Issuu

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 1

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 23 March 2011 | 7.30pm

MARIN ALSOP conductor LONDON PHILHARMONIC CHOIR

BRETT DEAN Komarov’s Fall (London première) JOHN ADAMS Doctor Atomic Symphony

(8’)

†

CONTENTS 2 3 4 5 6 7 11 13 14 15 16

List of Players Orchestra History Southbank Centre Marin Alsop London Philharmonic Choir Programme Notes Recordings Supporters Philharmonic News Administration Future Concerts

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. (24’)

INTERVAL HOLST The Planets

PROGRAMME £3

(48’)

supported by Macquarie Group

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 2

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

FIRST VIOLINS Simon Blendis Guest Leader Shlomy Dobrinsky Catherine Craig Geoffrey Lynn Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Peter Nall Galina Tanney Joanne Chen Robert Yeomans Eric Wang Caroline Frenkel Catherine van de Geest Kotono Sato Francesca Smith SECOND VIOLINS Jeongmin Kim Principal Joseph Maher Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Ashley Stevens Andrew Thurgood Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Peter Graham Stephen Stewart Mila Mustakova Sheila Law Elizabeth Baldey Steve Dinwoodie VIOLAS Tom Dunn Guest Principal Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Michelle Bruil Daniel Cornford Miranda Davis Sarah Malcolm Martin Fenn Anthony Byrne Karin Norlen James Hogg Rachel Benjamin

CELLOS Alexander Somov Guest Principal Francis Bucknall Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp

Gregory Walmsley Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff Pavlos Carvalho Tae-Mi Song Emily Isaac DOUBLE BASSES Tim Gibbs Principal George Peniston Richard Lewis Tom Walley Joe Melvin Damian Rubido Gonzalez Catherine Ricketts Charlotte Kerbegian FLUTES Jaime Martin* Principal Sue Thomas* Ian Mullin Stewart McIlwham* PICCOLOS Stewart McIlwham* Principal Ian Mullin ALTO FLUTE Sue Thomas* OBOES Ian Hardwick Principal Katie Bennington Will Oinn COR ANGLAIS Sue Bohling Principal

BASS OBOE Janice Knight

BASS TROMBONE Lyndon Meredith Principal

CLARINETS Nicholas Carpenter Principal Emily Meredith James Burke Paul Richards

EUPHONIUM David Whitehouse

E FLAT CLARINET James Burke BASS CLARINET Paul Richards Principal BASSOONS John Price Principal Gareth Newman* Susanna Dias Gordon Laing CONTRA BASSOON Gordon Laing HORNS John Ryan Principal Alec Frank-Gemmill Guest Principal Martin Hobbs Nicolas Wolmark Gareth Mollison Anthony Chidell Duncan Fuller

TUBA James Anderson Guest Principal TIMPANI Simon Carrington* Principal Antoine Bedewi PERCUSSION Rachel Gledhill Principal Andrew Barclay* Co-Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Antoine Bedewi HARPS Rachel Masters* Principal Helen Sharp CELESTE Catherine Edwards ORGAN Henry Parks

TRUMPETS Paul Beniston* Principal Nicholas Betts Co-Principal David Hilton Robin Totterdell Joe Sharp TROMBONES Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse Becky Smith * Holds a professorial appointment in London

Chair supported by Julian and Gill Simmonds

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Richard Karl Goeltz David and Victoria Graham Fuller John and Angela Kessler

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Geoff and Meg Mann Richard and Victoria Sharp The Tsukanov Family

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 3

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 4

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.

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 5

MARIN ALSOP CONDUCTOR

Grant Leighton

culminated in a performance of his Mass. This project brought together a 500-strong cast of performers, including a specially-formed orchestra of members of youth orchestras from Britain, Brazil, the US and Iraq.

Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international music scene, a Music Director of vision and distinction. She is recognised across the world for her innovative approach to programming and for her deep commitment to education and to the development of audiences of all ages. Her success as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was recognised when, in 2009, her tenure was extended to 2015. Building an orchestra is one of Alsop’s great gifts and is widely acknowledged. She retains strong links with all of her previous orchestras – the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, where she was Principal Conductor from 2002 to 2008 and now holds the post of Conductor Emeritus, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, where she was Music Director from 1993 to 2005 and is now Music Director Laureate. Since 1992, Marin Alsop has been Music Director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, one of the most exciting of the US festivals, where she has built a devoted audience for new music. Marin Alsop is a regular guest conductor with the great orchestras of the world, including the New York Philharmonic, Philadelphia, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestras as well as the Tonhalle Zürich, Orchestre de Paris and La Scala Milan. She has a close relationship with both the London Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestras and also returns regularly to the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic. She collaborates closely with the Southbank Centre in London, and in the 2009/10 season was appointed Artistic Director of the year-long Bernstein Project which

