LPO Label digital booklet: LPO-0127 Jurowski conducts Stravinsky Vol. 3

JUROWSKI CONDUCTS STRAVINSKY VOL. 3 including PULCINELLA SYMPHONY IN C REQUIEM CANTICLES VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA & CHOIR

CONTENTS

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PROGRAMME NOTES & TEXTS: PULCINELLA SYMPHONY IN C ODE: ELEGIACAL CHANT IN THREE PARTS THRENI VARIATIONS (ALDOUS HUXLEY IN MEMORIAM) REQUIEM CANTICLES

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BIOGRAPHIES

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CREDITS

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CD1 IGOR STRAVINSKY PULCINELLA: BALLET IN ONE ACT AFTER PERGOLESI 1 02:02 2 02:42 3 03:03 4 03:15 5 01:59 6 02:05 7 02:19 8 02:30 9 00:32 10 00:36 11 01:09 12 00:33 13 01:25 14 01:17 15 02:34 16 00:56 17 03:50 18 01:35 19 02:20 20 02:11

Overture Serenata: Mentre l’erbetta Scherzino: Allegro – Andantino – Allegro Andantino – Allegro Contento forse vivere: Ancoro poco meno Allegro assai Con queste paroline: Allegro (alla breve) Sento dire no’ nce pace: Andante Chi disse ca la femmena Nce sta quaccuna po’: Allegro Una te fa la ‘nzemprece: Presto Larghetto Allegro alla breve Tarantella: Allegro moderato Se tu m’ami: Andantino Toccata: Allegro Gavotta with Two Variations Vivo Pupillette, fiammette: Tempo di Minuetto Finale: Allegro assai 3

IGOR STRAVINSKY PULCINELLA CONT. The idea for Pulcinella was first sown by Serge Diaghilev – with whom Stravinsky had previously collaborated on his three ballets, The Firebird, Petrushka and The Rite of Spring – who suggested Stravinsky consider some manuscripts by Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710–36) as the basis of a new work. At first, Stravinsky thought Diaghilev must be ‘deranged’, but once he began leafing through the scores, his interest was piqued: ‘I began by composing on the Pergolesi manuscripts themselves, as though I were correcting an old work of my own.

I knew that I could not produce a “forgery” of Pergolesi because my motor habits are so different; at best, I could repeat him in my own accent.’ The ballet follows a young heartthrob, Pulcinella, and his legion of female fans, who are enraged to discover he has been unfaithful and begin plotting their revenge.

became possible. It was a backward look, of course – the first of many love affairs in that direction – but it was a look in the mirror, too.’

But to Stravinsky’s surprise, the same critics who seven years earlier had been shocked by the violence of the music in The Rite of Spring rose up to complain about this new, altogether milder direction: ‘I was … attacked for being a pasticheur, chided for composing “simple” music, blamed for deserting “modernism”, accused of renouncing my “true Russian heritage”. People who had never heard of, or cared about, the originals cried “sacrilege”: “The classics are ours. Leave the classics alone.” To them all my answer was and is the same: You “respect”, but I love.’

Over time, Stravinsky silenced his detractors and the slew of neoclassical works that emerged over the next decade became some of the most enduring works in his large and exceptionally varied output (although he continued to abhor the term ‘neoclassicism’, calling it ‘a much-abused expression meaning absolutely nothing’). Pulcinella was eventually so successful that Stravinsky later adapted it as a solo concert suite, featuring eight of the movements that make up the ballet.

Stravinsky’s contemporary ‘translation’ borrows themes and ideas from Pergolesi’s original score (much of which, it has since been shown, was probably not composed by Pergolesi at all), before passing them through a distinctly 20th-century lens, their dissonances and hard edges clearly alien to the music’s 18th-century roots. At times, the resulting score seems to verge on the cusp of satire, but always with a sense of deeply held affection. It would prove integral to Stravinsky’s subsequent musical development. ‘Pulcinella was my discovery of the past, the epiphany through which the whole of my late work

Programme note © Jo Kirkbride 4

1 OUVERTURE: ALLEGRO MODERATO (Gallo: Trio Sonata I, 1st movement) 2 SERENATA: LARGHETTO (Pergolesi: Il Flaminio. Act I. Polidoro – Tenor) Mentre l'erbetta pasce l'agnella, sola soletta la pastorella tra fresche frasche per la foresta cantando va.

While on the grass the lamb grazes alone, alone the shepherdess amid the green leaves through the forest goes singing.

3 SCHERZINO (Gallo: Trio Sonata II, 1st movement) ALLEGRO (Gallo: Trio Sonata II, 3rd movement)

4 ANDANTINO (Gallo: Trio Sonata VIII, 1st movement) ALLEGRO (Pergolesi: Lo frate ‘nnammorato. Act I. Vanella)

5 ANCORA POCO MENO (Pergolesi: Cantata: Luce degli occhi miei) SOPRANO Contento forse vivere nel mio martir potrei, se mai potessi credere che ancor lontan, tu sei fedele all’amor mio, fedele a questo cor.

Content perhaps to live In my torment I might be If I ever could believe That, still far away, you were Faithful to my love, Faithful to this heart.

6 ALLEGRO ASSAI (Gallo: Trio Sonata III, 3rd movement) 5

7 ALLEGRO (Pergolesi: Il Flaminio. Act I. Bastiano – Bass) Con queste paroline così saporitine il cor voi mi scippate dalla profondità.

Bella, restate quà, che se più dite appresso io cesso morirò.

Cosi saporitine con queste paroline il cor voi mi scippate, morirò, morirò.

With these little words So sweet You rend my heart To the depths.

Fair one, stay here, Since if you say more I must die.

With such sweet Little words You rend my heart I shall die, I shall die.

