16 February 2013 LPO programme notes

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

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Saturday 16 February 2013 | 7.30pm

YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN conductor LEILA JOSEFOWICZ violin

ravel Mother Goose – ballet (28’) PROKOFIEV Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19 (22’) Interval stravinsky The Rite of Spring (32’)

Thomas Beecham Group Concert Generously supported by Dunard Fund

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 Welcome 3 Tonight’s works in context 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader 6 On stage tonight 7 Yannick Nézet-Séguin 8 Leila Josefowicz 9 Programme notes 13 Next concerts 14 Birthday Appeal update 15 Supporters 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 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.

Southbank Centre’s The Rest Is Noise, inspired by Alex Ross’s book The Rest Is Noise Presented by Southbank Centre in partnership with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. southbankcentre.co.uk/therestisnoise The Rest Is Noise is a year-long festival that digs deep into 20th-century history to reveal the influences on art in general and classical music in particular. Inspired by Alex Ross’s book The Rest Is Noise, we use film, debate, talks and a vast range of concerts to reveal the fascinating stories behind the century’s wonderful and often controversial music.

We have brought together the world’s finest orchestras and soloists to perform many of the most significant works of the 20th century. We reveal why these pieces were written and how they transformed the musical language of the modern world.

Over the year, The Rest Is Noise focuses on 12 different parts. The music is set in context with talks from a fascinating team of historians, scientists, philosophers, political theorists and musical experts as well as films, online content and other special programmes.

If you’re new to 20th-century music, then this is your time to start exploring with us as your tour guide. There has never been a festival like this.

Jude Kelly Artistic Director, Southbank Centre

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Tonight’s works in context

1870 1875 Maurice Ravel born in Ciboure, France 1876 Prototype telephone invented by Alexander Graham Bell

1880

1880 Dostoyevsky’s The Brothers Karamazov published 1882 Igor Stravinsky born in Oranienbaum, Russia 1886 First sales of Coca-Cola in the USA, originally marketed as a patent medicinal remedy

1890 1900

1891 Sergei Prokofiev born in Sontsovka, Russia (now part of Ukraine) 1896 Henri Becquerel discovered radioactivity. First modern Olympic games held in Athens 1897 Marconi awarded a patent for radio communication 1901 Death of Queen Victoria 1906 Kellogg’s began selling Corn Flakes

1910 1920

1912 Premiere of Ravel’s ballet Mother Goose in Paris 1913 Premiere of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring in Paris 1914 Outbreak of World War I 1918 End of World War I 1922 Creation of the Soviet Union (USSR) 1923 Premiere of Prokofiev’s Violin Concerto No. 1 in Paris

1930 1940

1929 Wall Street Crash 1932 London Philharmonic Orchestra founded by Sir Thomas Beecham 1936 Death of King George V 1937 Death of Ravel in Paris 1939 Outbreak of World War II in Europe 1945 End of World War II

1950

1949 Orwell’s Nineteen Eighty-Four published 1953 Death of Prokofiev in Moscow. Death of Joseph Stalin 1955 Vietnam War began

1960 1970

1962 Cuban Missile Crisis 1963 Assassination of John F Kennedy in Dallas, Texas 1969 Neil Armstrong became the first man on the Moon. Stonewall riots in New York 1971 Death of Stravinsky in New York

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

The LPO were on exceptional form, and the performance had a real edge-of-yourseat excitement. The Guardian (29 September 2012, Royal Festival Hall: Rachmaninoff, Shchedrin, Denisov & Miaskovsky)

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 giving classical concerts, the Orchestra also records film and video 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 its Principal Conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Sir John Pritchard, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur.

The current Principal Conductor is Vladimir Jurowski, appointed in 2007, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin is Principal Guest Conductor.