Since taking up her position in Baltimore in September 2007, Marin Alsop has spearheaded educational initiatives which reach more than 60,000 school and pre-school students. In 2008 she launched ‘OrchKids’, an after-school programme designed to provide music education, instruments and mentorship to the city’s neediest young people. Another of her major initiatives is the BSO Academy, a community venture in which local non-professional musicians work in depth over a week with members of the Baltimore Symphony. In 2008 Marin Alsop became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and in the following year was chosen as Musical America’s 2009 Conductor of the Year. She is the recipient of numerous awards in the USA and Europe, including a European Women of Achievement Award for 2007, and is the only conductor to receive a MacArthur Fellowship, an award given by the MacArthur Foundation each year to a select number of US citizens who produce exceptional creative work. Her extensive discography, which already includes a notable set of Brahms symphonies with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, is further distinguished by a new Dvořák series, which has been highly praised in major music publications such as Gramophone (Editor’s Choice, December 2010) and International Record Review in the UK, and Neue Musik-Zeitung in Germany. For her recent recordings of John Adams’s Nixon in China and Leonard Bernstein’s Mass the Financial Times gave Nixon in China five stars, calling it an ‘incandescent performance’, whilst Gramophone chose Mass as Editor’s Choice in its 2010 Awards. Born in New York City, Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her Master’s Degree from the Juilliard School. Her conducting career was launched in 1989 when she was a prizewinner at the Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition in New York and in the same year was the first woman to be awarded the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein, Seiji Ozawa and Gustav Meier.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 6

LONDON PHILHARMONIC CHOIR PATRON: HRH Princess Alexandra PRESIDENT: Sir Roger Norrington ARTISTIC DIRECTOR: Neville Creed

ACCOMPANIST: Iain Farrington CHAIRMAN: Mary Moore CHOIR MANAGER: Kevin Darnell

Sopranos Lasma Anspoka, Katy Austin, Rebecca Brei, Olivia Carter, Sarah Deane-Cutler, Sally Donegani, Emily Eason, Hannah Grace, Savanna Greichen, Francesca Harris, Jessica Hislop, Laura Hunt, Erin Hutchinson, Mai Kikawwa, Ilona Kratochvilova, Kathryn Leigh, Suzannah Lipmann, Joanna Loxton, Natalie Millet, Katie Milton, Linda Park, Teresa Pells, Beth Procopio, Isobel Pyrke, Claire Spencer, Rose Stachniewska, Rachael Stokes, Tracey Szwagrzak, Fran Welch

Altos Joanna Arnold, Gabriella Burnel, Anna Byrne, Lara Carim, Isabelle Cheetham, Alice Conway, Janik Dale, Kathryn Gilfoy, Lara Harvey, Karin Hendrickson, Jennifer Needham, Catherine Travers, Libby Vannet

Founded in 1947, the London Philharmonic Choir is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest choirs, consistently meeting with great critical acclaim. It has performed under leading international conductors throughout its history and made numerous recordings for CD, radio and television. Its Artistic Director is Neville Creed.

The Choir appears regularly at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall and performances have included Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, Rachmaninov’s The Bells and the UK premières of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s A Relic of Memory and Goldie’s Sine Tempore in the Evolution! Prom. The Choir shared the stage with Daleks and other creatures at the Doctor Who Prom in 2008 and for a second time in 2010.

Enjoying a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Choir frequently joins it for concerts in the UK and abroad. Last season’s highlights included performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross, Honegger’s Une Cantate de Noël, Poulenc’s Stabat Mater, Janáček’s The Eternal Gospel, Myaskovsky’s Symphony No. 6 and Liszt’s A Faust Symphony. This season, the Choir has performed Mahler’s Symphony No. 3 and Das klagende Lied, Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin, Dvořák’s Te Deum and Stabat Mater and Fauré’s Requiem. Later this week it will perform Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius. Recently released CDs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra include Dvořák’s Requiem conducted by Neeme Järvi, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Holst’s The Planets and Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross under Vladimir Jurowski.

