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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

BRIGHTON DOME, CONCERT HALL Saturday 16 March 2013 | 7.30pm

david parry conductor Narek Hakhnazaryan cello

BEETHOVEN Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 (36’)

Programme PROGRAMME £2.50 £3 CONTENTS CONTENTS 2 Welcome 2 Welcome 3 About the Orchestra 3 theperformers Orchestra 4 About Tonight’s 4 David Parry 5 Stanisław Skrowaczewski 5 6 Narek GarrickHakhnazaryan Ohlsson 6 On stage tonight 7 Programme notes 7 notes 10 Programme Orchestra news 11 Supporters 11 Supporters 12 12 LPO LPO administration administration The timings shown are not precise The timings shown are not precise and and are given only as a guide. are given only as a guide.

SCHUMANN Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 (26’) Interval ELGAR Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma), Op. 36 (29’)

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA WITH ASSISTANCE FROM BRIGHTON DOME

Ticket Office: 01273 709709 brightondome.org

Welcome

Welcome to Brighton Dome Chief Executive Andrew Comben We hope you enjoy the performance and your visit to Brighton Dome. For your comfort and safety, please note the following: LATECOMERS may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance. Some performances may contain no suitable breaks. SMOKING Brighton Dome is a no-smoking venue. INTERVAL DRINKS may be ordered in advance at the bar to avoid queues. PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium.

London Philharmonic Orchestra 2013/14 season at Brighton Dome Booking for next season’s London Philharmonic Orchestra concerts at Brighton Dome is now open: pick up a brochure as you exit the concert this evening or look out for your copy in the post. Saturday 9 November 2013 | 7.30pm Dvořák Cello Concerto Rossini Overture, William Tell Mendelssohn Symphony No. 4 (Italian) Daniele Rustioni conductor Leonard Elschenbroich cello

RECORDING is not allowed in the auditorium.

Saturday 30 November 2013 | 7.30pm

MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before entering the auditorium.

Kodály Dances of Galánta Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 Dvořák Symphony No. 7

Thank you for your co-operation.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Michael Roll piano Saturday 22 February 2014 | 7.30pm

The concert at Brighton Dome on 16 March 2013 is presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with assistance from Brighton Dome.

Berlioz Overture, Le Corsaire Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Brahms Symphony No. 2 Vasily Petrenko conductor Kirill Gerstein piano Saturday 22 March 2014 | 7.30pm

Brighton Dome gratefully acknowledges the support of Arts Council England and Brighton & Hove City Council. Brighton Dome is managed by Brighton Dome and Festival Ltd which also runs the annual three-week Brighton Festival in May. brightonfestival.org

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Wagner Siegfried Idyll Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 Joseph Swensen conductor Liza Ferschtman violin Tickets £10–£27.50 (Premium seats £32.50) Box Office 01273 709709 Book online at brightondome.org

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 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 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. 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 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 The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an concerts there each season. 2012/13 highlights include energetic programme of activities for young people and three concerts with Vladimir Jurowski based around local communities. Highlights include the Deutsche the theme of War and Peace in collaboration with the Bank BrightSparks Russian National Orchestra; Series; the Leverhulme Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny The LPO’s playing throughout was Young Composers Opera, also conducted by Jurowski; 20th-century exceptional in its warmth, finesse project; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral American works with Marin and detail. The Guardian training programme Alsop; Haydn and Strauss (23 January 2013, Royal Festival Hall: Webern, Schoenberg and Mahler) for outstanding young with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; players. Over recent and the UK premiere of Carl years, developments in technology and social networks Vine’s Second Piano Concerto with pianist Piers Lane have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people under Vassily Sinaisky. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra worldwide: all its recordings are available to download is collaborating with Southbank Centre on The Rest Is from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news Noise festival, based on Alex Ross’s book of the same blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra name and charting the 20th century’s key musical has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter. 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.

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

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David Parry conductor

David Parry is acknowledged as an inspirational champion of operatic, concert and symphonic repertoire across a vast range. He is known both for the re-appraisal of important lesserknown compositions and for a consistently fresh approach to established repertoire. Recent engagements include Lucia di Lammermoor for Opera Murcia, Il turco in Italia for Garsington Opera, The Barber of Seville for Staatsoper Stuttgart, concert appearances with the Philharmonia Orchestra featuring Sir John Tomlinson and Carmen Giannattasio, and a new production of Petrushka for Geneva Opera.

of Nixon in China at the National Theatre of Greece; the Dutch premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Flight at the Nationale Reisopera; The Magic Flute at Oper Köln; and Don Giovanni at Staatstheater Hannover. He has appeared at the Oviedo Festival and Quincena Musical de San Sebastián in Spain, the Hong Kong International Festival, the New Zealand International Festival, New Israeli Opera and Theater Basel. He enjoys a close association with Staastheater Stuttgart where, in addition to The Adventures of Pinocchio, he has conducted Don Giovanni, Le comte Ory, The Barber of Seville and Turandot.

Significant credits include the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s The Adventures of Pinocchio (in separate productions for Opera North and Staatstheater Stuttgart), Der Fliegender Holländer (for Portland Opera), Madame Butterfly (in Anthony Minghella’s production for English National Opera, which earned him an Olivier Award), Cosí fan tutte and the premiere of Dove’s Flight (both for Glyndebourne Festival Opera) and Maria Stuarda (for Stockholm Royal Opera).

David has an extensive discography for Chandos and Opera Rara. His recording of Rossini’s Ermione with the London Philharmonic Orchestra won a Gramophone Award for Best Opera Recording of 2011.

David Parry made his operatic debut with La Cenerentola for English Music Theatre and subsequently joined the conducting staff first at Dortmund then at Opera North. He was Music Director of Opera 80 and founding Music Director of Almeida Opera, with whom he gave world premieres of works by Nigel Osborne, Kevin Volans, Elena Firsova and Param Vir. Other significant world premieres have included Stephen Oliver’s Mario and the Magician at the Batignano Festival, and Jonathan Dove’s Tobias and the Angel in 2006 and his oratorio There Was a Child at the Norfolk and Norwich Festival in 2009. In the UK David has conducted frequently at both English National Opera and Opera North in repertoire ranging through Mozart, Rossini, Verdi and Britten, and at Garsington Opera where he is particularly noted for his Rossini. International successes include the Spanish premieres of Peter Grimes, The Rake’s Progress and Jenůfa, all in Madrid; the Greek premiere 4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Much in demand from ensembles both in the UK and further afield, David Parry is regularly at the helm of orchestras including the London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, City of Birmingham Symphony and English Chamber orchestras, the Hallé, and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields.

David’s current engagements include Maometto II at Garsington Opera and collaborations with both the London Philharmonic and Philharmonia orchestras at the 2013 Norfolk and Norwich Festival.

Narek Hakhnazaryan

cello

Described by the Washington Post as ‘a seasoned phenomenon’, Narek Hakhnazaryan was propelled onto the international scene when he won the Cello First Prize and Gold Medal at the 2011 XIV International Tchaikovsky Competition. Throughout the competition, Hakhnazaryan impressed a distinguished jury which included Sir Clive Gillinson, Mario Brunello, David Geringas, Ralph Kirshbaum, Lynn Harrell and Krzysztof Penderecki. In the 2011/12 season Hakhnazaryan made a number of high-level debuts, including with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall in London conducted by Valery Gergiev, where he was described by the Guardian as ‘the brightest star of the evening … a cellist of real maturity whose performance of the Variations on a Rococo Theme was characterful and well-judged’. Elsewhere he played with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra under Ton Koopman; the Tonkünstler Orchestra under Vladimir Fedoseyev; the Verdi Orchestra Milan under Xian Zhang; at the Baden-Baden Festival with the Mariinsky Orchestra under Valery Gergiev; and in chamber and duo recitals in Rome, at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, where he was immediately re-invited, and at the Tivoli, Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, City of London and Verbier festivals.

