London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 3 Dec 2014

I N S I D E O U T

lpo.org.uk/rachmaninoffConcert programme

Winner of the RPS Music Award for Ensemble

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI*Leader PIEtER SchOEMAn†Composer in Residence MAgnUS LInDbERgPatron hRh thE DUKE OF KEnt Kg

Chief Executive and Artistic Director tIMOthY WALKER AM

contents

2 Welcome LPO 2014/15 season3 On stage tonight 4 About the Orchestra5 Leader: Pieter Schoeman 6 Vladimir Jurowski7 Igor Levit8 Programme notes11 Recommended recordings Rachmaninoff: Inside Out12 Next concerts14 Supporters15 Sound Futures donors16 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 3 December 2014 | 7.30pm

Szymanowski Concert Overture (16’)

Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London

Scriabin Piano Concerto in F sharp minor (27’)

Interval

Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1 in D minor (41’)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

Igor Levit piano

In co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation

Free pre-concert talk 6.15pm–6.45pm | Royal Festival hallProfessor Stephen Downes, a specialist in 20th-century music, looks at the often overlooked influence of Scriabin.

This concert is being broadcast live by the BBC on Radio 3 Live In concert – live concerts every day of the week. Listen online in HD Sound for 30 days at bbc.co.uk/radio3

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Welcome

Welcome to Southbank centre

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

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

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

We look forward to seeing you again soon.

A few points to note for your comfort and enjoyment:

PhOtOgRAPhY is not allowed in the auditorium.

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

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

MObILES, PAgERS AnD WAtchES should be switched off before the performance begins.

London Philharmonic Orchestra 2014/15 season

Welcome to tonight’s London Philharmonic Orchestra concert at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, part of our season-long festival Rachmaninoff: Inside Out. Whether you’re a regular concert-goer, new to the Orchestra or just visiting London, we hope you enjoy your evening with us. Browse the full season online at lpo.org.uk/performances or call 020 7840 4242 to request a copy of our 2014/15 brochure.

Other highlights of the season include:

• Appearances by today’s most sought-after artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati.

• Premieres of works by Magnus Lindberg, Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, a children’s work, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, by Colin Matthews, and a new piece for four horns by Titanic composer James Horner.

• Choral highlights with the London Philharmonic Choir include Stravinsky’s Requiem Canticles, Verdi’s Requiem, Rachmaninoff’s Spring and The Bells, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé and Janáček’s Glagolitic Mass.

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

On stage tonight

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* Leader

Chair supported by Neil Westreich

Ilyoung ChaeChair supported by an anonymous donor

Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Catherine CraigThomas EisnerMartin HöhmannGeoffrey Lynn

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert PoolSarah StreatfeildYang ZhangGrace LeeRebecca ShorrockAlina PetrenkoGalina TanneyAmanda SmithIshani Bhoola

Second ViolinsAndrew Storey

Guest PrincipalJeongmin KimJoseph MaherNancy ElanLorenzo Gentili-TedeschiFiona HighamNynke HijlkemaMarie-Anne MairesseAshley StevensFloortje GerritsenDean WilliamsonSioni WilliamsStephen StewartJohn Dickinson

ViolasCyrille Mercier PrincipalRobert DuncanGregory AronovichSusanne MartensBenedetto PollaniLaura VallejoNaomi HoltDaniel CornfordMartin FennSarah MalcolmPamela FerrimanLinda Kidwell

cellosKristina Blaumane

PrincipalDaniel GardnerFrancis BucknallLaura DonoghueSantiago Carvalho†David LaleGregory WalmsleyElisabeth WiklanderSue Sutherley Susanna Riddell

Double bassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalTim Gibbs Co-Principal Laurence LovelleGeorge PenistonRichard LewisLowri MorganSebastian PennarHelen Rowlands

FlutesMaría José Ortuño Benito

Guest PrincipalSue Thomas*

Chair supported by Victoria Robey OBE

Stewart McIlwham*

PiccoloStewart McIlwham*

Principal

OboesIan Hardwick* PrincipalMichael O’DonnellSue Böhling*

cor AnglaisSue Böhling* Principal

clarinetsPeter Sparks

Guest PrincipalThomas Watmough Emily Meredith

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* PrincipalMartin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth MollisonMeilyr Hughes

trumpetsNicholas Betts PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

David Geoghegan

trombonesMark Templeton* Principal

Chair supported by William & Alex de Winton

David Whitehouse

bass tromboneLyndon Meredith Principal

tubaLee Tsarmaklis* Principal

Chair supported by Friends of the Orchestra

timpaniSimon Carrington* Principal

PercussionAndrew Barclay* Principal

Chair supported by Andrew Davenport

David JacksonKeith MillarJames BowerSarah Mason

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 players are not present at this concert: Sonja Drexler • David & Victoria Graham Fuller • Neil Westreich


London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with its present-day position as one of the most dynamic and forward-looking ensembles in the UK. 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. From September 2015 Andrés Orozco-Estrada will take up the position of Principal Guest Conductor. Magnus Lindberg is the Orchestra’s current Composer in Residence.

The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since the Hall’s opening in 1951 and been Resident Orchestra since 1992. It gives around 30 concerts there each season with many of the world’s top conductors and

soloists. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra collaborated with Southbank Centre on the year-long The Rest Is Noise festival, charting the influential works of the 20th century. 2014/15 highlights include a season-long festival, Rachmaninoff: Inside Out, exploring the composer’s major orchestral masterpieces; premieres of works by Harrison Birtwistle, Julian Anderson, Colin Matthews, James Horner and the Orchestra’s new Composer in Residence, Magnus Lindberg; and appearances by many of today’s most sought-after artists including Maria João Pires, Christoph Eschenbach, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Osmo Vänskä, Lars Vogt, Barbara Hannigan, Vasily Petrenko, Marin Alsop, Katia and Marielle Labèque and Robin Ticciati.

Outside London, the Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Each summer it 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 Western orchestra.

Full marks to the London Philharmonic for continuing to offer the most adventurous concerts in London.The Financial Times, 14 April 2014


Touring remains a large part of the Orchestra’s life: highlights of the 2014/15 season include appearances across Europe (including Iceland) and tours to the USA (West and East Coasts), Canada and China.

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 organ works by Poulenc and Saint-Saëns with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; Strauss’s Don Juan and Ein Heldenleben with Bernard Haitink; Shostakovich’s Symphonies Nos. 6 & 14 and Zemlinsky’s A Florentine Tragedy with Vladimir Jurowski; and Orff’s Carmina Burana with Hans Graf. 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.


Vladimir JurowskiPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

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One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow and studied at the Music Academies of Dresden and Berlin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Nabucco.

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

He is a regular guest with many leading orchestras in both Europe and North America, including the Berlin, New York and St Petersburg Philharmonic orchestras; the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra; The Philadelphia Orchestra; The Cleveland Orchestra; the Boston, San Francisco and Chicago symphony orchestras; and the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Mahler Chamber Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden and Chamber Orchestra of Europe.

His opera engagements have included Rigoletto, Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades, Hansel and Gretel and Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera, New York; Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opéra national de Paris; Eugene Onegin at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and numerous operas at Glyndebourne including Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Cunning Little Vixen, Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons, and Ariadne auf Naxos.

Quite apart from the immaculate preparation and the most elegant conducting style in the business, Jurowski programmes with an imagination matched by none of London’s other principal conductors.The Arts Desk, December 2012

lpo.org.uk/about/jurowski

Watch a video of Vladimir Jurowski introducing the LPO 2014/15 season: lpo.org.uk/whats-on/season14-15.html


Igor Levitpiano

The 2014/15 season marks Igor Levit’s debuts with the San Francisco Symphony under Pablo Heras-Casado, the hr-Sinfonieorchester under Andrew Manze and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Lionel Bringuier. Recital performances see him appear at Frankfurt’s Alte Oper, the Prinzregententheater Munich, the Laeiszhalle Hamburg, the Konzerthaus Berlin, Copenhagen’s Black Diamond, Birmingham’s Town Hall and Zurich’s Tonhalle. London’s Wigmore Hall is dedicating an introductory series to Igor Levit, featuring three solo recitals throughout the season. He returns in recital to Germany’s summer festivals: Ludwigsburger Schlossfestspiele, Klavierfestival Ruhr, Kissinger Sommer and Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, and continues his Beethoven Sonata Cycle at the Schubertiade in Austria.

Last season Igor Levit celebrated both his recital and orchestral debuts on the main stage of Vienna’s Musikverein to great critical acclaim: stepping in for Maurizio Pollini in June 2014 and for Hélène Grimaud (with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons) in March 2014. Only four days earlier, on 12 March 2014, he made his New York City recital debut at the Park Avenue Armory to effusive reviews both by The New Yorker and The New York Times. Further recital performances in 2013/14 saw him appear at Zurich’s Tonhalle, the Berlin Philharmonie and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. The season also marked his debuts with the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, the Konzerthausorchester Berlin and the Royal Scottish National Orchestra. He was Artist in Residence at the Kissinger Sommer Festival, as well as Preisträger in Residence at the Festspiele Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.

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An exclusive recording artist for Sony Classical, Igor Levit’s debut disc, of the five last Beethoven sonatas, won the BBC Music Magazine Newcomer of the Year 2014 Award, the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Young Artist Award 2014 and the ECHO 2014 award for Solo Piano Recording of the Year (19th-century music). His second recording for Sony – JS Bach’s Six Partitas – was released in August 2014.

A major new pianist has arrived.The New York Times, March 2014

igorlevit.com

twitter.com/igorpianist


Programme notes

How should a composer react to an utter flop? When his First Symphony bombed in 1897, the young Rachmaninoff was plunged into depression and creative silence. The composer had embarked upon a significant, fascinating and legitimate new symphonic path in music of a distinctly new emotional strength and aesthetic feel. We can recognise that now, when we view his maligned First Symphony retrospectively through the prism of his more readily accepted Second and Third. Can the disastrous first performance of the First Symphony be blamed on the poor orchestral display on the night?

Perhaps. Things were rather more complicated for Alexander Scriabin, a more outlandish visionary than Rachmaninoff and more of a loose cannon, too. Scriabin’s Piano Concerto was premiered just six months after Rachmaninoff’s symphony, and

again the St Petersburg audience didn’t much like what they heard. Perhaps in Scriabin’s case, the elusive radiance and ‘synaesthetic’ colours of his Piano Concerto were just a little too much for the unprepared 19th-century audience to stomach. This was, after all, a composer who believed himself nothing less than a messiah, destined to bring about cataclysmic worldwide change during the course of one extraordinary concert (which never happened).

A decade later in Poland, Karol Szymanowski had rather more realistic (if equally global) aims, namely to proclaim the confidence and legitimacy of a young Poland in music. Szymanowski’s rollicking Concert Overture would certainly have done that – proving that Poland had distinct musical individuality while being canny enough to learn from the musical models of its more established European neighbours.

Speedread

When Karol Szymanowski enrolled at the conservatoire in Warsaw in 1901, Poland wasn’t just a musical backwater, it was a young country fighting for survival. Recognising both the challenge and opportunity of their homeland’s predicament, a group of Polish musicians established a collective under the banner ‘Young Poland in Music’. The group announced its existence on 6 February 1906 with a concert in Warsaw launched by an arresting Concert Overture by its youngest and most creatively significant member: Karol Szymanowski.

Szymanowski was an exact contemporary of Webern, Bartók and Stravinsky, but given his native Poland’s pawn-like political status he would never enjoy the

prominence of those illustrious figures in his lifetime. The Concert Overture – in the heroic cut of its themes and in its insistent, pulsating passion – seems to protest against that with extremes of volume, opulence and craft; the late Romantic canvases of Strauss and Reger meeting Szymanowski’s more exotic harmonic taste and his penchant for ominous orchestral darkness.

The Concert Overture would have sounded even more opulent in 1906, as Szymanowski rescored it six years later to make the published version ‘leaner and more eloquent.’ He also removed the inscription from Tadeusz Miciński’s poem Witeź Włast (‘Knight Witeź’), ‘I will not play you sad songs, O shades! But I will give you

Piano concerto no. 3 in D minor, Op. 30

Simon trpčeski piano

1 Allegro ma non tanto2 Intermezzo: Adagio –3 Finale: Alla breve

KarolSzymanowski

1882–1937

concert Overture, Op. 12


It’s Alexander Scriabin’s utter individuality – incorporating his extraordinary beliefs – that makes him such a significant composer even a century after his death. Scriabin had a truly global imagination that stretched far beyond music’s accepted boundaries. For him, performance was a participatory act that had almost baptismal effects on its gathered audience. Technically he was equally visionary: as his musical language progressed, it somehow transcended tonality – the traditional harmonic language of Western music – not progressing towards modernist ‘atonality’ but rather developing a harmonic language all of its own.

Not long after his death, though, the commentator Boris de Schloezer described Scriabin as ‘the only true Romantic musician produced by Russia’. After a series of early piano works heavily influenced by the poetry and simplicity of Frédéric Chopin, Scriabin began to move towards a wholeheartedly more Romantic sound; this was the period that produced the Piano Concerto. Chopin’s shadow remains in the intricacy and detail of the writing, but the first movement’s spinning out of

AlexanderScriabin

1872–1915

Piano concerto in F sharp minor, Op. 20 Igor Levit piano

1 Allegro2 Andante3 Allegro moderato

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

a string melody beneath piano decoration points veritably towards Rachmaninoff, as does the naturalised Slavic feel of Scriabin’s weaving themes.

In addition, signs of the radical Scriabin that emerged after 1900 are beginning to reveal themselves. The composer’s ‘synaesthetic’ ability to instinctively translate musical notes into colours would become increasingly important, and this Concerto’s central Andante, a set of variations, adopts that principle – cast reportedly in the ‘bright blue’ of F sharp minor. In the final movement you can sense the curious brand of radiance that would become so recognisably Scriabin’s own: neither Romantic, impressionistic nor atonal; so teasing with the listener’s expectations. All this, and there remains a distinctly Chopinesque sense of proportion and refinement to the piece. St Petersburg was unimpressed at the premiere in October 1897. Seventeen years later, though, Scriabin found a warm and appreciative audience for the Concerto, its eyes transfixed on him at the piano stool. It was here, in London.

a triumph proud and fierce.’ The confident sentiments of that poem, and the spirit of Strauss’s orchestral cavalier Don Juan, are stamped through the work from its strident opening (score markings include ‘ecstatico’, ‘passionato’ and ‘stridente’). There follows a ‘sweet, loving’ secondary idea in the browner hues of clarinets and cellos, a subsequent section in which the main theme is examined and developed with alternating excitability and introspection, and the expected return to the heady pace of the work’s opening.


Programme notes continued

In the mid-1890s it must have looked like Rachmaninoff had the world at his feet. As he began work on his First Symphony, the young composer had been awarded (via Tchaikovsky) the highest mark possible by the Moscow Conservatory and had already completed a draft of his brilliant First Piano Concerto.

Then, on 27 March 1897 in St Petersburg, disaster struck. Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony was premiered under the baton of a reportedly drunk Alexander Glazunov. It was an unmitigated flop. ‘If there was a conservatory in hell and one of its students were to compose a symphony similar to Rachmaninoff’s’, wrote Cesar Cui, one of the most influential Russian composers of the day, ‘he would have delighted the inhabitants.’

For Rachmaninoff, who had cowered in a backstage stairwell as Glazunov did his worst, the experience prompted an extended depression and a retreat from composing for three years. And wrapped up in all that pain may well have been the Symphony’s equally fraught subject matter. Rachmaninoff dedicated the piece to Anna Lodyzhenskaya, a married woman with whom he had become infatuated. An inscription on the score quoted Tolstoy, specifically his story of a fatal extra-marital relationship, Anna Karenina: ‘“vengeance is mine, I will repay”, saith the Lord’.

What might have shocked the likes of Cesar Cui was Rachmaninoff’s immediately sharp, cutting musical aesthetic and his frequent plunges into metaphorical death and darkness, both of which must have appeared quite new. But when he started work on the Symphony, Rachmaninoff was thinking along strict structural lines: the introduction of thematic material in the first movement that would feed the remaining three. Specifically, the descending motif heard right at the

start of the opening movement on digging, unison strings (and then on a rather less perturbed clarinet) which is recalled in some form at the start of each movement that follows, becoming the Symphony’s ‘motto’ (Rachmaninoff even referred to this motto theme in his Symphonic Dances of 40 years later; some cite that as a ‘coming to terms’ with the failure of the Symphony from the fully established, celebrated composer).

After that initial solo on the clarinet, in which the motto’s relationship to the Dies irae plainsong theme is made that bit clearer, the motto is cast in an ominous fugue. When the texture lightens, a sort of love song emerges (ushered in by a whimsical flute), which Russian music expert David Nice has suggested is a portrait of the two Annas – Lodyzhenskaya and Karenina. There follows Rachmaninoff’s second- movement scherzo, a half-lit waltz in which restless horns and trumpets interrupt muted strings, and a slow Larghetto steadily controlled by the sort of melancholic, restrained outpouring that the composer would make his own. In Rachmaninoff’s finale, the ominous D minor ‘vengeance’ of the motto is transformed into a festive yet menacing D major, the ‘Anna’ theme crying painfully out and prompting the return of the scherzo’s nervous restlessness. As the Symphony slides ever more into crisis, the tam-tam (the large, burnished circular plate that conjures a crushing crescendo from the percussion section) heralds a final slow Largo. This, according to Nice and others, is Rachmaninoff’s final, total vengeance.

It’s overwhelmingly likely that the Symphony’s dismal reception was down to that woeful performance under Glazunov’s baton. But Rachmaninoff wasn’t so convinced, pretty much discarding the score and parts which weren’t discovered again until two years

SergeRachmaninoff

1873–1943

Symphony no. 1 in D minor, Op. 13

1 Grave – Allegro ma non troppo2 Allegro animato3 Larghetto4 Allegro con fuoco


after the composer’s death. Despite his own concerns about the orchestration – he confessed to thinking some passages ‘weak’ and ‘strained’ – the quality and sincerity of the writing is clear, as is the composer’s symphonic technique and emerging gifts for modernist orchestration. The two symphonies that followed might be the more readily acknowledged masterpieces, but they clearly emerge from principles established in this one.

Programme notes © Andrew Mellor

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works

Szymanowski: concert Overture London Philharmonic Orchestra/Leon Botstein [Telarc]

Scriabin: Piano concerto in F sharp minor Konstantin Scherbakov/Russian State Orchestra/ Igor Golovschin [Naxos]

Rachmaninoff: Symphony no. 1 in D minorBBC Symphony Orchestra/Gennady Rozhdestvensky [BBC Legends]

Wednesday 29 October 2014 Piano Concerto No. 3 | Symphony No. 2

Friday 7 november 2014 Piano Concerto No. 4 (final version)

Friday 28 november 2014 Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini

Wednesday 3 December 2014 Symphony No. 1

Wednesday 21 January 2015 The Miserly Knight

Saturday 7 February 2015 Three Russian Songs | Spring

Wednesday 11 February 2015 Piano Concerto No. 2 | The Bells

Friday 13 February 2015 Piano Concerto No. 4 (original version)

Wednesday 25 March 2015 Piano Concerto No. 1 (final version)

Wednesday 29 April 2015 Four Pieces | Ten Songs | Symphony No. 3

A season-long exploration of the composer’s life and music

lpo.org.uk/rachmaninoff

Rachmaninoff Inside Out is presented in co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.

Mini film guides to this season’s works

For the 2014/15 season we’ve produced a series of short films introducing the pieces we’re performing. Watch Patrick Bailey introduce Rachmaninoff’s orchestral music: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html


Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

tickets £9–£39 (premium seats £65)

London Philharmonic Orchestra ticket Office020 7840 4242 Monday–Friday 10.00am–5.00pm lpo.org.uk | Transaction fees: £1.75 online, £2.75 telephone.

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

new on the LPO Label

cD: Poulenc & Saint-Saëns organ works

Recently released on the LPO Label is a disc of Poulenc’s Organ Concerto and Saint-Saëns’s ‘Organ’ Symphony, recorded live at Royal Festival Hall (LPO-0081). This sell-out concert in March 2014, conducted

by Yannick Nézet-Séguin with organist James O’Donnell, launched the refurbished Royal Festival Hall organ, complete for the first time since 2005.

The CD booklet includes full organ specification and an article on the history and refurbishment of the organ by its curator, Dr William McVicker.

The CD is priced £9.99, including free postage.

LP box set: Vladimir Jurowski conducts the complete brahms Symphonies

Also new on the LPO Label is a very special 4-LP box set: Brahms’s complete four symphonies conducted by Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor Vladimir Jurowski. These recordings – of live LPO concerts at

Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall between 2008 and 2011 – have previously been released as two separate LPO Label CDs, but are brought together in one package for the first time in this exclusive box set, which will be a must-have for lovers of Brahms, Jurowski fans and vinyl enthusiasts alike.

The box set is priced £85.00, including free postage.

Buy these and over 80 other titles from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the London Philharmonic Orchestra Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets.

Saturday 6 December 2014 | 7.30pm

Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments (1920 version) harrison birtwistle Responses: Sweet disorder and the carefully careless, for piano and orchestra (UK premiere)* Messiaen Oiseaux exotiques Stravinsky Orpheus

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano

Free pre-concert event 6.00–6.45pm | the clore ballroom at Royal Festival hall LPO Soundworks, a collaborative arts project for young people, presents a performance of new music and dance.

* Commissioned by the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bayerische Rundfunk Musica Viva, Casa da Música Porto, and the Boston Symphony Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra gratefully acknowledges the financial support of the Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation and PRS for Music Foundation.

Wednesday 21 January 2015 | 7.30pm Rachmaninoff: Inside Out

Wagner Das Rheingold (excerpts) Rachmaninoff The Miserly Knight (semi-staged)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Annabel Arden director Lucy carter lighting designer Joanna Parker design consultant For full performer details see lpo.org.uk

Free pre-concert discussion 6.15–6.45pm | Royal Festival hall Director Annabel Arden discusses her semi-staging of The Miserly Knight.

Rachmaninoff: Inside Out is presented in co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation.


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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 Simon Robey Victoria Robey OBEJulian & Gill Simmonds*

Anonymous Garf & Gill Collins*Andrew Davenport Mrs Sonja DrexlerDavid & Victoria Graham Fuller Mrs Philip Kan*Mr & Mrs MakharinskyGeoff & Meg MannCaroline, Jamie & Zander SharpEric Tomsett

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 AdamsLady Jane BerrillDesmond & Ruth CecilMr John H CookDavid EllenMr Daniel GoldsteinPeter MacDonald Eggers Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Mr & Mrs David MalpasMr Michael PosenMr & Mrs G SteinMr & Mrs John C TuckerMr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina Vaizey Grenville & Krysia Williams Mr Anthony Yolland

benefactorsMrs A Beare David & Patricia BuckMrs Alan CarringtonMr & Mrs Stewart CohenMr Alistair Corbett Georgy Djaparidze Mr David Edgecombe Mr Timothy Fancourt QCMr Richard FernyhoughTony & Susan Hayes Michael & Christine HenryMalcolm Herring J. Douglas HomeIvan HurryMr Glenn HurstfieldPer Jonsson

Mr Gerald LevinSheila Ashley LewisWg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAFDr Frank LimPaul & Brigitta Lock Ms Ulrike Mansel Robert MarkwickMr Brian Marsh Andrew T MillsJohn Montgomery Dr Karen Morton Mr & Mrs Andrew Neill Tom & Phillis SharpeMartin and Cheryl Southgate Professor John StuddMr Peter TausigMrs Kazue Turner Simon Turner Howard & Sheelagh Watson Mr Laurie WattDes & Maggie WhitelockChristopher WilliamsBill Yoe and others who wish to remain

anonymous

hon. benefactorElliott Bernerd

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

the generosity of our Sponsors, corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged:

corporate Members

Silver: AREVA UK BerenbergBritish American BusinessCarter-Ruck

bronze: Appleyard & Trew LLP Charles Russell SpeechlysLeventis Overseas Preferred Partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli LtdSipsmith Steinway Villa Maria In-kind SponsorsGoogle IncSela / Tilley’s Sweets

trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Ambache Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini TrustBorletti-Buitoni TrustBritten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The Peter Carr Charitable Trust, in memory

of Peter CarrThe Ernest Cook TrustThe Coutts Charitable TrustThe D’Oyly Carte Charitable TrustDunard FundThe Equitable Charitable Trust Fidelio Charitable TrustThe Foyle FoundationLucille Graham TrustThe Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris

Charitable TrustHelp Musicians UK The Hinrichsen Foundation The Hobson Charity Kirby Laing Foundation The Leche TrustMarsh Christian Trust

The Mayor of London’s Fund for YoungMusicians

Adam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet TrustThe Ann and Frederick O’Brien

Charitable TrustPalazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique

romantique françaisePolish Cultural Institute in London PRS for Music FoundationRivers Foundation The R K Charitable TrustSerge Rachmaninoff Foundation Schroder Charity Trust Ernst von Siemens Music Foundation The David Solomons Charitable Trust The Steel Charitable TrustThe John Thaw FoundationThe Tillett Trust UK Friends of the Felix-Mendelssohn-

Bartholdy-FoundationThe Viney FamilyGarfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable TrustYouth Music and others who wish to remain

anonymous


Sound FutureS donorS

We are grateful to the following donors for their generous contributions to Sound Futures, which will establish our first ever endowment. Donations from those below, as well as many who have chosen to remain anonymous, have already been matched pound for pound by Arts Council England through a Catalyst Endowment grant.

By May 2015 we aim to have raised £1 million which, when matched, will create a £2 million fund supporting our Education and Community Programme, our creative programming and major artistic projects at Southbank Centre.

We thank those who are helping us to realise the vision.

Masur circle

Arts Council EnglandDunard Fund Victoria Robey OBEEmmanuel & Barrie Roman The Tsukanov Family Foundation The Underwood Trust

Welser-Möst circle

John Ireland Charitable Trust Neil Westreich

tennstedt circle

Simon Robey Simon & Vero Turner The late Mr K Twyman

Solti Patrons

Ageas Anonymous John & Manon Antoniazzi Georgy DjaparidzeMrs Mina Goodman and Miss

Suzanne GoodmanRobert MarkwickThe Rothschild Foundation

haitink Patrons

Mark & Elizabeth AdamsLady Jane Berrill David & Yi Yao Buckley Bruno de Kegel Goldman Sachs International Moya Greene Tony and Susie HayesLady Roslyn Marion LyonsDiana and Allan Morgenthau

Charitable TrustDr Karen Morton Ruth RattenburySir Bernard Rix

Kasia Robinski David Ross and Line Forestier (Canada) Tom and Phillis Sharpe Mr & Mrs G Stein TFS Loans LimitedThe Tsukanov Family Foundation Guy & Utti Whittaker

Pritchard Donors

AnonymousLinda BlackstoneMichael BlackstoneYan BonduelleRichard and Jo BrassBritten-Pears Foundation Business Events Sydney Desmond & Ruth CecilLady June Chichester John Childress & Christiane WuillamieLindka Cierach Paul CollinsMr Alistair Corbett Dolly CostopoulosMark Damazer Olivier DemartheDavid DennisBill & Lisa DoddMr David EdgecombeDavid Ellen Commander Vincent Evans Mr Timothy Fancourt QC Christopher Fraser OBEKarima & David G Lyuba Galkina David GoldbergMr Daniel Goldstein Ffion HagueRebecca Halford HarrisonMichael & Christine HenryHoneymead Arts TrustJohn Hunter

Ivan Hurry Rehmet Kassim-LakhaTanya Kornilova Peter Leaver Mr Mark Leishman LVO and Mrs

Fiona LeishmanHoward & Marilyn LeveneMr Gerald Levin Wg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE

JP RAFDr Frank Lim Dr Eva Lotta & Mr Thierry Sciard Peter MaceGeoff & Meg MannUlrike ManselMarsh Christian TrustJohn MontgomeryRosemary Morgan Paris NatarJohn Owen The late Edmund PirouetMr Michael PosenSarah & John Priestland Victoria Provis William ShawcrossTim SlorickHoward Snell Lady Valerie SoltiStanley SteckerLady Marina VaizeyHelen Walker Timothy Walker AMLaurence WattDes & Maggie Whitelock Brian Whittle Christopher Williams Peter Wilson SmithVictoria YanakovaMr Anthony Yolland


Administration

board of DirectorsVictoria Robey OBE Chairman Stewart McIlwham* President Gareth Newman* Vice-PresidentDr Manon Antoniazzi Richard Brass Desmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. HøgelMartin Höhmann* George Peniston* Kevin Rundell* Julian SimmondsMark Templeton*Natasha TsukanovaTimothy Walker AM Laurence WattNeil Westreich

* Player-Director

Advisory councilVictoria Robey OBE Chairman Christopher Aldren Richard Brass David Buckley Sir Alan Collins KCVO CMG Andrew Davenport Jonathan Dawson Edward Dolman Christopher Fraser OBE Lord Hall of Birkenhead CBE Jamie Korner Clive Marks OBE FCA Stewart McIlwham Sir Bernard Rix Baroness ShackletonLord Sharman of Redlynch OBE Thomas Sharpe QC 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 JupinDr. Felisa B. KaplanJill Fine MainelliKristina McPhee Dr. Joseph MulvehillHarvey M. Spear, Esq.Danny Lopez Hon. ChairmanNoel Kilkenny Hon. DirectorVictoria Robey OBE Hon. DirectorRichard Gee, Esq Of Counsel Jenifer L. Keiser, CPA,

EisnerAmper LLP

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

Samanta Berzina Finance 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

Ellie Swithinbank Assistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Education and community

Isabella Kernot Education Director

Alexandra ClarkeEducation 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

Helen Etheridge Development Assistant

Rebecca FoggDevelopment Assistant

Kirstin PeltonenDevelopment Associate

Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Mia RobertsMarketing Manager

Rachel WilliamsPublications Manager

Samantha CleverleyBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Libby Northcote-GreenMarketing Co-ordinator

Lorna Salmon 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 RussellSolicitors

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.

Photographs of Szymanowski, Scriabin and Rachmaninoff courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Cover design: Chaos Design.Printed by Cantate.

Documents

London Philharmonic Orchestra concert programme 3 Dec 2014