London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 17 Jan 2014

18
Concert programme 2013/14 season

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Transcript of London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 17 Jan 2014

Page 1: London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 17 Jan 2014

Concert programme 2013/14 season

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Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor 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 Welcome / Leader3 About the Orchestra 4 On stage tonight5 Vladimir Jurowski6 Yulianna Avdeeva7 Programme notes10 2014/15 season launch11 Next concerts12 2013/14 Annual Appeal13 Orchestra news14 Catalyst: Double Your Donation15 Supporters16 LPO administration

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

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

JTI Friday Series Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival hallFriday 17 January 2014 | 7.30pm

BrahmsPiano Concerto No. 1 in D minor (42’)

Interval

BeethovenSymphony No. 6 in F (Pastoral) (40’)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Yulianna Avdeeva piano

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Welcome

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, Feng Sushi and Topolski, 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 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.

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.

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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.

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

Pieter Schoemanleader

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London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic and forward-looking orchestras in the UK. As well as its performances in the concert hall, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, has its own successful CD label, and enhances the lives of thousands of people every year through activities for schools and local communities.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then its Principal Conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. Vladimir Jurowski is the current Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor, appointed in 2007, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin is Principal Guest Conductor. Julian Anderson is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence.

The Orchestra is resident at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it gives around 40 concerts each season. 2013/14 highlights include a Britten centenary celebration with Vladimir Jurowski including the War Requiem and Peter Grimes; world premieres of James MacMillan’s Viola Concerto and Górecki’s Fourth Symphony; French repertoire with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and a stellar array of soloists including Evelyn Glennie, Mitsuko Uchida, Leif Ove Andsnes, Miloš Karadaglić, Renaud Capuçon, Leonidas Kavakos, Julia Fischer, Emanuel Ax and Simon Trpčeski. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra collaborated with Southbank Centre on the year-long festival The Rest Is Noise, exploring the influential works of the 20th century.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra enjoys flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra for 50 years. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide. Highlights of the 2013/14 season include visits to the USA, Romania, Austria, Germany, Slovenia, Belgium, France and Spain.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded the soundtracks to numerous blockbuster films, from Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission and East is East to Hugo, The Lord of the Rings trilogy and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now over 70 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Mahler’s Symphony No. 1 and Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 with Vladimir Jurowski; Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies Nos. 5 & 7 with Bernard Haitink; Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde with Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sarah Connolly and Toby Spence; and a disc of new works by the Orchestra’s Composer in Residence, Julian Anderson.

In summer 2012 the Orchestra was invited to take part in The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, as well as being chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation through its BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts;

the Leverhulme Young Composers programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Over recent

years, digital advances and social media have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people across the globe: 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

The LPO are an orchestra on fire at the moment. Bachtrack.com

2 October 2013, Royal Festival Hall: Britten centenary concert

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On stage tonight

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* LeaderVesselin Gellev Sub-Leader

Chair supported by John & Angela Kessler

Ilyoung Chae Ji-Hyun Lee

Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin VarnagyChair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine CraigThomas EisnerMartin HöhmannGeoffrey Lynn

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert PoolSarah StreatfeildYang Zhang

Second ViolinsRebecca Chan

Guest PrincipalJeongmin KimJoseph MaherKate Birchall

Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy ElanFiona HighamNynke HijlkemaMarie-Anne MairesseAshley StevensRaja HalderHelena NichollsAlison Strange

ViolasDavid Quiggle

Guest PrincipalCyrille MercierRobert DuncanGregory AronovichSusanne MartensBenedetto PollaniLaura VallejoIsabel Pereira

CellosKristina Blaumane

PrincipalFrancis BucknallLaura DonoghueSantiago Carvalho† David LaleGregory Walmsley Elisabeth Wiklander Sue Sutherley

Double BassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalTim Gibbs Co-PrincipalLaurence LovelleGeorge PenistonRichard LewisKenneth Knussen

FlutesMaría José Ortuño Benito

Guest PrincipalSue Thomas

Chair supported by the Sharp Family

piccoloStewart McIlwham*

Principal

OboesIan Hardwick PrincipalJenny Brittlebank

ClarinetsRobert Hill* PrincipalPaul Richards

BassoonsJoost Bosdijk

Guest PrincipalGareth Newman*

hornsJohn Ryan* PrincipalDavid Pyatt* Principal

Chair supported by Simon Robey

Martin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth Mollison

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

TrombonesMark Templeton*

PrincipalChair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

TimpaniSimon Carrington*

Principal

Assistant ConductorMarius Stravinsky

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

† Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Chair Supporters

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert:

Andrew Davenport Julian & Gill Simmonds

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Vladimir JurowskiPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

One of today’s most sought-after and dynamic conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow, and completed the first

part of his musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany, continuing his studies at the High Schools of Music in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Nabucco.

Vladimir Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2003, becoming the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in September 2007. He also holds the titles of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. He has also held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper, Berlin (1997–2001); Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03); Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005–09); and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001–13).

Vladimir Jurowski has appeared on the podium with many leading orchestras in Europe and North America including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Boston and Chicago symphony orchestras, the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, and the Staatskapelle Dresden. Highlights of the 2013/14 season and beyond include his debuts with the New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony (Tokyo) and San Francisco Symphony orchestras; tours with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; and return visits to the Chicago Symphony, Berlin Radio Symphony, Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras, and the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.

Jurowski made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1999 with Rigoletto, and has since returned for Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades and Hansel and Gretel. He has conducted Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opera National de Paris; Eugene Onegin at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and Iolanta and Die Teufel von Loudon 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, The Cunning Little Vixen, Ariadne auf Naxos and Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. In autumn 2013 he returned to the Metropolitan Opera for Die Frau ohne Schatten, and future engagements include Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper Berlin and The Fiery Angel at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of the cantata Exil by Giya Kancheli for ECM; Meyerbeer’s L’étoile du Nord for Marco Polo; Massenet’s Werther for BMG; and a series of records for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has released a wide selection of his live recordings on the LPO Label, including Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1, 4, 5, 6 and Manfred; and works by Turnage, Holst, Britten, Shostakovich, Honegger and Haydn. His tenure as Music Director at Glyndebourne has been documented in CD releases of La Cenerentola, Tristan und Isolde and Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and DVD releases of his performances of La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight. Other DVD releases include Hansel and 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 (Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Strauss and Ravel), all released by Medici Arts.

Vladimir Jurowski’s position as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra is generously supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation and one anonymous donor.

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Yulianna Avdeevapiano

Following her sensational First Prize at the International Fryderyk Chopin Competition 2010 in Warsaw, Yulianna Avdeeva is fast establishing herself as an artist whose performances combine intense musicality

and emotional depth with a formidable technique and intellectual rigour.

Tonight is Yulianna Avdeeva’s first performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Tomorrow evening she will again perform the Brahms Piano Concerto with the Orchestra, at the Auditorio Nacional de Música in Madrid. Other engagements this season include returns to the Czech Philharmonic and Finnish Radio Symphony orchestras under Manfred Honeck and Vasily Petrenko respectively, and her debut with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra (again with Honeck), as well as performances with the Orchestre Philharmonique Royal de Liège, Polish National Radio Symphony Orchestra and Pacific Symphony (California). She also tours to Spain with the Tchaikovsky Symphony Orchestra of Moscow Radio and Vladimir Fedoseyev. Forthcoming recitals include appearances in Paris, Munich, Mainz, Trieste, Milan, Seoul and at the Hong Kong Arts Festival. Further ahead, she will return to Japan for a recital tour and her debut with the Osaka Philharmonic Orchestra.

Highlights of Yulianna’s 2012/13 season included highly successful debuts with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin under Marek Janowski, as well as an acclaimed tour of the USA with the Warsaw Philharmonic Orchestra under Antoni Wit. Recent recitals have included returns to the London International Piano Series and the Rheingau Musik Festival, as well as appearances at the Palau de la Música Catalana in Barcelona, Sociedad Filarmónica de Bilbao, Klangräume Festival in Waidhofen, Liederhalle in Stuttgart, Essen’s Philharmonie, Salle Molière in Lyon and Schwetzinger Festspiele.

Yulianna’s repertoire spans a wide range, from Bach to 20th-century music. She is known for performing on period instruments: in 2011 and 2012 she played Chopin’s Piano Concertos on an Erard piano at the ‘Chopin and his Europe’ festival with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Jacek Kaspszyk, and the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century under Frans Brüggen. She performed again with the Orchestra of the Eighteenth Century and Brüggen when they toured together to Japan in spring 2013. They have recently released a recording of these concertos on the Fryderyk Chopin Institute label, to great critical acclaim.

In addition to her solo recital and concerto performances, Yulianna is an enthusiastic chamber musician, working with members of the Berlin Philharmonic (the Philharmonia Quartet) and violinist Julia Fischer, amongst others. She has twice appeared with Fischer at the Menuhin Festival Gstaad, giving a duo recital and performing Mendelssohn’s Concerto for Violin, Piano and Strings, and they will tour together in Europe in October 2014. Other chamber music partners include members of the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, with whom she collaborated at the Muziekgebouw Frits Philips Eindhoven in December 2012.

Beginning her piano studies at the age of five at the Gnessin School of Music in Moscow, Yulianna attended the Zurich University of the Arts (studying with Konstantin Scherbakov) and the renowned International Piano Academy Lake Como (under Artistic Director William Grant Naboré), where she continues to work with Dmitri Bashkirov and Fou Ts’ong. She has won several international competitions including the Bremen Piano Contest in 2003, the Concours de Genève 2006 and the Arthur Rubinstein Competition in Poland.

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Programme notes

For the youthful Brahms, the shadow of Beethoven’s towering achievement as a symphonist was both inspiring and unsettling. The several guises that his First Piano Concerto worked its way through on the way to its final form included at one stage that of a four-movement symphony, but such works were actually still a long way in the future for Brahms, and the Concerto took its turbulent power and depth instead from the more personally disturbing circumstances of the illness and death of his great friend and idol, Robert Schumann. Beethoven’s ‘Pastoral’ Symphony, by contrast, suggests none of

that sense of struggle, its essentially benign and relaxed manner matched only by the consummate skill and weight of experience that lies behind it. Beethoven often thought in terms of extra-musical programmes for his instrumental works, but rarely did he make them explicit. Yet the triumph of the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony is that in spite of the peasant dances, thunderstorms and babbling brooks, it can be enjoyed perfectly well as a symphony in its own right – and one of unusually rich and soothing beauties at that.

Speedread

JohannesBrahms

1833–1897

piano Concerto No. 1 in D minor, Op. 15

Yulianna Avdeeva piano

1 Maestoso2 Adagio3 Rondo: Allegro non troppo

The D minor Piano Concerto is Brahms’s first orchestral work, composed in his early twenties. That it took him four years to complete is probably due partly to inexperience and partly to his uncertainty of mind during a traumatic period caused by the attempted suicide, mental illness and eventual death in 1856 of his friend and mentor Robert Schumann. Shortly after the first of these incidents, in 1854, Brahms began work on a sonata for two pianos, but soon started converting the piece to a four-movement symphony. Growing dissatisfaction with this version, however, led him to hit on the idea of combining both to form a piano concerto; the first movement was recast, but the others abandoned and new second and third movements composed in their place. The work was finished in 1858, and the premiere given early the following year in Hanover with Brahms as soloist.

If the first movement was born of a mixture of compromise and second thinking, it is not evident in

the final result, unless it be in the fact that it displays a spectacular symphonic grandeur and expressive strength that had not been present in the concerto genre (nor even, in truth, in the symphony) since Beethoven, and that the piano part, though certainly taxing, is not principally driven by virtuosity as an end but plays a role effectively integrated with that of the orchestra. The grim Sturm und Drang passion of the movement as a whole, and of its opening theme in particular, may well owe something to the Schumann situation, but there are consoling moments, too, in this richly thematic sonata design, many of them memorably associated with the soloist, such as the Bachian first entry and the richly chordal delivery of the second subject. This allows the most dramatic stroke of the movement to be the moment of recapitulation, when the piano for the first time takes up the turbulent opening theme, thundering it out over the same held Ds in the bass, but now cast into the disorientatingly darkening key of E major.