The Orchestra is Resident Orchestra at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since it opened in 1951, giving around 40 concerts there each season. 2012/13 highlights include three concerts with Vladimir Jurowski based around

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

the theme of War and Peace in collaboration with the Russian National Orchestra; Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, also conducted by Jurowski; 20th-century American works with Marin Alsop; Haydn and Strauss with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and the UK premiere of Carl Vine’s Second Piano Concerto with pianist Piers Lane under Vassily Sinaisky. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra will collaborate with Southbank Centre on The Rest Is Noise festival, based on Alex Ross’s book of the same name and charting the 20th century’s key musical works and historical events.

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, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide.

Tours in the 2012/13 season include visits to Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, the USA and Austria.

© Patrick Harrison

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Pieter Schoeman leader

In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an energetic programme of activities for young people and local communities. Highlights include the Deutsche Bank BrightSparks Series; the Leverhulme Young Composers project; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Over recent 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

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

© Patrick Harrison

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, East is East, Hugo, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now nearly 70 releases available on CD and to download.

Recent additions include Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 with Vladimir Jurowski; Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 1 & 3 with Klaus Tennstedt; a disc of orchestral works by Mark-Anthony Turnage; and the world premiere of the late Ravi Shankar’s First Symphony conducted by David Murphy.

Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra.

He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in the US. In 1987 he was offered the Heifetz Chair of Music scholarship to study with Eduard Schmieder in Los Angeles and in 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman, who recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. In 1994 he became her teaching assistant at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. As a chamber musician he regularly performs at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall.

As a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pieter has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky, Brahms’s Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, and Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim.

He has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television, and led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

twitter.com/LPOrchestra In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

Pieter is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Chair supported by John & Angela Kessler

Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by Moya Greene

Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Tina Gruenberg Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Rebecca Shorrock Alina Petrenko Galina Tanney Peter Nall Madeleine Easton Caroline Sharp Second Violins Philippe Honore Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Fiona Higham Ashley Stevens Nancy Elan Emma Wragg Gavin Davies Harry Kerr Imogen Williamson Sioni Williams Alison Strange Peter Graham Violas Joel Hunter Guest Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek

Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens Naomi Holt Daniel Cornford Alistair Scahill Isabel Pereira Sarah Malcolm Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Gregory Walmsley Santiago Carvalho†Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff Helen Rathbone Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Tim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Richard Lewis Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Tom Walley Flutes Samuel Coles Guest Principal Ian Mullin Frank Nolan Piccolos Stewart McIlwham* Principal Frank Nolan Alto Flute Sue Thomas

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick Helen Barker John Roberts Cor Anglais Sue Bohling Principal Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds

John Roberts Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Emily Meredith Duncan Gould Bass Clarinets Paul Richards Principal Duncan Gould E-flat Clarinet Nicholas Carpenter* Principal Bassoons Daniel Jemison Guest Principal Gareth Newman* Stuart Russell Claire Webster

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal Daniel Newell David Hilton Piccolo Trumpet Nicholas Betts Bass Trumpet David Whitehouse Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse Andrew Connington Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tubas Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal David Kendall Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Adam Clifford

Contrabassoons Simon Estell Principal Claire Webster

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal

Horns David Pyatt Principal John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Stephen Nicholls Peter Blake Duncan Fuller Anthony Chidell

Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Eddy Hackett

Wagner Tubas John Ryan* Martin Hobbs

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Harp Rachel Masters* Principal Celeste Catherine Edwards * Holds a professorial appointment in London †Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Yannick Nézet-Séguin

© Marco Borggreve

conductor

Music Director of The Philadelphia Orchestra since the start of the 2012/13 season, and Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra and Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra since 2008, Yannick Nézet-Séguin has also been Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain (Montreal) since 2000, and has conducted all the major ensembles in his native Canada.

His European debut in 2004 swiftly led to invitations to many ensembles such as the Dresden Staatskapelle, the Berlin Philharmonic, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the Vienna Philharmonic (in Salzburg, Lucerne and Vienna), the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe. He made his BBC Proms debut in 2009 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, returning the following year with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. Summer 2012 saw concerts with the Orchestre Métropolitain in Canada; The Philadelphia Orchestra in Vail and Saratoga in the USA; and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe at Mostly Mozart, New York.

