LPO Tune In newsletter – Spring/Summer 2017

– ISSUE FOUR –

– –SPRING 2017– – SPRING// SUMMER SUMMER 2013

2017’s year-long Southbank Centre festival exploring the big questions of life.

BELIEF AND BEYOND BELIEF

lpo junior artists

Backstage

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– 07 –

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We look ahead to the Orchestra’s role in this year-long festival

Our new scheme for talented musicians from under-represented communities

Meet the Orchestra’s new Principal Bassoon, Jonathan Davies

New on the LPO Label Stravinsky

Petrushka Symphonies of Wind Instruments Orpheus

Principal Partner

Principal Supporters

Vladimir Jurowski conductor £9.99 LPO-0091 | Released September 2016

Wagner

Die Walküre: Act 1 Klaus Tennstedt conductor René Kollo Siegmund (tenor) Eva-Maria Bundschuh Sieglinde (soprano) John Tomlinson Hunding (bass) £9.99 LPO-0092 | Released October 2016

beethoven

Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4 Kurt Masur conductor £9.99 LPO-0093 | Released November 2016

TCHAIKOVSKY Violin Concerto Vasily Petrenko conductor Augustin Hadelich violin

LALO Symphonie espagnole Coming soon

Omer Meir Wellber conductor Augustin Hadelich violin £9.99 | LPO-0094 | Release date February 2017 Generously supported by the Borletti-Buitoni Trust

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DvoRák

Othello Overture Symphonies Nos. 6 & 7 Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor £10.99 (2CDs) Coming soon

Education Partner

LPO-0095 | Release date March 2017

Corporate Members Sunshine Accenture After Digital Berenberg Carter-Ruck French Chamber of Commerce Ageas BTO Management Consulting AG Lazard Russo-British Chamber of Commerce Willis Towers Watson

Preferred Partners 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.

Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd London Orthopaedic Clinic Sipsmith Steinway

In-kind Sponsor Google Inc

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WELCOME

H

appy New Year! Welcome to the Spring 2017 edition of the London Philharmonic Orchestra newsletter, Tune In. This year, in partnership with Southbank Centre, we embark on Belief and Beyond Belief, a year-long, multi-artform festival exploring the music, art, culture, science, philosophy, rituals and traditions that have informed belief, religion and spirituality.

All our 2017 concerts from 21 January onwards will form part of the festival, alongside a range of talks, performances and workshops programmed by Southbank Centre. The concerts up until May are already on sale (see pages 13–14) and the September–December concerts will be announced when our 2017/18 season is launched on 26 January (see panel below).

Turn the page to read more about Belief and Beyond Belief, as Richard Bratby talks to LPO Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Jurowski about how orchestral music reflects the themes of the festival.

One of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s central aims is to share the wonder of classical music with as many people as possible, and we’re delighted that 2017 will see the launch of two new projects making orchestral music more accessible to everyone, regardless of age, background or income. Turn to page 7 to read about ‘LPO Junior Artists’, a new programme offering opportunities for talented teenage musicians from communities under-represented in the orchestral industry. And on page 11 we introduce ‘OrchLab’, a new project empowering disabled people to engage with orchestral music in partnership with Drake Music, Leonard Cheshire Disability and JTI.

Timothy Walker © Chris Blott

Editor Rachel Williams Publisher London Philharmonic Orchestra Printer Romax

– Timothy walker – Chief Executive and Artistic Director

We look forward to bringing you updates on both projects and introducing you to some of their participants in the next edition.

One of the key ways we have introduced new audiences to the Orchestra over the years is our ever-popular FUNharmonics series of family concerts. Comprising hour-long fun, interactive concerts designed especially for children, plus pre-concert ‘have a go’ sessions, FUNharmonics offer an amazing way for children and their families to experience orchestral music. This year FUNharmonics is the focus of our LPO Annual Appeal, and we’re asking you to help us make these experiences accessible to as many people as possible by donating towards the elements that make up a FUNharmonics day, supporting us in keeping the pricing of these concerts affordable for all. Read more on page 8.

We’re always glad to receive feedback from our audiences and supporters. Get in touch on Twitter or Facebook (links below), email us at admin@lpo.org.uk, or call 020 7840 4200.

I hope you will be able to join us this spring.

Thank you for your support of the London Philharmonic Orchestra.

Keep up to date 2017/18 season

Join us on Facebook

The 2017/18 LPO season will be launched on Thursday 26 January 2017, when all details of concerts and events will be available on our website. Booking opens on Wednesday 8 February online and via the LPO Box Office. To take advantage of priority booking (from Tuesday 31 January), become a Friend of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for as little as £50 a year. Call Ellie Franklin on 020 7840 4225 or visit lpo.org.uk/support/memberships

Contents Belief and beyond belief 04–05 autumn 2016 roundup 06 Lpo junior artists 07 New & noteworthy 08–09 ravi shankar’s sukanya 10 Orchlab 11 The London philharmonic choir at 70 12 Concert listings 13–15 Backstage: Jonathan davies 16

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Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/LPOrchestra

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Watch us on youtube youtube.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

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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. © 2017 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 –

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LPO 2016/17 season

belief and beyond belief

I

n a glass case at Mozart’s birthplace in Salzburg is a little wax doll. Its eyes look demurely downwards, it wears a crown four times the size of its head, and it’s clad in what looks like an embroidered ballgown. This is the Loreto-Kindl (Loreto Child): a replica of an ivory model of the infant Christ housed in Salzburg’s Loreto Church. Believed to have miraculous properties, it was (and is) an object of pilgrimage. The Mozart family revered it.

When, in Paris in 1764, the eight-year-old Wolfgang fell sick, his father Leopold sent money back to Salzburg for a Mass to be said at the shrine of the Child.

What are we to think of that today? When we hear the procession that opens Mozart’s Requiem and find our emotions responding to those sighing woodwinds, are we somehow feeling and reacting to the same impulse that once prompted Mozart to kneel before a wax doll? It’s a curious thing, the

The Loreto-Kindl in Salzburg

Loreto Child, and oddly touching. To 21stcentury minds (and particularly if you’re not Roman Catholic) it seems profoundly strange. But this is what Mozart thought; what he felt; what he believed. And his music speaks to us. There’s something irreducible there. As Theodor Adorno once put it, ‘When I hear great music, I believe that I know that what this music said cannot be untrue.’

Which is why music has a central role – arguably the central role – in Southbank Centre’s year-long 2017 festival Belief and Beyond Belief: a cross-artform investigation of the great questions surrounding our experiences of life, death, religion and spirituality, and the role of religious belief in all its forms in the 21st century. Music, after all, is capable of articulating feelings and ideas that lie beyond words. That gives it a unique scope when dealing with a subject this vast, and this intangible. Belief, says LPO Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Jurowski, is ‘probably the most all-encompassing theme we could find.’

‘We were looking for something that would concern all people in all times. And of course you can’t help but come to all those basic questions of life and death: why are we here, what is the purpose of human existence?’ These are questions that – while central to the world’s major religions – are also of urgent importance to those who don’t follow any one specific faith. ‘Spirituality, obviously, is not only about organised religion and faith. It’s about the intangible matters, the non-corporeal realm of human existence’ says Jurowski. ‘As the Dalai Lama put it recently, we can all exist without religion – but we cannot exist without spirituality.’

No question, though: Western classical music’s centuries-old relationship with organised Judeo-Christian religion offers

lpo.org.uk/belief – 04 –

a magnificent starting point. Mozart’s Requiem forms part of the series [performed by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir on 25 March], as does Tallis’s Spem in Alium [8 April] and Haydn’s life-affirming oratorio The Creation [4 February] – expressions of belief, grounded in the certainties of a pre-Darwin age. In each of these masterpieces, contemplation of the divine actually intensifies the music’s humanity. Belief certainly enriches the experience of hearing these works today, but few would argue that they have nothing meaningful to say to an atheist or agnostic.

Still, as Jurowski explains, ‘I didn’t want us to limit ourselves to one period of time, one epoch. Working with a modern orchestra is like having a time machine at your disposal.

You’re free to move in time and space within the duration of one concert.’ It’ll be thoughtprovoking but also enormous fun to travel in one evening [28 January] from the divinely ordered exuberance of Jean-Féry Rebel’s Les élémens (1737) to Milhaud’s La Création du monde (1923) and John Adams’s Harmonielehre (1985) – works that don’t so much celebrate an established universal order, as grab what they can find to hand and try to throw together a new one. It’s hard to feel that Also sprach Zarathustra – Richard Strauss’s explicitly post-Christian orchestral romp through Nietzsche [10 February] – sees the death of God as anything but a liberation.

Wagner’s Parsifal [28 April; Act III excerpts], however, can be an altogether more troubling experience, as well as a transcendent one.

And then there are the works that, in the sunset years of Western civilisation’s spiritual consensus, erect massive ramparts against the abyss. Gustav Mahler – a Jewish convert to Catholicism, and the first great composer to undergo analysis with Sigmund Freud – throws gigantic forces and every last ounce

Loreto-Kindl © Sagen.at

Throughout 2017 the London Philharmonic Orchestra is collaborating with Southbank Centre on ‘Belief and Beyond Belief’: a year-long festival exploring the big questions of life.

How does orchestral music fit in? Richard Bratby finds out.

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Jurowski © Karen Robinson – Penderecki © Schott Music

Principal Conductor & Artistic Advisor Vladimir Jurowski

of creative muscle into his Eighth Symphony [8 April]. But what of Bruckner’s Ninth [22 March], designed by an unshakably devout composer as a final act of homage and praise ‘to my beloved God’? As his health failed, Bruckner prayed daily to be allowed time and strength to finish the Symphony.

Neither was granted.

And during the 20th century, art and belief have both tended to throw open questions rather than assert answers. Confronted with atrocities such as that commemorated in Martinů’s Memorial to Lidice [25 January], the silence that Charles Ives called The Unanswered Question [11 February] may be the only appropriate response. Yet even in atheist dictatorships, composers continued to seek meaning. ‘Shostakovich was never a believer’ says Jurowski. ‘He was afraid of death. He was convinced that with the end of human existence the human spirit also ceases to exist’. Somehow, though, in his fifteenth (and final) symphony [22 February] ‘he finds space in there for very loving music […] You are exposed to someone who has a thing or two to teach us about life.’ Edison Denisov’s Second Symphony [also 22 February], written during its composer’s terminal cancer, is even more uncompromising. ‘He finds no consolation at

the end of his journey. It was obviously an act of defiance.’

In a godless world, the very act of asserting religious belief becomes a radical act. In 1966, Krzysztof Penderecki’s Bach-inspired St Luke Passion [4 March] outraged Western modernists almost as much as it offended the authorities in communist Poland. The composer made its significance explicit: ‘The Passion is the suffering and death of

Christ, but it is also the suffering and death at Auschwitz, the tragic experience of mankind in the middle of the 20th century.’ Penderecki is as devoutly Roman Catholic as Mozart, but the St Luke Passion is designed for all listeners.

Religion helps it tell its truths; but those truths are comprehensible even without belief. It’s why Jurowski has chosen to open Belief and Beyond Belief on 21 January not with a sacred work, but a semi-staged opera: a story of tyranny, freedom, courage and – supremely – human love: Beethoven’s Fidelio.

‘Fidelio celebrates what the GermanJewish philosopher Ernst Bloch called “The Principle of Hope” – one of the cornerstones of the human spiritual existence’, says Jurowski. ‘Hope is what makes us human, what gives life meaning; hope – when lived actively – has the power to change the world.

Fidelio connects and mediates between the religious and humanist approach to life, and thus appears to me to be a perfect start for a celebration of spirituality and the human spirit.’

If there’s any one motto for this whole, intensely rich and complex journey into music and belief, ‘Hope’ would probably be it.

‘We’re not going to turn Southbank Centre into a place of worship’, says Jurowski. ‘We’re not going to turn the concert hall into a temple. We just want to look at all these different pieces of music by different composers, which are all concerned with the same questions’. In other words, to do what music lets us do more intensely than any other art form – explore different ways of simply being human.

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

Watch the interview with Vladimir lpo.org.uk/belief

Composer Krzysztof Penderecki (4 March)

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Lpo news

Autumn 2016 roundup

September 2016 saw the first all-Stravinsky release on the LPO Label, featuring Petrushka, Symphonies of Wind Instruments and Orpheus.

A review by The Guardian highlighted ‘how focussed [Jurowski] and the Orchestra sound now’; and on BBC Radio 3’s Summer Record Review, Kate Molleson praised the Orchestra’s ‘very careful, exquisitely balanced playing’.

The Orchestra is renowned for its extensive recording archive, and October 2016 saw the release of the first act of Wagner’s Die Walküre in a live concert recording from 1991. The release features former Principal Conductor and Music Director Klaus Tennstedt, whose tenure with the LPO was characterised by his specialism in the German repertoire. The morning after its release, the disc was chosen as Andrew McGregor’s Disc of the Week on BBC Radio 3, who described it as ‘intelligently paced and powerfully animated’.

Our November release was Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 1 & 4, conducted by Kurt Masur live in concert at Royal Festival Hall in 2004. Masur was Principal Conductor of the LPO from 2000–07 and sadly passed away in 2015, but this pair of recordings pays tribute to his musical legacy.

February 2017 will see the release of a pair of live concert recordings from 2015 and 2016: Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto alongside the work that inspired it, Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, both performed by violinist Augustin Hadelich and conducted by Vasily Petrenko and Omer Meir Wellber respectively.

Dvořák’s Othello Overture, recorded as part of the Orchestra’s ‘Shakespeare400’ series in 2016, will be our March 2017 release, along with the composer’s Symphonies Nos. 6 & 7.

All LPO Label single CDs are priced at £9.99 (double CDs £10.99) and are available with free postage from the LPO Ticket Office – call 020 7840 4242 or visit lpo.org.uk/recordings.

All recordings are also available to download or stream from iTunes, Amazon, Spotify and others.

meow meow

final fantasy XV On 7 September the Orchestra performed at a unique event at the legendary Abbey Road Studios. The performance featured tracks from the new Final Fantasy XV video game, and was enjoyed by fans worldwide who streamed it online. This wasn’t our first foray into gaming music: the Orchestra has performed game soundtracks at Royal Festival Hall and in 2011/12 released The Greatest Video Game Music on the X5 label.

Watch the video stream on youtube

Fresh from her acclaimed performances as Titania in A Midsummer Night’s Dream at Shakespeare’s Globe over the summer, on 1 November international cabaret diva Meow Meow brought her unique brand of ‘orchestrated chaos’ to Royal Festival Hall.

Backed by the band Pink Martini and a 70-strong LPO, Meow performed a dizzying variety of songs from Piazzolla tangos to Weill, Brecht, Brel and even Radiohead. With obliging participants plucked from the audience and the LPO’s first documented crowd-surf, it was certainly a night neither Orchestra nor audience will forget.

We’re delighted to announce a return visit to the LPO by Meow Meow in December 2017: look out for details when our 2017/18 season is launched on 26 January (see page 3).

Tanika Gupta @Tanika_Gupta · Nov 1 PHENOMENAL show by Meow Meow at Royal Festival Hall tonight! Beautiful singing and hilarious antics @MeowTopia @LPOrchestra Many congrats!

Lucy Thackeray @GooseyT · Nov 2 @MeowTopia absolutely smashed it last night at @southbankcentre. Mesmerised, moved, tickled pink... If you get the chance to see her, SEE HER.

www.lpo.org.uk/news/final-fantasy-xv-live.html

vladimir jurowSki: london’s most influential Our Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, Vladimir Jurowski, was in October named by the Evening Standard as one of 2016’s ‘Progress 1000’, recognising London’s 1000 most influential figures. The jury praised Vladimir’s contribution to the city’s cultural scene, professing that ‘his articulately expressed views on music and other matters have won the Principal Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra a devoted following, as have his innovative programmes and highly individualised, sometimes idiosyncratic, approach to the classics, notably Mahler.’ read the full list standard.co.uk/news/the1000

Vladimir’s position is generously supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation.

carols at waterloo

Alan Fitter @Wallingtonal · Nov 2 Last night helped the sensational @MeowTopia crowdsurf - I can now die a happy man! Fabulous night with @lporchestra & @PinkMartiniBand

buckingham palace On 24 November members of the Orchestra were honoured to perform at Buckingham Palace at a special evening hosted by the Orchestra’s Royal Patron, HRH The Duke of Kent. Guests, comprising 24 of the Orchestra’s most significant supporters, were thrilled by an intimate performance of Mendelssohn’s Octet, led by Pieter Schoeman, followed by a dinner in the Blue Drawing Room. lpo.org.uk – 06 –

Entertaining commuters with carols at Waterloo Station in the run-up to Christmas has become a popular annual tradition for the LPO. On 1 December members of the Orchestra and singers from the London Philharmonic Choir brought some festive cheer to the station concourse and collected a record £3101.26 for Save the Children.

Thanks to everyone who supported us!

Meow Meow © Harmony Nicholas – Carols @ Waterloo © London Philharmonic Orchestra

latest cd releases

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LPO education & community

LPO junior artists This season sees the launch of ‘LPO Junior Artists’, a new programme creating opportunities for talented young musicians from under-represented communities.

The 2016/17 LPO Junior Artists at the programme’s launch event at Royal Festival Hall on 7 December 2016: (L–R) Timothy Walker, Pasha Orleans-Foli, Daniel Swani, Bethany Crouch, Michael Hollette, Matthew Hancock MP (Minister of State for Digital and Culture), Daria Phillips, Jesse Francis, Nathaniel Groves, Thea Sayer

LPO Junior Artists © Benjamin Ealovega

T

his season, we are excited to welcome eight talented teenage musicians to the LPO family – our first cohort of ‘LPO Junior Artists’. A new pilot scheme, LPO Junior Artists is an orchestral experience programme for young instrumentalists from backgrounds and communities traditionally under-represented in the orchestral sector.

While the arts as a whole are gradually becoming more inclusive, progress still needs to be made in certain areas, and we recognise that the majority of UK orchestras – both on the platform and in management – do not reflect the diversity of the wider population.

LPO Junior Artists aims to respond to this lack of diversity by offering support, advice and professional insight to high-level music students aged 15–19 from under-represented backgrounds, as they consider future training and career opportunities.

Last autumn, applications were invited via recruitment partners – ranging from music services to junior conservatoires – and all applicants auditioned before a panel of LPO

members and staff. With a minimum playing standard of Grade 7, students had to be considering studying music beyond school or otherwise interested in a career in the orchestral sector, and from a background currently under-represented in UK orchestras.

Because the issue of under-representation across all the arts is complex and wideranging, the programme’s criteria does not limit involvement to any one particular group – rather, it invites candidates to self-identify why they feel they come from an underrepresented community. This could include – but is not limited to – under-represented racial, ethnic or socio-economic backgrounds, and also may include players with disabilities.

One of the programme’s aims is to ‘demystify’ the orchestral world: opening up – both to the young people and their parents – an industry in which progression can be dependent on networking and insider knowledge. Our Junior Artists will each be paired with an LPO player mentor, with whom they will work on developing specific areas of their playing, as well as the opportunity to lpo.org.uk/juniorartists – 07 –

meet a range of external mentors and inspiring guest artists across the year. They will all also take part in work experience in the LPO office and observe the Orchestra’s rehearsal process, following guidance from their music mentor. The programme also seeks to enhance skills – both musical (through individual lessons, mock audition practice and expanding repertoire knowledge) and non-musical (including developing confidence and essential communication skills in a bespoke workshop).

The third aim of the programme is to promote diversity and celebrate music more widely, and each Junior Artist will be matched with a local primary school to share their music-making and act as an important role-model for younger children. We also aim for the programme to stimulate an ongoing conversation around diversity within the LPO, and within the wider sector.

Timothy Walker, Chief Executive and Artistic Director of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, said: ‘We are very proud to be working with these talented young musicians. Talent is indiscriminate, and it is important that young musicians have the opportunity to develop their potential irrespective of their background.’

This year’s Junior Artists play flute, clarinet, bassoon, viola, cello and double bass, and have a wide geographic reach – crossing London from Enfield to Bromley, and from further afield in Southampton and Sussex. Within the group are two members of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, two students from specialist music schools, and students studying at all the London junior conservatoires. We are very much looking forward to working with this year’s Junior Artists – and are sure that bringing the musical excellence and enthusiasm of these talented young people into the LPO will inspire us all. find out more lpo.org.uk/juniorartists

lpo junior artists is generously supported by virginia slaymaker and an anonymous donor.

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Lpo news

New & noteworthy 2016 FUNHARMONICS APPEAL HELP US CREATE MOMENTS OF WONDER

— £5 will pay for a pack of clarinet reeds for ‘have a go’ clarinet sessions — £10 will pay for one large creative pack for a pre-concert art workshop including fabrics, papers and other materials for making and decorating props — £20 will hire one woodwind instrument for a ‘have a go’ session — £25 will subsidise five tickets for a FUNharmonics family concert, allowing us to keep ticket prices affordable — £50 will enable us to hire a harp for ‘have a go’ sessions — £70 will hire four brass instruments for ‘have a go’ sessions — £100 will pay for the production of 400 activity sheets — £250 will pay for the hire of half of the music the Orchestra needs for a concert — £500 will pay for the hire of all the music the Orchestra needs for a concert.

If overfunded on the above, any surplus will go towards other costs associated with FUNharmonics, including paying the incredibly talented LPO musicians.

glyndebourne 2017

If you haven’t yet experienced a FUNharmonics concert, why not join us in 2017? The next concerts (18 February at Royal Festival Hall/19 March at Saffron Hall) are sure to get young brains fizzing as we collaborate with science presenter and comedian Helen Arney in Conducting Science. The audience will have the chance to participate in real science experiments, exploring the secrets of sound and the superpowers of our musicians. Then on 30 April, All Aboard the LPO will give us an insight into the world of the LPO on tour through music, stories and pictures collected by our intrepid players throughout the year.

Each concert begins at 12 noon and lasts around an hour. Before each show, FUNharmonics audiences are invited to join in a range of free foyer activities including ‘have a go’ sessions – a chance to try out a real orchestral instrument under expert guidance – and ‘ARTharmonics’: arts and crafts workshops linked to the concert theme. donate to the appeal lpo.org.uk/appeal

book funharmonics tickets lpo.org.uk/funharmonics

The 2017 Glyndebourne Festival Opera season opens on 20 May and runs until 27 August. During the summer the London Philharmonic Orchestra will perform Verdi’s La traviata conducted by Richard Farnes and Andrés Orozco-Estrada (a revival of the 2014 Festival production); the world premiere performances of Brett Dean’s Hamlet conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Strauss’s Ariadne auf Naxos under Cornelius Meister (a revival of the 2013 Festival production); and Donizetti’s Don Pasquale under Giacomo Sagripanti (a revival of the 2011 Tour production).

Public booking opens on Sunday 5 March 2017. Early access is available for corporate and individual supporters of the LPO. FIND OUT MORE glyndebourne.com lpo.org.uk/support

2017 gala This year’s annual LPO Fundraising Gala will take place on 6 June 2017 at Whitehall’s magnificent Banqueting House. This year we will be celebrating an extraordinary collaboration, with Vladimir Jurowski’s 10th anniversary as the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor. The evening will include a selection of Vladimir’s favourite music and will feature some very special guest soloists. A Champagne reception in the Undercroft will be followed by dinner, performances and both silent and live auctions in the stunning Main Hall.

For more information contact Amy Sugarman on 020 7840 4209 or email amy.sugarman@lpo.org.uk FIND OUT MORE lpo.org.uk/support/gala

lpo.org.uk – 08 –

Photographs © Benjamin Ealovega

At the London Philharmonic Orchestra we are more than our concert performances; we are greater than the musicians you see.

We strive to create wonder in all that we do; sharing our vision with everyone, everywhere, regardless of age, background or income.

FUNharmonics days offer an amazing way for children and their families to experience orchestral music and the LPO. Help us make these experiences accessible to as many people as possible. Give to the appeal and fund the elements that make up a FUNharmonics day – your support will help us cover the costs of offering these experiences:

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get your running shoes on ...

Last July saw 24 LPO musicians, members of staff and Board members pounding the streets of London as they took part in the Vitality Run Series British 10K to raise money for the Orchestra’s BrightSparks schools concerts. The team raised a fantastic £23,000 in total, enabling over 2000 young people to attend one of the LPO’s schools concerts.

Up for a challenge? We’re looking for audience members and supporters to join the team for this year’s run. To find out more please contact Ellie Franklin on 020 7840 4225 or email ellie.franklin@lpo.org.uk details of the 2017 run thebritish10klondon.co.uk

chamber concerts in eastbourne The Orchestra has always enjoyed its visits to Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre, ever since its first performance there in 1934 under Sir Thomas Beecham. 2017 sees an exciting new venture in the town – three chamber concerts at Devonshire Park Theatre, while the Congress is closed for reburbishment.

Affectionately dubbed the ‘Playhouse in the Park’, this beautiful Grade II listed Victorian building, renowned for its ornate interior, provides the perfect platform to display the virtuosity of some of the Principal players from within the Orchestra, and to offer gems from the chamber repertoire including Bach’s Double Violin Concerto, Vivaldi’s Four Seasons and Schubert’s ‘Trout’ Quintet. find out more and book tickets lpo.org.uk/eastbourne

competition: win wine with Villa Maria

On Tuesday 1 November the Orchestra was delighted to host a pre-concert wine and canapé tasting in its Beecham Bar, provided by Villa Maria, the LPO’s Preferred Wine Partner.

Guests were able to sample delicious seasonal canapés paired with a carefully chosen selection of Villa Maria’s premium Cellar Selection, Reserve and Single Vineyard wines.

The flavours and subtleties of the wines really came to the fore when matched with their perfect food partners, and guests enjoyed being tutored through the characteristics of each wine by Villa Maria representatives.

Villa Maria is thrilled to offer Tune In readers the chance to create a special wine tasting in the comfort of their own home by offering the chance to win a selection of Villa Maria wines.

To help you with your pairings here are some recommendations to try, just as our guests did: • Villa Maria Cellar Selection Sauvignon Gris 2015: Superb with smoked salmon and crème fraiche • Villa Maria Reserve Clifford Bay Sauvignon Blanc 2015: Perfect with seafood, especially scallops • Villa Maria Single Vineyard Keltern Chardonnay 2014: An ideal accompaniment to roasted white meats • Villa Maria Cellar Selection Syrah 2014: Pair with dishes featuring spice, duck or venison • Villa Maria Reserve Pinot Noir 2013: Serve with delicious New Zealand lamb dishes, of course!

• Villa Maria Reserve Merlot 2013: The ideal foil for your sizzling fillet steak.

To enter the competition please email your favourite wine and food pairing, along with your name and contact details, to competitions@lpo.org.uk by 31 March 2017.

Terms and conditions: One prize to be won. The prize includes one bottle of each of the wines listed above. Entrants must be aged 18 years or over. A full UK mainland address and telephone number must be provided for delivery purposes. Competition closes on 31 March 2017. Entries must be received by the closing date and no liability is accepted for lost, illegible or incomplete entries. If you do not want to hear from Villa Maria or the LPO in the future, please write ‘No database’ in the body of your email.

villamaria.co.nz

lpo.org.uk – 09 –

In the office In September the LPO office team welcomed Tom Proctor as PA to the Chief Executive/ Administrative Assistant. At the end of November we waved goodbye to Finance and IT Manager David Greenslade, who moved on after 11 years with the LPO. Frances Slack takes up the reins as our new Finance and Operations Manager.

Our Development team welcomes Ellie Franklin as Development Assistant, taking over from Helen Yang who left us in December. Ellie will be looking after the Friends of the LPO and looks forward to getting to know many of you at events in the New Year!

In January we were delighted to welcome back Librarian Sarah Thomas from maternity leave, and in February we look forward to Liz Forbes joining us to cover Concerts Director Roanna Gibson’s forthcoming maternity leave.

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

Jobs at the lpo lpo.org.uk/jobs

CONGRATULATIONS

Congratulations to LPO Second Violin and LPO Friends Supported Musician Jeongmin Kim, who married composer Donghoon Shin on 5 October 2016 at Southwark Register Office.

Alan Cumberland 1945–2016 Shortly before we went to print, we were saddened to hear of the passing on 4 December 2016 of Alan Cumberland, Principal Timpanist of the LPO from 1968–87.

A tribute from Alan’s former LPO colleagues will follow in the first concert programme of 2017, on 13 January.

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lpo news

ravi shankar world premiere

Ravi Shankar (left) and David Murphy at the premiere of Sanmelan, their first project together, in 2004

lpo.org.uk/sukanya – 10 –

more details and tickets lpo.org.uk/sukanya

Sukanya is a co-production between The Royal Opera, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Curve, Leicester.

The 19 May performance is a co-production between The Royal Opera, the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Curve, Leicester in association with Southbank Centre. With generous philanthropic support from Arts Council England and the Bagri Foundation.

Ravi Shankar on the LPO Label Symphony No. 1 David Murphy conductor Anoushka Shankar sitar London Philharmonic Orchestra LPO–0060 | £6.99 Also available as a download: see page 2 for details of how to purchase.

Ravi Shankar & David Murphy © Bhavan Centre, London

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his May the London Philharmonic The spellbinding story of Sukanya is taken Orchestra will give the world from the Sanskrit texts of the Mahābhārata. premiere of a brand new opera by After a terrible mistake leaves the ancient the late Indian music legend Ravi sage Chyavana blinded, the beautiful princess Shankar.

Sukanya finds herself marrying for the sake of Shankar was working on Sukanya at the her kingdom. As a pair of swaggering, time of his death in 2012, and envisaged it as meddling gods watch this unlikely union a groundbreaking piece of musical theatre blossom, will love grow in the strangest of exploring common ground between the circumstances? music, dance and theatre of India British composer and conductor and the West. In the premiere David Murphy – who worked performances traditional Indian with Shankar for many He was the first to think instruments will combine with years, including conducting the full force of a 60-strong the world premiere of his further, to want to push London Philharmonic Symphony with the LPO in even more boundaries, Orchestra; the BBC Singers; 2010 – has collaborated and bring Indian world-class soloists Susanna with novelist Amit classical music to the Hurrell, Alok Kumar, Keel Chaudhuri and Anoushka context of opera.

Watson and Michel de Shankar, Ravi Shankar’s Souza; dancers daughter, to bring the project Anoushka Shankar choreographed by the Aakash to fruition. David says: Odedra Company; and design ‘Bringing Ravi Shankar’s only by 59 Productions in collaboration opera to life has been an amazing with The Royal Opera. David Murphy conducts journey: a journey that was begun over and Suba Das directs. a decade ago during the thousands of hours

Ravi and I spent working closely together and which gained an unstoppable momentum in the last months of his life.’ Anoushka adds: ‘It thrills me that this final project of my father’s, about which he was so passionate, is finally coming to life. My father was the first Indian classical musician to work with Western classical musicians; the first to write concertos for orchestra; the first to bring the music of India to a global audience. Even in his final years, he was the first to think further, to want to push even more boundaries, and bring Indian classical music to the context of opera.’

The performances of Sukanya will take place at Leicester’s Curve (world premiere, 12 May), The Lowry, Salford (14 May), Symphony Hall Birmingham (15 May) and London’s Southbank Centre (19 May).

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lpo partners

orchlab As part of our partnership with JTI, this year the Orchestra will work with Drake Music, the UK leaders in music, technology and disability, on an exciting new project opening up access to orchestral music.

Photos © Stuart Howat

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ne of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s central aims is to make classical music accessible to as many people as possible, and since 2009 the generous support of our Principal Partner JTI has helped us encourage many people from disadvantaged groups to engage with orchestral music, creating opportunities for people from all backgrounds to fulfil their creative and musical potential.

We are delighted that from January 2017, JTI’s continuing support will allow us to embark on ‘OrchLab’, a new three-year project in partnership with Drake Music, the UK’s leading national organisation working in music, disability and technology. Together with players from the Orchestra, experts from the Drake team will use cutting-edge technology to create instruments to suit the needs of disabled people. Working closely with Leonard Cheshire Disability – another of JTI’s partner charities – we will be able to offer people who use Leonard Cheshire services in London and the South East exciting new opportunities to make music.

Leonard Cheshire Disability is a national charity that supports thousands of disabled people across the UK, offering a range of services including supported living accommodation, home care and day centres.

The LPO has already enjoyed working with the charity over the past five years, running workshops for disabled adults with LPO players based around creative music-making, using handheld percussion instruments and voices. We hope that the new OrchLab project will allow us to go a step further and expand participation for people who may have limited mobility or other physical or learning difficulties: examples of pioneering technologies previously created by Drake Music include devices that detect movement and translate it into sound, and circuit boards that allow users to make sounds by blowing.

The focus of the workshops will be inspired by the LPO’s main concert series, taking inspiration from the pieces we perform at Royal Festival Hall. Participants will create their own original pieces of music based on these works and themes, using recorded samples from the LPO concerts, and will work closely with the Orchestra musicians themselves who performed in the concerts, providing a vital link between the Orchestra’s music and the workshops. As well as the live workshops, the LPO and Drake Music will create an online platform for centres to share their work and connect with one other, as well as allow Leonard Cheshire services from further afield to engage online with the project.

Daryl Beeton, Associate National Manager for Drake Music, says: ‘We are very excited to be working with the LPO on the OrchLab project. This is a great opportunity to collaborate with a renowned orchestra, which will allow both organisations to learn from each other and explore an holistic approach to integrating music technology and classical instruments to ensure music is accessible for everyone.’ Karen Reynolds, JTI’s Head of Community Relations, added: ‘JTI is delighted to be supporting OrchLab – a new and exciting

An LPO workshop at the Leonard Cheshire Disability St Cecilia’s care home in Bromley

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LPO workshop at the Crisis Skylight centre in Aldgate

project that will not only promote further collaboration between our cultural partner the London Philharmonic Orchestra and our community partner Leonard Cheshire Disability, but will make it possible for disabled adults to create high-quality musical pieces through the use of pioneering technology.’

OrchLab is the latest in a long list of LPO projects made possible by JTI’s support: over the last three years the ‘JTI Live and Local’ series has taken the Orchestra on tour across the UK with top-class soloists including Alison Balsom and Miloš Karadaglić. From 2008–16 the JTI Friday Series of concerts at Royal Festival Hall enabled the LPO to keep ticket prices affordable and offer subsidised low-cost tickets to community groups. Together with the charity Crisis, also a partner charity of JTI, the LPO has run workshops for people who have experienced homelessness. JTI’s support has also allowed us to offer a concert transport scheme in partnership with Contact the Elderly, a national charity that works to tackle loneliness in older people, as well as perform at tea parties for their guests. We are delighted that JTI will also be supporting the LPO’s Japan tour in October 2017. lpo.org.uk/orchlab jti.com drakemusic.org leonardcheshire.org

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lpo news

the london philharmonic choir at 70 The London Philharmonic Choir was founded in 1947 as the chorus for the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This summer the Choir celebrates its 70th anniversary with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony: the same work as at its very first concert.

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An uplifting experience: just a few of the LPC ‘family’

But our 70th anniversary is not solely focused on commemorating the past.

To ensure that the LPC continues to be a world-leading symphony chorus, we need to encourage choral singing within the younger generations. During our anniversary year, we will be working with music hubs and youth choirs to provide singing experiences and coaching for young singers who we hope will become members in the near future and will be celebrating our 80th, 90th and even 100th anniversaries in years to come.

Being in the LPC is of course primarily about creating and delivering world-class concert performances, and singers often talk of the ‘privilege’ and ‘honour’ that being a member brings to their lives. But the LPC is more than just a choir. With regular rehearsals in the evenings offering ‘the perfect antidote to modern life’ with ‘an uplifting social experience at the end of the work day’, in the words of two members, as well as concerts at weekends and trips out of London and overseas, choir contemporaries soon become choir friends. Over the years in this vibrant choir, members have developed lifelong friendships and even marriages!

There’s been dinner for 60 in Cologne and

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cocktail parties in more places than we can remember. And, if you’re lucky enough to celebrate your birthday on a rehearsal night, it’s likely you’ll be treated to a 25-partharmony improvised rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ sung by your ‘choir family’.

Our members come from far and wide, representing more than 20 countries from America to Asia, Europe to Oceania, so when performing in a foreign language we invariably have a native speaker amongst our singers to keep our pronunciation on track, and the lifelong friendships made in the LPC continuously link populations across the globe. And even within the UK our membership also has a broad reach, with some so keen to sing with the LPC that they complete a nine-hour round trip (‘worth every minute!’) every time they attend a rehearsal.

The Choir is always seeking new talent to join its membership. So, if you’re looking for a choir that provides a regular smorgasbord of quality concerts or want to join a 200-strong choir family, LPC is the place to come.

Tessa Bartley, Choir Manager, London Philharmonic Choir find out more lpc.org.uk/join-us

Photos © Louise Kragh Photography

lot has happened in the UK in 70 years. In 1947, there was no NHS, HM Queen Elizabeth II was a princess, the death penalty was still in place, homosexuality was illegal, England had never won the football World Cup, nobody knew anything about double-helix DNA, The Beatles, Concorde or IVF, and tweeting was something only done by birds.

While all those, and more, developments and discoveries were changing the world around us over the past seven decades, the London Philharmonic Choir has been busy too. Debuting at the Royal Albert Hall with the London Philharmonic Orchestra on 15 May 1947, the Choir performed perennial favourite Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under the baton of Victor de Sabata. The rest, as they say, is history. Over the years, hundreds of amateur singers have been auditioned and taught by our seven chorus masters including current Artistic Director, Neville Creed. At the last count LPC singers have worked with more than 70 orchestras and 200 conductors, performing works by over 100 composers at more than 100 venues around the world.

And what better way to prepare for our 70th anniversary than with an epic season of choral greats? So far this season our singers have delivered world-class performances of Verdi’s and Berlioz’s Requiems, Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 and Missa Solemnis, Handel’s Messiah, and classic Christmas carols. And the choral masterpieces continue in 2017 with Haydn’s Creation, Orff’s Carmina Burana, Mozart’s Requiem, Tallis’s Spem in alium and Mahler’s Symphony No. 8. Is that enough? No, our final pièce de résistance is another performance of Beethoven’s Ninth, the aptly named ‘Choral’ Symphony, with the London Philharmonic Orchestra at Royal Festival Hall on 6 May 2017 – almost 70 years to the day after the Choir’s debut.

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Lpo spring 2017

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 Southbank Centre Ticket Office 020 7960 4200 Daily 9am–8pm southbankcentre.co.uk Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone No transaction fee for bookings made in person

Wednesday 25 January 2017 | 7.30pm

Saturday 11 February 2017 | 7.30pm

Giya Kancheli Mourned by the Wind (Liturgy for solo viola and orchestra) Martinů Memorial to Lidice Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 9

Philip Glass The Light Aaron Jay Kernis Flute Concerto (UK premiere) Ives The Unanswered Question John Adams Doctor Atomic Symphony

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Isabelle van Keulen viola*

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Marina Piccinini flute

* Please note a change to the artist from previously advertised.

Tuesday 14 February 2017 | 7.30pm

Free pre-concert event | 6.00–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Vladimir Jurowski conducts the LPO’s Foyle Future Firsts in a performance of Mahler’s Symphony No. 4, arranged for chamber ensemble for Klaus Simon.

Friday 13 January 2017 | 7.30pm

Saturday 28 January 2017 | 7.30pm

Brahms Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No. 1

Rebel Les élémens (Simphonie nouvelle) Milhaud La Création du monde John Adams Harmonielehre

Manfred Honeck conductor Ray Chen violin

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Saturday 21 January 2017 | 7.30pm

Saturday 4 February 2017 | 7.30pm

Beethoven Fidelio

Haydn The Creation

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Ben Johnson Jaquino Sofia Fomina Marzelline Kristinn Sigmundsson Rocco* Anja Kampe Leonore Christopher Purves Don Pizarro Michael König Florestan Ronan Collett Don Fernando Daniel Slater director London Voices

Sir Roger Norrington conductor Susan Gritton soprano Thomas Hobbs tenor Christopher Maltman baritone London Philharmonic Choir

* Please note a change to the artist from previously advertised This performance is sung in German with English narration.

Concert generously supported by Victoria Robey OBE and members of our Fidelio Supporter Syndicate.

Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall Vladimir Jurowski discusses this evening’s performance of Fidelio within the context of the Belief and Beyond Belief festival.

Friday 10 February 2017 | 7.30pm Haydn Symphony No. 22 (The Philosopher) Poulenc Organ Concerto Ligeti Atmosphères R Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor James O’Donnell organ Free pre-concert event | 6.00–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Talented music students from Notre Dame School and Harris Academy Greenwich perform their compositions inspired by Atmosphères and Also sprach Zarathustra, supported by LPO players.

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Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 Film screening with live orchestra Brief Encounter Dirk Brossé conductor Alexandra Dariescu piano Part of Southbank Centre’s Film Scores Live.

LPO series discounts do not apply.

Tickets £20–£55 Book via Southbank Centre Ticket Office only: see details to left.

Saturday 18 February 2017 | 12.00 noon FUNharmonics Family Concert: Conducting Science Just how high can you hear? Exactly how do pieces of wood and metal produce the amazing sounds of an orchestra? And what are the special superpowers of our very own LPO musicians?

Join science presenter and comedian Helen Arney, special guest scientists and the LPO in our first ever concert hall laboratory to discover the answers to these questions and more.

Join in the free pre-concert foyer activities from 10.00am–12.00 noon Recommended for children aged 6 and over.

This concert is part of Southbank Centre’s Imagine Children’s Festival.

Adults £10–18, children £5–9 Wednesday 22 February 2017 | 7.30pm Denisov Symphony No. 2 Berg Violin Concerto Shostakovich Symphony No. 15 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Patricia Kopatchinskaja violin Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Dr Johnson said that the prospect of death ‘concentrates the mind wonderfully’. Writer and broadcaster Stephen Johnson takes a look at composers’ different responses, how they confronted death, and what it tells us about ‘simple faith’.

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Lpo spring 2017

Concert listings continued Saturday 4 March 2017 | 7.30pm

Saturday 8 April 2017 | 7.30pm

Krzysztof Penderecki St Luke Passion

Tallis Spem in Alium Mahler Symphony No. 8

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Omar Ebrahim narrator Elizabeth Atherton soprano Dietrich Henschel baritone Tomasz Konieczny bass-baritone Polish Radio Choir Camerata Silesia Warsaw Boys Choir at the Fryderyk Chopin University of Music There will be no interval during this performance.

Organised in collaboration with the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music programme

Wednesday 15 March 2017 | 7.30pm Gavin Bryars The Sinking of the Titanic Gavin Bryars Jesus’ blood never failed me yet Steve Reich Music for Eighteen Musicians Synergy Vocals Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall British composer Gavin Bryars discusses two of his best known works, and his career to date.

Wednesday 22 March 2017 | 7.30pm

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Melanie Diener soprano Anne Schwanewilms soprano Sofia Fomina soprano* Sarah Connolly mezzo-soprano Patricia Bardon mezzo-soprano* Torsten Kerl tenor Matthias Goerne baritone Matthew Rose bass* London Philharmonic Choir London Symphony Chorus Choir of Clare College, Cambridge Tiffin Boys’ Choir * Please note a change to the artists from previously advertised Concert generously supported by an anonymous donor

Free pre-concert event | 6.00–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Our creative cross-arts ensemble, LPO Soundworks, takes to the stage again. Join young performers from across London and expect the unexpected at this must-see celebration of young music-making.

Wednesday 26 April 2017 | 7.30pm

Magnus Lindberg Cello Concerto No. 2 (UK premiere) Bruckner Symphony No. 9

Wagner Overture, The Flying Dutchman Wagner Die Walküre: Wotan’s Farewell and Magic Fire Music Bruckner Symphony No. 7 (Nowak edition)

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conductor Anssi Karttunen cello

Marek Janowski conductor Egils Silins bass-baritone

Saturday 25 March 2017 | 7.30pm R Strauss Death and Transfiguration Mozart Requiem (Süssmayer completion) Nathalie Stutzmann conductor Kateryna Kasper soprano Sara Mingardo contralto Robin Tritschler tenor Leon Kosavic baritone London Philharmonic Choir

Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm Royal Festival Hall Is Mahler’s Eighth a confession of faith? What was Wagner’s philosophical agenda in Die Walküre and what was Bach to Hindemith and Wagner: embodiment of faith, ‘Germanness’ or both? Stephen Johnson explores how this is expressed musically in our late April concerts.

Sunday 30 April 2017 | 12.00 noon FUNharmonics Family Concert: All Aboard the LPO Did you know that the LPO travels thousands of miles every year, playing to people around the world? Jump on the tour bus with us and we’ll whisk you to some of the amazing cities that the Orchestra will be visiting this year.

Join in the free pre-concert foyer activities from 10.00am–12.00 noon Recommended for children aged 6 and over.

Adults £10–18, children £5–9 Saturday 6 May 2017 | 7.30pm Magnus Lindberg Two Episodes* Beethoven Symphony No. 9 (Choral)† Christoph Eschenbach conductor Susanna Hurrell soprano Justina Gringyte mezzo-soprano David Butt Philip tenor Jihoon Kim bass London Philharmonic Choir There will be no interval during this performance. * Commissioned by BBC Radio 3, London Philharmonic Orchestra with the generous support of the Boltini Trust, Helsinki Festival and Casa da Música, Porto. † Generously supported by an anonymous donor.

Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm The Clore Ballroom at Royal Festival Hall Beethoven’s music for the Ninth Symphony, and Schiller’s Ode which forms its last movement, reflect the ideals of the Enlightenment and the powerful social changes of the times in which they were written. Find out how in this preconcert talk with Dr Benjamin Walton from the University of Cambridge.

Friday 19 May 2017 | 7.30pm

Ravi Shankar’s Sukanya See page 10 Part of Southbank Centre’s Alchemy Festival.

LPO series discounts do not apply.

Tickets £15–£50 Book via Southbank Centre Ticket Office only: see details at top of page 13.

Friday 28 April 2017 | 7.30pm Bach (arr. Schoenberg) Prelude & Fugue in E flat major, BWV552 (St Anne) Hindemith Suite, Nobilissima Visione Wagner (arr. Stokowski) Parsifal, Act III (excerpts) R Strauss Four Last Songs John Mauceri conductor Angel Blue soprano

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Friday 23 June 2017 | 7.30pm Film screening with live orchestra Psycho Robert Ziegler conductor Part of Southbank Centre’s Film Scores Live.

LPO series discounts do not apply.

Tickets £20–£55 Book via Southbank Centre Ticket Office only: see details at top of page 13.

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Around the UK Sunday 5 February 2017 | 3.00pm Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne Box Office: 01323 412000 eastbournetheatres.co.uk J S Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 J S Bach Concerto for Two Violins Vivaldi The Four Seasons Pieter Schoeman violin Andrew Storey violin* * Generously supported by donors to the 2016/17 Eastbourne Appeal.

Saturday 11 March 2017 | 7.30pm Brighton Dome Concert Hall Box Office: 01273 709709 brightondome.org Dvořák Symphonic Variations Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 Elgar Enigma Variations Rory Macdonald conductor Igor Tchetuev piano Sunday 12 March 2017 | 3.00pm Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne Box Office details as above R Strauss Sextet from Capriccio Mozart Clarinet Quintet Mendelssohn Octet Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Saturday 22 April 2017 | 7.30pm Wigmore Hall, London Box Office: 020 7935 2141 wigmore-hall.org.uk (tickets on sale from early Feb) Brahms Horn Trio Schubert Piano Quintet in A major (‘Trout’) Soloists of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Sunday 23 April 2017 | 3.00pm Devonshire Park Theatre, Eastbourne Box Office details as above Programme as 22 April, Wigmore Hall Saturday 29 April 2017 | 7.30pm Brighton Dome Concert Hall Box Office details as above Shostakovich Suite from the Film Music to Hamlet (excerpts) Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 (Pathétique) Joshua Weilerstein conductor Mark Bebbington piano

Ravi Shankar’s Sukanya See page 10

Sunday 26 February 2017 | 3.00pm Lincoln Center, New York, USA* lincolncenter.org

Friday 12 May 2017 | 7.30pm Curve, Leicester (world premiere) Box Office: 0116 242 3595 | curveonline.co.uk

Glinka Waltz Fantasy Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 Mahler Symphony No. 4

Sunday 14 May 2017 | 7.30pm The Lowry, Salford Box Office: 0843 208 6000 | thelowry.com

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Jan Lisiecki piano Sofia Fomina soprano

Monday 15 May 2017 | 7.30pm Symphony Hall, Birmingham Box Office: 0121 780 3333 | thsh.co.uk Wednesday 12 July 2017 | 7.30pm St John’s Smith Square, London LPO Debut Sounds Magnus Lindberg, the LPO’s Composer in Residence, conducts five world premieres by the members of the LPO’s Young Composers programme, performed by members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Foyle Future Firsts.

Sign up for updates at lpo.org.uk/youngcomposers The LPO Young Composers Programme is generously supported by The Leverhulme Trust, Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music Programme, The Stanley Picker Trust and Help Musicians UK.

INTERNATIONAL CONCERTS Tuesday 10 January 2017 | 8.00pm Theater Heerlen, Heerlen, The Netherlands plt.nl

Monday 27 February 2017 | 8.00pm Lincoln Center, New York, USA* lincolncenter.org Glinka Summer Night in Madrid Prokofiev Violin Concerto No. 2 Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Patricia Kopatchinskaja violin * Our New York concerts are generously supported by Dunard Fund and the American Friends of the LPO.

Tuesday 7 March 2017 Auditorio Nacional de Música, Madrid, Spain auditorionacional.mcu.es Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello Beethoven Symphony No. 6 Anne-Sophie Mutter violin Pablo Ferrández cello Tuesday 28 March 2017 | 7.30pm Tonhalle, Zurich, Switzerland tonhalle-orchester.ch

Brahms Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No. 1

Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte Poulenc Concerto in D minor for two pianos Dvořák Symphony No. 8

Manfred Honeck conductor Ray Chen violin

Howard Griffiths conductor Güher & Süher Pekinel pianos

Wednesday 11 January 2017 | 8.00pm Concertgebouw, Bruges, Belgium concertgebouw.be Programme as 10 January, Heerlen

Wednesday 29 March 2017 | 7.30pm Musical Theater, Basel, Switzerland musical.ch Programme as 28 March, Zurich

Thursday 12 January 2017 | 8.15pm Muziekcentrum Frits Philips, Eindhoven, The Netherlands muziekgebouweindhoven.nl Programme as 10 January, Heerlen

Monday 22 May 2017 | 8.00pm Kulturpalast, Dresden, Germany kulturpalast-dresden.de Programme as 26 February, New York

Thursday 16 February 2017 | 8.00pm Philharmonie, Cologne, Germany koelner-philharmonie.de Weber Overture, Euryanthe Ginastera Concerto for Harp and Orchestra Beethoven Symphony No. 3 Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor Xavier de Maistre harp

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Tuesday 23 May 2017 Kulturpalast, Dresden, Germany | 8.00pm kulturpalast-dresden.de Glinka Waltz Fantasy Prokofiev Cello Concerto Shostakovich Symphony No. 15 Vladimir Jurowski conductor Steven Isserlis cello

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LPO people

backstage

What led you to choose the bassoon?

I always fancied playing the oboe; however, when I was 11 the music centre that my mother worked for had a number of new bassoons delivered and she brought one home for me to try. I couldn’t put it down from then on: the sound and the varied characters the bassoon can convey had me hooked – although the instrument was a good few inches taller than me for many years! I’d listen to the bassoon variation in Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra over and over again, and just loved how expressive the upper register of the instrument could be.

What have been the highlights of your career so far?

There are many moments that will stay with me forever: performing the solo bassoon part in Haydn’s Sinfonia Concertante alongside Maxim Vengerov while I was studying at the Royal Academy was a very special moment.

And, of course, the day I joined the LPO: I’d loved getting to know the Orchestra and playing in several exceptional concerts prior to joining, so being offered the Principal position was an extremely proud moment for me. Over the last year playing in amazing halls on tour with the LPO such as the Berlin Philharmonie, the Vienna Musikverein and the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam has been an incredible experience.

Strauss’s Death and Transfiguration alongside Mozart’s Requiem under Nathalie Stutzmann (also at Royal Festival Hall) on 25 March – the bassoon parts in Mozart are very satisfying to play. I’m also looking forward to a tour to my favourite city (after London!), New York, at the end of February.

– Jonathan davies – Jonathan joined the Orchestra in September 2016 as Principal Bassoon. We chatted to him about his first season with the Orchestra, and life on and off stage.

Since joining, what have you found out about the Orchestra?

The LPO is a welcoming, supportive and hardworking orchestra. It’s also very open-minded when it comes to repertoire and new ideas, and this creates a real air of excitement. I feel extremely lucky to be joining its talented, friendly wind section. This summer will also be my first Glyndebourne season, so I’m very much looking forward to seeing how that all works!

Which LPO concerts are you most looking forward to in the rest of the 2016/17 season?

There’s so much exciting repertoire coming up over the next six months that it’s hard to single a programme out! I’m particularly looking forward to playing Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 15 with Vladimir Jurowski on 22 February at Royal Festival Hall, and

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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If you could meet any composer, living or dead, who would it be?

Since playing his Fifth Symphony with my youth orchestra, I’ve always had a great interest in Shostakovich; especially how his music reflects the difficulties he was facing in Russia at that time. I recently read a novel

by Julian Barnes, The Noise of Time, about Shostakovich’s life and his relationship with Stalin, which I couldn’t put down. As a bassoonist, I also think Stravinsky would be particularly interesting to meet!

What kind of music do you enjoy listening to when you’re not working?

Nowadays I spend most of my spare time listening to the repertoire coming up with the Orchestra over the next few weeks.

Otherwise I love listening to a wide range of music and discovering lesser-known artists: current favourites include Shura, Mura Masa and The Lumineers when I need a boost to clean my flat or battle my way through the Underground! The Tallest Man on Earth, Johnny Flynn and Joni Mitchell all help me to switch off after a busy day of rehearsing or travelling.

What else do you like to do for fun?

When I’m not working I like to escape London and enjoy country walks around England or back home in South Wales. I love spending the day wandering around one of London’s many galleries or museums, the Natural History Museum being a regular haunt. With coffee being an integral part of my survival, I also love discovering new coffee shops or catching up with friends in a quiet pub.

Jonathan on Twitter @JonyD1

meet our members lpo.org.uk/players

Jonathan Davies © Aiga Photography

Welcome to the LPO, Jonathan! First things first: what part did music play in your life growing up?

I was lucky to grow up in a musical family – both my parents studied at music college and worked as professional musicians (Mum on the clarinet and Dad the trombone), and my sister also studied the flute, so I’ve been surrounded by instruments and music for as long as I can remember. I always knew that music would play a fundamental part in my future (despite a brief wish to become a vet!).

I was fortunate enough to gain a scholarship to study at the Royal Academy of Music, so I moved to London at the age of 18 to pursue my dream.