LPO concert programme: 20 Feb 2022 Eastbourne - Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

2021/22 concert season at Congress Theatre

Concert programme

Principal Conductor Edward Gardner supported by Aud Jebsen Principal Guest Conductor Karina Canellakis Conductor Emeritus Vladimir Jurowski Patron HRH The Duke of Kent KG Artistic Director Elena Dubinets Chief Executive David Burke Leader Pieter Schoeman supported by Neil Westreich

Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Sunday 20 February 2022 | 3.00pm

Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich Mussorgsky Prelude to Khovanshchina: ‘Dawn of the Moscow River’ (5’) Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2 (33’) Interval (20’) Borodin Symphony No. 2 in B minor (28’) Jonathan Bloxham conductor Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello

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

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN ASSOCIATION WITH EASTBOURNE BOROUGH COUNCIL

Contents 2 3 4 6 7 8 10 12 13 14 16

Welcome LPO news On stage today London Philharmonic Orchestra Jonathan Bloxham Sheku Kanneh-Mason Programme notes New on the LPO Label: Jessye Norman sings Strauss Next concerts LPO Annual Appeal 2022 Thank you LPO administration

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Welcome to the Congress Theatre

LPO news

Theatre Director Chris Jordan

LPO concerts on Marquee TV Welcome to this afternoon’s performance. We are pleased to welcome back the London Philharmonic Orchestra and its patrons to the Congress Theatre.

We are delighted that a selection of concerts from our 2021/22 Royal Festival Hall season will be filmed and broadcast on Marquee TV during 2022.

Concerts will be available for a limited period to watch for free without a Marquee TV subscription; however if you would like to subscribe for unlimited access to Marquee TV’s extensive range of music, opera, theatre and dance productions, you can enjoy 50% off with code LPO2021. Visit marquee.tv/LPO2021 to find out more, enjoy a free trial or subscribe.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra gave the first ever performance at this Grade II listed building when it originally opened in 1963. This historic building was purpose-built as a theatre and conference venue designed by Bryan and Norman Westwood Architects.

What makes the theatre unique is that it is conceived to be a perfect cube, and has fantastic acoustics to enhance your experience of live music. We thank you for continuing to support the concert series.

New on the LPO Label: Jessye Norman sings Strauss

Please sit back in your seats and enjoy the concert and your visit here. As a courtesy to others, please ensure mobile phones are switched off during the performance.

Thank you.

The latest release on our LPO Label is an album of works by Richard Strauss featuring the late Jessye Norman. Conducted by Klaus Tennstedt at the Royal Festival Hall in 1986, this live recording captured the extraordinary soprano in the prime of her career. It features five of Strauss’s songs and the Dance of the Seven Veils and Closing Scene from Salome, as well as the orchestral suite Le bourgeois Gentilhomme.

Enjoyed today’s concert?

Help us to share the wonder of the LPO by making a donation today. Use the QR code to donate via the LPO website.

Thank you.

The album is available now to stream or download, or to purchase on CD from all good retailers.

Tune In: new edition out now The Spring 2020 edition of our newsletter, Tune In, is published now: read it online at issuu.com/ londonphilharmonic With content including a tour diary from our truck drivers, tributes to former Principal Conductor Bernard Haitink and a Backstage interview with LPO violinist Emma Oldfield, it’s certainly a page-turner.

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

On stage today First Violins

Ania Safonova Guest Leader Lasma Taimina

Chair supported by Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave

Minn Majoe Martin Höhmann

Chair supported by Chris Aldren

Morane Cohen-Lamberger Non Peters Gabriela Opacka Alice Hall Katherine Waller Miranda Allen Rasa Zukauskaite

Second Violins

Tania Mazzetti Principal

Chair supported by Countess Dominique Loredan

Joseph Maher Ashley Stevens Nancy Elan Fiona Higham

Chair supported by David & Yi Buckley

Nicole Stokes Anna Croad Alison Strange

Violas

Richard Waters Principal

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Katharine Leek Benedetto Pollani Martin Wray Alistair Scahill Esther Vickers Charles Cross Julia Doukakis

Cellos

Francis Bucknall Principal Susanna Riddell Louise Dearsley Auriol Evans Rosie Banks

Double Basses

Stephen Williams Guest Principal George Peniston David Johnson Catherine Ricketts

Flutes

Fiona Kelly Guest Principal Hannah Grayson Clare Childs

Piccolo

Trombones

Mark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Bass Trombone

Lyndon Meredith Principal

Tuba

Lee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Timpani

Clare Childs

Jonathan Phillips Guest Principal

Oboes

James Hulme Guest Principal Jennifer Brittlebank

Clarinets

Benjamin Mellefont Principal Thomas Watmough Chair supported by Roger Greenwood

Bassoons

Luke Tucker Guest Principal Emma Harding Luke Whitehead

Contrabassoon

Percussion

Andrew Barclay* Principal

Chair supported by Gill & Garf Collins

Keith Millar Feargus Brennan Richard Horne

Harps

Rachel Masters Principal Esther Beyer * Holds a professorial appointment in London

Luke Whitehead

Horns

John Ryan* Principal Oliver Johnson Duncan Fuller Gareth Mollison

Trumpets

Paul Beniston* Principal Anne McAneney*

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The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: The Candide Trust Sonja Drexler Friends of the Orchestra Dr Barry Grimaldi Sir Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBE Bianca & Stuart Roden Eric Tomsett Neil Westreich

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

© Mark Allan

London Philharmonic Orchestra

the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years.

The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a Western orchestra.

One of the finest orchestras on the international stage, the London Philharmonic Orchestra balances a long and distinguished history with its reputation as one of the UK’s most forward-looking ensembles. As well as its concert performances, the Orchestra also records film soundtracks, releases CDs and downloads on its own label, and reaches thousands of people every year through activities for families, schools and local communities.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded many blockbuster film scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World.

It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 100 releases available on CD and to download.

Recent highlights include Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 11 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Vladimir Jurowski; a commemorative box set of historic recordings with former Principal Conductor Sir Adrian Boult; and works by Richard Strauss under Klaus Tennstedt, featuring soprano Jessye Norman.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and has since been headed by many great conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur.

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

Karina Canellakis is the Orchestra’s current Principal Guest Conductor and Brett Dean is the Orchestra’s current Composer-in-Residence.

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 Orchestra is resident at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives around 40 concerts each season. It also enjoys flourishing residencies in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians, and recently celebrated the 30th anniversary of its Education and Community department, whose work over three decades has introduced so many people of all ages to orchestral music and created opportunities for people of all backgrounds to fulfil their creative potential.

Its dynamic and wide-ranging programme provides first musical experiences for children and families; offers creative projects and professional development opportunities for schools and teachers; inspires talented teenage instrumentalists to progress their skills; and develops the next generation of professional musicians.

to playlists, which collectively received over 3 million views worldwide and led to the LPO being named runner-up in the Digital Classical Music Awards 2020.

From Autumn 2020 the Orchestra was delighted to be able to return to its Southbank Centre home to perform a season of concerts filmed live and streamed free of charge via Marquee TV. September 2021 saw the opening of a new live concert season at the Royal Festival Hall, featuring many of the world’s leading musicians including Sheku KannehMason, Klaus Mäkelä, Renée Fleming, Bryn Terfel and this season’s Artist-in-Residence, Julia Fischer.

The Orchestra is delighted to be continuing to offer digital streams to selected concerts throughout the season through its ongoing partnership with Intersection and Marquee TV.

The Orchestra’s work at the forefront of digital technology has enabled it to reach millions of people worldwide. Over the pandemic period the LPO further developed its relationship with UK and international audiences through its ‘LPOnline’ digital content: over 100 videos of performances, insights, and introductions

lpo.org.uk

Our weekly podcast, LPO Offstage, takes a look behind-the-scenes of the LPO, bringing you closer than ever to the world of orchestral music.

Find LPO Offstage free on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Acast, or wherever you listen.

lpo.org.uk/podcast

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Jonathan Bloxham conductor

and Franck with the Nordwestdeutsche Philharmonie, praised as ‘irresistible’ by MusicWeb International.

In 2021/22 he makes debuts with the Munich Symphony, Lucerne Symphony, Kammerakademie Potsdam, National Symphony (RTÉ), Britten Sinfonia and Estonian National orchestras.

© Kaupo Kikkas

Engagements just prior to the COVID-19 pandemic included the Orchestre Philharmonique de Luxembourg, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Tapiola Sinfonietta and Manchester Camerata, and Jonathan had been due to make debuts with the Tokyo Symphony, Shanghai Symphony, Guangzhou Symphony and China National Philharmonic in Beijing, all of which are being rescheduled. In recent seasons he has also conducted the Lausanne Chamber Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Malaysian Philharmonic Orchestra, Basque National Orchestra and RTÉ Chamber Orchestra.

Jonathan Bloxham’s conducting career was launched when he took up the position of Assistant Conductor at the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla from 2016–18. There he conducted a wide range of repertoire, closing the orchestra’s 2016/17 season at Symphony Hall, and was reinvited in April 2021. A summer concert with the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie led to a recording project, and then to subscription concerts in Bremen and at the Elbphilharmonie Hamburg. After taking over rehearsals for Dvořák’s Rusalka at the Deutsches SymphonieOrchester Berlin for Robin Ticciati (whom he had previously assisted at Glyndebourne), Jonathan was invited back to conduct Holst’s The Planets in a multimedia project in 2021.

For the past 11 years Jonathan has been Artistic Director of the Northern Chords Festival, based in his hometown of Newcastle-upon-Tyne but also performing further afield, notably during lockdown in January 2021 in a live studio concert broadcast on BBC Radio 3 from Maida Vale Studios. Passionate about unearthing little-known composers and championing new works, Jonathan has commissioned several premieres by young composers such as Vlad Maistorovici, Jack Sheen and Freya WaleyCohen.

Prior to taking up conducting, Jonathan was a founder member and the cellist of the Busch Trio, performing regularly at the Wigmore Hall, the Southbank Centre and on BBC Radio 3; he still plays chamber music on occasion. He won several prestigious awards whilst studying at the Royal College of Music, and made his concerto debut at the Berlin Philharmonie in 2012.

He started his musical training at the age of eight with a local cello teacher from the Gateshead Schools’ Music Service. He then studied at the Yehudi Menuhin School and the Royal College of Music with Thomas Carroll, before completing a Master’s degree at the Guildhall School of Music & Drama with Louise Hopkins.

Jonathan has undertaken further conducting studies with Sian Edwards, Michael Seal, Nicolás Pasquet and Paavo Järvi.

Today is Jonathan’s full concert debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, having conducted the Orchestra in four performances of Verdi’s Luisa Miller and assisted Enrique Mazzola at the 2021 Glyndebourne Festival. In 2019 Jonathan conducted two performances and assisted on Rigoletto for Glyndebourne Touring Opera, and as a result was invited back in 2021 to conduct his own production of Donizetti’s Don Pasquale.

Other highlights of 2020/21 included debuts with the Salzburg Mozarteumorchester, the Residentie Orkest (with an immediate reinvitation for a subscription week in 2022) and the Hallé Orchestra (where he was also reinvited), as well as education projects with the London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, and a return to the London Mozart Players. 2021 also saw the release of his first CD, featuring works by Strauss

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello

In recital, Sheku has performed at illustrious venues and festivals around the world including London’s Wigmore Hall; the Edinburgh, Cheltenham and Aldeburgh festivals; the Zurich Tonhalle; the Lucerne Festival; the Festival de Saint-Denis; the Verbier Festival; the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées in Paris, the Teatro della Pergola in Florence; L’Auditori in Barcelona; the Auditorio Nacional in Madrid; and New York’s Carnegie Hall.

© Pål Hansen

Current and future seasons include appearances at London’s Barbican, the Berlin Philharmonie, the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, Suntory Hall Tokyo, and tours of North America, Italy, South Korea and China.

Since his debut in 2017, Sheku has performed every summer at the BBC Proms, including in 2020 when he gave a breathtaking recital performance with his sister Isata to an empty auditorium due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason is already in great demand from major orchestras and concert halls worldwide.

He became a household name in 2018 after performing at the wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at Windsor Castle, his performance having been greeted with universal excitement after being watched by nearly two billion people globally. Sheku initially garnered renown as the winner of the 2016 BBC Young Musician competition, the first Black musician to take the title.

He has released two chart-topping albums on the Decca Classics label, Inspiration in 2018 and Elgar in 2020.

The latter reached No. 8 in the overall UK Official Album Chart, making Sheku the first cellist in history to reach the UK Top 10.

During the lockdown in spring 2020, Sheku and his siblings performed in twice-weekly livestreams from their family home in Nottingham to audiences of hundreds of thousands around the globe. He has performed at the BAFTA awards ceremony twice in 2017 and 2018, was the winner of Best Classical Artist at the Global Awards in 2020 and 2021 (the latter as part of the Kanneh-Mason family), and received the 2020 Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award.

Sheku continues his studies with Hannah Roberts at London’s Royal Academy of Music as a Bicentenary Fellow. He began learning the cello at the age of six with Sarah Huson-Whyte and then Ben Davies at the Junior Department of the Royal Academy of Music. He has received masterclass tuition from Guy Johnston, Ralph Kirshbaum, Robert Max, Alexander Baillie, Steven Doane, Rafael Wallfisch, Jo Cole, Melissa Phelps, Julian Lloyd Webber, Frans Helmerson and Miklós Perényi.

Sheku made an acclaimed debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in October 2019, when he performed the Elgar Cello Concerto at the Royal Festival Hall with conductor Susanna Mälkki. He returns to the Royal Festival Hall on 9 March to reprise Shostakovich’s Cello Concerto No. 2, this time under the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, Edward Gardner. Sheku has also recently made debuts with orchestras including the BBC Symphony, Seattle Symphony, Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, NDR Elbphilharmonie, Stockholm Philharmonic, Atlanta Symphony, Japan Philharmonic, Frankfurt Radio Symphony and Baltimore Symphony orchestras. Forthcoming highlights include performances with the Cleveland Orchestra, Orchestre de Paris, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Barcelona Symphony, New York Philharmonic and Czech Philharmonic orchestras, and on tour with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Sheku Kanneh-Mason was appointed a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the New Year Honours List 2020. He plays a Matteo Goffriller cello from 1700, which is on indefinite loan to him.

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Programme notes Modest Mussorgsky 1839–81

Prelude to Khovanshchina: ‘‘Dawn of the Moscow River’ 1879–81, orch. Rimsky-Korsakov 1883

Blessed with hindsight, modern music lovers have little difficulty seeing that Modest Mussorgsky was one of the two most extraordinary Russian composers of his time, the other being Tchaikovsky, who was born just a year later. It was not so obvious to his contemporaries.

Like many of his composing countrymen, he was not at first involved with music professionally. After attending a military academy, he served in the army and then proceeded toward a predictable future in the Russian civil service, as a bureaucrat in the Ministry of Communication, beginning in 1863, and then in the Department of Forestry starting in 1868.

shortcomings. This view was reinforced by his colleague Rimsky-Korsakov, who went to well-intentioned lengths to make Mussorgsky’s works palatable to audiences of the time. Mussorgsky was overtaken by alcoholism, and after he died (a week after his 42nd birthday), RimskyKorsakov completed a number of scores his friend had left incomplete and revised quite a few others that he feared other listeners would find as objectionably coarse as he did. As a result, those of Mussorgsky’s works that were remembered – including the operas Khovanshchina and Boris Godunov and the tone-poem A Night on Bare Mountain – were known principally through ‘corrected’ versions by Rimsky-Korsakov.

It was during those years that he fell in with the circle of young musical aspirants surrounding the composer Mily Balakirev and the critic Vladimir Stasov, a group that was fascinated with exploring Russian nationalist themes.

In 1867 Stasov coined the nickname Moguchaya kuchka – ‘The Mighty Handful’ – in a review referring to composers whose works figured on a concert for a pan-Slavic convention. Originally the term was meant to embrace a wide swath of Russian composers, not just the nationalists of the newest generation, but before long its usage was focussed on the famous five, which in addition to Balakirev and Mussorgsky included César Cui (an officer in the Russian Army Engineering Corps), Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov (a midshipman at the Imperial Naval Academy) and Alexander Borodin (a chemist associated with the Academy of Medicine). What this assortment of military and scientific professionals lacked in musical training they made up in enthusiasm, and under Balakirev’s coaching they began developing a distinctly Russian style of late Romanticism that was distinct from Tchaikovsky’s more mainstream European mode of composition.

Khovanshchina is a vast, complicated saga about political factions and aristocratic successions in 17th-century Russia, particularly revolving around the accession of Peter the Great to the Imperial throne.

Russia had celebrated the bicentennial of Peter’s birth in 1872. In the wake of the national ‘Petermania’, Mussorgsky began compiling a notebook of relevant information that he used for the libretto he created through the rest of the decade. Not until 1879 or 1880 did the composer manage to put together an almostcomplete copy of the text, and even that lacked an ending. Mussorgsky left the opera incomplete and unorchestrated at his death. Rimsky-Korsakov prepared the first performing edition of the work, which he published in 1883 in a five-act structure. That was the version employed for the opera’s premiere, in 1886, by St Petersburg’s Musical Dramatic Circle. The opera’s Prelude was meant to set the scene by depicting dawn over the Moskva River. Its music returns later in the opera, with great dramatic significance.

Programme note © James M Keller

Even in his own time, Mussorgsky was considered something of a naïf, a primitive whose musical visions managed to shine through despite his technical

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Programme notes Dmitri Shostakovich 1906–75

Cello Concerto No. 2 1966 Sheku Kanneh-Mason cello 1 Largo 2 Allegretto 3 Allegretto Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto (1959) was a huge hit at its first performance, and rapidly established itself as a modern classic of the genre. The Second Concerto, composed in 1966, caused more perplexity, and for some years it was sidelined. But recently cellists and audiences have begun to show more interest in it – which would have pleased the great cellist Mstislav Rostropovich, for whom Shostakovich wrote both concertos. Rostropovich always insisted that the Second Cello Concerto was the greater of the two.

It may be more elusive, introspective, darkly teasing, but as with many of Shostakovich’s important later works, its riddles only make it the more fascinating.

At the same time it contains some of the composer’s most deeply probing lyricism.

Still, it comes as something of a surprise to discover that Shostakovich wrote the Second Cello Concerto as a kind of 60th birthday present to himself. Surely this must have been an ironic gesture, given that so much of the music seems bound up in painful introspection and selfmockery. Nowadays, many see Shostakovich as one of the dissident artistic heroes of Stalin’s Soviet Union, a composer whose music sustained Russians through what was probably the blackest period in their country’s history. But that doesn’t seem to be how Shostakovich saw himself. In 1960 Shostakovich had finally joined the Communist Party, despite holding out all the way through Stalin’s terrible regime. Clearly, pressure had been put on him to make this decision, but according to

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Programme notes harp glissandos. Almost certainly this is vicious selfparody: Shostakovich lampoons himself as opportunist market-trader, a purveyor of cheap sustenance, hollow in the middle (bubliki are like bagels or pretzels), and soon forgotten.

his closest friends Shostakovich quickly came to see this as a compromise too far and bitterly regretted it, even to the point of contemplating suicide.

This may have some bearing on a prominent musical quotation in the Second Cello Concerto. In the first movement, the cello’s melancholy brooding is disturbed by razor-sharp staccato figures from high woodwind, growing more frenzied towards the climax. These anticipate the appearance of a distinctive little tune at the beginning of the second movement, played by the cello to an oom-pah accompaniment for low woodwind.

This turns out to be an Odessa street-song: ‘Bubliki, kupitye bubliki’ – ‘Bread rolls, come buy our bread rolls.’

Shostakovich told Rostropovich that this was one of his favourite tunes, but his use of it in the Concerto is strikingly black-edged. At the height of the finale the tune returns, heralded by grimly satirical fanfares on horns and high woodwind and decorated with crazily swirling

But the end of the Concerto does seem to offer some kind of consolation. As the cello descends into its lower register, the xylophone picks out a fragment of a tune, while woodblock, tom-tom and side drum produce quiet ticking rhythms in the background. Shostakovich was fascinated by clocks: his Moscow apartment was full of them, and their sounds turn up again and again in his last works. Is Shostakovich repeating the old message that time alone will tell – that history will pronounce the final verdict on his work? It’s hard to say for certain, but the ending puts the bitter dance-fanfares of the finale’s climax into perspective. At the very least, no pain lasts forever.

Programme note © Stephen Johnson

Interval – 20 minutes An announcement will be made a few minutes before the end of the interval.

New on the LPO Label: Jessye Norman sings Strauss Richard Strauss: Five Songs | Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme | Salome (excerpts) Klaus Tennstedt conductor Jessye Norman soprano .£9.99 | LPO-0122

Newly available recording: recorded live in concert at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall on 4 May 1986

All LPO Label releases are available on CD from all good retailers, and to download or stream via Spotify, Apple Music, Idagio and others.

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Programme notes Alexander Borodin 1833–87

Symphony No. 2 in B minor 1869–73

1 Allegro moderato 2 Scherzo: Molto vivo 3 Andante 4 Finale: Allegro Alexander Borodin was born the illegitimate son of a Russian prince and his mistress, but, following the custom in such circumstances, he was officially registered as the progeny of one of the prince’s serfs.

Nonetheless, the prince saw to it that young Alexander received an excellent education. Music and science especially appealed to him. After earning the degree of Doctor of Medicine at the St Petersburg Academy of

Medicine and Surgery, he became a research chemist specialising in aldehydes, the organic compounds used as solvents, perfume ingredients, and components to produce such plastics as Bakelite and Formica.

His non-working hours were given over to music – playing chamber music, conducting ensembles and composing a small but choice catalogue of works.

In 1862 he fell into the circle of the Moguchaya kuchka, the ‘Mighty Handful’, along with Mily Balakirev, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov, César Cui and Modest Mussorgsky.

Many of Borodin’s masterworks reflect the group’s passionate embrace of folk sources, most especially his two symphonies (plus two fragmentary movements of a third), his ‘musical picture’ In Central Asia (often called In the Steppes of Central Asia in English-speaking lands), and his opera Prince Igor (which he left incomplete at his death). Through a quirk of fate, he died an apparent peasant, just as he had ostensibly been born one; he dropped dead of an aortic aneurysm while dressed as a Russian peasant at a Carnival-Week costume party at the Academy of Medicine and Surgery.

Borodin may have begun writing his Second Symphony in 1869 and concentrated on it from 1870 to 1873. During part of that time he was also busy at work on Prince Igor; some of the material in the Symphony seems to have begun in sketches for that opera. In the autumn of 1876, the Russian Musical Society showed interest in performing the new Symphony, and Borodin was horrified to discover that his orchestral score of the first

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Programme notes Next LPO concerts at the Congress Theatre

and last movements had gone missing. He had to orchestrate them anew before the piece could finally be premiered, in February/March 1877.

Daydreams and Fantasies

The first performance fell midway on the spectrum of failure and success. Rimsky-Korsakov wrote in his memoirs that the work’s sound came into being ‘principally under the influence of our talks about orchestration’. He expressed the opinion that ‘at this point our enthusiasm ran away with us’, and that ‘the B minor Symphony was orchestrated too heavily, and the role of the brass was too prominent’. In the first performance, ‘the whole heaviness of this method of instrumentation was brought out’, and the Scherzo was taken ‘at a much slower tempo than proper’ in order for the French horns to manage their parts. Following the premiere, Borodin thinned out his scoring – particularly the brass parts – and the work was re-introduced in 1879, conducted by Rimsky-Korsakov, who reported that finally the Scherzo could be played at the right tempo.

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Rimsky-Korsakov re-entered the saga of this Symphony eight years later. Borodin had been preparing the orchestral score for publication when he died. RimskyKorsakov and fellow composer Alexander Glazunov took over the final editing and proofreading. Because RimskyKorsakov created posthumous adaptations of other composers’ works – or, in the case of Prince Igor, filled in expanses Borodin left empty – it was assumed that his editing of the Second Symphony was extensive. Recent investigations have shown that his alterations were very slight, and that they almost entirely follow emendations that Borodin had already marked in his working manuscript.

Coleridge-Taylor Ballade Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 2 (London) Tom Gauterin conductor Daniel Pioro violin

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The critic Vladimir Stasov, cheerleader for the Russian Five, said that Borodin had a programme in mind for this Symphony. The first movement would be a gathering of Russian warriors; the third, a bayan, or mythic bard; and the fourth, a ‘scene of heroes feasting to the sound of the gusli [a folk instrument of the zither family] amid the exultation of a great host of people’. (He gave no indication about the second movement.) The work accordingly became known as the Bogatyrskaya (Heroic) Symphony, a nickname that has by now slipped away.

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Programme note © James M Keller

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London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Thank you We are extremely grateful to all donors who have given generously to the LPO over the past year.

Your generosity helps maintain the breadth and depth of the LPO’s activities, as well as supporting the Orchestra both on and off the concert platform.

Artistic Director’s Circle Anonymous donors Mrs Aline Foriel-Destezet Mrs Christina Lang Assael In memory of Mrs Rita Reay Sir Simon & Lady Robey OBE

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Principal Associates

An anonymous donor Richard Buxton Gill & Garf Collins In memory of Brenda Lyndoe Casbon In memory of Ann Marguerite Collins Hamish & Sophie Forsyth The Tsukanov Family

Associates

Anonymous donors Mrs Irina Andreeva In memory of Len & Edna Beech Steven M. Berzin Ms Veronika BorovikKhilchevskaya Irina Gofman & Mr Rodrik V. G. Cave The Lambert Family Charitable Trust Countess Dominique Loredan Mr & Mrs Makharinsky George Ramishvili Stuart & Bianca Roden Julian & Gill Simmonds In memory of Hazel Amy Smith Deanie & Jay Stein

Gold Patrons

An anonymous donor Chris Aldren David & Yi Buckley David Burke & Valerie Graham David & Elizabeth Challen In memory of Allner Mavis Channing Sonja Drexler The Vernon Ellis Foundation Peter & Fiona Espenhahn Marie-Laure Favre-Gilly de Varennes de Beuill Mr Roger Greenwood Malcolm Herring

John & Angela Kessler Dame Theresa Sackler Scott & Kathleen Simpson Eric Tomsett Andrew & Rosemary Tusa The Viney Family Guy & Utti Whittaker

Silver Patrons

Mrs A Beare The Rt Hon. The Lord Burns GCB Bruno De Kegel Jan & Leni Du Plessis Ulrike & Benno Engelmann Simon & Meg Freakley Pehr G Gyllenhammar The Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Catherine Høgel & Ben Mardle Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAF Sofiya Machulskaya Mrs Elizabeth Meshkvicheva The Metherell Family Andrew Neill Peter & Lucy Noble Marianne Parsons Tom & Phillis Sharpe Laurence Watt Grenville & Krysia Williams

Geoff & Meg Mann Harriet & Michael Maunsell Marianne Parsons Dr Wiebke Pekrull Mr Gerald Pettit Mr Roger Phillimore Gillian Pole Mr Michael Posen Mr Christopher Querée Sir Bernard Rix Mr Robert Ross Priscylla Shaw Patrick & Belinda Snowball Charlotte Stevenson Mr Robert Swannell Joe Topley Tony & Hilary Vines Mr & Mrs John C Tucker Mr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Marina Vaizey Jenny Watson CBE Mr John Weekes Christopher Williams

Andrew T Mills Simon & Fiona Mortimore Mrs Terry Neale John Nickson & Simon Rew Mr James Pickford Michael & Carolyn Portillo Mr David Russell Colin Senneck & the Hartley and District LPO Group Mr John Shinton Nigel Silby Mr Brian Smith Martin & Cheryl Southgate Mr & Mrs G Stein Dr Peter Stephenson Mr Ian Tegner Dr June Wakefield Howard & Sheelagh Watson Joanna Williams Roger Woodhouse Mr John Wright

Principal Supporters

Anonymous donors Ralph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Alexander & Rachel Antelme Julian & Annette Armstrong Lindsay Badenoch Mr Mark Bagshaw & Mr Ian Walker Mr John Barnard Mr John D Barnard Damaris, Richard & Friends Mr David Barrett Diana Barrett Mr Simon Baynham Harvey Bengen Nick & Rebecca Beresford Mr Paul Bland Mr Keith Bolderson Mr Andrew Botterill Julian & Margaret Bowden & Mr Paul Michel Richard & Jo Brass Mr & Mrs Shaun Brown Mr Alan C Butler Lady Cecilia Cadbury Mrs Marilyn Casford Alison Clarke & Leo Pilkington J Clay Mr Joshua Coger Mr Martin Compton Mr Martin Connelly Mr Stephen Connock Miss Tessa Cowie Mr David Davies Mr Roderick Davies Mr David Devons Anthony & Jo Diamond Miss Sylvia Dowle Patricia Dreyfus Mr Andrew Dyke

Anonymous donors Dr R M Aickin Mr Mark Astaire Sir John Baker Tessa Bartley Mr Geoffrey Bateman Mrs Julia Beine Mr Anthony Boswood Dr Anthony Buckland Dr Carlos Carreno Mr Julien Chilcott-Monk Mr & Mrs Stewart Cohen David & Liz Conway Mr Alistair Corbett Andrew Davenport Mr Simon Douglas Mr B C Fairhall Mr Richard Fernyhough Mrs Janet Flynn Mrs Ash Frisby Jason George Mr Stephen Goldring Mr Daniel Goldstein Mr Milton Grundy Prof. Emeritus John Gruzelier Nerissa Guest & David Foreman Michael & Christine Henry Mark & Sarah Holford Ivan Hurry Per Jonsson Alexandra Jupin & John Bean Mr Ian Kapur Ms Kim J Koch Richard & Briony Linsell Paul & Brigitta Lock Mr Peter Mace Nicholas & Lindsay Merriman

Bronze Patrons

Anonymous donors Michael Allen Dr Manon Antoniazzi Julian & Annette Armstrong Roger & Clare Barron Mr Philip Bathard-Smith Sir Peter Bazalgette Mikhail Noskov & Vasilina Bindley Mr Bernard Bradbury Sally Bridgeland In memory of Julie Bromley Desmond & Ruth Cecil Mr John H Cook Howard & Veronika Covington John & Sam Dawson Cameron & Kathryn Doley David Ellen Christopher Fraser OBE Virginia Gabbertas MBE David & Jane Gosman Mr Gavin Graham Mrs Dorothy Hambleton J Douglas Home The Jackman Family Mr & Mrs Ralph Kanza Jamie & Julia Korner Rose & Dudley Leigh Drs Frank & Gek Lim Nicholas & Felicity Lyons

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Supporters

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

Thank you

Mr Declan Eardly Mrs Maureen Erskine Mr Peter Faulk Mr Joe Field Ms Chrisine Louise Fluker Mr Kevin Fogarty Mr Richard France Mr Bernard Freudenthal Mrs Adele Friedland & Friends Will Gold Mrs Alison Goulter Mr Andrew Gunn Mr K Haines Mr Martin Hale Roger Hampson Mr Graham Hart Mr & Mrs Nevile Henderson The Jackman Family Martin Kettle Mr Justin Kitson Ms Yvonne Lock Mrs Sally Manning Belinda Miles Dr Joe Mooney Christopher & Diane Morcom Dame Jane Newell DBE Oliver & Josie Ogg Mr Stephen Olton Mr David Peters Nadya Powell Ms Caroline Priday Mr Richard Rolls Mr Richard Rowland Mr & Mrs Alan Senior Tom Sharpe Mr Kenneth Shaw Ruth Silvestre Barry & Gillian Smith Mr David Southern Ms Mary Stacey Mr Simon Starr Mrs Margaret Thompson Philip & Katie Thonemann Mr Owen Toller Mrs Rose Tremain Ms Mary Stacey Ms Caroline Tate Mr Peter Thierfeldt Dr Ann Turrall Michael & Katie Urmston Dr June Wakefield Mr Dominic Wallis Mrs C Willaims Joanna Williams Mr Kevin Willmering Mr David Woodhead

Hon. Life Members

We are grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, who assist with fundraising for our activities in the United States of America:

Alfonso Aijón Kenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G Gyllenhammar Robert Hill Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE Laurence Watt

Simon Freakley Chairman Jay Goffman Alexandra Jupin William A. Kerr Kristina McPhee Natalie Pray Damien Vanderwilt Elizabeth Winter Victoria Robey OBE Hon. Director Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA, EisnerAmper LLP

LPO International Board of Governors

Natasha Tsukanova Chair Martin Höhmann Co-Chair Mrs Irina Andreeva (Russia) Steven M. Berzin (USA) Veronika Borovik-Khilchevskaya (Cyprus) Marie-Laure Favre Gilly de Varennes de Bueil (France) Aline Foriel-Destezet (France) Irina Gofman (Russia) Countess Dominique Loredan (Italy) Olivia Ma (Greater China Area) Olga Makharinsky (Russia) George Ramishvili (Georgia) Victoria Robey OBE (USA) Jay Stein (USA)

Corporate Donors

Barclays CHANEL Fund for Women in the Arts and Culture Pictet Bank

LPO Corporate Circle Leader freuds Sunshine

Thomas Beecham Group Members

Principal Berenberg Bloomberg Carter-Ruck French Chamber of Commerce

Chris Aldren David & Yi Buckley Gill & Garf Collins William & Alex de Winton Sonja Drexler The Friends of the LPO Irina Gofman Roger Greenwood Dr Barry Grimaldi Mr & Mrs Philip Kan John & Angela Kessler Countess Dominique Loredan Sir Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBE Bianca & Stuart Roden Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds Eric Tomsett Neil Westreich Guy & Utti Whittaker

Tutti Lazard Russo-British Chamber of Commerce Walpole

Trialist Allianz Musical Insurance Sciteb

Preferred Partners Gusbourne Estate Lidl Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd OneWelbeck Steinway

Hon. Benefactor Elliott Bernerd

In-kind Sponsor Google Inc

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Trusts and Foundations The Boltini Trust Borrows Charitable Trust Boshier-Hinton Foundation The Candide Trust Cockayne – Grants for the Arts The London Community Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust The D’Oyly Carte Charitable Trust Dunard Fund Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The Fidelio Charitable Trust Foyle Foundation Garrick Charitable Trust The Leche Trust Lucille Graham Trust John Horniman’s Children’s Trust John Thaw Foundation The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The Marchus Trust Adam Mickiewicz Institute PRS Foundation The Radcliffe Trust Rivers Foundation The R K Charitable Trust Romanian Cultural Institute Rothschild Foundation RVW Trust Schroder Charity Trust Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation Sir William Boreman’s Foundation Souter Charitable Trust The Stanley Picker Trust The Thomas Deane Trust The Thriplow Charitable Trust The Vaughan Williams Charitable Trust The Victoria Wood Foundation The Viney Family The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust The William Alwyn Foundation

and all others who wish to remain anonymous.

The LPO would also like to acknowledge all those who have made donations to the Play On Appeal and who have supported the Orchestra during the COVID-19 pandemic.

London Philharmonic Orchestra • 20 February 2022 • Sheku Kanneh-Mason plays Shostakovich

London Philharmonic Orchestra Administration Board of Directors Victoria Robey OBE Chairman Martin Höhmann* President Dr Catherine C. Høgel Vice-Chairman Mark Vines* Vice-President Kate Birchall* David Buckley David Burke Bruno De Kegel Deborah Dolce Tanya Joseph Hugh Kluger* Al MacCuish Tania Mazzetti* Stewart McIlwham* Jamie Njoku-Goodwin Andrew Tusa Neil Westreich Simon Freakley (Ex officio – Chairman of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra) *Player-Director

Advisory Council Martin Höhmann Chairman Christopher Aldren Dr Manon Antoniazzi Roger Barron Richard Brass Helen Brocklebank YolanDa Brown Simon Callow CBE Desmond Cecil CMG Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Guillaume Descottes Cameron Doley Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Marianna Hay MBE Amanda Hill Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Geoff Mann Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Andrew Neill Nadya Powell Sir Bernard Rix Victoria Robey OBE Baroness Shackleton Thomas Sharpe QC Julian Simmonds Barry Smith

Finance

Martin Southgate Chris Viney Laurence Watt Elizabeth Winter

Frances Slack Finance Director Dayse Guilherme Finance Manager

General Administration

Jean-Paul Ramotar Finance and IT Officer

Elena Dubinets Artistic Director David Burke Chief Executive Chantelle Vircavs PA to the Executive

Education and Community Talia Lash Interim Education and Community Director

Concert Management

Rebecca Parslow Education and Community Project Manager

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director Graham Wood Concerts and Recordings Manager

Hannah Foakes Tilly Gugenheim Education and Community Project Co-ordinators

Fabio Sarlo Glyndebourne and Projects Manager

Development

Grace Ko Tours Manager

Laura Willis Development Director

Alison Jones Concerts and Recordings Co-ordinator

Scott Tucker Development Events Manager

Christina Perrin Concerts and Tours Assistant Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant Andrew Chenery Orchestra Personnel Manager

Marketing Kath Trout Marketing and Communications Director Mairi Warren Marketing Manager Rachel Williams Publications Manager

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Greg Felton Digital Creative Kiera Lockard Marketing Assistant

Archives Philip Stuart Discographer Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

Professional Services Charles Russell Speechlys Solicitors Crowe Clark Whitehill LLP Auditors Dr Barry Grimaldi Honorary Doctor

Mr Simon Owen-Johnstone Hon. Orthopaedic Surgeon

Kirstin Peltonen Development Associate

Felix Lo Orchestra and Auditions Manager

Sophie Harvey Digital and Residencies Marketing Manager

Rosie Morden Individual Giving Manager

Nick Jackman Campaigns and Projects Director

Freddie Jackson Assistant Stage Manager

Ruth Knight Press and PR Manager

Mr Chris Aldren Honorary ENT Surgeon

Priya Radhakrishnan Georgia Wiltshire Development Assistants

Laura Kitson Stephen O’Flaherty Stage Managers

Gavin Miller Sales and Ticketing Manager

Stef Woodford Corporate Relations Manager

Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager

Sarah Thomas Martin Sargeson Librarians

Harrie Mayhew Website Manager

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 Cover photo James Wicks 2021/22 season identity JMG Studio Printer John Good Ltd