A notable opera conductor, Nézet-Séguin made his debut at the Salzburg Festival in 2008 with a new production of Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette, returning to the city for the 2010 Mozartwoche and Don Giovanni at the 2010 and 2011 summer festivals. For the Metropolitan Opera he has conducted Carmen, Don Carlo and Faust, and will return each season. He made his debut at the Teatro alla Scala in 2011 with Roméo et Juliette and at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden last year with Rusalka. With the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra he has conducted The Makropulos Case, Turandot and Don Carlo; and in 2011 began a Mozart opera series for the Festspielhaus Baden-Baden.

Alongside Yannick Nézet-Séguin’s acclaimed Philadelphia Orchestra inaugural concerts and Carnegie Hall debut with Verdi’s Requiem, the 2012/13 season includes the partnership’s first recording for Deutsche Grammophon;

two separate tours to Japan and the Far East with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra; a German tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra; and the complete Schumann symphonies and concertos with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, recorded live last November for DGG from Cité de la Musique in Paris.

Following highly successful DVD releases of Roméo et Juliette (Salzburg Festival, 2008) and Carmen (Metropolitan Opera, 2010) for its Yellow Label, in July 2012 Deutsche Grammophon announced a major long-term collaboration with Nézet-Séguin. Their plans include symphonic releases with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and Philadelphia orchestras and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and live recordings of Mozart’s seven mature operas from Baden-Baden. The first, Don Giovanni (Mahler Chamber Orchestra) was released last year to outstanding reviews. The series continues with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Così fan tutte is scheduled for release later this year.

Nézet-Séguin’s Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra discography also includes recordings of Strauss (Ein Heldenleben/Four Last Songs) and Berlioz (Symphonie fantastique/La mort de Cléopâtre) for BIS Records; and three EMI/Virgin releases, including an Edison Awardwinning album of Ravel’s orchestral works. He has recorded Brahms’s German Requiem with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on its own label (LPO-0045) and, with the Orchestre Métropolitain, enjoys a fruitful recording relationship with the Canadian label ATMA Classique.

A native of Montreal, Yannick Nézet-Séguin studied piano, conducting, composition and chamber music at Montreal’s Conservatoire de musique du Québec, and choral conducting at Westminster Choir College in Princeton, New Jersey. He continued his studies with renowned conductors including Carlo Maria Giulini.

His honours include a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award; Canada’s highly coveted National Arts Centre Award and the Prix Denise-Pelletier, the highest distinction for the arts in Quebec, awarded by the Quebec government. In 2011, he received an honorary doctorate from the University of Quebec in Montreal and in 2012 was appointed a Companion of the Order of Canada.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

Leila Josefowicz

© J Henry Fair

violin

Violinist Leila Josefowicz has won the hearts of audiences around the world with her honest, fresh approach to repertoire and her dynamic virtuosity.

Since her Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 16 she has appeared with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and conductors. A close collaborator with today’s leading composers, Josefowicz is a strong advocate of new music – a characteristic reflected in her diverse programmes and enthusiasm for performing new works. She has also been awarded a prestigious MacArthur Fellowship, joining prominent scientists, writers and musicians who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.

Violin concertos have been written especially for Leila Josefowicz by Colin Matthews, Steven Mackey and Esa-Pekka Salonen, while Luca Francesconi and John Adams have recently been commissioned to write new pieces for her. The Salonen Concerto was first performed

by Josefowicz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by the composer, before subsequent performances throughout Europe and North America.

Josefowicz gave the premiere of Matthews’s Concerto with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra before performing the piece with the Orchestre National de Lyon and the BBC Symphony and Finnish Radio Symphony orchestras.

During the 2012/13 season Leila Josefowicz will appear with the Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, and the Gothenburg Symphony, Danish National Symphony and Royal Stockholm Philharmonic orchestras. In January 2013 she performed Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s Violin Concerto with the Luzerner Sinfonieorchester and James Gaffigan, and in May she will join Susanna Mälkki for Stravinsky’s Violin Concerto with the Radio Filharmonisch Orkest Holland as part of the ZaterdagMatinee series. Josefowicz will also appear this season with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the Detroit Symphony, Cincinnati Symphony and Minnesota orchestras.

8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Recent appearances in North America include performances with the Boston, San Francisco, Chicago and Toronto symphony orchestras, and The Philadelphia Orchestra, with whom Josefowicz was Artist in Residence in the 2011/12 season. Elsewhere, she has appeared with the London Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Münchner Philharmoniker, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra.

Josefowicz has released several recordings, notably for the Deutsche Grammophon, Philips/Universal and Warner Classics labels. She has recorded the works of John Adams: most recently The Dharma at Big Sur with the Los Angeles Philharmonic – her second release for DG Concerts on iTunes – and the title track on the Grammy-nominated Road Movies album for Nonesuch. Her latest recording, released by Deutsche Grammophon in autumn 2012, features Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto with the Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by the composer.

Programme notes

Speedread All three of tonight’s works were composed in the same decade – the 1910s – and all were premiered in that most artistically volatile and opinionated of cities, Paris. When Erik Satie heard Ravel’s exquisite ballet based on music originally written for two of his friend’s children, he praised it for its ‘grandeur within simplicity’; Prokofiev’s delicate First Violin Concerto was so different from what was expected of the

Maurice Ravel 1875–1937

‘Ravel was my favourite [among my father’s friends] because he used to tell me marvellous stories. I would sit on his knee and indefatigably he would begin “Once upon a time”’. Mimie Godebski’s adult recollections revealing lifelong bachelor Ravel’s unerring affinity with children and childish things relate directly to the conception of the suite Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose’).

In the summer of 1908 the composer had presented the nine-year-old Mimie and her younger brother Jean with a tiny but exquisite ‘Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant’ (Pavane of the Sleeping Beauty) for piano duet. His intention was that they would play it, but it proved too difficult, and when the death of his father took the composer back to Paris that autumn any intended further work was temporarily halted; it was not until the spring of 1910 – the same time that he was working on the ballet Daphnis et Chloé – that Ravel completed it as a five-movement suite on subjects borrowed from old fairytales by the Comtesse d’Aulnoy, Marie Leprince de Beaumont and Charles Perrault (whose collection Contes de ma mère l’Oye provided the title). He still harboured hopes that the Godebski children would give the first public performance, but although they played

thrillingly dissonant enfant terrible that it couldn’t get a performance for six years; and Stravinsky’s ballet The Rite of Spring made its epoch-making entrance at one of the most celebratedly ‘scandalous’ premieres of all time. A hundred years later this iconic work may not shock quite as it did then, but it has lost none of its sense of earth-shattering modernity.

Piano Mother Concerto Goose –No. ballet 3 in D minor, Op. 30 Simon PréludeTrpčeski – Dansepiano du Rouet et Scène – Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant – 1 Les Allegro entretiens made non la tanto Belle et de la Bête – Petit Poucet – 2 Laideronnette, Intermezzo:Impératrice Adagio – des Pagodes – Le jardin féerique 3 Finale: Alla breve

it to him in private, the premiere was eventually given in Paris by two other child pianists, Jeanne Leleu and Geneviève Durony.

Ravel produced his customary orchestration in 1911, but then, in answer to a commission from a Parisian theatre, followed it up with the expanded ballet score (nearly twice the length of the suite) that we hear tonight. The scenario featured the famous Beauty pricking her finger, dreaming fairytale stories as she sleeps and finally being awoken at dawn by Prince Charming, and was presumably grafted on afterwards since it entailed not only the addition of linking passages, an atmospheric ‘Prélude’ and a ‘Danse du Rouet’ (Spinning-Wheel Dance) but also a slight reordering of the original movements. These themselves remain intact, however, their naive charm and sensitivity somehow only heightened by the deft sophistication of Ravel’s orchestration. After the ‘Pavane’ comes the Satie-esque ‘Les entretiens de la Belle et de la Bête’ (Dialogues of Beauty and the Beast), with Beauty represented by a clarinet, the Beast by a contrabassoon and their moment of reconciliation by a harp glissando London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes

and glistening violin harmonics. ‘Petit Poucet’ depicts a diminutive character (his English equivalent would be Hop o’ my Thumb) laying a trail of breadcrumbs through the woods, only to see his waymarkers eaten by birds; the trail can be heard meandering its way through the music on the strings, and the birds are unmistakable.

