour featuring dates at New York’s Carnegie Hall and London’s Wigmore Hall. The latter forms part of a season-long residency, to which he returns for chamber collaborations with fellow pianist Bertrand Chamayou, and with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra as the culmination of their European tour.
Leif Ove Andsnes’s discography comprises more than 50 titles – solo, chamber, and concerto releases, many of them bestsellers – spanning repertoire from the Baroque to the present day. He has been nominated for eleven Grammys, and his many international prizes include seven Gramophone Awards.
Leif Ove Andsnes has received Norway’s distinguished honour, Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav, and in 2007 he received the prestigious Peer Gynt Prize, awarded to honour prominent Norwegians for their achievements in politics, sports and culture. In 2004/05 he became the youngest musician (and first Scandinavian) to curate Carnegie Hall’s ‘Perspectives’ series, and in 2015/16 he was the subject of the London Symphony Orchestra’s ‘Artist Portrait’ series. Having been 2010/11 Pianist-in-Residence of the Berlin Philharmonic, he went on to serve as 2017/18 Artist-inResidence of the New York Philharmonic and 2019/20 Artist-in-Residence of Sweden’s Gothenburg Symphony. The recipient of both the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award, Andsnes was named one of the ‘Best of the Best’ by Vanity Fair in 2005.
Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmøy, Norway in 1970, and studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory under the renowned Czech professor Jirí Hlinka. He has also received invaluable advice from the Belgian piano teacher Jacques de Tiège. Today Leif Ove lives with his wife and their three children in Bergen. He is an Artistic Adviser at the city’s Prof. Jirí Hlinka Piano Academy, where he gives a masterclass to participating students each year.
Kristina Mkhitaryan is a graduate of the Galina Vishnevskaya Theatre Studio in Moscow. Career highlights include her 2018 Royal Opera House debut as Micaëla in Bizet’s Carmen, a role she now sings to acclaim in major opera houses worldwide; Gilda in Verdi’s Rigoletto with Opera Australia and Hamburg State Opera; the title role in Handel’s Alcina at Opéra National de Lorraine; and Armida in Handel’s Rinaldo under the baton of Maxim Emelyanychev at the Glyndebourne Festival. She has also appeared at the Grand Théâtre de Genève as Leila in The Pearl Fishers; at the Vienna State Opera in productions including La traviata, L’elisir d’amore and Turandot; and at the Metropolitan Opera in productions of Gianni Schicchi and La bohème.
Kristina’s ongoing success has recently seen her make two major role debuts: one in Dutch National Opera’s acclaimed production of Donizetti’s Maria Stuarda, and then Tatiana in Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at the Gran Teatre del Liceu, Barcelona.
An exciting 2024/25 season will see Kristina return to the role of Tatiana in Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House (in a new production by Ted Huffman), and at the Teatro Real, Madrid. She will also make her role debut as Mimì in La bohème at the Metropolitan Opera, and will feature in productions of La traviata at the Teatro Pérez Galdós in Gran Canaria; Massenet’s Manon at the Vienna State Opera; and as the title role in a concert performance of Donizetti’s Maria Padilla at the Teatro de la Maestranza, Seville.
This is Kristina’s debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Ukranian tenor Dmytro Popov began his career as a soloist with the Kyiv National Theatre, and came to international attention in 2013 when he sang the role of Rodolfo (La bohème) at London’s Royal Opera House. In 2003 he was the youngest ever opera artist to be granted the title of Honoured Artist of Ukraine, which recognises outstanding contribution to the performing arts. In 2007 he won the prestigious Plácido Domingo Operalia Competition.
Dmytro has performed many roles internationally at significant opera houses, with highlights including Alfredo (La traviata) at the Hamburg State Opera, Bavarian State Opera, Vienna State Opera and Metropolitan Opera; Don José (Carmen) at the Teatro Regio Turin, Bavarian State Opera and the 2024 Glyndebourne Festival; Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly) at the Opéra national de Paris and Teatro dell’Opera di Roma; Vaudemont (Iolanta) at the Opéra national de Paris and Teatro Real, Madrid; and The Prince (Rusalka) at the Bavarian State Opera. With Deutsche Oper Berlin, he has performed the roles of Cavaradossi (Tosca), Rodolfo (Luisa Miller), Alfredo (La traviata) and Pinkerton (Madama Butterfly). 2024/25 season highlights include Carmen at the Teatro di San Carlo, a return to the Metropolitan Opera for their revival of La bohème; Iolanta at the Vienna State Opera; and Rusalka with the Norwegian Opera and Ballet.
Dmytro made his London Philharmonic Orchestra debut in 2015 as a soloist in Verdi’s Requiem under Vladimir Jurowski at the Royal Festival Hall, and in 2018 sang the same work with the LPO under Andrés Orozco-Estrada at the BBC Proms.
During 2024/25, Kostas Smoriginas sings Jochanaan in Salome in Hannover, Antwerp, Malmö and Zurich; Verdi’s Requiem with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and the King’s Herald in Lohengrin in his Bavarian State Opera debut. Tonight is his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Last season, Kostas sang Donner (Das Rheingold) and Escamillo (Carmen) for the Royal Opera House; Escamillo in Hamburg; and Rachmaninoff’s Aleko and Francesca da Rimini in concert with the Munich Radio Orchestra. Other recent engagements include concerts of Elektra in Rome with Sir Antonio Pappano, and Salome at the Bergen International Festival with Edward Gardner; the title role in Eugene Onegin for Opéra de Lausanne; Jochanaan in Cologne; Scarpia (Tosca) at Opéra de Rouen; and Kurwenal (Tristan und Isolde) in Valencia.
Kostas Smoriginas made his Berlin State Opera debut as Escamillo in Carmen, and has since sung the role with the Berlin Philharmonic under Sir Simon Rattle, and at the Salzburg Easter Festival, Santa Fe Opera and Semperoper Dresden. Elsewhere, he has appeared at the Bregenz Festival, La Monnaie, the houses of Washington, San Francisco Opera and Santiago, Opera de Bordeaux, the Aix-en-Provence Festival and Teatro alla Scala Milan; and in concert with the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, the Orchestre de Paris, and the City of Birmingham, BBC and Frankfurt Radio symphony orchestras.
Kostas Smoriginas represented Lithuania in the 2005 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and was a member of the Jette Parker Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House.
Wednesday 27 November 2024, 7.30pm
Schoenberg A Survivor from Warsaw
Weinberg Violin Concerto
Shostakovich Symphony No. 13 (Babi Yar)
Andrey Boreyko conductor
Gidon Kremer violin
Alexander Roslavets narrator/bass
London Philharmonic Choir
Saturday 18 January 2025, 7.30pm
Haydn Missa in tempore belli
György Kurtág Petite musique solennelle
John Adams On the Transmigration of Souls
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Anna Devin soprano
Hanna Hipp mezzo-soprano
Rupert Charlesworth tenor
Trevor Eliot Bowes bass
London Philharmonic Choir
Tiffin Youth Choir
Saturday 26 April 2025, 7.30pm
Mahler Symphony No. 8 (semi-staged)
Edward Gardner conductor
London Philharmonic Choir
London Symphony Chorus
Tiffin Boys’ Choir
Soloists include Jennifer France, Christine Rice & Tomasz Konieczny For full list see lpo.org.uk
Patron HRH Princess Alexandra President Sir Mark Elder
Artistic Director Neville Creed Associate Chorus Director Victoria Longdon Accompanist Jonathan Beatty Chairman Tessa Bartley Choir Manager Natasha Sofla
Founded in 1947 as the chorus for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Choir is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest choirs. For the last seven decades the Choir has performed under leading conductors, consistently meeting with critical acclaim and recording regularly for television and radio.
Enjoying a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Choir frequently joins it for concerts in the UK and abroad. Recent concerts with LPO Principal Conductor Edward Gardner have included Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage and A Child of Our Time, Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder, Berlioz’s Damnation of Faust, Haydn’s Creation and Mozart’s Mass in C minor. Other highlights have included Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 with Robin Ticciati; the UK premieres of James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio with the Choir’s President, Sir Mark Elder, and Tan Dun’s Buddha Passion; Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with Marin Alsop; Wagner’s Götterdämmerung, Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 2 & 8 and Tallis’s Spem in alium with Vladimir Jurowski; and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis with Sir Mark Elder.
The Choir appears annually at the BBC Proms, and performances have included the UK premieres of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s A Relic of Memory and Goldie’s Sine Tempore in the Evolution! Prom. In recent years the Choir has also given performances of works by Beethoven, Elgar, Howells, Liszt, Orff, Vaughan Williams, Verdi and Walton. Last year for the first time, the Choir took part in the ‘Films in Concert’ series at the Royal Albert Hall, performing the score for Amadeus
A well-travelled choir, it has visited numerous European countries and performed in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Australia. The Choir has appeared twice at the Touquet International Music Masters Festival and was delighted to travel to the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Paris, in December 2017 to perform Bach’s Christmas Oratorio with the London Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Choir prides itself on its inclusive culture, achieving first-class performances from its members, who are volunteers from all walks of life.
