LPO Programme notes 30 Nov 11

Principal Conductor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI*Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUINLeader pIETER SChOEMANComposer in Residence JULIAN ANDERSONPatron hRh ThE DUKE OF KENT KG

Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOThY WALKER AM†

pROGRAMME £3

CONTENTS 2 Southbank Centre / Leader 3 List of players4 About the Orchestra5 Vladimir Jurowski 6 Lars Vogt 7 Programme notes11 2011/12 Annual Appeal12 LPO Christmas gifts13 Supporters 14 Recordings15 Future concerts16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and

are given only as a guide.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family † supported by Macquarie Group

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

SOUThBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL hALLWednesday 30 November 2011 | 7.30pm

VLADIMIR JUROWSKIconductor

LARS VOGTpiano

MATThIAS pINTSChER towards Osiris (7’)

BEEThOVEN Piano Concerto No. 5 in E-flat major (Emperor) (38’)

Interval BRUCKNER Symphony No. 1 in C minor (Linz version, 1865/66) (48’)

This concert is being broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 in Radio 3 Live In Concert.

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Pieter Schoeman joined the London Philharmonic Orchestra as Co-Leader in 2002, and was appointed Leader in 2008.

Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony

Orchestra. He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in the US. In 1987 he was offered the Heifetz Chair of Music scholarship to study with Eduard Schmieder in Los Angeles and in 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman, who recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. In 1994 he became her teaching assistant at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. As a chamber musician he regularly performs at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall.

As a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pieter has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky, Brahms’s Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, and Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim. He has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television, and led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has performed frequently as Guest Leader with the symphony orchestras of Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon and Baltimore, as well as with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.

Pieter is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

pIETER SChOEMANLEADER

WELCOME TO SOUThBANK CENTRE

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

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

If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact Kenelm Robert, our Head of Customer Relations, at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX or phone 020 7960 4250 or email [email protected] We look forward to seeing you again soon.

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:

phOTOGRAphY is not allowed in the auditorium.

LATECOMERS will only be admitted to the auditorium if there is a suitable break in the performance.

RECORDING is not permitted in the auditorium without the prior consent of Southbank Centre. Southbank Centre reserves the right to confiscate video or sound equipment and hold it in safekeeping until the performance has ended.

MOBILES, pAGERS AND WATChES should be switched off before the performance begins.

WELCOME

LONDON phILhARMONIC ORChESTRA

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* LeaderVesselin Gellev Sub-Leader

Chair supported by

John and Angela Kessler

Radu BiticaHelena SmartKatalin VarnagyCatherine CraigTina GruenbergMartin Höhmann

Chair supported by

Richard Karl Goeltz

Geoffrey LynnRobert PoolYang ZhangRebecca ShorrockAlain Petitclerc Galina Tanney

Second ViolinsClare Duckworth Principal

Chair supported by

the Sharp Family

Jeongmin KimJoseph MaherKate Birchall

Chair supported by David

and Victoria Graham Fuller

Fiona HighamAshley StevensMarie-Anne MairesseDean Williamson Sioni WilliamsHeather BadkePeter GrahamStephen StewartMila MustakovaSheila Law

ViolasTom Dunn Guest PrincipalRobert DuncanGregory AronovichKatharine LeekBenedetto PollaniSusanne MartensEmmanuella Reiter-

BootimanMartina ForniMichelle BruilDaniel CornfordIsabel PereiraAlistair Scahill

CellosKristina Blaumane PrincipalSusanne Beer Co-PrincipalFrancis BucknallLaura DonoghueJonathan Ayling

Chair supported by Caroline,

Jamie and Zander Sharp

Gregory WalmsleySantiago Carvalho†Susanna RiddellTom Roff Helen Rathbone

Double BassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalTim Gibbs Co-PrincipalLaurence LovelleGeorge PenistonRichard LewisTom WalleyJoe MelvinHelen Rowlands

FlutesJaime Martín* PrincipalSusan Thomas Stewart McIlwham*

piccolos Stewart McIlwham*

PrincipalSusan Thomas OboesIan Hardwick PrincipalAngela Tennick

Cor AnglaisSue Bohling Principal

Chair supported by

Julian and Gill Simmonds

ClarinetsRobert Hill* Principal Nicholas Carpenter*

Bass ClarinetPaul Richards Principal

Contra-bass Clarinet Steve Morris BassoonsGareth Newman* PrincipalLaurence O’Donnell

Contra-bassoonSimon Estell Principal

hornsJohn Ryan Principal Alec Frank-Gemmill

Guest PrincipalMartin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth Mollison

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by

Geoff and Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal Joe Sharp

TrombonesMark Templeton* PrincipalDavid Whitehouse

Bass TromboneLyndon Meredith Principal

TubaLee Tsarmaklis* Principal

TimpaniSimon Carrington* Principal

percussionAndrew Barclay* Principal

Chair supported by

Andrew Davenport

Keith MillarOlly YatesIgnacio Molins

harps Rachel Masters* PrincipalHelen Sharp

piano and CelesteCatherine Edwards

Assistant Conductor Nicholas Collon

Chair supported by an

anonymous donor

* Holds a professorial appointment in London † Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

LONDON phILhARMONIC ORChESTRA

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras. As well as performing classical concerts, the Orchestra also records film and computer game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of Londoners every year through activities for schools and local communities.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then has been headed by many of the great names in the conducting world, including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. The current Principal Conductor is Russian Vladimir Jurowski, appointed in 2007, with French-Canadian Yannick Nézet-Séguin as Principal Guest Conductor.

The Orchestra is based at Royal Festival Hall in London’s Southbank Centre, where it has performed since it opened in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 40 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and soloists. Concert highlights in 2011/12 include a three-week festival celebrating the music of Prokofiev, concerts with artists including Sir Mark Elder, Marin Alsop, Renée Fleming, Stephen Hough and Joshua Bell, and several premières of works by living composers including the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson. In addition to its London concerts, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first-ever visit to China by a Western orchestra. Touring remains a big part of the Orchestra’s life: tours in the 2011/12 season include visits to Belgium, Switzerland, Germany, the US, Spain, China, Russia, Oman, Brazil and France.

You may well have heard the London Philharmonic Orchestra on film soundtrack recordings: it has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, Philadelphia and East is East. The Orchestra also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 50 releases on the label, which are available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Dvořák’s Symphonic Variations and Symphony No. 8 conducted by Sir Charles Mackerras; Holst’s The Planets conducted by Vladimir Jurowski; Mahler’s Symphony No. 8 under Klaus Tennstedt; Shostakovich Piano Concertos with Martin Helmchen under Vladimir Jurowski; and Sibelius’s Symphony No. 5, Pohjola’s Daughter and Lutosławski’s Concerto for Orchestra under Jukka-Pekka Saraste. The Orchestra was also recently honoured with the commission to record all 205 of the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics Team Welcome Ceremonies and Medal Ceremonies.

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

The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an energetic programme of activities for young people and local communities. Highlights include the ever-popular family and schools concerts, fusion ensemble The Band, the Leverhulme Young Composers project and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training scheme for outstanding young players. Over the last few years, developments in technology and social networks have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra has a thriving presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more and get involved!

lpo.org.uk

facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

twitter.com/LpOrchestra


Born in Moscow, the son of conductor Mikhail Jurowski, Vladimir Jurowski completed his initial musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany where he

continued his studies in Dresden and Berlin, studying conducting with Rolf Reuter and vocal coaching with Semion Skigin. In 1995 he made his international début at the Wexford Festival, where he conducted Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night. The same year saw his brilliant début at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden in Nabucco. In 1996 he joined the ensemble of Komische Oper Berlin, becoming First Kapellmeister in 1997 and continuing to work at the Komische Oper on a permanent basis until 2001.

Since 1997 Vladimir Jurowski has been a guest at some of the world’s leading musical institutions including the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, Teatro La Fenice di Venezia, Opéra Bastille de Paris, Théâtre de la Monnaie Bruxelles, Maggio Musicale Festival Florence, Rossini Opera Festival Pesaro, Edinburgh International Festival, Dresden Semperoper and the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (where he served as Principal Guest Conductor between 2000 and 2003). In 1999 he made his début at the Metropolitan Opera New York with Rigoletto.

In January 2001 Vladimir Jurowski took up the position of Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera and in 2003 was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in September 2007. He also holds the titles of Principal Artist with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. From 2005 to 2009 he served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra, with whom he will continue to work in the years ahead.

Vladimir Jurowski is a regular guest with many of the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, Oslo Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Los Angeles Philharmonic

and Philadelphia orchestras, as well as the Staatskapelle Dresden and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.

Highlights of the 2011/12 season and beyond include his débuts with the Vienna Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, NHK Symphony Orchestra Tokyo and San Francisco Symphony, and return visits to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Staatskapelle Dresden, Tonhalle Orchester Zurich, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Chicago Symphony, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Philadelphia orchestras.

Jurowski’s operatic engagements have included Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades and Hänsel und Gretel at the Metropolitan Opera, Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera, War and Peace at the Opéra National de Paris, Eugene Onegin at La Scala Milan and Iolanta at the Dresden Semperoper, as well as The Magic Flute, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress, and Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Future engagements include new productions of Ariadne auf Naxos and The Cunning Little Vixen at Glyndebourne, Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera, Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper Berlin and Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre.

Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of Giya Kancheli’s cantata Exil for ECM (1994), Meyerbeer’s L’étoile du nord for Naxos-Marco Polo (1996), and Werther for BMG (1999) as well as live recordings of works by Brahms, Mahler, Rachmaninov, Turnage, Tchaikovsky, Britten and Shostakovich on the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s own label, and Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery on Glyndebourne Opera’s own label. He has also recorded works by Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra. Glyndebourne have released DVD recordings of his performances of La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus and Rachmaninov’s The Miserly Knight, and other recent DVD releases include Hänsel und Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera, his first concert as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor featuring works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler, and DVDs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, all released by Medici Arts.

VLADIMIR JUROWSKICONDUCTOR

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Lars Vogt has rapidly established himself as one of the leading pianists of his generation. Born in Düren, Germany, in 1970, he first came to public attention when he won second prize at the 1990 Leeds International

Piano Competition. He has since gone on to give major concerto and recital performances throughout Europe, Asia, Australia, and North and South America.

An EMI recording artist, Lars Vogt has made 15 discs for the label, including the Hindemith Kammermusik No. 2 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Claudio Abbado; and the Schumann, Grieg and first two Beethoven concertos with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle, who has described him as ‘one of the most extraordinary musicians of any age group that I have had the fortune to be associated with’. Recent recordings include solo Schubert for CAvi-music and Mozart concertos with the Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra for Oehms Classics. In September 2010 he released a solo Liszt and Schumann disc on the Berlin Classics label.

During the 2011/12 season Lars Vogt will make several appearances in North America, performing with orchestras in Toronto, Pittsburgh, Cleveland and Seattle and undertaking an extensive tour with violinist Christian Tetzlaff to New York, Philadelphia and other major cities. Concerts with the London Philharmonic Orchestra feature prominently: as well as tonight’s appearance with Vladimir Jurowski, he will also tour in the UK and Germany with Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Other concerto engagements include the New Japan Philharmonic and Daniel Harding; Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France and Myung-Whun Chung; Orchestre de la Suisse Romande; Rotterdam Philharmonic; National Orchestra of Spain; and orchestras in Berlin, Hamburg, Cologne, Milan, Florence and Copenhagen. His recital appearances include the Vienna Konzerthaus and the International Piano Series at London’s Southbank Centre.

LARS VOGTpIANO

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Lars Vogt began the 2010/11 season with two appearances at the BBC Proms; a solo recital and the Grieg Piano Concerto with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra under Sir John Eliot Gardiner. Other orchestral appearances included the London Philharmonic Orchestra; Orchestre de Paris; and the BBC, Boston, Frankfurt Radio, Bavarian Radio, Swedish Radio and Finnish Radio symphony orchestras. Last summer he returned to the BBC Proms in duo with Christian Tetzlaff; toured with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin; and performed at the Salzburg, Verbier, Schwarzenberg and Montreux Festivals.

His special relationship with the Berlin Philharmonic has continued following his appointment as its first ever Pianist in Residence in 2003/04. Other highlights of recent seasons have included residencies at the Mozartwoche in Salzburg with both the Vienna Philharmonic under Christoph Eschenbach and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra under Daniel Harding; and appearances with the New York Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony, NHK Symphony (Tokyo), London Symphony, and Royal Concertgebouw orchestras; the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Bayerische Staatsorchester, Dresden Staatskapelle and Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome.

Lars Vogt enjoys a high profile as a recitalist and chamber musician, and recent appearances include London, Paris, Munich, Madrid, Rome and New York. In June 1998 he founded his own festival in Heimbach, Germany. Known as ‘Spannungen’, its huge success has been marked by the release of ten live recordings on EMI. He enjoys regular partnerships with violinist Christian Tetzlaff and bass-baritone Thomas Quasthoff and collaborates occasionally with actor Klaus Maria Brandauer and comedian Konrad Beikircher.


pROGRAMME NOTES

You may have towards Osiris by the up-and-coming German composer Matthias Pintscher on your CD shelves (or your storage device of choice) without realising it, as it was one of four ‘asteroids’ commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic to complement Holst’s The Planets. It’s a short study for large orchestra, featuring a free-wheeling virtuoso trumpet solo before its textures fragment and eventually disappear into mid-air, or perhaps into outer space.

You may well have Beethoven’s ‘Emperor’ Piano Concerto in your collection too. It’s the last of his five classic concertos for his own instrument, a famous challenge to a soloist’s virtuosity. It’s also one of Beethoven’s major statements in his ‘heroic’ key of E-flat major – defined by the three big chords that

form the pillars of the piano cadenza at the start of the powerful first movement. The slow movement is a calm interlude in the remote key of B major, from which a neat harmonic sidestep leads into the exuberant final Rondo.

You might have to be a bit of a specialist in the composer or an avid accumulator of box sets to own a recording of Bruckner’s First Symphony. It’s an early work, written before Bruckner left provincial Linz for the bright lights of Vienna; and, rather than looking ahead to the grand plans and lofty heights of his later symphonies, it’s a compact, tightly integrated piece. But there are plenty of anticipations of the mature Bruckner’s blazing passages for full orchestra, intricate contrapuntal textures, wide-arching melodies and rhythmic drive.

Collectors’ items?

Matthias Pintscher, a native of the German province of North Rhine-Westphalia, is one of the leading European composers of his generation, and also greatly in demand as a conductor. He has held residencies with The Cleveland Orchestra in the USA and with orchestras, concert halls and festivals in Europe and Australia; he is now based in New York. His most recent major work is a violin concerto, Mar’eh, a joint commission by the Lucerne Festival, the Alte Oper Frankfurt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, which was premièred by Julia Fischer with the Orchestra in Lucerne, London and Frankfurt in September 2011. He currently has works in progress for the Ensemble Intercontemporain in Paris, The Cleveland Orchestra and the Boston Symphony Orchestra.

Pintscher’s towards Osiris was composed in 2005. It was one of four short orchestral works commissioned by the Berlin Philharmonic as ‘asteroids’ to partner Holst’s suite The Planets. (The others were by Kaija Saariaho, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Brett Dean.) The specific reference in the title is presumably to the main-belt asteroid 1923 Osiris. But Pintscher had also encountered an art-work by Joseph Beuys called Osiris, consisting of pasteboard objects mounted apparently at random on a blank canvas; and he had been led by this to explore the ancient Egyptian myth of the god Osiris, murdered and dismembered, but lovingly reassembled by his sister and wife Isis. The result was a major orchestral work, also called Osiris, which was first performed by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra

MatthiaspINTSChER

Born 1971

TOWARDS OSIRIS


pROGRAMME NOTES

and Pierre Boulez in February 2008. Pintscher describes towards Osiris as ‘an independent orchestral study’ for this larger work.

The piece lasts about seven minutes, and is scored in meticulous detail for a large orchestra, including a substantial percussion section. At the start, in a landscape (or spacescape) of slides, trills and short- lived eruptions from different parts of the orchestra, a single trumpet emerges as a virtuoso soloist. When it relinquishes the foreground, nothing else takes its place:

a texture of drifting fragments is punctuated by sharp off-beat attacks. A brass crescendo on a single note launches a meteor shower on percussion; woodwind reiterate an insistent signal; the strings coalesce in high, translucent clouds. The brass combine in another crescendo, more sustained and more menacing – perhaps a distant echo of The Planets? A passage of furious orchestral activity is finally dispersed when the violins join forces in a melody that arches upwards, to disappear in the ether.

pIANO CONCERTO NO. 5 IN E-FLAT MAJOR (EMpEROR)

LARS VOGT piano

AllegroAdagio un poco mosso – Rondo: Allegro

Ludwig van BEEThOVEN

1770–1827

Beethoven wrote his last piano concerto in early 1809, though it was not performed for more than two years after that – and then without the composer as soloist, since he had been forced from the concert platform by his deafness. One reason for the delay was that, shortly after the completion of the work, Vienna had been occupied by the French army. The fact that the invading French forces were led by Beethoven’s former idol Napoleon gives a certain irony to the title of ‘Emperor’ that the Concerto has somehow acquired in English-speaking countries. But the nickname does at least suggest that this is a work on Beethoven’s grandest scale, including some of his most powerful piano writing – though accompanied by an orchestra still only larger by one flute than that of the much more intimate Fourth Concerto – and in his ‘heroic’ key of E-flat major.

The first Allegro begins, in fact, with a massive assertion of this key: its three primary chords, E-flat, A-flat and B-flat, played by the orchestra, form the giant pillars of a cadenza-like piano solo. This opening with the soloist is an extrovert parallel to the introverted opening of the Piano Concerto No. 4. As in No. 4, it proves to be an introduction, not replacing but leading into a

full-scale double exposition of the material of the movement, first orchestral and then with the soloist, in the Classical tradition. At the same time, it is not simply an introduction: it contains ideas that are later incorporated into the closely knit argument of the movement; and after the development section it returns, in a varied form but with the same three chords as a basis, to launch the recapitulation. A further formal innovation of this movement is that Beethoven denies the soloist his usual opportunity for a cadenza; or rather at the appropriate moment he supplies one that merges into a coda with orchestra, a summing-up on a grand scale commensurate with the mighty span of the whole movement.

The first movement ends on a chord of E-flat major with an E-flat at the top; the first chord of the slow movement has the same note at the top, but as a D-sharp in the key of B major. The new key strikes the ear as unutterably remote. This sets the tone for the serene other-worldliness of the whole movement, with muted strings, wind used sparingly (no trumpets and drums), and the piano mostly given floating melodic lines in its upper register.


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

The end of this idyll is as striking as its beginning: the bass drops a semitone from B to a sustained B-flat, over which the piano muses on an arpeggio of E-flat major, in what turns out to be an anticipation of the springing principal theme of the final Rondo. Later, the same semitone drop from B (or C-flat) to B-flat, now more concealed in the soloist’s figuration, precedes the first two returns of the main rondo theme; and it is also a significant interval in the second theme which appears in the first and last of the three subsidiary episodes.

The central episode is more of a development section, and the process of development is resumed in the coda. Again, there is no opportunity here for a full-scale cadenza; but there is a passage in which the piano is accompanied only by the timpani, with a repeated rhythmic figure on a low B-flat lulling the music to a temporary halt before a final burst of orchestral energy.

SYMphONY NO. 1 IN C MINOR (Linz version, 1865/66)

AllegroAdagio – Andante – Adagio Scherzo: Schnell and Trio: Langsamer Finale: Bewegt, feurig

AntonBRUCKNER

1824–96

Bruckner put himself through a severe apprenticeship as a symphonist, writing a so-called ‘Study Symphony’ in F minor and beginning another one in D minor, later dubbed ‘Die Nullte’ or ‘No. 0’, before embarking on a work he was prepared to number as his First. He wrote it in 1865–66 in Linz, where he was organist of the cathedral, and conducted the first performance there in May 1868, shortly before leaving to take up a teaching post in Vienna. Two and a half decades later, in 1890/91, when the Viennese court conductor Hans Richter expressed an interest in performing it, Bruckner made a completely revised version, which was published in 1893. This revision has been much regretted by Bruckner’s admirers, who point out that it treats an early work from the inappropriate perspective of his later style, and who resent the time spent on it that could have been devoted to the Ninth Symphony, which remained unfinished at the composer’s death. In any case, tonight’s performance is of what the composer and

Bruckner expert Robert Simpson called ‘the bold, clean Linz version’, in an edition by Leopold Nowak published in 1955.

In later life, Bruckner referred to the First Symphony as ‘das Beserl’, which like its English equivalent ‘the besom’ can indicate either a fierce female battleaxe or a new broom that sweeps clean. The Symphony is on a relatively compact scale compared to the composer’s later masterpieces, and full of Beethoven-like passages in which a small motif is repeated and developed, generating great rhythmic energy; and its outer movements are studded with strikingly vehement passages for the full orchestra, with different rhythmic layers in counterpoint as if improvised by Bruckner at the organ on two manuals and pedals.

The first movement begins, in a manner untypical of the mature Bruckner, in urgent march time with a melody in


pROGRAMME NOTES

crisp dotted (long–short) rhythms. The main contrasting ideas are a singing second theme in contrapuntal textures, and a plunging trombone figure accompanied by upper string figuration recalling Wagner’s Tannhäuser overture. The closing themes of the opening exposition section, a wide-arching woodwind melody answered by strings, provide (as often in Bruckner) the starting-point for the ensuing development section. The trombone melody reappears in a new version, with its Wagnerian descant, as the centrepiece of the development; but it is omitted from the recapitulation, which instead turns towards the initial march rhythms for the C minor coda.

The A-flat major slow movement (the last of the four to be written) begins restlessly with a series of fragmentary ideas, before easing into more melodic writing with a chorale for the strings answered by three flutes, and a long, winding theme for the violins over undulating violas. The tempo then changes from Adagio (‘broad’) to Andante (‘walking pace’), and the metre from 4/4 to 3/4, for a middle section in which a long, ornate melodic line starts out in the first violins, is taken up at different times by the oboes, flute and bassoons, and returns to the violins again. The violin line overlaps into the unsettled beginning of the reprise of the Adagio; the chorale returns on horns and woodwind, and the winding melody begins on clarinets

and bassoons, before the strings work it up to the movement’s shining climax.

The third movement is a rhythmically insistent Scherzo in G minor, with a slower and more relaxed Trio section in G major, and an exact reprise of the scherzo, which spills over into a coda.

The Finale (marked ‘with movement, solemn’) is dominated by passages of fierce full-orchestra counterpoint, including the opening theme. The contrasting second subject is an airy string melody including an elegant trill and turn, accompanied by violas off the beat. The closing statement is allocated, as in the first movement, to woodwind (and horns) answered by strings. The development section falls into three phases: the first building up from the closing theme, by way of chorale prelude textures over tramping quavers in the bass, to a fierce fortissimo; the second growing out of the second subject and ending in a thicket of trills; the third a strenuous contrapuntal discussion of a handful of motifs, leading to a transition joined by a timpani roll on a low G. The first two themes return in short order, the second of them in C major – which opens the way to a ringing C major coda.

Programme notes © Anthony Burton

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London PhiLharmonic orchestra

annuaL aPPeaL 2011/12in aid of the community Programme

Despite living close to Royal Festival Hall,

many people in South London have never visited

the venue or heard an orchestra perform. We are

committed to our work in the community to ensure

that as many people as possible can access and

enjoy music of the highest quality. There are

three dynamic projects within the Community

Programme, providing inspirational musical

opportunities for children and their families.

Animate Orchestra is a young person’s ‘orchestra for the 21st century’, offering young

people in Lewisham and Greenwich a creative pathway for them to continue their playing

as they make the transition from primary to secondary education – a time when many

young musicians give up. Young people make music side by side with London Philharmonic

Orchestra musicians.

The Band is the Orchestra’s fusion ensemble for young people in South London, at

which they improvise, create, and rehearse their own music – from classical to jazz,

hip hop, rock, and more. Members have inspirational contact with London Philharmonic

Orchestra players, in sessions led by some of the UK’s leading tutors.

‘When I first came to The Band I was amazed how everyone worked so well with each

other … and I thought this is a place where I can really fit in, make music and share

ideas.’ Member of The Band

FUNharmonics are our Family Concerts – an interactive introduction for all the

family to music and the orchestra, presented by Chris Jarvis of CBeebies. Free foyer

activities before and after the concert include Have-a-Go sessions where children can

try out a range of orchestral instruments with our musicians; and the Human Orchestra

– fun rhythmic sessions where music is performed using body percussion, singing,

drumming, and clapping.

Your Support

In order to undertake this essential work we depend entirely on donations from

charitable sources each year, and we are asking you to help us to support this work

in the communities surrounding the South Bank. If you do feel able to contribute

to this year’s Appeal we would be extremely grateful. Gifts of any size make a real

difference; to donate please contact Elisenda Ayats on 020 7840 4225 or

[email protected].

For more information, and to donate online, please visit lpo.org.uk/support_us/appeal

And now, for the first time, you can also donate up to £10 to the Orchestra via text

message – see the page opposite for more details.


Virtual Christmas gifts from the London philharmonic Orchestra

Virtual gifts are a lighthearted way to share the power and beauty of music this Christmas whilst supporting the charitable objectives of the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Whether you are helping us to produce world-class concerts or providing an inner London child with a first experience of live music, your gift will have an impact long after the tinsel has come down.

Gifts of just £15 can support one of the iconic solo moments of the Orchestra’s 2012 season. Alternatively you can help the Orchestra to make a difference by taking music into schools throughout South London.

For full details on how to give the gift of music this Christmas visit lpo.org.uk/virtualgifts or call Elisenda Ayats on 020 7840 4225.

We will send a card direct to the recipient, or to you if you prefer, to let them know what their gift is supporting.

1. Take a Bow £15 Your opportunity to support a sensational solo from a London Philharmonic Orchestra musician during one of next Spring’s concerts. Each gift includes a card and a 10% discount voucher for a Spring 2012 London Philharmonic Orchestra concert of the recipient’s choice.

• Cello tune from Dvořák Symphony No. 8 (Wednesday 8 February 2012)• Flute solo from Dvořák Symphony No. 8 (Wednesday 8 February 2012) • Oboe solo from Brahms Violin Concerto (Wednesday 22 February 2012)• Violin solo from Elgar Symphony No. 1 (Saturday 24 March 2012)• Horn solo from Brahms Symphony No. 1 (Wednesday 18 April 2012)• The biggest bang in the world première of Kalevi Aho’s Percussion Concerto (Wednesday 18 April 2012)• Clarinet solo from Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 (Saturday 28 April 2012)• Opening fanfare from Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 (Saturday 28 April 2012)

2. Adopt A Class £30 Your gift will pay for an LPO player to spend an hour with disabled children in a London school and help them to overcome their disabilities through music. Gift includes a card and a 10% discount voucher for a Spring 2012 London Philharmonic Orchestra concert of the recipient’s choice.

3. Roll Call £40 Help us to liven up an assembly in one of South London’s schools by sending in a group of LPO musicians. Gift includes a card and a 10% discount voucher for a Spring 2012 London Philharmonic Orchestra concert of the recipient’s choice.

4. Centre Stage £50 Your gift will help us to offer the opportunity for a South London school child to perform on the Royal Festival Hall stage as part of our Next Generation Prokofiev project in the New Year. Gift includes an invitation to see the culmination of our Prokofiev schools composition project on 1 February 2012, and a 10% discount voucher for a Spring 2012 London Philharmonic Orchestra concert of the recipient’s choice.

You can also buy a gift of a year’s membership of London Philharmonic Orchestra Friends or LPO Contemporaries. For full details visit lpo.org.uk/gifts In order to guarantee delivery by Christmas please order by Monday 19 December 2011. Virtual gifts are intended as a way to show your support for the Orchestra’s charitable objectives this Christmas. The London Philharmonic Orchestra reserves the right to vary concert programmes if necessary. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is a registered charity No 238045.


Thomas Beecham GroupThe Tsukanov Family Anonymous

The Sharp FamilyJulian & Gill Simmonds

Garf & Gill CollinsAndrew DavenportDavid & Victoria Graham FullerRichard Karl GoeltzJohn & Angela KesslerMr & Mrs MakharinskyGeoff & Meg MannCaroline, Jamie and Zander SharpEric Tomsett

Mrs Sonja Drexler Guy & Utti Whittaker

principal BenefactorsMark & Elizabeth AdamsJane AttiasLady Jane BerrillDesmond & Ruth CecilMr John H CookMr Charles Dumas

David EllenCommander Vincent EvansMr & Mrs Jeffrey HerrmannPeter MacDonald EggersMr & Mrs David MalpasAndrew T MillsMr Maxwell MorrisonMr Michael PosenMr & Mrs Thierry SciardMr John Soderquist & Mr Costas MichaelidesMr & Mrs G SteinMr & Mrs John C TuckerMr & Mrs John & Susi UnderwoodHoward & Sheelagh WatsonMr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland

BenefactorsMrs A BeareDr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRSMr & Mrs Stewart CohenMr Alistair CorbettMr David EdgecombeMr Richard FernyhoughKen Follett

Pauline & Peter HallidayMichael & Christine HenryMr Glenn HurstfieldMr R K JehaMr Gerald LevinSheila Ashley LewisWg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAFMr Frank LimPaul & Brigitta LockMr Brian MarshJohn MontgomeryEdmund PirouetMr Peter TausigMrs Kazue TurnerLady Marina VaizeyMr D WhitelockBill Yoe

hon. BenefactorElliott Bernerd

hon. Life MembersKenneth Goode Pehr G GyllenhammarEdmund Pirouet Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group patrons, principal Benefactors and Benefactors:

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

Angus Allnatt Charitable FoundationThe Boltini TrustBritten-Pears FoundationThe Candide Charitable TrustThe Coutts Charitable TrustThe Delius TrustDunard FundThe Equitable Charitable TrustThe Eranda FoundationThe Fenton Arts TrustThe Foyle FoundationThe Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable TrustHattori Foundation for Music and the ArtsCapital Radio’s Help a London ChildThe Hobson CharityThe Kirby Laing Foundation The Idlewild TrustThe Leverhulme TrustLord and Lady Lurgan TrustMaurice Marks Charitable TrustMarsh Christian TrustThe Mercers’ Company

Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet TrustPaul Morgan Charitable TrustMaxwell Morrison Charitable TrustMusicians Benevolent FundNewcomen Collett Foundation The Serge Prokofiev FoundationSerge Rachmaninoff FoundationThe Reed FoundationThe Seary Charitable TrustThe Samuel Sebba Charitable TrustThe David Solomons Charitable TrustThe Steel Charitable TrustThe Stansfield TrustThe Bernard Sunley Charitable FoundationThe Swan TrustJohn Thaw FoundationThe Thistle TrustThe Underwood TrustGarfield Weston FoundationYouth Music

and others who wish to remain anonymous

Corporate MembersAppleyard & Trew LLPAREVA UKBritish American BusinessCharles RussellDestination Québec – UKLazardLeventis OverseasMan Group plc

Corporate DonorLombard Street Research

In-kind SponsorsGoogle IncHeinekenThe Langham LondonLindt & Sprüngli LtdSela / Tilley’s SweetsVilla Maria

Trusts and FoundationsArts and BusinessAllianz Cultural Foundation


Recent recordings on the London philharmonic Orchestra label

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI CONDUCTS hONEGGER’S Pastorale d’été, SYMphONY NO. 4 AND Une Cantate de noël ‘[The Fourth Symphony] is full of charm and tactile invention, vividly realised in this live recording.’ The Sunday Times, 30 October 2011

Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music grant programme

JUKKA-pEKKA SARASTE CONDUCTS SIBELIUS’S SYMphONY NO. 5 AND Pohjola’s daUghter, AND LUTOSłAWSKI’S CONCERTO FOR ORChESTRA

‘This has to be one of the best recordings around of Sibelius’s Fifth. And Lutosławski’s Concerto can never have been more brilliantly played.’Classic FM magazine, December 2011

LPO-0057

LPO-0058

The perfect gift for Christmas

Full year CD subscription: £79.9910 CDs (worth at least £100)

Both subscriptions include exclusive pre-release mailing

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Half year CD subscription: £44.995 CDs (worth at least £50)

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Buy online lpo.org.uk/giftsOr call the London Philharmonic Orchestra box office: 020 7840 4242

Treat someone to a London Philharmonic Orchestra CD subscription and they will receive all the new releases on the LPO Label, mailed before the CDs are available in the shops.


Next London philharmonic Orchestra concerts at Royal Festival hall

Saturday 3 December 2011 | 7:30pm

Julian Anderson Fantasias*Mozart Violin Concerto No. 5Tchaikovsky Manfred Symphony

Vladimir Jurowski conductorJanine Jansen violin

* This performance is supported by the Boltini Trust.

6.15–6.45pm FREE pre-concert event Royal Festival hall Composer in Residence Julian Anderson looks in detail at his work Fantasias.

Wednesday 14 December 2011 | 7:30pm

Wagner Overture, TannhäuserR Strauss Four Last SongsBeethoven Symphony No. 7

Christoph Eschenbach conductorRenée Fleming soprano

Concert generously supported by the Sharp Family.

Christoph Eschenbach and Renée Fleming

13 January — 1 February2012

Get closer to Sergei Prokofiev

A festival curated by Vladimir Jurowski

The world première of an oratorio version of Prokofiev’s Ivan the TerribleProkofiev’s incidental music to Egyptian Nights with excerpts from texts by Bernard Shaw, Pushkin and Shakespeare read by Simon CallowExcerpts from ballets Cinderella and Chout (The Buffoon)Free classical club night with Gabriel Prokofiev and Rambert Dance Company

lpo.org.uk/prokofiev

Get closer to one of themost misunderstood menin 20th-century music

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Festival highlights includeOpening concertsFull festival details at lpo.org.uk/prokofiev

Friday 13 January 2012 | 7.30pm JTI FRIDAY SERIES

prokofiev Suite, Lieutenant Kijé prokofiev Cello Concerto, Op. 58 prokofiev Symphony No. 7

Alexander Vedernikov conductor Danjulo Ishizaka cello

6.00–6.45pm FREE pre-concert event Royal Festival hall Professor Alexander Ivashkin explores the importance of the cello to Prokofiev.

Wednesday 18 January 2012 | 7.30pm

prokofiev Symphonic Song, Op. 57 prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 5 prokofiev Symphony No. 6

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Steven Osborne piano

Supported by Dunard Fund

6.00–6.45pm FREE pre-concert performance Royal Festival hall Prokofiev’s String Quartet No. 1 and Quintet, performed by musicians from the Royal College of Music.

Booking detailsTickets £9–£39 | premium seats £65 14 December: £12–£48 | premium seats £75

London philharmonic Orchestra Box Office 020 7840 4242 Monday to Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.uk (no transaction fee)

Southbank Centre Box Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm southbankcentre.co.uk (transaction fees apply)

In person at Royal Festival hall Box Office Daily 10.00am–8.00pm (no transaction fee)

Vladimir Jurowski and Janine Jansen

ADMINISTRATION


FSC_57678 LPO 14 January 2011 15/09/2011 12:30 Page 1

Board of Directors

Martin Höhmann ChairStewart McIlwham Vice-ChairSue BohlingLord Currie*Jonathan Dawson*Gareth NewmanGeorge PenistonSir Bernard Rix*Kevin RundellSir Philip Thomas*Timothy Walker AM†*Non-Executive Directors

The London philharmonic Trust

Victoria Sharp ChairDesmond Cecil CMGJonathan Harris CBE FRICSDr Catherine C. HøgelMartin HöhmannAngela KesslerClive Marks OBE FCAJulian SimmondsTimothy Walker AM†Laurence Watt

American Friends of the London philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.

We are very grateful to the Board of the American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra for its support of the Orchestra’s activities in the USA.

professional Services

Charles RussellSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

General Administration

Timothy Walker AM† Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Alison AtkinsonDigital Projects Manager

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager andFinance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager

Concert Management

Roanna GibsonConcerts Director

Ruth SansomArtistic Administrator

Graham WoodConcerts, Recordings andGlyndebourne Manager

Alison JonesConcerts Co-ordinator

Jenny ChadwickTours and Engagements Manager

Jo OrrPA to the Executive / Concerts Assistant

Matthew FreemanRecordings Consultant

Education & Community

Patrick BaileyEducation and Community Director

Anne FindlayEducation Manager

Caz ValeCommunity and Young Talent Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Orchestra personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah ThomasLibrarian

Michael PattisonStage Manager

Julia BoonAssistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Ken Graham TruckingInstrument Transportation(Tel: 01737 373305)

Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Harriet MesherCharitable Giving Manager

Alexandra RowlandsCorporate Relations Manager

Melissa Van EmdenEvents Manager

Laura LuckhurstCorporate Relations and Events Officer

Elisenda AyatsDevelopment and Finance Officer

Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Ellie DragonettiMarketing Manager

Rachel FryerPublications Manager

Helen BoddyMarketing Co-ordinator

Samantha KendallBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Lucy Martin Intern

Valerie BarberPress Consultant(Tel: 020 7586 8560)

Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian PoleRecordings Archive

London philharmonic Orchestra89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TPTel: 020 7840 4200Fax: 020 7840 4201Box Office: 020 7840 4242lpo.org.uk

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

Photograph of Matthias Pintscher © Philippe Gontier.

Photographs of Beethoven and Bruckner courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.

Front cover photograph © Chris Christodoulou.

Printed by Cantate. †Supported by Macquarie Group

LPO Programme notes 30 Nov 11

Documents

bbc symphony orchestra

pieter schoemanleaderwelcome

southbank centre leader

cape town symphony orchestra

brahmss double concerto

brittens double concerto

southbank centrewe

southbank centre shops