12 October LPO Programme notes

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

Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOThY WALKER AM†

pROGRAMME £3

CONTENTS 2 Southbank Centre / Leader 3 Yannick Nézet-Séguin4 Aldo Ciccolini5 List of players 6 Sir Thomas Beecham8 Programme notes 13 Supporters 14 About the Orchestra 16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and

are given only as a guide.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family † supported by Macquarie Group

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

SIR ThOMAS BEEChAM ANNIVERSARY CONCERT

SOUThBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL hALLWednesday 12 October 2011 | 7.30pm

YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUINconductor

ALDO CICCOLINIpiano

WEBEROverture, Oberon (10’)

MOZARTPiano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K466 (28’)

Interval

SChUBERTSymphony No. 9 in C (Great) (50’)

WELCOME TO SOUThBANK CENTRE

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

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

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

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:

phOTOGRAphY is not allowed in the auditorium.

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

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

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

WELCOME

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

pIETER SChOEMANLEADER

WELCOME TO SOUThBANK CENTRE

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

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

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

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:

phOTOGRAphY is not allowed in the auditorium.

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

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

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

WELCOME

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

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YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUINCONDUCTOR

He made his début at Teatro alla Scala, Milan with the festival’s production of Roméo et Juliette in June 2011.

Highlights of Yannick’s 2011/12 season include an extensive tour of Germany with the Rotterdam Philharmonic and return visits to the Vienna Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle and Berlin Philharmonic. In addition, he will conduct Faust at the Metropolitan Opera and Don Carlo at the Netherlands Opera. He will also make his début at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden with Dvořák’s Rusalka.

Yannick’s first three Rotterdam Philharmonic recordings on the EMI/Virgin label comprise an Edison Award-winning album of Ravel’s orchestral works, the Beethoven and Korngold violin concertos with Renaud Capuçon, and Fantasy: A Night at the Opera with flautist Emmanuel Pahud. Recent releases with BIS Records include discs of Strauss (Ein Heldenleben/Four Last Songs) and Berlioz (Symphonie fantastique/La mort de Cléopâtre). His discography also includes several award-winning recordings with the Orchestre Métropolitain on the ATMA Classique label.

Yannick studied piano, conducting, composition and chamber music at the Quebec Conservatoire in Montreal and continued his studies with renowned conductors, most notably the Italian maestro Carlo Maria Giulini. His honours include a prestigious Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Virginia Parker Prize from the Canada Council in 2000, numerous Prix Opus from the Quebec Music Council, and Canada’s highly coveted National Arts Centre Award. He was awarded an honorary doctorate by the University of Quebec in Montreal in 2011.

At 36 years old, Yannick Nézet-Séguin is one of the most highly respected and sought-after conductors on today’s international classical music scene and has been widely praised by audiences, critics and artists alike for his

musicianship, dedication and charisma. He is Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and Artistic Director and Principal Conductor of the Orchestre Métropolitain in Montreal. He is also Music Director of the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, and in June 2010 was appointed Music Director Designate of the Philadelphia Orchestra – he will take up the full title of Music Director from the 2012/13 season.

A native of Montreal, Yannick has conducted all the major Canadian orchestras. Since his European début in 2004, he has appeared regularly with many of Europe’s leading orchestras including the Orchestre National de France, Dresden Staatskapelle, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. Yannick made his BBC Proms début in 2009 with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and returned the following year with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Recent highlights include highly successful tours of the Far East and North America with the Rotterdam Philharmonic, as well as his débuts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic (at the 2010 Salzburg Mozartwoche), Tonhalle Orchester Zürich, Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Philadelphia Orchestra, Los Angeles Philharmonic and Boston Symphony Orchestra.

A notable operatic conductor, Yannick made his critically acclaimed Metropolitan Opera début in December 2009 with a new production of Bizet’s Carmen and has since returned for a new production of Verdi’s Don Carlo. For the Netherlands Opera he has conducted Janáček’s The Makropulos Case and Puccini’s Turandot with the Rotterdam Philharmonic. Having made his début at the Salzburg Festival in 2008, he returned in 2010 for Don Giovanni with the Vienna Philharmonic and Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette with the Mozarteum Orchester Salzburg. Summer 2011 saw a revival of Don Giovanni.


