14 dec 12 lpo programme notes

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

Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOThY WALKER AM

pROGRAMME £3

CONTENTS 2 Welcome 3 About the Orchestra 4 Tonight’s performers5 Vladimir Jurowski 6 Anna Larsson 7 Programme notes9 Song texts12 Programme notes contd.13 Christmas gifts from the LPO14 Birthday Appeal 2012/1315 Supporters16 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and

are given only as a guide.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family and one anonymous donor

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

JTI FRIDAY SERIESSOUThBANK CENTRE’S ROYAL FESTIVAL hALLFriday 14 December 2012 | 7.30pm

VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor

ANNA LARSSON contralto

BRAhMS Tragic Overture, Op. 81 (13’)

WAGNER (arr. Henze) Wesendonck Lieder (15’)

Interval

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1877 Linz edition) (48’)

2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

WELCOMEWELCOMEWELCOME

WELCOME TO SOUThBANK CENTRE

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

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

If you wish to get in touch with us following your visit please contact 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.

WELCOME

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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 Philharmonic Orchestra.

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

pIETER SChOEMANleader

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

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

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

The Orchestra is Resident Orchestra at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since it opened in 1951, giving around 40 concerts there each season. 2012/13 highlights include three concerts with Vladimir Jurowski based around the theme of War and Peace in collaboration with the Russian National Orchestra; Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, also conducted by Jurowski; 20th-century American works with Marin Alsop; Haydn and Strauss with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and the UK premiere of Carl Vine’s Second Piano Concerto with pianist Piers Lane under Vassily Sinaisky. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra will collaborate with Southbank Centre on The Rest Is Noise festival, based on Alex Ross’s book of the same name and charting the 20th century’s key musical works and historical events.

The Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide. Tours in the 2012/13 season include visits to Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, the USA and Austria.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, East is East, Hugo, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now nearly 70 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Dvořák’s Stabat Mater under Neeme Järvi; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 with Vladimir Jurowski; Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6 under the late Paavo Berglund; and the world premiere of Ravi Shankar’s First Symphony conducted by David Murphy.

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.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an energetic programme of activities for young people and local communities. Highlights include the Deutsche Bank BrightSparks Series; the Leverhulme Young Composers project; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Over recent years, developments in technology and social networks have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more and get involved!

lpo.org.uk

facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

twitter.com/LpOrchestra

‘Jurowski and the LPO provided the impossible that is perfection ... As things stand now, the LPO must rate as an example to all orchestras.’Musicalcriticism.com, July 2011 (BBC Proms 2011: Liszt, Bartók and Kodály)

LONDON phILhARMONIC ORChESTRA


TONIGhT’S pERFORMERS

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* LeaderVesselin Gellev

Sub-LeaderChair supported by John & Angela Kessler

Ilyoung ChaeChair supported by Moya Greene

Katalin VarnagyCatherine CraigThomas EisnerTina Gruenberg Martin Höhmann Geoffrey LynnRobert PoolSarah StreatfeildYang ZhangGrace LeeRebecca Shorrock

Second ViolinsFredrik Paulsson

Guest PrincipalJeongmin KimJoseph MaherFiona HighamAshley StevensMarie-Anne MairesseNancy ElanDean Williamson Sioni WilliamsPeter GrahamMila MustakovaElizabeth Baldey Sheila LawSarah Buchan

ViolasCyrille Mercier

Guest PrincipalRobert DuncanGregory AronovichBenedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens Isabel PereiraDaniel Cornford Martin Fenn Sarah Malcolm Miranda DavisAnthony Byrne

CellosKristina Blaumane

PrincipalFrancis Bucknall Laura DonoghueJonathan Ayling

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Gregory WalmsleySantiago Carvalho†Sue SutherleySusanna RiddellTom Roff Helen Rathbone

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

FlutesSue Thomas Principal

Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Ian MullinStewart McIlwham*

piccoloStewart McIlwham*

Principal

Alto FluteStewart McIlwham*

OboesIan Hardwick PrincipalAngela TennickSue Bohling

Cor AnglaisSue Bohling Principal

Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds

ClarinetsNicholas Carpenter*

PrincipalEmily MeredithPaul Richards

Bass ClarinetPaul Richards Principal

BassoonsGareth Newman* PrincipalDominic Tyler

ContrabassoonSimon Estell Principal

hornsJohn RyanDavid Pyatt

Guest PrincipalMartin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth Mollison

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

Nicholas BettsCo-Principal

TrombonesMark Templeton* PrincipalDavid Whitehouse

Bass TromboneLyndon Meredith Principal

TubaLee Tsarmaklis* Principal

TimpaniSimon Carrington*

Principal

harpRachel Masters* Principal

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

† Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

Chair Supporters

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

Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller


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VLADIMIR JUROWSKIPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

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

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

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

Vladimir Jurowski is a regular guest with many leading orchestras in both Europe and North America, including the Berlin and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras; the Dresden Staatskapelle; the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester; the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich; and the Royal Concertgebouw, Philadelphia, Chicago Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony and Mahler Chamber orchestras. Highlights of the 2012/13 season and beyond include his debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, and return visits to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich; the Accademia di Santa Cecilia; and the Philadelphia, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Chicago Symphony orchestras.

Jurowski made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1999 with Rigoletto, and has since returned for Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades and Hansel and Gretel. He has conducted Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opera National de Paris; Eugene Onegin at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and Iolanta and Die Teufel von Loudon at the Dresden Semperoper, as well as The Magic Flute, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress, The Cunning Little Vixen and Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Future engagements include new productions of Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne; Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera; Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper, Berlin; and The Fiery Angel at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of the cantata Exil by Giya Kancheli for ECM; Meyerbeer’s L’etoile du Nord for Marco Polo; Massenet’s Werther for BMG; and a series of records for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has released a wide selection of his live recordings on its LPO Live label, including Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2; Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1, 4, 5, 6 and Manfred; and works by Turnage, Holst, Britten, Shostakovich, Honegger and Haydn. His tenure as Music Director at Glyndebourne has been documented in a CD release of Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and DVD releases of his performances of La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight. Other DVD releases include Hansel and Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera New York; his first concert as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor featuring works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler; and DVDs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Strauss and Ravel), all released by Medici Arts.

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


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Swedish contralto Anna Larsson was educated at the University College of Opera in Stockholm. She made her international debut in Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra under

Claudio Abbado in 1997, and her opera debut as Erda in Wagner’s Das Rheingold at the Berlin State Opera, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. Anna Larsson has sung the roles of Erda, Waltraute, Orphée, Fricka, Delilah, and Zia Principessa at theatres including Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Vienna State Opera; Bavarian State Opera; London’s Royal Opera House; Teatro Maggio Musicale, Florence; Palau de les Arts Reina Sofía, Valencia; Royal Danish Opera; Finnish National Opera; Swedish Royal Opera; and at the Salzburg and Aix-en-Provence festivals. In January 2011

she made her debut as Kundry in Parsifal at La Monnaie, Brussels, to great acclaim. In concert, Anna Larsson is one of the premier interpreters of Gustav Mahler’s works. She regularly sings with all the great orchestras including the London, Berlin, New York, Vienna and Los Angeles Philharmonic orchestras; the Orchestra of the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia; the Lucerne Festival Orchestra; and the London and Chicago symphony orchestras. She has sung almost the entire concert repertoire for contralto and orchestra, with the most illustrious conductors including Claudio Abbado, Zubin Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Simon Rattle, Antonio Pappano, Gustavo Dudamel, Seiji Ozawa, Kurt Masur, Lorin Maazel, Alan Gilbert and Nikolaus Harnoncourt. In December 2010 Anna Larsson was appointed Court Singer by King Carl XVI Gustaf of Sweden, and in 2011 she opened her own concert venue, the Vattnäs Concert Barn, in the Swedish village of Vattnäs.

ANNA LARSSONcontralto

Merry Christmas from the London philharmonic Orchestra!

Tonight is the Orchestra’s final concert of 2012 at Royal Festival Hall. However, we don’t get to relax just yet ... Tomorrow (Saturday 15 December), the Orchestra travels to Madrid for the weekend, where with conductor Vladimir Jurowski and soloists Anna Larsson and Nicholas Angelich we will give two concerts at the Auditorio Nacional de Música. Then on Tuesday we’re off to Germany with conductor Christoph Eschenbach and soloists Baiba Skride, Daniel Müller-Schott and Lars Vogt. Over five evenings we’ll perform in Friedrichshafen, Freiburg, Stuttgart, Hannover and Essen, before returning to London on 23 December for a well-earned Christmas break!

The Orchestra returns to Royal Festival Hall on Saturday 19 January with an all-Strauss programme conducted by Vladimir Jurowski to launch The Rest Is Noise, Southbank Centre’s year-long festival of 20th-century music inspired by Alex Ross’s book. We hope you will join us for this exciting year of concerts; in the meantime we wish all our audiences and supporters a happy and restful festive season, and thank you for your support of the Orchestra.

lpo.org.uk therestisnoise.southbankcentre.co.uk


pROGRAMME NOTES

Anton Bruckner revered Wagner; Johannes Brahms regarded him as the musical arch-enemy. Yet in Bruckner’s First Symphony and Brahms’s Tragic Overture we can hear both composers striving for something very similar: a fusion of the romantic language of dreams and dark passions with the purposeful logic of classical symphonic forms. In their very different ways, both works achieve this with remarkable success. The Brahms is a gripping portrayal of tragic ‘fate’ in action; the Bruckner leads from a nervous nocturnal march, through intense heart-searching in the slow movement, to

a buoyantly affirmative conclusion. Between these we hear Wagner’s exquisite song-cycle Wesendonck Lieder, in part a kind of preparatory ‘study’ for his operatic masterpiece Tristan und Isolde, and in part a private confession of love for the young poetess Mathilde Wesendonck, who partly inspired Wagner’s ‘monument to that most beautiful of dreams’. In this concert we hear the songs in an arrangement for small orchestra by the late Hans Werner Henze, which manages to convey something of the sensuous richness of the opera, while restoring the confidential, intimate quality of Wagner’s original songs.

Speedread

Tragic Overture, Op. 81JohannesBrahms

1833–97

Typically, Brahms provided no clues as to any specific ‘tragedy’ – literary or personal – that might have inspired his Tragic Overture. At the time he wrote this work, ‘programme music’ – music illustrating a story or depicting a specific mood or moods – was all the rage in the German-speaking countries; but Brahms was careful to distance himself from this sort of thing. For him, music was ultimately music: it should speak for itself, not rely on external props to make its point. Not long before he wrote the Overture in 1880, Brahms had contemplated writing incidental music for a production of Goethe’s verse drama Faust at the Vienna Burgtheater. It is possible that ideas for that project found their way into the Tragic Overture, but if so, Brahms was in no hurry to point them out.

Fortunately for us, the Tragic Overture really does speak for itself. It begins with two stark fortissimo chords, which Brahms’s biographer Malcolm MacDonald aptly calls ‘a veritable hammer-blow of fate’. From then on

the Overture can be enjoyed as a logical but darkly impassioned symphonic demonstration of that ‘fate’ in action. The unmistakably tragic first theme leads, via a mysterious transition – veiled rustling string figures and hushed bass brass – to a warmly consoling second theme, led by violins. At the point where we might expect a stormy ‘development’ section to begin, the tempo halves, and a ghostly processional emerges, based on motifs from earlier in the Overture. Another mysterious transition – all romantic shadows and half-lights – leads to a return of the consoling second theme. But eventually the initial mood of tragic striving returns and intensifies, building at last to a grimly emphatic ending in the minor key. We may not know the identity of Brahms’s hero, but we can guess how his story ends.


pROGRAMME NOTES

Wesendonck Lieder (arr. Hans Werner Henze)

Anna Larsson contralto

1 Der Engel (The angel)2 Stehe still! (Stand still!)3 Im Treibhaus (In the greenhouse)4 Schmerzen (Agonies)5 Träume (Dreams)

RichardWagner

1813–83

In 1857, at the time he wrote his five Wesendonck Lieder, Richard Wagner was a fugitive from justice. In 1849, fired by nationalist ideals, he had taken an active part in the failed Dresden revolution. Retribution followed quickly, but Wagner was able to escape just in time. Some years later the King of Saxony remarked that if Wagner had been brought to trial, he would almost certainly have been sentenced to death.

Wagner fled to Switzerland, where he found sanctuary at the villa of the rich silk merchant Otto Wesendonck, just outside Zurich. Here he was treated with great generosity by Otto, and with something close to adoration by his pretty young wife Mathilde. In return, Wagner fell in love with her – or at least convinced himself that he had. At the time he was absorbed in the medieval tragic legend of Tristan and Isolde, which was soon to become the basis of what many would say was his greatest opera; and it’s possible that his intoxication with the story, and with Isolde herself, projected itself onto the real human figure of Mathilde. Even so, Wagner was still capable of self-awareness, as he revealed in a letter to his friend (and future father-in-law) Franz Liszt:

Since I have never, in my whole life, tasted the true happiness of love I intend raising a monument to that most beautiful of dreams, in which this love shall, for once, be utterly fulfilled. I have in mind a plan for Tristan and Isolde …’

But before he set to work on that monumental masterpiece, Wagner set five of Mathilde’s own poems for voice and piano, two of which – No. 3, ‘Im Treibhaus’, and No. 5, ‘Träume’ – were labelled ‘study for Tristan and Isolde’, and they contain poignant pre-echoes of the opera. The songs were later orchestrated, but only

No. 5 by Wagner himself. The rest were arranged by the conductor Felix Mottl – more than competently, it must be said; but many, including the late Hans Werner Henze, believed that something of the intimacy of the original voice and piano versions was lost in Mottl’s orchestrations. Accordingly Henze made his own arrangements in 1976 for a much smaller orchestra, with a brass section of just two horns, and a small woodwind section enriched by the luxurious, melancholic tones of alto flute, cor anglais and bass clarinet. The result is a score with something of the sensuous richness of Tristan und Isolde, but which retains the confidential quality of true Lieder. As the singer puts it the final song, ‘Träume’: ‘dreaming, they pour out their fragrance, gently fade away upon your breast.’


Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder

1 Der Engel

In der Kindheit frühen TagenHört ich oft von Engeln sagen,Die des Himmels hehre WonneTauschen mit der Erdensonne,

Daß, wo bang ein Herz in SorgenSchmachtet vor der Welt verborgen,Daß, wo still es will verbluten,Und vergehn in Tränenfluten,

Daß, wo brünstig sein GebetEinzig um Erlösung fleht,Da der Engel niederschwebt,Und es sanft gen Himmel hebt.

Ja, es stieg auch mir ein Engel nieder,Und auf leuchtendem GefiederFührt er, ferne jedem Schmerz,Meinen Geist nun himmelwärts!

2 Stehe still!

Sausendes, brausendes Rad der Zeit,Messer du der Ewigkeit;Leuchtende Sphären im weiten All,Die ihr umringt den Weltenball;Urewige Schöpfung, halte doch ein,Genug des Werdens, laß mich sein!

Halte an dich, zeugende Kraft,Urgedanke, der ewig schafft!Hemmet den Atem, stillet den Drang,Schweigend nur eine Sekunde lang!Schwellende Pulse, fesselt den Schlag;Ende, des Wollens ew’ger Tag!

Daß in selig süßem VergessenIch mög alle Wonne ermessen!Wenn Auge in Auge wonnig trinken,Seele ganz in Seele versinken;Wesen in Wesen sich wiederfindet,Und alles Hoffens Ende sich kündet,Die Lippe verstummt in staunendem Schweigen,Keinen Wunsch mehr will das Innre zeugen:Erkennt der Mensch des Ew’gen Spur,Und löst dein Rätsel, heil’ge Natur!

The angel

In the early days of childhoodI often heard tell of angelsWho exchanged heaven’s pure blissFor the sun of earth,

So that, when a sorrowful heartHides its yearning from the world,And would silently bleed awayAnd dissolve in streams of tears,

And when its fervent prayerBegs only for deliverance –That angel will fly downAnd gently raise the heart to heaven.

And to me too an angel has descended,And now on shining wingsBears my spirit, free from all pain,Towards heaven!

Stand still!

Rushing, roaring wheel of time,You that measure eternity;Gleaming spheres in the vast universe,You that surround our earthly sphere;Eternal creation – cease:Enough of becoming, let me be!

Hold yourselves back, generative powers,Primal Thought that always creates!Stop your breath, still your urge,Be silent for a single moment!Swelling pulses, restrain your beating;Eternal day of the Will – end!

That in blessed, sweet oblivionI might measure all my bliss!When eye gazes blissfully into eye,When soul drowns utterly in soul,When being finds itself in being,And the goal of every hope is near,When lips are mute in silent wonder,When the soul wishes for nothing more –Then man perceives Eternity’s footprint,And solves your riddle, holy Nature!


3 Im TreibhausHochgewölbte Blätterkronen,Baldachine von Smaragd,Kinder ihr aus fernen Zonen,Saget mir, warum ihr klagt?

Schweigend neiget ihr die Zweige,Malet Zeichen in die Luft,Und der Leiden stummer ZeugeSteiget aufwärts, süßer Duft.

Weit in sehnendem VerlangenBreitet ihr die Arme aus,Und unmschlinget wahnbefangenÖder Leere nicht’gen Graus.

Wohl, ich weiß es, arme Pflanze;Ein Geschicke teilen wir,Ob umstrahlt von Licht und Glanze,Unsre Heimat ist nicht hier!

Und wie froh die Sonne scheidetVon des Tages leerem Schein,Hüllet der, der wahrhaft leidet,Sich in Schweigens Dunkel ein.

Stille wird’s, ein säuselnd WebenFüllet bang den dunklen Raum:Schwere Tropfen seh ich schwebenAn der Blätter grünem Saum.

4 SchmerzenSonne, weinest jeden AbendDir die schönen Augen rot,Wenn im Meeresspiegel badendDich erreicht der frühe Tod;

Doch erstehst in alter Pracht,Glorie der düstren Welt,Du am Morgen neu erwacht,Wie ein stolzer Siegesheld!

Ach, wie sollte ich da klagen,Wie, mein Herz, so schwer dich sehn,Muß die Sonne selbst verzagen,Muß die Sonne untergehn?

In the greenhouseHigh-arching leafy crowns,Canopies of emerald,You children who dwell in distant climes,Tell me, why do you lament?

Silently you bend your branches,Inscribe your symbols on the air,And a sweet fragrance rises,As silent witness to your sorrows.

With longing and desireYou open wide your arms,And embrace in your delusionDesolation’s awful void.

I am well aware, poor plant,That we share a single fate,Though bathed in gleaming light,Our homeland is not here!

And just as the sun is glad to leaveThe empty gleam of day,The true sufferer veils himselfIn the darkness of silence.

It grows quiet, a whirring whisperFills the dark room uneasily:I see heavy droplets hangingFrom the green edge of the leaves.

AgoniesEvery evening, sun, you reddenYour lovely eyes with weeping,When, bathing in the sea,You die an early death;

Yet you rise in your old splendour,The glory of the dark world,When you wake in the morningAs a proud and conquering hero!

Ah, why should I complain,Why should my heart be so depressed,If the sun itself must despair,If the sun itself must set?

Wagner: Wesendonck Lieder continued


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

Und gebieret Tod nur Leben,Geben Schmerzen Wonne nur:O wie dank ich, daß gegebenSolche Schmerzen mir Natur!

5 TräumeSag, welch wunderbare TräumeHalten meinen Sinn umfangen,Daß sie nicht wie leere SchäumeSind in ödes Nichts vergangen?

Träume, die in jeder Stunde,Jedem Tage schöner blühn,Und mit ihrer HimmelskundeSelig durchs Gemüte ziehn!

Träume, die wie hehre StrahlenIn die Seele sich versenken,Dort ein ewig Bild zu malen:Allvergessen, Eingedenken!

Träume, wie wenn FrühlingssonneAus dem Schnee die Blüten küßt,Daß zu nie geahnter WonneSie der neue Tag begrüßt,

Daß sie wachsen, daß sie blühen,Träumend spenden ihren Duft,Sanft an deiner Brust verglühen,Und dann sinken in die Gruft.

Mathilde Wesendonck

If only death gives birth to life,If only agony brings bliss:O how I give thanks to NatureFor giving me such agony!

DreamsSay, what wondrous dreams are theseEmbracing all my senses,That they have not, like bubbles,Vanished to a barren void?

Dreams, that with every hourBloom more lovely every day,And with their heavenly tidingsFloat blissfully through the mind!

Dreams, that with glorious raysPenetrate the soul,There to paint an eternal picture:Forgetting all, remembering one!

Dreams, as when the Spring sunKisses blossoms from the snow,So the new day might welcome themIn unimagined bliss,

So that they grow and flower,Bestow their scent as in a dream,Fade softly away on your breastAnd sink into their grave.

Translations © Richard Stokes from The Book of Lieder (Faber, 2005)


pROGRAMME NOTES

Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1877 Linz version)

1 Allegro2 Adagio3 Scherzo: Schnell (Fast) – Trio: Langsamer (Slower) – Scherzo4 Finale: Bewegt, feurig (Lively, fiery)

AntonBruckner

1824–96

Like his contemporary Johannes Brahms, Anton Bruckner didn’t release his official ‘Symphony No 1’ until he was well into his forties – the first version is dated 1865–6. Understandably this has led many to conclude that he was a late starter. In fact the devoutly Roman Catholic Bruckner had been producing church music from early on: his first composition – a setting of the ancient prayer Pange lingua (‘Tell out, my tongue’) dates from his eleventh year.

But Bruckner was extremely cautious about tackling serious concert music. In his thirties he signed up for a five-year course in harmony and counterpoint with the famous Viennese pedagogue Simon Sechter. Next, at 37, Bruckner began studies in form and orchestration with the conductor Otto Kitzler, ten years his junior. Crucially Kitzler was a Wagnerian, and he introduced his significantly older ‘pupil’ to the music of Europe’s leading modernist. Then in 1864–5, as Bruckner entered his forties, he had two life-changing experiences: first, a critic, reviewing the premiere of Bruckner’s Mass in D minor, suggested that the symphony was Bruckner’s true calling; second, Bruckner heard a performance of Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde in Munich. Buoyed up by both experiences, Bruckner set to work on his Symphony No. 1, in which he set out to fuse the intoxicating new world of musical dreams opened up by Wagner with the form and language of the classical symphony, as inherited from Haydn, Beethoven and Mendelssohn.

In all of this he was remarkably successful. The First Symphony has none of the formal waywardness and occasional tentativeness of the next two symphonies. Bruckner’s third life-changing experience, hearing Beethoven’s colossal ‘Choral’ Symphony (No. 9), was yet to come, and at this stage in his career he was still more or less content to adapt the more modest

symphonic models he knew to his new Wagnerian purposes. But the result is still a convincing, compelling and often highly original score. The first movement begins with a fast march theme, full of restless energy. This is contrasted with a more lyrical second theme in the major key (violins, at first unaccompanied). So far, so classical; but before long the music’s steady flow is disrupted by a majestic third theme on trombones with cascading figures on strings – a clear echo of Wagner’s famous Tannhäuser overture. It takes a while for the music to recover its original march tempo, but recover it does, leading to an exciting conclusion.

The influence of that formative recent encounter with Tristan und Isolde can be felt in the following Adagio: in the darkly searching, ambiguous harmonies of the first theme, and in the upward striving phrases of the aria-like second theme (violins with rippling viola accompaniment). Nervous intensity mounts in the middle section in three-time, leading to a beautifully engineered return of the first theme and an impassioned climax based on the second. An energetic Scherzo follows, full of the Upper-Austrian dance rhythms Bruckner knew well in his youth. The quieter, slightly uneasy trio section is followed by a return of the scherzo.

After this the Finale will be a real surprise to those who know Bruckner from the more spacious later symphonies. Right from the start the tempo is, as Bruckner stipulates, ‘fiery’. There are moments where the driving momentum relaxes, yet in general the pace is sustained well, until eventually a thrilling coda rises like a mighty tide. There is more than a foretaste here of the great symphonist to come.

Programme notes © Stephen Johnson


Virtual Christmas Gifts from the London philharmonic Orchestra

Want to give a ‘different’ present to your music-loving friends or family this Christmas? How about a stocking filler or a gift for someone who has everything? Celebrate with the London Philharmonic Orchestra by giving one or more of our Virtual Gifts.

Whether you are helping us to produce world-class concerts or providing a London child with their first experience of live music, your gift will have an impact long after the celebration itself.

Each gift comes with a bespoke Christmas card which we can send to you or directly to the recipient with your own personal greeting, along with a 10% discount voucher for a spring 2013 London Philharmonic Orchestra concert of the recipient’s choice. For more details visit www.lpo.org.uk/virtualgifts or call 020 7840 4212.

Solo moments: £10 Your opportunity to support a sensational musical moment from the London Philharmonic Orchestra and guest soloists during one of next spring’s concerts. Choose from the following:

• Flute solo in Ravel’s Mother Goose (Saturday 16 February 2013)• Cor anglais solo in Dvořák’s ‘New World’ Symphony (Wednesday 20 February 2013)• Clarinet opening of Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue (Friday 22 February 2013)• Bassoon solo in Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (Saturday 16 February 2013)• Opening trumpet fanfare in Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra (Saturday 19 January 2013)• Violin solo in Sibelius’s Violin Concerto (Friday 1 February 2013)• Piano solo in Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 3 (Friday 15 February 2013)• Choir in Orff’s Carmina Burana (Saturday 6 April 2013)• Vocal soloists in Weill’s The Threepenny Opera (Saturday 2 March 2013)

Adopt A Class: £30 Your gift will pay for an LPO player to spend an hour with disabled children in a London school, helping them overcome their disabilities through music.

Roll Call: £40 Help us liven up an assembly in one of South London’s schools by sending in a group of LPO musicians.

Centre Stage: £50 Your gift will help us offer the opportunity for a South London school child to perform on the Royal Festival Hall stage. Includes an invitation to watch the culmination of our Schoenberg New Horizons GCSE schools’ composition project on Wednesday 23 January 2013. You can also buy a gift of a year’s membership of the London Philharmonic Orchestra Friends or LPO Contemporaries: visit www.lpo.org.uk/gifts for more details. In order to guarantee delivery by Christmas please order by Wednesday 19 December 2012. Virtual gifts are intended as a way to show your support for the Orchestra’s charitable objectives this Christmas. The London Philharmonic Orchestra reserves the right to vary concert programmes if necessary. The London Philharmonic Orchestra is a registered charity No. 238045.


London philharmonic OrchestraBirthday Appeal 2012/13

Two double bass stoolsOur double bass stools are on their last legs. Support our musicians by giving them something new to sit on!

Three tom-tomsWe often have to hire percussion. Owning our own tom-toms would make a great birthday present!

Carmina Burana music hireDonate towards the score and part hire for the conductor, Orchestra and London Philharmonic Choir for the performance of Orff’s Carmina Burana on 6 April 2013.

FUNharmonics illustrationsDonate to the bespoke illustrations and animation designed for each themed FUNharmonics family concert, to help educate and increase engagement with our young audiences.

Recording a concert for live streamHelp us to increase the Orchestra’s reach around the world through donating to the recording of a 2013 concert for live stream and potential CD release.

New terminal serverThe socks option – sounds boring but we really need it! The terminal server keeps our staff and backstage team in touch by providing remote access to emails and files when the Orchestra is on tour.

£250£800 £1,500

£5,000£3,000

This season the London Philharmonic Orchestra has reached 80 years on the concert platform. We would like you to consider helping us celebrate by making a donation to our birthday wish list.

These presents are all items that the Orchestra desperately needs this season. Alternatively you could make a donation to be spent on whatever we need the most.

Get involved and visit www.lpo.org.uk/birthday for more information. Alternatively get in touch via [email protected] or call 020 7840 4212.

£5,000


Thomas Beecham GroupThe Tsukanov Family Anonymous

The Sharp FamilyJulian & Gill Simmonds

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

Guy & Utti Whittaker Manon Williams

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

David EllenCommander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel GoldsteinMr & Mrs Jeffrey HerrmannPeter MacDonald EggersMr & Mrs David MalpasAndrew T MillsMr Maxwell MorrisonMr Michael PosenMr & Mrs Thierry SciardMr John Soderquist & Mr Costas MichaelidesMr & Mrs G SteinMr & Mrs John C TuckerMr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina VaizeyHoward & Sheelagh WatsonMr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland

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

Ken FollettPauline & Peter HallidayMichael & Christine HenryMr Ivan HurryMr Glenn HurstfieldMr R K JehaMr Gerald LevinSheila Ashley LewisWg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAFMr Frank LimPaul & Brigitta LockMr Brian MarshJohn Montgomery Mr & Mrs Andrew NeillEdmund PirouetMr Peter TausigMrs Kazue TurnerDes & Maggie WhitelockBill Yoe

hon. BenefactorElliott Bernerd

hon. Life MembersKenneth Goode Pehr G GyllenhammarEdmund Pirouet Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

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

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

Corporate Members

Silver: AREVA UKBritish American Business Destination Québec – UKHermes Fund Managers Pritchard Englefield

Bronze: Lisa Bolgar Smith and Felix

Appelbe of Ambrose AppelbeAppleyard & Trew LLPBerkeley LawCharles RussellLazardLeventis Overseas

Education partner Boeing

Corporate DonorLombard Street Research

preferred partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Villa Maria

In-kind SponsorsGoogle IncSela / Tilley’s Sweets

Trusts and FoundationsAddleshaw Goddard Charitable Trust Angus Allnatt Charitable FoundationBBC Performing Arts Fund The Boltini TrustSir William Boreman’s FoundationBritten-Pears FoundationThe Candide TrustThe Coutts Charitable TrustDiaphonique, Franco-British fund for

contemporary musicDunard FundThe Equitable Charitable TrustThe Eranda FoundationFidelio Charitable TrustThe Foyle FoundationJ Paul Getty Junior Charitable TrustThe Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable TrustCapital Radio’s Help a London ChildThe Hobson CharityThe Kirby Laing Foundation

The Idlewild TrustThe Leverhulme TrustMarsh Christian TrustAdam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet TrustPaul Morgan Charitable TrustThe Diana and Allan Morgenthau

Charitable TrustMaxwell Morrison Charitable TrustMusicians Benevolent FundNewcomen Collett Foundation The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust Serge Rachmaninoff FoundationThe Rothschild Foundation The Samuel Sebba Charitable TrustThe Bernard Sunley Charitable

FoundationJohn Thaw Foundation The Tillett TrustThe Underwood Trust Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary

SettlementKurt Weill Foundation for MusicGarfield Weston Foundation and others who wish to remain

anonymous


ADMINISTRATION

Board of Directors

Victoria Sharp ChairmanStewart McIlwham* PresidentGareth Newman*

Vice-PresidentDesmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. HøgelMartin Höhmann* Angela Kessler George Peniston* Sir Bernard RixKevin Rundell* Julian SimmondsMark Templeton*Sir Philip ThomasNatasha TsukanovaTimothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Dr Manon Williams

* Player-Director

Advisory Council

Richard Brass Sir Alan Collins Jonathan Dawson Christopher FraserClive Marks OBE FCALord Sharman of Redlynch OBEVictoria Sharp Timothy Walker AM

American Friends of the London philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.

Margot Astrachan ChairmanDavid E. R. Dangoor

Vice Chair/TreasurerKyung-Wha ChungPeter M. Felix CBE Alexandra JupinDr. Felisa B. KaplanWilliam A. KerrJill Fine MainelliKristina McPhee Dr. Joseph Mulvehill Harvey M. Spear, Esq.Danny Lopez

Honorary ChairmanNoel Kilkenny

Honorary DirectorVictoria Sharp

Honorary Director

Richard Gee, Esq Of CounselRobert Kuchner, CPA

General Administration

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Alison AtkinsonDigital Projects Manager

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager andFinance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager Concert Management

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director (maternity leave)

Ruth SansomArtistic Administrator / Acting Head of Concerts Department

Graham WoodConcerts and Recordings Manager

Barbara Palczynski Glyndebourne and Projects Administrator

Jenny Chadwick Tours and Engagements Manager

Alison JonesConcerts Co-ordinator

Jo OrrPA to the Chief Executive / Concerts Assistant

Matthew FreemanRecordings Consultant Education & Community

Patrick BaileyEducation and Community Director

Alexandra ClarkeEducation Manager

Caz ValeCommunity and Young Talent Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Orchestra personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah ThomasLibrarian

Michael PattisonStage Manager

Julia BoonAssistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Ken Graham TruckingInstrument Transportation Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Helen Searl Corporate Relations Manager

Katherine HattersleyCharitable Giving Manager

Melissa Van EmdenEvents Manager

Laura LuckhurstCorporate Relations and Events Officer

Sarah FletcherDevelopment and Finance Officer Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Mia RobertsMarketing Manager

Rachel WilliamsPublications Manager

Samantha KendallBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Libby Northcote-GreenMarketing Co-ordinator

Claire LamponIntern

Albion Media Public Relations (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian PoleRecordings Archive professional Services

Charles RussellSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

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

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

Photographs of Brahms, Wagner and Bruckner courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Front cover photograph © Patrick Harrison.

Printed by Cantate.

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14 dec 12 lpo programme notes

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