‘Laideronnette, Impératrice des Pagodes’ (Little ugly one, Empress of the Pagodas) conjures its oriental

flavour through the use of the pentatonic scale – like Debussy and others, Ravel had been influenced by hearing a Javanese gamelan at the Paris Exhibition of 1889 – and the score ends with ‘Le jardin féerique’ (The fairy garden), depicting Prince Charming’s arrival in the ballet, but in its original guise surely a burst of radiant nostalgia for childhood.

Sergei Prokofiev

Violin Concerto No. 1 in D major, Op. 19

1891–1953

When Prokofiev completed the first of his two violin concertos in 1917 – an especially busy year for him which also saw work on the Third Piano Concerto, the Third and Fourth piano sonatas, the opera The Love for Three Oranges and the ‘Classical’ Symphony among other works – he was largely known to the public as an iconoclastic composer of the near-brutalist stamp, as displayed in the Scythian Suite and some of his earlier piano pieces. The Concerto, however, which had begun life two years earlier as a less ambitious ‘concertino’, showed a very different side of the 26-year-old composer, one that is well recognised today but at the time was virtually unknown to the world. For this is a work of exquisite, at times haunting, lyricism.

So contrary was the work to what was expected, indeed, that it took six years for Prokofiev to get it performed, and even when it was finally premiered, in Paris under the baton of Serge Koussevitsky in 1923, no established soloist could be found to take it on, so it had to be played by the leader of the orchestra. This seems all the

Leila Josefowicz violin 1 Andantino 2 Scherzo: Vivacissimo 3 Moderato – Andante

more extraordinary considering the long and drowsily meditative tune with which the first movement opens, surely a gift to any violinist. A second theme, initiated by the cellos, is more angular, and the central development section of the movement edges the music further towards the grotesque. But after a brief chordal solo – perhaps the nearest the violin comes to a cadenza in this Concerto – and a gentle waft of string tremolandi, the magically rescored recapitulation of the first theme takes the music to a new level of diaphanous beauty.

The middle movement is a Scherzo, fast and witty, and cast in a finale-like rondo form in which three statements of a freely running main theme are separated by more sluggish episodes, both of whose attempts to rein in the forward momentum are politely but firmly pushed aside. The Concerto ends with another predominantly lyrical movement, though one with an ebb and flow so skilfully managed that it is with perfect naturalness that the first movement’s main theme slides in at the end to round things off.

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

10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Igor Stravinsky

The Rite of Spring

1882–1971

Part 1: Adoration of the Earth Introduction – The Augurs of Spring (Dances of the young girls) – Ritual of abduction – Spring rounds – Ritual of the rival tribes – Procession of the Sage – The Sage – Dance of the Earth Part 2: The Sacrifice Introduction – Mystic circles of the young girls – Glorification of the chosen one – Evocation of the ancestors – Ritual action of the ancestors – Sacrificial dance (The chosen one) Stravinsky’s original title for The Rite of Spring was ‘The Great Sacrifice’, and the idea for it, he said, came from a dream he had while completing the score for The Firebird in 1910: ‘I saw a solemn pagan rite: sage elders, seated in a circle, watched a young girl dance herself to death. They were sacrificing her to propitiate the god of spring.’ That, aided by the section titles which appear above, is perhaps all one needs to know about the scenario for the ballet that resulted from this inspiration, but naturally such subject matter had a profound influence on the identity and character of the work that would go on to become the 20th century’s most iconic concert piece. For no-one could mistake that in The Rite atavistic violence and life-force – summoned by a composer whose fondest memory of his homeland was ‘the violent Russian spring that seemed to begin in an hour and was like the whole earth cracking’ – co-exist with elemental strength.

Having imagined the piece, Stravinsky was encouraged to realise it by Sergey Diaghilev, the charismatic impresario whose Ballets Russes company had given the composer his first chance with The Firebird. Their next collaboration was actually Petrushka, but in the summer of 1911 Stravinsky began work on The Rite, devising in collaboration with the designer Nikolay Roerich a scenario and even some concepts for costumes and sets. Work continued throughout the following year, and the score was finally completed on 8 March 1913.

Roerich was an ethnographist, and presumably his input

helped Stravinsky focus the work on Slavic folklore; the composer later stated that the high bassoon melody of the opening was based on a Lithuanian folksong, but it seems that many other thematic elements in the work also had their origins in Slavic melodies, albeit well disguised.

Yet it is the startling modernism of The Rite that dominates our experience of the piece, even a hundred years after it appeared. The work may have been inspired by the renewal of nature, but the result was a renewal of musical language as well, and just as it conveys a sense of man’s helplessness in the face of terrifying natural forces (as signified by his feeble appeasing rituals), so there is a sense that a new and potentially untameable musical power is being unleashed. One certainly senses that in the earflattening ‘Dance of the Earth’ that ends Part 1, but it has a technical analogue in the famous ‘crush’ chord – a dissonant superimposition of an F-flat major triad and a dominant seventh on E-flat – that appears in irregular stamping rhythm about three minutes into the piece. The focal point of the opening sections, it was the first part of The Rite to be written, Stravinsky’s sonic response to his original vision, but however spontaneously it may have come into being the melodic as well as harmonic implications of its unique identity are played out at length in the course of the piece, as if at first congealed and then exploded into motion by the dance of adolescent girls it accompanies.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

Programme notes

It is a new approach to rhythm that dominates the work above all, however. Released from its traditional subservience to harmony and form, its pounding energy here makes it not just a motivating force but a structural one as well. The constantly changing, asymmetric metre of the final ‘Sacrificial Dance’ may seem almost randomly unpredictable, but it is actually achieved by near-systematic variation of its basic patterns. As in nature, what appears at first chaotic and arbitrary in The Rite of Spring is in fact highly structured.

more peaceful, and that within a year a concert presentation of The Rite could be received with ‘unprecedented exultation’. Yet if any piece in music history deserved to make a big noise on its arrival, this is the one.

Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp

The Rite’s riotous premiere at the Théâtre des ChampsElysées on 29 May 1913 is the stuff of modern legend.

Disquiet at the music was superheated by outrage at Nijinsky’s ‘primitive’ choreography, and rival factions among the audience were soon insulting one another so volubly that even Stravinsky’s giant score could no longer be heard. Less well-known is that subsequent performances within that same season were rather

INTERNATIONAL PIANO SERIES 2012/13

CHRISTIAN BLACKSHAW

Tuesday 26 February

KARIM SAID

Sunday 3 March and Sunday 9 June

MITSUKO UCHIDA

Sunday 12 May Part of The Rest Is Noise

PIOTR ANDERSZEWSKI

STEPHEN KOVACEVICH

STEVEN OSBORNE

KIRILL GERSTEIN

ELISABETH LEONSKAJA

YUNDI

Thursday 18 April

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

DENIS KOZHUKHIN

Thursday 23 May

Thursday 4 April

TICKETS 0844 847 9929 SOUTHBANKCENTRE.CO.UK

Tuesday 7 May

Wednesday 6 March

Tuesday 19 March

Mitsuko Uchida © Roger Mastroianni

ANGELA HEWITT

Wednesday 29 May Part of The Rest Is Noise

Wednesday 5 June

Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 20 February 2013 | 7.30pm

Saturday 2 March 2013 | 7.30pm

Anon Spirituals – a cappella Dvořák Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) Milhaud La Création du monde Varèse Amériques

Weill The Threepenny Opera (sung in German with English surtitles)

Marin Alsop conductor London Adventist Chorale Free pre-concert performance 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Foyle Future Firsts and conductor Andrew Gourlay present Les mariés de la Tour Eiffel by Les Six (orch.

