ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
2020 2021
BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO.9 pROKOFIEV ROMEO AND JULIET ELGAR SYMPHONY NO.1 SHOSTAKOVICH SYMPHONY NO.10 TCHAIKOVSKY THE NUTCRACKER: ACT II www.rpo.co.uk
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WELCOME Music Director Designate, August 2020: Vasily Petrenko President: Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra (RPO) returns to Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall for its 2020-21 series under the helm of Vasily Petrenko as he steps into the role of the Orchestra’s Music Director Designate. Across this series, Vasily Petrenko brings to London four programmes of repertoire by composers with whom he has developed a strong affinity and connection, each presented with a unique twist. Act II of Tchaikovsky’s classic ballet The Nutcracker is performed to live visuals created on stage by mesmerising sand artist Marina Sosnina (6 Oct 2020), paired alongside Schoenberg’s Verklärte Nacht, a work of extreme romanticism which was written in the same decade as The Nutcracker. Dance sits at the heart of a programme which includes Stravinsky’s 1919 Suite to his ballet The Firebird and a selection of movements from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet, which are paired alongside Michael Nyman’s imaginative concerto Where the Bee Dances, performed by the saxophone phenomenon, Jess Gillam (17 Feb 2021).
British composer Jonathan Dove’s perfect miniature Sunshine lights up the Royal Festival Hall in a programme which concludes with the majesty of Elgar’s Symphony No.1 (1 Jun 2021). Petrenko leads the RPO in Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10, a composer whose symphonic output Petrenko has extensively recorded to great critical acclaim. Former RPO Artist in Residence (2019) Kian Soltani reunites with the Orchestra to perform Dvořák’s Cello Concerto in June, and Sir Andrew Davis makes a welcome return to the RPO in a performance of Beethoven’s momentous Symphony No.9 (25 May 2021) in the rarelyheard arrangement by Mahler, which gives Beethoven’s music a twentieth-century twist. Great orchestral music has the ability to be uplifting, moving, surprising and entertaining and we hope you will want to join one of the world’s great orchestras for this season of immersive concerts. Thank you for your continued support. James Williams Managing Director Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Tuesday 6 october 2020, 7.30pm VASILY PETRENKO conducts TCHAIKOVSKY DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune SCHOENBERG Verklärte Nacht TCHAIKOVSKY The Nutcracker: Act II Vasily Petrenko Conductor Marina Sosnina Sand artist Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Art and music come together in the opening concert of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2020-21 series at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker is given a striking new treatment with breathtaking skill by sand artist Marina Sosnina, as music from Act II is complemented with beautiful illustrations created live in the Hall. Using her hands to work the sand, she follows the journey of the ballet, portraying many of its most familiar scenes. Without a doubt one of the most enchanting works of Romanticism to have ever been written, Debussy’s symphonic poem Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune casts a serene spell upon the listener. The mythical faun is represented by a drifting, chromatic flute melody, before falling into dreamlike fantasies as the Orchestra conjures idyllic visions with experimental tonality, passing themes between the woodwind instruments. On the cusp of the twentieth century, Schoenberg composed a work that strongly echoes the late Romantic style of Wagner and, at the same time, marked how the course of music would be shaped in the future. Later revised for string orchestra in 1943, Verklärte Nacht is known for the rich use of expressive harmonies that are destabilised by abrupt shifts in tone throughout, overcome with restlessness and a search for meaning. The piece provides a beautiful companion to the sense of child-like wonder evoked in The Nutcracker.
VASILY PETRENKO
ARTIST PROFILE
conductor
Music Director Designate, August 2020 In June 2018 Vasily Petrenko was announced as the RPO’s next Music Director, effective from September 2021. In the lead-up to assuming the mantle, he will conduct the Orchestra in venues around London and across the world with wide-reaching symphonic performances. He spoke to us about working with the Orchestra in the future and how he sees himself as a musician. “It’s a great honour and pleasure for me to be the next Music Director of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra from August 2021. I’m looking forward to the upcoming years; to becoming a part of the RPO’s orchestral family, to being in London, and to leading the Orchestra through the exciting years ahead. “London is one of the most active and versatile cities in the world of classical music. To be with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and to find our own place here in this wonderful city is very important and significant to me. “The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is very unique. It is an orchestra which evolves every day and always seeks to progress further into the future, and to strive for ever-higher artistic excellence. It is almost every day that you can discover a new piece, a new name, a new composer, and every time you find something new in the world of classical music, you find something new in yourself. Throughout upcoming seasons, we plan to perform in various concert halls across the city, bringing new and varied programmes to listeners of the RPO and other concert attendees. “The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has a rich and distinctive history. I’m very much looking forward to leading the Orchestra in its seventy-fifth anniversary year, and into an exciting new chapter in the Orchestra’s history.” In addition to concerts at Southbank Centre on 6 October 2020, 17 February, 7 April and 1 June 2021, Vasily Petrenko will conduct Mahler’s choral symphonies at the Royal Albert Hall in the 2020-21 season. See www.rpo.co.uk/vasilypetrenko for full details of all his concerts with the Orchestra. www.vasilypetrenkomusic.com
Wednesday 17 february 2021, 7.30pm JESS GILLAM and THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA STRAVINSKY The Firebird: Suite NYMAN Where the Bee Dances PROKOFIEV Romeo and Juliet (excerpts) Vasily Petrenko Conductor Jess Gillam Saxophone Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Star saxophonist Jess Gillam performs Michael Nyman’s Where the Bee Dances with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under the baton of Vasily Petrenko. Having performed at events such as the Last Night of the Proms and the BAFTAs, she has achieved international recognition as a soloist, leading her to become the first saxophonist to sign with Decca Classics. A saxophone concerto in one movement, Where the Bee Dances encompasses Nyman’s signature minimalist style whilst blending jazz rhythms that accompany a breakneck-pace soloist. Two exquisite Russian ballet suites feature in the programme. The Firebird Suite burns with a primitive passion in Stravinsky’s concert arrangement of the 1910 ballet, which proved an instant success upon its premiere and launched the young composer into his long career in the genre. Excerpts from the Romeo and Juliet by Prokofiev conjure powerful moments from Shakespeare’s star-crossed narrative, as the evocative themes of the young lovers are disrupted by intense orchestral punches as violence and tragedy take root.
Wednesday 7 april 2021, 7.30pm VASILY PETRENKO conducts SHOSTAKOVICH BERLIOZ Le Corsaire: Overture SAINT-SAËNS Piano Concerto No.5, ‘Egyptian’ SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No.10 Vasily Petrenko Conductor Alexandre Kantorow Piano Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Forever overshadowed by political demands, Shostakovich is perhaps at his most enigmatic in his Symphony No.10, a work written following his denunciation and abandonment by the post-Second World War Stalinist regime. The Russian composer captures the weight of a near twenty-five year-long dictatorship with an introspective and deeply personal meditation that palpably conveys the instability and anxiety of his status. The waltz tempo of the first movement transforms into an atmosphere of gripping terror and uncertainty, before outright hysteria overtakes the second movement. Coded themes and fanfares lie hidden within the texture of the solemn and macabre third and fourth movements, most famously Shostakovich’s own musical signature, ‘DSCH’. In the face of insurmountable pressure, Shostakovich affirms the subversive power of music to embody a defiant message against tyranny. Saint-Saën’s Piano Concerto No.5, ‘Egyptian’, is performed by Alexandre Kantorow, a pianist of ‘mesmerising talent’ (The Moscow Times) and winner of the International Tchaikovsky Competition in 2019, who brings vitality and vigour to the iconic French composer’s final concerto for piano. The Concerto incorporates an array of Asian and Middle-Eastern musical influences in a beautiful and vibrant expression of Romantic lyricism. Berlioz’s Le Corsaire opens the evening with a miniature seascape portrait, bursting to life with a manic energy in the strings that soon gives way to a serene contemplation of the coast of Nice.
Tuesday 25 may 2021, 7.30pm SIR ANDREW DAVIS conducts BEETHOVEN’S SYMPHONY NO.9 BEETHOVEN Fidelio: Overture MAHLER Des Knaben Wunderhorn (excerpts) BEETHOVEN, arr. Mahler Symphony No.9, ‘Choral’ Sir Andrew Davis Conductor · Elizabeth Watts Soprano Claudia Huckle Mezzo-soprano · Andrew Staples Tenor · Matthew Brook Baritone The Bach Choir · Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Beethoven’s titanic Symphony No.9 comes to the Royal Festival Hall under the baton of the celebrated conductor Sir Andrew Davis in this arrangement by Mahler from 1900. Throughout the legendary composer’s final symphony, the work’s scale and ambition remains nigh unchallenged in the Western canon. With its unrelenting, unmistakable theme, set to Schiller’s patriotic poem Ode to Joy, reaching a glorious climax in the Finale, many have found meaning in interpreting the Symphony’s overwhelming message of humanist idealism. The concert opens with the bombastic, curtain-raising energy of the Overture to Beethoven’s only opera, Fidelio. A tale of romance, heroism and cross-dressing, the Overture lays the scene for the protagonist’s endeavour to rescue her husband from wrongful imprisonment with daring bravery in the bright fanfare. Also featuring in this evening’s programme are extracts from Mahler’s Des Knaben Wunderhorn. An orchestral song collection based on a compendium of German poetry and folk songs, it holds a unique foothold in the German national consciousness. Childlike playfulness, drama, tragedy and irony mix to create a unique conjunction of words and music with tonight’s four soloists.
Tuesday 1 june 2021, 7.30pm VASILY PETRENKO conducts ELGAR’S SYMPHONY NO.1 JONATHAN DOVE Sunshine DVOŘÁK Cello Concerto ELGAR Symphony No.1 Vasily Petrenko Conductor Kian Soltani Cello Royal Philharmonic Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko concludes the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2020-21 series at Southbank Centre. Opening the concert is an inspired work by contemporary British composer Jonathan Dove, Sunshine, which he describes as being a piece written to evoke the feelings of ‘standing in a patch of sunlight, feeling warmth spread through my body, and a glow of happiness.’ Dvořák’s Cello Concerto follows, with its lyrical and intimate themes performed here by former RPO Artist in Residence Kian Soltani, whose playing has been praised for its ‘dazzling intonation and clarity’ (The Washington Post). A leading light of English classical music, Elgar’s orchestral legacy remains beloved. A staple of pre-First World War Romanticism, his Symphony No.1 received a rapturous reception upon its 1909 premiere and has maintained its popularity ever since. With powerful motifs and a melodic weight that recall Brahms and Wagner, the significance Elgar gives to the clarity of the Symphony’s theme in creating meaning is indicated in the first score marking, ‘Nobilmente e semplice’ – noble and simple. From chromatic dissonances in the first movement to the heroic resolution of the final movement, this symphonic tour-de-force receives a thrilling treatment from the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s incoming Music Director Vasily Petrenko.
RPO RESOUND RPO Resound, the Orchestra’s award-winning community and education programme, uses the transformative power of music to reach the communities the Orchestra serves. Launched in 1993, RPO Resound is still one of the most celebrated programmes of its kind in the UK. RPO musicians travel extensively both nationally and internationally to bring meaningful musical experiences to participants in a range of settings: from hospital wards to homeless shelters, prisons to primary schools and beyond. In the last year alone, RPO Resound reached nearly 10,000 people through a range of inspirational and creative experiences delivered by our musicians.
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Students have now experienced something that will live in their memories for the rest of their lives. The impact is undoubtedly profound and we just can’t imagine where it will take them. Secondary School Headteacher
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The music group sessions lifted my mood and gave me more confidence to have a go at anything. Stroke patient
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To find out more about this ground-breaking programme, visit
www.rpo.co.uk/resound
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