29 September 2012 LPO programme notes

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 29 September 2012 | 7.30pm

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Tatiana Monogarova soprano Sergei Skorokhodov tenor Vladimir Chernov baritone London Philharmonic Choir London Symphony Chorus

Rodion ShchedriN Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 (The Chimes)† (12’) Please note there will be the sound of a gunshot at the end of this piece.

Miaskovsky Silentium† (23’) Interval Denisov Bells in the Fog† (16’) RachmaninofF The Bells (Choral Symphony) (35’) † UK premiere Barlines free post-concert event Level 2 The Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall Artists involved in the performance will discuss the evening’s programme.

* 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 Tonight’s performers 5 Vladimir Jurowski 6 Leader / Tatiana Monogarova 7 Sergei Skorokhodov /

Vladimir Chernov 8 London Philharmonic Choir /

London Symphony Chorus 9 Tonight’s singers 10 Programme notes 16 The Bells text and translation 19 Supporters 20 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

Welcome

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE

Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

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.

Wednesday 3 October 2012 | 7.30pm

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.

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Lawrence Power viola London Philharmonic Orchestra

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:

Britten Sinfonia da Requiem Walton Viola Concerto Prokofiev War and Peace (excerpts)

Part of Shell Classic International Series and War & Peace Friday 5 October 2012 | 7.30pm Tchaikovsky 1812 Overture Britten Lachrymae for viola and orchestra, Op. 48a Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 (Leningrad) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Lawrence Power viola London Philharmonic Orchestra Russian National Orchestra Part of Shell Classic International Series and War & Peace

PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium.

Watch a video of Vladimir Jurowski introducing the ‘War & Peace’ mini-series, 3–5 October 2012:

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

www.lpo.org.uk/newsletter/seasoninfo.html

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.

Wednesday 17 October 2012 | 7.30pm Beethoven Overture, Leonore No. 3 Carl Vine Piano Concerto No. 2 (UK premiere)* Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 Vassily Sinaisky conductor Piers Lane piano * Commissioned by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, and London Philharmonic Orchestra with support from Garf and Gill Collins.

Booking details 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

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 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.

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, ‘Jurowski and the LPO provided the appointed in 2007, and impossible that is perfection ... As things Yannick Nézet-Séguin is Principal Guest Conductor. stand now, the LPO must rate as an

example to all orchestras.’

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 Musicalcriticism.com, July 2011 Orchestra at the Royal (BBC Proms 2011: Liszt, Bartók and Kodály) Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, where it has performed since it The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an opened in 1951, giving around 40 concerts there each energetic programme of activities for young people and season. 2012/13 highlights include three concerts with local communities. Highlights include the Deutsche Vladimir Jurowski based around the theme of War Bank BrightSparks schools’ concerts; the Leverhulme and Peace in collaboration with the Russian National Young Composers project; and the Foyle Future Firsts Orchestra; Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, also orchestral training programme for outstanding young conducted by Jurowski; 20th-century American works players. Over recent years, developments in technology with Marin Alsop; Haydn and Strauss with Yannick and social networks have enabled the Orchestra to Nézet-Séguin; and the UK premiere of Carl Vine’s reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings Second Piano Concerto with pianist Piers Lane under are available to download from iTunes and, as well Vassily Sinaisky. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra will as a YouTube channel, news blog, iPhone app and collaborate with the Southbank Centre on The Rest regular podcasts, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Is Noise festival, based on Alex Ross’s book of the Facebook and Twitter. same name and charting the 20th century’s key musical works.

Find out more and get involved!

The Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around lpo.org.uk the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra since 1964. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide.

Tours in the 2012/13 season include visits to Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, the USA and Austria.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

tonight’s performers

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

Ilyoung Chae Katalin Varnagy Thomas Eisner Martin Höhmann Chair supported by Moya Greene

Geoffrey Lynn Yang Zhang Helena Smart Galina Tanney Ishani Bhoola Caroline Frenkel Janka Ryf Amanda Lake Francesca Smith Kokila Gillett Second Violins Helen Paterson Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Fiona Higham Marie-Anne Mairesse Peter Graham Stephen Stewart Elizabeth Baldey Stephen Dinwoodie Sarah Buchan Dafydd Williams Naomi Anner Holly Bhattacharya Dean Williamson Emma Martin Violas Cyrille Mercier Guest Principal Robert Duncan Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens

Alistair Scahill Martin Fenn Pamela Ferriman Sarah Malcolm Stephen Gorringe Karin Norlen Miriam Eisele Peter Norriss Sarah Chapman Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Francis Bucknall Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Gregory Walmsley Susanna Riddell Tae-Mi Song Sibylle Hentschel William Routledge Jessica Hayes Iain Ward Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Tim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Helen Rowlands Tom Walley Catherine Ricketts Lowri Morgan Charlotte Kerbegian Antonia Bakewell Flutes Sue Thomas Principal Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Jane Spiers Marta Santamaria Stewart McIlwham* Piccolos Stewart McIlwham* Principal Marta Santamaria

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick John Roberts Sue Bohling Cor Anglais Sue Bohling Principal Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds

Trombones David Whitehouse Principal John Randall Bass Trombones Lyndon Meredith Principal Lewis Edney Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Clarinets Timothy Lines Guest Principal Katie Lockhart Andrew Mason Duncan Gould

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Bass Clarinets Andrew Mason Duncan Gould

Keith Millar Ignacio Molins Eddy Hackett Sacha Johnson

Bassoons Catherine Larsen-Maguire Guest Principal Gareth Newman* Claire Webster Simon Estell Contra-bassoon Simon Estell Principal Horns John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Adrian Uren Anthony Chidell Duncan Fuller Jason Koczur Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal Daniel Newell

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Harps Rachel Masters* Principal Lucy Haslar Keyboards Cliodna Shanahan John Cuthbert Organ Bernard Robertson Assistant Conductor Gerry Cornelius Chair supported by an anonymous donor

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

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI

© Chris Christodoulou

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

One of today’s most sought-after and dynamic conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow, and completed the first part of his musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany, continuing his studies at the High Schools of Music in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Nabucco.

Vladimir Jurowski has been Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera since 2001, and in 2003 was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in September 2007. He also holds the titles of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. He has also held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper, Berlin (1997–2001); Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03); and Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005–09).

Vladimir Jurowski is a regular guest with many leading orchestras in both Europe and North America, including the Berlin and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras; the Dresden Staatskapelle; the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester; the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich; and the Royal Concertgebouw, Philadelphia, Chicago Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony and Mahler Chamber orchestras. Highlights of the 2012/13 season and beyond include his debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, and return visits to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich; the Accademia di Santa Cecilia; and the Philadelphia, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Chicago Symphony orchestras.

Jurowski made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1999 with Rigoletto, and has since returned for Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades and Hansel and Gretel.

He has conducted Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opera National de Paris; Eugene Onegin at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and Iolanta and Die Teufel von Loudon at the Dresden Semperoper, as well as The Magic Flute, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress, The Cunning Little Vixen and Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Future engagements include new productions of Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne; Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera; Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper, Berlin; and The Fiery Angel at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of the cantata Exil by Giya Kancheli for ECM; Meyerbeer’s L’etoile du Nord for Marco Polo; Massenet’s Werther for BMG; and a series of records for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has released a wide selection of his live recordings on its LPO Live label, including Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2; Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1, 4, 5, 6 and Manfred; and works by Turnage, Holst, Britten, Shostakovich, Honegger and Haydn. His tenure as Music Director at Glyndebourne has been documented in a CD release of Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and DVD releases of his performances of La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight. Other DVD releases include Hansel and Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera New York; his first concert as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor featuring works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler; and DVDs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Strauss and Ravel), all released by Medici Arts.

Vladimir Jurowski’s position as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra is generously supported by the Tsukanov Family and one anonymous donor.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

pieter schoeman

tatiana monogarova

leader

soprano

Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut 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 appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

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

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

© Eugene Beregovoy

© Patrick Harrison

Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the LPO in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002.

Born in Moscow, Tatiana Monogarova studied at the Russian Academy of Arts. She made her international operatic debut in Sergei Slonimsky’s The Master and Margarita with the Moscow Forum Theatre on tour in Germany under Mikhail Jurowski.

This was followed by engagements as Desdemona (Otello), Pamina (The Magic Flute), Tatyana (Eugene Onegin) and Mimi (La bohème) in Riga, and Tatyana, Pamina, and the Countess (The Marriage of Figaro) in Vienna. In 2000, she sang Pamina for the Opéra de Nantes. The following season, she returned to Nantes to sing Lisa in The Queen of Spades, and in 2001 appeared as Julie in The Jacobin in Wexford. She sang Lisa in her debut performance at the Bayerische Staatsoper, Munich, and made a successful Glyndebourne Festival Opera debut in 2002 as Donna Anna in Don Giovanni.

Tatiana returned to the Wexford Festival in 2003/04 to sing Dvořák’s Stabat Mater and Dorota in Schwanda the Bagpiper. More recently, she has made her debut at the Opera de Dijon as Cio-Cio San in Madame Butterfly and has performed the title role of Rusalka in a highly acclaimed appearance at the Semperoper Dresden. She appeared at the 2010 BBC Proms in Les Noces, under the direction of Edward Gardner.

Last season’s highlights included revival performances of Rusalka at the Semperoper Dresden; and a return to the Bolshoi Theatre for her signature role of Tatyana in Eugene Onegin in a production by Dimitri Tcherniakov that was later broadcasted, cinecast, and released on DVD. She joined the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra for The Bells with Robert Spano, and sang Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Mariss Jansons.

In 2012/13 Tatiana will appear as Lisa in The Queen of Spades with the Israel Philharmonic Opera; and will once again sing Tatyana in Eugene Onegin at the Bolshoi Theatre. Future concert performances include a further performance of The Bells with the Milwaukee Symphony Orchestra.

© Balmer & Dixon

SERGEI SKOROKHODOV vladimir chernov tenor

baritone

Born in St Petersburg, Sergei Skorokhodov studied at the Glinka Choral School in St Petersburg, and the St Petersburg State Rimsky-Korsakov Conservatoire. He made his debut at the Mariinsky Theatre in 1999 as Guido Bardi in Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy. Since 2007, he has been one of the Mariinsky Theatre’s leading tenors.

Russian baritone Vladimir Chernov has sung over 40 leading roles and has appeared at all the world’s major theatres including the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; the Metropolitan Opera, New York; La Scala, Milan; Teatro Colón, Buenos Aires; and in Paris, Chicago, San Francisco and Vienna. He has performed under many of today’s great conductors including Claudio Abbado, Valery Gergiev, James Levine and Seiji Ozawa. He made his US debut at Los Angeles Opera in 1989 as the Posa in Verdi’s Don Carlos, opposite Plácido Domingo.

In summer 2009, Sergei Skorokhodov replaced Rolando Villazón in an open-air gala concert with Anna Netrebko in Munich. He has appeared as Vaudémont in Tchaikovsky’s opera Iolanta both at Welsh National Opera under Valery Gergiev and in a concert version in Munich. At the Mariinsky Theatre, together with Anna Netrebko, he has appeared in L’elisir d’amore and Lucia di Lammermoor.

During the 2011/12 season Sergei Skorokhodov appeared at the Mariinsky Theatre in Nabucco, Aleko, Boris Godunov, Ariadne auf Naxos, and War and Peace.

With the Mariinsky Opera Company he has visited the Netherlands (Concertgebouw, Amsterdam); France (Opéra National, Paris); the UK (Barbican Hall and Coliseum, London); Sweden (Royal Opera, Stockholm); Finland (Mikkeli Music Festival); and Israel (Red Sea Festival, Eilat).

Current and future projects include Giasone in a new production of Cherubini’s Médée in Valencia; Vaudémont in a world tour of Iolanta featuring Anna Netrebko in the title role; Grigori Otrepjew in Boris Godunov and Froh in Das Rheingold at the Bavarian State Opera, Munich; and Bacchus in a new production of Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in 2013.

