LPO programme 1 Mar 2025 - Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider plays Tchaikovsky
2024/25 season at the Southbank Centre FREE CONCERT PROGRAMME
Redefining Healthcare Redefining Healthcare
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Our facilities include:
Our facilities include:
9-storey facility in central London
UK’s only 3D mole mapping service
Dedicated chronic pain clinic
Dedicated sleep centre
In-house pharmacy
Cutting edge imaging machines
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner supported by Aud Jebsen
Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis
Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski KBE Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG
Artistic Director Elena Dubinets Chief Executive David Burke
Leader Pieter Schoeman supported by Neil Westreich
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
Saturday 1 March 2025 | 7.30pm
Tchaikovsky’s
Violin Concerto
Mahler/Schnittke
Piano Quartet, arranged for piano and strings (18’)
Haydn Symphony No. 49 (La Passione) (24’)
Interval (20’)
Tchaikovsky
Violin Concerto (34’)
Omer Meir Wellber
conductor/piano/harpsichord
Alena Baeva violin*
*Unfortunately, Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider has had to withdraw from tonight’s performance of Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto due to illness. We are very grateful that Alena Baeva has agreed to step in at short notice.
Welcome LPO news
Welcome to the Southbank Centre
We’re the UK’s largest centre for the arts and one of the nation’s top five visitor attractions, showcasing the world’s most exciting artists at our venues in the heart of London. As a charity, we bring millions of people together by opening up the unique art spaces that we care for.
The Southbank Centre is made up of the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room, Hayward Gallery, National Poetry Library and Arts Council Collection. We’re one of London’s favourite meeting spots, with lots of free events and places to relax, eat and shop next to the Thames.
We hope you enjoy your visit. If you need any information or help, please ask a member of staff. You can also email hello@southbankcentre.co.uk or write to us at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX.
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If you don’t want to take your programme home, please make use of the recycling bins in the Royal Festival Hall foyers. Please also use these bins to recycle any plastic drinks glasses after the concert. Thank you.
Behind the scenes with LPO Friends
Earlier today, LPO Friends were treated to an exclusive behind-the-scenes experience, watching conductor Omer Meir Wellber and the Orchestra in rehearsal for tonight's concert and enjoying a rare insight into the preparation and artistry that goes into each performance.
As well as exclusive access to a number of private rehearsals each season, LPO Friends membership puts you at the front of the queue for our Southbank Centre concert bookings, and offers invitations to other events and opportunities to meet LPO musicians throughout the year.
Our new 2025/26 concert season will be announced on Tuesday 22 April. LPO Friends receive our new season brochure ahead of the general public, and priority booking for Friends will open on Wednesday 23 April, with general booking from Tuesday 29 April.
LPO Friends membership starts from just £6 per month. Interested in finding out more? Scan the QR code or visit lpo.org.uk/friends
The Chamber Sessions: LPO at St John’s Waterloo
Next Friday is your last chance this season to catch ‘The Chamber Sessions’, a series of hour-long 6.30pm concerts at St John’s Church, Waterloo, bringing audiences closer to the music and highlighting the talents of our musicians in a more intimate setting.
On Friday 7 March at 6.30pm, ‘Echoes of Now’ sees a chamber ensemble of six LPO string and wind players immerse themselves in the contemporary culture of Britain and the USA; hear them break away, jump for joy and hit the dancefloor in a concert of music by five composers who defy convention and genre: LPO Composer-in-Residence Tania León, former LPO Young Composers Daniel Kidane and Hannah Kendall, and award-winning American composers Jessie Montgomery and Brian Raphael Nabors.
Tickets are £12–£15: find out more and book now at lpo.org.uk/thechambersessions
First Violins
Pieter Schoeman* Leader
Chair supported by Neil Westreich
Kate Oswin
Chair supported by Eric Tomsett
Minn Majoe
Chair supported by Dr Alex & Maria Chan
Cassandra Hamilton
Yang Zhang
Katalin Varnagy
Ricky Gore
Beatriz Carbonell
Alison Strange
Nilufar Alimaksumova
Martin Höhmann
Jamie Hutchinson
Second Violins
Tania Mazzetti Principal
Chair supported by The Candide Trust
Emma Oldfield Co-Principal
Coco Inman
Claudia Tarrant-Matthews
Nynke Hijlkema
Kate Birchall
Ashley Stevens
Marie-Anne Mairesse
Joseph Maher
Kate Cole
Violas
Konstantin Boyarsky Guest Principal
Katharine Leek
Benedetto Pollani
Martin Wray
Chair supported by David & Bettina Harden
Lucia Ortiz Sauco
Laura Vallejo
James Heron
Raquel López Bolívar
Cellos
Kristina Blaumane Principal
Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden
Waynne Kwon
David Lale
Miguel Ángel Villeda Cerón
Francis Bucknall
Sue Sutherley
On stage tonight
Double Basses
Sebastian Pennar* Principal
Hugh Kluger
George Peniston
Tom Walley
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
Flutes
Juliette Bausor Principal
Jack Welch
Oboes
Ian Hardwick* Principal
Alice Munday
Clarinets
Benjamin Mellefont* Principal
Chair supported by Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
Thomas Watmough
Chair supported by Roger Greenwood
Bassoons
Jonathan Davies* Principal
Chair supported by Sir Simon Robey
Helen Storey*
Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra
Horns
Mark Vines Principal
Martin Hobbs
Duncan Fuller
Gareth Mollison
Trumpets
Tom Nielsen Principal
Anne McAneney*
Chair supported in memory of Peter Coe
Timpani
Simon Carrington* Principal
Chair supported by Victoria Robey CBE
*Professor at a London conservatoire
The LPO also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert:
David & Yi Buckley
Gill & Garf Collins
Ian Ferguson & Susan Tranter
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave
Dr Barry Grimaldi
Ryze Power
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating to watch and hear, the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since Sir Thomas Beecham founded it in 1932. Our mission is to share wonder with the modern world through the power of orchestral music, which we accomplish through live performances, online, and an extensive education and community programme, cementing our position as a leading orchestra for the 21st century.
Our home is at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, where we’re at the beating heart of London’s cultural life. You’ll also find us at our resident venues in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and on tour worldwide. In 2024 we celebrated 60 years as Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, combining the magic of opera with Glyndebourne’s glorious setting in the Sussex countryside.
Soundtrack to key moments
Everyone will have heard the Grammy-nominated London Philharmonic Orchestra, whether it’s playing the world’s National Anthems for every medal ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics, our iconic recording with Pavarotti that made Nessun Dorma a global football anthem, or closing the flotilla at The Queen’s Thames Diamond Jubilee Pageant. And you’ll almost certainly have heard us on the soundtracks for major films including The Lord of the Rings
Sharing the wonder worldwide
We’re one of the world’s most-streamed orchestras, with over 15 million plays of our content each month. In 2023 we were the most successful orchestra worldwide on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, with over 1.1m followers across all platforms, and in spring 2024 we featured in a TV documentary series on Sky Arts: ‘Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’, still available to watch via Now TV. During 2024/25 we’re once again working with Marquee TV to broadcast selected live concerts to enjoy from your own living room.
Our conductors
Our Principal Conductors have included some of the greatest historic names like Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. In 2021 Edward Gardner became our 13th Principal Conductor, and Vladimir Jurowski became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his impact as Principal Conductor from 2007–21. Karina Canellakis is our current Principal Guest Conductor, and Tania León our Composer-in-Residence.
Next generations
We’re committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians and music-lovers: we love seeing the joy of children and families experiencing their first musical moments, and we’re passionate about inspiring schools and teachers through dedicated concerts, workshops,
resources and training. Reflecting our values of collaboration and inclusivity, our OrchLab and Open Sound Ensemble projects offer music-making opportunities for adults and young people with disabilities and special educational needs.
Today’s young instrumentalists are the orchestra members of the future, and we have a number of opportunities to support their progression. Our LPO Junior Artists programme leads the way in creating pathways into the profession for young artists from under-represented communities, and our LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes support the next generation of professional musicians, bridging the transition from education to professional careers. We also recently launched the LPO Conducting Fellowship, supporting the development of two outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds under-represented in the profession.
2024/25 season
Principal Conductor Edward Gardner leads the Orchestra in an exciting 2024/25 season, with soloists including Joyce DiDonato, Leif Ove Andsnes, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Víkingur Ólafsson and Isabelle Faust, and works including Strauss’s Alpine Symphony, Ravel’s Daphnis and Chloe and Mahler’s Eighth Symphony. Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis joins us for three concerts including Bruckner’s Fourth Symphony, Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony, and Mozart with pianist Benjamin Grosvenor. We’ll also welcome back Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski, as well as guest conductors including Mark Elder, Lidiya Yankovskaya, Robin Ticciati and Kevin John Edusei.
