Thursday 10 January 2019 7.30–9.40pm Barbican Hall

LSO SEASON CONCERT BARBARA HANNIGAN: ARTIST PORTRAIT

Sibelius Symphony No 7 Hans Abrahamsen let me tell you Interval INEXTING Nielsen Symphony No 4, ‘Inextinguishable’ Sir Simon Rattle conductor Barbara Hannigan soprano

Part of the Music Academy of the West/ LSO partnership. The lead sponsors of the partnership are Linda and Michael Keston and Mary Lynn and Warren Staley. UISHABLE Additional support has been provided in remembrance of Léni Fé Bland.

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series, which showcases every dimension of BRITISH COMPOSER AWARDS AN INTERVIEW WITH LAHAV SHANI her career as both singer and more recently conductor. She will return to the LSO in Many congratulations to LSO Soundhub Recently appointed Music Director of the March to lead the Orchestra in a programme Associate Liam Taylor-West and LSO Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Lahav Shani of works by Berg and Ligeti, and rounding off Panufnik Composer Cassie Kinoshi for makes his debut conducting the LSO in with a suite from Gershwin’s Girl Crazy. their success in the 2018 British Composer February. Ahead of the concert, Lahav talks Awards. Prizes were awarded to Liam for about growing up in Tel Aviv and why he’s We extend a warm welcome to the Keston his community project The Umbrella and so excited to be bringing Kurt Weill’s Second MAX Fellows, musicians aged 18–27 from to Cassie for Afronaut, a jazz composition Symphony to London this year. Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the for large ensemble. West, who are working with LSO musicians elcome to tonight’s LSO concert this week, taking part in rehearsals for SCHUMANN AND HIS SYMPHONIES at the Barbican, in which Music tonight’s concert and 13 January, as well as FELIX MILDENBERGER JOINS THE LSO Director Sir Simon Rattle conducts coaching, education projects and concerts at AS ASSISTANT CONDUCTOR As Sir John Eliot Gardiner completes his symphonies by Nordic composers Sibelius LSO St Luke’s on Friday 11 January. As part survey of Robert Schumann’s symphonies and Nielsen, and Hans Abrahamsen’s song of the LSO’s new partnership with Music Following his success in the final of the 2018 with the LSO, we investigate the music that cycle let me tell you with soprano Barbara Academy of the West, we look forward to Donatella Flick LSO Conducting Competition, reveals a less familiar side of this Romantic Hannigan, for whom the work was written. the Orchestra’s forthcoming visit to Santa 28-year-old Felix Mildenberger, currently composer par excellence. Barbara in July, to perform side-by-side with Assistant Conductor of the Orchestre Tonight’s programme includes two the Academy Festival Orchestra under LSO National de France, will join the LSO as lso.co.uk/more/blog symphonies which re-imagined the genre Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas. Assistant Conductor. In this role, Felix will for the 20th century: Sibelius’ telescoped support and learn from the LSO’s family Seventh and Nielsen’s ‘Inextinguishable’, Thank you to our media partner BBC Radio 3, of conductors, including Music Director WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS written in response to World War I. Hans who will broadcast tonight’s concert live. Sir Simon Rattle. Abrahamsen’s let me tell you, with a text I hope you enjoy the performance, and that At tonight’s concert we are delighted by Paul Griffiths, reforms the words of you will join us again throughout 2019. to welcome ATS International Travel, Ophelia from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, inviting Institute for Global Studies and soprano soloist Barbara Hannigan to tell Please ensure phones are switched off. Linda Diggins & Friends. Ophelia’s story from a new perspective. Photography and audio/video recording are not permitted during the music. lso.co.uk/groups This week’s concerts mark the start of Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Barbara Hannigan’s LSO Artist Portrait Managing Director

2 Welcome 10 January 2019 The LSO & Music Academy of the West Partnership

2018/19 has marked the inaugural season of the LSO’s partnership with Music Academy of the West, a summer school and festival training musicians aged 18–34 in Santa Barbara, California.

JULY 2018 JANUARY 2019 SANTA BARBARA LONDON

Five Principal players from the LSO travelled to Music Academy of The twelve Keston MAX Fellows travel to London for an intensive the West’s Summer Festival in Santa Barbara, where they coached ten-day programme, giving them the chance to experience a week the Academy’s young musicians in preparation for a concert with in the life of an LSO musician, through taking part in rehearsals former LSO Assistant Conductor Elim Chan; led masterclasses; conducted by LSO Music Director Sir Simon Rattle, performances, performed chamber music; and oversaw auditions for the twelve mock auditions, lessons with LSO musicians, chamber music and Keston MAX Fellows. LSO Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson LSO Discovery projects. At LSO St Luke’s, the winners of the Solo Thomas also made an appearance. The twelve Keston MAX Fellows Piano and Marilyn Horne Song Competitions give free recitals. were selected by audition, and the winners of the Academy’s annual Solo Piano (Sophiko Simsive) and Marilyn Horne Song Competitions (Kelsey Lauritano and Andrew Sun) were announced. ‘The process leading up to the Keston MAX Fellowship audition, working with LSO musicians and conductor Elim Chan, last summer ‘Over the summer I had the opportunity to work with LSO musicians, was extremely exciting. The LSO members inspired me to demand including Principal Clarinet Andrew Marriner. Not only is he an amazing something more from myself as a section player, as well as from musician, but he is also a fantastic teacher; I am really looking forward those around me. I cannot believe that I will have the opportunity to learning more from him and the other LSO musicians while I am to play with such a great orchestra and such a renowned conductor in London this January. It is such an honour to be able to perform in January – the individuality and spark that comes from each alongside such accomplished musicians.’ player reminds me that this is what I love to do.’ Taylor Isberg, Keston MAX Fellow, Clarinet Stephanie Block, Keston MAX Fellow, Viola

Turn to page 16 for the full list of Keston MAX Fellows Visit lso.co.uk/musicacademywest for more information about the partnership

Music Academy of the West/LSO Partnership 3 Tonight’s Concert In Brief Coming Up

he programme opens with PROGRAMME NOTE WRITERS Sunday 13 & 20 January 7–8.50pm Sunday 10 February 7–9pm Sibelius’ Seventh Symphony – Barbican Barbican his last, composed in 1924. Stephen Johnson is the author of Bruckner Formed in one continuous arc of music, Remembered (Faber). He contributes BRUCKNER SYMPHONY NO 6 GARDINER’S SCHUMANN the Symphony’s musical materials regularly to BBC Music Magazine and accumulate like streams flowing into a river. The Guardian, and broadcasts for BBC Bartók Music for strings, percussion and celeste Schumann Overture: Manfred With no distinct movements, its sections Radio 3 (BBC Legends and Discovering Bruckner Symphony No 6 Beethoven Piano Concerto No 1 dovetail seamlessly until an abrupt Presto Music), Radio 4 and World Service. Schumann Symphony No 1, ‘Spring’ outbreak at the work’s energetic peak. Sir Simon Rattle conductor Andrew Stewart is a freelance music Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor At the heart of the concert, Hans journalist and writer. He is the author Piotr Anderszewski piano Abrahamsen’s let me tell you is a cycle of of The LSO at 90, and contributes to Thursday 7 February 7.30–9.45pm seven songs, which uses as its source Paul a wide variety of specialist classical Barbican Griffiths’ novel by the same name. The music publications. Sunday 17 February 7–8.50pm songs re-order and re-imagine the words of GARDINER’S SCHUMANN Barbican Hamlet’s Ophelia, a literary character whose Paul Griffiths has been a critic for nearly resonances in art and music go far beyond 40 years, including for The Times and Weber Overture: Euryanthe ARTIST PORTRAIT: DANIIL TRIFONOV her role in Shakespeare’s play. The New Yorker, and is an authority on 20th- Mendelssohn Concerto for violin and piano and 21st-century music. Among his books Schumann Symphony No 3, ‘Rhenish’ Rameau Les Indes galantes – Suite Nielsen’s Fourth Symphony was written are studies of Boulez, Ligeti and Stravinsky. Ravel Piano Concerto in G in 1916, and its epithet ‘Inextinguishable’ He also writes novels and librettos. Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor Betsy Jolas A Little Summer Suite reflects Nielsen’s optimism for human Isabelle Faust violin Poulenc Les biches – Suite goodness, which was cast in a new light Kristian Bezuidenhout piano Ravel La valse during World War I. Played out across four interconnected movements, the symphony Sir Simon Rattle conductor explores themes of hope and conflict. Daniil Trifonov piano In the closing moments, a lyrical theme from the opening is renewed. However, it struggles to be heard against the war-like battery of timpani, and the symphony ends with ambivalence. lso.co.uk/whatson

4 Tonight’s Concert 10 January 2019 Jean Sibelius Symphony No 7 in C major Op 105 1924 / note by Stephen Johnson

Adagio – Vivacissimo – Adagio – approaching rapids, eventually boiling over ‘symphony’ at all? When the work first After this moment of vision, the music Allegro molto moderato – Vivace – into a thrilling accelerating scherzo. But it appeared in 1924, Sibelius cautiously surges on into an Allegro molto moderato. Presto – Adagio was with the Seventh Symphony (1924) that gave it another title, Fantasia Sinfonica. This seems steady enough for a while, this process of fusing separate ‘movements’ But the work’s success gave him courage, but then comes a pause, and a sudden ounds of nature pervade Sibelius’ into a single, organic unity was to reach its and he was soon referring to it as ‘the gear change (the only one in the entire orchestral works: the calls of ultimate expression. Seventh Symphony.’ Symphony), leading to a long Presto swans and cranes, or wind rustling crescendo powered by driving string through leaves and screaming through The most immediately striking feature The Symphony’s originality becomes obvious figures and the rising scale that began pine-tops. But Sibelius looked deeper, of the Seventh Symphony – apart from as soon as one tries to describe its form: the Symphony (now on horns). Through to the very processes of the natural world, its famous, noble trombone theme – is one could say that three Adagio sections – these the trombone theme returns in full, for inspiration. Rivers fascinated him: that it is in one continuous movement. each centred on the magnificent trombone this time in the original sunlit C major. ‘I should like to compare the symphony to a Granted, Sibelius wasn’t the first composer theme mentioned above – merge into and There is an elemental climax, then the river,’ he wrote in his diary in 1912. ‘It is born to attempt a symphonic structure in one emerge from two faster episodes. But even clouds vanish and high strings initiate a from various rivulets that seek each other movement; there was already a magnificent that is too simple. At the very beginning, slow, chorale-like winding down. A brief and in this way the river proceeds wide and example in Schoenberg’s First Chamber after the expectant rising string scale that reminiscence of the trombone theme powerful toward the sea.’ ‘But where do Symphony (1906). In the Schoenberg, starts the process, the woodwind, horn and leads to a moment of hush (woodwind and we get the water?’, he asks. Another entry however, it is easy to pick out sections that string phrases initially seem to be moving strings), before the music settles firmly in provides an answer: ‘The musical thoughts – resemble the traditional symphonic first at slightly different speeds – like objects C major for the rock-like final cadence. • the motives, that is – are the things that movement, scherzo, slow movement and born along on the different currents and must create the form and stabilise my path.’ so on. Sibelius’ Seventh follows a different, eddies of a great river. After the trombone much more river-like course. The speed and theme makes its climactic appearance, In jottings like this, Sibelius was clearly character of the music change frequently, the initial Adagio gradually mutates into a trying to define something that he had but the different sections (if ‘sections’ is the rapid, scherzo-like Vivacissimo. But then already begun to notice in his own music. right word) are so skilfully dovetailed that the dancing string figures begin to move In the slow movement of his Fourth it is virtually impossible to say where one more smoothly, and the trombone theme is Symphony (1911) his ‘musical thoughts’ begins and another ends. heard again, now in the minor. The strings had led him to create a new kind of form – still seem to be moving quite fast, but one could call it ‘variations in search of Arriving at this radical new kind of the trombone theme retains its original a theme’. Then in the Fifth (1914–19) symphonic structure was a struggle. monumental grandeur; to borrow an image he arrived at a still more original idea: And when Sibelius had finished it, he was from Sibelius’ sketchbook, it is like seeing a moderately paced first movement suddenly overcome with doubt: had he the moon through swirling storm clouds. which builds up momentum like a river gone too far this time – was this really a

Programme Notes 5 Jean Sibelius in Profile 1865–1957

1865 BORN 1898–99 FIRST SYMPHONY 1904 SIBELIUS BY ALBERT ENGSTRÖM Hämeenlinna, Finland, then an At a time when Russia was attempting He completed the Violin Concerto and autonomous part of the Russian Empire. to restrict Finland’s power to self-govern, moved to Järvenpää in the same year. the nationalistic First Symphony brought Sibelius considerable acclaim. 1890–91 ABANDONED THE VIOLIN Sibelius later described the ‘painful awakening when I had 1901–02 to admit that I had begun my SECOND SYMPHONY training for the exacting career Sketched in Italy, of a virtuoso too late’. he described it as ‘a confession of the soul.’

ibelius was swiftly adopted by Finns as a symbol of national pride. He loved nature, and the sweeping Finnish landscape often served as inspiration for his musical output. His most 1892 MARRIAGE 1907–08 HEALTH PROBLEMS significant contributions are all orchestral in Sibelius married Overindulgence, heavy smoking and nature, including seven symphonies, a violin 1885–89 STUDIES Aino Järnefelt drinking forced Sibelius to cancel concerto and a large number of tone poems. He initially studied law (pictured right), concerts, while Aino, suffering from Throughout his life, he was plagued by before enrolling at the the daughter of exhaustion, was admitted to a heavy drinking, illness, relentless self- Helsinki Music Institute a Finnish general, sanatorium. Sibelius resolved to give criticism and financial problems, forcing his (now the Sibelius Academy) on 10 June 1892. up drinking and to concentrate on his early retirement from composition at the as a violinist. Third Symphony, completed in 1907. age of 61. He was, however, honoured as a He underwent surgery for throat great Finnish hero long after he stopped cancer in Berlin in 1908. composing, and his principal works quickly became established as an essential part 1891–92 FIRST MAJOR WORK of the orchestral repertoire. • His first major orchestral piece, Kullervo, eschewed traditional Profile by Andrew Stewart symphonic structure.

6 Composer Profile 10 January 2019 1919–20 RENEWED FORTUNES 1914 WORLD WAR I Despite the onset of a hand tremor, Sibelius made his While travelling from the US, news reached first trips abroad since 1915, began his Sixth Symphony Sibelius of the assassination of Archduke and received a donation of 3,000 marks. He used the Franz Ferdinand in Sarajevo. During the War, money to reduce his debts, but also spent a week the composer’s foreign royalties dried up, celebrating in excess in Helsinki. and he focused on smaller pieces for the Finnish audience. 1927 THE SILENCE OF JÄRVENPÄÄ 1917 DRINKING AND DEBT In the last 30 years of his life, Sibelius produced barely any new music Sibelius’ wayward habits resurfaced, and avoided talking publicly about his work, though there is evidence leading to significant arguments with he worked on an Eighth Symphony. Aino. His debts increased, and his grand piano was almost repossessed by bailiffs.

1915 1918 FINNISH CIVIL WAR 1923–24 SEVENTH SYMPHONY 1957 DEATH FIFTH SYMPHONY Sibelius supported the conservative ‘Whites’ (as opposed Following the premiere, Sibelius received Sibelius died of a Sibelius conducted to the communist ‘Reds’) and during the first weeks of the Knight Commander’s Cross of the Order brain haemorrhage the premiere at war several of his acquaintances were killed. Composer of the Dannebrog. at his home aged 91. the Helsinki Stock Robert Kajanus negotiated safe passage for Sibelius and Exchange, and revised Aino to leave Red-occupied Järvenpää for Helsinki. it in 1916 and 1919.

1910–11 FOURTH SYMPHONY 1923 SIXTH SYMPHONY His successful surgery and Sibelius conducted the premiere with moderated indulgences brought the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra renewal, as did the success of his on 19 February. Fourth Symphony. Aionola (which translates to ‘Aino’s place’), Sibelius’ countryside home on Lake Tuusula

Composer Profile 7 Hans Abrahamsen let me tell you 2012–13 / note by Paul Griffiths

Part I the protagonist of let me tell you comes to There is familiarity and strangeness, too, The last part has an even shorter introduction, 1 Let me tell you how it was a different conclusion. in the rhythm. Generally the pulse is clear – again going back to the beginning and taking 2 O but memory is not one but many it is picked out at the start in oscillating it further, before arriving at the slow finale, 3 There was a time, I remember The words with which she has to recount octaves from the celeste, passing later marked adagissimo. Now microtonal tunings her story – Ophelia’s words – are barely to other instruments – but the position fold into the texture and, being derived from Part II adequate to her, but she has to make them of the strong beat is ambiguous. Time natural harmonics, re-root the music in a 4 Let me tell you how it is serve, and she does. Her utterance is at simultaneously ticks and floats. glistening new world of resonance. We are 5 Now I do not mind once constrained and resolute, fragile and in the snow, in a white landscape where the decisive, and its nature is realised at the Such music, beginning right away, not only erasure of detail and contour is the renewal Part III opening by an adaptation of a technique prepares the protagonist’s world but also of possibility. 6 I know you are there used by Monteverdi, of rebounding on one foreshadows a crucial melodic element to 7 I will go out now note. What was an ornament 400 years be associated with her words, ‘Let me tell Ophelia is one of those imaginary figures ago becomes the means by which she can you.’ These words come three times in the whose existence goes on beyond the work Barbara Hannigan soprano be at once hesitant and assertive. piece, defining its three parts, the first that gave them birth. She has appeared in recollective, the second set in the present, paintings and in novels, including the one, Composed in 2012–13, with tonight’s Her entry into the piece comes early, but the third carrying a promise of what will also called let me tell you, that was the soloist very much in mind, let me tell you only after she has been summoned into happen in the future. source for this piece. Now she speaks again is a half-hour dramatic monologue, voiced a magical soundscape of piccolos, violin through a performer on stage, in a mode by a character who requires us to hear her. harmonics and celeste. The music – and Having stated the inadequacy of words, the that is intimate and demands attention. That character is not quite the Ophelia of this is true of the whole work – is at once protagonist goes on, in two further songs, Her words come back to her transformed, Shakespeare’s Hamlet. She has the same familiar and strange, for the language of to wonder about the reliability of memory and she has gained, as she herself might words, her entire text being made up from traditional tonality is present but fractured before she comes to a specific recollection – say, ‘the powers of music.’ • words Ophelia speaks in the play, but she into new configurations. A high degree of ‘in limping time’, as the score has it – of that uses these words in different ways, and consonance is coupled with harmonic states time without music. This makes her ponder Texts on Pages 10 & 11 certainly to express herself differently. and progressions we have not heard before; on how music shifts and changes time, and the sense of a recognisable key comes only we recognise that this music is doing so. She tells us of things to which there is fleetingly; and melody here casts back to an little or no reference in the play, such as ancient time of folk song – rather as Ophelia It achieves that at the opening of the second Interval – 20 minutes the nature of memory, or ‘a time … when does in her derangement, or as Gertrude part by replaying and altering the opening of There are bars on all levels. we had no music,’ or an explosive experience does in speaking of Ophelia’s drowning, the first, to make a short introduction to the Visit the Barbican Shop on Level -1 to of love. Where Shakespeare’s Ophelia when, drifting down the stream, she climactic fifth song, which plunges into the see our range of Gifts and Accessories. descends into madness and watery death, ‘chanted snatches of old tunes.’ delirium of love.

8 Programme Notes 10 January 2019 Hans Abrahamsen composer b 1952 / profile by Paul Griffiths

he music of Hans Abrahamsen After the piano studies, Abrahamsen’s musical structure. The ominous yet has the freshness of something productivity slowed, as he found a new captivating misaligned world of Wald untouched, and it’s no wonder outlet as an arranger, notably of pieces by returns in Abrahamsen’s Double Concerto Hans is a composer of so much music about Bach and Nielsen. Of original pieces, only a for violin, piano and strings (2011). snow. Snow shapes itself on something brief Rilke setting, Herbstlied, interrupted familiar and offers the possibility of his silence between 1990 and 1998. Each composition joins its companions as a something new, such as in his piece sibling, related but distinct. Abrahamsen’s Schnee (2006–8), scored for two pianos He then produced his first extended work Fourth Quartet (2012) begins in a glacial and percussion with contrasting trios in a decade and a half, the Piano Concerto, world of high harmonics and ends with and justly esteemed as one of the first completed in 2000, with its turbulent rhythmic intricacy. His piano concerto for left classics of 21st-century music. In Schnee, ostinatos and contrasting stillnesses, hand, Left, alone (2015), is a story of conflict, gradually crystallising canons, playing for and polyphony which looks back to solitariness and communal exhilaration, close on an hour, are also musical portraits Winternacht. The concerto is at once and proves him ready for the next challenge of snow: its flurries, its delicacy, its cold. intimate and tightly crafted, as close he has set himself, an opera based on Hans to Schumann as it is to Stravinsky. Christian Andersen’s The Snow Queen. • An early beginner, Abrahamsen first had his work published when he was 16. In 2004, Abrahamsen remade his piano By the age of 30 he had produced a sizeable studies as Four Pieces for Orchestra. output: several orchestral works (Nacht Rivalling Ravel or Boulez for orchestral und Trompeten, a luminous and dramatic transformation, these movements nocturne commissioned by the Berlin discover in the keyboard originals Philharmonic), two string quartets and bewitching sounds and expressive power. numerous other pieces, mostly instrumental, including another fine example of wintry Abrahamsen’s work as an orchestrator musical poetry, Winternacht. has continued with a reduction of Nielsen’s last symphony and an arrangement of In 1984 came a set of seven piano studies, Debussy’s Children’s Corner. which strikingly anticipated Ligeti’s of the following year. Ligeti, briefly his teacher, had Microtonal tunings return in Wald for 15 been one of his first heroes, for exactness players (2009), which evokes shadowy and beauty, along with Steve Reich. forests and hunting calls in an elaborate

Composer Profile 9 Hans Abrahamsen let me tell you / text by Paul Griffiths, after the novel let me tell you (2008)

Part I

1 3 5 Let me tell you how it was. There was a time, I remember, when we had no music, Now I do not mind if it is day, if it is night. I know I can do this. a time when there was no time for music, If it is night, I have the powers: and what is music if not time – an owl will call out. I take them here. If it is morning, I have the right. time of now and then tumbled into one another, a robin will tune his bells. time turned and loosed, Night, day: there is no difference for me. My words may be poor time bended, but they will have to do. What will make the difference is if you are with me. There was a time when I could not do this: time blown up here and there, For you are my sun. I remember that time. time sweet and harsh, time still and long? You have sun-blasted me, 2 and turned me to light. O but memory is not one but many – Part II a long music we have made You have made me like glass – and will make again, 4 like glass in an ecstasy from your light, over and over, Let me tell you how it is, like glass in which light rained for you are the one who made me more than I was, and rained and rained and goes on, with some things we know and some we do not, you are the one who loosed out this music. like glass in which there are showers of light, some that are true and some we have made up, light that cannot end. some that have stayed from long before, Your face is my music lesson and some that have come this morning, and I sing. Part III some that will go tomorrow 6 and some that have long been there I know you are there. but that we will never find, I know I will find you. for to memory there is no end. Let me tell you how it will be.

10 Texts 10 January 2019 LSO Artist Portrait: Barbara Hannigan

Resonant with the western tradition in all its facets, with ancient folk melody, with 7 nature, with the vibrant structure of sound I will go out now. itself, the music of Hans Abrahamsen yet I will let go the door has the freshness of something untouched – and not look to see my hand as I take it away. untouched, and touching by being so. We are in a world we partly know. Bach and Ligeti Snow falls. are just over the horizon. That tune rings a So: I will go on in the snow. bell. Memories stir of sound as clear as light. I will have my hope with me. And yet everything is different.

I look up, No wonder this is a composer of so much as if I could see the snow as it falls, snow music, for snow shapes itself on what as if I could keep my eye on a little of it we know to offer the possibility of a new start. This, the new start, Abrahamsen and see it come down hasSunday achieved 17 Marchseveral 2019 times, 7–9pm, not least Barbican in his all the way to the ground. Schnee (2006-8), scored for two pianos and I cannot. percussionLSO SEASON with CONCERT contrasting trios and justly esteemedARTIST PORTRAIT:one of the first BARBARA classics HANNIGAN of twenty- The snow flowers are all like each other first-century music. Gradually crystallizing and I cannot keep my eyes on one. canons,Ligeti playing Concert for Românesc close on an hour, are also I will give up this and go on. musicalHaydn portraits Symphony of snow: No 86 its flurries, its I will go on. delicacy,Interval its cold. Though based on a modal melody,Berg Lulu the piece– Suite is by no means white-note music;Gershwin indeed, arr characteristic Hannigan & Elliot microtonal Girl Crazy – Suite let me tell you retunings, made during the course of Composed by Hans Abrahamsen performance,Barbara Hannigan are crucial conductor/soprano to how it sounds, Text by Paul Griffiths beautifully blurring the counterpoint as the © 2013 Edition Wilhelm Hansen, Copenhagen. canons shift in and out of focus. All Rights Reserved. International Copyright Secured. lso.co.uk/whatson Used by permission of Hal Leonard Europe Limited. An early beginner – his first published

Texts 11 Carl Nielsen Symphony No 4 Op 29, ‘Inextinguishable’ 1916 / note by Stephen Johnson

1 Allegro human beings (still less in nationhood), then The Fourth Symphony begins in chaos, with redoubled energy, but somehow the 2 Poco Allegretto perhaps in life itself. This is an important violence and tonal instability, with massed first movement’s hopeful tune manages 3 Poco Adagio Quasi Andante clue to the meaning of the title of his Fourth woodwind and string figures clashing to reassert itself through the turmoil, 4 Allegro Symphony. Nielsen added an explanatory aggressively. But as the fury subsides now in full E-major radiance. And yet the note at the beginning of the score: a calm, singing woodwind tune emerges timpanists are not silenced. Their final enmark remained neutral that will be lifted up magnificently in the hammer blows suggest that the struggle to throughout the upheaval of World ‘The composer has tried to indicate in bright key of E major at the end of the work. affirm must go on – there can be no final, War I, but its citizens have always one word what music alone is capable of After many upheavals, the initial Allegro utopian resolution. • been acutely sensitive to the activities of expressing to the full: claws its way to a massive anticipation of its large and powerful neighbour to the The elemental Will of Life. that final outcome (only based on the tune’s south. For Nielsen there was an added Music is life, and like it, inextinguishable.’ final phrase – the full glory is yet to come). dimension of philosophical crisis. It may But this fades into a gentle, intermezzo-like be hard to believe now, but many European The motion of that elemental will can be Poco Allegretto, dominated by woodwind. artists initially welcomed the prospect felt throughout this symphony. Although This has plenty of folkish charm, yet it also of war: here was a grand opportunity for the broad outlines of the four conventional has its moments of mystery. ‘spiritual cleansing’, and a celebration of symphonic movements can be made out, the traditional masculine virtues of courage, the ‘Inextinguishable’ is really conceived in This too seems to fade, then a sudden loyalty and devotion to one’s country. a single sweep. Nielsen normally identifies anguished outburst from strings and Before the hostilities Nielsen had been an the movements of his symphonies with timpani begins the Poco Adagio. After enthusiastic nationalist. But as he began numbers, but here it would be difficult to more fraught struggles this heaves itself to realise the horrors men could inflict on know exactly where to put them. up to another massive anticipation of each other, his faith was rocked to the core. the symphony’s final E major triumph. Nationalism, he wrote not long after the It isn’t always easy to see where one A moment of wonderfully atmospheric, war, had been transformed into a ‘spiritual movement ends and another begins. And pregnant stillness (oboe and high strings), syphilis,’ the justification for the expression while each movement has its own themes, and a hurtling string passage lead – after of ‘senseless hate.’ the more one gets to know the symphony a dramatic pause – into the final Allegro. the more the family resemblances begin This music seems determined to sing of Nielsen’s faith in humanity may have to reveal themselves. One senses that the hope, yet it meets powerful opposition, as suffered a setback, but rather than give in to basic thematic material presented in the a second timpanist joins the first to lead despair he was driven to make some kind of symphony’s early stages is in a state of a destructive onslaught. After a quiet but affirmative statement: belief, if not in continual evolution. tense section, the timpani begin their attack

12 Programme Notes 10 January 2019 Carl Nielsen in Profile 1865–1931

ften described as a nationalist, accomplished enough as performer and Nielsen’s role in Denmark’s rise composer to attend the Copenhagen MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST to musical nationhood is without Conservatory. Throughout his life Nielsen AT LSO ST LUKE’S parallel. Indeed, many of the songs Danish retained a fascinating mixture of earthy school children are still taught today were simplicity and intellectual sophistication, Friday 11 January 1–2pm composed by Nielsen. After World War I reading widely and keeping up to date Nielsen turned against nationalism, and with musical innovations. Initially he FREE LUNCHTIME CONCERT: having hymned nationhood in his Third reacted against Wagner’s modernism, SOLO PIANO COMPETITION WINNER Symphony (1911) he portrayed its decline but in later years he was fascinated by from the ‘high and beautiful’ into ‘senseless what progressive-minded composers like J S Bach Italian Concerto BWV 971 hate’ in the strutting march rhythms of Bartók, Schoenberg and Hindemith were Elizabeth Ogonek the Fifth (1922). doing. His very last works show him as keen Orpheus Suite (after Rilke) (world premiere) as ever to extend his musical horizons, Chopin Préludes Op 28 Nielsen’s national consciousness was of a though without sacrificing the rootedness. • very different kind from that of most late Sophiko Simsive piano 19th- and early 20th-century composers. His family were Danish peasants on the Friday 11 January 6.30–7.30pm island of Funen (Fyn) and his father was leader of a village band. Young Carl FREE EVENING RECITAL: soon joined as a violinist, and his first MARILYN HORNE SONG compositional efforts were dance tunes. COMPETITION WINNERS Thus, unlike the vast majority of nationally inclined composers, Nielsen didn’t have A selection of songs by Schubert, to ‘discover’ his country’s indigenous Ravel, De Falla and a world premiere culture: it was in his blood. by Ricky Ian Gordon

At 14 Nielsen enrolled in the army as Kelsey Lauritano mezzo-soprano a trumpeter, making himself useful in Andrew Sun piano military bands by learning a wide range of instruments. How and when he first encountered classical music isn’t clear but by the age of 19 he had become

Composer Profile 13 Sir Simon Rattle conductor

ir Simon Rattle was born in Liverpool Music education is of supreme importance et Mélisande, Strauss’ Salome and Bizet’s and studied at the Royal Academy to Sir Simon. His partnership with the Berlin Carmen, a concert performance of Mozart’s of Music in London. From 1980 to Philharmonic broke new ground with the Idomeneo and many concert programmes. 1998, he was Principal Conductor and Artistic education programme Zukunft@Bphil, Adviser of the City of Birmingham Symphony earning him the Comenius Prize, the Schiller Sir Simon has long-standing relationships Orchestra and was appointed Music Director Special Prize from the city of Mannheim, with the leading orchestras in London, in 1990. He moved to Berlin in 2002 and held the Golden Camera and the Urania Medal. Europe and the US, initially working closely the positions of Artistic Director and Chief He and the Berlin Philharmonic were with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic until appointed International UNICEF Boston Symphony Orchestra, and more he stepped down in 2018. Sir Simon became Ambassadors in 2004 – the first time this recently with The Philadelphia Orchestra. Music Director of the London Symphony honour has been conferred on an artistic He regularly conducts the Vienna Orchestra in September 2017. ensemble. Sir Simon has also been awarded Philharmonic, with whom he has recorded several prestigious personal honours, which the complete Beethoven symphonies and Sir Simon has made over 70 recordings for include a knighthood in 1994, becoming piano concertos with Alfred Brendel, and is EMI (now Warner Classics) and has received a member of the Order of Merit from Her also a Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the numerous prestigious international awards Majesty the Queen in 2014, and being given Age of Enlightenment and Founding Patron for his recordings on various labels. Releases the Freedom of the City of London in 2018. of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. on EMI include Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms (which received the 2009 Grammy In 2013 Sir Simon began a residency at the During the 2018/19 season Sir Simon will Award for Best Choral Performance); Berlioz’s Baden-Baden Easter Festival, conducting embark upon tours to Japan, South Korea, Symphonie fantastique; Ravel’s L’enfant et Mozart’s The Magic Flute and a series of South America and Europe with the London les sortilèges; Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker – concerts with the Berlin Philharmonic. Symphony Orchestra. He will conduct the Suite; Mahler’s Symphony No 2; and Subsequent seasons have included Czech Philharmonic Orchestra for the first Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. From performances of Puccini’s Manon Lescaut, time in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde and 2014 Sir Simon recorded the Beethoven, Peter Sellars’ ritualisation of Bach’s St John will return to the Deutsche Staatsoper Schumann and Sibelius symphony cycles Passion, Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Berlioz’s Berlin, the Bavarian Radio Symphony on the Berlin Philharmonic’s new in-house The Damnation of Faust, Wagner’s Tristan Orchestra, and the Berlin Philharmonic. label, Berliner Philharmoniker. His most and Isolde and, most recently, Parsifal in In March 2019 he will conduct Peter Sellars’ recent recordings include Debussy’s Pelléas 2018. For the Salzburg Easter Festival, revival of Bach’s St John Passion with both et Mélisande, Turnage’s Remembering, and Rattle has conducted staged productions of the Berlin Philharmonic and the Orchestra Ravel, Dutilleux and Delage on Blu-Ray and Beethoven’s Fidelio, Mozart’s Così fan tutte, of the Age of Enlightenment. • DVD with the LSO on LSO Live. Britten’s Peter Grimes, Debussy’s Pelléas

14 Artist Biographies 10 January 2019 Barbara Hannigan soprano

mbodying music with an She will conduct Orchestre Phiharmonique Isabel in George Benjamin’s Lessons in Love unparalleled dramatic sensibility, de Radio France, the Cleveland Orchestra, and Violence at Royal Opera House Covent soprano and conductor Barbara Danish National Symphony Orchestra, Garden in 2018. Hannigan is an artist at the forefront of Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Münchner creation. Her artistic colleagues include Philharmoniker and the LSO, in music by Hannigan’s first album as singer and directors and conductors Christoph Haydn, Sibelius, Strauss, Berg, Bartók and conductor, Crazy Girl Crazy (Alpha Classics, Marthaler, Sir Simon Rattle, Sasha Waltz, Gershwin. This season also sees the launch 2017) – featuring works by Berio, Berg and Kent Nagano, Vladimir Jurowski, John Zorn, of her groundbreaking mentorship scheme, Gershwin – won her the 2018 Grammy Award Andreas Kriegenburg, Andris Nelsons, ‘Equilibrium Young Artists’. With over 20 for Best Classical Solo Vocal album, the Reinbert de Leeuw, David Zinman, performances with four partner orchestras, 2018 Opus Klassik award for Best Solo Vocal Sir Antonio Pappano, Katie Mitchell, Equilibrium’s first season sees Hannigan Performance and the 2018 JUNO Award for Kirill Petrenko and Krszysztof Warlikowski. conduct her first opera, Stravinsky's The Classical Album of the Year. She continues Rake’s Progress. Barbara will also be Music her relationship with Alpha Classics and As a singer and conductor – or both Director of the prestigious Ojai Festival in with her long-time collaborator and mentor, simultaneously – the Canadian musician California in summer 2019, and in 2019/20 Dutch pianist Reinbert de Leeuw, for the has shown commitment to the music of begins her tenure as Principal Guest Conductor 2018 album Vienna: Fin de Siècle. our time, and has given world premiere of Gothenburg Symphony in Sweden. performances of over 85 new creations. Further awards include Singer of the Year Hannigan has collaborated extensively with Unforgettable operatic lead-role (Opernwelt, 2013); Musical Personality of such composers as Boulez, Dutilleux, Ligeti, performances at the world’s leading opera the Year (Syndicat de la Presse Francaise, Stockhausen, Salvatore Sciarrino, John companies include the title role in Berg's 2012); and the Rolf Schock Prize for Musical Barry, Pascal Dusapin, Brett Dean, George Lulu in productions at La Monnaie and Arts (2018), the multi-disciplinary prize Benjamin and Hans Abrahamsen. at Hamburg Staatsoper; Mélisande in across science and the arts which recognises Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande at the 2016 trailblazing and brilliant figures within their Hannigan opened her 2018/19 season singing Festival d’Aix-en-Province and in Krszysztof respective fields. Barbara Hannigan holds the title role in the world premiere of Michael Warlikowski’s 2017 production at the honorary doctorates from the University of Jarrell’s Berenice at Paris Opera, conducted by Ruhrtriennale; and Marie in Zimmermann’s Toronto and Mt Allison University, and was Philippe Jordan and directed by Claus Guth. Die Soldaten at the Bayerische Staatsoper, appointed to the Order of Canada in 2016. • She will give performances of Abrahamsen's for which she won Germany’s Faust Award. let me tell you – which she has now performed Further recent operatic world premiere with eleven orchestras worldwide – this incarnations include Ophelia in Brett Dean’s season with four more European orchestras. Hamlet at Glyndebourne Festival 2017; and

Artist Biographies 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Guest Leader Second Violins Cellos Oboes Trumpets MUSIC ACADEMY OF THE WEST: Julien Szulman David Alberman Rebecca Gilliver Juliana Koch Dave Elton KESTON MAX FELLOWS Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Rosie Jenkins Toby Street First Violins Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Paul Mayes Violins Bassoon Carmine Lauri David Ballesteros Noel Bradshaw Cor Anglais Agnes Tse Quinn Delaney Clare Duckworth Matthew Gardner Eve-Marie Caravassilis Christine Pendrill Trombones Alan Snow Ginette Decuyper Julian Gil Rodriguez Daniel Gardner Mark Templeton Trumpet Laura Dixon Alix Lagasse Hilary Jones Clarinets James Maynard Viola Francis Lawrence LaPorte Gerald Gregory Belinda McFarlane Amanda Truelove Chris Richards Stephanie Anne Block Maxine Kwok-Adams Iwona Muszynska Laure Le Dantec Chi-Yu Mo Bass Trombone Horn William Melvin Csilla Pogany Simon Thompson Paul Milner Cello William Loveless Claire Parfitt Miya Väisänen Bass Clarinet David Bender Elizabeth Pigram Andrew Pollock Double Basses Christelle Pochet Tuba Bass Trombone Laurent Quenelle Paul Robson Burak Marlali Owen Slade Double Bass Lisa Stoneham Harriet Rayfield Louise Shackelton Colin Paris Bassoons Nina Bernat Colin Renwick Matthew Gibson Rachel Gough Timpani Percussion Sylvain Vasseur Violas Thomas Goodman Joost Bosdijk Nigel Thomas Flute Joe Desotelle Rhys Watkins Edward Vanderspar Patrick Laurence Erika Ohman William Cedeño Julian Azkoul Gillianne Haddow Joe Melvin Contra Bassoon Visit lso.co.uk/ Malcolm Johnston Jani Pensola Martin Field Percussion Clarinet musicacademywest Anna Bastow Simo Väisänen Neil Percy Taylor Isberg for biographies German Clavijo Horns David Jackson Lander Echevarria Flutes Alexander Edmundson Sam Walton Carol Ella Gareth Davies Angela Barnes Editor Robert Turner Amy-Jayne Milton Mark Vines Harp Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Philip Hall Jonathan Lipton Bryn Lewis Editorial Photography Jennifer Lewisohn Piccolo Andy Budden Ranald Mackechnie, Lars Skaaning, Chris Wahlberg, Elmer de Haas, Rachel Robson Patricia Moynihan Celeste Harald Hoffmann, Marco Borggreve Alistair Scahill Catherine Edwards Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

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16 The Orchestra 10 January 2019