GET
closer
2018/19 Concert Season
AT Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall
concert programme
Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI Principal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADA Leader PIETER SCHOEMAN supported by Neil Westreich Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM
Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Wednesday 10 April 2019 | 7.30pm
Debussy ‘Ibéria’ from Images pour orchestre (20’) Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 in F, Op. 103 (‘Egyptian’) (29’) Interval (20’) Ravel Suite: Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) (16’) Debussy La mer (23’)
Edward Gardner conductor Stephen Hough piano
Free pre-concert event performance: LPO Soundworks 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall LPO Soundworks is a platform for teenage composers to collaborate with young people from other artforms and learn from industry specialists. This year’s Soundworks performance is the culmination of a week of exciting creative collaboration, and promises to challenge and entertain!
The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA
Contents 2 Welcome Orchestra news 3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Edward Gardner 7 Stephen Hough 8 Programme notes 10 Next concerts 11 Recommended recordings 12 LPO 2019/20 season: Now on sale 13 Sound Futures donors 14 Supporters 16 LPO administration
Welcome
Orchestra news
LPO 2019/20 season
Welcome to Southbank Centre
Booking is now open for our new 2019/20 season, which begins in September. Pick up a season brochure as you leave this evening’s concert, visit lpo.org.uk/newseason to browse and book online, or call 020 7840 4200 to request a season brochure by post.
We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries, please ask a member of staff for assistance. Eating, drinking and shopping? Enjoy fresh seasonal food for breakfast and lunch, coffee, teas and evening drinks with riverside views at Concrete Cafe, Queen Elizabeth Hall, and Riverside Terrace Cafe, Level 2, Royal Festival Hall. Visit our shops for products inspired by our artistic and cultural programme, iconic buildings and central London location. Explore across the site with Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, wagamama, YO! Sushi, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Spiritland, Honest Burger, Côte Brasserie, Skylon and Topolski. If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit, please contact the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone us on 020 3879 9555, or email customer@southbankcentre.co.uk 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 AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins.
Out now The Spring 2019 edition of Tune In, our free LPO magazine. Copies are available at the Welcome Desk in the Royal Festival Hall foyer, or phone the LPO office on 020 7840 4200 to receive one in the post. Also available digitally: issuu.com/londonphilharmonic
2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
New LPO Residency at Saffron Hall In September 2019 the London Philharmonic Orchestra takes up a brand-new residency at Saffron Hall in Essex. As well as providing top-quality symphonic music to concertgoers in the region, the Orchestra will be heavily involved in Saffron Hall’s groundbreaking education programme. The Orchestra will give four performances each year at Saffron Hall, including a FUNharmonics family concert. In the first season we will involve Saffron Walden County High School students in our LPO Soundworks project – a creative platform for teenage musicians to collaborate with young people from other artforms. LPO musicians will give masterclasses to students at the County High School and coach young people at the Saffron Centre for Young Musicians. The LPO will also work and perform with local community music groups. saffronhall.com
LPO Junior Artists – applications now open for 2019/20 LPO Junior Artists is a free orchestral experience programme for talented young musicians from communities and backgrounds currently under-represented in professional UK orchestras. The programme offers support, advice and professional insight to exceptional players of orchestral instruments, aged 15–19, and at a minimum Grade 8 playing standard. You become part of the London Philharmonic Orchestra family for a year, getting to know our musicians, staff and artists. The deadline for applications is Friday 3 May 2019: visit lpo.org.uk/juniorartists to find out more.
On stage tonight
First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich
Kevin Lin Co-Leader Chair supported by The Candide Trust
Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler
Sarah Streatfeild Robert Pool Yang Zhang Chair supported by Eric Tomsett
Geoffrey Lynn Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp
Catherine Craig Martin Hรถhmann Thomas Eisner Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Evin Blomberg Amanda Smith Morane Cohen-Lamberger Second Violins Tania Mazzetti Principal Chair supported by Countess Dominique Loredan
Lasma Taimina Helena Smart Kate Cole Nynke Hijlkema Fiona Higham Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley
Joseph Maher Nancy Elan Ashley Stevens Kate Birchall Helena Herford Robin Wilson Harry Kerr Alison Strange
Violas David Quiggle Principal Richard Waters Co-Principal Susanne Martens Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins
Stanislav Popov Alistair Scahill Daniel Cornford Isabel Pereira Martin Fenn Martin Wray Daisy Spiers Charles Cross Karin Norlen Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Chair supported by Bianca & Stuart Roden
Pei-Jee Ng Co-Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Elisabeth Wiklander David Lale Gregory Walmsley Sue Sutherley Susanna Riddell Helen Rathbone Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal Sebastian Pennar Co-Principal Hugh Kluger George Peniston Tom Walley Charlotte Kerbegian Lowri Morgan Laura Murphy Flutes Sue Thomas* Principal Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE
Hannah Grayson Stewart McIlwham* Ian Mullin
Piccolos Stewart McIlwham* Principal Ian Mullin
Cornets Paul Beniston* Toby Street Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal
Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Alice Munday
Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton
David Whitehouse
Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra
Bass Trombone Lyndon Meredith Principal
Cor Anglais Sue Bรถhling* Principal Chair supported by Dr Barry Grimaldi
Clarinets Robert Plane Guest Principal Thomas Watmough
Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal
Chair supported by Roger Greenwood
Paul Richards*
Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal
Bassoons Jonathan Davies Principal Gareth Newman Emma Harding
Henry Baldwin Co-Principal Keith Millar Jeremy Cornes James Bower
Contrabassoon Simon Estell* Principal
Harps Rachel Masters Principal Lucy Haslar
Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Sir Simon Robey
Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Oliver Johnson Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Huw Morgan Guest Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann
David Hilton
Chair supported by Andrew Davenport
* Holds a professorial appointment in London Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players
The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporter whose player is not present at this concert: Laurence Watt
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3
London Philharmonic Orchestra
The London Philharmonic’s closing concert took excellence and courageous programme planning to levels of expectation and emotional intensity more than once defying belief. Here was an orchestra in terrific form, rising to every challenge. Classicalsource.com (LPO at Royal Festival Hall, 2 May 2018: Panufnik, Penderecki & Prokofiev)
One of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra balances a long and distinguished history with its reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-looking ensembles. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and local communities. The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. It has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is the Orchestra’s current Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, and in 2017 we celebrated the tenth anniversary of this extraordinary partnership. Andrés Orozco-Estrada took up the position of Principal Guest Conductor in 2015. The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives around 40 concerts each season. Throughout 2018 our series
4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Changing Faces: Stravinsky’s Journey charted the life and music of one of the 20th century’s most influential composers, and in 2019 we celebrate the music of Britain in our festival Isle of Noises, exploring a range of British and British-inspired music from Purcell to the present day. Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2018/19 season include a major tour of Asia including South Korea, Taiwan and China, as well as performances in Belgium, France, Germany, The Netherlands, Spain, Greece, Switzerland and the USA.
Pieter Schoeman leader
In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics. In 2013 it was the winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians. In 2017/18 we celebrated the 30th anniversary of our Education and Community department, whose work over three decades has introduced so many people of all ages to orchestral music and created opportunities for people of all backgrounds to fulfil their creative potential. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the LPO Young Composers programme; the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme; and the LPO Junior Artists scheme for talented young musicians from communities and backgrounds currently underrepresented in professional UK orchestras. The Orchestra’s work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled it to reach even more people worldwide: as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on social media. lpo.org.uk facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra twitter.com/LPOrchestra youtube.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra instagram.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra
Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002. © Benjamin Ealovega
The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 100 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1 conducted by Vladimir Jurowski, Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5 under the late Kurt Masur, and a film music disc under Dirk Brossé.
Born in South Africa, Pieter made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. Five years later he won the World Youth Concerto Competition in Michigan. Aged 17, he moved to the US to further his studies in Los Angeles and Dallas. In 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman who, after several consultations, recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. As a chamber musician he regularly appears at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall. At the invitation of Yannick Nézet-Séguin he has been part of the ‘Yannick and Friends’ chamber group, performing at festivals in Dortmund and Rheingau. Pieter has performed several times as a soloist with the LPO, and his live recording of Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov was released on the Orchestra’s own label to great critical acclaim. He has also recorded numerous violin solos for film and television, and led the LPO in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy. In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras. In April 2016 he was Guest Leader with the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra for Kurt Masur’s memorial concert. He is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Pieter’s chair in the London Philharmonic Orchestra is supported by Neil Westreich.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5
Edward Gardner conductor
© Benjamin Ealovega
Edward Gardner’s powerful, impassioned conducting illuminated the life-and-death struggles of the score ... At particularly dramatic moments, Gardner practically levitated off the podium, sometimes gripping his baton with both hands and flailing it as if wielding a weapon. Seattle Times
Chief Conductor of the Bergen Philharmonic since October 2015, Edward Gardner has led the orchestra on multiple international tours, including performances in Berlin, Munich and Amsterdam, and at the BBC Proms and the Edinburgh International Festival. Edward is also in demand as a guest conductor: the 2017/18 season saw debuts with the New York Philharmonic, San Francisco Symphony, Finnish Radio Symphony and Netherlands Philharmonic orchestras; and return visits to the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Danish National Symphony Orchestra and Philharmonia Orchestra. Last month Edward conducted the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall in a programme including Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, and he takes that and tonight’s programme on tour with the Orchestra to New York and Stamford, Connecticut next week. Other highlights this season include re-invitations to conduct the Chicago Symphony, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala di Milano. Debuts include dates with the WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln, Vienna Symphony, Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin and Orchestre Nazionale Sinfonica della RAI, and a new production of Káťa Kabanová at the Royal Opera House. He also continues his longstanding collaborations with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, where he was Principal Guest Conductor from 2010–16, and the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whom he has conducted at both the First and Last Nights of the BBC Proms.
6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Music Director of English National Opera for ten years (2006–15), Edward also enjoys an ongoing relationship with New York’s Metropolitan Opera, where he has conducted productions of Carmen, Don Giovanni, Der Rosenkavalier and Werther. Elsewhere, he has conducted at La Scala, Chicago Lyric Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera and Opéra National de Paris. Opera-in-concert continues to be a part of his work with the Bergen Philharmonic, including an acclaimed Peter Grimes at the Bergen and Edinburgh International festivals. A passionate supporter of young talent, Edward founded the Hallé Youth Orchestra in 2002 and regularly conducts the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. He has a close relationship with The Juilliard School of Music and with the Royal Academy of Music, which appointed him its inaugural Sir Charles Mackerras Conducting Chair in 2014. An exclusive Chandos recording artist, Edward Gardner’s award-winning discography includes music by Grieg, Bartók, Sibelius, Janáček, Elgar, Mendelssohn, Walton, Lutosławski, Britten, Berio and Schoenberg. Born in Gloucester in 1974, Edward Gardner was educated at the University of Cambridge and the Royal Academy of Music. He went on to become Assistant Conductor of the Hallé and Music Director of Glyndebourne Touring Opera. His many accolades include being named Royal Philharmonic Society Award Conductor of the Year (2008), an Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera (2009) and an OBE for Services to Music in the Queen’s Birthday Honours (2012).
Stephen Hough piano
Stephen Hough’s steady ascent to the summit of his profession exhibits equally supreme mastery of his instrument and the deep humanity from which it has flowered. © Sim Canetty-Clarke
International Record Review
One of the most distinctive artists of his generation, Stephen Hough combines a distinguished career as a pianist with those of composer and writer. Named by The Economist as one of ‘Twenty Living Polymaths’, Hough was the first classical performer to be awarded a MacArthur Fellowship and was made a Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2014 New Year Honours. Since taking First Prize at the 1983 Naumburg Competition in New York, Hough has performed with the world’s major orchestras and has given recitals at the most prestigious concert halls. He is a regular guest at festivals such as Salzburg, Mostly Mozart, Edinburgh, La Roque-d’Anthéron and the BBC Proms. Highlights of the 2018/19 season include performances with the Cleveland and Minnesota orchestras, New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, Wiener Symphoniker, Finnish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Tokyo Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra and China National Symphony Orchestra. In the UK he performs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and the Hallé. Recent highlights include appearances with the Detroit, Dallas and Baltimore symphony orchestras, the Singapore Symphony Orchestra and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. In 2018 Hough was Artist in Residence at the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, performing a cycle of Beethoven concertos. Recent recitals include New York’s Carnegie Hall and the International Piano Series at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, among others.
Stephen Hough’s extensive discography of over 60 CDs has garnered international awards including the Diapason d’Or de l’Année, several Grammy nominations, and eight Gramophone Awards including Record of the Year and the Gold Disc. Recent releases include solo piano works by Debussy, Hough’s ‘Dream Album’, and a live recording of the Schumann and Dvořák piano concertos with Andris Nelsons and the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, all for Hyperion Records. His award-winning iPad app ‘The Liszt Sonata’ was released by Touch Press in 2013. As a composer, Hough has been commissioned by Wigmore Hall, Musée du Louvre, London’s National Gallery, Westminster Abbey, Westminster Cathedral, the Genesis Foundation, Gilmore International Keyboard Festival, the Walter W. Naumburg Foundation, the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi and the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet. His music is published by Josef Weinberger Ltd. Stephen Hough’s first novel, The Final Retreat, was published by Sylph Editions in March 2018, and he has written for The New York Times, The Telegraph, The Times, The Guardian and the Evening Standard. He is an Honorary Bencher of the Middle Temple, an Honorary Member of the Royal Philharmonic Society, a Visiting Professor at the Royal Academy of Music, the International Chair of Piano Studies at the Royal Northern College of Music, and is on the faculty of The Juilliard School in New York. @houghhough
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7
Programme notes
Speedread Travel is a recurring theme in this concert: voyages to enticing foreign places, or to still more exotic regions of the human imagination. Debussy only ever spent a couple of hours in Spain, so the ‘Spanish’ atmosphere he creates so luxuriously in Ibéria is largely his own brainchild – but what an incredible musical landscape and dreamscape it is, creating a kind of ideal, magical Spain in which almost anything could happen. Similarly, when he wrote his superb evocation of the sea, La mer, he headed inland and sought inspiration in books and paintings. But the result is a radiant masterpiece – half symphony,
Claude Debussy 1862–1918
For the Spanish composer Manuel de Falla, Debussy had caught the very essence of his country in his orchestral suite Ibéria (1905–08), and in doing so pointed the way forward to a whole generation of nationally conscious Spanish composers. One can imagine the research Debussy must have made into Spanish music and customs, the exploratory trips he must have taken, the conversations with locals over tapas and a good bottle of Rioja; but in fact Debussy only ever spent a couple of hours in Spain. He crossed the border just long enough to watch a bullfight, and never returned. It makes his achievement all the more remarkable, for Ibéria is one of the most flavoursome, potently evocative orchestral works in the whole French repertoire – and that’s saying a great deal. Debussy released it to the world as part of a set of three orchestral works, framed by the Northumbrian-inspired Gigues and the French folksongdriven Rondes du printemps (‘Round-dance of spring’),
8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
half cinematic seascape, brilliantly colourful and in the end elementally powerful. Saint-Saëns did visit the Middle East before he wrote his ‘Egyptian’ Fifth Piano Concerto, and it does sound more like the diary of a refreshing, inspiring holiday, with the piano as chief storyteller in the atmospheric slow movement. Storytelling is central to Ravel’s Ma mère l’Oye (‘Mother Goose’), written to entertain and delight two very young pianists, then transformed into a gorgeous, touching orchestral suite. The moment when the Beast is transformed by Beauty’s kiss has to be heard to be believed!
