LPO Programme notes 15 October by London Philharmonic Orchestra

Principal Conductor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI* Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Leader pieter schoeman Composer in Residence JULIAN ANDERSON Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM†

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Saturday 15 October 2011 | 7.30pm

PROGRAMME £3

YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN conductor ERI NAKAMURA soprano RUXANDRA DONOSE mezzo soprano JI-MIN PARK tenor MATTHEW ROSE bass LONDON PHILHARMONIC CHOIR

CONTENTS 2 Southbank Centre / Leader 3 List of players 4 Yannick Nézet-Séguin 5 Eri Nakamura / Ruxandra Donose 6 Ji-Min Park / Matthew Rose 7 Programme notes 11 Stabat Mater text 13 Supporters 14 About the Orchestra 15 London Philharmonic Choir 16 LPO administration

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 2 in D major (34’) Interval ROSSINI Stabat Mater (62’)

* supported by the Tsukanov Family † supported by Macquarie Group CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

Welcome

pieter schoeman Leader

Pieter Schoeman joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Co-Leader in 2002, and was appointed Leader in 2008.

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE

Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery. If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact Kenelm Robert, our Head of Customer Relations, at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX or phone 020 7960 4250 or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk We look forward to seeing you again soon. A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium. LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance. RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre. Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended. MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.

We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance.

Born in South Africa, he made his solo début aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in the US. In 1987 he was offered the Heifetz Chair of Music scholarship to study with Eduard Schmieder in Los Angeles and in 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman, who recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. In 1994 he became her teaching assistant at Indiana University, Bloomington. Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. As a chamber musician he regularly performs at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. As a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pieter has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky, Brahms’s Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, and Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim. He has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television, and led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has performed frequently as Guest Leader with the symphony orchestras of Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon and Baltimore, as well as with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Pieter is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader (first half) Dennis Kim Guest Leader (second half) Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Chair supported by John and Angela Kessler

Katalin Varnagy Catherine Craig Tina Gruenberg Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Peter Nall Galina Tanney

Violas Fiona Winning Guest Principal Robert Duncan Rebekah Newman Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Susanne Martens Daniel Cornford Claudio Cavalletti

Flutes Susan Thomas Principal Stewart McIlwham*

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse

Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick

Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Nicholas Carpenter* Co-Principal

Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Bassoons Francis Bucknall Daniel Jemison Laura Donoghue Guest Principal Jonathan Ayling Gareth Newman* Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp

Second Violins Clare Duckworth Principal Chair supported by

Gregory Walmsley Santiago Carvalhoâ&#x20AC; Susanna Riddell

the Sharp Family

Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David and Victoria Graham Fuller

Fiona Higham Andrew Thurgood Ashley Stevens Marie-Anne Mairesse Nynke Hijlkema Imogen Williamson

Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Tim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Kenneth Knussen

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

* Holds a professorial appointment in London â&#x20AC; Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Horns John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff and Meg Mann

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Andrew Davenport Richard Karl Goeltz Julian and Gill Simmonds

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN

CONDUCTOR

At 36 years old, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of the most highly respected and soughtafter conductors on today’s international classical music scene and has been widely praised by audiences, critics and artists alike for his musicianship, dedication and charisma. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal. He is also Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and in June 2010 was appointed Music Director Designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra – he will take up the full title of Music Director from the 2012/13 season. A native of Montreal, Yannick has conducted all the major Canadian orchestras. Since his European début in 2004, he has appeared regularly with many of Europe’s leading orchestras including the Orchestre National de France, Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Yannick made his BBC Proms début in 2009 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and returned the following year with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Recent highlights include highly successful tours of the Far East and North America with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as his débuts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras (at the 2010 Salzburg Mozartwoche), Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra. A notable operatic conductor, Yannick made his critically acclaimed Metropolitan Opera début in December 2009 with a new production of Bizet’s Carmen and has since returned for a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo. For the Netherlands Opera he has conducted Janáček’s The Makropulos Case and Puccini’s Turandot with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Having made his début at the Salzburg Festival in 2008, he returned in 2010 for Don Giovanni with the Vienna Philharmonic and Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg. Summer 2011 saw a revival of 4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Don Giovanni. He made his début at Teatro alla Scala, Milan with the festival’s production of Roméo et Juliette in June 2011. Highlights of Yannick’s 2011/12 season include an extensive tour of Germany with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and return visits to the Vienna Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle and Berlin Philharmonic orchestras. In addition, he will conduct Faust at the Metropolitan Opera and Don Carlo at the Netherlands Opera. He will also make his début at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Dvořák’s Rusalka. Yannick’s first three Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra recordings on the EMI/Virgin label comprise an Edison Award-winning album of Ravel’s orchestral works, the Beethoven and Korngold violin concertos with Renaud Capuçon, and Fantasy: A Night at the Opera with flautist Emmanuel Pahud. Recent releases for BIS Records include discs of Strauss (Ein Heldenleben/Four Last Songs) and Berlioz (Symphonie fantastique/La mort de Cléopâtre). His discography also includes several awardwinning recordings with the Orchestre Métropolitain on the ATMA Classique label. Yannick studied piano, conducting, composition and chamber music at the Quebec Conservatoire in Montreal and continued his studies with renowned conductors, most notably the Italian maestro Carlo Maria Giulini. His honours include a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council in 2000, numerous Prix Opus from the Quebec Music Council, and Canada’s highly coveted National Arts Centre Award. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec in Montreal in 2011.

RUXANDRA DONOSE

soprano

mezzo soprano

Japanese soprano Eri Nakamura shot to prominence when she stepped in to replace Anna Netrebko at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, performing Giulietta in Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi. She then reached the finals of both the Song and Orchestra prizes at the BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition in 2009.

Among the most renowned artists of her generation, Romanian-born mezzo soprano Ruxandra Donose has captured critical and popular acclaim in opera houses and concert halls around the world. Her voice has been described as an ‘incredibly exciting, flowing mezzo soprano, which has no breaks and a flawless timbre’.

Eri Nakamura studied at the Osaka College of Music in Japan before joining the Opera Studio at the New National Theatre Tokyo, and then the Opera Studio Nederland, Amsterdam. From 2008–10 she was a member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House. Her roles included Musetta in La bohème, Voice of Heaven in Don Carlo, Frasquita in Carmen, Fifth Maid in Elektra and Lauretta in Gianni Schicchi. In summer 2010 she sang Susanna in The Marriage of Figaro under Sir Colin Davis for which she received excellent reviews. Eri returned to the Royal Opera House in the 2010/11 season singing Sophie in Werther under Antonio Pappano. In September 2010 Eri Nakamura joined the ensemble of the Bayerische Staatsoper. Roles in her first season included Susanna, Pamina, Zerlina and Giulietta in a new production under Yves Abel, Arbate in Mitridate, re di Ponto – also a new production under Ivor Bolton – and Naiad in Ariadne auf Naxos. Recent concert engagements include performances with the Tokyo Philharmonic Orchestra and her début with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in Mahler’s Symphony No. 4. Eri’s engagements in the 2011/12 season include Bruckner’s Te Deum at the Vatican and a tour to Japan with the Bayerische Staatsoper. Her roles in Munich include Woglinde in the Ring Cycle, Flowermaiden in Parsifal and Liù in Turandot. Further ahead, Eri sings her first Juliet in Gounod’s Romeo and Juliet at the Teatro Municipal de Santiago de Chile, returns to the Royal Opera House, and makes her début at Washington National Opera and Opéra de Toulouse.