Narek Hakhnazaryan was born in 1988 in Yerevan, Armenia, into a family of musicians: his father was a violinist and his mother a pianist. His early studies were at the Sayat Nova School of Music in Yerevan with Zareh Sarkisyan and subsequently at the Moscow Conservatory with Alexey Seleznyov. He has received scholarships from the Rostropovich Russian Performing Arts Fund, and his prizes include First Prize in the 2006 Aram Khachaturian International Competition in Armenia and First Place in the 2006 Johansen International Competition for Young String Players. Working with Lawrence Lesser, he received an Artist Diploma from the New England Conservatory of Music in 2011. As First Prize winner in the 2008 Young Concert Artists International Auditions, Hakhnazaryan made his debut in the Young Concert Artists Series at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall in New York, sponsored by the Jerome L. Greene Foundation Prize, and in Washington, DC. In May 2012 he made his New York concerto debut at Lincoln Center’s Alice Tully Hall as part of the Young Concert Artists gala with the Orchestra of St Luke’s. Narek Hakhnazaryan plays a 1698 David Tecchler cello, on loan from Valentine Saarmaa, granddaughter of the renowned luthier Jacques Français.

As well as tonight’s debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, this season Hakhnazaryan appears for the first time with the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra under Valery Gergiev at the Gergiev Festival, where he will perform the Dutilleux Concerto; and with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the Filarmonica della Scala, Milan, the Vienna Chamber Orchestra, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and the Seoul Philharmonic Orchestra. In recital he will make debut appearances at the Berlin Konzerthaus; the Amsterdam Concertgebouw; the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston; and the Vancouver Recital Series.

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On stage tonight

First Violins Philippe Honoré Guest Leader Geoffrey Lynn Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Ishani Bhoola Robert Yeomans Amanda Smith Amanda Lake Maeve Jenkinson Holly Bhattacharya Francesca Smith Sarah Buchan Dafydd Williams Richard Milone Second Violins Takane Funatsu Guest Principal Joseph Maher Fiona Higham Ashley Stevens Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Caroline Simon Sioni Williams Alison Strange Mila Mustakova Elizabeth Baldey Stephen Dinwoodie Linda McLaren

Violas Gillianne Haddow Guest Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katherine Leek Benedetto Pollani Susanne Martens Alistair Scahill Daniel Cornford Sarah Malcolm Martin Fenn Cellos Francis Bucknall Principal Gregory Walmsley Santiago Carvalho† Sue Sutherley Tom Roff Tae-Mi Song Sibylle Hentschel William Routledge Double Basses Laurence Lovelle Principal George Peniston Richard Lewis Kenneth Knussen Jeremy Watt Charlotte Kerbegian Flutes Ian Mullin Guest Principal David Cuthbert Stewart McIlwham*

Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Paul Richards Bassoons Richard Skinner Guest Principal Susana Dias Contrabassoon Simon Estell Principal Horns John Ryan* Principal David Pyatt Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Trombones David Whitehouse Principal Tony Randall Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Organ Catherine Edwards

* Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Daniel Newell

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Sonja Drexler Moya Greene John & Angela Kessler Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp The Sharp Family Julian & Gill Simmonds

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Programme notes

Speedread Romanticism remains the most magnetically powerful movement in music, and tonight’s concert charts a neat journey through its development. You could argue that it all started with Ludwig van Beethoven – the first composer who wrote music he believed would change the heartbeat of men; music specifically designed to stir up feelings of love and revolution in a way never really managed before. His Fifth Symphony remains his most astonishing – a work inhabiting a new plane of expression but built almost entirely on a single idea. Beethoven, though, was effectively working on ‘Classical’ models laid down by Haydn and Mozart before him. And many composers after Beethoven clung to these models too – believing self-expression was only spiritually and intellectually valid if it played by the old rules of how music should be designed

