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

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Wednesday 19 October 2011 | 7.30pm

MARKUS STENZ conductor LAWRENCE POWER viola

PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 Southbank Centre / Leader 3 List of players 4 About the Orchestra 5 Markus Stenz 6 Lawrence Power 7 Programme notes 11 Supporters 12 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

MOZART Symphony No. 41 in C major, K551 (Jupiter) (26’) MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE On Opened Ground: concerto for viola and orchestra (25’) Interval R STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra (32’)

* supported by the Tsukanov Family † supported by Macquarie Group CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

This concert is being broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 in Radio 3 Live In Concert.

Welcome

pieter schoeman Leader

Pieter Schoeman joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Co-Leader in 2002, and was appointed Leader in 2008.

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE

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Born in South Africa, he made his solo début 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. In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has performed frequently as Guest Leader with the symphony orchestras of Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon and Baltimore, as well as with the BBC Symphony Orchestra. Pieter is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

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

Xuan Du Shlomy Dobrinsky Katalin Varnagy Catherine Craig Yang Zhang Tina Gruenberg Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Rebecca Shorrock Peter Nall Galina Tanney Joanne Chen Caroline Sharp Sarah Buchan Second Violins Clare Duckworth Principal Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Joseph Maher Fiona Higham Marie-Anne Mairesse Kate Birchall Chair supported by David and Victoria Graham Fuller

Ashley Stevens Andrew Thurgood Nynke Hijlkema Sioni Williams Alison Strange Stephen Stewart Elizabeth Baldey Stephen Dinwoodie Naomi Anner Linda McLaren Belinda McFarlane

Violas Fiona Winning Guest Principal Robert Duncan Susanne Martens Laura Vallejo Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter-Bootiman Katharine Leek Daniel Cornford Naomi Holt Claudio Cavalletti Sarah Malcolm Rebecca Carrington Pamela Ferriman Cellos Josephine Knight Guest Principal Susanne Beer Co-Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp

Gregory Walmsley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff Tae Mi Song Pavlos Carvalho Jonathan Kitchen Double Basses Tim Gibbs Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Richard Lewis Kenneth Knussen Tom Walley Helen Rowlands Lowri Morgan Flutes Susan Thomas Principal Jane Spiers Joanna Shaw

Piccolos Trumpets Stewart McIlwham* Principal Paul Beniston* Principal Joanna Shaw Anne McAneney* Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Fraser MacAulay Will Oinn Cor Anglais Sue Bohling Principal Chair supported by Julian and Gill Simmonds

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal James Burke E-flat Clarinet Katie Lockhart Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal Contra-bass Clarinet Martin Robertson Soprano Saxophone Martin Robertson Bassoons Daniel Jemison Guest Principal Gareth Newman* Emma Harding Contra-bassoon Simon Estell Principal Horns John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison John Thurgood Anthony Chidell Duncan Fuller

Chair supported by Geoff and Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal William O’Sullivan Tony Cross Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tubas Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Jonathan Riches Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Sam Walton Harps Rachel Masters* Principal Helen Sharp Organ Bernard Robertson

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

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporter whose player is not present at this concert: Richard Karl Goeltz

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras. As well as performing classical concerts, the Orchestra also records film and computer game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of Londoners every year through activities for schools and local communities. The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then has been headed by many of the great names in the conducting world, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. The current Principal Conductor is Russian Vladimir Jurowski, appointed in 2007, with French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin as Principal Guest Conductor.

You may well have heard the London Philharmonic Orchestra on film soundtrack recordings: it has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East. The Orchestra also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 50 releases on the label, which are available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations and Symphony No. 8 conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras; Holst’s The Planets conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Klaus Tennstedt; and Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Martin Helmchen under Vladimir Jurowski. The Orchestra was also recently honoured with the commission to record all 205 of the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics Team Welcome Ceremonies and Medal Ceremonies.

The Orchestra is based at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, where it has performed since it opened in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 40 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and soloists. Concert highlights in 2011/12 include a three-week festival celebrating the music of Prokofiev, concerts with artists including Sir Mark Elder, Marin Alsop, Renée Fleming, Stephen Hough and Joshua Bell, and several premières of works by living composers including the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson. In addition to its London concerts, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964.

To help maintain its high standards and diverse workload, the Orchestra is committed to the welfare of its musicians and in December 2007 received the Association of British Orchestras/Musicians Benevolent Fund Healthy Orchestra Bronze Charter Mark.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring remains a big part of the Orchestra’s life: tours in the 2011/12 season include visits to Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the US, Spain, China, Russia, Oman, Brazil and France.

Find out more and get involved!

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an energetic programme of activities for young people and local communities. Highlights include the ever-popular family and schools concerts, fusion ensemble The Band, the Leverhulme Young Composers project and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training scheme for outstanding young players. Over the last few years, developments in technology and social networks have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra has a thriving presence on Facebook and Twitter.

lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra

MARKUS STENZ

CONDUCTOR

Markus Stenz is General Music Director of the City of Cologne and Principal Conductor of the city’s Gürzenich Orchestra. He visited China with the Orchestra in early 2008 and conducted its first ever BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall in August 2008. He is also Principal Guest Conductor of the Hallé and will assume the position of Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra from the 2012/13 season. Markus studied at the Cologne School of Music under Volker Wangenheim, and at Tanglewood with Leonard Bernstein and Seiji Ozawa. He has previously held the positions of Artistic Director of the Montepulciano Festival (1989–95) and Principal Conductor of the London Sinfonietta (1994–98). As Artistic Director and Chief Conductor of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra from 1998–2004 he broadened his repertoire and established his career as an international conductor. He has since conducted many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Vienna Symphony and NHK Symphony orchestras, the Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and the symphony orchestras of the Bayerische Rundfunk, Hessischer Rundfunk, WDR and NDR. In the United States he has conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra and the Chicago, Boston, Dallas, Houston and Seattle symphony orchestras.

houses and international festivals including La Scala in Milan, La Monnaie in Brussels, English National Opera, San Francisco Opera, Stuttgart Opera, Frankfurt Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Edinburgh International Festival and Salzburg Festival. His notable opera performances in Cologne have included Wagner’s Ring, Lohengrin, Tannhäuser, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Parsifal as well as Janáček’s Jenůfa and Katya Kabanová. In the 2011/12 season Markus will conduct new productions of Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos and Puccini’s Tosca, as well as the world première of Detlev Glanert’s opera Solaris at the 2012 Bregenz Festival. Markus is currently recording a complete cycle of Mahler symphonies with the Gürzenich Orchestra on the Oehms Classics label, plus the song cycle Des Knaben Wunderhorn with Christiane Oelze (soprano) and Michael Volle (baritone). The first release of the cycle, Mahler’s Fifth Symphony, was shortlisted for the German Record Critics’ Award in November 2009 and was selected as ‘Recording of the Year’ by the music magazine Rondo in 2010. The recording of the Fourth Symphony was Editor’s Choice in Classic FM magazine in October 2010 and was awarded the ‘Supersonic Pizzicato’ by Pizzicato magazine. Single CDs will be released until the completion of the cycle in 2012. Since 2005, concerts by the Gürzenich Orchestra have been recorded live on their own label ‘GO Live!’ and made available to purchase within five minutes of the end of the concert.

To celebrate the 25th anniversary of Cologne’s great concert hall, the Kölner Philharmonie, Markus Stenz recently conducted two triumphant performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with his Gürzenich Orchestra and 400 singers from the Cologne and Bonn areas. Markus made his opera début at La Fenice in Venice in 1988, in a production of Hans Werner Henze’s Elegy for Young Lovers. He has since conducted many world premières including Henze’s Das verratene Meer in Berlin, Venus und Adonis at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich and L’Upupa at the 2003 Salzburg Festival. He has appeared at many of the world’s major opera London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

lawrence power VIOLA

British viola player Lawrence Power is considered one of the foremost violists of today. He was shortlisted for a Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award in 2011 and is regularly invited to perform with some of the world’s greatest orchestras, including the Chicago and Boston symphony orchestras; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra; and the Stockholm, Warsaw and Bergen Philharmonic orchestras. Recent engagements have included Berlioz’s Harold in Italy with the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra; the Bartók Viola Concerto with the Real Filharmonía de Galicia, the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Markus Stenz; Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall, the Boston Symphony Orchestra at Tanglewood Music Festival, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra; the York Bowen Viola Concerto with the Philharmonisches Staatsorchester in Mainz; Takemitsu’s concerto A String Around Autumn with the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra, and the Rózsa Viola Concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony and Royal Liverpool Philharmonic orchestras. The 2009/10 season included the UK première of Betty Olivero’s Neharot, Neharot as part of the BBC Proms chamber season at London’s Cadogan Hall, as well as appearances with the Amsterdam Sinfonietta and the Stavanger Symphony Orchestra. Lawrence’s world première recording of concertos by Cecil Forsyth and Edwin York Bowen with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra under Martyn Brabbins for Hyperion Records was widely praised and chosen by Gramophone magazine as one of the best 100 CDs of 2005. Other recordings include Brahms Viola Sonatas, the Walton and Rubbra Viola Concertos (nominated for a 2008 Gramophone Award) York Bowen’s complete works for viola and piano with Simon Crawford-Phillips (all for Hyperion), and Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante with Maxim Vengerov and the UBS Verbier Festival 6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Chamber Orchestra for EMI. A recording of Hindemith’s sonatas for viola and piano with Simon CrawfordPhillips was released in June 2009, and his recording of the Bartók and Rózsa concertos was released in October 2010 to rave reviews. A disc of Vaughan Williams and McEwen with the BBC National Orchestra of Wales has just been released by Hyperion, and his newest CD release, also on Hyperion, is Music for Viola and Orchestra, the final volume of his three-disc Hindemith survey. Future releases include a Shostakovich disc and the Britten double concerto with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra. The 2011/12 season sees Lawrence Power become Artist in Residence with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra, which will include various projects and a tour of Spain, as well as a series of concerts with Camerata Salzburg performing Penderecki’s Viola Concerto, conducted by the composer. He will also continue his relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, performing Walton’s Viola Concerto conducted by Vladimir Jurowski in October 2012 as well as a new commission by James MacMillan in the 2013/14 season. This season will see his orchestral début in Australia and in 2012 he will perform Harold in Italy in a series of three concerts with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Sir Mark Elder. Lawrence Power holds the position of International Professor of Viola at the Zurich Hochschule der Kunst. He is also founder and Artistic Director of the West Wycombe Chamber Music Festival. He plays a rare viola by the Bolognese maker Antonio Brensi from c.1610.

PROGRAMME NOTES

Young men’s music Mozart was only 32, albeit little more than three years from his death, when he composed his last three symphonies: yet he already had more than 20 years’ experience of writing in the form. The mastery he had achieved is evident in the third of the triptych, the so-called ‘Jupiter’, above all in its finale with its dazzling combination of sonata form and fugal texture. Richard Strauss was just 32, with more than half a century left of his long career, when he completed Also sprach Zarathustra: but he was already well into the series of brilliantly scored tonepoems that established his reputation as one of the leading composers of the day. With bold orchestral writing and sometimes startlingly radical invention,

Wolfgang Amadeus MOZART 1756–1791

Mozart’s last three symphonies were written in the summer of 1788, at remarkably high speed: according to his own handwritten catalogue of his works, this final one occupied him for not much more than two weeks. Because they were intended for performance within a subscription series in Vienna later in the year (though this may not have materialised), and perhaps also for publication as a set, Mozart took care to make them a balanced triptych, each work with its own distinctive colouring of instrumentation and key. So the ‘Jupiter’ (the inauthentic but appropriately lofty nickname of No. 41 in English-speaking countries) is scored for flute, two each of oboes, bassoons, horns and trumpets, timpani and strings – without the clarinets that give No. 39 its mellow quality, but with the trumpets and drums that are omitted from the more intense and

this work offers a musical parallel to Friedrich Nietzsche’s conception of a new strain of humanity, struggling free of all the old beliefs and fears towards a realm of ecstatic self-reliance. That leaves Mark-Anthony Turnage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s former Composer in Residence, as the oldest composer in tonight’s programme: he wrote his viola concerto On Opened Ground 11 years ago at the age of 40. The virtuosic solo part takes the rough with the smooth, as it were, juxtaposing and reconciling these characters against a rich orchestral background in two movements called ‘Cadenza and Scherzino’ and ‘Interrupted Song and Chaconne’.

Symphony No. 41 in C major, K551 (Jupiter) Allegro vivace Andante cantabile Menuetto and Trio: Allegretto Molto allegro

intimate No. 40. This scoring and the key together connect the piece to a recognised type of composition in the Classical era, that of the brilliant ceremonial symphony in C major. However, while the opening flourish of the first movement seems to establish a place in that tradition, Mozart soon starts composing against type, taking advantage of the neutrality of C major – which allows easy access to many sharp and flat keys playable on the instruments of his time – to write a harmonically wide-ranging and even daring development section. There follows an F major Andante, warmer and more relaxed in sound, without the trumpets and drums and with the upper strings muted; then a Minuet and Trio with a surprising percentage of quiet music; and

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

PROGRAMME NOTES

then the astonishing finale. Here it is not the brilliance of the chosen key and instrumentation that is most important but their clarity; this prompts Mozart to a dazzling display of his mastery of counterpoint, in a highly original combination of sonata form and

fugal texture, constructed out of the simplest of basic materials. The coda, in which the five principal motifs of the movement are presented simultaneously, makes a fitting, if at the time unintended, conclusion to Mozart’s symphonic career.

Mark-Anthony TURNAGE

on opened ground: CONCERTO for viola and orchestra

Born 1960

Mark-Anthony Turnage is a composer widely admired in Britain and abroad for his distinctive blending of jazz and contemporary classical traditions, high energy and elegiac lyricism, hard and soft edges. His career has developed largely through a series of close orchestral and operatic collaborations: with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, English National Opera, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra; and as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer in Focus in the 2004/05 season and Composer in Residence from 2005 to 2010. His latest opera, Anna Nicole, received its sensational première at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in February this year. Turnage’s On Opened Ground was a milestone in his career, his first work for a major American orchestra. Commissioned by the Cleveland Orchestra for the Russian violist Yuri Bashmet, it was written in 2000/01, with extensive revisions after a read-through of a provisional version in Cleveland, and first performed in November 2002. The British première followed in March 2004, with Lawrence Power as soloist. The title of the work may in part be a pun on its inclusion of a chaconne, on a ‘ground bass’, that opens out into a coda. But it also pays homage to the Northern Irish writer Seamus Heaney, who called a collection of his poems Opened Ground. There are no references to specific poems, but in a general sense the piece perhaps suggests Heaney’s gift for lyricism against a troubled background. The solo viola is sometimes gruff 8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Lawrence Power viola Cadenza and Scherzino Interrupted Song and Chaconne

and forceful, sometimes playfully virtuosic, but also frequently expressive in long singing lines – its relatively modest voice requiring considerable restraint in the use of Turnage’s usual large orchestra. The work is in two movements, each in two sections with a coda. The first movement begins with a declamatory Cadenza, at first skeletally accompanied and eventually for the viola alone. This leads into a Scherzino, or ‘little scherzo’, with a main section of dancing rhythms and incisive orchestral interjections, a calmer trio section beginning with expressive viola phrases against a slow-moving melody, and a shortened and varied version of the main section. In the coda, the viola leads a transition to a full-blooded orchestral passage based on the melodies of the trio section and an athletic figure borrowed from the Cadenza. The viola re-enters with a calm, simple melody, while two solo violins quietly repeat the athletic figure, before the movement winds down to stasis and silence. The first part of the second movement is called ‘Interrupted Song’: the viola leads the song, beginning with sustained high notes over a gently lapping background and gradually becoming more animated; the interruptions take the form of stabbing orchestral chords and wailing viola phrases. The first two interruptions are very short, but the third is longer and more intense, and seems to stop the viola’s song in its tracks, leaving the orchestra to take over. A short silence precedes the Chaconne, on a repeating ground bass

of two rising phrases, introduced by pizzicato double basses, reinforced by other bass instruments, and later varied. Over and around this ground bass, there are echoes of the song and, increasingly, of the dancing rhythms of the first movement. The Chaconne moves to a climax at which raucous downward scales in the

orchestra alternate with rough viola interjections. A slow coda, ‘grounded’ on long-held bass notes, revisits earlier ideas, including the opening gesture of the whole work on three muted solo violins, before this movement like the first dies away to silence.

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

Richard STRAUSS

ALSO SPRACH ZARATHUSTRA: Tone-poem for large orchestra, freely after Friedrich Nietzsche, Op. 30

1864–1949

Richard Strauss established himself in the avant-garde of his generation with the series of tone-poems that he composed in his 20s and early 30s, bold in their effects, and striking in their use of very large orchestral forces. The most modernist of the series in many respects is the fifth, Also sprach Zarathustra, written in 1896. It was inspired by one of the most radical literary works of the 1890s, Friedrich Nietzsche’s philosophical poem Thus spake Zarathustra. In the poem, which has as its central figure the ancient Persian prophet Zarathustra or Zoroaster, Nietzsche postulated the overthrow of all the modes of thought by which humanity had previously lived, and the emergence of a new, transcendentally self-reliant kind of being. Strauss derived from it a plan ‘to convey in music an idea of the evolution of the human race from its origin, through the various phases of development, religious as well as scientific, up to Nietzsche’s idea of the Superman’. This progressive scheme in itself virtually ruled out the traditional formal structures that underlie Strauss’s other tonepoems. But it did suggest an overall strategy of two contrasting sets of ideas in sharply opposed keys: C major representing nature, and the Superman who can become at one with nature; B minor and major for fallible, questioning mankind.