Aldo Ciccolini is one of the few great masters of the piano. Now in his late eighties, he is still tirelessly performing at the highest level on the international stage. Aldo Ciccolini was born in Naples and

began piano lessons at an early age. He was admitted to the Naples Conservatory aged nine, where he studied piano and conducting and where, through his teachers, he inherited the teachings of Ferrucio Busoni and Franz Liszt. Despite his early success as a child prodigy, it was not long before he moved to Paris where he won the Marguerite Long-Jacques Thibaud International Competition in 1949. The phenomenal success that Aldo Ciccolini experienced in France unleashed his passion for French music. He became a fervent advocate of French music throughout the world, recording the complete works of Érik Satie – which brought him international fame – as well as music by Ravel and the complete works of Debussy. He has played as soloist under such distinguished conductors as Wilhelm Furtwängler, Ernest Ansermet, André Cluytens, Dmitri Mitropoulos, Charles Munch, Lorin Maazel, Carlos Kleiber, Georges Prêtre, Jean Martinon, Pierre Monteux, Michel Plasson, and alongside artists including the legendary soprano Elisabeth Schwarzkopf, for whom he always had the greatest admiration. With over 100 recordings for EMI-Pathé Marconi and other labels, Aldo Ciccolini has made an important contribution to increasing awareness of infrequently performed or unjustly neglected pieces, including sonatas by Schubert and Scarlatti, Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage and many works by Spanish composers. He has also recorded all of Mozart’s sonatas. 1990 saw the release of Ciccolini’s new version of Harmonies Poétiques et Religieuses by Liszt, his favourite composer. In 1992 he recorded the complete works of Debussy, followed by the complete Beethoven sonatas. He was awarded the Diapason d’Or for his recordings of Janáček (for Abeille Music) and Schumann (for

Cascavelles) in 2002, and for his Chopin Nocturnes in 2003. A recording of all 66 of Grieg’s Lyric Pieces and a new interpretation of Liszt’s Années de pèlerinage was awarded the ‘Choc de l’année’ in 2005 by the French magazine Le Monde de la Musique. Recipient of the Officer of the Legion of Honour, Officer of the National Order of Merit, Commandeur des Arts et Lettres, and the winner of several awards (the Edison Prize, Charles Cros Academy Prize, United States National Academy Prize and Disque Français prize), Aldo Ciccolini chose to become a French citizen in 1971 as a symbol of gratitude. The following year he accepted a post as teacher at the Paris Conservatoire, where his students have included Akiko Ebi, Géry Moutier, Jean-Yves Thibaudet, Artur Pizarro and Nicholas Angelich. In 1999 he celebrated a career in France spanning 50 years with a recital at the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées in Paris. In 2000 Ciccolini was named honorary president of the Associazione Musicale Aldo Ciccolini, an organisation devoted to promoting the cause of cultural and musical events in his native city of Naples.

ALDO CICCOLINIpIANO

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First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* Leader

(first half)Dennis Kim Guest Leader

(second half)Heather Badke Katalin VarnagyTina GruenbergMartin Höhmann

Chair supported by

Richard Karl Goeltz

Geoffrey LynnRobert PoolYang ZhangRebecca ShorrockPeter NallGalina TanneySarah BuchanCaroline Frenkel

Second ViolinsClare Duckworth Principal

Chair supported by

the Sharp Family

Jeongmin KimJoseph MaherKate Birchall

Chair supported by David

and Victoria Graham Fuller

Fiona HighamAshley StevensNynke HijlkemaDean Williamson Sioni WilliamsAlison StrangeMila MustakovaElizabeth Baldey

ViolasFiona Winning

Guest PrincipalRebekah NewmanRobert DuncanKatharine LeekBenedetto PollaniSusanne MartensEmmanuella Reiter-