Ibéria from Images pour orchestre 1 2 3
Par les rues et par les chemins (Through the streets and the paths) Les parfums de la nuit (Perfumes of the night) Le matin d’un jour de fête (Morning on a festival day)
but it’s rarely effective in concert alongside them: it’s much more readily enjoyed as a work in its own right. The click of castanets and the sound of rhythmically vigorous, brightly coloured dance music leave us in no doubt as to the location of the ‘streets and paths’ of the first movement. In time, however, a languorous, intoxicated feeling starts to creep into the music, only for the spectator to be shocked back to reality by loud brass fanfares. The dream-world hinted at there is opened out fully in the fabulously scored, gorgeously sensual ‘Les parfums de la nuit’, then comes an extraordinary transition to the bracing, sunlit carnival world of the finale, like slowly emerging from delicious sleep – as Debussy proudly noted, it is so natural it ‘feels as though it was never written down’. Massed guitars and other wild Spanish festive sounds are evoked, until ‘Le matin d’un jour de fête’ culminates in raucous joy.
Camille Saint-Saëns 1835–1921
In his younger days Saint-Saëns was widely viewed as a member of the avant-garde – one critic went so far as to brand him an ‘anarchist’. By the end of his long life, however, his public profile had changed to that of the arch-traditionalist: an impassioned, sometimes waspish defender of French music against the dangerous innovations of Debussy and Stravinsky. Certainly if you put the first and last movements of the Fifth Piano Concerto (1896) beside Debussy’s almost contemporary Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, Saint-Saëns does seem backward-looking in comparison – an accomplished preserver of established forms rather than a creator of new ones. But the central Andante is another matter. Here there are clear echoes of the Javanese gamelan music that had so excited Debussy at the Paris Exposition in 1889. There are also some extraordinary bell-like widely-spaced piano chords which seem to have lodged in the memory of another rising young French modernist, Maurice Ravel. After the first performance of the Concerto one critic wrote, ‘Never have we heard a work more colourful or gripping; it is from Rubens, from Raphael, from Michelangelo, for one finds in it fantasy, grace and power’.
Piano Concerto No. 5 in F, Op. 103 (‘Egyptian’) Stephen Hough piano 1 Allegro animato 2 Andante – Allegretto tranquillo quasi andantino – Andante 3 Molto allegro
It was a trip to Egypt at the beginning of 1896 that got Saint-Saëns’s imagination working so vividly. He later referred to the Fifth Concerto as ‘a kind of voyage in the East’. It is possible – as one admirer suggested at the time – that the beguiling freshness of the first movement reflects the rejuvenating effects of the composer’s Egyptian holiday. Then comes the remarkable Andante, at first suggesting Spain rather than the Middle East, but soon after this comes a piquantly flavoured melody in the piano’s left hand against harp-like ripples in the right, apparently based on the composer’s memory of hearing a Nubian lovesong sung by a Nile boatman. Later, the piano’s delicate evocation of gamelan music is subtly underlined by quiet strokes on a gong (an unusual guest in a 19thcentury piano concerto), and the castanet-like figures in the piano after that are said to have been inspired by the croaking of Nile frogs. Saint-Saëns described the finale as expressing ‘the joy of a sea crossing, a joy that not everyone shares’– maybe not, but the exhilaration of this music is unmistakable.
Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9
Programme notes continued
Maurice Ravel
Suite: Ma mère l’Oye (Mother Goose) 1 2 3 4 5
1875–1937
Ravel originally wrote Ma mère l’Oye in 1910 as a piano duet for Mimi and Jean, children of the Polish sculptor Cyprian Godebski, who must have been reasonably able pianists even at the ages of 6 and 7. It works beautifully as piano music, as many amateurs have discovered, but when Ravel came to orchestrate the five-movement Suite the following year, he enriched its sound palette with his own unique brand of orchestral magic. The opening depiction of Sleeping Beauty, lost in her enchanted dream-world, seems very simply scored, but there are several typically fastidious touches, like the liquid harmonics at the end like teardrops. ‘Petit Poucet’ tells how Tom Thumb leaves a trail of breadcrumbs for himself in the woods (we hear him wandering on muted strings at first), but loses his way back when the birds eat everything – cue some fabulously scored birdsong on piccolo, flute and high strings. ‘Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes’ is
Pavane de la Belle au bois dormant: Lent (Pavane for Sleeping Beauty) Petit Poucet: Très modéré (Little Tom Thumb) Laideronnette, impératrice des pagodes: Mouvt de marche (‘Little Ugly’, Empress of the Pagodas) Les entretiens de la belle et de la bête: Mouvt de valse très modéré (Beauty and the Beast) Le jardin féerique: Lent et grave (The Fairy Garden)
a delicious study in fairytale orientalism – pentatonic (piano ‘black notes’) figures and gong-strokes evoking the sound of gamelan ensembles. Then the story of Beauty and the Beast is enacted vividly for us: Beauty represented by a winsome clarinet melody, delicately accompanied, the Beast by a wonderfully sinister contrabassoon. The moment of the Beast’s transformation is unmissable: a dramatic pause, and upward harp glissando, then the contrabassoon theme is magically changed into an exquisite high solo violin melody, with plenty of ethereal harmonics. Without doubt, it all ends happily ever after. But does the finale offer the same uncomplicated warm glow, or is its mood more ambiguous? Does the adult in Ravel concede that the ‘Fairy Garden’ can only ever be a dream? There is a strange poignancy in this music, despite the glittering, seemingly affirmative ending.
FINAL CONCERTS THIS SEASON AT ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL 2019/20 SEASON ON SALE NOW – SEE PAGE 12
SATURDAY 27 APRIL 2019 7.30PM Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2* R Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks Elgar Falstaff
ISLE OF
NOISES
Vladimir Jurowski conductor Yefim Bronfman piano
FRIDAY 3 MAY 2019 7.30PM
Brahms Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No. 3 (1877 revised version) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Janine Jansen violin Concert generously supported by Dior.
* Please note a change of concerto from previously advertised.
BOOK AT LPO.ORG.UK OR CALL 020 7840 4242 10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Claude Debussy 1862–1918
La mer Trois esquisses symphoniques 1 2 3
De l’aube à midi sur la mer (Dawn to midday on the sea) Jeux de vagues (Games of the waves) Dialogue du vent et de la mer (Dialogue between the wind and the sea)
When Debussy came to write his orchestral masterpiece La mer (‘The Sea’) in 1903–5, he did the opposite of what we might expect, withdrawing from the sea itself and focussing instead on distillations of its essence in literature and the visual arts. It is true that Debussy finished La mer at a hotel in Eastbourne, but that comfortably genteel English resort is a long way from the kind of colourful, dramatic seascape suggested to many by this music. As in the case of his supposedly Spain-inspired Ibéria, Debussy’s imagination worked best with a few potent scraps of information, enabling him to create a lavish dreamworld, protected, one might say, from incursions of messy reality.
Jeux de vagues is effectively a symphonic scherzo: brilliantly scored, bracingly dance-like, a ballet of sea-spray, tossing white horses, wild eddies and surging surf, ending in a sudden luminous calm. In the finale the sea turns angry as storm winds goad and agitate the waters. Finally the first movement’s climactic breaking wave motif becomes a grand brass chorale, sounding through choppy strings and skirling woodwind, followed by a surge to the finish and a great final shout of triumph.
La mer is full of wonderful evocations of the moods and colours of the sea; but it is also something else, hinted at in that subtitle Trois esquisses symphoniques – ‘three symphonic sketches’. For many French composers the symphony was the typical Germanic form, and therefore an object of suspicion. Rigorously purposeful in its working-out, lofty in conception, disdaining mere ‘colouristic’ effects, the symphony was felt to be alien to true Gallic ideals: wit, delicacy, charm, refinement. What Debussy produced in La mer is in fact a work that both is and isn’t a symphony. On one level it’s marvellously purposeful, with a stream of striking ideas developed from a few tiny, pregnant motifs – just like a Beethoven symphony, one might say. Yet it is also full of details, ‘impressions’, that seem to stand out from the onward flow of time, even to defy it.
