8 Feb 2012 LPO Programme notes

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

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Wednesday 8 February 2012 | 7.30pm

MARIN ALSOP conductor STEPHEN HOUGH piano

MARTINŮ Symphony No. 6 (Fantaisies symphoniques) (25’) LISZT Piano Concerto No. 1 in E-flat major** (21’)

PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 Southbank Centre 3 List of players 4 About the Orchestra 5 Marin Alsop 6 Stephen Hough 7 Programme notes 11 Orchestra news 12 Annual Appeal 13 Recordings 14 Future concerts 15 Supporters 16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

Interval LISZT Piano Concerto No. 2 in A major** (22’) DVOŘÁK Symphony No. 8 in G major (36’) Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm, Royal Festival Hall Join Marin Alsop for an informal discussion on the symphonies of Bohuslav Martinů.

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

This concert is being broadcast live by the BBC in Radio 3 Live In Concert.

Welcome

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.

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 Robert, our Head of Customer Relations, at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX or phone 020 7960 4250 or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk

Hear every note Are you hard of hearing or do you use a hearing aid?

Did you know Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room all have free-of-charge equipment available to help you get the most out of the music you may be missing?

Visit the relevant cloakroom up to one hour before the performance to collect the equipment and learn how to use it effectively.

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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.

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

First Violins Lisa Schatzman Guest Leader Jhi-Hyun Lee Martin Höhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz

Geoffrey Lynn Robert Pool Yang Zhang Rebecca Shorrock Alain Petitclerc Peter Nall Galina Tanney Caroline Frenkel Alina Petrenko Robert Yeomans Francesca Smith Ishani Bhoola Catherine Van de Geest Second Violins Philippe Honore Guest Principal Clare Duckworth Co-Principal Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Joseph Maher Fiona Higham Ashley Stevens Dean Williamson Sioni Williams Alison Strange Mila Mustakova Elizabeth Baldey Stephen Dinwoodie Naomi Anner Stephen Stewart Dafydd Williams

Violas David Marks Guest Principal Gregory Aronovich Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens Michelle Bruil Naomi Holt Daniel Cornford Sarah Malcolm Martin Fenn Isabel Pereira Claudio Cavalletti Cellos Timothy Gill Guest Principal Susanne Beer Co-Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Jonathan Ayling Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Santiago Carvalho† Tae-Mi Song Jonathan Kitchen David Bucknall William Routledge Double Basses Tim Gibbs Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston Kenneth Knussen Catherine Ricketts Lowri Morgan Antonia Bakewell Charlotte Kerbegian

Flutes Jaime Martín* Principal Eilidh Gillespie Sarah Bennington

Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney*

Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal

Oboes Ian Hardwick Principal Angela Tennick Max Spiers

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal

Cor Anglais Max Spiers

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Nicholas Carpenter* Paul Richards

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Bassoons Marcelo Padilla Guest Principal Gareth Newman* Simon Estell Horns John Ryan* Principal Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Marcus Bates

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes Eddy Hackett

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

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: David & Victoria Graham Fuller John & Angela Kessler Julian & Gill Simmonds

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

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

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

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

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

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

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You may well have heard the London Philharmonic Orchestra on film soundtrack recordings: it has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East. The Orchestra also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 50 releases on the label, which are available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations and Symphony No. 8 conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras; Holst’s The Planets conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Klaus Tennstedt; Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Martin Helmchen under Vladimir Jurowski; and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, Pohjola’s Daughter and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The Orchestra was also recently honoured with the commission to record all 205 of the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics Team Welcome Ceremonies and Medal Ceremonies.

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

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

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

MARIN ALSOP

© Grant Leighton

CONDUCTOR

Marin Alsop is an inspiring and powerful voice in the international music scene, a Music Director of vision and distinction who passionately believes that music has the power to change lives.

She is recognised worldwide for her innovative approach to programming, and for her deep commitment to education and to the development of audiences of all ages.

Alsop is currently Artist in Residence at Southbank Centre, and in the 2009/10 season was appointed Artistic Director of the Centre’s year-long Bernstein Project.

