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11 Feb 2011 LPO Programme note

Page 1

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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†

JTI FRIDAY SERIES

PROGRAMME £3

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Friday 11 February 2011 | 7.30pm LOUIS LANGRÉE conductor DAVID FRAY piano WEBER Overture, Der Freischütz

(33’)

INTERVAL

(8’)

SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4 in D minor

†

2 3 4 5 6 7 11 13 14 15 16

List of Players Orchestra History Leader Louis Langrée David Fray Programme Notes Recordings Supporters Southbank Centre Administration Future Concerts

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

(10’)

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 22 in E flat, K482

BEETHOVEN Overture, Coriolan

CONTENTS

(29’)

supported by Macquarie Group

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA


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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

FIRST VIOLINS Pieter Schoeman* Leader Katalin Varnagy Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Tina Gruenberg Martin Hรถhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz

Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Florence Schoeman Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Alain Petitclerc Peter Nall

VIOLAS Gillianne Haddow Guest Principal Robert Duncan Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter-Bootiman Laura Vallejo Daniel Cornford Isabel Pereira Sarah Malcolm

SECOND VIOLINS Clare Duckworth Principal

CELLOS Kristina Blaumane Principal Susanne Beer Co-Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Sabino Carvalho + Jonathan Ayling

Chair supported by Richard and Victoria Sharp

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp

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 Imogen Williamson Sioni Williams Alison Strange

Gregory Walmsley Sue Sutherley DOUBLE BASSES Tim Gibbs Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Kenneth Knussen Tom Walley Louis Garson

OBOES Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick

* Holds a professorial appointment in London +

CLARINETS Robert Hill* Principal Paul Richards

Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

BASSOONS John Price Principal Gareth Newman* HORNS John Ryan Principal Martin Hobbs Jenny Cox Gareth Mollison TRUMPETS Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff and Meg Mann

TROMBONES Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse BASS TROMBONE Lyndon Meredith Principal TIMPANI Simon Carrington* Principal

FLUTES Stewart McIlwham* Principal Joanna Marsh

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Andrew Davenport John and Angela Kessler Julian and Gill Simmonds The Tsukanov Family

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra


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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Patrick Harrison

Seventy-eight 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 2010/11 include an exploration of Mahler’s symphonies and complete song cycles during the composer’s anniversary season; the premières of works by Matteo D’Amico, Magnus Lindberg and Brett Dean; a rare opportunity to hear Rossini’s opera Aureliano in Palmira in collaboration with long term partner Opera Rara; and works by the Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson. In addition to its London season and a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall, 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 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 London Philharmonic Orchestra. Tours in 2010/11 include visits to Finland, Germany, South Korea, Spain, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. 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 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 London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance. It has recorded and broadcast

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3


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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

PIETER SCHOEMAN

regularly ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label. The recordings on its own label are taken mainly from live concerts given with distinguished conductors over the years including the Orchestra’s Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti and Tennstedt, to Masur and Jurowski. Recent additions to the catalogue have included acclaimed releases of Christmas choral music conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Jesús López-Cobos, Holst’s The Planets conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 and Sea Pictures with Vernon Handley and Janet Baker. The Orchestra’s own-label CDs are also widely available to download. Visit www.lpo.org.uk/shop for the latest releases.

‘ … a simply tremendous performance of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony … Jurowski and his players plunged us into a winter of discontent so profoundly expectant that even the inveterate coughers were silenced.’ EDWARD SECKERSON, THE INDEPENDENT, 23 SEPTEMBER 2010

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, download our iPhone application and join us on Facebook and Twitter.

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

In 2002, Pieter Schoeman joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Co-Leader. He was appointed Leader in 2008. Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra at the age of ten. He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions, including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in America. 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 Schoeman has performed as a soloist and recitalist throughout the world 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, he has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky and Benjamin Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim. Last October he performed the Brahms Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane. In 1995 Pieter Schoeman 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 the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This season he has been invited to lead the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on several occasions. Pieter Schoeman has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television. He led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He teaches at Trinity College of Music in London.

Patrick Harrison

LEADER


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LOUIS LANGRÉE CONDUCTOR

Benjamin Ealovga

has held positions as Music Director of the Orchestre de Picardie (1993-98) and Orchestre Philharmonique de Liège (2001-06).

The French musician Louis Langrée has been Music Director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in New York since December 2002. This season he makes his debut conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg. He also has two important debuts in Vienna: at the State Opera conducting La Bohème and at the Konzerthaus conducting performances of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 with the Vienna Symphony Orchestra. During 2010/11 he also makes his debut with the Budapest Festival, St Louis Symphony and Cincinnati Symphony Orchestras as well as conducting the Camerata Salzburg in Munich, Paris and at the Salzburg Mozartwoche. In addition, he will conduct Pelléas et Mélisande in Paris and London with the Orchestre de Paris and return to the Aix-en-Provence Festival for La traviata with the London Symphony Orchestra.

Louis Langrée was Music Director of Opéra National de Lyon (1998-2000) and Glyndebourne Touring Opera (1998-2003) and has worked regularly at the Metropolitan Opera in New York and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. He has also conducted at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Lyric Opera of Chicago, Dresden Staatsoper, Grand Théâtre in Geneva, OpéraBastille and Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris and Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam. Last season, he made his debut at La Scala conducting Don Giovanni. Louis Langrée’s discography includes recordings for Virgin Classics, Universal and Naïve. Many of these have won awards including a Victoire de la Musique, Diapason d’Or and Gramophone. In 2006 he was appointed Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture.

Louis Langrée has worked with many other orchestras in North America, Europe and further afield, including the Pittsburgh Symphony, Detroit Symphony, Dallas Symphony, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Tokyo Philharmonic, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and Scottish Chamber Orchestra. He also regularly conducts period instrument orchestras such as the Freiburg Baroque, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Le Concert d’Astrée. Festival appearances have taken him to the Wiener Festwochen, BBC Proms, Spoleto and Budapest Spring Festival, for which he conducted the opening concert in 2009. He

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DAVID FRAY PIANO

2006 he received a prize at the Klavier Festival Ruhr. At the 10th Beethoven Easter Festival in Warsaw he was invited to play Bach Concertos with Christoph Eschenbach, Robert Levine and Ya-Fei Chuang.

David Fray was born in 1981 and began playing the piano when he was four years old. He worked with Jacques Rouvier at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Musique in Paris and graduated with top honours. He has received numerous prizes and awards including a prize and a grant by the Banque Populaire; the Diploma of Outstanding Merit at the Fifth International Hamamatsu Competition in Japan; the Jeune soliste de l’année (Young Soloist of the Year) award, the most important prize awarded by the Commission des radios publiques de langue française; the Feydeau de Brou Saint Paul grant and the Révélation classique (Classical discovery) prize from ADAMI. At the 2004 Montreal International Music Competition, he received both the Second Prize, and the Prize for the best interpretation of a Canadian work. As a direct reward for his success in this competition, ATMA Classique released his first CD of Liszt and Schubert. David Fray has given numerous recitals in Europe, America and Asia, in the most prestigious halls: Cité de la Musique, Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, Théâtre du Châtelet, Place des Arts in Montreal, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, Alti Hall in Kyoto, Palais des Beaux-Arts in Brussels and Carnegie Hall in New York, as well as at festivals such as La Roque d’Anthéron and Piano aux Jacobins in Toulouse. David Fray has been supported by artists such as Dimitri Bashkirov, Menahem Pressler, Paul Badura-Skoda, Christoph Eschenbach and Pierre Boulez. In summer

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestras he has performed with include the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal and Yannick NézetSéguin; the Orchestre de Paris under Christoph Eschenbach and John Axelrod; the Orchestre National de France and Kurt Masur in Paris, Vienna, Germany and the USA; the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse; Salzburg Mozarteum Orchester; the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen; Deutsche SinfonieOrchester; the Jerusalem Symphony; Amsterdam Sinfonietta; Concertgebouw Amsterdam; the MonteCarlo Philharmonic; New York Philharmonic and EsaPekka Salonen; Los Angeles Philharmonic; Philharmonia Orchestra; Cleveland Orchestra; San Francisco Symphony Orchestra; Boston Symphony Orchestra; and the NHK in Tokyo as well as on tour with Riccardo Muti in Italy and with the Bayerische Rundfunk Orchestra. This season his projects include concerts with the Shanghai Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony, Dallas Philharmonic with Jaap van Zweden, DSO Berlin, Philharmonia Orchestra and Salonen at the Ravenna Festival and NDR Hamburg, again with Salonen. An extract of his recital of Schubert's Wanderer Fantasy at La Roque d’Anthéron festival was recorded on DVD. His first recording as a Virgin Classics exclusive artist was devoted to Bach and Boulez and won him great critical acclaim – Newcomer of the Year 2008 by BBC Music Magazine and Best Recording by Echo Preis 2008. He has also recorded Bach Concertos with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen and a Schubert recital. His latest release is of Mozart piano concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Jaap van Zweden.


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PROGRAMME NOTES

SPEEDREAD The piano concertos which Mozart composed in Vienna in the 1780s were not only among the finest of all his works, they revealed a new level of profundity in a genre that had hitherto been seen primarily as a vehicle for polite public display. Likewise, Beethoven’s overtures of the early 1800s took an essentially slender form and showed how they could be an effective microcosmic summation of whatever drama was to follow, a lead

Carl Maria von WEBER

which Weber gladly followed in his own opera overtures only a few years later. By contrast, Beethoven's symphonies cast a long and inhibiting shadow over the composers of the first half of the nineteenth century; Schumann was one of those who responded with relatively light, essentially lyrical symphonies, of which his Fourth is a particularly pleasing and well-crafted example.

OVERTURE, DER FREISCHÜTZ

1786-1826

Der Freischütz, Weber’s most famous creation, marked a triumphant return to the stage for its composer after a decade of operatic silence. He was still feeling his way in the business when in 1810 he first conceived the idea of composing an opera based on a story from a recently published book of ghost stories, but professional frustrations precluded opera composition in the ensuing years, and it was not until he was appointed Kapellmeister in Dresden in 1817 that he was able to start thinking about the project in earnest. His librettist, Johann Friedrich Kind, produced a text within two weeks of their first discussion of the project, but the demands of Weber’s post meant that he was still only able to work intermittently on the music, and it was not completed until 1821. The première in Berlin that year was an immediate success, however, and the work travelled quickly across Europe, winning for its composer a reputation as the leading figure in the emergence of German Romantic opera.

The story is that of a forester Max who, having acquired some magic bullets that he thinks will help him win a shooting contest, and with it the hand of his love Agathe, finds that they appear to kill her instead. The opera’s supernatural angle – the source of the bullets is a mysterious and malevolent ‘Black Huntsman’ – offers plenty of scope for gloomy atmospherics, some of which find their way into the strong and vividly conceived overture. After the opening has conjured the dark world of the forest and its distant hunting horns, the faster main section draws on material from the opera itself: the troubled first theme foreshadows Max’s tortured railing at his initial misfortunes and his awareness of dark forces ranged against him, while the sunnier second borrows from Agathe’s keen anticipation of her wedding day.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 22 IN E FLAT, K482 DAVID FRAY piano Allegro | Andante | Allegro – Andante cantabile – Allegro

1756-1791

When Mozart composed this aristocratic piano concerto in December 1785, he was entitled to be in a confident mood. Since his arrival in Vienna four years earlier he had found the musical sophistication of the Imperial capital conducive both to his creativity and to his fortunes: he had married; his opera Die Entführung aus dem Serail had been a great success; and he had achieved fame and popularity with a series of piano concertos he had written for himself to play. As 1785 neared its end, and with the composition of The Marriage of Figaro in progress, it seems unlikely that it had occurred to Mozart that his fortunes would soon decline, for all that he had recently had to write the first of a series of letters to friends asking for money. Yet although the nine piano concertos he had already composed in Vienna helped establish the piano concerto for the first time as a mature and sophisticated means of expression, there is evidence to suggest that audiences were beginning to find his music to be ‘over-composed’ in the sense of being unnecessarily rich in melodic invention, chromatic and contrapuntal detail, and perhaps expressive weight as well. Whereas in the Lenten concert season of 1785 Mozart had given concerts virtually every night, the same period in 1786 would see him give only one. K482 is certainly a rich work, both in melody and in orchestral colouring. The first movement contains a wealth of themes, some of which are heard only once, and although the opening rightly suggests that this will be a movement of considerable expansiveness, the

ceremonial grandeur which it promises is often undermined, not least by the use for the first time in a Mozart concerto of mellow clarinets instead of bright oboes. A deepening understanding of wind-scoring in general had been another benefit of Mozart’s move to Vienna, and this work is just one of many which show how much he had begun to relish using the orchestra’s wind section as an entity in itself. Winds also feature prominently in the slow second movement, in which the intense C minor theme announced by the strings (with violins muted) is varied three times in combination with the piano. After each of the middle two variations, however, there is a contrasting episode, the first a consoling, serenade-like section for woodwind and horns, and the second a perky duet for flute and bassoon with string accompaniment. Whatever Mozart’s audiences were beginning to find hard to take in the mid-1780s, it was clearly not pathos of this kind, for at the first performance of this concerto the slow movement was encored. The finale is a rondo of the jaunty ‘hunting’ type in which, however, Mozart interrupts the music’s seemingly uncontroversial and suave course for an extended section in the style of a slow minuet. It was a trick he had played eight years earlier in another E flat Concerto, K271, and it is no less effective here in adding a soft extra layer to this most comfortably appointed of concertos.

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

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN

OVERTURE, CORIOLAN, OP. 62

1770-1827

Until towards the end of the eighteenth century, overtures were usually little more than musical announcements that an opera or a play was about to begin, a way of silencing the audience. Rarely was their content affected much by the events of the ensuing drama, and it was only with Gluck’s ‘reform operas’ of the 1770s that overtures began to attempt on a more regular basis to encapsulate what was to follow. So influential was the change, however, that by the early 1800s Beethoven’s most dynamic overtures – those to the plays Coriolan, Egmont and The Ruins of Athens, to the ballet The Creatures of Prometheus, and the several attempts at an overture to the opera Fidelio – soon acquired a concert life of their own. In effect, they had become the earliest examples of one of the nineteenth century’s favourite forms, the symphonic poem. The overture which Beethoven provided for Coriolan, a five-year-old tragedy by his friend Heinrich von Collin, was actually performed a couple of times as a concert piece in the month which preceded its appearance at a revival of the play in April 1807. Collin’s drama had its origins in Shakespeare’s Coriolanus and, though

differing from it in several respects, presented the same dilemma of the Roman general who has rebelled and is now leading an attack on Rome itself. On the point of victory he lays down his arms so that his mother, Volumnia, can be spared – a moment of military weakness which eventually drives him to suicide. Beethoven’s overture focuses on the conflict between the arrogant soldier – shown in the truculent opening chords and urgent string motif – and the pleadings of his mother as represented by the tender second theme, rising step by step as her beseeching intensifies. In Shakespeare, Coriolanus was killed by his own followers for his disloyalty, but that Beethoven’s concern, like Collin’s, was for the effect of the hero’s failings on his own mind, is shown at the end. Here, Volumnia’s theme makes its third and last appearance, not rising this time but switching with greater urgency to the minor, with the result that Coriolanus capitulates in a broken version of the opening. As the once-proud chords lose their way and the string motif shrivels to nothing, the general’s fall is quiet and ignominious.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Robert SCHUMANN

SYMPHONY NO. 4 IN D MINOR, OP. 120 Ziemlich langsam – Lebhaft | Romanze: Ziemlich langsam | Scherzo: Lebhaft | Langsam – Lebhaft

1810-1856

At the age of thirty, Schumann was a composer who had concentrated almost entirely on the small-scale forms of piano music and song. His only serious attempt at working on the broader canvas provided by the orchestra had been two movements of a symphony composed in 1832 and quickly withdrawn. But his desire to write symphonic music was strong, fed by persistent encouragement from his future wife Clara Wieck, and it received another important stimulus in 1839 when he played a major part in bringing to light Schubert’s forgotten ‘Great C major’ Symphony (No. 9): ‘Oh, that I could write such symphonies myself’, he wrote to Clara in his excitement. At last, in 1841, the dam burst in a flood of orchestral music: two completed symphonies, an abortive third, the Overture, Scherzo and Finale, Op. 52, and a piece which was later to become the first movement of the Piano Concerto. The creative surge was so great, indeed, that the First Symphony, with Spring as its fitting inspiration, was composed in draft in just four days. The First Symphony was premièred in Leipzig on 31 March under the direction of Mendelssohn, and the success of it meant that Schumann was soon enthusiastically at work on another. ‘Robert’s spirit is very active’, wrote Clara in her diary. ‘I hear the D minor wildly sounding in the distance, so that I know already in advance, it is once again a work emerging from the bottom of his heart.’ For his own part, Robert had written in his own diary that ‘My next symphony will be called “Clara”’. Composed between May and September, it was performed for the first time on 6 December, but this time the reception was a cool one. Disheartened, Schumann withdrew the work, and when he finally

10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

revised it ten years later as his ‘Fourth’ Symphony it was only after making a number of revisions. Some of these were structural, but most involved a thickening of the scoring – tonight’s performance follows the customary modern-day practice of presenting the 1851 revision, the version for which Schumann himself expressed preference. Perhaps this symphony’s initial failure with the public can be put down to its formal innovations. Although it was not until he revised it that Schumann actually marked the four movements to be played without a break, the sense of a single ‘symphonic fantasy’ (as he initially thought of renaming it) is present even in the original version. And whereas the First Symphony had relied for unity on references to a single, easily recognised motto, the Fourth went several steps further, employing a complex web of interrelated themes derived from the work’s slow introduction. Thus, for example, material from the first movement’s central development section resurfaces as the main theme of the finale, and the slow movement’s middle section is clearly related to the introduction’s sinuous string lines, while also forming the basis of the following movement’s Trio. Similar examples are too numerous to catalogue here, but the variety and life which Schumann extracts from them, and the wholly convincing symphonic shape he achieves – exuberant allegro, poetic slow movement, sturdy Scherzo and climactic finale – are testimony to his compositional skill and invention. Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp


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RECENT RECORDINGS ON THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S OWN RECORD LABEL

LPO-0047 Vladimir Jurowski conducts Holst’s The Planets ‘Brisk tempos and a brilliant, brassy sound distinguish this version of Holst’s best-loved work … hats off to the energy and commitment of the LPO players.’ PAUL GENT, DAILY TELEGRAPH, 8 OCTOBER 2010

LPO-0048 Jesús López-Cobos conducts Verdi’s Requiem with Margaret Price, Livia Budai, Giuseppe Giacomini, Robert Lloyd and the London Philharmonic Choir ‘This live recording from the Festival Hall in 1983 is so good, I regret not having attended the concert ... Jesús López-Cobos conducts a splendidly dramatic account of the score and the LPO Choir raise the roof.’ HUGH CANNING, THE SUNDAY TIMES, 5 SEPTEMBER 2010

LPO-0049 Christoph Eschenbach conducts Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 ‘The playing from the London Philharmonic is superb. There isn’t a single section of the orchestra whose performance ever drops below the superlative ... Highly recommended.’ GAVIN DIXON, MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL

LPO-0050 Vladimir Jurowski conducts Christmas choral music by Vaughan Williams, Bach and Mendelssohn with Lisa Milne, Ruxandra Donose, Andrew Staples, Christopher Maltman and the London Philharmonic Choir ‘Here’s a delightful disc of Christmas music by three major composers … Warmly recommended. NIGEL SIMEONE, INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW, DECEMBER 2010

The recordings may be downloaded in high quality MP3 format from www.lpo.org.uk/shop. CDs may also be purchased from all good retail outlets or through the London Philharmonic Orchestra: telephone 020 7840 4242 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm) or visit the website www.lpo.org.uk

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international piano series 2010/11 FUNharmonics Family Concert

Magic Music Sunday 27 February 2011 | 11.30am Royal Festival Hall

Maurizio Pollini © Karen Robinson

Patterson The Magic Orchestra Dukas The Sorcerer’s Apprentice Chadwick Anansi the Magical Spiderman De Falla Ritual Fire Dance from Love, the Magician Arnold Overture, Tam O’Shanter Williams Hedwig’s Theme from Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone Offenbach Orpheus in the Underworld

SERGIO TIEMPO

David Angus conductor Chris Jarvis presenter

Tuesday 15 March 2011

THE POLLINI PROJECT

ANGELA HEWITT

Maurizio Pollini’s pilgrimage through seminal piano music from Bach to Modernism.

Tuesday 29 March 2011

Foyer Events from 10am You can try your hand at playing an orchestral instrument in one of our Have-a-Go sessions, get your face painted or join our human orchestra – all in the foyers before and after the performance.

Friday 28 January 2011 Bach

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN Wednesday 13 April 2011

Tuesday 15 February 2011 Beethoven

Saturday 26 February 2011 Schubert

Friday 29 April 2011

CHARLES ROSEN

Chopin, Debussy and Boulez

Talk: Saturday 14 May 2011 Concert: Sunday 15 May 2011

Wednesday 25 May 2011

LANG LANG

Series discounts available if you book for more than one concert.

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Schumann, Stockhausen and Chopin

Tickets £9–£55

INGRID FLITER Tuesday 7 June 2011

0844 847 9929 SOUTHBANKCENTRE.CO.uk

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TICKETS Child £4-£8; Adult £8-£16 For booking details see page 16.


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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 The Tsukanov Family

Guy & Utti Whittaker

Mr Daniel Goldstein Mrs Barbara Green Oliver Heaton 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 Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland

Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mrs Sonja Drexler Mr Charles Dumas David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans

Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Marika Cobbold & Michael Patchett-Joyce Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Edgecombe Mr Richard Fernyhough

Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller Richard Karl Goeltz John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett

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 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 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 Brown Brothers Harriman Charles Russell Destination Québec – UK Diagonal Consulting Lazard Leventis Overseas Man Group plc Québec Government Office in London 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 Allianz Cultural Foundation The Andor Charitable Trust Arts and Business Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Charitable Trust The John S Cohen Foundation The Coutts Charitable Trust The Dorset Foundation The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Ernest Cook Trust The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation The Jonathan & Jeniffer Harris Trust Capital Radio’s Help a London Child The Idlewild Trust The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation The Leverhulme Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust The Michael Marks Charitable Trust

Marsh Christian Trust UK Friends of the FelixMendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute Paul Morgan Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund The R K Charitable Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Reed Foundation The Rubin Foundation The Seary Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust Sound Connections The Stansfield Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation The Swan Trust John Thaw Foundation The Underwood Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13


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SOUTHBANK CENTRE

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium

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 and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery.

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

If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact Kenelm Roberts, our Head of Customer Relations, at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk or phone 020 7960 4250. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Hear every note

Hard of hearing? Visit the cloakroom for equipment to improve your concert experience.

Download London Philharmonic Orchestra recordings from www.lpo.org.uk/shop It’s easy to take the London Philharmonic Orchestra with you wherever you go! Visit our downloads site to choose the works (or even single movements) you’d like to buy, and download high quality MP3s to your computer for transfer to an MP3 player or CD. With regular additions of new recordings with conductors from Beecham to Jurowski you’ll always have a selection of great music to choose from.

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra


57686 11 Feb 2011_57686 11 Feb 2011 07/02/2011 07:21 Page 15

ADMINISTRATION

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL

ARCHIVES

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

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Edmund Pirouet Consultant

Sarah Thomas Librarian

Philip Stuart Discographer

Michael Pattison Stage Manager

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

*Non-Executive Directors

THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC TRUST Pehr Gyllenhammar Chairman Desmond Cecil CMG 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 AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, INC.

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager FINANCE David Burke General Manager and Finance Director David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager CONCERT MANAGEMENT Roanna Chandler Concerts Director Ruth Sansom Artistic Administrator Graham Wood Concerts, Recordings and Glyndebourne Manager Alison Jones Concerts Co-ordinator Jenny Chadwick Tours and Engagements Manager Jo Orr PA to the Executive / Concerts Assistant Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Camilla Begg Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager Ken Graham Trucking Instrument Transportation (Tel: 01737 373305)

Nick Jackman Development Director Harriet Mesher Charitable Giving Manager Phoebe Rouse Corporate Relations Manager

Elisenda Ayats Development and Finance Officer MARKETING Kath Trout Marketing Director Ellie Dragonetti Marketing Manager

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.

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMME

Helen Boddy Marketing Co-ordinator

Fiona Lambert Education and Community Consultant

Frances Cook Publications Manager

PROFESSIONAL SERVICES

Anne Findlay Education Officer

Samantha Kendall Box Office Administrator (Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

Ed Weston Intern

Charles Russell Solicitors Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor

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

DEVELOPMENT

Melissa Van Emden Events Manager

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

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 Weber, Mozart, Beethoven and Schumann courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Photograph on the front cover by Patrick Harrison. Programmes printed by Cantate.

Add FSC logo

Valerie Barber Press Consultant (Tel: 020 7586 8560)

†Supported by Macquarie Group

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15


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FUTURE CONCERTS AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL

Wednesday 16 February 2011 | 7.30pm Ravel Suite, Mother Goose Berlioz La Mort de Cléopâtre Berlioz Symphonie fantastique

JTI FRIDAY SERIES Friday 18 March 2011 | 7.30pm Prokofiev Suite, The Love for Three Oranges Haydn Piano Concerto in D Stravinsky Capriccio Shostakovich Symphony No. 6

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Anna Caterina Antonacci soprano 6.15pm–6.45pm | FREE Pre-Concert Event Royal Festival Hall A discussion around the music of Berlioz.

Yannick NézetSéguin and Anna Caterina Antonacci

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Emanuel Ax piano 6.15pm–6.45pm | FREE Pre-Concert Event Royal Festival Hall How serious was the music of Haydn, Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Shostakovich? Professor Alexander Ivashkin discusses the use of jokes, allusions, parodies and enciphered riddles through the centuries.

MAHLER ANNIVERSARY Saturday 19 February 2011 | 7.30pm Mozart Sinfonia Concertante, K364 Mahler Das Lied von der Erde

Vladimir Jurowski and Emanuel Ax

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Stefan Jackiw violin Richard Yongjae O’Neill viola Sarah Connolly mezzo soprano Toby Spence tenor

THE THOMAS BEECHAM GROUP CONCERT Saturday 19 March 2011 | 7.30pm Julian Anderson The Crazed Moon Beethoven Violin Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin Sarah Connolly and Toby Spence

MAHLER ANNIVERSARY JTI FRIDAY SERIES Friday 25 February 2011 | 7.30pm Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen Mahler Symphony No. 9 Christoph Eschenbach conductor Christopher Maltman baritone 6.15pm–6.45pm | FREE Pre-Concert Event Royal Festival Hall Surrey University music lecturer Jeremy Barham explores ‘Ends and beginnings: Mahler and the Ninth’.

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

TO BOOK

Tickets £9-£38 | Premium seats £55 London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 | www.lpo.org.uk Mon-Fri 10am-5pm; no booking fee Southbank Centre Ticket Office | 0844 847 9920 www.southbankcentre.co.uk/lpo Daily, 9am-8pm. £2.75 telephone / £1.75 online booking fees; no fee for Southbank Centre members


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11 Feb 2011 LPO Programme note by London Philharmonic Orchestra - Issuu