8 LARGO (Pergolesi: Lo frate ‘nnamorato. Act III. Nina, Ascanio, Vanella – Soprano, tenor, bass) SOPRANO, TENOR, BASS: Sento dire no’ncè pace.

Sento dire no’ncè cor, ma’ cchiù pe’ tte, no, no, no’ncè carma cchiù pe’ tte.

I hear say there is no peace I hear say there is no heart, For you, ah, no, never, There is no peace for you.

9 TENOR

Chi disse ca la femmena se cchiù de farfariello disse la verità, disse la verità.

Whoever says that a woman Is more cunning than the Devil Tells the truth.

10 ALLEGRO (Pergolesi: Lo frate ‘nnamorato. Act II. Soprano, tenor) SOPRANO: Ncè sta quaccuna po’ che a nullo vuole bene e à ciento ‘nfrisco tene schitto pe’ scorcoglia’, e ha tant’antre malizie chi mai le ppò conta’.

There are some women Who care for none And keep a hundred on a leash, A shabby trick, And have so many wiles That none can count them.

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TENOR: Una te fa la zemprece ed è malezeosa, ‘n’antra fa la schefosa e bo’ lo maretiello, Chi a chillo tene ‘ncore e ha tant’antre malizie chi mai le ppò conta’. e lo sta a rrepassa’.

One pretends to be innocent And is, and is cunning Another seems all modesty Yet seeks a husband, One clings to a man And has so many wiles That none can count them, None can number them.

11 PRESTO (Pergolesi: Lo frate ‘nnamorato. Act II. Tenor) Una te fa la zemprece ed è malezeosa, ‘n’antra fa la schefosa e bo’ lo maretiello.

Ncè stà quaccuno po’ chi a nullo udetene chia chillo tene’ncore, e a chisto fegne amore e a cciento ‘nfrisco tene schitto pe’ scorcoglia’, e a tant’antre malizie chi maie le opò conta’.

One pretends to be innocent And is, and is cunning Another seems all modesty Yet seeks a husband, There are some Who care, listen, for none.

Who cling to a man And who flirt with another And have a hundred on a leash A shabby trick, And have so many wiles That none can count them.

12 LARGHETTO (Pergolesi: Lo frate ‘nnamorato. Act II) 13 ALLEGRO ALLA BREVE (Gallo: Trio Sonata VII, 3rd movement)

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14 TARANTELLA: ALLEGRO MODERATO (Wassenaer: Concerto II/Chelleri: Concertino VI) 15 ANDANTINO (Parisotti: Canzona – Soprano) Se tu m’ami, se tu sospiri sol per me, gentil pastor, ho dolor de’ tuoi martiri ho diletto del tuo amor, ma se pensi che soletto io ti debba riamar, Pastorello, sei soggetto facilmente a t’ingannar.

Bella rosa porponna oggi Silvia sceglierà con la scusa della spina doman poi la sprezzerà.

Ma degli uomini il consiglio io per me non seguirò.

Non perchè mi piace il giglio gli altri fiori sprezzerò.

If you love me, if you sigh For me alone, gentle shepherd, I have pain in your suffering, I have pleasure in your love, But if you think that you alone I should love in return, Shepherd, you are easily To be deceived.

A fair red rose Today Silvia picks, But pleading its thorn Tomorrow she spurns it.

But the plans of men I will not follow.

Because the lily pleases me, I will not spurn other flowers.

16 TOCCATA: ALLEGRO (Monza: Harpsichord Suite No. 1) 17 GAVOTTA: ALLEGRO MODERATO (Monza: Harpsichord Suite No. 3) Variazione Ia: Allegretto | Variazione IIa: Allegro piri tosto moderato

18 VIVO (Pergolesi: Sinfonia for cello and basso) 19 TEMPO DI MINUÉ (Pergolesi: Lo frate ‘nnamorato. Act I. Soprano, tenor, bass) Pupillette, fiammette d’amore, per voi il core struggendo si va.

Sweet eyes, bright with love, For you my heart languishes.

20 ALLEGRO ASSAI (Gallo: Trio Sonata XII, 3rd movement) 8

IGOR STRAVINSKY SYMPHONY IN C

Largo – Tempo giusto, alla breve

working with copies of symphonies by Haydn and Beethoven (as well as Tchaikovsky’s First) on his desk.

The buoyant opening movement comes closest to the classical symphony, with its conventional ground-plan and – unusually for Stravinsky – its unchanging tempo and two-in-a-bar (alla breve) pulse. It also features Haydn-like treatment of a little figure of three notes, B–C–G, which emerges from the opening bars to form the initial notes of the first main theme, on the oboe, and recurs frequently throughout the movement.

Stravinsky’s Symphony in C was commissioned for the 50th anniversary season of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and first performed in Chicago under the composer’s direction in November 1940. Its composition spanned Stravinsky’s transatlantic move in September 1939. The first two movements were written in France, where the exiled Russian composer had lived for many years; the third and fourth followed in 1939/40 in the USA, which was to be his home for the rest of his life.

This was a period not only of upheaval and wartime uncertainty, but also of family tragedy: the composer’s daughter died in 1938, and his first wife and his mother in 1939. But there is no sign of any intrusion of personal grief on Stravinsky’s abstract concern with his musical material and its treatment.

The second movement lives up to the description in its heading of concertante by highlighting different solo instruments and groupings in turn: its poised outer sections concentrate on the woodwind; its central section, at double speed, is led by the strings. This movement leads without a break into the scherzo, which is even more kaleidoscopically fragmented in its colouring, and restless in its constant changes of metre. The finale begins with a slow introduction for low bassoons with horns and trombones, which is recalled later on to put a temporary brake on the movement’s purposeful progress. This finally abates in a slightly slower coda, in which the motif of the first movement returns stretched out into long notes – eventually appearing in the top line of the cool, quiet wind chords that close the Symphony.

21 09:41 22 06:00 23 04:45 24 06:53

Moderato alla breve Larghetto concertante Allegretto

The work was Stravinsky’s first orchestral symphony since his Op. 1, the Symphony in E flat that he wrote in his twenties; and he consciously intended it to be in the symphonic tradition of the 18th and 19th centuries,

Programme note © Anthony Burton

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IGOR STRAVINSKY ODE: ELEGIACAL CHANT IN THREE PARTS 25 03:32 26 03:05 27 03:41

Eulogy Eclogue Epitaph

In 1943 Stravinsky was approached by Serge Koussevitzky, one of the most prominent conductors of his generation and a huge champion for new music, with the commission for a new work in honour of his late wife, Natalie. Ode was not Stravinsky’s first work written in Natalie’s honour. Twenty years earlier, he had dedicated his Concerto for Piano and Wind Instruments (1924) to her, performing the solo piano part himself at the first performance, with Koussevitzky taking the conductor’s podium. But while the Concerto was written entirely from scratch, for Ode Stravinsky revisited the music he had written for an Orson Welles film adaptation of Jane Eyre, which had never come to fruition.

might expect from a memorial work, it forms a welcome counterfoil to the melancholic Eulogy that precedes it.

Here, sweeping swings emerge from an austere brass ‘fanfare’ in a rather candid, un-Stravinskian outpouring of emotion, but the closing movement – Epitaph – returns us to more familiar territory, with disconcerting dissonances and fleeting moments of bitonality that undermine the lyrical woodwind melodies.

Despite such elegant instrumental writing, the work’s premiere was not a great success. One trumpet player failed to transpose his part, thereby playing everything in the wrong key, and some copying mistakes on the final page meant that two systems of music had been combined into one. ‘My simple triadic piece concluded in a cacophony that would now win me new esteem at Darmstadt’, Stravinsky remembered wryly. ‘This sudden change in harmonic style did not excite Koussevitzky’s suspicion, however, and some years later he actually confided to me that he preferred “the original version”.’

The discarded film music forms the basis of the second movement – a ‘pleasant interlude’, as Stravinsky called it – which sits within a rather more sombre outer frame.

The Eclogue, a bustling scherzo, was originally intended to accompany a hunting scene, as the arpeggiated horn-calls and scurrying strings make abundantly clear.

Although it is rather more spirited in tone than one

Programme note © Jo Kirkbride 10

CD2 IGOR STRAVINSKY THRENI: ID EST LAMENTATIONES JEREMIAE PROPHETAE 1

2 3 4 5 6

00:55 Introduction 06:41 De elegia prima De elegia tertia: 06:42 i. Querimonia 06:15 ii. Sensus spei 03:35 iii. Solacium 02:50 De elegia quinta

the twelve-note row – he referred to the work’s harmonic structure as ‘a kind of “triadic atonality”’.

Stravinsky offers regular tonal landmarks, with dissonance frequently dissolving into consonance, such that the listener rarely feels marooned amidst a sea of disorienting tones. Texturally, Stravinsky offers familiarity too and whereas many of the serial works of Webern and Schoenberg are made up of fragmented, pointillist textures, in Threni Stravinsky maintains clear strata in both the orchestral and vocal scoring, the clarity and directness of this voicing reminiscent of many of his earlier, non-serial works. He also references the historical style of similar liturgical vocal music, using single-tone chanting and antiphonal exchanges to affect an antiquated style in this highly contemporary work.

Second only to the unveiling of his ballet The Rite of Spring in Paris in 1913, the Parisian premiere of Stravinsky’s Threni was one of the most disastrous performances of his career. Just as at its world premiere in Venice two months earlier, Stravinsky conducted the new work himself, but when his Parisian audience greeted the work with little more than polite applause, Stravinsky refused to return to the stage to take his bow.

The applause descended into heckling, tempers flared and Stravinsky vowed never to conduct in Paris again.

Since Stravinsky composed Threni for concert performance, rather than liturgical use, it incorporates various selected verses from the Book of Lamentations without a specific narrative. Across its three movements, however, Stravinsky highlights individual Hebrew letters as the headers of each verse. ‘The effect’, writes Eric Walter White, ‘is like that of a series of illuminated initials embellishing a manuscript; and the special cadential qualities of these brief harmonic glosses give them a curious kind of nimbus.’

But the audience reaction was more a reflection of the shaky performance – which was, by all accounts, woefully under-rehearsed – than of the work itself.

Despite its twelve-tone framework, Threni is not an austere score. In places, it glows with remarkable richness and warmth, thanks in part to Stravinsky’s deliberate emphasis on the more tonal elements of

Programme note © Jo Kirkbride 11

1 INTRODUCTION 2 DE ELEGIA PRIMA

The beginning of the Lamentations of the Prophet Jeremiah

Incipit lamentatio Jeremiae Prophetae 1:1 ALEPH Quomodo sedet sola civitas plena populo! facta est quasi vidua domina gentium: princeps provinciarum facta est sub tributo.

How doth the city sit solitary, that was full of people!

How is she become as a widow! she that was great among the nations, and princess among the provinces, how is she become tributary!

She weepeth sore in the night, and her tears are on her cheeks.

1:2a BETH Plorans ploravit in nocte, et lacrimae ejus in maxillis ejus 1:5a HE Facti sunt hostes ejus in capite, inimici ejus locupletati sunt quia Dominus locutus est super eam propter multitudinem iniquitatum ejus.

1:11b CAPH Vide, Domine, et considera, quoniam facta sum vilis.

1:20 RES(H) Vide, Domine, quoniam tribulor, venter meus conturbatus est, subversum est cor meum in memet ipsa quoniam amaritudine plena sum. Foris interfecit gladius, et domi mors similis est.

Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions.

See, O Lord, and consider; for I am become vile.

Behold, O Lord, for I am in distress: my bowels are troubled; mine heart is turned within me; for I have grievously rebelled: abroad the sword bereaveth, at home there is as death.

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DE ELEGIA TERTIA:

COMPLAINT

i. QUERIMONIA

3:1-3 ALEPH Ego vir videns paupertatem meam in virga indignationis ejus.

Me menavit; et adduxit in tenebras, et non in lucem.

I am the man that hath seen affliction by the rod of his wrath.

He hath led me, and brought me into darkness, but not into light.

Surely against me is he turned; he turneth his hand against me all the day.

Tantum in me vertit, et convertit manum suam tota die.

3:4-6 BETH Vetustam fecit pellem meam et carnem meum, contrivit ossa mea.

Aedificavit in gyro meo et circumdedit me felle et labore.

My flesh and my skin hath he made old; he hath broken my bones.

He hath builded against me, and compassed me with gall and travail.

He hath set me in dark places, as they that be dead of old.

In tenebrosis collocavit me, quasi mortuos sempiternos.

3:16-18 VAU Et fregit ad numerum dentes meos, cibavit me cinere.

He hath also broken my teeth with gravel stones, he hath covered me with ashes.

And thou hast removed my soul far off from peace; I forgot prosperity.

And I said, My strength and my hope is perished from the Lord.

Et repulsa est a pace anima mea, oblitus sum bonorum.

Et dixi: Periit finis meus, et spes mea a Domino.

3:19-21 ZAIN Recordare paupertatis, et transgressionis meae, absinthii et fellis.

Memoria memor ero, et tabescet in me anima mea.

Haec recolens in corde meo, ideo sperabo.

Remembering mine affliction and my misery, the wormwood and the gall.

My soul hath them still in remembrance, and is humbled in me.

This I recall to my mind, therefore have I hope.

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ii. SENSUS SPEI

PERCEIVING HOPE

3:22-24 HETH Misericordiae Domini, quia non sumus consumpti; quia non defecerunt miserationes ejus.

Novi diluculo, multa est fides tua.

Pars mea Dominus, dixit anima mea; propterea expectabo eum.

3:25-27 TETH Bonus est Dominus sperantibus in eum, animae quaerenti illum.

Bonum est praestolari cum silentio salutare Dei.

It is of the Lord’s mercies that we are not consumed, because his compassions fail not.

They are new every morning: great is thy faithfulness.

The Lord is my portion, saith my soul; therefore will I hope in him.

The Lord is good unto them that wait for him, to the soul that seeketh him.

It is good that a man should both hope and quietly wait for the salvation of the Lord.

It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth.

Bonum est viro, cum portaverit jugum ab adulescentia sua.

3:34-36 LAMED Ut contereret sub pedibus suis omnes vinctos terrae; ut declinaret iudicium viri in conspectu vultus Altissimi;

To crush under his feet all the prisoners of the earth, To turn aside the right of a man before the face of the most High, To subvert a man in his cause, the Lord approveth not.

ut perverteret hominem in judicio suo, Dominus ignoravit.

3:40-42 NUN Scrutemur vias nostras, et quaeramus, et revertamur ad Dominum.

Levemus corda nostra cum manibus ad Dominum in coelos.

Nos inique egimus, et ad iracundiam provocavimus; idcirco tu inexorabilis es.

Let us search and try our ways, and turn again to the Lord.

Let us lift up our heart with our hands unto God in the heavens.

We have transgressed and have rebelled: thou hast not pardoned.

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3:43-45 SAMECH Operuisti in furore, et percussisti nos, occidisti, nec pepercisti.

Opposuisti nubem tibi, ne transeat oratio

Thou hast covered with anger, and persecuted us; thou hast slain, thou hast not pitied.

Thou hast covered thyself with a cloud, that our prayer should not pass through.

Thou hast made us as the off scouring and refuse in the midst of the people.

Eradicationem et abjectionem posuisti me in medio populorum.

3:49-51 AIN Oculus meus afflictus est, nec tacuit, eo quod non esset requies.

Donec respiceret et videret Dominus de coelis Oculus meus depraedatus est animam meam in cunctis filiabus urbis meae.

3:52-54 TSADE Venatione ceperunt me quasi avem inimici mei gratis.

Mine eye trickleth down, and ceaseth not, without any intermission.

Till the Lord look down, and behold from heaven.

Mine eye affecteth mine heart because of all the daughters of my city.

Mine enemies chased me sore, like a bird, without cause.

They have cut off my life in the dungeon, and cast a stone upon me.

Waters flowed over mine head; then I said, I am cut off.

Lapsa est in lacum vita mea, et posuerunt lapidem super me.

Inundaverunt aquae super caput meum; dixi: perii.

3:55-57 COPH Invocavi nomen tuum, Domine, de lacis novissimo.

Vocem meam audisti; ne avertas aurem tuam a singultu meo et clamoribus.

Appropinquasti in die quando invocavi te; dixisti: Ne timeas.

I called upon thy name, O Lord, out of the low dungeon.

Thou hast heard my voice: hide not thine ear at my breathing, at my cry.

Thou drewest near in the day that I called upon thee: thou saidst, Fear not.

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iii. SOLACIUM

COMPENSATION

3:58-60 RES(H) Judicasti, Domine, causam animae meae, redemptor vitae meae.

Vidisti, Domine, illorum adversum me iudicium meum.

Vidisti omnem furorem universas cogitationes eorum adversum me.

3:61-63 SIN Audisti obprobria eorum Domine omnes cogitationes eorum adversum me.

Labia insurgentium mihi et meditationes eorum adversum me tota die.

Sessionem eorum, et resurrectionem eorum vide ego sum psalmus eorum.

3:64-66 THAU Reddes eis vicem, Domine, juxta opera manuum suarum.

O Lord, thou hast pleaded the causes of my soul; thou hast redeemed my life.

O Lord, thou hast seen my wrong: judge thou my cause.

Thou hast seen all their vengeance and all their imaginations against me.

Thou hast heard their reproach, O Lord, and all their imaginations against me.

The lips of those that rose up against me, and their device against me all the day.

Behold their sitting down, and their rising up; I am their music.

Render unto them a recompense, O Lord, according to the work of their hands.

Give them sorrow of heart, thy curse unto them.

Persecute and destroy them in anger from under the heavens of the Lord.

Dabis eis scutum cordis, laborem tuum.

Persequeris in furore, et conteres eos sub coelis, Domine.

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DE ELEGIA QUINTA ORATIO JEREMIAE PROPHETAE

THE PRAYER OF THE PROPHET JEREMIAH.

5:1: Recordare, Domine, quid acciderit nobis; intuere et respice obprobrium nostrum.

5:19: Tu autem, Domine, in aeternum permanebis, solium tuum in generationem et generationem.

5:21: Converte nos, Domine, ad te, et convertemur; innova dies nostros, sicut a principio.

Remember, O Lord, what is come upon us; consider, and behold our reproach.

Thou, O Lord, remainst for ever; thy throne from generation to generation.

Turn thou us unto thee, O Lord, and we shall be turned; renew our days as of old.

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7 IGOR STRAVINSKY VARIATIONS (ALDOUS HUXLEY IN MEMORIAM) 06:17 On 22 November 1963 the English novelist Aldous Huxley succumbed to cancer at his home in Los Angeles, California. For Stravinsky, it marked the sombre end to a long and fulfilling friendship, but for the rest of the world it was overshadowed by events that took place earlier that same day in Dallas, Texas – the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. Both deaths would be marked by Stravinsky in works completed the following year: the Elegy for J.F.K. for singer and three clarinets, and the Variations (Aldous Huxley in Memoriam) for orchestra which, as it turned out, would be Stravinsky’s last completed orchestral work.

The principle of theme and variations might have appealed to Huxley, but Stravinsky is probably correct that the acerbic nature of this twelve-tone work would not have pleased him. There is no ‘theme’ in the traditional sense, rather Stravinsky offers up a twelvenote tone row, first heard in the work’s opening bars, as the material for a series of ‘variations’. In place of traditional melodic variants, such as diminution or expansion, the note row is subject to various forms of transformation – including retrograde and inversion – a process emphasised through variations in texture and rhythm across the score’s twelve sections (theme plus eleven variations). Stravinsky extends the idea of twelves further still, with distinct, twelve-part textures forming the mainstay of the orchestration, and the oscillating metrical pattern – 4/8, 3/8, 5/8 – together adding up to a total of twelve beats. For Stravinsky, these symmetries are what make the work so pleasing: ‘At the first performances the variation for twelve violins – i.e. in one timbre – pleased me most. It sounded like a sprinkling of very fine broken glass.’ Sadly Pierre Boulez’s appraisal was rather less charitable: ‘Stravinsky’s Variations contain nothing new, or nothing that Webern had not done already.’

When news of Huxley’s death reached Stravinsky (he read it in the newspaper while on holiday in Naples), the Variations were already underway. But what had been intended as a fond gift to his friend became instead an elegy composed in his memory, the score completed in autumn the following year. In a letter to Nadia Boulanger, however, he admitted that the Variations would not necessarily have been to Huxley’s taste: ‘I am certain, though it does not discourage me, that this music would mean nothing to him or that it would displease him, because he liked romantic and classical music very foreign to my composition.’

Programme note © Jo Kirkbride 17

IGOR STRAVINSKY REQUIEM CANTICLES 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16

Like most of the music of Stravinsky’s last years, Requiem Canticles is written in a highly personal version of Schoenberg’s twelve-note serial technique. However, its ritualistic structures, pungent harmonies and clear, sharp colours are entirely characteristic of Stravinsky throughout his career.

01:09 Prelude 01:41 Exaudi 00:57 Dies irae 01:09 Tuba mirum 02:22 Interlude 01:20 Rex tremendae 01:59 Lacrimosa 01:11 Libera me 01:50 Postlude

The outline of the work is symmetrical. A rhythmically insistent Prelude for the strings precedes ‘Exaudi’, a choral prayer on a sentence from the Introit of the Requiem, sparsely accompanied. Then come two movements on texts from the ‘Dies irae’: the opening pair of stanzas, with the first line sung and the remainder chanted in sotto voce rhythmic speech, over a vehement accompaniment; and the following stanza, declaimed by the solo bass with a twofold ‘last trumpet’. The central Interlude is a series of exchanges among flutes, bassoons, horns and timpani. There are two more extracts from the ‘Dies irae’: ‘Rex tremendae’, set in sustained choral textures accompanied by wide-spanning trombone and trumpet and chordal interjections; and the closing ‘Lacrimosa’ (with ‘Pie Jesu’), a lament for solo mezzo-soprano accompanied in the highest and lowest registers of the orchestra.

The ‘Libera me’ is set in its entirety, simultaneously for a chanting quartet of soloists, with horns, and for the rest of the choir speaking quietly at a different speed. The Postlude is made up of bell-like chords, which hark back over Stravinsky’s career to the chiming ending of the 1923 choral ballet Les Noces.

Requiem Canticles was Stravinsky’s last completed original score apart from the little song The Owl and the Pussy-Cat. It was written between July 1965 and August 1966, in response to a commission to commemorate an American patron he had never met, Helen Buchanan Seeger. After originally planning a purely orchestral symphonic requiem, Stravinsky decided to combine voices and orchestra in a setting of sections of the Latin Requiem mass, interspersed with instrumental movements. The resulting work was first performed at Princeton, New Jersey in October 1966 under the direction of the composer’s musical assistant Robert Craft.

Programme note © Anthony Burton 18

IGOR STRAVINSKY REQUIEM CANTICLES 8

PRELUDE

9

EXAUDI Hear my prayer: all flesh shall come to thee.

Exaudi orationem meam, Ad te omnis caro veniet.

10 DIES IRAE

Dies irae, dies illa, Solvet saeclum in favilla: Teste David cum Sibylla.

Quantus tremor est futurus, Quando Judex est venturus, Cuncta stricte discussurus!

Upon that day, that day of wrath, the world shall be reduced to ashes: as David and the Sybil prophesied.

What trembling there shall be when the judge appears to sift all thoroughly!

11 TUBA MIRUM

Tuba mirum spargens sonum Per sepulchra regionum Coget omnes ante thronum

The trumpet, sounding wondrous blasts through the tombs of every land, will gather all before the throne.

12 INTERLUDE 13 REX TREMENDAE Rex tremendae majestatis, Qui salvandos salvas gratis, Salva me, fons pietatis.

King of dreadful majesty, who freely savest the redeemed, save me, thou fount of mercy.

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IGOR STRAVINSKY REQUIEM CANTICLES CONT. 14 LACRIMOSA That day is one of weeping on which from the ashes shall arise the guilty man to be judged: so spare me, O God. Gentle Lord Jesus, grant them rest. Amen.

Lacrimosa dies illa, Qua resurget ex favilla, Judicandus homo reus: Huic ergo parce Deus: Pie Jesu Domine, Dona eis requiem. Amen.

15 LIBERA ME Libera me, Domine, de morte aeterna, in die illa tremenda; Quanto coeli movendi sunt et terra: Dum veneris judicare saeculum per ignem.

Tremens factus sum ego, et timeo, Dum discussio venerit, atque ventura ira.

Quanto coeli movendi sunt et terra.

Dies illa, dies irae, calamitatis et miseriae, Dies magna et amara valde.

Libera me.

Deliver me, O Lord, from eternal death on that fearful day when the heavens and the earth are shaken while thou dost judge the world by fire.

I tremble, and am full of fear, for destruction shall come and wrath appear, when the heavens and the earth are shaken.

That day, that day of wrath, calamity and sorrow, That great and very bitter day, deliver me.

16 POSTLUDE

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VLADIMIR JUROWSKI CONDUCTOR

© Drew Kelley

the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, and in 2021 stepped down from his decade as Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra to become its Honorary Conductor. He has previously held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper, Berlin (1997–2001); Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03); Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005–09); and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001–13).

Vladimir enjoys close relationships with the world’s most distinguished artistic institutions including the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, the New York Philharmonic and the Chicago and Boston symphony orchestras. A committed operatic conductor, highlights have include semi-staged performances of Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Die Walküre and Siegfried with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall; Strauss’s Die Frau ohne Schatten in Berlin and Bucharest with the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra; Wozzeck, Der Rosenkavalier and Prokofiev’s The Fiery Angel at the Bavarian State Opera; and Henze’s The Bassarids and Schoenberg’s Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper Berlin.

Vladimir Jurowski became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Conductor Emeritus in September 2021, following 14 years as Principal Conductor, during which his creative energy and artistic rigour were central to the Orchestra’s success. At the BBC Proms concert with the LPO in August 2021 – his final official concert as Principal Conductor – he received the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal, one of the highest international honours in music.

In September 2021 Vladimir became Music Director at the Bavarian State Opera in Munich. Since 2017 he has been Chief Conductor and Artistic Director of the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra. He is also Principal Artist of 21

SAM FURNESS TENOR

PULCINELLA | REQUIEM CANTICLES

PULCINELLA | THRENI

Welsh mezzo-soprano Angharad Lyddon studied at the Royal Academy of Music. She made her professional debut for English National Opera in 2015 as Kate in The Pirates of Penzance, and performed the role again in their 2017 revival. Recent performances include her company debut as Branwen in Welsh National Opera’s Blaze of Glory, Irene in Tamerlano, Hippolyta in A Midsummer Night’s Dream and Musico in Manon Lescaut for The Grange Festival; Waltraute for Grimeborn Festival’s Götterdämmerung; and Cherubino in Le nozze di Figaro and Olga in Eugene Onegin for West Green House Opera.

Concert highlights range from Handel’s Messiah at the Royal Albert Hall to a Wigmore Hall recital with pianist Llŷr Williams and Bach Cantatas with Sir John Eliot Gardiner.

Described as having ‘all the makings of a star’ by The Guardian and hailed as ‘a lyric tenor clearly going places’

by Opera magazine, Sam Furness has sung major roles for Scottish Opera, Opernhaus Zürich, Garsington Opera, Teatro Real, Madrid, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma and Theater an der Wien, always earning praise for his compelling acting and innate musicality. Recent operatic highlights include Andres in Wozzeck at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Lensky in Eugene Onegin at La Monnaie, Brussels; Kudryas in Káťa Kabanová at the Grand Théâtre de Genève and the National Theatre Brno; and Tybalt in Roméo et Juliette at the Savonlinna Festival.

© Maximilian van London

© Connor Wood

ANGHARAD LYDDON MEZZO-SOPRANO

This 2018 performance of Stravinsky’s Threni was Sam’s debut with the LPO. Other concert engagements have included Dvořák’s Requiem with St Albans Bach Choir, and Mozart’s Mass in C minor and Vesperae solennes de confessore with Hertfordshire Chorus in St Albans Cathedral. His oratorio and concert repertoire includes Mozart’s Requiem, Bach’s St Matthew Passion, Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Handel’s Messiah, Britten’s St Nicholas and Les Illuminations, Verdi’s Requiem and Dyson’s The Canterbury Pilgrims.