Constant) – a rare revival of the score to Cocteau’s nonsensical ballet.

Friday 22 February 2013 | 7.30pm JTI Friday Series Ives Three Places in New England Gershwin Rhapsody in Blue Copland Piano Concerto Joplin (arr. Schuller) Treemonisha Suite Marin Alsop conductor Garrick Ohlsson piano Free pre-concert performance 5.00–5.30pm | Royal Festival Hall The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s ensemble for 15–19 year olds, The Band, presents a new work inspired by Ives’s Three Places in New England.

Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Pianist Garrick Ohlsson shares his views on performing works by Gershwin and Copland.

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Mark Padmore Macheath Sir John Tomlinson J J Peachum Dame Felicity Palmer Mrs Peachum Allison Bell Polly Peachum Nicholas Folwell Tiger Brown Gabriela Iştoc Lucy Brown Meow Meow Jenny Max Hopp narrator Ted Huffman director London Philharmonic Choir There will be no interval in this performance.

Free pre- and post-concert performances 6.00–6.45pm and 9.45–10.15pm The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall Foyle Future Firsts and conductor Gerry Cornelius present Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel – two chances to hear Weill and Brecht’s first collaboration.

Saturday 6 April 2013 | 7.30pm Stravinsky Symphony of Psalms Orff Carmina Burana Hans Graf conductor Sally Matthews soprano Andrew Kennedy tenor Rodion Pogossov baritone London Philharmonic Choir Trinity Boys Choir Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Hans Graf looks at Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms and the lasting appeal of Carmina Burana.

Booking details London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Monday to Friday 10.00am–5.00pm | lpo.org.uk Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm | southbankcentre.co.uk

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

London Philharmonic Orchestra Birthday Appeal update Two double bass stools

Three tom-toms

Carmina Burana music hire for 6 April 2013

Thank you so much to all of our audience members who have given us a birthday present for our 80th. Thanks to you, the Appeal has already raised over £10,000 and the double bass stools and tom-toms are on their way!

However, we still need your help with obtaining the other presents on our wish list, such as our children’s concert illustrations, choir scores for Carmina Burana, or you can give us a gift to spend on whatever we need the most.

Please visit www.lpo.org.uk/birthday and help celebrate our 80th by donating to our present wish list. All presents, big or small, are greatly received by the Orchestra and, while you’re there, why not leave us a birthday message or memory from the last 80 years?

‘Thank you LPO for providing such joy to me, my friends and all the audiences over the last 80 years. Have a great birthday!’

‘Many thanks for the concerts over the years. My father was a double bass player but in those days never had a stool!’

‘A very happy birthday. I have enjoyed many years with the LPO. The performances have been first class. I am also celebrating my 80th year in 2013!’

Illustrations for our FUNharmonics family concerts With special thanks to the following people who have given over £250 to our Birthday Appeal: Mr Aldwinckle, Mrs A Beare, Mr G Bitar, Mr C Blakey, Mr G A Collens, Mrs Sonja Drexler, John and Angela Kessler, Mr R P Harsant, Mr Frank Lim, Mr R McCann, Professor D Kelly, Mrs G Pole, The Sharp Family, Christopher Williams Recording a concert for live stream

Get involved and visit www.lpo.org.uk/birthday for more information.

Alternatively get in touch via katherine.hattersley@lpo.org.uk or call 020 7840 4212.

