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Home , Fritz Reiner, Jascha Heifetz, Julia Fischer, Serge Koussevitzky, Yefim Bronfman, Yehudi Menuhin

Thursday 30 May 7.30–9.50pm Barbican

LSO SEASON CONCERT

Cage The Seasons Beethoven Interval Bartók Concerto for

CONCERTO FOR Michael Tilson Thomas conductor violin

Tonight’s concert is broadcast live by BBC Radio 3 ORCHESTRA Free Pre-Concert Recital LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists 6pm Barbican Hall

Beethoven No 18 in E-flat major Rachmaninov/Mendelssohn Nimrod Borenstein Kangding Qingge Étude (world premiere) Brahms Variations on a Theme of Paganini

Ming Xie Welcome Latest News On Our Blog

who last performed with the Orchestra in BMW CLASSICS IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE IVES’ SECOND SYMPHONY 2013, as the soloist for this piece. Thank you to our media partner BBC Radio 3, which is On 30 June, the LSO takes over Trafalgar Like much of Charles Ives’ music, the broadcasting tonight’s concert live. Square as Sir conducts a Second Symphony is scattered with dance-inspired programme of music by references and allusions to familiar tunes Prior to the LSO’s performance tonight we Dvořák, Poulenc, Ravel and Bushra El-Turk. from the American songbook. On our also hosted a pre-concert recital by Guildhall There will also be performances by young blog, we take a look at just a few of the School student Ming Xie, who performed musicians from the LSO On Track scheme in moments to listen out for. a programme of Beethoven, Rachmaninov, East and from the Guildhall School. Brahms and a world premiere by Nimrod Borenstein. These free LSO Platforms ARTIST PORTRAIT: DANIIL TRIFONOV warm welcome to this evening’s recitals seek to complement the repertoire LSO AT THE BBC PROMS 2019 LSO concert at the Barbican. in the Orchestra’s main season and Piano superstar Daniil Trifonov tells us about Following a two-week tour to showcase the musicians of the future. The LSO and a 300-strong choir perform his life away from the concert stage and Latin America, including performances in Visit lso.co.uk/lsoplatforms for details. Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast on Tuesday the experiences that made him love music: Colombia, Peru, , Uruguay and 20 August at the BBC Proms, conducted from rock and jazz to the films of Andrei Chile, we’re delighted to return to London I hope you enjoy the concert and that you by Sir Simon Rattle. The programme also Tarkovsky and Scriabin’s ‘Poem of Ecstasy’. for the first of LSO Conductor Laureate will join us again soon. Michael Tilson includes Varèse’s Amériques and French Michael Tilson Thomas’ performances Thomas conducts the Orchestra Charles Koechlin’s Les bandar-log. with the Orchestra this season. again on 2 June, pairing Ives’ A Symphony: Read these articles and more New England Holidays with Beethoven’s • lso.co.uk/blog Drawing on the theme of ‘roots and origins’, ‘Emperor’ Concerto, with Daniil Trifonov WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS which runs through the 2018/19 season, appearing as soloist as part of his Artist Michael Tilson Thomas presents a work Portrait series. That same day, we will be We are delighted to welcome: Please ensure all phones are switched off. that reflects the composer’s Hungarian exploring the life and music of Charles Ives FIE: Foundation for International Education Photography and audio/video recording heritage and looks back to the roots of with an LSO Discovery Day made up of an University of Louisiana at Lafayette are not permitted during the performance. the concerto genre – Bartók’s Concerto open rehearsal, talks and chamber music. for Orchestra. Before this, we hear ballet music by a composer Michael Tilson Thomas has championed throughout his career, John Cage, and Beethoven’s . Kathryn McDowell CBE DL It is a great pleasure to welcome Julia Fischer, Managing Director

2 Welcome 30 May 2019 Tonight’s Concert In Brief Coming Up

elebrations of sound, nature and PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTORS Sunday 9 June 7–9pm Thursday 27 June 7.30–9.25pm the seasons fill this programme. Barbican Saturday 29 June 7.30–9.25pm The cycle of the year forms the Wendy Thompson studied at the Barbican backdrop to John Cage’s The Seasons, music Royal College of Music before taking an SCHEHERAZADE written to accompany a ballet choreographed MMus in musicology at King’s College, THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN by , Cage’s lifelong partner London. In addition to writing about Liam Mattison Violet from ‘Two Ladies’ * and collaborator. His first orchestral score, music she is Executive Director of Classic Tchaikovsky No 1 Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen (semi-staged) The Seasons was inspired by Cage’s immersion Arts Productions, a major supplier of Rimsky-Korsakov Scheherazade in Indian philosophy, bringing to life each independent programmes to BBC Radio. Sir Simon Rattle conductor phase of the annual cycle, from the austerity Elim Chan conductor Peter Sellars director of winter to the stirring of spring. Lindsay Kemp is a senior producer for BBC Alice Sara Ott piano Lucy Crowe, Gerald Finley, Sophia Burgos, Peter Radio 3, including programming lunchtime Hoare, Jan Martiník, Hanno Müller-Brachmann, The warmth and radiance of the solo concerts from LSO St Luke’s. He is also Generously supported by the Paulina Malefane, Anna Lapkovskaja soloists instrument take centre stage in Beethoven’s Artistic Director of Baroque at the Edge Reignwood Culture Foundation. Violin Concerto. Beginning with four quiet Festival, and a regular contributor to * World premiere, commissioned via the Panufnik Produced by LSO and Barbican beats on the timpani, it moves through a Gramophone magazine. Scheme, generously supported by lyrical allegro and slow movement, before Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust Sunday 30 June 5–7pm culminating in a spirited rondo finale. Paul Griffiths has been a critic for nearly Trafalgar Square 40 years, including for The Times and The Thursday 20 June 7.30–9.45pm In the Concerto for Orchestra, Bartók New Yorker, and is an authority on 20th and Barbican BMW CLASSICS lets every instrument and section shine, 21st-century music. Among his books are creating a joyful celebration of music and studies of Boulez, Ligeti and Stravinsky. LSO + GUILDHALL SCHOOL: BRUCKNER Dvořák Selection of Slavonic Dances the collection of individuals that make up He also writes novels and librettos. Bushra El-Turk Tuqus (world premiere) * the orchestra. In the composer’s own words, Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Poulenc Selection from ‘Les biches – Suite’ the five movements represent ‘a gradual Thomas Tallis Ravel La valse transition from the sternness of the first Grainger Lincolnshire Posy for Winds movement and the lugubrious death-song Bruckner Symphony No 4 Sir Simon Rattle conductor of the third, to the life-assertion of the last London Symphony Orchestra one’, a virtuosic, dancing rondo. Sir Simon Rattle conductor LSO On Track Young Musicians * London Symphony Orchestra Guildhall School Musicians * Guildhall School Musicians Produced in partnership with BMW Generously supported by Baker McKenzie Tonight’s Concert 3 John Cage The Seasons 1947 / note by Wendy Thompson John Cage In Profile 1912–92 / by Liam Hennebry

escribed by his teacher Schoenberg the Ziegfeld Theatre in , with subjects before returning to as ‘not a composer, but an inventor – choreography by Cunningham, and designs in 1931 to study composition with Richard of genius’, John Cage’s interests by Martha Graham’s favourite Japanese Buhling, Henry Cowell, Adolph Weiss and extended far beyond Western classical designer, Isamu Noguchi. eventually Arnold Schoenberg. music to embrace music, art and philosophy from many different cultures. Dance was At this point in his life, Cage was deeply Modern dance, Indian philosophy and Zen central to Cage’s career. He spent his early influenced by Indian aesthetics. He had Buddhism all played a significant role in Cage’s years working as a dance accompanist at agreed to tutor an Indian musician who music. From the 1950s onwards, he began to several West Coast colleges, and in 1938, at was studying Western music, and who in experiment with chance and indeterminacy. the Cornish College of the Arts in Seattle, return introduced Cage to Indian music This move proved unpopular with colleagues, he met the modern dance pioneer and and philosophy. The Seasons, which is in and he drew criticism from both Pierre choreographer Merce Cunningham, who a single act divided into nine sections – Boulez and . Cage’s in 1946 became his lifelong personal and Prelude I, Winter; Prelude II, Spring; Prelude fame grew in the 1960s, during which professional partner. Together they created III, Summer; Prelude IV, Fall; and a finale time he toured widely and established an a sequence of classic dance collaborations, that repeats Prelude I as the annual cycle affiliation with the Music Department at based on a temperamental affinity for recommences – is based on the Indian ohn Cage was one of the leading Wesleyan University, an association that interlocking aesthetic disciplines, summed concept of seasonal affections. Winter figures of the 20th-century avant would last until his death. The following up in Cage’s statement: ‘Art, instead of represents quiescence, spring is associated garde, having arguably a greater decade he would produce some of his largest being an object made by one person, is a with burgeoning creation, summer with impact on music of the century than any and most ambitious works. process set in motion by a group of people. preservation, and autumn with decay. other American composer. He was born in Art’s socialised. It isn’t someone saying 1912 in Los Angeles to a family with deep His last new direction was . Between something, but people, doing things …’ The ballet also uses the concept of ‘nested American roots: his ancestor (also named 1987 and 1991, he produced five, despite his music’, characteristic of Cage’s compositions John Cage) assisted George Washington in worsening health and arthritis. In August One of the first results of this fruitful of the 1940s, in which the complete work the task of surveying the Colony of Virginia. 1992, Cage suffered his second stroke in New partnership was a short ballet, The Seasons, and its component parts are all based York and died at age 79. Today, he is perhaps created in early 1947 while Cage was working on a predetermined proportion, in this Cage learned to play the piano as a child, best known for his composition 4’33’’, on his ground-breaking sequence case the ratio 2, 2, 1, 3, 2, 4, 1, 3, 1; while but by the time he was 16 he was convinced which is absent of deliberate sound, inviting and Interludes for prepared piano. It was the harmonic structure is based around that he would go on to become a writer. He the audience to listen musically to other his first orchestral score, commissioned by ‘gamuts’ – a sequence of chords with graduated from Los Angeles High School noises. However, his wider impact remains Lincoln Kirstein’s Ballet Society, predecessor fixed instrumentation, through which as valedictorian and majored in Theology considerable, with composers , of the New York City Ballet. The Ballet the piece progresses. • at Pomona College in Claremont. He spent , La Monte Young and even Frank Society gave the premiere on 17 May 1947 at a year in Europe studying a variety of arts Zappa all acknowledging his influence. •

4 Programme Notes 30 May 2019 50th Anniversary with the LSO in 2019/20

Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet 10 November 2019

HALF SIX FIX Prokofiev: Symphony No 5 13 November 2019 TILSON Michael Tilson Thomas: Agnegram Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto Prokofiev: Symphony No 5 with violin 14 November 2019 THOMAS

Explore the new season at lso.co.uk/201920season Violin Concerto in D major Op 61 1806 / note by Lindsay Kemp

1 Allegro ma non troppo endless repetition of unimportant passages Clement did not show the concerto to its might be), and when the solo violin first 2 Larghetto produces a tiring effect’, ran one account of best advantage by playing the second and enters it is not to contradict the orchestra, 3 Rondo. Allegro its first performance. third movements at opposite ends of the or even to contribute any new themes of its concert from the first, and inserting some own, but to enrich the music with soaring Julia Fischer violin Clearly, a little more action was expected. virtuoso showpieces in between (including embellishments and eloquent refinements It was not until one of the 19th century’s one played with the violin upside down). of the movement’s glorious melodic material. or Beethoven, the concerto was greatest violinists, , not a form to be taken lightly. Like performed it in London in 1844 under Although Beethoven knew how to play the Second Movement Mozart, the first great master Mendelssohn’s baton that the work came to violin, it was not really his instrument, so This non-aggressive attitude is even more of the Classical concerto, he composed be recognised as the sublime masterpiece we should not be too surprised that his noticeable in the placid slow movement, which principally for his own instrument, that it is. Joachim was only twelve years concerto does not adopt the confrontational seems to start out as a straightforward the piano. Whereas Mozart’s output of old at the time, but later descriptions of his and virtuoso tone of the piano concertos. set of variations on the theme introduced piano concertos ran to nearly 30, Beethoven playing, which talked of artistic perfection And unlike the piano, the violin cannot right at the beginning on muted strings – completed only five, each of them a dynamic with bravura as a secondary consideration, accompany itself, with the result that the so straightforward, indeed, that the music and virtuosic conflict between soloist and perhaps explain how it was that he was orchestra has to play along almost all of the never leaves the key of G major and the solo orchestra. It is not hard to picture him at the first one to be able to put the concerto time. Beethoven does not fight against this. violin at first offers no more than gentle the keyboard, challenging the orchestra across; these qualities, after all, apply Instead he turns it to an advantage by writing accompanimental arabesques. After the to battle in the gigantic flourishes of the equally well to the work itself. a supremely conciliatory concerto in which third variation, however, (a loud restatement first movement of the ‘Emperor’ Concerto, the violin and orchestra are in agreement of the theme by the orchestra alone), the running it ragged in the fleet-footed The circumstances of the first performance throughout. As musicologist Donald Tovey soloist introduces a brief but sonorous new games of the finale of the First, or coaxing in Vienna in December 1806 sound has said, ’all its most famous strokes of tune, which is then alternated with the main it patiently into submission in the slow somewhat less promising. Beethoven had genius are not only mysteriously quiet, but theme before a peaceful coda, a fanfare- movement of the Fourth. rushed to complete the piece in time and mysterious in radiantly happy surroundings’. like outburst from the strings and a short the soloist, Franz Clement, was apparently cadenza lead straight into the finale. Compared to these dramas, his only forced to sight-read much of the music at First Movement completed violin concerto is a very different the concert. This sounds hard to believe, but This is certainly true of the work’s unusual Finale animal, a work of unprecedented warmth and it is surely significant that the autograph opening, where a series of gentle drum beats Here again, the form is simple – a rondo serenity that its first audiences evidently contains many alterations to the solo part, introduce the sublime first theme, and then whose uncomplicated treatment may owe found rather puzzling. ‘The opinion of perhaps made at Clement’s suggestion, proceed to dominate and unify the whole much to Beethoven’s haste to complete connoisseurs admits that it contains after what one can only imagine was a movement through repeating and recycling the concerto, but whose recurring theme beautiful passages but confesses that the somewhat hairy premiere. If Beethoven their insistent rhythm in different contexts. is irresistible nevertheless. And there is context often seems broken and that the made things hard for his soloist, however, There is no menace in this (as well there real originality in the way in which the

6 Programme Notes 30 May 2019 Ludwig van Beethoven in Profile 1770–1827 / by Andrew Stewart movement opens with the theme given with his renowned mentor when the latter • BEETHOVEN AND NAPOLEON out by the soloist over a bare, prompting discovered he was secretly taking lessons accompaniment from the and basses, from several other teachers. Although Napoleon Bonaparte (1769–1821), born in and in the way that, just when you feel Maximilian Franz withdrew payments Corsica, came to prominence during the Beethoven has proved that he could carry for Beethoven’s Viennese education, the French Revolution of 1789–99, rising through on for ever, he wittily brings the concerto talented musician had already attracted the ranks of the French army to become a to an end. • support from some of the city’s wealthiest general. After successful campaigns during arts patrons. His public performances in the Revolution, Napoleon staged a coup 1795 were well received, and he shrewdly d’état in 1799, taking power as the First negotiated a contract with Artaria & Co, the Consul of France, before crowning himself largest music publisher in Vienna. He was ‘Emperor of the French’ in 1804. This title soon able to devote his time to composition was an attempt to emphasise the abolition and the performance of his own works. of monarchy, showing Napoleon as a ruler of the people, and not of the Republic. However In 1800 Beethoven began to complain Napoleon’s self-coronation, his founding eethoven showed early musical bitterly of deafness, but despite suffering of the House of Bonaparte, his residence in promise, yet reacted against his the distress and pain of tinnitus, chronic the Tuileries Palace (the historical residence father’s attempts to train him as stomach ailments, liver problems and an of kings) and his relentless building of a a child prodigy. The boy attracted embittered legal case for the guardianship new French Empire suggested otherwise. the support of the Prince-Archbishop, of his nephew, Beethoven created a series of Throughout the Revolution, Beethoven who supported his studies with leading remarkable new works, including the Missa admired Napoleon as a figurehead of anti- musicians at the Bonn court. By the early Solemnis and his late symphonies and piano monarchism and a defender of the rights of 1780s Beethoven had completed his first sonatas. It is thought that around 10,000 man, initially dedicating his Third Symphony compositions, all of which were for keyboard. people followed his funeral procession on to the then First Consul. Upon learning of With the decline of his alcoholic father, 29 March 1827. his self-coronation, Beethoven is reported Ludwig became the family breadwinner to have thrown the symphony to the floor, as a musician at court. Certainly, his posthumous reputation crying in a rage, ‘so he is no more than a developed to influence successive common mortal! Now, too, he will tread Interval – 20 minutes Encouraged by his employer, the Prince- generations of composers and other under foot all the rights of man, indulge There are bars on all levels. Archbishop Maximilian Franz, Beethoven artists inspired by the heroic aspects of only his ambition; now he will think himself Visit the Barbican Shop to see our travelled to Vienna to study with Joseph Beethoven’s character and the profound superior to all men, become a tyrant!’ range of Gifts and Accessories. Haydn. The younger composer fell out humanity of his music. •

Programme Notes 7 2019/20 with the London Symphony Orchestra ROOTS & ORIGINS 50 YEARS WITH THE LSO RUSSIAN ROOTS ARTIST PORTRAIT Sir Simon Rattle Michael Tilson Thomas Gianandrea Noseda Antoine Tamestit

Season Opening Concert Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony Jörg Widmann’s Concerto 14 September 2019 10 November 2019 31 October 2019 with Daniel Harding 19 April 2020 Messiaen’s Éclairs sur l’au-delà HALF SIX FIX Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony 15 September 2019 Prokofiev: Symphony No 5 3 & 28 November 2019 Berio’s Voci with François-Xavier Roth 13 November 2019 11 June 2020 Brahms & Rachmaninov Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony 18 & 19 September 2019 Michael Tilson Thomas, Tchaikovsky 5 December 2019 Walton’s & Prokofiev with Alan Gilbert Berg & Beethoven’s Seventh 14 November 2019 Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony 14 June 2020 16 January 2020 30 January & 9 February 2020 BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts: Beethoven: James MacMillan: St John Passion Antoine Tamestit & Friends Christ on the Mount of Olives SMALL SCALE 5 April 2020 8 & 15 May; 5 & 26 June 2020, LSO St Luke’s 19 January & 13 February 2020 LSO Chamber Orchestra Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony 16 February 2020 Mozart Concertos 12 & 13 October 2019, Bartók: Duke Bluebeard’s Castle LSO St Luke’s 23 April 2020 Rameau, Purcell, Handel Mahler’s Fourth Symphony 15 December 2019, 26 April 2020 Milton Court Concert Hall

Grainger 4 June 2020 Produced by the LSO and Barbican. Part of the LSO’s 2019/20 Season and Barbican Presents. Explore the new season at Gershwin, Ives, Harris & Bernstein 6 June 2020 lso.co.uk/201920season Béla Bartók Concerto for Orchestra 1943 / note by Paul Griffiths

1 Introduzione: Andante non troppo at the urging of two of the composer’s movement, a gradual transition from the The calmer second subject is delivered by 2 Presentando le coppie: younger Hungarian friends, sternness of the first movement and the a solo and repeated by clarinets in Allegro scherzando and , who hoped that such lugubrious death-song of the third, to the life- octaves, then by flutes and oboe in triads. 3 Elegia: Andante non troppo a request would help restore their mentor’s assertion of the last one.’ However, there is One implication of the title is that this is a 4 Intermezzo interrotto: Allegretto morale, his health and his finances. also the invitation to understand the work as concerto with multitudinous soloists, and so 5 Finale: Pesante — Presto it is already appearing. A third subject arrives — on solo clarinet, from which it is passed artók’s attachment to folk music ‘The title of this symphony-like orchestral work is explained by its tendency to to cor anglais and around the woodwind was not just to its rhythms and ensemble. Phases of development and melodies but also to its social treat the single orchestral instruments in a ‘concertante’ or soloistic manner.’ recapitulation (the second subject now force, how it would bind communities in Béla Bartók coming first) are compact. ways of joy or lament, work or relaxation. — His Concerto for Orchestra is music in The next movement, first of the two this image – music in which orchestral , is a game of couples, with pairs players exert themselves as a community, Bartók began work in August 1943, while returning symmetrically back to its beginning. of instruments playing at different intervals: performing with, to and against one another, resting at Saranac Lake in upstate New York, As in several earlier works, Bartók created bassoons in minor sixths, in minor and modelling, for the larger society of and finished the piece within eight weeks – a five-part symmetrical form, where in this thirds, clarinets in minor sevenths, flutes in us listeners, an ideal in which an array of a remarkably short period, proving he had been case two big symphonic dances enclose two clear fifths, muted in discordant diverse individuals can discover a unity that reinvigorated by the challenge. Writing to scherzos with, at the centre, an elegy. major seconds. After a brass chorale the does not iron out but rather springs from Szigeti that he was feeling better he remarked: couples return as before, their games at once difference and honours it. All this is implied ‘Perhaps it is due to this improvement (or it In keeping with the spirit of a public occasion, elaborated and mollified. The trumpets, for by the title, which Bartók did not invent may be the other way round) that I have been the musical materials are laid out clearly and instance, settle their differences and agree (his friend Kodály • had written a concerto able to finish the work that Koussevitzky the working takes place in, as it were, full on D, the keynote of this movement. for orchestra a few years before, and the commissioned.’ Koussevitzky conducted view. First comes a pentatonic theme in the first was probably Hindemith’s of 1925), the premiere on 1 December 1944 with his bass, built entirely from fourths and major Then the work’s very beginning is recalled, to but which his work took full possession of. Boston Symphony Orchestra, after which seconds – a memory from central Europe, give rise to a slow movement whose climax Bartók extended the ending. perhaps, but also an evocation of night, has brass chords falling as avalanches against The score – the biggest Bartók completed of darkness. This becomes the ground for the searing melody for in octaves. during the last five years of his life, living His programme note for the first performance gathering activity that springs to life with A solitary piccolo calls out like a night bird. in the United States as a sick, disheartened suggests a more or less continuous narrative: the acceleration of an upward scale figure refugee from fascism and war – was ‘The general mood of the work represents,’ to initiate the bounding main theme – Its high B is seized on two octaves down commissioned by • he wrote, ‘apart from the jesting second still featuring fourths – of a sonata allegro. by unison strings to start the second

10 Programme Notes 30 May 2019 scherzo, an intermezzo introduced by solo • ZOLTÁN KODÁLY • SERGE KOUSSEVITZKY oboe and interrupted by a quotation from Shostakovich’s ‘Leningrad’ Symphony, Zoltán Kodály (1882–1967) was a Hungarian Serge Koussevitzky (1874–1951) was a Russian- which was being played everywhere at composer, ethnomusicologist and, like his born conductor and publisher. He founded the time. Bartók has the orchestra laugh good friend Bartók, a committed collector the Editions Russes de Musique in 1909, at the theme and give it fairground-organ of the folk music of his native country. through which he promoted the music of treatment before continuing as before, In 1906 he received a PhD for his thesis on Scriabin, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Medtner, but he also humanely undercuts the satire Hungarian folk song, and he began field trips before leaving in 1920 for Paris, where by having the Shostakovich theme emerge to collect folk music from the Hungarian he organised a summer concert series. He as a transformation of his own. countryside with Bartók at around the moved to the US a few years later, where he same time. The two composers published became conductor of the Boston Symphony For the finale, as often before, he provides a collections of folk song, programmed their Orchestra, commissioned and conducted the lively dance rondo in duple time, with figures music side-by-side in concerts, formed a premieres of numerous new works, founded from earlier in the work – especially from the New Hungarian Music Society, and remained the Music Center, and set up opening movement – reappearing in bright lifelong friends. After Bartók’s death, Kodály the Koussevitzky Foundation to support sunlight, and with canons adding to the described their shared ‘vision of an educated the composition of new works; the list of supreme virtuosity. •. , reborn from the people … We composers receiving its support reads like decided to devote our lives to its realisation’. a who’s who of modern composition.

Bartók described Kodály’s music as ‘the most perfect embodiment of the Hungarian spirit’, and most of his most famous works – including the Dances of Galánta, the choral Psalmus Hungaricus and the opera Háry Janos – bear the influence of his studies and research.

Programme Notes 11 Béla Bartók in Profile 1881–1945 / by Andrew Stewart

éla Bartók’s family boasted how the Bartók detested the rise of fascism and • BARTÓK ON LSO LIVE boy was able to recognise different in October 1940 he quit and dance rhythms before he could travelled, via , to the US. At first speak. Born in 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, he concentrated on ethnomusicological Hungary (now Sinnicolau Mare, Romania), researches, but eventually returned to he began piano lessons with his mother composition and created a significant at the age of five. From 1899 to 1903 he group of ‘American’ works, including the studied piano and composition at the Concerto for Orchestra, his Third Piano in Budapest, where Concerto and the draft of a Viola Concerto. he created a number of works that echoed the style of Brahms and . His character was distinguished by a firm, almost stubborn refusal to compromise or After graduating he discovered Austro- be diverted from his musical instincts by Hungarian and Slavic folk music, travelling money or position. Throughout his working extensively with his friend Zoltán Kodály life, Bartók collected, transcribed and and recording countless ethnic songs and annotated the folk songs of many countries, dances which began to influence his own a commitment that brought little financial compositions. His music was also influenced return or recognition but one which he Piano Concerto No 3 by the works of Debussy, to which he was regarded as his most important contribution Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin introduced by Kodály in 1907, the year in to music. He also declined the security of a which he became Professor of Piano at composition professorship during his final Valery Gergiev conductor the Budapest Conservatory. years in America, although he did accept Yefim Bronfman piano the post of visiting assistant in music at Bartók established his mature style with Columbia University from March 1941 to £11.99 such scores as the ballets The Wooden the winter of 1942 until ill health forced Available at lsolive.co.uk, Prince (1914–16, completed 1917) and his retirement. • in the Barbican Shop, The Miraculous Mandarin (1918–19, online on iTunes & Amazon or completed 1926–31), and his opera Duke on Apple Music and Spotify Bluebeard’s Castle (1911, completed 1918). He revived his career as a concert pianist in 1927 when he gave the premiere of his First Piano Concerto in Mannheim.

12 Composer Profile 30 May 2019 Bartók in the LSO’s 2019/20 Season at the Barbican

The Miraculous Mandarin 19 December 2019

HALF SIX FIX The Wooden Prince 18 March 2020

The Wooden Prince & Stravinsky Violin Concerto 19 March 2020

Duke Bluebeard’s Castle 23 April 2020 BARTÓK Bartók Plus BBC Radio 3 Concerts at LSO St Luke’s

Carducci Quartet Meta4 String Quartet 13 September 2019 1pm 4 October 2019 1pm

Quatuor Voce Vertavo String Quartet 20 September 2019 1pm 4 October 2019 7.30pm Explore the new season at Arcadia Quartet 21 September 2019 1pm lso.co.uk/201920season Michael Tilson Thomas conductor

ichael Tilson Thomas is Music NWS Fellows to further their artistic and with SFS and pioneering recordings of Director of the San Francisco professional development. Of the more than American music, including by Charles Ives, Symphony, Co-Founder and 1,100 NWS alumni, 90% maintain careers Carl Ruggles and Steve Reich. His television Artistic Director of the New World in music, often with major . work includes a BBC series with the LSO, Symphony and Conductor Laureate Since 2011, the NWS campus has been the the Young People’s of the London Symphony Orchestra. technologically advanced, - Concerts, PBS’ Great Performances, and designed, New World Center. Keeping Score with SFS, which also includes Born in Los Angeles, he studied piano, web and radio content. and composition at the He was appointed Music Director of the San University of Southern , and as a Francisco Symphony in 1995, and his tenure Throughout his career, he has been an active young musician also worked with leading has been a period of significant growth composer, and his major works include performers, including and and heightened international recognition From the Diary of Anne Frank, commissioned , and composers, including for the orchestra. In addition to exploring by UNICEF and premiered in 1991 with Stravinsky, Boulez, Stockhausen and Copland. the standard repertoire, he has led SFS in narrator Audrey Hepburn; Shówa/Shoáh, In 1969, after winning the Koussevitzky Prize championing contemporary and American commemorating the 50th anniversary of the at Tanglewood, he was appointed Assistant music and enriching the concert experience Hiroshima bombing; and a setting of Carl Conductor and pianist of the Boston through semi-staged performances. In Sandburg’s poem Four Preludes on Playthings Symphony Orchestra and also conducted 2020, he concludes his 25-year directorship of the Wind, premiered in 2016 by NWS and the BSO in his New York debut. Later serving and becomes SFS Music Director Laureate, receiving its New York premiere during the as BSO Principal Guest Conductor until continuing to lead the orchestra regularly in current Perspectives series. 1974, he held subsequent appointments as concert, as well as in special projects. Music Director of the Buffalo Philharmonic He is a Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et (1971–79), Principal Guest Conductor of the His guest conducting engagements have des Lettres of France, a member of the (1981–85) and included the major orchestras of Europe and American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Principal Conductor of the London Symphony the United States, and he is also a two-time was Musical America’s Musician of the Year Orchestra (1988–95). Carnegie Hall Perspectives artist, curating and Conductor of the Year, Gramophone and conducting series from 2003 to 2005 magazine’s Artist of the Year and has been In 1988, he co-founded the New World and from 2018 to 2019. profiled on CBS’ 60 Minutes and ABC’s Symphony, an orchestral academy in Nightline. He was awarded the National Miami dedicated to preparing gifted music A winner of eleven Grammy Awards, he Medal of Arts and was recently inducted graduates for leadership roles in classical appears on more than 120 recordings, into the California Hall of Fame and the music. As Artistic Director, he works with including a critically acclaimed Mahler cycle American Academy of Arts and Letters. •

14 Artist Biographies 30 May 2019 Julia Fischer violin

ne of the world’s leading violinists, Germany with the Academy of St Martin acclaimed and award-winning CD and DVD Julia Fischer is a versatile musician, in the Fields, an orchestra with whom she recordings, first under the label also known for her extraordinary frequently collaborates. Highlights of the and later under Decca. Breaking new ground abilities as a concert pianist, chamber 2017/18 season included concerts with in the market, she has musician and violin teacher. Born in the Bayerisches Staatsorchester under recently launched her own music platform, to German-Slovakian parents, Julia received Kirill Petrenko at the Elbphilharmonie in the JF CLUB, which offers exclusive audio her first violin lessons at the age of three Hamburg and New York’s Carnegie Hall, and video footage, previews of her new and her first piano lessons shortly after from and a residency with the recordings and personal insights into her her mother, Viera Fischer. At the age of nine Orchestra and Philippe . work. Recordings of the six solo sonatas she began studying with the renowned violin by Ysaÿe, Franck’s Sonata in A major, and professor , later becoming In 2011 Julia Fischer founded her own Szymanowski’s Sonata in D minor are all her successor. Winning first prize at the quartet with Alexander Sitkovetsky, Nils available exclusively on JF CLUB. international Competition Mönkemeyer and Benjamin Nyffenegger in 1995 was one of the milestones of her and continues to tour extensively with them. Julia Fischer holds numerous awards early career, and she has since performed Her concert at the Alte Oper in including the Federal Cross of Merit, with top orchestras worldwide, working 2010 marked her debut as a pianist: she Gramophone Award and the German Culture with renowned conductors including performed the Grieg Piano Concerto in the Prize. She plays a violin by Giovanni Battista , , second half of the concert, having played Guadagnini (1742) as well as an instrument Esa-Pekka Salonen, Saint-Saëns’ Violin Concerto No 3 in the made by Phillipp Augustin (2018). • and Franz Welser-Möst. first half. The performance is available on a Decca-released DVD. Teaching is another Julia Fischer began the 2018/19 season integral part of her musical life, as she touring Europe with her long-time chamber continues to nurture and guide young talent. music partners Nils Mönkemeyer and Daniel In February 2019, she performed with her Müller-Schott. She then embarked on a students Eva Zavaro and Louis Vandory tour of Asia with the London Philharmonic with the Kammerakademie Potsdam at Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski, performing the Philharmonie. She regularly in Seoul, Taipei, Beijing and Shanghai, as gives masterclasses at Musikferien at well as with the Philharmonic and Lake Starnberg (Starnberger See). Michael Sanderling with concerts in Japan and Korea. She was joined by violinist Over the course of her artistic career Julia Augustin Hadelich for an extensive tour of Fischer has released numerous critically

Artist Biographies 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Carmine Lauri David Alberman David Cohen Gareth Davies Tim Jones Erika Ohman Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Daniel Shao Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Alexander Edmundson Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Sharon Roffman David Ballesteros Eve-Marie Caravassilis Piccolo Jonathan Lipton Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Maxine Kwok-Adams Julian Gil Rodriguez Daniel Gardner Philip Rowson James Pillai Sam Walton work experience by playing in rehearsals William Melvin Naoko Keatley Hilary Jones Glyn Matthews and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Claire Parfitt Alix Lagasse Laure Le Dantec Oboes Trumpets are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Laurent Quenelle Belinda McFarlane Gilly McMullin Juliana Koch Huw Morgan Harps (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Colin Renwick Csilla Pogany Ella Rundle Daniel Finney Toby Street Bryn Lewis for their work in line with LSO section players. Sylvain Vasseur Andrew Pollock Deborah Tolksdorf Paul Mayes Fiona Clifton-Welker Rhys Watkins Paul Robson Cor Anglais The Scheme is supported by: Matthew Gardner Louise Shackelton Double Basses Christine Pendrill Trombones Piano The Polonsky Foundation Richard Blayden Ingrid Button David Desimppelaere Peter Moore Catherine Edwards Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Eleanor Fagg Grace Lee Colin Paris Clarinets James Maynard Derek Hill Foundation Alexandra Lomeiko Matthew Gibson Chris Richards Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Dániel Mészöly Thomas Goodman Chi-Yu Mo Bass Trombone Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Hilary Jane Parker Vicci Wardman José Moreira Paul Milner Rod Stafford Julia Rumley Gillianne Haddow Jani Pensola Bass Clarinet German Clavijo Emre Ersahin Katy Ayling Tuba Performing tonight are Madeleine Pickering Lander Echevarria Paul Sherman Sasha Koushk-Jalali (First Violin), Tamaki Sugimoto () and Stephen Doman Bassoons Piotr Hetman (). Julia O’Riordan Daniel Jemison Robert Turner Joost Bosdijk Editor Michelle Bruil Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Samuel Burstin Contra Bassoon Editorial Photography Cynthia Perrin Dominic Morgan Ranald Mackechnie, Art Streiber Alistair Scahill Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Sofia Silva Sousa Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

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

16 The Orchestra 30 May 2019