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

The Choir works with other leading orchestras and will perform Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus at the end of May under Andrew Litton. It has visited many countries in Europe and performed in Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Perth, Australia. It also sings in Raymond Gubbay’s Classical Spectacular, Organ Gala and Christmas Classics concerts, and last December joined Katherine Jenkins in her Christmas show at the Royal Albert Hall. The London Philharmonic Choir prides itself on achieving first-class performances from its members, who are volunteers from all walks of life. For more information, including details about how to join, please visit www.lpc.org.uk.

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 7

PROGRAMME NOTES

SPEEDREAD The music in tonight’s concert – though it looks to space and to the very edges of scientific possibility – is really about us humans, at our most poetically rich and selfishly pathetic. Komarov’s Fall, written in 2006 by the Australian composer Brett Dean, combines openmouthed wonder at the beauty and scale of our solar system with glances at two everyday human characteristics: the strength of our love for each other and the tragedy of our selfishness and greed. That, too, is one of the central paradoxes of John Adams’s 2005 opera Doctor Atomic. In it we witness J. Robert Oppenheimer’s steadfast faith and his wonder at the beauty of earth and creativity; all the while, under fractious circumstances, he attempts to fine-tune the

Brett DEAN

atomic bomb that will eventually fall on Hiroshima. Tension courses through the veins of Doctor Atomic and the orchestral symphony Adams adapted from it, but it’s a tension through which the most touching and admirable human characteristics never fail to punch. The world was on the edge of catastrophic destruction, too, when Gustav Holst wrote The Planets. Forget the ‘English pastoral’ school or the nationalist connotations of the vocal spin-off I Vow To Thee My Country: this was radically evocative music that remains by turns terrifying and intangible. Holst studied the universe and its elements, but in The Planets he ends up creating musical pictures of human beings. So perceptive and broadminded was Holst, however, that his vision of humanity remains quite unlike anyone else’s.

KOMAROV’S FALL

Born 1961

One of Sir Simon Rattle’s first gestures as Music Director of the Berlin Philharmonic was to commission a series of new pieces that would form companions to Gustav Holst’s The Planets. Rattle’s decision to commission one such ‘asteroid’ from Australian-born composer Brett Dean must have been particularly easy: not only had Dean recently retired as the Berlin Philharmonic’s Principal Viola to concentrate on composition, he also had form when it came to space-inspired music. One piece from Dean’s 2005 Short Stories had taken its inspiration from real-life events in 1967, when the Soviet Cosmonaut Vladimir Mikhailovich Komarov died upon re-entry to the earth’s atmosphere in a spacecraft named Soyuz. Komarov was the first person to die in space – in Dean’s words, ‘a casualty of the political mongering that so characterised the international space race in the 1960s.’ The composer became particularly interested in the tragedy, not least when it emerged the mission had been dogged by mismanagement in the rush to celebrate the anniversary of Lenin’s birthday.

Dean returned to the subject for his Berlin Philharmonic asteroid Komarov’s Fall. He explains his working processes in his own programme note: ‘The initial sonic inspiration for my asteroid came via the eerie, lonely beauty found in recordings of space telemetry signals. But chancing upon a vivid archive recording of Komarov’s frantic discussions with the control centre from on board his craft further informed the dramatic urgency of the work, especially the jagged semiquaver rhythms that appear throughout, first heard on woodblocks in the opening pages of the score. Komarov’s wife, Valentina, was invited to speak to her husband from the control centre and it is their imagined farewell, in the midst of the drama of Komarov’s precarious situation, which inhabits the brief lyrical section in the middle of the piece.’

Extract from Brett Dean’s programme note reprinted by kind permission of Boosey and Hawkes.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 8

PROGRAMME NOTES

John ADAMS

DOCTOR ATOMIC SYMPHONY The Laboratory | Panic | Trinity

Born 1947

In his typically multimedia-savvy way, John Adams has described composing his Doctor Atomic Symphony as ‘Like being a film-maker, with cans and cans of footage that I’d shot and had to edit in a meaningful way’. The symphony, of course, is derived from Adams’s third opera, Doctor Atomic (given its première in San Francisco in 2005 and staged at English National Opera in spring 2009), and the composer’s comment is revealing of his ambitions for the instrumental work. The opera tells the story of the building and testing of the first atomic bomb, with its central protagonists the military-scientific team lead by the increasingly troubled physicist J. Robert Oppenheimer. The symphony is not merely a suite of orchestral interludes but a parallel response to the same topics and materials. When the symphony was first performed by the BBC Symphony Orchestra at the 2007 Proms, conducted by Adams himself, it had four movements: The Laboratory, Bedroom, Panic and Trinity. Adams has since cut the second – based around a bedroom conversation between Oppenheimer and his wife Kitty – to produce a work tightly focussed on the opera’s most tense and dramatic passages. Adams has said that the story of the bomb’s development is ‘The all-time American symbol of our darkest mythology’. The music compiled for the symphony retains this spirit: the Dies irae-like overture, the decision to commence the detonation countdown as storms lash the test site and the troubled soliloquies of the scientists who know they are experimenting with forces they don’t fully understand.

8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Adams’s rhythmic, post-minimalism ticks menacingly, unravels its own unstoppable energy, smashes atoms and builds strings of chain reactions. It is ideally suited to portraying the psychological struggle between humanity and unstoppable science. Even in the symphony’s quieter passages, Adams electrifies the atmosphere with the unearthly howls of bowed cymbals. Most of the original vocal lines – sung by anxious scientists and ruthless military men – are given to solo brass. This gives these roaming melodies an ironically martial edge, an effect that Adams has drawn on before, perhaps most memorably in the trumpet solos of his setting of Walt Whitman’s Civil War poem The Wound Dresser. One prominent exception are the words of the doveish, cultured Robert R. Wilson, who finds a reflection of his fears in Thomas Mann’s The Magic Mountain – this moment of literary allusion is set for bouyant, almost dancing cellos. Only in the third and final movement, Trinity (all three are played without a break), does the sense of dread break off for a transcription – for solo trumpet, what else? – of the opera’s most celebrated scene, Oppenheimer’s aria ‘Batter my heart’, a setting of Donne’s poem. It is the most human moment in the symphony, and by placing it at the end – it comes at the end of Act I in the opera – Adams emphasises man’s powerlessness in the face of the unrelenting march of progress. And even this moment of self-reflection is swallowed by one last demonic countdown.

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 9

PROGRAMME NOTES

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

Gustav HOLST

THE PLANETS, OP. 32 LONDON PHILHARMONIC CHOIR

1874-1934

Mars, The Bringer of War Venus, The Bringer of Peace Mercury, The Winged Messenger Jupiter, The Bringer of Jollity Saturn, The Bringer of Old Age Uranus, The Magician Neptune, The Mystic Gustav Holst wasn’t your average English gent. He was, in fact, a radical. At least, that’s how he must have seemed to his friends and colleagues in Cheltenham and London in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Holst’s interest in Indian literature and religion led to an intense study of Sanskrit, which he used to translate hymns from the Rig Veda before setting them to music. He was fascinated by transcendentalism and mysticism, holding the pursuit of material success to be the world’s last bastion of evil. As a counterpoint to his teaching at London’s most exclusive school for girls, Holst is known to have distributed outspoken left-wing newspapers on the capital’s streets. The Planets marries that extraordinarily broad world view with a rather more Edwardian search for order and discipline. Referring to the piece, Holst’s daughter Imogen described her father’s difficulty conceiving large-scale musical structures, suggesting he looked to the planets of the solar system for some sort of readymade structural framework. ‘As a rule I study only

things that suggest music to me’, the composer himself commented, ‘the character of each planet suggested lots to me.’ For musicologist Paul Griffiths, The Planets is concerned not so much with astronomy as metaphysics. ‘The world was being profoundly questioned on many fronts’, Griffiths writes of the 1910s, the decade Holst was at work on the piece, suggesting the composer sensed not only the onset of catastrophic human destruction but also that he was acutely aware of the musical upheavals of Schoenberg and the Second Viennese School. It’s a strong argument: Holst’s disgust at earth’s conflicts and contradictions led him to look beyond it, ‘tracing the archetypal religious quest’ according to theologian Karen Armstrong. But it’s actually Holst’s belief in humanity that shines through in The Planets: we’re left not with pictures of planetary characteristics, but human ones. So, down to the nuts and bolts. Holst began work on The Planets in 1914, initially scoring the movements for piano duet and organ (for the mystical Neptune) to protect his writing hand from burgeoning arthritis. By 1916 each of the planets was constructed musically (Pluto was undiscovered at the time); the following year Holst set about orchestrating the pieces with the help of two colleagues from the school at which he taught. On 29 September 1918 the piece was given its first

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 10

PROGRAMME NOTES

performance at the Queen’s Hall in London by the New Queen’s Hall Orchestra, conducted by Adrian Boult. ‘There is no programme music in them’, Holst explained of his movements, ‘if any guide to the music is required, the subtitle to each piece will be found sufficient, especially if it is used in a broad sense.’ Still, Holst probably wouldn’t have minded us exploring some of the rich and brilliant orchestral effects he employed. Most immediately striking is his use of a five-in-a-bar rhythmic structure in the opening movement, Mars. Sitting somewhere between Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring and Williams’s Star Wars, this terrifying vision of war is hammered out over a rhythmic ‘ostinato’ that eventually destroys itself. The mood is turned on its head with the luminosity of Venus – centred on high woodwinds, harps and celeste – and the nimble stream of flying tones that is Holst’s vision of Mercury. Jupiter pits the striving of its famously broad theme against a more jovial variation on that same idea. Saturn is more consistently weighty, built of a lugubrious solemnity from just two chords,

and Uranus is a box of musical tricks, kicking off with the blurting out of four orchestral chords which bounce onto the timpani and off in the direction of further variation. In Neptune, the five-in-a-bar rhythm of the work’s opening returns, but with a striking difference. The music feels its way into being until Holst conjures a breathtaking sonic effect: the sound of wordless, distant voices, emerging and then receding again. It’s no accident that Holst arranged his planets in order of increasing distance from the earth, and here we seem to teeter on the edge not only of the solar system but also of human comprehension. ‘Unforgettable’, said Imogen Holst, reflecting on her first hearing of the effect, ‘the chorus of women’s voices growing fainter and fainter in the distance, until the imagination knew no difference between sound and silence.’ Speedread/Komarov’s Fall/The Planets notes by Andrew Mellor © 2011 Doctor Atomic Symphony note by Tim RutherfordJohnson © 2010

Hear every note

Hard of hearing? Visit the cloakroom for equipment to improve your concert experience.

10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 11

RECORDINGS ON THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S OWN RECORD LABEL

LPO-0007 Jonathan Nott, Vladimir Jurowski and Marin Alsop conduct MarkAnthony Turnage’s Scherzoid, Evening Songs, When I Woke and Yet Another Set To, with Gerald Finley (baritone) and Christian Lindberg (trombone) ‘... exhilarating, explosive stuff.’ DAVID GUTMAN, GRAMOPHONE, NOVEMBER 2005

‘Conductors Jonathan Nott, Vladimir Jurowski and Marin Alsop, all sound at one with Turnage’s mixture of drive and composure, and the LPO, recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall last season, is on its best form.’ MATTHEW RYE, DAILY TELEGRAPH, 3 DECEMBER 2005

LPO-0031 Marin Alsop conducts Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Twice Through the Heart, sung by Sarah Connolly, The Torn Fields, sung by Gerald Finley, and Hidden Love Song with saxophonist Martin Robertson as soloist. ‘Striking performances of three of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s most powerful works, conducted by Marin Alsop ... Those who say there are no heart and melody in contemporary music should listen to this eloquent composer.’ SUNDAY TELEGRAPH

LPO-0035 Marin Alsop conducts James MacMillan, Thomas Adès and Jennifer Higdon with Colin Currie (percussion) ‘These live LPO recordings are the best possible advert for new classical music ... ‘Thanks to Alsop’s flair the MacMillan has unrivalled intensity, the Adès goes with a swing and Higdon’s flimsy concerto sounds like a joyride.’ FINANCIAL TIMES, 1 NOVEMBER 2008

LPO-0047 Vladimir Jurowski conducts Holst’s The Planets ‘Brisk tempos and a brilliant, brassy sound distinguish this version of Holst’s best-loved work … hats off to the energy and commitment of the LPO players.’ PAUL GENT, DAILY TELEGRAPH, 8 OCTOBER 2010

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 12

The London Philharmonic Orchestra Recording Archive Many thanks to those kind supporters who have donated recordings to the London Philharmonic Orchestra Recording Archive. There are still many holes in our Archive so we would like to encourage any possible donors to delve into their own collections to see if they have any recordings which might fill in some of the gaps. Please contact Gillian Pole at the London Philharmonic Orchestra, 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP if you would like to make a donation.

FUNharmonics Family Concert

Tick Tock Sunday 15 May 2011 | 11.30am Royal Festival Hall Kodály The Viennese Musical Clock from Háry János Suite Prokofiev Waltz from Cinderella: Suite No. 1 Haydn Excerpt from Symphony No. 101, (The Clock) McNeff The Clockwork Suite Beethoven Allegretto from Symphony No. 8 J Strauss Perpetuum mobile Ponchielli Dance of the Hours from La gioconda Stuart Stratford conductor Chris Jarvis presenter

Download London Philharmonic Orchestra recordings from www.lpo.org.uk/shop It’s easy to take the London Philharmonic Orchestra with you wherever you go! Visit our downloads site to choose the works (or even single movements) you’d like to buy, and download high quality MP3s to your computer for transfer to an MP3 player or CD. With regular additions of new recordings with conductors from Beecham to Jurowski you’ll always have a selection of great music to choose from.

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Foyer Events from 10am You can try your hand at playing an orchestral instrument in one of our Have-a-Go sessions, get your face painted or join our human orchestra – all in the foyers before and after the performance. Generously supported by The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust.

TICKETS Child £4-£8 Adult £8-£16 For booking details see page 16.

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 13

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 Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Charitable Trust The John S Cohen Foundation The Coutts Charitable Trust The Dorset Foundation The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Ernest Cook Trust The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Capital Radio’s Help a London Child The Idlewild Trust The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation The Kirby Laing Foundation The Leverhulme Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust The Michael Marks Charitable Trust

Marsh Christian Trust UK Friends of the FelixMendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute Paul Morgan Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund The R K Charitable Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Reed Foundation The Rubin Foundation The Seary Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust The David Solomons Charitable Trust Sound Connections The Stansfield Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation The Swan Trust John Thaw Foundation The Underwood Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 14

PHILHARMONIC NEWS

Tours Recent ventures into Europe have taken the Orchestra to Madrid for two concerts on 21 and 22 February with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. The concerts were repeats of our Royal Festival Hall concerts on 16 and 19 February when we performed Ravel’s Suite, Mother Goose, Berlioz’s La Mort de Cléopâtre and Symphonie fantastique, Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante and Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde. This was followed on 15 March by a concert in Bologna with Vladimir Jurowski conducting Haydn’s Symphony No. 63, Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 5 and Brahms’s Symphony No. 4. Later in March the destination was France for concerts at the Dijon Opera Auditorium on 20 March and the Théâtre des Champs Elysées in Paris on 21 March. In both cases Vladimir Jurowski conducted Brahms’s Symphony No. 4 with the Brahms Violin Concerto at the first and the Beethoven Violin Concerto at the second. The violin soloist was Christian Tetzlaff. Next month the Orchestra travels to Luxembourg, Cologne, Heidelberg, Dortmund and Essen for further concerts with Yannick Nézet-Séguin.

Trudeliese Schmidt and Jadwiga Rappé, tenor Kenneth Riegel, baritone Eike Wilm Schulte, bass Hans Sotin, the London Philharmonic Choir, London Symphony Chorus and Eton College Boys’ Choir. The double CD (price £10.99) can be bought online from www.lpo.org.uk/shop or from the Orchestra’s Box Office on 020 7840 4242 (Mon-Fri, 10am-5pm).

New CD Just released this month is the Orchestra’s recording of Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 taken from a concert given in 1991. 528 singers and musicians are led in this vibrant, life-affirming performance by one of the greatest interpreters of Mahler’s music, and former Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Klaus Tennstedt. ‘It was as inspired a Mahler performance as Tennstedt has ever conducted, with an inevitability, a sense of spiritual grandeur and adventure, that renewed all one’s youthful faith in a work which one feared might have lost its power, thrill and surprise for ever.’ – was how the Daily Telegraph described the original concert. For the performance Tennstedt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra were joined by sopranos, Julia Varady, Jane Eaglen and Susan Bullock, mezzo sopranos

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

The Orchestra’s iphone app The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s highly acclaimed iphone app is now available for Android phones. Visit the Android Market at http://market.android.com to download this free app and stay in touch with the Orchestra’s concerts, news, reviews, new CD releases, videos and podcasts.

Catch up or listen again Those of you who missed our concert on 19 March conducted by Vladimir Jurowski can hear two of the works – Julian Anderson’s The Crazed Moon and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 4 – on our website by visiting www.lpo.org.uk/listenagain. It will be available to listen to up until the end of March.

57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011_57695 LPO 23 Mar 2011 16/03/2011 14:21 Page 15

ADMINISTRATION

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL