London Philharmonic Orchestra 14 November concert programme at Brighton Dome

Brighton Dome Concert programme 2015/16 Season lpo.org.uk

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI* Principal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADA Leader pieter schoeman† Composer in Residence magnus lindberg Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

Brighton Dome Concert Hall Saturday 14 November 2015 | 7.30pm

Fauré Suite, Pelléas et Mélisande (19’) Ravel Piano Concerto in G major (21’) Interval Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales (18’)

Programme £2.50 Contents 2 Welcome 3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra 5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Robin Ticciati 7 Louis Schwizgebel 8 Programme notes 12 LPO 2015/16 season

at Brighton Dome 14 Sound Futures donors 15 Supporters 16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

Debussy La mer (23’)

Robin Ticciati conductor Louis Schwizgebel piano

The Steinway concert piano chosen and hired by the London Philharmonic Orchestra for this performance is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation † supported by Neil Westreich CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN ASSOCIATION WITH BRIGHTON DOME

Ticket Office: 01273 709709 brightondome.org

Welcome

Orchestra News

Welcome to Brighton Dome

New season 2015/16 The Orchestra is delighted to be back at Brighton Dome Concert Hall for the new season, starting with an all-French concert with three composers, Fauré, Ravel and Debussy, all composing around the same time but exploring different musical ideas. As part of the Shakespeare anniversary celebrations (Shakespeare400) in 2016, the concert on 27 February features Strauss’s Macbeth conducted by our Principal Guest Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada, and on 16 April we will perform Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. This concert also features the Classic BRIT Award-winning guitarist Miloš Karadaglić performing Rodrigo's dance-inspired Fantasía para un gentilhombre. Our next concert is on 16 January 2016 – see full listing on page 12, pick up a brochure in the foyer or you can book online here: lpo.org.uk/whats-on-and-tickets

Chief Executive Andrew Comben We hope you enjoy the performance and your visit to Brighton Dome. For your comfort and safety, please note the following: LATECOMERS may not be admitted until a suitable break in the performance. Some performances may contain no suitable breaks.

SMOKING Brighton Dome is a no-smoking venue.

INTERVAL DRINKS may be ordered in advance at the bar to avoid queues.

PHOTOGRAPHY is not allowed in the auditorium.

RECORDING is not allowed in the auditorium.

MOBILES, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before entering the auditorium.

Thank you for your co-operation.

The concert at Brighton Dome on 14 November 2015 is presented by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with assistance from Brighton Dome.

What we did last summer The LPO had a busy summer as usual. Our Glyndebourne productions were Bizet’s Carmen with Jakub Hrůša at the helm; Enrique Mazzola conducted the premiere production at Glyndebourne of Donizetti’s Poliuto; and tonight’s conductor, Robin Ticciati, led a double bill of Ravel’s L’Heure Espagnole and L’Enfant et les Sortilèges.

Chamber orchestra resources were required for Fiona Shaw’s award-winning production of Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia. All received wonderful reviews including Michael Tanner of The Spectator describing Carmen as 'one of the absolute peaks of my opera-going life'. High praise indeed!

The Orchestra also made its annual visit to the BBC Proms, this time with Vladimir Jurowski conducting Beethoven's Fidelio Overture and Shostakovich's Symphony No. 8.

Mitsuko Uchida joined the Orchestra for Schoenberg’s rarely heard Piano Concerto.

Brighton Dome gratefully acknowledges the support of Brighton & Hove City Council and Arts Council England.

Brighton Dome is managed by Brighton Dome and Brighton Festival, which also runs the annual threeweek Brighton Festival in May. brightondome.org brightonfestival.org

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LPO on Tour It's been a busy touring season so far with visits to Germany and Italy, including the Orchestra's debut at La Scala, Milan. In September the Orchestra had an exciting tour to Mexico as part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture: a highlight was a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2 conducted by Alondra de la Parra with the CBSO Chorus live from the Palacio de Bellas Artes in Mexico City, now available to watch on Medici TV. lpo.uk/ParraMahler2

On stage tonight

First Violins Pieter Schoeman* Leader Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Ilyoung Chae Chair supported by an anonymous donor

Katalin Varnagy Chair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Martin Höhmann Chair supported by The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust

Geoffrey Lynn Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert Pool Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Grace Lee Rebecca Shorrock Galina Tanney Second Violins Victoria Sayles Guest Principal Kate Birchall Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Joseph Maher Marie-Anne Mairesse Ashley Stevens Dean Williamson Alison Strange Elizabeth Baldey John Dickinson Stephen Stewart

Violas Cyrille Mercier Principal Robert Duncan Susanne Martens Benedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Naomi Holt Martin Fenn Sarah Malcolm Peter Norriss Rachel Benjamin Cellos Kristina Blaumane Principal Chair supported by Bianca and Stuart Roden

Pei-Jee Ng Co-Principal Francis Bucknall Laura Donoghue Santiago Carvalho† David Lale Gregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Chair supported by The Viney Family

Double Basses Kevin Rundell* Principal George Peniston Laurence Lovelle Tom Walley Kenneth Knussen Helen Rowlands Flutes Sue Thomas* Principal Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Hannah Grayson Stewart McIlwham Piccolo Stewart McIlwham* Principal

Oboes Ian Hardwick* Principal Alice Munday

Trombones Mark Templeton* Principal

Cor Anglais Sue Böhling* Principal

David Whitehouse

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

Bass Trombone Paul Lambert

Clarinets Robert Hill* Principal Thomas Watmough

Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

E-flat Clarinet Thomas Watmough Principal

Timpani Simon Carrington* Principal

Bassoons Gareth Newman Principal Laura Vincent Julia Staniforth Contrabassoon Claire Webster Horns David Pyatt* Principal Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* Principal Chair supported by Laurence Watt

Martin Hobbs Mark Vines Co-Principal Gareth Mollison Trumpets Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Percussion Andrew Barclay* Principal Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Henry Baldwin Co-Principal Chair supported by Jon Claydon

Keith Millar Karen Hutt Ignacio Molins Richard Horne Harps Rachel Masters* Principal Lucy Haslar Celeste Catherine Edwards * Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Robin Totterdell Cornets Nicholas Betts Toby Street

Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporter whose player is not present at this concert: Eric Tomsett London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

London Philharmonic Orchestra

Vladimir Jurowski produced one of those utterly compelling performances where the London Philharmonic Orchestra seemed to be playing as if their lives depended on it.

Bachtrack, September 2015 (4 Stars) Recognised today as one of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra balances a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most forwardlooking ensembles. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, releases CDs on its own record label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and community groups.

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 currently the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007.

Andrés Orozco-Estrada took up the position of Principal Guest Conductor in September 2015. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence.

The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives over 30 concerts each season. Throughout 2014/15 the Orchestra gave a series of concerts entitled Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, a festival exploring the composer’s major orchestral

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

masterpieces. 2015/16 is a strong year for singers, with performances by Toby Spence and Anne Sofie von Otter amongst others; Sibelius enjoys 150th anniversary celebrations; distinguished visiting conductors include Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vasily Petrenko, with Robin Ticciati returning after his debut in 2015; and in 2016 the LPO joins many of London’s other leading cultural institutions in Shakespeare400, celebrating the Bard’s legacy 400 years since his death. The Orchestra continues its commitment to new music with premieres of commissions including Magnus Lindberg’s Second Violin Concerto, and works by Alexander Raskatov and Marc-André Dalbavie.

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

Pieter Schoeman leader

Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the LPO in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002.

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 80 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 conducted by Stanisław Skrowaczewski and Messiaen’s Des Canyons Aux Étoiles.

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 through an energetic programme of activities for young people.

Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the Young Composers Programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Its work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

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

© Benjamin Ealovega

Western orchestra. Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2015/16 season include visits to Mexico City as part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture, Spain, Germany, Canary Islands, Belgium, a return to the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Orchestra’s premiere at La Scala, Milan.

Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in the US. In 1987 he was offered the Heifetz Chair of Music scholarship to study with Eduard Schmieder in Los Angeles and in 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman, who recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. In 1994 he became her teaching assistant at Indiana University, Bloomington.

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 performs at London's prestigious Wigmore Hall.

As a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pieter has performed Arvo Pärt's Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky, Brahms's Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, and Britten's Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra's own record label to great critical acclaim.