Supported by
Anna-Maria Achilleos
Pippa Alderson
Annette Argent
Chris Banks
Tessa Bartley
Hilary Bates
Coco Burch
Carole Cameron
Charlotte Cantrell
Paula Chessell
Jenni Cresswell
Megan Cunnington
Issy Davies
Shehara de Soysa
Jessica Dixon
Lucy Doig
Martha Dowland
Rachel Gibbon
Rosie Grigalis
Jane Hanson
Olivia Haslam
Ashley Jordan
Erin Kendrick
Mai Kikkawa
Joy Lee
Sarah Leffler
Clare Lovett
Maddie Lovett
Ilona Lynch
Janey Maxwell
Amanda May
Meg McClure
Sally Morgan
Hannah Morse
Harriet Murray
Elizabeth Ortiz
Linda Park
Alexandra Poncia
Danielle ReeceGreenhalgh
Courtney Reed
Frankie Richards
Danielle Roman
Elizabeth Schweizer
Emma Secher
Katie Stuffelbeam
Lucy Taylor
Susan Thomas
Beatrice Tinsley
Isabella von Holstein
Sarah Walker
Holly Wray
Mala Yamey
Sze Ying Chan
Altos
Emma Barslund
Alison Biedron
Sally Brien
Jenny Burdett
Andrei Caracoti
Cannis Chan
May Chan
Noel Chow
Pat Dixon
Jennifer Downie
Andrea Easey
Pauline Finney
Bethea HansonJones
Grace Hewett
Kitty Howse
Rosheen Iyer
Joanna James
Judy Jones
Grace Kenyon
Julia King
Andrea Lane
Ethel Livermore
Lisa MacDonald
Laetitia Malan
Ian Maxwell
Nicola Mooney
Anna Mulroney
Beth O’Brien
Kathryn O’Leary
Liudmila Pagis
Nicola Prior
Elizabeth Reynard
Angela Schmitz
Rima Sereikiene
Natasha Sofla
Annette Strzedulla
Muriel Swijghuisen
Reigersberg
Erica Tomlinson
Catherine Travers
Susi Underwood
Jenny Watson
Tenors
Geir Andreassen
Tim Appleby
Giulio Beltramo
Andrew Chavez Kline
Kevin Cheng
Robert Geary
Alan Glover
Philippe Gosset
Josh Haley
Iain Handyside
David Hoare
Stephen Hodges
James Hopper
Patrick Hughes
Alex Marshall
Luke Phillips
Simon Pickup
Matthew Pinto
Daisy Rushton
George Smart
Christopher Stuart
Callum Sullivan
Tim Tian
Claudio Tonini
Mikolaj Walczak
Toby Wilson
Basses
Martyn Atkins
Jonathon Bird
Peter Blamire
Nathan Chu
Marcus Daniels
Myrddin Edwards
Ellie Fayle
Paul Fincham
Ian Fletcher
Gary Freer
Ian Frost
John Graham
Luke Hagerty
Alan Hardwick
Christopher Harvey
Mark Hillier
David Hodgson
Rylan Holey
Freddie Ingles
Nick Jackman
Michael Jenkins
Alan Jones
David Kent
Nigel Ledgerwood
Nicolai Leontiev
Maurice MacSweeney
John D Morris
John G Morris
Simon Potter
John Salmon
Edwin Smith
Philip Tait
Geoff Walker
Oliver Walsh
Sam Watson
1
2
3 Finale: Alla
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.’
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. 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.
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 note © Lindsay Kemp
‘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.’
– A critic at the Concerto’s premiere in New York, 28 November 1909
Interval – 20 minutes
An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.
Serge Rachmaninoff 1873–1943
1913
Kristina Mkhitaryan soprano
Dmytro Popov tenor
Kostas Smoriginas bass-baritone
London Philharmonic Choir
1 Allegro ma non tanto (‘The silver sleigh-bells’)
2 Lento (‘The mellow wedding bells’)
3 Presto (‘The loud alarum bells’)
4 Lento lugubre (‘The mournful iron bells’)
The text begins on page 15.
Any musical dictionary will tell you that Rachmaninoff wrote three symphonies. But his huge choral-orchestral The Bells is a symphony in all but name; in fact it’s one of the most original choral symphonies composed since Beethoven’s Ninth. Rachmaninoff’s choice of poetry by Edgar Allan Poe as his text has drawn some sniffy remarks from English critics – in this country there is a well-entrenched literary tradition of sneering at Poe’s artificial rhythmic schemes and his admittedly sometimes contrived use of rhyme. But those same features can be a gift to a composer, suggesting musical possibilities to an open and unprejudiced mind. It is striking too that Poe’s poetry has been much more inspirational abroad – to French and Scandinavian composers for instance – and, thanks to Konstantin Balmont’s fine translations, to Russians like Rachmaninoff.
It wasn’t just the sound of Balmont’s Poe translations that attracted Rachmaninoff. The fatalism of Poe’s ‘The Bells’, with its gradual but inevitable transition from the innocent hopefulness of the first two sections,
through grim experience in the third to the bleak funereal imagery of the ending, fitted Rachmaninoff’s temperament like a well-worn winter coat. Moreover, hearing the awe-inspiring sound of Russian church bells had been one of the most vividly recalled experiences of his childhood. So we owe a great deal to the young cellist Maria Danilova, whose idea it was to send Balmont’s version of ‘The Bells’ anonymously to Rachmaninoff in 1912. A year later – ‘mad with joy’ according to one account – Danilova read of the result: Rachmaninoff had transformed the poem into a colossal symphony. The premiere was one of Rachmaninoff’s greatest successes, and The Bells remained one of the composer’s own special favourites.
Aside from the challenging vocal writing – challenging for soloists and chorus alike – Rachmaninoff shows a new daring in his use of orchestral colour in The Bells. The opening evocation of ‘silver sleigh-bells’ on harp, piano, celeste and glockenspiel is delicious, but the use later on of the same instruments (minus the glockenspiel) with chorus quietly humming, at the image
of the ‘universal slumber’ that awaits us all, sends a prophetic chill through the music. The introduction to the second movement’s ‘mellow wedding bells’ is likewise strangely chilling. The rapt luxuriant lyricism that follows doesn’t quite dispel this shadow, and in the chorus’s final phrases one of those shadows becomes more distinct. Rachmaninoff had a lifelong fascination with the medieval Catholic funeral chant Dies irae –‘Day of Wrath’. It has already been hinted at in The Bells, but so far this is its clearest manifestation.
The progressive darkening of the bell imagery gathers pace in the third movement, where evocation of ‘loud alarum bells’ builds in a long, steady dramatic crescendo conveying growing panic and, finally, despair. Now it is the turn of death, invoked by quietly tolling strings, harp and horns, lamenting cor anglais and a sombre priestlike bass solo. At the end, however, the music offers a kind of comfort not suggested by the words. ‘There is neither rest nor respite, save the quiet of the tomb’, Poe tells us; yet Rachmaninoff’s finale strings, harp and quietly soaring solo flute seem to tell us that ‘rest’ and ‘respite’ are at least a possibility.
Programme note © Stephen Johnson
Laurie Watt
Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 3
Leif Ove Andsnes (piano) | London Symphony Orchestra | Antonio Pappano (Warner Classics) or Daniil Trifonov (piano) | Philadelphia Orchestra Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Deutsche Grammophon)
Rachmaninoff: The Bells Soloists | Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra & Choir | Mariss Jansons (Warner Classics)
We hope you enjoyed tonight’s concert. Could you spare a few moments afterwards to complete a short survey about your experience? Your feedback is invaluable to us and will help to shape our future plans. Just scan the QR code to begin the survey. Thank you!
Hot off the press is the Autumn/ Winter edition of our twiceyearly LPO magazine, Tune In Scan the QR code or visit issuu.com/londonphilharmonic to read it online, or call 020 7840 4200 to request a copy in the post.
Slyshish, slyshish, sani mchatsja v ryad, mchatsja v rjad.
Kolokolchiki zvenyat, serebristym lehkim zvonam slukh nash sladostna tamyat etim penem i gudenem a zabvene govoryat.
O, kak zvonka, zvonka, zvonka, tochna zvuchnyj smekh rebyonka, v yasnom vozdukhe nochnom govoryat oni o tom, shto za dnyami zabluzhdenye nastupayet vozrazhdenye, shto volshebno naslazhdene, naslazhdene nezhnym snom. Sani mchatsya, sani mchatsya v ryad, kolokolchiki zvenyat, zvyozdy slushayut, kak sani, ubegaya, govoryat, i vnimaya im, goryat, i mechtaya, i blistaya, v nebe dukhami paryat; i izmenchivym siyanem, molchalivym abayanem, vmeste s zvonam, vmeste s penem, a zabvene govoryat.
Slyshysh k svadbe zov svyatoy zolotoy. Skolko nezhnava blazhenstva v etoy pesne molodoy! Slyshysh, k svadbe zov … Skvos spokoynyi vozdukh nochi slovno smotryat chi-ta ochi i blestyat, iz volny pevuchikh zvukov, na lunu oni glyadyat. Iz prizyvnykh divnykh keliy, polny skazachnykh veseliy, narastaja, upodaya, bryzgi svetliye letyat. Vnov potukhnut, vnov blestyat, i ronyayut svetlyi vzglyad na gryadushcheye, gde dremlyet bezmyatezhnost nezhnykh snov,
Hear, hear, the sleighs fly past in line, fly in line.
The little bells ring out, their light silvery sound sweetly obsesses our hearing with their singing and their jingling they tell of oblivion. Oh, how clearly, clearly, clearly, like the ringing laughter of a child, in the clear night air they tell the tale, of how days of delusion will be followed by renewal, of the enchanting delight, the delight of tender sleep. The sleighs fly past, the sleighs fly past in line, the little bells ring out, the stars listen, as the sleighs fly into the distance, with their tale, and listening, they glow, and dreaming, glimmering, spread a scent in the heavens; and with their flickering radiance and their silent enchantment, together with the ringing, together with the singing, they tell of oblivion.
Hear the holy call to marriage of golden bells. How much tender bliss there is in that youthful song! Hear the call to marriage … Through the tranquil night air it is like someone’s eyes glowing, and through the waves of singing sounds, gazing at the moon. From beckoning, wondrous cells, filled with fairytale delights, soaring, falling, fly out sparks of light. Dimmed again, glowing again, they shed their radiant light on the future, where tender dreams slumber tranquilly,
vozveshchayemykh soglasem zolotykh, zolotykh kolokolov. Slyshysh k svadbe zov svyatoy zolotoy.
3 The loud alarum bells
Slyshysh, slyshysh, voyushchiyi nabat, tochna stonet mednyi ad. Eti zvuki, v dikoy muke, skasku uzhasov tverdyat. Tochna molyat im pomoch, krik kidayut pryama v noch, pryama v ushi temnoy nochi, kazhdyi zvuk, to dlinneye, to koroche, vozveshchayet svoj ispug. I ispug ikh tak velik, tak bezumen kazhdyi krik, shto razorvanniye zvony, nespasobnye zvuchat, mogut tolko bitsya, bitsya, i krichat, krichat, krichat, tolko plakat o poshchade i k pylayushchev gramade vopli skorbi obrashchat. A mezh tem ogon bezumnyi, i glukhoy i mnogoshumnyi, vsyo gorit. To iz okon, to po kryshe, mchitsya vyshe, vyshe, vyshe, i kak budto govorit: – Ya khochu vyshe mchatsya, razgoratsya vstrechu lunnamu luchu. Il umru, il totchas vplot da mesyatsa vzlechu. O, nabat, nabat, nabat, yesli b ty vernul nazad etot uzhas, eto plamya, etu iskru, etot vzglyad, etot pervyi vzglyad ognya, o kotorom ty veshchayesh s voplem, s plachem, i zvenya. A teper nam net spasenya, vsyudu plamya i kipene a teper nam net spasenya, vsjudu strakh i vozmushchene. Tvoj prizyv, dikikh zvukav nesaglasnost, vozveshchayet nam opasnost, to rastyot beda glukhaya, to spadayet, kak priliv. Slukh nash chutka lovit volny v peremene zvukavoy,
heralded by the golden harmony, harmony of golden bells. Hear the holy call to marriage of golden bells.