Vladimir Chernov’s most performed roles include Giorgio Germont in La traviata, Simon Boccanegra, Eugene Onegin, Miller in Luisa Miller, Enrico in Lucia di Lammermoor, Figaro in The Barber of Seville, and Prince Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades. He has appeared in Eugene Onegin at Opera Australia, in Seattle, and at the Paris Opera; The Barber of Seville in Los Angeles; Il trovatore at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; The Queen of Spades in Dallas and Lyon; and The Sicilian Vespers in Athens. His most recent engagements include Prince Yeletsky in The Queen of Spades at the Metropolitan Opera; Sharpless in Madam Butterfly, Giorgio in Catán’s Il Postino, and Capulet in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette in Los Angeles; and Tebaldo in Zandonai’s Giulietta e Romeo in Munich.

Vladimir Chernov’s recordings include Il trovatore, Luisa Miller and Don Carlos for Sony Classical; Rigoletto for Deutsche Grammophon; Un ballo in maschera for Teldec; and The Queen of Spades for Philips, as well as DVD recordings of Simon Boccanegra and Stiffelio for Deutsche Grammophon.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

london philharmonic Choir PATRON HRH Princess Alexandra | PRESIDENT Sir Roger Norrington | ARTISTIC DIRECTOR Neville Creed ACCOMPANIST Jonathan Beatty | CHAIRMAN Mary Moore | CHOIR MANAGER Kevin Darnell

Founded in 1947, the London Philharmonic Choir is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest choirs, consistently achieving great critical acclaim. It has performed under leading international conductors throughout the last 65 years and made numerous recordings for CD, radio and television.

Recently released CDs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra include Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and Holst’s The Planets, Mahler’s Symphony No. 2, Haydn’s The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross and Honegger’s Une Cantate de Noël under Vladimir Jurowski.

Enjoying a close relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the Choir frequently joins it for concerts in the UK and abroad. In 2011/12, engagements included Scriabin’s Prometheus, Poem of Fire, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Prokofiev’s Ivan the Terrible, Bruckner’s Te Deum, Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3, Zemlinsky’s Psalm 23, Delius’s Sea Drift and Suk’s Ripening. This season, concerts with the LPO include Haydn’s Nelson Mass, Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw, Brahms’s Ein deutsches Requiem, Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Tippett’s A Child of our Time.

Regularly appearing at the BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall, the Choir performed Verdi’s Requiem, Liszt’s A Faust Symphony and Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis in 2011, and this year it performed Elgar’s The Apostles and Howells’s Hymnus Paradisi.

The Choir also performs with other leading orchestras and has visited numeorus countries in Europe and travelled as far afield as Kuala Lumpur, Hong Kong and Perth, Australia. The Choir prides itself on achieving first-class performances from its members, who are volunteers from all walks of life. For more information, please visit www.lpc.org.uk

london symphony chorus Patron Simon Russell Beale CBE | President Sir Colin Davis CH | President Emeritus André Previn KBE Vice Presidents Claudio Abbado, Michael Tilson Thomas | Guest Chorus Director Neville Creed Chairman Lydia Frankenburg | Accompanist Roger Sayer | Administrator Andra East Since its formation in 1966, the London Symphony Chorus has consolidated a broad repertoire and has commissioned works from Sir John Tavener, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Jonathan Dove and Eric Whitacre.

As well as appearing regularly in the major London venues, the LSC tours extensively throughout Europe and has visited North America, Israel, Australia and the Far East.

The Chorus has a discography of over 140 recordings, more than 20 of them on the LSO Live label. These include the Berlioz operas (including the multi awardwinning Les Troyens) conducted by Sir Colin Davis. Other recordings with Sir Colin include the world premiere of James MacMillan’s St John Passion. The Chorus also partners the London Symphony Orchestra on Valery Gergiev’s recordings of Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 2, 3 and 8. The most recent release on LSO Live is Britten’s War Requiem conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, which received universal acclaim.

8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

While maintaining special links with the LSO, the Chorus has partnered all the principal UK orchestras including the Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony Orchestra, and BBC National Orchestra of Wales. Internationally, the Chorus has worked with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, European Union Youth Orchestra, and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

The recent appointment of Simon Halsey as Chorus Director will lead the LSC to ever higher standards of musical excellence.

The London Symphony Chorus is always interested in recruiting new members. For further information about auditioning for the LSC, call Helen Lawford, Auditions Secretary, on 020 8504 0295 or visit www.lsc.org.uk

tonight’s singers

Sopranos

Tenors

London Philharmonic Choir Annette Argent, Mary Bateman, Tessa Bartley, Gemma Chance, Emily Clark, Sheila Cox, Sarah Deane-Cutler, Lucy Doig, Rosha Fitzhowle, Alison Flood, Jane Hanson, Francesca Harris, Sally Harrison, Elizabeth Hicks, Georgina Kaim, Mai Kikkawa, Jenni Kilvert, Olivia Knibbs, Ilona Kratochvilova, Frances Lake, Roseanna Levermore, Natasha Maslava, Janey Maxwell, Sophie MearingSmith, Eileen Morgan, Felicity Mowat, Linda Park, Lydia Pearson, Oktawia Petronella, Alice Pugh, Victoria Smith, Tracey Swagrzak, Susan Thomas, Agnes Tisza, Jenny Torniainen, Jessie Tse, Frances Wheare

London Philharmonic Choir Scott Addison, David Aldred, Geir Andreassen, Chris Beynon, Lorne Cuthbert, Kevin Darnell, Lucas Souza Gomes, Iain Handyside, Stephen Hodges, Rob Home, Patrick Hughes, Andrew Mackie, Tony Masters, Owen Toller

London Symphony Chorus Kerry Baker, Julia Chan, Emma Craven, Sara Daintree, Anna Daventry, Lucy Feldman, Lorna Flowers, Kirstin Gerking-Rabach, Joanna Gueritz, Maureen Hall, Sarah Hall, Jessica Harris, Carolin Harvey, Kuan Hon, Gladys Hosken, Claire Hussey, Debbie Jones*, Helen Lawford*, Irene McGregor, Margarita Matusevich, Fiona Meyringer, Jane Morley, Jenny Norman, Isabel Paintin, Andra Patterson, Ann Pfeifer, Emilia Radu, Mikiko Ridd, Amanda Thomas*, Rebecca Thompson, Lizzie Webb

Altos London Philharmonic Choir Joanna Arnold, Deirdre Ashton, Bisi Bajomo, Phye Bell, Susannah Bellingham, Andrei Caracoti, Noel Chow, Yvonne Cohen, Liz Cole, Alice Conway, Janik Dale, Margaret de Valois Rowney, Margaret Driver, Moira Duckworth, Fiona Duffy-Farrell, Andrea Easey, Regina Frank, Sophy Holland, Sandra Horne, Elizabeth Iles, Marjana Jovanovic Morrison, Andrea Lane, Lisa MacDonald, Sophie Morrison, Rachel Murray, Angela Pascoe, Muriel Swijghuisen Reigersberg, Erica Tomlinson, Susi Underwood, Libby Vannet, Jenny Watson London Symphony Chorus Gina Broderick*, Jo Buchan*, Lizzy Campbell, Sarah Castleton, Rosie Chute, Zoë Davis, Maggie Donnelly, Linda Evans, Lydia Frankenburg*, Christina Gibbs, Yoko Harada, Valerie Hood, Jo Houston, Vanessa Knapp, Selena Lemalu*, Belinda Liao, Anne Loveluck, Aoife McInerney, Jane Muir, Siu-Wai Ng, Helen Palmer, Susannah Priede, Lucy Reay, Maud Saint-Sardos, Jane Steele, Claire Trocmé, Curzon Tussaud, Agnes Vigh, Mimi Zadeh, Magdalena Ziarko

London Symphony Chorus Robin Anderson, Antoine Carrier, John Farrington, Matt Fernando, Matthew Flood, Warwick Hood, Tony Instrall, John Marks, Simon Marsh, Malcolm Nightingale, Dan Owers, Stuart Packford, Harold Raitt, Chris Riley, Mattia Romani, John Slade, Malcolm Taylor, James Warbis, Brad Warburton, Robert Ward*, Paul Williams-Burton

Basses London Philharmonic Choir Euan Au, David Booth, Gordon Buky-Webster, Geoff Clare, Rob Collis, Phillip Dangerfield, Marcus Daniels, Ian Frost, Paul Gittens, Nigel Grieve, Martin Harvey, Mark Hillier, Stephen Hines, David Hodgson, Martin Hudson, Aidan Jones, Steve Kirby, John Luff, John G Morris, Ashley Morrison, Rob Northcott, William Parsons, Johan Pieters, Fraser Riddell, Edwin Smith , Daniel Snowman, Peter Sollich, Peter Taylor, Alex Thomas, James Torniainen, James Wilson, Hin-Yan Wong, John Wood London Symphony Chorus Peter Avis, Andy Chan, Steve Chevis, James Chute, Damian Day, Ian Fletcher, Robert Garbolinski*, John Graham, Robin Hall, Owen Hanmer*, Alex Kidney*, Thomas Kohut, Georges Leaver, Geoff Newman, Andrew Ridal, Tim Riley, Alan Rochford, Nic Seager, Rod Stevens, Gordon Thomson, Jez Wareing

* Member of LSC Council

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

PROGRAMME NOTES

Speedread In the programme note for the premiere of his Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 (The Chimes), Rodion Shchedrin declared ‘Throughout Russian history, chimes have always been very important to our people.’ He might have added, with equal justification, ‘– and especially throughout the history of Russian music’. From Borodin and Mussorgsky through to Schnittke and Denisov, bells have been evoked either directly, in arrays of metallic percussion, or by association, in sonorous piano textures. They may appear for gently atmospheric effect, for overwhelming ecstasy, or with thought-provoking symbolic intent. Or a mixture of all those things.

The Bells is the classic instance. This ‘choral symphony’, to a cycle of four poems by Edgar Allan Poe, was Rachmaninoff’s last major work before leaving Russia and embarking on a career as virtuoso pianist.

Reversing the Beethovenian symphonic paradigm, it presents a journey from light to dark: from sleigh bells, to wedding bells, alarm bells and finally funeral bells.

‘All my life I have taken pleasure in the differing moods and music of gladly chiming and mournfully tolling bells,’ Rachmaninoff avowed in his reminiscences.

‘This love for bells is inherent in every Russian.’

Rodion SHCHEDRIN

Rachmaninoff was not the first composer to engage with the American author via the translation of Symbolist poet Konstantin Balmont. Three years before The Bells, the young Nikolai Miaskovsky, then still a student in St Petersburg and with just one of his 27 symphonies behind him, composed his ‘symphonic parable’ Silentium, to Poe’s arch-Romantic prose-tale of the Devil and a hermit, set in the timeless wastes of Libya. If Rachmaninoff’s music was, in Stravinsky’s words, ‘six foot six of Russian gloom’, in this respect at least Miaskovsky’s assumes giant proportions.

Against the background of the Cold War and glasnost, Shchedrin’s The Chimes and Edison Denisov’s Bells in the Fog both have an internationalist background.

The Chimes was a response to Leonard Bernstein’s commission for the New York Philharmonic’s 125th anniversary in 1968. Denisov’s tone-poem was composed 20 years later for the American-Soviet Youth Orchestra, a kind of forerunner to Barenboim’s West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Both works are as bright as those of Rachmaninoff and Miaskovsky are dark. Both show composers attempting to build bridges not just between East and West, but also between old and new.

Concerto for Orchestra No. 2 (The Chimes) (UK premiere)

Born 1932

Please note there will be the sound of a gunshot at the end of this piece.

The generation of Soviet composers after Shostakovich produced some charismatic and exotic figures, whose music was initially controversial but then gained cult status. At the other end of the stylistic spectrum, it was represented by highly gifted craftsmen who worked more or less within the parameters laid down by Shostakovich.

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Somewhere in between we can locate Rodion Shchedrin: an individualist with a broader and more consistent appeal, who could turn himself chameleon-like to virtuoso pranks or to profound philosophical reflection, to Socialist Realist opera or to folkloristic Concertos for Orchestra (a particular speciality).

His first Concerto for Orchestra of 1963, subtitled ‘Naughty Limericks’, epitomised his vivid, playful Prokofievian spirit. Its American premiere was conducted

by Leonard Bernstein, who then commissioned a followup for the New York Philharmonic’s 125th anniversary.

Shchedrin obliged with this single-movement piece, subtitled ‘The Chimes’. His programme note for the first performance on 11 January 1968 explained: ‘Throughout Russian history, chimes have always been very important to our people ... The chimes of ancient Russia represent a very particular feature of old Russian civilisation.’

Far more severe in tone than the ‘Naughty Limericks’ concerto, ‘The Chimes’ is nevertheless equally characteristic of its composer in its attempt to marry the old (specifically Russian) and the new (styles borrowed from neighbouring Poland). Scored for normal orchestra, but with two piccolos and an array of bells and other metallophones (even the pianist is directed to play with a metal beater), the music delights in effects of register, dynamic, texture and timbre, typical of the ‘sonorism’ of the 1960s. Meanwhile the general level of virtuosity demanded, especially in the faster second half, make this a genuine Concerto for Orchestra.

Nikolai MIASKOVSKY

Silentium, Op. 9 (UK premiere)

1881–1950

The composer who was to become the ‘musical conscience’ of Moscow in the Soviet era, author of 27 symphonies, 13 string quartets and a quantity of sonatas and songs, was born in a fortress in Poland, where his father was a military engineer. He studied in the cadet corps and joined a Moscow sapper’s battalion.

Having pursued his musical interests with the help of various pupils of Rimsky-Korsakov, he entered the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1906, at which point he resigned his commission. He graduated in 1911, more or less at the same time as his concert debut as composer on 13 June 1911, which included the first performance of his ‘symphonic parable’ Silentium, after Edgar Allan Poe. Like Rachmaninoff, Miaskovsky knew the work of Poe via the translations of Konstantin Balmont, himself a Symbolist poet of considerable reputation. Though Poe had died in 1849, the same year as Chopin, he was regarded in Russia as something of a prophet in the literary field.

The score of Silentium is headed by a condensed version of Poe’s 1837 ‘fable’, as the author called it, reproduced in full overleaf. The narration is in the voice of the Devil, who describes a desolate region in Libya, by the shores of the River Zaire (geographical accuracy was evidently not Poe’s primary concern), where ‘there is neither quiet nor silence’. The ghostly figure of a man stands atop a huge rock, full of ‘disgust with mankind’. Nothing the Devil does can deflect the man from his implacable solitude, until the former evokes a massive storm, and, unable to bear the ensuing silence, the man finally departs.

Miaskovsky’s setting follows the text with programmatic exactitude and with predominantly dark colours. The dreary wastes of the opening (led by bass clarinet, marked ‘lugubriously’) give way to the solitary man’s world-weariness (rising themes on clarinet), then the Devil’s intervention (with lurching expostulations on the horns), the man’s unwavering gloom, and a prolonged evocation of the storm, before the moment of Silence itself, and the man’s departure in a state beyond despair.

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

silence: A fable This fable by Edgar Allan Poe is the subject of Miaskovsky’s ‘symphonic parable’ Silentium.

rustling and loud noise, the grey clouds rush westwardly forever, until they roll, a cataract, over the fiery wall of the horizon. But there is no wind throughout the heaven. And by the shores of the river Zaire there is neither quiet nor silence.

Edgar Allan Poe (1848 daguerreotype)

‘It was night, and the rain fell; and falling, it was rain, but, having fallen, it was blood. And I stood in the morass among the tall water-lilies and the rain fell upon my head — and the lilies sighed one unto the other in the solemnity of their desolation.

‘Listen to me’, said the Demon as he placed his hand upon my head. ‘The region of which I speak is a dreary region in Libya, by the borders of the river Zaire. And there is no quiet there, nor silence.

‘The waters of the river have a saffron and sickly hue; and they flow not onwards to the sea, but palpitate forever and forever beneath the red eye of the sun with a tumultuous and convulsive motion. For many miles on either side of the river’s oozy bed is a pale desert of gigantic water-lilies. They sigh one unto the other in that solitude, and stretch towards the heaven their long and ghastly necks, and nod to and fro their everlasting heads. And there is an indistinct murmur which cometh out from among them like the rushing of subterrene water. And they sigh one unto the other.

‘But there is a boundary to their realm — the boundary of the dark, horrible, lofty forest. There, like the waves about the Hebrides, the low underwood is agitated continually. But there is no wind throughout the heaven. And the tall primeval trees rock eternally hither and thither with a crashing and mighty sound. And from their high summits, one by one, drop everlasting dews. And at the roots strange poisonous flowers lie writhing in perturbed slumber. And overhead, with a

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‘And, all at once, the moon arose through the thin ghastly mist, and was crimson in color. And mine eyes fell upon a huge grey rock which stood by the shore of the river, and was lighted by the light of the moon. And the rock was grey, and ghastly, and tall, — and the rock was grey. Upon its front were characters engraven in the stone; and I walked through the morass of water-lilies, until I came close unto the shore, that I might read the characters upon the stone. But I could not decypher them. And I was going back into the morass, when the moon shone with a fuller red, and I turned and looked again upon the rock, and upon the characters; — and the characters were DESOLATION. ‘And I looked upwards, and there stood a man upon the summit of the rock; and I hid myself among the water-lilies that I might discover the actions of the man. And the man was tall and stately in form, and was wrapped up from his shoulders to his feet in the toga of old Rome. And the outlines of his figure were indistinct — but his features were the features of a deity; for the mantle of the night, and of the mist, and of the moon, and of the dew, had left uncovered the features of his face. And his brow was lofty with thought, and his eye wild with care; and, in the few furrows upon his cheek I read the fables of sorrow, and weariness, and disgust with mankind, and a longing after solitude.

‘And the man sat upon the rock, and leaned his head upon his hand, and looked out upon the desolation. He looked down into the low unquiet shrubbery, and up into the tall primeval trees, and up higher at the rustling heaven, and into the crimson moon. And I lay close within shelter of the lilies, and observed the actions of the man. And the man trembled in the solitude; — but the night waned, and he sat upon the rock.

‘And the man turned his attention from the heaven, and looked out upon the dreary river Zaire, and upon the yellow ghastly waters, and upon the pale legions of the water-lilies. And the man listened to the sighs of the water-lilies, and to the murmur that came up from among them. And I lay close within my covert and observed the actions of the man. And the man trembled in the solitude; — but the night waned and he sat upon the rock.

‘Then I went down into the recesses of the morass, and waded afar in among the wilderness of the lilies, and called unto the hippopotami which dwelt among the fens in the recesses of the morass.

‘And the hippopotami heard my call, and came, with the behemoth, unto the foot of the rock, and roared loudly and fearfully beneath the moon. And I lay close within my covert and observed the actions of the man. And the man trembled in the solitude; — but the night waned and he sat upon the rock.

‘Then I cursed the elements with the curse of tumult; and a frightful tempest gathered in the heaven where, before, there had been no wind. And the heaven became livid with the violence of the tempest — and the rain beat upon the head of the man — and the floods of the river came down — and the river was tormented into foam — and the water-lilies shrieked within their beds — and the forest crumbled before the wind — and the thunder rolled — and the lightning fell — and the rock rocked to its foundation. And I lay close within my covert and observed the actions of the man.

And the man trembled in the solitude; — but the night waned and he sat upon the rock.

the rock, and they were changed; — and the characters were SILENCE. ‘And mine eyes fell upon the countenance of the man, and his countenance was wan with terror. And, hurriedly, he raised his head from his hand, and stood forth upon the rock and listened. But there was no voice throughout the vast illimitable desert, and the characters upon the rock were SILENCE. And the man shuddered, and turned his face away, and fled afar off, in haste, so that I beheld him no more.’

Now there are fine tales in the volumes of the Magi — in the iron-bound, melancholy volumes of the Magi.

Therein, I say, are glorious histories of the Heaven, and of the Earth, and of the mighty sea — and of the Genii that over-ruled the sea, and the earth, and the lofty heaven. There was much lore too in the sayings which were said by the Sybils; and holy, holy things were heard of old by the dim leaves that trembled around Dodona — but, as Allah liveth, that fable which the Demon told me as he sat by my side in the shadow of the tomb, I hold to be the most wonderful of all! And as the Demon made an end of his story, he fell back within the cavity of the tomb and laughed. And I could not laugh with the Demon, and he cursed me because I could not laugh. And the lynx which dwelleth forever in the tomb, came out therefrom, and lay down at the feet of the Demon, and looked at him steadily in the face.

Edgar Allan Poe (1809–49)

‘Then I grew angry and cursed, with the curse of silence, the river, and the lilies, and the wind, and the forest, and the heaven, and the thunder, and the sighs of the waterlilies. And they became accursed, and were still. And the moon ceased to totter up its pathway to heaven — and the thunder died away — and the lightning did not flash —and the clouds hung motionless — and the waters sunk to their level and remained —and the trees ceased to rock — and the water-lilies sighed no more — and the murmur was heard no longer from among them, nor any shadow of sound throughout the vast illimitable desert. And I looked upon the characters of

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Edison DENISOV

Bells in the Fog (UK premiere)

1929–96

The first name Edison is not unusual in some countries (it was the footballer Pelé’s given name, for instance), but it certainly is in Russia. Denisov had his father – a radio physicist – to thank for it, and mathematics was the subject he pursued at his home university in Tomsk, Siberia, before giving into his love for music and moving to Moscow to study composition from 1951–56. During these years he went out of his way to find out whatever he could about the latest Western music, attracted by its highly constructivist musical language, esoteric beauty and aura of transgression in a culture struggling to overcome more than two decades of isolation under Stalin. In the process he gradually became one of the leading lights of an ‘unofficial’, ‘underground’, ‘nonconformist’ musical culture (none of these adjectives precisely captures its profile, but all are better than the wholly inaccurate ‘dissident’). As such he attracted exceptional interest in the West.

The tone-poem Bells in the Fog was composed for the American-Soviet Youth Orchestra, a product of an educational exchange programme that was itself a spin-off from summit talks in 1987, the age of glasnost and Reagan-Gorbachev diplomacy. Denisov’s carefully balanced ensemble features four each of flutes, clarinets, trumpets and trombones, six horns, a single oboe and no bassoons, along with strings, celeste, harp and a large complement of metallic percussion. The super-delicate opening, gradually bringing colour and animation to a single note, is characteristic of Denisov.

The initial high ‘A’ returns several times during the piece, as a point of departure for ever-more refined and elaborate instrumental responses to the image given in the title. Two appearances of the marking Inquieto (‘anxious’) are the only clue to the emotional tone of what is essentially a study in musical atmospherics.

Vladimir Jurowski conducts Rachmaninoff on the LPO Label Rachmaninoff The Isle of the Dead | Symphonic Dances Vladimir Jurowski conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO-0004 | £9.99 ‘The sound in both is finely detailed and wide ranging, the aural perspective lifelike and truthful, and there is striking presence. In these dedicated performances both works cast a powerful spell.’ BBC Music Magazine Available from www.lpo.org.uk/shop, the London Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office (020 7840 4242, Monday–Friday 10am–5pm), all good CD outlets and the Royal Festival Hall shop. Downloads available from iTunes, Amazon, eMusic and classicsonline.com.

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Sergei RACHMANINOFF

The Bells (Choral Symphony), Op. 35 1 Allegro, ma non tanto 2 Lento 3 Presto 4 Lento lugubre – Allegro – Andante

1873–1943

Tatiana Monogarova soprano Sergei Skorokhodov tenor Vladimir Chernov baritone London Philharmonic Choir London Symphony Chorus The text is overleaf.

In December 1912 Rachmaninoff took himself and his family off to Rome, to the same flat that Tchaikovsky had occasionally used as a retreat. There he worked on his Second Piano Sonata and his ‘choral symphony’ The Bells. The visit was cut short by the illness of his two daughters, and Rachmaninoff completed the piece at the end of July 1913 on his estate near Tambov, some 300 miles south-east of Moscow.

He had received the text of Poe’s poem, in the translation by Balmont, by anonymous letter the previous summer, along with the suggestion that he would be the ideal person to set it to music. The identity of the sender was only revealed after the composer’s death as one Mariya Danilova, a pupil of one of his cellist friends. She clearly touched a nerve. The trajectory of the four parts of the poem – from joyful sleigh and wedding bells, to terrifying alarm and (by implication at least) funeral bells – was ideally suited to Rachmaninoff’s fatalistic temperament.

The first movement evokes the sleigh bells by means of almost every tuned or metallic percussion available on the late-Romantic orchestral palette other than sleigh bells themselves. After a deliciously scored introduction the tenor soloist intervenes, encouraging us to ‘listen’; the chorus repeats the word as an imperious command; and this establishes the call-and-response format familiar from Russian folk ensembles that operates throughout the movement.

All this is little more than a prelude. The second movement evokes the bells of the marriage ceremony.

After an introduction strongly reminiscent of the Coronation Scene in Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov, the violins embark on one of Rachmaninoff’s trademark long-breathed melodies, passing it to the chorus as it reaches its apex. The soprano solo invites us to ‘hear the holy call to marriage of golden bells’, and Rachmaninoff draws on his full arsenal of sliding chromatic harmonies to emphasise the physical – rather than the holy – side of the sacrament.

In the scherzo third movement, Poe’s text speaks of the howling of the alarm bell and of wild torment. Textual images of night and soaring are carried over from the previous movements, as are musical motifs that skirt around and occasionally directly evoke the Dies irae chant. A dread thundering in the strings, accompanied by side drum, underpins the second phase – ‘I want to soar higher …’ Poe’s text suggests no end to the growing horror. But Rachmaninoff allows a moment of respite before driving the message home with renewed force.

Harps, low strings and horns announce the funeral tone of the finale, even before the cor anglais – the traditional instrument of Russian orchestral lamentation – darkens the tone still further. Then timpani join the baritone in an elegy to rival any in Russian operatic or symphonic history. Just as it seems there will be no end to the gloom, an Allegro section reinforces the panic associated with the poem’s description of a figure shrieking from the belfry and swinging the hollow bell that proclaims the stillness of the grave. Yet the Andante conclusion for orchestra alone – for which the text offers no parallel – seems to suggest that there is at least some peace to be found at the end of what would otherwise be a journey from light to abject darkness.

Programme notes by David Fanning

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

rachmaninoff: the bells

1

1

Slyshish, slyshish, sani mchatsja v ryad, mchatsja v rjad.

Kolokolchiki zvenyat, serebristym lehkim zvonam slukh nash sladostna tamyat etim penem i gudenem a zabvene govoryat.

O, kak zvonka, zvonka, zvonka, tochna zvuchnyj smekh rebyonka, v yasnom vozdukhe nochnom govoryat oni o tom, shto za dnyami zabluzhdenye nastupayet vozrazhdenye, shto volshebno naslazhdene, naslazhdene nezhnym snom.

Sani mchatsya, sani mchatsya v ryad, kolokolchiki zvenyat, zvyozdy slushayut, kak sani, ubegaya, govoryat, i vnimaya im, goryat, i mechtaya, i blistaya, v nebe dukhami paryat; i izmenchivym siyanem, molchalivym abayanem, vmeste s zvonam, vmeste s penem, a zabvene govoryat.

Hear, hear, the sleighs fly past in line, fly in line.

The little bells ring out, their light silvery sound sweetly obsesses our hearing with their singing and their jingling they tell of oblivion.

Oh, how clearly, clearly, clearly, like the ringing laughter of a child, in the clear night air they tell the tale, of how days of delusion will be followed by renewal, of the enchanting delight, the delight of tender sleep.

The sleighs fly past, the sleighs fly past in line, the little bells ring out, the stars listen, as the sleighs fly into the distance, with their tale, and listening, they glow, and dreaming, glimmering, spread a scent in the heavens; and with their flickering radiance and their silent enchantment, together with the ringing, together with the singing, they tell of oblivion.

2

2

Slyshysh k svadbe zov svyatoy zolotoy.

Skolko nezhnava blazhenstva v etoy pesne molodoy!

Slyshysh, k svadbe zov …

Skvos spokoynyi vozdukh nochi slovno smotryat chi-ta ochi i blestyat, iz volny pevuchikh zvukov, na lunu oni glyadyat.

Iz prizyvnykh divnykh keliy, polny skazachnykh veseliy, narastaja, upodaya, bryzgi svetliye letyat.

Vnov potukhnut, vnov blestyat, i ronyayut svetlyi vzglyad na gryadushcheye,

Hear the holy call to marriage of golden bells.

How much tender bliss there is in that youthful song!

Hear the call to marriage …

Through the tranquil night air it is like someone’s eyes glowing, and through the waves of singing sounds, gazing at the moon.

From beckoning, wondrous cells, filled with fairytale delights, soaring, falling, fly out sparks of light.

Dimmed again, glowing again, they shed their radiant light on the future,

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gde dremlyet bezmyatezhnost nezhnykh snov, vozveshchayemykh soglasem zolotykh, zolotykh kolokolov.

Slyshysh k svadbe zov svyatoy zolotoy.

where tender dreams slumber tranquilly, heralded by the golden harmony, harmony of golden bells.

Hear the holy call to marriage of golden bells.

3

3

Slyshysh, slyshysh, voyushchiyi nabat, tochna stonet mednyi ad.

Eti zvuki, v dikoy muke, skasku uzhasov tverdyat.

Tochna molyat im pomoch, krik kidayut pryama v noch, pryama v ushi temnoy nochi, kazhdyi zvuk, to dlinneye, to koroche, vozveshchayet svoj ispug.

I ispug ikh tak velik, tak bezumen kazhdyi krik, shto razorvanniye zvony, nespasobnye zvuchat, mogut tolko bitsya, bitsya, i krichat, krichat, krichat, tolko plakat o poshchade i k pylayushchev gramade vopli skorbi obrashchat.

A mezh tem ogon bezumnyi, i glukhoy i mnogoshumnyi, vsyo gorit.

To iz okon, to po kryshe, mchitsya vyshe, vyshe, vyshe, i kak budto govorit: — Ya khochu vyshe mchatsya, razgoratsya vstrechu lunnamu luchu.

Il umru, il totchas vplot da mesyatsa vzlechu.

O, nabat, nabat, nabat, yesli b ty vernul nazad etot uzhas, eto plamya, etu iskru, etot vzglyad, etot pervyi vzglyad ognya, o kotorom ty veshchayesh s voplem, s plachem, i zvenya.

A teper nam net spasenya, vsyudu plamya i kipene a teper nam net spasenya, vsjudu strakh i vozmushchene.

Tvoj prizyv, dikikh zvukav nesaglasnost, vozveshchayet nam opasnost, to rastyot beda glukhaya, to spadayet, kak priliv.

Hear, hear, the howling of the alarm bell, like the groaning of a brazen hell.

These sounds, in a wild torment, keep repeating a tale of horror.

As though begging for help, hurling cries into the night, straight into the ears of the dark night, every sound, now strange, now shorter, proclaims its terror.

And so great is their terror, so desperate every shriek, that the tortured bells, incapable of ringing out, can only batter, batter, and shriek, shriek, shriek, only weep for mercy and to the thunderous blaze address their wails of grief.

But meanwhile the raging fire, both heedless and tumultuous, ever burns.

From the windows, on the roof, it soars higher, higher, higher, as though announcing: — I want to soar higher, and aflame meet the beams of moonlight.

I will die, or now, now fly right up to the moon.

O alarm bell, alarm bell, alarm bell, if you could only take back the horror, the flames, the spark, the look, that first look of the fire, which you proclaim with your howls and cries and wails.

But now we are past help, the flames seethe everywhere, but now we are past help, everywhere is fear and wiling.

Your call, this wild, discordant noise, proclaims our peril, the hollow sounds of misfortune, flowing and ebbing like a tide.

Please turn the page quietly.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 17

Slukh nash chutka lovit volny v peremene zvukavoy, vnov spadayet, vnov rydayet, medno-stonushchyi priboy.

We can only hear the waves in the changing sounds, now ebbing, now sobbing, of the brazen groaning surf.

4

4 Hear the funeral knell, lengthy knell!

Hear the sound of bitter sorrow, ending the dream of a bitter life.

The iron sound proclaims a funeral’s grief.

And we unwittingly shiver, hurry away from our amusements, and we weep, and remember, that we too shall close our eyes.

Unchanging and monotonous, that faraway call, the heavy funeral knell, like a groan, plaintive, angry, and lamenting, swells to a lengthy booming.

It proclaims that a sufferer sleeps the eternal sleep.

From the belfry’s rusty cells for the just and the unjust it sternly repeats its theme: that a stone shall cover your heart, that your eyes will close in sleep.

As the mourning torch burns someone shrieks from the belfry, someone is loudly talking.

Someone dark is standing there, laughing and roaring, and howling, howling, howling.

He leans against the belfry, and swings the hollow bell, and the hollow bell sobs and groans through the silent air, slowly proclaiming the stillness of the grave.

Pokhoronnyi slyshen zvon, dolgiy zvon!

Gorkoy skorbi slyshny zvuki, gorkoy zhizni konchen son.

Zvuk zheleznyi vozveshchayet o pechali pokhoron.

I nevolna my drazhim, ot zabav svoikh speshim, i rydayem, vspominayem, shto i my glaza smezhim.

Neizmenno monotonnyi, etat vozglas otdalennyi, pokhoronnyi tyazhkiy zvon, tochna ston, skorbnyi, gnevnyi, i plachevnyi, vyrastayet v dolgyi gul.

Vozveshchayet, shto stradalets neprobudnym snom usnul.

V kolokolnych kelyach rzhavykh on dlya pravykh i nepravykh grozna vtorit ob odnom: shto na sertse budet kamen, shto glaza samknutsya snom.

Fakel traurnyi gorit, s kolokolni kto-to kriknul, kto-to gromko govorit.

Kto-to chyornyi tam stoit, i khokhochet, i gremit, i gudit, gudit, gudit.

K kolokolne pripadayet, gulkiy kolokol kochayet, gulkiy kolokol rydayet, stonet v vozdukhe nemom, i pratyazhno vozveshchayet o pokoye grobovom.

Edgar Allan Poe, translated by Konstantin Balmont

Barlines free post-concert event Level 2 The Clore Ballroom, Royal Festival Hall Artists involved in the performance will discuss the evening’s programme.

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Victoria Sharp Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann* Angela Kessler Gareth Newman* George Peniston* Sir Bernard Rix* Kevin Rundell* Julian Simmonds Mark Templeton* Sir Philip Thomas Natasha Tsukanova Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Dr Manon Williams

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Philip Stuart Discographer

Sarah Thomas Librarian

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

Michael Pattison Stage Manager

Professional Services

Finance David Burke General Manager and Finance Director

Julia Boon Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

* Player-Director

Advisory Council Lord Currie Jonathan Dawson Clive Marks OBE FCA Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Victoria Sharp Timothy Walker AM American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. Margot Astrachan Chairman David E. R. Dangoor Vice Chair/Treasurer Kyung-Wha Chung Peter M. Felix CBE Alexandra Jupin Dr. Felisa B. Kaplan William A. Kerr Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee Dr. Joseph Mulvehill Harvey M. Spear, Esq. Danny Lopez Honorary Chairman Noel Kilkenny Honorary Director Victoria Sharp Honorary Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Robert Kuchner, CPA

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager

Charles Russell Solicitors Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors

Ken Graham Trucking David Greenslade Instrument Transportation FSC_57678 14 January 2011 15/09/2011 12:30 Page Dr 1 Louise Miller Finance and ITLPO Manager Honorary Doctor Development Concert Management Roanna Gibson Concerts Director (maternity leave) Ruth Sansom Artistic Administrator / Acting Head of Concerts Department Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager Barbara Palczynski Glyndebourne and Projects Administrator Jenny Chadwick Tours and Engagements Manager Alison Jones Concerts Co-ordinator Jo Orr PA to the Chief Executive / Concerts Assistant

Nick Jackman Development Director Helen Searl Corporate Relations Manager Katherine Hattersley Charitable Giving Manager Melissa Van Emden Events Manager Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations and Events Officer Sarah Fletcher Development and Finance Officer Marketing Kath Trout Marketing Director Mia Roberts Marketing Manager

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Rachel Williams Publications Manager

Education & Community

Samantha Kendall Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Patrick Bailey Education and Community Director Alexandra Clarke Education Manager Caz Vale Community and Young Talent Manager Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

20 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Libby Northcote-Green Marketing Co-ordinator Claire Lampon Intern Albion Media Public Relations (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

London Philharmonic Orchestra 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 Fax: 020 7840 4201 Box Office: 020 7840 4242 lpo.org.uk The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045.

Photograph of Rachmaninoff courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.

Front cover photograph © Patrick Harrison.

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