He has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television, and led the Orchestra 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. 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.

youtube.com/londonphilharmonic7

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

Robin Ticciati conductor

Under Ticciati, the music seemed to hang in the air above the orchestra and really breathe.

© Marco Borggreve

Erica Jeal, The Guardian, January 2015

Robin Ticciati has been Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra since 2009/10 and the Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera since summer 2014. From the 2017/18 season he will assume the Music Directorship of the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin for an initial five-year term.

Guest conducting projects within the next two seasons include return engagements with the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Dresden, Swedish Radio Symphony, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Cleveland Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Philharmonic as well as debuts with the DSO-Berlin, Czech Philharmonic, Chamber Orchestra of Europe and NDR Hamburg.

Music can teach you an honesty, because it is about a philosophy of life, and living.

It should fill the soul.

Robin Ticciati

For his first seasons as Glyndebourne Music Director, Robin conducted new productions of Der Rosenkavalier and La Finta Giardiniera, Die Entführung aus dem Serail and a revival of a Ravel double-bill with L’Heure Espagnole and L’Enfant et les Sortileges. Aside from Glyndebourne, recent opera projects include new productions of Peter Grimes at La Scala Milan, The Marriage of Figaro at the Salzburg Festival, Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House, and a Metropolitan Opera debut with Hänsel und Gretel.

He will return to the Met in 2017.

Robin Ticciati is in his seventh season as Principal Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. His 2015/16 season with the SCO features a twin focus on 6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Brahms and the Second Viennese School. Together they have toured extensively in Europe and Asia, and make regular appearances at the Edinburgh International Festival. Their latest recording for Linn Records, featuring Haydn symphonies, was released in September this year. The other three albums they have recorded for Linn – two Berlioz discs (Symphonie fantastique; Les Nuits d'Été and La Mort de Cléopâtre) and a double album featuring Schumann’s four symphonies – have attracted unanimous critical acclaim.

His discography also includes Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra (Linn), Dvořák's Symphony No. 9, Bruckner’s Mass No. 3 and two Brahms discs with the Bamberg Symphony (Tudor), as well as a number of opera releases on Opus Arte and on Glyndebourne’s own label.

Born in London, Robin Ticciati trained as a violinist, pianist and percussionist. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain when he turned to conducting, aged 15, under the guidance of Sir Colin Davis and Sir Simon Rattle. He was recently appointed ‘Sir Colin Davis Fellow of Conducting’ by the Royal Academy of Music.

Louis Schwizgebel piano

© Marco Borggreve

Schwizgebel was most impressive: slight of build but astonishingly powerful, he highlighted the dark drama of Ravel’s sonorities, yet it was the expressivity of the slow poetic lines that were most potent.

The Guardian, September 2014

Born in Geneva in 1987, Swiss-Chinese pianist Louis Schwizgebel won the Geneva International Music Competition aged 17 and, two years later, the Young Concert Artists International Auditions in New York.

In 2012 he won second prize at the Leeds International Piano Competition and in 2013 he was a BBC New Generation Artist.

orchestras and in solo recital he will perform at London’s Wigmore Hall, Klavierfest Ruhr, at Festival Pianissimmes (Paris) and in duo with violinist Alina Ibragimova. He is looking forward to his debut recital in Hong Kong and to returning to China for four concerts which include performances at Beijing Concert Hall and Shanghai Symphony Hall.

Louis Schwizgebel has performed with many international orchestras including the BBC Symphony, City of Birmingham Symphony, Vienna Symphony, the Orchestre National de Lyon and Shanghai Philharmonic Orchestra. He has worked with conductors such as Edward Gardner, Thierry Fischer, Joshua Weilerstein, Fabio Luisi, Leonard Slatkin, Louis Langrée, Alondra de la Parra, James Gaffigan and Fabian Gabel and this season will work with Lahav Shani and Michael Schønwandt amongst others.

Louis Schwizgebel records for Aparté. His recording of Beethoven’s First and Second Piano Concertos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Thierry Fischer received critical acclaim with Gramophone magazine and his solo disc, Poems, featuring works by Ravel, Liszt, Holliger and Schubert, was given four stars by Germany’s Fono Forum. His recording of Saint-Saëns’s Piano Concertos Nos 2 and 5 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was released earlier this year.

He performs regularly in his native Switzerland, both in recital and with the country’s symphony and chamber orchestras. He has played at all the major festivals including Progetto Martha Argerich, Menuhin Festival Gstaad and Verbier Festival. In 2014 he made his BBC Proms debut with a televised performance of Prokofiev’s First Concerto and recent recital highlights include performances at London’s Wigmore Hall, the Fribourg International Piano Series, Munich’s Herkulesaal and his debut at the Berlin Philharmonic Hall with violinist Benjamin Beilman.

Louis studied with Brigitte Meyer in Lausanne and Pascal Devoyon in Berlin, and then later at the Juilliard School with Emanuel Ax and Robert McDonald, and at London’s Royal Academy of Music with Pascal Nemirovski. He is grateful for the support he has received from the Migros Culture Percentage, Hans Wilsdorf Foundation, Mozart Gesellschaft Dortmund and Animato Foundation. louisschwizgebelpiano.com

In the 2015/16 season he returns to the BBC Symphony, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Lucerne Symphony and makes his debut with the Munich Symphony. Further afield he makes his debut with the Utah Symphony, NAC Ottawa, Winnipeg Symphony and Queensland

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

Programme notes

Speedread A hackneyed old cliché it might be, but two adjectives are most commonly associated with French orchestral music: ‘elegance’ and ‘restraint’. That has rather a lot to do with Gabriel Fauré and Maurice Ravel. Fauré’s trademarks were transparency and cleanliness of texture coupled with a sense of care of his emotions. But Fauré did ‘do’ passion, and if anything could prompt heart-searching from an artist in late 1890s Europe, it was Maurice Maeterlinck’s heart-rending play Pelléas et Mélisande.

While Maurice Ravel owed much to Fauré, he arrived on this earth a generation later, a generation that witnessed upheavals both musical (the emergence

Gabriel Fauré 1845–1924

When Gabriel Fauré was asked to provide incidental music for a performance of Maurice Maeterlinck’s Pelléas et Mélisande at London’s Prince of Wales Theatre in 1898, he made no attempt to match the play’s central dramatic events or psychological undercurrents – Fauré knew he was no Wagner. From early on he seems to have realised that small-scale, intimate forms were his métier. So when Fauré came to write his Pelléas music he tried to capture something of the play’s subtle, dreamlike essence – to provide a kind of musical scene-setting against which the actors could develop their roles for themselves. The famous actress Mrs Patrick Campbell, who played Mélisande in that London production, had chosen Fauré, apparently with something like this in mind. In which case he did not disappoint her: ‘Dear Mr Fauré,’ she recalled, ‘how sympathetically he listened, and how humbly he said 8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

of jazz and popular music) and human (the carnage of the First World War). A sense of nostalgia might peer through the perfect orchestrations of much of Ravel’s most overtly ‘simple’ music, including his Valses nobles et sentimentales. But when he wrote his G major Piano Concerto almost two decades later, Ravel was on excitable form – geed-up by the heady syncopations and exotic blue notes that had entered his ears fresh from the jazz clubs of Harlem.

Ravel’s orchestration may be inspired but Debussy’s impressionistic orchestrations are not to be ignored and his depiction of the sea is unrivalled in its subtlety and evocative sound.

Suite, Pelléas et Mélisande 1 Prélude 2 La Fileuse 3 Sicilienne 4 La Mort de Mélisande

he would do his best! His music came – he had grasped with most tender inspiration the poetic purity that pervades and envelops M. Maeterlinck’s lovely play.’

But Fauré also realised that some of the music was strong enough to stand on its own in concert, so he created a four-movement orchestral suite Pelléas et Mélisande. It comprises three numbers Fauré provided for the London production, plus the rather earlier ‘Sicilienne’ he revived as an entr’acte preceding Act Two. The opening ‘Prélude’ sets the scene for the fateful first encounter between the delicate, otherworldly Mélisande – lost in the forest and distressed by the loss of a mysterious crown – and the troubled, alltoo-earthly prince Golaud. Then comes ‘La Fileuse’, with running string figures imitating the movement of Mélisande’s spinning wheel. The sweetly innocent

flute melody and rippling harp of ‘Sicilienne’ prepare for the scene at the fountain, in which Mélisande loses her ring in the water whilst playing (innocently or knowingly?) with Golaud’s half-brother Pelléas. Finally ‘Le Mort de Mélisande’, with its gentle but hauntingly sad funereal rhythms provides a telling backdrop both for the heroine’s death and Golaud’s subsequent grief and guilt. In the apt words of Fauré’s pupil and friend

Charles Koechlin (orchestrator of the suite, at Fauré’s request), ‘the dull, intense anguish of this Finale, so simply achieved, attains an extraordinary inner pathos’.

Maurice Ravel

Piano Concerto in G major

1875–1937

Ravel composed two piano concertos, both at the same time. They make a fascinating pair, one the darkly Romantic D major Concerto for the Left Hand, and the other this glittering work in G major, described by the composer as ‘a concerto in the strict sense, written in the spirit of Mozart and Saint-Saëns’. The G major was begun in the summer of 1929 while Ravel was staying in the Basque country, but the commission for the D major from the one-armed pianist Paul Wittgenstein supervened, and it was not until November 1931 that the ‘first’ Concerto was finished. Ravel had originally told his pupil Marguerite Long that it was for her, but somewhere along the line he changed his mind and decided that he wanted to perform it himself. He was not, however, a great pianist – despite the extreme difficulty of some of his piano music – and although he entered a rigorous practice regime, concerned friends eventually persuaded him to let Long give the premiere after all. Given at an all-Ravel concert in Paris in January 1932 (with the composer now conducting), it was hailed as a triumph of French art, and immediately taken on a four-month European tour.

Programme note © Stephen Johnson

Louis Schwizgebel piano 1 Allegramente 2 Adagio assai 3 Presto

Basque themes he had begun back in 1911. Ravel’s mother was a Basque, and Spanish music was always a prominent strain in his music, but such popular elements as exist in the G major Concerto are only part of an eclectic mix of readily apparent influences, among them jazz (Ravel had recently visited America, where he had met Gershwin), music-hall, Scarlatti, Mozart and Stravinskian neo-classicism. The end result is a work which is often detached in its cool sophistication and humour, but which at times reaches out to the listener with an emotion that is both powerful and direct.

This expressiveness is at its most exquisite in the hauntingly beautiful central slow movement, described

by Long as ‘one of the most touching melodies to have come from the human heart’. The movement is framed by two brilliant companions, the first a breezy creation based on a succession of themes from both the Spanish and American camps, and the finale a witty rondo whose playfulness and irreverent comedy bring the work to a close in fairground mood.

Programme note © Andrew Mellor

According to one of Ravel’s friends the outer movements were based on ideas from a projected concerto on

Interval – 20 minutes A bell will be rung a few minutes before the end of the interval.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Programme notes continued

Maurice Ravel

In 1911, Maurice Ravel became inspired by two 80-year-old sets of piano works by Franz Schubert.

Ravel opted, with typical understatement, to write some quasi-Viennese piano waltzes for his own private amusement. But that wasn’t to be. In support of a new concert society he’d helped establish, the Société Musicale Indépendante, Ravel agreed to have the eight miniatures of his Valses nobles et sentimentales performed at a concert on 9 May 1911 at the Salle Gaveau in Paris. As was traditional, the Société audience was prompted to guess the composer of each work after its performance. When the pianist Louis Albert arrived at the end of Ravel’s ‘Epilogue’, not only were most in the audience unable to cite Ravel as the composer, but some of his closest colleagues could be heard booing and jeering.

After that, Ravel knew the piece needed re-birthing.

An opportunity came his way when the ballerina Natasha Trouhanova prompted the composer to orchestrate his waltzes and present them as a ballet.

Ravel did so in just 15 days, dreaming up his own scenario (an aristocratic love story) and making his debut as a conductor for the first performance at the Théâtre du Châtelet in June 1912.

The ballet certainly wasn’t a flop, but history has shown that Ravel’s music doesn’t depend on any extraneous staging to come off, which seems in keeping with his original pianistic concept. At the top of the score, in fact, Ravel included a quote from the forgotten French writer Henri de Régnier: ‘The delicious and ever-fresh pleasure of a useless occupation’ it read. There is a direct contrast in this music not only to the very public virtuosity of a

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Valses nobles et sentimentales Modéré – | Assez lent – | Modéré – | Assez animé – | Presque lent – | Vif – | Moins vif – | Epilogue: lent

piece like Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G, but also to the sense of destruction and bitterness that purposefully characterizes Ravel’s monolithic post-war waltz, La Valse.

That piece, however, is foreshadowed in the seventh waltz, ‘Moins vif’, the piece Ravel cited as the most representative of what he was trying to say with his waltz set. Perhaps, wrapped up in that, is the feeling of a goodbye to 19th-century Vienna and its associated cultural landmarks and baggage. After the percussive first waltz, that sense of farewell most apparent in the longing, sentimental ‘Assez lent’; likewise, ‘Presque lent’ can feel like a sentimental recollection of the second ‘Modéré’. Ravel’s final epilogue even seems to glance back at everything that has happened before it.

Here and elsewhere Ravel’s orchestration is unfailingly lucid and deliciously coloured, supporting his gentle dissonances and veiled sensuality. Those elements and more surely prompted the famous comment from Claude Debussy, on hearing the piece, that ‘this is the most subtle ear that can ever have existed’.

Programme note © Andrew Mellor

Claude Debussy 1862–1918

Claude Debussy’s re-imagining of musical purpose and orchestral potential came to the fore in his 1893 depiction of a woodland faun’s erotic fantasies, the Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune. In Debussy’s eyes, Romanticism had been wrung for everything it was worth by a succession of composers from Beethoven to Wagner – from the former’s compelling command to the sonic ecstasy of the latter’s never-resolving harmonies. In the musical ‘Impressionism’ of the Prélude (the composer disliked the term, but it’s useful to an extent), Debussy discovered an orchestral language of implication. Impressionist painters had used short, built-up brush strokes and multiple colours in creating the visual equivalent – leaving explicit details to the imagination of the observer while conjuring a new sense of light and movement. Debussy’s orchestra, too, became a medium of exotic beauty and colour; through his move away from traditional harmonic ‘preparation’ and ‘resolution’, his superimposition of short motifs and his emphasis on passing, shifting textures, Debussy created a language of suggestion – of free thought and mood evocation rather than narrative angst and forthright explanation.

Fast forward 12 years, and Debussy was working on the major orchestral work which is often seen as the Prélude’s sister: La mer (‘The Sea’). By this time, though, fate was dealing the composer a rather different hand to the carefree but determined ambition he’d experienced when writing the Prélude. The composer had walked away from his life – leaving his wife for that of a wealthy banker (Emma Bardac) and abandoning the family home in Paris. In so doing he lost almost all of his friends. He travelled to England in search of emotional respite, and it was in an Eastbourne hotel, overlooking the English Channel, that he put the finishing touches to La mer.

Piano Concerto No. 3 in D minor, Op. 30 La mer Simon Trpčeski 1 De l’aubepiano à midi sur la mer (From Dawn to Noon on the Sea) 1 Allegro tanto 2 Jeuxma denon vagues (Play of Waves) 2 Intermezzo: 3 DialogueAdagio du vent– et de la mer 3 Finale: Alla breve (Dialogue between the Wind and the Sea)

When La mer was first performed in Paris on 15 October 1905 it slightly wrong-footed both the paying audience and the critics who were mapping the composer’s style. From the title of the piece – and those of its three movements – many expected a straightforwardly evocative ‘sea’ piece in the vein of the Grotto Scene from Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande or Sirènes from his Nocturnes. What they got wasn’t a programmatic tone poem but rather a full advancing of the musical principles suggested by the Prélude; the three ‘symphonic sketches’ contain a series of complex episodes and superimposed patterns that encompass a huge descriptive range. The focus, even more than before, is on texture: ‘From Dawn to Noon on the Sea’ sees instruments suggesting a collage of fragmentary ideas but the orchestra as a whole moving together tidally through visions of the sea at different times of day (‘I particularly liked the bit at quarter to eleven’ proffered the biting wit of Erik Satie).

While beautiful fragmentary ideas emerge from the horn and oboe (among others) in ‘Play of Waves’, the movement is one of rhythmic irregularity without much in the way of standard harmonic progression or melodic line. Perhaps the most Impressionistic movement of the three, this world of surface spray and isolated happenings is notably evocative of the seascapes of the Impressionist painters. In the wild, elemental and mysterious exchanges of the ‘Dialogue between the Wind and the Sea’ (this title itself could be a Turner homage), a soaring melodic idea tries to break from the surface, but is drowned by the power of the colliding elements and a final oceanic surge from the orchestra – a forthright break for freedom from Debussy, perhaps, against the waves of criticism levied at him over the Emma Bardac affair.

Programme note © Andrew Mellor London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

at Brighton Dome Concert Hall Saturday 16 January 2016 | 7.30pm

Saturday 27 February 2016 | 7.30pm

Mozart Overture, Lucio Silla Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 Beethoven Symphony No. 7

R Strauss Macbeth Khachaturian Violin Concerto Stravinsky Firebird Suite (1945 version)

Adrian Prabava conductor Stefan Ćirić piano

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Kristóf Baráti violin

Saturday 16 April 2016 | 7.30pm De Falla The Three-cornered Hat (Suite No. 2) Rodrigo Fantasía para un gentilhombre* Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet (excerpts) Jaime Martín conductor Miloš Karadaglić guitar *Please note a change to the work from originally advertised

‘This is some of the best music you will hear in Brighton, full stop, and I cannot wait for their next outing to the seaside.’

Howard Young, Brighton.co.uk Tickets £10–£27.50 (Premium seats £32.50) Ticket Office 01273 709709 Book online at brightondome.org There is a £2 per order charge for online and telephone bookings. Additional postage of 50p also applies if required.

There is no charge for booking in person.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 12

Sunday 3rd January at 2.45pm

KAMILA BYDLOWSKA violin Friday 15th January at 7.30pm

Sunday 14th February at 2.45pm

LEONARD ELSCHENBROICH cello Assembly Hall • Worthing Tickets start from just £18 Call 01903 206 206 or book online at worthingtheatres.co.uk

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works Fauré: Suite, Pelléas et Mélisande London Philharmonic Orchestra | Vernon Handley [Classics for Pleasure] Ravel: Piano Concerto in G Philip Fowke | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Serge Baudo [Classics for Pleasure] Ravel: Valses nobles et sentimentale London Philharmonic Orchestra | Serge Baudo [Classics for Pleasure] Debussy: La mer Berlin Philharmonic | Herbert von Karajan [Classics for Pleasure] London Philharmonic Orchestra | Serge Baudo [Classics for Pleasure]

LPO release The latest release on the LPO label is a live BBC recording by the late great Klaus Tennstedt, the Orchestra's Principal Conductor from 1983 to 1987, in a performance of Beethoven's Coriolan Overture and powerful Symphony No. 5. 'Nobody listens to Beethoven quite like Klaus Tennstedt,' wrote Hilary Finch in The Times in 1992, 'and, because he listens so acutely, his orchestra must, and we in the audience do as well. The dark glass of familiarity is swept aside and we meet the composer face to face.’

The recording is available as a CD and download, priced £6.99, number LPO-0087. lpo.org.uk/recordings

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

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 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 Robert Markwick & Kasia Robinski The Rind Foundation The Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Sir Bernard Rix David Ross & Line Forestier (Canada) Mr Paris Natar 14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Carolina & Martin Schwab Dr Brian Smith Lady Valerie Solti Mr & Mrs G Stein Dr Peter Stephenson Miss Anne Stoddart TFS Loans Limited Lady 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 Queree 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

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors: Thomas Beecham Group The Tsukanov Family Foundation Neil Westreich William and Alex de Winton Mrs Philip Kan* Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBE Bianca & Stuart Roden Laurence Watt Anonymous Jon Claydon Garf & Gill Collins* Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds* Eric Tomsett The Viney Family John & Manon Antoniazzi Jane Attias John & Angela Kessler Guy & Utti Whittaker * BrightSparks Patrons: instead of supporting a chair in the Orchestra, these donors have chosen to support our series of schools’ concerts.

Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams David & Yi Yao Buckley Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Mr Bruno de Kegel David Ellen Mr Daniel Goldstein Drs Frank & Gek Lim Peter MacDonald Eggers Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Mr & Mrs David Malpas Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Grenville & Krysia Williams Mr Anthony Yolland Benefactors Mr Geoffrey Bateman Mrs A Beare Ms Molly Borthwick David & Patricia Buck Mrs Alan Carrington Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Mr Richard Fernyhough Mr Gavin Graham Wim and Jackie Hautekiet-Clare Tony & Susan Hayes Mr Daniel Heaf and Ms Amanda Hill Michael & Christine Henry Malcolm Herring

J. Douglas Home Ivan Hurry Mr Glenn Hurstfield Per Jonsson Mr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Peter Mace Ms Ulrike Mansel Mr Robert Markwick and Ms Kasia Robinski Mr Brian Marsh Andrew T Mills Dr Karen Morton Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Mr Michael Posen Alexey & Anastasia Reznikovich Mr Konstantin Sorokin Martin and Cheryl Southgate Mr Peter Tausig Simon and Charlotte Warshaw Howard & Sheelagh Watson Des & Maggie Whitelock Christopher Williams Bill Yoe and others who wish to remain anonymous Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged: Corporate Members Silver: Accenture Berenberg Carter-Ruck We are AD Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP BTO Management Consulting AG Charles Russell Speechlys Lazard Leventis Overseas Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind Sponsors Google Inc

Trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation The Bernarr Rainbow Trust The Boltini Trust Borletti-Buitoni Trust The Candide Trust Cockayne – Grants for the Arts The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Equitable Charitable Trust The Foyle Foundation Lucille Graham Trust The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Help Musicians UK The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The Leche Trust The London Community Foundation London Stock Exchange Group Foundation Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Marsh Christian Trust Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust

The Ann and Frederick O’Brien Charitable Trust Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs of the Embassy of Spain in London The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust The Stanley Picker Trust The Radcliffe Trust Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust RVW Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter Charitable Trust The John Thaw Foundation The Tillett Trust UK Friends of the Felix-MendelssohnBartholdy-Foundation The Viney Family Garfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust 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 Manon Antoniazzi Roger Barron Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Amanda Hill Dr Catherine C. Høgel Rachel Masters* George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Natasha Tsukanova Mark Vines* Timothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Neil Westreich David Whitehouse* * Player-Director Advisory Council Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson William de Winton Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Sir Bernard Rix Baroness Shackleton Lord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Thomas Sharpe QC Julian Simmonds Martin Southgate Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley Chris Viney Timothy Walker AM Elizabeth Winter American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc. Jenny Ireland Co-Chairman William A. Kerr Co-Chairman Kyung-Wha Chung Alexandra Jupin Jill Fine Mainelli Kristina McPhee Harvey M. Spear, Esq. Danny Lopez Hon. Chairman Noel Kilkenny Hon. Director Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Richard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP Stephanie Yoshida

Chief Executive

Education and Community

Digital Projects

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Isabella Kernot Education Director (maternity leave)

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Director

Amy Sugarman PA to the Chief Executive / Administrative Assistant

Clare Lovett Education Director (maternity cover)

Finance

Talia Lash Education and Community Project Manager

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Lucy Duffy Education and Community Project Manager

Philip Stuart Discographer

David Burke General Manager and Finance Director David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager Dayse Guilherme Finance Officer

Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

Concert Management

Development

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Nick Jackman Development Director

Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager

Catherine Faulkner Development Events Manager

Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator

Kathryn Hageman Individual Giving Manager Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations Manager Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager Rebecca Fogg Development Co-ordinator

Jo Cotter Tours Co-ordinator

Helen Yang Development Assistant

Orchestra Personnel

Kirstin Peltonen Development Associate

Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager Sarah Holmes Sarah Thomas Librarians (job-share) Christopher Alderton Stage Manager

Marketing Kath Trout Marketing Director Libby Northcote-Green Marketing Manager

Damian Davis Transport Manager

Rachel Williams Publications Manager (maternity leave)

Madeleine Ridout Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah Breeden Publications Manager (maternity cover)

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Samantha Cleverley Box Office Manager (Tel: 020 7840 4242) Anna O’Connor Marketing Co-ordinator Natasha Berg Marketing Intern

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant Public Relations

Archives

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive Professional Services Charles Russell Speechlys Solicitors Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor 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.

Composer photographs courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.

Front cover photograph: Martin Höhmann, First Violin © Benjamin Ealovega. Cover design / art direction: Ross Shaw @ JMG Studio.

Printed by Cantate.