LSO Sunday 15 December 2019 7–9.20pm Milton Court Concert Hall

LSO SEASON CONCERT RAMEAU, PURCELL & HANDEL

Purcell The Fairy Queen – Suite Handel Water Music – Suite No 1 Interval Rameau Two Arias from Castor and Pollux Rameau Dardanus – Suite Emmanuelle Haïm conductor & harpsichord Lucy Crowe soprano

Reinoud Van Mechelen tenor

LSO Chamber Orchestra

CHAMBER

2 Welcome

Welcome Latest NewsJanáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen earlier this year, and Reinoud Van Mechelen, who makes his debut with the LSO.

I hope that you enjoy tonight’s concert and that you are able to join us again soon. On Thursday, Principal Guest Conductor François-Xavier Roth conducts the Orchestra, joined by soloist Alisa Weilerstein, in Bartók’s pantomime ballet The Miraculous Mandarin and Elgar’s Cello Concerto. Looking ahead to the New Year, Sir Simon Rattle begins a series of concerts celebrating 250 years since the birth of Beethoven with the composer’s Seventh Symphony on 15 and 16 January and eagerly awaited performances of his rarely heard Christ on the Mount of Olives.

Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Managing Director

warm welcome to this evening’s LSO concert at Milton Court Concert Hall. Following two

performances of Mozart’s concertos for woodwind in October, the LSO Chamber Orchestra tonight plays a programme of Baroque music, conducted by Emmanuelle Haïm, who makes her LSO debut. Emmanuelle Haïm is a specialist in this repertoire, with an enviable reputation across Europe, and it is a great pleasure to welcome her as she brings her considerable expertise to this performance.

Tonight’s programme features Baroque music from both sides of the Channel, from Purcell and Handel to French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau. We are delighted to be joined by two soloists for arias by Rameau and Purcell: Lucy Crowe, who returns to the LSO after her appearance in the title role of

15 December 2019

LSO PANUFNIK COMPOSERS SCHEME: APPLICATIONS NOW OPEN

Applications for the 2020/21 LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme are now open. Generously supported by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust, the scheme offers six emerging composers each year the opportunity to write for the LSO, guided by composers Colin Matthews and Christian Mason.

•  lso.co.uk/more/news

LSO MERCHANDISE AT THE BARBICAN SHOP

Tote bags, tea towels, mugs: discover the LSO’s range of gifts and keepsakes, plus the latest LSO Live releases on CD. Available now on Level -1.

Please ensure all phones are switched off. Photography and audio/video recording are not permitted during the performance.

On Our BlogLSO DISCOVERY SINGING DAY: CHRIST ON THE MOUNT OF OLIVES

‘Writing Christ on the Mount of Olives, Beethoven laid the groundwork for oratorios by Schumann, Mendelssohn and Berlioz, and Gilbert and Sullivan’s operettas!’, explains Choral Director Simon Halsey. Read about our most recent Singing Day and discover more about Beethoven’s only oratorio ahead of two performances in the New Year.

SIX THINGS YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT BARTÓK’S THE MIRACULOUS MANDARIN

Amid the political turbulence of Hungary in the early 20th century, Bartók began writing his pantomime ballet. Discover more about this previously censored work ahead of the LSO’s performance on Thursday 19 December.

ELGAR’S CELLO CONCERTO: 100-YEAR ANNIVERSARY

On 27 October 1919, the LSO performed the world premiere of one of the most popular works in the repertoire: Elgar’s Cello Concerto. One hundred years later, we take a look at the history of this piece, its current popularity, and how this wasn’t always the case.

•  lso.co.uk/more/blog

3Tonight’s Concert

Tonight’s Concert In Brief Coming Uponight’s concert opens with music from Purcell’s 1692 opera The Fairy Queen, with a libretto adapted

from Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Following Purcell’s untimely death three years later, the score was lost, to be later rediscovered in the early 20th century. The suite performed tonight features some of Purcell’s finest music for theatre, from incidental music to aching lovers’ laments.

Handel’s Water Music, supposedly composed at the request of King George I to be played at one of his riverside concerts on the banks of the Thames, follows. Water Music is a collection of 21 movements, now often grouped and published as three separate suites, the first of which is performed tonight. The writing is rich and varied, guiding the audience through the many different faces and abilities of the orchestra.

The second half of the concert is dedicated to the music of Rameau, beginning with excerpts from his third opera Castor and Pollux, based on the twin brothers from Greek and Roman mythology. Of the two arias performed tonight, the first is impassioned and deeply moving, the princess Télaïre’s heart-wrenching vocal line soaring above the orchestra. In the second, ‘Séjour de l’éternelle paix’, subdued

Thursday 19 December 7.30pm Barbican

ELGAR CELLO CONCERTO

Sophya Polevaya Spellbound Tableaux* Elgar Cello Concerto Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin

François-Xavier Roth conductor Alisa Weilerstein cello

London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director

*World premiere, commissioned through the

Panufnik Composers Scheme, generously supported

by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust

Friday 3 January 1pm LSO St Luke’s

BBC RADIO 3 LUNCHTIME CONCERT BACH UP CLOSE

J S Bach Sonatas for violin and harpsichord No 4 in C minor BWV 1017; No 1 in B minor BWV 1014; No 6 in G major BWV 1019 Alina Ibragimova  violin

Carole Cerasi harpsichord

Recorded for future broadcast by BBC Radio 3

Thursday 9 January 7.30pm Barbican

MENDELSSOHN VIOLIN CONCERTO

Wagner Overture and Venusburg Music from ‘Tannhäuser’ Mendelssohn Violin Concerto Brahms Symphony No 1 Nathalie Stutzmann conductor Alina Ibragimova  violin

6pm Barbican Free pre-concert recital LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists Recommended by Classic FM

Friday 10 January 12.30pm LSO St Luke’s

LSO DISCOVERY FREE FRIDAY LUNCHTIME CONCERT: FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE

Musicians from all backgrounds explore 20th-century Russian responses to the Baroque in chamber music by Bach, Stravinsky, Schnittke and Shostakovich. Rachel Leach presenter

PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTORS

Lindsay Kemp is a senior producer for BBC Radio 3, including programming lunchtime concerts at Wigmore Hall and LSO St Luke’s. He is also Artistic Advisor to York Early Music Festival, Artistic Director of Baroque at the Edge Festival and a regular contributor to Gramophone magazine. Alison Bullock is a freelance writer and music consultant whose interests range from Machaut to Messiaen and beyond. A former editor for The New Grove Dictionary of Music, she is now based in Oslo.

writing for strings and woodwind evokes a place of peace, yet Castor’s anguish over his love for Télaïre persists. Rameau’s suite from Dardanus, premiered in 1739 at the Paris Opéra, concludes the programme. Subsequent re-writes can be considered largely the result of a weak libretto, the score itself comprising some of Rameau’s richest music. ‘Lieux funestes’ has since become one of the composer’s most famous arias, sombre and harsh, accenting the suffering of the title character. •

4 Programme Notes 15 December 2019

Henry Purcell The Fairy Queen – Suite 1692 / note by Lindsay Kemp

1 First Music: Prelude 2 Hornpipe 3 Second Music: Air 4 Rondeau 5 Overture 6  ‘If love’s a sweet passion’ 7  The Plaint: ‘O let me weep’ 8 Symphony while the swans come forward 9 Hornpipe 10  Monkey’s Dance 11  Symphony and ‘Thus happy and free’ 12 Chaconne

Lucy Crowe soprano

Reinoud Van Mechelen tenor

hakespeare was not always the revered figure he is today, even in England. In 1662, Samuel Pepys

declared after a rare performance of A Midsummer Night’s Dream that it was ‘the most insipid, ridiculous play I ever saw in my life’, but there seems to have been little sense of outrage 30 years later when it next resurfaced in London in a version which, were it to hit the stage today, might well rejoice in the title ‘Dream: The Musical’. In fact, Purcell’s The Fairy Queen was just the kind of thing London audiences in the 1690s wanted: a spectacular musical play with fine costumes, lavish sets, ingenious stage machinery and a big cast of singers, actors, dancers and instrumentalists. ‘Dramatic operas’ was how these entertainments were described, and The Fairy Queen, Purcell’s third following the successes of Dioclesian and King Arthur, scored a hit for the Dorset Garden Theatre in May 1692, spoilt only by the fact that production expenses all but wiped out the profits.

The various musical set-pieces and interludes of a work like The Fairy Queen are not just incidental, however; they are designed to reflect the emotions of the main characters and the overall atmosphere of the play. Thus, while many of the numbers can be extracted from the play without any great loss of musical sense, in context they breathe much of the same atmosphere as Shakespeare’s wondrous play, making not a bad job at all of being the nearest thing we have to a meeting of two of Britain’s greatest creative minds.

Tonight’s suite starts with four ‘act-tunes’ that were played while the theatre was filling up, before the overture to the opera itself. Also included is a symphony accompanying a magical transformation of swans into fairies, and a Monkey’s Dance representative of a tradition of acrobatic grotesquery which goes back to the elaborate court masques of the early part of the century. As befits one of the greatest of all song composers, there are also two deeply touching lovers’ laments, plus a more relaxed celebration of love to be sung by ‘a Chinese Woman’. •

LATER THIS SEASON

Sunday 15 March 2020 7pm Barbican VAUGHAN WILLIAMS Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis Britten Violin Concerto Vaughan Williams Symphony No 6 Sir Antonio Pappano conductor

Vilde Frang  violin

Sunday 29 March 2020 7pm Barbican ELGAR & SIBELIUS Elgar Violin Concerto Sibelius Symphony No 4 Sir Mark Elder  conductor

Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider  violin Sunday 15 & 29 March 5.30pm Barbican LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists Free pre-concert recital Recommended by Classic FM lso.co.uk/201920

5Texts & Composer Profile

The Fairy Queen – Suite texts

at Westminster Abbey and got paid for copying books of organ parts. In 1677, he was appointed composer-in-ordinary for the violins in succession to Matthew Locke and, in 1679, succeeded John Blow as organist of Westminster Abbey.

As a court composer, notably to Charles II, and as organist at Westminster Abbey and later to the Chapel Royal, Purcell composed a large body of choral music for ceremonial occasions, including the coronation of James II in 1685 and, four years later, for William III. He produced even more music for the thriving Restoration theatre, working with such dramatists as John Dryden and William Congreve. With Dido and Aeneas, he composed the first great English opera.

In the last years of his life, Purcell became increasingly prolific, writing some of his greatest church music, including the Te Deum and Jubilate in D as well as an anthem for the funeral of Queen Mary. A prominent name in his own lifetime, Purcell was overlooked by succeeding generations. However, today he is acknowledged as possibly the greatest English composer until the rise of Sir Edward Elgar at the end of the 19th century. Purcell died at the early age of 36, most likely of pneumonia. •

If love’s a sweet passion If love’s a sweet passion, why does it torment? If a bitter, oh tell me whence comes my content? Since I suffer with pleasure, why should I complain, Or grieve at my fate, when I know ‘tis in vain? Yet so pleasing the pain, so soft is the dart, That at once it both wounds me, and tickles my heart.

I press her hand gently, look languishing down, And by passionate silence I make my love known. But oh! I’m blest when so kind she does prove, By some willing mistake to discover her love. When in striving to hide, she reveals all her flame, And our eyes tell each other, what neither dares name.

The Plaint O, let me forever weep: My eyes no more shall welcome sleep. I’ll hide me from the sight of day, And sigh my soul away. He’s gone, his loss deplore, And I shall never see him more.

Thus happy and free Chinese Woman: Thus happy and free, Thus treated are we With nature’s chiefest delights. We never cloy, But renew our Joy, And one bliss another Invites.

Chorus: Thus wildly we live, Thus freely we give, What heaven as freely bestows. We were not made For labour and trade, Which fools on each other impose.

urcell was born in London in 1659, the son of Thomas Purcell, a court musician. When he was

five, his father died, forcing his mother to resettle the family of six children into a more modest house and lifestyle. As a boy, Purcell became a chorister in the Chapel Royal, studying under chorus master Henry Cooke. He also took keyboard lessons from Christopher Gibbons, son of the composer Orlando Gibbons. In 1673, he was appointed as unpaid assistant to John Hingestone, the royal instrument keeper. He acquired experience by tuning the organ

Henry Purcell In Profile 1659–95

6 Programme Notes & Composer Profile 15 December 2019

George Frideric Handel Water Music – Suite No 1 in F Major HWV 348 1717 / note by Lindsay Kemp

Once in Hanover, however, he applied for leave to go to England, and spent most of the next few years in London, where his opera Rinaldo was produced in 1711. The same year he was also awarded a royal pension, and in 1714, after the death of Queen Anne, he found himself in the service of his old master, now King. In 1717, he entered the service of the soon-to-be Duke of Chandos. During the next few years, London heard some of his best works, including the operas Giulio Cesare and Rodelinda and music for the Chapel Royal. Handel became a British citizen in 1727 and he remained in London, putting on operas and writing music for King and court. He was nonetheless unsure of his future, and after the first performance of his Messiah in Dublin in 1742, he concentrated on oratorios, all performed in English and often including a concerto grosso performance in the interval. His performances of Messiah became a regular feature of London life; in 1749 he composed his Music for the Royal Fireworks, and in 1752 he composed his last oratorio, the masterful Jephtha. While he was writing this work, Handel became blind, first in his left eye and then totally. He died in 1759, and his funeral at Westminster Abbey was attended by over 3,000 people. • Profile by Alison Bullock

1  Ouverture: Largo – Allegro 2  Adagio e staccato 3  [Allegro] – Andante – [Allegro] 4 Menuet 5 Air 6 Menuet 7 Bourrée 8 Hornpipe

lthough his greatness was readily acknowledged by his contemporaries, Handel was

seldom neglectful of the need to cultivate the right contacts. On arriving in England, not long after acquiring a post back in Germany as Kapellmeister (or director of music) to the Elector of Hanover, he quickly and shrewdly moved to establish himself not only in operatic circles, but also at court. His long and unauthorised absence from Hanover eventually resulted in dismissal from the Elector’s service. Even so, the famous old story that Handel won back his former employer’s favour after the latter had succeeded to the British throne as George I by secretly providing music for a royal river party on the Thames must be taken with a pinch of salt. Neither is it clear when this might have taken place, since there were river parties every summer from 1715 to 1717, and only at the last of them is Handel’s music known to have been heard. It is likely

that he composed for all of them, however, and that the so-called Water Music is therefore a compilation of this music.

A newspaper account of the 1717 party, which went in open barges from Whitehall to Chelsea and back, tells us that the King liked Handel’s music ‘so well, that he caus’d it to be plaid three times on going and returning’. He had good reason to, for this is an extraordinarily rich collection of pieces, covering a wide range of styles and employing a powerful orchestra (‘50 instruments of all sorts’ were reported in 1717) whose diverse colourings must have been a revelation to English listeners of the time. The 20-or-so pieces (from which we hear a selection tonight) are mostly dances, and appear to fall into three distinct suites, each in a different key and characterised by a different instrumental sonority, possibly reflecting their respective roles on the night. The F major suite (No 1) features horns, instruments clearly suited to bold outdoor performance in the difficult acoustic circumstances of an open river, and as the only one of the three suites to include an overture, it can perhaps be imagined as the one which played as the party set off. •

HANDEL IN PROFILE 1685–1759

andel was born George Frideric Handel in Halle, Germany, in 1685, the son of a barber-surgeon. His

father wanted him to become a lawyer, but after Handel showed musical aptitude (he practised in secret), he was allowed to study music formally. At 17 he was appointed organist of Halle Cathedral, but the following year left for Hamburg, where he played in the opera orchestra and, in 1704, had his first opera, Almira, performed. In 1706, he was invited to Italy, and several major Italian cities saw performances of his works before he left in 1710 for the court of the Elector of Hanover (later King George I of England).Interval – 20 minutes

Featuring Francesco Tristano (piano) | Mayah Kadish (violin) | Jonathan Roozeman (cello) & Lauri Porra (bass guitar) | The Marian Consort & Monteverdi String Band |

Hille & Marthe Perl (electric viols) | Susanna | Stile Antico, Woven Gold & Rihab Azar | Singing Workshop with Stile Antico

10 to 12 January 2020 | LSO St Luke’s & Saint James Clerkenwell baroqueattheedge.co.uk

15 December 2019

Jean-Philippe Rameau Castor and Pollux 1737

Air de Télaïre ‘Tristes apprêts,    pâles flambeaux’ Lucy Crowe soprano Air de Castor ‘Séjour de l’éternelle paix’ Reinoud Van Mechelen tenor

ameau’s operatic career had begun late with the classical tragedy Hippolyte et Aricie, which in 1733

shot the 50-year-old, then known primarily as a keyboard composer and theorist, to the height of operatic fame. Hippolyte was a tragédie en musique, the genre of serious music-drama with roots in the great tradition of French spoken theatre that had been forged by Jean-Baptiste Lully the previous century, from which time, past Rameau’s and on to that of Gluck’s Parisian triumphs of the 1770s, it was considered the purest and noblest species of French opera.

Hippolyte was followed four years after by Castor and Pollux, Rameau’s second five-act tragédie. Mortal Castor and immortal Pollux are twins, and in the first act Castor has been killed in battle and is being mourned by the people of Sparta. The grand choral set-piece obsequies are interrupted, however, by Télaïre, daughter of the Sun and in love

with Castor; her intimate and deeply felt air ‘Tristes apprêts’ has always been the opera’s most admired number, recognised even by Berlioz in 1842 as ‘one of the sublimest creations in dramatic music’. An island of intense dignity and poise, its emotional authenticity comes from the devastating restraint of its vocal line, articulated over consoling plaints from the bassoon.

The story hinges on Pollux’s selfless decision to rescue Castor from Hades by taking his place, thereby sacrificing his own immortality. In ‘Séjour de l’éternelle paix’, from the opening of the fourth act, we find Castor languishing in the underworld, tortured even in this place of peace, with its soothing flutes and strings, by his love for Télaïre. •

Note by Lindsay Kemp

Friday 3 January 1–2pm JS Bach Sonata No 4 in C minor for violin and harpsichord BWV 1017 Sonata No 1 in B minor for violin and harpsichord BWV 1014 Sonata No 6 in G major for violin and harpsichord BWV 1019 Alina Ibragimova  violin Carole Cerasi harpsichord

Friday 17 January 1–2pm JS Bach Cello Suite No 1 (arr for viola) Selection of Two-Part Inventions for violin and viola Sonata for viola da gamba in G major Maxim Rysanov viola Alexander Sitkovetsky  violin Steven Devine organ

Friday 24 January 1–2pm JS Bach Harpsichord Concerto in D minor BWV 1052 Toccata in D major for solo harpsichord BWV 912 Harpsichord Concerto in G minor BWV 1058 Justin Taylor harpsichord

Consone Quartet

Friday 31 January 1–2pm JS Bach Italian Concerto in F major BWV 971 Keyboard Partita No 4 in D major BWV 828 Chaconne in B minor from Violin Partita No 2 BWV 1004 (arr Busoni) Federico Colli piano Find out more and book tickets lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts 020 7638 8891

BCH UP COSE

Discover Bach’s chamber music in BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts at LSO St Luke’s

Castor and Pollux texts / translation by Cynthia Verba

9Texts

Air de Castor Séjour de l’éternelle paix, Ne calmerez-vous point mon âme impatiente? Temple des demi-Dieux que j’habite à jamais, Combattez dans mon cœur ma flame renaissante; L’Amour jusqu’en ces lieux me poursuit de ses traits: Castor n’y voit que son amante, Et vous perdez tous vos attraits.

Que ce murmure est doux, que cet ombrage est frais! De ces accords touchants la volupté m’enchante: Tout rit, tout prévient mon attente, Et je forme encor des regrets!

Air de Télaïre

Tristes apprêts, pâles flambeaux, Jour plus affreux que les ténèbres, Astres lugubres des tombeaux, Non je ne verrai plus que vos clartés funèbres.

Toi, qui vois mon cœur éperdu, Père du jour, ô Soleil, ô mon père! Je ne veux plus d’un bien que Castor a perdu, Et je renonce à ta lumière.

Mournful apparitions, pale flames, Day more frightening than darkness, Dismal stars within tombs, No, I shall no longer see anything other than your funereal beams.

You who see my broken heart, Father of daylight! Oh Sun, Oh my father! I no longer wish the gift that Castor has lost, And I renounce the light.

Abode of eternal peace, Will you not calm my impatient soul? Temple of the demi-gods where I dwell forever, Combat in my heart my rekindled passion; Love pursues me as far as these abodes with his darts; Castor sees only his beloved, And you lose all your charms.

How sweet this murmuring, how cool this shade; With these moving harmonies, pleasure enchants me: Everything laughs, everything arouses my expectations, And I still feel regrets!

10 Programme Notes 15 December 2019

Jean-Philippe Rameau Dardanus – Suite 1739 / note by Lindsay Kemp

ameau’s third tragédie, Dardanus, came in 1739. By then he had won firm recognition as the leading

French musical dramatist of the day, and even the various controversies and cabals that inevitably attended his success (Rameau even had a fight with one of his critics) could not prevent the new opera from attracting massive interest and keen anticipation. It ran for 26 performances, but was considered only a partial success nevertheless. There was criticism not so much of the music as of its plot, whose over-dependence on supernatural intervention (primarily in the form of a persistently troublesome sea monster) was conceded even by the librettist. The opera was drastically revised for revivals in 1744 and 1760, by the second of which opinion had stabilised to widespread admiration for the work as one of its composer’s finest dramatic inventions. More than one commentator now saw fit to describe Rameau as ‘the composer of Dardanus’.

1 Ouverture 2  Air gracieux et air de Vénus      ‘L’Amour, le seul Amour’ 3 Menuet tendre en rondeau 4 Tambourins 5  Recitatif et airs de Vénus ‘C’en est trop’,       ‘troubles cruels’ et ‘Quand l’Aquilon      fougueux’ 6  Bruit de guerre 7  Air de Dardanus ‘Lieux funestes’ 8 Ritournelle (Descente de Vénus) 9 Calme des sens 10 Gavotte vive 11  Récitatif et air de Dardanus ‘Où suis-je!’,       ‘Hâtons-nous’ 12  Duo d’Iphise et Dardanus ‘Des biens      que l’amour nous dispense’ 13 Chaconne

Lucy Crowe soprano

Reinoud Van Mechelen tenor

The story is set in ancient Phrygia, and tells how Dardanus, son of Jupiter and founder of the royal house of Troy, comes to marry his enemy’s daughter, Iphise, who loves him but has initially been promised to one of her father’s military allies. After the ouverture, tonight’s selection from the opera includes a set of airs and dances from the prologue for Vénus, her followers and Cupid. After the brief ‘Bruit de guerre’ (or ‘noise of war’) we come to a sequence from Act 4, in which Dardanus has been captured by his enemy and is languishing in prison. In ‘Lieux funestes’, another of Rameau’s powerful monologues, he bemoans his situation, above all the prospective loss of his love to a rival, in aching dissonances and the sombre wailing of bassoons. Vénus gently descends and frees him, but not before sending him to sleep and summoning dreams to encourage him to slay the sea-monster; the instrumental ‘Calme des sens’ and ‘Gavotte vive’ come from this dream sequence. When Dardanus awakes he joyfully recognises his destiny and, in ‘Hâtons-nous’, rushes onwards to glory. To finish, there is a duet from the final act in which Iphise and Dardanus celebrate a happy outcome, rounded off by the ending traditional for French Baroque operas, a brilliant but graceful chaconne •. •

•  CHACONNE

Popular in the Baroque era, a chaconne is a musical composition characterised by variation of a repeated short harmonic progression. Often a repetitive bass-line (or ground bass) forms the foundation.

Dardanus – Suite texts / translation by Mark Hughes

11Texts

2  Air gracieux et air de Vénus   L’Amour, le seul Amour est le charme des cœurs. Au roi le plus puissant, que servent les grandeurs? A vivre aussi content un berger peut prétendre. Et si pour l’un des deux le ciel s’est déclaré, Celui qu’il a formé plus sensible et plus tender Est celui qu’il a préféré. 5 Recitatif et airs de Vénus C’en est trop! Gardez-vous d’empoisonner vos traits. Si par vous cet empire est durable à jamais, C’est par les seuls Plaisirs qu’il mérite de l’être. En ranimant l’Amour, épargnez ses attraits. Transformez-vous; soyez dignes de votre maître. Troubles cruels, soupçons injurieux, Vous que l’orgueil nourrit, que le caprice guide, Qui rendez et l’amant et l’amour odieux, Devenez une ardeur délicate et timide Dont le respect épure et modère les feux. Inspirez par l’amour, guidez par sa lumière, N’entrez dans les coeurs amoureux Que pour y éveiller l’empressement de plaire.

Quand l’Aquilon fougueux s’échappe de sa chaîne, Sur les mers qu’il ravage, il fait régner la mort. Mais quand le Dieu des vents, captivant son effort, Ne lui laisse exhaler qu’une plus douce haleine, Il seconde le cours des vaisseaux qu’il entraîne, Et les conduit au port.

7 Air de Dardanus Lieux funestes où tout respire La honte et la douleur, Du désespoir sombre et cruel empire, L’horreur que votre aspect inspire Est le moindre des maux qui déchirent mon coeur;

L’objet de tant d’amour, la beauté qui m’engage, Le sceptre que je perds, Ce prix de mes travaux, Tout va de mon rival devenir le partage, Tan-dis que sous les fers je n’ai que mon courage Qui résiste à peine à mes maux.

Love, and only Love, makes hearts beautiful. What need does the most powerful king have for greatness? A shepherd can claim to live just as happily as him. And if the heavens favoured one of the two, They will surely prefer he who is more sensitive and tender. It is too much! Guard against poisoning your arrows. Even if it is through you that the empire is eternal, Pleasures are the only thing that make it worthwhile. When reviving Love, save its appeal. Transform yourself; be worthy of your master.

Cruel troubles, offensive suspicions, You who are fed by pride, guided by whim, Who make both the lover and love hateful, Become a delicate and shy fervour, The respect of which purifies all and moderates fires. Inspire through love, guide by its light, Enter into loving hearts Only to awaken the eagerness to please.

When the fiery Aquilon* escapes from his chains, He brings death on to the seas that he ravages. But when the God of the winds, arresting his efforts, Only allows him to blow a gentle breeze, He assists the flotilla of vessels that he is pushing along, And leads them to the port. Dreadful abode, where everything breathes Shame and suffering, Sombre and cruel empire of despair, The horror I feel at the sight of you Is the least of the evils that tears up my heart; The object of so much love, the beauty to which I am bound, The sceptre that I am losing, The prize of my labours, Everything shall be shared with my rivals, While I, in iron shackles, have only my courage Which only just saves me from succumbing to my pains. *Aquilon: Northern wind

12 Texts & Composer Profile

Jean-Philippe Rameau In Profile 1683–1764

ean-Philippe Rameau was born in Dijon in 1683, the son of a church organist. After a period of study

in Italy during his teens, he spent 20 years as an organist in Clermont, Dijon and Lyon before moving to Paris in 1722, where over the next decade he published a number of boldly original harpsichord pieces as well as his Traité de l’harmonie, the composition treatise which made his initial fame as a writer on, rather than of, music.

Yet all this time he had been itching to compose operas, and finally, following an encounter with the playwright Pellegrin, his first full-scale opera, Hippolyte et Aricie, was premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1733. It drew instant acclaim for the 50-year-old composer, as well as controversy for the way he had taken the classic French tragédie form, devised some 60 years earlier by Lully, to a new level of complexity. Rameau lived out the rest of his life as a figure of considerable eminence, dividing his time between some 30 more works for the stage and further theoretical writings.

One of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, Rameau has long been familiar to harpsichordists, but the last half-century has seen him increasingly appreciated by musicians and listeners alike for all areas of his output. The ever more frequent performances of his stage works have won the highest admiration; in addition to their expressive power and dramatic effectiveness, their unfailing tunefulness and colourful orchestration have endeared them to audiences, and suites of dances drawn from them now make frequent appearances in concerts of Baroque orchestral music. • Profile by Lindsay Kemp

15 December 2019

11 Recitatif et air de Dardanus Où suis-je! dans ces lieux quel dieu m’a transporté? M’a-t’on rendu la liberté? Le sort cruel, enfin, va-t’il tarir mes larmes? Mais je n’en doute plus, à l’aspect de ces lieux, Ces Songes séduisans, qui charmoient mes allarmes, Etaient les oracles des dieux.

Hâtons-nous; courons à la gloire, Cherchons le monstre affreux qui ravage ces bords. Vole, Amour, à mon bras assure la victoire, Vole, vole, seconde mes efforts.

12  Duo d’Iphise et Dardanus Des biens que Vénus nous dispense, Quel encens, quels autels, acquiteroient le prix? C’est en nous soumettant au pouvoir de son fils Qu’il nous faut lui marquer notre reconnoissance. Lance tes traits, Amour, Epuise ton carquois Sur des cœurs livrez à tes flâmes, Triomphe, règne sur nos âmes, Nous te jurons de vivre à jamais sous tes loix.

Where am I? Which god brought me here? Have I been set free? Will my cruel fate at last dry my tears? But now, looking at this place, I have no doubt that The seductive Dreams, who charmed away my concerns, Were the oracles of the gods. Let us hurry, and run to glory, Let us find that awful monster that ravages the shores. Fly, Love, let us be victorious together, Fly, fly, help me in my efforts.

What incense, what shrine will repay the price for The goods that Venus grants us? It is by subjecting ourselves to the power of her son That we must show her our gratitude. Shoot your arrows, Love, empty your quiver On hearts given to your flames. Triumph, reign over our souls, We swear an oath to forever live under your laws.

Jean-Philippe Rameau In Profile 1683–1764

BEETHOVEN 250 conducted by Sir Simon Rattle January & February 2020

BARTÓK & DUKAS conducted by François-Xavier Roth & Sir Simon Rattle December 2019, January & February 2020

ARTIST PORTRAIT & DUKAS with soloist Antoine Tamestit April to June 2020

PLUS DON’T MISS Sir Antonio Pappano, Karina Canellakis, Susanna Mälkki & Sir Mark Elder conduct Vaughan Williams, Ravel, Debussy & more lso.co.uk/201920

The LSO’s 2019/20 season continues in the new year

14 Artist Biographies

Emmanuelle Haïm conductor

mmanuelle Haïm is highly acclaimed as a performer and champion of the Baroque

repertoire, both as a keyboard player and conductor. During the 2019/20 season, she will make her debut with the Royal Concertgebouw and NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestras. Emmanuelle regularly conducts the Berlin Philharmonic and Los Angeles Philharmonic and returns to both during this season. Last season, her debuts included the New York Philharmonic and Philadelphia Orchestras, as well as Zurich Opera, where she conducted a

new production of Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie. Other recent debuts have included the Bayerischer Rundfunk and Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestras, as well as the Vienna Philharmonic with performances in Vienna and at the Lucerne Festival.

In 2000, Emmanuelle founded Le Concert d’Astrée, which quickly established an international reputation. During the 2019/20 season, their performances include a new production of Purcell’s The Indian Queen at Lille Opera and a Rameau and Mondonville double bill in Luxembourg and Caen. They will also undertake a European tour with the Choir of Le Concert d’Astrée performing Campra’s Requiem and motets by Rameau and Mondonville, including performances in Lille, Luxembourg, Dijon, Cologne and Berlin. Le Concert d’Astrée have their residency in Lille and are passionate and active ambassadors for this region.

Emmanuelle has conducted regularly at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, including Handel’s Theodora and Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea. She has also performed Handel’s Rodelinda with Glyndebourne Touring Opera and was the first woman to conduct at Chicago Lyric Opera with Handel’s Giulio Cesare.

15 December 2019

•  IN CONVERSATION

Purcell, Handel and Rameau: for several decades now, these names have largely been the preserve of specialist ‘period’ orchestras. More recently, however, increasing numbers of ‘modern’ orchestras have been working with conductors such as Haïm to bring these composers back into their repertoires.

Leading the performances from the harpsichord promises an alternative way of working. ‘It’s very different from the 19th-century spirit’, says Haïm. ‘The role of the conductor is more inside the orchestra, playing an instrument and sharing with the other players, being part of the music yourself. It’s more like a mixture of orchestral music and chamber music.’ ‘Purcell is such a genius. There are no barriers for listeners because his music is so direct. Handel’s Water Music is gloriously written for the brass and winds, and the Rameau – songs and dances from the operas Castor and Pollux and Dardanus – is such brilliant music. The beauty in the way it’s written is obvious, but there are also unwritten beauties that you have to grab from the special language of the music.’

Interview by Lindsay Kemp

With Le Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle has an extensive discography with Erato/Warner Classics. Their recordings have won numerous awards, including Victoires de la Musique Classique (for Lamenti and Carestini), the Echo Deutscher Musikpreis and nominations for the Grammy Awards. Their most recent releases are a CD of Italian cantatas by Handel, performed by Sabine Devieilhe and Lea Desandre, and a DVD of Handel’s Rodelinda filmed in Lille in 2018.

Emmanuelle is a Chevalier de l’Ordre National de la Légion d’Honneur, an Officier des Arts et des Lettres, an Officier de l’ordre national du Mérite and an Honorary Member of the Royal Academy of Music. •

15Artist Biographies

Lucy Crowe soprano Reinoud Van Mechelen tenor

ucy Crowe is one of the leading lyric sopranos of her generation. Performing at the Metropolitan

Opera New York, Royal Opera House, Bayerische Staatsoper Munich, Deutsche Oper Berlin, Lyric Opera of Chicago, English National Opera, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Canadian Opera Company and Frankfurt Opera, her roles include Pamina (The Magic Flute, Mozart), Adele (Die Fledermaus, Strauss), Eurydice (Orphée et Eurydice, Gluck), Adina (L’elisir d’amore, Donizetti), Sophie (Der Rosenkavalier, Strauss), Gilda (Rigoletto, Verdi), Susanna and Countess (The Marriage of Figaro, Mozart), Rosina (The Barber of Seville, Rossini), Iole (Hercules, Handel), Vixen (The Cunning Little Vixen, Janáček), Micaëla and Merab (Saul, Handel) and the title character

in Handel’s Rodelinda. In recital, she has appeared at the Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Mostly Mozart and Salzburg Festivals, and the BBC Proms.

In concert, she has worked with the Philadelphia Orchestra under Nézet-Séguin, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra with Haïm, Oramo and Nelsons, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment under Mackerras and Egarr, Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Mackerras and Nézet-Séguin, the Monteverdi Orchestra under Gardiner, and the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia with Pappano. Her most recent appearances include Mahler’s Symphony No 2 with the Berlin Philharmonic and Andris Nelsons, and The Cunning Little Vixen with the LSO. This season, Lucy makes her debut at Dutch National Opera in the title role of Rodelinda and returns to the Royal Opera House as Poppea in Agrippina. In concert, she joins the Berlin Philharmonic and Emmanuelle Haïm for Apollo e Dafne, the Monteverdi Orchestra and Sir John Eliot Gardiner for a world tour in celebration of Beethoven’s 250th birthday year, the Orchestre de Paris and Daniel Harding for Elijah, and the English Concert and Harry Bicket in a worldwide tour of Rodelinda. Lucy is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Music. •

einoud Van Mechelen studied at the Conservatoire Royal in Brussels. In 2017, he was awarded

the prestigious Caecilia Prize as Young Musician of the Year from the Union of the Belgian Music Press. As early as 2007, he drew attention at the European Baroque Academy in Ambronay under the baton of Hervé Niquet. In 2011, he was a member of William Christie and Paul Agnew’s Jardin des Voix and subsequently became a regular soloist of Les Arts Florissants.

He has also performed with many other renowned Baroque ensembles such as Collegium Vocale, Le Concert Spirituel, La Petite Bande, Les Talens Lyriques, Ensemble Pygmalion, Le Poème Harmonique, Le Concert d’Astrée, Il Gardellino, L’Arpeggiata,

Ludus Modalis, B’Rock, Ricercar Consort, Capriccio Stravagante, Scherzi Musicali, the European Union Baroque Orchestra and Hespèrion XXI.

Major roles on opera stages include at the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, the Berlin State Opera, the Zurich Opera, the Bordeaux Opera, the Théâtre des Champs-Elysées and the Opéra Royal de Versailles. In 2019, he sang the Evangelist in Bach’s St John Passion with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under the baton of William Christie.

Among the many recordings he has taken part in are four albums on the label Alpha Classics with the ensemble he has founded, a nocte temporis: Erbame Dich (arias by Bach); Clérambault, cantates françaises; The Dubhlinn Garden and the just-released, Dumesny, haute-contre de Lully. •

16 The Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

15 December 2019

LSO String Experience Scheme Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Scheme has enabled young string players from the London music conservatoires at the start of their professional careers to gain work experience by playing in rehearsals and concerts with the LSO. The musicians are treated as professional ‘extra’ players (additional to LSO members) and receive fees for their work in line with LSO section players. The scheme is supported by: The Polonsky Foundation Derek Hill Foundation Idlewild Trust Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Thistle Trust

Editorial Photography  Ranald Mackechnie, Chris Wahlberg, Harald Hoffmann, Marco Borggreve, Marianne Rosensthiel, Senne Van der Ven Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.

Guest Leader Igor Yusefofich

First Violins Ginette Decuyper Laura Dixon Gerald Gregory Laurent Quenelle Harriet Rayfield Sylvain Vasseur

Second Violins David Alberman Thomas Norris Sarah Quinn Miya Väisänen Alix Lagasse Iwona Muszynska

Violas Edward Vanderspar Gillianne Haddow Malcolm Johnston German Clavijo Stephen Doman Robert Turner

Cellos Rebecca Gilliver Jennifer Brown Noel Bradshaw Hilary Jones Amanda Truelove Laure Le Dantec

Double Basses Colin Paris Patrick Laurence

Flutes Gareth Davies Sharon Williams

Recorder Heloise Gaillard

Oboes Olivier Stankiewicz Rosie Jenkins

Bassoons Rachel Gough Joost Bosdijk

Horns Alexander Edmundson Ollie Johnson

Trumpets David Elton Aaron Akugbo

Timpani John Chimes Percussion Neil Percy

Harpsichord Benoit Hartoin

Lute Eligio Quinteiro