Throughout the season we’ll explore the relationship between music and memory in our ‘Moments Remembered’ series, featuring works like Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony, Strauss’s Metamorphosen and John Adams’s On the Transmigration of Souls. During the season there’ll be the chance to hear brand new works by composers including Freya Waley-Cohen and David Sawer, as well as performances by renowned soloists violinist Gidon Kremer, sarod player Amjad Ali Khan, soprano Renée Fleming and many more. The season also features tours to Japan, the USA, China and across Europe, as well as a calendar bursting with performances and community events in our Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden residencies. lpo.org.uk
Pieter Schoeman Leader
Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002. He is also a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music & Dance.
Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninoff Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall. As a chamber musician he regularly appears at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. His chamber music partners have included Anne-Sophie Mutter, Veronika Eberle, Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Boris Garlitsky, Jean-Guihen Queyras, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Martin Helmchen and Julia Fischer.
Pieter has performed numerous times as a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Highlights have included an appearance as both conductor and soloist in Vivaldi’s Four Seasons at the Royal Festival Hall, the Brahms Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, Florence Price’s Violin Concerto No. 2, and the Britten Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the LPO Label to great critical acclaim.
Pieter has appeared as Guest Leader with the BBC, Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon and Baltimore symphony orchestras; the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras; and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra.
Pieter’s chair in the LPO is generously supported by Neil Westreich.
Omer Meir Wellber has established himself as one of this generation’s leading conductors of operatic and orchestral repertoire alike. He begins his tenure as General Music Director of the Hamburg State Opera and the Philharmonic State Orchestra Hamburg in September 2025, after concluding his music directorship of the Teatro Massimo in Palermo, Italy. He also regularly conducts the Orchestre National de France, Gewandhaus Orchestra Leipzig, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Orchestra del Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Vienna Symphony Orchestra and Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin, among others.
For the Teatro Massimo’s current season in Palermo, Wellber presents a new production of Ligeti’s Le Grand Macabre (directed by Barbora Haráková), and Strauss’s Salome (directed by Bruno Ravella). Highlights of recent seasons include Bellini’s I Capuleti e i Montecchi in a production by Idan Cohen, Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde directed by Daniele Menghini, Verdi’s Les Vêpres siciliennes in a production by Emma Dante, and Wagner’s Parsifal in a production by Graham Vick. Wellber’s innovative work at the Teatro Massimo –including the 2021 production Crepuscolo dei sogni, featuring music by various composers – earned him the 2021 Special Award from Italy’s National Association of Music Critics.
Guest performances in the 2024/25 season take Omer Meir Wellber to the Jerusalem Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre National Capitole Toulouse, the Gewandhaushorchester in Leipzig, and the
Orchestre de Paris. At the Vienna Volksoper he conducts two special new productions: Ella MilchSheriff’s new opera Alma, and Wellber’s own creation, Kaiserrequiem, with the Vienna State Ballet, directed and choreographed by Andreas Heise. At the Opera di Roma, he conducts Bizet’s Carmen.
During his time as Music Director of the Volksoper Vienna, Omer Meir Wellber conducted Iolanta and the Nutcracker – a new Tchaikovsky creation directed by Lotte de Beer, which was nominated for the Austrian Music Theatre Prize; and numerous revivals, such as Verdi’s La traviata, Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte, and Richard Strauss’s Salome (in a recreation of Luc Bondy’s timeless 1992 production). Wellber has conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra both on the concert stage and at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, including Madama Butterfly at the 2018 Festival and Eugene Onegin in 2014.
Omer Meir Wellber made his literary debut in 2019 with his first novel, Die vier Ohnmachten des Chaim Birkner, published by Berlin Verlag. Originally written in Hebrew, the novel was published in Wellber’s native tongue by Keren (‘
’) in 2023. Its critical acclaim has also seen the book’s publication in Italian by Sellerio Editore (2021), and in French by Éditions du sous-sol (2022). The novel tells the story of Chaim Birkner, a tired and broken man who is forced by his daughter to face life one last time.
Die Angst, das Risiko und die Liebe - Momente mit Mozart – the conductor’s first book – was published in 2017. Co-written with German author and journalist Inge Kloepfer, the book shares Wellber’s personal understanding of the universal emotions addressed in the three Mozart/Da Ponte operas - Così fan tutte, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni
Described as ‘a magnetic presence’ and ‘a constantly fascinating sound technician’ (New York Classical Review), violinist Alena Baeva is considered one of the most exciting, versatile and captivating soloists active on the world stage today, working with leading conductors including Gustavo Gimeno, Paavo Järvi, Marek Janowski, Vladimir Jurowski, Tomáš Netopil and Riccardo Minasi.
Possessing a passionate musical curiosity, Alena holds an already vast and rapidly expanding active repertoire, including over 50 violin concerti. She is a champion of lesser-known works alongside the more mainstream violin literature, with recent performances promoting such composers as Bacewicz, Karaev, Karłowicz and Silvestrov.
Alena Baeva’s career as an international soloist of the highest renown has grown at an extraordinary pace over recent seasons. She made her London Philharmonic Orchestra debut in 2018, performing Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto with the Orchestra under conductor Vladimir Jurowski at the Royal Festival Hall. She has also performed with orchestras including the New York Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo, TonhalleOrchester Zürich, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, Gürzenich-Orchester Köln and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. She enjoys a longstanding and rewarding relationship with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, performing and recording a variety of repertoire on period instruments.
Chamber music holds a particularly special place in Alena’s musical life, and she enjoys collaborations with such esteemed artists as Yuri Bashmet, Daishin Kashimoto, Misha Maisky, Jean-Guihen Queyras and the Belcea Quartet. Her regular sonata partner is the celebrated Ukrainian pianist Vadym Kholodenko, with whom she has had a dedicated musical partnership for more than a decade.
Alena Baeva records exclusively for leading label Alpha Classics, and the first project of her multi-disc deal with the Fantasy label, with Vaydm Kholodenko, was released in February 2024. Her wider discography is extensive and reflects the impressive breadth of her repertoire. Recordings include Wieniawski’s Violin Concerto No. 2 (with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century, 2021); the Karłowicz Violin Concerto (with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 2018); and the Schumann Violin Concerto and original (1844) version of the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto (for Melodiya Records, 2020).
Born in Kyrgyzstan with Slavic-Tatar ancestry, Alena Baeva took her first violin lessons at the age of five under renowned pedagogue Olga Danilova in Kazakhstan, before studying with Professor Eduard Grach in Russia. She also took lessons with Mstislav Rostropovich, Boris Garlitsky and Shlomo Mintz, and took part in the Seiji Ozawa International Academy in Switzerland, focused on string quartet repertoire. Now a naturalised citizen of Luxembourg, she has made her home there since 2010.
Alena Baeva plays on the ‘ex-William Kroll’ Guarneri del Gesù of 1738 – on a generous loan from an anonymous patron, with the kind assistance of J&A Beares.
Programme notes
Gustav Mahler 1860–1911/ Alfred Schnittke 1934–98
Piano Quartet in A minor (arr. for piano & strings) 1876
Omer Meir Wellber piano
1 Nicht zu schnell
[Mahler,
arr. Wellber/Kagarlitsky]
2 Scherzo
[A completion by Schnittke of Mahler’s fragment, arr. Wellber/Kagarlitsky]
In 1875, at the age of 15, Gustav Mahler entered the Vienna Conservatory. Apparently his playing of Beethoven’s ‘Les Adieux’ Sonata made a profound impression on the Conservatory’s leading piano pedagogue, Julius Epstein. Even though his piano studies went well, Mahler was drawn increasingly to composition, so he also began lessons in harmony and counterpoint with Robert Fuchs and Franz Krenn. Both Fuchs and Krenn were devotees of Brahms, so it isn’t surprising that the one complete composition of Mahler’s surviving from his Conservatory days should have been a piano quartet – or, rather, a large single movement for piano quartet – as this was a medium Brahms had made very much his own. It was also a practical choice, as it would have been easy for Mahler (at the piano) to find a violin, viola and cello to accompany him in performance.
When it comes to the music, however, Brahms is mostly only a background presence. There is more of the emotional volatility and hyper-sensitivity of Robert Schumann. Schubert – especially the sombre Schubert of Winterreise, Der Wanderer and the three A minor piano sonatas – also casts a shadow, and there are echoes of the youthful composer’s friend and mentor Anton Bruckner. But although the fully mature Mahler hasn’t quite arrived on the scene yet, we can sense his presence, in the shape of some of the leading motifs, and in the music’s expressive urgency and formal
fluidity. And although this is technically chamber music, it’s soon clear that there’s an orchestral composer struggling to get out, which is one reason why this arrangement for piano and string orchestra, by tonight’s conductor Omer Meir Wellber and Keren Kagarlitsky, works so well.
