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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†

MAHLER ANNIVERSARY

PROGRAMME £3

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Wednesday 20 April 2011 | 7.30pm VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor JANINE JANSEN violin BACH Suite from the Orchestral Works of JS Bach (arranged by Mahler) (18’) SHOSTAKOVICH Violin Concerto No. 2

2 3 4 5 6 7 13 14 15 16

List of Players Orchestra History Southbank Centre Vladimir Jurowski Janine Jansen Programme Notes Supporters Recordings Administration Future Concerts

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

(30’)

INTERVAL WEBERN Five Movements for string orchestra

Tonight’s concert is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on 25 April 2011. (11’)

BEETHOVEN String Quartet in F minor, Op. 95 (arranged for string orchestra by Mahler) (39’) †

CONTENTS

supported by Macquarie Group

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

FIRST VIOLINS Dennis Kim Guest Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Chair supported by John and Angela Kessler

Shlomy Dobrinsky Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Tina Gruenberg Martin Hรถhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz

Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Peter Nall Galina Tanney SECOND VIOLINS Eugene Tichindeleanu Guest Principal Clare Duckworth Co-Principal Chair supported by Richard and Victoria Sharp

Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David and Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Marie-Anne Mairesse Andrew Thurgood Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Peter Graham Stephen Stewart

VIOLAS Alexander Zemtsov* Principal Chair supported by The Tsukanov Family

FLUTES Jaime Martin* Principal Sue Thomas*

Robert Duncan Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Daniel Cornford Isabel Pereira Naomi Holt Sarah Malcolm Martin Fenn Anthony Byrne Claudio Cavalletti

PICCOLO Stewart McIlwham* Principal

CELLOS Kristina Blaumane Principal Susanne Beer Co-Principal Laura Donoghue Jonathan Ayling

BASSOONS John Price Principal Emma Harding

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp

Santiago Sabino Carvalho + Gregory Walmsley Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Lybov Ulybesheva Tom Roff DOUBLE BASSES Tim Gibbs Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Richard Lewis Kenneth Knussen Tom Walley Louis Garson Damian Rubido Gonzalez

OBOES Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick CLARINETS Tom Watmough Guest Principal Emily Meredith

PERCUSSION Rachel Gledhill Principal PIANO John Alley ORGAN Catherine Edwards

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR Thomas Blunt

CONTRA BASSOON Simon Estell Principal HORNS John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Jenny Cox Gareth Mollison TRUMPETS Paul Beniston* Principal Daniel Newell Nicholas Betts Co-Principal TIMPANI Simon Carrington* Principal

* 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 supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Andrew Davenport Geoff and Meg Mann Julian and Gill Simmonds

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Patrick Harrison

Seventy-eight years after Sir Thomas Beecham founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra, it is recognised today as one of the finest orchestras on the international stage. Following Beecham’s influential founding tenure the Orchestra’s Principal Conductorship has been passed from one illustrious musician to another, amongst them Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. This impressive tradition continued in September 2007 when Vladimir Jurowski became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and, in a further exciting move, the Orchestra appointed Yannick Nézet-Séguin its new Principal Guest Conductor from September 2008. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall since it opened in 1951, becoming Resident Orchestra in 1992. It plays there around 40 times each season with many of the world’s most sought after conductors and soloists. Concert highlights in 2010/11 include an exploration of Mahler’s symphonies and complete song cycles during the composer’s anniversary season; the premières of works by Matteo D’Amico, Magnus Lindberg and Brett Dean; a rare opportunity to hear Rossini’s opera Aureliano in Palmira in collaboration with long term partner Opera Rara; and works by the Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson. In addition to its London season and a series of concerts at Wigmore Hall, the Orchestra has flourishing

residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. It is unique in combining these concert activities with esteemed opera performances each summer at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been the Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs to enthusiastic audiences all round the world. 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 continues to form a significant part of the Orchestra’s schedule and is supported by Aviva, the International Touring Partner of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Tours in 2010/11 include visits to Finland, Germany, South Korea, Spain, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Having long been embraced by the recording, broadcasting and film industries, the London Philharmonic Orchestra broadcasts regularly on domestic and international television and radio. It also works with the Hollywood and UK film industries, recording soundtracks for blockbuster motion pictures including the Oscar-winning score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and scores for Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East. The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance. It has recorded and broadcast

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

SOUTHBANK CENTRE

regularly ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label. The recordings on its own label are taken mainly from live concerts given with distinguished conductors over the years including the Orchestra’s Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti and Tennstedt, to Masur and Jurowski.

