28 Oct 09 - LPO Programme notes

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Principal Conductor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Leader PIETER SCHOEMAN Composer in Residence MARK-ANTHONY TURNAGE Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER

20/10/09

NEEME JÄRVI conductor YEVGENY SUDBIN piano

SCRIABIN Rêverie (4’)

(27’)

INTERVAL WAGNER (arr. de Vlieger) The Ring, an Orchestral Adventure

†

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AM†

SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Wednesday 28 October 2009 | 7.30 pm

SCRIABIN Piano Concerto in F sharp minor

16:37

(66’)

supported by Macquarie Group

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

PROGRAMME £3 CONTENTS 2 List of Players 3 Orchestra History 4 Southbank Centre 5 Neeme Järvi 6 Yevgeny Sudbin 7 Programme notes 11 Recordings 12 Family Concert 13 Supporters 14 Philharmonic News 15 Administration 16 Future Concerts

The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide.

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

FIRST VIOLINS Natalia Lomeiko Guest Leader Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader Benjamin Roskams Catherine Craig Thomas Eisner Martin Höhmann Chair supported by Richard Karl Goeltz

Robert Pool Florence Schoeman Sarah Streatfeild Yang Zhang Peter Nall Alain Petitclerc Rebecca Shorrock Galina Tanney Joanne Chen Alex Afia SECOND VIOLINS Clare Duckworth Principal Chair supported by Richard and Victoria Sharp

Joseph Maher Kate Birchall Chair supported by David and Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy Elan Fiona Higham Nynke Hijlkema Marie-Anne Mairesse Imogen Williamson Peter Graham Stephen Stewart Mila Mustakova Sheila Law Elizabeth Baldey Steve Dinwoodie VIOLAS Alexander Zemtsov* Principal Robert Duncan Anthony Byrne Chair supported by John and Angela Kessler

Benedetto Pollani

Emmanuella Reiter Daniel Cornford Alistair Scahill Martin Fenn Karin Norlen Sarah Malcolm Pamela Ferriman Miriam Eisele CELLOS Kristina Blaumane Principal Chair supported by Simon Yates and Kevin Roon

Francis Bucknall Jonathan Ayling Sue Sutherley Tom Roff David Bucknall Francois Rive Philip Taylor Tae-Mi Song Grace Chen DOUBLE BASSES Kevin Rundell* Principal Laurence Lovelle George Peniston David Johnson Helen Rowlands Catherine Ricketts Jeremy Gordon Li Boberg FLUTES Laura Lucas Guest Principal Jane Spiers Katie Bicknell Francis Nolan PICCOLOS Katie Bicknell Guest Principal Francis Nolan OBOES Ian Hardwick Principal Owen Dennis Alison Alty

COR ANGLAIS Sue Bohling Principal Chair supported by Julian and Gill Simmonds

CLARINETS Robert Hill* Principal Andrew Mason Chi Yu Mo E FLAT CLARINET Chi Yu Mo BASS CLARINET Paul Richards Principal BASSOONS John Price Principal Gareth Newman* Simon Estell HORNS Richard Bissill* Principal John Ryan Principal Martin Hobbs Adrian Uren Angela Barnes Anthony Chidell Brendan Thomas Timothy Ball Marcus Bates

BASS TRUMPET David Whitehouse TROMBONES Mark Templeton* Principal David Whitehouse Blair Sinclair BASS TROMBONES Lyndon Meredith Principal David Vines CONTRA BASS TROMBONE David Vines TUBA Lee Tsarmaklis Principal TIMPANI Simon Carrington* Principal Antoine Bedewi PERCUSSION Keith Millar Principal Benedict Hoffnung Ignacio Molins HARPS Gabriella Dall’Olio Guest Principal Emma Ramsdale

WAGNER TUBAS Richard Bissill* Principal Martin Hobbs Brendan Thomas Timothy Ball OFFSTAGE HORN Hugh Seenan TRUMPETS Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney* Chair supported by Geoff and Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporter whose player is not present at this concert: Mrs Steven Ward

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

© Richard Cannon

Seventy-seven years after Sir Thomas Beecham founded the London Philharmonic Orchestra, it is recognised today as one of the finest orchestras on the international stage. Following Beecham’s influential founding tenure the Orchestra’s Principal Conductorship has been passed from one illustrious musician to another, amongst them Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. This impressive tradition continued in September 2007 when Vladimir Jurowski became the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, and in a further exciting move, the Orchestra appointed Yannick Nézet-Séguin, its new Principal Guest Conductor from September 2008.

Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Mark-Anthony Turnage. Imaginative programming and a commitment to new music are at the heart of the Orchestra’s activity, with regular commissions and world première performances.

