London Philharmonic Orchestra 9 December Concert Programme

Concert programme2015/16 London Seasonlpo.org.uk

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI supported by the Tsukanov Family FoundationPrincipal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADALeader PIETER SCHOEMAN supported by Neil WestreichComposer in Residence MAGNUS LINDBERGPatron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG

Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM

Contents

2 Welcome3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman6 Jaap van Zweden7 Frank Peter Zimmermann8 Programme notes13 LPO 2016 concerts14 Sound Futures donors15 Supporters16 LPO administration

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

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival HallWednesday 9 December 2015 | 7.30pm

Wagenaar Overture, Cyrano de Bergerac, Op. 23 (14’)

Magnus Lindberg Violin Concerto No. 2 (world premiere)* (25’)

Interval

Beethoven

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92 (36’)

Jaap van Zweden conductor

Frank Peter Zimmermann

violin

*Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the generous support of Victoria Robey OBE, Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Radio France and New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert, Music Director

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

LPO Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg discusses the world premiere of his Second Violin Concerto.

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Welcome

2015/16 season

Welcome to the Orchestra's final London concert of 2015 at Royal Festival Hall. We are delighted to present the world premiere of our Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg's Second Violin Concerto with Frank Peter Zimmermann. We look forward to seeing you in 2016 (see page 13 for the first few concerts) when a highlight is a celebration of Shakespeare's 400th anniversary, a series of concerts culminating in an Anniversary Gala Concert directed by Simon Callow on 23 April. To find out more visit lpo.org.uk/shakespeare

'Tis the Season ...... to raise money for charity. As in previous years, members of the Orchestra will be playing all your favourite carols with singers from the London Philharmonic Choir tomorrow, Thursday 10 December from 5.15pm–7.15pm at Waterloo station, collecting for Save the Children. Last year we managed to raise a total of £2,367 and we would love to beat that in 2015. So, if you are in the vicinity do come and support the players and singers. Toe-tapping guaranteed – that's always good for the circulation on a cold winter's day.

Keep on TruckingSanta may have his sleigh but we have our very own truck and Damian Davis, Transport Manager, both essential as the Orchestra continues its extensive tour schedule over the festive season. The players returned from a four-day tour in Germany and the Netherlands on 21 November and after tonight's concert they are back to Germany from 14 to 17 December. This time there are performances in Essen, Düsseldorf, Munich and Stuttgart. If you fancy a seasonal short break with a fantastic concert alongside a visit to a quintessential German Christmas market then all tickets for all concerts on tour are available. And if you see a mysterious flying object in the sky Christmas Eve, look closely – it might just be Damian and the LPO truck giving Santa a run for his money ... lpo.org.uk/whats-on/whats-on-tickets.html

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, Feng Sushi and Topolski, as well as cafes, restaurants and shops inside Royal Festival Hall.

If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact the Visitor Experience Team at Southbank Centre, Belvedere Road, London SE1 8XX, phone 020 7960 4250, or email [email protected]

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

Queen Elizabeth Hall, Purcell Room and Hayward Gallery are closed for essential refurbishment until 2017. During this period, our resident orchestras are performing in venues including St John's Smith Square. Find out more at southbankcentre.co.uk/sjss

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.

Orchestra News

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

On stage tonight

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* Leader

Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader

Ilyoung ChaeChair supported by an anonymous donor

Ji-Hyun LeeChair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin VarnagyChair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine CraigThomas EisnerMartin Höhmann

Chair supported by The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust

Geoffrey LynnChair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert PoolSarah StreatfeildYang ZhangGrace LeeRebecca ShorrockGalina TanneyCaroline Sharp

Second ViolinsPhilippe Honore

Guest PrincipalKate Birchall

Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy ElanLorenzo Gentili-TedeschiFiona HighamNynke HijlkemaJoseph MaherMarie-Anne MairesseAshley StevensDean Williamson

Helena NichollsSioni WilliamsElizabeth BaldeyAlison Strange

ViolasCyrille Mercier PrincipalRobert DuncanGregory AronovichSusanne MartensBenedetto PollaniEmmanuella ReiterLaura VallejoNaomi HoltDaniel CornfordSarah MalcolmMartin FennRichard Cookson

CellosPei-Jee Ng PrincipalFrancis BucknallLaura DonoghueSantiago Carvalho†David LaleGregory WalmsleyElisabeth Wiklander

Chair supported by The Viney Family

Sue Sutherley Susanna RiddellTom Roff

Double BassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalTim Gibbs Co-PrincipalGeorge Peniston Laurence LovelleTom WalleyLowri MorganHelen RowlandsCharlotte Kerbegian

FlutesClaire Wickes

Guest PrincipalSue Thomas*

Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Stewart McIlwham*

PiccoloStewart McIlwham*

PrincipalChair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

OboesIan Hardwick* PrincipalAlice Munday

ClarinetsRobert Hill* PrincipalThomas Watmough

Bass ClarinetPaul Richards Principal

BassoonsGareth Newman PrincipalSimon Estell

HornsDavid Pyatt* Principal

Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* PrincipalChair supported by Laurence Watt

Martin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth Mollison

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal

TrombonesMark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

Bass TromboneLyndon Meredith Principal

TubaLee Tsarmaklis* Principal

TimpaniSimon Carrington* Principal

PercussionAndrew Barclay* Principal

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Henry Baldwin Co-PrincipalChair supported by Jon Claydon

HarpRachel Masters* Principal

CelesteCatherine Edwards

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

† Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

Chair Supporters The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporter whose player is not present at this concert: Bianca and Stuart Roden


London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932. It has since been headed by many of the world’s greatest conductors including Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is currently the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007. Andrés Orozco-Estrada took up the position of Principal Guest Conductor in September 2015. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence.

The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives over 30 concerts each season. Throughout 2014/15 the Orchestra gave a series of concerts entitled Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, a festival exploring the composer’s major orchestral

masterpieces. 2015/16 is a strong year for singers, with performances by Toby Spence and Anne Sofie von Otter amongst others; Sibelius enjoys 150th anniversary celebrations; distinguished visiting conductors include Stanisław Skrowaczewski, Jukka-Pekka Saraste and Vasily Petrenko, with Robin Ticciati returning after his debut in 2015; and in 2016 the LPO joins many of London’s other leading cultural institutions in Shakespeare400, celebrating the Bard’s legacy 400 years since his death. The Orchestra continues its commitment to new music with premieres of commissions including Magnus Lindberg’s Second Violin Concerto, and works by Alexander Raskatov and Marc-André Dalbavie.

Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera in the Sussex countryside, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing to sell-out audiences worldwide. In 1956 it became the first British orchestra to appear in Soviet Russia and in 1973 made the first ever visit to China by a

Richard Fairman, Financial Times, September 2015

Jurowski and the LPO can stand alongside the top international orchestras with pride


Western orchestra. Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2015/16 season include visits to Mexico City as part of the UK Mexico Year of Culture, Spain, Germany, Canary Islands, Belgium, a return to the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam and the Orchestra’s premiere at La Scala, Milan.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, East is East, The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey and Thor: The Dark World. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 80 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 6, Bruckner’s Symphony No. 3 conducted by Stanisław Skrowaczewski and Messiaen’s Des Canyons Aux Étoiles.

In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics. In 2013 it was the winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians through an energetic programme of activities for young people. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the Young Composers Programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Its work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has 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 and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more and get involved!

lpo.org.uk

facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

twitter.com/LPOrchestra

youtube.com/londonphilharmonic7

Pieter Schoemanleader

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Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the LPO in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002.

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 appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras. He is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Pieter's chair in the London Philharmonic Orchestra is supported by Neil Westreich.

Jurowski and the LPO can stand alongside the top international orchestras with pride


Jaap van Zweden has been Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra since 2008 and Music Director of the Hong Kong Philharmonic Orchestra since 2012. The Amsterdam-born van Zweden was appointed aged 19 as the youngest concertmaster ever of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and began his conducting career 20 years later in 1995. In November 2011, he was named Musical America's 2012 Conductor of the Year in recognition of his critically acclaimed work as Music Director of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra and as a guest conductor with the most prestigious US orchestras.

Highlights of the 2015/16 season include return visits to the New York Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, and Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, as well as debut performances with the Israel Philharmonic, the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Czech Philharmonic. This autumn Jaap van Zweden returned to the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic to lead a concert performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde, and in the spring tours the UK and Europe with the Dallas Symphony, and makes his debut at the Vienna State Opera in performances of Wagner’s Lohengrin in May.

Recent highlights include appearances at the Verbier Festival, tours of major venues in Europe and China with the Hong Kong Philharmonic, and debuts with the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Boston and London Symphonies, and his BBC Proms debut conducting the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic in Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony. With the Dallas Symphony he launched the inaugural SOLUNA International Music and Arts Festival, and with the Hong Kong Philharmonic he has begun a

Jaap van Zwedenconductor

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I would go to hear van Zweden conduct anything, anywhere.

Andrew Patner, Chicago Sun Times

four-year project to conduct the first ever performances in Hong Kong of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen. These are also being recorded by Naxos Records and the first instalment, Das Rheingold, is already released and received strong critical acclaim

You need to be a chameleon. You need to have all different styles under your belt ... There are still people who play Beethoven like Brahms. And that I refuse to do. Jaap van Zweden, from an interview with South China Morning Post

His wide discography includes performances of Tchaikovsky, Beethoven and Mahler with the Dallas Symphony on its own label and he has recently completed a cycle of Bruckner symphonies with the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic. He has recorded Mahler’s Symphony No. 5 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO-0033), and Mozart Piano Concertos with the Philharmonia Orchestra and David Fray (Virgin). His highly praised performances of Lohengrin, Die Meistersinger and Parsifal are also available on CD and DVD, the latter of which earned him the Edison award for Best Opera Recording in 2012.

In 1997, Jaap van Zweden and his wife Aaltje established the Papageno Foundation that supports families of children with autism. Over the years, that support has taken shape through a number of programmes in which professional music therapists and musicians, receiving additional training from Papageno, use music as a major tool in their work with autistic children.

jaapvanzweden.com


Frank Peter Zimmermann is widely regarded as one of the foremost violinists of his generation. His many concert engagements take him to all the important venues and international music festivals in Europe, the United States, Japan, South America and Australia. Highlights of the 2015/16 season include engagements with the Royal Concertgebouw, Cleveland and the Czech Philharmonic orchestras, and he will join the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester and David Afkham for their Easter tour in March/April 2016. He also embarks on a major European tour with his string trio, the Trio Zimmermann, with viola player Antoine Tamestit and cellist Christian Poltéra. After this evening’s world premiere, further performances of Magnus Lindberg’s Second Violin Concerto are scheduled with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestras, both under Daniel Harding, and with the New York Philharmonic and Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France, both under Alan Gilbert.

As a chamber musician and recitalist, Frank Peter Zimmermann gives numerous concerts, mostly in Europe. His interpretations of the classical, romantic and 20th-century repertoire are received with great critical acclaim from press and public alike. His regular recital partners are pianists Enrico Pace, Emanuel Ax, Christian Zacharias and Piotr Anderzewski. Frank Peter Zimmermann has given world premieres of three violin concertos: en sourdine by Matthias Pintscher with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Peter Eötvös (2003), The Lost Art of Letter Writing (2007) by Brett Dean, who received the 2009 Grawemeyer Award for this composition, and Augusta Read Thomas’s Violin Concerto No. 3 'Juggler in Paradise' (2009).

Over the years Frank Peter Zimmermann has built up an impressive discography on labels EMI Classics, Sony Classical, BIS, Ondine, Teldec Classics and ECM Records. He has recorded virtually all the major concerto repertoire, ranging from Bach to Ligeti, as well as many works from the recital repertoire. Many of these recordings have received prestigious awards and prizes worldwide. In 2014 his second recording of the Dvořák Violin Concerto was released by Decca as part of the complete symphonies and concertos with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra and Jiří Bělohlávek. February 2015 saw the release on Hänssler Classic of his new recording of Mozart's violin concertos nos. 1, 3 and 4, and in 2013 BIS released his highly praised recording of four sonatas and the Violin Concerto by Hindemith. Born in 1965 in Duisburg, Germany, Frank Peter Zimmermann started playing the violin when he was five and gave his first concert with an orchestra at the age of 10. He studied with Valery Gradov, Saschko Gawriloff and Herman Krebbers.

Frank Peter Zimmermannviolin

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Mr Zimmermann played with lean yet gleaming sound and melancholic beauty.

New York Times, February 2015


Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony has been a defining masterpiece of western music since the night in Vienna in 1813 when it exploded into life for the first time. It’s the piece to which Wagner apparently performed an improvised dance routine, and that has soundtracked movies from Zardoz to The King’s Speech. And yet it sounds as unstoppably alive as it always has. 'Big works also grow over the years', says Magnus Lindberg. 'Hearing Beethoven’s Seventh for the first time is one experience, but hearing it for the hundredth time it seems so much greater a piece.'

We can’t say tonight what Lindberg’s own Second Violin Concerto will sound like when we hear it for the hundredth time, though there’s every reason to be excited – his First (2006) has already become a 21st-century classic. True, sometimes musical history gets it wrong, as you’ll hear from Wagenaar’s glorious but inexplicably neglected overture Cyrano de Bergerac. But whether they’re Wagenaar, Lindberg or Ludwig van Beethoven, all that any composer can ask is that we listen with open ears, and let the music speak. 'Music is something which is about emotion', says Magnus. 'It is a drama and you have to take it as it comes.'

Speedread

Overture, Cyrano de Bergerac Op. 23Johan Wagenaar

1862–1941

'An odd swashbuckler, fierce and fabulous,Bizarre, excessive and extravagant.He swaggers in a hat with three great plumes …And last but not least, above his ruff,He wears a nose, my lords …'

Ah, that nose. When we think of the hero of Edmond Rostand’s 1897 verse drama Cyrano de Bergerac, it’s still his oversized nose that pokes its way into our imagination. The Dutch composer Johan Wagenaar set out to correct that. As the illegitimate son of a nobleman and a housemaid, Wagenaar was no stranger to casual prejudice. A formidable organist and a pupil of Brahms’s great friend Heinrich von Herzogenberg, he would go on to teach a generation of Dutch composers

– as well as writing colourful, spirited orchestral music on subjects ranging from The Taming of the Shrew to Molière’s Amphitryon. ‘In music, as in all art’, he wrote ‘absolute honesty is essential’.

Wagenaar completed his Overture Cyrano de Bergerac on 16 February 1905, and it was conducted by Mahler in Essen the following year. It deals, explained the composer ‘only with the central character (Cyrano) from Rostand's Comédie heroïque, and his main characteristics.’ Rather than a musical retelling of the play: this is a portrait of Cyrano himself, though the resemblance to Richard Strauss’s Don Juan is as plain as the nose on his face (and it’d be just as tactless to mention it). In music of exuberant freshness and

Programme notes


verve, Wagenaar depicts first of all Cyrano’s ‘Valour’, and – to an ardent, yearning theme – his twin ideals of love and poetry. Cyrano’s ‘Loyalty’ and ‘Humour’ get motifs of their own; sparkling woodwinds, vaulting horns and a solo violin all help fill out the portrait of the irrepressible poet, swordsman, lover and wit. And

instead of Rostand’s tragic ending, Wagenaar gives us instead the unquenchable spirit of Cyrano’s final words: ‘One thing is left, that, void of stain or smirch / I bear away despite you: my panache.’

Programme note © Richard Bratby

Violin Concerto No. 2 (world premiere)

Frank Peter Zimmermann violin

1 Crotchet = 63 –2 Crotchet = 63 –3 Crotchet = 126

MagnusLindberg

born 1958

Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra with the generous support of Victoria Robey OBE, Stiftung Berliner Philharmoniker, Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra, Radio France and New York Philharmonic, Alan Gilbert, Music Director

Magnus Lindberg’s Second Violin Concerto taps into the vein of rich Romanticism that he had begun to explore in his Clarinet Concerto (2002), choral-orchestral Graffiti (2008–9) and orchestral Al largo (2009–10). As such, it is another chapter in his long-term concern to marry the textural resourcefulness of modernism and the structural power of classical, functional harmony.

Typically for Lindberg, none of the three movements bears a verbal tempo indication; in this instance the first one opens Crotchet = 63 as the solo violin rouses the rest of the orchestra section by section. Rather as Brahms’s Fourth Symphony opens not with a tune in the standard sense but by playing with open fifths, Lindberg’s solo line is not melodically conceived but generates its onward impulse by playing with and expanding little rhythmic ideas and motifs (derived, as Lindberg explains, ‘from the harmonies and pitch patterns’ he was exploring), which then are often picked up and examined by the rest of the orchestra.

The orchestra, too, is almost the one known as a ‘Brahms orchestra’: double woodwind (with the addition of a bass clarinet), four horns, two trumpets and three trombones, timpani and strings – but this work also requires two percussionists and Lindberg occasionally makes the celeste and (less often) the harp important dialogue partners of the solo violin.

The first movement swells to a series of gentle but richly scored climaxes, with the tempo increasing and slowing organically as the work unfolds; nine minutes in, it coasts unemphatically into the central movement – where the initial tempo marking is the same as at the outset; but the hint of a funeral march suggests that this is indeed going to be the slow movement and soon the string lines lengthen and – though the solo part continues to swirl around like a gibbon swinging through the tree-tops – the pace of the orchestra broadens considerably. But only briefly: a rising figure spreads through the orchestra and leads to one of the most unashamedly Romantic vistas in all of Lindberg’s music – a vision, perhaps, of mountains and forests that wouldn’t sound too far out of place in Richard Strauss’s An Alpine Symphony, and it may be, too, an indication of Lindberg’s Finnish (read: Sibelian) heritage.


Programme notes continued

The grandeur slowly fades and out of it, still at the same tempo, the cadenza emerges, unaccompanied at first, but gradually picking up such strength that the strings and then the rest of the orchestra step in to support it. The music surges and crests and dies away to a whisper, taking a deep breath before the violin tiptoes back in, enjoying a brief dialogue with the leader before the rest of the strings pile in to launch the third movement, this time at twice the pace. But only 30 bars later, amid swirling woodwinds and flashes of light from celeste and harp, the tempo quickens yet further. The

music seems set to skip its way to a close, but the solo violin insists on a double- and triple-stopped passage which slows matters down, and a warmly scored coda emerges, broad and dignified, coalescing into a chorale-like passage, out of which the soloist emerges with a rising figure (supported by bass clarinet, bassoons, cellos and basses), which directly recalls the very opening of the work.

