LPO Tune In newsletter – Autumn/Winter 2015

– AUTUMN / WINTER 2015 –

Mahler’s like your eternal conducting teacher peeping over your shoulder telling you what to do.

Vladimir Jurowski

MAHLER THE TEACHER

CREATIVE CLASSROOMS

BACKSTAGE

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Three conductors learn from Maestro Mahler

Two players give their wholehearted support to an LPO education initiative

Keeping it in the LPO family with married couple Rachel and Andrew

Principal Partner

New releases on the LPO Label Messiaen Des canyons aux étoiles Christoph Eschenbach conductor Tzimon Barto piano | John Ryan horn Andrew Barclay xylorimba Erika Öhman glockenspiel

Principal Supporters

£10.99 (2 CDs) LPO-0083 | Released March 2015

Bruckner Symphony No. 3 Stanisław Skrowaczewski conductor £9.99 LPO-0084 | Released April 2015

Beethoven Egmont Overture Symphony No. 6 ‘Pastoral’ Klaus Tennstedt conductor £6.99 LPO-0085 | Released May 2015

The Genius of Film Music Hollywood Blockbusters 1960s to 1980s

Education Partner

John Mauceri conductor £10.99 (2 CDs) LPO-0086 | Released September 2015 Find out more on page 12

Beethoven Coriolan Overture Symphony No. 5

Com in soo g n

Klaus Tennstedt conductor A BBC recording £6.99 LPO-0087 Release date 28 September 2015

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 iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and others.

Corporate Members Accenture Berenberg Carter Ruck Appleyard & Trew LLP BTO Management Consulting AG Charles Russell Lazard Leventis Overseas

Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria

In-kind Sponsors Google Inc Sela / Tilley’s Sweets

TUNE IN – AUTUMN / WINTER 2015 –

WELCOME

W

elcome to the Autumn 2015 edition of the London Philharmonic Orchestra newsletter, Tune In, our bi-season magazine to keep you up-to-date with news and reflect on highlights of the year so far.

The 2015/16 season sees eleven concerts with our Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Jurowski, who continues his Mahler Symphony cycle at the opening concert on 23 September with the Seventh.

Mahler symphonies make two more appearances this first half season with Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducting the Fifth while our Principal Guest Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada’s choice is Symphony No. 1.

Richard Bratby spoke to each and discovered how Mahler’s own career as a conductor runs through his music, influencing their own performances. It makes very interesting reading (see pages 4–5).

The Orchestra has not been idle since the end of the last season. Over the summer it took up its usual residency at Glyndebourne, performing operas by Donizetti, Bizet, Britten and a Ravel double bill. The reviews were excellent and you can read a round-up on page 8. In between Glyndebourne and the start of the season the Orchestra will be squeezing in an exciting tour to Mexico, part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture, details on page 6. We promise to bring you stories of what the Orchestra got up to in the next edition!

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is now well into its ninth decade, its longevity due in no small measure to the fact that we are lucky enough to attract players of an exceptionally high calibre, in all sections of the LPO. While the Orchestra is, of course, one entity,

it is gratifying to see individual players’ incredible musicality singled out on occasion.

On page 7 you can find out who received particular praise in last season’s concert reviews and on radio.

We are also fortunate to have keen supporters like yourselves, and our Development Department has been working hard to raise much needed funds. I’m thrilled to report that we broke fundraising records this year at the Summer Gala 2015, and the Sound Futures campaign also secured its £1 million target. Turn to page 9 for details alongside word of a charity golf day where Bryn Terfel was keen to improve his handicap.

We are very grateful for your continued support without which we would not be able to carry out important projects such as Creative Classrooms, just one core activity led by the Education Department. The pupils that

CONTENTS

Editor Sarah Breeden Publisher London Philharmonic Orchestra Printer Conquest Litho Ltd Cover image: Gustav Mahler conducting, caricature by H. Boehler © Lebrecht Music and Arts Timothy Walker © Chris Blott

– TIMOTHY WALKER – Chief Executive and Artistic Director

MAHLER THE TEACHER 04–05 NEW AND NOTEWORTHY 06–07 GLYNDEBOURNE RESIDENCY 08 THANK YOU! 09 CREATIVE CLASSROOMS 10–11 BIG SCORERS: LPO AND THE SILVER SCREEN 12 CONCERT LISTINGS 13–15 BACKSTAGE 16

take part reap dividends but it’s wonderful that the players who engage in such projects also benefit. On page 10 read how two players, Anne McAneney and Alice Munday, found their involvement in Creative Classrooms a joyous experience: their enthusiasm leaps off the page.

We do like to think of the LPO as a family and we have a special ‘family’ Backstage interview on page 16 where Mr and Mrs Chenery, aka Andrew Chenery, LPO Orchestra Personnel Manager and Rachel Masters, Principal Harp, reveal how the LPO brought them together and why there are some benefits to working in the same organisation.

The LPO has long been composers’ and directors’ orchestra of choice to perform film soundtracks from Maurice Jarre’s Lawrence of Arabia to The Lord of the Rings trilogy. This month we released on the LPO label The Genius of Film Music: Hollywood Blockbusters 1960s to 1980s , a recording of a concert performed in 2013 – turn to page 12 where you can also find out about film concerts coming up.

I do hope you can join us at some of our forthcoming concerts in London or further afield (see pages 13–15). Full details of the UK season are available in our brochures and details of all concerts at home and abroad can be found on our website.

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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. © 2015 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.

Full concert listings and booking information on pages 13–15 – 03 –

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TUNE IN – AUTUMN / WINTER 2015 –

LPO 2015/16 SEASON

MAHLER THE TEACHER

I

f Mahler hadn’t been a musician, he could have had a career as an artist’s model.

One summer in the early years of the 20th century, the artist Alfred Roller had the chance to check him out while sunbathing: ‘I have seen a great many naked bodies of all types and can testify that at the age of forty Mahler had the perfect male torso, strong, slim, beautifully made […] I could never set eyes on his superbly modelled, sun-tanned back without being reminded of a racehorse in peak condition.’

Gustav Mahler as beefcake? If it feels odd now to witness an artist like Mahler being objectified like this, in his own lifetime everyone was at it: telling him what he was, what he wasn’t and what he really ought to be. The conductor Max Steinitzer assured Mahler that his true vocation was as a writer: ‘Composers, we have plenty’. And everyone who encountered Mahler agreed that he was one of the greatest orchestra trainers of his time: ‘He was far and away the finest conductor I ever knew’ recalled the British composer Ethel Smyth. There was only one skill, it seems, with which Mahler’s contemporaries were unwilling to credit him, and which he confessed, sadly, to the teenage Bruno Walter in 1894: ‘Do you not know that I am really a composer?’

In Mahler’s lifetime (and for a long time afterwards) most musicians would have echoed Richard Strauss’s assessment: ‘As for Mahler, he’s not really a composer at all – he’s simply a very great conductor’. It’s easy to laugh now, when no-one would seriously question why a conductor of Vladimir Jurowski’s stature would open the new LPO season with Mahler’s Seventh Symphony

Gustav Mahler with part of Symphony No. 7 score

(part of his ongoing complete Mahler cycle), or why two other Mahler symphonies also appear in the LPO’s 2015/16 season – the Fifth, with Jukka-Pekka Saraste, and the First, with Andrés Orozco-Estrada (in his debut concert as the LPO’s Principal Guest Conductor).

‘Mahler was always convinced that his time would come after his death, and he was right in that respect,’ says Jurowski.

Orozco-Estrada agrees. ‘He really wanted to try everything in his music, without any kind of inhibition, and after the 20th century, with all its suffering, we’ve become more humane, more respectful of different cultures and values’. With a life-story that encompasses prejudice, tragedy and trial-by-media, and music that embraces both sublime heights and unashamedly populist depths, Mahler turns out to be a man of our time. In his 2010 bestseller Why Mahler? Norman Lebrecht even reported that Mahler was distantly related to Beyoncé.

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Still: put aside the anecdotes, the myths and the cheering crowds, jump back a century, and pretend that you’re one of those sceptical Edwardians. Because it just so happens that these three symphonies could have been chosen precisely to illustrate Mahler’s credentials as a composer. They’re purely instrumental works, each from a different stage of his career, and each cast in a classical four- or five-movement form. There are no words, no singers, and no explicit stories of love, death or redemption. So who better to explain their appeal, purely as music, than Mahler’s own colleagues: his fellowconductors?

‘I love the strictness of its form – its compact quality,’ says Jukka-Pekka Saraste of the Fifth Symphony. ‘It’s just so symphonic.

He puts this enormous statement at the beginning, this trumpet fanfare with Beethoven-like rhythmic motifs, and then how it develops – from this incredible anxiety to a positive and joyful finale – is like a classical symphony extended to the 20th century. The finale is like Beethoven Nine, it’s so uplifting.

It’s almost like a paradox that it’s so positive.’

Classicism? Compactness? Those aren’t usually the qualities that come to mind when discussing Mahler symphonies, but for Saraste, the Fifth isn’t just a great emotional outpouring – it’s also the work of a musical master-craftsman. ‘The way he treats the orchestra shows enormous practical skill.

I read a fascinating exchange of letters between Richard Strauss and Mahler, between 1902 and 1904. They talk about conductor’s things – how to programme a concert; which instrument needs the strongest players in this or that symphony. No philosophy: it’s practical, practical, practical.’

As Andrés Orozco-Estrada points out, Mahler knew at first-hand what a conductor needed from a score – and he provided it in

Mahler © Royal College of Music

Mahler’s contemporaries thought he was a greater conductor than a composer. But with three of Mahler’s symphonies in the new LPO season, Richard Bratby talks to three maestros who’ve learned enduring lessons from Mahler as both conductor and composer.

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Andrés Orozco-Estrada © Werner Kmetitsch; Vladimir Jurowski © Drew Kelley; Jukke-Pekka Saraste © Felix Broede

LPO Principal Guest Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada

spades. ‘My present to myself at Christmas 1997 was a score of Mahler’s First, and I was amazed by the German instructions he’d written all over the music’ he recalls. ‘There were just so many words - not only musical terms, but even how to conduct: saying where you need to beat in 8 or in 4, which melody or counter-melody to bring out. I started translating them all, but it was only a pocket score, so before long I’d covered the entire thing in Post-It® notes! I thought, this is a composer and a conductor in one.’

And yet the Symphony communicates with incredible directness and freshness.

‘When I first came to Vienna, I sang as a tenor in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony: I felt then that I had a deep emotional connection with Mahler’s music, and I wanted to explore his whole universe from the beginning. The opening of the First Symphony is like the entrance to that new universe. He marks it naturlaut – like a sound of nature – and once the movement gets going, it’s just very singable: in fact, the first theme is taken from one of his songs. That’s one of the very modern things about Mahler’s instrumental music – you can sing it’.

Vladimir Jurowski, too, feels a modern presence in the score of the Seventh: Mahler himself. ‘He’s like your eternal conducting teacher, peeping over your shoulder, telling you what to do and particularly what not to do. Some people find that un-nerving. I find it extremely helpful’.

But there’s more to that relationship than just notes on a page. With its solos for

LPO Principal Conductor Vladimir Jurowski

mandolin, guitar and euphonium, its dizzying moodswings and the two magical, twilit intermezzos that Mahler called Nachtmusik, the Seventh is probably the most ambiguous of all Mahler’s symphonies. ‘Part of the appeal and beauty of the symphony is its imperfection’ says Jurowski. ‘At the same time, I personally feel that the first movement is one of the best symphonic movements ever written by Mahler. He likes to play with the various musical styles of the past, but he does so with an ironic smile. It’s very much music of the 20th century.’

And, of course the 21st, where irony is everyone’s second language. If we’ve all finally accepted that Gustav Mahler was, above all, a great composer, we’re only just starting to appreciate what he has to say. ‘You can’t drive your car or have a conversation with Mahler playing in the background,’ says Jurowski.

‘Mahler demands your whole being, and compels you to listen. Sometimes you’ll go through the whole scope of emotions, including some very unpleasant ones. I think this is the mystery of the man – that even 100 years after his death, he still manages to remain incredibly alive and even controversial.’

As long as Mahler can still make the world’s greatest conductors glance nervously over their shoulders, audiences are unlikely to stop being moved, shaken and surprised by his music any time soon.

Richard Bratby is a freelance classical music writer and a critic for The Birmingham Post.

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Jukka-Pekka Saraste

MAHLER SYMPHONIES AT ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Wednesday 23 September 2015 | 7.30pm Mahler Symphony No. 7 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Wednesday 4 November 2015 | 7.30pm Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Mahler Symphony No. 5 Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor Paul Lewis piano Wednesday 25 November 2015 | 7.30pm Dvořák Cello Concerto Mahler Symphony No. 1 Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Johannes Moser cello Booking details on page 13

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI CONDUCTS MAHLER ON THE LPO LABEL Symphony No. 1 LPO-0070 | £9.99 Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) with Adriana Kučerová soprano Christianne Stotijn mezzo-soprano London Philharmonic Choir LPO-0054 | 2-disc set | £10.99 lpo.org.uk/recordings

TUNE IN – AUTUMN / WINTER 2015 –

LPO NEWS

NEW & NOTEWORTHY STAFF CHANGES

ON TOUR IN MEXICO

Clare Lovett will be joining the LPO as Education and Community Director from late September while Isabella Kernot is on maternity leave. Alexandra Clarke, Education and Community Projects Manager, will be moving on after three and a half years to start a new role at Musical Futures. Talia Lash will take on Alex’s role.

Mia Roberts, Marketing Manager, will be joining Relate as Marketing and Brand Manager after three years at the LPO. We’re delighted that Libby Northcote-Green (currently Marketing Co-ordinator) will step up to fill this role, and that our current Intern, Anna O’Connor, will become our new Marketing Co-ordinator.

Ellie Swithinbank, Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager, leaves at the end of September. Ellie has accepted the role of Orchestra Administrative Coordinator at the Royal Opera House. Her post has been filled

by Madeleine Ridout who joins in October.

Dayse Guilherme was welcomed as Finance Officer earlier in the year We wish everyone well in their new adventures.

2015 has been designated the UK Mexico Year of Culture, a celebration of an exciting new era in UK-Mexico relations, devised by the two countries’ governments. The Latin country is ‘preparing the biggest celebration of British creativity in arts [and] culture ever to take place in Mexico’ and the LPO is delighted to add to the festival atmosphere when it tours Mexico from 14 to 18 September. The repertoire includes very English composers, Malcolm Arnold and Ralph Vaughan Williams, and Palacio de Belles Artes, Mexico City venues include the spectacular Palacio de Belles Artes (pictured) and outdoors at the Plaza la Victoria, Puebla. The latter is host to what promises to be a particularly special free concert on 15 September celebrating Mexico’s Independence Day. The tour also marks the first time the Orchestra will have worked with Mexican Alondra de la Parra who conducts all the concerts.

Back on home turf, the Orchestra will perform another concert as part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture on Friday 6 November at Royal Festival Hall with a programme of Mexican music (see page 13).

FIND A STAFF MEMBER lpo.org.uk/about/staff

FIND A JOB lpo.org.uk/about/jobs

MAGNA CARTA On 15 June the Orchestra performed alongside musicians from Royal Holloway, University of London at Runnymede Park to celebrate the 800th Anniversary of the Magna Carta, the agreement between King John and England’s rebellious barons that has inspired thinking around democratic rights the world over. As you can see from the photo, we were in right Royal company, with a very exclusive guest list including Her Majesty the Queen and Prime Minister David Cameron.

LPO players perform in the presence of the Royal Family at Magna Carta event.

Congratulations to Publications Manager Rachel Williams on the birth of Henry James, born on 30 January, and to Development Director Nick Jackman on the birth of his second child, Eloise Alexandra, on 28 May. Co-Principal Trumpet Nick Betts was delighted to announce the latest addition to the Betts family, a third son, Archie Sebastian, on 2 June. All three babies are thriving!

‘Congratulazioni’ to Lorenzo GentiliTedeschi, Second Violin, who married Irene, in his hometown of Milan on 24 July.

JAMES HORNER (1953–2015) We were saddened to hear of the untimely death of award-winning film composer James Horner in June this year.

The LPO gave the world premiere of Collage: A Concerto for Four Horns at Royal Festival Hall on 27 March

2015, and James was working closely with us on the recording, just three weeks before he died. The LPO’s Principal Horns, David Pyatt and John Ryan were two of the soloists alongside James Thatcher and Richard Watkins. David worked with James for a number of years and performed as solo horn lpo.org.uk – 06 –

on many of his scores, including Iris. He remembers the composer with affection: ‘James was able to get straight to the heart of a film without distracting attention from the screen, a rare gift in any composer. One of the last of the greats, he was truly a gentle soul. I will miss him hugely, as a musician and as a friend.’

John also had great respect for the mild-mannered composer: ‘On the few occasions I’ve worked with James it was a pleasure. He took great care over his music which was inevitably beautifully crafted.

He had very high standards and always the utmost respect for the musicians who worked with him. In my experience he was a thoughtful and sincere man and he and his music will be greatly missed.’

Magna Carta © LPO

CONGRATULATIONS!

TUNE IN – AUTUMN / WINTER 2015 –

LPO PLAYERS

NEW & NOTEWORTHY MUSICIANS

THE CHAP WITH THE TAMBOURINE: PLAYER PLAUDITS

We have welcomed three new players to the Orchestra in 2015. First to arrive in January was Sub Principal Oboe Alice Munday who joined us after leaving her post as Sub Principal Oboe for the BBC Philharmonic. Read about her exploits working on Creative Classrooms on page 10. Our new Co-Principal Percussion is Henry Baldwin who joined in May – his chair is supported by Jon Claydon. Henry is also professor at the Welsh College of Music and Drama.

Our most recent recruit is Co-Principal Cello Pei-Jee Ng who also has a successful solo and chamber career. He enjoys food safaris, the rather splendid activity of going on a tour or holiday with the prime purpose of eating different foods.

Martin Höhmann (First Violin) deserves a special mention. He has stepped down from the LPO’s Board of Directors after 12 years, where he was Chairman from 2005–12.

We are delighted that he has joined the Advisory Council. Martin’s chair will be newly supported in the coming season by the Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust.

‘I enjoyed the vigour of the chap with the tambourine,’ wrote Geoff Brown in his review of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé on 15 March for The Arts Desk. All our players are talented performers, having worked hard to carve out a career as professional musicians and while there is no doubt that the players perform as one whole, occasionally individuals receive the recognition they rightly deserve in press reviews. Here are just a few quotes from last season’s concerts and CD releases: There are too many to list here but rest assured that the string sections also inspired praise!

And the chap with the tambourine? Well, he remains a man of mystery ...

29 Oct: Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2

The lyrical third movement was lovingly shaped, with a beautifully played clarinet solo by Robert Hill.

Alan Sanders, Classical Source, 30.10.14

28 Jan: Scriabin Poem of Ecstasy

Jurowski created a different sense of space and delays, convincing in themselves, reaching for the sky and not shirking from orgiastic tumult, the LPO riding high, not least Pieter Schoeman’s seductive violin solos and Paul Beniston’s heroic contributions on trumpet.

Colin Anderson, Classical Review, 29.01.15

11 Feb: Rachmaninoff The Bells and Piano Concerto No. 2

... there was no doubt about the cor anglais solo that Sue Böhling turned so eloquently.

Most memorable [in the Second Piano Concerto] was John Ryan’s horn solo in the first movement.

Colin Anderson, Classical Source, 12.02.15

All player photographs © Benjamin Ealovega

PLAYING THE BARD IN 2016 For four and a half centuries, the most admired playwright and poet in history has inspired music both intimate and grand, devastating and uplifting. Shakespeare’s body of work has exercised more influence over composers and musicians than anything else in literature bar the Bible, and continues to inspire today.

In collaboration with some of London’s leading cultural, creative and educational institutions, the London Philharmonic Orchestra joins Shakespeare400 with a series of concerts in 2016 celebrating the Bard’s love of music, culminating in an Anniversary Gala Concert directed by Simon Callow on 23 April. Join the LPO at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and dive into a musical world born of the words of the legendary William Shakespeare.

FIND OUT MORE: LPO AND SHAKESPEARE400 lpo.org.uk/shakespeare More information in the next edition of Tune In

14 Mar: Ravel Daphnis et Chloé

13 Feb: Shostakovich Symphony No. 4

The four flutes, evoking the birds of Pan’s domain, and the rhapsodically tender solos from cellist Kristina Blaumane stood out.

The LPO brass blazed gloriously and there were fine moments from Mark Templeton in his trombone solo.

Mark Pullinger, Bachtrack, 14.02.15, 4-stars

Ivan Hewett, The Daily Telegraph, 16.03.15 (4 stars) 27 Mar: Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade

Well and truly lodged in the memory is Gareth Newman’s bassoon solo ... eloquently and elastically shaped to richly expressive effect.

Colin Anderson, Classical Source, 28.03.15

17 Apr: Debussy’s Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune

Instrumental solos [in the Debussy] were beautifully played ... Sue Thomas’s opening flute solo was delicate and mysterious.

Claire Seymour, Seen and Heard International, 19.04.15

Messiaen Des canyons aux étoiles LPO CD (LPO-0083)

An extraordinary achievement ... the playing of the LPO is exemplary, with special plaudits for the horn playing of John Ryan.

BBC Radio 3 CD Review, 28.02.15

READ MORE REVIEWS lpo.org.uk/explore/reviews/

lpo.org.uk/about/musician-biographies

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TUNE IN – AUTUMN / WINTER 2015 –

LPO NEWS

GLYNDEBOURNE RESIDENCY

LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA AND GLYNDEBOURNE WIN AWARD

Poliuto (Michael Fabiano) prepares to meet his fate

GLYNDEBOURNE OPERA FESTIVAL 2015

We were thrilled to hear this spring the announcement that the Glyndebourne recording of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg with the LPO conducted by Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Jurowski won the BBC Music Magazine Awards 2015 for Best Opera. ‘Musically,’ wrote Tim Ashley about the performance in The Guardian, ‘it was judged faultlessly for the scale of the theatre by Vladimir Jurowski, who conjured playing of mercurial clarity from the London Philharmonic Orchestra.’

VERDI

1813–1901

Verdi’s tragic masterpiece is elegantly updated by director Tom Cairns in this ‘fresh and thrillingly unfamiliar’ (Independent) Glyndebourne production, in which Violetta’s death is cast as an idée fixe, creating a liberating framework that is well supported by Hildegard Bechtler’s semi-abstract designs.

Described as a soprano of ‘huge presence, compelling to watch’, Venera Gimadieva is ‘thrilling’ (Guardian) in her company debut as the doomed courtesan, well matched by Michael Fabiano’s sharply suited and ‘robustly sung’ Alfredo (Financial Times), with Tassis Christoyannis delivering an imposing performance as the formidable Germont père.

Conductor Mark Elder reveals his mastery of the opera’s dramatic shape, coaxing each and every nuance out of the London Philharmonic Orchestra to create beautifully stylish music-making.

“

Violetta Valéry Venera Gimadieva Alfredo Germont Michael Fabiano Giorgio Germont Tassis Christoyannis Flora Bervoix Hanna Hipp Gastone, Viscount de Letorières Emanuele D’Aguanno Annina Magdalena Molendowska Baron Douphol Eddie Wade Marchese D’Obigny Oliver Dunn Doctor Grenvil Graeme Broadbent

Musical standards under the baton of Enrique Mazzola were outstanding, with tip-top playing from the LPO (including [Thomas Watmough’s] particularly lovely clarinet solo) ...”

Sung in Italian with English, French, German, Japanese and Korean subtitles

London Philharmonic Orchestra Leader Vesselin Gellev

EXTRA FEATURES

The Glyndebourne Chorus Chorus Master Jeremy Bines

Verdi’s La traviata – ‘Once heard, never forgotten’ ‘An opera for all times’ Cast gallery

The 2014 production of La traviata was generously supported by Handel and Yvonne Evans

Executive Producer George Bruell Film Director François Roussillon

A co-production between Glyndebourne, François Roussillon et Associés and NHK, in association with France Télévisions, TF1 and Mezzo. With the support of Centre national du cinéma et de l’image animée 2014 Glyndebourne · François Roussillon et Associés · NHK glyndebourne.com DVD Royal Opera House Enterprises Ltd., 2015 www.opusarte.com

ALL REGIONS

OPERA

SUBTITLES: ENGLISH, FRANÇAIS, DEUTSCH, JAPANESE, KOREAN

The filming of La traviata was made possible by investment from Glyndebourne’s New Generation Programme, generously supported by Glyndebourne Association America Inc., The Sidney E Frank Foundation and Digital Syndicate

AUDIO FORMATS LPCM 2.0

MUSIC 16:9 ANAMORPHIC RUNNING TIME APPROX 132 MINUTES (OPERA); 16 MINUTES (EXTRAS)

This NTSC DVD set is designed for worldwide playback. In PAL regions, please ensure your DVD player and TV are NTSC compatible. If in doubt, consult your dealer.

Recorded and mastered for DVD in stereo and surround sound 1 x DVD-9 double-layer disc (the feature may experience a slight pause upon layer change).

All rights of the producer and the owner of the work reproduced reserved. Any unauthorised copying, editing, exhibition, renting, exchanging, hiring, lending, public performance diffusion and/or broadcast of these DVDs or any part hereof is strictly prohibited and any such action establishes liability for a civil action and may give rise to criminal prosecution. This DVD set is sold/hired on the condition that it is not to be exported, resupplied or distributed without proper licence from Opus Arte. DTS Digital Surround TM is a trademark of DTS, Inc. Made in the UK

Jakub Hrůša’s sensational conducting reinforces the vivacity and stylishness: the London “Philharmonic sound brilliantly effervescent under his baton and a score too often taken for granted comes thrillingly alive.”

Neil Fisher, The Times, 27 May 2015 (4 stars)

“

Leo Hussain embraces Britten’s crude contrasts with exceptional playing from the London Philharmonic Orchestra.”

Anna Picard, The Times, 8 July 2015 (5 stars)

Robin Ticciati draws exquisitely detailed playing from the London Philharmonic Orchestra, “languid in the first opera and wonderfully alert to Ravel’s inventive night music at the end of the evening.”

John Allison, The Daily Telegraph, 9 August 2015 (4 stars)

lpo.org.uk/about/glyndebourne – 08 –

OA 1171 D

Fiona Maddocks, The Observer, 24 May 2015

Conductor Mark Elder Director Tom Cairns Set and Costume Designer Hildegard Bechtler Lighting Designer Peter Mumford Video and Projection Designer Nina Dunn Choreographer Aletta Collins

La TRAVIATA

La TRAVIATA GIUSEPPE VERDI

OA 1171 D

The DVD is available from the Glyndebourne Shop where you will also find the latest Glyndebourne/LPO DVD, La traviata. glyndebourneshop.com

GLYNDEBOURNE AND LPO AT ROYAL OPERA HOUSE Members of the LPO performed in Macbeth, a new opera by Luke Styles, former Young Composer in Residence for Glyndebourne, as part of Glyndebourne’s Jerwood Young Artists programme. The one-act chamber opera based on Shakespeare’s violent tragedy also transferred to the Linbury Studio at the Royal Opera House, for one more performance on 9 September.

Poliuto image © Tristram Kenton

A

s usual, this summer the LPO players replaced their symphonic hats with opera ones as they entered the 52nd season as Resident Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. As Rachel Masters, Principal Harp says (see Backstage, page 16), the LPO players are in the privileged position of having the opportunity to perform fantastic opera repertoire as well as symphonic music. Of course, there’s the added bonus of working in an internationally renowned opera house in a stunning countryside setting (but we won’t mention the dodgy British weather).

This year the productions were: Donizetti’s little-known political opera Poliuto with conductor Enrique Mazzola; Bizet’s perennial favourite Carmen with Jakub Hrůša; The Rape of Lucretia by Britten, a production by Fiona Shaw, with Leo Hussain making his Glyndebourne conducting debut; and a double bill of Ravel’s charming L’heure espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges with Robin Ticciati, in a revival of Glyndebourne’s 2012 productions.

Here’s what the reviewers had to say:

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LPO NEWS

THANK YOU! CHARITY GOLF DAY A sunny Tuesday 23 June saw our inaugural Charity Golf Day at the Royal Berkshire Club. Keen LPO players Gareth Newman (bassoon), Lee Tsarmaklis (tuba) and George Peniston (bass) headed up the teams and we were delighted to be joined

by Bryn Terfel as our fourth captain.

LPO Director Richard Brass, Dr Karen Morton and other supporters played alongside the musicians and the day concluded in a prize-giving ceremony which included the dubious ‘most balls lost in the heather’ award. All funds raised will go towards supporting the core work of the Orchestra for the next season and beyond.

We hope that this will be an annual event so look out for details in future newsletters.

That’s your lot! One lucky bidder wins the ‘exclusive literary experience with Michael Morpurgo OBE’

SUMMER GALA 2015 The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Summer Gala took place on Wednesday 17 June in the stunning surroundings of One Marylebone. The evening, featuring performances by LPO soloists as well as Leon McCawley, Gwilym Simcock and Parry Ray, was a resounding triumph thanks to the generosity of our guests and supporters. The charity auction was led

by Henry Highley, Phillips’ Head of Contemporary Art Day Sales, who wielded his gavel with extraordinary success, helping to raise a record-breaking £53,000 towards the total of over £225,000. Lots included a cultural weekend for two with actor Simon Callow, a literary experience with Michael Morpurgo and a luxury trip for two to hear the LPO in Mexico City.

The money raised will help support the Orchestra’s core work for the coming season.

FIND OUT MORE

Time for Tee: Bryn Terfel with Karen Morton and Terry Burns

lpo.org.uk/support/gala

Gala and Golf © LPO

SOUND FUTURES HITS TARGET

We are delighted to announce that at the end of April we achieved our £1 million target for the Sound Futures campaign, releasing a further £1 million in matched funding from Arts Council England!

This campaign has enabled us to create the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s first ever Endowment Fund, helping us to achieve the financial stability required for us to maintain the creative adventure for which we are known. lpo.org.uk – 09 –

Sound Futures will enable us to: • Inspire more young Londoners through music education and community initiatives • Bring even more of the creativity and adventure that audiences expect from LPO performances • Produce more landmark collaborations with Southbank Centre Thank you again to all of our friends and supporters who helped us to reach our goal!

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LPO EDUCATION AND COMMUNITY

CREATIVE CLASSROOMS The London Philharmonic Orchestra believes music enriches people’s lives and Creative Classrooms is just one project that can help bring music into the community. Two LPO musicians, Anne McAneney and Alice Munday, explain how they benefited from the experience.

Alice Munday (left) and Anne McAneney in front of the LPO truck

T

he benefits provided by music are well documented and known to have a profound effect on people’s lives, and are one reason why the LPO Education & Community programme works with schools, young people, families and young professionals.

Our projects range from the BrightSparks school concerts to young talent programmes for instrumentalists and composers. Those who take part in the projects take away something positive and that includes the LPO players who take time out of their busy schedule to get involved.

Creative Classrooms is one example of our schools’ programme. It runs in four primary schools in South London, this year working with Year 3 classes (children aged 7 to 8). It aims to support classroom music-making at

Key Stage 2, offering an intensive development opportunity for teachers to gain both general classroom music skills and specialist experience delivering a bespoke project. For the LPO, it provides the opportunity for eight musicians to receive the same training and development as the teachers, to enhance their creative leadership skills and help them feel more confident working in a classroom environment. In the summer term, two players who took part were trumpeter Anne McAneney and oboist Alice Munday who both radiate enthusiasm in abundance about the Creative Classrooms project. ‘We loved it. Everybody had a ball,’ reported Anne. ‘It was not just fulfilling it was also great fun. I thoroughly enjoyed myself and my face was constantly aching from grinning. They were lovely kids to work with, lpo org.uk/education – 10 –

at such a wonderful age. It was a very happy project.’

Rachel Leach, composer and music educator, is the creative mentor for the project. She leads the training sessions and provides the written resources that support the learning (and which Alice and Anne referred to as ‘the Bible’!). Rachel was evidently one of the reasons for the success of Creative Classrooms. Alice: ‘I thought it was a clever project from start to end. We both thought what Rachel did was amazing.’

Rachel, too, was pleased with the way the project went: ‘I really enjoyed working with the LPO on Creative Classrooms this year. The players came to the course with a lot of ideas and enthusiasm but were perhaps a little nervous at the prospect of putting these ideas into practice in front of real, live kids! This project was particularly unique in that the players were able to work closely alongside the teachers and improve their skills too.’ This underlines one of Creative Classrooms’ aims: to leave a solid musical legacy in each school, equipping one or more teachers with the increased skills and confidence to work creatively with music in the classroom. This was something Alice also picked up on. ‘The teacher I was working with had no musical background at all. I’d always feel a bit weird about helping her, but after a few weeks we kind of got into the groove and realised we needed each other. We needed her to help with the kids and she needed us to help with the musical stuff. The team bonded and that’s when the project took off. What’s really interesting is that at the end she actually didn’t need us at all. Now she’s ready to go off and do the project again herself which is brilliant!’

Creative Classrooms © Benjamin Ealovega

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to see the musicians grow in confidence over the term, to find musical solutions to problems, and to create some of the best classroom compositions I’ve heard in years.

The final performances showed real equality and partnership between teacher, player and child.’

‘The whole thing was a creative process, which was mostly coming from the kids with our guidance,’ adds Anne. ‘They have incredible imaginations and we organised their ideas.’ Alice was also impressed by the children’s creativity and how quickly they came up with ideas. ‘The children might not know the technical terms of what they were achieving, but the music they were creating was quite advanced.’

Creative Classrooms also serves as an introduction to the LPO and the world of the Having fun trying out the xylophone symphony orchestra in general – developing participant children’s wider cultural Anne also enjoyed the team aspect as well awareness. ‘I think it’s important to give as appreciating the longevity of the project. something back,’ said Anne. ‘Often classical ‘One of the best things was because it was music, operas, and these big concert halls are extended – about six weeks – so not only did regarded as being very elitist and they really we build up a relationship with the kids but aren’t. The music is a lot more approachable also with the teachers. What I’ve always felt is than people might otherwise have thought. that we go along to schools, do a project and We could see that the parents were delighted then we leave them to it. This time there was to see that their child was taking part and such an on-going development with the associated with such a good name as the teaching staff that by the end they felt that London Philharmonic Orchestra. That’s they were in a position to be able to do it got to be a good thing, showing that themselves and not left high and classical music is for everybody.’ dry.’

Rachel sums it up nicely.