Hear, hear, the howling of the alarm bell, like the groaning of a brazen hell. These sounds, in a wild torment, keep repeating a tale of horror. As though begging for help, hurling cries into the night, straight into the ears of the dark night, every sound, now strange, now shorter, proclaims its terror. And so great is their terror, so desperate every shriek, that the tortured bells, incapable of ringing out, can only batter, batter, and shriek, shriek, shriek, only weep for mercy and to the thunderous blaze address their wails of grief. But meanwhile the raging fire, both heedless and tumultuous, ever burns. From the windows, on the roof, it soars higher, higher, higher, as though announcing: – I want to soar higher, and aflame meet the beams of moonlight. I will die, or now, now fly right up to the moon. O alarm bell, alarm bell, alarm bell, if you could only take back the horror, the flames, the spark, the look, that first look of the fire, which you proclaim with your howls and cries and wails. But now we are past help, the flames seethe everywhere, but now we are past help, everywhere is fear and wailing. Your call, this wild, discordant noise, proclaims our peril, the hollow sounds of misfortune, flowing and ebbing like a tide. We can only hear the waves in the changing sounds,
vnov spadayet, vnov rydayet, medno-stonushchyi priboy.
4 The mournful iron bells
Pokhoronnyi slyshen zvon, dolgiy zvon!
Gorkoy skorbi slyshny zvuki, gorkoy zhizni konchen son.
Zvuk zheleznyi vozveshchayet o pechali pokhoron. I nevolna my drazhim, ot zabav svoikh speshim, i rydayem, vspominayem, shto i my glaza smezhim. Neizmenno monotonnyi, etat vozglas otdalennyi, pokhoronnyi tyazhkiy zvon, tochna ston, skorbnyi, gnevnyi, i plachevnyi, vyrastayet v dolgyi gul.
Vozveshchayet, shto stradalets neprobudnym snom usnul.
V kolokolnych kelyach rzhavykh on dlya pravykh i nepravykh grozna vtorit ob odnom: shto na sertse budet kamen, shto glaza samknutsya snom.
Fakel traurnyi gorit, s kolokolni kto-to kriknul, kto-to gromko govorit. Kto-to chyornyi tam stoit, i khokhochet, i gremit, i gudit, gudit, gudit. K kolokolne pripadayet, gulkiy kolokol kochayet, gulkiy kolokol rydayet, stonet v vozdukhe nemom, i pratyazhno vozveshchayet o pokoye grobovom.
now ebbing, now sobbing, of the brazen groaning surf.
Hear the funeral knell, lengthy knell!
Hear the sound of bitter sorrow, ending the dream of a bitter life. The iron sound proclaims a funeral’s grief. And we unwittingly shiver, hurry away from our amusements, and we weep, and remember, that we too shall close our eyes. Unchanging and monotonous, that faraway call, the heavy funeral knell, like a groan, plaintive, angry, and lamenting, swells to a lengthy booming. It proclaims that a sufferer sleeps the eternal sleep. From the belfry’s rusty cells for the just and the unjust it sternly repeats its theme: that a stone shall cover your heart, that your eyes will close in sleep. As the mourning torch burns someone shrieks from the belfry, someone is loudly talking. Someone dark is standing there, laughing and roaring, and howling, howling, howling. He leans against the belfry, and swings the hollow bell, and the hollow bell sobs and groans through the silent air, slowly proclaiming the stillness of the grave.
Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49), translated into Russian by Konstantin Balmont (1867–1942)
Rachmaninoff The Isle of the Dead Rachmaninoff Symphonic Dances
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra
LPO-0004
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20
Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2
Aldo Ciccolini piano
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra
LPO-0102
Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3
Rachmaninoff 10 Songs (arr. Jurowski)
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Vsevolod Grivnov tenor
London Philharmonic Orchestra
LPO-0088
Rachmaninoff The Isle of the Dead Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1
Vladimir Jurowski conductor
London Philharmonic Orchestra
LPO-0111
All LPO Label releases are available to buy on CD, and to download or stream via Spotify, Apple Music, Idagio and others. Scan the QR codes to listen now or find out more.
Scan to listen
Scan to listen
Scan to listen
Scan to listen
Patricia Kopatchinskaja plays Shostakovich
Friday 4 October 2024
7.30pm
Britten Sinfonia da Requiem
Shostakovich Violin Concerto No. 1
Sibelius Symphony No. 5
Edward Gardner conductor
Patricia Kopatchinskaja violin
Concert generously supported by Victoria Robey CBE
Friday 25 October 2024
7.30pm
Ravel Mother Goose (complete ballet)
Bruch Violin Concerto No. 2
R Strauss Ein Heldenleben
Mark Elder conductor
James Ehnes violin
Karina Canellakis conducts Schumann & Bruckner
Wednesday 30 October 2024
6.30pm (Please note start time)
R Schumann Overture, Manfred
R Schumann Cello Concerto
Bruckner Symphony No. 4
Karina Canellakis conductor
Truls Mørk cello
Sixth
Saturday 2 November 2024
7.30pm
Saariaho Lumière et Pesanteur
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique)
Karina Canellakis conductor
Vadym Kholodenko piano
We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to our Sound Futures campaign. Thanks to their support, we successfully raised £1 million by 30 April 2015 which has now been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. This has enabled us to create a £2 million endowment fund supporting special artistic projects, creative programming and education work with key venue partners including our Southbank Centre home. Supporters listed below donated £500 or over. For a full list of those who have given to this campaign please visit lpo.org.uk/soundfutures
Masur Circle
Arts Council England
Dunard Fund
Victoria Robey CBE
Emmanuel & Barrie Roman
The Underwood Trust
Welser-Möst Circle
William & Alex de Winton
John Ireland Charitable Trust
The Tsukanov Family Foundation
Neil Westreich
Tennstedt Circle
Valentina & Dmitry Aksenov
Richard Buxton
The Candide Trust
Michael & Elena Kroupeev
Kirby Laing Foundation
Mr & Mrs Makharinsky
Alexey & Anastasia Reznikovich
Sir Simon Robey
Bianca & Stuart Roden
Simon & Vero Turner
The late Mr K Twyman
Solti Patrons
Ageas
John & Manon Antoniazzi
Gabor Beyer, through BTO
Management Consulting AG
Jon Claydon
Mrs Mina Goodman & Miss Suzanne
Goodman
Roddy & April Gow
The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust
Mr James R.D. Korner
Christoph Ladanyi & Dr Sophia Ladanyi-Czernin
Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski
The Maurice Marks Charitable Trust
Mr Paris Natar
The Rothschild Foundation
Tom & Phillis Sharpe
The Viney Family
Haitink Patrons
Mark & Elizabeth Adams
Dr Christopher Aldren
Mrs Pauline Baumgartner
Lady Jane Berrill
Mr Frederick Brittenden
David & Yi Yao Buckley
Mr Clive Butler
Gill & Garf Collins
Mr John H Cook
Mr Alistair Corbett
Bruno De Kegel
Georgy Djaparidze
David Ellen
Christopher Fraser OBE
David & Victoria Graham Fuller
Goldman Sachs International
Mr Gavin Graham
Moya Greene
Mrs Dorothy Hambleton
Tony & Susie Hayes
Malcolm Herring
Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle
Mrs Philip Kan
Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe
Rose & Dudley Leigh
Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons
Miss Jeanette Martin
Duncan Matthews KC
Diana & Allan Morgenthau
Charitable Trust
Dr Karen Morton
Mr Roger Phillimore
Ruth Rattenbury
The Reed Foundation
The Rind Foundation
Sir Bernard Rix
David Ross & Line Forestier (Canada)
Carolina & Martin Schwab
Dr Brian Smith
Lady Valerie Solti
Mr & Mrs G Stein
Dr Peter Stephenson
Miss Anne Stoddart
TFS Loans Limited
Marina Vaizey
Jenny Watson
Guy & Utti Whittaker
Pritchard Donors
Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle
Mrs Arlene Beare
Mr Patrick & Mrs Joan Benner
Mr Conrad Blakey
Dr Anthony Buckland
Paul Collins
Alastair Crawford
Mr Derek B. Gray
Mr Roger Greenwood
The HA.SH Foundation
Darren & Jennifer Holmes
Honeymead Arts Trust
Mr Geoffrey Kirkham
Drs Frank & Gek Lim
Peter Mace
Mr & Mrs David Malpas
Dr David McGibney
Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner
Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill
Mr Christopher Querée
The Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer
Charitable Trust
Timothy Walker CBE AM
Christopher Williams
Peter Wilson Smith
Mr Anthony Yolland
and all other donors who wish to remain anonymous
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.
Anonymous donors
The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
William & Alex de Winton
Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle
Aud Jebsen
In memory of Mrs Rita Reay
Sir Simon & Lady Robey CBE
Orchestra Circle
Mr & Mrs Philip Kan
Neil Westreich
Principal Associates
An anonymous donor
Mrs Irina Andreeva
Steven M. Berzin
Richard Buxton
Gill & Garf Collins
In memory of Brenda Lyndoe Casbon
In memory of Ann Marguerite Collins
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G.
