10 Feb10 LPO Programme Notes

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Principal Conductor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Leader PIETER SCHOEMAN Composer in Residence MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER

AM†

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Wednesday 10 February 2010 | 7.30 pm

PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 List of Players 3 Orchestra History 4 Southbank Centre 5 Yannick Nézet-Séguin 6 Melvyn Tan 7 Ronald Brautigam 8 Programme Notes 12 Recordings 13 Supporters 14 Philharmonic News 15 Administration 16 Future Concerts

YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN conductor MELVYN TAN piano RONALD BRAUTIGAM piano

RAVEL Daphnis et Chloé: Symphonic Fragments, Second Series (16’) RAVEL Valses nobles et sentimentales

POULENC Concerto in D minor for two pianos and orchestra INTERVAL DEBUSSY Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

(10’)

DEBUSSY La Mer: Three Symphonic Sketches †

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

(18’)

(23’)

supported by Macquarie Group

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

(19’)

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

FIRST VIOLINS Abigail Young Guest Leader Katalin Varnagy Benjamin Roskams Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Martin Hรถhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz

Robert Pool Florence Schoeman Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Alain Petitclerc Peter Nall Galina Tanney Joanne Chen Kay Chappell Caroline Frenkel SECOND VIOLINS Jeongmin Kim Principal Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David and Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Andrew Thurgood Sioni Williams Alison Strange Stephen Stewart Mila Mustakova Sheila Law VIOLAS Janis Lielbardis Guest Principal Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Daniel Cornford Alistair Scahill

Isabel Pereira Sarah Malcolm Karin Norlen Rachel Benjamin Fay Sweet James Hogg

COR ANGLAIS Jane Marshall

BASS TROMBONE Lyndon Meredith Principal

CLARINETS Robert Hill* Principal Emily Sutcliffe

TUBA Lee Tsarmaklis Principal

CELLOS Susanne Beer Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Sabino Carvalho + Gregory Walmsley Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff Philip Taylor Tae-Mi Song

E FLAT CLARINET Nicholas Carpenter Principal

DOUBLE BASSES Kevin Rundell* Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Anita Mazzantini David Johnson Helen Rowlands Catherine Ricketts Tom Walley

BASS CLARINET Paul Richards Principal BASSOONS John Price Principal Gareth Newman* Emma Harding CONTRA BASSOON Simon Estell Principal HORNS John Ryan Principal Alec Frank Gemmill Guest Principal Martin Hobbs Stephen Nicholls Gareth Mollison

FLUTES Karen Jones Guest Principal Eilidh Gillespie Stewart McIlwham*

TRUMPETS Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney*

PICCOLO Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Daniel Newell

ALTO FLUTE Roland Sutherland OBOES Daniel Bates Guest Principal Owen Dennis

TIMPANI Simon Carrington* Principal PERCUSSION Rachel Gledhill Principal Andrew Barclay* Co-Principal Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Sacha Johnson Ignacio Molins Oliver Yates Scott Lumsdaine Gillian McDonagh HARPS Rachel Masters* Principal Helen Sharp KEYBOARDS Bernard Robertson

Chair supported by Geoff and Meg Mann Chair supported by Mrs Steven Ward

CORNETS Nicholas Betts Principal David Hilton TROMBONES David Whitehouse Principal Richard Watkin

* Holds a professorial appointment in London +

Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: John and Angela Kessler Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp Richard and Victoria Sharp Julian and Gill Simmonds Simon Yates and Kevin Roon

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

© Richard Cannon

Seventy-seven years after Sir Thomas Beecham founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra, it is recognised today as one of the finest orchestras on the international stage. Following Beecham’s influential founding tenure the Orchestra’s Principal Conductorship has been passed from one illustrious musician to another, amongst them Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. This impressive tradition continued in September 2007 when Vladimir Jurowski became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, and in a further exciting move, the Orchestra appointed Yannick Nézet-Séguin, its new Principal Guest Conductor from September 2008.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall since it opened in 1951, becoming Resident Orchestra in 1992. It plays there around 40 times each season with many of the world’s most sought after conductors and soloists.

Concert highlights in 2009/10 include Between Two Worlds – an exploration of the music and times of Alfred Schnittke; a Sibelius symphony cycle with Osmo Vänskä in January/February 2010; a performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah conducted by Kurt Masur and dedicated to the 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin Wall; and new works by Rautavaara, Philip Glass, Ravi Shankar and the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Mark-Anthony

Turnage. Imaginative programming and a commitment to new music are at the heart of the Orchestra’s activity, with regular commissions and world première performances.

In addition to its London season, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. It is unique in combining these concert activities with esteemed opera performances each summer at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been the Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs to enthusiastic audiences all round the world. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 it made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring continues to form a significant part of the Orchestra's schedule and is supported by Aviva, the International Touring Partner of

‘… the standard of execution by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chamber Choir of the Moscow Conservatory, magnificently corralled by Jurowski, was exemplary.’

ANDREW CLARK, FINANCIAL TIMES, 19 NOVEMBER 2009

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE

the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Tours in 2009/10 include visits to Germany, Australia, France, China, the Canaries and the USA. Having long been embraced by the recording, broadcasting and film industries, the London Philharmonic Orchestra broadcasts regularly on domestic and international television and radio. It also works extensively with the Hollywood and UK film industries, recording soundtracks for blockbuster motion pictures including the Oscar-winning score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and scores for Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East.

The Orchestra also enjoys strong relationships with the major record labels and in 2005 began reaching out to new global audiences through the release of live, studio and archive recordings on its own CD label. Recent additions to the catalogue have included acclaimed releases of early Britten works conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Mahler’s Symphony 6 under the baton of Klaus Tennstedt; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1 and 6 conducted

by Vladimir Jurowski; Sir Thomas Beecham recordings of Mozart, Delius and Rimsky-Korsakov from the 1930s; a CD of John Ireland’s works taken from his 70th Birthday Concert in 1949; and Dvo˘rák’s Requiem conducted by Neeme Järvi. The Orchestra’s own-label releases are available to download by work or individual track from its website: www.lpo.org.uk/shop.

The Orchestra reaches thousands of Londoners through its rich programme of community and school-based activity in Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, which includes the offshoot ensembles Renga and The Band, its Foyle Future Firsts apprenticeship scheme for outstanding young instrumentalists, and regular family and schools concerts.

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.

There are many ways to experience and stay in touch with the Orchestra’s activities: visit www.lpo.org.uk, subscribe to our podcast series and join us on Facebook.

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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: MDC music and movies, Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffé Vergnano 1882, Skylon and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery.

If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact our Head of Customer Relations at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, by phone on 020 7960 4250 or by email at 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

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YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN

Marco Borggreve

CONDUCTOR

At the start of the 2008/09 season, Yannick NézetSéguin succeeded Valery Gergiev as Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and became Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. He remains Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, a position he took up in March 2000.

A native of Montreal, he studied at the Conservatoire de Musique du Québec in Montreal and has worked with all the major Canadian orchestras. Principal Guest Conductor of the Victoria Symphony between 2003 and 2006, he now regularly conducts the Toronto Symphony and, at the end of the 2009/10 season, will conduct his first Mahler Symphony (No. 8) in Montreal and Ottawa, using the combined forces of the Orchestre Métropolitain and National Arts Center Orchestra.

His most recent opera productions in Canada were Gounod’s Faust for Canadian Opera in 2007, and Madama Butterfly in Montreal in 2008. In August 2008 he made an outstandingly successful Salzburg Festival debut conducting a new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with a cast led by Rolando Villazon and Nino Machaidze. He recently made an acclaimed debut for the Netherlands Opera conducting The Makropoulos Case and made his Metropolitan Opera debut in December 2009 with a new production of Carmen.

Productions are also planned for La Scala and the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden.

He records for the dynamic Canadian company ATMA Classique, and his recordings with the Orchestre Métropolitain have received prizes and critical acclaim.

His most recent recordings, La Mer (a collection of works by Debussy, Britten and Mercure) and Bruckner’s Symphony 9 have been widely praised and Bruckner’s Symphony 8 was released last autumn. He has made three recordings with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra of works by Beethoven, Richard Strauss, Korngold and Ravel.

He made a series of successful European debuts in 2004/05 and is now a regular guest conductor of many leading orchestras, such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre National de France, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. During 2008, he made acclaimed debuts with the Philadelphia, Vienna Symphony, National Symphony (Washington), Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestras. Forthcoming debuts will take him to the Cleveland Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester (Zurich), Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Gewandhaus Orchestra in Leipzig.

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MELVYN TAN PIANO

Academy of St Martin in the Fields and Salzburg’s Camerata and Mozarteum Orchestras. He has also toured Australia regularly with the Australian Chamber Orchestra.

Melvyn Tan has lived in London since leaving his native Singapore at an early age to study at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music. His teachers have included Nadia Boulanger, Marcel Ciampi and Vlado Perlemuter.

He built a formidable international reputation during a long exploration of the precursors of the modern piano.

This culminated in a series of groundbreaking performances and recordings on the fortepiano including the complete Beethoven Concertos and Sonatas and Schubert Impromptus.

Melvyn has given complete cycles of the Beethoven Concertos and Sonatas, Mozart Sonatas, Debussy Préludes and Chopin Préludes in New York, Tokyo and London. He has performed at many leading concert halls around the world, including London’s Wigmore Hall and Royal Festival Hall, New York’s Lincoln Center, Théâtre du Châtelet and Cité de la Musique in Paris, Vienna’s Musikverein and Konzerthaus, Salzburg’s Mozarteum, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw and Cologne’s Philharmonie. Festival appearances have taken him to Salzburg, Edinburgh, La Roque d’Anthéron, City of London, Spitalfields and Bath’s Mozartfest. The orchestras he has worked with include the London Philharmonic, Netherlands Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Stuttgart Radio, New World Symphony and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras as well as the

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Chamber music and Lieder hold an important place in Melvyn’s repertoire. His partners include cellist Steven Isserlis, with whom he has recorded the complete Mendelssohn works for cello, cellist Patrick Demenga, clarinettist Dimitri Ashkenazy, tenor Keith Lewis, the Skampa String Quartet and the Dutch pianist Ronald Brautigam. He is the founder of the New Mozart Ensemble, a flexible chamber ensemble/orchestra which he has directed at many major festivals and music centres worldwide.

In addition to the Beethoven Sonatas and Concertos and Schubert Impromptus, Melvyn Tan’s recordings for EMI Classics include discs of Mozart Concertos and Weber’s Konzertstück with the London Classical Players and Sir Roger Norrington. Further recordings of Mozart Concertos are on Harmonia Mundi with Philharmonia Baroque and Nicholas McGegan, and Virgin Classics, this time with Tan’s own group, the New Mozart Ensemble.

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RONALD BRAUTIGAM PIANO

Ronald Brautigam, one of Holland’s leading musicians, is remarkable not only for his virtuosity and musicality but also for the eclectic nature of his musical interests.

He studied in Amsterdam, London and the United States of America with Rudolf Serkin. In 1984 he was awarded the Nederlandse Muziekprijs, the highest Dutch musical award.

Ronald Brautigam performs regularly with leading European orchestras under distinguished conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Charles Dutoit, Bernard Haitink, Frans Brüggen, Philippe Herreweghe, Christopher Hogwood, Andrew Parrott, Bruno Weil, Ivan Fischer and Edo de Waart. Besides his performances on modern instruments he has developed a great passion for the fortepiano, playing with leading orchestras such as the 18th-Century Orchestra, Tafelmusik, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, the Hanover Band, Freiburger Barockorchester, Concerto Copenhagen and l’Orchestre des Champs-Elysées.

saw the release of the first of a 17-CD Beethoven cycle, also on the fortepiano. Five volumes in the series have now been produced and it has become firmly established as the reference recording as far as fortepiano cycles are concerned. Many reviewers have made even greater claims for it, as in the US magazine Fanfare: ‘This could be a Beethoven piano-sonata cycle that challenges the very notion of playing this music on modern instruments, a stylistic paradigm shift.’ And the Süddeutsche Zeitung wrote: ‘One feels almost as if one were a contemporary of Beethoven’s, one of the first, immensely astonished – not to say agitated – individuals to hear this music.’

