LPO Tune In newsletter – Spring/Summer 2019

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ISLE OF

NOISES Landmark classics inspired by the British Isles 1689 – 2019

isle of noises

lpo go wild in botswana

backstage

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Our 2019 series celebrating landmark works inspired by the British Isles

‘Carnival of the Animals’ live in the African bush, in partnership with Belmond

We get to know LPO Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis

New on the LPO Label poulenc

Piano Concerto | Organ Concerto Stabat Mater

Principal Partner

major Partner

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Alexandre Tharaud piano | James O’Donnell organ Kate Royal soprano | London Philharmonic Choir

POULENC

PIANO CONCERTO ORGAN CONCERTO STABAT MATER YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN conductor ALEXANDRE THARAUD piano JAMES O’DONNELL organ KATE ROYAL soprano LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA and CHOIR

£9.99 LPO-0108 | Released September 2018

Principal Supporters

tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos. 2 & 3 Vladimir Jurowski conductor £9.99 LPO-0109 | Released October 2018

the genius of film music 1980s–2000s Dirk Brossé conductor £10.99 (2 CDs) LPO-0110 | Released October 2018

rachmaninoff

The Isle of the Dead Symphony No. 1 Vladimir Jurowski conductor £9.99

RACHMANINOFF

THE ISLE OF THE DEAD SYMPHONY NO. 1

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Coming soon

LPO-0111 | Spring 2019

Commissioning Partner beethoven Symphonies Nos. 3 & 5

BEETHOVEN

SYMPHONY NO. 3 (EROICA) SYMPHONY NO. 5 KURT MASUR conductor LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Kurt Masur conductor £9.99 LPO-0112 | Spring 2019 Coming soon

Browse the catalogue and sign up for updates at lpo.org.uk/recordings CDs available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242), all good CD outlets and the Royal Festival Hall shop.

Download or stream online via Spotify, Apple Music and others.

Corporate Members

Preferred Partners

freuds Sunshine

Fever-Tree Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd London Orthopaedic Clinic Sipsmith Steinway

After Digital Berenberg Carter-Ruck French Chamber of Commerce Ageas BTO Management Consulting AG Lazard Russo-British Chamber of Commerce Walpole

In-kind Sponsor Google Inc

Tune in – SPRING / SUMMER 2019 –

WELCOME

W

elcome to the Spring 2018 edition of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s newsletter, Tune In. As our hugely successful year-long series Changing Faces: Stravinsky’s Journey draws to a close, we’re looking forward to launching our brand new series Isle of Noises, celebrating the music of the British Isles. Throughout 2019 we’ll be celebrating over three centuries of music in these islands, whether made in Britain, or inspired by the energy and enthusiasm of the audiences that composers of all nations found here.

Of course it’s not all about looking backwards – here at the LPO we remain as dedicated as ever to commissioning and sharing new music by the next generation of composers. Our first Royal Festival Hall concert of 2019, on Wednesday 16 January, sees Marin Alsop conduct a programme of premieres: soloist Colin Currie gives the world premiere of Helen Grime’s Percussion Concerto, and our very own Principal Piccolo and President Stewart McIlwham gives the UK premiere of a new Piccolo Concerto by Erkki-Sven Tüür, alongside new works by Arne Gieshoff, Louis Andriessen and Anders Hillborg. I hope you can join us for what’s sure to be an evening of musical history in the making – turn the page to read more about what’s in store throughout Isle of Noises.

Elsewhere in this issue we share all the latest news and goings-on both on and off stage, and look forward to what’s ahead this spring including our 2019 Gala and this year’s Glyndebourne Festival. The next few months see a busy touring itinerary, including a major tour of South Korea, Taiwan and China, and an exciting first for the LPO when members of Editor Rachel Williams Publisher London Philharmonic Orchestra Printer Romax

Timothy Walker © Chris Blott

Cover photograph Sveta Fedarava

– Timothy walker – Chief Executive and Artistic Director

the Orchestra travel to Botswana to perform Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals live in the African bush at the invitation of our partner, luxury travel company Belmond.

Turn to page 10 to read more.

On page 11 we introduce some of the new faces joining the Orchestra’s behind-thescenes administration team and find out which concerts are their ‘must-sees’ this spring. We also get to know LPO Principal Tuba Lee Tsarmaklis in our regular ‘Backstage’ interview feature on page 16.

We always welcome comments and feedback from our audiences and supporters – see below for ways to get in touch via social media, or give us a call on 020 7840 4200 or email admin@lpo.org.uk.

Thank you for your support of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. I hope you will be able to join us in 2019, whether at Royal Festival Hall, on stage across the UK, at Glyndebourne this summer or on our travels abroad.

lpo 2019/20 season Booking for the LPO’s 2019/20 season opens on Wednesday 27 February online and via the LPO Box Office. To take advantage of priority booking (from Monday 18 February), become a Friend of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for as little as £60 a year.

Call Ellie Franklin on 020 7840 4225 or visit lpo.org.uk/support/memberships

Contents isle of noises 04–05 autumn 2018 roundup 06–07 New & noteworthy 08 lpo go wild in botswana 10 staff picks 11 elgar’s falstaff 12 Concert listings 13–15 Backstage: lee tsarmaklis 16

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While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of this publication, we cannot accept liability for any statement or error contained herein. © 2019 London Philharmonic Orchestra.

The paper used for printing this magazine has been sourced from responsibly managed forests, certified in accordance with the FSC (Forest Stewardship Council). It is manufactured to the ISO 14001 international standard, minimising negative impacts on the environment and is manufactured from pulp that has been bleached without the use of chlorine compounds using oxygen (elemental chlorine free), which are considered harmful to the environment.

Concert listings and booking information on pages 13–15 – 03 –

Tune in – SPRING / SUMMER 2019 –

lpo 2018/19 season

isle of noises For nine decades the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been at the heart of music-making in London, in the British Isles and in Europe – and we know that there’s never been any one thing called ‘British music’.

Throughout 2019 we’ll be taking our own look at over three centuries of music in these islands: Richard Bratby introduces our new festival.

E

dward Elgar never felt entirely comfortable at the top. As a new member of a London club, some time in the reign of Edward VII, a fellow composer – Sir Alexander Mackenzie, the well-connected head of the Royal College of Music – saw him dithering over the cheeseboard. ‘Why don’t you try the Port Salut?’ Mackenzie suggested, before lowering his voice to whisper, sarcastically ‘Salut d’Amour’.

Elgar might have been knighted; he might have been acclaimed by Richard Strauss as Britain’s pre-eminent modern composer. But his clubbable, expensivelyeducated British colleagues quietly noticed his awkwardness and his Worcestershire vowels. As to the fact that he’d written bestselling salon favourites like Salut d’Amour; well, they were too polite to suggest that it was just a little bit – you know – common.

But once in a while, they’d give him a quick kick in the shins – just to remind him.

Elgar was a Roman Catholic – a faith that a mere 30 years before his birth had been denied full civil rights in the UK – and the more you dig into Elgar’s ‘Britishness’, the more complicated it gets. His music never quotes an English folk song even once; its roots are deep in the language of Brahms and Wagner. When Danny Boyle began the London 2012 Olympic opening ceremony with ‘Nimrod’ from the Enigma Variations (performed by the LPO on 9 November 2018), it was supposed to evoke a traditional, rural England. In fact, ‘Nimrod’ is a musical portrait of Elgar’s great friend and publisher August Jaeger – a German immigrant. The composer meant it to evoke not green and pleasant fields, but a slow movement by Beethoven. For the ultimate statement of musical Britishness, it’s got surprisingly international roots.

The LPO’s 2019 Isle of Noises festival takes that paradox and revels in it. This is a celebration of British music that understands that even the most familiar masterpieces have a fascinatingly diverse heritage. Gustav Holst came from an immigrant family, and The Planets (23 October) is a journey towards blissful dissolution (nibbāna, if you like) that takes its philosophical basis from his lifelong fascination with Hindu and Buddhist scriptures. Benjamin Britten might seem like the ultimate Establishment figure, and yes, he used to take tea at Sandringham with the Queen Mother. But the fact that a gay composer (and a conscientious objector into the bargain) could become such a national institution in his own lifetime gives pause for thought. His Violin Concerto (27 September) was written in the USA and draws on Britten’s interest in the Second Viennese School (when he’d asked to study with Alban Berg, his professors at the Royal College promptly squashed the idea flat).

It’s a story that you encounter again and again throughout British music. The best pieces are the unexpected and obstinate ones, the hybrids that push insolently up through the cracks. When Ralph Vaughan Williams composed his ballet Job (7 December), he called it a ‘Masque’, invoking the era of Purcell and Lawes because he didn’t like the idea of polite audiences commenting ‘oh, did you see God at the ballet?’ In the event, audiences expecting something soothing from the composer of The Lark Ascending saw a green, semi-naked Satan dancing to music of angular strangeness. The agnostic Vaughan Williams came from an old-established family of liberal thinkers (he was related to Charles Darwin): he took his cues from William Blake.

Meanwhile, up north: ‘You’ll never hear the

lpo.org.uk/isleofnoises – 04 –

Composer Ralph Vaughan Williams as a young man

thing again, my boy, why not throw in a couple of brass bands?’ said the conductor Thomas Beecham to the 29-year-old William Walton, as he began work on a choral commission for the 1931 Leeds Festival. Walton did just that, and the result – Belshazzar’s Feast (5 April) – is still a shocker: jazzy, raucous, shamelessly pagan. Walton’s chrome-plated self-assurance always played well in America. His Violin Concerto of 1939 (9 October) was written for the great American-Russian violinist Jascha Heifetz, and it has the streamlined, art-deco elegance of some great transatlantic liner. Not that British music needed to cross the Atlantic to hit the big time. The LPO’s evening of classic British film music (1 November) explores the curious fact that the most British love story of all time, Brief Encounter, uses music by Rachmaninoff – and that when another film, Dangerous Moonlight, tried to achieve the same effect, Richard Addinsell’s Warsaw Concerto proved almost indistinguishable from the real thing.

tune in – SPRING / SUMMER 2019 –

British composer Thomas Adès, whose Piano Concerto receives its UK premiere on 23 October 2019

Thomas Adès © Brian Voce

Of course, it wasn’t so long ago that pieces like the Warsaw Concerto were routinely dismissed as schlock – just as Walton was seen as brash, and Britten as too clever for his own good. Plenty of listeners, confused by his first name, still fail to realise that Gustav Holst was British at all. Yet the music lives, as vital and as communicative as ever – not despite its audacity, but because of it. Elgar diagnosed the phenomenon as early as 1905, in a lecture at the brand-new Birmingham University – itself a monument of red-brick swagger by a nouveau-riche city on the make: Critics frequently say of a man that it is to his credit that he is never vulgar. Good. But it is possible for him, in an artistic sense only, be it understood, to be much worse; he can be commonplace …Vulgarity often goes with inventiveness, and it can take the initiative – in a rude and misguided way no doubt – but after all, it does something, and can and has been refined. But the commonplace mind can never be anything other than commonplace …

An Englishman will take you into a large room, beautifully proportioned, and point out that it is white – all over white – and somebody will say, what exquisite taste. You know in your own mind, in your own soul, that it is not taste at all – that it is the want of taste – that it is mere evasion. English music is white, and evades everything.

Elgar’s use of ‘English’ rather than ‘British’ is a reminder, in itself, of the shifting nature of

national identity. But his analysis was spot on – and it didn’t make him any more popular in Clubland. British music in the late 19th century was dominated by well-mannered Biblical oratorios for choral festivals, in which angels ascended and divine punishment rained down to music that wouldn’t have startled Felix Mendelssohn.

Elgar, the chippy outsider, entered that tasteful white room and splashed every inch with outsize emotions, painted in all the colours of the late-romantic orchestra.

Throughout the Edwardian era he worked on a colossal trilogy of New Testament oratorios, each of them conceived as an emotional drama closer in spirit to Wagner or Verdi than Mendelssohn or Parry. He was deeply invested in the story, consulting Jewish liturgical experts about the sound of the shofar in The Apostles (26 October). (He later incorporated this ancient instrument into the score). The result wasn’t just one of the earliest examples of cultural crossover in British music; it was frankly and uncompromisingly passionate. Vulgar, you might even say. ‘I’m told Mackenzie is foaming at the mouth about The Apostles’, wrote Jaeger to Elgar in 1903.

This kind of thing just wasn’t British.

But if vulgarity means vitality, originality, diversity, it’s been British music’s saviour.

Today, the most exciting British composers are those who transgress boundaries and explore new worlds: the late, much missed Oliver Knussen’s fascination with that great Russian eccentric Scriabin, or anything at all by lpo.org.uk/isleofnoises – 05 –

Thomas Adès – a composer who believes that ‘Grand failures are preferable to sneaky successes’. Not that the UK premiere of his Piano Concerto (23 October) is likely to be anything other than a major event (and what does it say that he’s chosen to pair it with The Planets?). There’s no white-walled evasion of taste in Adès’s music. ‘We have a very highly developed nose for phoniness’, he says.

‘We won’t just accept something as sublime or whatever just because it tells us it is.’

In other words, we just have to listen – and if the music has something about it, it’ll speak to us, whether it’s as familiar as Elgar’s Cello Concerto (23 March) or as rare as William Alwyn’s lovely, lyrical Lyra Angelica (6 November). Isle of Noises ends with an outrage: the Dynamic Triptych by John Foulds (11 December). Foulds was born near Manchester, but moved to Delhi as head of music for the British Raj’s radio network. There, the servant of Empire let his own imagination be captured and transformed by the ancient culture he encountered, and although he died of cholera in 1939, leaving a trunkful of unperformed scores to be devoured by termites, the works he did complete are like nothing else in 20th-century music.

It’s hard to describe the Dynamic Triptych.

Imagine a work as virtuosic as Rachmaninoff, as colourful as Holst, and as supercharged as Walton; a piece founded on Indian classical concepts of rhythm which might just be the greatest British piano concerto of the 20th century. It’s an exuberant, super-sophisticated, utterly vulgar mass of influences, ideas and contradictions – and it sounds fantastic.

In other words, it couldn’t be more British.

Be not afeard: the isle is full of noises, sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not.

This is your music – discover it.

Richard Bratby writes about music for The Spectator, Gramophone and the Birmingham Post.

Isle of Noises begins on 30 January 2019 and runs until December. Turn to pages 13–14 for full listings of concerts in the first half of the year.

The second half of the festival will be announced with our 2019/20 season launch in February (see page 3).

ISLE OF

NOISES

Tune in – SPRING / SUMMER 2019 –

Lpo news

autumn 2018 roundup

the nutcracker The London Philharmonic Orchestra has long been renowned for its prowess in the opera pit at Glyndebourne, but this Christmas we branched out into ballet. The Orchestra was invited to accompany Tchaikovsky’s festive favourite The Nutcracker with Birmingham Royal Ballet at the Royal Albert Hall from 28–31 December. The seven performances were conducted by Koen Kessels, Music Director of the Royal Ballet.

September saw a new first for the Orchestra, when we made our debut at London Fashion Week. LPO musicians performed a soundtrack to British designer Richard Quinn’s SS19 runway show, comprising Rossini’s William Tell overture and an orchestral arrangement of Lana del Rey’s Young and Beautiful – famous for appearing in Baz Luhrmann’s 2013 film The Great Gatsby, and according to Richard Quinn offering a musical embodiment of the Hollywood glamour that inspired his collection. Richard invited GCSE and A-Level art pupils from London state schools to watch the show, explaining: ‘At a time when real damage is occurring to arts education, I want to point to how substantially its creative power lights the path to our future.’

carols at waterloo

On 4 December we continued our annual tradition of Carols at Waterloo, bringing festive cheer to commuters and collecting for Save the Children. LPO brass players were joined by singers from the London Philharmonic Choir and Clifford Chance LLP. £2036.08 was raised on the night, and Clifford Chance LLP very generously offered an additional donation of £1250, making a grand total of £3286.08.

the snowman at canary wharf On 2 December the Orchestra kicked off the Christmas season at Canary Wharf’s East Wintergarden, providing a live orchestral soundtrack to three screenings of the film The Snowman with music by Howard Blake. Soloists Daniel Todd and Leo Jamieson from Trinity Boys Choir joined the Orchestra for festive favourite, ‘Walking in the Air’. lpo.org.uk – 06 –

The Nutcracker © Andrew Ross – London Fashion Week © Catwalking – Waterloo © Helena Herford – Canary Wharf © Trinity Boys Choir

lpo at london fashion week

tune in – SPRING / SUMMER 2019 –

Jurowski’s Ring cycle continues: Die walküre – 27 January 2019

Player Appeal 2018/19 Be instrumental to our future

At the London Philharmonic Orchestra we believe that together we are greater than the sum of our parts. Players, supporters, staff and audience members; this is your LPO and you’re the LPO. We want you to stand with us as we show and share with the world our rare and special passion for the timeless art of orchestral music.

Vladimir Jurowski

Following the success of Wagner’s Das Rheingold in January 2018, on Sunday 27 January 2019 at Royal Festival Hall Vladimir Jurowski presents the second instalment of our Ring Cycle, Die Walküre.

The stellar cast includes Stuart Skelton as Siegmund, Evgeny Nikitin as Wotan and Ruxandra Donose as Sieglinde. The performance starts at 4.00pm and lasts 5 hours 15 minutes, including one 30-minute interval and one 60-minute interval: there’s also the chance to join us for a Champagne Taittinger reception during the intervals and after the concert, with opportunities to meet the soloists and musicians.

Tickets for the concert are priced £25–£60 (premium seats £80) and can be booked via lpo.org.uk or by calling 020 7840 4242.

For details on the reception packages visit lpo.org.uk/walkure or call 020 7840 4207.

Be instrumental.

Be here.

Jurowski © Simon Pauly

the perfect gift Did you know that you can buy gift vouchers for the LPO? These can be bought by phone from our Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) or online at lpo.org.uk/gifts. You can choose the exact amount you would like to give, and the recipient can spend their voucher on tickets to LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall or CDs from our online shop (over 100 titles available). find out more

We are asking you to be instrumental in our future and in our ability to continue doing all that you know us for. Donate online at lpo.org.uk/donate or call our Individual Giving Team on 020 7840 4212 or 020 7840 4225 to make a donation by credit or debit card.

lpo.org.uk/gifts

Kevin Lin, LPO Co-Leader

lpo.org.uk – 07 –

Tune in – SPRING / SUMMER 2019 –

Lpo news

New & noteworthy

The Congress Theatre has been the Orchestra’s home in Eastbourne ever since we gave the inaugural concert there when it opened 55 years ago. The doors to the theatre are currently closed as work continues on the £54 million Devonshire Park Project, due for completion early in the spring. During the closure we’ve enjoyed the opportunity to perform at the intimate Devonshire Park Theatre, showcasing the virtuosity of individual members of the Orchestra as soloists whilst performing some beautiful chamber music. We have been so appreciative of our audience’s ongoing support throughout this transitional period and are delighted that the Orchestra will give the first concert at the newly refurbished Congress Theatre when it reopens on Sunday 24 March. Darrell Ang will conduct the Orchestra in a celebratory programme comprising Glinka’s Ruslan and Ludmilla Overture, Elgar’s Cello Concerto with soloist Kian Soltani, and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No. 5.

spring 2019 tours: asia & usa

Seoul, South Korea, where the Orchestra performs in March 2019

This spring the Orchestra embarks on a major two-week tour of Southeast Asia with conductor Vladimir Jurowski and violinist Julia Fischer. This tour marks our first visit to Taiwan in ten years and our first tour to South Korea since 2010, as well as returns to the Chinese cities of Beijing, Tianjin and Shanghai.

The tour begins on 3 March, when the Orchestra departs Heathrow for the South Korean capital Seoul. There and in Yongin we will perform works by Brahms, Bruckner, Mendelssohn and Strauss, before flying to Taipei in Taiwan for two concerts at the National Concert Hall. The city of Kaohsiung is the second Taiwanese venue, where the Orchestra performs at the National Center for

eastbournetheatres.co.uk

spring gala 2019

lpo.org.uk/support-us/gala-2019

full details of all our tour concerts on page 15. follow all our touring adventures on twitter: twitter.com/lporchestra

glyndebourne 2019

find out more and book online

We are delighted to be returning to Banqueting House for our Spring Gala on Wednesday 1 May. This flagship event will raise much-needed funds towards the core work and projects of the Orchestra, allowing us to invest in the future of world-class music for all. A Champagne Taittinger reception in the Undercroft will be followed by dinner, performances and a silent auction in the breathtaking Main Hall, crowned by Rubens’s ceiling masterpiece. For more details or to book tickets, contact Georgie Gulliver on 020 7840 4209 or email georgie.gulliver@lpo.org.uk

the Arts before flying to Beijing for the China leg of the tour. Concerts at Beijing’s National Centre for the Performing Arts, the Concert Hall in Tianjin and two concerts at the Oriental Art Center in Shanghai follow, before we return to London on 18 March.

In mid-April we jet off again, travelling to New York to give two concerts at Lincoln Center with conductor Edward Gardner, pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and violinist James Ehnes. From there it’s just a short hop to Stamford, Connecticut where we perform the following evening at the city’s Palace Theatre.

Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia at the 2016 Festival

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The 2019 Glyndebourne Festival opens on 18 May, when Berlioz’s La damnation de Faust makes its Festival debut in a new production

by Richard Jones, in which the Orchestra will be conducted by Glyndebourne Music Director Robin Ticciati. Later in the season Ticciati conducts the Orchestra in Dvořák’s Rusalka, a revival of Melly Still’s much-loved production. Another first this year is Massenet’s ‘Cinderella’ opera Cendrillon, in its Festival debut directed by Fiona Shaw and conducted by John Wilson. Making a welcome return to the Festival is opera’s greatest comedy, Rossini’s Il barbiere di Siviglia in Annabel Arden’s stylish production (left), conducted by Rafael Payare. Booking opens on Sunday 3 March. glyndebourne.com

Glyndebourne © BillCooper

congress theatre, eastbourne: Reopening March 2019

Tune in – SPRING / SUMMER 2019 –

Lpo news

lpo people lpo benevolent fund The LPO Benevolent Fund enjoyed a successful year in 2018. In April a benefit concert at Wigmore Hall given by the Leonore Trio, at the invitation of John and Jeanie Rosefield, raised £21,312.89. It was a great evening and this fantastic result is the largest donation ever made to our Fund.

We are extremely grateful to all concerned.

In August the LPOBF successfully applied for charitable status. This will greatly aid our fundraising efforts and we have established a Virgin Money Giving website for those who wish to support our musicians. Please take a look at virginmoneygiving.com and just search for ‘LPOBF’.

If you are interested in supporting the work we do, then please contact me at georgepeniston@ gmail.com or look for me in the Double Bass section and say hello!

George Peniston Chairman, LPOBF

George Peniston & Laurie Lovelle © Benjamin Ealovega – Tania Mazzetti © Guido Vadilonga – Jaime Martín © Alexander Lindström

new appointments

Congratulations to Tania Mazzetti, who has been appointed Principal Second Violin.

Tania has been Co-Principal of the section since she joined the LPO in 2016.

Congratulations too to former LPO Principal Flute Jaime Martín, who has been named Music Director Designate of the Los Angeles Chamber Orchestra from September 2019.

laurence lovelle

Laurie Lovelle is retiring this spring after 38 years as a member of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Double Bass section.

He will be fondly remembered for the fun and humour he brings to those around him, as well as his fine musicianship.

Laurie first played with the LPO under Bernard Haitink in 1971 before moving to the Gulbenkian Orchestra in Lisbon and later the Rotterdam Philharmonic. In 1981 he returned to the UK to join the LPO under Klaus Tennstedt, where he has remained to this day.

Laurie has enjoyed a full and varied orchestral career but he also has a passion and talent for jazz. Whenever the Orchestra visited New York you could be sure to find him in a jazz club after our concerts. Outside music, Laurie is a teacher of Tai Chi, sometimes leading Orchestra members in classes on the lawns of Glyndebourne, and for several years he successfully led treks in Nepal.

Laurie has always been very welcoming to new players in the bass section and quickly puts them at ease. Playing alongside him is always a pleasure, not only for his high musical standards but for his supportive way of working. His relaxed style and ability to diffuse the most pressured times in our working day will be very much missed.

On behalf of all the LPO musicians, Laurie, we wish you and Julia well in your retirement, whether this be spending time in your favoured spot in Portugal or just simply enjoying a coffee in Blackheath. We bid you farewell with much affection and good wishes for the future.

George Peniston, LPO Double Bass lpo.org.uk – 09 –

In the office Our Concerts department saw some changes this autumn, as Tamzin Aitken left to take up a new role as Senior Producer at English National Opera. Sophie Richardson, previously Tours Manager, moved into the Glyndebourne and Projects Manager role, and we will welcome new Tours Manager Grace Ko in February. The On-the-Road team also recently welcomed Laura Kitson to the role of Assistant Transport/Stage Manager.

Mairi Warren joined our Marketing team as Marketing Manager in November, taking over from Libby Papakyriacou who moved to Cadogan Hall as Head of Sales and Marketing.

We also welcomed Tom Wright as Marketing Assistant, replacing Oli Frost who became Digital Media Officer at Historic Royal Palaces.

Lucas Dwyer joined us in December as PA to the Chief Executive/Administrative Assistant, stepping into the shoes of Tom Proctor, who recently left for a new role in the touring department at artist management agency Askonas Holt. We also said goodbye to Catherine Faulkner, who left the LPO to pursue writing and other creative projects. Taking over the reins from Catherine as Development Events Manager is Vicky Moran, who joins us in the New Year. turn to page 11 to meet some of our new staff.

Find a staff member: lpo.org.uk/about/staff

new arrival Congratulations to LPO viola player Laura Vallejo and her partner Aaron on the birth of their son Mateo, who arrived on 3 November 2018.

Tune in – SPRING / SUMMER 2019 –

LPO partners

lpo go wild in botswana Join the LPO for an extraordinary experience this April, as we perform Saint-Saëns’s ‘Carnival of the Animals’ live in the African bush. treated to a special evening of music under the stars. As lions, elephants and wild birds all come to life in Saint-Saëns’s playful suite, the notes resounding across the plains will reach the ears of the delta’s untamed residents.

During the day guests can tap into their spirit of adventure with activities ranging from mokoro canoe safaris, where they glide silently past hippos, bright frogs and kingfishers, to a thrilling helicopter flight and horseback trek. They return to unwind in sumptuous rooms with private plunge pools before joining new-found friends for cocktails at Fish Eagle Bar and dinner round the campfire.

At the second location, Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge, a tented oasis awaits next to the mysterious Savute Channel, which ebbs and flows seemingly at whim. In sustainably designed spaces, rich in local craftsmanship, guests relax on canopied day beds on their own generous terrace to soak up the views, or peek out from the unique viewing hide to observe, at close range, elephants, hyenas and leopards round the watering hole. The Lodge is a place to reconnect with nature and offers plentiful spaces for reading and relaxation, a serene pool and a spa tent with open views.

LPO musicians at Brazil’s Iguassu Falls, where they performed at Belmond Hotel das Cataratas in 2018

After the day’s game drives, an authentic boma dining experience provides a magical end to the day. African specialities are served as the Lodge’s tuneful staff choir sings heartwarming traditional songs.

Recent events in the series have included an LPO chamber ensemble performing at Sicily’s Belmond Grand Hotel Timeo against a backdrop of glittering coastline and fiery Mount Etna. Shortly afterwards, Belmond Hotel das Cataratas, the only hotel within Brazil’s Iguassu National Park, was the showstopping venue for another stirring performance beside the thundering waterfalls. One onlooker observed: ‘The most mesmerising part for me was seeing the spray of the falls turn pink in the sunset while taking in not only the enchanting sounds of the LPO, but also the surroundings – exotic birds, the water crashing, applause. A sensory feast!’

For those who appreciate world-class music, nature in all its unspoilt majesty and the infinite wonders of travel, these experiences hit all the right notes.

We hope you’ll join us in Botswana from 18-24 April 2019.

Visit belmond.com/lpo for information, contact christina.Mcneill@lpo.org.uk, call 020 7840 4210 or book on safaris@belmond.com in the meantime, see videos from the sicily and brazil performances at lpo.uk/belmond

Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge, Botswana

belmond.com/lpo – 10 –

Photos © Belmond

I

magine relaxing in the heart of the African wilderness, observing majestic elephants roam across the savannah, as LPO musicians trill, purr and, well, trumpet, Saint-Saëns’s Carnival of the Animals.

This will be the scene this April when a wind quintet performs for guests of Belmond Safaris among Botswana’s wild inhabitants.

The enchanting, one-off concert is part of the LPO’s continuing partnership with luxury hotel and travel company Belmond, curator of inspiring adventures around the world. ‘The Wonder Collection’, presenting Exceptional Music in Exceptional Locations, takes classical music out of the concert hall and into spectacular settings.

David Burke, General Manager of the LPO, explains: ‘In contrast to a concert hall with the full orchestra, settings such as this create a certain intimacy, a dynamism that keeps the interaction between musician, location and audience fresh.’

This unique concert forms part of a six-night adventure in Botswana, where guests stay at two of Belmond’s newly reimagined safari lodges. During their time at Belmond Eagle Island Lodge, set on an island in the lush Okavango Delta, they will be

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LPO people

staff picks Meet the newest members of the LPO’s behind-the-scenes team, and find out which concerts they’re looking forward to this spring.

mairi warren marketing manager

laura kitson Assistant Transport/Stage Manager

tom wright marketing Assistant

Mairi recently joined us from the Barbican, after previously working for the Philharmonia Orchestra. She has a Psychology degree from St Andrews University and has done voluntary work for Drake Music Scotland, Sistema Scotland and the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq.

Laura joined us in the autumn from Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, where she was Performance Operations Coordinator. She is a music graduate of Birmingham Conservatoire and Trinity Laban.

Tom recently completed a music degree at Nottingham University, during which he completed work placements at Sinfonia Viva and BBC Proms TV. He’s an amateur trombonist and conductor, and is hoping to carry these on in his spare time whilst working at the LPO.

I’m a big fan of Sibelius and can’t wait to hear the Fifth Symphony on 5 April, and Christian Tetzlaff performing the Violin Concerto on 2 February. As an amateur violinist, the Sibelius Violin Concerto is a firm favourite of mine, although I’ve never attempted to learn it (I’ll leave that to the experts!). I love the Fifth Symphony too, especially the soaring French horn melody in the last movement evoking swans taking flight – a treat for the ears.

In my job I have the pleasure of experiencing every single LPO concert, be it during preparation in the rehearsal room or the final product in the concert hall. One concert this season that really jumped out at me is 27 March, featuring Khachaturian’s Adagio to Spartacus and Phrygia and Walton’s First Symphony. The two halves of this concert couldn’t be more different, from the unadulterated passion that oozes out of Khachaturian’s Adagio to the stark contrast of the Walton, filled to the brim with angst and full of shattering power that rumbles throughout the orchestra from the very first moment and continues relentlessly right until the last note. These pieces hold a special place in my heart as they were the some of the first pieces I ever played in an orchestra. The trumpet line that soars over the orchestra during the climax in the Khachaturian and the power from the brass in the Walton still bring back fond memories whenever I hear them.

The prospect of Wagner’s Die Walküre on 27 January is incredibly exciting, as I’ve not yet had the pleasure of hearing any of the Ring Cycle live. As a trombonist I’ll be jumping out of my seat with glee at the iconic ‘Ride of the Valkyries’ in Act 3! Although I’ll have to watch the first Ring opera, Das Rheingold, first – I have some catching up to do...

I’m also really looking forward to seeing the LPO perform Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas on 30 January – the opera is such a poignant tale of love and loss, and contains some of Purcell’s most deeply moving music – it’ll be a pleasure to hear the Orchestra playing Baroque music, particularly with conductor Roger Norrington and such a magnificent roster of soloists.

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In true brass-player fashion, I enjoy everything that’s big and loud and thunderous, so I’m really looking forward to Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 on 23 March. The startling crash into the finale is astonishing even in recordings, so hearing it in person (finally!) is bound to be a memorable experience.

The Isle of Noises series in general will be a treat to hear – a lot of music and composers I’ve never been exposed to, but the ‘Here and Now’ concert of premieres on 16 January will be an electrifying experience: musical history in the making indeed.

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lpo 2018/19 season

loving falstaff Andrew Neill introduces Elgar’s ‘Falstaff’, the composer’s symphonic portrayal of Shakespeare’s ‘fat knight’, which the Orchestra brings to Royal Festival Hall on 27 April.

Elgar in the hall of Severn House, Hampstead, where he lived from 1911 and where Falstaff was composed.

Sir John Oldcastle, a one-time friend of Henry V, who was executed in 1417 for heresy, is apparently the figure on whom Shakespeare based his creation of Sir John Falstaff. Oldcastle was a Lollard preaching religious reform and therefore a heretic. In the Epilogue to Henry IV, Part 2 Shakespeare makes clear the connection: ‘… for anything I know, Falstaff shall die of a sweat, unless already a’ be killed with your hard opinions; for Oldcastle died a martyr, and this is not the man.’ On the other hand Falstaff is a cad, petty thief, lecher and a drunkard; a man who would not have had the courage to preach heresy; but Shakespeare’s genius is to make us love a man whose humanity is impossible to resist. It is this man whom Elgar sought to portray in music.

In other hands, such as Richard Strauss, Falstaff would be called a ‘tone poem’. Despite its complexity and length, the Cervantes novel Don Quixote presents a rounded portrait of his two principal characters (Don Quixote and Sancho Panza), and in his musical portrait Strauss is able to pick the scenes from the novel that inspired his musical imagination and his eclectic set of variations. That final variation, the cello telling us of Don Quixote’s return to sanity and demise, can be heartbreaking. Elgar, who is equally capable of emotion, has the greater challenge for, although he picks scenes from Falstaff’s life, Shakespeare’s character pops in and out of the two Henry IV plays and his demise is described in Henry V by a third party, Mistress Quickly. Falstaff is always a bystander, a sub-plot: he is not the central character.

Part of the originality of Elgar’s Falstaff is that he sticks to the Henry plays and is not enticed into the very different world of The Merry Wives of Windsor. In his music Elgar reflects Falstaff’s love of life as well as the dirt of the time such as in the scenes in the Boar’s Head and the scarecrow army. Elgar’s Falstaff is a man of action but he avoids a characterisation that could become two

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dimensional. When Falstaff reminisces it is not about conquests of women; it is about his progress to becoming a knight, his battles and his falseness.

It is in the two Interludes that we come to the heart of the music, Elgar latching on to the few words that tell us of Falstaff’s past when he was page to the Duke of Norfolk.

Nevertheless, Elgar’s Falstaff is at his greatest as it ends. The excitement of the coronation procession and the crowd is vivid until ‘the man of stern reality’ stops before his old friend. King Henry may have ‘triumphed’ but it is the short scene in Henry V which enables Elgar to reach beyond Falstaff’s rejection and return to memories of green fields, the Prince Hal he once loved and his fellow revelers before the lonely death which Mistress Quickly movingly reports: ‘ … a’ parted even just between twelve and one, even at the turning of the tide.’ It could end there; but the music offers no redemption, as Elgar’s hero dies. Falstaff’s heart is broken and his world destroyed: The king is dead; long live the king’!

A side-drum turns the atmosphere to ice, a bar of silence stops our breath and one beat tells us it is all over.’

Andrew Neill is a member of the Advisory Council of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chairman of the Richard Strauss Society.

He was Chairman of the Elgar Society from 1992–2008.

Saturday 27 April 2019 | 7.30pm Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2* Elgar Falstaff R Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks Vladimir Jurowski conductor Yefim Bronfman piano London Philharmonic Orchestra * Please note a change of concerto from previously advertised.

For ticket information see page 13.

Photo: Andrew Neill

I

n September 1913 The Musical Times published an ‘analytical essay’ by Elgar on his ‘Symphonic Study’ Falstaff: a work that would receive its premiere under his baton at the Leeds Festival on 1 October.

In his essay, Elgar makes it clear that the listener should forget ‘the caricature in The Merry Wives of Windsor’, for ‘the work is based solely on the Falstaff of [Shakespeare’s] historical plays’.

For Elgar, Shakespeare was always part of his life, as he acknowledges when he refers to the scenes in Henry IV, Part 1 as ‘so finely graduated that they exhibit one of the highest flights of Shakespeare’s genius …’ .

It can be no surprise, therefore, that Shakespeare is at the heart of Elgar’s Falstaff: in the character and the quotations, and in the world Elgar creates in music. The composer and musicologist Sir Donald Tovey stressed Falstaff’s musical importance when he pointed out: ‘This enormous mass of definitely different themes is about equal to that of Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ or Ninth Symphony.’

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Lpo spring 2019

Concert listings Southbank centre Unless otherwise stated, standard prices £10–£46 Premium seats £65 London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Mon–Fri 10am–5pm lpo.org.uk Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone Royal Festival Hall Ticket Office 020 3879 9555 Daily 9am–8pm southbankcentre.co.uk Transaction fees: £3 online, £3.50 telephone No transaction fee for in-person bookings, Southbank Centre Members and Supporters Circles.

ISLE OF

Concerts marked with this

NOISES symbol are part of Isle of Noises.

Unless stated, all concerts take part at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

Wednesday 16 January 2019 | 7.30pm Arne Gieshoff Burr (world premiere)* Erkki-Sven Tüür Solastalgia for piccolo and orchestra (UK premiere)** Helen Grime Percussion Concerto (world premiere)† Louis Andriessen Agamemnon (European premiere) Anders Hillborg Sound Atlas (world premiere)†† Marin Alsop conductor Stewart McIlwham piccolo Colin Currie percussion London Philharmonic Orchestra Part of Southbank Centre’s SoundState festival, January 2019.

Concert generously supported by Dior. * Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra following Arne Gieshoff’s participation in the LPO Young Composers programme. ** Commissioned by the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra Amsterdam, St. Louis Symphony and London Philharmonic Orchestra. † Commissioned by Southbank Centre, London, Baltimore Symphony Orchestra and Swedish Chamber Orchestra. †† Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic, NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra and Göteborgs Symfoniker.

Free pre-concert event: Behind the Baton 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Join Marin Alsop as she explores the music of tonight’s composers and shares her thoughts on the exciting future of classical music.

Sunday 27 January 2019 | 4.00pm Wagner Die Walküre

Friday 8 February 2019 | 7.30pm Mendelssohn Overture, Ruy Blas Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 Elgar Symphony No. 2

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Stuart Skelton Siegmund Evgeny Nikitin Wotan* Ruxandra Donose Sieglinde* Stephen Milling Hunding Claudia Mahnke Fricka Svetlana Sozdateleva Brünnhilde Ursula Hesse von den Steinen Waltraute Sinéad Campbell-Wallace Helmwige Alwyn Mellor Gerhilde Gabriela Iştoc Ortlinde Hanna Hipp Rossweisse Angela Simkin Siegrune Rachael Lloyd Grimgerde Susan Platts Schwertleite

David Parry conductor Vanessa Benelli Mosell piano Beethoven Piano Concertos Cycle Friday 22 February 2019 | 7.30pm Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 Saturday 23 February 2019 | 7.30pm Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor)

* Please note a change of artists from previously advertised.

Please note start time.

Sung in German with English surtitles.

Generously supported by members of the Orchestra’s Ring Cycle Syndicate.

Interval and post-concert event Make this an afternoon to remember. Join us for a Champagne Taittinger interval reception with the opportunity to meet the soloists and musicians after the concert.

Find out more at lpo.org.uk/walkure Wednesday 30 January 2019 | 7.30pm Handel Water Music, Suites 1 & 2 Purcell Dido and Aeneas

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NOISES

Roger Norrington conductor Marie-Claude Chappuis Dido Lucy Crowe Belinda Benjamin Appl Aeneas Anna Dennis Second Woman Edward Grint Sorceress and Spirit Ciara Hendrick First Witch Anna Harvey Second Witch Free pre-concert event: Behind the Baton 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Join Roger Norrington as he discusses his performance of these two musical giants, and the works being composed during this golden age of British music.

Saturday 2 February 2019 | 7.30pm Sibelius Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No. 7 (Nowak edition) Robin Ticciati conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin

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NOISES

Juanjo Mena conductor Javier Perianes piano Javier Perianes’s Beethoven Piano Concerto Cycle is generously supported by an anonymous donor.

Wednesday 27 February 2019 | 7.30pm Wagner Overture, Tannhäuser Weber Clarinet Concerto No. 1 Smith Andante for Clarinet and Orchestra Brahms Symphony No. 2

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Vladimir Jurowski conductor Andreas Ottensamer clarinet Saturday 2 March 2019 | 7.30pm Haydn The Seasons Sung in English

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Vladimir Jurowski conductor Sophie Bevan soprano Mark Padmore tenor Andrew Foster-Williams bass-baritone London Philharmonic Choir Free pre-concert event: Behind the Baton 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Music historian and founder of period music chamber ensemble Café Mozart Dr Derek McCulloch takes a look at Haydn’s love affair with England which would not only leave a mark on the musical life of this country, but also on the composer himself.

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Lpo spring 2019

Concert listings continued Saturday 23 March 2019 | 7.30pm Beethoven Egmont Overture Elgar Cello Concerto Mahler Symphony No. 1

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NOISES

Edward Gardner conductor Kian Soltani cello Wednesday 27 March 2019 | 7.30pm Khachaturian Adagio of Spartacus and Phrygia Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Walton Symphony No. 1

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Wednesday 10 April 2019 | 7.30pm Debussy Iberia from Images Saint-Saëns Piano Concerto No. 5 (Egyptian) Ravel Mother Goose Suite Debussy La mer Edward Gardner conductor Stephen Hough piano

Vasily Petrenko conductor George Li piano Free pre-concert event 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall Dr Kate Kennedy explores Walton’s arrival on the symphonic stage with his First Symphony, joining the likes of Elgar and Vaughan Williams in this prolific period for English symphonists.

Friday 29 March 2019 | 7.30pm A selection of popular tenor arias from worldfamous operas by composers including Puccini, Verdi, Donizetti, Massenet and Offenbach.

Sascha Goetzel conductor Juan Diego Flórez tenor FUNharmonics Family Concert: Conducting Science – Voice Box Join our expert presenter Helen Arney for more on-stage experiments with the whole Orchestra, astounding facts and extraordinary music-making.

Bring along your lab coat and your voice, open up your ears and expect the unexpected!

Suitable for children aged six and over.

Join in the free pre-concert foyer activities from 10.00am–12.00 noon (FUNharmonics concert ticket-holders only).

Adults £12–20, children £6–10 FUNharmonics foyer activities are generously supported by Stentor Music Co. Ltd.

Friday 5 April 2019 | 7.30pm Bax Tintagel Grieg Piano Concerto Sibelius Suite, Belshazzar’s Feast Sibelius Symphony No. 5

Free pre-concert performance 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall The Foyle Future Firsts give a programme of music marking the musical life of Oliver Knussen, as part of our celebration of British music Isle of Noises.

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Free pre-concert performance 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall LPO Soundworks is a platform for teenage composers to collaborate with young people from other artforms and learn from industry specialists. This year’s Soundworks performance is the culmination of a week of exciting creative collaboration, and promises to challenge and entertain!

Saturday 27 April 2019 | 7.30pm ISLE OF Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2* NOISES Elgar Falstaff R Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks Vladimir Jurowski conductor Yefim Bronfman piano * Please note a change of concerto from previously advertised.

Free pre-concert performance 6.00–6.45pm | Royal Festival Hall This year’s LPO Junior Artists – members of our annual scheme for high-level teenage instrumentalists from under-represented backgrounds – perform British music alongside LPO members and Junior Artist alumni. Join us to celebrate the diversity and talent of the future generation of orchestral musicians.

Friday 3 May 2019 | 7.30pm Brahms Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No. 3 (1877 revised version) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Janine Jansen violin Concert generously supported by Dior.

Osmo Vänskä conductor Jan Lisiecki piano

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Around the UK Saturday 12 January 2019 | 7.30pm Brighton Dome Concert Hall Box Office: 01273 709709 brightondome.org Beethoven Coriolan Overture Brahms Violin Concerto Dvořák Symphony No. 9 (From the New World) Jamie Phillips conductor Alexander Sitkovetsky violin Sunday 10 February 2019 | 3.00pm Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne Box Office: 01323 412000 eastbournetheatres.co.uk Mozart Oboe Quartet Beethoven String Quartet Op. 18 No.1 Brahms Clarinet Quintet Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Sunday 24 March 2019 | 3.00pm Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Box Office: 01323 412000 eastbournetheatres.co.uk Glinka Overture, Ruslan and Ludmilla Elgar Cello Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5 Darrell Ang conductor Kian Soltani cello Saturday 6 April 2019 | 7.30pm Brighton Dome Concert Hall Box Office: 01273 709709 brightondome.org Bax Tintagel Grieg Piano Concerto Sibelius Suite, Belshazzar’s Feast Sibelius Symphony No. 5 Osmo Vänskä conductor Jan Lisiecki piano Sunday 7 April 2019 | 3.00pm Congress Theatre, Eastbourne Box Office: 01323 412000 eastbournetheatres.co.uk Programme as 6 April Brighton

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INTERNATIONAL CONCERTS Sunday 6 January 2019 | 8.15pm Muziekgebouw Frits Philips, Eindhoven, Netherlands muziekgebouweindhoven.nl Monday 7 January 2019 | 8.15pm De Oosterpoort, Groningen, Netherlands de-oosterpoort.nl Tuesday 8 January 2019 | 8.00pm Queen Elisabeth Hall, Antwerp, Belgium koninginelisabethzaal.be Wednesday 9 January 2019 | 8.00pm Theater Heerlen, Netherlands plt.nl Thursday 10 January 2019 | 8.00pm Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium concertgebouw.be Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 2 Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) Beethoven Symphony No. 5

Sunday 17 February 2019 | 7.00pm Palau de la Música, Valencia, Spain palauvalencia.com Mozart Overture, Don Giovanni Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor) Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K543 Juanjo Mena conductor Javier Perianes piano Monday 18 February 2019 | 8.00pm Auditorio de la Diputación, Alicante, Spain addaalicante.es Mozart Overture, Don Giovanni Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K543 Juanjo Mena conductor Javier Perianes piano

Sunday 10 March 2019 | 7.30pm National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan npac-ntch.org Elgar Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No. 2 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Julia Fischer violin Tuesday 12 March 2019 | 7.30pm National Center for the Arts, Kaohsiung, Taiwan npac-weiwuying.org Thursday 14 March 2019 | 7.30pm National Centre for the Performing Arts, Beijing, China chncpa.org Programme as 6 March Yongin

Jaime Martín conductor Arseny Tarasevich-Nikolaev piano

Juanjo Mena conductor Javier Perianes piano

Friday 15 March 2019 | 7.30pm Tianjin Concert Hall, Tianjin, China tjconcerthall.com Saturday 16 March 2019 | 7.30pm Oriental Art Center, Shanghai, China shoac.com.cn Programme as 9 March Taipei

Sunday 3 February 2019 | 5.00pm Théâtre des Champs Elysées, Paris theatrechampselysees.fr Sibelius Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No. 7 (Nowak edition)

Wednesday 20 February 2019 | 7.30pm Auditorio Nacional de Musica, Madrid auditorionacional.mcu.es Beethoven Piano Concerto Nos. 1 & 5

Sunday 17 March 2019 | 7.30pm Oriental Art Center, Shanghai, China shoac.com.cn Programme as 10 March Taipei

Robin Ticciati conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin

Tuesday 19 February 2019 | 7.30pm Auditorio Nacional de Musica, Madrid auditorionacional.mcu.es Beethoven Piano Concerto Nos. 2, 3 & 4

Juanjo Mena conductor Javier Perianes piano

Tuesday 12 February 2019 | 8.00pm Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg elbphilharmonie.de ‘The Golden Violin’: a programme of popular works for violin and orchestra

Wednesday 6 March 2019 | 7.30pm Samsung Concert Hall, Yongin, South Korea yicf.or.k Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No. 2

Jochen Rieder conductor Daniel Röhn violin

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Julia Fischer violin

Friday 15 February 2019 | 8.00pm Auditorio de Zaragoza, Spain auditoriozaragoza.com Mozart Overture, Don Giovanni Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4 Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K543

Thursday 7 March 2019 | 8.00pm Seoul Arts Center, South Korea sacticket.co.kr Programme as 6 Mar Yongin

Juanjo Mena conductor Javier Perianes piano Saturday 16 February 2019 | 8.00pm Palau de la Música, Barcelona, Spain palaumusica.cat Sor Overture, Alphonse et Léonore Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Mozart Symphony No. 39 in E flat, K543

Saturday 9 March 2019 | 7.30pm National Concert Hall, Taipei, Taiwan npac-ntch.org Strauss Till Eulenspiegel’s Merry Pranks Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Bruckner Symphony No. 2 (1876/7 revised version) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Julia Fischer violin

Juanjo Mena conductor Javier Perianes piano

Sunday 14 April 2019 | 3.00pm Lincoln Center, New York, USA lincolncenter.org Debussy La Mer Ravel Piano Concerto in G Ravel Mother Goose Suite Debussy Iberia Edward Gardner conductor Jean-Efflam Bavouzet piano Monday 15 April 2019 | 8.00pm Lincoln Center, New York, USA lincolncenter.org Beethoven Egmont Overture Sibelius Violin Concerto Mahler Symphony No. 1 Edward Gardner conductor James Ehnes violin Tuesday 16 April 2019 | 8.00pm The Palace, Stamford, Connecticut, USA Programme as 15 April Lincoln Center Thursday 18–Wednesday 24 April 2019 Belmond Eagle Island Lodge & Belmond Savute Elephant Lodge, Botswana belmond.com/lpo Chamber music performed by soloists of the LPO See page 10 for more details.

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LPO people

backstage Did you grow up in a musical family? Did you always want to play the tuba or did you start with something smaller?

Music was played in our house on a daily basis but just on my dad’s record player – nobody played an instrument. I started on the tuba on my first day at secondary school and it was love at first sound! We had a brilliant music teacher, Mr Cook, who managed to get over 50 of us playing in the school band. This was a quarter of the school!

What has been your most memorable experience in your 19 years with the LPO? I’ll never forget performing Bruckner’s Seventh Symphony with Kurt Masur at Carnegie Hall in New York in 2002. Masur wasn’t well and he hobbled on to the podium ... he didn’t look like he was going to make it to the end, but on the contrary: he created absolute magic, and an hour later stepped off the podium more youthful than ever! Another vivid memory is Mahler’s Second Symphony with Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Choir at Royal Festival Hall in 2009. Such a brilliant combination of forces! I’m so glad this concert was captured forever on the LPO CD label, as it was such a special experience.

Can you tell us about your instrument?

I actually play two instruments in the LPO, depending on the repertoire. One is a British-made Boosey and Hawkes E flat tuba which I’ve had for 35 years, and the other is a Yamaha copy of a 1920 York contrabass tuba which I’ve owned for 10 years, and which I use for larger weighty repertoire.

Which composer (living or dead) would you most like to meet?

Prokofiev – I’d love to ask him why he wrote such amazing bass lines, often for us tubas!

He must have had very good players at his disposal, as it’s always a challenge playing his bass lines.

– lee tsarmaklis – Lee has been the Orchestra’s Principal Tuba since 2000. Born in Athens, he moved to London as a young boy, and later spent six years as Principal Tuba of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

What do you think makes the LPO special?

The LPO is an amazingly talented musical outfit with a spirit second to none. I’m constantly amazed and inspired by the music-making of my wonderful colleagues, despite sometimes challenging conditions.

What are the best and worst things about life as an orchestral musician?

The best thing is being part of a team that has been performing since 1932, and will hopefully keep going for hundreds of years

Newsletter published by the London Philharmonic Orchestra 89 Albert Embankment, London SE1 7TP Tel: 020 7840 4200 Fax: 020 7840 4201 Ticket Office: 020 7840 4242 lpo.org.uk

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What alternative career might you have liked to pursue, had you not become a professional musician?

Definitely a chef – but I would probably eat too much food, therefore wouldn’t make any money, so on second thoughts …

Which spring 2019 LPO concerts are you most looking forward to?

Vladimir Jurowski conducting the second of Wagner’s Ring Cycle operas, Die Walküre on 27 January, is bound to be an incredible experience. I’m also looking forward to Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 with Robin Ticciati on 2 February. The LPO always sound marvellous playing Bruckner’s music, so I can’t wait to hear it! meet our members lpo.org.uk/players

Photo © Benjamin Ealovega

Earlier in your career you were Principal Tuba of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra.

How does life in a UK orchestra differ from your experience in Hong Kong?

I spent six wonderful years in the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and my last performance with them was playing for the handover ceremony when Hong Kong was returned to China in 1997 – an experience I’ll never forget. I was just a few yards away from the Union Jack as it was being lowered for the last time.

The LPO is a much busier orchestra with up to three or four different programmes to get to grips with some weeks. Touring schedules in the LPO can also be very demanding.

In Hong Kong we’d often rehearse for four days before performing a single programme and repeating it the following evening – a luxury that none of the self-run London orchestras enjoy!

more! One of the hardest things is juggling family life with a busy schedule – it can be really tough at times, especially when we’re on tour.