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Home , Beethovenfest, Manfred Honeck, Susan Gritton

London Symphony Orchestra Living Music

Thursday 19 November 2015 7.30pm Barbican Hall

DVORˇ ÁK’S ‘NEW WORLD’ SYMPHONY

Janácˇek Symphonic Suite from ‘Jenu˚ fa’ Ravel Piano Concerto in G major London’s Symphony Orchestra INTERVAL Dvorˇák Symphony No 9 (‘From the New World’)

Manfred Honeck conductor Hélène Grimaud piano

Concert finishes approx 9.40pm 2 Welcome 19 November 2015

Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief

Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert at the Barbican. APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR THE 2016 Tonight Austrian conductor Manfred Honeck, who PANUFNIK COMPOSERS SCHEME last appeared with the Orchestra in March 2013, takes to the podium. For his return he conducts The Panufnik Composers Scheme is an exciting the LSO in performances of his own Symphonic initiative offering six emerging composers each year Suite from Janácˇek’s opera Jenu˚fa, Ravel’s Piano the opportunity to write for and work with a world- Concerto in G major, and Dvorˇák’s enduringly class symphony orchestra. We are now accepting popular Ninth Symphony. applications for the 2016 scheme. The programme begins in February 2016 and culminates with a Our soloist for Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major is public workshop in April 2017. The scheme is French pianist Hélène Grimaud, who last appeared generously supported by the Helen H.amlyn Trust with the Orchestra at the Barbican in 2011. She has collaborated with Manfred Honeck on a number of lso.co.uk/composing occasions with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, of which he is Music Director, and we are pleased to welcome them both to the stage tonight. CHRISTMAS DISCOUNTS ON LSO LIVE

I would like to take this opportunity to thank our Throughout November and December LSO Live is media partner Classic FM, who recommended running a series of special Christmas offers, including tonight’s concert to their listeners. We warmly hand-picked bundles of CDs and discounted digital welcome special guests from one of our partner downloads. Offers currently include ’s organisations, the London Chamber of Commerce Brahms cycle and Sir Colin Davis’ three Haydn and Industry. recordings, with more being added every Friday.

I hope you enjoy the concert and can join us again lsolive.lso.co.uk soon. On 26 November the LSO Brass Ensemble takes centre stage for an evening of rousing fanfares, arrangements of concert favourites and A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS the UK premiere of a new work by LSO Soundhub composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson. The LSO offers great benefits for groups of 10+. At tonight’s concert we are delighted to welcome: Billingsgate Ward Club Gerrards Cross Community Association Hertford U3A The Perse School Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Richard Wimberley & Friends Managing Director Anne Parrish & Friends

lso.co.uk/groups London Symphony Orchestra Season 2015/16

2016 Highlights

PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE DAPHNIS AND CHLOE SHAKESPEARE 400: LSO ARTIST PORTRAIT: AN ICON OF LITERATURE LEIF OVE ANDSNES

Sat 9 & Sun 10 Jan 2016 Wed 13 Jan 2016 Tue 16 Feb 2016 Sun 8 May 2016 Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande Ravel Le tombeau de Couperin Mendelssohn Mozart Piano Concerto No 20 (semi-staged performance) Dutilleux L’arbre des songes * A Midsummer Night’s Dream Delage Four Hindu Poems with Sir John Eliot Gardiner Thu 12 May 2016 Sir Simon Rattle conductor Dutilleux Métaboles conductor Schumann Piano Concerto † Peter Sellars director Ravel Daphnis and Chloe – Ben Zamora lighting design Suite No 2 Thu 25 Feb 2016 Fri 10 Jun 2016 Strauss Macbeth Works by Sibelius, Beethoven, Produced by the LSO and the Barbican. Sir Simon Rattle conductor with Gianandrea Noseda Debussy and Chopin

Part of the LSO 2015/16 Season and Leonidas Kavakos violin * conductor † Concert supported by Baker & McKenzie LLP Barbican Presents. Susan Gritton soprano Sun 28 Feb 2016 Berlioz Romeo & Juliet – Suite with Gianandrea Noseda lso.co.uk conductor 020 7638 8891 4 Programme Notes 19 November 2015

Leoš Janácˇek (1854–1928) Symphonic Suite from ‘Jenu˚fa’ (1904, arr Tomáš Ille) London Symphony Orchestra

Symphonic Suite conceptualised by Manfred Honeck, LSO SECTIONS UP CLOSE arranged by Tomáš Ille.

PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Jenu˚fa, first seen in Brno in 1904, is Janácˇek’s third GAVIN PLUMLEY specialises in the opera, based on a play by Gabriela Preissová. It tells music and culture of Central Europe the story of a young girl, who is pregnant by her and has written for The Independent feckless cousin Števa. His half-brother, Laca, has also on Sunday and The Guardian and fallen for Jenu˚fa and jealously slashes her cheek with appeared on BBC Radio 3 and Radio a knife. When Jenu˚fa’s stepmother, the Kostelnicˇka, 4. He commissions and edits the discovers that her stepdaughter is carrying Števa’s English-language programme notes child, she keeps Jenu˚fa in hiding. Števa, however, for the Salzburg Festival. refuses to care for the child and Laca cannot be forced to take on Števa’s illegitimate son, so the Kostelnicˇka decides to drown the baby in the millrace. Laca, A series of concerts showcasing the virtuosity begging forgiveness for his attack on Jenu˚fa, asks and musicianship of the LSO’s players to marry her, but as they leave for church, screams are heard in the distance: a baby has been found in LSO BRASS ENSEMBLE the melting stream. Kostelnicˇka is led off to trial, but Thu 26 Nov 2015 7.30pm, Barbican Jenu˚fa forgives her, realising she acted out of love. The heroes of the LSO brass section take In his notes for the SUITE, Manfred Honeck’s Suite, realised by contemporary centre stage in an evening of rousing fanfares, performed and recorded with the Czech composer Tomáš Ille, focuses on the most original works and new arrangements for Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra in significant events in the drama. It opens with the ten-piece brass ensemble. Featuring works by 2013, Manfred Honeck wrote: short Prelude to Act I, dominated by the ominous Brahms, Bach, Grieg and Gershwin and the ‘For me, it was particularly important tap of a xylophone, evoking the Buryja family mill. UK premiere of a new piece by LSO Soundhub to present the most significant The drunken Števa’s dances follow, as he and the composer Ayanna Witter-Johnson. moments of the opera story in this villagers celebrate escaping conscription. Jenu˚fa is suite. This includes the emotions of also delighted, as she and Števa will finally be able LSO STRING ENSEMBLE Jenu˚fa, the sadness of losing a child, to marry. But the Kostelnicˇka, not yet knowing of Wed 3 Feb 2016 7.30pm, Barbican drama and storminess (weather), Jenu˚fa’s pregnancy, forbids it, until Števa has been The string players of the LSO, led by director and also the conciliatory ending.’ sober for a year. His boisterous revels, the bridesmaids’ and LSO Leader Roman Simovic, perform chorus from Act III and the unrelenting tap of the a programme featuring music by three of mill contrast with Jenu˚fa’s more contemplative music. this country’s best-loved composers – Yet that is often disrupted by the neurotic sounds of Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten. the Kostelnicˇka, as she makes her terrifying decision. The Suite ends, like the opera, on a more conciliatory note, with soothing harp arpeggios and, finally, an 020 7638 8891 increasingly confident melody, as Jenu˚fa and Laca lso.co.uk face the future together. lso.co.uk Composer Profiles 5

Leoš Janácˇek Composer Profile Composer Profile

Leoš Janácˇek left the family home Although born in the rural at Hukvaldy, Moravia, in 1865 to Basque village of Ciboure, Ravel become a chorister in Brno, and was raised in Paris. First-rate in 1869 commenced his studies piano lessons and instruction at the Czech Teachers’ Training in harmony and counterpoint Institute. He moved to Prague in ensured that the boy was 1874 and studied at the celebrated accepted as a preparatory Organ School, returning to Brno piano student at the Paris the following year. Composition Conservatoire in 1889. As a full- studies in Leipzig and Vienna time student, Ravel explored a (1879–80) added to Janácˇek’s wide variety of new music and blossoming skills as a composer. forged a close friendship with the In 1881 he married the 16-year-old Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes and Zdenka Schulzová but the marriage also met and was influenced by soon failed. Erik Satie around this time.

In 1887 he began work on his first opera, Šarka, but Moravian folk In the decade following his graduation in 1895, Ravel scored a notable hit music and popular culture increasingly fascinated Janácˇek, influencing with the Pavane pour une infante défunte for piano (later orchestrated). a gradual rejection of the high Romantic musical language of Šarka for Even so, his works were rejected several times by the backward-looking a style that reflected his passion for Slavic languages and the musicality judges of the Prix de Rome for not satisfying the demands of academic of his native tongue. He worked from 1894 to 1903 on his opera Jenu˚fa, counterpoint. In the early years of the 20th century he completed which was successfully premiered in Brno in January 1904, and for the many outstanding works, including the evocative Miroirs for piano and next 20 years he concentrated on works for the stage. his first opera, L’heure espagnole. In 1909 Ravel was invited to write a large-scale work for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, completing the A creative upsurge in his 60s coincided with his impassioned though score to Daphnis et Chloé three years later. At this time he also met platonic affair with Kamilla Stösslová, wife of an antiques dealer Stravinsky and first heard the works of Arnold Schoenberg. and 37 years the composer’s junior. International recognition was underpinned by the Berlin and New York premieres of Jenu˚fa (1924) From 1932 until his death, he suffered from the progressive effects of and the overwhelming dramatic impact of his operas Katya Kabanova, Pick’s Disease and was unable to compose. His emotional expression and The Makropulos Case. The Glagolitic is most powerful in his imaginative interpretations of the unaffected Mass (1927), his last opera From the House of the Dead (1927–8) and worlds of childhood and animals, and in exotic tales such as the Greek the Second String Quartet (1928) crowned Janácˇek’s creative Indian lovers Daphnis et Chloé. Spain also influenced the composer’s creative summer, brought to a conclusion when he caught a chill which quickly personality, his mother’s Basque inheritance strongly reflected in a developed into fatal pneumonia. wide variety of works, together with his liking for the formal elegance of 18th-century French art and music.

Composer Profiles © Andrew Stewart

‘til death us do part

Wherefore art thou? Fair is foul, and foul is fair … is foul, Fair

lso.co.uk/findmeaconcert Music with a tragic twist tragic Music with a Orchestra with the London Symphony Sat 9 & Sun 10 Jan only opera new staging of Debussy’s A dramatic Thu 25 Feb sweet Such sorrow Sun 28 Feb Berlioz’s unique take on the tale of love and loss unique take on the tale of love Berlioz’s Music inspired by three Shakespearean tragedies Music inspired by three Shakespearean Such sweet sorrow sorrow sweet Such

lso.co.uk Programme Notes 7

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Piano Concerto in G major (1929–31)

1 ALLEGRAMENTE very much in the same spirit as those of Mozart and 2 ADAGIO ASSAI Saint‑Saëns. The music of a concerto, in my opinion, Such sweet 3 PRESTO should be light-hearted and brilliant, and not aim at profundity or at dramatic effects’.

HÉLÈNE GRIMAUD PIANO Elsewhere he admitted that jazz had been a primary sorrow ‘The G-major Concerto took two years of work, you know. influence, appearing most strikingly in the concerto’s The opening theme came to me on a train between Oxford outer movements, with their blues-inflected sideslips and syncopations. Both these movements, though, and London. But the initial idea is nothing. The work of Music with a tragic twist are strongly anchored in Classical forms. The opening chiselling then began. We’ve gone past the days when the Allegramente is built upon a pair of themes, the first with the London Symphony Orchestra announced by a solo piccolo after an initial whipcrack composer was thought of as being struck by inspiration, and some bitonal murmurings for the piano, the feverishly scribbling down his thoughts on a scrap of paper. second given to the horn and punctuated by wood‑ Sat 9 & Sun 10 Jan ‘til death us do part block, while the piano constantly tries to subvert A dramatic new staging of Debussy’s only opera Writing music is 75 percent an intellectual activity.’ the music to its own improvisational ends. Finally, however, the soloist launches a cadenza based PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER The two Concertos for piano, this one in G major, and upon part of the second theme, and the movement Thu 25 Feb Fair is foul, and foul is fair … ANDREW CLEMENTS is Chief the Concerto in D major for the Left Hand, were Ravel’s careers to its close in a kind of brassy unity. Music inspired by three Shakespearean tragedies Music Critic for The Guardian. last major scores and evolved in parallel between His study of the British composer 1929 and 1931. The work for left hand was prompted The finale is even more concise and more brilliant, Sun 28 Feb Wherefore art thou? Mark-Anthony Turnage is published by a commission from the Austrian pianist Paul grounded in a moto perpetuo for the piano which by Faber & Faber. Wittgenstein who had been injured in World War I, serves here as the platform for a sequence of almost Berlioz’s unique take on the tale of love and loss but Ravel appears to have begun the Concerto in surreal musical images, while the orchestra’s opening G major simply because he wanted to write a work staccato chords function throughout as a kind of lso.co.uk/findmeaconcert MORE RAVEL THIS SEASON for Marguerite Long, who had championed his solo returning figure. The second movement, though, is pieces. And perhaps it was in meeting the technical the heart of the concerto. Its opening rapt solo for Wed 13 Jan 2016 7.30pm challenges of the left hand concerto with a dark, the piano was based, ‘bar by bar’, Ravel said, upon Ravel Le tombeau de couperin forbidding piece, that he felt the need to provide it the Larghetto of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet; but here Dutilleux L’arbre des songes * with a light‑hearted neo‑Classical counterpart. the effect is more akin to an enchanted nocturne, Delage Four Hindu poems which gradually draws the instruments of the Dutilleux Métaboles Certainly the G major Concerto conveys nothing if orchestra into its spell, reaches a climax, and then Ravel Daphnis and Chloe – not a brilliant jeu d’esprit, a beautifully crafted piece, restates its opening material, this time with the cor Suite No 2 thoroughly pianistic and immaculately written for the anglais taking the melody and the piano supplying soloist, which nevertheless acquires the character a relaxed accompaniment. Sir Simon Rattle conductor of a divertissement. Ravel revealed something of Leonidas Kavakos violin * his intentions in an interview given at the time of INTERVAL – 20 minutes Susan Gritton soprano its composition: it was to be, he said, ‘a concerto There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream in the true sense of the word. I mean it is written can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. 8 Programme Notes 19 November 2015

Antonín Dvorˇák (1841–1904) Symphony No 9 in E minor Op 95 (‘From the New World’) (1893)

1 ADAGIO – ALLEGRO MOLTO all its majesty in the full orchestra. The second- 2 LARGO theme group consists principally of two carefree 3 SCHERZO: MOLTO VIVACE melodies, the first heard in the flute and oboe, while 4 ALLEGRO CON FUOCO the second, with shades of the spiritual ‘Swing low, sweet chariot’, is heard first in the flute alone. PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Antonín Dvorˇák’s interview for the Chicago Tribune, When the main themes return in the reprise, Dvorˇák ALISON BULLOCK is a freelance printed on 13 August 1893, was one of a series of surprises his listeners with some unexpected writer and music consultant whose articles in which he expounded his theory of an harmonic shifts along with some further expansion interests range from Machaut to American national music. He was a man with a of the melodic material, a sign that he is not done Messiaen and beyond. A former mission – having been enticed to America on the with this music yet. editor for The New Grove Dictionary promise of a vast salary if he would head up the new of Music, she is now based in Oslo. National Conservatory of Music, he now had to help ‘These beautiful and varied themes its founder, the philanthropist Mrs Jeanette Thurber, are the product of the soil. They to realise her dream of reversing the prevailing trend among American composers to look to Europe for are the folk songs of America and inspiration and initiate instead a national American your composers must turn to them.’ school of composition. In preparation for this he began to explore the popular styles of North America. Dvorˇák

The previous January, Dvorˇák had set to work on SECOND MOVEMENT what would be his ninth symphony, completing the The second movement opens with an expansive score on 24 May. On 15 December 1893, the day brass chorale, setting the scene for the beautiful before the work’s premiere, the New York Herald pentatonic cor anglais melody that has become one printed another interview in which Dvorˇák expanded of the most famous tunes in the classical repertoire. DVORˇ ÁK on LSO LIVE further on his thoughts about American music, This movement, Dvorˇák said, was a sketch for a making it very clear that he had incorporated the work based on Longfellow’s poem Hiawatha, and it Dvorˇák spirit of American melody into his new symphony. is clear that he considered its main melody to have Symphony No 9 He also told his friends that the work was ‘essentially a native American character. A faster central section £5.99 different from my earlier things’; however, for all this, dispels the mood of nostalgia with bucolic wind lsolive.lso.co.uk there is surprisingly little that separates this work melodies, but the idyll is soon interrupted by a brass from Dvorˇák’s ‘European’ symphonies. fanfare and an echo of the ‘motto theme’. Then the Sir Colin Davis conductor pensive atmosphere returns, the feeling of longing FIRST MOVEMENT exaggerated by a halting final rendition of the tune Sir Colin Davis captures the haunting The Adagio introduction, by turns brooding and by a sextet of violins and violas. brilliance of Dvorˇák’s masterpiece stormy, contains the first hints at the somewhat and draws a truly virtuosic display Wagnerian ‘motto theme’ that will recur throughout THIRD MOVEMENT from the LSO. This was LSO Live’s the symphony, and which we first hear in full, The Scherzo was also suggested to Dvorˇák by first recording and immediately straining at the leash in the horns at the opening Hiawatha, more particularly a scene of Indian defined the label’s unique sound. of the first movement proper, before it is heard in dancing. The beating ostinato crotchets and the lso.co.uk Programme Notes 9

Antonín Dvorˇák Composer Profile

introduction’s build-up of folkish fifths reinforces Born into a peasant family, Dvorˇák developed a love this notion, but Dvorˇák couldn’t quite leave Bohemia of folk tunes at an early age. When he was 12, the behind, introducing the three-against-two rhythmic boy left school and was apprenticed to become a patterns so characteristic of the furiant (an eastern butcher, at first working in his father’s shop and later European dance that he often used in his scherzos) in the town of Zlonice. Here Dvorˇák learned German and creating a very Czech-sounding waltz for his trio and also refined his musical talents to such a level section; scattered at intervals throughout we hear that his father agreed he should pursue a career echoes of the first movement ‘motto’. as a musician.

FINALE In 1857 he enrolled at the Prague Organ School, Dvorˇák creates another great theme for the opening during which time he became inspired by the music of what was to be his last symphonic finale, this time dramas of Wagner: opera was to become a constant a stoic march that could have come straight out of feature of Dvorˇák’s creative life. His first job was as a Russia. This movement is a patchwork of inspired viola player, supplementing his income by teaching. melodies, with a string of dance-like tunes that In the mid-1860s he began to compose a series of have a genuinely American flavour, but in fact the large-scale works, including his Symphony No 1 true second theme is a simple clarinet melody that COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER (‘The Bells of Zlonice’), and the Cello Concerto. provides a brief oasis of calm in this otherwise rather ANDREW STEWART Two operas, a second symphony, many songs and frantic music. The march tune intervenes periodically chamber works followed before he decided to as if to reaffirm its authority, before themes from concentrate on composition. both the Largo and the Scherzo begin to break in, in anticipation of a climactic entry of the symphony’s In 1873 he married one of his pupils, and in 1874 ‘motto’ theme. It is the conflict between this melody received a much-needed cash grant from the Austrian and the final movement’s march theme that forms government. Brahms lobbied the publisher Simrock the basis for the rest of the movement, and they to accept Dvorˇák’s work, leading to the publication of combine in the coda until finally, exhausted by its his Moravian Duets and a commission for a set of efforts, the music peters out into nothing on the Slavonic Dances. The nationalist themes expressed long, last chord. in Dvorˇák’s music attracted considerable interest beyond Prague. In 1883 he was invited to London to Dvorˇák’s Ninth Symphony was an overnight success, conduct a concert of his works, and he returned to and although relations between Mrs Thurber and England often in the 1880s to oversee the premieres the composer cooled significantly within a year, of several important commissions, including his she must have been delighted with the work. His Seventh Symphony, and Mass. Dvorˇák’s final symphony it may have been, but as his first Cello Concerto in B minor received its world major American-inspired composition, it served to premiere in London in March 1896. His Ninth encourage and legitimise further attempts at writing Symphony ‘From the New World’, a product of his ‘national’ music, and thus paved the way for the American years (1892–95), confirmed his place great American composers of the 20th century among the finest of late 19th-century composers. and beyond. 10 Artist Biographies 19 November 2015

Manfred Honeck ‘The detail, intelligence and energy Conductor he brings to his craft are striking.’ The Washington Post

Manfred Honeck has served as Music Director of the stamp. He began his career as assistant to Claudio Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra since the 2008–09 Abbado in Vienna. Subsequently, he was engaged season. Together with the Orchestra, Honeck’s by the Zurich Opera House, where he was bestowed widely celebrated performances and distinctive the prestigious European Conductor’s Award in interpretations continue to receive international 1993. Other early stations of his career include recognition. Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Leipzig, where he was one of three main conductors Orchestra regularly perform in major music of the MDR Symphony Orchestra, and Oslo, where capitals and festivals, among them the BBC Proms, he assumed the post of Music Director at the Musikfest Berlin, , Rheingau Musik Norwegian National Opera on short notice for a year Festival, Beethovenfest , Grafenegg Festival, and was engaged as Principal Guest Conductor of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center. Honeck and the the Orchestra for several years. Orchestra have also built a close relationship with From 2000 to 2006 he was Music Director of the the Musikverein in Vienna. Following a week-long Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra in Stockholm residency in 2012, they will return once again for and, from 2008 to 2011, Principal Guest Conductor three performances in the course of an extensive of the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, a position he tour of Europe in spring 2016. resumed for another three years at the beginning Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra of the 2013/14 season. Music Director Manfred Honeck’s successful work with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra has been From 2007 to 2011, Manfred Honeck was Music extensively documented on recordings with the Director of the Staatsoper Stuttgart, where he Reference and Exton labels. The first SACD released conducted works including Berlioz’s The Trojans, by Reference Records, featuring Strauss tone poems, Mozart’s , Verdi’s Aida, ’ drew rave reviews. The second recording, of Dvorˇák’s , Poulenc’s Dialogues des Symphony No 8 and the Symphonic Suite from Carmélites, and Wagner’s Lohengrin and Parsifal, Janácˇek’s opera Jenu˚fa conceptualised by Honeck as well as numerous symphonic concerts. His himself, was nominated for a Grammy Award. operatic guest appearances include Semperoper Bruckner’s Symphony No 4 was released in early Dresden, Komische Oper Berlin, Théâtre de la 2015 to critical acclaim, followed by Beethoven 5 Monnaie in Brussels, Royal Opera of Copenhagen, and 7 in the autumn of this year. Several recordings, the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg and the among them Mahler’s Symphony No 4, which won Salzburg Festival. a 2012 International Classical Music Award, are also available on the Japanese label Exton. Manfred Honeck has received honorary doctorates from St Vincent College in Latrobe, Pennsylvania Born in Austria, Manfred Honeck received his and, most recently, from Carnegie Mellon University musical training at the Academy of Music in Vienna. in Pittsburgh. He has been Artistic Director of the Many years of experience as a member of the International Concerts Wolfegg in Germany for and the more than 20 years. Orchestra, and at the helm of the Vienna Jeunesse Orchestra, have given his conducting a distinctive lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 11

Hélène Grimaud ‘Grimaud gave a performance of wonderfully Piano controlled fire and fury.’ The Independent

She could be called a Renaissance woman for Hélène Grimaud has also found time to pursue our times. Hélène Grimaud is not just a deeply writing. Her first book, Variations Sauvages, was passionate and committed musical artist whose published in French in 2003 and subsequently pianistic accomplishments play a central role in translated into English, Japanese, Dutch and German. her life. She is a woman with multiple talents that Her second book, Leçons particulières, which is extend far beyond the instrument she plays. The part novel and part autobiography, followed in 2005. French artist has established herself as a committed Most recently she published Retour à Salem, also a wildlife conservationist, a compassionate human semi-autobiographical novel, which was released in rights activist and a writer. French in October 2013.

Grimaud was born in 1969 in Aix-en-Provence where Throughout the current season, Hélène continues to she began her piano studies at the conservatory perform her recital programme inspired by ‘water’, with Jacqueline Courtin and subsequently under both in Europe and Asia (China, Hong Kong, Taiwan Pierre Barbizet in Marseille. She was accepted into and Japan). Her orchestral engagements include the the Paris Conservatoire at just 13 and won first prize Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in piano performance a mere three years later. She in Rome and on tour throughout Europe, extensive continued to study with György Sándor and Leon European tours with both the Bayerischen Rundfunk Fleisher until, in 1987, she gave her well-received Kammerorchester and the Kammerorchester Basel, debut recital in Tokyo. The same year the renowned concerts with the Mariinsky Orchestra at the White conductor Daniel Barenboim invited her to perform Nights Festival and Festspielhaus Baden-Baden’s with the Orchestre de Paris. This marked the launch Summer Festival, and appearances in the US with of Grimaud’s musical career – one highlighted by the , the Detroit Symphony concerts with most of the world’s major orchestras Orchestra and the Dallas Symphony Orchestra. and many celebrated conductors. In September 2013, Deutsche Grammophon released Between her debut in 1995 with the Berlin her album of the two Brahms Piano Concertos. An Philharmonic under and her first exclusive Deutsche Grammophon artist since 2002, performance with the her album prior to the Brahms concertos was Duo, a under in 1999, Grimaud made a wholly collaboration with cellist Sol Gabetta, which won the different kind of debut: in upper New York State 2013 ECHO Award for ‘chamber recording of the year’. she established the Wolf Conservation Center. Her love for the endangered species was sparked Hélène Grimaud is undoubtedly a multi-faceted by a chance encounter with a wolf in northern artist. Her deep dedication to her musical career, Florida which led to her determination to open an both in performances and recordings, is reflected environmental education centre. ‘To be involved in and reciprocally amplified by the scope and depth direct conservation and being able to put animals of her environmental and literary pursuits. back where they belong,’ she says, ‘there’s just nothing more fulfilling.’ 12 The Orchestra 19 November 2015

London Symphony Orchestra Your views On stage Inbox

FIRST VIOLINS VIOLAS FLUTES HORNS Martin O’Connor Outstanding & Brilliant performance Roman Simovic Leader Amelie Roussel Adam Walker Timothy Jones @londonsymphony @LSChorus @jamesgaffigan Lennox Mackenzie Gillianne Haddow Alex Jakeman Angela Barnes Nigel Broadbent Malcolm Johnston Alexander Edmundson @NickyBenedetti Bernstein, Stravinsky, Marsalis – Bravo to all! Ginette Decuyper German Clavijo PICCOLO Jonathan Lipton on the LSO & LSC with Nicola Benedetti & James Gaffigan on Sharon Williams Gerald Gregory Anna Bastow Jocelyn Lightfoot 6 November 2015 Jörg Hammann Julia O’Riordan OBOES Maxine Kwok-Adams Robert Turner TRUMPETS Olivier Stankiewicz Claire Parfitt Jonathan Welch Alistair Mackie Rosie Jenkins Chris Enticott BRAVO @NickyBenedetti & Elizabeth Pigram Carol Ella Gerald Ruddock Laurent Quenelle Diana Matthews @londonsymphony for beautiful & mesmerising world COR ANGLAIS TROMBONES Harriet Rayfield Caroline O’Neill Christine Pendrill Dudley Bright premiere of @wyntonmarsalis violin concerto Colin Renwick Martin Schaefer James Maynard @BarbicanCentre ENCORE Ian Rhodes CLARINET CELLOS Sylvain Vasseur Andrew Marriner BASS TROMBONE on the LSO with Nicola Benedetti & James Gaffigan on Tim Hugh David Worswick Chi-Yu Mo Paul Milner 6 November 2015 Shlomy Dobrinsky Alastair Blayden Jennifer Brown BASS CLARINET TUBA SECOND VIOLINS Noel Bradshaw Laurent Ben Slimane Patrick Harrild Don McCubbin @londonsymphony an invigorating first David Alberman Eve-Marie Caravassilis BASSOONS half with a magnificent interpretation of Beethoven’s fifth Thomas Norris Daniel Gardner TIMPANI Daniel Jemison Sarah Quinn Hilary Jones Antoine Bedewi symphony from the LSO & Nikolaj Znaider Joost Bosdijk Matthew Gardner Amanda Truelove PERCUSSION on the LSO with Nikolaj Znaider on 12 November 2015 Julian Gil Rodriguez Hester Snell Neil Percy Naoko Keatley Peteris Sokolovskis David Jackson Belinda McFarlane Tom Edwards William Melvin DOUBLE BASSES Colin Paris Andrew Pollock HARP Patrick Laurence Paul Robson Bryn Lewis Rhys Watkins Matthew Gibson Ingrid Button Thomas Goodman Hazel Mulligan Joe Melvin Helena Smart Jani Pensola Paul Sherman Simo Väisänen

LSO STRING EXPERIENCE SCHEME

Established in 1992, the LSO String Experience The Scheme is supported by London Symphony Orchestra Editor Scheme enables young string players at the Help Musicians UK Barbican Edward Appleyard start of their professional careers to gain The Lefever Award Silk Street [email protected] work experience by playing in rehearsals The Polonsky Foundation London and concerts with the LSO. The scheme The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust EC2Y 8DS Photography auditions students from the London music Igor Emmerich, Kevin Leighton, conservatoires, and 15 students per year Registered charity in England No 232391 Bill Robinson, Alberto Venzago are selected to participate. The musicians Details in this publication were correct Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 are treated as professional ’extra’ players at time of going to press. (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Advertising Cabbell Ltd 020 3603 7937 for their work in line with LSO section players.