London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 3 Dec 2014 by London Philharmonic Orchestra

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Concert programme

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lpo.org.uk/rachmaninoff

Winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI* Leader pieter schoeman† Composer in Residence magnus lindberg Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Wednesday 3 December 2014 | 7.30pm

Szymanowski Concert Overture (16’) Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London

Scriabin Piano Concerto in F sharp minor (27’) Interval Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 in D minor (41’)

Contents 2 Welcome LPO 2014/15 season 3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Vladimir Jurowski 7 Igor Levit 8 Programme notes 11 Recommended recordings Rachmaninoff: Inside Out 12 Next concerts 14 Supporters 15 Sound Futures donors 16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Igor Levit piano In co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation

Free pre-concert talk 6.15pm–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Professor Stephen Downes, a specialist in 20th-century music, looks at the often overlooked influence of Scriabin. * supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation † supported by Neil Westreich CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

This concert is being broadcast live by the BBC on Radio 3 Live In Concert – live concerts every day of the week. Listen online in HD Sound for 30 days at bbc.co.uk/radio3

Welcome

Welcome to Southbank Centre We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance. Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete, Feng Sushi and Topolski, 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 the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250, or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk

London Philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season Welcome to tonight’s London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, part of our season-long festival Rachmaninoff: Inside Out. Whether you’re a regular concert-goer, new to the Orchestra or just visiting London, we hope you enjoy your evening with us. Browse the full season online at lpo.org.uk/performances or call 020 7840 4242 to request a copy of our 2014/15 brochure. Other highlights of the season include: •

Appearances by today’s most sought-after artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati.

•

Premieres of works by Magnus Lindberg, Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, a children’s work, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Colin Matthews, and a new piece for four horns by Titanic composer James Horner.

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Choral highlights with the London Philharmonic Choir include Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles, Verdi’s Requiem, Rachmaninoff’s Spring and The Bells, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass.

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.

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On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by an anonymous donor

Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

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

Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Alina Petrenko Galina Tanney Amanda Smith Ishani Bhoola Second Violins Andrew Storey Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Nancy Elan Lorenzo Gentili-Tedeschi Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Floortje Gerritsen Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Stephen Stewart John Dickinson

Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt Daniel Cornford Martin Fenn Sarah Malcolm Pamela Ferriman Linda Kidwell Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Daniel Gardner Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† David Lale Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Tim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Richard Lewis Lowri Morgan Sebastian Pennar Helen Rowlands Flutes María José Ortuño Benito Guest Principal Sue Thomas* Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Stewart McIlwham*

Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Michael O’Donnell Sue Böhling* Cor Anglais Sue Böhling* Principal Clarinets Peter Sparks Guest Principal Thomas Watmough Emily Meredith E flat Clarinet Thomas Watmough Principal Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal Bassoons Rebecca Mertens Guest Principal Gareth Newman Simon Estell Contrabassoon Simon Estell Principal Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Meilyr Hughes

Trumpets Nicholas Betts Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

David Geoghegan Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

David Jackson Keith Millar James Bower Sarah Mason Harp Rachel Masters* Principal * Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Sonja Drexler • David & Victoria Graham Fuller • Neil Westreich

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London Philharmonic Orchestra

Full marks to the London Philharmonic for continuing to offer the most adventurous concerts in London. The Financial Times, 14 April 2014 The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic and forward-looking ensembles in the UK. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, releases CDs on its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and community groups. The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. It has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is currently the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007. From September 2015 Andrés Orozco-Estrada will take up the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence. The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since the Hall’s opening in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 30 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and

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soloists. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra collaborated with Southbank Centre on the year-long The Rest Is Noise festival, charting the influential works of the 20th century. 2014/15 highlights include a seasonlong festival, Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, exploring the composer’s major orchestral masterpieces; premieres of works by Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, Colin Matthews, James Horner and the Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence, Magnus Lindberg; and appearances by many of today’s most soughtafter artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati. Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer it takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra.

Pieter Schoeman leader

Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the LPO in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 80 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include organ works by Poulenc and Saint-Saëns with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Strauss’s Don Juan and Ein Heldenleben with Bernard Haitink; Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 6 & 14 and Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy with Vladimir Jurowski; and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Hans Graf. In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics. In 2013 it was the winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians through an energetic programme of activities for young people. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the Young Composers Programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Its work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2014/15 season include appearances across Europe (including Iceland) and tours to the USA (West and East Coasts), Canada and China.

Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut 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.

Find out more and get involved! lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra youtube.com/londonphilharmonic7

In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras. He is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Pieter’s chair in the London Philharmonic Orchestra is supported by Neil Westreich. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

Vladimir Jurowski Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

Quite apart from the immaculate preparation and the most elegant conducting style in the business, Jurowski programmes with an imagination matched by none of London’s other principal conductors. © Thomas Kurek

The Arts Desk, December 2012

One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow and studied at the Music Academies of Dresden and Berlin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Nabucco. Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003, becoming Principal Conductor in 2007. He also holds the titles of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. He has previously held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997–2001), Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03), Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005–09), and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001–13). He is a regular guest with many leading orchestras in both Europe and North America, including the Berlin, New York and St Petersburg Philharmonic orchestras; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; The Philadelphia Orchestra; The Cleveland Orchestra; the Boston, San Francisco and Chicago symphony orchestras; and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

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His opera engagements have included Rigoletto, Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades, Hansel and Gretel and Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opéra national de Paris; Eugene Onegin at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and numerous operas at Glyndebourne including Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Cunning Little Vixen, Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons, and Ariadne auf Naxos. lpo.org.uk/about/jurowski

Watch a video of Vladimir Jurowski introducing the LPO 2014/15 season: lpo.org.uk/whats-on/season14-15.html

Igor Levit piano

A major new pianist has arrived.

The New York Times, March 2014

The 2014/15 season marks Igor Levit’s debuts with the San Francisco Symphony under Pablo Heras-Casado, the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Andrew Manze and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Lionel Bringuier. Recital performances see him appear at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, the Prinzregententheater Munich, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Berlin, Copenhagen’s Black Diamond, Birmingham’s Town Hall and Zurich’s Tonhalle. London’s Wigmore Hall is dedicating an introductory series to Igor Levit, featuring three solo recitals throughout the season. He returns in recital to Germany’s summer festivals: Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Kissinger Sommer and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and continues his Beethoven Sonata Cycle at the Schubertiade in Austria.

An exclusive recording artist for Sony Classical, Igor Levit’s debut disc, of the five last Beethoven sonatas, won the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year 2014 Award, the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award 2014 and the ECHO 2014 award for Solo Piano Recording of the Year (19th-century music). His second recording for Sony – JS Bach’s Six Partitas – was released in August 2014. igorlevit.com twitter.com/igorpianist

Last season Igor Levit celebrated both his recital and orchestral debuts on the main stage of Vienna’s Musikverein to great critical acclaim: stepping in for Maurizio Pollini in June 2014 and for Hélène Grimaud (with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons) in March 2014. Only four days earlier, on 12 March 2014, he made his New York City recital debut at the Park Avenue Armory to effusive reviews both by The New Yorker and The New York Times. Further recital performances in 2013/14 saw him appear at Zurich’s Tonhalle, the Berlin Philharmonie and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The season also marked his debuts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He was Artist in Residence at the Kissinger Sommer Festival, as well as Preisträger in Residence at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

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Programme notes

Speedread How should a composer react to an utter flop? When his First Symphony bombed in 1897, the young Rachmaninoff was plunged into depression and creative silence. The composer had embarked upon a significant, fascinating and legitimate new symphonic path in music of a distinctly new emotional strength and aesthetic feel. We can recognise that now, when we view his maligned First Symphony retrospectively through the prism of his more readily accepted Second and Third. Can the disastrous first performance of the First Symphony be blamed on the poor orchestral display on the night? Perhaps. Things were rather more complicated for Alexander Scriabin, a more outlandish visionary than Rachmaninoff and more of a loose cannon, too. Scriabin’s Piano Concerto was premiered just six months after Rachmaninoff’s symphony, and

Karol Szymanowski 1882–1937

When Karol Szymanowski enrolled at the conservatoire in Warsaw in 1901, Poland wasn’t just a musical backwater, it was a young country fighting for survival. Recognising both the challenge and opportunity of their homeland’s predicament, a group of Polish musicians established a collective under the banner ‘Young Poland in Music’. The group announced its existence on 6 February 1906 with a concert in Warsaw launched by an arresting Concert Overture by its youngest and most creatively significant member: Karol Szymanowski. Szymanowski was an exact contemporary of Webern, Bartók and Stravinsky, but given his native Poland’s pawn-like political status he would never enjoy the

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again the St Petersburg audience didn’t much like what they heard. Perhaps in Scriabin’s case, the elusive radiance and ‘synaesthetic’ colours of his Piano Concerto were just a little too much for the unprepared 19th-century audience to stomach. This was, after all, a composer who believed himself nothing less than a messiah, destined to bring about cataclysmic worldwide change during the course of one extraordinary concert (which never happened). A decade later in Poland, Karol Szymanowski had rather more realistic (if equally global) aims, namely to proclaim the confidence and legitimacy of a young Poland in music. Szymanowski’s rollicking Concert Overture would certainly have done that – proving that Poland had distinct musical individuality while being canny enough to learn from the musical models of its more established European neighbours.

Piano Concert Concerto Overture, No. 3Op. in D12minor, Op. 30 Simon Trpčeski piano 1 Allegro ma non tanto 2 Intermezzo: Adagio – 3 Finale: Alla breve

prominence of those illustrious figures in his lifetime. The Concert Overture – in the heroic cut of its themes and in its insistent, pulsating passion – seems to protest against that with extremes of volume, opulence and craft; the late Romantic canvases of Strauss and Reger meeting Szymanowski’s more exotic harmonic taste and his penchant for ominous orchestral darkness. The Concert Overture would have sounded even more opulent in 1906, as Szymanowski rescored it six years later to make the published version ‘leaner and more eloquent.’ He also removed the inscription from Tadeusz Miciński’s poem Witeź Włast (‘Knight Witeź’), ‘I will not play you sad songs, O shades! But I will give you

a triumph proud and fierce.’ The confident sentiments of that poem, and the spirit of Strauss’s orchestral cavalier Don Juan, are stamped through the work from its strident opening (score markings include ‘ecstatico’, ‘passionato’ and ‘stridente’). There follows a ‘sweet, loving’ secondary idea in the browner hues of clarinets and cellos, a subsequent section in which the main theme is examined and developed with alternating excitability and introspection, and the expected return to the heady pace of the work’s opening.

Alexander Scriabin 1872–1915

It’s Alexander Scriabin’s utter individuality – incorporating his extraordinary beliefs – that makes him such a significant composer even a century after his death. Scriabin had a truly global imagination that stretched far beyond music’s accepted boundaries. For him, performance was a participatory act that had almost baptismal effects on its gathered audience. Technically he was equally visionary: as his musical language progressed, it somehow transcended tonality – the traditional harmonic language of Western music – not progressing towards modernist ‘atonality’ but rather developing a harmonic language all of its own. Not long after his death, though, the commentator Boris de Schloezer described Scriabin as ‘the only true Romantic musician produced by Russia’. After a series of early piano works heavily influenced by the poetry and simplicity of Frédéric Chopin, Scriabin began to move towards a wholeheartedly more Romantic sound; this was the period that produced the Piano Concerto. Chopin’s shadow remains in the intricacy and detail of the writing, but the first movement’s spinning out of

Piano Concerto in F sharp minor, Op. 20 Igor Levit piano 1 Allegro 2 Andante 3 Allegro moderato

a string melody beneath piano decoration points veritably towards Rachmaninoff, as does the naturalised Slavic feel of Scriabin’s weaving themes. In addition, signs of the radical Scriabin that emerged after 1900 are beginning to reveal themselves. The composer’s ‘synaesthetic’ ability to instinctively translate musical notes into colours would become increasingly important, and this Concerto’s central Andante, a set of variations, adopts that principle – cast reportedly in the ‘bright blue’ of F sharp minor. In the final movement you can sense the curious brand of radiance that would become so recognisably Scriabin’s own: neither Romantic, impressionistic nor atonal; so teasing with the listener’s expectations. All this, and there remains a distinctly Chopinesque sense of proportion and refinement to the piece. St Petersburg was unimpressed at the premiere in October 1897. Seventeen years later, though, Scriabin found a warm and appreciative audience for the Concerto, its eyes transfixed on him at the piano stool. It was here, in London.

Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes continued

Serge Rachmaninoff 1873–1943

In the mid-1890s it must have looked like Rachmaninoff had the world at his feet. As he began work on his First Symphony, the young composer had been awarded (via Tchaikovsky) the highest mark possible by the Moscow Conservatory and had already completed a draft of his brilliant First Piano Concerto. Then, on 27 March 1897 in St Petersburg, disaster struck. Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony was premiered under the baton of a reportedly drunk Alexander Glazunov. It was an unmitigated flop. ‘If there was a conservatory in hell and one of its students were to compose a symphony similar to Rachmaninoff’s’, wrote Cesar Cui, one of the most influential Russian composers of the day, ‘he would have delighted the inhabitants.’ For Rachmaninoff, who had cowered in a backstage stairwell as Glazunov did his worst, the experience prompted an extended depression and a retreat from composing for three years. And wrapped up in all that pain may well have been the Symphony’s equally fraught subject matter. Rachmaninoff dedicated the piece to Anna Lodyzhenskaya, a married woman with whom he had become infatuated. An inscription on the score quoted Tolstoy, specifically his story of a fatal extra-marital relationship, Anna Karenina: ‘“vengeance is mine, I will repay”, saith the Lord’. What might have shocked the likes of Cesar Cui was Rachmaninoff’s immediately sharp, cutting musical aesthetic and his frequent plunges into metaphorical death and darkness, both of which must have appeared quite new. But when he started work on the Symphony, Rachmaninoff was thinking along strict structural lines: the introduction of thematic material in the first movement that would feed the remaining three. Specifically, the descending motif heard right at the

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Symphony No. 1 in D minor, Op. 13 1 Grave – Allegro ma non troppo 2 Allegro animato 3 Larghetto 4 Allegro con fuoco

start of the opening movement on digging, unison strings (and then on a rather less perturbed clarinet) which is recalled in some form at the start of each movement that follows, becoming the Symphony’s ‘motto’ (Rachmaninoff even referred to this motto theme in his Symphonic Dances of 40 years later; some cite that as a ‘coming to terms’ with the failure of the Symphony from the fully established, celebrated composer). After that initial solo on the clarinet, in which the motto’s relationship to the Dies irae plainsong theme is made that bit clearer, the motto is cast in an ominous fugue. When the texture lightens, a sort of love song emerges (ushered in by a whimsical flute), which Russian music expert David Nice has suggested is a portrait of the two Annas – Lodyzhenskaya and Karenina. There follows Rachmaninoff’s secondmovement scherzo, a half-lit waltz in which restless horns and trumpets interrupt muted strings, and a slow Larghetto steadily controlled by the sort of melancholic, restrained outpouring that the composer would make his own. In Rachmaninoff’s finale, the ominous D minor ‘vengeance’ of the motto is transformed into a festive yet menacing D major, the ‘Anna’ theme crying painfully out and prompting the return of the scherzo’s nervous restlessness. As the Symphony slides ever more into crisis, the tam-tam (the large, burnished circular plate that conjures a crushing crescendo from the percussion section) heralds a final slow Largo. This, according to Nice and others, is Rachmaninoff’s final, total vengeance. It’s overwhelmingly likely that the Symphony’s dismal reception was down to that woeful performance under Glazunov’s baton. But Rachmaninoff wasn’t so convinced, pretty much discarding the score and parts which weren’t discovered again until two years

after the composer’s death. Despite his own concerns about the orchestration – he confessed to thinking some passages ‘weak’ and ‘strained’ – the quality and sincerity of the writing is clear, as is the composer’s symphonic technique and emerging gifts for modernist orchestration. The two symphonies that followed might be the more readily acknowledged masterpieces, but they clearly emerge from principles established in this one. Programme notes © Andrew Mellor

A season-long exploration of the composer’s life and music Wednesday 29 October 2014 Piano Concerto No. 3 | Symphony No. 2

Friday 7 November 2014 Piano Concerto No. 4 (final version)

Friday 28 November 2014 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works Szymanowski: Concert Overture London Philharmonic Orchestra/Leon Botstein [Telarc] Scriabin: Piano Concerto in F sharp minor Konstantin Scherbakov/Russian State Orchestra/ Igor Golovschin [Naxos] Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1 in D minor BBC Symphony Orchestra/Gennady Rozhdestvensky [BBC Legends]

Wednesday 3 December 2014 Symphony No. 1

Wednesday 21 January 2015 The Miserly Knight

Saturday 7 February 2015 Three Russian Songs | Spring

Wednesday 11 February 2015 Piano Concerto No. 2 | The Bells

Friday 13 February 2015 Piano Concerto No. 4 (original version)

Wednesday 25 March 2015 Piano Concerto No. 1 (final version)

Mini film guides to this season’s works For the 2014/15 season we’ve produced a series of short films introducing the pieces we’re performing. Watch Patrick Bailey introduce Rachmaninoff’s orchestral music: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html

Wednesday 29 April 2015 Four Pieces | Ten Songs | Symphony No. 3 Rachmaninoff Inside Out is presented in co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.

lpo.org.uk/rachmaninoff

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Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

Saturday 6 December 2014 | 7.30pm Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920 version) Harrison Birtwistle Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless, for piano and orchestra (UK premiere)* Messiaen Oiseaux exotiques Stravinsky Orpheus Vladimir Jurowski conductor Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano Free pre-concert event 6.00–6.45pm | The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall LPO Soundworks, a collaborative arts project for young people, presents a performance of new music and dance. * Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk Musica Viva, Casa da Música Porto, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and PRS for Music Foundation.

Wednesday 21 January 2015 | 7.30pm Rachmaninoff: Inside Out Wagner Das Rheingold (excerpts) Rachmaninoff The Miserly Knight (semi-staged) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Annabel Arden director Lucy Carter lighting designer Joanna Parker design consultant For full performer details see lpo.org.uk Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Director Annabel Arden discusses her semi-staging of The Miserly Knight. Rachmaninoff: Inside Out is presented in co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.

Tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65) London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Monday–Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.uk | Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone. Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm southbankcentre.co.uk Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone. No transaction fee for bookings made in person

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New on the LPO Label CD: Poulenc & Saint-Saëns organ works Recently released on the LPO Label is a disc of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony, recorded live at Royal Festival Hall (LPO0081). This sell-out concert in March 2014, conducted by Yannick Nézet-Séguin with organist James O’Donnell, launched the refurbished Royal Festival Hall organ, complete for the first time since 2005. The CD booklet includes full organ specification and an article on the history and refurbishment of the organ by its curator, Dr William McVicker. The CD is priced £9.99, including free postage.

LP box set: Vladimir Jurowski conducts the complete Brahms Symphonies Also new on the LPO Label is a very special 4-LP box set: Brahms’s complete four symphonies conducted by Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Jurowski. These recordings – of live LPO concerts at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall between 2008 and 2011 – have previously been released as two separate LPO Label CDs, but are brought together in one package for the first time in this exclusive box set, which will be a must-have for lovers of Brahms, Jurowski fans and vinyl enthusiasts alike. The box set is priced £85.00, including free postage.

Buy these and over 80 other titles from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets.

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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 Foundation Neil Westreich William and Alex de Winton Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBE Julian & Gill Simmonds* Anonymous Garf & Gill Collins* Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller Mrs Philip Kan* Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett John & Manon Antoniazzi Jane Attias John & Angela Kessler Guy & Utti Whittaker * BrightSparks patrons. Instead of supporting a chair in the Orchestra, these donors have chosen to support our series of schools’ concerts.

Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook David Ellen Mr Daniel Goldstein Peter MacDonald Eggers Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Mr & Mrs David Malpas Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Grenville & Krysia Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Benefactors Mrs A Beare David & Patricia Buck Mrs Alan Carrington Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Georgy Djaparidze Mr David Edgecombe Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Mr Richard Fernyhough Tony & Susan Hayes Michael & Christine Henry Malcolm Herring J. Douglas Home Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Per Jonsson

Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Dr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Ms Ulrike Mansel Robert Markwick Mr Brian Marsh Andrew T Mills John Montgomery Dr Karen Morton Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Tom & Phillis Sharpe Martin and Cheryl Southgate Professor John Studd Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Simon Turner Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock Christopher Williams Bill Yoe and others who wish to remain anonymous Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged: Corporate Members Silver: AREVA UK Berenberg British American Business Carter-Ruck Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP Charles Russell Speechlys Leventis Overseas Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Sela / Tilley’s Sweets

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Ambache Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The Peter Carr Charitable Trust, in memory of Peter Carr The Ernest Cook Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation Lucille Graham Trust The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Help Musicians UK The Hinrichsen Foundation The Hobson Charity Kirby Laing Foundation The Leche Trust Marsh Christian Trust

The Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust The Ann and Frederick O’Brien Charitable Trust Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française Polish Cultural Institute in London PRS for Music Foundation Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Schroder Charity Trust Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The John Thaw Foundation The Tillett Trust UK Friends of the Felix-MendelssohnBartholdy-Foundation The Viney Family Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous

Sound Futures Donors We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to Sound Futures, which will establish our first ever endowment. Donations from those below, as well as many who have chosen to remain anonymous, have already been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. By May 2015 we aim to have raised £1 million which, when matched, will create a £2 million fund supporting our Education and Community Programme, our creative programming and major artistic projects at Southbank Centre. We thank those who are helping us to realise the vision.

Masur Circle Arts Council England Dunard Fund Victoria Robey OBE Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Tsukanov Family Foundation The Underwood Trust

Kasia Robinski David Ross and Line Forestier (Canada) Tom and Phillis Sharpe Mr & Mrs G Stein TFS Loans Limited The Tsukanov Family Foundation Guy & Utti Whittaker

Welser-Möst Circle John Ireland Charitable Trust Neil Westreich

Pritchard Donors Anonymous Linda Blackstone Michael Blackstone Yan Bonduelle Richard and Jo Brass Britten-Pears Foundation Business Events Sydney Desmond & Ruth Cecil Lady June Chichester John Childress & Christiane Wuillamie Lindka Cierach Paul Collins Mr Alistair Corbett Dolly Costopoulos Mark Damazer Olivier Demarthe David Dennis Bill & Lisa Dodd Mr David Edgecombe David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Christopher Fraser OBE Karima & David G Lyuba Galkina David Goldberg Mr Daniel Goldstein Ffion Hague Rebecca Halford Harrison Michael & Christine Henry Honeymead Arts Trust John Hunter

Tennstedt Circle Simon Robey Simon & Vero Turner The late Mr K Twyman Solti Patrons Ageas Anonymous John & Manon Antoniazzi Georgy Djaparidze Mrs Mina Goodman and Miss Suzanne Goodman Robert Markwick The Rothschild Foundation Haitink Patrons Mark & Elizabeth Adams Lady Jane Berrill David & Yi Yao Buckley Bruno de Kegel Goldman Sachs International Moya Greene Tony and Susie Hayes Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons Diana and Allan Morgenthau Charitable Trust Dr Karen Morton Ruth Rattenbury Sir Bernard Rix

Ivan Hurry Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Tanya Kornilova Peter Leaver Mr Mark Leishman LVO and Mrs Fiona Leishman Howard & Marilyn Levene Mr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Dr Frank Lim Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Peter Mace Geoff & Meg Mann Ulrike Mansel Marsh Christian Trust John Montgomery Rosemary Morgan Paris Natar John Owen The late Edmund Pirouet Mr Michael Posen Sarah & John Priestland Victoria Provis William Shawcross Tim Slorick Howard Snell Lady Valerie Solti Stanley Stecker Lady Marina Vaizey Helen Walker Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock Brian Whittle Christopher Williams Peter Wilson Smith Victoria Yanakova Mr Anthony Yolland

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Administration

Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Dr Manon Antoniazzi Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann* George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Julian Simmonds Mark Templeton* Natasha Tsukanova Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Neil Westreich * Player-Director Advisory Council Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jamie Korner Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Sir Bernard Rix Baroness Shackleton Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Thomas Sharpe QC Martin Southgate Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Elizabeth Winter American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. Jenny Ireland Co-Chairman William A. Kerr Co-Chairman Kyung-Wha Chung Alexandra Jupin Dr. Felisa B. Kaplan Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee Dr. Joseph Mulvehill Harvey M. Spear, Esq. Danny Lopez Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP

Chief Executive

Education and Community

Digital Projects

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Isabella Kernot Education Director

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Director

Alexandra Clarke Education and Community Project Manager

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Amy Sugarman PA to the Chief Executive / Administrative Assistant Finance David Burke General Manager and Finance Director

Lucy Duffy Education and Community Project Manager

Public Relations Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer