London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 7 Nov 2014

I N S I D E

Concert programme

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lpo.org.uk/rachmaninoff

Winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI* Leader pieter schoeman† Composer in Residence magnus lindberg Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

JTI Friday Series Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Friday 7 November 2014 | 7.30pm

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (15’) Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor (final version) (24’) Interval Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 in G minor (Winter Daydreams) (43’)

Osmo Vänskä conductor Nikolai Lugansky piano In co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation † supported by Neil Westreich CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Contents 2

3 4 5 6 7 8 11

12 13 14 15 16

Welcome LPO 2014/15 season On stage tonight About the Orchestra Rachmaninoff: Inside Out Osmo Vänskä Nikolai Lugansky Programme notes Recommended recordings Tchaikovsky on the LPO Label Orchestra news Next concerts Supporters Sound Futures donors LPO administration

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

Welcome

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London Philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season Welcome to tonight’s London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, part of our season-long festival Rachmaninoff: Inside Out. Whether you’re a regular concert-goer, new to the Orchestra or just visiting London, we hope you enjoy your evening with us. Browse the full season online at lpo.org.uk/performances or call 020 7840 4242 to request a copy of our 2014/15 brochure.

Other highlights of the season include: •

Appearances by today’s most sought-after artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati.

•

Premieres of works by Magnus Lindberg, Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, a children’s work, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Colin Matthews, and a new piece for four horns by Titanic composer James Horner.

•

Choral highlights with the London Philharmonic Choir include Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles, Verdi’s Requiem, Rachmaninoff’s Spring and The Bells, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass.

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment: PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium.

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

RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre.

Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended.

MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.

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On stage tonight

First Violins Sergey Ostrovsky Guest Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by an anonymous donor

Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Geoffrey Lynn Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Galina Tanney Caroline Frenkel Robin Wilson Ishani Bhoola Helena Smart Nilufar Alimaksumova Second Violins Nicole Wilson Guest Principal Jeongmin Kim Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Ashley Stevens Floortje Gerritsen Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Sheila Law Alison Strange John Dickinson

Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Gregory Aronovich Katharine Leek Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Alistair Scahill Naomi Holt Martin Fenn Sarah Malcolm Miriam Eisele Cellos Steffan Morris Guest Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† David Lale Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Susanna Riddell Helen Rathbone Sibylle Hentschel Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal William Cole George Peniston Richard Lewis Helen Rowlands Tom Walley Lucy Hare Charlotte Kerbegian

Flutes Florian Aichinger Guest Principal Sue Thomas*

Trumpets Nicholas Betts Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal

Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Emmet Byrne

Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal

Cor Anglais Sue Böhling Principal

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Thomas Watmough

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Bassoons Gareth Newman Principal Stuart Russell

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal

Horns David Pyatt* Principal

Mike Tetreault Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes

Chair supported by Simon Robey

Martin Hobbs Gareth Mollison Stephen Nicholls Michael Thompson

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

* Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: Sonja Drexler, Neil Westreich

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Full marks to the London Philharmonic for continuing to offer the most adventurous concerts in London.

The Financial Times, 14 April 2014 The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic and forward-looking ensembles in the UK. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, releases CDs on its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and community groups.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. It has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur.

Vladimir Jurowski is currently the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007. From September 2015 Andrés Orozco-Estrada will take up the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence.

The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since the Hall’s opening in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 30 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

soloists. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra collaborated with Southbank Centre on the year-long The Rest Is Noise festival, charting the influential works of the 20th century. 2014/15 highlights include a seasonlong festival, Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, exploring the composer’s major orchestral masterpieces; premieres of works by Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, Colin Matthews, James Horner and the Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence, Magnus Lindberg; and appearances by many of today’s most soughtafter artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati.

Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer it takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra.

Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2014/15 season include appearances across Europe (including Iceland) and tours to the USA (West and East Coasts), Canada and China.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label.

There are now over 80 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include organ works by Poulenc and Saint-Saëns with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Strauss’s Don Juan and Ein Heldenleben with Bernard Haitink; Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 6 & 14 and Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy with Vladimir Jurowski; and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Hans Graf.

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. In 2013 it was the winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians through an energetic programme of activities for young people.

Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the Young Composers Programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Its work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

A season-long exploration of the composer’s life and music Wednesday 29 October 2014 Piano Concerto No. 3 | Symphony No. 2

Friday 7 November 2014 Piano Concerto No. 4 (final version)

Friday 28 November 2014 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Wednesday 3 December 2014 Symphony No. 1

Wednesday 21 January 2015 The Miserly Knight

Saturday 7 February 2015 Three Russian Songs | Spring

Wednesday 11 February 2015 Piano Concerto No. 2 | The Bells

Friday 13 February 2015 Piano Concerto No. 4 (original version)

Wednesday 25 March 2015 Piano Concerto No. 1 (final version)

Wednesday 29 April 2015 Four Pieces | Ten Songs | Symphony No. 3 Rachmaninoff Inside Out is presented in co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.

lpo.org.uk/rachmaninoff

Find out more and get involved! lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra youtube.com/londonphilharmonic7

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

Osmo Vänskä conductor

Vänskä isn’t only about meticulous preparation.

In concert he’s a wiry dynamo: lean, whippy and indefatigably energetic. His interpretations are the same. He never stops probing and pushing. © Kaapo Kamu

The Times

Osmo Vänskä is recognised for his compelling interpretations of repertoire from all ages, passionately conveying the authentic message of the composer’s score. Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra for over a decade, he has also received exceptional acclaim for his work with many other leading orchestras.

Recent and forthcoming performances include returns to the Chicago and San Francisco symphony orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande.

Vänskä regularly conducts the London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Wiener Symphoniker, Finnish Radio and Yomiuri Nippon symphony orchestras. He has also developed regular relationships with the New World Symphony (USA), the Mostly Mozart Festival and the BBC Proms, and is Principal Guest Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. 2014/15 also sees performances with the Helsinki and Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestras, the Melbourne, Sydney and Shanghai symphony orchestras and the South African National Youth Orchestra.

Vänskä gained distinction with his landmark Sibelius cycle with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra for BIS, described by Gramophone as ‘the finest survey of the past three decades’. In 2014 his album with the Minnesota Orchestra of Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 won a Grammy award, following the nomination of the Second and Fifth Symphonies the year before.

Previously, a complete Beethoven symphonies cycle with the orchestra garnered worldwide praise. In 2008 the London Philharmonic Orchestra released on its own label a disc of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 and Bax’s Tintagel (LPO-0036, see opposite).

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Formerly Principal Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Vänskä studied conducting at Finland’s Sibelius Academy and was awarded first prize in the 1982 Besançon Competition. He began his career as a clarinettist, holding the co-principal chair of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the principal chair of the Turku Philharmonic, and in recent years has enjoyed a return to the clarinet, including on a 2012 recording of Kalevi Aho’s chamber works.

Vänskä is the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Finlandia Foundation’s Arts and Letters Award, and the 2010 Ditson Award from Columbia University for his support of American music. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Minnesota and was named Musical America’s 2005 Conductor of the Year. In 2013 he received the Annual Award from the German Record Critics’ Award Association for his involvement in BIS’s recordings of the complete works by Sibelius.

Vänskä conducts on the LPO Label Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3 Bax Tintagel Osmo Vänskä conductor London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO-0036 | £9.99 Available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242), the Royal Festival Hall shop and all good CD outlets.

Nikolai Lugansky

© Marco Borggreve/Naïve-Ambroisie

piano

His performance blazes with conviction, a propulsion and energy finely complemented with an innate sense of poetry.

Gramophone

Capable of great refinement and sensitivity and ‘crystalline beauty’ (The Financial Times) in Mozart and Chopin, and breathtaking virtuosity in Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, Nikolai Lugansky is a pianist of extraordinary depth and versatility.

As well as tonight’s return to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, other concerto highlights of the 2014/15 season and beyond include returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Orchestre de Paris. Lugansky also undertakes tours with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Charles Dutoit, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko, the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Temirkanov.

Forthcoming recital and chamber music performances include the Alte Oper Frankfurt, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Konzerthaus Berlin, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and the Great Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia. Lugansky’s chamber music collaborators include Mischa Maisky, Vadim Repin and Alexander Kniazev. He regularly appears at some of the world’s most distinguished festivals including the BBC Proms, La Roque d’Anthéron, and the Verbier, Rheingau and Edinburgh International festivals.

Berlin was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. His earlier recordings have also won a number of awards, including a Diapason d’Or, a BBC Music Magazine Award and an ECHO Klassik prize. Lugansky’s most recent disc, featuring the two Chopin Piano Concertos, was released in summer 2014.

Lugansky is Artistic Director of the Tambov Rachmaninoff Festival and is also a supporter of – and regular performer at – the Rachmaninoff Estate and Museum of Ivanovka. He performed the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the closing concert of the inaugural Ivanovka Rachmaninoff Festival in June 2014 with the Russian National Orchestra and Mikhail Pletnev.

Nikolai Lugansky studied at Moscow’s Central Music School and the Moscow Conservatoire, where his teachers included Tatiana Kestner, Tatiana Nikolayeva and Sergei Dorensky. He was awarded the honour of People’s Artist of Russia in April 2013. facebook.com/NikolaiLugansky

An award-winning recording artist, Nikolai Lugansky records exclusively for the Naïve-Ambroisie label. His recital CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonatas won a Diapason d’Or and an ECHO Klassik Award, and his recording of concertos by Grieg and Prokofiev with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester

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Programme notes

Speedread Rachmaninoff revered Tchaikovsky and expressed warm admiration for Vaughan Williams, so it’s deliciously apt that these two composers should form a musical frame for his Fourth Piano Concerto.

Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony, ‘Winter Daydreams’, is full of the kind of Slav-accented fairytale magic and sensuous nostalgia Rachmaninoff explored in his own music. But in his complex and enigmatic Fourth Piano Concerto the pain of exile seems to have sharpened and darkened those feelings. The

Ralph Vaughan Williams 1872–1958

Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is so well loved today that it’s hard to imagine a time when it could have been found ‘difficult’. But the first performance, in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, seems to have baffled most of its audience and the reception was muted. The causes aren’t hard to find. Vaughan Williams may not have been the first British composer to draw inspiration from the music of Elizabethan England, but what he found in his chosen theme – Thomas Tallis’s Psalm-tune, ‘Why fumeth in fight’ – is more than quaint olde-worlde colouring. Tallis’s tune follows the old ‘Phrygian mode’ (try imagining a scale of E on a keyboard using only the white notes), and there are strikingly abrupt majorminor contrasts – things that would have sounded ‘new’, or at least odd, to traditionally schooled listeners in 1910. Then there’s the division of the string orchestra into contrasting ‘choirs’: a string quartet, an ensemble of ten stringed instruments, and a larger string ensemble – like the use of separately placed groups of singers in Tallis’s great motet Spem in Alium. Composers in Edwardian England just didn’t do things like that.

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magic is more sinister, the nostalgia closer at times to grief. On one level Vaughan Williams’s great Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is a celebration of the visionary serenity of faith, as embodied in Tallis’s church music and in the architecture of Gloucester Cathedral, for which it was composed. But there are shadows and ambiguities here too, qualities that give this seemingly backward-looking music its distinctly modern poignancy.