Cave
Patricia Haitink
George Ramishvili
In memory of Kenneth Shaw
The Tsukanov Family
Mr Florian Wunderlich
Associates
In memory of Len & Edna Beech
Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
The Candide Trust
Stuart & Bianca Roden
In memory of Hazel Amy Smith
An anonymous donor
David & Yi Buckley
Dr Alex & Maria Chan
In memory of Allner Mavis Channing
In memory of Peter Coe
Michelle Crowe Hernandez
Sonja Drexler
Hamish & Sophie Forsyth
Virginia Gabbertas MBE
Jenny & Duncan Goldie-Scot
Mr Roger Greenwood
Malcolm Herring
Julian & Gill Simmonds
Mr Brian Smith
Mr Jay Stein
Eric Tomsett
The Viney Family
Guy & Utti Whittaker
David Burke & Valerie Graham
Clive & Helena Butler
John & Sam Dawson
Ulrike & Benno Engelmann
Fiona Espenhahn in memory of Peter
Prof. Erol & Mrs Deniz Gelenbe
The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris
Charitable Trust
Iain & Alicia Hasnip
John & Angela Kessler
Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva
Dr Irene Rosner David
Tom & Phillis Sharpe
Jenny Watson CBE
Laurence Watt
Anonymous donors
Chris Aldren
Alexander & Rachel Antelme
Annie Berglof
Nicholas Berwin
Lorna & Christopher Bown
Mr Bernard Bradbury
Richard & Jo Brass
Desmond & Ruth Cecil
Mr John H Cook
Emmanuelle & Thierry d’Argent
Mrs Elizabeth Davies
Guy Davies
Cameron & Kathryn Doley
Ms Elena Dubinets
David Ellen
Cristina & Malcolm Fallen
Mr Daniel Goldstein
David & Jane Gosman
Mr Gavin Graham
Mrs Dorothy Hambleton
Eugene & Allison Hayes
J Douglas Home
Mr & Mrs Jan
Mr & Mrs Ralph Kanza
Mrs Elena Kolobova & Mr Oleg
Kolobov
Rose & Dudley Leigh
Wg. Cdr. M T Liddiard OBE JP
RAF
Drs Frank & Gek Lim
Andrew T Mills
Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill
John Nickson & Simon Rew
Peter Noble & L Vella
Mikhail Noskov & Vasilina Bindley
Simon & Lucy Owen-Johnstone
Andrew & Cindy Peck
Mr Roger Phillimore
Mr Michael Posen
Marie Power
Sir Bernard Rix
Baroness Shackleton
Tim Slorick
Sir Jim Smith
Mrs Maria Toneva
Mr Joe Topley & Ms Tracey
Countryman
Mr & Mrs John C Tucker
Andrew & Rosemary Tusa
Galina Umanskaia
Mr & Mrs John & Susi
Underwood
The Viney Family
Mr Rodney Whittaker
Grenville & Krysia Williams
Joanna Williams
Anonymous donors
Chris Banks
Mr John D Barnard
Roger & Clare Barron
Mrs A Beare
Chris Benson
Peter & Adrienne Breen
Dr Anthony Buckland
Mr Julien Chilcott-Monk
Mr Alistair Corbett
David Devons
Deborah Dolce
In memory of Enid Gofton
Prof Emeritus John Gruzelier
Mrs Farrah Jamal
Bruce & Joanna Jenkyn-Jones
Per Jonsson
Tanya Joseph
Mr Ian Kapur
Jozef & Helen Kotz
Mr Peter Mace
Peter Mainprice
Miss Rebecca Murray
Mrs Terry Neale
Mr Stephen Olton
Mr James Pickford
Mr Robert Ross
Kseniia Rubina
Mr Andrea Santacroce & Olivia Veillet-Lavallée
Penny Segal
Priscylla Shaw
Michael Smith
Mr & Mrs G Stein
Dr Peter Stephenson
Ben Valentin KC
Sophie Walker
Christopher Williams
Liz Winter
Elena Y Zeng
Anonymous donors
Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle
Julian & Annette Armstrong
Robert & Sarah Auerbach
Dr Simona Cicero & Mr Mario Altieri
Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington
Sarah Connor
Miss Tessa Cowie
Andrew Davenport
Stephen Denby
Mr Simon Edelsten
Mr Stephen Goldring
In memory of Derek Gray
Nick Hely-Hutchinson
The Jackman Family
Molly Jackson
Jan Leigh & Jan Rynkiewicz
Mr David MacFarlane
Simon Moore
Simon & Fiona Mortimore
Dana Mosevicz
Dame Jane Newell DBE
Diana G Oosterveld
Mr David Peters
Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh
Clarence Tan
Tony & Hilary Vines
Dr June Wakefield
Mr John Weekes
Mr Roger Woodhouse
Mr C D Yates
Elliott Bernerd
Alfonso Aijón
Carol Colburn Grigor CBE
Pehr G Gyllenhammar
Robert Hill
Keith Millar
Victoria Robey CBE
Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE
Cornelia Schmid
Timothy Walker CBE AM Laurence Watt
Group Members
Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
David & Yi Buckley
In memory of Peter Coe
Dr Alex & Maria Chan
Garf & Gill Collins
William & Alex de Winton
Sonja Drexler
The Friends of the LPO
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G.
Cave
Mr Roger Greenwood
Barry Grimaldi
David & Bettina Harden
Mr & Mrs Philip Kan
Mr & Mrs John Kessler
Sir Simon Robey
Victoria Robey OBE
Stuart & Bianca Roden
Julian & Gill Simmonds
Eric Tomsett
Neil Westreich
Guy & Utti Whittaker
Principal
Bloomberg
Carter-Ruck Solicitors
French Chamber of Commerce
Ryze Power
Tutti
German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce
Lazard
Natixis Corporate Investment
Banking
Walpole
Jeroboams
Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd
Neal’s Yard Remedies
OneWelbeck
Sipsmith
Steinway & Sons
Google Inc
ABO Trust
Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
BlueSpark Foundation
The Boltini Trust
Candide Trust
Cockayne Grants for the Arts in London
Dunard Fund
Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
Foyle Foundation
Garrick Charitable Trust
The Golsoncott Foundation
Jerwood Foundation
John Coates Charitable Trust
John Horniman’s Children’s Trust
John Thaw Foundation
Idlewild Trust Institute Adam Mickiewicz
Kirby Laing Foundation
The John S Cohen Foundation
The Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust
Kurt Weill Foundation
Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust
Lucille Graham Trust
The Marchus Trust
PRS Foundation
The R K Charitable Trust
The Radcliffe Trust
Rivers Foundation
Rothschild Foundation
Scops Arts Trust
TIOC Foundation
Vaughan Williams Foundation
The Victoria Wood Foundation
The Viney Family
The Barbara Whatmore
Charitable Trust
and all others who wish to remain anonymous.
We are grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who assist with fundraising for our activities in the United States of America:
Simon Freakley Chairman
Kara Boyle
Jon Carter
Jay Goffman
Alexandra Jupin
Natalie Pray MBE
Damien Vanderwilt
Marc Wassermann
Elizabeth Winter
Catherine Høgel Hon. Director
Natasha Tsukanova Chair
Mrs Irina Andreeva
Steven M. Berzin
Shashank Bhagat
Irina Gofman
Olivia Ma
George Ramishvili Florian Wunderlich
Board of Directors
Dr Catherine C. Høgel Chair
Nigel Boardman Vice-Chair
Mark Vines* President
Kate Birchall* Vice-President
Emily Benn
David Buckley
David Burke
Michelle Crowe Hernandez
Deborah Dolce
Elena Dubinets
Simon Estell*
Tanya Joseph
Katherine Leek*
Minn Majoe*
Tania Mazzetti*
Jamie Njoku-Goodwin
Neil Westreich
David Whitehouse*
Simon Freakley (Ex officio –
Chairman of the American Friends of the LPO)
*Player-Director
Advisory Council
Roger Barron Chairman
Christopher Aldren
Kate Birchall
Richard Brass
Helen Brocklebank
YolanDa Brown OBE
David Burke
Simon Burke
Simon Callow CBE
Desmond Cecil CMG
Jane Coulson
Andrew Davenport
Guillaume Descottes
Cameron Doley
Elena Dubinets
Lena Fankhauser
Christopher Fraser OBE
Jenny Goldie-Scot
Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS
Nicholas Hely-Hutchinson DL
Dr Catherine C. Høgel
Martin Höhmann
Jamie Korner
Andrew Neill
Nadya Powell
Sir Bernard Rix
Victoria Robey CBE
Baroness Shackleton
Thomas Sharpe KC
Julian Simmonds
Daisuke Tsuchiya
Mark Vines
Chris Viney
Laurence Watt
Elizabeth Winter
New Generation Board
Ellie Ajao
Peter De Souza
Vivek Haria
Rianna Henriques
Pasha Orleans-Foli
Priya Radhakrishnan
Zerlina Vulliamy
General Administration
Elena Dubinets
Artistic Director
David Burke
Chief Executive
Concert Management
Roanna Gibson
Concerts & Planning Director
Graham Wood
Concerts & Recordings Manager
Maddy Clarke
Tours Manager
Madeleine Ridout
Glyndebourne & Projects Manager
Alison Jones
Concerts & Artists Co-ordinator
Dora Kmezić
Concerts & Recordings Co-ordinator
Tom Cameron
Concerts & Tours Assistant
Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant
Andrew Chenery
Orchestra Personnel Manager
Helen Phipps
Orchestra & Auditions Manager
Sarah Thomas
Martin Sargeson Librarians
Laura Kitson
Stage & Operations Manager
Stephen O’Flaherty Deputy Operations Manager
Benjamin Wakley
Deputy Stage Manager
Finance
Frances Slack
Finance Director
Dayse Guilherme Finance Manager
Jean-Paul Ramotar Finance & IT Officer
Education & Community
Talia Lash
Education & Community Director
Lowri Davies
Eleanor Jones
Education & Community Project Managers
Hannah Smith
Education & Community Co-ordinator
Claudia Clarkson Regional Partnerships Manager
Development
Laura Willis
Development Director
Rosie Morden
Individual Giving Manager
Owen Mortimer
Corporate Relations Manager
Anna Quillin
Trusts & Foundations Manager
Eleanor Conroy
Development Events Manager
Al Levin
Development Co-ordinator
Holly Eagles
Development Assistant
Nick Jackman
Campaigns & Projects Director
Kirstin Peltonen
Development Associate
Marketing
Kath Trout
Marketing & Communications Director
Sophie Lonergan (née Harvey)
Marketing Manager
Rachel Williams
Publications Manager
Gavin Miller
Sales & Ticketing Manager
Josh Clark
Data, Insights & CRM Manager
Georgie Blyth
Press & PR Manager
Greg Felton
Digital Creative
Alicia Hartley
Digital & Marketing Co-ordinator
Isobel Jones
Marketing Co-ordinator
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
Printer John Good Ltd
Cover photograph Jason Bell
2024/25 season design
JMG Studio
Printer John Good Ltd
Situated in the heart of London’s Marylebone district, OneWelbeck is one of the UK’s largest private medical facilities for outpatient diagnostics, therapies and minimally invasive surgeries. With over 300 consultants partnered across 17 specialist centres of practice, OneWelbeck delivers a better standard of treatment to our patients
Our facilities include:
Our facilities include:
9-storey facility in central London
UK’s only 3D mole mapping service
Dedicated chronic pain clinic
Dedicated sleep centre
In-house pharmacy
Cutting edge imaging machines
