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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

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Saturday 20 October 2012 | 7.30pm

kurt masur conductor alban gerhardt cello

mendelssohn Overture, Ruy Blas (7’) schumann Cello Concerto (26’) Interval beethoven Symphony No. 7 (36’)

Tonight’s concert is dedicated to the memory of conductor Sir Georg Solti, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth.

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

PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 Welcome 3 About the Orchestra 4 Remembering Sir Georg Solti 5 Tonight’s performers 6 Kurt Masur 7 Alban Gerhardt 8 Programme notes 11 Supporters 12 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

Welcome

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance. Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery. If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250, or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk

We look forward to seeing you again soon. A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium. LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance. RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre. Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended. MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.

next LPO concerts at royal festival hall Wednesday 24 October 2012 | 7.30pm Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5 Bruckner Symphony No. 7

Booking details

Stanisław Skrowaczewski conductor Hilary Hahn violin

London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Monday to Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.uk (no transaction fee)

Friday 26 October 2012 | 7.30pm JTI Friday Series

Southbank Centre Ticket Office (transaction fees apply) 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm southbankcentre.co.uk

Brahms Piano Concerto No. 1 Bruckner (arr. Skrowaczewski) Adagio from String Quintet in F Shostakovich Symphony No. 1 Stanisław Skrowaczewski conductor Garrick Ohlsson piano Wednesday 31 October 2012 | 7.30pm Sibelius Symphony No. 3 Mozart Violin Concerto No. 3 Nielsen Symphony No. 6 (Sinfonia semplice) Osmo Vänskä conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin 2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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, 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 Dvořák’s Stabat Mater under Neeme Järvi; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 with Vladimir Jurowski; Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6 under the late Paavo Berglund; and the world premiere of 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 the Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, 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; Kurt schools’ concerts; the Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, ‘As things stand now, the LPO must rate Leverhulme Young also conducted by Jurowski; as an example to all orchestras.’ Composers project; 20th-century American works Musicalcriticism.com, July 2011 and the Foyle Future with Marin Alsop; Haydn and (BBC Proms 2011: Liszt, Bartók and Kodály) Firsts orchestral Strauss with Yannick Nézettraining programme Séguin; and the UK premiere of for outstanding young players. Over recent years, Carl Vine’s Second Piano Concerto with pianist Piers developments in technology and social networks have Lane under Vassily Sinaisky. Throughout 2013 the enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people Orchestra will collaborate with the Southbank Centre worldwide: all its recordings are available to download on The Rest Is Noise festival, based on Alex Ross’s book from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news of the same name and charting the 20th century’s key blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra musical works. has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter. The Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton Find out more and get involved! and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency lpo.org.uk accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra since 1964. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide. twitter.com/LPOrchestra Tours in the 2012/13 season include visits to Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, the USA and Austria.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

remembering sir georg solti 21 October 1912 – 5 September 1997 Tonight’s concert is dedicated to the memory of conductor Sir Georg Solti, to commemorate the 100th anniversary of his birth.

Solti was the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor from 1979–83. He made his first recording with the Orchestra – of Haydn’s ‘Drumroll’ Symphony – many years earlier, in 1949. When the resulting record was released the following year, the New Statesman astutely described the then little-known conductor as ‘one of the best conductors alive’. Several concerts with the LPO over the next two years in various far from glamorous venues in the south of England followed, culminating in their first Royal Festival Hall concert together on 29 November 1951 – a programme again featuring Haydn’s ‘Drumroll’ Symphony. Thereafter Solti became a regular guest conductor and, in 1971, after surrendering the Music Directorship of Covent Garden, he entered into a much closer relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, selecting it as the British orchestra with whom he wished to work regularly. He accepted the title of Principal Guest Conductor and it was appropriate that on the day he was granted British citizenship and thus became Sir Georg, he was due to conduct the LPO in Elgar’s First Symphony. In the 1970s, the Solti Series, five or six Royal Festival Hall concerts given in February and March each year, became a regular feature of London’s musical life and, although Chicago was the main base of his recording activity, he made many notable recordings with the LPO. Some of his BBC TV recordings of other works by Elgar have recently been released on DVD as part of the ICA Classics ‘Legacy’ series. In 1979 Solti succeeded Bernard Haitink as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, a post he held until the conclusion of the Orchestra’s 50th anniversary season in 1983.

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Solti was the founder of the World Orchestra for Peace, formulating the idea at a concert held in honour of his 80th birthday at Buckingham Palace in 1992, and making it a reality in Geneva three years later. His own experiences as a young man living through the Second World War led him to believe that musicians could show the way for politicians when it came to international cooperation. The first concert in 1995 was triumphant proof of this vision. Sadly, he died in 1997 before being able to conduct the orchestra’s second concert in Baden-Baden. The World Orchestra for Peace has included players from the London Philharmonic Orchestra ever since that first concert in Geneva. Visit www.worldorchestraforpeace.com for further information. We shall long remember with gratitude the many outstanding performances Sir Georg gave with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and for his loyalty to the Orchestra over so many years. Sir Georg Solti conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall on 25 September 1979. Photo © Colin Busby

tonight’s performers

First Violins Georgy Valtchev Guest Leader Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by Moya Greene

Ji-Hyun Lee Thomas Eisner Tina Gruenberg Martin Höhmann Robert Pool Geoffrey Lynn Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Grace Lee Benjamin Roskams Peter Nall Galina Tanney Caroline Sharp Catherine van de Geest Second Violins Jeongmin Kim Principal Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Fiona Higham Ashley Stevens Marie-Anne Mairesse Nancy Elan Imogen Williamson Sioni Williams Alison Strange Stephen Stewart Mila Mustakova Elizabeth Baldey Sarah Buchan

Violas Scott Dickinson Guest Principal Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Susanne Martens Alistair Scahill Naomi Holt Daniel Cornford Isabel Pereira Claudio Cavalletti Martin Fenn Karin Norlen Cellos Alexander Somov Guest Principal Susanne Beer Co-Principal Francis Bucknall Gregory Walmsley Santiago Carvalho† Sue Sutherley Tom Roff Tae-Mi Song Pavlos Carvalho Emma Black Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Kenneth Knussen Jeremy Watt Tom Walley Catherine Ricketts Charlotte Kerbegian

Flutes Sue Thomas Principal

Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal

Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Stewart McIlwham*

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Fraser MacAulay

Timpani Russell Jordan Guest Principal

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Nicholas Carpenter*

Assistant Conductor Andrew Gourlay

Bassoons Gareth Newman* Principal Simon Estell

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

Horns Mark Vines Principal Martin Hobbs Stephen Nicholls Gareth Mollison Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Joe Sharp Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Andrew Davenport John & Angela Kessler Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

kurt masur conductor

Kurt Masur is well known to orchestras and audiences alike as both a distinguished conductor and humanist. He was the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor from 2000–07. In September 2002 he became Music Director of the Orchestre National de France in Paris, and in 2008 assumed the lifelong title of Honorary Music Director of the Orchestra, ensuring his active involvement for many more years to come. From 1991–2002 he was Music Director of the New York Philharmonic; following his 11-year tenure he was named Music Director Emeritus. For many seasons he served as Kapellmeister of the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Upon his retirement from that post in 1996, the Gewandhaus named him its first-ever Conductor Laureate. Since 1992 he has held the lifetime title of Honorary Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Since 1989, when Masur played a central role in the peaceful demonstrations that led to the German reunification, the impact of his leadership has attracted worldwide attention. In 1995 he received the Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany; in 1996 he was awarded the Gold Medal of Honor for Music from the National Arts Club; and in 1997 he was awarded the titles of Commander of the Legion of Honour from the Government of France, and New York City Cultural Ambassador from the City of New York. In 2007 he was upgraded by the French government to Grand Officer of the Legion of Honour, a rank rarely given to foreign citizens. In 2002 the President of the Federal Republic of Germany bestowed upon him the Cross with Star of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany, and in 2007 the President of Germany awarded him the Great Cross of the Legion of Honour with Star and Ribbon. A frequent guest with the world’s leading orchestras, Kurt Masur made his USA debut in 1974 with the Cleveland Orchestra; also that year he took the Gewandhaus Orchestra on its first American tour. He made his New York Philharmonic debut in 1981. 6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Maestro Masur returns every season to the major American orchestras such as the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, Chicago Symphony, National Symphony, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras. In Europe, he works with such orchestras as the London Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic, Gewandhaus and Concertgebouw orchestras; the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome; the orchestras of Teatro La Scala and La Fenice; and many others. In July 2007, Maestro Masur celebrated his 80th birthday in an extraordinary concert at the BBC Proms in London, where he conducted the joint forces of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre National de France. Maestro Masur’s first recording with the Orchestre National de France of Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 2 and 6 was released on the Naïve label in 2004. Subsequent releases with the Orchestra have included Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5 and two Shostakovich discs. Masur made more than 30 recordings with the New York Philharmonic for Teldec Classics International, two of them winning Record of the Year awards from Stereo Review (Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13 and Babi Yar, and Mahler’s Ninth Symphony). He has made well over 100 other recordings with numerous orchestras, including the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Tchaikovsky. The London Philharmonic Orchestra Label released recordings of Shostakovich Symphonies No. 1 and 5 and Britten’s War Requiem. Born in Brieg, Silesia, in 1927, Kurt Masur studied piano, composition and conducting at the Leipzig Music College. In 1948 he became Orchestra Coach at the Halle County Theatre, and later Kapellmeister of the Erfurt and Leipzig opera theatres. He accepted his first major orchestral appointment in 1955 as Conductor of the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra, returning to opera in 1958 as General Director of Music at the Mecklenburg State Theatre in Schwerin. From 1960–64 he was Senior Director of Music at Berlin’s Komische Oper. In 1967 he was appointed the Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra’s Chief Conductor, a post he held until 1972. In his capacity as the Leipzig Gewandhaus Kapellmeister, he led nearly a thousand performances between 1970 and 1996, and more than 900 concerts on tour.

alban gerhardt

cello

Over the past decade, Alban Gerhardt has established himself among the greatest cellists of our time. His sound is unmistakable and his interpretations of the repertoire are distinguished in their originality. The cello starts to sing under his hands, standard works are newly discovered, and unknown pieces are brought to life again. Gerhardt fascinates audiences with the combination of an unerring musical instinct, intense emotion and a very natural, arresting stage presence. Of particular concern for him is his desire to help audiences break with old listening and concert habits, and to open up classical music to a younger audience. Since his early success at competitions and his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under Semyon Bychkov, Gerhardt has performed with more than 170 orchestras worldwide under conductors such as Vladimir Jurowski, Kurt Masur, Christoph von Dohnányi, Christoph Eschenbach, Sir Neville Marriner, Sir Colin Davis, Leonard Slatkin, Michael Tilson Thomas, Sakari Oramo, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Christian Thielemann, Esa-Pekka Salonen, David Zinman and Andris Nelsons. Highlights of recent seasons include performances with the London, Berlin, Munich, Czech, Netherlands Radio and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras; the Finnish Radio, Danish National Radio, NDR, BBC, Sydney, Melbourne, New Zealand, Bavarian Radio, Vienna and City of Birmingham symphony orchestras; the Gurzenich, Philharmonia, Zurich Tonhalle, Royal Concertgebouw, Hallé and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras; and the Orchestra de la Suisse Romande, RTVE Madrid, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Orchestre National de France.

Alban Gerhardt‘s repertoire includes almost 60 cello concertos, and he relishes rescuing lesser-known works from undeserved obscurity. His collaborations with composers such as Thomas Larcher, Pēteris Vasks, Brett Dean, Jörg Widmann, Osvaldo Golijov, Mathias Hinke and Matthias Pintscher demonstrate his commitment to expanding the cello repertoire. In 2009 he gave the world premiere of Unsuk Chin’s Cello Concerto at the BBC Proms, and has since given premieres in The Netherlands, Germany, the Far East, Scandinavia and the USA. Further performances are scheduled in Norway and Belgium. As well as his intensive solo career, chamber music plays an important role in Gerhardt’s life: he is a frequent performer at festivals such as the BBC Proms (where he has appeared six times) and the Edinburgh International Festival, and at the Wigmore Hall, Berlin Philharmonie, Suntory Hall Tokyo and the Théâtre du Châtelet in Paris. Gerhardt’s regular chamber partners include Steven Osborne, Cécile Licad, Lars Vogt, Christian Tetzlaff, Lisa Batiashvili, Arabella Steinbacher, Tabea Zimmermann, Thomas Larcher and Emmanuel Pahud. Gerhardt is a highly acclaimed recording artist and has won three ECHO Classic Awards, most recently for his all-Reger double CD (2009). He records exclusively with Hyperion, spearheading their ‘Romantic Cello Concertos’ series. Recent releases include Sonatas by Chopin and Alkan with Steven Osborne; Prokofiev’s Sinfonia Concertante and Concerto Op. 58 with the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton; and CDs of Fauré Sonatas and Casals Encores with Cécile Licad, the latter of which was selected as BBC Music Magazine’s ‘Chamber Choice’ in August 2011. Gerhardt plays a unique instrument from the renowned maker Matteo Goffriller. He writes about his travelling and performing experiences on his blog, which can be accessed from www.albangerhardt.com.

Alban is a frequent visitor to the USA, where he has performed with the Cleveland Orchestra; the Los Angeles Philharmonic; and the Boston, San Francisco, Houston, Oregon and New World symphony orchestras. In the Far East he has performed with the Seoul, New Japan and China Philharmonic orchestras; the NHK, Taipei, KBS and Guangzhou symphony orchestras; and at the Hong Kong Festival. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

PROGRAMME NOTES

Speedread Tonight’s concert comprises an overture to anything but Ruy Blas, a concerto that isn’t a concerto, and a symphony that – according to some of its contemporaries – isn’t even music at all. And the composers responsible wouldn’t have had it any other way. These three men could not have been more different: Beethoven, the brusque, unstoppable creative force; Schumann, the troubled, impulsive dreamer, and his friend Mendelssohn – elegant, dazzling, and able to conjure fantastic new sounds with the effortless flair of a second Mozart. But all three were following new directions, and all three would have agreed with Mendelssohn’s famous comment that ‘the thoughts expressed to me by music that I love are not too vague to be put into words, but on the contrary, too definite.’ For these composers, music begins at exactly the point

Felix Mendelssohn

where words fall short; a world (in the words of the German writer E.T.A. Hoffmann) ‘in which we leave behind all ordinary feelings to surrender ourselves to an inexpressible longing’. The music of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Schumann is Romantic with a capital R. So Mendelssohn wrote an overture that’s more melodramatic than anything that could ever be put on stage, and Schumann freed the cello from the classical form of the concerto to sing its soul out exactly as it pleases. And Beethoven, as ever, blazed the way in the grandest, wildest and most thrillingly physical symphony of its – or indeed any – time. If, at the end of tonight’s concert, you can’t find the words to describe what you’ve heard, then the music has done its job.

Overture, Ruy Blas

1809–47

‘Suppose, invent, imagine, dream! Rack thy brains and search for something wild, incalculable, mad; a dazzling fatality; a passion that, like delicious poison, draws my soul towards an abyss where crime and ruin wait; thou canst not guess – who could?’ As a Victorian melodrama, Victor Hugo’s Ruy Blas (1838) has it all. With its doomed passions, mistaken identities, scheming villains and vows of revenge, this hot-blooded tragedy of 17th-century Spain would become a Europewide hit. No wonder, then, that when in March 1839 the Leipzig Theatrical Pension Fund wanted to stage a surefire money-spinner to raise funds, they turned to

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this latest sensation from France – and asked their local star musician, Felix Mendelssohn, to write an overture for the occasion. There was only one problem. Mendelssohn hated Ruy Blas. ‘I read the piece, which is detestable’, he told his mother, ‘and more utterly beneath contempt than you could believe, and said that I had no leisure to write the overture’. Whereupon the Fund committee played their trump card. Absolutely, they agreed; they quite appreciated that a busy man like Mendelssohn couldn’t be expected to write a complete overture in a mere couple of weeks.

That did it. Mendelssohn’s mind started whirring, and in three days flat he wrote an overture to … what, exactly? It can’t be Ruy Blas. Six baleful chords ring out, in a jagged rhythm. Drums roll. Violins swirl upwards in the gloom, catch the light – and he’s off, with an overture that distils the very essence of melodrama into a racing, thundering seven-minute symphonic swashbuckler.

It’s as if Mendelssohn had simply decided to upstage ‘the odious play’ at every turn – sealing his victory with a suave, romantic second theme that must surely have sent everyone home humming. Game, set and match to the composer? ‘I mean to call it, not Ruy Blas but Overture for the Theatrical Pension Fund’, he declared. Well, sometimes posterity has the last laugh …

Robert Schumann

Cello Concerto in A minor, Op. 129

1810–56

Robert Schumann never wrote a Cello Concerto. On 2 September 1850 he arrived with his wife Clara in Düsseldorf, where he had accepted the position of Music Director for the city. Düsseldorf fell over itself to welcome the couple; their hotel rooms were decked with flowers, and when Robert entered the hall where he was to hear a concert in his honour, trumpeters sounded a fanfare. Within a month he’d settled into a pleasant and productive routine. He’d work all morning, take a stroll with Clara, lunch at one o’clock, and then work until early evening before repairing to a local restaurant to read the papers and enjoy a stein of beer. And in October 1850, under these happy conditions, and in barely six days, he wrote a ‘Concert Piece [Konzertstück] for Cello with accompaniment for orchestra’. We don’t know why or for whom he wrote it (and it wouldn’t be performed in public until June 1860 – four years after his death). But we do know that he never called it a Cello Concerto. Later musicians, eager to put one of the 19th century’s most subversive creative imaginations back in its box, have done that, and the term has stuck. But Schumann was a professional writer – indeed, one of the most brilliant of all music critics – and he chose his words carefully. The word ‘concerto’, after all, derives from the idea of competition – and for 19th-century composers, especially German ones, the

Alban Gerhardt cello 1 Nicht zu schnell – 2 Langsam – 3 Sehr lebhaft

example of Beethoven’s concertos, mighty battles-royal between orchestra and soloist, was overwhelming. Schumann didn’t think that way; for him, the cello (which he’d played himself as a student) was, like the clarinet and the horn, the Romantic instrument par excellence. In numerous shorter works he made it the partner in a poetic dialogue with the piano; now, it’s a figure in a dark-hued orchestral landscape – not a battling hero. Imagine one of those solitary wanderers in Caspar David Friedrich’s landscape paintings. So this isn’t a ‘Concerto’ concerto; its three movements are played without a break in an expansive half-hour arc, and the emphasis is on song rather than fireworks. Even in the bustling finale, Schumann can’t resist that warmhearted urge to take the listener aside and exchange a tender confidence. Not that the music lacks passion; in fact, in the absence of orchestral bombast, an ardent soloist with a glorious tone is absolutely essential. We need have no worries on that count tonight. Expect to hear reaffirmed Donald Tovey’s observation that in this deeply personal work, ‘the qualities of the violoncello are exactly those of the beloved enthusiastic dreamer whom we know as Schumann.’

INTERVAL – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval. London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

PROGRAMME NOTES

Ludwig van Beethoven 1770–1827

Modern music has never been easy to grasp. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony was premiered in Vienna on 8 December 1813 at a benefit concert for Austrian soldiers wounded in the recent Battle of Hanau, and the impresario, Beethoven’s friend (and inventor of the metronome) Johann Mälzel had assembled an all-star orchestra. The virtuoso violinist Schuppanzigh was the leader; Dragonetti (the father of modern bass playing) led the basses; and the composers Spohr, Meyerbeer and Romberg sat in the strings. Hummel – composer of that irresistible trumpet concerto – was on drums, and just offstage, cuing the special effects in Beethoven’s other contribution to the evening, the so-called ‘Battle Symphony’, was living legend Antonio Salieri. But even this lot couldn’t cope with the Seventh Symphony. Music that could not be played, protested the violinists, should not be written. Unbelievably, Beethoven kept his cool. Anticipating the words of a thousand amateur orchestra conductors, he ‘begged the gentlemen to take their parts home with them’ to practise. They did – and the performance was one of the supreme triumphs of Beethoven’s career. The Allegretto was even encored, and a delighted Beethoven wrote to a Viennese newspaper to thank his ‘honoured colleagues’ for ‘their zeal in contributing to such a splendid result’. The Seventh Symphony has been a special favourite ever since. Nineteenthcentury conductors used to insert its Allegretto into less popular Beethoven symphonies (like the Fifth) to guarantee applause. And Richard Wagner apparently once performed a one-man dance routine to the entire work, in support of his theory that the Symphony was ‘the apotheosis of dance’. Which must have been an interesting half-hour.

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Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 1 Poco sostenuto – Vivace 2 Allegretto 3 Presto 4 Allegro con brio

Mind you, there were dissenters – the composer Carl Maria von Weber listened to the first movement and declared that Beethoven was ‘ripe for the madhouse’, while Schumann’s father-in-law Friedrich Wieck was convinced Beethoven must have written it while drunk. And it’s hard to blame them entirely. It’s not just the Symphony’s rough-cut humour (after the poised, massive build-up of energy in the first movement’s introduction, the Vivace launches not with a breaking storm, but a bright country-dance tune on the flute). And it’s not just the way every movement is driven by colossal build-ups of dance rhythms (even the haunting Allegretto has the rhythm of a pavane). It’s the sheer, elemental energy with which Beethoven brings it off. Exuberance is written into the Symphony’s very texture. By setting the Symphony in A major, Beethoven automatically made life difficult for the brass players – and the sound of the horns, whooping through the climaxes at the very top of their register, means that the Symphony even sounds exhilarating, unbridled and wild. Even the quieter, slower music is as compelling – that melancholy Allegretto is both one of the simplest and most sophisticated movements Beethoven ever wrote; and the echoing horn-calls in the third movement’s central interlude set the tone for a century of Romantic orchestral music. Perhaps Wieck had a point after all. Listen to the torrential gallop of the finale, and then think of Beethoven’s own words: ‘Music is the spirit that inspires us to new creation; and I am the Bacchus, who presses out this glorious wine to intoxicate all mankind.’ Programme notes © Richard Bratby

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors:

Guy & Utti Whittaker Manon Williams

David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel Goldstein 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 Lady Marina Vaizey Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland

Ken Follett Pauline & Peter Halliday Michael & Christine Henry Mr 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 John Montgomery Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Edmund Pirouet Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Des & Maggie Whitelock Bill Yoe

Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mr Charles Dumas

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

Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd

Thomas Beecham Group The Tsukanov Family 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

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 Education Partner Boeing Corporate Donor Lombard Street Research Preferred Partners Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Villa Maria

In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Sela / Tilley’s Sweets Trusts and Foundations Addleshaw Goddard Charitable Trust Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation BBC Performing Arts Fund The Boltini Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust Diaphonique, Franco-British fund for contemporary music Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation 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 Seary Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation John Thaw Foundation The Underwood Trust Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement Kurt Weill Foundation for Music Garfield Weston Foundation and others who wish to remain anonymous London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

administration

Board of Directors

General Administration

Orchestra Personnel