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827

The Viennese might well have been flabbergasted by the Fifth Symphony’s opening gesture when the 37-yearold Beethoven let it loose on them in 1808, but they had been warned. Beethoven had put the cat among the pigeons before: his earlier Third Symphony was over twice as long and far more complex than any work of the same form that preceded it. The Fifth, though, stepped resolutely onto new and profound ground from its epoch-making opening four notes; a piece in which we can still recognise the revolutionary today, despite the musical upheavals that have followed it. Beethoven, though, wasn’t working in a vacuum. He was influenced significantly by his contemporaries

and how its tunes should be controlled. One of those figures was Robert Schumann; his music was outspoken and heartfelt, but had a ‘clipped’ perfection that, if anything, strengthened its impact and assured its longevity. As Romanticism grew, it embraced concepts never before fully explored in music – such as the depiction of specific narratives, places or people in nominally abstract music. Edward Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ Variations are, at their simplest, a convivial portrait of a group of middle-class friends engaging in light banter in the Malvern Hills. But that’s to sell it short; in among the spectacular orchestrations are moments of unspeakable poignancy, uplifting celebration and passionate love – precisely the life-affirming qualities that spurred the likes of Schumann and Beethoven on.

Symphony No. 5 in C minor, Op. 67 1 Allegro con brio 2 Andante con moto 3 Scherzo: Allegro – 4 Allegro

and predecessors, Haydn and Mozart in particular. Haydn’s building of symphonies on single, short ideas and Mozart’s triumphant use of the key of C minor are both at work in Beethoven’s Fifth. But the sonic realm of this piece, especially its shocking opening bars, is a long way from the Classicism of Beethoven’s illustrious predecessors. And so to that iconic opening: eight notes divided into two sets of four – three Gs falling to E flat, and three Fs falling to D (heard, surprisingly perhaps, on just strings and clarinets). This so-called ‘fate’ motif not only dominates the first movement’s music, but is referenced in almost every one of the movement’s bars. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

Programme notes

This ‘cellular’ writing provides a fascinating refraction of the principle of thematic development – almost as if Beethoven is deconstructing and dissecting his theme rather than expanding and developing it. The motif then expands into a horn-call, from which the more contented second idea takes its notes; everything in this movement, and within the depths of its perfectly pruned polyphony, is born from the same idea. In the ‘double variation’ Andante that follows, Beethoven poses alternate variations on two themes in music that seems at times free and improvisatory, with Haydnesque charm and exquisite and unusual orchestral touches. The third movement is something of a dark Scherzo: two brief and somewhat enigmatic gestures preface the dolefully transformed horn-call remembered from the first movement – again maintaining the rhythm of the

Robert Schumann 1810–56

In a sense, Robert Schumann embodied the musical world that emerged after Beethoven – one of emotionally charged intensity, heart-on-sleeve openness and the propensity to dream big dreams. Schumann did all those things, but like many great artistic minds of the Romantic period he was also a tortured soul. Depression, mental illness and physical frailty afflicted the composer and destabilised his life; when he was offered the relative stability of a job directing the orchestra in Dusseldorf in 1850, Schumann understandably – albeit after much deliberation – accepted. The first big work to flow forth from Schumann’s new life in Dusseldorf was his Cello Concerto. The composer had started to learn the cello in the 1830s and subsequently wrote a number of chamber works involving the instrument. But a concerto was different: a cello is one of the hardest instruments to place

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Symphony’s opening motif. After the cellos’ campaign to initiate a full-blown fugue, and a delicately orchestrated airing of the horn theme, the timpani taps pregnantly before the orchestra explodes into the final movement with the brazen unleashing of a C major triad (related to the third movement’s opening notes). The Finale continues in this joyous mode – carried forward by its own infectious enthusiasm, littered with rhythmic and harmonic references to the ‘fate’ motif and overcoming the cheeky reappearance of the third movement’s main theme mid-way through (which is triumphantly rebutted by the C major triad). ‘I will seize fate by the throat; it shall certainly not bend and crush me completely’, Beethoven famously said. His major-key quashing of the fate motif is his musical promise to do just that.

Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129 Narek Hakhnazaryan cello 1 Nicht zu schnell 2 Langsam 3 Sehr lebhaft

against an orchestra, often too low in range and wide in sonority to cut through (unlike a violin). That, and Schumann has long suffered an unfair reputation for dense, over-egged orchestrations. Schumann handled those problems by keeping wind and brass numbers in his orchestra low (two of each instrument), and by largely allowing the solo cello to lead the musical conversation. And in that is one of the secrets of the Concerto’s success: Schumann clearly found some resonance with the singing, dreamy qualities of the instrument in a way that few other composers have. As the Concerto proceeds, there’s a feeling that the orchestra takes its time to get a foothold: in the first two movements it reacts to the cello; in the third it comes into its own, stepping up the volume and increasingly challenging the cello’s authority.

The first movement launches with a soaring, elegiac main theme whose first response on the cello has been described as ‘an archetypal flight of Romantic fancy’. Arguably, though, the brief and intermezzo-like second movement (the three are linked by a recurring motif taken from the opening theme) has the most Romantic qualities: a heartfelt eloquence that comes from the music’s patient intimacy and speech-like poise, particularly as the cello is accompanied by pizzicato strings. The Concerto ends with a high-spirited finale driven by clipped rhythmic impulse and containing a beautiful and unusual cadenza for the solo instrument accompanied by other low strings. Across the three movements Schumann exposes the full capabilities of

the cello; its range, both technically and emotionally, is fully explored. Still, it took Schumann many years to get the piece right. He returned to the score numerous times to make revisions – probably to get the Concerto into the worthy state in which we know it – sometimes while undergoing the most torturous bouts of depression as his illness worsened. But the piece had to wait until 1860 for its first performance – four years after Schumann’s Dusseldorf project had progressed through attempted suicide, incarceration and ended finally in death.

Interval An announcement will be made a few minutes before the end of the interval.

Edward Elgar

Variations on an Original Theme (Enigma), Op. 36

1857–1934

Theme Variation I: Variation II: Variation III: Variation IV: Variation V: Variation VI: Variation VII: Variation VIII: Variation IX: Variation X: Variation XI: Variation XII: Variation XIII: Variation XIV:

C.A.E. H.D.S.-P R.B.T. W.M.B. R.P.A. Ysobel Troyte W.N. Nimrod Intermezzo: Dorabella G.R.S. B.G.N. *** Finale: E.D.U.

Edward Elgar was a very personal being. Whilst he’s sometimes viewed as the artistic exponent of the virtues of Empire, he was introverted – often most

happy walking in the Worcestershire countryside – and visited frequently by feelings of self-doubt and loneliness. But following the success of his recent score Caractacus, he was contented in the autumn of 1898 when, one evening, he lit a cigar and sat down at the piano of his Malvern home, happy to let whatever music came to him speak freely through his fingers. The theme that eventually took shape was a malleable but idiosyncratic one: ‘Nevison would have looked at it like this’, Elgar told his wife over his shoulder as he continued to play, ‘Powell would have done this’. And so the idea formed in Elgar’s mind for a series of orchestral variations that would, just as his spontaneous thoughts had done, cast the theme in the varying textures, moods and hues of his friends’ personalities. Not only does Elgar’s set of variations remain his most famous and performed work, it was also that

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Programme notes

which brought him to international prominence and established his name as a composer. On completing the score Elgar sent a copy to the conductor Hans Richter, who immediately took the piece up. Following the premiere on 19 June 1899 it was heard in Liverpool, Manchester and Bradford – and soon thereafter on the European mainland. Richter suggested a re-write for the ending, too, and Elgar obliged with a lengthened coda that provided a more purposeful ‘full-stop’. As a set of orchestral variations, the ‘Enigma’ is nearflawless. The moods are varied and consistently moving, the virtuosic temperament is dazzling, the full palette of the orchestra is explored, and the theme is often readily identifiable even within its varied guises. Most of the variations are labelled with the initials or name of the character they depict, and descriptive explanations can be found in Elgar’s own hand. A sensitive, straightforward statement of the theme leads straight into the tender depiction of Elgar’s wife Caroline in the first variation. Next we meet Hew David Steuart-Powell, an amateur pianist whose warm-up dash over the piano keys is parodied here in Elgar’s rushing semiquavers. Then it’s Richard Baxter Townshend, author and ‘am-dram’ enthusiast whom Elgar’s grumpy bassoons gently tease, followed by William Meath Baker, a ‘country squire’ who once dictated some travel arrangements to his friends with a rather draconian air, finishing with an ‘inadvertent bang of the door’. In Variation 5 the ‘badinage’ amongst the woodwinds portrays the ‘witty remarks’ that permeated the conversation of Elgar’s friend Richard Arnold. Next the composer pays touching respect to Isobel Fitton, a local lady who had started learning the viola: the opening bar’s theme is something of an exercise in crossing the instrument’s four strings, the first major challenge for any nascent string player. Another budding musician is depicted in the next variation, one of Elgar’s most characterful: the Malvern architect Arthur Troyte Griffith. ‘The boisterous mood is mere banter’, wrote Elgar, describing Griffith’s ‘uncouth’ attempts to play the piano. In Variation 8, which portrays Winifred Norbury, Elgar wrote that he was ‘suggesting an 18th-century household.’

musical circles, who confided to the composer that he thought Beethoven’s slow movements unmatchable. Elgar didn’t deign to try and prove Jaeger wrong here; he simply used the slow movement of Beethoven’s Eighth Piano Sonata to shape his opening bars. What follows is an intermezzo more than a variation: a sketch of Dora Penny, a young friend of the Elgars whom the composer is said to have found attractive. The mood then changes with George Robinson Sinclair, organist of Hereford Cathedral, who isn’t actually depicted at all in his variation; the opening scurrying represents Sinclair’s dog falling down a bank into a river, with the rest of the movement displaying the canine’s subsequent antics. ‘A serious and devoted friend’ was how Elgar described Basil G. Nevison, portrayed in Variation 12. Variation 13 also represented someone close to Elgar: Lady Mary Lygon, who’d left England for New Zealand as Elgar began writing. The gentle tapping of the timpani with the handle-end of the sticks echoes the rattling turn of a ship’s engine; over this the clarinet drapes a well-known theme from Mendelssohn’s Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage. Then comes a spectacular finale – Elgar summarising his intentions as a composer and seeming to pre-empt his career’s launch as the theme is thrust triumphantly into the major. So, all nicely explained – but there is the small matter of Elgar’s ‘Enigma’ remaining. It was actually Jaeger who added the word to the top of the score just prior to publication, perhaps after conversation with Elgar – who’d admitted that he was holding back an idea he’d ascribed to the theme itself, describing it as ‘dark’. Theories have come and gone over the years, including one most recently from Clive McClelland of the University of Leeds. Three years ago he cited the tune to ‘Now the Day is Over’, a hymn by Sabine Baring-Gould, as uniting all 13 variations. McClelland, though, has been wise enough to realise that his theory is unlikely to put a full-stop on the hunt for Elgar’s Enigma. In fact, it’s doubtful that conclusive proof for any Enigma theory will be found, meaning Elgar’s work will continue to exude the mystery that in part has made it such an enduring and fascinating work. Programme notes by Andrew Mellor © 2013

‘Nimrod’ is the one movement from the set that is regularly plucked out and heard alone. It immortalises AJ Jaeger, Elgar’s publisher and a well-known figure in 10 | 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 Don Kelly & Ann Wood 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

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