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 International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Friday 13 April 2012 | 7.30pm
Mozart Symphony No. 35 in D major, K385 (Haffner) (17’) THOMAS BLUNT conductor Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 in B-flat major, Op. 19** (28’) DOMINGO HINDOYAN conductor JOHN LILL piano Interval JULIAN ANDERSON Past Hymns (12’) DOMINGO HINDOYAN conductor STRAVINSKY Symphony in C (28’) WARD STARE conductor
* supported by the Tsukanov Family † supported by Macquarie Group ** supported by Dunard Fund CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 Southbank Centre 3 The International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation 4 List of players 5 About the Orchestra 6 Conductor biographies 8 John Lill 9 Programme notes 13 Supporters 14 Next concerts 16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.
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 and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery. If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250 or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk
Hear every note
Are you hard of hearing or do you use a hearing aid? Did you know Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room all have free-of-charge equipment available to help you get the most out of the music you may be missing? Visit the relevant cloakroom up to one hour before the performance to collect the equipment and learn how to use it effectively.
2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
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.
the INTERNATIONAL CONDUCTORS’ ACADEMY of the allianz cultural foundation Outstanding conductors are not only exceptional artists, but also, in every way, modern leadership personalities. Their approach is, in fact, quite similar to that of political and economic leaders: the complexity of large ensembles nowadays more and more resembles that of internationally composed and globally operating companies building an ever-increasing range of products and distribution channels. Different temperaments and cultural dynamics, instrument groups and soloists must be brought together in harmony (or calculated disharmony) to create a unique sound experience at the highest artistic level. Young conductors are unlikely to learn this combination of empathy and assertiveness, artistic flair and practical knowledge at universities or in conducting classes. Therefore, each year the Allianz Conductors’ Academy has offered three talented young conductors, whose centre of life is Europe, the unique opportunity to rehearse with two of the most prestigious orchestras. In 2003, the Philharmonia Orchestra, under the direction of Christoph von Dohnányi, and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, under Kurt Masur, launched this initiative to ensure that the most talented young conductors were accompanied by experienced maestros during a masterclass and taught how to direct an orchestra. This worldwide unique International Conductors’ Academy at London’s Southbank Centre was set up not only to prevent a shortage of qualified experts at the conductor’s desk but also to provide a platform for a new type of conductor. This has provided the young conductors with the chance to progress personally between experiment and repertoire and to expand their own global networks. For the participating conductors this ‘intermediate level’ has been not only a
last pause on their career ladders before beginning their international careers, but also always an intense and unforgettable group experience, which conductors and other leading personalities alike rarely get to enjoy. Therefore, on behalf of the members of our boards and the staff of our Foundation, I would like to express my sincerest thanks to all participants and partners of our Conductors’ Academy, foremost especially the orchestras themselves, their current chief conductors Esa-Pekka Salonen and Vladimir Jurowski, as well as their Executive Directors David Whelton and Timothy Walker, for the successful collaboration. Together with Karsten Witt and Peter Ruzicka, who have generously served our boards as experts, they have given European co-operation a new sound through this unique and international artistic project, and have thus giving a larger audience the chance to hear it. Michael M. Thoss Managing Director, Allianz Cultural Foundation
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3
LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
First Violins Georgy Valtchev Guest Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Chair supported by John & Angela Kessler
Soran Lee Catherine Craig Tina Gruenberg Martin Höhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz
Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Alain Petitclerc Peter Nall Galina Tanney Second Violins Philippe Honore Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller
Fiona Higham Andrew Thurgood Ashley Stevens Marie-Anne Mairesse Nancy Elan Nynke Hijlkema Imogen Williamson Sioni Williams
Violas Ida Bryhn Guest Principal Frederik Boits Robert Duncan Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens Emmanuella ReiterBootiman Daniel Cornford Alistair Scahill Isabel Pereira Cellos Alexander Somov Guest Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp
Santiago Carvalho† Susan Sutherley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff Double Basses Tim Gibbs Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Jeremy Watt Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands
Flutes Susan Thomas Principal Ian Mullin Katie Bicknell
Trombones Robert Workman Guest Principal Andrew Connington
Piccolo Katie Bicknell Guest Principal
Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal
Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick Clarinets Fiona Cross Guest Principal Paul Richards Bassoons Lola Descours Guest Principal Simon Estell
Tuba Jonathan Riches sGuest Principal Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal
* Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco
Horns John Ryan* Principal Gareth Mollison Duncan Fuller Jonathan Bareham Marcus Bates Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann
Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Andrew Davenport The Sharp Family Julian & Gill Simmonds
4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras. As well as performing classical concerts, the Orchestra also records film and computer game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of Londoners every year through activities for schools and local communities. The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then has been headed by many of the great names in the conducting world, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. The current Principal Conductor is Russian Vladimir Jurowski, appointed in 2007, with French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin as Principal Guest Conductor. The Orchestra is based at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, where it has performed since it opened in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 40 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and soloists. Concert highlights in 2011/12 include a three-week festival celebrating the music of Prokofiev, concerts with artists including Sir Mark Elder, Marin Alsop, Renée Fleming, Stephen Hough and Joshua Bell, and several premières of works by living composers including the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson. In addition to its London concerts, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The London Philharmonic Orchestra tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first-ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring remains a big part of the Orchestra’s life: tours in the 2011/12 season include visits to Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the US, Spain, China, Russia, Oman, Brazil and France.
You may well have heard the London Philharmonic Orchestra on film soundtrack recordings: it has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia, East is East and Hugo. The Orchestra also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 60 releases on the label, which are available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations and Symphony No. 8 conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras; Holst’s The Planets conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Martin Helmchen under Vladimir Jurowski; and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The Orchestra was also recently honoured with the commission to record all 205 of the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics Team Welcome Ceremonies and Medal Ceremonies. To help maintain its high standards and diverse workload, the Orchestra is committed to the welfare of its musicians and in December 2007 received the Association of British Orchestras/Musicians Benevolent Fund Healthy Orchestra Bronze Charter Mark. The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an energetic programme of activities for young people and local communities. Highlights include the ever-popular family and schools concerts, fusion ensemble The Band, the Leverhulme Young Composers project and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training scheme for outstanding young players. Over the last few years, developments in technology and social networks have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter. Find out more and get involved! lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5
THOMAS BLUNT
DOMINGO HINDOYAN
CONDUCTOR
CONDUCTOR
British conductor Thomas Blunt was Chorus Master at Glyndebourne Festival Opera from 2006–09 and Assistant Conductor to Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra from 2010–11. Thomas studied cello and conducting at the Junior Royal Academy of Music before taking up an organ scholarship at Trinity College, Cambridge. After graduation he furthered his conducting studies under Neil Thomson at the Royal College of Music, where he also took part in masterclasses with Bernard Haitink.
Born in Caracas, Venezuela, Domingo Hindoyan began his musical studies as a violinist and member of the renowned musical education programme, El Sistema. After obtaining a master’s degree in conducting at the Geneva Conservatoire and further honing his conducting skills at masterclasses with Bernard Haitink, Jesús López-Cobos and David Zinman, Domingo has increasingly gained international recognition. He still maintains close ties with his native Venezuela, where he is a regular guest conductor with El Sistema.
Recent engagements include concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall and with the English Chamber Orchestra; performances of Bruckner’s Mass No. 2 in E minor in São Paulo with the LPO and the Coro da Orquestra Sinfônica do Estado de São Paulo; Birtwistle’s Theseus Game (LPO Foyle Future Firsts); Mahler’s Das klagende Lied (LPO banda); La Cenerentola, Falstaff and L’elisir d’amore (Glyndebourne on Tour); The Rape of Lucretia and The Turn of the Screw (Arcola Theatre); performances of Cimarosa’s The Italian Girl in London for Bampton Classical Opera in Buxton and London; the world première of Dave Maric’s ballet Ghosts for ROH2; The Rape of Lucretia and Così fan tutte (Britten International Opera School); Roméo et Juliette (British Youth Opera); and concerts with Southbank Sinfonia. He has also worked at La Monnaie, Opera North and the Cantiere Internazionale d’Arte di Montepulciano. Whilst at Glyndebourne, he assisted conductors including the Music Director Vladimir Jurowski, Maurizio Benini, Richard Egarr and Edward Gardner; he also assisted Iván Fischer in Budapest with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and earlier this year assisted Jurowski for the London Philharmonic Orchestras’s Prokofiev festival.
Domingo Hindoyan has won several conducting prizes. In 2009 he received the Fourth Prize at the Malko International Conducting Competition, and in 2010 was awarded Second Prize at the Cadaqués International Conducting Competition. He was also a finalist at the López-Cobos International Opera Conductors Competition in Madrid in 2008, and a semi-finalist at the Besançon Conducting Competition in 2009.
Future engagements include a pre-concert performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra Foyle Future Firsts at Royal Festival Hall on 28 April; conducting as part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations in June; assisting at Welsh National Opera and Northern Sinfonia; a concert with Oxford University Orchestra; and a reinvitation to conduct in São Paulo. 6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
He has conducted the Liège Royal Philharmonic Orchestra; Cadaqués Orchestra; Lausanne Chamber Orchestra; and the Basel, Madrid and Simón Bolívar symphony orchestras, among others. In June 2011 he made a successful début with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Future engagements include the Luxembourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Nancy Symphony Orchestra, and ten performances of Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore at Bregenz Opera. At Graz Opera during the 2012/13 season Domingo Hindoyan will conduct a new production of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel and a revival of Verdi’s La traviata, as well as an evening of ballet music by Stravinsky and Ravel. As a result of the relationship developed with Daniel Barenboim through the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Hindoyan regularly works with him in Berlin and Milan. He has also worked as assistant to Claudio Abbado for concerts with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra in Lucerne and Caracas.
WARD STARE
New recordings
CONDUCTOR
In August 2007, Stare made his début with The Cleveland Orchestra at the famed Blossom Music Center. More recent highlights include appearances with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, the St Paul Chamber Orchestra and the Moscow Chamber Orchestra, as well as Stare’s European opera début at the Norwegian National Opera in Oslo.
ravi shankar: symphony April 2012
LPO–0061
American conductor Ward Stare is currently in his final season as Resident Conductor of the St Louis Symphony Orchestra – a position created for him in 2008 by Music Director David Robertson. In April 2009, Stare made his highly successful Carnegie Hall début with the orchestra. As Music Director of the St Louis Symphony Youth Orchestra, Stare led the group in its New York City début at the historic Riverside Church in June 2010. The New York Times praised the orchestra for its ‘terrific concert’, noting that Stare ‘inspired the musicians to impressive heights.’
LPO–0060
on the LPO Label
christoph eschenbach conducts beethoven’s missa solemnis April 2012
Forthcoming engagements include performances with the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestre Nationale de Lyon, Opera Theater of St Louis, and Stare’s début as guest conductor with the Lyric Opera of Chicago in Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel.
Stare trained as a trombonist at The Juilliard School in New York. Aged 18, he was appointed Principal Trombone at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and has performed as an orchestral musician with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the New York Philharmonic, among others.
LPO–0062
In November 2011, Ward Stare was named ‘Young Artist of the Month’ by Musical America. He is the recipient of both the Robert J. Harth Conductor Prize and the Aspen Conducting Prize at the Aspen Music Festival, and served as Assistant Conductor at the Festival in 2008. Stare studied conducting with David Zinman, János Fürst and Jorma Panula, as well as working with Michel Merlet in composition and musical analysis.
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NEEMe JäRVI CONDUCTS DVOŘÁK’s STABAT MATER May 2012
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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7
JOHN LILL
© Sophie Baker
piano
John Lill’s concert career spans over 50 years. His rare talent emerged at an early age and he gave his first piano recital at the age of nine. At 18 he performed Rachmaninoff’s Third Piano Concerto under Sir Adrian Boult, followed by his much-acclaimed London début playing Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto at Royal Festival Hall. His success was reflected in many prestigious international prizes and awards, and in 1970 he won the most coveted of these, the Moscow International Tchaikovsky Competition, further consolidating his already busy international concert schedule. Unanimously described as the leading British pianist of his generation, John Lill’s career has taken him to over 50 countries, both as a recitalist and as a soloist with the world’s greatest orchestras. He regularly performs in all the European capitals (including Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, Prague, Rome, Stockholm and Vienna); Russia; the Far East; Australasia (including several ABC tours); and he is a frequent visitor to the United States, where he has worked with the New York Philharmonic; the Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras; and the Dallas, Baltimore, Seattle, National and San Diego symphony orchestras. John Lill’s extensive repertoire includes more than 70 concertos, and he is particularly acclaimed as a leading interpreter of Beethoven, whose complete sonata cycle he has performed on several occasions in the UK, USA and Japan. In Britain he has given over 30 BBC Proms concerts and regularly appears with all the major orchestras. He has toured internationally with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; the Hallé; the Royal Scottish National Orchestra; and the London, City of Birmingham, BBC and BBC Scottish symphony orchestras. Most recently, John Lill has performed with the Indianapolis, Gothenburg and Rotterdam symphony orchestras; and the Royal Scottish National, Royal Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic orchestras. In 2011/12, John returns to the St Petersburg 8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Philharmonic Orchestra with Yuri Temirkanov, the Hallé, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, and the Vancouver and Seattle symphony orchestras. In recital, he will appear throughout the UK including Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and Birmingham Town Hall, as well as a tour of Japan. John Lill has recorded for Deutsche Grammophon; EMI (Beethoven Piano Concertos with the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Sir Alexander Gibson); ASV (both Brahms Concertos with the Hallé and James Loughran) and Pickwick Records (Tchaikovsky with the LSO and James Judd). More recently he has recorded the complete Prokofiev sonatas with ASV, and his recent recording of the complete Beethoven Bagatelles and Piano Concertos with the CBSO and Weller is available on Chandos. He recorded Malcolm Arnold’s Fantasy on a Theme of John Field (dedicated to John Lill) with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Vernon Handley for Conifer, and the complete Rachmaninoff Concertos and major solo piano works for Nimbus Records. His most recent recording projects have been the 60th birthday release of piano works by Schumann on the Classics for Pleasure label and two new releases for Signum Records of Schumann, Brahms and Haydn piano sonatas. John Lill has been awarded eight Honorary Doctorates from British universities, as well as several Fellowships from the leading musical colleges and academies. He lives in London and was awarded the OBE in 1977 and the CBE for services to music in the 2005 New Year Honours List.
PROGRAMME NOTES
Speedread Stravinsky’s respectful and utterly distinctive recreation of Classical values forms the climax of tonight’s concert, following a first half in which we hear two examples of the kind of models from which he learned so much. Thus it is that Mozart’s ‘Haffner’ Symphony, Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto and Stravinsky’s Symphony in C, for all their evident differences, inhabit the same world of balanced
Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART 1756–91
When in 1781 Mozart left his native Salzburg to begin a career in Vienna as a composer, performer and teacher, the effects were far-reaching. The Imperial capital provided more than just an environment conducive to freelance living; it also offered the kind of independence and cultured musical milieu he had not enjoyed before, and his response was to compose music of a growing emotional and intellectual reach that was to help define the sophisticated expressiveness of the High Classical style. That Mozart himself was aware of the new direction his music was taking is clear from a piece like the ‘Haffner’ Symphony, composed in Vienna, but consciously looking back to the brilliant, plain-speaking manner of the Salzburg years. It did so with good reason. In July 1782, Mozart received a letter from his father asking for a symphony to celebrate the ennoblement of a family friend, Sigmund Haffner. ‘I am up to my eyes in work’, he wrote back, ‘and now you ask me to write a symphony too! How am I to do so?’ He provided one, nevertheless, posting it to Salzburg in instalments
elegance, thematic unity and resource, and above all unfailing attractiveness. In between comes a more recent work by the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence Julian Anderson; his Past Hymns, composed in 1997, was also inspired by music from earlier ages, namely those of the birth of American hymnody and the rhythmically intricate repertoire of the Elizabethan viol consort.
Symphony No. 35 in D major, K385 (Haffner) THOMAS BLUNT conductor Allegro con spirito Andante Menuetto & Trio Presto
accompanied by a tetchy correspondence culminating in a final message: ‘I only hope it will be to your taste’. In its original form, the Symphony started with a march, and may well have had an extra minuet as well, making it similar to the species of multi-movement serenade that was popular at that time for grand public occasions, especially in Salzburg. It was not uncommon, however, for such serenades to be cut down subsequently to form four-movement symphonies, and this is what Mozart did when he performed the ‘Haffner’ in Vienna for the first time in March 1783. If the work’s open-heartedness was a return to Salzburg celebratory mood, the sophistication of the writing itself is worthy of Mozart’s Viennese years. The first movement marries assured orchestral swagger to a taut motivic structure held together by the varied and capricious reappearances of the striding theme of the opening. Whether bold and up-front, sidetracked into thoughtful counterpoint or just biding their time as humble accompaniment, they are
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PROGRAMME NOTES
instantly recognisable, and dominate the movement to memorable effect. The glowing summer-night grace of the second movement brings a serenade-like atmosphere, yet for all the exquisite delicacy of the violin melodies, it is perhaps the brief, tuneless passage midway through, in which held woodwind notes are supported by syncopated string chords, that breathes the balmiest air of the evening.
Ludwig van BEETHOVEN 1770–1827
Eleven years after Mozart’s move to Vienna, and nearly a year after his death there in 1791, the 21-year-old Beethoven arrived to absorb the atmosphere of what was arguably the musical capital of the world and to study with the world’s most famous composer – ‘to receive the spirit of Mozart from the hands of Haydn’ as a friend back in Bonn put it. But it was as a virtuoso pianist in private salons that he first made his name, mostly with improvisations so daring that one fellow performer had to concede that ‘he is no man, he’s a devil; he’ll play me and all of us to death’. When it came to formal composition, however, Beethoven was more circumspect, and it was only in 1795 that he chose to make his first public appearance in a work of his own. This last was a piano concerto performed at the Burgtheater on 29 March and ‘received with unanimous applause’, and although we do not know which concerto this was, it is usually assumed to have been the one now known as ‘No. 2’, composed before ‘No. 1’ but eventually published after it. The orchestra for Concerto No. 2 is smaller than in Beethoven’s other concertos; there are no clarinets, trumpets or drums here, but the composer quickly shows that he can create a cheerily martial atmosphere without them. In fact, the fanfare figures of the opening bars pop up throughout the first movement, providing
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After an assertive minuet and faintly rustic trio, the finale arrives in a barely contained rush; Mozart reckoned it should be played ‘as fast as possible’. With its several appearances of the main theme, the movement has the feel (though not actually the form) of a rondo, while ebullient clowning from the timpani and ‘chugging’ strings near the end seem to come straight from the world of comic opera.
PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN B-FLAT MAJOR, OP. 19 DOMINGO HINDOYAN conductor JOHN LILL piano Allegro con brio Adagio Rondo. Molto allegro
much of its flavour as well as a driving developmental force. So too, though, does the brief, winding violin phrase that answers that fanfare’s first statement; the movement’s second important theme – split between the violins and arriving after an unexpected key-shift to D-flat major – is directly derived from it, as is the piano’s nonchalant first entry, though here the relationship is subtle enough to make it seem like a new theme. Beethoven must have liked the effect of that key-shift, too, for he re-creates it several times in the subsequent course of the movement. The Adagio is broad and serene, and like many of Beethoven’s early slow movements, encrusted with elaborate piano figuration. There is a broodingly emotional quality to it too, however, and the climax comes in a brief, drooping recitative-like passage for the soloist, marked to be played ‘con gran espressione’. The finale, as in all of Beethoven’s concertos, is a Rondo, here with four statements of the main theme separated by contrasting episodes. The movement’s character is established by the playful rhythmic catch of the main theme, and there are some knowing hints at the fashionable, percussive ‘Turkish’ style along the way. Mozart may have been the model, but the spirit here is pure youthful Beethoven.
INTERVAL – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.
Julian ANDERSON
past hymns DOMINGO HINDOYAN conductor
Born 1967
Past Hymns was commissioned by Sinfonia 21 with funds provided by the Arts Council of England for a Contemporary Music Network Tour. The first performance, by Sinfonia 21 under Martyn Brabbins, took place on 3 February 1997 at St John’s, Smith Square, London. The title is an allusion to a number of hymn melodies that provided inspiration for the music, though they are not quoted as such. The tunes are all American in origin, either Negro spiritual or Melody and
Sankey, and the music is inspired as much by the words of the hymns as by the characterisation of the tunes. The piece combines these with a kind of fast rhythmic polyphony, not unlike that found in Elizabethan consort music, a source already used in my previous Sinfonia 21 commission Tye’s Crye. Julian Anderson
Free tickets for schools from Deutsche Bank As one of the flagship projects in its extensive Corporate Citizenship programme, Deutsche Bank has been supporting the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s BrightSparks schools’ concerts since 2001. Through the Deutsche Bank Free Tickets Scheme, its generous funding ensures that children and their teachers have the opportunity to experience a live performance of the Orchestra at no cost. Across the year, the series of seven concerts at Royal Festival Hall reaches approximately 15,000 children. This year the series has been extended to include concerts for GCSE music students for the first time, reaching out to even more young people. For a large proportion of pupils these events are the first time they will have visited a concert hall to hear a live orchestra, giving them an intense and inspiring experience. In addition to its support of music education, Deutsche Bank’s Corporate Citizenship programme spans a range of themes aimed at addressing disadvantage, promoting social mobility and supporting emerging artists. Globally, hundreds of thousands of people each year participate in education programmes supported by Deutsche Bank. At this evening’s concert we are delighted to welcome young people from across London as part of the Deutsche Bank Free Tickets Scheme.
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PROGRAMME NOTES
Igor STRAVINSKY 1882–1971
‘The death rattle of the sonata form having been audible for some years and official obituaries printed, it is rather awkward at this time to have to acknowledge the existence of a master of that form.’ So began an early analysis of Stravinsky’s Symphony in C, published a few months after the work’s première in Chicago in November 1940. Sonata form, or at least references to it and other 18th-century styles, were not such an unusual thing in the inter-war years of course, and indeed the very title of Symphony in C smacks of the often ironic stance of contemporary ‘neo-classicism’; less common, and what rescues the work from any taint of impudent pastiche, is the very mastery alluded to above. Stravinsky was indeed too powerful a musical mind to be satisfied with poking fun by stringing together a few witty antique gestures. He claimed to have written the first movement with scores of symphonies by Haydn and Beethoven in front of him, and the result is a work no less intricately worked, no less coherent in its organic growth, and no less elegant in conception. Though it is a referential piece, which offers glimpses of a lost past – in Paul Griffths’s memorable phrase, ‘as if the composer had taken the pieces of a broken jug and stuck them together as a plate’ – it is also a serious 20th-century composition that satisfies perfectly well on its own terms. The Symphony opens with a terse, somewhat Beethovenian gesture which, in true High Classical style, contains thematic elements that will be important elsewhere in the work. This movement really is in sonata form, with a ‘first theme’ announced by a solo oboe a page or two in, and a wide-ranging ‘second theme’ in a new key delivered by a solo horn. There is a central development of mounting vigour, followed by recapitulations of the main themes, re-ordered
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symphony in c WARD STARE conductor Moderato alla breve Larghetto concertante Allegretto Largo – Tempo giusto alla breve as smoothly and inevitably as in a Haydn or Mozart symphony. The slow second movement is in the A–B–A form of an aria, the outer ‘A’s being sweetly lyrical and intricately textured dialogues between woodwind and strings, and the central ‘B’ more agitated and faintly threatening, with added brass to darken the colour. Stravinsky later described the movement as a ‘pastoral’, though it is clearly Pan’s woodland he had in mind rather than green fields and snowy sheep. The spirit of the scherzo pervades the third movement, rhythmically complex and with elements of the dance, in particular in passages that recall the 18th-century forms of minuet and passepied; the gentle conclusion is reached, however, by means of a richly devised fugue. And the finale begins in a slow murk that turns out to be an introduction to an Allegro recalling not only some of the motivic material of the first movement, but also its breathless nature. The slow music returns twice, however, the second time to draw the work towards an unexpectedly tranquil close. Mozart, Beethoven and Stravinsky programme notes © Lindsay Kemp
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 Anonymous The Sharp Family Julian & Gill Simmonds Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller Richard Karl Goeltz John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett Mrs Sonja Drexler Guy & Utti Whittaker Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mr Charles Dumas David Ellen
Commander Vincent Evans Mr & Mrs Jeffrey Herrmann Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas Andrew T Mills Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard Mr John Soderquist & Mr Costas Michaelides Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland
Pauline & Peter Halliday Michael & Christine Henry Mr Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr R K Jeha 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 Mr D Whitelock Bill Yoe
Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Dennis Mr David Edgecombe Mr Richard Fernyhough Ken Follett
Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Pehr G Gyllenhammar Edmund Pirouet Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE
The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged: Corporate Members Silver: AREVA UK British American Business Destination Québec – UK Hermes Fund Managers Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP Berkeley Law Charles Russell Lazard Leventis Overseas Corporate Donor Lombard Street Research In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sela / Tilley’s Sweets Villa Maria Trusts and Foundations Addleshaw Goddard Charitable Trust Arts and Business Allianz Cultural Foundation
Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation The Boltini Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Charitable Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The Delius Trust Diaphonique, Franco-British fund for contemporary music Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Hattori Foundation for Music and the Arts Capital Radio’s Help a London Child The Hobson Charity The Kirby Laing Foundation The Idlewild Trust The Leverhulme Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Marsh Christian Trust The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute
The Peter Minet Trust Paul Morgan Charitable Trust The Diana and Allan Morgenthau Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund Newcomen Collett Foundation The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust The Serge Prokofiev Foundation Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Reed Foundation The Rothschild Foundation The Seary Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Stansfield Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation The Swan Trust John Thaw Foundation The Thistle Trust The Underwood Trust Kurt Weill Foundation for Music Garfield Weston Foundation Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13
LAST royal festival hall concerts this season
Wednesday 18 April 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall
Wednesday 2 May 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall
Schumann Overture, Genoveva Kalevi Aho Sieidi: Concerto for Solo Percussion and Orchestra (world première)* Brahms Symphony No. 1
Janáček Suite, The Cunning Little Vixen Dvořák Piano Concerto* Suk Symphonic Poem, Ripening
Osmo Vänskä conductor Colin Currie percussion * Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Luosto Classic Festival and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra
Vladimir Jurowski conductor Martin Helmchen piano London Philharmonic Choir * Supported by Dunard Fund
Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Professor Geoffrey Chew explores three giants of the Czech repertoire.
2012/13 season now on sale! Osmo Vänskä and Colin Currie
Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Colin Currie explores Kalevi Aho’s Sieidi: Concerto for Solo Percussion and Orchestra.
Saturday 28 April 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall
Browse the full season at www. lpo.org.uk/ newseason or call 020 7840 4208 for a brochure. Highlights of the season include appearances by Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Tetzlaff, Lawrence Power, Kurt Masur, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt and Sarah Connolly. There are also opportunities to hear new talent including cellist Sol Gabetta, conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, pianist Javier Perianes and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.
Messiaen Les Offrandes oubliées Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1* Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4
The Orchestra is devoting all its 2013 concerts to Southbank Centre’s year-long festival inspired by Alex Ross’s book The Rest Is Noise, charting seminal works of the 20th century from Elgar to Kurt Weill.
Yan Pascal Tortelier conductor Hong Xu piano
Subscription discounts are available when booking three or more concerts.
* Supported by Dunard Fund
Free pre-concert performance 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Thomas Blunt conducts the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral apprentices in UK premières of Luke Bedford’s By the Screen in the Sun at the Hill on the Gold and David Bruce’s Steampunk.
Booking details
The Foyle Future Firsts Programme is generously funded by The Foyle Foundation with additional support from the Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation, the Idlewild Trust, the Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust, the Seary Charitable Trust and the Musicians Benevolent Fund.
Southbank Centre Box Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm southbankcentre.co.uk (transaction fees apply)
14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Tickets £9–£39 | Premium seats £65 London Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office 020 7840 4242 Monday to Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.uk (no transaction fee)
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The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045. Photographs of Beethoven and Stravinsky courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Photograph of Julian Anderson © Maurice Foxall. Front cover photograph © Benjamin Ealovega. Printed by Cantate. †Supported by Macquarie Group