Her success as Music Director of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra was recognised when, in 2009, her tenure was extended to 2015. At the start of the 2012/13 season she will also take up the post of Chief Conductor of the São Paulo Symphony Orchestra, where she will steer the orchestra in its artistic and creative programming, recording ventures and its education and outreach activities.

In 2008 Marin Alsop became a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, and the following year was chosen as Musical America’s Conductor of the Year. She is the recipient of numerous awards and is the only conductor to have received a MacArthur Fellowship, the award given by the MacArthur Foundation for exceptional creative work. In 2011 Alsop was made an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music in London.

Since 1992, Marin Alsop has been Music Director of California’s Cabrillo Festival of Contemporary Music, where she has built a devoted audience for new music.

She retains strong links with all of her previous orchestras, including the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, where she was Principal Conductor from 2002–08 and now holds the post of Conductor Emeritus, and the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, where she was Music Director from 1993–2005 and is now Music Director Laureate.

Alsop is a regular guest conductor with the world’s greatest orchestras, including the New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Bavarian Radio Symphony orchestras; The Philadelphia Orchestra; Tonhalle Zürich; Orchestre de Paris; and La Scala, Milan. She has close relationships with both the London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, and appears with both most seasons. She also returns regularly to the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, Danish Radio Symphony, Oslo Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic orchestras.

Since taking up her position at the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra in 2007, Marin Alsop has spearheaded educational initiatives reaching over 60,000 school and pre-school students. In 2008 she launched ‘OrchKids’, which provides music education, instruments and mentorship to the city’s neediest young people, and in 2010 the BSO Academy, where local non-professional musicians work for a week with members of the orchestra.

Alsop’s extensive discography, which includes a notable set of Brahms symphonies with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on the Naxos label, is further distinguished by a new Dvořák series with the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Other recent recordings include Bernstein’s Mass (Editor’s Choice at the 2010 Gramophone Awards), also with the BSO, and John Adams’s Nixon in China with the Colorado Symphony Orchestra, which the Financial Times gave five stars, calling it an ‘incandescent performance’.

Born in New York City, Marin Alsop attended Yale University and received her Master’s degree from The Juilliard School. Her conducting career was launched when, in 1989, she was a prize-winner at the Leopold Stokowski International Conducting Competition and in the same year was the first woman to be awarded the Koussevitzky Conducting Prize from the Tanglewood Music Center, where she was a pupil of Leonard Bernstein.

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STEPHEN HOUGH

© Sam Canetty-Clark

piano

With an artistic vision that transcends fashions and trends, Stephen Hough is widely regarded as one of the most important and distinctive pianists of his generation.

In recognition of his achievements, in 2001 he was awarded a MacArthur Fellowship, joining prominent scientists, writers and others who have made unique contributions to contemporary life.

Hough has appeared with most of the leading European and American orchestras, and plays recitals regularly in the major halls and concert series around the world.

He is a regular guest at festivals including Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Tanglewood, Edinburgh and the BBC Proms, where he has made over 20 concerto appearances. In 2010 he was named winner of the Royal Philharmonic Society Instrumentalist Award.

Recent and future highlights include performances with the London Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic orchestras; the Chicago, Boston and San Francisco symphony orchestras; the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Russian National orchestras, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, MDR Sinfonieorchester, and a worldwide televised performance with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle, as well as recitals at Carnegie Hall and Royal Festival Hall. Hough is Artist-in-Residence at London’s Wigmore Hall this season, performing solo works and quintets throughout 2011/12.

Hough’s catalogue of over 50 CDs has garnered four Grammy nominations and eight Gramophone Awards, including ‘Record of the Year’ in 1996 and 2003, and the Gramophone ‘Gold Disc’ Award in 2008.

Following his critically acclaimed recording of Chopin’s complete Waltzes in August 2011, Hyperion released a disc of the Liszt and Grieg Piano Concertos in November 2011, coinciding with the release of an all-Hough compositions disc by BIS Records.

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As a composer, Hough is represented exclusively by Josef Weinberger Ltd. He gave the first performance of his own Sonata for Piano (broken branches) at Wigmore Hall in June 2011, and the world première of his Missa Mirabilis, commissioned by the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra, will take place in April 2012.

Hough has also been commissioned by musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic, London’s National Gallery and Westminster Abbey. He is also an avid writer, having written for The Guardian, The Times and The Daily Telegraph, where he has one of the most popular cultural blogs. Hough has also written extensively about theology, and his book The Bible as Prayer is published

by Continuum. In 2009, The Economist and Intelligent Life magazines named Hough as one of 20 examples of living polymaths.

A resident of London, Stephen Hough is a visiting professor at the Royal Academy of Music and holds the International Chair of Piano Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music.

PROGRAMME NOTES

‘Individual thoughts worked out in a new way’ That was how Dvořák stated his artistic goal for his Eighth Symphony: but the description would apply equally well to this evening’s other works. The Czech symphony that begins the symmetrical programme, the Sixth by Martinů, is full of the composer’s distinctive melodies, harmonies and orchestral colours, deployed not in a conventional symphonic scheme but in three freely rhapsodic movements, the last reaching a climax of a despairing intensity rare in Martinů’s music. The two piano concertos

Bohuslav MARTINŮ 1890–1959

Martinů did not tackle the medium of the symphony during his apprentice years in his native Czechoslovakia, nor in the heady period he spent in Paris between 1923 and 1940. But when he settled in the United States, and began to receive performances and commissions from some of the major American orchestras, he composed his first five symphonies at the rate of one a year between 1942 and 1946. The Sixth and last followed after a gap. It was begun in New York in 1951, and completed in Paris in May 1953 – a shift marking the start of the final period of the composer’s life, spent mostly in Europe but with no return to (now Communist) Czechoslovakia. The work was only belatedly added to the list of Martinů’s symphonies, having begun its life as Symphonic Fantasies: an appropriate title for a work that is symphonic in feeling, but far from traditionally symphonic in form.

Martinů said that its rhapsodic flow was inspired by the spontaneous approach to music-making of its dedicatee, the conductor Charles Munch – who gave the first performance with his Boston Symphony Orchestra in January 1955.

by Liszt are characteristic of the composer in their flamboyant solo writing, and in the ingenious transformation of themes within their profoundly original continuous forms – the First consisting of four linked movements, the Second a series of contrasting episodes. As for the Dvořák, it incorporates a generous number of the composer’s highly personal, Czech-tinged melodies into an apparently traditional but in fact remarkably innovative symphonic outline.

Symphony No. 6 (Fantaisies symphoniques) 1 Lento – Andante moderato – Allegro – Allegro vivo – Lento 2 Poco Allegro 3 Lento – Poco più mosso – Più mosso – Andante – Allegro – Lento

The work is marked by an intensity of a kind that surfaced only at intervals in the composer’s prolific career. Martinů never spoke about the sources of that intensity. But passages with a pastoral feeling suggest an exile’s longing for his homeland, while a recurring four-note figure taken from the opening of Dvořák’s Requiem implies a reflection on mortality.

Perhaps most significant, though, is a passage in the finale paraphrased from Martinů’s pre-war operatic masterpiece Julietta, about a girl who can be reached only in dreams, or even in madness. While he was writing the Symphony, Martinů was involved in a long extra-marital love affair, and his eventual decision to break this off clearly caused him considerable anguish.

The Symphony is scored for a large orchestra, and contains some of Martinů’s most imaginatively conceived orchestral textures: not least in the impressionistic introduction, in which murmuring solo strings and woodwind act as a background to increasingly insistent trumpet calls. A quickening of speed brings an episode beginning with a solo cello London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

PROGRAMME NOTES

playing the four-note turning chromatic figure from the Dvořák Requiem; two more accelerations lead to one of Martinů’s characteristic singing string melodies, circling round a few notes in springing syncopated rhythms over glowing harmonies. Further disparate episodes follow, in an exploratory sequence linked thematically only by some varied recurrences of the Dvořák motto theme, and arriving eventually at a tense violin solo. But then the singing melody returns in an even more translucent scoring, followed by the magical introduction and a quiet close.

The second movement is a scherzo, at times distinctly nightmarish in atmosphere. Its opening section, in 6/8 time, includes another of Martinů’s syncopated melodies, this time on the violas and fighting its way through threatening surroundings. There is a neat sidestep to 4/4 metre for a middle section of crackling

Franz LISZT 1811–86

Liszt’s two piano concertos had their origins in his years as a touring virtuoso, but were completed only after he had exchanged life on the road for a more settled existence as Kapellmeister at the Weimar court. The First Concerto, sketched from 1832, was completed in its first version in 1849, and revised in 1853 before its first performance at Weimar in 1855 – a starry occasion with Liszt as soloist and Berlioz conducting. It was revised again before its publication in 1857. The most obvious model for the work’s plan of continuous, thematically interconnected movements is the ‘Wanderer’ Fantasy for solo piano by Schubert, which Liszt arranged for piano and orchestra in 1851.

But Schumann’s 1845 Piano Concerto could also have suggested its transformations of themes from one movement to another, as well as its frequent passages of chamber-music-like texture, pairing the piano with a single orchestral instrument or section.

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tension, followed by a return to 6/8 for an expanded reprise of the battling viola melody and a subdued coda.

The finale begins with the work’s longest stretch of slow music, much of it growing out of the four-note motto; it begins with massively calm chordal writing, becomes more restless, but later regains serenity. A faster episode bursts in impatiently but soon peters out, giving way to a pastoral Andante led by the woodwind, with the four-note figure unfolding into a high clarinet melody.

The strings launch a long build-up at faster tempos, incorporating the Julietta reference in mechanistic string semiquavers and rising woodwind scales, and culminating in a hectic Allegro and a final desperate climax. But the Symphony ends with a slow major-key coda, which cites the fateful Dvořák motto once more before closing in a mood of calm resignation.

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 1 in e-flat major Stephen hough piano 1 2 3 4

Allegro maestoso, tempo giusto – Quasi adagio – Allegretto vivace – Allegro animato – Allegro marziale animato

The Concerto begins with one of its main unifying elements, an arresting chromatic motif to which Liszt once fitted the words ‘Das versteht Ihr alle nicht’ (‘None of you will understand’). The remainder of the opening movement combines passages of Liszt’s characteristic piano bravura and episodes of intimate lyricism with variants of the initial motif – notably one that extends it into a downward chromatic scale in thunderous piano octaves.

The B major slow movement has the character of a Chopin nocturne, with a long, flowing melody over wide-spanning arpeggios. Later it includes an episode of accompanied piano recitative, and a new melodic idea in a delicate chamber scoring.

The third movement is a nimble scherzo, coloured by the sound of the triangle (which Liszt said should be

struck ‘with great rhythmic precision’). A cadenza recalls the opening motif of the first movement, which is then joined by other themes from the first two movements in an increasingly animated transition to the finale.

This contains virtually no new material. The main melody of the slow movement provides two contrasting ideas: the first transformed into an optimistic

assertion (answered by the trills and triangle-strokes of the scherzo); the second turned into a portentous question-mark. Further themes adapted from the slow movement and the scherzo follow. A flowing violin melody, derived from the initial chromatic motif, launches a long, gradual acceleration; the scalewise extension of the same motif returns in the Presto coda.

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

Franz LISZT 1811–86

The second of Liszt’s two piano concertos was sketched in the early 1830s, composed in a first version in 1839, revised before its first performance at Weimar in January 1857 – given by the composer’s pupil Hans von Bronsart, with Liszt conducting – and revised again in 1861 before its publication. The result of all this reworking was a highly original piece in a single movement, neither made up of the components of traditional concerto form nor – like Liszt’s solo Sonata – constructed overall as a large-scale sonata form.

It moves through a sequence of contrasting sections with the fluidity of an improvisation, yet links them into a coherent whole with thematic interconnections and transformations of a thorough-going intricacy almost prophetic of the methods of Schoenberg.

The Concerto begins in slow triple time, with a poetic woodwind melody over a distinctive harmonic progression; this is varied and developed with dreaming arpeggios and Chopin-like filigree in the solo part.

A short cadenza leads to a brusquely dramatic theme, over growling figures in the bass, launched by the piano but gradually shared around the orchestra. The next section is a scherzo in 6/8 time; when the piano

PIANO CONCERTO NO. 2 in A MAJOR Stephen hough piano Adagio sostenuto assai – Allegro agitato assai – Allegro moderato – Allegro deciso – Marziale un poco meno Allegro – Allegro animato

rests, the orchestra introduces a new theme with a rising and falling profile. After a tiny interlude of piano arpeggios, there is an extended section that, despite its tempo marking of Allegro moderato, fulfils the function of a lyrical slow movement: it begins with a transformation of the rising and falling theme into a smoothly expressive melody for the strings, continues with the poetic melody from the start of the work, stretched from 3/4 into 4/4 on solo cello, and ends with the smooth rising and falling melody on the oboe.

A glittering piano cadenza leads into an Allegro deciso which is something of a development section, repeating and combining ideas from the previous episodes – though it also throws up new melodic offshoots.

Without slackening its pace, this section moves into the 6/8 metre of the scherzo, and then into 2/2 time over a sustained E in the bass. This is by way of conventional harmonic preparation for, not a recapitulation as such, but a climactic A major statement of the opening melody in a new guise as a swaggering march. The piano interjects a reminder of this theme in its original, poetic form, and later adds a last cadenza leading into the brilliant coda.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Antonín DVOŘÁK 1841–1904

Dvořák wrote his last but one symphony between late August and early November 1889, mostly in the peaceful surroundings of his country cottage at Vysoká.

It was first performed under the composer in Prague the following February, and eventually published – after a protracted dispute between Dvořák and his German publisher Simrock over payment for his larger works – by Novello of London. The new Symphony marked a change in Dvořák’s attitude to the form, after the generally traditional construction and strongly Brahmsian colouring of Nos. 6 and 7. This time, he said, he wanted to write a work ‘different from the other symphonies, with individual thoughts worked out in a new way’. The individuality of the thoughts is clear: the flow of lyrical invention, much of it distinctively Czech and pastoral in flavour, could be the work of no-one else. The ‘new way’ in which they are worked out could be mistaken for the old way mishandled, with an excess of rhapsodic improvisation overflowing the symphonic mould; but in fact it amounts to a genuinely original approach to the problem of writing a symphony that is both abundant in melodies and formally coherent.

Dvořák’s first formal innovation is to begin this major-key symphony with a broad, self-contained minor-key melody. This melody seems to be acting as an introduction when it leads on to something else, a chirpy major-key flute theme beginning with a rising triad. But its stability compared with the instability of what follows, and its later crucial reappearances – linking the opening, exposition section with the development, at a slower tempo, and riding the storm on the trumpets at the climax of the development – give it a central role in the movement.

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SYMPHONY NO. 8 in g major 1 Allegro con brio 2 Adagio 3 Allegretto grazioso 4 Allegro ma non troppo

The slow movement – beginning unconventionally in E-flat major before settling into C minor and major – has been interpreted by one writer on Dvořák as ‘a miniature tone-poem of Czech village life described by a highly sensitive man’, with not only bird-calls and ‘the village band, cimbalom and all’, but also ‘a touch of pain’. There are indeed some troubled episodes in the second half of the movement, which combines recapitulation with development; but the ending is one of cloudless calm.

The third movement is a lilting G minor waltz, or perhaps a Lachian ‘starodávny’, with some ingeniously irregular phrase-lengths; the major-key trio has a melody borrowed from Dvořák’s early one-act opera The Stubborn Lovers. The whole movement could pass for one of the composer’s Slavonic Dances, especially when in the coda the trio tune is speeded up into a brisk 2/4 Molto vivace, alternately playful and riotous.

A trumpet fanfare heralds the finale, another formally innovative movement. It is basically a set of variations, on a theme constructed out of the rising triad of the first-movement flute melody and a figure from the fanfare. But the variations are interrupted by a central march-like episode in C minor, followed by a short development section. The energetic second variation recurs as a refrain at the end of the first sequence of variations, and again to terminate the increasingly becalmed second sequence, and launch the exuberant coda.

Programme notes by Anthony Burton © 2012

orchestra news

2012/13 season now on sale

Carols at Waterloo – thank you!

Booking is now open for the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s new season, which starts on 26 September 2012. Browse the concerts at lpo.org.uk/newseason and either book online or call our Box Office on 020 7840 4242. If you would prefer to receive a season brochure in the post, please call us to request one.

A big thank you to all those who came along to support our brass and percussion at the Carols at Waterloo event on Thursday 15 December, to help raise money for Save the Children. We are delighted to announce that we raised an impressive total of £998.06 on the night.

As always, there are subscription discounts available when you book three or more concerts.

During the season we’ll welcome back many regular artists including Marin Alsop, Sir Mark Elder, Christoph Eschenbach, Christian Tetzlaff, Lawrence Power, Kurt Masur, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt and Sarah Connolly. There are also opportunities to hear new talent including cellist Sol Gabetta, conductor Ryan Wigglesworth, pianist Javier Perianes and violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

The Orchestra is devoting all its 2013 concerts to Southbank Centre’s year-long festival inspired by Alex Ross’s book The Rest Is Noise, charting the seminal works of the 20th century from Elgar to Kurt Weill.

BBC Music Magazine Awards – vote for us!

Glyndebourne Festival Opera’s recent DVD of Billy Budd with the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been shortlisted for the Opera DVD category in this year’s BBC Music Magazine Awards, and we need your support to help us win!

Everyone who votes will be entered into a draw to win some great prizes including a Kemble Centennial piano worth £7000, a Yamaha MCR-555 hi-fi and all the nominated CDs and DVDs. Voting is open until 29 February.

Vote at classical-music.com/awards2012

The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant Sunday 3 June 2012 As part of the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations, on 3 June the London Philharmonic Orchestra will perform onboard a barge as part of a 1000-vessel flotilla on the Thames, the largest river celebration in 350 years. At the centre of the procession, which will sail from Putney to Tower Bridge, will be the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh aboard the Pageant’s flagship The Spirit of Chartwell. Millions of spectators are expected to line the river banks, and giant screens on the Embankment will show the 7.5-mile procession.

The Orchestra, conducted by David Parry, will perform a Last Night of the Proms-style selection of grand ceremonial works, British pastoral music and patriotic anthems by composers Arne, Arnold, Britten, Coates, Elgar, Holst and Walton. thamesdiamondjubileepageant.org

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London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

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

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

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

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

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

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

New recordings

on the London Philharmonic Orchestra label

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5 and Pohjola’s Daughter, and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra

LPO-0057

‘This has to be one of the best recordings around of Sibelius’s Fifth. And Lutosławski’s Concerto can never have been more brilliantly played.’

Classic FM magazine, December 2011 Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music grant programme

Vladimir Jurowski conducts Honegger’s Pastorale d’été, Symphony No. 4 and Une Cantate de Noël

LPO-0058

‘[The Fourth Symphony] is full of charm and tactile invention, vividly realised in this live recording.’ The Sunday Times, 30 October 2011

LPO-0060

LPO-0061

LPO-0059

Coming soon ...

bernard haitink conducts ravel’s daphnis et chloÉ

christoph eschenbach conducts beethoven’s missa solemnis

david murphy conducts ravi shankar: symphony

March 2012

April 2012

April 2012

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

future concerts

Friday 10 February 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall JTI Friday Series Kodály Concerto for Orchestra Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1* Dvořák Symphony No. 7 Marin Alsop conductor Lukáš Vondráček piano

Saturday 24 March 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Julian Anderson The Discovery of Heaven (world première)† Delius Sea Drift** Elgar Symphony No. 1 Sir Mark Elder conductor Roderick Williams baritone London Philharmonic Choir † Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with kind

Tuesday 14 February 2012 | 7.30pm Friday 17 February 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall

support from The Boltini Trust and the Britten-Pears Foundation, and the New York Philharmonic (Alan Gilbert, Music Director). ** Performance generously supported by The Delius Trust.

JTI Friday Series (Friday 17 February) Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2* Kreisler (arr. Rachmaninoff/orch. Leytush) Liebesleid (European première) Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 Neeme Järvi conductor Boris Giltburg piano In co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation * Supported by Dunard Fund

Sir Mark Elder and Roderick Williams

Barlines: free post-concert event Level 2 Foyer at Royal Festival Hall Sir Mark Elder and Composer in Residence Julian Anderson discuss The Discovery of Heaven.

Wednesday 22 February 2012 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall Mozart Symphony No. 32 Brahms Violin Concerto Zemlinsky Psalm 23, Op. 14 Szymanowski Symphony No. 3 (The Song of the Night) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Joshua Bell violin Jeremy Ovenden tenor London Philharmonic Choir Concert generously supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music grant programme

Free pre-concert discussion Royal Festival Hall | 6.15–6.45pm Dr Stephen Downes, Reader in Musicology at the University of Surrey, discusses the music of Szymanowski and Zemlinsky.

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

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

David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr & Mrs Jeffrey Herrmann Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas Andrew T Mills Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr Michael Posen Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard Mr John Soderquist & Mr Costas Michaelides Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland

Ken Follett Pauline & Peter Halliday Michael & Christine Henry Mr Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr R K Jeha Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Mr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Brian Marsh John Montgomery Edmund Pirouet Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Mr D Whitelock Bill Yoe

Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Dennis Mr David Edgecombe Mr Richard Fernyhough

Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Pehr G Gyllenhammar Edmund Pirouet Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged: Corporate Members Appleyard & Trew LLP AREVA UK Berkeley Law British American Business Charles Russell Destination Québec – UK Lazard Leventis Overseas Corporate Donor Lombard Street Research In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sela / Tilley’s Sweets Villa Maria Trusts and Foundations Addleshaw Goddard Charitable Trust Arts and Business Allianz Cultural Foundation Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation The Boltini Trust

Britten-Pears Foundation The Candide Charitable Trust The Coutts Charitable Trust The Delius Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Fenton Arts Trust The Foyle Foundation The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Hattori Foundation for Music and the Arts Capital Radio’s Help a London Child The Hobson Charity The Kirby Laing Foundation The Idlewild Trust The Leverhulme Trust Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Marsh Christian Trust The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust Paul Morgan Charitable Trust

The Diana and Allan Morgenthau Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund Newcomen Collett Foundation The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust The Serge Prokofiev Foundation Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Reed Foundation The Rothschild Foundation The Seary Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust The Stansfield Trust The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation The Swan Trust John Thaw Foundation The Thistle Trust The Underwood Trust Kurt Weill Foundation for Music Garfield Weston Foundation Youth Music and others who wish to remain anonymous London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

Administration

Board of Directors

General Administration

Orchestra Personnel

Archives

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

Timothy Walker AM† Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Philip Stuart Discographer

Sarah Thomas Librarian

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

*Non-Executive Directors

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

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager

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

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor

Julia Boon Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Concert Management

Development

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Nick Jackman Development Director

Ruth Sansom Artistic Administrator

Harriet Mesher Charitable Giving Manager

Graham Wood Concerts, Recordings and Glyndebourne Manager

Alexandra Rowlands Corporate Relations Manager

Alison Jones Concerts Co-ordinator Jenny Chadwick Tours and Engagements Manager Jo Orr PA to the Executive / Concerts Assistant Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Professional Services Charles Russell Solicitors

Michael Pattison Stage Manager

Education & Community Patrick Bailey Education and Community Director Anne Findlay Education Manager Caz Vale Community and Young Talent Manager Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

Melissa Van Emden Events Manager Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations and Events Officer Elisenda Ayats Development and Finance Officer Marketing Kath Trout Marketing Director Ellie Dragonetti Marketing Manager Rachel Fryer Publications Manager Helen Boddy Marketing Co-ordinator Samantha Kendall Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242) John Barnett Intern Valerie Barber Press Consultant (Tel: 020 7586 8560)

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

Photograph of Martinů © Boosey & Hawkes Photographs of Liszt and Dvořák courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.

Front cover photograph © Benjamin Ealovega.

Printed by Cantate. †Supported by Macquarie Group