For the children, Creative Projects like Creative ‘It’s vital that we continue Classrooms make classical Classrooms kicks off with the to equip orchestral music more accessible to LPO’s Key Stage 2 everyone – that’s the key. musicians in this way of BrightSparks concert, an Make it interesting, make it working, using their opportunity to see an accessible and get people musicianship and repertoire orchestra in all its glory, enthusiastic about it. to bring music back to the possibly for the first time, heart of the classroom. And Alice Munday and be introduced to the there’s no better way to learn musicians who will be working (and teach) than by partnering with them and their instruments. with the real experts – the teachers Apparently Anne inspired such a huge and then, the children!’ interest in the trumpet that the school she So, would the players take part in future worked with is looking for a trumpet teacher!

Creative Classrooms? Anne is in no doubt: The concert also introduced the piece around which the project is based, this time Copland’s ‘Let’s hope there are many more and we get asked to be involved again!’ And Alice?

Billy the Kid. The next stage comprises five ‘Yes! Yes please! Can we do it again?’ workshops in school, led by the teachers and players. They devise the content for these Anne McAneney’s chair is supported by sessions using the training and resources Geoff & Meg Mann provided by Rachel as a starting point, and work towards a performance of the music Creative Classrooms in 2015 was generously created by the children to the rest of the supported by the Candide Trust and the school. Rachel again: ‘It was wonderful Bernarr Rainbow Trust lpo org.uk/education – 11 –

FUNHARMONICS CONCERTS 2015/16 AT ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL Sunday 8 November 2015 12.00 noon – 1.00pm PIRATES! Come on board for a brand new swashbuckling story in the ‘Billy’s Band’ series, brought to life by the LPO with a shipshape selection of sea-themed music.

Will Billy’s musicians be able to escape the pirate ambush or will they walk the plank?

Shiver me timbers!

Saturday 20 February 2016 12.00 noon – 1.00pm A ROALD DAHL CELEBRATION: THE BFG To mark the centenary of Roald Dahl’s birth, the LPO invites you to a gloriumptious musical celebration inspired by one of the most extraordinary imaginations in children’s literature. Our music will conjure up the world of dreams and adventure, invention and mischief, and take you to the heart of one of Roald Dahl’s most well-loved characters, the BFG. This concert is part of Southbank Centre’s Imagine Children’s Festival Sunday 5 June 2016 12.00 noon – 1.00pm BOTTOM’S DREAM Lose yourself in the woods with the LPO and Globe Education in this special musical version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Expect enchantment and confusion, and a bit of silliness along the way, told through a magical mix of words and music.

All FUNharmonics tickets: Children £5 – £9 (recommended age range 6–11) Adults £10 – £18 Tel 020 7840 4242 | lpo.org.uk

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

BIG SCORERS: THE LPO AND THE SILVER SCREEN

Y

ou may be surprised to learn that programme note, the cinema was the the London Philharmonic Orchestra one place where music was still has been providing the soundtrack ‘unapologetically beautiful’ whilst for films for nigh on half a century, Stockhausen, Berio and Boulez were recording scores for hundreds of trailblazing a rather different sound in films. Big headliners include The Lord of the the concert hall.

Rings trilogy, Maurice Jarre’s sweeping score There is certainly plenty of beauty to be for Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission found on the CD. Works include and more recently two members Maurice Jarre’s ‘Lawrence and the of the Avengers team: Desert’ from Lawrence of mallet-wielding Thor: People have gone to Arabia, ‘Deborah’s Theme’ The Dark World and Iron from Ennio Morricone’s see the same movie Man. Also in the list are Once Upon a Time in three, four or five times little gems such as the UK America and Nino Rota’s hit East is East and the Godfather. There are in order to listen to the unmistakable sound of elements of ‘ugly’ too with music scores.

Danny Elfman in the score Bernard Hermann’s Franz Waxman, 1945 for Tim Burton’s Ed Wood. ingenious use of violins in Ever since Shostakovich the infamous shower scene in was dismissed as a silentPsycho, and thrills come in the movie pianist for laughing too form of Franz Waxman’s ‘The Ride of much at the antics on screen, audiences’ the Cossacks’ from Taras Bulba. Evidently thirst for film music has shown no sign of ‘This was no ordinary concert of film music,’ abating and the LPO is happy to help wrote Colin Anderson for Classical Source, quench it. Our recent LPO CD release, ‘this was depth, thrills and beauty on a The Genius of Film Music: Hollywood grand scale, superbly played with Blockbusters 1960s to 1980s, is a recording virtuosity, sensitivity and relish.’ of a concert performed in November 2013, The same season saw a second film with most of the works arranged and concert, The Genius of Film Music 1980– edited by John Mauceri who also 2000, the decades when the symphonic conducted. As John explains in his film score, saved by John Williams and lpo.org.uk/recordings/film-highlights – 12 –

The Genius of Film Music: Hollywood Blockbusters 1960s to 1980s John Mauceri conductor £10.99 (2 CDs) LPO-0086 | Released September 2015 lpo.org.uk/recordings

Sunday 1 November 2015 2.30pm & 7.30pm Royal Albert Hall, London Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage Tickets £28–£68 (including booking fees) royalalberthall.com

Friday 18 March 2016 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall, Southbank Centre Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 Brief Encounter (film with live orchestra) David Charles Abell conductor Jayson Gillham piano Tickets £9–£39 | Premium seats £65 Booking details on page 13

© ITV Studios Global Entertainment/Park Circus Films

Amazing what a bit of grit in the eye might lead to. Alec and Laura falling in love to Rachmaninoff in Brief Encounter !

backed up by Elmer Bernstein, made strange bedfellows with the electric machinations of Vangelis’s Chariots of Fire and Badalementi’s Twin Peaks. It’s also the era that saw the emergence of the ‘new kids on the block’, Danny Elfman and Hans Zimmer.

For the full live experience there are two concerts this season where the LPO performs live screenings. On Sunday 1 November the Orchestra is on stage at the Royal Albert Hall in Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage featuring the greatest music and visuals from five decades of Star Trek beamed in high-definition to a 40 foot screen. On Friday 18 March, the Orchestra will be performing the live orchestral soundtrack to a screening of the classic film Brief Encounter, with 2014 Montreal Piano Competition winner Jayson Gillham giving a complete performance of Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2, which is used as the soundtrack to Alec and Laura’s blossoming love throughout the film.

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

CONCERT LISTINGS SOUTHBANK CENTRE Unless otherwise stated, standard prices £9–£39 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 Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9am–8pm southbankcentre.co.uk Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone No transaction fee for bookings made in person JTI Friday Series is supported by

Wednesday 14 October 2015 | 7.30pm

Wednesday 4 November 2015 | 7.30pm

Krzysztof Penderecki Adagio for Strings (UK premiere) Krzysztof Penderecki Horn Concerto ‘Winterreise’ (UK premiere)* Krzysztof Penderecki Threnody to the Victims of Hiroshima Shostakovich Symphony No. 6

Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Mahler Symphony No. 5

Krzysztof Penderecki conductor Radovan Vlatković horn* Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music Programme * Please note a change to work and artist as originally advertised

Free pre-concert event | 6.15pm–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Composer in conversation: Krzysztof Penderecki discusses his Horn Concerto ‘Winterreise’.

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor Paul Lewis piano

Friday 6 November 2015 | 7.30pm Castro Intermezzo de Atzimba Gounod Ah! Lève-toi soleil!’ from Romeo et Juliette Federico Ibarra Sinfonía No. 2 Various Mexican Songs Bernstein Symphonic Dances from West Side Story Revueltas Sensemayá Arturo Márquez Danzón No. 2 Jaime Martín conductor* Arturo Chacón-Cruz tenor* This concert is part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture * Please note change to the artists as originally advertised

Wednesday 23 September 2015 | 7.30pm Mahler Symphony No. 7

Friday 23 October 2015 | 7.30pm

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Bizet Symphony in C Ravel Piano Concerto in G major Saint-Saëns Symphony No. 3 (Organ)

Please note there will be no interval during this performance

Saturday 26 September 2015 | 7.30pm Taneyev St John of Damascus Tchaikovsky Francesca da Rimini Sibelius Symphony No. 2 Vladimir Jurowski conductor London Philharmonic Choir

Saturday 3 October 2015 | 7.30pm Oliver Knussen Scriabin Settings Sibelius Violin Concerto Scriabin Symphony No. 3 (The Divine Poem) Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin Generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Thierry Fischer conductor Benjamin Grosvenor piano James Sherlock organ*

Free pre-concert event | 6.00pm–6.30pm Royal Festival Hall LPO Soundworks, our dynamic crossarts ensemble for young composers and instrumentalists, presents its first collaborative performance of the season, inspired by the hypnotic Mexican music in tonight’s concert.

* Please note a change to the artist as originally advertised

Sunday 8 November 2015 | 12.00pm Free pre-concert event | 6.00pm–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall

FUNharmonics Family Concert: Pirates!

Children from London Music Masters’ immersive music education programme perform side by side with LPO musicians in the premiere of an innovative new work by composer Gavin Higgins.

Come on board, me hearties, for a brand new swashbuckling story in the ‘Billy’s Band’ series, with a shipshape selection of sea-themed music.

Aharrrrrgh!

Wednesday 28 October 2015 | 7.30pm

Tickets £5–£9 children (recommended age range 6–11) £10–£18 adults

Beethoven Symphony No. 1 Thomas Larcher Violin Concerto Stravinsky The Rite of Spring

Wednesday 11 November 2015 | 7.30pm

Markus Stenz conductor Patricia Kopatchinskaja violin

Fauré Suite, Pelléas et Mélisande Magnus Lindberg Violin Concerto No. 1 Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales Debussy La mer

Saturday 31 October 2015 | 7.30pm

Robin Ticciati conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin

Bruckner Symphony No. 5 (1878 Nowak edition) Stanisław Skrowaczewski conductor

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LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

CONCERT LISTINGS CONTD. Wednesday 25 November 2015 | 7.30pm Dvořák Cello Concerto Mahler Symphony No. 1 Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Johannes Moser cello

AROUND THE UK Friday 2 October 2015 | 7.30pm Saffron Hall, Saffron Walden, Essex Box Office: 0845 548 7650 saffronhall.com

Free pre-concert event | 6.15pm–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall

Oliver Knussen Scriabin Settings Sibelius Violin Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5

Andrés Orozco-Estrada discusses his new role as the Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor.

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin

Friday 27 November 2015 | 7.30pm Liadov From the Apocalypse Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 Sibelius Symphony No. 1

Saturday 17 October 2015 | 7.30pm Royal Festival Hall, London Box office: 0844 847 9920 southbankcentre.co.uk

Susanna Mälkki conductor Beatrice Rana piano

Raymond Gubbay presents the celebrated tenor, Jonas Kaufmann, performing a selection of operatic arias.

Friday 4 December 2015 | 7.30pm

Jochen Rieder conductor Jonas Kaufmann tenor

Puccini Tosca (excerpts) Rota Suite, La Strada Respighi Pines of Rome Enrique Mazzola conductor Maria Luigia Borsi Tosca Thiago Arancam Cavaradossi Vittorio Vitelli Scarpia

Wednesday 9 December 2015 | 7.30pm Wagenaar Overture, Cyrano de Bergerac Magnus Lindberg Violin Concerto No. 2 (world premiere)* Beethoven Symphony No. 7 Jaap van Zweden conductor Frank Peter Zimmermann violin *Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Free pre-concert event | 6.15pm–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg discusses the world premiere of his Second Violin Concerto.

Sunday 18 October 2015 | 3.00pm Eastbourne Congress Theatre Box Office: 01323 412000 eastbournetheatres.co.uk Shostakovich Festive Overture Tchaikovsky Variations on a Rococo Theme Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 2 Robert Trevino conductor Harriet Krijgh cello

Saturday 14 November 2015 | 7.30pm Brighton Dome Box Office: 01273 709709 brightondome.org Fauré Suite, Pelléas et Mélisande Ravel Piano Concerto in G major Ravel Valses nobles et sentimentales Debussy La mer Robin Ticciati conductor Louis Schwizgebel piano

Sunday 15 November 2015 | 3.00pm Eastbourne Congress Theatre Box Office: 01323 412000 eastbournetheatres.co.uk Mozart Overture, The Marriage of Figaro Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 Beethoven Symphony No. 3 ‘Eroica’ Gad Kadosh conductor Kristīna Balanas violin

INTERNATIONAL CONCERTS For full details of all our tours, visit lpo.org.uk Sunday 6 September | 8:30pm Teatro Filarmonico, Verona, Italy arena.it/filarmonico/it Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 (1879 version) Shostakovich Symphony No. 8

Sunday 1 November 2015 | 2.30pm & 7.30pm Royal Albert Hall, London Box Office: 020 7589 8212 royalalberthall.com Star Trek: The Ultimate Voyage Justin Freer conductor

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Kirill Gerstein piano Monday 7 September | 9:00pm Teatro alla Scala, Milan, Italy teatroallascala.org/en/index.html Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Shostakovich Symphony No. 8

Sunday 8 November | 7.00pm Royal Festival Hall, London Box office: 0844 847 9920 southbankcentre.co.uk Raymond Gubbay presents a Remembrance Sunday Concert Damian Iorio conductor Raphael Wallfisch cello Jim Carter presenter London Philharmonic Choir

lpo.org.uk – 14 –

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Daniil Trifonov piano

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Monday 14 September | 8:00pm Palacio de Belles Artes, Mexico City, Mexico palacio.bellasartes.gob.mx Part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture Arnold English Dances Vaughan Williams The Lark Ascending Revueltas Janitzio Knussen Flourish with Fireworks Op. 22 Saint-Saëns Introduction et Rondo Capriccioso Dvořák Symphony No. 8 Alondra de la Parra conductor Jennifer Pike violin

Tuesday 15 September | 9.00pm Plaza la Victoria, Puebla, Mexico Part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture

Tuesday 6 October 2015 | 8.00pm Auditorio de la Diputación de Alicante, Spain diputacionalicante.es

Saturday 21 November | 2.15pm Concertgebouw, Amsterdam, Netherlands concertgebouw.nl

Oliver Knussen Scriabin Settings Sibelius Violin Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5

Rihm Verwandlung 3 Beethoven Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No. 1

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin

Christoph Eschenbach conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin

Wednesday 7 October | 7.30pm Auditorio Nacional de Musica, Madrid, Spain auditorionacional.mcu.es

Monday 14 December | 8.00pm Philharmonie Essen, Germany philharmonie-essen.de

Sibelius Violin Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5

Humperdinck Prelude, Hansel & Gretel Strauss songs: Die heiligen drei Könige, Op. 56, No. 6 Waldseligkeit Op. 49, No. 1 Morgen Op. 27, No. 4 Das Rosenband Op. 36, No. 1 Wiegenlied Op. 41, No. 1 Die Nacht Op. 10, No. 3 Sibelius Symphony No.2

Programme as 14 September

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin

Thursday 17 September | 8:00pm Palacio de Bellas Artes, Mexico City, Mexico palacio.bellasartes.gob.mx/

Thursday 8 October | 8.15pm Auditorio de Zaragoza, Zaragoza, Spain

Mahler Symphony No. 2

Programme as 6 October, Alicante

Alondra de la Parra conductor Olivia Gorra soprano Jennifer Johnston mezzo soprano City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus Choir of Bellas Artes

Friday 9 October 2015 | 7.30pm Kursaal, San Sebastian, Spain kursaal.eus/en Programme as 6 October, Alicante

Friday 18 September | 8:30pm Auditorio Nacional, Mexico City, Mexico auditorio.com.mx/filter/0/2015/9/ Programme as 17 September Monday 28 September 2015 | 8.00pm Alter Oper, Frankfurt, Germany alteoper.de Britten Frank Bridge Variations Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Liszt Totentanz Britten Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra Vladimir Jurowski conductor Marc-André Hamelin piano

Monday 5 October 2015 | 8.30pm Palau de la Musica, Barcelona, Spain palaumusica.cat

Wednesday 18 November | 8.00pm Tonhalle, Düsseldorf, Germany tonhalle.de Brahms Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No. 1

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Anne Schwanewilms soprano

Tuesday 15 December 2015 | 8.00pm Tonhalle Düsseldorf, Germany tonhalle.de Humperdinck Prelude, Hansel & Gretel Mozart Clarinet Concerto Sibelius Symphony No. 2 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Sabine Meyer clarinet

Christoph Eschenbach conductor David Garrett violin

Wednesday 16 December | 8.00pm Gasteig, Munich, Germany en.gasteig.de

Thursday 19 November | 8.00pm Alte Oper, Frankfurt, Germany alteoper.de

Humperdinck Prelude, Hansel & Gretel Mozart Clarinet Concerto Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 5

Beethoven Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No. 1

Jaime Martín conductor Sabine Meyer clarinet

Christoph Eschenbach conductor Christian Tetzlaff violin

Sibelius Violin Concerto Brahms German Requiem

Thursday 17 December | 8.00pm Liederhalle, Stuttgart, Germany liederhalle-stuttgart.de Programme as 15 December

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Leonidas Kavakos violin Miah Persson soprano Dietrich Henschel baritone Orfeó Català

lpo.org.uk – 15 –

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LPO PEOPLE

BACKSTAGE How did you meet?

Andrew: I started working as the LPO Assistant Librarian in 1992. It was quite hard work persuading Rachel to go out with me.

Rachel: This young whippersnapper of a librarian turned up at the LPO who I totally ignored but I didn’t think anything of it until I was invited to Venice. It was very romantic – I got picked up from a water taxi in St Mark’s Square. That was March 1993 and we got married in the following December.

So it was the LPO that brought you together!

Apart from sorting out your love-life, what are the other pros and are there any cons of both working in the same organisation?

Rachel: Well, we do get to see a lot of each other and both work the same silly hours!

Childcare, especially when the kids were little, was a headache but we are a close extended family and managed to cobble things together with a combination of grandparents, au pairs and friends. In an unconventional way, we possibly see more of our family than some ‘normal’ families because we try to guard our free time very jealously.

Do you have musical backgrounds and how did you get to join the LPO? Andrew: I studied music at York University and did a postgrad at Guildhall on bassoon. I did some freelance playing, then started training as an accountant but didn’t enjoy that so I started working as a stage manager with Roger Norrington’s London Classical Players before joining the LPO in 1992. Apart from a stint at the London Symphony Orchestra, I’ve been here ever since.

Rachel: I studied piano and harp at the Royal College of Music. I knew the LPO Principal Harp job was available (I’d been in touch about extra work) and I was really interested.

At College I’d been pushed towards a solo career and had been performing as a chamber musician, some orchestral work and as a soloist, including playing in hotels which, in those days, had harp residencies. I was pretty miserable, though. It was September 1989, around my 31st birthday, when I heard I’d got the job, I was ecstatic! It was a dream come true!

wouldn’t have got to otherwise. Particularly memorable was Australia when we cycled round Rotnest Island off the Perth coast.

We also went to China where we were treated royally, away from tourist crowds.

[Rachel and Andrew are pictured on the Great Wall of China.]

– RACHEL MASTERS & ANDREW CHENERY – Married couple Rachel, Principal Harp and Andrew, Orchestra Personnel Manager, on keeping it in the family

In my opinion, all the best harp repertoire is in the orchestral and operatic field. The LPO is unique in that it gives players an opportunity to perform both at the highest level. That’s immense. [The LPO is one of Glyndebourne’s resident orchestras, see page 8].

Rachel, do you get lonely playing the harp?

I don’t get lonely but sometimes feel alone. I love my colleagues but I’m also very happy to be on my own; being a harpist you have to be able to stand on your own two feet. But I do love playing fabulous music with fabulous musicians and having a laugh. Everyone has a humorous approach to life .

Do you have any favourite LPO memories?

Rachel: Not so much individual moments but working at the LPO has given us fabulous opportunities to travel together to places we

Tune In 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 do you admire most about each other’s capabilities to do their job?

Rachel: I could never do Andrew’s job! It requires diplomacy, patience and organisational skills. I say what I think and can be impatient. Andrew makes it look easy and it’s not. People don’t realise what is involved. Once the orchestra is on stage he’s still working, and works very long hours doing a very hard job.

Andrew’s attitude is that he is there to serve, be that the conductors, the musicians, the soloist, or the staff in the office and at Southbank Centre. He thinks about how he can make this machine work and make it work smoothly. It’s a very non-egocentric point of view and commendable.

Andrew: I can’t imagine playing the harp.

To me, that’s bonkers! But as a trained musician I know what it takes to perform at wa very high level in an orchestra so I know where Rachel’s coming from. I know how hard orchestral musicians work and have a certain understanding of their job. I have actually played bassoon in the LPO on one or two occasions, although I don’t play anymore.

What are your extra-curricular activities?

Andrew: I love classic cars and am the lucky owner of a 1967 MGB GT and a Lotus Elise.

Rachel: Children, the house and garden, food, fresh air, holidays ... Walking the dogs – Maisy an Irish Setter and Libby a Gordon Setter – keeps me sane. Our daughter is living in Cornwall at the moment and I might do the South West coast walk when I’m retired. But we are very homely people at heart. lpo.uk/harpdogduet Libby accompanies Rachel as she does her harp warm-up.