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Home , After (Elgar), August Jaeger, Boyd Neel, Henryk Wieniawski, Ralph Vaughan Williams, String orchestra

London Living Music

A WARM WELCOME TO Wednesday 3 February 2016 7.30pm OUR GROUPS Barbican Hall

The LSO offers great benefits LSO STRING ENSEMBLE for groups of 10+, including 20% discount on standard Elgar Introduction and Allegro tickets. We are delighted Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by to welcome: INTERVAL Vaughan Williams Phantasy Hannah Dummett and Britten Variations on a Theme of Frank Friends Roman Simovic director

LSO String Ensemble lso.co.uk/groups

Concert finishes at approx 9.30pm 2 Welcome 3 February 2016 Programme Notes 3

Welcome Sir (1837–1934) Kathryn McDowell Introduction and Allegro for Strings Op 47

Welcome to the Barbican for this evening’s concert with the LSO PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER The sound of a seems to possess a uniquely String Ensemble, directed by the Orchestra’s Leader Roman Simovic. WENDY THOMPSON ‘English’ flavour. Elgar’s two masterly examples – the early The ’s sound is a defining feature of the LSO, and we Having studied at the Royal College of 1892 and the later Introduction and Allegro – in turn inspired works are delighted to present the strings following recent concerts by their of Music, Wendy took an MMus by Vaughan Williams, Holst, Warlock, Lennox Berkeley, Britten and colleagues in the woodwind, percussion and brass sections. in musicology at King’s College, Tippett, among others. The key to this love affair with string timbre London. In addition to writing may lie in Elgar’s own response, when asked for the secret of his Tonight’s programme consists entirely of British music for strings about music she is Executive understanding of string instruments: ‘Study old Handel. I went to written during the first half of the 20th century by composers Director of Classic Arts Productions, him for help ages ago’. whose work was championed by the LSO in their day. We open with a a major supplier of independent work by Sir Edward Elgar, a former Principal Conductor of the LSO. programmes to BBC Radio. In October 1904 Elgar’s friend and editor suggested The Introduction and Allegro was premiered by the LSO, but it was that the composer should write a new piece for the newly formed only later on tour with the Orchestra that Elgar confided in a friend London Symphony Orchestra. By late January 1905 Elgar told Jaeger: that he had ‘at last’ got it played as he wished. ‘I’m doing that string thing in time for the Sym. Orch. concert. Intro. & Allegro – no working-out part but a devil of a fugue instead …’. Vaughan Williams also had a strong relationship with the LSO – The new piece incorporated a theme with a falling third which Elgar especially through recordings of his . Tonight we play his had sketched down some years earlier hearing some distant well known Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and the lesser singing during a holiday on the Cardiganshire coast, but he confessed known Phantasy Quintet. We conclude the programme with Britten’s that ‘the work really is a tribute to that sweet borderland Malvern Variations on a Theme of , a tribute to the composer’s where I have made my home’. former teacher. Elgar conducted the premiere of the Introduction and Allegro with I hope you enjoy tonight’s concert and can join us again on EDWARD ELGAR was largely the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra at the Queen’s Hall in 16 February, when the Orchestra returns with conductor Sir John self-taught as a player and London on 8 March 1905. To his dismay it did not go down well at first, Eliot Gardiner for an all-Mendelssohn programme that opens our composer and during his early and only gained true recognition as a much-loved masterpiece in the Shakespeare 400 concert series. freelance career, which included second half of the 20th century. work the staff band at the County Lunatic Asylum The Introduction and Allegro is designed as a concertante piece in Powick, he suffered many for string orchestra, highlighting a solo within the main body setbacks. It was not until he wrote of strings. After a powerful, majestic Introduction comes a gently Kathryn McDowell the Variations on an Original undulating theme which forms the basis of the Allegro, and which LSO Managing Director CBE DL Theme ‘Enigma’ (1898–99) and his Elgar described in Shakespearean terms as ‘Smiling with a sigh’. oratorio The ‘Welsh tune’, with its characteristic falling third, is given to a ENJOY MORE ELGAR AND VAUGHAN WILLIAMS THIS APRIL (1900) that he cemented his solo . But instead of a development section Elgar worked the position as ’s finest material up into his ‘devil of a fugue’, which eventually leads to a Sun 24 Apr 7pm, Barbican Thu 28 Apr 7.30pm composer. Elgar, who was knighted return of the opening Allegro section. in 1904, became the LSO’s Elgar The Dream of Gerontius Butterworth Vaughan Williams A Pastoral Symphony* Principal Conductor in 1911 and Sir conductor Ravel for the Left Hand premiered many of his works with with Alice Coote, Allan Clayton and Debussy La Mer the Orchestra.

Sir Mark Elder conductor Composer Profiles © Andrew Stewart with Elizabeth Watts* and Cédric Tiberghien Book now lso.co.uk | 020 7638 8891 4 Programme Notes 3 February 2016 lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts Programme Notes 5

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958) (1872–1958) Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910) Phantasy Quintet (1912)

Vaughan Williams’ most famous Fantasia sprang from a combination 1 PRELUDE: LENTO MA NON TROPPO – of passions: his absorption in Tudor music and English folk song, 2 SCHERZO: PRESTISSIMO – collecting, and from his editorship of , which 3 ALLA SARABANDA: LENTO – THE ENGLISH HYMNAL was, as occupied him almost exclusively from 1904 to 1906. Several of 4 BURLESCA: ALLEGRO MODERATO – POCO PIÙ MOSSO – ANDANTE – it said in the preface, ‘A collection the tunes included in the Hymnal influenced his own subsequent TEMPO DEL PRELUDIO – POCO PIÙ MOSSO – ANDANTE of the best hymns in the English compositions, including the third of nine Psalm tunes by the language’ published by the Church Elizabethan composer Thomas Tallis, originally printed in Archbishop Vaughan Williams’ modest output of includes two of England in 1906. Parker’s metrical Psalter of 1567. This melody, in the , string and this Phantasy Quintet for two , two is set in the English Hymnal to Addison’s words ‘When rising from the and . The Quintet was composed in 1912 at the suggestion bed of death’. of the wealthy amateur violinist and chamber music enthusiast WW Cobbett, who, apart from publishing a Cyclopaedic Survey of In 1910, Vaughan Williams was commissioned to write a piece for the Chamber Music in 1929, established a composition prize in 1905 for Three Festival. His piece was to be performed in Gloucester chamber works he described as ‘phantasies’. These were inspired by Cathedral alongside Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, and Elgar’s the sectional Elizabethan instrumental fantasy, and usually comprised Introduction and Allegro probably inspired Vaughan Williams to single-movement works or else several short movements played use the same forces in a Fantasia based on Tallis’ psalm melody. continuously, like a compressed sonata. He conducted the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra at the work’s premiere on 6 September 1910. On the whole, the critics Distinguished winners of the Cobbett prize included Bridge, Britten received it coolly, and after its London premiere in February 1913, and Ireland, but Vaughan Williams’ Quintet, although it falls into this Vaughan Williams withdrew it for substantial revision. It took another category, was never entered for the competition. It comprises four two decades for the work to be recognised as masterpiece, ATTACCA, meaning ‘to tie’ short movements, played ‘attacca’, and woven together by a single, and it has since been one of the composer’s most popular and in Italian, is a performance pentatonic theme of a folksong-like quality, which is introduced frequently performed pieces. direction to indicate that the next by a solo viola (an instrument much loved by Vaughan Williams). movement of a piece of music is RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS The Fantasia is scored for double string orchestra of unequal size to begin immediately after the end The Prelude unwinds quietly and slowly, with the theme largely was born in Gloucestershire on (the second consists of only nine players), from which the section of the previous one, sometimes passed between first viola and first , returning at the end to the 12 October 1872 and enjoyed a leaders emerge as a solo quartet Vaughan Williams took as his even taking the form of a musical viola. The ensuing Scherzo begins with a spiky cello , over musical upbringing. In 1890 he starting point Tallis’ original harmonisation of his modal melody, elision. which the jaunty, syncopated theme is passed between the other enrolled at the Royal College of and based his structure on the sectional concept of the Tudor instruments. The cello is silent and the other instruments muted Music, becoming a pupil of Sir fantasia. The theme itself appears in various embellished guises, during the slow Sarabanda, in which the first violin and first viola . Weekly lessons before reappearing in its original grandeur in the closing section. engage in dialogue through a long-breathed melody. The cello returns at the RCM continued when he to open the final Burlesca with a pompous ostinato bass, over which entered Trinity College, Cambridge, the other instruments enter in counterpoint, becoming increasingly in 1892. His ‘discovery’ of folk song skittish in mood. A short section reminiscent of a sea shanty leads in 1903 was a major influence on into a sonorous Andante, before the Quintet’s opening melody returns the development of his style. A INTERVAL – 20 minutes on the principal viola, taken up by the first violin and elaborated into period of study with There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream can be is a rhapsodic cadenza-like passage presaging The Lark Ascending, in 1908 was also very successful. bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. Vaughan Williams’ most popular written two years later. The sea shanty-like ‘Poco più mosso’ puts in Over his long life, he contributed work, and it regularly tops polls another brief appearance before the mood of the opening returns, notably to all musical forms, Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the performance of the nation’s favourite classical and the first violin ascends into the stratosphere over quiet chords. including film music. @londonsymphony, or come and talk to LSO staff at the information music. point on the Circle level? 6 Programme Notes 3 February 2016 lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts Artist Biographies 7

Benjamin Britten (1913–76) Roman Simovic ‘Simovic played with both physical Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge Op 10 (1937) Director and linguistic ease.’ The Telegraph

1 INTRODUCTION AND THEME Roman Simovic has performed in many of the world’s leading concert 2 VARIATION 1: ADAGIO halls, including the Bolshoi Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, 3 VARIATION 2: MARCH Mariinsky Hall in St Petersburg, Grand House in Tel-Aviv, 4 VARIATION 3: ROMANCE Victoria Hall in Geneva, Rudolfinum Hall in Prague, Barbican Hall in 5 VARIATION 4: ARIA ITALIANA London, Art Centre in Seoul, Grieg Hall in Bergen and Rachmaninov 6 VARIATION 5: BOURRÉE CLASSIQUE Hall in . 7 VARIATION 6: WIENER WALTZER 8 VARIATION 7: MOTO PERPETUO Simovic has been awarded prizes at a number of international 9 VARIATION 8: FUNERAL MARCH competitions, including the Premio Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin 10 VARIATION 9: CHANT Competition, International Sion-Valais, Yampolsky Violin Competition 11 VARIATION 10: FUGUE AND FINALE and the Violin Competition, placing him among the foremost violinists of his generation. Britten wrote this astonishingly skilful piece – a series of ten ‘character’ variations on a theme by his composition teacher Frank Bridge – in As a soloist, he has appeared with the world’s leading , the space of a few weeks for the String Orchestra to play including the LSO, Mariinsky Orchestra, , at the in August 1937. It made its young composer’s Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Bern, Camerata Salzburg, name, and has remained one of his most popular pieces. CRR Chamber Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic and the Prague Philharmonia. Conductors he has worked with include Valery Gergiev, Britten derived his theme from the second of Bridge’s Three Idylls Daniel Harding, Sir Antonio Pappano, Kristjan Järvi, Nikolaj Znaider for Op 6, a work clearly influenced by Elgar. This theme, and Pablo Heras-Casado. which first emerges tentatively after a bold and strikingly modern LSO STRING ENSEMBLE Introduction, undergoes a brilliant series of transformations, each on LSO LIVE A sought-after artist, Simovic has been invited to perform at received intended to reflect a particular trait of Bridge’s personality, from his Pre-order the new recording from various distinguished festivals such as the White Nights Festival in his first piano lessons from his integrity and respect for tradition to his sense of humour. the LSO String Ensemble, directed by St Petersburg, Moscow Easter Festival, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, mother, who encouraged her son’s Roman Simovic, featuring Schubert’s Kotor Art Festival, the BEMUS and NOMUS Festivals, Sion Valais earliest efforts at composition. The opening movement, a passionate and emotional Adagio, is Death and the Maiden (arr Mahler) Festival, Bergen Festival, Moscow Winter Festival, Portogruaro In 1930 he gained a scholarship to followed by an energetic March and a graceful Romance, clearly