Angharad represented Wales in the 2019 BBC Cardiff Singer of the World competition and was a finalist in the Song Prize competition. In February 2018 she was the soloist in Stravinsky’s The Faun and the Shepherdess with the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall, the recording of which appeared on the first volume of the ‘Jurowski conducts Stravinsky’ series (LPO-0123).

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ELIZABETH ATHERTON SOPRANO

PULCINELLA

THRENI

Matthew Rose studied at the Curtis Institute of Music before becoming a member of the Young Artist Programme at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. In 2006 he made an acclaimed debut at Glyndebourne Festival Opera as Bottom in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream, for which he received the John Christie Award, and he has since performed at opera houses worldwide. Recent highlights include Ochs in Der Rosenkavalier for La Monnaie, Brussels; Philip II in Don Carlos at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; and King Marke in Tristan und Isolde for Grange Park Opera.

Winner of several awards and prizes, Elizabeth Atherton’s career has taken her all over the world to perform with leading opera companies, orchestras and conductors including the Royal Opera House, Welsh National Opera and Opera North; the Orchestre de Paris, Philharmonia and Hong Kong Philharmonic orchestras; Pierre Boulez, Mark Elder, Richard Farnes, Charles Mackerras, Neville Mariner and Mark Wigglesworth. She has also developed a name for herself as being at the forefront of contemporary music, having sung the world premieres of numerous pieces including works by Harrison Birtwistle, Mark Bowden, Simon Holt and Julian Philips.

© Kiran Ridley

© Lena Kern

MATTHEW ROSE BASS

Matthew is a critically acclaimed recording artist, winning a Grammy Award for Ratcliffe in Britten’s Billy Budd. Other recordings include Schubert’s Winterreise with pianist Gary Matthewman and Schwanengesang with Malcolm Martineau (Stone Records).

Elizabeth has appeared regularly as a recitalist with pianists such as Iain Burnside and Malcolm Martineau at Wigmore Hall, Purcell Room, and Aldeburgh and Leeds Lieder festivals. She has sung on several recordings, including Handel’s Saul with The Sixteen and Harry Christophers, Debussy’s Le Martyre de Saint Sébastien with BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Thierry Fischer, and Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 14 with the BBC Philharmonic and John Storgårds.

Previous LPO appearances include Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass, Mahler’s Symphony No. 8, Wagner’s Das Rheingold and Stravinsky’s The Rake’s Progress.

Other highlights of Matthew’s concert repertoire include Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, Mozart’s Coronation Mass and Bach’s St Matthew Passion.

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JOEL WILLIAMS TENOR

THRENI

THRENI

Russian mezzo-soprano Maria Ostroukhova began her international career after winning the Michael Oliver Prize at the London Handel Competition in 2015. Her recent engagements include Falliero (Bianca e Falliero) at Oper Frankfurt and Tiroler Festspiele Erl; Isabella (L’italiana in Algeri) at the Opera de Tenerife, Teatro Comunale di Bologna and Centre Lyrique ClermontAuvergne; Dardano (Amadigi) at the London Handel Festival; Ottavia (L’incoronazione di Poppea) at the Longborough Festival; and Alcina (Orlando Furioso) and Aristea (L’Olimpiade) conducted by Federico Maria Sardelli. Concert appearances include Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été at the Festival de Múver (Spain), and Handel’s Dixit Dominus and La resurrezione with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra ‘Musica Viva’.

Described by Opera magazine as a singer ‘with flair, his tenor simultaneously caressing and resilient’, Joel Williams is a graduate of King’s College Cambridge and the Royal College of Music International Opera Studio, where he was the Kiri Te Kanawa Scholar. During this time he was a Britten-Pears Young Artist, an Alvarez Young Artist at Garsington Opera, and a member of the Verbier Festival Academy.

© Thomas Erlank

© Natalia Toskina

MARIA OSTROUKHOVA MEZZO-SOPRANO

Following his graduation, Joel joined the Centre de Perfeccionament Palau de les Arts in Valencia and subsequently the Opera Studio of the Bavarian State Opera. He has since returned to both houses as a guest, and performed at the Opernhaus Zürich, Grand Théâtre du Luxembourg and Innsbruck Festival of Early Music, in repertoire ranging from Monteverdi and Cavalli to Mozart, Verdi, Wagner, Poulenc and Brett Dean.

Directors and conductors with whom he has worked include Barrie Kosky, Calixto Bieito, Robert Carsen, Ted Huffman, Valery Gergiev, John Eliot Gardiner, Paul McCreesh, Stephen Cleobury, Leonardo García Alarcón, James Gaffigan, Daniele Rustioni, Mikko Franck and Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla.

Maria studied piano with Anna Arzumanova at Moscow’s Gnessin College of Music, where she graduated magna cum laude, later undertaking graduate studies in piano and harpsichord at the Tchaikovsky Moscow State Conservatoire. She also graduated from London’s Royal College of Music with a Master of Vocal Performance and a Graduate Diploma in Vocal Performance, both with distinction.

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THEODORE PLATT BARITONE

JOSHUA BLOOM BASS

British-Russian baritone Theodore Platt is considered one of the most promising young voices of the opera world today. He was a member of the Bayerische Staatsoper’s Opera Studio, and in 2022 was named recipient of the prestigious BorlettiBuitoni Trust Fellowship.

THRENI

© Jacobus Snyman

© Ben McKee

THRENI

In 2023 Theodore made his debut at the Glyndebourne Festival, in Barrie Kosky’s highly anticipated new production of Dialogues des Carmélites. Other highlights from recent operatic seasons include Die Frau ohne Schatten with Kirill Petrenko and the Berlin Philharmonic in Baden-Baden and Berlin, and role debuts as Fiorello in Il barbiere di Siviglia, Lakai in Ariadne auf Naxos and Conte Ceprano in Rigoletto.

Australian-American bass Joshua Bloom is frequently praised for his ‘resplendent bass’ and ‘huge vocal capacity’ alongside an ‘outstanding dramatic precision and power’ (The New York Times; The Independent), across a remarkable variety of repertoire from Mozart, to Wagner and Strauss, to world premiere works by Gerald Barry and Richard Ayres. He has sung principal roles with English National Opera, the Royal Opera House, Garsington Opera, Oper Köln, Vienna State Opera, San Francisco Opera, LA Opera, Opera Australia, New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Washington National Opera, Santa Fe Opera and New Israeli Opera, among others.

He has also appeared in concert with all the major London orchestras, the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic and City of Birmingham Symphony orchestras, Britten Sinfonia, Birmingham Contemporary Music Group and Auckland Philharmonia, as well as the Melbourne, Queensland, Adelaide and Western Australian symphony orchestras.

In 2021 he sang the role of He-Ancient in Tippett’s The Midsummer Marriage with the LPO, later released on the LPO Label.

Also a sought-after concert singer, Theodore made his Wigmore Hall debut in 2019 as part of Graham Johnson’s ‘Songmakers’ recital series, returning in 2022 in recital with Malcolm Martineau.

Theodore Platt is an alumnus of the Verbier Festival Academy and the Royal College of Music Opera Studio.

Born in London, he studied Music at St John’s College, Cambridge.

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MAXIM MIKHAILOV BASS

LONDON PHILHARMONIC CHOIR

THRENI | REQUIEM CANTICLES

© Ciringelli

REQUIEM CANTICLES

Maxim Mikhailov was born in Moscow. In 1987 he joined the Bolshoi Opera as a principal soloist, and his international career began in 1993 when he won the International Belvedere Competition in Vienna.

Over the years he appeared at the world’s leading opera houses, as well as at festivals including Glyndebourne, the BBC Proms and the Salzburg Easter Festival.

The London Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1947 as the chorus for the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

It is widely regarded as one of Britain’s finest choirs and consistently meets with critical acclaim. Performing regularly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Philharmonic Choir also works with many other orchestras throughout the United Kingdom and makes annual appearances at the BBC Proms.

The Choir has performed under some of the world’s most eminent conductors – among them Marin Alsop, Pierre Boulez, Semyon Bychkov, Mark Elder, John Eliot Gardiner, Edward Gardner, Bernard Haitink, Neeme Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Kurt Masur, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Roger Norrington, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, Simon Rattle, Georg Solti, Nathalie Stutzmann and Klaus Tennstedt.

Maxim was also an acclaimed director, working at the Novosibirsk Opera House and the Chuvash State Opera in Russia, the Vienna Chamber Opera, and the Northern Lights Musical Festival in Minnesota.

This performance of Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles took place just days before Maxim’s untimely death in November 2018. The LPO was privileged to enjoy many wonderful collaborations with Maxim, both at Glyndebourne (The Miserly Knight, Gianni Schicchi, The Duenna and Eugene Onegin) and in concert (Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta, extracts from Das Rheingold, and Enescu’s Oedipe).

The London Philharmonic Choir has made numerous recordings for CD, radio and television. The Choir often travels overseas and in recent years it has given concerts in many European countries, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Australia.

The Choir prides itself on its inclusive culture, achieving first-class performances from its members, who are volunteers from all walks of life. lpc.org.uk 26

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 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. This reputation has been secured by the Orchestra’s performances in the concert hall and opera house, its many award-winning recordings, trailblazing international tours and wide-ranging educational work.

The Orchestra is based at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has been Resident Orchestra since 1992. Each summer it takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for 60 years. The Orchestra performs at venues around the UK and has made numerous international tours, performing to sell-out audiences in America, Europe, Asia and Australasia.

Founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, the Orchestra 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. In September 2021 Edward Gardner became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, succeeding Vladimir Jurowski, who became Conductor Emeritus in recognition of his transformative impact on the Orchestra as Principal Conductor from 2007–21.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance. It has recorded and broadcast regularly ever since, and in 2005 established its own record label. These recordings are taken mainly from live concerts given by conductors including those with LPO Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti, Tennstedt and Masur, to Jurowski and Gardner. lpo.org.uk

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© Benjamin Ealovega/Drew Kelley

IGOR STRAVINSKY (1882–1971) CD1 76:47 01–20 38:42 21–24 27:16 25–27 10:27

Pulcinella: Ballet in one act after Pergolesi Symphony in C Ode: Elegiacal chant in three parts

CD2 01–06 07 08–16

Threni: id est Lamentationes Jeremiae Prophetae Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam Requiem Canticles

47:12 27:06 06:17 13:34

Recorded at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall: Pulcinella 5 December 2020, Symphony in C 18 April 2018, Ode 21 April 2018, Threni & Variations: Aldous Huxley in Memoriam 8 December 2018, Requiem Canticles 10 November 2018.

Producer Andrew Walton, K&A Productions Engineer Deborah Spanton, K&A Productions Executive Producers Elena Dubinets, David Burke, Graham Wood Publishers CD1 Tracks 1–20 & CD2 Tracks 1–16 © Boosey & Hawkes Ltd. CD1 Tracks 21–24 © Schott Music Ltd CD1 Tracks 25–27 © Schott Music GmbH worldwide except UK, Ireland, Australia, Canada, South Africa and all so-called reversionary territories which are © Schott Music GmbH & Chester Music Limited jointly. ℗ 2024 London Philharmonic Orchestra Ltd. Cover image © iStock/Studio Images LPO–0127

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