London Symphony Orchestra
LSO St Luke’s 10 years of music-making for everyone 100 years of touring to the US Gareth Davies relives the touring of the 1900s LSO Futures Week Tomorrow’s composers, today
contents page 4
CONTENTS
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Celebrating 10 years of LSO St Luke’s
page 6
A century of touring to the United States
page 9
Singing is for everyone page 14
living brief
page 12
Moving Music page 10
LSO Futures
page 16
LSO Live Cover Panufnik Young Composers Scheme Workshop at LSO St Luke’s Editor & Design Edward Appleyard edward.appleyard@lso.co.uk Print Tradewinds Photography Igor Emmerich, Philippa Gedge, Kevin Leighton, Bill Robinson, Hannah Taylor, Alberto Venzago
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welcome
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WELCOME
Kathryn McDowell CBE DL LSO Managing Director
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elcome to the latest edition of Living Music magazine which looks back over the last six months in the life of the London Symphony Orchestra, and ahead to some of the major events the Orchestra has coming up.
research, Gareth has now built, for the first time, an accurate portrait of what life was like for the touring musician of 1912. He paints a fantastic picture using diary excerpts on pages 6–8 and asks the question, have things changed all that much since? Gareth has compiled all of this into a captivating book that will be published in the coming months.
The LSO is at the halfway point of its 2012/13 concert season and the autumn continued last summer’s extremely busy schedule. Our Principal Conductor, Valery Gergiev, presented the entire symphonies of both Brahms and Polish composer Karol Szymanowski, not just in London but also at the Edinburgh International Festival, Paris and Luxembourg, selected works in Frankfurt and Brahms programmes in New York. The series concludes in March with all-choral concerts featuring Brahms’ German Requiem and Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater.
In the last edition of Living Music, the LSO was delighted to announce the appointment of Simon Halsey as Choral Director of the LSO and London Symphony Chorus (LSC). Fabienne Morris has spoken to members of the LSC to find out the real impact of this appointment, and talks about the LSO’s Choral Development Programme on page 9.
That month is also a significant milestone in the LSO’s history – 27 March 2013 marks ten years since LSO St Luke’s opened its doors on Old Street, giving the Orchestra much valued rehearsal space, but more importantly, bringing the LSO into the heart of the local community and enabling the development of many LSO Discovery projects for children, young people and adults alike. Turn to page 4 to find out about the festival the LSO has in store to celebrate the past ten years, and look forward to the next decade. The Orchestra’s resident tour blogger and Principal Flute, Gareth Davies, was fascinated when he heard that our archivist, Libby Rice, had received diaries from the great grandchildren of Orchestra members who went on the LSO’s first tour to the United States a century ago last April. The fascination proved too much, and following extensive
STAY IN TOUCH facebook.com/ londonsymphonyorchestra twitter.com/ londonsymphony plus.google.com/ +LondonSymphonyOrchestra pinterest.com/londonsymphony
youtube.com/lso Looking ahead to the spring, LSO Futures Week in April is devoted to composition and the commissioning of the composers of tomorrow. The week features the annual Panufnik Young Composer Scheme Workshop which offers an opportunity to see composers working at close quarters with the Orchestra, followed by Futures Day itself with two one-hour concerts conducted by François-Xavier Roth, and a UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica concert with composer Tansy Davies. Further details on page 10. Lastly, the LSO launched the biggest fundraising campaign in its history last autumn. This ambitious project will change the future of the LSO for generations to come. Read about its impact on page 12. I do hope you enjoy reading this edition of Living Music, and can join us at the Barbican, LSO St Luke’s or around the world soon.
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lso.co.uk
London Symphony Orchestra Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS 020 7588 1116 | lso.co.uk Registered charity number 232391 Patron Her Majesty The Queen President Sir Colin Davis CH Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev Principal Guest Conductors Daniel Harding, Michael Tilson Thomas Conductor Laureate André Previn KBE
spring 2013
LSO ST LUKE’S AT 10
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LSO St Luke’s
10 years of music-making for everyone, for all Karen Cardy LSO St Luke’s Centre Director
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magine a ruined church with a vast hole where a roof should be, naked and flung open to the sky. Wind whistles through gaping doors and windows; weeds cling greedily to cold stone. Once upon a time it was glorious: a gleaming jewel with a spire so quirky – a fluted obelisk – it could only have been designed by one of Christopher Wren’s most promising students, Nicholas Hawksmoor. It played a pivotal role in the neighbourhood, supporting some of London’s poorest families and schools, alongside local businessmen and their workers. The church was full to the rafters, flooded with the chatter of a diverse local community against a backdrop of stirring hymns and life-altering liturgy. Then, in 1959, this great building fell silent. 27 March 2013 marks exactly a decade since the LSO took on one of the biggest challenges of its life: to transform the crumbling 18th-century church within view of its home at the Barbican Centre into a thriving music education centre and state-of-the-art performance venue, with the community at its heart. With the financial support and backing of UBS, English Heritage, the Heritage Lottery Fund, Arts Council England and many others, ten years on, the founders’ dreams have come true. LSO St Luke’s stands as a physical embodiment of the Orchestra’s core mission to engage the broadest mix of people in evocative music-making. Every day LSO St Luke’ welcomes people of all ages and from all walks of life to experience music in a myriad of innovative ways. The past decade has seen some truly outstanding music-making take place at LSO St Luke’s. The building has welcomed Lang Lang as Artist-in-Residence for a week; seen Sting perform on the lute as part of the UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica series; presented a free
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If any building could be said to encapsulate the hopes, the ambitions and the dreams of not just a single orchestra but an entire profession, this is it. It is not only a landmark in LSO history, but also a lantern lighting the path into the future. Richard Morrison, The LSO: A Century of Triumph and Turbulence LSO Discovery lunchtime concert with violin superstar Midori; hosted BBC Sessions with James Brown, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, Norah Jones and Annie Lennox (to name but a few); acted as a base for countless LSO rehearsals, many open to the public; and opened its doors to the community with a plethora of performances from local children and adults, one of the most memorable being a specially commissioned oratorio (Alasdair Nicolson‘s Two Sisters, A Rose, A Flood and Snow). In celebration of all these achievements and more, LSO St Luke’s flings open its doors for twelve days of festivities from 21 March to 1 April, around the theme of ‘Rites of Passage’. True to form, there’s a huge range of
events to get involved in: BBC Radio 3 will broadcast daily lunchtime concerts, featuring outstanding chamber artists, live from the building presented by Fiona Talkington. The LSO’s renowned education and community programme, LSO Discovery, will be toasted in style with a series of showcases, interactive events, masterclasses and open days. And it wouldn’t be a birthday party without a few special guests, so we’ve invited the award-winning and utterly unique Aurora Orchestra and middle-eastern jazzer, singer and oud player Dhafer Youssef, along for the ride. Now, over half a century since the church closed, it’s plain to see that St Luke’s has been well and truly resurrected.
‘It’s a beautiful space to play in – large yet greatly intimate. One of the best venues in town.’ Jason Yarde, saxophonist and composer
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LSO ST LUKE’S AT 10
10th Birthday Festival Event Highlights SPECIAL GUEST ARTISTS
CELEBRATORY COMMUNITY CONCERTS
Sat 23 Mar 7.30pm Aurora Orchestra: Insomnia Vivaldi / Ligeti / MacMillan / Britten
Thu 21 Mar 7pm LSO On Track Olympic Orchestra Fri 22 Mar 7.30pm LSO Community Gamelan Concert Mon 25 Mar 12.30pm LSO Discovery Lunchtime Concert Mon 25 Mar 7.30pm Digital Technology Group and LSO Soundhub present: Curate. Collaborate. Innovate. Tue 26 Mar 7.30pm LSO Community Choir Concert
Thu 28 Mar 8pm UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica – Dhafer Youssef
SIX BBC RADIO 3 LUNCHTIME CONCERTS Thu 21 Mar 1pm Vienna Piano Trio Fri 22 Mar 1pm Vienna Piano Trio Tue 26 Mar 1pm Wihan Quartet Wed 27 Mar 1pm LSO String Ensemble Thu 28 Mar 1pm Nicholas Angelich Fri 29 Mar 1pm Nash Ensemble Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3
GET INVOLVED AND DISCOVER MORE Sun 24 Mar from 10am LSO Discovery Day: Johannes Brahms Wed 27 Mar 3.30pm Centre for Orchestra Masterclass with LSO Leader Roman Simovic Sat 30 Mar from 10am Not(e) Perfect Orchestra Mon 1 Apr 10am LSO Discovery Family Open Day
lso.co.uk/lsostlukes10 spring 2013
A CENTURY OF US TOURING
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Gareth Davies LSO Principal Flute
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very Fisher Hall, New York City, 2012. The audience is hushed as the London Symphony Orchestra awaits the entrance of Valery Gergiev. The concert featuring the music of Brahms will mark the centenary of the LSO’s first visit when the legendary Arthur Nikisch took his band on an exhausting six week trip around North America, the first European orchestra to visit. As Valery unleashes the explosive opening chords of the Tragic Overture, there will be a sense of irony at the choice of repertoire ‌
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A century of touring to the US
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The 1912 tour has gone down in orchestral folklore as the trip when the LSO nearly sailed on RMS Titanic. However due to an accident involving the sister ship, Olympic, the maiden voyage was postponed which fortunately left the LSO having to make alternative arrangements. Until earlier last year, little else was known about the trip except dates and venues, any personal recollections of a unique moment in the Orchestra’s history long gone. Libby Rice, LSO archivist, is often sent old programmes and ticket stubs by wellwishers clearing out possessions and passing them on; however, the small notebook she found on her desk one morning was to unlock the secrets of 1912. The rather unassuming notebook was the diary of Charles Turner, the timpanist with the Orchestra. As Libby began the painstaking job of transcribing it, it became clear that the diary was a chronicle of the famous tour describing Turner’s experiences, his thoughts, and tragedy as the players raced around North America. Barely a month later, incredibly another diary from the same tour surfaced, written by Henry Nisbet, the second flute player. After a century of silence, the player’s voices were finally going to be heard. As Captain Scott was making his last entry in his diary in the Antarctic, Turner’s begins. So what was life like for the musical ancestors of the London Symphony Orchestra? The biggest change was the method of travel; a journey by aircraft in 2012 takes about seven hours, but in 1912 they were at sea for ten days, not an experience that Turner enjoyed: The ship’s chart says rough head sea, I retire about 7.30 and ‘shoot the cat’ and get into bed. I find if you lay perfectly still the motion of the boat doesn’t worry you – with my asthma I cannot lie still and so am in a nasty fix and pass a rotten night.
A CENTURY OF US TOURING
New world symphony The rough weather is terrific, every board in the ship cracks and creaks and the everlasting throb of the engines creates a pandemonia. I get ready for the concert at 7.45 but on getting to the corridor I think twice about it and give up. I hand my sticks to Fred Merry (percussion) and go back to my bunk. I don’t want to take any chances. Not sick or anything but don’t want to be, so be comfortable and listen to it from a distance. On 12 April 1912 the Orchestra arrived safely into New York harbour. It’s fair to assume that few, if any of the players had visited before and so after the inevitable delays at immigration, a tradition which is still in place today, they all wandered off to explore the city. Arriving in New York is a breathtaking moment for me no matter how many times I visit. Nisbet however was unimpressed: Arrived at Victoria Hotel, nearly baked there through steam heating, walked along Broadway; the town is quite rotten, streets much too narrow for the high buildings, roads and pavements in a disgraceful state of repair – trams ugly and overhead railway an awful disfiguration.
slept and travelled on the move, often through the night, pulling into sidings in the early hours of the morning before the next concert. Between 19 and 23 April alone, they performed nine concerts, a typical day consisting of a journey in the morning before a matinee in Milwaukee followed by another train journey to Chicago for the evening concert, straight back on the train again to travel overnight to Oxford, Ohio. Exhausting as Turner describes:
Turner on the other hand seemed to enjoy his experience, he went to the zoo, marvelled at the scale of Brooklyn Bridge and was quite taken with the novel electric light advertising at night. They didn’t stay long though, after two concerts in Carnegie Hall it was off to Boston and beyond. Pressure on the finances of an arts organisation is nothing new, and to save money, the LSO found themselves travelling the vast distances between cities on a specially chartered Pullman train. For the next few weeks they ate,
The players travelled second class but Henry Nisbet was quite shocked at seeing the conditions of the rest of the ship: There are 1,500 steerage passengers of almost every nationality, and are packed up like sardines on their small deck, it is very pathetic to see them so mixed up, some quite nicely dressed, and others fearfully ragged. As a way of reducing travel costs the LSO gave a series of concerts on board. A cramped performance of Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6 saw players and music stands roll around deck because of the stormy conditions:
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‘The [LSO] is highly thought of and deservedly so. The strings have a fine solidarity and power. The woodwinds are uncommonly good.’ New York Times, 9 April 1912 on the first LSO concert at Carnegie Hall with Arthur Nikisch
A CENUTRY OF US TOURING
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Concert passes off without a hitch and we go for our sleeping train. Bunks are along each side of the coach. Corridor down the middle. Everybody dead tired and all got bad feet. We all complain of want of rest. I slept fine and hope to all the time. I am afraid it will knock some of the fellows up. One of the obsessions that musicians on tour have is trying to find somewhere to eat and drink. The tight schedule often leaves little time for lunch and a race at the end of the concert to find a restaurant willing to stay open. In 1912 the situation was no different, in fact it was worse as many of the meals the players were forced to eat were from brief station café stops. They regularly visited small towns along the way and emptied the food kiosks like a plague of locusts. However when they did have time to stop at a proper restaurant, Turner took full advantage: We can’t get beer here only lager. Bass or Guinness can be had but it is 25 cents a bottle. All good Scotch whiskies can be had for 15 cents a time and you can help yourself. Needless to say I take rather good nips and we get good value for our money in whisky. The pubs can stay open here for as long as they like. I went and had the best dinner I have had. Here it is – oysters, soup, salmon, roast lamb and green peas, orange punch and a beautiful kind of ice cream. Then a roast pigeon with potatoes, salad, asparagus, olives. Then another fine ice, vanilla flavoured, and coffee. I have not tasted tea since we left England. Without a single day off on the entire tour, there was little time for sightseeing. Turner complained that they weren’t seeing much of the country as they regularly travelled at night, although they did manage to visit Niagara Falls, wander around Boston (‘just like a homely English town’), marvel as they crossed the Mississippi and even meet the President. Turner however seemed to be a practical man, and wrote a detailed description of his visit to the Armour and Co tinned meat factory: See them killing pigs and cattle in great numbers and see the whole thing from the cattle in the yards to the beef in the tins, etc, sausages, lard and all sorts. The best thing I have seen in America yet. By now, the papers were raving about the orchestra, describing the trip as an American conquest, but the strain on the players was beginning to take its toll. A few days after the news of the Titanic disaster reached the players, a tragedy of their own unfolded in Turner’s carriage: Ottawa, Canada. Up early as usual and off to breakfast. As we are taking the same, everybody is shocked to hear of Wallace Sutcliffe being found dead in his bunk. Dear old Wallace was one of my first dear friends in the LSO and I had many talks with him on tour. Of course a general gloom was cast over the orchestra. I go to see poor Wallace in his coffin.
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Sutcliffe was buried at 2pm on the same day in Ottawa, alone, whilst the LSO was forced to play a matinee before leaving immediately for Montreal. The mood in the Orchestra was dark and with the end of the tour in sight, thoughts turned to the journey home. There was just time for one bizarre visit to Providence, Rhode Island, where the main sponsor had arranged for his town band to play The King as the LSO arrived into the station. It then played us through the town to the hotel, a funny sight seeing the LSO marching behind a brass band! After weeks in a bunk, the players were grateful to sleep in a proper bed at last before boarding the SS Potsdam for the journey home. With the Titanic disaster at the forefront of their minds, the ship took an extra day to reach Plymouth because of bad weather. A foggy night and the hooter sounds frequently waking everybody as usual. They take no chance on the boat. We hear the lifeboats were uncovered and got in readiness for immediate use on account of the fog. Finally on 8 May 1912 the remaining members arrived safely in Plymouth after a very successful six weeks away from home. They were invited back in 1914, but the outbreak of war prevented the trip, in fact the Orchestra didn’t return until 1964. Much has changed in the life of an LSO musician in the intervening years, but at the end of a long tour, when the English countryside first appears out of the plane window or like Charles Turner, the 9.30 to Paddington, the reaction remains unchanged: On train for London at 9.30. England looks like a beautiful garden after what we have seen. Glad to get home. Gareth’s article originally appeared in the December 2012 edition of BBC Music Magazine.
The show must go on Gareth Davies’ book, The Show Music Go On, tells more stories from the LSO’s remarkable expedition across the United States in 1912, told against a behind-the-scenes account of the Orchestra’s modern day touring schedule. Set a century apart, both accounts include many trials and tribulations – volcanoes, the joy of airports, travel strikes, illness and life and death situations – but also the vivid descriptions of the magic of the music-making with conductors like Bernard Haitink, Valery Gergiev and Sir Colin Davis. Get a glimpse into the backstage goings on and see inside the mind of the professional musician like never before. The book is released in the last week of May 2013, and will be available to buy on the LSO website.
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I
n August 2012, the LSO announced the appointment of Simon Halsey as LSO Choral Director – a new role which encompasses not just directorship of the London Symphony Chorus, but also leading the Orchestra’s singing outreach programme. It marks a fascinating new twist for the LSO, which, as a symphony orchestra, naturally seeks to foster and develop the professional instrumentalists of tomorrow. Now, they are turning their attention to the potential of the voice. ‘Singing is at the heart of all music’, says Halsey, a sentiment manifested by the LSO each season with at least six choral and/or opera-in-concert performances at the Barbican. The LSO frequently welcomes world-class singers to share its stage; and of course, the Orchestra’s partnership with the London Symphony Chorus continues to thrive after nearly 50 years of performing together. Over at LSO St Luke’s, the Community and Youth Choirs, founded a decade ago to coincide with the opening of the building, still flourish, and the Orchestra’s more recent three-way initiative with the Guildhall School and the Barbican – Centre for Orchestra – offers pre-concert performance opportunities for Guildhall singers, as well as vocal masterclasses with visiting artists including Dawn Upshaw and Ian Bostridge. But there is more to be done. At the core of this new focus on singing is Halsey, a renowned choral conductor and educator who has worked wonders in Birmingham (he has directed the CBSO Chorus since 1984) and more recently Berlin, where he leads an extensive choral programme for the Berlin Philharmonic. The appointment is no accident – he and Valery Gergiev get on, in Simon’s words, ‘like a house on fire’, having met some 15 years ago and
The power of the voice
Singing is at the heart of music worked together on Netherlands Radio Choir / Rotterdam Philharmonic collaborations, amongst other projects. Halsey’s decision to turn his attention to London after decades in the Midlands too seems like it was meant to be: as a recent graduate in the early 1980s, he assisted Richard Hickox, then director of the LSC: ‘I saw Richard work with the Chorus and thought, this is what I want to do with my life. This job is like a homecoming for me.’
Everyone already has the instrument … Simon Halsey, LSO and LSC Choral Director Halsey is impassioned about first-class singing, and believes that the exacting standards of professional chamber choirs such as The Sixteen can, and should be, emulated in larger choruses, which have traditionally comprised of gifted amateurs. The LSC, founded in 1966 to complement the Orchestra, are excited to welcome Simon as their new director, further to a successful decade under Joseph Cullen: ‘We’ve moved up a gear’, says one LSC member, ‘only our best is good enough for Simon. His commitment to choral excellence will be an exciting journey for us all’. Halsey is also devoted to making singing open to all, and is nothing short of evangelical about its power as a cohesive tool in the community. ‘Everyone already
has the instrument, it doesn’t cost anything and you can continue until your dying day, unlike sport.’ The Orchestra and Halsey’s current plans include revitalising the LSC’s audition process with the aim of achieving ever higher standards in concert. LSO Discovery has introduced Singing Days where adults of all ages can find out what it’s like to be part of a professional chorus, and is creating more opportunities for the Youth Choir to engage with the surrounding community. The Community Choir, founded by TV star Gareth Malone, will take centre stage on 26 March as they look back on a decade of achievements in their anniversary concert (part of LSO St Luke’s 10th Birthday Festival). Looking ahead to the next few years, the Orchestra harbours ambitious plans to work with the Guildhall School to create courses in Choral Leadership, and to connect with City workers by bringing together existing choirs in workplaces throughout the Square Mile. With its new choral programme, the LSO is proving its commitment to developing musicality in all its forms. From teaching youngsters to become proficient performers to forging deeper, more relevant relationships with audiences, in the end it doesn’t matter whether it was the flute, soprano or jazz piano that got you hooked – it’s the fact that it opened the door to the breathtaking world of music that counts. The LSO and LSC Choral Development Programme is supported by the J Paul Getty Jnr Charitable Trust
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SINGING WITH THE LSO
Fabienne Morris meets Simon Halsey and members of the London Symphony Chorus
‘The LSO presents new music as the essential and vital force that it really is.’ Tansy Davies, composer
LSO FUTURES
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LSO Futures Tomorrow’s composers, today Isla Jeffrey talks to conductor François-Xavier Roth and composer Tansy Davies
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SO Futures celebrates the LSO’s dedication to opening the stage to the work of young and emerging composers. Over the course of a week of concerts, workshops, artist conversations and a classical club night, LSO Futures will see creation and collaboration from across generations of LSO-mentored composers.
that the composers who feature in this programme have made, and continue to make, their mark on the world of contemporary music today. As ever with the LSO, there will be a dynamic and ambitious festival this week!’.
Today, the LSO offers opportunities to composers through its Panufnik Young Composers Scheme which, set up in memory of composer Andrzej Panufnik, each year offers the chance for six emerging composers to write and workshop a piece with the LSO under the guidance of Colin Matthews. The big project for 2012 was the launch of LSO Soundhub. Based at LSO St Luke’s, Soundhub’s aim is to provide a kind of musical laboratory; an open, flexible space where composers can collaborate, explore and experiment across every imaginable genre with support from industry professionals, LSO players and of course, each other. At the centre of LSO Futures Week will be the world premiere of Panufnik Variations, a project that brings together graduates from across the Panufnik Scheme’s seven-year history. Its starting point is a framework constructed by Colin Matthews around a theme he especially chose from Andrzej Panufnik’s piece Universal Prayer, with the variations that follow composed by nine Panufnik Scheme alumni.
Composers from each stage of their careers will be given their place in the spotlight during LSO Futures week, showcasing the LSO’s all-encompassing commitment to supporting both new music and the creative minds behind it. On 13 April, LSO Discovery will hold a day of workshops and glimpses behind the scenes for budding young composers aged 14–18. Working with Rachel Leach and LSO players, participants will develop their own theme and variations piece, inspired by Panufnik Variations,
The driving force behind the week is conductor FrançoisXavier Roth, who has worked with many composers on the Panufnik Scheme and masterminded a vision for LSO Futures, curating two concerts that place new works from new composers alongside pieces which are now held to be some of the 20th century’s greatest modern classics. ‘I am particularly pleased to conduct these concerts and projects with the LSO in April. I envisage them as a homage to modernity, to new ways and to creation. What is more incredible is to be able to celebrate this modernity and creation with the LSO, an orchestra that is justly reputed for its ability to play the great works of both the 20th and 21st centuries. I wanted this tribute to the music of our time to be viewed in many ways and not locked into a specific aesthetic. Therefore, alongside new pieces written by the young composers on the Panufnik Scheme, there will also be works by Pierre Boulez as well as John Adams, Jason Yarde and Anton Webern. For me, the common thread between all these works is
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before performing their compositions on the Barbican foyers between the two evening concerts. The doors to this year’s Panfunik Young Composers Workshop will be opened to the public on 11 April, while a post-concert
It’s the underlying spirit of collaboration that’s so fresh. Tansy Davies, composer Aftershock event on 13 April will see current Soundhub composers collaborate with LSO players and NonClassical DJ Richard Lannoy for a mixture of live music and DJ sets. Established composers also feature throughout the week: Colin Matthews, mentor to the Panufnik Young Composers, will join us for a Centre for Orchestra Artist Conversation, there is the premiere of a new commission by composer and Panufnik alumnus Jason Yarde, and Tansy Davies, one of the first participants in the
LSO Futures Event Highlights UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica – Tansy Davies Tue 9 Apr 8pm, LSO St Luke’s
LSO Futures Day Sat 13 Apr, Barbican
Tansy Davies composer / curator Joby Burgess percussion Azalea Ensemble | New Noise
5pm Contemporary Chamber Works features music by Varèse, Stravinsky, John Adams and a new commission by Jason Yarde 7.30pm Symphonic Sound Worlds features music by Webern, Boulez, Debussy and a new commission by Colin Matthews
François-Xavier Roth conductor Colin Matthews composition director Supported by the Helen Hamlyn Trust
LSO UBS Sound Adventures series back in 2005, curates her own UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica concert at LSO St Luke’s.
François-Xavier Roth conductor
LSO FUTURES
Panufnik Young Composers Workshop Thu 11 Apr 1.30–5.30pm & 6.30–9.30pm, LSO St Luke’s
LSO commissions supported by UBS
Post-concert Aftershock Club Night, in association with NonClassical
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For Tansy, LSO Futures is an exciting chance to explore ideas and bring together all the opportunities for engaging and supporting composers that the LSO offers. ‘LSO Futures brings together many strands of contemporary music-making; I’m particularly looking forward to hearing Varèse’s Ionisations on 13 April. But it’s the underlying spirit of collaboration and the sharing of ideas that makes this week look so fresh and interesting to me … By engaging with young composers, and embracing different musical attitudes, the LSO presents new music as the essential and vital force that it really is.’
Tansy Davies Part of UBS SOUNDSCAPES: ECLECTICA
The Panufnik Young Composers Scheme is supported by the Helen Hamlyn Trust. Soundhub is supported by the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation.
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ou get sparks of life where things conflict’, says composer Tansy Davies, whose musical wares gleefully cluster on the edges of funk, experimental rock, industrial techno, atonalism and electronica. Taking as her inspiration the skewed structures and hallucinogenic lights of the city, club doorways and cracking whips, alongside an inhabitation of the worlds of Bach, Prince, Stravinsky and the Greek composer and architect Xenakis, for Tansy Davies, these ‘conflicts’ give us the chance to ‘get out of the human condition and appreciate the thrilling mechanisms of nature’.
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Her Eclectica concert at LSO St Luke’s on 13 April journeys through her latest album, Troubairitz. Its title is taken from the female equivalent to the twelfth-century troubadours – travelling musicians whose songs told of anything from courtly love to the metaphysical, and whose poetry forms the centre of an album that, through its flickering, ever-shifting alignments and collisions, is always travelling – on the move from one snapshot to the next, as though each member of the audience is listening strapped to the back of a motorcycle. ‘Tansy Davies’ music jolts and pulses’, one critic comments, ‘You may think you see a city crossroads at night – people rushing, people still, warm air thumping from a club doorway … But blink and the scene shifts’.
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MOVING MUSIC
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Moving Music
Bringing the joy of music to millions Edward Appleyard talks to LSO Managing Director Kathryn McDowell and Campaign Chairman Jonathan Moulds
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ast Autumn saw the LSO embarking on an ambitious and, in its 109-year history, unprecedented campaign to raise £6 million over the next three years, which will be match funded on a 2:1 basis by Arts Council England, raising a total of £9 million to help ensure the LSO’s future and the future of classical orchestral music. The campaign – Moving Music – is built on an Arts Council England award to the LSO which was announced last June, with the intended goal of incentivising organisations to set up and fundraise for endowment funds to ensure their own futures. Moving Music was officially launched in November at Mansion House in the presence of the Right Honourable The Lord Mayor of the City of London. Jonathan Moulds, LSO Board Member, Chairman of the LSO Advisory Council, and, until last summer, European President and CEO of Bank of America Merrill Lynch International, was delighted to take on the role of Campaign Chairman, and donated the campaign’s first major gift – the largest single gift that the Orchestra has ever received. ‘This is a tremendously important moment for the London Symphony Orchestra’, states Jonathan, ‘which will set its direction for years to come’. At the heart of the LSO’s plans is an aim to take classical music beyond the concert hall. Over 200,000 people experience the Orchestra’s inspirational sound each season, but by utilising today’s highest standards in digital technology to capture key LSO performances, the Orchestra will share them with over a million more people worldwide every year. Whether it’s through games
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consoles, mobile devices or internet-connected TVs, as Kathryn McDowell mentions, ‘for many, this will be their first experience of hearing and seeing a symphony orchestra’. More importantly, the recordings will also help transform the LSO’s Discovery programme, through the repurposing of material into innovative and creative educational tools.
This is a once-in-alifetime opportunity to transform the future of the LSO. Kathryn McDowell, LSO Managing Director Kathryn continues, ‘it is difficult to overstate the impact and importance of this work in inspiring the musicians of tomorrow. The success of the Moving Music campaign will enable us to bring new musical experiences to an extra 100,000 young people each year, and share LSO Discovery’s winning formula with even more diverse audiences’. The LSO concert footage will be reworked into valuable educational resources, not just for new audiences and as a tool to introduce people to classical music, but more in-depth resources for teachers at all levels, be it in primary, secondary or even further education. LSO Discovery projects will be developed with communities across the UK and overseas, and will also be used by those looking to deepen their appreciation of music.
‘The Orchestra’s ambitions have always ranged even further than exceptional performance’, Jonathan continued. ‘Building world-class arts organisations is about more than creating the next musical virtuoso. The LSO understands that, which is why it was one of the first orchestras to deliver an education programme, open its own education centre, launch a recording label, and perform Stravinsky at a free open-air concert for over 10,000 people in central London. This is an orchestra dedicated to engaging as many people as possible in the joy of orchestral music.’ Jonathan gives a strong case for support: ‘Achieving that vision depends on resources and in today’s funding landscape the future of the arts is more dependent than ever on private sector support. If the LSO is to realise its extraordinary potential, we must secure significant, sustainable funding. That is what Moving Music is all about.’ Kathryn McDowell summed up these ambitious plans, ‘this is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to transform the future of the LSO and bring the joy of music to millions’.
‘This is an Orchestra with extraordinary outreach, dedicated to engaging as many people as possible in the joy of orchestral music.’ Jonathan Moulds, Moving Music Campaign Chairman
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MOVING MUSIC
Sir Colin Davis, LSO President I have been privileged to share over 50 years of extraordinary music-making with the LSO. It is my personal commitment to ensure that this Orchestra continues to work on its task of making the best music available to everyone. I hope you will be able to support this campaign.
Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor To be invited to conduct the LSO at the Olympic Games was an honour. I was thrilled that four billion people worldwide had the opportunity to hear this magnificent group. By supporting Moving Music, you will enable the Orchestra to share their extraordinary sound with many more.
Daniel Harding, LSO Principal Guest Conductor The LSO has an extraordinary human quality. It is an honour to make music with these musicians, and I will always owe them a debt of gratitude. Please support Moving Music to help them take this amazing sound out to millions and inspire a future generation of musicians and music lovers.
Supporting Moving Music LSO Endowment Trust
Making a donation
Find out more
The funds raised for Moving Music will be held in the LSO Endowment Trust, the interest from which will enable the LSO to continue to develop initiatives focused on taking its music beyond the concert hall to new audiences. The Trust was set up in 1963 to secure financial stability for the LSO and to help pursue its artistic and educational ambitions. It is a registered UK charity (No 233700) administered by its own Board of Trustees, and managed by UBS Wealth Management.
There is a deadline to this campaign – the LSO must raise £6 million by May 2015 to secure the £3 million matched funding from Arts Council England. This is a tremendous opportunity as, with Gift Aid and matched funding, your donation could be worth an additional 75% to the LSO.
If you are interested in the LSO’s Moving Music campaign, would like more information, or would like to discuss a potential gift, please contact:
There are a number of ways in which you can donate to the LSO Moving Music campaign. You can make a single donation or spread your donation over a period, up until May 2015.
Bernadette O’Sullivan LSO Development Director 020 7588 1116 movingmusic@lso.co.uk lso.co.uk/movingmusic
spring 2013
A quick roundup of LSO news
LIVING BRIEF
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BMW LSO Open Air Classics 2013 Monday 27 May 6.30pm
Abbey Road 80th anniversary
Following the success of last year’s BMW LSO Open Air Classics performance in Trafalgar Square, the LSO is delighted to announce that it will be returning to its makeshift stage for another evening of outstanding classical music in May 2013. Staying true to its mission of making the finest music available to the greatest number of people, the Orchestra hopes to fill this iconic setting once again with Londoners and tourists, music lovers and the uninitiated. Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev will conduct the LSO in a performance of Berlioz’s vivid and unearthly Symphonie fantastique, and we hope that the audience will be as big and appreciative as last year.
The LSO’s monumental history of recording music goes hand-in-hand with the most iconic and hallowed of recording spaces in the world, the Abbey Road Studios. Shortly before the Studios’ official opening, Sir Edward Elgar himself conducted the Orchestra in a recording of his own works starting a long-standing commitment by both to experiencing music outside the concert hall. Since that milestone, the LSO has recorded over 800 titles there. In November last year, the Orchestra celebrated at Abbey Road with a special recital event as part of LSO Premier. LSO Co-Leader Carmine Lauri performed two iconic film music works, including the theme from Schindler’s List, followed by a look back over 80 years of some of the most important recordings in classical music made there, introduced by LSO Principal Flute Gareth Davies.
Queen’s Medal for Music 2012 Gala concert 2012 drew to a triumphant close for the LSO with the Queen’s Medal for Music Gala in December. The Barbican Hall was filled to bursting for the performance in the presence of Her Majesty The Queen and the Lord Mayor, and members of the Orchestra were fortunate enough to meet their Patron as she joined them backstage during the interval. The award honours those who have made an outstanding contribution to the musical life of the nation and this year was presented to the National Youth Orchestra by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, following a performance by the LSO and young musicians from the LSO On Track scheme of his specially commissioned fanfare.
LSO Panufnik CD Looking back over the last six years of new works and premieres, alumni composers of the LSO Panufnik Young Composers Scheme have recently had their previous LSO commissions recorded by the LSO at LSO St Luke’s. Featuring genres of every kind, the disc includes works by Jason Yarde, Andrew McCormack, Edward Nesbit, Charlie Piper, Christopher May, Christian Mason, Vlad Maistorovici and Eloise Nancie Gynn, and will be available in summer on LSO Live.
living music
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New Arts Council England Chairman
Beethoven meets East London in this summer’s annual LSO Discovery Concert at the Barbican. Alexandre Bloch, winner of the 2012 Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, will conduct specially arranged works by Beethoven with the LSO playing side-by-side with young musicians as part of LSO On Track Next Generation (pictured above), and choral works with the LSO Community Choir. The entertainment will start as soon as you arrive at the Barbican with foyer performances curated by LSO On Track alumni. The concert takes place on Thursday 13 June and will be on sale from March.
Sir Peter Bazalgette (pictured left) was recently appointed Chairman of Arts Council England and started his new post on 1 February. The previous President of the Royal Television Society, Chief Executive of Endemol and nonexecutive Director for the Department for Culture, Media and Sport visited LSO St Luke’s in his second week on the job to take a tour of the venue with Centre Director Karen Cardy and Head of Discovery Eleanor Gussman, as well as having his official portraits taken there. His tenure lasts until 2017; the LSO looks forward to welcoming him to many more concerts and events in the future.
Recordings and Soundtracks Visiting The Shard?
Brave / Rise of the Guardians 2012 saw two major animation releases with soundtracks recorded by the LSO. Disney’s Brave, which won a Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature, was last Summer’s box office smash hit. Set in the Scottish Islands, its main character, Merida, defies her royal mother and unwittingly unleashes peril on her family. With a score by Patrick Doyle, the soundtrack has a very Scottish feel and includes instruments such as bagpipes, bodhrán and celtic harp playing reels and jigs. The Christmas period saw the release of Dreamworks’ latest major project, The Rise of the Guardians, based on the novel The Guardians of Childhood by William Joyce. The 3D animated film features fairy-tale figures battling to save the world, with Oscarnominated composer Alexandre Desplat’s soundtrack filled with magic and adventure.
Along with touring, the Olympics Opening Ceremony and a performance in Trafalgar Square, the LSO was busy this summer recording the lift music for London’s newest landmark, The Shard. The Orchestra recorded the soundtrack by composer David Mitcham at Abbey Road Studios for the 30-second ascent to the building’s viewing platform at 244m. The music creates a sense of rising above the bustle of the city and hopes to add to the sense of otherworldliness that visitors experience at the highest peak of London’s skyline.
Both Doyle and Desplat continue to have a fruitful relationship with the LSO, which has seen the Orchestra record soundtracks for films including The Ides of March, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Parts 1 & 2, The Queen and Twilight: New Moon with Desplat; and Thor, Nanny McPhee and Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire with Doyle.
Kinect: Star Wars video game Not content with concert recordings, blockbuster films and landmark lifts, the Orchestra returned to Abbey Road to record the soundtrack for LucasArts’ enormously successful video game Kinect: Star Wars. Composer Gordy Haab hoped to emulate the sound of the original film soundtrack, recorded 35 years ago by the LSO, and used arrangements of John Williams’ original score performed by the same orchestra, at the same studio, even using the same set-up and microphones.
With the game’s release last year, the LSO has managed to add Vader-fighting, light-sabre wielding teenagers to its approving audience.
spring 2013
LIVING BRIEF
LSO Discovery Summer Concert
LSO LIVE LATEST RELEASES
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LSO Live Latest releases
Nielsen’s symphonies
Berlioz’s Requiem
Sir Colin Davis championed Nielsen symphonies across two LSO concert seasons at the Barbican and introduced London audiences to the Danish composer. The LSO performances under Sir Colin were received so well that Denmark awarded him with the Order of the Dannebrog (bestowed on those who have made a special contribution to the public, the arts and the sciences in Denmark), for recording the Nielsen symphonies for people to hear worldwide on LSO Live.
Sir Colin Davis is a revered Berlioz expert and his LSO Live Berlioz recordings have been one of the most widely acclaimed series of classical recordings of recent years. Recorded at St Paul’s Cathedral, a fitting acoustic for the work, the London Symphony Orchestra opened the 50th anniversary of the City of London Festival with the Requiem, joined by English lyric tenor Barry Banks and two of London’s finest choirs, the London Symphony Chorus and London Philharmonic Choir.
This release completes the set of Nielsen symphony recordings, featuring Symphonies Nos 2 and 3. The previous release, Symphonies Nos 4 and 5, gained Editor’s Choice in Gramophone magazine, and BBC Music Magazine’s Orchestra Choice of the Month, and Symphonies Nos 1 and 6 was CD of the Week in the Sunday Times.
‘The [LSO] played with the kind of brilliant concentration only loyalty and love can command, and the 150-strong choir … sang with controlled power and beauty. Whomever you chose to thank and praise for it, this was an awesome night.’
The Guardian ‘Nielsen’s music could have been written for the LSO.’
See more at lso.co.uk/lsolive
Financial Times
Mahler Box set LSO Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev completed his Mahler symphonies series last season, having started in 2007. Now, the entire collection is available in a box set showcasing a composer who redefined the possibilities that the symphony had to offer. The themes of faith, love, tragedy and death run throughout the cycle of nine completed scores, effectively chronicling the career of one of the greatest composers on an epic scale.
living music
Grammy News LSO Live received several nominations for the 55th annual Grammy awards. Valery Gergiev’s performance of Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances was nominated for Best Performance, whilst LSO Live producer James Mallinson was put forward for Classical Producer of the Year. Vocalist Whitney Claire Kaufman also received a nomination for her performance on LSO Live release The Greatest Film Scores of Dimitri Tiomkin, recorded in October 2011.