In addition to its London season, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. It is unique in combining these concert activities with esteemed opera performances each summer at Glyndebourne Festival Opera where it has been the Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has been performing The London Philharmonic Orchestra performs to enthusiastic audiences all round the world. In 1956 it at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall since it opened became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet in 1951, becoming Resident Orchestra in 1992. It plays Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a there around 40 times each season with many of the Western orchestra. Touring continues to form a world’s most sought after conductors and soloists. significant part of the Orchestra’s schedule, with regular Concert highlights in 2009/10 include Between Two appearances in North America, Europe and the Far East, Worlds – an exploration of the music and times of Alfred Schnittke; a Sibelius symphony cycle with Osmo Vänskä in January/February 2010; a performance of Mendelssohn’s Elijah ‘The LPO rose to the occasion with some very fine conducted by Kurt Masur and dedicated to playing: eloquent solo work combined with fullthe 20th Anniversary of the Fall of the Berlin textured passages of often sumptuous beauty.’

Wall; and new works by Rautavaara, Górecki, Philip Glass, Ravi Shankar and the BARRY MILLINGTON, EVENING STANDARD, 4 SEPTEMBER 2009

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WELCOME TO SOUTHBANK CENTRE

often headlining at major festivals. Tours in 2009/10 include visits to Germany, Australia, France, China, the Canaries and the USA. Having long been embraced by the recording, broadcasting and film industries, the London Philharmonic Orchestra broadcasts regularly on domestic and international television and radio. It also works extensively with the Hollywood and UK film industries, recording soundtracks for blockbuster motion pictures including the Oscar-winning score for The Lord of the Rings trilogy and scores for Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East.

The Orchestra also enjoys strong relationships with the major record labels and in 2005 began reaching out to new global audiences through the release of live, studio and archive recordings on its own CD label. Recent additions to the catalogue have included acclaimed releases of Shostakovich’s monumental Tenth Symphony under Bernard Haitink; a disc of contemporary works by composers Thomas Adès, James MacMillan and Jennifer Higdon conducted by Marin Alsop; Rachmaninov’s Symphony 3 along with Bax’s Tintagel conducted by Osmo Vänskä; a CD of early Britten works conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; and Mahler’s Symphony 6 under the baton of Klaus Tennstedt. The Orchestra’s own-label releases are available to download by work or individual track from its website: www.lpo.org.uk/shop.

The Orchestra reaches thousands of Londoners through its rich programme of community and school-based activity in Lambeth, Lewisham and Southwark, which includes the offshoot ensembles Renga and The Band, its Foyle Future Firsts apprenticeship scheme for outstanding young instrumentalists, and regular family and schools concerts.

To help maintain its high standards and diverse workload, the Orchestra is committed to the welfare of its musicians and in December 2007 received the Association of British Orchestras/Musicians Benevolent Fund Healthy Orchestra Bronze Charter Mark.

There are many ways to experience and stay in touch with the Orchestra’s activities: visit www.lpo.org.uk, subscribe to our podcast series and join us on Facebook.

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

We hope you enjoy your visit. We have a Duty Manager available at all times. If you have any queries please ask any member of staff for assistance.

Eating, drinking and shopping? Southbank Centre shops and restaurants include: MDC music and movies, Foyles, EAT, Giraffe, Strada, wagamama, Le Pain Quotidien, Las Iguanas, ping pong, Canteen, Caffé Vergnano 1882, Skylon and Feng Sushi, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside the Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Hayward Gallery.

If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact our Head of Customer Relations at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, by phone on 020 7960 4250 or by email at 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, PAGERS AND WATCHES should be switched off before the performance begins

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NEEME JÄRVI

Frederick Stucker

CONDUCTOR

The head of a musical dynasty, Maestro Neeme Järvi is one of today’s most respected conductors. He conducts many of the world’s most prominent orchestras and works alongside soloists of the highest calibre. A prolific recording artist, he has amassed a discography of over 440 recordings.

Recent engagements have included concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, and the major orchestras of Scandinavia. In the USA he is regularly invited to conduct the Chicago Symphony, Detroit Symphony and Philadelphia Orchestras as well as the National Symphony Orchestra, Washington. In earlier seasons operatic engagements have taken him to the Metropolitan Opera, Opéra de Paris (Bastille), San Francisco Opera and Téatro Colon in Buenos Aires. He has collaborated with soloists such as Janine Jansen, Hélène Grimaud, Evgeny Kissin, Lang Lang, Truls Mørk and Radu Lupu.

This season he opened the Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra’s season and will return to the Royal Scottish National Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. He also makes two journeys to China: first, for a tour with the Residentie Orkest, and then later in the season to conduct the Shanghai Symphony Orchestra and the China Philharmonic Orchestra.

He also holds the titles of Music Director Emeritus of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra, Principal Conductor Emeritus of the National Orchestra of Sweden – the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra, First Principal Guest Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic Orchestra and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. From the 2010/11 season he will become Principal Conductor of the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra.

Highlights of an impressive discography include critically acclaimed complete symphony cycles of Prokofiev, Sibelius, Nielsen and Brahms. He has also championed less widely known composers such as Wilhelm Stenhammar, Hugo Alfvén and Niels Gade; and composers from his native Estonia including Rudolf Tobias, Eduard Tubin and Arvo Pärt. He has recorded with Chandos, Deutsche Grammophon, BIS and EMI to name a few. His recent Chandos disc of Wagner’s The Ring, An Orchestral Adventure (arranged by Henk de Vlieger), received rave reviews; Edward Greenfield described it as ‘an excellent disc’ in Gramophone magazine.

Many international accolades and awards have been bestowed upon Neeme Järvi. In Estonia these include an honorary doctorate from the Music Academy of Estonia in Tallinn, and the Order of the National Coat of Arms from the President of the Republic of Estonia, Mr Lennart Meri. The mayor of Tallinn presented Maestro Järvi with the city’s first-ever ceremonial sash and coat of arms insignia, and he has been named one of the ‘Estonians of the Century’. Neeme Järvi holds an honorary doctorate of Humane Letters from Detroit’s Wayne State University and the University of Michigan, as well as honorary doctorates from the University of Aberdeen and the Royal Swedish Academy of Music.

He has also received the Commander of the North Star Order from King Karl Gustav XVI of Sweden.

Over his long and highly successful career he has held positions with orchestras across the world. He is currently Chief Conductor of the Residentie Orkest in The Hague, Netherlands, and Conductor Laureate and Artistic Adviser of the New Jersey Symphony Orchestra.

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YEVGENY SUDBIN PIANO

Mark Harrison

and North Carolina Symphony Orchestras. In Europe, he has appeared with the Warsaw Philharmonic and the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestras. His performance of Rachmaninoff's Concerto 1 at the 2008 BBC Proms was described by the Daily Telegraph as ‘sublime’.

Yevgeny Sudbin has been hailed by the Daily Telegraph as ‘potentially one of the greatest pianists of the 21st century.’ He is in the midst of a 7-year and 14-album collaboration with BIS Records, his recordings having met with overwhelming critical acclaim. His release of works by Scriabin was chosen as CD of the Year by the Daily Telegraph, CD of the Month by BBC Music Magazine, and was awarded the MIDEM Classical Award for best solo instrument CD at Cannes.

Sudbin has performed in many of the world's finest venues, both in recital and with orchestra. Highlights of summer 2009 included a recital at the Singapore International Piano Festival, and a performance of Mozart's Piano Concerto 12, K. 414 with the Indianapolis Symphony Orchestra at Conner Prairie. He also performed Rachmaninoff's Concerto 1 with the Grand Teton Music Festival Orchestra and Beethoven's Concerto 4 with the Mostly Mozart Festival Orchestra at Lincoln Center's Avery Fisher Hall, both under Osmo Vänskä.

This season Sudbin will give recitals at Tonhalle Zurich, Wigmore Hall London, Concertgebouw Amsterdam, San Francisco and in San Juan, Puerto Rico. Orchestral engagements include performances of Shostakovich’s Piano Concerto 2 with the Philharmonia under Sokhiev, Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra and Beethoven's Concerto 5 with the Minnesota Orchestra, which will also be recorded for BIS. Sudbin has appeared with many of the world's most distinguished orchestras. Recent North American engagements include performances with the Minnesota, Seattle Symphony, San Francisco Symphony,

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Recent recitals have taken him to Atlanta's Spivey Hall, Seattle's Meany Hall, the Harriman-Jewell Series in Kansas City, the Piano Forte Series at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, and the Aspen Music Festival. He has played at venues such as the Musikhalle in Hamburg, the Gewandhaus in Leipzig, the Schauspielhaus in Berlin, the Salle Gaveau in Paris and the Sala Verdi in Milan, as well as at London's Southbank Centre and Wigmore Hall, where he performs annually.

Sudbin has performed at music festivals throughout the world, and is a frequent participant at the Verbier Festival in Switzerland. His love of chamber music has led him to collaborate with many other musicians including Alexander Chaushian, Ilya Gringolts, Hilary Hahn and Julia Fischer.

In 2008/09, Sudbin embarked on recording the complete cycle of Beethoven concertos for BIS with the Minnesota Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä. During 2007/08, he recorded Rachmaninoff's Concerto 4, in its original 1926 version, with the North Carolina Symphony Orchestra under Grant Llewellyn. That work is to be paired with Medtner's Concerto 2, which was recorded with the same orchestra for release this year.

Born in St Petersburg in 1980, Yevgeny Sudbin displayed exceptional musical talent from an early age and in 1987 entered the Specialist Music School of the St Petersburg Conservatory. In 1990 he continued his studies in Berlin and then moved to London where he has lived since 1997, and where he studied with Christopher Elton at the Royal Academy of Music.

Additionally, he attended the International Piano Foundation at Lake Como, Italy. He has taken lessons with Murray Perahia, Claude Frank, Leon Fleisher, Stephen Hough, Alexander Satz and others. The Pulvermacher Foundation, Alexis Gregory Foundation, and Wall Trust have also played important roles in Yevgeny's career.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

SPEEDREAD At the proverbial fantasy dinner party, you’d be guaranteed lively conversation if Richard Wagner and Alexander Scriabin graced your dining room table. Both are poll-position contenders for the title Greatest Egomaniac in Musical History, though both would doubtless have protested that their supreme vision stretched far beyond the bounds of mere music.

Wagner’s creative manifesto involved a total reappraisal of not just opera but entire social structures. Scriabin believed himself nothing less than a messiah, destined to bring about cataclysmic worldwide change during the course of one extraordinary concert.

From where we stand now, it can look like Wagner delivered where Scriabin didn’t. Both believed their greatest works deserved specially designed auditoriums,

Alexander SCRIABIN

but only Wagner got his built: Scriabin’s cataclysmic concert showcasing his self-aggrandising magnum opus Mysterium didn’t get off the ground, whereas Wagner’s vastly ambitious Ring cycle did and has remained at the very centre of the repertoire ever since. It is heard tonight in a heavily abridged but still compelling arrangement.

But for all Scriabin’s bizarre and boundless beliefs, we should afford him the dignity of judging him on those musical works he did complete. In that sense, he doesn’t disappoint. His utterly unique view of music made him a vital element in the artistic discourse that ushered in the 20th century following Wagner’s death. Scriabin’s otherworldly treatment of harmony, his individual approach to orchestration and his reflection of mysticism in music led to a style which was all his own, and was emerging even in those early orchestral creations we hear tonight.

RÊVERIE, OP. 24

1872-1915

It’s Alexander Scriabin’s utter individuality – incorporating his extraordinary beliefs – that makes him such a significant composer. Scriabin had a truly global imagination that stretched far beyond music’s accepted boundaries. For him, performance was a participatory act that had almost baptismal effects on its gathered audience. Technically he was equally visionary: as his musical language progressed, it somehow transcended tonality – the traditional harmonic language of western music – not progressing towards modernist ‘atonality’ but rather developing a tonal language all of its own.

Not long after his death, though, the commentator Boris de Schloezer described Scriabin as ‘the only true romantic musician produced by Russia’. The two works we hear tonight, created early in Scriabin’s career, reveal

the late Romantic underlay to his musical voice that remained, in part, even after his stylistic rollercoaster ride got under way at the turn of the twentieth century.

Rêverie (‘Day Dreams’) is Scriabin’s first proper creation for orchestra without a solo instrument. Immediately discernible is the individuality – day-dreaming ‘freedom’ perhaps – of the composer’s harmonies. But Scriabin also deals with his instruments with originality; there are sonorities in the instrumental ranges and combinations that were quite new in 1898 when the piece was first performed. The next time audiences would hear a bassoon cleaving to notes at the very top of its register would be when Stravinsky unveiled his Rite of Spring.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Alexander SCRIABIN

PIANO CONCERTO IN F SHARP MINOR, OP. 20 YEVGENY SUDBIN piano Allegro | Andante | Allegro moderato

1872-1915 Rêverie’s brevity, together with its swift working up towards a heated climax and back down again, has seen it compared to the piano miniatures of Frederic Chopin.

That composer heavily influenced Scriabin’s early piano works. But already at the time of the Piano Concerto, completed two years before Rêverie was first performed, Scriabin was moving towards a more wholeheartedly Romantic sound. Chopin’s shadow remains in the intricacy and detail of the writing, but the first movement’s spinning out of a string melody beneath piano decoration points veritably towards Rachmaninoff, as does the naturalised Slavic feel of Scriabin’s weaving themes.

In addition, and as we heard in Rêverie, signs of the radical Scriabin that emerged after 1900 are beginning to reveal themselves. The composer’s ‘synaesthetic’

ability to instinctively translate musical notes into colours would become increasingly important, and this concerto’s central Andante, a set of variations, adopts that principle – cast reportedly in the ‘bright blue’ of F sharp minor.

In the final movement you can sense the curious brand of radiance which would become so recognisably Scriabin’s own: neither Romantic, impressionistic nor atonal; so teasing with the listener’s expectations. All this, and there remains a distinctly Chopinesque sense of reigned-in proportion and refinement to the piece.

St Petersburg was unimpressed at the première in October 1897. Seventeen years later, though, Scriabin found a warm and appreciative audience for the concerto, its eyes transfixed on him at the piano stool. It was here, in London.

INTERVAL 20 minutes An announcement will be made five minutes before the end of the interval.

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Richard WAGNER

THE RING, AN ORCHESTRAL ADVENTURE

1813-1883

arr. Henk de Vlieger (born 1953) There can be no greater theatrical adventure than Richard Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. Four operas, fifteen hours, nine gods, twelve mortals, three waternymphs, two dwarfs, two giants, one superhero and a dragon: even The Ring’s cast list blasts every other opera out of the water (which it has in plenteous quantities too, in the form of an overflowing River Rhine).

And like that assembly of unlikely stage companions, a fistful of varied artistic innovations also met when the operas were first performed at a specially built theatre in 1876. Costumes, lighting, pyrotechnics, conjuring effects and stage mechanics the likes of which had never been used before would have been experienced

by The Ring’s first audience. What that audience wouldn’t have glimpsed is a single musical instrument: Wagner’s orchestra was hidden from view, sat on the succession of steep steps that formed the world’s first invisible orchestra pit.

The music Wagner wrote for that orchestra is exceptional. In The Ring, the composer broke entirely free from classical principles, invented new instruments (look out for Wagner tubas over by the horns), created and developed the leitmotif, and – depending on which scholar you ask – laid the foundations for serialism or the Hollywood movie score. While he counted each individual component of his stage creation as sacred and equal, it’s ironic but somehow inevitable that Wagner’s music for The Ring should remain highly affecting even when heard in isolation, without the paraphernalia of the composer’s extra-musical imagination.

Concert performances and audio recordings of The Ring do just that. But the music heard tonight goes one step further – lifting the galleon-like voices from the surface of Wagner’s musical ocean, and telescoping the musico-

dramatic material into the span of one hour. The notes on the page are almost entirely Wagner’s unaltered own, and the resulting piece feels rather like a gondola ride past depictions of The Ring’s major characters and events.

The challenges laid down to Dutch composer and percussionist Henk de Vlieger when he set about creating this ‘orchestral adventure’ were those of unity, coherence and notably natural-feeling transition – the latter being amongst Wagner’s most distinct strengths.

But Wagner has, in reality, helped de Vlieger rather than hindered him: the original score for The Ring so often dredges up major musical themes before manipulating them and transforming them seamlessly. De Vlieger, therefore, has the opportunity to utilise Wagner’s own masterful moments of transition in ‘cutting and pasting’ passages of music together where necessary.

So, down to the Orchestral Adventure’s content. An environmental warning before its time, The Ring tells of the corrupting power of gold, extracted from the River Rhine, which is where de Vlieger starts: we hear Wagner’s prelude to Das Rheingold (the first opera), which is based entirely on a triad of E flat major and describes the beginning of the world and thence the Rhine’s wide, strong flow. The music eventually modulates, and after the falling semitone motif of the Rhinemaidens we hear the hammering anvils of the dwarf Alberich’s Nibelung tribe. Alberich steals the gold only to have the resulting ring taken from him by Wotan, the god whose gleaming castle, Valhalla, towers over the operas and is embodied in a serenely unfolding theme which you haven’t heard the last of.

About twelve minutes in de Vlieger leaves the world of Das Rhinegold and launches into that of Die Walküre with the famous Ride of the Valkyries and then the

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PROGRAMME NOTES

Magic Fire music – the latter representing the wall of flame which surrounds the home of Valkyrie, Brünnhilde, (Wotan’s daughter). Material from the third opera, Siegfried, follows thereafter: in Forest Murmurs, de Vlieger utilises music Wagner himself arranged from the opera in a concert version; here woodwinds flutter over gently rustling strings as the hero Siegfried realises, having slain the dragon and tasted its blood, that he can understand the language of birdsong.

Listen out for the distant, solo horn calls. These spell out the two main musical motifs associated with Siegfried, the hero who dominates the narrative from here on. The motifs are developed in the music that immediately follows, and it’s worth pausing briefly here to illustrate a musical point. In exploiting his leitmotifs – musical phrases representing a person or idea – Wagner does far more than simply recall them for use as plot-aiding signposts. Siegfried’s themes are themselves developed as part of the unfolding drama. Listen as the horn theme is cross-fertilised with the Magic Fire and Woodbird (from Forest Murmurs) motifs heard earlier and further altered, changed and developed to represent the hero’s progress, vulnerability and success.

We leave the third opera with the strains of Brünnhilde’s Awakening and then enter the world of Götterdämmerung, (The Twilight of the Gods), with the

rapturous romance of Brünnhilde and Siegfried that appears in that opera’s prologue. This final chapter contains some of Wagner’s most arresting and finely crafted orchestral music, hence its dominant position in de Vlieger’s arrangement. Much of the music heard is taken verbatum from the final opera’s two original orchestral interludes: Siegfried’s Rhine Journey and Siegfried’s Funeral Music. (Listen for loud, jabbing brass salvos countered by low, shuffling strings that herald the latter.) The two are separated by the murder of the hero by Hagen, son of the dwarf Alberich whom we met in Das Rhinegold.

De Vlieger ends where Wagner does: instruments replace the voice of the despairing Brünnhilde, who rides her horse into Siegfried’s funeral pyre. The Rhine overflows and reclaims its gold. The last four minutes of music, minus a final three-note utterance from Hagen as he plunges into the water after the ring, is exactly as heard in the opera house. Wotan’s castle Valhalla burns and the gods are destroyed. The major musical motifs of the drama are transformed into their final, valedictory states. Technically, emotionally and sonically, it’s an extraordinary conclusion, whether rounding off fifteen hours of music or just one.

Programme notes by Andrew Mellor © 2009

NEW CD RELEASE Neeme Järvi conducts Dvo˘rák’s Requiem SPECIAL OFFER | £9.99 (usual price £10.99) until 9 November 2009 Never performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra before, and rarely heard in concert at all, the Requiem by Antonín Dvo˘rák captured on this CD from a live concert seems a near-forgotten masterpiece. Dvo˘rák scholar Gervase Hughes cites this work for four soloists, chorus and orchestra as one of the composer’s finest sacred creations: ‘a deeply moving expression of faith on the part of a composer whose religious conviction never wavered’. It’s a conviction stamped through the composer’s illuminating, fervent score.

To buy call the London Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office on 020 7840 4242 (Monday-Friday, 10am-5pm) or go to www.lpo.org.uk/shop.

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‘This is wonderful playing and sound, and Mr Järvi knows exactly what to do to make the music speak.’

American Record Guide

‘… a penetrating symphonic poem that reflects the dramatic depths of The Ring.’

CHSA 5060

Classic FM

Look out for De Vlieger’s Parsifal, Lohegrin and Tannhauser in 2010 Available in-store at MDC, online and high quality download

www.theclassicalshop.net

Chandos Records Ltd, Chandos House, 1 Commerce Park, Commerce Way, Colchester, Essex, CO2 8HX Tel: +44(0)1206 225200 Fax: +44(0)1206 225 201 www.chandos.net

RECORDINGS ON THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA’S OWN RECORD LABEL

LPO-0003 Klaus Tennstedt conducts orchestral excerpts from Wagner operas ‘Every bar of these performances is filled with the extra adrenalin that one expects at a really memorable concert.’

BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE

DUE FOR RELEASE IN NOVEMBER LPO-0042 Neeme Järvi conducts Dvo˘rák’s Requiem. Recorded live at the Royal Festival Hall on 7 February 2009 with Lisa Milne, Karen Cargill, Peter Auty, Peter Rose and the London Philharmonic Choir

The recordings may be downloaded in high quality MP3 format from www.lpo.org.uk/shop. They may also be purchased from all good retail outlets or through the London Philharmonic Orchestra: telephone 020 7840 4242 (Mon-Fri 10am-5pm) or visit the website www.lpo.org.uk

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TICKETS 0844 847 9929

Robin Rhode is a Southbank Centre Artist in Residence supported by

London FUNharmonics Family Concert

The Sea Sunday 8 November 2009 | 11.30 am Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall Walton Overture, Portsmouth Point Rimsky-Korsakov The Sea and Sinbad’s Ship from ‘Scheherazade’ Marianelli The Whale’s Tale Arr. Wood Fantasia on British Sea Songs (excerpts) Zimmer Pirates of the Caribbean (main theme) David Angus conductor Chris Jarvis presenter Tickets: Child £4 - £7; Adult £8 - £14 For booking details see page 16.

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We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group Patrons, Principal Benefactors and Benefactors: Thomas Beecham Group Mr & Mrs Richard & Victoria Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds Mrs Steven Ward Simon Yates & Kevin Roon Garf & Gill Collins David & Victoria Graham Fuller Richard Karl Goeltz John & Angela Kessler Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Eric Tomsett Guy & Utti Whittaker Principal Benefactors Mark & Elizabeth Adams Jane Attias Lady Jane Berrill Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler Mr Charles Dumas David Ellen Commander Vincent Evans

Mr Daniel Goldstein Mrs Barbara Green Mr Ray Harsant Oliver Heaton Peter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David Malpas Andrew T Mills Mr Maxwell Morrison Mr & Mrs Thierry Sciard Mr John Soderquist & Mr Costas Michaelides Mr & Mrs G Stein Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland Benefactors Mrs A Beare Dr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRS Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen Mr Alistair Corbett Mr David Edgecombe Mr Richard Fernyhough Ken Follett Michael & Christine Henry

Mr Glenn Hurstfield Mr R K Jeha Mr & Mrs Maurice Lambert Mr Gerald Levin Sheila Ashley Lewis Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Mr Frank Lim Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Brian Marsh Ms Sarah Needham Mr & Mrs Egil Oldeide Edmund Pirouet Mr Michael Posen Mr Peter Tausig Mrs Kazue Turner Lady Marina Vaizey Mr D Whitelock Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd Hon. Life Members Kenneth Goode Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged.

Corporate Members Gold Deloitte & Touche Silver British American Business Man Group plc Bronze Appleyard & Trew llp Charles Russell Destination Québec – UK Diagonal Consulting Lazard Leventis Overseas Québec Government Office in London Corporate Donors Lombard Street Research Redpoint Energy Limited In-kind Sponsors Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sela Sweets Ltd

The United Grand Lodge of England Villa Maria Education Partners Lambeth City Learning Centre London Borough of Lambeth Southwark EiC Trusts and Foundations Adam Mickiewicz Institute Allianz Cultural Foundation The Bernard Sunley Charitable Foundation Borletti-Buitoni Trust The Candide Charitable Trust The John S Cohen Foundation The Coutts Charitable Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund The Emmanuel Kaye Foundation The Equitable Charitable Trust The Eranda Foundation The Ernest Cook Trust The Fenton Arts Trust

The Foyle Foundation Garfield Weston Foundation The Henry Smith Charity The Idlewild Trust John Lyon’s Charity John Thaw Foundation The Jonathan & Jeniffer Harris Trust The Sir Jules Thorn Charitable Trust Lord Ashdown Charitable Settlement Marsh Christian Trust Maurice Marks Charitable Trust Maxwell Morrison Charitable Trust The Michael Marks Charitable Trust Musicians Benevolent Fund Paul Morgan Charitable Trust The R K Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust Sergei Rachmaninoff Foundation Stansfield Trust The Underwood Trust and others who wish to remain anonymous.

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PHILHARMONIC NEWS

More Wagner If you enjoyed the Wagner this evening, you will be glad to know there is more music by the composer next month. On 4 November Christoph Eschenbach conducts Wagner’s Overture, Tannhäuser and Wesendonk-Lieder (with mezzo soprano, Petra Lang). On 18 November Vladimir Jurowski conducts the Prelude and Good Friday Spell from ‘Parsifal’ as part of our Schnittke Festival.

Between Two Worlds – A festival exploring the life and work of Alfred Schnittke From 15 November to 1 December, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski present a series of events featuring music by Alfred Schnittke.

In conjunction with three major concerts at Royal Festival Hall, there are two events at the Royal College of Music – an orchestral concert when Jurowski conducts the Royal College of Music Symphony Orchestra in Schnittke’s Gogol Suite and Monologue, and Prokofiev’s Symphony 6; and a choral concert when the Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir performs works by Schnittke, Bortnyansky, Rachmaninoff, Chesnokov and Shchedrin with their conductor Boris Tevlin.

A study day at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 22 November, In the Labyrinth of Alfred Schnittke, will further explore his music in discussions, demonstrations and performances of some of his chamber works and works for small orchestra.

Free pre-concert events at Royal Festival Hall will include a performance of the Schnittke String Quartet 3 by the Harpham Quartet at 6.15pm on 18 November, a performance by the Orchestra’s Foyle Future Firsts ensemble conducted by Jurowski at 6pm on 25 November and a discussion of Schnittke’s life and music with Vladimir Jurowski, cellist Alexander Ivashkin and his widow Irina Schnittke at 6pm on 28 November.

Schnittke’s prolific work for the cinema will also be celebrated in screenings of some of the films for which he wrote scores. At 2.30pm on 28 November there will be a screening of Elem Klimov’s 1974 film The Agony music from which was used in the finale of the Cello

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Pick up a leaflet in the foyer this evening for full details of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Schnittke Festival

Concerto 2 to be performed that evening. The film, which was banned in the Soviet Union for fifteen years, is an account of Rasputin’s influence on Russia’s monarchy. There will also be screenings of other films – Larisa, The Ascent and The Commissar – at Pushkin House on 26 and 27 November.

As part of Leonidas Kavakos: An Artists in Focus and the International Chamber Music Season at Southbank Centre, Kavakos will take part in a performance of Schnittke’s String Trio along with Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 1 December.

To find out more, pick up a leaflet in the foyer or visit www.lpo.org.uk/Schnittke where there are sound clips of the music being performed, podcasts, interviews and videoclips.

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ADMINISTRATION

BOARD OF DIRECTORS

GENERAL ADMINISTRATION

Martin Höhmann Chairman Stewart McIlwham Vice-Chairman Sue Bohling Simon Carrington Lord Currie* Jonathan Dawson* Anne McAneney George Peniston Sir Bernard Rix* Kevin Rundell Sir Philip Thomas Sir John Tooley* The Rt Hon. Lord Wakeham DL* Timothy Walker AM †

Timothy Walker AM † Chief Executive and Artistic Director

*Non-Executive Directors

THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC TRUST Pehr Gyllenhammar Chairman Desmond Cecil CMG Sir George Christie CH Richard Karl Goeltz Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. Høgel Martin Höhmann Angela Kessler Clive Marks OBE FCA Victoria Sharp Julian Simmonds Dr John Viney Timothy Walker AM † Laurence Watt Simon Yates AMERICAN FRIENDS OF THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, INC. We are very grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for its support of the Orchestra’s activities in the USA. PROFESSIONAL SERVICES Charles Russell Solicitors Deloitte & Touche Auditors Dr Louise Miller Honorary Doctor

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager Julius Hendriksen Assistant to the Chief Executive and Artistic Director FINANCE David Burke Finance Director David Greenslade Finance and IT Manager Joshua Foong Finance Officer

EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY PROGRAMME

ARCHIVES Edmund Pirouet Consultant

Matthew Todd Education and Community Director

Philip Stuart Discographer

Anne Newman Education Officer

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

Isobel Timms Community Officer

INTERN

Alec Haylor Education and Community Assistant

Christina Hickman Marketing

Richard Mallett Education and Community Producer

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 Fax: 020 7840 4201 Box Office: 020 7840 4242

DEVELOPMENT

CONCERT MANAGEMENT

Emma O’Connell Development Director

Roanna Chandler Concerts Director

Phoebe Rouse Corporate Relations Manager

Ruth Sansom Artistic Administrator

Sarah Tattersall Corporate Relations and Events Manager

Graham Wood Concerts, Recordings and Glyndebourne Manager Alison Jones Concerts Co-ordinator Hattie Garrard Tours and Engagements Manager Camilla Begg Concerts and Tours Assistant Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant ORCHESTRA PERSONNEL Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager Sarah Thomas Librarian Michael Pattison Stage Manager Hannah Tucker Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager Ken Graham Trucking Instrument Transportation (Tel: 01737 373305)

Anna Gover Charitable Giving Officer Melissa Van Emden Corporate Relations and Events Officer MARKETING Kath Trout Marketing Director Janine Howlett Marketing Manager Brighton, Eastbourne, Community & Education

www.lpo.org.uk Visit the website for full details of London Philharmonic Orchestra activities.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045.

Photographs of Scriabin and Wagner courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.

Photograph on the front cover

by Benjamin Ealovega.

Programmes printed by Cantate.

Frances Cook Publications Manager Samantha Kendall Box Office Administrator (Tel: 020 7840 4242) Heather Barstow Marketing Co-ordinator Valerie Barber Press Consultant (Tel: 020 7586 8560)

†Supported by Macquarie Group

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FUTURE CONCERTS AT SOUTHBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL

JTI Friday Series | Friday 30 October 2009 | 7.30pm Prokofiev Classical Symphony Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto 2 Tchaikovsky Symphony 4 Alexander Vedernikov conductor Piers Lane piano

Alexander Vedernikov and Piers Lane

6.15pm | Royal Festival Hall FREE Pre-Concert Event A performance of Schnittke’s String Quartet 3 by the Harpham Quartet.

Sunday 22 November 2009 | Study Day Queen Elizabeth Hall IN THE LABYRINTH OF ALFRED SCHNITTKE An absorbing day of music and discussion celebrating the life and music of Alfred Schnittke. Pick up a leaflet in the foyer for more details.

Wednesday 4 November 2009 | 7.30pm Vladimir Jurowski and Leonidas Kavakos

Wagner Overture, Tannhäuser Wagner Wesendonk-Lieder Bruckner Symphony 6 Christoph Eschenbach conductor Petra Lang mezzo soprano

Wednesday 25 November 2009 | 7.30pm Webern Passacaglia Lindberg Chorale Berg Violin Concerto Schnittke Symphony 3 Yutaka Sado and Denis Matsuev

JTI Friday Series | Friday 6 November 2009 | 7.30pm Verdi Overture, La forza del destino Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto 1 Dvo˘rák Symphony 9 (From the New World) Yutaka Sado conductor Denis Matsuev piano

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin 6.00pm | Royal Festival Hall FREE Pre-Concert Event A performance of works including the Bach/Webern Ricercar and Schnittke’s Polyphonic Tango by Foyle Future Firsts conducted by Vladimir Jurowski.

Barlines | Central Bar, Level 2 Foyer FREE Post-Concert Event An informal discussion with Vladimir Jurowski and the evening’s soloist, Leonidas Kavakos.

Wednesday 18 November 2009 | 7.30pm Haydn Symphony 22 (The Philosopher) Wagner Prelude and Good Friday Spell from ‘Parsifal’ Schnittke Excerpts from ‘The History of D. Johann Faustus’ (UK première) Sung in German with English surtitles.

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Stephen Richardson Dr Faustus Anna Larsson Mephistophila Marco Lazzara Mephistophiles Markus Brutscher Narrator Moscow Conservatory Chamber Choir 16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

TO BOOK

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