alongside Shostakovich’s Chamber Festival, and the Granada Music Festival. This year he will play the , where influenced by Gallic charm. The exhilarating ‘Aria Italiana’ is launched Symphony in C minor. chamber music at the Verbier festival with world leading musicians he studied composition with John by a accompaniment evoking thrumming guitars, and recalls including , Yuja Wang, Gautier Capuçon, Tabea Ireland and piano with Arthur Rossini arias in its stratospheric coloratura scales and trills; while the The CD also features 360° Virtual Zimmermann, Mischa Maisky and in recital with Itamar Golan. Benjamin. In June 1948 Britten neo-Classical ‘Bourrée classique’ pays homage to Baroque string Reality footage of the Shostakovich Orchestra invitations include the Shanghai Philharmonic, Mariinsky founded the Aldeburgh Festival of writing, with its emphasis on open fifths. Chamber Symphony in C minor for Theatre, Australian Chamber and London Symphony orchestras Music and the Arts, for which he playback on compatible devices. among others. subsequently wrote many new The next variation, in the style of an exuberant Viennese waltz, works. By the mid-1950s he was is followed by a brilliant ‘Moto perpetuo’. Then follow two slow Released 4 Mar 2016 Aside from being an active soloist, Roman Simovic is also an avid generally regarded as the leading variations – a Funeral March and a hymn-like Chant; while the chamber musician, and is a founding member of the distinguished British composer, helped by the final Fugue draws all the threads together in homage to Bridge’s Available to pre- Rubicon String Quartet. As an educator, he has given masterclasses international success of compositional skill. At the end, Bridge’s theme emerges in its most order now from in the US, UK, South Korea, Serbia, Montenegro and Israel. such as Albert Herring, Billy Budd clear-cut, unvarnished statement, demonstrating the sincere mutual lsolive.lso.co.uk and The Turn of the Screw. affection of teacher and pupil. Roman Simovic plays a 1709 violin, generously loaned to him by Jonathan Moulds CBE. He has been Leader of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2010. 8 On Stage 3 February 2016

On Stage LSO String Ensemble

FIRST VIOLINS VIOLAS DOUBLE BASSES Roman Simovic Leader/Director Edward Vanderspar Colin Paris Lennox Mackenzie Gillianne Haddow Patrick Laurence Ginette Decuyper Lander Echevarria Jani Pensola Maxine Kwok-Adams Anna Bastow Elizabeth Pigram Heather Wallington Sylvain Vasseur Rhys Watkins Tim Hugh SECOND VIOLINS Alastair Blayden Thomas Norris Jennifer Brown Matthew Gardner Eve-Marie Caravassilis Julian Gil Rodriguez Daniel Gardner Naoko Keatley Belinda McFarlane Paul Robson

London Symphony Orchestra

Elgar Up Close LSO St Luke’s

Thu 14, 21, 28 Apr & 5 May 1pm BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts: Elgar Up Close Four concerts dedicated to the best-loved chamber music Book now music of Elgar and featuring the Elias String Quartet. lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts