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 Rachmaninoff: Inside Out 6 Osmo Vänskä7 Nikolai Lugansky8 Programme notes11 Recommended recordings Tchaikovsky on the LPO Label12 Orchestra news13 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

JtI Friday Series Southbank centre’s Royal Festival hallFriday 7 November 2014 | 7.30pm

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis (15’)

Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 4 in G minor (final version) (24’)

Interval

tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 in G minor (Winter Daydreams) (43’)

Osmo Vänskä conductor

nikolai Lugansky piano

In co-operation with the Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation

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 customer@southbankcentre.co.uk

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 ViolinsSergey Ostrovsky

Guest LeaderVesselin Gellev Sub-LeaderIlyoung Chae

Chair supported by an anonymous donor

Ji-Hyun Lee Chair supported by Eric Tomsett

Catherine CraigThomas EisnerGeoffrey Lynn

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Robert PoolSarah StreatfeildYang ZhangGalina TanneyCaroline FrenkelRobin WilsonIshani BhoolaHelena SmartNilufar Alimaksumova

Second ViolinsNicole Wilson

Guest PrincipalJeongmin KimKate Birchall

Chair supported by David & Victoria Graham Fuller

Nancy ElanFiona HighamNynke HijlkemaJoseph MaherAshley StevensFloortje GerritsenDean WilliamsonSioni WilliamsSheila LawAlison StrangeJohn Dickinson

ViolasCyrille Mercier PrincipalRobert DuncanGregory AronovichKatharine LeekSusanne MartensBenedetto PollaniLaura VallejoAlistair ScahillNaomi HoltMartin FennSarah MalcolmMiriam Eisele

cellosSteffan Morris

Guest PrincipalFrancis BucknallLaura DonoghueSantiago Carvalho†David LaleGregory WalmsleyElisabeth Wiklander Susanna RiddellHelen RathboneSibylle Hentschel

Double bassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalWilliam ColeGeorge PenistonRichard LewisHelen RowlandsTom WalleyLucy HareCharlotte Kerbegian

FlutesFlorian Aichinger

Guest PrincipalSue Thomas*

Chair supported by the Sharp Family

PiccoloStewart McIlwham*

Principal

OboesIan Hardwick PrincipalEmmet Byrne

cor AnglaisSue Böhling Principal

clarinetsRobert Hill* PrincipalThomas Watmough

bassoonsGareth Newman PrincipalStuart Russell

hornsDavid Pyatt* Principal

Chair supported by Simon Robey

Martin HobbsGareth MollisonStephen NichollsMichael Thompson

trumpetsNicholas Betts PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

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

Mike TetreaultKeith MillarJeremy Cornes

* 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, Neil Westreich

4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

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

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.

6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Osmo Vänskäconductor

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Osmo Vänskä is recognised for his compelling interpretations of repertoire from all ages, passionately conveying the authentic message of the composer’s score. Music Director of the Minnesota Orchestra for over a decade, he has also received exceptional acclaim for his work with many other leading orchestras. Recent and forthcoming performances include returns to the Chicago and San Francisco symphony orchestras, The Cleveland Orchestra, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande. Vänskä regularly conducts the London Philharmonic and London Symphony orchestras, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Wiener Symphoniker, Finnish Radio and Yomiuri Nippon symphony orchestras. He has also developed regular relationships with the New World Symphony (USA), the Mostly Mozart Festival and the BBC Proms, and is Principal Guest Conductor of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra. 2014/15 also sees performances with the Helsinki and Rotterdam Philharmonic orchestras, the Melbourne, Sydney and Shanghai symphony orchestras and the South African National Youth Orchestra. Vänskä gained distinction with his landmark Sibelius cycle with the Lahti Symphony Orchestra for BIS, described by Gramophone as ‘the finest survey of the past three decades’. In 2014 his album with the Minnesota Orchestra of Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 4 won a Grammy award, following the nomination of the Second and Fifth Symphonies the year before. Previously, a complete Beethoven symphonies cycle with the orchestra garnered worldwide praise. In 2008 the London Philharmonic Orchestra released on its own label a disc of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 3 and Bax’s Tintagel (LPO-0036, see opposite).

Formerly Principal Conductor of the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Music Director of the Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Vänskä studied conducting at Finland’s Sibelius Academy and was awarded first prize in the 1982 Besançon Competition. He began his career as a clarinettist, holding the co-principal chair of the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra and the principal chair of the Turku Philharmonic, and in recent years has enjoyed a return to the clarinet, including on a 2012 recording of Kalevi Aho’s chamber works. Vänskä is the recipient of a Royal Philharmonic Society Award, the Finlandia Foundation’s Arts and Letters Award, and the 2010 Ditson Award from Columbia University for his support of American music. He holds honorary doctorates from the universities of Glasgow and Minnesota and was named Musical America’s 2005 Conductor of the Year. In 2013 he received the Annual Award from the German Record Critics’ Award Association for his involvement in BIS’s recordings of the complete works by Sibelius.

Vänskä isn’t only about meticulous preparation. In concert he’s a wiry dynamo: lean, whippy and indefatigably energetic. His interpretations are the same. He never stops probing and pushing.The Times

Vänskä conducts on the LPO Label

Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3 bax Tintagel

Osmo Vänskä conductorLondon Philharmonic Orchestra

LPO-0036 | £9.99

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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

Nikolai Luganskypiano

Capable of great refinement and sensitivity and ‘crystalline beauty’ (The Financial Times) in Mozart and Chopin, and breathtaking virtuosity in Rachmaninoff and Prokofiev, Nikolai Lugansky is a pianist of extraordinary depth and versatility.

As well as tonight’s return to the London Philharmonic Orchestra, other concerto highlights of the 2014/15 season and beyond include returns to the Philharmonia Orchestra, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Budapest Festival Orchestra, the San Francisco Symphony and the Orchestre de Paris. Lugansky also undertakes tours with the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande under Charles Dutoit, the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra under Vasily Petrenko, the Russian National Orchestra under Mikhail Pletnev and the St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra under Yuri Temirkanov.

Forthcoming recital and chamber music performances include the Alte Oper Frankfurt, London’s Wigmore Hall, the Konzerthaus Berlin, Vienna’s Konzerthaus, Paris’s Théâtre des Champs-Elysées, the Great Hall of the Moscow Conservatoire and the Great Hall of the St Petersburg Philharmonia. Lugansky’s chamber music collaborators include Mischa Maisky, Vadim Repin and Alexander Kniazev. He regularly appears at some of the world’s most distinguished festivals including the BBC Proms, La Roque d’Anthéron, and the Verbier, Rheingau and Edinburgh International festivals.

An award-winning recording artist, Nikolai Lugansky records exclusively for the Naïve-Ambroisie label. His recital CD featuring Rachmaninoff’s Piano Sonatas won a Diapason d’Or and an ECHO Klassik Award, and his recording of concertos by Grieg and Prokofiev with Kent Nagano and the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester

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Berlin was a Gramophone Editor’s Choice. His earlier recordings have also won a number of awards, including a Diapason d’Or, a BBC Music Magazine Award and an ECHO Klassik prize. Lugansky’s most recent disc, featuring the two Chopin Piano Concertos, was released in summer 2014.

Lugansky is Artistic Director of the Tambov Rachmaninoff Festival and is also a supporter of – and regular performer at – the Rachmaninoff Estate and Museum of Ivanovka. He performed the composer’s Piano Concerto No. 3 at the closing concert of the inaugural Ivanovka Rachmaninoff Festival in June 2014 with the Russian National Orchestra and Mikhail Pletnev.

Nikolai Lugansky studied at Moscow’s Central Music School and the Moscow Conservatoire, where his teachers included Tatiana Kestner, Tatiana Nikolayeva and Sergei Dorensky. He was awarded the honour of People’s Artist of Russia in April 2013.

facebook.com/nikolaiLugansky

His performance blazes with conviction, a propulsion and energy finely complemented with an innate sense of poetry.Gramophone

8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Programme notes

Rachmaninoff revered Tchaikovsky and expressed warm admiration for Vaughan Williams, so it’s deliciously apt that these two composers should form a musical frame for his Fourth Piano Concerto. Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony, ‘Winter Daydreams’, is full of the kind of Slav-accented fairytale magic and sensuous nostalgia Rachmaninoff explored in his own music. But in his complex and enigmatic Fourth Piano Concerto the pain of exile seems to have sharpened and darkened those feelings. The

magic is more sinister, the nostalgia closer at times to grief. On one level Vaughan Williams’s great Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is a celebration of the visionary serenity of faith, as embodied in Tallis’s church music and in the architecture of Gloucester Cathedral, for which it was composed. But there are shadows and ambiguities here too, qualities that give this seemingly backward-looking music its distinctly modern poignancy.

