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Principal Conductor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Leader PIETER SCHOEMAN Composer in Residence JULIAN ANDERSON Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER

AM†

MAHLER ANNIVERSARY

PROGRAMME £3

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Saturday 30 October 2010 | 7.30pm

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor LEIF OVE ANDSNES piano

BRAHMS Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat

CONTENTS 2 3 4 5 6 7 11 12 13 14 15 16

List of Players Orchestra History Leader Vladimir Jurowski Leif Ove Andsnes Programme Notes Recordings BBC Radio 3 / Southbank Centre Supporters Philharmonic News Administration Future Concerts

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. (50’)

INTERVAL BEETHOVEN (ARR. MAHLER) Symphony No. 3 in E flat (Eroica)

†

(47’)

supported by Macquarie Group

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

This concert is being recorded by BBC Radio 3 for broadcast on 3 November.

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

FIRST VIOLINS Pieter Schoeman* Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Chair supported by John and Angela Kessler

Julia Rumley Heather Badke Katalin Varnagy Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Tina Gruenberg Martin Höhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz

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

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

Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Peter Graham Mila Mustakova Stephen Stewart Joanne Chen Sheila Law Elizabeth Baldey

VIOLAS Alexander Zemtsov* Principal Chair supported by The Tsukanov Family

Robert Duncan Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Emmanuella Reiter-Bootiman Alistair Scahill Isabel Pereira Daniel Cornford Miranda Davis Sarah Malcolm Martin Fenn Naomi Holt Karin Norlen CELLOS Kristina Blaumane Principal Chair supported by Simon Yates and Kevin Roon

Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Sabino Carvalho + Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie and Zander Sharp

Gregory Walmsley Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Tom Roff David Bucknall Helen Rathbone Pavlos Carvalho DOUBLE BASSES Kevin Rundell* Principal Tim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Joe Melvin Tom Walley Helen Rowlands Louis Garson Damian Rubido Gonzalez Lowri Morgan

FLUTES Robert Winn Guest Principal Jane Spiers Nicolas Bricht Stewart McIlwham* PICCOLO Stewart McIlwham* Principal OBOES Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick Michael O’Donnell Sue Bohling Chair supported by Julian and Gill Simmonds

TRUMPETS Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff and Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal Robin Totterdell TIMPANI Antoine Bedewi Guest Principal

ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR Thomas Blunt

CLARINETS Nicholas Carpenter Principal Emily Meredith Paul Richards James Burke E FLAT CLARINET Katie Lockhart Guest Principal BASSOONS Gareth Newman* Principal Stuart Russell Simon Estell Claire Webster HORNS Abel Pereira Guest Principal Martin Hobbs Timothy Ball Gareth Mollison Jeffrey Bryant Marcus Bates * 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 supporter whose player is not present at this concert: Andrew Davenport

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Patrick Harrison

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

residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. It is unique in combining these concert activities with esteemed opera performances each summer at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been the Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs to enthusiastic audiences all round the world. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring continues to form a significant part of the Orchestra’s schedule and is supported by Aviva, the International Touring Partner of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Tours in 2010/11 include visits to Finland, Germany, South Korea, Spain, France, Belgium and Luxembourg. Having long been embraced by the recording, broadcasting and film industries, the London Philharmonic Orchestra broadcasts regularly on domestic and international television and radio. It also works with the Hollywood and UK film industries, recording soundtracks for blockbuster motion pictures including the Oscar-winning score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and scores for Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East. The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance. It has recorded and broadcast

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

PIETER SCHOEMAN

regularly ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label. The recordings on its own label are taken mainly from live concerts given with distinguished conductors over the years including the Orchestra’s Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti and Tennstedt, to Masur and Jurowski. Recent additions to the catalogue have included acclaimed releases of Elgar’s Symphony No. 1 and Sea Pictures with Vernon Handley and Janet Baker; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 conducted by Klaus Tennstedt; Brahms’s Symphonies Nos 1 and 2 conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; and Dvořák’s Requiem under the baton of Neeme Järvi. The Orchestra’s own-label CDs are also widely available to download. Visit www.lpo.org.uk/shop for the latest releases.

‘ … a simply tremendous performance of Mahler’s 3rd Symphony … Jurowski and his players plunged us into a winter of discontent so profoundly expectant that even the inveterate coughers were silenced.’ EDWARD SECKERSON, THE INDEPENDENT, 23 SEPTEMBER 2010

The Orchestra reaches thousands of Londoners through its rich programme of community and school-based activity in Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, which includes the offshoot ensembles Renga and The Band, its Foyle Future Firsts apprenticeship scheme for outstanding young instrumentalists, and regular family and schools concerts. To help maintain its high standards and diverse workload, the Orchestra is committed to the welfare of its musicians and in December 2007 received the Association of British Orchestras/Musicians Benevolent Fund Healthy Orchestra Bronze Charter Mark. There are many ways to experience and stay in touch with the Orchestra’s activities: visit www.lpo.org.uk, subscribe to our podcast series, download our iPhone application and join us on Facebook and Twitter.

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

In 2002, Pieter Schoeman joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Co-Leader. He was appointed Leader in 2008. Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra at the age of ten. He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions, including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in America. 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 Schoeman has performed as a soloist and recitalist throughout the world 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 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, he has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky and Benjamin Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim. Earlier this month he performed the Brahms Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane. In 1995 Pieter Schoeman 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 the BBC Symphony Orchestra. This season he has been invited to lead the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra on several occasions. Pieter Schoeman has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television. He led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. He teaches at Trinity College of Music in London.

Patrick Harrison

LEADER

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VLADIMIR JUROWSKI

Karen Robinson

CONDUCTOR

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

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

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LEIF OVE ANDSNES PIANO

Central to the pianist’s 2009/10 season was ‘Pictures Reframed’, a major multi-media project with South African artist Robin Rhode. The culmination of years of planning, the project was toured extensively throughout Europe and North America to great acclaim. In the 2004/05 season, Andsnes curated and performed seven Carnegie Hall ‘Perspectives’ concerts, becoming the youngest artist to be so honoured.

Described by the New York Times as ‘a pianist of magisterial elegance, power, and insight’, Leif Ove Andsnes has won international renown. Besides recital and concerto appearances in the world’s leading concert halls and with its foremost orchestras, he is an avid chamber musician and an active recording artist. Highlights of his 2010/11 season include two residencies. As Pianist-in-Residence with the Berlin Philharmonic, he takes part in five programmes including a performance of Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto under Bernard Haitink, chamber music and a solo recital. He also serves as Artist-in-Residence with his hometown orchestra, the Bergen Philharmonic. With an autumn tour taking in Brussels, London and New York’s Carnegie Hall, he brings his tenure as coartistic director of Norway’s Risør Festival of Chamber Music to a festive conclusion. Other season highlights include a European tour with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski; a February tour with the Concertgebouw Orchestra under Mariss Jansons; Brahms’s Second Concerto with the Chicago Symphony and Riccardo Muti, in his first season as Music Director; and recitals in the USA and Europe throughout the spring. Andsnes has recorded more than 30 albums for EMI Classics, spanning repertoire from Bach to the present day. Nominated for seven Grammy Awards, he has won four Gramophone Awards. This autumn EMI issues his recording of Rachmaninov’s Third and Fourth Piano Concertos with Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra and an album of Schumann’s complete Piano Trios with Christian and Tonja Tetzlaff will follow in early 2011.

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Leif Ove Andsnes was born in Karmøy, Norway in 1970, and studied at the Bergen Music Conservatory under the renowned Czech professor Jiri Hlinka. He has received his country’s most distinguished honour, Commander of the Royal Norwegian Order of St Olav, as well as the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Instrumentalist Award and the Gilmore Artist Award.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

SPEEDREAD Together, Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto and Beethoven’s Eroica Symphony make a splendid programme. Not only are they both towering peaks of the 19th century classical-romantic mountain range, but the Brahms represents perhaps his most important breakthrough in relation to Beethoven, a composer he found both inspiring and intimidating. Brahms was so overawed by Beethoven’s example that he took two decades to finish his own first symphony: ‘You’ve no idea how hard it is with such a giant marching behind you!’ he

Johannes BRAHMS

complained. But in the Second Piano Concerto he was able to rise to the challenge posed by Beethoven’s heroic style and work his way through to something very different – lighter, with more than a touch of ironic wit. Beethoven puts his own concept of heroism to the test in his Eroica Symphony: the great slow Funeral March contains some of the most desolate music in the orchestral repertoire, yet life returns with redoubled force in the finale. In this performance we hear the symphony in an arrangement by another great heir of Beethoven, Gustav Mahler.

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 IN B FLAT, OP. 83 LEIF OVE ANDSNES piano Allegro non troppo | Allegro appassionato | Andante | Allegretto grazioso

1833-1897

Brahms had a very personal brand of humour – sometimes gruff, sometimes self-deprecating, usually ironic. ‘I have written a tiny, tiny piano concerto with a tiny, tiny wisp of a scherzo’, he announced to his confidante, Elisabet von Herzogenberg, on July 7th 1881. Von Herzogenberg knew her friend well enough to take that kind of remark with a large dose of salt. It was the same with another friend, the surgeon Theodor Billroth, to whom Brahms wrote at around the same time: ‘I am sending you a few small piano pieces’. Billroth would only have had to glance at the enclosed score to realise that what Brahms had sent him was far from small: this was nothing less than a colossal fusion of concerto and symphony, laid out in four big movements instead of the conventional three. Not only was the writing hugely challenging for the soloist, the orchestra was clearly conceived as an equal, playing its own part in a continuously unfolding musical drama.

(1854-8) actually began life as a symphony, with an extra slow Scherzo movement – its themes were later reworked in the movement ‘All flesh is as grass’ from the German Requiem. The Violin Concerto (1878) was also originally intended to have a Scherzo; that idea was soon dropped, but the material was clearly too good to be thrown away, and before long it resurfaced in the Allegro appassionato second movement of the Second Piano Concerto. Interestingly this stormy movement is closer in style and spirit to Beethoven’s powerfully symphonic scherzos than anything in Brahms’s four symphonies. Brahms repeatedly grumbled at the difficulty of composing in Beethoven’s shadow: ‘You’ve no idea how hard it is with such a giant marching behind you!’ So it was crucial for Brahms to find a solution on his own terms – not by simply trying to march ahead of Beethoven, but by extending Beethoven’s triumphs into new territory.

The idea of creating a four-movement concerto, owing just as much to the example of Beethoven’s symphonies as to his grander concertos, had haunted Brahms at least since his early twenties. His First Piano Concerto

And yet for all its symphonic character, there are passages in Brahms’s Second Piano Concerto where the listener is just as likely to be reminded of the spirit of chamber music. Not least at the very beginning, where

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PROGRAMME NOTES

the soloist quietly replies to and echoes the theme presented by a solo horn. But then the piano begins a long forceful solo, building up tension before handing the baton over to the orchestra for an extended symphonic passage. From this grows a first movement that is not only rich in contrast and imagination but compellingly organic. Many composers would have been happy to go on from that to a meditative, lyrical slow movement. But Brahms intensifies the drama with his stirring Allegro appassionato Scherzo – the dark, impassioned minor-key outer sections framing a blazing major-key Trio. In complete contrast, the slow movement opens with a long, exquisite melody for solo cello, to which the soloist eventually adds his own reflective commentary.

Stormier music follows, but the true heart of the movement comes in a still slower pianissimo passage just before the return of the cello theme, in which the piano seems to float dreamily through languid clarinet and string figures. It is about as far removed from the turbulence of the Scherzo as could be imagined – a superb dramatic foil. It’s hard to imagine conventional concerto triumphalism after a movement like this, so instead Brahms crowns his symphony-concerto with an unusually light-footed, playful finale: even in the gypsyish melancholy of the second theme (woodwind alternating with strings) there are glimpses of an ironic smile. At last the tempo quickens and the concerto ends with a display of relaxed, witty brilliance rare in Brahms. The intimidating shadow of the giant Beethoven has, it seems, been faced, and finally exorcized.

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

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN

SYMPHONY NO. 3 IN E FLAT, OP. 55 (EROICA) ARRANGED BY GUSTAV MAHLER (1860-1911) Allegro con brio | Marcia funebre. Adagio assai | Scherzo. Allegro vivace | Finale. Allegro molto

1770-1827

Exactly when Beethoven first decided to dedicate his ‘heroic’ symphony to the revolutionary French general Napoleon Bonaparte, isn’t clear. It seems that, for all his republican sympathies, Beethoven had doubts about Napoleon from the first. Then in 1804 came the news that Napoleon had proclaimed himself Emperor. According to an eye witness, Beethoven tore up the title page in fury, shouting, ‘So he’s just an ordinary being! Now he will trample the rights of men under foot and pander to his own ambition; he will place himself high

8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

above his fellow creatures and become a tyrant!’ When the Symphony appeared in print two years later, the title page stated simply that this was a ‘Sinfonia eroica, composed in memory of a great man’. Beethoven may ultimately have felt that his ideals had been betrayed by Napoleon, but his belief in heroism and the possibility of human beings transforming their political destiny proved more robust. It is that belief, rather than its relation to one historical figure, that

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PROGRAMME NOTES

remains relevant to the Eroica Symphony. True, the music abounds in triumphal military imagery: the trumpet and drum triplet-taps in the first movement’s final crescendo; the eruptive major-key fanfares at the first big climax of the Marcia funebre (‘Funeral March’); the celebratory horn calls in the trio section of the Scherzo; or the exultant timpani tattoos in the final moments of the Finale. But as a whole the symphony points more towards notions of spiritual heroism and liberation. The first movement is one of Beethoven’s most truly heroic creations, brilliantly conveying the effect of epic conflict. When Gustav Mahler heightened Beethoven’s orchestration in keeping with the audience demands of his own time, a century later, he ‘corrected’ a detail in the first movement’s final climax. In Beethoven’s original, when the trumpets take over the main theme, they ‘fail’ to reach the top note – was Beethoven suggesting that, ultimately, all idealistic heroism is doomed to failure? Mahler allows the trumpets to soar all the way up – in his version triumphalism is unclouded by ambiguity. Which only makes the contrast with the sombre Funeral March that follows all the more extreme. Beethoven may have intended a commentary on heroism in more universal, classical terms. In many of the world’s great myths a hero strives, fails, dies and is then reborn – a pattern some anthropologists have connected with the seasonal life-death-rebirth cycle of the Sun. Whatever the case, the slow movement’s emotional range – from contained, dignified mourning, to frenzied hope, to depictions of grief in which the music almost literally ‘breaks down’ – is extreme (one can see why it appealed so strongly to Mahler!); and yet the formal control is as

impressive as the power of the feelings expressed. Beethoven’s sketchbooks reveal how long he struggled to bring the main theme to its final form: in the words of the old saying, in this case genius truly was ‘ninetynine per cent perspiration’. The Scherzo that follows is one of Beethoven’s most exhilarating symphonic dance movements – this does indeed sound like a return to life. The writing for the three horns in the central trio section suggests battlefield celebrations to some, the exuberance of the hunt to others. Either way the image of life exulting in the face of death holds. Then the finale begins with a terrific orchestral flourish, followed by a skeletal pizzicato figure for strings. Gradually the textures fill out, until the skeletal string figure turns out to be the bass for a joyous theme on high woodwind, then strings. Beethoven took this music from his ballet score Die Geschöpfe des Prometheus (‘The Creatures of Prometheus’). The legendary Titan Prometheus, who defied the orders of the gods and gave fire to men, was an important symbolic figure for romantic revolutionaries. This Finale is also the most formally ‘free’ of the four movements, blending elements of classical variation, sonata form and fugue into a new kind of symphonic super-structure. It makes a brilliantly audacious ending to a work that changed the nature of the symphonic form irrevocably. Beethoven knew he had achieved something special here. Years later, in 1817, when asked which was his favourite amongst his symphonies, he replied without hesitation, ‘The Eroica’. Programme notes © 2010 by Stephen Johnson

Hear every note

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

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international piano series 2010/11 Hélène Grimaud © Karen Robinson

CHOPIN Piano COMPETITION WINNER

CHARLES ROSEN Talk: Saturday 14 May 2011 Concert: Sunday 15 May 2011

Wednesday 3 November 2010

LANG LANG HÉLÈNE GRIMAUD

Tuesday 17 May 2011

Tuesday 23 November 2010

INGRID FLITER LEON MCCAWLEY

Tuesday 7 June 2011

Wednesday 1 December 2010

RAFAL BLECHACZ Tuesday 7 December 2010

NIKOLAI LUGANSKY Tuesday 11 January 2011

THE POLLINI PROJECT Maurizio Pollini’s pilgrimage through seminal piano music from Bach to Modernism. Friday 28 January 2011 Bach

Tuesday 15 February 2011

SERGIO TIEMPO

Beethoven

Tuesday 15 March 2011

Saturday 26 February 2011 Schubert

ANGELA HEWITT Tuesday 29 March 2011

MARC-ANDRÉ HAMELIN Wednesday 13 April 2011

Friday 29 April 2011 Chopin, Debussy and Boulez

Wednesday 25 May 2011 Schumann, Stockhausen and Liszt Series discounts available if you book for more than one concert.

Tickets £9 – £55 0844 847 9929 SOUTHBANKCENTRE.CO.uk

The Mozart Question Sunday 5 December 2010 | 3.30pm Royal Festival Hall An afternoon of music and storytelling, suitable for children aged 8 and over, based on Michael Morpurgo’s well-loved book which tells of one family’s experience of the holocaust and the incredible healing power of music. Vladimir Jurowski conductor Daniel Pioro violin Michael Morpurgo narrator Alison Reid narrator Simon Reade director Excerpts from: Beethoven Violin Concerto Vivaldi The Four Seasons Strauss The Blue Danube Bach Violin Sonata No. 1 Mozart Eine kleine Nachtmusik Running time 75 minutes. No interval. Tickets Under 16: £7 £9 Adult: £14 £18 For booking details see page 16. Dedicated by the Dorset Foundation in memory of the late Harry M. Weinrebe and supported by a syndicate of individual donors.

10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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RECORDINGS ON THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S OWN RECORD LABEL

LPO-0043 Vladimir Jurowski conducts Brahms’s Symphonies Nos 1 and 2 ‘This pair of budget-priced CDs on the LPO’s own label demonstrate how, in the right hands, the first two symphonies can thrill and delight … exquisite wind playing …genuinely exciting …’ GRAHAM RICKSON, THE ARTS DESK, 22 FEBRUARY 2010

LPO-0045 Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Brahms’s German Requiem ‘A German Requiem that doesn’t rush and achieves a remarkable inwardness ... I found so many things to enjoy about this recording that I didn’t begrudge a single minute of the time spent to savour them.’ PETER QUANTRILL, GRAMOPHONE, AUGUST 2010

LPO-0026 Klaus Tennstedt conducts Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 (Choral) as part of Volume 3 of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 75th Anniversary Box Sets. Soloists Lucia Popp, Ann Murray, Anthony Rolfe Johnson and René Pape join the London Philharmonic Choir for this performance. ‘ The other jewel is Tennstedt’s Beethoven: Ninth Symphony, crackling with nervous energy from the start and showcasing the LPO’s intuitive relationship with its late lamented German chief.’ ANDREW CLARK, FINANCIAL TIMES, 27 OCTOBER 2007

This volume features four CDs by the Orchestra’s most recent Principal Conductors: Klaus Tennstedt (Beethoven Symphony No. 9), Franz WelserMöst (Strauss, Mozart, Schubert and Bruckner), Kurt Masur (Shostakovich Symphonies Nos 1 and 5) and Vladimir Jurowski (Shostakovich Symphony No. 14). The recordings may be downloaded in high quality MP3 format from www.lpo.org.uk/shop. CDs may also be purchased from all good retail outlets or through the London Philharmonic Orchestra: telephone 020 7840 4242 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm) or visit the website www.lpo.org.uk

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SOUTHBANK CENTRE

WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance.

Live orchestral concerts specially recorded by BBC Radio 3 are a vital part of the station’s output and I’m delighted that we will continue our long association with the London Philharmonic Orchestra by bringing performances from this season to the widest possible audience, including those listening at home, on air and online.

Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include: Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, YO! Sushi, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffè Vergnano 1882, Skylon, Concrete and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery. If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact Kenelm Roberts, our Head of Customer Relations, at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk or phone 020 7960 4250. We look forward to seeing you again soon. A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance

Roger Wri ght Controller, BBC Radio 3

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

Tonight’s concert will be broadcast in Performance on 3 on Wednesday 3 November at 7pm, and is available online for 7 days after broadcast at bbc.co.uk/radio3

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We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors: Thomas Beecham Group Mr & Mrs Richard & Victoria Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds The Tsukanov Family Simon Yates & Kevin Roon

Guy & Utti Whittaker

Commander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel Goldstein Mrs Barbara Green Oliver Heaton Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas Andrew T Mills Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard Mr John Soderquist & Mr Costas Michaelides Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland

Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mrs Sonja Drexler Mr Charles Dumas David Ellen

Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Marika Cobbold & Michael Patchett-Joyce Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Edgecombe

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

Mr Richard Fernyhough Ken Follett Michael & Christine Henry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr R K Jeha Mr & Mrs Maurice Lambert Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Mr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Brian Marsh John Montgomery Mr & Mrs Egil Oldeide Edmund Pirouet Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Lady Marina Vaizey Mr D Whitelock Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

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

Trusts and Foundations Allianz Cultural Foundation The Andor Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust The Candide Charitable Trust The John S Cohen Foundation The Coutts Charitable Trust The Dorset Foundation The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Ernest Cook Trust The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation The Jonathan & Jeniffer Harris Trust The Idlewild Trust The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation Maurice Marks Charitable Trust The Michael Marks Charitable Trust Marsh Christian Trust UK Friends of the FelixMendelssohn-Bartholdy Foundation

The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute Paul Morgan Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund The R K Charitable Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Rubin Foundation The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust Sound Connections The Steel Charitable Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation The Swan Trust John Thaw Foundation The Underwood Trust Garfield Weston Foundation Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

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PHILHARMONIC NEWS

2010 Gala The ornate surroundings of Goldsmiths’ Hall provided a stunning setting for the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2010 Fundraising Gala held on 15 June. The evening started with a preperformance Champagne Taittinger reception in the Drawing Room. Guests then proceeded to the magnificent Livery Hall, where the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, Vladimir Jurowski, provided the piano accompaniment for soprano Sally Matthews and bass Matthew Rose in a selection of songs by Mozart, Strauss and Shostakovich. This was followed Matthew Rose, Sally Matthews and Vladimir Jurowski take a bow after their by an exquisite meal in the performance at the 2010 Gala in Goldsmiths’ Hall presence of Royal Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG, musicians, Thanks to the wonderful contributions made by all supporters and pillars of the music and business those who donated, attended and performed on the communities. evening, the Gala was a great success and we are pleased to announce that we raised £79,000, which will Lord Dalmeny, Deputy Chairman of Sotheby’s UK, go directly towards supporting the Orchestra’s auctioned some magnificent prizes including a trip to Community Programme. The total includes £29,300 Montreal to hear the Orchestra’s Principal Guest raised on the night itself through the auction and raffle Conductor, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, conduct on his home ticket sales. Visit www.lpo.org.uk/theband to view the turf. The evening culminated in the Grand Prize Draw film about one of our community projects, The Band, when the lucky winner won a VIP trip to Glyndebourne. that was shown on the night.

FREE Pre-Concert Event | Royal Festival Hall | 1 December 2010 | 6 pm Vladimir Jurowski conductor Foyle Future Firsts orchestral apprenticeship programme Mahler Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen (with Njabulo Madlala baritone) Kancheli Exil (with Allison Bell soprano) The Foyle Future Firsts programme is generously funded by the Foyle Foundation with additional support from The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, The Eranda Foundation, The Fenton Arts Trust and the Musicians Benevolent Fund.

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ADMINISTRATION

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL