LPO Programme notes 28 April 2012

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 Saturday 28 April 2012 | 7.30pm

YAN PASCAL TORTELIER conductor HONG XU piano

MESSIAEN Les Offrandes oubliées (13’) BEETHOVEN Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major, Op. 15** (37’) Interval TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (44’) ** Supported by Dunard Fund Free pre-concert performance 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Thomas Blunt conducts the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral apprentices in UK premières of Luke Bedford’s By the Screen in the Sun at the Hill on the Gold and David Bruce’s Steampunk.

The Foyle Future Firsts Programme is generously funded by The Foyle Foundation with additional support from the Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation, the Idlewild Trust, the Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust, the Seary Charitable Trust and the Musicians Benevolent Fund.

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

PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 Southbank Centre / Leader 3 List of players 4 About the Orchestra 5 Yan Pascal Tortelier 6 Hong Xu 7 Programme notes 11 Next concerts 12 Annual Appeal 2011/12 13 Supporters 14 New recordings 15 Orchestra news 16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

Welcome

pieter schoeman Leader

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

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE

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.

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Parking at Southbank Centre From 18 April 2012, Southbank Centre car parks operate on a Pay-by-Phone system, which is both quicker and more convenient. If you are a regular visitor, you may wish to register in advance by visiting www.apcoa.co.uk/connect For those unable to pay by phone, Pay and Display machines will also be available. Details of how to pay will be displayed at each car park.

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For more information and full details of the new rates, please visit www.southbankcentre.co.uk/ visitor-info or phone Apcoa on 020 7620 0397.

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

© Patrick Harrison

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.

Born in South Africa, he made his solo début aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in the US. In 1987 he was offered the Heifetz Chair of Music scholarship to study with Eduard Schmieder in Los Angeles and in 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman, who recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. In 1994 he became her teaching assistant at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. As a chamber musician he regularly performs at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall.

As a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pieter has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky, Brahms’s Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, and Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim.

He has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television, and led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has performed frequently as Guest Leader with the symphony orchestras of Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon and Baltimore, as well as with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Pieter is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

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

Ilyoung Chae Katalin Varnagy Tina Gruenberg Martin Höhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz

Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Rebecca Shorrock Alain Petitclerc Galina Tanney Joanne Chen Catherine Van De Geest Caroline Frenkel Francesca Smith Second Violins Philippe Honore Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Fiona Higham Ashley Stevens Marie-Anne Mairesse Nancy Elan Nynke Hijlkema Imogen Williamson Stephen Stewart Elizabeth Baldey Mila Mustakova Peter Graham

Violas Cyrille Mercier Guest Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens Daniel Cornford Sarah Malcolm Anthony Byrne Emmanuella ReiterBootiman Stephen Gorringe Cellos Richard Lester Guest Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Gregory Walmsley Santiago Carvalho† Susanna Riddell David Bucknall Emily Isaac Helen Rathbone Orlando Jopling Double Basses Tim Gibbs Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Jeremy Watt Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Catherine Ricketts Lowri Morgan

Flutes Ileana Ruhemann Guest Principal Jane Spiers Katie Bicknell Piccolo Katie Bicknell Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick Cor Anglais Sue Bohling Principal Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds

Clarinets Nicholas Carpenter* Principal Emily Meredith Bass Clarinet Paul Richards Principal Bassoons Lola Descours Guest Principal Gareth Newman* Simon Estell Horns Mark Vines Principal Martin Hobbs Tim Ball Gareth Mollison Nicolas Wolmark

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

David Hilton Trombones David Whitehouse Principal Andrew Connington Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Keith Millar Eddy Hackett

* 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 player is not present at this concert: Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras.

As well as performing classical concerts, the Orchestra also records film and computer game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of Londoners every year through activities for schools and local communities.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then has been headed by many of the great names in the conducting world, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. The current Principal Conductor is Russian Vladimir Jurowski, appointed in 2007, with French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin as Principal Guest Conductor.

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

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

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

You may well have heard the London Philharmonic Orchestra on film soundtrack recordings: it has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia, East is East and Hugo. The Orchestra also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 60 releases on the label, which are available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations and Symphony No. 8 conducted

by Sir Charles Mackerras; Holst’s The Planets conducted

by Vladimir Jurowski; Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Martin Helmchen under Vladimir Jurowski; and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The Orchestra was also recently honoured with the commission to record all 205 of the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics Team Welcome Ceremonies and Medal Ceremonies.

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

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

Find out more and get involved! lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra

yan pascal tortelier

© Malcolm Crowthers

CONDUCTOR

Yan Pascal Tortelier enjoys a distinguished career as a guest with the world’s most prestigious orchestras. He began his musical career as a violinist and at the age of 14 won first prize for violin at the Paris Conservatoire, as well as making his début as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Following general musical studies with Nadia Boulanger, Tortelier studied conducting with Franco Ferrara at the Accademia Chigiana in Siena, and from 1974–83 was Associate Conductor of the Orchestre National du Capitole de Toulouse. Other past positions have included Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Ulster Orchestra (1989–92), Principal Guest Conductor of the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (2005–08) and Principal Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra (2009–12).

Following his outstanding work as Chief Conductor of the BBC Philharmonic between 1992 and 2003, including annual appearances at the BBC Proms and a very successful tour of the US to celebrate the orchestra’s 60th anniversary season, he has been awarded the title of Conductor Emeritus and continues to work with the orchestra regularly. He also holds the positions of Principal Guest Conductor at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and Honorary Guest Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra.

European tour with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, visiting a number of prestigious venues including the Vienna Musikverein, Salzburg Festspielhaus, Frankfurt Alte Oper and Cologne Philharmonie.

The 2011/12 season began with a major tour of China with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Hong Xu. Other highlights of this season and beyond include a tour of South America with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra; and return visits to the Hallé, the Danish National Orchestra, the Dresden and St Petersburg Philharmonic orchestras, and the St Louis and Baltimore symphony orchestras.

Tortelier has enjoyed a long association with Chandos Records, resulting in an extensive catalogue of recordings, notably with the BBC Philharmonic and the Ulster Orchestra, and including award-winning cycles of the orchestral music of Debussy, Ravel (featuring his own orchestration of Ravel’s Piano Trio), Franck, Roussel and Dutilleux. He has also conducted critically acclaimed discs of repertoire ranging from Hindemith and Kodály to Lutosławski and Karłowicz. Recent releases for Chandos include the Ravel Piano Concertos coupled with Debussy’s Fantaisie, with pianist JeanEfflam Bavouzet, and a disc of works by Florent Schmitt with the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra.

Yan Pascal Tortelier has collaborated with major orchestras including the London Philharmonic, London Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Czech Philharmonic, St Petersburg Philharmonic and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras; the Orchestre de Paris; the Filarmonica della Scala, Milan; and in the US, the Philadelphia Orchestra; Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra; and the Boston, Chicago and Montreal symphony orchestras.

Further afield he has collaborated with the Melbourne Symphony, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony, Hong Kong Philharmonic and Malaysian Philharmonic orchestras.

Recent highlights have included return visits to the Minnesota Orchestra, the Royal Flemish Philharmonic and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, and a major London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

HONG XU PIANO

© Chad Johnston

Hong Xu’s career began at a very early age and he made his concerto début in China at just 16 years old, playing Rachmaninoff’s Second Piano Concerto.

He studied at Wuhan Conservatory in China; the Eastman School of Music in Rochester, New York; and The Juilliard School (where he recently graduated from the much-prized Artist Diploma course), under teachers including Liping Jiang, Douglas Humpherys, Jerome Lowenthal and Robert McDonald.

Competition successes include Third Prize in the Gina Bachauer International Young Artists Competition (at the age of just 17); Second Prize at the 2004 Hilton Head International Piano Competition; and the Mozart Prize at the 2005 Cleveland International Piano Competition.

