London Philharmonic Orchestra 25 November concert programme

Concert programme2015/16 London Seasonlpo.org.uk

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI*Principal Guest Conductor ANDRÉS OROZCO-ESTRADALeader pIETER SChOEMAN†Composer in Residence MAgNUS LINDbERgPatron hRh ThE DUKE OF KENT Kg

Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOThY WALKER AM

Contents

2 Welcome3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Andrés Orozco-Estrada7 Johannes Moser8 Programme notes14 Sound Futures donors15 Supporters16 LPO administration

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

* supported by the Tsukanov Family Foundation † supported by Neil Westreich

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival hallWednesday 25 November 2015 | 7.30pm

Dvořák Cello Concerto in B minor, Op. 104 (40’)

Interval

Mahler

Symphony No. 1 in D (56')

Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor

Johannes Moser cello

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

Andrés Orozco-Estrada discusses his new role as the Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor.

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Welcome

New principal guest Conductor: Andrés Orozco-EstradaTonight we warmly welcome Andrés Orozco-Estrada as he makes his first appearance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra in his role as Principal Guest Conductor. Colombian-born Orozco-Estrada first worked with us in November 2013 conducting a major tour of Germany. His impressive energy and musicianship, combined with the immediate rapport that formed between him and the players, made him a perfect successor to Yannick Nézet-Séguin. Of his appointment Andrés said 'it makes me immensely proud to be the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor. The LPO is a superb orchestra and combines its long tradition with many forward-looking projects.' And we look forward to many exciting concerts with Andrés!

Classical Live The Orchestra is delighted to be part of Classical Live, a brand new recording program made exclusively for Google Play showcasing the great orchestras of the

world in recent live performances. It's yet another way for the Orchestra to expand its reach to new audiences across the globe. The first release is of a concert performed in March this year featuring excerpts from Prokofiev's Chout ('The Buffoon'), LPO Composer in Residence Magnus Lindberg's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Yefim Bronfman as soloist, and Stravinsky's Petrushka. Vladimir Jurowski conducts. classical-live.com

New LpO label releaseFor fans of Klaus Tennstedt, the perfect Christmas gift has just been released on the LPO label: a box set of Mahler symphonies with over seven glorious hours of music on 5 CDs. This box set documents the extraordinary relationship between Klaus Tennstedt and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and reveals Tennstedt’s particular affinity with Mahler. The set is priced at £49.99. lpo.org.uk/recordings/recordings-gifts.html

Welcome to Southbank Centre

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

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

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

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

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

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:

phOTOgRAphY is not allowed in the auditorium.

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

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

MObILES, pAgERS AND WATChES should be switched off before the performance begins.

Orchestra News

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

On stage tonight

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* Leader

Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Vesselin Gellev Sub-Leader

Ilyoung ChaeChair supported by an anonymous donor

Ji-Hyun LeeChair supported by Eric Tomsett

Katalin VarnagyChair supported by Sonja Drexler

Catherine CraigMartin Höhmann

Chair supported by The Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable Trust

Geoffrey LynnChair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert PoolSarah StreatfeildGrace LeeRebecca ShorrockAlina PetrenkoNilufar AlimaksumovaCaroline FrenkelGalina Tanney

Second ViolinsVictoria Sayles

Guest PrincipalKate Birchall

Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy ElanLorenzo Gentili-TedeschiFiona HighamNynke HijlkemaJoseph MaherMarie-Anne MairesseAshley StevensSheila LawJohn DickinsonAlison StrangeElizabeth BaldeyStephen Stewart

ViolasDavid Quiggle

Guest Principal Cyrille Mercier

Co-PrincipalRobert DuncanGregory AronovichKatharine LeekSusanne MartensBenedetto PollaniLaura VallejoDaniel CornfordSarah MalcolmPamela FerrimanStanislav Popov

CellosPei-Jee Ng PrincipalFrancis BucknallSantiago Carvalho†David LaleGregory WalmsleyElisabeth Wiklander

Chair supported by The Viney Family

Sue Sutherley Susanna RiddellHelen RathboneSibylle Hentschel

Double bassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalGeorge Peniston William ColeThomas WalleyKenneth KnussenIvan Rubido GonzalezCharlotte KerbegianLaura Murphy