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE

Recent additions to the catalogue have included acclaimed releases of Christmas choral music conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 6 conducted by Christoph Eschenbach, Verdi’s Requiem conducted by Jesús López-Cobos, Holst’s The Planets conducted by Vladimir Jurowski and Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 and Sea Pictures with Vernon Handley and Janet Baker. The Orchestra’s own-label CDs are also widely available to download. Visit www.lpo.org.uk/shop for the latest releases.

‘ … a simply tremendous performance of

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 Kenelm Roberts, our Head of Customer Relations, at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk or phone 020 7960 4250.

Mahler’s 3rd Symphony … Jurowski and his players plunged us into a winter of discontent so profoundly expectant that even the inveterate coughers were silenced.’

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:

EDWARD SECKERSON, THE INDEPENDENT, 23 SEPTEMBER 2010

LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance

The Orchestra reaches thousands of Londoners through its rich programme of community and school-based activity in Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, which includes the offshoot ensembles Renga and The Band, its Foyle Future Firsts apprenticeship scheme for outstanding young instrumentalists, and regular family and schools concerts. 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. There are many ways to experience and stay in touch with the Orchestra’s activities: visit www.lpo.org.uk, subscribe to our podcast series, download our iPhone application and join us on Facebook and Twitter.

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We look forward to seeing you again soon.

PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium

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

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VLADIMIR JUROWSKI

Karen Robinson

CONDUCTOR

Born in Moscow, the son of conductor Mikhail Jurowski, Vladimir Jurowski completed the first part of his musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany where he continued his studies in Dresden and Berlin, studying conducting with Rolf Reuter and vocal coaching with Semion Skigin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival, where he conducted Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night. The same year saw his brilliant debut at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in Nabucco. In 1996 he joined the ensemble of Komische Oper Berlin, becoming First Kapellmeister in 1997 and continuing to work at the Komische Oper on a permanent basis until 2001. Since 1997 Vladimir Jurowski has been a guest at some of the world’s leading musical institutions including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Opéra Bastille de Paris, Théâtre de la Monnaie Bruxelles, Maggio Musicale Festival Florence, Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro, Edinburgh Festival, Semperoper Dresden and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (where he served as Principal Guest Conductor between 2000 and 2003). In 1999 he made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera New York with Rigoletto. In January 2001 Vladimir Jurowski took up the position of Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera and in 2003 was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in September 2007. He also holds the title of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and from 2005 to 2009 served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra with whom he will continue to work in the years ahead.

Vladimir Jurowski is a regular guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Dresden Staatskapelle, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras as well as the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig. Highlights of the 2010/11 season and beyond include his debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic, Cleveland, San Francisco Symphony and Mahler Chamber Orchestras, and return visits to the Chicago Symphony, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, St Petersburg Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras. His operatic engagements have included Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades and Hänsel und Gretel at the Metropolitan Opera, Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera, War and Peace at the Opéra National de Paris, Eugene Onegin at La Scala Milan, as well as Die Zauberflöte, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress and Peter Eötvös’ Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Opera. Future engagements include new productions of Die Meistersinger and The Cunning Little Vixen at Glyndebourne, Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera, Russlan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre, and Iolanta at the Dresden Semperoper. Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of Giya Kancheli’s cantata Exil for ECM (1994), L’Étoile du Nord by Meyerbeer for Naxos-Marco Polo (1996), and Werther for BMG (1999) as well as live recordings of works by Rachmaninov, Turnage, Tchaikovsky, Britten, Brahms and Shostakovich on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s own label, and Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery on Glyndebourne Opera’s own label. He also records for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra, with releases to date including Tchaikovsky’s Suite No. 3 and Stravinsky’s Divertimento from Le Baiser de la fée, Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos 1 and 6, Prokofiev’s Symphony No. 5 and Tchaikovsky’s Hamlet Incidental Music. Glyndebourne have released DVD recordings of his performances of La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus and Rachmaninov’s The Miserly Knight, and other recent DVD releases include Hänsel und Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera New York, and his first concert as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor featuring works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler (released by Medici Arts).

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JANINE JANSEN

Sara Wilson/Decca

VIOLIN

Janine Jansen is internationally recognised as one of the great violinists and a truly exciting and versatile artist. Her London debut in November 2002, with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Vladimir Ashkenazy, was quickly followed by invitations from some of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, London Symphony, Mahler Chamber, Chicago Symphony, Philadelphia, Cleveland and NHK Symphony Orchestras. She has worked with such eminent conductors as Valery Gergiev, Mariss Jansons, Lorin Maazel, Riccardo Chailly, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Daniel Harding, Edo de Waart, Gustavo Dudamel and Yannick NézetSéguin. Janine Jansen has an exclusive recording contract with Decca (Universal Music). Her most recent release is a French recital disc entitled Beau Soir with pianist Itamar Golan. Each one of her previous five albums has been awarded a Platinum Disc for sales in The Netherlands. She is renowned for her success on iTunes, her recordings having reached number one in the digital charts on a number of occasions. Highlights of her 2010/11 season include performances with the New York Philharmonic, London Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic and Danish National Symphony Orchestras as well as the Orchestre de Paris. She will be touring this season with both the London Symphony Orchestra and the Philharmonia Orchestra. With the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, she toured Japan. In the 2009/10 season she curated her own ‘Carte Blanche’ series at Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, and this year, as Artist-in-Residence for the hrSinfonieorchester, she will take part in a number of projects including a European tour.

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In addition to her concerto performances, Janine is a devoted performer of chamber music and is giving a number of recitals featuring the music from her latest album with Itamar Golan in Paris, London, Dortmund, Brussels and Frankfurt. She established and curates the annual International Chamber Music Festival in Utrecht, and since 1998 she has been a member of Spectrum Concerts Berlin, an important chamber music series in the Berlin Philharmonie. Her chamber partners include Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Mischa Maisky, Julian Rachlin, Itamar Golan, Martin Fröst, Khatia Buniatishvili, Leif Ove Andsnes and Torleif Thedéen. A former BBC New Generation Artist, Janine studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn and Boris Belkin. In September 2003, she received the Dutch Music Prize from the Ministry of Culture – the highest distinction an artist can receive in The Netherlands. She has received numerous other awards including three Edison Klassiek Public Awards and three Echo Awards for her Vivaldi recording in 2006, her Mendelssohn/Bruch album in 2007 and her Beethoven and Britten Violin Concertos disc in 2010. The latter was awarded top prize in the Concerto Recording of the Year category for 20th and 21st century music. In 2007 she received the NDR Musikpreis for outstanding artistic achievement and in 2008 she was awarded the VSCD Klassieke Muziekprijs for individual achievement. In May 2009 she received the RPS Instrumentalist Award for performances in the UK and in February 2010 an Edison Award for her Beethoven/Britten CD, in the ‘Concerts’ category. In the same month the recording also won a Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. Janine Jansen plays the ‘Barrere’ violin by Antonio Stradivari, on extended loan from the Elise Mathilde Foundation.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