Xu is a Laureate of Canada’s 2006 Honens International Piano Competition.

Hong Xu has given recitals at Wigmore Hall and Carnegie Hall’s Weill Recital Hall; given a ten-city recital tour in Germany; and recorded his first CD at the Banff Centre in Canada. He has appeared as soloist with the Orchestre Métropolitain du Grand Montréal, Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra and the Juilliard Orchestra, under such conductors as Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Roberto Minczuk and Vladimir Ashkenazy. In 2008 Xu represented The Juilliard School at the Beijing Cultural Olympiad.

In January this year Xu returned to the Hallé for a series of concerts with its Principal Guest Conductor, Markus Stenz, and earlier this month he returned to Wigmore Hall for a recital that was also recorded on the Wigmore Live label. During January he also appeared with the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

As a result of the travel chaos caused by the Icelandic volcano in 2010, Hong Xu undertook last-minute replacement appearances in prestigious recital series in Vancouver and Middlebury, Vermont, both of which have already re-invited him for future seasons.

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Hong Xu made his début with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the start of this year in an extensive tour of China under Yan Pascal Tortelier. Earlier this month he also performed with the Orchestra at Brighton Dome.

Hong Xu is a member of the piano faculty at Wuhan Conservatory of Music.

PROGRAMME NOTES

Breakthroughs Olivier Messiaen announced himself to the Parisian musical world in his early twenties with a work already bearing his unmistakable personal imprint, Les Offrandes oubliées, a ‘symphonic meditation’ in three linked movements on the idea of the Crucifixion and the Eucharist.

Beethoven launched himself as both pianist and composer in Vienna with his First Piano Concerto, seemingly modelled on a concerto by his predecessor Mozart, but containing much in the handling of its material and in the virtuoso solo writing that is recognisably his own.

Olivier MESSIAEN 1908–92

Olivier Messiaen’s ‘symphonic meditation’ Les Offrandes oubliées (‘The Forgotten Offerings’) is an early work, written in the summer of 1930 as he was leaving the Paris Conservatoire, and first performed the following year. It lacks some of the fingerprints of his later music, in particular his use of birdsong. But it already shows many elements of his mature musical language: harmonies based on his own modal system, which appear to drift rather than moving purposefully to cadences; rhythms often in varying groupings of two and three beats; and orchestration in alternating blocks of sound, reminiscent of an organist’s use of different registrations.

The piece is also typical of Messiaen at most periods of his life in its specifically Christian subject-matter. The ‘offerings’ of the title are Christ’s self-sacrifice on the Cross and the act of Eucharist that commemorates this; and it is when these are ‘forgotten’, Messiaen explains

Tchaikovsky’s Fourth Symphony was written in the composer’s mid-thirties, when he was already well established, but it still constitutes a breakthrough for him into a new combination of symphonic form with highly personal expression. Its solemn opening fanfare symbolises the threat of Fate, which hangs over the dramatic first movement, recedes in the song-like slow movement and the ingenious collagelike Scherzo, and returns in the course of the finale, only to be swept away by the cheerful rejoicing of a folk festival.

Les offrandes oubliées: méditation symphonique Très lent, douloureux, profondément triste – Vif, féroce, désespéré, haletant – Extrêmement lent (avec une grande pitié et une grande amour)

in a prefatory poem, that mankind descends into sin.

This is the basis of the work’s plan of three short, continuous movements, which in his published piano arrangement the composer entitled respectively ‘The Cross’, ‘Sin’ and ‘The Eucharist’.

The first movement is marked ‘very slow, grief-stricken, profoundly sad’, and consists of a single melody in a free time reminiscent of plainchant, mostly for the muted strings (except double basses) in octaves over wind harmonies, but with interpolated bars of rich string harmonies; as a coda, cellos, basses and bassoons introduce a new fragment of melody. The quick central movement maintains the mood of its initial marking, ‘ferocious, desperate, gasping for breath’, through a series of panels in changing metres and featuring mostly rising phrases coloured by fierce string attacks, sharp accents in the brass, and whistling violin harmonics.

At the end, the melodic fragment from the coda of the London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

PROGRAMME NOTES

first movement returns, slightly extended. It is then expanded further as the melody of the ‘extremely slow’ final movement, played by muted first violins with the harmonic support of four solo second violins and five solo violas, also muted, and marked ‘with great compassion and great love’.

Les bras étendus, triste jusqu’à la mort, sur l’arbre de la Croix vous répandez votre sang.

Vous nous aimez, doux Jésus, nous l’avions oublié.

Arms stretched out, sad unto death, on the tree of the Cross you shed your blood.

You love us, sweet Jesus: we had forgotten that.

Poussé par la folie et le dard du serpent, dans une course haletante, effrénée, sans relâche, nous descendions dans le péché comme dans un tombeau.

Driven by madness and the serpent’s bite on a panting, frantic, unceasing course, we descended into sin as into a tomb.

Voici la table pure, la source de la charité, le banquet du pauvre, voici la Pitié adorable offrant le pain de la Vie et de l’Amour.

Vous nous aimez, doux Jésus, nous l’avions oublié.

Here is the spotless table, the source of charity, the poor man’s banquet; here is Pity to be worshipped, offering the bread of Life and Love.

You love us, sweet Jesus: we had forgotten that.

Olivier Messiaen, prefatory poem to Les Offrandes oubliées.

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN 1770–1827

The piano concerto that Beethoven published as No. 1 is not in fact his first. It was preceded by the work which we know as No. 2; and there was an even earlier concerto in E-flat, written when he was 14, which has survived only in a short score. This Concerto in C major was probably composed in 1795, and performed by Beethoven in Vienna during that year. He gave another performance on a visit to Prague in 1798, but he seems to have gone on revising the work right up to its publication in 1801.

Beethoven’s model for this Concerto was clearly the late piano concertos of Mozart, and in particular the last

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PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 IN C MAJOR, OP. 15 HONG XU piano Allegro con brio Largo Rondo

of the C major concertos, No. 25 (K503). The scoring is similarly full, although Beethoven adds two clarinets to Mozart’s wind section of flute, oboes, bassoons, horns and trumpets (with timpani); and much of the piano figuration recalls Mozart’s passagework, though it is enhanced by the virtuosity for which Beethoven was celebrated as a young man.

There are also some striking direct echoes of the Mozart concerto in Beethoven’s first movement: in particular, the military-sounding closing theme of the orchestral exposition, and the unexpectedly offhand entrance of the solo piano shortly afterwards. In more general

terms, too, Beethoven’s first movement resembles Mozart’s in its ‘symphonic’ handling of the thematic material. The very simple elements of the first subject – an upward octave in a distinctive rhythm, an upward semiquaver scale, and a cadential figure in crotchets – come in for particularly intensive development; the upward octaves even form the starting point for each of the three cadenzas that Beethoven wrote at various times for this movement.

Another significant feature of this opening Allegro is its regular gravitation to keys on the flat side of C major, notably (from a surprisingly early stage) to E-flat major, which becomes a kind of subsidiary key-centre along with the ‘regular’ second-subject key of G major – giving the movement a characteristic feeling of breadth. This

flatward gravitational pull extends to the expansive Largo, which is in the unusually remote key of A-flat major, a key which together with the scoring – clarinets, bassoons and horns only in the wind section – imparts a distinctive mood of veiled serenity to the movement.

The brightness and openness of the final Rondo provide an effective contrast to this, not least in the central A minor episode, with its springing gypsy rhythms.

But the closely related first and third episodes once more have a tendency to move to the flat side of the key; and the balance is righted only after the cadenza with a brief but telling burst of the extreme sharp key of B major, followed after the last return of the rondo theme by a string of scales and cadences all unshakably reasserting the home key.

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

Pyotr Ilyich TCHAIKOVSKY 1840–93

Tchaikovsky wrote most of this Symphony in 1877: the year of his greatest emotional crisis, unresolved and intensified by his impossible marriage, and culminating in a suicide attempt; but also the year in which Nadezhda von Meck, the wealthy widow with whom he corresponded prolifically and intimately for 13 years, first settled on him enough money to enable him to live and work in comfort. It was to her, though in print only as ‘my best friend’, that he dedicated the Symphony; and it was also to her that he wrote, early in 1878, outlining the programme behind the work. This letter (translated in full in David Brown’s biography of the composer) was of course written after the event, and in a postscript Tchaikovsky described his attempt to interpret his music in words as ‘confused and inadequate’. But all the same, it is of value in indicating

symphony no. 4 in f minor, op. 36 Andante sostenuto – Moderato con anima Andantino in modo di canzona Scherzo (Pizzicato ostinato): Allegro Finale: Allegro con fuoco

something of his ideas and intentions, and in particular his conception of the Symphony – under the influence, surely, of Bizet’s Carmen, which he had seen in Paris early in 1876 – as dominated by the idea of Fate, ‘that force which prevents the impulse to happiness from achieving its goal’ and ‘hangs above your head like the sword of Damocles, and unwaveringly, constantly poisons the soul’.

This notion is embodied in the stern fanfares of the introduction to the first movement – after which the main theme of the ensuing Moderato con anima (‘with soul’) depicts the resulting ‘cheerless and hopeless feeling’ that ‘grows yet stronger and more burning’, and the second-subject group represents a retreat from reality into a world of daydreams. This dream-world, set

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

PROGRAMME NOTES

in the correspondingly distant keys of A-flat minor and B major, is, as John Warrack has pointed out, ‘that of the ballet’: the dance measure implied by the sub-heading in movimento di valse in Tchaikovsky’s tempo marking comes increasingly to the fore, though always in the form of a waltz in phrases of three bars, written as 9/8.

The ‘Fate’ theme recurs three times in the mounting excitement of the development section, and then again after the much altered and truncated recapitulation (which is in D minor and F major) and in the much faster coda. ‘Thus’, in Tchaikovsky’s words, ‘all life is an unbroken alternation of hard reality with swiftly passing dreams and visions of happiness.’

The two middle movements are more straightforward in form and expression. The description in modo di canzona in the heading of the B-flat minor slow movement indicates a song-like style, exemplified in the oboe’s first long melody, and also the ‘song form’ of A–B–A – though this is complicated by the fact that there are two alternating principal ideas in the outer sections, the second beginning as an inversion of the first. Tchaikovsky said that this movement suggested ‘that melancholy feeling which comes in the evening when, weary from your labour, you are sitting alone’, reflecting on a host of distant memories: ‘happy moments, when the young blood boiled, and life was satisfying ... painful moments, irreparable losses’.

The Scherzo, the composer went on, ‘expresses no definite feeling’, but ‘is made up of capricious arabesques, ... fleeting images’, including ‘a picture of drunken peasants and a street song’, and later ‘somewhere in the distance, a military procession’.

But this unusual movement – in 2/4 metre, rather than the triple time then still expected of a scherzo – seems chiefly concerned with what Tchaikovsky called in an earlier letter ‘a new instrumental effect of which I have great hopes’. The strings play pizzicato throughout the movement: the scherzo sections are for them alone.

The trio is in two sub-sections, the first for woodwind and the second for the brass and timpani. And in a tailpiece to the trio, and again in a coda to the whole movement, the three elements, and their different tempi and thematic ideas, are ingeniously combined.

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The finale has been analysed by different writers in terms of variation and sonata forms, but it is most likely to be perceived as a kind of rondo, in which statements of the brilliant opening flourish in F major – joined later by a march-like idea in the same key – alternate with a subsidiary theme in various minor keys. This subsidiary theme, a Russian folksong called ‘In the fields there stood a birch tree’, also forms the basis of two developmental episodes. The second of these culminates in the return of the ‘Fate’ theme from the first movement – after which the two major-key themes return in reverse order to launch a triumphant coda.

Tchaikovsky’s programme here speaks of finding joy amidst the merry-making of the people, who ‘have not noticed that you are solitary and sad’. ‘Rejoice in others’ rejoicing’, he wrote to Madame von Meck, but really to himself. ‘To live is still possible!’

Programme notes © Anthony Burton

next concertS at royal festival hall

Wednesday 2 May 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

Sunday 29 July 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

Janáček Suite, The Cunning Little Vixen Dvořák Piano Concerto* Suk Symphonic Poem, Ripening

Beijing Symphony Orchestra and London Philharmonic Orchestra: Gala Concert

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Martin Helmchen piano London Philharmonic Choir Tickets £9–£39 * Supported by Dunard Fund

Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Professor Geoffrey Chew explores these three giants of the Czech repertoire.

Sunday 13 May 2012 | 12.00–1.00pm Royal Festival Hall FUNharmonics Family Concert The Cunning Little Vixen Vladimir Jurowski conductor Hannah Conway presenter Meet Sharp-Ears, the cunning little vixen at the centre of our story, and frolic in the Czech forest along with Frog, Dragonfly, Mosquito, Cricket and the London Philharmonic Orchestra!

With the help of Hannah Conway, we’ll take a closer look at how different sections of the orchestra are used to tell the story of Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen, as well as in pieces by Stravinsky, Lyadov and Mussorgsky.

You’ll hear Sharp-Ears and her cubs having a great time chasing chickens, and there’s more poultry in our performance as we play extracts from Stravinsky’s Renard and Mussorgsky’s ‘Ballet of the Unhatched Chicks’ from his popular work Pictures at an Exhibition.

Tickets £5–£18 Foyer events throughout the morning Try your hand at playing an orchestral instrument in one of our Have-a-Go sessions or join our Human Orchestra workshops from 10.30am–2.30pm in the Royal Festival Hall foyers.

Guo Wenjing Overture (for the London 2012 Olympics) Tang Jianping Sacred Fire 2008: Concerto for Percussion and Orchestra Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Choral) London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir Beijing Symphony Orchestra Tan Lihua conductor Li Biao percussion Rebecca Evans soprano Ning Ling mezzo soprano Andrew Kennedy tenor Matthew Rose bass Tickets £9–£39 (available through Southbank Centre box office only: details below)

Booking details Tickets £9–£39 | Premium seats £65 London Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office 020 7840 4242 Monday to Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.uk (no transaction fee) Southbank Centre Box Office (transaction fees apply) 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm southbankcentre.co.uk

2012/13 season now on sale!

Browse the full season at www. lpo.org.uk/ newseason or call 020 7840 4208 for a brochure.

Highlights include appearances by Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Tetzlaff, Lawrence Power, Kurt Masur, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt and Sarah Connolly. There are also opportunities to hear new talent including cellist Sol Gabetta, conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, pianist Javier Perianes and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

Subscription discounts are available when booking three or more concerts.

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London Philharmonic Orchestra

Annual Appeal 2011/12 in aid of the Community Programme Despite living close to Royal Festival Hall, many people in South London have never visited the venue or heard an orchestra perform. We are committed to our work in the community to ensure that as many people as possible can access and enjoy music of the highest quality. There are three dynamic projects within the Community Programme, providing inspirational musical opportunities for children and their families.

Animate Orchestra is a young person’s ‘orchestra for the 21st century’, offering young people in Lewisham and Greenwich a creative pathway for them to continue their playing as they make the transition from primary to secondary education – a time when many young musicians give up. Young people make music side by side with London Philharmonic Orchestra musicians.

The Band is the Orchestra’s fusion ensemble for young people in South London, at which they improvise, create, and rehearse their own music – from classical to jazz, hip hop, rock, and more. Members have inspirational contact with London Philharmonic Orchestra players, in sessions led by some of the UK’s leading tutors.

FUNharmonics are our Family Concerts – an interactive introduction for all the family to music and the orchestra, presented by Chris Jarvis of CBeebies. Free foyer activities before and after the concert include Have-a-Go sessions where children can try out a range of orchestral instruments with our musicians; and the Human Orchestra – fun rhythmic sessions where music is performed using body percussion, singing, drumming, and clapping.

Your Support In order to undertake this essential work we depend entirely on donations from charitable sources each year, and we are asking you to help us to support this work in the communities surrounding the South Bank. If you do feel able to contribute to this year’s Appeal we would be extremely grateful. Gifts of any size make a real difference; to donate please contact Elisenda Ayats on 020 7840 4225 or elisenda.ayats@lpo.org.uk.

For more information, and to donate online, please visit lpo.org.uk/support_us/appeal And now, for the first time, you can also donate up to £10 to the Orchestra by text message. To donate, text PHIL12 and the amount you wish to donate (£1, £2, £3, £4, £5, or £10) to 70070. e.g. to donate £10 text PHIL12 £10 to 70070 For more information, please visit lpo.org.uk/text

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

Commander Vincent Evans Mr & Mrs Jeffrey Herrmann Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas Andrew T Mills Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard Mr John Soderquist & Mr Costas Michaelides Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland 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 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 Mr D Whitelock Bill Yoe Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd 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 Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP Berkeley Law Charles Russell Lazard Leventis Overseas Corporate Donor Lombard Street Research In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sela / Tilley’s Sweets Villa Maria Trusts and Foundations Addleshaw Goddard Charitable Trust Arts and Business Allianz Cultural Foundation

Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation The Boltini Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Charitable Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The Delius Trust Diaphonique, Franco-British fund for contemporary music Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation J Paul Getty Junior Charitable Trust The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Hattori Foundation for Music and the Arts Capital Radio’s Help a London Child The Hobson Charity The Kirby Laing Foundation The Idlewild Trust The Leverhulme Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Marsh Christian Trust The Mercers’ Company

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 The Serge Prokofiev Foundation Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Reed Foundation The Rothschild Foundation The Seary Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Stansfield Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation The Swan Trust John Thaw Foundation The Thistle Trust The Underwood Trust Kurt Weill Foundation for Music Garfield Weston Foundation Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

New recordings

on the London Philharmonic Orchestra label

ravi shankar: symphony LPO–0060 | £6.99 Legendary composer and sitarist Ravi Shankar is one of India’s most highly esteemed musical ambassadors, renowned for his pioneering work in bringing Indian music to the West. 2010 saw the première of his ambitious fusion work, his first symphony conceived for a Western symphony orchestra. In this live recording of the work’s première, David Murphy conducts the London Philharmonic Orchestra with Ravi Shankar’s daughter Anoushka on sitar.

christoph eschenbach conducts beethoven’s missa solemnis LPO–0061 | £9.99 Beethoven had little liking for organised religion, but he was deeply spiritual, believing in God as an all-powerful, loving Father.

The awesome, sublime Missa Solemnis is one of his supreme achievements, which he headed ‘From the heart – may it in turn go to the heart!’ In this live concert recording, the fervour of Beethoven’s vision is powerfully realised by conductor Christoph Eschenbach with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir.

Coming soon ... thames diamond jubilee pageant: the official CD

NEEMe JäRVI CONDUCTS DVOŘÁK’s STABAT MATER

May 2012

May 2012

LPO–0063 £9.95

LPO–0062 £9.99

Available exclusively from John Lewis and Waitrose stores and online from 4 May–6 June, and from all good CD retailers and the LPO Box Office thereafter.

Browse and order online at lpo.org.uk/shop, or call the Box Office on 020 7840 4242

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

orchestra news

The Floating Orchestra

Foyle Future Firsts – apply now!

The London Philharmonic Orchestra will form one of the ten music barges in the Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant on 3 June 2012. The Orchestra, conducted by David Parry, will perform a Last Night of the Proms-style selection of British music, which will also be recorded for a CD to be released on the LPO Label next month.

The CD, priced £9.95, will be available exclusively

Are you a young orchestral musician who has completed an undergraduate or postgraduate performance degree?

Would you like to gain invaluable professional experience with a world-class orchestra? The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Foyle Future Firsts programme helps bridge the transition period between college and the professional platform for up to 16 outstanding young musicians each year. It is designed to nurture and develop talented players, and to form the base for future appointments to the London Philharmonic Orchestra and other world-class orchestras and ensembles.

from John Lewis and Waitrose stores and online from 4 May–6 June, and from all good CD retailers and the LPO Box Office (020 7840 4242) thereafter (LPO–0063).

In late February we held a trial run event aboard ‘The Symphony’ with an orchestra formed of the LPO’s Foyle Future Firsts, young professionals and students from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, conducted by Ben Gernon. Watch a video of the test event at http://youtu.be/nomdgEdVFs8

We are currently accepting applications for next year’s programme (Sep 2012–Aug 2013). The closing date for applications is 13 May 2012 and auditions will be held in June and July. Read more and apply online: www.lpo.org.uk/education/futurefirsts

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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Administration

Board of Directors

General Administration

Orchestra Personnel

Archives

Martin Höhmann Chair Stewart McIlwham Vice-Chair Sue Bohling Lord Currie* Jonathan Dawson* Gareth Newman George Peniston Sir Bernard Rix* Kevin Rundell Sir Philip Thomas* Timothy Walker AM†

Timothy Walker AM† Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Philip Stuart Discographer

Sarah Thomas Librarian

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

*Non-Executive Directors

The London Philharmonic Trust Victoria Sharp Chair Desmond Cecil CMG Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann Angela Kessler Clive Marks OBE FCA Julian Simmonds Natasha Tsukanova Timothy Walker AM† Laurence Watt Manon Williams American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. We are very grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for its support of the Orchestra’s activities in the USA.

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager

London Philharmonic Orchestra Julia Boon 89 Albert Embankment David Burke Assistant Orchestra Personnel SE1 7TP General Manager and Manager FSC_57678 LPO 14 January 2011 15/09/2011 12:30 Page London 1 Tel: 020 7840 4200 Finance Director Ken Graham Trucking Fax: 020 7840 4201 David Greenslade Instrument Transportation Box Office: 020 7840 4242 Finance and IT Manager (Tel: 01737 373305) lpo.org.uk Finance

Concert Management

Development

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Nick Jackman Development Director

Ruth Sansom Artistic Administrator

Harriet Mesher Charitable Giving Manager

Graham Wood Concerts, Recordings and Glyndebourne Manager

Melissa Van Emden Events Manager

Alison Jones Concerts Co-ordinator

Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations and Events Officer

Jenny Chadwick Tours and Engagements Manager

Elisenda Ayats Development and Finance Officer

Jo Orr PA to the Chief Executive / Concerts Assistant

Marketing

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant Education & Community

Professional Services

Michael Pattison Stage Manager

Charles Russell Solicitors

Patrick Bailey Education and Community Director

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors

Alexandra Clarke Education Manager

Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor

Caz Vale Community and Young Talent Manager Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Kath Trout Marketing Director Ellie Dragonetti Marketing Manager Rachel Fryer Publications Manager Helen Boddy Marketing Co-ordinator Samantha Kendall Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242) John Barnett Intern Valerie Barber Press Consultant (Tel: 020 7586 8560)

The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045.

Photographs of Beethoven and Tchaikovsky courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.

Front cover photograph © Benjamin Ealovega.

Printed by Cantate. †Supported by Macquarie Group