FlutesCormac Henry

Guest PrincipalSue Thomas*

Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Stewart McIlwham*Clare Childs

piccoloStewart McIlwham*

PrincipalChair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

OboesIan Hardwick* PrincipalAlice MundayJenny BrittlebankSue Böhling*

Cor AnglaisSue Böhling* Principal

ClarinetsRobert Hill* PrincipalThomas Watmough Emily Meredith Paul Richards

E-flat ClarinetThomas Watmough Principal

bass ClarinetPaul Richards Principal

bassoonsRebecca Mertens

Guest PrincipalGareth NewmanSimon Estell

ContrabassoonSimon Estell Principal

hornsDavid Pyatt* Principal

Chair supported by Simon Robey

John Ryan* PrincipalChair supported by Laurence Watt

Martin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth MollisonStephen NichollsDuncan FullerRebecca Hill

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Nicholas Betts Co-Principal

Tony CrossRobin Totterdell

Offstage TrumpetsNiall KeatleyJohn MacDomnicSimon Munday

TrombonesMark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David WhitehouseEmma Bassett

bass TromboneLyndon Meredith Principal

TubaLee Tsarmaklis* Principal

TimpaniSimon Carrington* PrincipalHenry Baldwin

Chair supported by Jon Claydon

percussionAndrew Barclay* Principal

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

Keith MillarJeremy Cornes

harpRachel Masters* Principal

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

† Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Meet our members: lpo.org.uk/players

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


London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

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

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

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

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

Vladimir Jurowski produced one of those utterly compelling performances where the London Philharmonic Orchestra seemed to be playing as if their lives depended on it.Bachtrack, September 2015 (4 Stars)


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

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

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

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is committed to inspiring the next generation of musicians through an energetic programme of activities for young people. Highlights include the BrightSparks schools’ concerts and FUNharmonics family concerts; the Young Composers Programme; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Its work at the forefront of digital engagement and social media has enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel and regular podcast series, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more and get involved!

lpo.org.uk

facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

twitter.com/LpOrchestra

youtube.com/londonphilharmonic7

Pieter Schoemanleader

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

Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra. He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning

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

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

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

In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam and BBC Philharmonic orchestras. He is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance in London. Pieter's chair in the London Philharmonic Orchestra is supported by Neil Westreich.


a production of Don Giovanni. Highlights of the 2014/15 season included returns to the Orchestre National de France, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic as well as debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras. This season sees his debuts with the Cleveland and Philadelphia orchestras and a return to the Gothenburg Symphony following a highly successful debut in 2014.

Born in 1977 in Medellín (Colombia), Andrés Orozco-Estrada began his musical studies on the violin and had his first conducting lessons at the age of 15. In 1997, he moved to Vienna where he joined the conducting class of Uroš Lajovic, pupil of the legendary Hans Swarowsky, at the renowned Vienna Music Academy, completing his degree with distinction by conducting the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra at the Vienna Musikverein. While the emphasis of his artistic work lies in the Romantic repertoire and Viennese classics, at the same time, he shows a keen interest in contemporary music and regularly performs premieres of Austrian composers as well as new compositions of Spanish and South American origin. Andrés currently lives in Vienna with his wife and young daughter.

orozcoestrada.com

Andrés Orozco-Estrada was born in Colombia and trained in Vienna. This season he became the London Philharmonic Orchestra's Principal Guest Conductor. In September 2014, he took up the positions of Music Director of the Houston Symphony and Chief Conductor of the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Andrés first came to international attention in 2004 when he took over a concert with the Tonkünstler Orchestra Niederösterreich at the Vienna Musikverein. Numerous engagements with many international orchestras followed, and since then, he has developed a highly successful musical partnership with the Tonkünstler Orchestra, serving as Music Director from the 2009/10 season until 2015. Between 2009 and 2013, Orozco-Estrada was also Principal Conductor of the Orquesta Sinfónica de Euskadi (Basque National Orchestra).

He has worked with some of the world’s leading orchestras, including the Vienna Philharmonic, Munich Philharmonic, and Leipzig Gewandhaus orchestras, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, Norddeutscher Rundfunk Orchester in Hamburg (NDR), and the Orchestre National de France. In November 2012, Andrés Orozco-Estrada stepped in once again at short notice to replace Riccardo Muti with the Vienna Philharmonic in the Musikverein, proving to be a 'stand-in worth his weight in gold' (Kurier) and 'an inspired master of communication' (Standard).

During the 2013/14 season, he made his debuts with the Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and St Louis Symphony orchestras and also made his conducting debut at the Glyndebourne Festival Opera with

Andrés Orozco-Estradaconductor

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An aspiring young conductor with the musical world at his feet.

Spiegel, May 2013


A dedicated chamber musician, Moser has performed with Joshua Bell, Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos, Menahem Pressler, James Ehnes, Midori and Jonathan Biss. He is also a regular at festivals including the Verbier, Schleswig-Holstein, Gstaad and Kissinger festivals, the Mehta Chamber Music Festival, and the Colorado, Seattle and Brevard music festivals.

He was a recipient of the prestigious 2014 Brahms prize and his recordings have earned him two ECHO Klassik awards and the Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. He recently signed an exclusive contract with Pentatone and this autumn he released his first recording for the label, a disc of Dvořák and Lalo cello concertos. He has recorded the Britten Cello Symphony and Shostakovich Cello Concerto No. 1 with WDR Symphony Orchestra Cologne, conducted by Pietari Inkinen and released in January 2012.

Born into a musical family in 1979 as a dual citizen of Germany and Canada, Johannes Moser began studying the cello aged eight and became a student of Professor David Geringas in 1997. He was the top prize winner at the 2002 Tchaikovsky Competition, in addition to being awarded the Special Prize for his interpretation of the Tchaikovsky Rococo Variations.

In what little spare time he has, he is a voracious reader of everything from Kafka to Collins, and a keen hiker and mountain biker.

johannes-moser.com

Johannes Mosercello

German-Canadian cellist Johannes Moser has performed with the world’s leading orchestras including the Berlin Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Hong Kong Philharmonic, as well as the Chicago Symphony, Royal Concertgebouw, Tokyo Symphony, Philadelphia and Cleveland orchestras. He works regularly with conductors of the highest level including Riccardo Muti, Lorin Maazel, Mariss Jansons, Valery Gergiev, Zubin Mehta, Vladimir Jurowski, Franz Welser-Möst, Manfred Honeck, Christian Thielemann, Pierre Boulez, Paavo Jarvi, Semyon Bychkov, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, and Gustavo Dudamel.

This season, highlights include returns to the symphony orchestras of Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Nashville, San Diego, Vancouver, the Philadelphia Orchestra, and National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, and debuts with the Luxembourg Philharmonic, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and Russian National Orchestra.

He has a passion for new music and over the next season looks forward to working on new works with Julia Wolfe and Andrew Norman. In October 2012 he premiered Magnetar, a concerto for electric cello by Enrico Chapela, which Moser performed with the Los Angeles Philharmonic conducted by Gustavo Dudamel, and in the 2013/14 season, he continued this relationship with the orchestra performing Michel van der Aa's cello concerto Up-close.

From his 2010 American tour with toy pianist Phyllis Chen 'Sounding Off: A Fresh Look at Classical Music', to outreach activities on campuses and performances in alternative venues, Moser aims to present classical music in ways with which listeners of all ages can engage and connect.

The range of Moser’s sound is almost operatic, from deep, husky growls to floating, white pianissimos stripped of vibrato.

Natasha Gauthier, Ottawa Citizen, October 2015


Echoes of Bohemia and youthful love resound in tonight’s programme. Dvořák’s Cello Concerto – one of the greatest examples of its kind – was composed when he was 54 and nearing the end of his time as Director of the National Conservatoire in New York, and while the finale hints at the folk music of the country to which he was about to return, the central movement is a remembrance of a former beloved.

Mahler’s First Symphony is the surging creation of a man in his 20s who is already looking back to the world of his own Austro-Bohemian childhood, marvelling at nature and recalling early love-affairs. And while, as so often in his music, Mahler shows that life’s heartless ironies are there to be engaged, the work ends in what seems a blazing statement of a young man’s belief in the future.

Speedread

Programme notes

Few people are surprised today when a composer chooses to write a cello concerto. As the great examples by Dvořák, Elgar, Schumann, Walton and Shostakovich show, this noble, rich-toned, soulfully expressive and remarkably agile instrument makes a splendid concerto soloist. But when the Czech composer Antonín Dvořák wrote his Cello Concerto in 1894–5, even connoisseurs were surprised. When Johannes Brahms – composer of one of the greatest violin concertos in the repertoire – first saw Dvořák’s score, he exclaimed, ‘Why on earth didn’t I know that one could write a cello concerto like this? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago!’ Actually there’s no reason why Brahms should have known: in his and Dvořák’s day the cello was rarely played well as a solo instrument. In fact the situation

seems to have lasted for some time after Dvořák’s death. As late as 1939, the famous Manchester Guardian critic Neville Cardus complained of ‘the wasp-in-the-window effect which most times we have to put up with whenever a cellist gets to work.’ But there is also the issue of balance. The cello may seem to have a powerful voice, but its lower notes in particular can easily be overwhelmed if the orchestral accompaniment is too rich and strong. But Dvořák copes superbly with this potential problem. Though he uses a relatively large orchestra, the cello soloist rarely has to contend with anything like its full force. There are loud, impressive orchestral tuttis, but in these passages the cellist is mostly silent. The result is that, given a reasonably strong player, every note of the cello part should be audible. That must have been one of the Concerto’s features that so impressed Brahms.

Cello Concerto in b minor, Op. 104

Johannes Moser cello

1 Allegro2 Adagio ma non troppo3 Allegro moderato

AntonínDvořák

1841–1904


Beyond that, Brahms can hardly fail to have been impressed by Dvořák’s melodic writing. The Cello Concerto brims over with wonderful long tunes and characterful short motifs. Not all of these are initially identified with the cello. Like most concertos of the ‘classical’ era of Mozart and Beethoven, Dvořák begins the first movement with a long passage for orchestra alone. There is a darkly memorable theme for low woodwind at the start then, after the first big climax, a glorious long tune for solo horn. So when the cello enters for the first time, it not only has to cope with Dvořák’s technical assault course, it also has to establish a claim to these themes for itself.

In the slow movement, it is the cellist’s powers as an instrumental singer that are tested to the full. The first theme is relaxed and reflective, with strong suggestions of folksong. But this is interrupted by a darker minor-key central section. Here there is a definite autobiographical element. While Dvořák was working on the Concerto, he heard that his sister-in-law, Josefina Kaunitzova, was seriously ill – in his youth Dvořák had been in love with her. Josefina was particularly fond of Dvořák’s song ‘Leave me alone’ (Op. 82, No. 1), and in this slow movement he has the cello quote its melody just after the first stern entry of the trombones and tuba. This same melody re-appears near the end of the finale – this time in response to the news of Josefina’s death. The finale’s opening march theme does return in triumph to end the concerto, but that poignant reminiscence of lost love lingers in the memory – is this where the concerto’s heart truly lies?

Programme note © Stephen Johnson

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

Why on earth didn’t I know that one could write a cello concerto like Dvořák's? If I had only known, I would have written one long ago!’ Johannes brahms

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works

Dvořák: Cello ConcertoMstislav Rostropovich | London Philharmonic Orchestra | Carlo Maria Giulini [EMI]

Gregor Piatigorsky | Boston Symphony Orchestra | Charles Munch[RCA]

Mahler: Symphony No. 1London Philharmonic Orchestra | Klaus Tennstedt[LPO–0012 see below]

Klaus Tennstedt conducts Mahler on the LpO label

Symphony No. 1 (with Songs of a Wayfarer) LPO–0012 | £9.99

Symphony No. 2 (Resurrection) LPO–0044 | £10.99 (2 CDs)

Symphony No. 8 LPO–0052| £10.99 (2-CDs) (Gramophone Choice)

Symphony No. 6 LPO–0038 | £10.99 (2 CDs)

Box Set: Mahler Symphonies – Live in Concert LPO–0100 | £49.99 (5 CDs) NEW RELEASE

Available from lpo.org.uk/recordings and all good CD outlets. Available to download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify, Amazon and others.


Programme notes continued

Mahler’s symphonies are not just giants of the concert repertoire, they are supreme statements of human achievement in art. These are works any self-respecting orchestra needs to have in its repertoire, and which are popular with audiences too. But it was not always so. For the first 50 to 70 years of their existence (they were composed between 1884 and 1911, the year of Mahler’s death) they were widely denigrated as the overblown and eccentric final throes of late Romanticism. In the age first of Schoenberg and Stravinsky, and later Stockhausen and Boulez, musical opinion was suspicious of music conceived on such a lavish scale and with such apparently self-indulgent autobiographical content. ‘Absolute music’ was the more desirable goal, and Mahler’s searing emotionalism was scorned and banished to the margins.

His flame was kept alive during this period thanks to the advocacy of certain conductors – including his protégés Bruno Walter in Vienna and later America, and Willem Mengelberg in Holland – yet his symphonies failed to win a wider presence in the concert hall. At the Proms, for instance, there were only eleven Mahler symphony performances before the 1960s, and six of those were of No. 4. Assessments such as that of Vaughan Williams – that Mahler was a ‘tolerable imitation of a composer’ – were common. In the last half-century, however, the change in fortune could hardly have been more complete. To take the Proms again as an example, there have been over 160 Mahler symphony performances since 1962, with five in the most recent season alone. Recordings and radio have of course been largely responsible by creating fuller access, but that alone would not have been enough if the music had not proved in itself to be of massive and lasting greatness.

Wherein does that greatness lie? Well, part of Mahler’s achievement was to take the idea of the programmatic symphony and infuse it with the intense expressiveness of Wagner. The ‘programmes’ for his symphonies were more emotional trajectories than spelt-out narratives – and Mahler did not consider

them to be vital to the listener’s appreciation any more than Beethoven or Berlioz had before him – but their presence strengthens the music’s sense of direction and provides a way of binding together the disparate elements in symphonies lasting an hour or more. Mahler also extended the symphony’s communicative range by introducing into it song and song melody, with all the lyrical and textual enhancements that implies; and he developed pragmatic new movement schemes and took an adventurous approach to harmony and key relationships, often ending a symphony in a different key to the one in which it had started.

A symphony must be like the world, it must embrace everything.gustav Mahler to Jean Sibelius

What probably contributes most immediately to Mahler’s popularity today, however, is not so much its progressive features as that same subjective emotionalism for which he was originally condemned, and which finds realisation in symphonies of grand scale, vivid orchestration, ardent lyricism, probing harmony and vitalising counterpoint. His style is unique, unmistakable and fearlessly eclectic. Yearning romantic melodies jostle with Austrian folk-tunes, bugle calls and sounds from nature; vulgarity and distortion rub shoulders with warmth and beauty; and movements of monumental gravity, gut-wrenching terror or heaven-storming joy sit side-by-side with miniatures of exquisite tenderness and intimacy. The result is music that speaks to the open-minded listener with unfiltered power and directness. Over a century after they were written, the vagaries of musical fashion have fallen away and we are at the point where in Mahler’s music, as the conductor Lorin Maazel has put it, ‘we feel its moments of ecstatic rapture and catastrophic loss as if they were our own.’ ‘My time will come,’ Mahler once said. We are well and truly in it.

© Lindsay Kemp

Mahler's TimeLindsay Kemp explores why Mahler Symphonies are appreciated more today than during the composer's own lifetime.


1 Langsam. Schleppend – Immer sehr gemächlich [Slow, held back – Always very leisurely]

2 Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell – Trio: Recht gemächlich [Moving strongly, but not too fast – Trio: leisurely]

3 Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen – Sehr einfach und schlicht wie eine Volksweise [Solemn and measured, without dragging – Very simple, like a folk melody]

4 Stürmich bewegt – Sehr gesangvoll [Tempestuously – Very melodious]

Mahler once told a friend that his First Symphony was ‘the most spontaneous and daringly composed of my works’, a surprising remark when one considers that it probably took him over four years to write (from 1884 to 1888), and that even then it went through several revisions before reaching its final form. At its premiere in November 1889 in Budapest (where Mahler was at that time conductor of the Royal Opera), it had five movements and went under the title of ‘Symphonic Poem in two parts’; for subsequent performances in Hamburg and Weimar it acquired a title – ‘Titan’, after the novel by the German Romantic writer Jean Paul – and also a written programme; and it was not until its fourth performance, in Berlin in 1896, that it emerged as more or less the four-movement ‘Symphony’ we know today (and will hear tonight), without title or programme, and without the original second movement entitled ‘Blumine’ (‘Flowers’). Clearly his initial feeling that ‘it would be child’s play for performers and listeners’ was somewhat misplaced, and indeed audience reaction to the Symphony in its early years of existence was hostile. That may explain Mahler’s indecision over how to present it but, for all that, this debut by one of the greatest of all symphonists has a bursting energy and freshness to it that can make the blood run faster in the veins.

Mahler’s suppressed programme for the ‘Symphonic Poem’ labelled its two parts as ‘From the Days of Youth’ (movements 1 and 2) and the Dante-esque ‘Commedia humana’ (movements 3 and 4). Certainly there is a nostalgic feel to the first movement; even though Mahler was only in his mid-20s when he began it, it is filled with sounds remembered from his Moravian childhood, particularly in the spaciousness of the opening pages, which present a wide-open sonic landscape peppered by cuckoo cries and bugle calls from distant barracks. ‘The awakening of nature and early dawn’ was how Mahler described it in his programme, a phenomenon he may well have missed in his busy conducting career. Eventually the music coalesces into melody and moves into the main part of the movement, where again there is a sense of looking back as Mahler borrows a theme from ‘Ging heut' Morgen übers Feld’, one of his Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ('Songs of a Wayfarer') composed around the same time as the Symphony was begun. The initially radiant but ultimately darkening song had recalled a youthful love gone wrong, and was inspired by just such an episode in Mahler’s own life. The symphonic movement, however, ends in optimistic vein.

The second movement is rustic and strongly rhythmic, Mahler’s affectionate evocation of the rural dances of his childhood and their favourite form, the waltz-like Ländler. Again there is melodic material derived from a song – ‘Hans und Grethe’ from his Lieder and Gesänge of the early 1880s – though this time less overtly presented and without apparent specific significance. A central ‘Trio’ brings a more graceful mood, before the bucolic lurchings of the first section return.

The ‘Human Comedy’ part of the Symphony opens with a funeral march, though one weirdly based on the nursery tune of ‘Frère Jacques’ (or ‘Bruder Martin’,

Symphony No. 1 in DGustavMahler

1860–1911


as Mahler would have known it), initially intoned by a glassily muted solo double bass and then taken up and adorned by the other instruments over stately-treading timpani and basses. Mahler’s programme explains that it was inspired by a well-known engraving from an Austrian children’s book, showing a huntsman’s funeral in which the coffin is attended by an assortment of woodland animals and village musicians. ‘The movement is intended to express alternately the moods of jesting irony and eerie brooding’, Mahler declared; the former can certainly be heard in the episode of Klezmer-like band music that appears twice, but there is also a central episode, based on another Gesellen song, ‘Die zwei blauen Augen’ which offers perhaps the most dreamily reposeful moments in the whole Symphony.

The mood is shattered by the intrusion of the last movement – ‘Dall’ Inferno al Paradiso, as the sudden cry of a wounded heart’ according to the discarded programme. The movement brings together material from its predecessors, but there is more than a formal struggle going on here. The frenzied anguish of the opening gives way to a long and consoling string theme, but bursts out again, only to be challenged by a new version of the first theme, proposed quietly at first by the trumpets but then quickly growing in confidence. A return of the nature music of the Symphony’s opening questions the seeming inevitability of the direction things are taking, but eventually the main theme creeps back in on violins to begin its inexorable build towards a final peroration, which, when it comes, is as life-affirmingly emphatic as in any Mahler 02111.1

Programme note © Lindsay Kemp

Programme notes continued

Extract taken from Mahler the Teacher by Richard Bratby printed in the Autumn/Winter 2015 edition of Tune In, our free magazine. Copies are available at the Information Desk in the foyer or phone the LPO office on 020 7840 4200 to receive one in the post. Also available digitally:lpo.org.uk/explore/news/

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LPO Principal Guest Conductor Andrés Orozco-Estrada

As Andrés Orozco-Estrada points out, Mahler knew at first-hand what a conductor needed from a score – and he provided it in spades. ‘My present to myself at Christmas 1997 was a score of Mahler’s First, and I was amazed by the German instructions he’d written all over the music’ he recalls. ‘There were just so many words – not only musical terms, but even how to conduct: saying where you need to beat in 8 or in 4, which melody or counter-melody to bring out. I started translating them all, but it was only a pocket score, so before long I’d covered the entire thing in Post-It® notes! I thought, this is a composer and a conductor in one.’

And yet the Symphony communicates with incredible directness and freshness. ‘When I first came to Vienna, I sang as a tenor in Mahler’s Eighth Symphony: I felt then that I had a deep emotional connection with Mahler’s music, and I wanted to explore his whole universe from the beginning. The opening of the First Symphony is like the entrance to that new universe. He marks it naturlaut – like a sound of nature – and once the movement gets going, it’s just very singable: in fact, the first theme is taken from one of his songs. That’s one of the very modern things about Mahler’s instrumental music – you can sing it’.


at Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 9 December 2015 | 7.30pm

Wagenaar Overture, Cyrano de BergeracMagnus Lindberg Violin Concerto No. 2 (world premiere)* beethoven Symphony No. 7

Jaap van Zweden conductor Frank peter Zimmermann violin

*Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Berliner Philharmoniker and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.

pLAYINg ThE bARD IN 2016

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

celebrating the Bard’s love of music, culminating in an Anniversary Gala Concert directed by Simon Callow on 23 April. Join the LPO at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall and dive into a musical world born of the words of the legendary William Shakespeare.

FIND OUT MORE: LpO AND ShAKESpEARE400 lpo.org.uk/shakespeare

Friday 27 November 2015 | 7.30pm JTI FRIDAY SERIES

Liadov From the Apocalypse prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 2 Sibelius Symphony No. 1

Susanna Mälkki conductor beatrice Rana piano

Live broadcast on BBC Radio 3

Friday 4 December 2015 | 7.30pmJTI FRIDAY SERIES

puccini Tosca (excerpts) Rota Suite, La Strada Respighi Pines of Rome

Enrique Mazzola conductor Maria Luigia borsi Tosca Thiago Arancam Cavaradossi Vittorio Vitelli Scarpia

Tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65)

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


Sound FutureS donorS

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

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

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

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

Solti patronsAgeas John & Manon AntoniazziGabor Beyer, through BTO

Management Consulting AGJon ClaydonMrs Mina Goodman & Miss

Suzanne GoodmanRoddy & April GowThe Jeniffer & Jonathan Harris

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

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

The Rothschild FoundationTom & Phillis SharpeThe Viney Family

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

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

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

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

Charitable TrustTimothy Walker AMChristopher WilliamsPeter Wilson SmithMr Anthony Yolland

And all other donors who wish to remain anonymous


We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas beecham group patrons, principal benefactors and benefactors:

Thomas beecham group

The Tsukanov Family Foundation

Neil Westreich

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

hon. benefactorElliott Bernerd

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

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

Corporate Members

Silver: Accenture BerenbergCarter-Ruck We are AD

bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLPBTO Management Consulting AGCharles Russell SpeechlysLazardLeventis Overseas

preferred partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Sipsmith Steinway Villa Maria

In-kind SponsorsGoogle Inc

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

Charitable TrustHelp Musicians UK The Idlewild Trust Kirby Laing Foundation The Leche Trust The London Community Foundation London Stock Exchange Group FoundationLord and Lady Lurgan Trust Marsh Christian TrustAdam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet Trust

The Ann and Frederick O’BrienCharitable Trust

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

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

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

and all others who wish to remain anonymous


Administration

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

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

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

Stephanie Yoshida

Chief Executive

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Amy SugarmanPA to the Chief Executive / Administrative Assistant

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager and Finance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager

Dayse GuilhermeFinance Officer

Concert Management

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director

Graham WoodConcerts and Recordings Manager

Jenny Chadwick Tours Manager

Tamzin Aitken Glyndebourne and UK Engagements Manager

Alison JonesConcerts and Recordings Co-ordinator

Jo CotterTours Co-ordinator Orchestra personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah Holmes Sarah ThomasLibrarians ( job-share)

Christopher AldertonStage Manager

Damian Davis Transport Manager

Madeleine Ridout Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Education and Community

Isabella Kernot Education Director (maternity leave)

Clare Lovett Education Director (maternity cover)

Talia LashEducation and Community Project Manager

Lucy DuffyEducation and Community Project Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Catherine Faulkner Development Events Manager

Kathryn HagemanIndividual Giving Manager

Laura Luckhurst Corporate Relations Manager

Anna Quillin Trusts and Foundations Manager

Rebecca FoggDevelopment Co-ordinator

Helen Yang Development Assistant

Kirstin PeltonenDevelopment Associate

Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Libby Northcote-GreenMarketing Manager

Rachel WilliamsPublications Manager (maternity leave)

Sarah BreedenPublications Manager (maternity cover)

Samantha CleverleyBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Anna O’ConnorMarketing Co-ordinator

Natasha Berg Marketing Intern

Digital projects

Alison Atkinson Digital Projects Director

Matthew Freeman Recordings Consultant public Relations

Albion Media (Tel: 020 3077 4930) Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian Pole Recordings Archive professional Services

Charles Russell SpeechlysSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

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

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

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

Printed by Cantate.

Documents

London Philharmonic Orchestra 25 November concert programme