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors: Thomas Beecham Group The Tsukanov Family Foundation Anonymous The Sharp Family Julian & Gill Simmonds Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller Moya Greene John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett Guy & Utti Whittaker Manon Williams 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 Daniel Goldstein Mr & Mrs Jeffrey Herrmann Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas 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 Anthony Yolland 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 Michael & Christine Henry

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 Andrew T Mills John Montgomery Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Edmund Pirouet Professor John Studd Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Mr Laurie Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock Christopher Williams Bill Yoe 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 Pritchard Englefield Bronze: Lisa Bolgar Smith and Felix Appelbe of Ambrose Appelbe Appleyard & Trew LLP Berkeley Law Charles Russell Lazard Leventis Overseas Corporate Donor Lombard Street Research Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Villa Maria

In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Sela / Tilley’s Sweets Trusts and Foundations BBC Performing Arts Fund The Boltini Trust Sir William Boreman’s Foundation The Boshier-Hinton Foundation Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust Diaphonique, Franco-British fund for contemporary music Dunard Fund Embassy of Spain, Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs The Equitable Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation J Paul Getty Junior Charitable Trust The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Capital Radio’s Help a London Child The Hobson Charity The Kirby Laing Foundation

The Idlewild Trust The Leverhulme Trust Marsh Christian Trust 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 Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Rothschild Foundation The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation John Thaw Foundation The Tillett Trust The Underwood Trust Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement Kurt Weill Foundation for Music Garfield Weston Foundation and others who wish to remain anonymous

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Administration

Board of Directors

General Administration

Orchestra Personnel

Archives

Victoria Sharp Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann* Angela Kessler George Peniston* Sir Bernard Rix Kevin Rundell* Julian Simmonds Mark Templeton* Sir Philip Thomas Natasha Tsukanova Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Dr Manon Williams

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Philip Stuart Discographer

Sarah Thomas Librarian (maternity leave)

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

Sarah Holmes Librarian (maternity cover)

Professional Services

* Player-Director

Advisory Council Victoria Sharp Chairman Richard Brass Sir Alan Collins Jonathan Dawson Christopher Fraser OBE Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Timothy Walker AM American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. Margot Astrachan Chairman David E. R. Dangoor Vice Chair/Treasurer Kyung-Wha Chung Peter M. Felix CBE Alexandra Jupin Dr. Felisa B. Kaplan William A. Kerr Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee Dr. Joseph Mulvehill Harvey M. Spear, Esq. Danny Lopez Honorary Chairman Noel Kilkenny Honorary Director Victoria Sharp Honorary Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Robert Kuchner, CPA

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager Finance David Burke General Manager and Finance Director

Michael Pattison Stage Manager

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Mia Roberts Marketing Manager

Education & Community

Rachel Williams Publications Manager

Charles Russell Solicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Julia Boon Auditors Assistant Orchestra Personnel David Greenslade Manager FSC_57678 14 January 2011 15/09/2011 12:30 Page Dr 1 Louise Miller Finance and ITLPO Manager Honorary Doctor Ken Graham Trucking Concert Management Instrument Transportation London Philharmonic Roanna Gibson Development Orchestra Concerts Director 89 Albert Embankment (maternity leave) Nick Jackman London SE1 7TP Development Director Ruth Sansom Tel: 020 7840 4200 Artistic Administrator / Acting Fax: 020 7840 4201 Helen Searl Head of Concerts Department Box Office: 020 7840 4242 Corporate Relations Manager lpo.org.uk Graham Wood Katherine Hattersley Concerts and Recordings Charitable Giving Manager The London Philharmonic Manager Orchestra Limited is a Melissa Van Emden registered charity No. 238045.

Barbara Palczynski Events Manager Glyndebourne and Projects Photograph of Ravel courtesy Laura Luckhurst Administrator of the Royal College of Corporate Relations and Jenny Chadwick Music, London. Photograph Events Officer Tours and Engagements of Prokofiev © Archive Pics/ Sarah Fletcher Manager Alamy.

Development and Finance Alison Jones Officer Front cover photograph Concerts Co-ordinator © Patrick Harrison.

Marketing Jo Orr Printed by Cantate.

PA to the Chief Executive / Kath Trout Concerts Assistant Marketing Director

Patrick Bailey Education and Community Director Alexandra Clarke Education Manager Caz Vale Community and Young Talent Manager Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Samantha Kendall Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242) Libby Northcote-Green Marketing Co-ordinator Isobel King Intern Albion Media Public Relations (Tel: 020 3077 4930)