In addition to this single complete movement, Mahler also left 32 bars of a scherzo for piano quartet. (It was clearly meant to be significantly longer.) Its ghostly, swirling motion anticipates the nightmare Scherzo of his ‘Resurrection’ Symphony (No. 2), as the Russian composer Alfred Schnittke clearly understood when, in 1988, he made his own highly creative enlargement of Mahler’s fragment into, as he put it, an attempt ‘to recall something which had never been accomplished’.
This is far from being a ‘completion’ in Mahler’s own style. Instead, Mahler’s music is repeated in a wild variety of different guises, all very late-20th-century in style, and full of the kind of tortured, dissonant expression that was so much a facet of Schnittke’s own manner of being. It forms a kind of stylistic bridge between Mahler’s time and our own, so when we hear Mahler’s original idea again at the end, it feels eerily remote, a sense underlined by Schnittke’s hushed but chilling final gesture.
Haydn composed much of his music at the whim of his patrons, and new commissions were not always suited to his own personal taste. But between 1768 and 1772, his music went through a dramatic transition, described by some as a ‘romantic crisis’ and by others as the beginning of the Sturm und Drang style (literally ‘storm and stress’). Such changes were at least partly brought about by Haydn’s changing circumstances. Having been appointed to the service of Prince Paul Anton Esterházy at his court in Eisenstadt in 1761, Haydn spent the first half of this decade writing under the watchful eye of Gregor Joseph Werner, the reigning Kappelmeister. After Werner’s death in 1766, however, the court moved to Eszterháza and Haydn gained full responsibility for all musical performances within the court. Not only was Haydn able to return to the church music with which he had grown up, he was now able to compose freely, and assert his own, distinctive compositional voice. ‘I could, as head of an orchestra, make experiments, observe what created an impression …’ he noted afterwards. ‘I was set apart from the world … and so I had to become original’. The Sturm und Drang works carry an unmistakable new boldness (something Haydn was fortunate enough to have skilled musicians to tackle) and a gradual distancing from traditional symphonic practices.
The angst-ridden Symphony No. 49 in F minor was composed at the cusp of this change and was radical in its combination of antiquated formal procedures and
Programme notes
modern, expressive content. The title, ‘La Passione’, appears to carry a double meaning, conveying both the emotional depth of Haydn’s writing and the apparent allusions to the Lenten Passion story in its opening movement. Although these associations have never been proven, it is a compelling narrative, and one that the gloomy and often heart-rending expressivity of the Symphony does little to deflect.
The tone throughout is dark and despondent, barely leaving the tonic of F minor during the Symphony. With the exception of the F major Menuet, the only keys Haydn traverses are dulled, flat-sided ones such as C minor and E, A and D flat major. Opening with a slow movement, in the archaic sonata di chiesa (‘church
sonata’) style, the Symphony begins its long, inexorable journey. Here, the anguished music appears to evoke the heart of the Passion story – the crucifixion itself –with sighing violins and dissonant suspensions depicting the onlookers’ sorrow. The second movement, marked Allegro di molto, offers no release – instead, hurtling violins and propelling lower strings push us perpetually onwards in the struggle for salvation. Ever-widening dramatic leaps and insistent repeated notes convey the desperation. A brief flash of F major in the Trio section of the otherwise stern Menuet is short-lived, as the initially hesitant Presto builds to a fury and draws the Symphony to a solemn, griefstricken conclusion.
In June 1877, Tchaikovsky made one of the rashest decisions of his life: he proposed to Antonia Miliukova, a woman with whom he admitted he was ‘not the least in love’. Their marriage was unsurprisingly short-lived and, just a few weeks later, Tchaikovsky left. Keen to make a clean break with his disastrous attempt at traditional domesticity, he set off for Europe, where he spent most of the next year travelling and composing, all the while receiving the support of his patron and confidante, Nadezhda von Meck. ‘My heart is full’, he wrote to her, ‘it thirsts to pour itself out in music.’
Tchaikovsky was true to his word: his Fourth Symphony was completed in January, his opera Eugene Onegin a month later. By March he had settled in Clarens, on the banks of Lake Geneva, where he was visited by one of his former pupils, the violinist Joseph Kotek. Although Tchaikovsky was at pains to hide his homosexuality from the public – one of the reasons, it seems, behind his abrupt decision to marry – his letters do little to hide the extent of his feelings towards Kotek. ‘I love him very, very much’, he wrote to his brother, Anatoly. ‘He has the kindest and most tender of hearts.’ So it was, with the dark cloud of his marriage beginning to lift, that Tchaikovsky composed his Violin Concerto.
While Kotek was integral to the Concerto’s composition (‘It goes without saying that I would have been able to do nothing without him’, he confided to Anatoly), he was not the work’s dedicatee. That honour went to Leopold
Programme notes
Auer, who – in a move that scarred Tchaikovsky for many years – refused to give the Concerto its premiere, claiming that it was ‘unplayable’. It would be another three years before, in 1878, the work was finally premiered in Vienna with Adolph Brodsky as the soloist. The reviews were less than favourable: Eduard Hanslick called it ‘long and pretentious’, adding that ‘the violin is no longer played, but rent asunder, beaten black and blue’.
The features that Hanslick found so distasteful – its longwinded lyricism and fiery virtuosity – are precisely what has made the Concerto so popular with audiences and cemented its place in the repertoire over the past 150 years. Most of the acrobatics are packed into the dazzling first movement, its form cleaved in two by an expansive cadenza that leads to even more challenging, stratospheric writing in the second half – passages that can easily be overplayed if not treated with caution.
The Canzonetta was Tchaikovsky’s second attempt at a slow movement (his first was published separately as the Souvenir d’un lieu cher), its wistful and melancholic melodic writing so clearly heartfelt that it almost won Hanslick over. But his objections were reaffirmed by the wild drama of the finale, an adrenaline-fuelled Allegro packed with Russian folk themes that culminates in a thrilling double-stopped exchange between soloist and orchestra. Auer, for his part, later conceded that the Concerto was not ‘unplayable’, just ‘difficult’, adding ‘it is impossible to please everybody.’
Recommended recordings of tonight’s works by Laurie Watt
Haydn: Symphony No. 49 (La Passione)
On period instruments: Hanover Band | Roy Goodman (Hyperion) or Il Giardino Armonico | Giovanni Antonini (Alpha)
On modern instruments: Academy of St Martin in the Fields | Neville Marriner (Eloquence)
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto Lisa Batiashvili (violin) | Staatskapelle Berlin | Daniel Barenboim (Deutsche Grammophon) or Johan Dalene (violin) | Norrköping Symphony Orchestra | Daniel Blendulf (BIS)
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Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto on the LPO Label
Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
Lalo Symphonie espagnole for violin and orchestra
Augustin Hadelich violin
Vasily Petrenko conductor (Tchaikovsky)
Omer Meir Wellber conductor (Lalo)
London Philharmonic Orchestra
LPO-0094
Available on CD, and to download or stream via all major platforms. Scan the QR code to listen now.
Renée Fleming sings Strauss
Wednesday 5 March 2025
Royal Festival Hall
Wagner
R Strauss
Wagner
Tannhäuser
Wagner Prelude to Act I of Lohengrin
Wagner Overture, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Thomas Guggeis conductor
Renée Fleming soprano
Crossing Generations
Wednesday 12 March 2025 | 7.30pm
Queen Elizabeth Hall (please note venue)
The Dog Breath Variations/Uncle Meat; Outrage at Valdez; G-Spot Tornado
As musicians of this incredible Orchestra, we dedicate ourselves to making exceptional music and sharing it with as many people as we can – people like you.
As individuals we bring our passion, energy and enthusiasm to every single performance, so that as a collective we can inspire and entertain.
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Donate online at lpo.org.uk/playerappeal, scan the QR code, or call the LPO Individual Giving Team on 020 7840 4212 or
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Thank you
As a registered charity, we are extremely grateful to all our supporters who have given generously to the LPO over the past year to help maintain the breadth and depth of the LPO’s activities, as well as supporting the Orchestra both on and off the concert platform.