ERI NAKAMURA

Her expressive vocalism, thoughtful musicianship and elegant stage presence allow her to pursue an extensive operatic and orchestral repertoire. Since her success in the 1990 ARD International Vocal Competition in Munich and her subsequent début with the Vienna State Opera in 1992, engagements have led her all over the world including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Metropolitan Opera, New York; Los Angeles Opera; Opéra National de Paris, and in Berlin, San Francisco, Madrid and Tokyo. She has worked with renowned conductors including Claudio Abbado, Sergiu Celibidache, Seiji Ozawa, Zubin Mehta, Sir Colin Davis, Charles Dutoit, Christoph von Dohnányi, Mariss Jansons, Donald Runnicles, Vladimir Jurowski and many others. Appearances this season include Dorabella in Così fan tutte at Los Angeles Opera; Tamiri in Vivaldi’s Il Farnace in Paris, Lausanne, Strasbourg and Mulhouse; Charlotte in Massenet’s Werther at the Romanian National Opera; and Donna Elvira in Mozart’s Don Giovanni at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. On the concert platform she appears in her native Romania with the National Radio Orchestra for a performance of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. In the UK, as well as tonight’s début with the London Philharmonic Orchestra she will also make her début with the BBC Symphony Orchestra in Glasgow and Aberdeen with Berlioz’s La mort de Cléopâtre.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

matthew rose

tenor

bass

Ji-Min Park was born in South Korea and trained at Seoul National University as a student of Professor Philip Kang, and at the Vienna Conservatory, Austria, as a student of Professor Carolyn Hague. He represented Korea in the 2009 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and was a prizewinner in the Stella Maris International Vocal Competition on board MS Europa in 2009. In 2007 Ji-Min joined the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, where he enjoyed considerable success and was promoted to Principal Young Artist for the 09/10 season. His roles at Covent Garden have included Gastone in La traviata (understudying Alfredo), Scaramuccio in Ariadne auf Naxos, Pang in Turandot, Kleine Graf in Die tote Stadt, Sailor in Tristan und Isolde, Corydon in Acis and Galatea and Rodolfo in La bohème. Recent engagements include Handel’s Messiah with the Royal Opera on tour in Japan; Rodolfo in La bohème for his débuts with the Théâtre du Capitole in Toulouse and Opera Australia; Beppe in Pagliacci with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Daniel Harding; and Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the West-East Divan Orchestra conducted by Daniel Barenboim. He returned to Covent Garden to open their 11/12 season as Rinuccio in Gianni Schicchi and Venditore in Il Taborro. Ji-Mins’s forthcoming engagements include Rodolfo in La bohème at the New National Theatre in Tokyo, Alfredo in La traviata and Ernesto in Don Pasquale for Opera Australia, and Iopas in a new production of Les Troyens conducted by Antonio Pappano at Covent Garden.

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

JI-MIN PARK

British bass Matthew Rose studied at the Curtis Institute of Music, Philadelphia, before becoming a member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

His roles for the Royal Opera have included Polyphemus in Acis and Galatea, Masetto in Don Giovanni, Harašta in The Cunning Little Vixen and Colline in La bohème. In 2006 he made his Glyndebourne Festival Opera début as Bottom in A Midsummer Night’s Dream – for which he received the John Christie Award – and he has since sung the role at La Scala, Milan; the Royal Opera; Opéra National de Lyon; and Houston Grand Opera. Forthcoming engagements include Sparafucile in Rigoletto and Talbot in Maria Stuarda for the Royal Opera; Claggart in Billy Budd for English National Opera and his début at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, as Colline. In concert, he has appeared at the Edinburgh Festival, the BBC Proms and the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York. Recent engagements have included concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis, Daniel Harding and Michael Tilson Thomas; the Los Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel; the Dresden Staatskapelle, Scottish Chamber Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra with the late Sir Charles Mackerras; the BBC Symphony Orchestra with Jiří Bělohlávek and Marc Minkowski; and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Antonio Pappano. Matthew’s recital appearances include the Chester and Cheltenham festivals, the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam and London’s Wigmore Hall. His recordings include Der Steuermann in Tristan und Isolde and Walter in William Tell with Antonio Pappano; Ratcliffe in Billy Budd with Daniel Harding; Bel Canto arias with Natalie Dessay and Evelino Pido; and Handel’s Messiah with Stephen Cleobury and the Choir of King’s College, Cambridge, all for EMI. He has also recorded Tippett’s A Child of our Time and Berlioz’s L’enfance du Christ with Sir Colin Davis for LSO Live and Liszt Lieder with Iain Burnside for Signum.