Recommended recordings
The opening vividly evokes a cold dawn breaking over a moody sea, but as the sun rises, a hushed theme for horns sounds warmly through rippling string and harp textures. The movement now builds steadily to the final distillation of the sea’s extremes: rapt stillness with hushed cor anglais and cellos, then a colossal wave building and breaking spectacularly.
Programme notes © Stephen Johnson
by Laurie Watt
Many of our recommended recordings, where available, are on sale this evening at the Foyles stand in the Royal Festival Hall foyer. Debussy: Ibéria Orchestre Nationale de France | Emmanuel Krivine (Erato) Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No. 5 (Egyptian) Stephen Hough | City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra | Sakari Oramo (Hyperion) Ravel: Suite: Ma mère l’Oye Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra | Yannick Nézet-Séguin (Warner) Debussy: La mer London Philharmonic Orchestra | Serge Baudo (Classics for Pleasure, via Amazon)
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11
OTHER WORLDS 2019/20 Concert season at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall 2020 Vision
A new strand of concerts featuring some of the most exciting works written since 2000, each combined in concert with pieces composed exactly 100 and 200 years earlier.
Beethoven 250th anniversary
Beethoven’s first six symphonies and rarer gems including his Cantata on the Death of Emperor Joseph II.
Isle of Noises continues
Landmark classics inspired by the British Isles, including the music of Walton, Vaughan Williams, Britten and Foulds.
Celebrated artists
Including Anne-Sophie Mutter, Antonio Pappano, Susanna Mälkki, Edward Gardner, Igor Levit, Diana Damrau, Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Nicola Benedetti and Anoushka Shankar.
ON SALE NOW LPO.ORG.UK/NEWSEASON 12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
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. Masur Circle Arts Council England Dunard Fund Victoria Robey OBE Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Underwood Trust
The Rothschild Foundation Tom & Phillis Sharpe The Viney Family
Haitink Patrons Mark & Elizabeth Adams Dr Christopher Aldren Mrs Pauline Baumgartner Welser-Möst Circle Lady Jane Berrill William & Alex de Winton Mr Frederick Brittenden John Ireland Charitable Trust David & Yi Yao Buckley The Tsukanov Family Foundation Mr Clive Butler Neil Westreich Gill & Garf Collins Tennstedt Circle Mr John H Cook Valentina & Dmitry Aksenov Mr Alistair Corbett Richard Buxton Bruno De Kegel The Candide Trust Georgy Djaparidze Michael & Elena Kroupeev David Ellen Kirby Laing Foundation Christopher Fraser OBE & Lisa Fraser Mr & Mrs Makharinsky David & Victoria Graham Fuller Alexey & Anastasia Reznikovich Goldman Sachs International Sir Simon Robey Mr Gavin Graham Bianca & Stuart Roden Moya Greene Simon & Vero Turner Mrs Dorothy Hambleton The late Mr K Twyman Tony & Susie Hayes Malcolm Herring Solti Patrons Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle Ageas Mrs Philip Kan John & Manon Antoniazzi Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe Gabor Beyer, through BTO Rose & Dudley Leigh Management Consulting AG Lady Roslyn Marion Lyons Jon Claydon Miss Jeanette Martin Mrs Mina Goodman & Miss Duncan Matthews QC Suzanne Goodman Diana & Allan Morgenthau Roddy & April Gow Charitable Trust The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Dr Karen Morton Charitable Trust Mr Roger Phillimore Mr James R.D. Korner Ruth Rattenbury Christoph Ladanyi & Dr Sophia The Reed Foundation Ladanyi-Czernin The Rind Foundation Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski The Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Sir Bernard Rix David Ross & Line Forestier (Canada) Mr Paris Natar
Carolina & Martin Schwab Dr Brian Smith Lady Valerie Solti Mr & Mrs G Stein Dr Peter Stephenson Miss Anne Stoddart TFS Loans Limited Marina Vaizey Jenny Watson Guy & Utti Whittaker Pritchard Donors Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Mrs Arlene Beare Mr Patrick & Mrs Joan Benner Mr Conrad Blakey Dr Anthony Buckland Paul Collins Alastair Crawford Mr Derek B. Gray Mr Roger Greenwood The HA.SH Foundation Darren & Jennifer Holmes Honeymead Arts Trust Mr Geoffrey Kirkham Drs Frank & Gek Lim Peter Mace Mr & Mrs David Malpas Dr David McGibney Michael & Patricia McLaren-Turner Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Mr Christopher Querée The Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer Charitable Trust Timothy Walker AM Christopher Williams Peter Wilson Smith Mr Anthony Yolland and all other donors who wish to remain anonymous
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13
Thank you
We are extremely grateful to all donors who have given generously to the LPO over the past year. Your generosity helps 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 An anonymous donor Sir Simon & Lady Robey OBE Orchestra Circle The Candide Trust Mr & Mrs Philip Kan Neil Westreich Dr James Huang Zheng (of Kingdom Music Education Group) Principal Associates Gabor Beyer, through BTO Management Consulting AG In memory of Ann Marguerite Collins Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Associates Steven M. Berzin Richard Buxton Kay Bryan William & Alex de Winton Mrs Irina Gofman Countess Dominique Loredan George Ramishvili Stuart & Bianca Roden In memory of Hazel Amy Smith Gold Patrons David & Yi Buckley John Burgess In memory of Allner Mavis Channing Gill & Garf Collins Andrew Davenport Sonja Drexler Mrs Gillian Fane Marie-Laure Favre-Gilly de Varennes de Beuill Hamish & Sophie Forsyth Virginia Gabbertas MBE Mr Roger Greenwood The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Rehmet Kassim-Lakha de Morixe Geoff & Meg Mann
Sally Groves & Dennis Marks Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski Melanie Ryan Julian & Gill Simmonds Eric Tomsett The Viney Family Laurence Watt Silver Patrons Dr Christopher Aldren Peter Blanc Georgy Djaparidze Ulrike & Benno Engelmann Peter & Fiona Espenhahn Will & Kate Hobhouse Matt Isaacs & Penny Jerram John & Angela Kessler The Metherell Family Simon Millward Mikhail Noskov & Vasilina Bindley Susan Wallendahl Guy & Utti Whittaker Bronze Patrons Anonymous donors Michael Allen Andrew Barclay Mr Geoffrey Bateman Peter & Adrienne Breen Mr Jeremy Bull Mr Alan C Butler Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Andrea d’Avack Bruno De Kegel Mr John L G Deacon David Ellen Ignor & Lyuba Galkin David Goldberg Mr Daniel Goldstein David & Jane Gosman Mrs Dorothy Hambleton Wim & Jackie Hautekiet-Clare Malcolm Herring Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle J Douglas Home Mr James R. D. Korner
14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Rose & Dudley Leigh Drs Frank & Gek Lim Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva Maxim & Natalia Moskalev Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Peter & Lucy Noble Noel Otley JP & Mrs Rachel Davies Jacopo Pessina Mr Roger Phillimore Mr Michael Posen Tatiana Pyatigorskaya Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Tom & Phillis Sharpe Mr Christopher Stewart Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Andrew & Rosemary Tusa Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Marina Vaizey Ms Jenny Watson CBE Grenville & Krysia Williams Christopher Williams Ed & Catherine Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Principal Supporters Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Margot Astrachan Mr Philip Bathard-Smith Mr Edwin Bisset Dr Anthony Buckland Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Sir Alan Collins KCVO David & Liz Conway Mr Alistair Corbett Mrs Alina Davey Guy Davies Henry Davis MBE Mr Richard Fernyhough Patrice & Federica Feron Ms Kerry Gardner Ivan Hurry Per Jonsson Mr Ralph Kanza Ms Katerina Kashenceva Vadim & Natalia Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF
Mr Christopher Little Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Peter Mace Patricia & Michael McLarenTurner Mr John Meloy Andrew T Mills Dr Karen Morton Mrs Jennifer Oxley Dr Wiebke Pekrull Mr James Pickford Andrew & Sarah Poppleton Natalie Pray Mr Christopher Querée Martin & Cheryl Southgate Ms Nadia Stasyuk Matthew Stephenson & Roman Aristarkhov Louise Walton Howard & Sheelagh Watson Des & Maggie Whitelock Liz Winter Bill Yoe Supporters Mr John D Barnard Mr Keith Bolderson Mr Bernard Bradbury Mr Richard Brooman Mrs Alan Carrington Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington Mr Joshua Coger Mr Geoffrey A Collens Miss Tessa Cowie Lady Jane Cuckney OBE Mr David Devons Samuel Edge Manuel Fajardo & Clémence Humeau Mrs Janet Flynn Christopher Fraser OBE Mr and Mrs Gofton Will Gold Mr Peter Gray Mrs Maureen HooftGraafland The Jackman Family Mr David MacFarlane Mr Frederic Marguerre Mr Mark Mishon
Mr Stephen Olton Mr David Peters Mr & Mrs Graham & Jean Pugh Mr David Russell Mr Kenneth Shaw Ms Elizabeth Shaw Ms Natalie Spraggon & Mr David Thomson Mr John Weekes Mr Trevor Weston Joanna Williams Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Alfonso Aijón Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Robert Hill Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE Laurence Watt LPO International Board of Governors Natasha Tsukanova Chair Steven M. Berzin (USA) Gabor Beyer (Hungary) Kay Bryan (Australia) Marie-Laure Favre Gilly de Varennes de Bueil (France) Irina Gofman (Russia) Joyce Kan (China/Hong Kong) Countess Dominique Loredan (Italy) Olivia Ma (Greater China Area) Olga Makharinsky (Russia) George Ramishvili (Georgia) Victoria Robey OBE (USA) Dr James Huang Zheng (of Kingdom Music Education Group) (China/ Shenzhen)
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: Simon Freakley Chairman Xenia Hanusiak Alexandra Jupin William A. Kerr Kristina McPhee Natalie Pray Stephanie Yoshida Antony Phillipson Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP Corporate Donors Arcadis Christian Dior Couture Faraday Fenchurch Advisory Partners IMG Pictet Bank Steppes Travel White & Case LLP Corporate Members Gold freuds Sunshine Silver After Digital Berenberg Carter-Ruck French Chamber of Commerce Bronze Ageas Lazard Russo-British Chamber of Commerce Walpole
Preferred Partners Fever-Tree Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd London Orthopaedic Clinic Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsor Google Inc Trusts and Foundations The Bernarr Rainbow Trust The Boltini Trust Sir William Boreman’s Foundation Borletti-Buitoni Trust Boshier-Hinton Foundation The Candide Trust The Chalk Cliff Trust The Ernest Cook Trust Diaphonique, Franco-British Fund for contemporary music The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Fidelio Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation Lucille Graham Trust Help Musicians UK John Horniman’s Children’s Trust The Idlewild Trust Embassy of the State of Israel to the United Kingdom Kirby Laing Foundation The Lawson Trust The Leverhulme Trust Andrew Lloyd Webber Foundation London Stock Exchange Group Foundation Lord & Lady Lurgan Trust Marsh Christian Trust The Mercers’ Company Adam Mickiewicz Institute Newcomen Collett Foundation
The Stanley Picker Trust The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust PRS For Music Foundation The Radcliffe Trust Rivers Foundation Romanian Cultural Institute The R K Charitable Trust The Sampimon Trust Schroder Charity Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable Trust Spears-Stutz Charitable Trust John Thaw Foundation The Thistle Trust UK Friends of the FelixMendelssohn-BartholdyFoundation The Clarence Westbury Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust The William Alwyn Foundation and all others who wish to remain anonymous.
London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15
Administration
Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-President Dr Catherine C. Høgel Vice-Chairman Henry Baldwin* Roger Barron Richard Brass David Buckley Bruno De Kegel Martin Höhmann* Al MacCuish Susanne Martens* Pei-Jee Ng* Andrew Tusa Timothy Walker AM Neil Westreich David Whitehouse* * Player-Director Advisory Council Martin Höhmann Chairman Rob Adediran Christopher Aldren Dr Manon Antoniazzi Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport William de Winton Cameron Doley Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Amanda Hill Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Geoff Mann Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Andrew Neill Nadya Powell Sir Bernard Rix Victoria Robey OBE Baroness Shackleton Thomas Sharpe QC Julian Simmonds Barry Smith Martin Southgate Andrew Swarbrick Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Elizabeth Winter
General Administration Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director
Education and Community Isabella Kernot Education and Community Director
David Burke General Manager and Finance Director
Talia Lash Education and Community Manager
Lucas Dwyer PA to the Chief Executive/ Administrative Assistant
Emily Moss Education and Community Project Manager
Finance Frances Slack Finance and Operations Manager
Hannah Tripp Education and Community Project Co-ordinator
Dayse Guilherme Finance Officer
Development Nick Jackman Development Director
Concert Management Roanna Gibson Concerts Director
Vicky Moran Development Events Manager
Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager Sophie Richardson Glyndebourne and Projects Manager (maternity leave) Fabio Sarlo Glyndebourne and Projects Manager (maternity cover) Grace Ko Tours Manager Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator Jo Cotter Tours Co-ordinator Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians Christopher Alderton Stage Manager Damian Davis Transport Manager Hannah Verkerk Orchestra Co-ordinator and Auditions Administrator Laura Kitson Assistant Transport & Stage Manager
16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra
Christina McNeill Corporate Relations Manager Rosie Morden Individual Giving Manager Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager Ellie Franklin Development Assistant Georgie Gulliver Development Assistant Kirstin Peltonen Development Associate Marketing Kath Trout Marketing Director Mairi Warren Marketing Manager
Public Relations Premier classical@premiercomms.com Tel: 020 7292 7355/ 020 7292 7335 Archives Philip Stuart Discographer Gillian Pole Recordings Archive Professional Services Charles Russell Speechlys Solicitors Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors Dr Barry Grimaldi Honorary Doctor Mr Chris Aldren Honorary ENT Surgeon Mr Brian Cohen Mr Simon Owen-Johnstone Honorary Orthopaedic Surgeons London Philharmonic Orchestra 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 Box Office: 020 7840 4242 Email: admin@lpo.org.uk lpo.org.uk The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045.
Megan Macarte Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242)
Composer photographs courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.
Rachel Williams Publications Manager
Cover artwork Ross Shaw Printer Cantate
Rachel Smith Website Manager Greg Felton Digital Creative Alexandra Lloyd Marketing Co-ordinator Tom Wright Marketing Assistant