London Philharmonic Orchestra Debut Sounds 10 June 2015

MAGNUS LINDBERG AVENTURES

AVENTURES

Plus world premieres of JONATHAN BRIGG SINFUL SINFONIES SERGIO COTE TYPE PETER LONGWORTH FIABE CAVALLERESCHE (KNIGHTLY FABLES) PAULINA ZAŁUBSKA INTO THE DARKNESS – MAGNUS LINDBERG CONDUCTOR – MEMBERS OF THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Wednesday 10 June 2015 7.30pm Queen Elizabeth Hall Programme £2

– MUSICIANS FROM THE FOYLE FUTURE FIRSTS DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME

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Debut Sounds Debut Sounds is a celebration of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s young talent programmes: LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts. Over the past year, members of both programmes have been supported by the Orchestra and its Education & Community Department to explore new ideas, learn new skills and work closely with the Orchestra’s musicians. Tonight gives us the opportunity to hear the culmination of this work by some of the most exciting young musicians in classical music.

Our young composers – Jonathan Brigg, Sergio Cote, Peter Longworth and Paulina Załubska – have worked with an ensemble comprising members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Foyle Future Firsts Programme throughout the academic year. In a series of sessions dedicated to trying out their compositional ideas, the four composers have received advice and support from LPO Composer in Residence and conductor, Magnus Lindberg.

2014/15 marked Magnus Lindberg’s first season as the LPO’s Composer in Residence and Young Composer Mentor, and we would like to thank him for his dedicated support of our two young talent programmes.

Visit www.lpo.org.uk/debutsounds to find out more about tonight’s four young composers and their work.

The 2014/15 Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme is supported by The Foyle Foundation, Help Musicians UK, The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust, The Idlewild Trust and The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust.

The Young Composers Programme is generously supported by The Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music Programme, Help Musicians UK, The Leche Trust, The Radcliffe Trust and The UK Friends of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Foundation.

Young Composers

© Benjamin Ealogeva

quartet in 2014, the same year he was granted a scholarship to the Creation of Contemporary Music, awarded by the Colombian Ministry of Culture for Líneas for saxophone quartet, prepared piano, online improvisers and audience interface. Sergio is currently completing his postgraduate studies at the RNCM under the tutelage of Adam Gorb and David Horne.

L to R: Peter Longworth, Jonathan Brigg, Paulina Załubska, Sergio Cote Jonathan Brigg (born 1984) hails from Bradford. He studied music at the University of Manchester and later gained a scholarship to support doctoral research at the University of York. His teachers include John Casken, Kevin Malone and William Brooks, and he has also been taught and mentored

by Richard Ayres, Martijn Padding, Magnus Lindberg, Julian Argüelles and John Taylor. Jonathan has been selected for the European Composers Development Scheme, the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Young Composers programme and shortlisted for Opus 2013 with the Britten Sinfonia.

He was a recent prizewinner at the Young Composers Meeting in Apeldoorn, Netherlands, gaining a commission for

the Dutch National Youth Orchestra. He has composed for, among others, the Nieuw Ensemble, Orkest de Ereprijs, Britten Sinfonia, Threads Orchestra, Tryst Vocal Duo, The Chimera Ensemble and Ensemble 10/10.

Sergio Cote (born 1987) is a Colombian composer based in Manchester. He studied music composition between 2007 and 2011 at the Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia, where he had lessons with Guillermo Gaviria and Carlos Julio Ramírez. In 2011 he won the Colombian National Young Composers Award with Likchachiy, a piece for chamber ensemble. He won the Royal Northern College of Music Gold Medal with Periculum for saxophone

Peter Longworth (born 1990) studied composition at the Guildhall School of Music and Drama with Matthew King and at the Royal College of Music with Mark-Anthony Turnage. His work has been performed across the world including the United States, Japan, Germany and the Netherlands, as well as in British venues such as Southbank Centre, Cadogan Hall and the Glasgow Royal Concert Hall. His work, Ludi (commissioned by the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland in celebration of the 2014 Commonwealth Games) was described by Michael Tumelty of The Herald as ‘dazzlingly atmospheric ... an extremely impressive set of vignettes which are concise, precise and exactly to the point’. Peter was a finalist in the 2014 Keuris Composers Contest (held in Amersfoort, Holland) with his orchestral piece, Folktales. His music often draws

on literature and his strong affinity with Tuscan culture and landscapes for inspiration.

Paulina Załubska (born 1984) graduated with honours from the Cracow Academy of Music in 2011 and completed a postgraduate course in film music, computer music and audiovisual work at the Łód Academy of Music and the National Film School.

She is currently pursuing a doctoral project in composition. In 2007/08 and 2009/10 she was awarded the scholarship of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage for outstanding artistic achievements. She studied instrumentation with Professor DR H.C. Krzysztof Penderecki and participated in a number of international composition workshops held by Kaija Saariaho and Johannes Schöllhorn amongst others.

Paulina’s compositions have been performed in Poland, Czech Republic, Greece, Germany, Italy and Ukraine and she has composed solo, chamber, orchestral and electronic works, as well as compositions for theatrical and ballet projects. She frequently explores combinations of various media: instruments, electronics and video technology, attempting to create a new sound space for live instruments.

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Foyle Future Firsts

On stage tonight

Now in its eleventh year, our unique programme has gone from strength to strength. Members are supported and nurtured to the highest standards and we are proud to see current and past Foyle Future Firsts taking professional engagements with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and other world-class ensembles.

The 16 members of the Foyle Future Firsts Development Programme are gifted and talented instrumentalists who aspire to be professional orchestral musicians. We seek to bridge their transition between college and the professional platform, developing talented players to form the base for future orchestral appointments with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and other orchestras and ensembles around the world.

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Members of the Foyle Future Firsts Programme benefit from individual lessons and mentoring from London Philharmonic Orchestra Principals, mock auditions, and the opportunity to play in full orchestral rehearsals throughout the year. They also take part in high-profile and unique chamber performances, and work alongside London Philharmonic Orchestra musicians on education and community projects. lpo.org.uk/futurefirsts

Flutes Stewart McIlwham Rocco Smith*

Percussion Andrew Barclay Tom Lee*

Minn Majoe*

Oboes Ian Hardwick Tristan Cox*

Second Violins Fiona Higham Judith Choi Castro*

Clarinets Thomas Watmough James Maltby*

Violas Susanne Martens Jenny Wilkinson*

Bassoons Laura Vincent† Natalie Watson*

Cellos Elisabeth Wiklander

Horns Mark Vines Oli Hickie*

For the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Trumpets Paul Beniston Catherine Knight*

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Trombones / Bass Trombone David Whitehouse Ross Learmouth*

Isabella Kernot Education and Community Director

First Violins Vesselin Gellev Leader Martin Höhmann Chair supported by The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust

Chair supported by The Viney Family

David Sloan* Double Basses George Peniston Andrew Vickers*

Tuba George Ellis*

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Harp Zuzanna Olbrys* Piano / Celesta Leanne Cody* *2014/15 Foyle Future First †Guest

Lucy Duffy Education and Community Manager

Magnus Lindberg Composer in Residence and Conductor

Finnish conductor Magnus Lindberg became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer in Residence from the beginning of the 2014/15 season.

He was born in Helsinki in 1958.

Following piano studies, he entered the Sibelius Academy where his composition teachers included Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen. His compositional breakthrough came with two large-scale works, Action–Situation–Signification (1982) and Kraft (1983–85), which were inextricably linked with his founding with Salonen of the experimental Toimii Ensemble.

© Hanya Chlalaw

Lindberg was Composer in Residence of the New York Philharmonic between 2009 and 2012, with new works including the concert-opener EXPO premiered to launch Alan Gilbert’s tenure as the orchestra’s Music Director, Al Largo for orchestra, Souvenir for ensemble, and Piano Concerto No. 2 premiered by Yefim Bronfman in 2012.

premiere of his Second Piano Concerto, given by Yefim Bronfman. The 2015/16 season will see a performance of his Violin Concerto and the world premiere of his Second Violin Concerto performed by Frank Peter Zimmermann on 9 December.

Lindberg also plays an active role in the Orchestra’s education activities, mentoring the four participants on the LPO Young Composers scheme.

Lindberg’s music has been recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Ondine, Da Capo and Finlandia labels.

He is published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes

Highlights of the London Philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season included the world premiere of Accused and the UK 5

Programme notes Programme Paulina Załubska Into the Darkness Peter Longworth Fiabe Cavalleresche (Knightly Fables) Sergio Cote Type Jonathan Brigg Sinful Sinfonies Magnus Lindberg Aventures Please note that there will not be an interval in tonight’s concert

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PAULINA ZAŁUBSKA Into the Darkness

PETER LONGWORTH (born 1990) Fiabe Cavalleresche (Knightly Fables)

SERGIO COTE (born 1987) Type

Into the Darkness is inspired by the extreme sport, speleology, the exploration of caves, also known as caving, spelunking or potholing. The work is based on the measurments from a cave in the Prokletije (‘Cursed’) mountain range in the south-eastern part of Montenegro.

Literature is often an inspiration for my music and whilst writing Fiabe Cavalleresche (Knightly Fables) I read various novellas inspired by medieval chivalric poetry and history – Italo Calvino’s The Non-Existent Knight and The Castle of Crossed Destinies, and Antonio Tabucchi’s The Passion of Don Pedro – as well as some of Ludovico Ariosto’s 16th-century epic poem, Orlando Furioso.

Type displays brutal contrasts manufactured from obsessive details.

This dichotomy presents material in a rudimentary state without a sense of vectorial narrative. In this piece I go deliberately against some behaviours of orchestral music, specifically the arch-like forms and the heterogeneity of colour.

I chose three parts of the cave and transformed them into musical parameters. The transformation of sounds, colour and harmony helps the audience to imagine following the explorers as they delve deeper and deeper down into the unknown depths of the earth. PZ

Robert Louis Stevenson was one of the models for Calvino’s The Non-Existent Knight. In his introduction to the novella, Calvino states that for Stevenson ‘writing meant translating an invisible text containing the quintessential fascination of all adventures … scattered throughout the books of hundreds of writers … into his own prose’. As a composer, I have attempted to translate some of this fascination into music in Fiabe Cavalleresche. The piece unfolds in a series of contrasting episodes placing melodies alongside scherzi, fanfares and toccatas. PL

The piece is constructed from two contrasting materials. The first is an active texture built from hectic rhythms and chromatic movements. The second material is an attack of an octave in which resonance gets coloured by chromatic and microtonal inflections.

Throughout the piece variations of these two materials are juxtaposed by dynamics, density and register, portraying different perspectives of two objects. There are no orchestral doublings in the piece, although the instruments play in the traditional families of the orchestra. SC

JONATHAN BRIGG (born 1984) Sinful Sinfonies

MAGNUS LINDBERG Aventures

1 The Challenge 2 DeReFormeD 3 Redemption

Tongue-in-cheek and playfully alliterative, Sinful Sinfonies hosts a crowd of jostling musical characters, thrust forward and tormented by the ‘dark forces’ of jazz and groove-based music.

For all that Magnus Lindberg is one of the best known of contemporary composers, he doesn’t fit the standard image of the cerebral intellectual his occupation might suggest. Two elements in particular do the damage: one is that he doesn’t share the radical antipathy to the music of the past that many of his colleagues seem to find de rigueur, and the other is an even rarer commodity in modern music – a sense of fun. Thus his works often allude to composers of earlier days: Purcell shows his face in Corrente (1992) and Monteverdi in Feria (1997); more recently, EXPO (2009) refers to a raft of major 20th-century compositions, and Accused (2014) uses a fanfare from Falla at pivotal points.

‘The Challenge’ invites us to reconcile opposites: an indecisive keyboard player swings between musical worlds and the tempo just can’t seem to get settled.

In ‘DeReFormeD’ the music sets off in a backward direction and our efforts toward reconciliation seem hopeless.

Help is on its way, though – we’re suddenly swept up by Abuela Celia, the dear Spanish grandmother of a good friend, who leads us on a boisterous pilgrimage through Madrid to the resting place of San Expedito, the patron saint of ‘lost’ causes.

All is not lost. Honest, lyrical and searching, ‘Redemption’ represents a simple antidote to the sinning – but will we ever be content? JB

Aventures began its adventures in 2013 when the clarinettist Kari Kriikku, the director of the Avanti! Chamber Orchestra, asked Lindberg – who had been involved with Avanti! from its foundation – to write a fanfare for a concert to mark the 30th anniversary of the group. But Lindberg felt that a mere fanfare was poor reward for Avanti!’s three decades of adventurous

music-making. Taking a leaf from Luciano Berio’s Sinfonia of 1968, which famously quotes fragments from other composers in an avant-garde framework, Lindberg set about writing a piece which would mirror Avanti!’s marriage of classical and contemporary compositions. And if the form takes inspiration from Berio, the title pays homage both to Avanti! and to another modern master, György Ligeti, whose own Aventures and Nouvelles Aventures date from 1962–5.

Seeking to avoid what he calls ‘the deep marshland of post-modernism’, Lindberg therefore sets sections of near-quotations – which in fact tweak the originals, sometimes cross-cutting into them or fading out, altering the orchestration or undermining the harmony – into new, original music of his own, in a structure he likens to the Golden Gate Bridge. His choice of quotation was made from music that means a good deal to him personally, all heard in performances from Avanti!.

He includes fleeting allusions to earlier works of his own (such as Ritratto of 1979–83 and Feria) and to Monteverdi, Purcell and other composers who have joined him on the way.

The proceedings open with the fanfare for which he was first requested, alternating with downwards-scurrying string figures and a dance-like passage.

Not quite three minutes into the work the first visitor arrives, in the form of Sergei Prokofiev (I won’t spoil all your fun by identifying the works as well), and then Stravinsky, Schubert and Mendelssohn, before Lindberg’s central panel of original music is heard, a delicate textural study with much glissando in the strings – which then stands back to bid welcome to Charles Ives. Lindberg’s own music now shifts its focus to the woodwinds, after which it leaves centre-stage first to Mozart, and then to Stravinsky. More Lindberg links to Beethoven, who suddenly morphs into Sibelius and, before much longer, into Berlioz, whose timpani tattoos are transformed into more original Lindberg for the rousing coda, which refers back to the opening fanfare for the suitably celebratory conclusion.

Lindberg conducted the premiere himself, on 28 September 2013. © Martin Anderson, 2015

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The right is reserved to substitute artists and to vary the programme if necessary. Southbank Centre is a registered charity No. 298909. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is a registered charity No. 238045. London Philharmonic Orchestra, 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP. lpo.org.uk

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