The work begins with its most famous passage, a glorious, elemental C major representation of a brilliant sunrise, based on a simple rising figure that throughout the work stands for nature. This is followed by four episodes concentrating on humanity and human emotions: these are shaped in a gradual acceleration to a climax, followed by a winding-down to stillness. ‘Of the Backworldsmen’ (the German Hinterweltlern puns on ‘backwoodsmen’ and ‘afterworldsmen’, or believers in an afterlife) introduces the principal theme representing fearful humanity (on pizzicato cellos and basses), and satirises religious aspirations with a mocking ‘Credo’ on muted horns and a sentimental passage for muted strings and organ. ‘Of the Great Longing’ represents man’s struggles to free himself from religious superstition. ‘Of Joys and Passions’ is a thrilling depiction of the sensual side of man’s nature; but at the climax there is a new chromatic motif in the trombones suggesting ‘disgust’ or ‘satiety’. ‘The Song of the Grave’ is dominated by the theme of fearful mankind, and dies down to a sustained low-lying chord. There follow four longer episodes exploring alternatives to traditional beliefs and ingrained emotions. ‘Of Science’ begins as a slow fugue, on a theme that

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

contains all 12 notes of the chromatic scale and several disparate rhythmic patterns – a remarkably prophetic conception for its time, even if it was intended as a parody of dry academic thought. The fugue is cut off by the return of the theme of humanity, inaugurating an episode developing earlier ideas. But the fugue is resumed with renewed vigour at the start of ‘The Convalescent’ – Strauss’s equivalent of the key passage in Nietzsche’s poem in which Zarathustra, after fasting for seven days, reaches a full understanding of his mission. This episode reaches a climax with the C major theme of nature ringing out triumphantly, only to be answered directly by the B minor voice of humanity, and the motif of disgust. The impasse is resolved by the theme of mankind in a more confident mood, and the section picks up impetus once more in a mood of increasingly feverish excitement.

A swift transition leads into ‘The Dance Song’, in which the rising figure of the nature theme becomes caught up in the rhythms of the Viennese waltz, and is combined with earlier ideas in a sustained expression of Dionysian ecstasy. The dance is still at its height when the midnight bell sounds: in Nietzsche’s poem, this is the cue for Zarathustra’s climactic statement of his message, represented here as ‘The Song of the Night Wanderer’. The motif of disgust asserts itself, but is then gradually eroded; the dance rhythms die down; man’s spirit begins an ascent into the heights. But at the quiet, extraordinarily original ending, high, bright chords of B major are stubbornly opposed by the persistent low Cs of nature. Programme notes by Anthony Burton © 2011

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LPO-0056

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We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors: Thomas Beecham Group The Tsukanov Family The Sharp Family Julian & Gill Simmonds Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller Richard Karl Goeltz John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett Mrs Sonja Drexler Guy & Utti Whittaker Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mr Charles Dumas

David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr & Mrs Jeffrey Herrmann Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas Andrew T Mills Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard Mr John Soderquist & Mr Costas Michaelides Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Edgecombe Mr Richard Fernyhough Ken Follett

Pauline & Peter Halliday Michael & Christine Henry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr R K Jeha Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Mr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Brian Marsh John Montgomery Edmund Pirouet Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Lady Marina Vaizey Mr D Whitelock Bill Yoe Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Edmund Pirouet Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

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Trusts and Foundations Arts and Business Allianz Cultural Foundation The Boltini Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Charitable Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The Delius Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Hattori Foundation for Music and the Arts Capital Radio’s Help a London Child The Hobson Charity The Kirby Laing Foundation The Leverhulme Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Marsh Christian Trust

The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute Paul Morgan Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund Newcomen Collett Foundation The Serge Prokofiev Foundation Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Reed Foundation The Seary Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Stansfield Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation The Swan Trust John Thaw Foundation The Thistle Trust The Underwood Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

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