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2010/11 SEASON
Chamber Contrasts Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Wigmore Hall
Supported by
Dunard Fund
www.lpo.org.uk
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PROGRAMME NOTES Would patrons please ensure that mobile phones are switched off. Please stifle coughing as much as possible and ensure that watch alarms and any other electronic devices that may become audible are switched off.
Thursday 18 November 2010 | 7.30pm Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Robert Hill clarinet PROKOFIEV Sonata for two violins, Op. 56
stands out from the ensemble, above all in the central section of the slow movement when it embarks on arabesques recalling the Hungarian gypsy music Brahms had known since his childhood. The Quintet’s valedictory mood is encapsulated when the closing set of variations gradually turns back towards the opening idea of the whole work.
Alexander Velinzon, Vesselin Gellev violins
MOZART String Quintet in D major, K593 Alexander Velinzon, Vesselin Gellev violins Alexander Zemtsov, Emmanuella Reiter-Bootiman violas Kristina Blaumane cello
INTERVAL BRAHMS Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 Robert Hill clarinet Alexander Velinzon, Vesselin Gellev violins Emmanuella Reiter-Bootiman viola Kristina Blaumane cello The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Chamber Contrasts series at Wigmore Hall is generously supported by Dunard Fund.
A MID-LIFE DUO AND TWO LATE QUINTETS Prokofiev wrote his Sonata for two violins in mid-career, while he was living in France and closely identified with the Parisian avant-garde, though already contemplating a return to Russia. Described by the composer’s biographer Daniel Jaffé as ‘one of his finest pieces’, it deploys the two virtuoso players on equal terms in four movements, alternately slow and fast. Mozart’s String Quintet in D major (with two violas) is one of the two quintets that he wrote towards the end of his short life. It is notable for the unusual shape of the first movement, in which the slow introduction returns just before the end, for the intensity of the slow movement, and for the many passages of counterpoint shared by all five players – above all in the dizzying finale. Brahms’s Clarinet Quintet is also a late work, one of the batch of pieces which he wrote for the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld after Mühlfeld’s playing had persuaded him to rescind his threatened retirement. Here the clarinet inevitably
SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953) Sonata for two violins, Op. 56 (1932) Andante cantabile Allegro Commodo (quasi Allegretto) Allegro con brio This Sonata dates from towards the end of Prokofiev’s years in the West, by which time his semi-nomadic existence was centred on Paris. Written during a holiday in the south of France in the summer of 1932, the piece was intended for the inaugural concert of Triton, a Parisian society formed to present new chamber music, with a committee of leading composers including Prokofiev himself. It was duly performed on that occasion in December 1932, by Robert Soetens and Samuel Dushkin, both leading soloists of the day. However, the première had in fact taken place at the end of the previous month in Moscow, during one of Prokofiev’s increasingly frequent trips back to his native Russia – the harbingers of his eventual decision to return for good in 1936. In his autobiography, Prokofiev wrote that he had been prompted to write for the unusual medium of two violins after hearing what he had felt to be an unsuccessful work (by an unidentified composer) for the same combination. He cast the work in the baroque form of the
Listening to bad music sometimes inspires good ideas: that’s not the way to do it, one tells oneself, it should be done this way. That’s how I happened to write my Sonata for two violins. After once hearing an unsuccessful piece for two violins without piano accompaniment, it struck me that in spite of the apparent limitations of such a duet one could make it interesting enough to listen to for ten or fifteen minutes without tiring. SERGEI PROKOFIEV, FROM HIS AUTOBIOGRAPHY
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sonata da chiesa, slow–fast–slow–fast, with the outer movements in C major and the inner ones in G minor. The opening movement demonstrates Prokofiev’s intention to treat the two instruments on equal terms, not only in two-part counterpoint but also in the sharing out of melody, accompaniment and virtuoso figuration. The first Allegro initially alternates between fierce multiplestopped chords and more sustained melody, and includes some exhilarating passages in which the two parts interlock at high speed to create a single line. The second slow movement, rather oddly marked to be muted ‘ad libitum’, has an almost continuous strand of lyrical melody. The finale is the longest movement and the most varied in colour and texture; it includes another passage of slick interlocking en route to the decisive ending.
surprisingly un-final) reminiscence of the main theme of the Allegro. The rising cello arpeggios in the introduction are echoed in a persistent subsidiary idea in the intense G major Adagio, and in the rocketing arpeggios of the Trio of the Minuet. There is a great deal of contrapuntal writing throughout these first three movements – even in the Minuet, which brings back its main theme in canon at the distance of one beat. But the most dazzling display of counterpoint comes in the 6/8-time finale: here the chromatic nature of the material (including the opening theme, written by Mozart with descending chromatic scales rather than the once familiar zig-zag patterns of the first, posthumous edition), and the composer’s clear wish to spread the interest equally around the quintet, result in textures of quite extraordinary fluency and intricacy.
WOLFGANG AMADEUS MOZART (1756–1791) String Quintet in D major, K593 (1790) Larghetto – Allegro Adagio Menuetto and Trio: Allegretto Finale: Allegro Mozart composed his first quintet for the combination of two violins, two violas and cello at Salzburg in 1773, apparently in emulation of a pair of Notturni by his court colleague Michael Haydn, brother of Joseph. He did not return to the medium until his later years in Vienna, but then he composed four masterpieces for it. These fall into two pairs: K515 in C major and K516 in G minor were written in the spring of 1787; K593 in D major was composed in late 1790, ending a rare fallow period in Mozart’s output, and K614 in E flat major followed in early 1791. When the last two were published in 1793, they were described on the title page as ‘composed for a Hungarian amateur’: this was probably Johann Tost, who was actually Moravian-born but had been a violinist in Joseph Haydn’s orchestra at Eszterháza in Hungary before embarking on a career in commerce; he was also the dedicatee of three sets of Haydn quartets. The D major was one of the quintets played at a musical party in Vienna in December 1790, at which Mozart and Haydn took the first viola part in turn – the last time the two friends made music together. The first movement of K593 in fact has a rather Haydnesque feature which is unique in Mozart’s output: its slow introduction recurs in a varied form towards the end of the movement, followed by a brief (and
INTERVAL 20 minutes Please check that your mobile phone is switched off, especially if you used it during the interval.
JOHANNES BRAHMS (1833–1897) Clarinet Quintet in B minor, Op. 115 (1891) Allegro Adagio Andantino – Presto non assai, ma con sentimento Con moto Brahms had announced his intention to retire from composition when in March 1891 he heard a concert by the Meiningen Orchestra. He was greatly impressed by the playing of its principal clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, whom he later described as ‘the greatest artist there is on the clarinet’; and he started discussing the technique of the instrument with him. That summer, at the Austrian spa resort of Ischl, he composed for Mühlfeld both his Trio for clarinet, cello and piano and his Quintet for clarinet and strings; three years later, these were followed by the two Sonatas for clarinet and piano, his last chamber works. The Quintet has been aptly described by the composer’s biographer Malcolm MacDonald as ‘one of Brahms’s most popular works in any medium, for its perfect expression
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PROGRAMME NOTES
of a spirit of mellow reflection, tinged with autumnal melancholy’. The work is also remarkable for its fine balance between unity and contrast. The 6/8-time first movement, for example, has a consistency of mood which grows out of its consistency of thematic material: virtually all its ideas are derived from the two distinct figures in the strings’ opening bars – the first turning on the spot, the second curving downwards. In the second movement, however, there is a sharp contrast between the serene B major outer sections, their melodic line spun over a gently pulsing accompaniment, and the B minor central section, with its free, florid clarinet arabesques over throbbing tremolandos – an episode which recalls Brahms’s lifelong knowledge and love of Hungarian gypsy music. There is further contrast in the D major third movement, in which the gentle opening Andantino turns out to be an extended introduction to a nimble Presto. But there is unity here as well, because the first theme of the Presto is a transformation of the melody of the Andantino. Then
It is a work of retrospection, a farewell. Pictures of the past, pleasures and sorrows, longing and hope, pass before the elderly master, who expresses them once again in delicately restrained and melancholy tones. KARL GEIRINGER, FROM BRAHMS: HIS LIFE AND WORK
the finale is in the form which most completely combines unity and diversity, that of variations. And Brahms has a last unifying master-stroke in store for the end of the piece. After a quiet, intimate variation in B major, the key of the slow movement, the time-signature changes from 2/4 to 3/8, and the final variation hints at ideas from the first movement. And in the coda the opening theme of the first movement returns in something like its original form, so that the Quintet comes to a close in a mood of tender and melancholy nostalgia. Programme notes by Anthony Burton © 2010
FUTURE CONCERTS BY SOLOISTS OF THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA AT WIGMORE HALL Monday 20 December 2010 | 7.30pm Julian Rowlands bandoneón Debussy Sonata for flute, viola and harp Bax Elegiac Trio Vaughan Williams Phantasy Quintet Puccini Crisantemi Piazzolla Five Tango Sensations Saturday 30 April 2011 | 7.30pm John Ryan horn Mozart Horn Quintet in E flat, K407 Strauss Sextet from ‘Capriccio’ Schubert String Quintet in C, D956 Monday 20 June 2011 | 7.30pm Katya Apekisheva piano John Ryan horn Nicholas Carpenter clarinet Brahms Horn Trio in E flat, Op. 40 Martinů Sextet for piano and wind
Beethoven Wind Sextet in E flat, Op. 71 Brahms Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
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PERFORMERS
Chamber Contrasts The London Philharmonic Orchestra returns to the Wigmore Hall for a series of concerts for small ensembles. This evening’s performers are: Alexander Velinzon (violin) was born in St Petersburg and studied there as well as at the Juilliard School in New York. He became assistant concertmaster of the Boston Symphony Orchestra in 2005 and, since then, has led the BSO under the direction of James Levine, Kurt Masur, Sir Colin Davis, Michael Tilson Thomas and other renowned conductors. He has also led orchestras such as the London Philharmonic, Seoul Philharmonic and Rotterdam Philharmonic. A member of the Bostonbased Walden Chamber Players, he has also appeared with the Boston Symphony Chamber Players and in 2009 became a member of the LiveArts string quartet. Vesselin Gellev (violin) was born in Bulgaria and, since his concerto debut at the age of nine, has been a soloist with the Spoleto Festival Orchestra, New Haven Symphony Orchestra, Juilliard Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra. As violinist of Antares, a pianoclarinet quartet, he won First Prize at the 2002 Concert Artists Guild competition in New York. As Concertmaster of Kristjan Järvi’s Absolute Ensemble, a Grammynominated, genre-blending ‘classical band’, he has recorded several CDs and appeared in venues such as the Sydney Opera House, Concertgebouw and Barbican. He joined the London Philharmonic as Sub-Leader in 2007. His chair is supported by John and Angela Kessler. Alexander Zemtsov (viola) was born in Ufa, USSR, and studied in Moscow, Maastricht and Berlin. He was appointed Principal Viola of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003. He is also a member of the Hermitage Trio with Boris Garlitsky and Leonid Gorokhov. As a soloist he has played with the Belgian Radio Orchestra, Konzertverein Orchester, Vienna, and
Emmanuella Reiter-Bootiman (viola) was born into a family of musicians in Jerusalem and began her musical studies with her father. After lessons in violin and piano she switched to the viola which she studied with Kim Kashkashian in Boston, USA. She served as teaching assistant to Kim Kashkashian for three years and her passion for teaching led her to write a book: Karen Tuttle’s Heritage: The Theory and Practice of Co-ordination. She frequently gives solo and chamber music concerts around the world and joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008. She is also Director of the Jigsaw Players Chamber Music Series in Wimbledon. Kristina Blaumane (cello) was born in Riga and studied at the Latvian Academy of Music and Guildhall School of Music & Drama. She has appeared as a soloist with orchestras in Latvia as well as with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta, Kremerata Baltica, Britten Sinfonia, Netherlands Wind Ensemble and London Philharmonic Orchestra. She has also been a guest at many festivals including Cheltenham, Aldeburgh, Salzburg, Verbier, Lockenhaus and Gstaad, and has collaborated with such renowned artists as Isaac Stern, Gidon Kremer, Yo Yo Ma, Yuri Bashmet, Leif Ove Andsnes and Nikolaj Znaider. She joined the Orchestra as Principal Cello in 2007. Her chair is supported by Simon Yates and Kevin Roon. Robert Hill (clarinet) was born in Middlesex and studied the clarinet at the Royal Academy of Music with John Davies. He was Co-Principal Clarinet in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra for two years before joining the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Principal Clarinet in Emmanuella Reiter-Bootiman
Peter Nall
Alexander Zemtsov
Fran Collin
Vesselin Gellev
Betsy Bassett
Alexander Velinzon
the London Philharmonic Orchestra. His recording of Britten’s Double Concerto for Violin and Viola (with Pieter Schoeman) was released on the Orchestra’s own label in 2009. He is a Professor of viola at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama. His chair is supported by the Tsukanov Family.
Kristina Blaumane
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GENERAL INFORMATION
1972. Despite an extensive schedule of concerts and recordings with the Orchestra, Robert was also a member of the Barry Tuckwell Wind Quintet and a founder member of London Sinfonietta. He has appeared as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on several occasions including performances of the Weber and Mozart Clarinet Concertos at the Royal Albert Hall and Royal Festival Hall.
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Concert presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Front cover photograph of Robert Hill by Benjamin Ealovega. † Supported by Macquarie Group
Programme £2