London Symphony OrchestraLiving Music

London’s Symphony Orchestra

Wed 6 & Wed 13 Nov 2013 7.30pm Barbican Hall

ROMEO AND JULIET

Berlioz Romeo and Juliet

Valery Gergiev conductorOlga Borodina mezzo-sopranoKenneth Tarver tenorEvgeny Nikitin bass-baritoneLondon Symphony Chorus Guildhall School ChorusSimon Halsey chorus director

6 Nov in partnership with the Royal Philharmonic Society

13 Nov supported by LSO Friends

BERLIOZ: FANTASY, REALITY, IMAGINATION

There will be no interval during tonight’s concertConcert finishes approx 9.20pm

13 Nov filmed by Mezzo for future broadcast across Europe

2 Welcome 6 & 13 November 2013

WelcomeKathryn McDowell

Living Music In Brief

Tonight’s concert forms part of LSO Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev’s exploration of the music of Berlioz, a major series that takes in eight concerts at the Barbican and a tour to venues in the Czech Republic, Germany, Austria and France.

This evening, we hear one of the composer’s most revolutionary works – the choral symphony Romeo and Juliet, inspired by Berlioz’s love of Shakespeare. To bring the drama of this work to life, it’s a pleasure to be joined by soloists Olga Borodina, Kenneth Tarver and Evgeny Nikitin, along with the London Symphony Chorus and a chorus from the Guildhall School. We are particularly delighted to have the opportunity to take this programme to Paris for a performance later this month at the Salle Pleyel, where the LSO is International Resident Orchestra.

I would like to take this opportunity to congratulate the Royal Philharmonic Society, whose members join us on 6 November as part of their bicentenary celebrations, and LSO Friends, for their support of the 13 November concert and their continuing commitment to the work of the Orchestra.

Thank you also to our media partners for this series, Classic FM, and to our filming and broadcast partner Mezzo, who will record the 13 November concert for later broadcast.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s performance, and will join us again for another concert in the series, which continues at the Barbican until 14 November.

Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Managing Director

LSO PLAY

See a different side of the London Symphony Orchestra through LSO Play, an innovative online platform that allows you to immerse yourself in an orchestral concert. Watch Valery Gergiev conduct Ravel’s Boléro, control views of the performance from within the different sections of orchestra, and learn more about the instruments and players.

play.lso.co.uk

LSO LIVE SALE ON iTUNES

This month, iTunes is holding a world-wide campaign discounting the entire LSO Live catalogue. Get up to 40% off your favourite recordings by the London Symphony Orchestra, including best-sellers Holst’s The Planets, award-winning Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and the monumental Berlioz’s Grande Messe des morts. Sale ends 26 November.

iTunes.com/lsolive

A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS

The LSO offers great benefits for groups of 10+ including 20% off standard ticket prices, a dedicated booking phone line and, for bigger groups, free hot drinks and the chance of a private interval reception. At these two concerts we are delighted to welcome: The Mariinsky Theatre Trust, The Royal Brompton & Harefield Hospitals Charity and Brook Green UK DMC.

lso.co.uk/groups

lso.co.uk 3

Royal Philharmonic Society200 Years at the Heart of Music

The UK’s orchestral tradition started in 1813 when the Philharmonic Society of London mounted the first public season of concerts. 200 years on and this unique organisation is still at the heart of music: supporting and working creatively with talented young performers and composers, championing excellence, and encouraging audiences to listen to, and talk about, great music.

New music has always been central to the RPS, and tonight’s concert reminds us that Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet was first introduced to the UK at a Philharmonic Society concert on 10 March 1881, conducted by Mr W G Cousins. The concert took place at St James’ Hall and, according to the programme, the orchestra was increased to precisely 100 members and joined by a chorus of 150 singers from the Upper Choir of the South London Choral Association plus twelve professional vocalists under the direction of Mr Leonard C Venebles. This was the first time that Berlioz’s work had featured in a Philharmonic Society concert in nearly 30 years following his visit in 1853, when he conducted a programme of his music including Harold in Italy and the overture Le carnaval romain.

‘For centuries the RPS has been the beating heart and conscience of British musical life.’

Richard Morrison, The Times

rps200.org/join

LSO PLAY EXPLORE THE ORCHESTRA

View performances from a new perspective, watch up to four cameras at one time, and use the orchestra visualisation to learn more about the instruments …

Get to see what the Orchestra sees when they make music and explore Ravel’s Boléro up close.

play.lso.co.uk

4 Programme Notes 6 & 13 November 2013

Hector Berlioz (1803–69)

Romeo and Juliet Op 17 (1839)

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Almost from the moment that the 23-year-old Berlioz saw an English company’s performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet at the Odéon Theatre in Paris in September 1827, ideas for some kind of musical response began to crowd into his mind. But the article in an English newspaper, which later reported that as he left the theatre he exclaimed, ‘I shall write my grandest symphony on the play’, could not have been more wrong.

Writing a symphony of any kind was the last thing Berlioz would have been thinking of at that stage of his career. His musical education, since coming to Paris from the provinces six years before – a boy of 17 who had never heard an orchestra – had been largely devoted to the operas and sacred music of the French classical school. The crucial discovery of Beethoven, and of the symphony as a major art-form, lay several months ahead.

The Revelation of Beethoven

Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet comes out of Beethoven almost as much as Shakespeare – out of the revelation of the Beethovenian symphony at concerts at the Paris Conservatoire, where Berlioz was a student, in 1828: the symphony as a dramatic medium every bit as vivid and lofty as opera, and the symphony orchestra as a vehicle of unimagined expressive power and subtlety, of infinite possibility. From that time on, his aspirations turned in a new direction, towards the dramatic concert work, culminating, twelve years after the epiphany at the Odéon, in Romeo and Juliet.

For Berlioz, listening to the Beethoven symphonies and studying the scores in the Conservatoire Library, the sheer variety of their compositional procedures and the clearly distinct character of each work

Dramatic symphony after Shakespeare’s tragedy Libretto by Émile Deschamps

INTRODUCTION – FIGHTING, TUMULT, INTERVENTION

OF THE PRINCE: ALLEGRO FUGATO

PROLOGUE: MODERATO

STROPHES: ANDANTE AVEC SOLENNITÉ

SCHERZETTO: ALLEGRO LEGGIERO

ROMEO ALONE, SADNESS, MUSIC AND DANCING,

THE CAPULETS’ FEAST: ANDANTE MALINCONICO

E SOSTENUTO – LARGHETTO ESPRESSIVO – ALLEGRO

LOVE SCENE: THE CAPULETS’ GARDEN, SILENT AND

DESERTED: ALLEGRETTO – ADAGIO

SCHERZO: QUEEN MAB: PRESTISSIMO

JULIET’S FUNERAL PROCESSION: ANDANTE NON TROPPO LENTO

ROMEO AT THE CAPULETS’ TOMB –

INVOCATION, AWAKENING OF JULIET:

ALLEGRO AGITATO E DISPERATO CON MOTO – LARGO –

ALLEGRO VIVACE ED APPASSIONATO ASSAI

FINALE – THE CROWD RUSHES TO THE CEMETERY,

BRAWL OF CAPULETS AND MONTAGUES,

FRIAR LAURENCE’S RECITATIVE AND ARIA,

OATH OF RECONCILIATION: ALLEGRO – LARGHETTO

SOSTENUTO – ALLEGRO NON TROPPO – ALLEGRO –

ALLEGRO MODERATO – ANDANTE UN POCO MAESTOSO

VALERY GERGIEV CONDUCTOR

OLGA BORODINA MEZZO-SOPRANO

KENNETH TARVER TENOR

EVGENY NIKITIN BASS-BARITONE

LONDON SYMPHONY CHORUS

GUILDHALL SCHOOL CHORUS

SIMON HALSEY CHORUS DIRECTOR

lso.co.uk Programme Notes 5

reinforced the lessons of Shakespeare: continual reinvention of form in response to the demands of the poetic material. Each of his three symphonies is cast in a different form, and adopts a different solution to the problem of communicating dramatic content: in the Symphonie fantastique a written programme, in Harold in Italy movement titles, in Romeo and Juliet choral recitative, setting out – as in Shakespeare’s ‘Two houses, both alike in dignity …’ – the action distilled in the movements that follow.

The project occupied Berlioz for a long time. In Italy, in 1831–32, he discusses with Mendelssohn a possible orchestral scherzo on Queen Mab (a fairy that Mercutio refers to in a famous speech), and – under the (to him) negative impact of Bellini’s 1830 opera The Capulets and the Montagues – imagines an ideal scenario for a dramatic work:

‘To begin, the dazzling ball at the Capulets, where amid a whirling cloud of beauties young Montague first sets eyes on ‘sweet Juliet’ whose constant love will cost her her life; then the furious battles in the streets of Verona, the ‘fiery Tybalt’ presiding like the very spirit of rage and revenge; the indescribable night scene on Juliet’s balcony, the lovers’ voices ‘like softest music to attending ears’ uttering a love as pure and radiant as the smiling moon that shines its benediction upon them; the dazzling Mercutio and his sharp-tongued, fantastical humour; the

naïve old cackling nurse; the stately hermit, striving in vain to calm the storm of love and hate whose tumult has carried even to his lowly cell; and then the catastrophe, extremes of ecstasy and despair contending for mastery, passion’s sighs turned to choking death; and, at the last, the solemn oath sworn by the warring houses, too late, on the bodies of their star-crossed children, to abjure the hatred through which so much blood, so many tears, were shed.’

Much of this will feature in the symphony that Paganini’s princely gift – a cheque for 20,000 francs, which relieved Berlioz of the heavy burden of debt – enabled him to write.

The Formal Plan

The work finally performed in the Conservatoire Hall in November 1839 was the result of long and careful consideration of ends and means. ‘Romeo and Juliet, Dramatic Symphony, with chorus, vocal solos, and prologue in chanted recitative, after Shakespeare’s tragedy, dedicated to Niccolò Paganini’, is its title. Berlioz’s later preface has an ironic edge: ‘There will doubtless be no mistake as to the genre of this work’. In fact there has been a great deal. Yet (as the preface continues), ‘although voices are frequently employed, it is neither a concert opera nor a cantata but a choral symphony’.

Nowadays, Mahler’s multi-movement vocal-orchestral constructions are accepted as symphonies, but they were long disputed. In Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet the balance between the symphonic and the narrative is exactly calculated (with the wordless love scene at the heart of the work, structurally and emotionally). The more one studies it the stronger its compositional grasp appears. So far from being

BERLIOZ AND SHAKESPEARE

Berlioz described his first encounter

with Shakespeare (when he saw

Hamlet at the Odéon Theatre in 1827)

as a ‘thunderbolt’ that revealed the

‘meaning of dramatic grandeur,

beauty, truth’. The playwright proved

an enduring influence on Berlioz:

the composer wrote works inspired

by The Tempest, King Lear, Hamlet

and an opera based on Much Ado

About Nothing (Béatrice and Benedict).

NICCOLÒ PAGANINI (1782–1840)

was a celebrated violinist, violist and

composer. He commissioned Berlioz’s

Harold in Italy and, although he never

actually played the solo viola part, he

was overwhelmed when he heard

the work performed, and sent Berlioz

a gift of 20,000 francs, along with a

congratulatory letter, just days later.

‘Beethoven opened before me a new world of music, as Shakespeare had revealed a new universe of poetry’.

Berlioz, in his Memoirs, on the profound influence of Beethoven and Shakespeare

6 Programme Notes 6 & 13 November 2013

Hector BerliozRomeo and Juliet (continued)

Laurence. At the same time the two movements preceding the Finale take on an increasingly descriptive character, the funeral dirge merging into an insistent bell-like tolling and the Tomb Scene taking the work still nearer to narrative. In this way the fully dramatic Finale evolves out of what has gone before.

No Berlioz score is more abundant in lyric poetry, in a sense of the magic and brevity of love, in ‘sounds and sweet airs’ of so many kinds …

Thematic resemblances and echoes constantly link the different sections. The Introduction’s trombone recitative, representing the Prince’s rebuke to the warring families, is formed from the notes of their angry fugato, stretched out and ‘mastered’; the ball music is transformed to give the departing guests their dreamlike song; in the Tomb Scene Juliet wakes (clarinet) to the identical notes of the rising cor anglais phrase in the opening section of the adagio, and this is followed by the great love theme, now blurred and torn apart as the dying Romeo relives it in distorted flashback. And in the Finale, as the families’ vendetta breaks out again over the bodies of their children, the return of the opening fugato unites the two extremes of the vast score. The principle is active to the end: Friar Laurence’s oath of reconciliation takes as its point of departure the Introduction’s B minor feud motif, reborn in a broad, magnanimous B major.

Within his outward form the music is motivically close-knit. At the same time no Berlioz score is more abundant in lyric poetry, in a sense of the magic

arbitrary – an awkward compromise between symphony and opera or oratorio – the scheme is logical and the mixture of genres (the joint legacy of Shakespeare and Beethoven) precisely gauged.

The fugal Introduction, depicting the feud of the two families, establishes the principle of dramatically explicit orchestral music and then, using the bridge of instrumental recitative (as in Beethoven’s Ninth), crosses over into vocal music. Choral Prologue now states the argument, which Choral Finale will resolve, and prepares for the themes, dramatic and musical, to be treated in the core of the symphony by the orchestra. In addition, the two least overtly dramatic movements, the adagio (Love Scene) and the scherzo, are prefigured, the one in a contralto solo celebrating the rapture of first love, the other in a scherzetto for tenor and semi-chorus which introduces the mischievous Mab. At the end, the Finale brings the drama fully into the open in an extended choral movement that culminates in the abjuring of the hatreds depicted orchestrally at the outset.

The Use of Voices

Throughout, voices are used enough to keep them before the listener’s attention, in preparation for their full deployment. In the Love Scene the songs of revellers on their way home from the ball float across the stillness of the Capulets’ garden. Two movements later, in the Funeral Procession, the Capulet chorus is heard. The use of chorus thus follows what Berlioz (in an essay on the Ninth Symphony) called ‘the law of crescendo’.

It also works emotionally: having begun as onlookers, the voices become participants, just as the anonymous contralto and the Mercutio-like tenor give way to an actual person, the saintly Friar

THE LIBRETTO was written by

the French poet Émile Deschamps

(1791–1871). However, it was based

on the performance of the play that

Berlioz saw at the Odéon Theatre in

1827, which used an edited version

by the British actor, playwright and

theatre manager David Garrick; this

explains the occasional departures

from Shakespeare’s original story.

INSTRUMENTAL DRAMA

Although voices are used throughout

the work, much of the drama –

including the scenes involving

Romeo and Juliet – is delivered in the

instrumental music. In his preface

to the score, Berlioz wrote that he

‘had recourse to the language of

instruments which, in this case,

is richer, more varied, less precise

and, in its very vagueness,

incomparably more powerful’.

lso.co.uk Programme Notes 7

and brevity of love, in ‘sounds and sweet airs’ of so many kinds: the flickering, fleet-footed scherzo, which stands not only for Mercutio’s Queen Mab speech but for the whole nimble-witted, comic-fantastical, fatally irrational element in the play, and in which strings and wind seem caught up in some gleeful yet menacing game; the noble swell of the great extended melody which grows out of the questioning phrases of ‘Roméo seul’; the awesome unison of cor anglais, horn and four bassoons in Romeo’s invocation in the Capulets’ tomb; the haunting beauty of Juliet’s funeral procession (an addition to the play by David Garrick, whose edited version of Romeo and Juliet Berlioz saw at the Odéon Theatre); the adagio’s deep-toned harmonies and spellbound melodic arcs, conjuring the moonlit night and the wonder and intensity of the passion that flowers beneath it.

Programme Note © David Cairns

Musicians of the Mariinsky Theatre

Ensembles from the Mariinsky Theatre Orchestra perform in the Guildhall School of Music & Drama’s new state-of-the-art Milton Court Concert Hall

Wed 19 Feb

Mariinsky Brass Ensemble

Thu 20 Mar

Mariinsky Wind Quintet

Mariinsky UK tour supported by BP

ba

rbic

an.

org

.uk

8 Artist Biographies 6 & 13 November 2013

Valery GergievConductor

Principal Conductor

London Symphony Orchestra

Music Director

Mariinsky Theatre

Principal Conductor

World Orchestra for Peace

Artistic Director

Stars of the White Nights Festival

Artistic Director

Moscow Easter Festival

‘A memorable performance of huge theatricality and vividness.’ The Guardian

A prominent figure in all the world’s major concert halls, Valery Gergiev is the Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, and since 1988 has taken the Mariinsky ballet, opera, and orchestra ensembles to more than 45 countries, garnering universal acclaim. Gergiev’s 25 years of leadership has also resulted in The Mariinsky Concert Hall (2006) and the new Mariinsky II (May 2013) alongside the classic Mariinsky Theatre.

Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2007, Gergiev performs with the LSO at the Barbican, BBC Proms, and Edinburgh International Festival, as well as on extensive tours of Europe, North America, and Asia. In July 2013 he led the debut international tour of the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, an orchestra founded by Carnegie Hall’s Weill Music Institute, and in 2016 he will assume the post of Principal Conductor of the Munich Philharmonic. He is also founder and Artistic Director of the Stars of the White Nights Festival and New Horizons Festival in St Petersburg, Moscow Easter Festival, Rotterdam Philharmonic Gergiev Festival, Mikkeli Music Festival, Red Sea Classical Music Festival in Eilat, Israel, as well as Principal Conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace.

Gergiev’s recordings on LSO Live and the Mariinsky Label continually win awards in Europe, Asia and America. His recent releases on LSO Live include Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater and the composer’s entire symphonic works, and Brahms’ First and Second Symphonies, his Tragic Overture, and the Variations on a Theme of Haydn. Earlier releases include the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and Mahler, as well as Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and Strauss’ Elektra.

Mariinsky Label releases this past summer and this autumn include Prokofiev’s The Gambler on DVD, Wagner’s Das Rheingold, Shostakovich’s Symphony No 8 and Strauss’ Die Frau ohne Schatten, also on DVD.

Gergiev has led numerous composer-centred concert cycles in New York, London and other international cities, including Brahms, Dutilleux, Mahler, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Tchaikovsky, and Wagner’s Ring cycle. He has introduced audiences around the world to several rarely performed Russian operas. He also serves as Chair of the Organisational Committee of the International Tchaikovsky Competition, Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival and Dean of the Faculty of Arts at the St Petersburg State University.

Gergiev’s many awards include the title of People’s Artist of Russia, the Dmitri Shostakovich Award, the Polar Music Prize, Netherland’s Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion, Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun and the French Order of the Legion of Honour.

VALERY GERGIEV IN 2014

MUSIC IN COLOUR: SCRIABIN SYMPHONIES

Sun 30 Mar 7.30pm

Scriabin Symphony No 1

Scriabin Symphony No 4 (‘The Poem of Ecstasy’)

Thu 10 Apr 7.30pm Supported by LSO Patrons

Scriabin Symphony No 5 (‘Prometheus, Poem of Fire’)

Scriabin Symphony No 2

Sun 13 Apr 7.30pm

Scriabin Symphony No 3 (‘The Divine Poem’)

Box Office 020 7638 8891 | lso.co.uk

lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 9

Olga Borodina Mezzo-soprano

Kenneth Tarver Tenor

Kenneth Tarver is considered to be one of the outstanding tenore-di-grazia (lyric tenor, a voice type which is light and agile) of his generation. A specialist in Mozart and demanding virtuosic operatic repertoire, he has appeared at the most prestigious opera houses and concert halls around the world, performing both well-known and seldom-performed works with conductors such as Riccardo Chailly, Pierre Boulez, Claudio Abbado, René Jacobs and Bobby McFerrin.

Recent appearances include Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénédict with Robin Ticciati, Rossini’s La Cenerentola at Teatro Colon in Buenos Aires, Handel’s Messiah with the New York Philharmonic, Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail in Berlin, Rameau’s Les Indes galantes in Toulouse, Gluck’s Orphée et Eurydice at Staatsoper Stuttgart, Traetta’s Antigone at the Staatsoper Berlin, and Haydn’s L’infedeltà delusa at the Musikverein in Vienna conducted by Nikolaus Harnoncourt. Other highlights of his career include Rodion Shchedrin’s My Age, My Wild Beast, Orff’s Carmina Burana at the Verbier Festival, a film of Judith Weir’s Armida for Channel 4, and Mozart’s Requiem at the Tanglewood Festival conducted by James Levine. Future plans include The Barber of Seville in Berlin, L’Italiana in Algeri at the Opéra National de Paris, and Handel’s Joshua at the Händel-Festspiele in Goettingen.

His recording catalogue includes collaborations with Deutsche Grammophon, LSO Live (including the Grammy-winning Les Troyens conducted by Sir Colin Davis), Opera Rara (La Donna del Lago, Aureliano in Palmira) and Harmonia Mundi (Don Giovanni, Idomeneo).

A graduate of Interlochen Arts Academy and Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and Yale University School of Music, Kenneth was a member of the Metropolitan Opera’s Young Artist Development Program and the Staatsoper Stuttgart Ensemble.

Grammy-award winning mezzo-soprano Olga Borodina is a star of the Kirov Opera, regularly appearing with the major opera houses and orchestras around the world. Winner of the Rosa Ponselle and Barcelona Competitions, she made her highly acclaimed European debut at the Royal Opera House in 1992, sharing the stage with Plácido Domingo in Samson and Delilah – performances that launched her international solo career.

Olga Borodina has since returned to Covent Garden on many occasions, and also performs frequently at the Metropolitan Opera in New York, making her debut in Boris Godunov in 1997. She has made many concert appearances with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra under James Levine at Carnegie Hall, and has performed with the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors. In recital, she has performed in venues in London (Wigmore Hall, Barbican), Milan (La Scala), Vienna (Konzerthaus), San Francisco (Davies Symphony Hall), Rome (Accademia di Santa Cecilia), Hamburg (Staatsoper), Paris (Théatre des Champs Elysées) and Amsterdam (Concertgebouw), among others. Recent highlights have included Amneris in Aida at both the Vienna State Opera and the Metropolitan Opera, and a televised gala from Avery Fisher Hall in New York.

Olga Borodina’s releases on Philips Classics include a number of operas, solo recital recordings and, recently, the double album A Portrait of Olga Borodina featuring a collection of songs and arias.Her recent Verdi Requiem recording with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and Riccardo Muti won two Grammys in 2011.

Olga Borodina was awarded People’s Artist of Russia in 2002, and in 2007 was the recipient of the State Prize, the highest accolade in Russia.

10 Artist Biographies 6 & 13 November 2013

Evgeny NikitinBass-baritone

Simon Halsey Chorus Director

Originally from Northern Russia, Nikitin entered the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1992. Combining his studies with his first solo engagement at the Mariinsky Theatre, he was soon invited to major theatres and festivals in Europe, the Americas and Asia. 2002 marked his debut at the Metropolitan Opera House in Prokofiev’s War and Peace. He made his Parisian debut at the Théâtre du Châtelet in the title role of Rubinstein’s The Demon, and he returned in 2005 to sing the title role of Boris Godunov.

He made his debut at the Bayerische Staatsoper in 2008 as Jochanaan (Strauss’ Salome) and was reinvited for the roles of Klingsor (Wagner’s Parsifal) and Telramund (Lohengrin). He will sing The Flying Dutchman this season, and will appear in a major new production in 2016. Other recent engagements include the title role in The Flying Dutchman in Baden Baden, Toronto and Leipzig; Amfortas (Parsifal) in Berlin and Valencia; Pizarro (Fidelio) in Valencia; Boris Godunov in Nice and at the Mariinsky Theatre; Tomski (The Queen of Spades), Gunther (Götterdämmerung) and the title role of Dallapiccola’s Il Prigioniero at the Paris Opera; and Rangoni and Klingsor at the Metropolitan Opera. Recent concert performances include Mussorgsky’s Songs and Dances of Death at the Schleswig Holstein Festival and the Berlin Philharmonic, Rubinstein’s The Demon at the Barbican, and Verdi’s Requiem with the National Symphony Orchestra Washington.

This season, Nikitin will sing Orest in Strauss’ Elektra at the Paris Opera and The Flying Dutchman at the Bayerische Staatsoper, and will make his debut at the Gran Teatre del Liceu in Barcelona in Il Prigioniero.

His recordings include Amfortas (Parsifal) with the Mariinsky/Gergiev and the Berlin Radio Symphony/Janowski, Rangoni (Boris Godunov) and Remeniuk (Prokofiev’s Semyon Kotko) for Philips Classics.

Simon Halsey is one of the world’s leading conductors of choral repertoire, regularly conducting prestigious orchestras and choirs worldwide. Halsey holds the position of Chief Conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir, and has been Chorus Director of the CBSO Chorus for over 25 years. Since 2012 he has been Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus, working closely with LSO Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev and leading choral strategy across the LSO’s performance

and education programmes. Halsey’s work with the choir has been said to have caused a ‘spectacular transformation’ (Evening Standard). Simon Halsey also holds the positions of Artistic Director of the Berlin Philharmonic’s Youth Choral Programme and Director of the BBC Proms Youth Choir.

Recent projects with the Berlin Radio Choir include Mozart’s The Magic Flute with the Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle in the Orchestra’s new Easter residence in Baden-Baden. As Director of the BBC Proms Youth Choir, Halsey rehearsed young singers from all over the UK to perform Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony during the First Night of the 2013 BBC Proms. Recent projects with the London Symphony Chorus and Orchestra include Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater, and Song of the Night with Valery Gergiev, and Brahms’ Requiem.

Halsey has worked on countless major recording projects, many of which have won major awards, including several Gramophone Awards and Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik. He won the Grammy Award for Best Choral Performance in 2008, 2009 and 2011. Halsey was presented with the prestigious Bundesverdienstkreuz Erste Klasse, Germany’s Order of Merit by State Cultural Secretary André Schmitz in Berlin, in recognition of outstanding services to choral music in Germany.

lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 11

The London Symphony Chorus was formed in 1966 to complement the work of the London Symphony Orchestra. The partnership between the LSC and LSO was developed and strengthened in 2012 with the joint appointment of Simon Halsey as Chorus Director of the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO. The LSC also partners other major orchestras and has worked internationally with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, Boston Symphony and the European Union Youth Orchestra. The LSC tours extensively throughout Europe and has visited North America, Israel, Australia and South East Asia.

The Chorus has recorded extensively; recent releases include Britten’s War Requiem with Gianandrea Noseda, Haydn’s The Seasons, Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Verdi’s Otello, and the world premiere of James MacMillan’s St John Passion all under the late Sir Colin Davis; and with Valery Gergiev, Mahler’s Symphonies Nos 2, 3 and 8. The recent recording of Götterdämmerung with the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder won a Gramophone award.

Last season the Chorus undertook critically acclaimed performances of Mozart’s Requiem, Brahms’ Requiem, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater and Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust. Forthcoming concerts this season include Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet, Haydn’s The Creation, the world premiere of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Tenth Symphony, Beethoven’s Mass in C major and a series of a cappella concerts including the Rachmaninov Vespers and Tallis’ Spem in Alium.

The 2014 tour includes: St David’s Hall, Cardiff 11 MayNewbury Festival 23 MayThe Anvil, Basingstoke 31 May.

London Symphony Chorus On stage

SOPRANOS Kerry Baker, Louisa Blankson, Carol Capper, Julia Chan, Ann Cole, Jessica Collins, Shelagh Connolly, Sarah Flower, Lorna Flowers, Joanna Gueritz, Maureen Hall, Isobel Hammond, Jessica Harris, Emily Hoffnung*, Kuan Hon, Gladys Hosken, Claire Hussey, Hiroko Kamijimi, Helen Lawford*, Debbie Lee, Irene McGregor, Alison Marshall, Jane Morley, Dorothy Nesbit, Jenny Norman, Emily Norton, Maggie Owen, Isabel Paintin, Oktawia Petronella, Carole Radford, Liz Reeve, Rebecca Sands, Chen Shwartz, Luisa Simoes, Amanda Thomas*, Joanna Turner, Lizzie Webb

ALTOSHetty Boardman-Weston, Elizabeth Boyden, Gina Broderick*, Jo Buchan*, Lizzy Campbell, Sarah Castleton, Janette Daines, Maggie Donnelly, Linda Evans, Lydia Frankenburg*, Christina Gibbs, Rachel Green, Yoko Harada, Amanda Holden, Valerie Hood, Jo Houston, Elisabeth Iles, Vanessa Knapp, Marina Kurkina, Gilly Lawson, Belinda Liao*, Anne Loveluck, Etsuko Makita, Liz McCaw, Aoife McInerney, Jane Muir, Caroline Mustill, Helen Palmer, Susannah Priede, Lucy Reay, Maud Saint-Sardos, Lis Smith, Jane Steele, Margaret Stephen, Claire Trocmé, Agnes Vigh

TENORSDavid Aldred, Paul Allatt, Ted Black, Matt Fernando, Matthew Flood, Simon Goldman, Jesse Hollister, Warwick Hood, Tony Instrall, John Marks, Alastair Mathews, Ian Mok, John Moses*, Dan Owers, Chris Riley, David Rowe, Richard Street, Anthony Stutchbury, Simon Wales, James Warbis, Brad Warburton, Robert Ward*, Paul Williams-Burton

BASSESPeter Avis, Bruce Boyd, Andy Chan, Steve Chevis, James Chute, Dieter Claassen, Damian Day, Ian Fletcher, Robert French, Robert Garbolinski*, John Graham, Gergo Hahn, Owen Hanmer*, Richard Harding, J-C Higgins, Antony Howick, Thomas Kohut, Gregor Kowalski*, Georges Leaver, Geoff Newman, Peter Niven, Tim Riley, Alan Rochford, Zac Smith, Gordon Thomson, Jez Wareing, Anthony Wilder, Paul Wright

* denotes committee member

President Emeritus

André Previn KBE

Vice Presidents

Claudio Abbado

Michael Tilson Thomas

Patron

Simon Russell Beale

Chorus Director

Simon Halsey

Chairman

Lydia Frankenburg

Deputy Chorus Director/

Accompanist

Roger Sayer

Chorus Director assisted by

Neil Ferris

lsc.org.uk

LSO SINGING DAYS

Why not join in an LSO Singing Day at LSO St Luke’s?

If you’ve sung before, but it’s a long while since you

picked up a score, or if you’re an active singer and

would just like the opportunity to sing with members

of the LSC and with the LSO choral team, why not take

part? To find out more, visit lso.co.uk/singingdays.

London Symphony Orchestra On stage

London Symphony Orchestra Barbican Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS

Registered charity in England No 232391

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

Editor Edward Appleyard edward.appleyard@lso.co.uk

PhotographyIgor Emmerich, Kevin Leighton, Bill Robinson, Alberto Venzago

Print Cantate 020 3651 1690

Advertising Cabbell Ltd 020 3603 7937

12 The Orchestra 6 & 13 November 2013

LSO STRING EXPERIENCE SCHEME

Established in 1992, the LSO String Experience Scheme enables young string players at the start of their professional careers to gain work experience by playing in rehearsals and concerts with the LSO. The scheme auditions students from the London music conservatoires, and 20 students per year are selected to participate. 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: Fidelio Charitable Trust The Lefever Award Musicians Benevolent Fund

FIRST VIOLINS Roman Simovic LeaderCarmine Lauri Lennox Mackenzie Nigel Broadbent Ginette Decuyper Gerald Gregory Jörg Hammann Maxine Kwok-Adams Claire Parfitt Laurent Quenelle Harriet Rayfield Colin Renwick Ian Rhodes Sylvain Vasseur

SECOND VIOLINS David Alberman Sarah Quinn Miya Vaisanen David Ballesteros Matthew Gardner Belinda McFarlane Philip Nolte Paul Robson Julian Gil Rodriguez Naomi Bach William Melvin Hazel Mulligan

VIOLAS Edward Vanderspar Malcolm Johnston German Clavijo Lander Echevarria Anna Green Robert Turner Jonathan Welch Julia O’Riordan Fiona Dalgliesh Caroline O’Neill

CELLOS Rebecca Gilliver Alastair Blayden Jennifer Brown Mary Bergin Noel Bradshaw Daniel Gardner Hilary Jones Amanda Truelove Eve-Marie Caravassilis

DOUBLE BASSES Joel Quarrington Colin Paris Nicholas Worters Patrick Laurence Matthew Gibson Thomas Goodman Jani Pensola

FLUTES Adam Walker Alex Jakeman

PICCOLOSharon Williams

OBOES Fabien Thouand Michael O’Donnell

COR ANGLAIS Christine Pendrill

CLARINETSAndrew Marriner Chi-Yu Mo

BASSOONS Rachel Gough Joost Bosdijk Daniel Jemison Dominic Morgan

HORNSTimothy Jones Benjamin Jacks Jonathan Durrant Nicolas Fleury Jonathan Lipton

TRUMPETS Philip Cobb Roderick Franks Gerald Ruddock Robert Smith

TROMBONES Dudley Bright James Maynard

BASS TROMBONEPaul Milner

TUBAPatrick Harrild

TIMPANI Nigel Thomas Antoine Bedewi

PERCUSSION Neil Percy David Jackson Sam Walton Christopher Thomas

HARPS Bryn Lewis Karen Vaughan

Guildhall Singers On stage

MEZZO-SOPRANOS Holly-Marie Bingham Claire Bournez Jessica Dandy Bethan Langford

TENORS Richard Bignall Aidan Coburn Eduard Mas Bacardit Elgan Thomas

BASSESJake Gill Olivier Gagnon Johannes Kammler James Quilligan

Join the London Symphony

Chorus to sing Tallis’ iconic

Spem in Alium and the

Rachmaninov Vespers in a

UK tour during May 2014.

Rehearsals start in central

London in February.

They are also currently recruiting

additional singers for this

season’s programme which

includes Haydn’s The Creation

and a world premiere symphony

by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies,

Master of the Queen’s Music.

For further information either

mail recruitment@lsc.org.uk

or call/text 07970 783529.

Join the London Symphony Chorus

lsc.org.uk

Simon Halsey Chorus Director