MAHLER’S ARRANGEMENTS, MAHLER’S INFLUENCE Gustav Mahler, who died a hundred years ago next month, is the central figure in this programme, even though it does not include any of his original compositions. His versions of music by other composers, ranging from ‘retouchings’ of orchestrations to a completion of an unfinished Weber opera, were offshoots of his conducting career, which ran in parallel to his composing activities throughout his adult life. He compiled and arranged his Suite of movements from Bach’s orchestral Suites Nos 2 and 3 in 1909, for his first season as conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra; it includes freely inventive keyboard parts for organ, in the first movement, and for ‘harpsichord’ (actually a modified piano). Mahler’s arrangement for string orchestra of Beethoven’s concisely dramatic Op. 95 String Quartet dates from a decade earlier: he conducted the first performance in Vienna in 1899. It is a straightforward reproduction of the original, with a sparingly added double bass part, devised to allow the work to make its full effect in a large concert hall. Mahler was one of the strongest influences on Dmitri Shostakovich: as the conductor Nikolai Malko wrote, ‘the angularity of Mahler, his sharpness, the peculiarity of his

Johann Sebastian BACH (1685-1750) arranged by

Gustav MAHLER

humour, and his tendency towards grandiose forms …, as well as his musical grimaces, found a vivid response in Shostakovich … both as a person and as a musician’. Many of these qualities can be heard in the Second Violin Concerto which Shostakovich wrote in 1967 for the Soviet virtuoso David Oistrakh, a three-movement work of generally sparse textures, with an expressive slow movement and a sardonic finale. Mahler was something of a father-figure to the Viennese group formed of Schoenberg and his pupils; and one of those pupils, Anton Webern, was an especially fervent admirer of his music, and by all accounts an inspired conductor of it. As for influence, at first sight there might appear to be little in common between Mahler’s vast symphonic structures and Webern’s immensely compressed (and in his later works rigorously organised) assemblies of crystalline miniatures. But Webern’s music does resemble Mahler’s in its elusive combination of intense and volatile expressivity with objective detachment. This is evident in the Five Movements, Op. 5, which Webern wrote for string quartet in 1909, and arranged for string orchestra twenty years later – reinterpreting the original much more freely than Mahler in his Bach and Beethoven arrangements.

SUITE FROM THE ORCHESTRAL WORKS OF JS BACH Ouverture: Grave – [Allegro] – Lentement | Rondeau – Badinerie – Tempo del Rondeau | Air | Gavottes I and II

(1860-1911)

Gustav Mahler created his ‘Bach Suite’ in 1909, for his debut season as conductor of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. It was first performed in November that year, in the opening concert of a ‘Historical Cycle’ running through the season; the programme also included a Bach violin concerto and music by Handel, Rameau, Grétry and Haydn. The première was later recalled by a New York critic as ‘the

sensation of a musical season’, and was followed by numerous repeat performances, in New York and on tour; Mahler also included the work in his programme as a guest conductor in Rome in the spring of 1910. It was published that same year, the only one of Mahler’s editions and arrangements to appear in print in his lifetime.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

The Suite combines movements ‘Basically it’s a compilation of music from the Second and from two of Bach’s orchestral suites Third Orchestral Suites. It’s like a modern remix, The Best in the French style – both of them Of...! … Some of it will sound rather amusing to people probably written for the Leipzig knowing what Bach can sound like these days, but we Collegium Musicum, the student musical society which Bach directed shouldn’t forget that in Mahler’s day there weren’t any (with one short break) from 1729 to period performances. There were certainly performances about 1741. First comes the of Bach in churches, and people were already then trying extended Overture from the Suite to perform Bach with smaller forces. But on the other No. 2 in B minor for flute, strings and continuo, consisting of a slow hand these Mahler arrangements gave a huge number of introduction, a main quick section people the possibility of hearing Bach’s music.’ largely in fugal texture but also VLADIMIR JUROWSKI, IN AN INTERVIEW FOR THE LONDON including concerto-like episodes PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S WEBSITE. TO HEAR THE COMPLETE featuring the flute, and a slow INTERVIEW, GO TO THE CONCERT PAGE ON THE WEBSITE conclusion. This is followed by two (www.lpo.org.uk) AND CLICK ‘MORE INFO’. more movements from the same Suite, the graceful Rondeau in moderate gavotte time and the However, Mahler’s only creative contribution to the lively concluding ‘Badinerie’ (‘jesting’ or ‘fooling’); Suite was a very free and intermittent ‘realisation’ of the Mahler repeats the first section of the Rondeau at the continuo keyboard part, for organ in the Ouverture only, end to create an A–B–A structure. The remaining and in all the movements except the Air for movements are from the Suite No. 3 in D major for two oboes, three trumpets, timpani, strings ‘harpsichord’ (in his performances actually a small and continuo: the Air for strings, already well known by grand piano modified by the addition of metal tacks to the hammers). In the score, Mahler wrote that these 1909 in numerous arrangements; and the pair of keyboard parts were ‘to be regarded as a sketch which Gavottes, the second acting as a trio to the first so that should bear, in general, the character of a free they already form another A–B–A shape. improvisation’. He regularly took the ‘harpsichord’ part Mahler did not re-orchestrate any of these movements: himself, directing the orchestra from the keyboard, and according to one critic exhibiting ‘great dexterity in he took the musical text and the scoring directly from laying down and picking up the baton’. Many years later, the scholarly Bach Gesellschaft Edition. (He even his widow Alma recalled that he ‘altered his continuo retained Bach’s original high trumpet parts, which realisation according to his fancy every time and crosssuggests that the New York players had the use of the ‘Bach trumpets’ in D invented in the previous decade for examined me afterwards about the effect of each’. performances of Baroque music.) But he added numerous markings of dynamics, articulation and phrasing, in some places shortening note-values at the ends of phrases to indicate the effect that he wanted; he also added instructions for pizzicato in parts of the accompaniment to the flute line in the ‘Badinerie’ and (half a century before Jacques Loussier!) much of the bass line of the Air. And, with a large string section in mind, he directed that the flute part should be doubled in forte by ‘additional flutes, reinforced by a clarinet if needed’.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Dmitri SHOSTAKOVICH

VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 2, OP. 129 JANINE JANSEN violin Moderato | Adagio – | Adagio – Allegro

1906-1975

Shostakovich composed the second of his two violin concertos in April and May 1967. Like the first, written some two decades earlier, it was designed for the great Soviet virtuoso David Oistrakh. Oistrakh claimed that the piece was intended as a sixtieth birthday present to him, but delivered a year early; however, the composer’s biographer Laurel E. Fay thinks that may have been the result of a misunderstanding, as ‘this was not the kind of error the punctilious Shostakovich was prone to’. The first performance took place in Moscow in September 1967, with Kirill Kondrashin conducting. Shostakovich was unable to be present, as he was in hospital after breaking his right leg earlier that month. But he heard a broadcast of the British première in November, and sent Oistrakh a telegram of gratitude. The Concerto was written in the wake of Shostakovich’s heart attack in May 1966, and in some respects anticipates the spare, sombre ‘late style’ of his final years. It is in C sharp minor, with the finale in D flat major: this is an unusual and potentially awkward choice of key for a violin concerto, but Fay quotes Oistrakh’s observation that after becoming acquainted with the work ‘he appreciated it as the ingenious stroke of a composer who genuinely understood the expressive capabilities of the instrument.’ The orchestral scoring is for double woodwind, with an additional contrabassoon, four horns, timpani, tom-tom and strings. The horns, as the only representatives of the brass section, frequently come to the fore, with the first horn in particular sometimes taking on a concertante role, as it does more consistently in the First Cello Concerto of 1959. But the centre of attention nevertheless remains the soloist: Shostakovich was quoted in a preview article in Pravda as saying that ‘in the new concerto virtually everything is set out by the solo violin, everything is concentrated in its part and the orchestra accompanies, as it were’.

The work has a traditional outline of three movements. The first, and longest, begins with an extended paragraph growing out of the soloist’s expressive initial melody and its insistent accompaniment in the cellos and basses. At a faster tempo, the woodwind introduce a spiky second theme, with a rhythmic counter-melody for the soloist; and this spins off further ideas, notably close canons between solo violin and woodwind and a fanfare for the horn. The development begins with a switch from 4/4 time to 3/4, and soon reaches and sustains a new level of urgency and vehemence. The recapitulation begins with a cadenza for the soloist presenting the first theme in two-part counterpoint, later brings back the second theme in a new, smoothedout violin version, and ends quietly and drily with a recurring rhythmic figure for the soloist, by now muted, and the tom-tom. The second movement is an intense Adagio, in which the solo violin plays virtually without pause through a first section presenting a sequence of melodies and counter-melodies, a generally calmer second section, a declamatory episode accompanied first by timpani rolls and then by fierce string tremolos, and a varied reprise of the first section; only in the coda does the first horn take over the lead. The finale follows without a break: after a short slow introduction, it is a rondo on a brittle main theme. At the heart of the movement is an extended cadenza, beginning with an allusion to the introduction and later harking back to the accompaniment figure at the start of the whole work. After the last return of the rondo theme, the soloist’s virtuosity drives the movement to an emphatic conclusion.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

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

Anton WEBERN

FIVE MOVEMENTS FOR STRING ORCHESTRA, OP. 5 Heftig bewegt [With violent movement] alternating with Etwas ruhiger [Somewhat calmer] | Sehr langsam [Very slow] | Sehr lebhaft [Very lively] | Sehr langsam [Very slow] | In zarter Bewegung [Moving tenderly]

1883-1945

Anton Webern was a pupil of Arnold Schoenberg between the autumn of 1904 and the end of 1908. During that time he composed a string quartet and several shorter quartet pieces – projects which he must have found especially congenial as he was himself a cellist and an enthusiastic quartet player. His first work after the end of his studies was also for string quartet: the set of Five Movements which he wrote at his family’s country estate, the Preglhof, in the spring of 1909. These were performed in Vienna in February of the following year, but not published until 1922. The Five Movements are Webern’s first instrumental essay in free atonality (writing without key-centres) – an area which Schoenberg had recently begun exploring, notably in his Second String Quartet of 1907/08. The pieces are all short, highly concentrated and intensely expressive, and draw on the full range of the instruments’ colouristic resources: pizzicato, tremolo, harmonics; playing with the mute, with the wood of the bow, on the bridge and on the fingerboard. The first piece swings between extremes of urgency and calm, the second is slow and subdued throughout, the third is a tiny scherzo accelerating at the end, the fourth is another whispered interlude, and the last fluctuates in tempo and expression to reach a slow and quiet ending. On one level, the Five Movements constitute a series of studies in coherent (though not yet systematic) organisation of material within a new and strange

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musical universe. On another level, they are a musical response to the death of the composer’s mother in September 1906, a traumatic event which Webern himself described as affecting his whole output for the following few years. In 1928, at the request of his publisher, Webern made a relatively straightforward arrangement of the Five Movements for string orchestra. But early the following year he withdrew this version and replaced it by a much more finely detailed transcription, conceived for a fullsized orchestral body of strings, with each section regularly divided into two parts and frequent use of soloists. This version was performed in Philadelphia in March 1930, and all the pieces except the first were conducted by Webern for the BBC in London in May 1931; but the score remained unpublished until long after the composer’s death. While he was in the middle of making the transcription, in February 1929, Webern wrote to Schoenberg that the work was giving him ‘much satisfaction. Only now is it becoming a true orchestral setting. I am using the original solely as a sketch for the full score. I lay bare the motivic structure (in doing so, I often come to fourteen staves)…’ (Hans Moldenhauer’s translation). And towards the end of his life Webern declared: ‘It has really turned into something entirely new!’

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN

STRING QUARTET IN F MINOR, OP. 95 (1770-1827)

arranged by

Gustav MAHLER

Allegro con brio | Allegretto ma non troppo – | Allegro assai vivace ma serioso | Larghetto espressivo – Allegretto agitato – Allegro

(1860-1911)

Between Beethoven’s three middleperiod quartet masterpieces, the ‘Rasumovsky’ set Op. 59, and the great series of late quartets, starting with Op. 127, stand two isolated works, the ‘Harp’ Quartet Op. 74 and the F minor Quartet Op. 95. The latter was completed in October 1810, shortly after the music for Goethe’s play Egmont, which includes the famous Overture in the same key. Beethoven said that the Quartet was ‘written for a small circle of connoisseurs and is never to be performed in public’, and on his manuscript gave it the title Quartett serioso. This ‘seriousness’ of purpose runs through the whole work, along with an extreme compression which makes it the shortest of all Beethoven’s quartets.

‘A quartet for string orchestra! That sounds odd to you. I already know all the objections which one will raise: the destruction of intimacy, of individuality. But one is mistaken. What I am proposing is but an ideal performance of the quartet. Chamber music is fundamentally written for a small room. It is really only enjoyed properly by the performers. The four people who sit at their music desks are also the public to whom this music applies. When chamber music is transferred to the concert hall this intimacy is already lost. And still more is lost: in the large room the four voices disperse, they do not speak to the listeners with the power which the composer wanted to give them. I give you this power, because I reinforce the voices. I release the expansion which lies dormant in the parts and give the notes wings.’

GUSTAV MAHLER, IN AN INTERVIEW WITH A VIENNESE MAGAZINE IN The first movement begins with a JANUARY 1899 (TRANSLATED IN DAVID PICKETT’S CHAPTER IN THE clenched fist, in the form of an CAMBRIDGE COMPANION TO MAHLER) explosive short phrase in octaves. This phrase, and especially its initial semiquaver figure, dominates the A held diminished-seventh chord acts as a pivot movement, abating briefly for the more lyrical second subject, but maintaining a threatening presence almost between this movement and the next, a scherzo – not so called: after all, the word means ‘joke’ – of violent throughout the short central development section and abruptness. The main section alternates with a twicethe relatively extended coda. The Allegretto offers no stated trio section, but Beethoven wastes no time on point of repose: its D major outer sections are made literal repetition, recomposing both scherzo and trio at uneasy by touches of the minor, and most of its middle section consists of a highly chromatic fugue – the most each reappearance (and marking an increase in speed for the last return of the scherzo). A tiny but ‘serious’ of styles and textures.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

concentrated Larghetto introduction begins the finale, another concise and urgent movement which is in minor keys virtually throughout – until its coda suddenly and unexpectedly takes wing at a quicker tempo and in the major. Mahler’s arrangement of the Op. 95 Quartet for string orchestra was made for the 1898/99 season of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, his first as its conductor; it was first performed in January 1899. It preserves Beethoven’s text with no additional detail, and very few changes of phrasing and dynamics – though the marking of the held chord at the end of the second movement is changed from pp to pppp. Even the added double bass part, reinforcing the cellos at the lower octave, is very restrained: in the second movement, for example, it is restricted to pizzicato doubling of the cello phrase at the beginning and the

half-way point. Essentially, Mahler’s main contribution was the very idea of performing the quartet orchestrally – something which he explained to a magazine interviewer as simply realising Beethoven’s ‘mighty idea’, with the sound of ‘twenty violins in a hall’ capable of equalling ‘the voice of one violin in a small room’, and also of achieving ‘a pianissimo still much more tender, more delicate, indeed let’s say more intimate, than one violin’ (translation from David Pickett’s chapter in The Cambridge Companion to Mahler). In the event, the reaction of the audience and most critics to the performance was unsympathetic, and Mahler never repeated the work. But his marked-up score and parts remained in the Vienna Philharmonic archives, and formed the basis for an edition by the composer David Matthews which was published in 1990. Programme notes by Anthony Burton © 2011

Barlines – FREE Post-Concert Event | Level 2 Foyer at Royal Festival Hall There will be an informal discussion with Vladimir Jurowski following this evening’s performance.

NEW on the LPO Label Mahler’s Resurrection Symphony May’s release on the LPO Label will be Vladimir Jurowski’s first recorded Mahler Symphony. Taken from a concert given at the Royal Festival Hall in September 2009, this recording of Mahler’s almighty Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) features soprano Adriana Kucerova, mezzo soprano Christianne Stotijn and the London Philharmonic Choir.

Get your exclusive iTunes pre-release ‘When the chorus finally stood up and let rip in the closing moments, it set the seal on a masterful performance from a world-class orchestra-conductor team.’ THE GUARDIAN

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We are delighted to be able to offer you the chance to listen to this recording now through a special pre-release arrangement with iTunes. To take advantage of this offer, search for ‘Mahler Jurowski’ on iTunes and download the Symphony today.

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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 Mr & Mrs Richard & Victoria Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds The Tsukanov Family Garf & Gill Collins Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller Richard Karl Goeltz John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett Guy & Utti Whittaker Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mrs Sonja Drexler Mr Charles Dumas David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans

Mr Daniel Goldstein Mrs Barbara Green Oliver Heaton 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 Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Marika Cobbold & Michael Patchett-Joyce Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Edgecombe

Mr Richard Fernyhough Ken Follett Michael & Christine Henry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr R K Jeha Mr & Mrs Maurice Lambert 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 Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged. Corporate Members Appleyard & Trew llp AREVA UK British American Business Brown Brothers Harriman Charles Russell Destination Québec – UK Diagonal Consulting Lazard Leventis Overseas Man Group plc Québec Government Office in London Corporate Donor Lombard Street Research In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Heineken The Langham London Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sela / Tilley’s Sweets Villa Maria Trusts and Foundations Allianz Cultural Foundation The Andor Charitable Trust Arts and Business

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RECORDINGS ON THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S OWN RECORD LABEL LPO-0028 Vladimir Jurowski conducts Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with soloists Tatiana Monogarova and Sergei Leiferkus as part of Volume 3 of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th Anniversary Box Sets ‘ ... a wonderfully “felt” performance in the way conductor and orchestra articulate and sustain this intimate, death-ridden song cycle.’ ANDREW CLARK, FINANCIAL TIMES, 27 OCTOBER 2007

This volume features four CDs by the Orchestra’s most recent Principal Conductors: Klaus Tennstedt (Beethoven Symphony No. 9), Franz WelserMöst (Strauss, Mozart, Schubert and Bruckner), Kurt Masur (Shostakovich Symphonies Nos 1 and 5) and Vladimir Jurowski (Shostakovich Symphony No. 14 as above). LPO-0053 Vladimir Jurowski conducts Shostakovich’s Piano Concertos Nos 1 and 2 and Piano Quintet with Martin Helmchen Supported by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust (bbtrust.com) ‘Shostakovich gives piano and orchestra well-balanced dialogue in two works for the medium, captured with nimble energy by fine young soloist Martin Helmchen and the LPO in this live recording.’ FIONA MADDOCKS, THE OBSERVER, 20 MARCH 2011

LPO-0033 Jaap van Zweden conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 ‘He unfolds the drama of the first movement with a sure grasp of the need for subtle variations of tempo … the finale is a joyous, life-affirming rondo that lifts the spirits.’ MICHAEL KENNEDY, THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH, 10 AUGUST 2008

NEW RELEASE LPO-0052 Klaus Tennstedt conducts Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 with soloists Julia Varady, Jane Eaglen, Susan Bullock, Trudeliese Schmidt, Jadwiga Rappé, Kenneth Riegel, Eike Wilm Schulte, Hans Sotin, London Philharmonic Choir, Eton College Boys’ Choir and London Symphony Chorus

The recordings may be downloaded in high quality MP3 format from www.lpo.org.uk/shop. CDs may also be purchased from all good retail outlets or through the London Philharmonic Orchestra: telephone 020 7840 4242 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm) or visit the website www.lpo.org.uk

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