Speedread

Vaughan Williams’s Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis is so well loved today that it’s hard to imagine a time when it could have been found ‘difficult’. But the first performance, in Gloucester Cathedral in 1910, seems to have baffled most of its audience and the reception was muted. The causes aren’t hard to find. Vaughan Williams may not have been the first British composer to draw inspiration from the music of Elizabethan England, but what he found in his chosen theme – Thomas Tallis’s Psalm-tune, ‘Why fumeth in fight’ – is more than quaint olde-worlde colouring. Tallis’s tune follows the old ‘Phrygian mode’ (try imagining a scale of E on a keyboard using only the white notes), and there are strikingly abrupt major-minor contrasts – things that would have sounded ‘new’, or at least odd, to traditionally schooled listeners in 1910. Then there’s the division of the string orchestra into contrasting ‘choirs’: a string quartet, an ensemble of ten stringed instruments, and a larger string ensemble – like the use of separately placed groups of singers in Tallis’s great motet Spem in Alium. Composers in Edwardian England just didn’t do things like that.

At the same time, there is something about the Tallis Fantasia that marks it out as modern. Tallis’s theme isn’t presented right away in its original form. First we hear five hushed chords for full strings, luminous at first, but fading into minor-key shadows. There is a striking echo here of Vaughan Williams’s cantata Toward the Unknown Region, a work about the soul’s final journey in death. Tallis’s theme then emerges slowly, in skeletal fragments, as though from the darkness. As the Fantasia builds to its magnificent climax there is a growing sense of impassioned searching, as though the music were striving to recapture the original fleeting vision. The end does bring a kind of resolution, but the serene opening chord never quite returns in its original form. The primal purity of faith is glimpsed as a possibility, but never quite recaptured. A friend once half-jokingly described Vaughan Williams as ‘The Christian Agnostic’. Both sides of that paradox find expression in his music, but never with greater power and subtlety than in the Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis.

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

Simon trpčeski piano

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

RalphVaughan Williams

1872–1958

Fantasia on a theme by thomas tallis

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

In 1917, the year of the Communist Revolution, Rachmaninoff left Russia, taking his family with him. Ostensibly he was simply accepting an invitation to give a series of concerts in Stockholm, but he never returned to his homeland. Two years later he settled permanently in the USA, and devoted himself to a career as virtuoso concert pianist. His output of original compositions plummeted: in fact nothing new appeared until the Fourth Piano Concerto in 1926, which according to the manuscript had been composed in January–August that year. (In fact some of the ideas seem to have occurred to Rachmaninoff at least ten years earlier.) When the first performance turned out to be a colossal flop there was a lot of knowing head-shaking. Rachmaninoff had neglected composition for too long, it was argued, so long that he’d gone off the boil creatively. He’d lost touch with his national roots – and also with his time, others argued: who else was writing lush romantic piano concertos in the age of Gershwin, of Stravinsky, and of jazz? Even the traditionalists were disappointed: where were all the big tunes, the gorgeous oceanic climaxes? Why did the Concerto so often seem to thwart expectations? Was Rachmaninoff actually trying, mistakenly, to catch up?

It wasn’t until the pianist Arturo Benedetti Michelangeli took up the Concerto in the late 1950s that performers and critics began to think again. Michelangeli had realised something the others hadn’t. The Fourth Piano Concerto isn’t simply a half-hearted or confused attempt to follow in the much earlier successes of the Second and Third Concertos; it’s something quite new, in some ways looking forward to the subtler masterpieces of Rachmaninoff’s late phase:

the Third Symphony for instance, or the Symphonic Dances. True, the Fourth Concerto is less easy to grasp on first hearing, but stick with it and the rewards are proportionate.

The very opening is surprising. A surging orchestral crescendo suddenly twists in a new harmonic direction and the piano storms in, apparently in the middle of a long, searching melody. Twice this melody seems to lose heart, and eventually the tempo subsides, and soulful cor anglais and horn introduce a more questioning theme for piano solo. The troubled feeling persists even when the opening theme returns at the end of the movement, its initial buoyancy quickly fading. Normally a Rachmaninoff slow movement is a celebration of long-breathed melody, but the Largo chooses instead to brood on a short falling figure introduced by the piano, and at its heart is some of the most unsettling, angry music Rachmaninoff ever penned. There are moments of a more traditional virtuosic brilliance in the finale, especially at the ending, but the enigmas and shadows persist. Far from dulling Rachmaninoff’s creativity, exile seems to have given him a new perspective: darker perhaps, but if anything still more original.

SergeRachmaninoff

1873–1943

Piano concerto no. 4 in g minor, Op. 40 (final version) nikolai Lugansky piano 1 Allegro vivace2 Largo3 Allegro vivace

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

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 music for piano and orchestra: lpo.org.uk/explore/videos.html

10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Programme notes continued

Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony is such an endearing, vital, seductively atmospheric work that one would imagine it must have been a joy to write. In fact the opposite is true: few, if any of his other works caused Tchaikovsky such protracted pain. He was 26 when he began it, having freshly graduated from the St Petersburg Conservatoire and walked straight into a job at the newly created Conservatoire in Moscow. At first things were looking encouraging. His first orchestral performance (an Overture in F major) had been a success, and his teacher, the pianist and composer Anton Rubinstein, had urged him to write a symphony. But then came a crushing review of another work, and Tchaikovsky’s confidence plummeted: ‘I spent the entire day wandering aimlessly about the town’, he told a friend, ‘repeating to myself “I am sterile, I am a nonentity, nothing will ever come of me, I have no talent”.’ He soldiered on with the new symphony, but his determination to keep working through the nights (inevitably resulting in insomnia) led to a frightening breakdown.

In the end, work seems to have saved Tchaikovsky, and the Symphony was finished in piano score by the beginning of June 1867. But his troubles weren’t over yet. Rubinstein was highly critical of the completed score, and virtually ordered Tchaikovsky to revise it. Even that didn’t please, and only the Scherzo was performed – unsuccessfully. More alterations were made then, at last, in February 1868, the First Symphony had its first full performance in Moscow. This time it was a huge success; but Tchaikovsky’s self-doubt was not appeased, and it wasn’t until 1874 that he at last allowed the further-revised score to be published.

Surprisingly, despite memories of this agonising slow birth, Tchaikovsky always maintained a special affection

for his First Symphony. ‘For all its glaring deficiencies’, he wrote in 1883, ‘I have a soft spot for it. Although it is immature in many respects it is essentially better and richer in content than many other more mature works.’ As so often, he was being harsh: the First Symphony may have its faults, but they are hardly ‘glaring’, and most of the time the freshness of the material fully compensates. The opening theme (flute and bassoon above shimmering violins) is a lovely inspiration, with an unmistakable Slavic accent. From the first there is a strong sense of forward-gliding momentum, like the easy movement of a sleigh across smooth snow. Tchaikovsky’s sharp, clear orchestration registers impressions of cold very effectively, while from time to time warm string harmonies manage to convey a sense of cosiness and security – this traveller is clearly well wrapped up and enjoying his ‘winter daydreams’.

The slow movement is still more effective. An eloquent theme for muted strings leads to a long oboe tune, with answering birdcalls on flute, unmistakably Russian in so many of its melodic twists and turns. The rest of the movement is essentially a meditation (daydreams again) on phrases from this tune, with occasional reminiscences of the flute’s birdsong, all done with much more skill and imagination than Tchaikovsky’s later judgement would have us believe. The return of the opening string theme at the end is also deftly timed.

Next comes an agile, lightly dancing Scherzo, with wonderful use of woodwind colours (a very mature Tchaikovskian touch). Hesitant cellos and basses suggest for a moment that the central trio section might be darker-hued, but what actually emerges is a warm, suave waltz theme on violins and cellos. Then, after a sombre slow introduction, the Finale soon sets off at a more determined pace in the major key,

Symphony no. 1 in g minor (Winter Daydreams)

1 ‘Reveries of a Winter Journey’: Allegro tranquillo2 ‘Land of Desolation, Land of Mists’: Adagio cantabile ma non tanto 3 Scherzo: Allegro scherzando giocoso4 Finale: Andante lugubre—Allegro maestoso

Pyotr Ilyichtchaikovsky

1840–93

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

with trombones, tuba, cymbals and bass drum adding their weight to the orchestra for the first time. The exuberance can sound a little forced (a rare indication of Tchaikovsky’s state of mind at the time he wrote it?). But after all his labours, Tchaikovsky is surely entitled to a bit of over-the-top celebration.

Programme notes © Stephen Johnson

Recommended recordings of tonight’s works

Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme by thomas tallisLondon Philharmonic Orchestra/Bernard Haitink [EMI]

Rachmaninoff: Piano concerto no. 4 Nikolai Lugansky/City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Sakari Oramo [Warner Classics]

tchaikovsky: Symphony no. 1London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski [LPO Label LPO-0039: see below]

Symphonies nos. 4 & 5

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

£10.99 (2CDs) | LPO-0064

Also available from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the LPO Ticket Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets

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

Symphonies nos. 1 & 6

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

£10.99 (2CDs) | LPO-0039

Manfred Symphony

Vladimir Jurowski conductor

£9.99 (1CD) | LPO-0009

tchaikovsky Symphonies on the LPO cD LabelcDs on sale tonight from the Royal Festival hall shop

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

Orchestra news

Autumn tours

2014/15 looks set to be one of the busiest touring seasons in the Orchestra’s history, with a record 47 overseas concerts confirmed as we went to print. The Orchestra recently returned from a hugely successful North American tour that included California, New York, Toronto and Chicago. In late November and early December, the Orchestra visits Germany for two tours, during which they will tick off Dortmund, Essen, Baden-Baden, Cologne, Stuttgart, Freiburg, Munich, Friedrichshafen, Hamburg and Hannover.

The run-up to Christmas sees the Orchestra’s first visit to Iceland where, with tonight’s conductor Osmo Vänskä and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes, they will give two concerts on 18 & 19 December at Harpa, a stunning new waterfront concert hall in Reykjavík. This tour is an exciting venture for the Orchestra, particularly as we will be the first British orchestra to perform at the venue.

Don’t forget you can follow all our tour adventures on Twitter: @lporchestra

new cD: Poulenc & Saint-Saëns organ works

Just 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. Buy from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the London Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office (020 7840 4242), all good CD outlets, and the Royal Festival Hall shop. Also available to download or stream online via iTunes, Spotify and others.

new LP box set: Vladimir Jurowski conducts the complete brahms Symphonies

Also released on the LPO Label this month 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 from lpo.org.uk/recordings, the London Philharmonic Orchestra Box Office (020 7840 4242) and all good CD outlets.

Remembrance Day concert: britten’s War Requiem at the Royal Albert hall

This Sunday, 9 November, the Orchestra will join the Royal Choral Society to perform Britten’s War Requiem at the Royal Albert Hall in a Remembrance Day concert marking the centenary of the start of the First World War.

The War Requiem was composed in 1961 for the consecration of Coventry Cathedral – newly rebuilt following its destruction in the Second World War. Britten took as his inspiration the words of young English war poet Wilfred Owen, himself killed in action on 4 November 1918, just days before the armistice.

Conducted by Richard Cooke, Sunday’s concert features soloists Ekaterina Scherbachenko, Stephan Rügamer and Bryn Terfel. Tickets are priced £17.29– £53.50 (including all booking fees) and proceeds of ticket sales will go to the Veterans Aid charity. To book, call the Royal Albert Hall Box Office on 0845 401 5034 or visit royalalberthall.com/tickets/war-requiem/default.aspx

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 13

Next LPO concerts at Royal Festival Hall

Wednesday 12 november 2014 | 7.30pm

Pierné Overture and Suite, Ramuntcho† Poulenc Concerto for two pianos and orchestra Ravel Rapsodie espagnole Debussy La mer

Juanjo Mena conductor Katia Labèque piano Marielle Labèque piano

† Supported by Palazzetto Bru Zane – Centre de musique romantique française.

Wednesday 19 november 2014 | 7.30pm

brahms Piano Concerto No. 2 Schubert Symphony No. 8 (Unfinished) R Strauss Don Juan

Yannick nézet-Séguin conductor Lars Vogt piano Friday 28 november 2014 | 7.30pm JtI Friday Series Rachmaninoff: Inside Out*

Wagner Overture, Tannhäuser Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4

David Zinman conductor behzod Abduraimov piano

Free pre-concert event | 6.15–6.45pm Royal Festival hall Acclaimed film director Tony Palmer discusses the enduring popularity of Rachmaninoff’s music.

Wednesday 3 December 2014 | 7.30pm Rachmaninoff: Inside Out*

Szymanowski Concert Overture† Scriabin Piano Concerto Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 1

Vladimir Jurowski conductor Igor Levit piano

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

† Supported by the Polish Cultural Institute in London.

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 | 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 Musica 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.

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

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

14 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following thomas beecham group Patrons, Principal benefactors and benefactors:

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

corporate Members

Silver: AREVA UK Berenberg BankBritish American BusinessCarter-Ruck

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

trusts and Foundations Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Ambache Charitable Trust Ruth Berkowitz Charitable Trust The Boltini TrustBorletti-Buitoni TrustBritten-Pears Foundation The Candide Trust The 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-FoundationGarfield Weston Foundation The Barbara Whatmore Charitable TrustYouth Music and others who wish to remain

anonymous

thomas beecham group

The Tsukanov Family Foundation

Neil Westreich

William and Alex de Winton Simon Robey The Sharp FamilyJulian & 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 EllenCommander Vincent Evans Mr 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 Hurstfield

Per JonssonMr 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

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 15

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 Emmanuel & Barrie Roman The Sharp FamilyThe 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 Trust

John HunterIvan 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

16 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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: admin@lpo.org.uklpo.org.uk

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

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