Besides his work for BIS, Ronald Brautigam has also recorded piano concertos by Shostakovich, Hindemith and Frank Martin with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and Riccardo Chailly, for Decca. His recordings have earned him two Edison Awards, two Diapasons d’Or and one Diapason d’Or de l’année, eight Choc du Mois (le Monde de la Musique) and, in 2004, a ‘Cannes Classical Award’ for that year’s best piano solo recording. This year he received a prestigious MIDEM Classical Award for his recording of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos Nos 2 and WoO4.

He is also a devoted player of chamber music, regularly working with Isabelle van Keulen, Melvyn Tan and Alexei Lubimov.

In 1995 Ronald Brautigam began what has proved to be a highly successful association with the Swedish label BIS. Among more than 30 titles released so far are Mendelssohn’s Piano Concertos (with Nieuw Sinfonietta Amsterdam), and the complete piano works of Mozart and Haydn on the fortepiano. The year 2004

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PROGRAMME NOTES

SPEEDREAD ‘Mystérieux et clair tout à la fois’: ‘mysterious and clear at the same time’. That is the marking on the longest of the gamelan-inspired static episodes which punctuate the varied and entertaining flow of Poulenc’s Concerto for two pianos of 1932. But the description could also be applied to much French music of the previous generation, with its apparently instinctive treatment of harmony and thematic development and its lucidity of

Maurice RAVEL

instrumental colour and texture. To the evocation of daybreak which is the beginning of the end in Ravel’s sumptuous 1912 ballet Daphnis and Chloe, for example, and to the nostalgic coda of his Valses nobles et sentimentales, written in 1911 for piano and orchestrated the following year. Or to the whole of Debussy’s epochmaking Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune of 1894 – which like Daphnis is an evocation of classical antiquity – and his great suite of three symphonic seascapes from a decade later, La Mer.

DAPHNIS ET CHLOÉ: SYMPHONIC FRAGMENTS, SECOND SERIES Lever du jour – | Pantomime – | Danse générale

1875-1937

Ravel’s ballet Daphnis and Chloe, which he described as ‘a vast musical fresco’, was composed between 1909 and 1912, and first produced by Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes in Paris in June 1912. The original choreography, by Mikhail Fokine, has not stood the test of time. But the richness of the score, for a very large orchestra with optional chorus, has ensured its independent existence in the concert hall, both at full length and, more frequently, in the shape of the second suite of so-called ‘symphonic fragments’ – in fact, the whole of the third and last scene.

The scenario, based loosely on the pastoral romance by the classical Greek writer Longus, is the story of the goatherd Daphnis and his beloved Chloe, who is carried off by pirates but rescued through the intervention of

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the god Pan. The final scene begins with Daphnis, not yet aware of the rescue, waking at daybreak: as the sun rises, dew runs off the rocks, birds begin to sing, and shepherds pass by, piping melodiously. At the climax of this section, Daphnis is joyously reunited with Chloe. In homage to her rescuer, the couple act out the story of Pan’s pursuit of the nymph Syrinx, who took refuge in a reed-bed and was transformed into a reed-pipe on which Pan played: his piping is represented by a long flute solo. Daphnis and Chloe embrace once more, and he solemnly declares his loyalty to her. They are joined by their companions in a final dance of celebration, largely in a pounding quintuple time, until the final stretches of 3/4 and 2/4 provide an ending of irresistible exuberance.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Maurice RAVEL

VALSES NOBLES ET SENTIMENTALES Modéré – | Assez lent – | Modéré – | Assez animé – | Presque lent – | Assez vif | Moins vif – | Epilogue: Lent

1875-1937

Ravel wrote this set of waltzes as a solo piano piece in 1911, in the intervals of work on Daphnis and Chloe.

When it was first performed in Paris in May 1911, it was in a recital in which new pieces were presented anonymously, and even some of Ravel’s friends failed to guess he was the author. This was presumably because of the work’s dance genre and its adventurous, sometimes harsh harmonies – though Ravel insisted that there were no chords that could not be found in the most conservative of textbooks. The following year, Ravel made a characteristically subtle and effective orchestration of the score. This was initially intended for a ballet which he had devised, called Adélaïde, or the language of flowers; but it has survived in the repertoire as a concert piece, under the work’s original title.

That title is borrowed from two sets of piano waltzes by Schubert, respectively ‘noble’ and ‘sentimental’. The work is in essence a chain of dances like Schubert’s, or like Johann Strauss’s waltz sequences. There is, though, considerable variety in the treatment of waltz time. The

Francis POULENC

first waltz is full of rhythmic drive, but the second is slow, with a gentle modal flute melody, the third is more of a minuet, with a hint of Chinoiserie, and the fifth is again slow. The fourth waltz has consistent cross-rhythms across the bar-line, and the sixth plays with the alternation of this syncopated rhythm and ‘straight’ waltz time. After a spare introduction, the seventh waltz also makes use of syncopations in building up towards a powerful climax, and following a delicately astringent middle section repeats the whole process. The work is crowned by an Epilogue, which incorporates ideas from most of the previous waltzes in hazy, drifting textures.

The effect of this ending is deeply nostalgic. And indeed, like Ravel’s later, very different, ‘choreographic poem’ La Valse, these Valses nobles et sentimentales seem to be looking back to the leisured golden age of the waltz.

Significantly, the score is headed by a quotation from the poet Henri de Régnier: ‘The delightful and ever-new pleasure of a useless occupation’.

CONCERTO IN D MINOR FOR TWO PIANOS AND ORCHESTRA MELVYN TAN piano RONALD BRAUTIGAM piano

1899-1963

Allegro ma non troppo | Larghetto | Finale: Allegro molto

Poulenc composed his Concerto for two pianos in 1931 and ’32, in response to a commission from the Princesse Edmond de Polignac, the American heiress Winnaretta Singer. It was designed to be playable with the

accompaniment of a third piano in the Princess’s Parisian salon, and with an orchestra of modest proportions in the concert hall. Its première in the latter form took place at the annual festival of the

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PROGRAMME NOTES

International Society for Contemporary Music in Venice in September 1932, with the composer and his lifelong friend Jacques Février taking the solo parts.

Poulenc later summed up the Concerto neatly as ‘blithely bravura’. The bravura element is evident in the brilliant writing for the two soloists, separately and together, with melodies frequently emerging from the interplay of the hands. The blithe quality has to do with the work’s apparently artless flow of melodic ideas, owing little to classical precedent but a great deal to the composer’s instinctive feeling for continuity and contrast. The first movement has a rough A–B–A outline, with a brisk first section presenting a profusion of contrasting ideas, a more lyrical interlude at half the speed (with themes which Poulenc also used in his Sextet for piano and wind, begun around the same time as the Concerto), and a return to the initial tempo which brings as many new tunes as restatements of previous ones. The central slow movement begins with a poised melody paying homage to the composer’s idol Mozart, though its tender continuation is pure Poulenc;

there is a faster middle section of swooning, soaring lyricism, and this time a more literal reprise of the opening. The finale sets out with an ebullient idea which seems set to be a rondo theme; but, although its brittle triplet patterns re-emerge from time to time, it never returns in full, yielding to a succession of other melodies as the mood becomes darker and then calmer.

The Concerto’s wide range of references, from Mozart to music-hall, is expanded by passages of regular patterns restricted to a few notes in the high register of the pianos, suggested by a Balinese gamelan that Poulenc had heard at the 1931 Colonial Exhibition in Paris. The most extended of these passages occurs as a coda to the first movement; but there are also fleeting references in the introduction to that movement, at the end of the slow movement, and just before the end of the whole work. Brief though they are, the gamelan episodes not only act as a unifying element, but also provide moments of static calm amidst the Concerto’s hectic progress, giving it an extra dimension and a surprising depth.

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

Claude DEBUSSY

PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE

1862-1918

Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune is a key work in the development of Western music, in which the purposeful harmonic movement of the German tradition from Bach to Wagner is replaced by an apparently instinctive drifting from chord to chord in support of the all-important melodic line. The piece was

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suggested by the eclogue L’après-midi d’un faune by the French poet Stéphane Mallarmé, first published in 1876 – a languorous and sensual evocation of the dreams and meditations of a faun (a mythical creature, half man and half beast) in drowsy afternoon heat. Debussy planned in 1892 to write a set of three orchestral pieces

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PROGRAMME NOTES

based on the poem, a prelude, interlude and final paraphrase. But work on his opera Pelléas et Mélisande intervened, and he completed only the Prelude, which was first performed in 1894. Mallarmé himself described Debussy’s piece as an ‘illustration ... which

Claude DEBUSSY

presents no dissonance with my text. Instead’, he went on with a glowing procession of nouns which acts as a remarkable encapsulation of Debussy’s art, ‘it goes much further into the nostalgia and light with subtlety, malaise and richness.’

LA MER: THREE SYMPHONIC SKETCHES De l’aube à midi sur la mer (From dawn to midday on the sea) | Jeux de vagues (Play of waves) | Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue of the wind and the sea)

1862-1918

Debussy began La Mer (‘The Sea’) in the summer of 1903, writing a substantial part of it while visiting his wife’s parents far inland in Burgundy. He continued to work on it over the next couple of years, after his elopement with Emma Bardac – sometimes in Paris, but also during holidays with Emma on the Normandy coast and in the Channel Islands. It was completed in March 1905, and received its first, unsuccessful, performance in Paris that October. The score was published that year, and reissued with some corrections and revisions in 1909 – by which time the work was on its way to acceptance as a masterpiece of the orchestral repertoire.

Debussy had a great love of the sea, and of paintings of the sea: he admired Turner’s seascapes, and had Hokusai’s print The hollow of the wave off Kanagawa reproduced on the cover of the first edition of La Mer. The music has a strong pictorial element, with the play of wind and light on the surface of the sea represented in brilliantly detailed writing for a large orchestra, including three of most of the woodwind, two cornets as well as two trumpets, and a pair of harps. However, the word ‘symphonic’ in the subtitle is also important, suggesting the work’s reliance on organic development of a number of short thematic motifs, and its adherence to the French tradition of the cyclic symphony in the way some of the most important of these motifs are heard in both the first movement and the finale.

The ‘dawn’ introduction to the first movement presents two of these cyclic motifs, the first an incisive short–long figure, the second a double rising-and-falling curve. The main section introduces two distinct groups of ideas, the first surely suggested by the sparkle of sunlight on waves, the second – launched by the cellos in four-part harmony – by the perpetual heaving of the sea. But there is little recapitulation after this as the movement moves through the morning to a ‘very slow’ coda with a solemn horn chorale – another cyclic motif – evoking the brightness of the midday sun. The central movement, ‘Play of waves’, is even freer in form, with little more than a vestigial scherzo-and-trio outline overlaid by continuous thematic development and evolution. The finale, ‘Dialogue of the wind and the sea’, is built around four presentations of a sustained melody, opening out from its initial interval of a semitone, which appears in different contexts suggesting different weather conditions. But these rondo-like statements are inset into more continuous discussion of shorter motifs, including the cyclic ideas from the first movement, and culminating in a final blaze of oceanic glory.

Programme notes by Anthony Burton © 2010

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Until July 2010 Project Artistic Director Marin Alsop

Photo: Leonard Bernstein © G MacDomnic / Lebrecht Arts & Music

The Bernstein Project

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Highlights include LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 21 APR Conducted by Marin Alsop, featuring Bernstein’s Symphony No.2 and Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5 in D Minor.

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YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN

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Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s first CD on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s own label will be released in April. The CD is a live performance of Brahms’s German Requiem with soloists Elizabeth Watts and Stéphane Degout, and the London Philharmonic Choir, taken from a concert given on 4 April 2009 at the Royal Festival Hall.

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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 Mr & Mrs Richard & Victoria Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds Mrs Steven Ward Simon Yates & Kevin Roon Garf & Gill Collins David & Victoria Graham Fuller Richard Karl Goeltz John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett Guy & Utti Whittaker Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler Mr Charles Dumas David Ellen

Commander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel Goldstein Mrs Barbara Green Mr Ray Harsant Oliver Heaton Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas Andrew T Mills Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard Mr John Soderquist & Mr Costas Michaelides Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland 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

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 Ms Sarah Needham Mr & Mrs Egil Oldeide Edmund Pirouet Mr Michael Posen Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Lady Marina Vaizey Mr D Whitelock Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged.

Corporate Members Appleyard & Trew llp British American Business Charles Russell Destination Québec – UK Diagonal Consulting Lazard Leventis Overseas Man Group plc Québec Government Office in London Corporate Donors Lombard Street Research Redpoint Energy Limited In-kind Sponsors Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sela Sweets Ltd Villa Maria Education Partners Lambeth City Learning Centre London Borough of Lambeth Southwark EiC

Trusts and Foundations Adam Mickiewicz Institute Allianz Cultural Foundation The Andor Charitable Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation Borletti-Buitoni Trust The Candide Charitable Trust The John S Cohen Foundation The Coutts Charitable Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Ernest Cook Trust The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Henry Smith Charity The Idlewild Trust John Lyon’s Charity John Thaw Foundation The Jonathan & Jeniffer Harris Trust The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust

Lord Ashdown Charitable Settlement Marsh Christian Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust The Michael Marks Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund Paul Morgan Charitable Trust The R K Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Stansfield Trust UK Friends of the FelixMendelssohn-BartholdyFoundation The Underwood Trust and others who wish to remain anonymous.

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PHILHARMONIC NEWS

The Foyle Future Firsts presents…

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Foyle Future Firsts programme is a dedicated apprenticeship scheme for 16 talented young instrumentalists embarking on professional orchestral careers. This year we have the pleasure of being able to present two lunchtime concerts when the Foyle Future Firsts will perform programmes of music specifically chosen by themselves.

Friday 12 February | 1pm | RFH Level 2 Bar Spirit of Mendelssohn Members of the Foyle Future Firsts present chamber music inspired by Mendelssohn, his life, family and legacy. The programme includes Mendelssohn's Piano Trio 2 in C minor and pieces by JS Bach, Louis Spohr and Paul Hindemith.

Friday 12 March | 1pm | RFH Level 2 Bar Entente Musicale Join members of the Foyle Future Firsts for a chamber music journey through 20th century France with a transatlantic twist. The programme features two of the most important French composers: Debussy, starting with his Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune, before skipping forward 50 years or so to Poulenc and his Trois mouvements perpétuels for nine instruments. We also take a distinctly American turn by hopping across the pond for Edgard Varèse’s Octandre which was composed in the USA, where he spent most of his composing life. Finally, we round off the concert back in Europe with an authentic American in Paris!

The principal funder of the Foyle Future Firsts programme is The Foyle Foundation.

Further Education Projects The Orchestra’s education department is engaged in a whole range of projects this week. As part of its commitment to schools in the local community, animateur Hannah Conway and Orchestra members will be helping Year 6 pupils from Lambeth discover Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra. Using the work as inspiration, they are devising their own composition

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Patrick Harrison

This Friday lunchtime concert is presented with support from the UK Friends of the Felix-MendelssohnBartholdy-Foundation.

Musicians in the Foyle Future Firsts scheme are offered the opportunity to take part in London Philharmonic Orchestra rehearsals. Here Foyle Future First bassoonist, Joanna Stark, plays alongside members of the Orchestra at a rehearsal in October

which will be performed at a pre-concert event at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday 17 March at 6pm.

Workshops will also be held at Tuke School where musicians from the Orchestra will be helping special needs pupils find ways to express themselves through music. This is part of a year long project with the children leading up to a sharing session when fellow pupils and parents will be invited to the school to hear their progress.

At the other end of the spectrum, Fiona Higham and Anthony Byrne from the Orchestra’s string section will be visiting two homes for the elderly in Brighton to play and talk to the residents.

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ADMINISTRATION

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

Martin Höhmann Chairman Stewart McIlwham Vice-Chairman Sue Bohling Simon Carrington Lord Currie* Jonathan Dawson* Anne McAneney George Peniston Sir Bernard Rix* Kevin Rundell Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley* The Rt Hon. Lord Wakeham DL* Timothy Walker AM †

Timothy Walker AM † Chief Executive and Artistic Director

*Non-Executive Directors

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager Julius Hendriksen Assistant to the Chief Executive and Artistic Director FINANCE David Burke General Manager and Finance Director David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager

THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC TRUST

Joshua Foong Finance Officer

Pehr Gyllenhammar Chairman Desmond Cecil CMG Sir George Christie CH Richard Karl Goeltz Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann Angela Kessler Clive Marks OBE FCA Victoria Sharp Julian Simmonds Timothy Walker AM † Laurence Watt Simon Yates

CONCERT MANAGEMENT

AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, INC. We are very grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for its support of the Orchestra’s activities in the USA. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Charles Russell Solicitors Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor

Roanna Chandler Concerts Director Ruth Sansom Artistic Administrator Graham Wood Concerts, Recordings and Glyndebourne Manager Alison Jones Concerts Co-ordinator Hattie Garrard Tours and Engagements Manager Camilla Begg Concerts and Tours Assistant Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager Sarah Thomas Librarian Michael Pattison Stage Manager Hannah Tucker Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager Ken Graham Trucking Instrument Transportation (Tel: 01737 373305)

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMME

ARCHIVES Edmund Pirouet Consultant

Matthew Todd Education and Community Director

Philip Stuart Discographer

Anne Newman Education Officer

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

Isobel Timms Community Officer

INTERN

Alec Haylor Education and Community Assistant

Jo Langston Marketing

Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 Fax: 020 7840 4201 Box Office: 020 7840 4242

DEVELOPMENT Emma O’Connell Development Director Nick Jackman Charitable Giving Manager Phoebe Rouse Corporate Relations Manager Sarah Tattersall Corporate Relations and Events Manager Anna Gover Charitable Giving Officer Melissa Van Emden Corporate Relations and Events Officer MARKETING Kath Trout Marketing Director

www.lpo.org.uk Visit the website for full details of London Philharmonic Orchestra activities.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045.

Photographs of Ravel, Poulenc and Debussy courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.

Photograph on the front cover

by Benjamin Ealovega.

Programmes printed by Cantate.

Janine Howlett Marketing Manager Brighton, Eastbourne, Community & Education Frances Cook Publications Manager Samantha Kendall Box Office Administrator (Tel: 020 7840 4242) Heather Barstow Marketing Co-ordinator Valerie Barber Press Consultant (Tel: 020 7586 8560) †Supported by Macquarie Group

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FUTURE CONCERTS AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL

Saturday 13 February 2010 | 7.30pm

Wednesday 24 February 2010 | 7.30pm

Ravel Pavane pour une Infante défunte Ravel Le Tombeau de Couperin Debussy Nocturnes Fauré Pavane Poulenc Stabat Mater

Shostakovich The Gamblers Shostakovich Suite from ‘The Nose’ Shostakovich Symphony 1

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Lisa Milne soprano London Philharmonic Choir

Lisa Milne and Alexander Toradze

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Mikhail Urusov Ikharev, a gambler Vladimir Ognev Gavryushka, his servant Sergei Leiferkus Uteshitelny, a gambler Sergei Aleksashkin Shvokhnev, a gambler Viacheslav Voynarovskiy Krugel, a gambler Mikhail Petrenko Alexey, his servant FREE Pre-Concert Event 6.15pm | Royal Festival Hall Musicologist Stephen Johnson takes a closer look at Shostakovich’s The Gamblers and The Nose.

Wednesday 17 February 2010 | 7.30pm Tchaikovsky Fantasy Overture, Romeo and Juliet Prokofiev Piano Concerto 1 Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet (excerpts) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Alexander Toradze piano

Vladimir Jurowski and Mikhail Urusov

JTI Friday Series | Friday 12 March 2010 | 7.30pm Ravel Mother Goose Suite Schumann Piano Concerto Brahms Symphony 2 Sofia Fomina and Michael König

Gunther Herbig conductor Hélène Grimaud piano

Saturday 20 February 2010 | 7.30pm Janá˘cek Taras Bulba Janá˘cek Eternal Gospel Suk Symphony 2 (Asrael)

TO BOOK

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Sofia Fomina soprano Michael König tenor London Philharmonic Choir

London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 | www.lpo.org.uk Mon-Fri 10am-5pm; no booking fee

Barlines | FREE Post-Concert Event Clore Ballroom Floor, Royal Festival Hall Foyer An informal discussion with Vladimir Jurowski following the evening’s performance.

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Tickets £9-£38 / Premium seats £55

Southbank Centre Ticket Office | 0844 847 9920 www.southbankcentre.co.uk/lpo Daily, 9am-8pm. £2.50 telephone / £1.45 online booking fees; no fee for Southbank Centre members