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In his autograph score of the Adagio, Brahms wrote words from the Latin Mass under the calmly mystical opening: ‘Benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini’ (‘Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord’). He left no further explanation, and there has been speculation (not otherwise supported) that the theme was once intended for a Mass setting. Less equivocally, Brahms had been in the habit of addressing Schumann as ‘Domine’ and had privately told Schumann’s widow Clara that he was ‘painting a lovely portrait of you’, but whether connected to the Schumanns or not, this glorious music certainly appears moved by emotions as profound and heartfelt as those that inspired the first movement.

Programme notes continued

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

The symphonic drama of that first movement is not an easy force to summon again within the necessarily altered atmosphere of a finale, and Brahms’s choice of rondo form – in which a principal theme returns several times separated by contrasting episodes – is perhaps not the most obvious way to attempt it. Several commentators over the years have drawn attention to structural parallels between Brahms’s finale and that of Beethoven’s Third Piano Concerto – including the manner in which the main theme is presented, the extravagant piano lead-backs and the central fugato episode – but the way the demonic energy of the opening movement is here successfully recalled while at the same time finding a lighter and more optimistic trajectory surely has a spiritual model in the finale of another great D minor piano concerto, Mozart’s K466.

Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

£9.99 (1CD) | LPO-0075

Available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242), the Royal Festival Hall shop and all good CD outlets.

Available to download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and others.

Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

£10.99 (2CDs) | LPO-0043

Jurowski conducts Brahms on the LpO Label

New! Available Feb 2014

‘Conductors, buy this and learn; the rest of us can just enjoy.’

BBC Music Magazine Disc of the Month, June 2010

‘Superbly conceived as a whole, emotionally coherent and compelling.’The Arts Desk, February 2010

‘A beautifully well played version.’BBC Radio 3 ‘Building a Library’ Recommendation, June 2013

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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Beethoven loved nature and the open air. He spent most of his summers away from Vienna in the country retreats of Heiligenstadt, Mödling and Baden, where he would walk the woods and fields notebook in hand, and even back in the city short strolls were a regular part of his work routine. ‘No-one can love the countryside as much as I do’, he once said, ‘for surely woods, trees and rocks produce the echo which man desires to hear.’

But nature was not just a balm for the senses; for Beethoven it was evidence of the Creator’s hand. Raised on the tolerant attitudes of the Enlightenment, he had little interest in conventional formal religion, and it was in the outdoors, amidst the wonders of the natural world, that he found himself closest to God. He was hardly alone in that – such feelings were part of the spirit of the early Romantic age – but it was perhaps his unique placing at the threshold of the Classical and Romantic eras in music that allowed such a work as the ‘Pastoral’ Symphony to achieve greatness. ‘More an expression of feeling than painting’, said Beethoven, and it is true that, while the atmosphere of the countryside pervades every bar, the Sixth Symphony can be fully enjoyed without resort to mental pictures of shepherds, peasants and cuckoos.

Even so, the members of the audience at the work’s premiere in a freezing cold Theater an der Wien in December 1808 would have had little difficulty recognising the scene Beethoven was laying out before them. Musical evocations of natural phenomena such as running water, storms and birdsong were familiar from the opera house, as were representations of the countryside’s human population by means of rustic tunes and bagpipe-style drones. There had been pastoral symphonies before, while Haydn’s two great late oratorios The Creation and The Seasons, with their

brilliantly executed evocations of the natural world, were regular fixtures in the Viennese concert calendar. These, then, were not the novelties of the Sixth. What may have struck its first listeners as more radical was its effortlessly laid-back character, and the air of repose with which, uniquely in a Beethoven symphony, it both begins and ends.

The first movement also introduces us to two other important characteristics of the work, namely themes that seem to want to circle back on themselves in leisurely self-perpetuation, and a general contentedness with simple and slow-moving harmonies. When taking a walk in the country there is no need to hurry, as Beethoven proves in the central development section, where a five-note descending figure borrowed from the opening theme is repeated many times over slowly changing chords, its effect like that of turning one’s gaze to admire different vistas within the same landscape.

The second movement is one of Beethoven’s most gorgeous inspirations, and one that he had been harbouring for some time. The watery accompaniment figure had its origin in an idea noted down in a sketchbook from 1802–03, where it carried the heading: ‘murmur of the brook … the deeper the brook, the deeper the sound.’ Deep is the word; the richness and subtlety of Beethoven’s creation give it an unparalleled power to gladden the heart, and so dreamily do we fall under its spell that it hardly seems out of place when the music twice stops sleepily near the end to allow flute, oboe and clarinet to give us birdsong imitations identified by Beethoven as nightingale, quail and cuckoo. The last three movements are run together to make an uninterrupted sequence – a move suggested by the programme for sure, but at the same time

Ludwig vanBeethoven

1770–1827

Symphony No. 6 in F (pastoral)

1 Pleasant, cheerful feelings awakened on arrival in the countryside (Allegro ma non troppo) 2 Scene by the brook (Andante molto moto)3 Merry gathering of country folk (Allegro) – 4 Thunder Storm (Allegro) – 5 Shepherd’s song: benevolent feelings, combined with thanks to the deity, after the storm (Allegretto)

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Programme notes continued

New for 2013/14 – LpO mini film guides

This season we’ve produced a series of short films introducing the pieces we’re performing. We’ve picked one work from each concert, creating a bite-sized introduction to the music and its historical background.

Watch Patrick Bailey introduce Brahms’s Piano Concerto No. 1: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html

utterly in keeping with Beethoven’s formal procedures of the time. The third movement is the symphony’s scherzo, and a robust depiction of bucolic merrymaking. Twice Beethoven pokes fun at the village band (the oboist not sure where to come in, the bassoonist only knowing three notes), and twice the music tips over into an earthier dance in which we can almost hear feet stamping. Eventually the revelries are halted by the menacing rumble of approaching thunder, before the fourth-movement storm hits. When it has run its brief but brutal course, and the departing lightning has flashed for the last time, gentle calls given out on clarinet and horn signal the arrival of the finale before going on to form the basis of the movement’s recurring main theme. This hymn of praise is no exultant shout, however, but a joyful and dignified thanksgiving, not just for the brook and the ‘pleasant feelings’ but, we realise, for everything we have witnessed, the storm and the three-note bassoonist included. With a final majestic, swelling peroration, Beethoven ennobles them all.

Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp

London philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season launch

Our 2014/15 season will be announced on Thursday 23 January, with booking opening on Thursday 6 February. To take advantage of priority booking (from Monday 27 January), join one of our membership schemes for as little as £50 a year.

Our memberships offer a wealth of opportunities to become closer to the musicians and to be more involved in the day-to-day life of the Orchestra. Membership allows you to support the Orchestra, helps us to maintain the high standards that you hear and see on the concert platform, and benefits thousands of people through our Education and Community Programme.

To show our thanks, we offer a range of benefits for you to enjoy, from priority booking and regular newsletters to private recitals in your home by our musicians, with an increase in exclusivity for those able to make major supporting gifts. However you are able to help us, we look forward to welcoming you into the orchestral family.

For more information please call Sarah Fletcher on 020 7840 4225 or visit lpo.org.uk/support/memberships

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Wednesday 22 January 2014 | 7.30pm

J S Bach Violin Concerto No. 1 in A minor, BWV 104hartmann Concerto funebreBeethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)

Vladimir Jurowski conductorLeonidas Kavakos violin

Generously supported by the Sharp Family.

Wednesday 29 January 2014 | 7.30pm

Kodály Dances of GalántaGrieg Piano ConcertoDvořák Symphony No. 7

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductorRudolf Buchbinder piano

Friday 14 February 2014 | 7.30pmJTI Friday Series

Valentine’s Day Concert

Dvořák Carnival Overture Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 Wagner Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet (Fantasy Overture)

Stuart Stratford conductorSa Chen piano

Wednesday 19 February 2014 | 7.30pm

Balakirev Islamey (Oriental Fantasy)Khachaturian Piano ConcertoKalinnikov Symphony No. 1

Osmo Vänskä conductorMarc-André hamelin piano

Free pre-concert discussion6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival hallDavid Nice discusses the evening’s programme.

Friday 21 February 2014 | 7.30pmJTI Friday Series

Berlioz Overture, Le CorsaireRachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of PaganiniElgar Symphony No. 2

Vasily petrenko conductorKirill Gerstein piano

Wednesday 26 February 2014 | 7.30pm

Brahms Double Concerto for violin and celloBruckner Symphony No. 2

Vladimir Jurowski conductorJulia Fischer violinDaniel Müller-Schott cello

Saturday 1 March 2014 | 7.30pm

Julian Anderson AlleluiaBeethoven Symphony No. 9 (Choral)

Vladimir Jurowski conductorEmma Bell sopranoAnna Stéphany mezzo sopranoJohn Daszak tenorGerald Finley baritoneLondon philharmonic Choir

Booking details Tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65) London philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office 020 7840 4242 Monday–Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.ukTransaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone

Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 Daily 9.00am–8.00pm southbankcentre.co.ukTransaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone No transaction fee for bookings made in person

Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

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12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

London Philharmonic Orchestra Annual Appeal 2013/14

Tickets please!

Do you remember the first time you saw a symphony orchestra live on stage?

Every year the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s schools’ concerts allow over 16,000 young people to see and hear the Orchestra live. The LPO is the only orchestra in the UK to offer specific and tailored orchestral concerts for all ages – from primary school children aged five, through to 18-year-old A-level students. Six out of ten children attending the concerts will be experiencing an orchestra for the very first time.

Tickets for the concerts cost £9. We want to offer free tickets to 2,500 children from the most disadvantaged schools and we need your help to make this happen.

For a donation of just £9 you could buy a ticket for a child to attend one of our schools’ concerts. If you would like to donate more, you could buy tickets for three children (£27), a row of seats in the stalls (£108), or a whole class to attend (£270). Every donation of any size from our supportive audience will help us to fill our concert hall with new young audience members.

Please visit lpo.org.uk/ticketsplease, where you can select the seats you wish to buy, or call Katherine Hattersley on 020 7840 4212 to donate over the phone.

Thank you for supporting Tickets please!

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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

Spring tours

Tomorrow (18 January) the Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski will travel to Madrid to give two concerts at the Auditorio Nacional de Música. Tonight’s soloist Yulianna Avdeeva will once again perform Brahms’s Piano Concerto, and the Orchestra will give the Spanish premiere of James MacMillan’s Viola Concerto with soloist Lawrence Power, following last Wednesday’s world premiere here at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall.

Next month, the Orchestra, along with Glyndebourne Festival Opera soloists and chorus under Sir Mark Elder, will take Britten’s Billy Budd on tour to New York, where they will give four performances at the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s Howard Gilman Opera House. The cast includes Jacques Imbrailo as Billy Budd, Brindley Sherratt as Claggart and Mark Padmore as Captain Vere.

Other tours this spring include visits to Paris to perform Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 under Vladimir Jurowski; Germany with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and pianist Nicholas Angelich; and a tour to Moscow for a performance of Britten’s War Requiem with Jurowski.

Orchestra news

The Rest Is Noise nominated for South Bank Sky Arts Awards 2014

The Rest Is Noise, Southbank Centre’s year-long festival of 20th-century music that took place throughout 2013, featuring the LPO as the major orchestral partner, is among the nominees for the 2014 South Bank Sky Arts Awards. This is the only awards ceremony to celebrate the UK’s achievements across all genres of the arts.

The Rest Is Noise is nominated in the Classical Music category alongside Harrison Birtwistle’s Songs from the Same Earth, performed at the Aldeburgh Festival, and Thomas Adès’s Totentanz, performed at the BBC Proms.

Melvyn Bragg will act as Master of Ceremonies at the event on Monday 27 January at the Dorchester Hotel in London. The awards will be broadcast on Sky Arts 1 on Thursday 30 January at 9.30pm.

sky.com/tv/show/south-bank-awards

NOISE: discount tickets for students and under-26s

Are you a student or under 26? Come along to the London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday 26 February

and enjoy Bruckner’s Symphony No. 2 and Brahms’s Double Concerto for just £4 (students) or £8 (under-26s). Conductor Vladimir Jurowski is joined by violinist Julia Fischer and cellist Daniel Müller-Schott for what promises to be a fantastic concert of irresistible orchestral music.

Call the LPO Box Office on 020 7840 4242 and quote ‘NOISE £4’ or ‘NOISE £8’ to book tickets*. Plus, we’ll even throw in a free beer at our post-concert NOISE bar courtesy of the Orchestra’s Principal Beer Sponsor, Heineken.

lpo.org.uk/noise

* Student ID/proof of age required

Billy’s Band: new book by LpO trumpeter Dan Newell

LPO trumpet player Dan Newell has recently written and published The Jewel Thief, the second book in his ‘Billy’s Band’ series. The book and CD set is designed for teachers and parents of Key Stage 1 children (age 5–7) to help explore musical ideas. The accompanying CD includes fun activities in which

Billy guides children through vocal and rhythmic exercises, improvisation, tempo, pitch and different musical genres.

The CD features Simon Callow as the voice of Billy, and violinist Nicola Benedetti.

To find out more visit billysband.co.uk

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14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Catalyst: Double Your Donation

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is building its first ever endowment fund, which will support the most exciting artistic collaborations with its partner venues here in London and around the country.

Thanks to a generous grant pledge from Arts Council England’s Catalyst programme, the Orchestra is able to double the value of all gifts from new donors up to a maximum value of £1 million. Any additional gifts from existing generous donors will also be matched.

By the end of the campaign we aim to have created an endowment with a value of £2 million which will help us work with partners to provide a funding injection for activities across the many areas of the Orchestra’s work, including:

• Morevisionaryartisticprojectslike The Rest Is Noise at Southbank Centre• EducationalandoutreachactivitiesforyoungLondonerslikethisyear’sNoye’s Fludde performance project• IncreasedtouringtovenuesaroundtheUKthatmightnototherwisehaveaccesstogreatorchestralmusic

To give, call Development Director Nick Jackman on 020 7840 4211, email [email protected] or visit www.lpo.org.uk/support/double-your-donation.html

Masur CircleArts Council England Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Sharp FamilyThe Underwood Trust

Welser-Möst CircleJohn Ireland Charitable Trust

Tennstedt CircleSimon Robey The late Mr K Twyman

Solti patronsAnonymousSuzanne GoodmanThe Rothschild Foundation Manon Williams & John Antoniazzi

haitink patronsLady Jane Berrill Moya Greene Tony and Susie HayesLady Roslyn Marion LyonsDiana and Allan Morgenthau

Charitable TrustSir Bernard Rix TFS Loans LimitedThe Tsukanov Family Foundation Guy & Utti Whittaker

Catalyst Endowment Donors

pritchard DonorsAnonymousLinda BlackstoneMichael BlackstoneJan BonduelleRichard and Jo BrassBritten-Pears FoundationLady June ChichesterLindka CierachMr Alistair CorbettMark DamazerDavid DennisBill & Lisa DoddMr David EdgecombeDavid Ellen Commander Vincent EvansMr Daniel GoldsteinFfion HagueRebecca Halford HarrisonMichael & Christine HenryHoneymead Arts TrustJohn HunterIvan HurryTanya KornilovaHoward & Marilyn LeveneMr Gerald LevinDr Frank LimGeoff & Meg Mann

Ulrike ManselMarsh Christian TrustJohn MontgomeryRosemary MorganJohn OwenMr Michael PosenJohn PriestlandRuth RattenburyTim SlorickHoward SnellStanley SteckerLady Marina VaizeyHelen WalkerLaurence WattDes & Maggie WhitelockVictoria YanakovaMr Anthony Yolland

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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

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:

Corporate Members

Silver: AREVA UKBritish American BusinessCarter Ruck Thomas Eggar LLP

Bronze: Lisa Bolgar Smith and Felix Appelbe of

Ambrose AppelbeAppleyard & Trew LLP Berenberg BankBerkeley LawCharles RussellLeventis Overseas preferred partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli LtdSipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind SponsorsGoogle IncSela / Tilley’s Sweets

Trusts and Foundations

Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Ambache Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini TrustBorletti-Buitoni TrustBritten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The Ernest Cook TrustThe Coutts Charitable TrustThe D’Oyly Carte Charitable TrustDunard FundEmbassy of Spain, Office for Cultural

and Scientific AffairsThe Equitable Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable TrustThe Foyle FoundationJ Paul Getty Junior Charitable Trust Lucille Graham TrustThe Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris

Charitable TrustThe Hobson Charity The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing FoundationThe Leverhulme TrustMarsh Christian Trust The Mayor of London’s Fund for Young

Musicians

Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet TrustMaxwell Morrison Charitable TrustMusicians Benevolent FundThe Ann and Frederick O’Brien

Charitable TrustPalazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique

romantique françaisePolish Cultural Institute in London PRS for Music Foundation The R K Charitable TrustSerge Rachmaninoff Foundation The Samuel Sebba Charitable Trust Schroder Charity Trust Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable TrustThe John Thaw FoundationThe Tillett TrustSir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary

SettlementGarfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable TrustYouth Music

and others who wish to remainanonymous

Thomas Beecham GroupThe Tsukanov Family Foundation Anonymous

William and Alex de Winton Simon Robey The Sharp FamilyJulian & Gill Simmonds

Garf & Gill CollinsAndrew Davenport Mrs Sonja DrexlerDavid & Victoria Graham FullerJohn & Angela KesslerMr & Mrs MakharinskyGeoff & Meg MannCaroline, Jamie & Zander SharpEric Tomsett

Guy & Utti Whittaker Manon Williams & John Antoniazzi

principal BenefactorsMark & Elizabeth AdamsJane AttiasLady Jane BerrillDesmond & Ruth CecilMr John H CookDavid Ellen

Commander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel GoldsteinDon Kelly & Ann WoodPeter MacDonald Eggers Mr & Mrs David MalpasMr Maxwell MorrisonMr Michael PosenMr & Mrs Thierry SciardMr & Mrs G SteinMr & Mrs John C TuckerMr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Howard & Sheelagh WatsonMr Anthony Yolland

BenefactorsMrs A BeareMrs Alan CarringtonMr & Mrs Stewart CohenMr Alistair Corbett Mr David EdgecombeMr Richard FernyhoughKen FollettMichael & Christine HenryMalcolm HerringIvan HurryMr Glenn HurstfieldMr R K Jeha Per Jonsson

Mr Gerald LevinSheila Ashley LewisWg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAFDr Frank LimPaul & Brigitta LockMr Brian Marsh Andrew T MillsJohn Montgomery Mr & Mrs Andrew NeillMartin and Cheryl Southgate Professor John StuddMr Peter TausigMrs Kazue Turner Mr Laurie WattDes & Maggie WhitelockChristopher WilliamsBill Yoe and others who wish to remain

anonymous

hon. BenefactorElliott Bernerd

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

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16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Administration

Board of Directors

Victoria Sharp Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman*

Vice-PresidentRichard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. HøgelMartin Höhmann* George Peniston* Sir Bernard RixKevin Rundell* Julian SimmondsMark Templeton*Natasha TsukanovaTimothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Dr Manon Williams

* Player-Director

Advisory Council

Victoria Sharp Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Lord David CurrieAndrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Baroness ShackletonLord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Martin SouthgateSir Philip ThomasChris VineyTimothy Walker AMElizabeth Winter

American Friends of the London philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.

Jenny Ireland Co-ChairmanWilliam A. Kerr Co-ChairmanKyung-Wha ChungAlexandra JupinDr. Felisa B. KaplanJill Fine MainelliKristina McPhee Dr. Joseph MulvehillHarvey M. Spear, Esq.Danny Lopez Hon. Chairman

Noel Kilkenny Hon. DirectorVictoria Sharp Hon. DirectorRichard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA,

EisnerAmper LLP

Chief Executive

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager andFinance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager

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 CotterPA to the Chief Executive / Tours Co-ordinator

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant

Education and Community

Alexandra ClarkeEducation and Community Project Manager

Lucy DuffyEducation and Community Project Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Orchestra personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah Holmes Sarah ThomasLibrarians ( job-share)

Christopher AldertonStage Manager

Julia BoonAssistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Katherine Hattersley Charitable Giving Manager

Helen Searl Corporate Relations Manager

Molly Stewart Development and Events Manager

Sarah Fletcher Development and Finance Officer

Rebecca FoggDevelopment Assistant

Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Mia RobertsMarketing Manager

Rachel WilliamsPublications Manager

Samantha KendallBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Libby Northcote-GreenMarketing Co-ordinator

Ivan RaykovIntern

Digital projects

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Manager

public Relations

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive

professional Services

Charles RussellSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

London philharmonic Orchestra89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TPTel: 020 7840 4200Fax: 020 7840 4201Box Office: 020 7840 4242Email: [email protected]

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

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

Front cover photograph © Patrick Harrison.

Printed by Cantate.