Programme note © Martin Anderson

How did the commission come about?I first got to know Frank Peter Zimmermann and his playing in the late 1990s when we were touring together in a programme conducted by Jukka-Pekka Saraste. My Feria was coupled with a violin concerto, so I heard him at rehearsals and concerts, we became friends and I had in mind from then to write a concerto for him. When the London Philharmonic Orchestra asked what my composition priorities might be during my residency we discussed a new violin concerto. It's now a reality.

String concertos are notoriously difficult to balance. How have you tackled this with a full symphony orchestra behind the soloist?My Second Violin Concerto certainly has bigger forces than the first ... I’ve been careful in the new work because I know the difficulties of balancing ... I’ve avoided an oversize orchestra, following the Bartók model with only double woodwind. This should be light enough while still allowing me plenty of flesh around the chords.

How much of the material grows from the nature of the solo instrument and how much is driven by the musical argument.The violin is the king of instruments with an enormous heritage, and I think when I wrote the First Concerto

I was very conscious of this, trying to find ‘violinistic’ figures for the solo part. For the second concerto I’m not so afraid of the instrument, and the material is more actively derived from the harmonies and pitch patterns I’ve been exploring. That said, of course, it has to be idiomatic for the instrument and I’m well aware I have a virtuoso at my disposal. I want the violin line to be brilliant yet playable ... an audience doesn’t need to know how challenging the solo part is – for instance the Berg concerto is no showstopper like Paganini but remains one of the hardest in the repertoire musically as well as technically.

What is special about a residency, such as with the LPO?It is wonderful to become fully acquainted with an orchestra from the inside, with enough time to get to know individual players and how they perform. I can also listen to the particular sound of sections and of the full ensemble, and all this feeds into how I compose the new commissions as part of the residency. It is a luxury to try things out in a friendly atmosphere and have the possibility to make changes.

Read the full interview here:lpo.uk/LindbergVC2

Magnus Lindberg introduces his new violin concerto

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


Finnish composer Magnus Lindberg became the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Composer in Residence from the beginning of the

2014/15 season. Last season's highlights included the Orchestra performing the world premiere of Accused, with soprano Barbara

Hannigan in January. Lindberg also plays an active role in the Orchestra’s education activities, mentoring the four participants on the LPO Young Composers scheme, and conducting the

annual Debut Sounds concerts that showcase the young composers' new works.

Lindberg was born in Helsinki in 1958. Following piano studies, he entered the Sibelius Academy where his composition teachers

included Einojuhani Rautavaara and Paavo Heininen. His compositional breakthrough came with two large-scale works, Action–Situation–

Signification (1982) and Kraft (1983–85), which were inextricably linked with his founding with Esa-Pekka Salonen of the experimental

Toimii Ensemble.

Lindberg was Composer in Residence of the New York Philharmonic between 2009 and 2012, with new works including the concert-opener EXPO premiered to

launch Alan Gilbert’s tenure as the orchestra’s Music Director, Al Largo for orchestra, Souvenir for ensemble, and Piano Concerto No. 2 premiered by Yefim Bronfman in 2012.

Lindberg’s music has been recorded on the Deutsche Grammophon, Sony, Ondine, Da Capo and Finlandia labels. He is published by Boosey & Hawkes.

Reprinted by kind permission of Boosey & Hawkes

Magnus Lindberg: LPO’s Composer in Residence

The LPO and Magnus Lindberg at Royal Festival Hall

Saturday 23 January 2016 | 7.30pm

Mozart Serenade No. 8 (Notturno), K286Magnus Lindberg Gran DuoMozart Wind Serenade No. 12 (Nacht Musik), K388R Strauss Four Last Songs

Vladimir Jurowski conductorSoile Isokoski soprano

Magnus Lindberg tilts orchestral possibility in Gran Duo, writing only for bright winds against dark brass, contrasting and merging the sonorities of each as he does.

Tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65)lpo.org.uk

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Modern music has never been easy to grasp. Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony was premiered in Vienna on 8 December 1813 at a benefit concert for Austrian soldiers wounded in the recent Battle of Hanau, and the impresario, Beethoven’s friend (and inventor of the metronome) Johann Mälzel had assembled an all-star orchestra. The virtuoso violinist Schuppanzigh was the leader; Dragonetti (the father of modern bass playing) led the basses; and the composers Spohr, Meyerbeer and Romberg sat in the strings. Hummel – composer of that irresistible trumpet concerto – was on drums, and just offstage, cuing the special effects in Beethoven’s other contribution to the evening, the so-called ‘Battle Symphony’, was living legend Antonio Salieri. But even this lot couldn’t cope with the Seventh Symphony. Music that could not be played, protested the violinists, should not be written.

Unbelievably, Beethoven kept his cool. Anticipating the words of a thousand amateur orchestra conductors, he ‘begged the gentlemen to take their parts home with them’ to practise. They did – and the performance was one of the supreme triumphs of Beethoven’s career. The Allegretto was even encored, and a delighted Beethoven wrote to a Viennese newspaper to thank his ‘honoured colleagues’ for ‘their zeal in contributing to such a splendid result’. The Seventh Symphony has been a special favourite ever since. Nineteenth-century conductors used to insert its Allegretto into less popular Beethoven symphonies (like the Fifth) to guarantee applause. And Richard Wagner apparently once performed a one-man dance routine to the entire work, in support of his theory that the Symphony was ‘the apotheosis of dance’. Which must have been an interesting half-hour.

Mind you, there were dissenters – the composer Carl Maria von Weber listened to the first movement and declared that Beethoven was ‘ripe for the madhouse’, while Schumann’s father-in-law Friedrich Wieck was convinced Beethoven must have written it while drunk. And it’s hard to blame them entirely. It’s not just the Symphony’s rough-cut humour (after the poised, massive build-up of energy in the first movement’s introduction, the Vivace launches not with a breaking storm, but a bright country-dance tune on the flute). And it’s not just the way every movement is driven by colossal build-ups of dance rhythms (even the haunting Allegretto has the rhythm of a pavane).

It’s the sheer, elemental energy with which Beethoven brings it off. Exuberance is written into the Symphony’s very texture. By setting the Symphony in A major, Beethoven automatically made life difficult for the brass players – and the sound of the horns, whooping through the climaxes at the very top of their register, means that the Symphony even sounds exhilarating, unbridled and wild. Even the quieter, slower music is as compelling – that melancholy Allegretto is both one of the simplest and most sophisticated movements Beethoven ever wrote; and the echoing horn-calls in the third movement’s central interlude set the tone for a century of Romantic orchestral music. Perhaps Wieck had a point after all. Listen to the torrential gallop of the finale, and then think of Beethoven’s own words: ‘Music is the spirit that inspires us to new creation; and I am the Bacchus, who presses out this glorious wine to intoxicate all mankind.’

Programme note © Richard Bratby

Symphony No. 7 in A major, Op. 92

1 Poco sostenuto – Vivace2 Allegretto3 Presto4 Allegro con brio

Ludwig vanBeethoven

1770–1827

Programme notes continued


Saturday 30 January | 7.30pm

Beethoven Symphony No. 6 (Pastoral)Alexander Raskatov Green Mass

(world premiere)*

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Elena Vassilieva soprano Iestyn Davies countertenor Mark Padmore tenor Nikolay Didenko bass Choir of Clare College, Cambridge

*Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra

Wednesday 3 February | 7.30pm

Dvořák Overture, Otello Brahms Double Concerto for violin and cello Dvořák Symphony No. 6

Yannick Nézet-Séguin conductor Lisa Batiashvili violin Maximilian Hornung cello

Saturday 23 January | 7.30pm

Mozart Serenade No. 8 (Notturno), K286

Magnus Lindberg Gran DuoMozart Wind Serenade No. 12

(Nacht Musik), K388R Strauss Four Last Songs

Vladimir Jurowski conductorSoile Isokoski soprano

Wednesday 27 January | 7.30pm

Schnittke PianissimoShostakovich Cello Concerto No. 2Bruckner Symphony No. 3

Vladimir Jurowski conductorNatalia Gutman cello

Broadcast live by BBC Radio3

Tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65)

London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office: 020 7840 4242 Monday–Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.uk Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone.

at Royal Festival Hall 2016

PLAYING THE BARD IN 2016

In collaboration with some of London’s leading cultural, creative and educational institutions, the London Philharmonic Orchestra joins Shakespeare400 with a series of concerts in 2016 celebrating the Bard’s love of music

FIND OUT MORE: LPO AND SHAKESPEARE400 lpo.org.uk/shakespeare


SOUND FUTURES DONORS

We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to our Sound Futures campaign. Thanks to their support, we successfully raised £1 million by 30 April 2015 which has now been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant. This has enabled us to create a £2 million endowment fund supporting special artistic projects, creative programming and education work with key venue partners including our Southbank Centre home. Supporters listed below donated £500 or over. For a full list of those who have given to this campaign please visit lpo.org.uk/soundfutures.

Masur CircleArts Council EnglandDunard FundVictoria Robey OBEEmmanuel & Barrie RomanThe Underwood Trust

Welser-Möst CircleWilliam & Alex de Winton John Ireland Charitable TrustThe Tsukanov Family FoundationNeil Westreich

Tennstedt CircleValentina & Dmitry Aksenov Richard BuxtonThe Candide TrustMichael & Elena KroupeevKirby Laing FoundationMr & Mrs MakharinskyAlexey & Anastasia ReznikovichSimon RobeyBianca & Stuart RodenSimon & Vero TurnerThe late Mr K Twyman

Solti PatronsAgeas John & Manon AntoniazziGabor Beyer, through BTO

Management Consulting AGJon ClaydonMrs Mina Goodman & Miss

Suzanne GoodmanRoddy & April GowThe Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris

Charitable Trust Mr James R.D. KornerChristoph Ladanyi & Dr Sophia

Ladanyi-CzerninRobert Markwick & Kasia RobinskiThe Maurice Marks Charitable TrustMr Paris Natar

The Rothschild FoundationTom & Phillis SharpeThe Viney Family

Haitink PatronsMark & Elizabeth AdamsDr Christopher AldrenMrs Pauline BaumgartnerLady Jane BerrillMr Frederick BrittendenDavid & Yi Yao BuckleyMr Clive ButlerGill & Garf CollinsMr John H CookMr Alistair CorbettBruno de KegelGeorgy DjaparidzeDavid EllenChristopher Fraser OBE & Lisa FraserDavid & Victoria Graham FullerGoldman Sachs InternationalMr Gavin GrahamMoya GreeneMrs Dorothy HambletonTony & Susie HayesMalcolm HerringCatherine Høgel & Ben MardleMrs Philip KanRehmet Kassim-Lakha de MorixeRose & Dudley LeighLady Roslyn Marion LyonsMiss Jeanette MartinDuncan Matthews QCDiana & Allan Morgenthau

Charitable TrustDr Karen MortonMr Roger PhillimoreRuth RattenburyThe Reed FoundationThe Rind FoundationSir Bernard RixDavid Ross & Line Forestier (Canada)

Carolina & Martin SchwabDr Brian SmithLady Valerie SoltiMr & Mrs G SteinDr Peter StephensonMiss Anne StoddartTFS Loans LimitedLady Marina Vaizey Jenny WatsonGuy & Utti Whittaker

Pritchard DonorsRalph & Elizabeth Aldwinckle Mrs Arlene BeareMr Patrick & Mrs Joan BennerMr Conrad BlakeyDr Anthony BucklandPaul CollinsAlastair CrawfordMr Derek B. GrayMr Roger GreenwoodThe HA.SH FoundationDarren & Jennifer Holmes Honeymead Arts TrustMr Geoffrey KirkhamDrs Frank & Gek LimPeter MaceMr & Mrs David MalpasDr David McGibneyMichael & Patricia McLaren-TurnerMr & Mrs Andrew NeillMr Christopher QuereeThe Rosalyn & Nicholas Springer

Charitable TrustTimothy Walker AMChristopher WilliamsPeter Wilson SmithMr Anthony Yolland

And all other donors who wish to remain anonymous


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

Thomas Beecham Group

The Tsukanov Family Foundation

Neil Westreich

William and Alex de Winton Mrs Philip Kan* Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBE Bianca & Stuart Roden Laurence Watt

Anonymous Jon Claydon Garf & Gill Collins* Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja Drexler David & Victoria Graham Fuller The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust Mr & Mrs Makharinsky Geoff & Meg Mann Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp Julian & Gill Simmonds* Eric Tomsett The Viney Family

John & Manon Antoniazzi Jane Attias John & Angela Kessler Guy & Utti Whittaker

* BrightSparks Patrons: instead of supporting a chair in the Orchestra, these donors have chosen to support our series of schools’ concerts.

Principal BenefactorsMark & Elizabeth AdamsDavid & Yi Yao BuckleyDesmond & Ruth CecilMr John H CookMr Bruno de KegelDavid EllenMr Daniel GoldsteinDrs Frank & Gek LimPeter MacDonald EggersDr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry SciardMr & Mrs David MalpasMr & Mrs G SteinMr & Mrs John C TuckerMr & Mrs John & Susi UnderwoodLady Marina VaizeyGrenville & Krysia WilliamsMr Anthony Yolland

BenefactorsMr Geoffrey BatemanMrs A BeareMs Molly BorthwickDavid & Patricia BuckMrs Alan CarringtonMr & Mrs Stewart CohenMr Alistair CorbettMr Timothy Fancourt QCMr Richard FernyhoughMr Gavin GrahamWim and Jackie Hautekiet-ClareTony & Susan HayesMr Daniel Heaf and Ms Amanda HillMichael & Christine HenryMalcolm Herring

J. Douglas HomeIvan HurryMr Glenn HurstfieldPer JonssonMr Gerald LevinWg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAFPaul & Brigitta LockMr Peter MaceMs Ulrike ManselMr Robert Markwick and Ms Kasia Robinski Mr Brian MarshAndrew T MillsDr Karen MortonMr & Mrs Andrew NeillMr Michael PosenAlexey & Anastasia ReznikovichMr Konstantin SorokinMartin and Cheryl SouthgateMr Peter TausigSimon and Charlotte WarshawHoward & Sheelagh WatsonDes & Maggie WhitelockChristopher WilliamsBill Yoeand others who wish to remainanonymous

Hon. BenefactorElliott Bernerd

Hon. Life MembersKenneth Goode Carol Colburn Grigor CBE Pehr G GyllenhammarMrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

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

Corporate Members

Silver: Accenture BerenbergCarter-Ruck We are AD

Bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLPBTO Management Consulting AGCharles Russell SpeechlysLazardLeventis OverseasRusso-British Chamber of Commerce

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

In-kind SponsorsGoogle Inc

Trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation The Bernarr Rainbow Trust The Boltini TrustBorletti-Buitoni TrustThe Candide Trust Cockayne – Grants for the Arts The D’Oyly Carte Charitable TrustDunard FundThe Equitable Charitable Trust The Foyle FoundationLucille Graham TrustThe Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris

Charitable TrustHelp Musicians UK The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The London Community Foundation London Stock Exchange Group FoundationLord and Lady Lurgan Trust Marsh Christian TrustAdam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet TrustThe Ann and Frederick O’Brien

Charitable Trust

Office for Cultural and Scientific Affairs ofthe Embassy of Spain in London

The Austin and Hope Pilkington Trust The Stanley Picker Trust The Radcliffe TrustRivers Foundation The R K Charitable TrustRVW TrustSerge Rachmaninoff Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust Souter Charitable Trust The John Thaw FoundationThe Tillett Trust UK Friends of the Felix-Mendelssohn-

Bartholdy-Foundation The Viney FamilyGarfield Weston FoundationThe Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust

and all others who wish to remain anonymous


Administration

Board of DirectorsVictoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-PresidentDr Manon Antoniazzi Roger BarronRichard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Amanda Hill Dr Catherine C. Høgel Rachel Masters* George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Natasha Tsukanova Mark Vines*Timothy Walker AM Laurence WattNeil Westreich David Whitehouse** Player-Director

Advisory CouncilVictoria Robey OBE Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson William de Winton Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Rehmet Kassim-Lakha Jamie Korner Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Sir Bernard Rix Baroness ShackletonLord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Thomas Sharpe QC Julian Simmonds Martin SouthgateSir Philip Thomas Sir John TooleyChris VineyTimothy Walker AMElizabeth Winter

American Friends of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.Jenny Ireland Co-ChairmanWilliam A. Kerr Co-ChairmanKyung-Wha ChungAlexandra JupinJill Fine MainelliKristina McPhee Harvey M. Spear, Esq.Danny Lopez Hon. ChairmanNoel Kilkenny Hon. DirectorVictoria Robey OBE Hon. DirectorRichard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA,EisnerAmper LLP

Stephanie Yoshida

Chief Executive

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Amy SugarmanPA to the Chief Executive / Administrative Assistant

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager and Finance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager

Dayse GuilhermeFinance Officer

Concert Management

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Graham WoodConcerts and Recordings Manager

Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager

Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager

Alison JonesConcerts and Recordings Co-ordinator

Jo CotterTours Co-ordinator Orchestra Personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah Holmes Sarah ThomasLibrarians ( job-share)

Christopher AldertonStage Manager

Damian Davis Transport Manager

Madeleine Ridout Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Education and Community

Isabella Kernot Education Director (maternity leave)

Clare Lovett Education Director (maternity cover)

Talia LashEducation and Community Project Manager

Lucy DuffyEducation and Community Project Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Catherine Faulkner Development Events Manager

Kathryn HagemanIndividual Giving Manager

Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations Manager

Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager

Rebecca FoggDevelopment Co-ordinator

Helen Yang Development Assistant

Kirstin PeltonenDevelopment Associate

Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Libby Northcote-GreenMarketing Manager

Rachel WilliamsPublications Manager (maternity leave)

Sarah BreedenPublications Manager (maternity cover)

Samantha CleverleyBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Anna O’ConnorMarketing Co-ordinator

Natasha Berg Marketing Intern

Digital Projects

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Director

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant Public Relations

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930) Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive Professional Services

Charles Russell SpeechlysSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

London Philharmonic Orchestra89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TPTel: 020 7840 4200Box Office: 020 7840 4242Email: [email protected]

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

Composer photographs except Magnus Lindberg courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Front cover photograph: Ilyoung Chae, First Violin © Benjamin Ealovega. Cover design/ art direction: Ross Shaw @ JMG Studio.

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London Philharmonic Orchestra 9 December Concert Programme

Documents

Transcript of London Philharmonic Orchestra 9 December Concert Programme