BootimanSarah MalcolmMiranda DavisClaudio Cavalletti

CellosKristina Blaumane

PrincipalSusanne Beer Co-PrincipalFrancis BucknallLaura DonoghueSantiago Carvalho†Susanna RiddellSibylle HentschelTae-Mi Song

Double BassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalTim Gibbs Co-PrincipalLaurence LovelleGeorge PenistonRichard LewisTom Walley

FlutesJaime Martin PrincipalSusan Thomas Stewart McIlwham*

OboesIan Hardwick PrincipalAngela TennickSteve Hudson

ClarinetsRobert Hill* PrincipalEmily MeredithPaul Richards

BassoonsGareth Newman* PrincipalSimon EstellLaurence O’Donnell

hornsJohn Ryan* PrincipalMartin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth Mollison

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by

Geoff and Meg Mann

TrombonesMark Templeton*

PrincipalDavid Whitehouse

Bass TromboneLyndon Meredith Principal

TimpaniSimon Carrington* Principal

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

LONDON phILhARMONIC ORChESTRA


Chair SupportersThe London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert: John and Angela KesslerCaroline, Jamie and Zander SharpAndrew DavenportJulian & Gill Simmonds


SIR ThOMAS BEEChAM AND ThE LpOTonight’s concert is dedicated to the London philharmonic Orchestra’s founder Sir Thomas Beecham, in the 50th

anniversary year of his death. Beecham’s son, paul Strang, reflects on his father’s early years with the Orchestra.

I was not quite born when my father built and launched the orchestra which he christened the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and which he boasted on newsreel was by far the best he had ever had under his baton.

Having shrugged off financial catastrophe, Beecham was frustrated on his return to music in the 1920s by the long-established practice among London orchestral players of sending deputies to occupy their chairs, whether at rehearsals or performances, an abuse which made it impossible to secure any kind of continuity, as well as reducing rehearsal to the point of absurdity.

Beecham needed to ensure that the players with whom he would rehearse would be the same as those who presented themselves on the night of the performance. He also was determined to radicalise behaviour in other aspects and to weed out inadequate players. He required to have at his command a body of players over which he had sole artistic control, and who would be willing to accept his professional requirements. The BBC could not grant him the former, and no other orchestra was willing to submit to the latter.

Almost providentially, the rich industrialist Samuel Courtauld – carrying out the wishes of his late wife Elizabeth, and having the same views as Beecham – suggested the formation of a new orchestra under the proposed leadership of Malcolm Sargent and with a big budget to back it. The young Sargent felt he did not have the experience or authority to head this enterprise, so Courtauld invited Beecham.

Life was to change: the new orchestra’s members were not to be salaried, but guaranteed a specific number of engagements per year. Players had to be in their place five minutes before the start of every rehearsal, performance or recording session, and remain in place throughout. Players could accept outside engagements when not needed by the orchestra, but no deputies were permitted except in case of illness, in which case the orchestra manager would provide the deputy.

Shamelessly poaching the best players in London from elsewhere, and making up the numbers with the most talented youngsters he and his manager could recruit from London’s music conservatoires, Beecham and the LPO astonished the world with their first concert on 7 October 1932. They had some of the audience standing on their seats.

Beecham (centre) with Danish tenor Lauritz Melchior and German soprano Frida Leider on the set of the Ring cycle at the Royal Opera House in the 1930s.

This was to be the beginning of a seven-year golden age during which Beecham almost exhausted himself and his players with concert seasons and festival appearances all over the country, with a permanent residency at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, and a long list of now-famous recordings. The Beecham/LPO partnership established artistic levels which are still benchmarks for others to aspire to.

Concurrently with the launch of the Orchestra, Beecham signed a recording contract with Columbia and the LPO a contract with EMI. Beecham realised that the Orchestra would have to depend heavily on income from that source, access to his own family’s fortunes having been shut off to him by legal process. From 1932–40 the sheer number of recordings made was amazing; practically all the Mozart and many of the Haydn symphonies, symphonies by Brahms and Beethoven, live recordings from the Royal Opera House, and the famous series of performances for the Delius and Sibelius Society volumes stand out, among a myriad of other discs. I naturally have a particularly soft spot for the recording of the fourth act of La bohème; this followed performances at the Royal Opera House in which my mother had sung Mimi disguised as an unknown Italian diva; I treasure too the recordings of the Delius songs which my father and she made together with the LPO and which had earlier given so much pleasure to the blind composer when the two performed them together at his home in France.


During what was probably intended as a ‘gap year’, Beecham went to Australia, and then, with the Royal Opera House shut, very few recording possibilities and the Queen’s Hall destroyed in an air raid, he stayed for much of the war in America. The LPO, fending as best it could, transformed itself into a self-governing orchestra and managed with great difficulty to survive a very hard five years. When Beecham came back in September 1944 and sought to pick up where they had left off, both parties had to take stock of the changed circumstances; music-making had become democratised and the concept of a privately owned orchestra was no longer palatable to a body of players who had come to relish their independence. Beecham and the Orchestra played concerts and recorded together, but after a short while they went their separate ways.

Today the London Philharmonic Orchestra enjoys residencies at Southbank Centre and at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, and is a world leader in recording. The Orchestra can be proud of the standards in each of these fields which they and Beecham created over 70 years ago. Plus ça change …

Sir Thomas Beecham rehearsing the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Albert Hall on 7 October 1944

The number of music lovers who had the privilege to hear Beecham with the Orchestra in concert, whether at London’s Queen’s Hall or in the provinces (notably at the Leeds Festivals) is dwindling fast. What would one not give to have heard the première of Schoenberg’s Cello Concerto, Rachmaninov’s third symphony and Paganini Rhapsody with the composer as soloist, or the six-concert Sibelius festival in 1938? How many opera lovers alive today heard him and the LPO in the pit at Covent Garden during the 1930s? These were legendary seasons, especially of the Wagner operas, with casts worthy of Bayreuth and sometimes better. Even when production and vocal standards in other repertoire fell below the best, the Orchestra and its conductor would always emerge with flying colours.

It would have been surprising if such a wonderful epoch could have lasted. As the decade came to an end, the stock market crash had hit the pockets of Beecham’s wealthy backers hard (one had to sell her last remaining jewels), the shadow of war loomed ever larger and Beecham himself was beginning to feel physical strain. In June 1939 he announced he was going to take a rest. He may have felt that the revenue from the many records which he and the Orchestra had made might help tide them over what should have been a short while.

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pROGRAMME NOTES

‘Nothing from Mozart?’ asked Sir Thomas Beecham when, on his 70th birthday, congratulatory telegrams were read out from Strauss, Stravinsky and Sibelius. Tonight’s concert marks the 50th anniversary year of the death of the founder of the London Philharmonic Orchestra and of one of Britain’s greatest musical personalities by putting one of Mozart’s most profound piano concertos at its heart. Either side comes a Weber overture which Beecham recorded with the LPO in 1937, and one of the iconic symphonies of the 19th century, a work that Beecham conducted on numerous occasions and which for its famous length he once likened to ‘the Grand National’.

Speedread

OVERTURE, OBERONCarl Maria von WEBER

1786–1826

In August 1824 Weber – dangerously ill with tuberculosis but worried for his family’s financial future – accepted an invitation to compose and conduct a new opera for London’s Covent Garden Theatre. Of the two subjects proposed – Goethe’s Faust and Christoph Martin Wieland’s verse romance Oberon – Weber chose the latter, with its juxtaposition of two stories: a quarrel between the fairy-king Oberon and his queen Titania, and the more earthly concerns of Sir Huon of Bordeaux, a knight of Charlemagne.

Although Oberon is considered by some to be Wieland’s finest creation, the English libretto prepared for Weber by James Robinson Planché is a much less perfect work which turns the poem into a nonsensical mixture of pantomime and spectacle, yet the opera was warmly received at its première on 12 April 1826. For its ailing composer, however, the strain of the journey and of numerous rehearsals, performances and social events

was too much: on 5 June – the day before he was due to return to Germany – he was found dead in his lodgings in Great Portland Street.

Weber composed the overture to Oberon last, completing it only three days before the première. Like his overtures to Der Freischütz and Euryanthe, it presents in concentrated form some of the elements of the ensuing drama, distilling them into a loose sonata structure. In the slow introduction we hear the short horn figure associated with Oberon himself, followed by fragments of fairy music and the march of Charlemagne’s court. The main body of the piece also contains music from the opera, the surging first theme coming from a quartet in Act 2 and the tender second from one of Huon’s arias, while also included is part of the opera’s best-known number, ‘Ocean! Thou mighty monster’.


The decade which Mozart spent in Vienna from 1781 until his death was when he truly found his own voice as a composer, and nowhere is this new maturity and individuality better shown than in his piano concertos of the period. Altogether he wrote 17 of them while in the Imperial capital, mostly for himself to play at the public and private concerts which helped provide him with financial support, and as such they were the works with which he was most closely associated by his audiences. More importantly, it was with them that he established the piano concerto for the first time as a sophisticated means of personal expression rather than a vehicle for polite public display.

The high point in the series came with the five concertos composed in the period of just over a year from the beginning of 1785. K466 – completed and first performed in February 1785 – is chronologically at the head of this group, but musically speaking it also stands out in many ways. The composer’s father Leopold, visiting Vienna at the time, heard the première, and a little over a year later was organising a performance by a local pianist back in Salzburg. He later described the occasion in a letter to his daughter: ‘Marchand played it from the score, and [Michael, brother of Joseph] Haydn turned over the pages for him, and at the same time had the pleasure of seeing with what art it is composed, how delightfully the parts are interwoven and what a difficult concerto it is.’ One can well imagine the impression the piece made on the composer’s home town; there can be few clearer demonstrations of how far he had left Salzburg behind.

D minor is a relatively unusual key for Mozart, and therefore a significant one. Later he would use it both for

Don Giovanni’s damnation scene and for the Requiem, and there is something of the same grim familiarity with the dark side, a glimpse of the grave it seems, in the first movement of this concerto. The opening orchestral section contrasts brooding menace with outbursts of passion, presenting along the way most of the melodic material that will serve the rest of the movement. Even so, it is with a new theme, lyrical but searching and restless, that the piano enters; this is quickly brushed aside by the orchestra, but the soloist does not give it up easily, later using it to lead the orchestra through several different keys in the central development section. The movement ends sombrely, pianissimo.

The slow second movement, in B flat major, is entitled ‘Romance’, a vague term used in Mozart’s day to suggest something of a song-like quality. In fact this is a rondo, in which three appearances of the soloist’s artless opening theme are separated by differing episodes, the first a drawn-out melody for the piano floating aristocratically over gently throbbing support from the strings, and the second a stormy minor-key eruption of piano triplets, shadowed all the way by sustained woodwind chords.

Storminess returns in the finale, though this time one senses that it is of a more theatrical kind than in the first movement. It is another rondo, and although the main theme is fiery and angular, much happens in the course of the movement to lighten the mood, culminating after the cadenza in a turn to D major for the concerto’s final pages. A purely conventional ‘happy ending’ to send the audience away smiling? Perhaps so, but the gentle debunking indulged in by the horns and trumpets just before the end suggests that Mozart knew exactly what he was doing.

Wolfgang AmadeusMOZART

1756–1791

pIANO CONCERTO NO. 20 IN D MINOR, K466 ALDO CICCOLINI piano Allegro RomanzeRondo: Allegro assai

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


pROGRAMME NOTES

The C major symphony known today as Schubert’s Ninth – in fact he began at least a dozen symphonies and completed only seven – has also gained for itself the nickname ‘Great’. Partly this is to distinguish it from the shorter and lighter C major symphony (No. 6) that he composed during his teens, but it is also an acknowledgement of the work’s scale and ambition. Several decades before Bruckner, and several more before Mahler, this was a symphony not just of unusual length – though in this respect it was exceeded by some of Beethoven’s symphonies, while Schubert’s own ‘Unfinished’ might well have surpassed it had it been completed – but one which seems set from the beginning to express a feeling of space, openness, the great outdoors.

The date of its composition is uncertain, but it is generally thought that the bulk of the work was done during Schubert’s holiday in Upper Austria in the summer of 1825. Schubert was little regarded as a composer of instrumental music at this time, and public performances were few. When he offered it to Vienna’s leading concert society, the Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde, in the spring of 1828 they gave it a run-through rehearsal but rejected it as too difficult; Symphony No. 6 was more to their taste. After the composer’s death later in the year, the manuscript of the Symphony passed into the possession of his brother Ferdinand, and it was still there ten years later when Robert Schumann came to call. Schumann, recently chosen by the publishers to be the dedicatee of Schubert’s last three (long) piano sonatas, was looking for more undiscovered Schubert works and was delighted to come across a symphony of what he called ‘heavenly length’, ‘like a large-scale novel in four volumes by Jean Paul’. Thanks to Schumann’s advocacy

the work received its première (in a cut version) in Leipzig on 21 March 1839, with none other than Felix Mendelssohn conducting.

That the scale on which the ‘Great’ will unfold is a leisurely one is evident from the slow introduction, not the taut motivic time-bomb of a Haydn or a Beethoven but a gently undulating horn tune, subsequently embroidered by the rest of the orchestra. The first movement proper opens with a boisterous theme for unison strings answered by chattering woodwind, before moving on to a faintly folksy woodwind melody which somehow manages to be both perky and melancholy at the same time. Soon trombones begin gently intoning a three-note figure derived from the introductory horn-call’s fourth, fifth and sixth notes, and this is then recycled, to more menacing effect, in the central development section, in which other previously heard thematic fragments are also added to the mix. It is not until the coda, however, that the horn theme is heard again in full, in a brash orchestral restatement which binds the movement together with exemplary tidiness.

The ‘slow movement’ is not particularly slow. Though a spiritual cousin to the corresponding movement of Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony, it is considerably more easygoing, the trudging introductory bars leading to an almost jaunty oboe theme and, later, a warmly romantic new melody. A haunting transition passage marked out by tolling horn notes heralds a return of the first theme which builds to a grand Schubertian climax, after which both themes are heard again, this time in reverse order.

SYMphONY NO. 9 IN C MAJOR (GREAT)

Andante – Allegro ma non troppoAndante con motoScherzo & Trio: Allegro vivace Allegro vivace

FranzSChUBERT

1797–1828


An ebullient Scherzo follows, recalling Schubert’s dance music in the outer sections (though with a Beethovenian brusque energy) and evoking an almost Dvořákian rolling landscape in the broad central Trio. After this, the Finale offers energy of a different kind, an unstoppable flow of forward momentum set in motion by bounding fanfare figures and culminating in an exhilarating coda. As so often in Schubert, a loose-limbed structure is kept alive by a distinctly personal

sense of harmonic colour, and by a telling use of key relationships. By the end it is as if we have flown fast but majestically over mountain ranges and vast valleys, joyously viewing every vista along the way.

Programme notes © Lindsay Kemp


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

the conductor. The entire piece is in effect a meditation around the still point of a single note D, sustained throughout in varying colours. The ‘stillness’ of the title may also refer to its subdued volume. There is one other constant in the music: a figure repeatedly tapped out quietly by the side drum, which the composer described as a blues rhythm, but which could just as well be a ghostly reference to a recurring rhythm in the slow movement of Schubert’s String Quintet.

Around this fixed note and repeated rhythm, there are subtly shifting colours, little circling figures and rhythmic flourishes which become increasingly dense and elaborate, but all contained within a twilight world which some have seen as a foreshadowing of the composer’s imminent suicide.

Hearevery note

Are you hard of hearing or do you use a hearing aid? Did you know Royal Festival Hall, Queen Elizabeth Hall and Purcell Room all have free-of-charge equipment available to help you get the most out of the music you may be missing?

Visit the relevant cloakroom up to one hour before the performance to collect the equipment and learn how to use it effectively.

LPO prog 21 Sept 2011.indd 7 9/14/2011 4:44:14 PM

The Thomas Beecham Group

Established in memory of the Orchestra’s founder, the Thomas Beecham Group offers major individual donors the opportunity to become closely involved with the life and work of the Orchestra and to support the chair of a specific musician.

For further information please contact Nick Jackman on 020 7840 4211 or at [email protected]

13 January — 1 February2012

Get closer to Sergei Prokofiev

A festival curated by Vladimir Jurowski

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

lpo.org.uk/prokofiev

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

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Festival highlights include


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

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

The Mercers’ CompanyAdam Mickiewicz InstitutePaul Morgan Charitable TrustMaxwell Morrison Charitable TrustMusicians Benevolent FundThe Serge Prokofiev FoundationSerge Rachmaninoff FoundationThe Reed FoundationThe Seary Charitable TrustThe Samuel Sebba Charitable TrustThe David Solomons Charitable TrustThe Steel Charitable TrustThe Stansfield TrustThe Bernard Sunley Charitable FoundationThe Swan TrustJohn Thaw FoundationThe Thistle TrustThe Underwood TrustGarfield Weston FoundationYouth Music

and others who wish to remain anonymous

Thomas Beecham GroupThe Tsukanov Family

The Sharp FamilyJulian & Gill Simmonds

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

Mrs Sonja Drexler Guy & Utti Whittaker

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

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

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

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

hon. BenefactorElliott Bernerd

hon. Life MembersKenneth GoodeEdmund Pirouet Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

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

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

Corporate DonorLombard Street Research

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

LONDON phILhARMONIC ORChESTRA


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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Find out more and get involved!

lpo.org.uk

facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

twitter.com/LpOrchestra


Vintage Jansen

Tickets £9-£65London Philharmonic Orchestra 020 7840 4242 | lpo.org.uk (No fees)

Southbank Centre Ticket Office 0844 847 9920 | southbankcentre.co.uk (Booking fees apply)

Book for all three concerts and save 10%

Jani

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“Her playing is sensationally good” The Sunday Times

TchaikovskyViolin Concerto16 November 2011

MozartViolin Concerto No. 53 December 2011

ProkofievViolin Concerto No. 21 February 2012

Janine Jansen performs with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2011/12

ADMINISTRATION


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

Board of Directors

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

The London philharmonic Trust

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

American Friends of the London philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.

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

professional Services

Charles RussellSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

General Administration

Timothy Walker AM† Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Alison AtkinsonDigital Projects Manager

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager andFinance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager

Concert Management

Roanna GibsonConcerts Director

Ruth SansomArtistic Administrator

Graham WoodConcerts, Recordings andGlyndebourne Manager

Alison JonesConcerts Co-ordinator

Jenny ChadwickTours and Engagements Manager

Jo OrrPA to the Executive / Concerts Assistant

Matthew FreemanRecordings Consultant

Education & Community

Patrick BaileyEducation and Community Director

Anne FindlayEducation Manager

Caz ValeCommunity and Young Talent Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Orchestra personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah ThomasLibrarian

Michael PattisonStage Manager

Julia BoonAssistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Ken Graham TruckingInstrument Transportation(Tel: 01737 373305)

Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Harriet MesherCharitable Giving Manager

Alexandra RowlandsCorporate Relations Manager

Melissa Van EmdenEvents Manager

Laura LuckhurstCorporate Relations and Events Officer

Elisenda AyatsDevelopment and Finance Officer

Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Ellie DragonettiMarketing Manager

Rachel FryerPublications Manager

Helen BoddyMarketing Co-ordinator

Samantha KendallBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Valerie BarberPress Consultant(Tel: 020 7586 8560)

Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian PoleRecordings Archive

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

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

Photograph of Weber courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London.

Front cover photograph © Benjamin Ealovega.

Printed by Cantate. †Supported by Macquarie Group

12 October LPO Programme notes

Documents

Transcript of 12 October LPO Programme notes