Artistic Director’s Circle
Anonymous donors
The American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra
William & Alex de Winton
Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle
Aud Jebsen
In memory of Mrs Rita Reay
Sir Simon & Lady Robey CBE
Orchestra Circle
Mr & Mrs Philip Kan
Neil Westreich
Principal Associates
An anonymous donor
Mrs Irina Andreeva
Steven M. Berzin
Richard Buxton
Gill & Garf Collins
In memory of Brenda Lyndoe Casbon
In memory of Ann Marguerite Collins
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave
Patricia Haitink
George Ramishvili
In memory of Kenneth Shaw
The Tsukanov Family
Mr Florian Wunderlich
Associates
In memory of Len & Edna Beech
Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
The Candide Trust
Stuart & Bianca Roden
In memory of Hazel Amy Smith
Gold Patrons
An anonymous donor
David & Yi Buckley
Dr Alex & Maria Chan
In memory of Allner Mavis Channing
In memory of Peter Coe
Michelle Crowe Hernandez
Gini Gabbertas
Jenny & Duncan Goldie-Scot
Mr Roger Greenwood
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Julian & Gill Simmonds
Mr Brian Smith
Mr Jay Stein
Eric Tomsett
The Viney Family
Guy & Utti Whittaker
Silver Patrons
David Burke & Valerie Graham
Clive & Helena Butler
John & Sam Dawson
Ulrike & Benno Engelmann
Fiona Espenhahn in memory of Peter
Luke Gardiner
Prof. Erol & Mrs Deniz Gelenbe
The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris
Charitable Trust
Iain & Alicia Hasnip
John & Angela Kessler
Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva
Dr Irene Rosner David
Tom & Phillis Sharpe
Jenny Watson CBE
Laurence Watt
Bronze Patrons
Anonymous donors
Chris Aldren
Michael Allen
Alexander & Rachel Antelme
Annie Berglof
Nicholas Berwin
Lorna & Christopher Bown
Mr Bernard Bradbury
Richard & Jo Brass
Desmond & Ruth Cecil
Mr John H Cook
Emmanuelle & Thierry d’Argent
Mrs Elizabeth Davies
Guy Davies
Cameron & Kathryn Doley
Ms Elena Dubinets
David Ellen
Cristina & Malcolm Fallen
Mr Daniel Goldstein
David & Jane Gosman
Mr Gavin Graham
Mrs Dorothy Hambleton
Eugene & Allison Hayes
J Douglas Home
Mr & Mrs Jan
Mr & Mrs Ralph Kanza
Mrs Elena Kolobova & Mr Oleg
Kolobov
Rose & Dudley Leigh
Wg. Cdr. M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF
Drs Frank & Gek Lim
Andrew T Mills
Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill
John Nickson & Simon Rew
Peter Noble & Lucy Vella
Mikhail Noskov & Vasilina Bindley
Simon & Lucy Owen-Johnstone
Andrew & Cindy Peck
Mr Roger Phillimore
Nigel Phipps & Amanda McDowall
Mr Michael Posen
Marie Power
Sir Bernard Rix
Baroness Shackleton
Tim Slorick
Sir Jim Smith
Mrs Maria Toneva
Mr Joe Topley & Ms Tracey Countryman
Mr & Mrs John C Tucker
Andrew & Rosemary Tusa
Galina Umanskaia
Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood
The Viney Family
Mr Rodney Whittaker
Grenville & Krysia Williams
Joanna Williams
Principal Supporters
Anonymous donors
Julian & Annette Armstrong
Chris Banks
Mr John D Barnard
Roger & Clare Barron
Mr Geoffrey Bateman
Mrs A Beare
Chris Benson
Peter & Adrienne Breen
Dr Anthony Buckland
Mr Julien Chilcott-Monk
David & Liz Conway
Mr Alistair Corbett
David Devons
Deborah Dolce
In memory of Enid Gofton
Prof Emeritus John Gruzelier
Mrs Farrah Jamal
Bruce & Joanna Jenkyn-Jones
Per Jonsson
Tanya Joseph
Mr Ian Kapur
Jozef & Helen Kotz
Dr Peter Mace
Peter Mainprice
Miss Rebecca Murray
Mrs Terry Neale
Mr Stephen Olton
Mr James Pickford
Neil & Karen Reynolds
Mr Robert Ross
Kseniia Rubina
Mr Andrea Santacroce & Olivia Veillet-Lavallée
Penny Segal
Priscylla Shaw
Michael Smith
Erika Song
Mr & Mrs G Stein
Dr Peter Stephenson
Ben Valentin
KC
Sophie Walker
Christopher Williams
Liz Winter
Elena Y Zeng
Supporters
Anonymous donors
Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle
Robert & Sarah Auerbach
Dr Simona Cicero & Mr Mario Altieri
Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington
Sarah Connor
Miss Tessa Cowie
Andrew Davenport
Stephen Denby
Mr Simon Edelsten
Steve & Cristina Goldring
In memory of Derek Gray
Nick Hely-Hutchinson
The Jackman Family
Molly Jackson
Jan Leigh & Jan Rynkiewicz
Mr David MacFarlane
Simon Moore
Simon & Fiona Mortimore
Dana Mosevicz
Dame Jane Newell DBE
Diana G Oosterveld
Mr David Peters
Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh
Clarence Tan
Tony & Hilary Vines
Dr June Wakefield
Mr John Weekes
Mr Roger Woodhouse
Mr C D Yates
Hon. Benefactor
Elliott Bernerd
Hon. Life Members
Alfonso Aijón
Carol Colburn Grigor CBE
Pehr G Gyllenhammar
Robert Hill
Keith Millar
Victoria Robey CBE
Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE
Cornelia Schmid
Timothy Walker CBE AM
Laurence Watt
Thomas Beecham
Group Members
Sir Nigel Boardman & Prof. Lynda Gratton
David & Yi Buckley
In memory of Peter Coe
Dr Alex & Maria Chan
Garf & Gill Collins
William & Alex de Winton
The Friends of the LPO
Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G.
Cave
Mr Roger Greenwood
Barry Grimaldi
David & Bettina Harden
Mr & Mrs Philip Kan
Mr & Mrs John Kessler
Sir Simon Robey
Victoria Robey OBE
Stuart & Bianca Roden
Julian & Gill Simmonds
Eric Tomsett
Neil Westreich
Guy & Utti Whittaker
LPO Corporate Circle
Principal
Bloomberg
Carter-Ruck Solicitors
French Chamber of Commerce
Natixis Corporate & Investment
Banking
Ryze Power
Tutti
German-British Chamber of Industry & Commerce
Lazard
Walpole
Preferred
Partners
Jeroboams
Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd
Mayer Brown
Neal’s Yard Remedies
OneWelbeck
Sipsmith
Steinway & Sons
In-kind Sponsor
Google Inc
Thank you
Trusts and Foundations
ABO Trust
Art Mentor Foundation Lucerne
BlueSpark Foundation
The Boltini Trust
Candide Trust
Cockayne Grants for the Arts in London
Dunard Fund
Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation
Foyle Foundation
Garfield Weston Foundation
Garrick Charitable Trust
The Golsoncott Foundation
Jerwood Foundation
John Coates Charitable Trust
John Horniman’s Children’s Trust
John Thaw Foundation
Idlewild Trust
Institute Adam Mickiewicz
Kirby Laing Foundation
The John S Cohen Foundation
The Lennox Hannay Charitable Trust
Kurt Weill Foundation
Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust
Lucille Graham Trust
The Marchus Trust
Maria Bjӧrnson Memorial Fund
The 29th May 1961 Charitable Trust
PRS Foundation
The R K Charitable Trust
The Radcliffe Trust
Rivers Foundation
Rothschild Foundation
Scops Arts Trust
Sir William Boreman’s Foundation
TIOC Foundation
Vaughan Williams Foundation
The Victoria Wood Foundation
The Viney Family
The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust
and all others who wish to remain anonymous.
Board of the American Friends of the LPO
We are grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who assist with fundraising for our activities in the United States of America:
Hannah Young Chair
Kara Boyle
Jon Carter
Jay Goffman
Alexandra Jupin
Natalie Pray MBE
Damien Vanderwilt
Marc Wassermann
Elizabeth Winter
Catherine Høgel Hon. Director
LPO International Board of Governors
Natasha Tsukanova Chair
Mrs Irina Andreeva
Steven M. Berzin
Shashank Bhagat
Irina Gofman
Olivia Ma
George Ramishvili
Florian Wunderlich
Sound Futures donors
We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to our Sound Futures campaign. Thanks to their support, we successfully raised £1 million by 30 April 2015 which has now been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. This has enabled us to create a £2 million endowment fund supporting special artistic projects, creative programming and education work with key venue partners including our Southbank Centre home. Supporters listed below donated £500 or over. For a full list of those who have given to this campaign please visit lpo.org.uk/soundfutures