PROGRAMME NOTES

Speedread The most important lesson any composer can learn is to find and remain true to his or her own voice. Ludwig van Beethoven faced the biggest challenge of his life when he started to go deaf, but instead of allowing that ailment to silence him, Beethoven fought against it in his music. He allowed his greatest physical challenge to become his richest creative lubricant. In his Second Symphony – written as the full extent of his hearing problems began to emerge – Beethoven starts to unveil the individualities and strengths that would come to fruition in his Third, Fifth and Ninth Symphonies. The Second Symphony might bear the influence of Haydn and Mozart, but the music is unmistakably Beethoven’s.

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN 1770–1827

Somebody once said that if Beethoven’s symphonies were presented undated and unnumbered, the easiest to guess the position of – after the Ninth, that is – would be the First and Second. These are symphonies that demonstrate a distinct process of expansion and exploration, not only as a pair but also in the context of the soil from which they grew: the late symphonies of Mozart and Haydn. Beethoven, though, was already his own man, and the forces that were to make him the most important musician for centuries were already beginning to form at the time of the Second Symphony. One of the most significant of those forces was the decline in the composer’s hearing. As he began to acknowledge that performing as a pianist with an orchestra would

Beethoven once castigated Gioacchino Rossini with the command that he ‘write more Barbers of Seville’ – a reference to the comic opera that made the Italian’s name. In truth Rossini sometimes struggled when stepping outside the operatic genre he perfected so admirably. But despite his canny references to the great sacred works of the past, it’s Rossini’s own love of poetry and the human voice that renders his Stabat Mater so successful. It wasn’t to everyone’s taste with its jaunty rhythms and dramatic vocal lines, but Rossini – like Monteverdi before him – was responding to the text as honestly as he could. When you step back from the critical detail of the Stabat Mater, a work emerges that seems somehow to carry the eternal mysteries of suffering, death and faith on the shoulders of its varied and entertaining movements.

SYMPHONY NO. 2 IN D MAJOR, OP. 36 Adagio molto – Allegro con brio Larghetto Scherzo: Allegro Allegro molto

become increasingly difficult given his encroaching deafness, Beethoven veered towards the creation of symphonies that would prove that the same drama and intensity could be achieved without a pianist on stage at all – with an orchestra on its own. His First Symphony had famously launched with a discord; his Second would suggest even more the unorthodoxy, grandeur and brilliance that would usher ‘the symphony’ into the 19th and 20th centuries. But despite such grandeur and confidence, Beethoven was in one of his darkest emotional states while working on both the Second Symphony and the contemporaneous Third Piano Concerto. Another concurrent though non-musical project was the Heiligenstadt Testament – a determined railing against

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

PROGRAMME NOTES

his hearing condition in the form of a letter from Beethoven to his brothers in which he explores the full extent of his despair and at one point contemplates suicide. Thus clouds gather as the symphony’s long, slow introduction becomes increasingly tense, twisting itself up through various remote keys to an angstridden D minor stalemate before slipping into the first movement’s ‘fast’ theme, which itself prompts wild snaps and blows from the orchestra. What follows is particularly interesting: a slow movement that unveils for the first time the sort of rich, lyrical wind ideas and hymn-like melodies that Beethoven would develop fully in the most exalted moments of his late symphonies and string quartets. Then we have Beethoven’s first orchestral Scherzo, the joke being a three-note fragment that’s tossed merrily between instrumental groups – listen in particular for the misplaced accents in the violins, the emergence of one of Beethoven’s most distinctive hallmarks.

It’s in the finale that the most explicit facets of Beethoven’s epic symphonic imagination are laid out. Initially we hear a pithy theme that’s picked up and thrown away in upper-register instruments and greeted gruffly by lower ones. That idea is taken forward until an extraordinary ‘coda’ arrives, built from a subdued, lyrical theme that passed almost unnoticed earlier in the movement; here it combines with the earlier motif in a massive cranking-up of symphonic momentum that demands a wildly dramatic ending. That’s what one critic was getting at when he described the symphony after its first performance as ‘a hideously writhing wounded dragon that refuses to expire’ (did he realise that the word ‘coda’ actually means ‘tail’?). They might have sounded bizarre and savage to those first listeners, but we now recognize these early protests from Beethoven – his first outcries in the face of fate – as strides towards true Romanticism and an appropriate prelude to the upheavals of his symphonies to come.

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

honegger pastorale d’ÉtÉ Symphony No. 4 une cantate de noËL Vladimir Jurowski conductor

LPO-0056

LPO-0057

LPO-0058

New releases on the LPO label

SiBELIUS / LUTOsŁawski symphony no. 5 POHJOLA’s daughter concerto for orchestra Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor

BUSONI DOKTOR FAUST Sir Adrian Boult conductor

Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music grant programme

Available from lpo.org.uk/shop, all good CD outlets and the Royal Festival Hall shop. Downloads available from iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and classicsonline.com.

8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Gioacchino ROSSINI

stabat mater

1792–1868

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Stabat mater Cujus animam gementem Quis est homo Pro peccatis Eja, Mater, fons amoris Sancta Mater Fac ut portem Inflammatus et accensus Quando corpus morietur Amen

Text begins on page 11. Rossini never considered himself an adequate composer of sacred music. When the priest Fernández Varela suggested he might write a Stabat Mater, those feelings were only exacerbated. Giovanni Pergolesi’s moving setting of the same verses was known and loved throughout Italy and beyond; surely, Rossini believed, he was setting himself up for comparison against Pergolesi and inevitable failure? But Rossini allowed himself to be persuaded – to a point, at least. Pressure from his patron Alexandre Aguado (a friend of Varela’s) saw the composer write six movements of a Stabat Mater (Nos. 1 and 5–9) in 1831–2. Thereafter Rossini fell ill – at least, that’s what he claimed – and successfully implored his colleague Giovanni Tadolini to complete the remaining movements in time for a première performance on Good Friday 1833 in Madrid. The hybrid Stabat Mater was a relative success. But eight years later, with Tadolini dead, the semi-retired Rossini started to believe he could make it even more so. And

not just musically, but financially, too: the completion and publication of a solely authored version of the piece could ride off the back of a successful ‘second’ première and prove lucrative. There followed a lengthy legal battle – you’re best spared the details – but Rossini emerged the victor and set about re-writing the Tadolini movements himself. The first performance of the ‘finished’ Rossini work took place in March 1842 conducted by an enthusiastic Gaetano Donizetti. Immediately those lucky spectators at the Théâtre Italien in Paris were struck by just how heartfelt the music appeared. Like countless composers before and after him, Rossini seems to have been stirred by Jacopone da Todi’s text, which portrays the mother of Christ at the foot of her crucified son’s cross. But while Rossini’s music felt expressive and vocally shapely to some, to others it was too excessively rhythmic and outspokenly operatic for its dark subject matter. They thought it not only overly sensuous but also disrespectfully playful. The German poet Heinrich Heine countered those critics, recognising the honesty of Rossini’s sentiments in the context of his other musical creations. Likewise, some have suggested the music be viewed as a heartfelt devotion not to Christ but to the essence of poetry and the superlative beauty of the human voice. There are, despite both arguments, striking examples of Rossini’s sacred music schooling in the Stabat Mater, not least its two unaccompanied movements, ‘Eja, Mater’ and ‘Quando corpus morietur’. Here Rossini initiates the idea of the ‘descending’ musical phrase (which becomes a touchstone of the whole work) and writes with shapely and plaintive qualities that sprung directly from his interest in pre-Classical church music,

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

notably that of his compatriot Palestrina. That, and the final movement includes a mighty double fugue – just about the most scholarly and rigorous compositional exercise going, and one inextricably linked with sacred music from Johann Sebastian Bach onwards. Elsewhere the means and the mood are quite different, as Rossini engages with his texts in a more operatic sense with voice-led arias and duets of notable emotional inflection. The second movement ‘Cujus animam’ was plucked out by some as the most profane movement in the work as it obviously affords plenty of room for vocal beauty to blossom over a lilting rhythm. Similarly, the fire and brimstone of ‘Inflammatus et accensus’ is operatic in the sense that the music is driven directly by the drama of the text and the soloists’ contributions are characterised by it.

For a true picture of Rossini the devotional composer, we’d do worse than return – as he himself does towards the work’s conclusion – to the opening bars. Here are the most decisive words of the Stabat Mater text and the composer’s most acute musical reflection of the piece’s sentiments: pianissimo bassoons and cellos outline an ascending minor third, but the phrase is pushed into an ambiguous diminished chord with the arrival of an F sharp. Reflective of the central theme of the poem – the paralytic grief of Mary – the music is left to hang, unsure of itself, at once introspective and tragic. The feeling somehow comes to inhabit all the movements of the Stabat Mater, even at their most assured. In Heine’s words, ‘the sensation of the infinite hovers round, and encompasses, the whole’. Programme notes by Andrew Mellor © 2011

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Bruckner choral works Saturday 4 February 2012 | 7.30pm Bruckner Christus factus est Bruckner Symphony No. 9 Bruckner Te Deum

Tickets £9–£65 Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 southbankcentre.co.uk Booking fees apply

lpo.org.uk

10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Christine Brewer soprano Mihoko Fujimura mezzo soprano Toby Spence tenor Franz-Josef Selig bass London Philharmonic Choir

ROSSINI: STABAT MATER

1 Stabat Mater Stabat mater dolorosa Juxta crucem lacrymosa Dum pendebat Filius.

The sorrowing mother stood weeping beside the cross where hung her son.

2 Cujus animam gementem Cujus animam gementem Contristatam et dolentem Pertransivit gladius.

Her groaning spirit, saddened and lamenting, A sword had pierced.

O quam tristis et afflicta Fuit illa benedicta Mater Unigeniti.

Oh how sad and afflicted was that blessed Mother of the Only-begotten.

Quae moerebat et dolebat Et tremebat dum videbat Nati poenas inclyti.

She mourned and sorrowed and trembled as she saw the sufferings of her glorious son.

3 Quis est homo Quis est homo qui non fleret Christi Matrem si videret In tanto supplicio?

Who is the man who would not weep if he saw the Mother of Christ In such distress?

Quis non posset contristari Piam Matrem contemplari Dolentem cum Filio?

Who could not sorrow contemplating the gentle Mother grieving with her son?

4 Pro peccatis Pro Peccatis suae gentis Vidit Jesum in tormentis Et flagellis subditum.

For the sins of His people She saw Jesus in torment and subjected to the scourge.

Vidit suum dulcem Natum Moriendo desolatum Dum emisit spiritum.

She saw her sweet Child dying in desolation as He gave up the spirit.

5 Eja, Mater, fons amoris Eja, Mater, fons amoris, Me sentire vim doloris Fac ut tecum lugeam.

Ah, Mother, fount of love, let me feel the force of grief that I may weep with Thee.

Fac ut ardeat cor meum In amando Christum Deum Ut sibi complaceam.

Make my heart blaze with love of Christ God that I may please Him.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

6 Sancta Mater Sancta Mater, istud agas, Crucifixi fige plagas Corde meo valide.

Holy Mother, grant this, stamp the wounds of the Crucified firmly on my heart.

Tui Nati vulnerati, Tam dignati pro me pati, Poenas mecum divide.

Thy wounded Son, who deigned to suffer for me, share with me His sufferings.

Fac me vere tecum flere Crucifixio condolere Donec ego vixero

Make me truly weep with Thee grieve with Thee for the crucified as long as I live.

Juxta Crucem tecum stare Te libenter sociare In planctu desidero.

Beside the cross to stand with Thee to join Thee willingly in mourning I desire.

Virgo virginum praeclara, Mihi jam non sis amara, Fac me tecum plangere.

Virgin supreme among virgins, do not now be harsh to me, let me weep with Thee.

7 Fac ut portem Fac ut portem Christi mortem, Passionis fac consortem, Et Plagas recolere.

Grant I may bear Christâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s death, grant me a share in His Passion, and remembrance of His wounds.

Fac me plagis vulnerary, Cruce hac inebriari Ob amorem Filii.

Let me be wounded with His wounds, by this cross be filled with love for Thy Son.

8 Inflammatus et accensus Inflammatus et accensus, Per te, Virgo, sim defensus In die judicii.

Inflamed and afire, through Thee, Virgin, let me be defended on the Day of Judgement.

Fac me cruce custodiri, Morte Christi praemuniri, Confoveri gratia.

Let me be guarded by the cross, protected by the death of Christ, sheltered by His grace.

9 Quando corpus morietur Quando corpus morietur, Fac ut animae donetur Paradisi Gloria.

When my body dies, grant that my spirit may be given the glory of Paradise.

10 Amen In sempiterna saecula. Amen.

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

World without end. Amen.

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors: Thomas Beecham Group The Tsukanov Family The Sharp Family Julian & Gill Simmonds Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller Richard Karl Goeltz John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett Mrs Sonja Drexler Guy & Utti Whittaker Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mr Charles Dumas

David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr & Mrs Jeffrey Herrmann Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas Andrew T Mills Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard Mr John Soderquist & Mr Costas Michaelides Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Edgecombe Mr Richard Fernyhough Ken Follett

Pauline & Peter Halliday Michael & Christine Henry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr R K Jeha Mr & Mrs Maurice Lambert Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Mr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Brian Marsh John Montgomery Edmund Pirouet Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Lady Marina Vaizey Mr D Whitelock Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Edmund Pirouet Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged: Corporate Members Appleyard & Trew llp AREVA UK British American Business Charles Russell Destination Québec – UK Lazard Leventis Overseas Man Group plc Corporate Donor Lombard Street Research In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Heineken The Langham London Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sela / Tilley’s Sweets Villa Maria

Trusts and Foundations Arts and Business Allianz Cultural Foundation The Boltini Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Charitable Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The Delius Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Hattori Foundation for Music and the Arts Capital Radio’s Help a London Child The Hobson Charity The Kirby Laing Foundation The Leverhulme Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Marsh Christian Trust

The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute Paul Morgan Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund Newcomen Collett Foundation The Serge Prokofiev Foundation Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Reed Foundation The Seary Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Stansfield Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation The Swan Trust John Thaw Foundation The Thistle Trust The Underwood Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras. As well as performing classical concerts, the Orchestra also records film and computer game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of Londoners every year through activities for schools and local communities. The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then has been headed by many of the great names in the conducting world, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. The current Principal Conductor is Russian Vladimir Jurowski, appointed in 2007, with French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin as Principal Guest Conductor.

You may well have heard the London Philharmonic Orchestra on film soundtrack recordings: it has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East. The Orchestra also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 50 releases on the label, which are available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations and Symphony No. 8 conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras; Holst’s The Planets conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Klaus Tennstedt; and Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Martin Helmchen under Vladimir Jurowski. The Orchestra was also recently honoured with the commission to record all 205 of the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics Team Welcome Ceremonies and Medal Ceremonies.

The Orchestra is based at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, where it has performed since it opened in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 40 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and soloists. Concert highlights in 2011/12 include a three-week festival celebrating the music of Prokofiev, concerts with artists including Sir Mark Elder, Marin Alsop, Renée Fleming, Stephen Hough and Joshua Bell, and several premières of works by living composers including the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson. In addition to its London concerts, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964.

To help maintain its high standards and diverse workload, the Orchestra is committed to the welfare of its musicians and in December 2007 received the Association of British Orchestras/Musicians Benevolent Fund Healthy Orchestra Bronze Charter Mark.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first-ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring remains a big part of the Orchestra’s life: tours in the 2011/12 season include visits to Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the US, Spain, China, Russia, Oman, Brazil and France.

Find out more and get involved!

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an energetic programme of activities for young people and local communities. Highlights include the ever-popular family and schools concerts, fusion ensemble The Band, the Leverhulme Young Composers project and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training scheme for outstanding young players. Over the last few years, developments in technology and social networks have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra has a thriving presence on Facebook and Twitter.

lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra

london philharmonic choir PATRON HRH Princess Alexandra | PRESIDENT Sir Roger Norrington | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Neville Creed ACCOMPANIST Jonathan Beatty | CHAIRMAN Mary Moore | CHOIR MANAGER Kevin Darnell

Founded in 1947, the London Philharmonic Choir is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest choirs, consistently meeting with great critical acclaim. It has performed under leading international conductors throughout its history and made numerous recordings for CD, radio and television. Its Artistic Director is Neville Creed. Enjoying a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Choir frequently joins it for concerts in the UK and abroad. In 2010/11, engagements included Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Das klagende Lied, Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, Dvořák’s Te Deum and Stabat Mater, Fauré’s Requiem, Holst’s The Planets and Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. This season, concerts with the LPO include Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire, Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3, Zemlinsky’s Psalm 23, Delius’s Sea Drift and Suk’s The Ripening. Recently released CDs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra include Dvořák’s Requiem conducted by Neeme Järvi, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Holst’s The Planets, Mahler’s

Sopranos Charlotte Akenhead, Catherine Allum, Annette Argent, Paula Chessell, Sheila Cox, Sarah Deane-Cutler, Sally Donegani, Alison Flood, Rachel Gibbon, Jane Hanson, Sally Harrison, Carolyn Hayman, Elizabeth Hicks, Erica Jones, Georgina Kaim, Mai Kikkawa, Jenni Kilvert, Olivia Knibbs, Frances Lake, Janey Maxwell, Marj McDaid, Natalie Millet, Katie Milton, Felicity Mowat, Linda Park, Diana Richards, Rebecca Schendel, Tania Stanier, Tracey Szwagrzak, Susan Thomas, Isobel Timms, Agnes Tisza, Jenny Torniainen, Nicky Ward, Fran Wheare Altos Joanna Arnold, Phye Bell, Susannah Bellingham, Lara Carim, Noel Chow, Margaret Driver, Moira Duckworth, Lynn Eaton, Carmel Edmonds, Regina Frank, Marjana Jovanovic Morrison, Andrea Lane, Claire Lawrence, Lisa MacDonald, Laetitia Malan, Mary Moore, Rachel Murray,

Symphony No. 2 and Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross under Vladimir Jurowski. Appearing regularly at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, the Choir’s performances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Rachmaninov’s The Bells and the UK premières of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s A Relic of Memory and Goldie’s Sine Tempore in the Evolution! Prom. The Choir performed at the Doctor Who Proms in 2008 and 2010, and this year appeared in Verdi’s Requiem, Liszt’s A Faust Symphony and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis. The Choir works with other leading orchestras, has visited numerous European countries and performed in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Perth, Australia. It also sings in Raymond Gubbay’s Classical Spectacular, Organ Gala and Christmas Classics concerts, and last December joined Katherine Jenkins in her Christmas show at the Royal Albert Hall. The London Philharmonic Choir prides itself on achieving first-class performances from its members, who are volunteers from all walks of life. For more information, including details about how to join, please visit www.lpc.org.uk

Angela Pascoe, Helene Richards, Jenny Ryall, Carolyn Saunders, Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg, Susi Underwood, Libby Vannet, Jenny Watson, Erika Weingarth, Chloë White Tenors Scott Addison, David Aldred, Chris Beynon, John Boyne, Huw Cook, Kevin Darnell, Michael Delany, Colin Fleming, Lucas Souza Gomes, Iain Handyside, Stephen Hodges, Rob Home, Patrick Hughes, Tony Masters, Rhydian Peters, Tony Wren Basses Jonathon Bird, Gordon Buky-Webster, Adam Bunzl, Marcus Daniels, Paul Gittens, Nigel Grieve, Mark Hillier, Stephen Hines, David Hodgson, Rylan Holey, Martin Hudson, Anthony McDonald, John Morris, Ashley Morrison, William Parsons, Johan Pieters, Tony Piper, David Regan, John Salmon, Daniel Snowman, James Torniainen, Hin-Yan Wong, John Wood

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Administration

Board of Directors

General Administration

Orchestra Personnel