Piano Fantasia Concerto on a Theme No. 3 inby D minor, ThomasOp. Tallis 30 Simon Trpčeski piano 1 Allegro ma non tanto 2 Intermezzo: Adagio – 3 Finale: Alla breve

At the same time, there is something about the Tallis Fantasia that marks it out as modern. Tallis’s theme isn’t presented right away in its original form. First we hear five hushed chords for full strings, luminous at first, but fading into minor-key shadows. There is a striking echo here of Vaughan Williams’s cantata Toward the Unknown Region, a work about the soul’s final journey in death. Tallis’s theme then emerges slowly, in skeletal fragments, as though from the darkness. As the Fantasia builds to its magnificent climax there is a growing sense of impassioned searching, as though the music were striving to recapture the original fleeting vision. The end does bring a kind of resolution, but the serene opening chord never quite returns in its original form. The primal purity of faith is glimpsed as a possibility, but never quite recaptured. A friend once half-jokingly described Vaughan Williams as ‘The Christian Agnostic’. Both sides of that paradox find expression in his music, but never with greater power and subtlety than in the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

Serge Rachmaninoff 1873–1943

In 1917, the year of the Communist Revolution, Rachmaninoff left Russia, taking his family with him.

Ostensibly he was simply accepting an invitation to give a series of concerts in Stockholm, but he never returned to his homeland. Two years later he settled permanently in the USA, and devoted himself to a career as virtuoso concert pianist. His output of original compositions plummeted: in fact nothing new appeared until the Fourth Piano Concerto in 1926, which according to the manuscript had been composed in January–August that year. (In fact some of the ideas seem to have occurred to Rachmaninoff at least ten years earlier.) When the first performance turned out to be a colossal flop there was a lot of knowing headshaking. Rachmaninoff had neglected composition for too long, it was argued, so long that he’d gone off the boil creatively. He’d lost touch with his national roots – and also with his time, others argued: who else was writing lush romantic piano concertos in the age of Gershwin, of Stravinsky, and of jazz? Even the traditionalists were disappointed: where were all the big tunes, the gorgeous oceanic climaxes? Why did the Concerto so often seem to thwart expectations? Was Rachmaninoff actually trying, mistakenly, to catch up?

It wasn’t until the pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli took up the Concerto in the late 1950s that performers and critics began to think again.

Michelangeli had realised something the others hadn’t.

The Fourth Piano Concerto isn’t simply a half-hearted or confused attempt to follow in the much earlier successes of the Second and Third Concertos; it’s something quite new, in some ways looking forward to the subtler masterpieces of Rachmaninoff’s late phase:

Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor, Op. 40 (final version) Nikolai Lugansky piano 1 Allegro vivace 2 Largo 3 Allegro vivace the Third Symphony for instance, or the Symphonic Dances. True, the Fourth Concerto is less easy to grasp on first hearing, but stick with it and the rewards are proportionate.

The very opening is surprising. A surging orchestral crescendo suddenly twists in a new harmonic direction and the piano storms in, apparently in the middle of a long, searching melody. Twice this melody seems to lose heart, and eventually the tempo subsides, and soulful cor anglais and horn introduce a more questioning theme for piano solo. The troubled feeling persists even when the opening theme returns at the end of the movement, its initial buoyancy quickly fading. Normally a Rachmaninoff slow movement is a celebration of long-breathed melody, but the Largo chooses instead to brood on a short falling figure introduced by the piano, and at its heart is some of the most unsettling, angry music Rachmaninoff ever penned. There are moments of a more traditional virtuosic brilliance in the finale, especially at the ending, but the enigmas and shadows persist. Far from dulling Rachmaninoff’s creativity, exile seems to have given him a new perspective: darker perhaps, but if anything still more original.

Mini film guides to this season’s works For the 2014/15 season we’ve produced a series of short films introducing the pieces we’re performing.

Watch Patrick Bailey introduce Rachmaninoff’s music for piano and orchestra: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html

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

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Programme notes continued

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky 1840–93

Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony is such an endearing, vital, seductively atmospheric work that one would imagine it must have been a joy to write. In fact the opposite is true: few, if any of his other works caused Tchaikovsky such protracted pain. He was 26 when he began it, having freshly graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatoire and walked straight into a job at the newly created Conservatoire in Moscow. At first things were looking encouraging. His first orchestral performance (an Overture in F major) had been a success, and his teacher, the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein, had urged him to write a symphony.

But then came a crushing review of another work, and Tchaikovsky’s confidence plummeted: ‘I spent the entire day wandering aimlessly about the town’, he told a friend, ‘repeating to myself “I am sterile, I am a nonentity, nothing will ever come of me, I have no talent”.’ He soldiered on with the new symphony, but his determination to keep working through the nights (inevitably resulting in insomnia) led to a frightening breakdown.

In the end, work seems to have saved Tchaikovsky, and the Symphony was finished in piano score by the beginning of June 1867. But his troubles weren’t over yet. Rubinstein was highly critical of the completed score, and virtually ordered Tchaikovsky to revise it. Even that didn’t please, and only the Scherzo was performed – unsuccessfully. More alterations were made then, at last, in February 1868, the First Symphony had its first full performance in Moscow.

This time it was a huge success; but Tchaikovsky’s self-doubt was not appeased, and it wasn’t until 1874 that he at last allowed the further-revised score to be published.

Surprisingly, despite memories of this agonising slow birth, Tchaikovsky always maintained a special affection

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Symphony No. 1 in G minor (Winter Daydreams) 1 2

3 4

‘Reveries of a Winter Journey’: Allegro tranquillo ‘Land of Desolation, Land of Mists’: Adagio cantabile ma non tanto Scherzo: Allegro scherzando giocoso Finale: Andante lugubre—Allegro maestoso

for his First Symphony. ‘For all its glaring deficiencies’, he wrote in 1883, ‘I have a soft spot for it. Although it is immature in many respects it is essentially better and richer in content than many other more mature works.’

As so often, he was being harsh: the First Symphony may have its faults, but they are hardly ‘glaring’, and most of the time the freshness of the material fully compensates. The opening theme (flute and bassoon above shimmering violins) is a lovely inspiration, with an unmistakable Slavic accent. From the first there is a strong sense of forward-gliding momentum, like the easy movement of a sleigh across smooth snow.

Tchaikovsky’s sharp, clear orchestration registers impressions of cold very effectively, while from time to time warm string harmonies manage to convey a sense of cosiness and security – this traveller is clearly well wrapped up and enjoying his ‘winter daydreams’.

The slow movement is still more effective. An eloquent theme for muted strings leads to a long oboe tune, with answering birdcalls on flute, unmistakably Russian in so many of its melodic twists and turns.

The rest of the movement is essentially a meditation (daydreams again) on phrases from this tune, with occasional reminiscences of the flute’s birdsong, all done with much more skill and imagination than Tchaikovsky’s later judgement would have us believe.

The return of the opening string theme at the end is also deftly timed.

Next comes an agile, lightly dancing Scherzo, with wonderful use of woodwind colours (a very mature Tchaikovskian touch). Hesitant cellos and basses suggest for a moment that the central trio section might be darker-hued, but what actually emerges is a warm, suave waltz theme on violins and cellos. Then, after a sombre slow introduction, the Finale soon sets off at a more determined pace in the major key,

with trombones, tuba, cymbals and bass drum adding their weight to the orchestra for the first time. The exuberance can sound a little forced (a rare indication of Tchaikovsky’s state of mind at the time he wrote it?).

But after all his labours, Tchaikovsky is surely entitled to a bit of over-the-top celebration.

Programme notes © Stephen Johnson

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis London Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard Haitink [EMI] Rachmaninoff: Piano Concerto No. 4 Nikolai Lugansky/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo [Warner Classics] Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1 London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski [LPO Label LPO-0039: see below]

Tchaikovsky Symphonies on the LPO CD Label CDs on sale tonight from the Royal Festival Hall shop

Symphonies Nos. 1 & 6

Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5

Manfred Symphony

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

£10.99 (2CDs) | LPO-0039

£10.99 (2CDs) | LPO-0064

£9.99 (1CD) | LPO-0009

Also available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets Available to download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and others.

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Orchestra news

Autumn tours

New CD: Poulenc & Saint-Saëns organ works

2014/15 looks set to be one of the busiest touring seasons in the Orchestra’s history, with a record 47 overseas concerts confirmed as we went to print. The Orchestra recently returned from a hugely successful North American tour that included California, New York, Toronto and Chicago. In late November and early December, the Orchestra visits Germany for two tours, during which they will tick off Dortmund, Essen, Baden-Baden, Cologne, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Munich, Friedrichshafen, Hamburg and Hannover.

Just released on the LPO Label is a disc of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and SaintSaëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony, recorded live at Royal Festival Hall (LPO-0081). This sellout concert in March 2014, conducted by Yannick NézetSéguin with organist James O’Donnell, launched the refurbished Royal Festival Hall organ, complete for the first time since 2005.

The run-up to Christmas sees the Orchestra’s first visit to Iceland where, with tonight’s conductor Osmo Vänskä and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, they will give two concerts on 18 & 19 December at Harpa, a stunning new waterfront concert hall in Reykjavík. This tour is an exciting venture for the Orchestra, particularly as we will be the first British orchestra to perform at the venue.

The CD booklet includes full organ specification and an article on the history and refurbishment of the organ by its curator, Dr William McVicker.

Don’t forget you can follow all our tour adventures on Twitter: @lporchestra

The CD is priced £9.99, including free postage. Buy from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the London Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office (020 7840 4242), all good CD outlets, and the Royal Festival Hall shop. Also available to download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify and others.

New LP box set: Vladimir Jurowski conducts the complete Brahms Symphonies

Remembrance Day concert: Britten’s War Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall

Also released on the LPO Label this month is a very special 4-LP box set: Brahms’s complete four symphonies conducted by Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Jurowski. These recordings – of live LPO concerts at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall between 2008 and 2011 – have previously been released as two separate LPO Label CDs, but are brought together in one package for the first time in this exclusive box set, which will be a must-have for lovers of Brahms, Jurowski fans and vinyl enthusiasts alike.

This Sunday, 9 November, the Orchestra will join the Royal Choral Society to perform Britten’s War Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall in a Remembrance Day concert marking the centenary of the start of the First World War.

The box set is priced £85.00, including free postage. Buy from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the London Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets.

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The War Requiem was composed in 1961 for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral – newly rebuilt following its destruction in the Second World War. Britten took as his inspiration the words of young English war poet Wilfred Owen, himself killed in action on 4 November 1918, just days before the armistice.

Conducted by Richard Cooke, Sunday’s concert features soloists Ekaterina Scherbachenko, Stephan Rügamer and Bryn Terfel. Tickets are priced £17.29– £53.50 (including all booking fees) and proceeds of ticket sales will go to the Veterans Aid charity. To book, call the Royal Albert Hall Box Office on 0845 401 5034 or visit royalalberthall.com/tickets/war-requiem/default.aspx

Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 12 November 2014 | 7.30pm Pierné Overture and Suite, Ramuntcho† Poulenc Concerto for two pianos and orchestra Ravel Rapsodie espagnole Debussy La mer Juanjo Mena conductor Katia Labèque piano Marielle Labèque piano † Supported by Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française.

Wednesday 3 December 2014 | 7.30pm Rachmaninoff: Inside Out* Szymanowski Concert Overture† Scriabin Piano Concerto Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Igor Levit piano Free pre-concert event 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Professor Stephen Downes, a specialist in 20th-century music, looks at the influence of Scriabin. † Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London.

Wednesday 19 November 2014 | 7.30pm Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 Schubert Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished) R Strauss Don Juan Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Lars Vogt piano

Friday 28 November 2014 | 7.30pm JTI Friday Series Rachmaninoff: Inside Out* Wagner Overture, Tannhäuser Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 David Zinman conductor Behzod Abduraimov piano Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Acclaimed film director Tony Palmer discusses the enduring popularity of Rachmaninoff’s music.

Saturday 6 December 2014 | 7.30pm Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920 version) Harrison Birtwistle Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless, for piano and orchestra (UK premiere)† Messiaen Oiseaux exotiques Stravinsky Orpheus Vladimir Jurowski conductor Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano Free pre-concert event 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall LPO Soundworks, a collaborative arts project for young people, presents a performance of new music and dance. † Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk Musica Viva, Casa da Musica Porto, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and PRS for Music Foundation. * Rachmaninoff: Inside Out is presented in co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.

Tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65) London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Monday–Friday 10.00am–5.00pm | lpo.org.uk | Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone.

Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm | southbankcentre.co.uk | Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone.

No transaction fee for bookings made in person

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors: Thomas Beecham Group The Tsukanov Family Foundation Neil Westreich William and Alex de Winton Simon Robey The Sharp Family Julian & Gill Simmonds* Anonymous Garf & Gill Collins* Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller Mrs Philip Kan* Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Eric Tomsett John & Manon Antoniazzi Jane Attias John & Angela Kessler Guy & Utti Whittaker * BrightSparks patrons. Instead of supporting a chair in the Orchestra, these donors have chosen to support our series of schools’ concerts.

Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel Goldstein Peter MacDonald Eggers Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Mr & Mrs David Malpas Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Grenville & Krysia Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Benefactors Mrs A Beare David & Patricia Buck Mrs Alan Carrington Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Georgy Djaparidze Mr David Edgecombe Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Mr Richard Fernyhough Tony & Susan Hayes Michael & Christine Henry Malcolm Herring J. Douglas Home Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield

Per Jonsson Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Dr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Ms Ulrike Mansel Robert Markwick Mr Brian Marsh Andrew T Mills John Montgomery Dr Karen Morton Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Tom & Phillis Sharpe Martin and Cheryl Southgate Professor John Studd Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Simon Turner Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock Christopher Williams Bill Yoe and others who wish to remain anonymous Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged: Corporate Members Silver: AREVA UK Berenberg Bank British American Business Carter-Ruck Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP Charles Russell Leventis Overseas Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Sela / Tilley’s Sweets

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Trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Ambache Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The Peter Carr Charitable Trust, in memory of Peter Carr The Ernest Cook Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation Lucille Graham Trust The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Help Musicians UK The Hinrichsen Foundation The Hobson Charity Kirby Laing Foundation The Leche Trust Marsh Christian Trust

The Mayor of London’s Fund for Young Musicians Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust The Ann and Frederick O’Brien Charitable Trust Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française Polish Cultural Institute in London PRS for Music Foundation Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Schroder Charity Trust Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The John Thaw Foundation The Tillett Trust UK Friends of the Felix-MendelssohnBartholdy-Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous

Sound Futures Donors We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to Sound Futures, which will establish our first ever endowment. Donations from those below, as well as many who have chosen to remain anonymous, have already been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant.

By May 2015 we aim to have raised £1 million which, when matched, will create a £2 million fund supporting our Education and Community Programme, our creative programming and major artistic projects at Southbank Centre.

We thank those who are helping us to realise the vision.

Masur Circle Arts Council England Dunard Fund Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Sharp Family The Underwood Trust

David Ross and Line Forestier (Canada) Tom and Phillis Sharpe Mr & Mrs G Stein TFS Loans Limited The Tsukanov Family Foundation Guy & Utti Whittaker

Welser-Möst Circle John Ireland Charitable Trust Neil Westreich

Pritchard Donors Anonymous Linda Blackstone Michael Blackstone Yan Bonduelle Richard and Jo Brass Britten-Pears Foundation Business Events Sydney Desmond & Ruth Cecil Lady June Chichester John Childress & Christiane Wuillamie Lindka Cierach Paul Collins Mr Alistair Corbett Dolly Costopoulos Mark Damazer Olivier Demarthe David Dennis Bill & Lisa Dodd Mr David Edgecombe David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Christopher Fraser OBE Karima & David G Lyuba Galkina David Goldberg Mr Daniel Goldstein Ffion Hague Rebecca Halford Harrison Michael & Christine Henry Honeymead Arts Trust

Tennstedt Circle Simon Robey Simon & Vero Turner The late Mr K Twyman Solti Patrons Ageas Anonymous John & Manon Antoniazzi Georgy Djaparidze Mrs Mina Goodman and Miss Suzanne Goodman Robert Markwick The Rothschild Foundation Haitink Patrons Mark & Elizabeth Adams Lady Jane Berrill David & Yi Yao Buckley Bruno de Kegel Goldman Sachs International Moya Greene Tony and Susie Hayes Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons Diana and Allan Morgenthau Charitable Trust Dr Karen Morton Ruth Rattenbury Sir Bernard Rix Kasia Robinski

John Hunter Ivan Hurry Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Tanya Kornilova Peter Leaver Mr Mark Leishman LVO and Mrs Fiona Leishman Howard & Marilyn Levene Mr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Dr Frank Lim Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Peter Mace Geoff & Meg Mann Ulrike Mansel Marsh Christian Trust John Montgomery Rosemary Morgan Paris Natar John Owen The late Edmund Pirouet Mr Michael Posen Sarah & John Priestland Victoria Provis William Shawcross Tim Slorick Howard Snell Lady Valerie Solti Stanley Stecker Lady Marina Vaizey Helen Walker Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Des & Maggie Whitelock Brian Whittle Christopher Williams Peter Wilson Smith Victoria Yanakova Mr Anthony Yolland

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Administration

Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Dr Manon Antoniazzi Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann* George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Julian Simmonds Mark Templeton* Natasha Tsukanova Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Neil Westreich * Player-Director Advisory Council Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jamie Korner Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Sir Bernard Rix Baroness Shackleton Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Thomas Sharpe QC Martin Southgate Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Elizabeth Winter American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. Jenny Ireland Co-Chairman William A. Kerr Co-Chairman Kyung-Wha Chung Alexandra Jupin Dr. Felisa B. Kaplan Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee Dr. Joseph Mulvehill Harvey M. Spear, Esq. Danny Lopez Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP

Chief Executive

Education and Community

Digital Projects

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Isabella Kernot Education Director

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Director

Alexandra Clarke Education and Community Project Manager

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Amy Sugarman PA to the Chief Executive / Administrative Assistant Finance David Burke General Manager and Finance Director

Lucy Duffy Education and Community Project Manager

Public Relations Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

Archives

David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager

Development

Samanta Berzina Finance Officer

Nick Jackman Development Director

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

Concert Management

Catherine Faulkner Development Events Manager

Charles Russell Solicitors

Kathryn Hageman Individual Giving Manager

Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors

Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations Manager

Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor

Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager

Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager

Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager

Helen Etheridge Development Assistant

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator

Rebecca Fogg Development Assistant Kirstin Peltonen Development Associate

Philip Stuart Discographer

Professional Services

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

Jo Cotter Tours Co-ordinator

Marketing

Orchestra Personnel

Kath Trout Marketing Director

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Mia Roberts Marketing Manager

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

Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians (job-share)

Rachel Williams Publications Manager

Cover design: Chaos Design.

Printed by Cantate.

Christopher Alderton Stage Manager

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

Damian Davis Transport Manager

Libby Northcote-Green Marketing Co-ordinator

Ellie Swithinbank Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Lorna Salmon Intern

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra