Sunday 17 February 2019 7–9.15pm Barbican

LSO SEASON CONCERT ARTIST PORTRAIT:

Rameau Les Indes galantes – Suite Ravel Piano Concerto TRIFONOV Interval Betsy Jolas A Little Summer Suite Poulenc Les biches – Suite Ravel La valse

Sir conductor Daniil Trifonov piano Welcome Latest News On Our Blog

and we look forward to his next Artist CENTRE FOR MUSIC DANIIL TRIFONOV IN CONVERSATION Portrait performances. In June, he performs concertos by Beethoven and Shostakovich The LSO, Barbican and Guildhall School have Read our interview with Daniil Trifonov on with the LSO’s Conductor Laureate Michael ambitious plans for a new London concert the LSO Blog to find out about the repertoire Tilson Thomas, and gives a solo recital here hall. The vision for the Centre for Music is he’ll playing in his Artist Portrait series and in the Barbican Hall. to develop a world-class venue for music how Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy sparked his and education. First concept designs for the love of . I hope that you enjoy the performance and project have now been released. that you will be able to join us again soon. • lso.co.uk/blog Following tonight’s concert, the Orchestra • lso.co.uk/news departs for Europe to perform in Vienna, MEET LAHAV SHANI elcome to this evening’s LSO Essen, Frankfurt, Hamburg and Luxembourg A TRANSATLANTIC PARTNERSHIP concert at the Barbican, where with Sir Simon Rattle. The LSO then returns Ahead of his LSO debut, conductor Sir Simon Rattle conducts an to the Barbican for a concert on Thursday In January, the LSO welcomed a team of Lahav Shani talks about Kurt Weill, musical eclectic, all-French programme of music 28 February, when Lahav Shani makes his young musicians – Keston MAX Fellows of life in and what it’s like to step into spanning the 270 years from Rameau to LSO debut conducting a programme of Weill, Santa Barbara’s Music Academy of the West – Zubin Mehta’s shoes as Music Director of the present day. The most recent piece Rachmaninov and Stravinsky. who spent a week working alongside the the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. in the programme, Betsy Jolas’ A Little Orchestra and taking part in rehearsals, a Summer Suite, was composed in response mock recording session and even performing • lso.co.uk/blog to a commission from Sir Simon Rattle in LSO concerts at the Barbican. after their chance meeting. We are delighted GARDINER’S SCHUMANN: WATCH AGAIN that Betsy Jolas is able to join us tonight for • lso.co.uk/musicacademywest this UK premiere of her work. Kathryn McDowell CBE DL The LSO’s concert with Sir John Eliot Managing Director Gardiner on 7 February was broadcast live on A warm welcome also to Daniil Trifonov, WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS our YouTube channel and is now available for the opening concert in this season’s to watch back for free for the next 90 days. LSO Artist Portrait series, playing Ravel’s A warm welcome to the groups attending Visit our website to find out about future Piano Concerto. Daniil Trifonov made his tonight’s concert: Fatemeh Ebtehaj & broadcasts and how to watch. London debut with the LSO in September Friends, Dr Ian Fyfe & Friends and 2011, shortly after winning the Tchaikovsky Campus Travel Groups. • youtube.com/lso Competition. Since then we have been • lso.co.uk/livestream delighted to watch his career develop • lso.co.uk/groups

2 Welcome 17 February 2019 Tonight’s Concert In Brief / by Jeremy Thurlow Coming Up

f there is a thread running through juddering catastrophe. His celebrated and Thursday 28 February 7.30–9.30pm Sunday 10 March 7–9.15pm tonight’s all-French programme, sparkling Piano Concerto of 1931 seems on Barbican Barbican perhaps it is a delight in being some level to embrace the gaiety and the different, in refusing to fit into existing chic of ‘les années folles’, but brings to them PETRUSHKA HAITINK AT 90: BIRTHDAY CONCERT pigeon holes. Jean-Philippe Rameau ruffled Ravel’s own inimitable delicacy, precision plenty of aristocratic feathers when he and nostalgia. The youthful freshness and Weill Symphony No 2 Mozart Piano Concerto No 22 shook up French opera and crammed his knowing wisdom of A Little Summer Suite Rachmaninov Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini Interval spectacular opera-ballets with characters (2016), written for Sir Simon Rattle by the Interval Bruckner Symphony No 4 and moods of every conceivable colour. His now 92-year old Betsy Jolas, rounds out the Stravinsky Petrushka (1947 version) brief glimpse a few years earlier of visitors programme perfectly. • Bernard Haitink conductor from an unimaginably distant and alien Lahav Shani conductor Till Fellner piano culture (North American Native Chiefs), Simon Trpčeski piano brought to a few years earlier by the Streamed live on the LSO’s YouTube channel long arm of the burgeoning French colonial youtube.com/lso empire, sparked a celebration in Les Indes PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTORS galantes (1735) of exotic otherness whose fabulous distant worlds are in fact entirely Jeremy Thurlow is a composer whose music Thursday 14 March 7.30–9.45pm imaginary, a reflection of the fantasies and ranges from chamber and orchestral to video- Sunday 3 March 7–9pm Thursday 21 March 7.30–9.45pm pleasures of Enlightenment Paris. opera. Author of a book on Dutilleux and a Barbican Barbican frequent broadcaster on Radio 3, Jeremy is a The vigour and fun of this music is echoed Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. PUCCINI HAITINK AT 90: MAHLER SYMPHONY NO 4 in Francis Poulenc’s delightfully naughty ballet Les biches (1923), whose characters Lindsay Kemp is a senior producer for BBC Ponchielli Elegia Dvořák Violin Concerto cheerfully misbehave to a soundtrack Radio 3, including programming Lunchtime Verdi String Quartet (version for full strings) Interval which fizzes with the bright energy of Concerts from LSO St Luke’s, Artistic Director Interval Mahler Symphony No 4 the age of Rameau, nonchalantly cut and of Baroque at the Edge, and a regular Puccini Messa di Gloria re-pasted for the age of the Rolls-Royce contributor to Gramophone magazine. Bernard Haitink conductor and the fashion model. The same era saw Sir Antonio Pappano conductor Isabelle Faust violin Ravel poised between old and new, and Andrew Stewart is a freelance music Benjamin Bernheim tenor Anna Lucia Richter soprano in La valse he celebrates the glories of the journalist and writer. He is the author of The Gerald Finley bass Viennese Waltz while ultimately watching LSO at 90, and contributes to a wide variety London Symphony Chorus his dancers swirl inexorably towards some of specialist classical music publications. Simon Halsey chorus director

Tonight’s Concert 3 Jean-Philippe Rameau Les Indes galantes – Suite 1735 / note by Jeremy Thurlow

1 Air pour les esclaves africains — 2 Contredanse ‘Music is a science which should have definite rules; these rules should 3 Air pour I’adoration du soleil 4 Air pour les sauvages be drawn from an evident principle; and this principle cannot really be known 5 Chaconne to us without the aid of mathematics.’ Excerpt from Rameau’s A Treatise on Harmony ameau was turning 40 when he moved to Paris in the early 1720s, — after holding a series of posts as organist in various provincial churches. He the Mitchigamea tribe together with five favours the ‘exotic’ characters over the soon made his name with the publication other Native American chiefs over the Europeans. Rameau’s music is infectiously of a highly original work of music theory • ocean to Paris. On 25 November they met high-spirited, and includes an orchestral whose ideas have continued to underpin the Louis XV and Chicagou pledged allegiance version of his earlier Les sauvages. • teaching of harmony to the present day. He to the French crown. Soon afterwards also began to publish collections of keyboard they appeared in the Théâtre des Italiens music but soon set his sights on the theatre to perform three dances from their native and in 1733, at the age of 50, caused a furore culture. This extraordinary (and from a with his first opera,Hippolyte et Aricie. later perspective, poignant) event inspired Les Indes galantes followed in 1735 and at Rameau to compose a rondeau for first its reception was equally stormy: ‘The harpsichord entitled Les sauvages. • A TREATISE ON HARMONY music is a perpetual witchery …’, wrote an anonymous reviewer. ‘I am wracked, flayed, The whole episode fuelled in Parisian society Published in 1722 in Paris, Rameau’s dislocated by this devilish sonata of Les a growing fascination for all things exotic, monumental Treatise on Harmony earned Indes galantes.’ Nonetheless, both subject which is enthusiastically indulged in Les him a formidable reputation and a clear matter and music proved to be extremely Indes galantes. Louis Fuzelier’s libretto revels place as one of the most crucial thinkers popular, and over the following four decades in the colourful allure of distant cultures, in the development of harmonic thinking it received an amazing 320 airings at the presenting four scenes in exotic locales: in Western classical music. The work’s Royal Academy of Music in the Palais-Royal. a Turkish garden, a desert in the Peruvian four volumes address the relationship mountains, a Persian market and the North between harmonic ratios and proportions; The first impulse for the piece can be American forests. They are loosely bound the nature and properties of chords; traced back to 1725, when French settlers together by the Enlightenment idea that love the principles of composition; and the in Illinois sent Chief Agapit Chicagou of conquers all – a principle which occasionally principles of accompaniment.

4 Programme Notes 17 February 2019 Jean-Philippe Rameau in profile 1683–1764 / profile by Lindsay Kemp

was premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1733. It drew instant acclaim for the 50-year-old composer, as well as controversy for the way he had taken the classic French tragédie form devised some 60 years earlier by Lully to a new level of complexity. Rameau lived out the rest of his life as a figure of considerable eminence, dividing his time between some 30 more works for the stage and further theoretical writings.

Eric Lu (4 Apr) One of the greatest composers of the Baroque era, Rameau has long been familiar to harpsichordists, but the last half-century LEEDS PIANO FESTIVAL IN LONDON has seen him increasingly appreciated by musicians and listeners alike for all areas Thursday 4 April 1pm, LSO St Luke’s Friday 5 April 7.30pm, LSO St Luke’s ean-Philippe Rameau was born in of his output. The ever more frequent LANG LANG SCHOLARS STEVEN OSBORNE Dijon in 1683, the son of a church performances of his stage-works have organist. After a period of study won the highest admiration; in addition Three young pianists, hand-picked by Known for his insightful interpretations, in Italy during his teens, he spent 20 years to their expressive power and dramatic Lang Lang, showcase their talents. Steven Osborne explores Beethoven’s as an organist in Clermont, Dijon and Lyon effectiveness, their unfailing tunefulness final, profound piano sonatas. before moving to Paris in 1722, where over and colourful orchestration have endeared the next decade he published a number of them to audiences, and suites of dances Thursday 4 April 7.30pm, LSO St Luke’s Saturday 6 April 7.30pm, LSO St Luke’s boldly original harpsichord pieces as well as drawn from them now make frequent ERIC LU BARRY DOUGLAS his Traité de l’harmonie, the composition appearances in concerts of Baroque treatise which made his initial fame as a orchestral music. • Be one of the first to hear Eric Lu, winner Barry Douglas pairs miniatures with more writer on, rather than of, music. of ‘The Leeds’ 2018, who held jury and expansive works, in a concert featuring audience spellbound by his performances. Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Schubert. Yet all this time he had been itching to compose operas, and finally, following an lso.co.uk/leedsinlondon encounter with the playwright Pellegrin, his first full-scale opera, Hippolyte et Aricie,

Programme Notes 5 Piano Concerto in G major 1929–31 / note by Jeremy Thurlow

1 Allegramente Marguerite Long played the solo part with on evenings out in Paris during the 1920s. • WATCH ON LSO LIVE 2 Adagio assai Ravel conducting, on a European tour Romantic effusiveness also finds a place, 3 Presto immediately following the Paris premiere though often it is kept in check by chic jazzy in January 1932. A new work by Ravel interjections – but such a description makes Daniil Trifonov piano always provided something to surprise the the movement sound piecemeal, whereas in critics and arouse resistance, so alongside fact everything is perfectly woven together. n returning from a busy and exciting warm appreciation for the work’s wit and tour of the United States in 1928, craftsmanship it is no surprise to find some The Adagio assai is one of Ravel’s greatest Ravel resolved to write a piano carping reviews, especially of the serenely expressions of Classical serenity and beauty concerto which he would play himself, ‘Classical’ slow movement – probably of line. The unerring poise and flow of the hoping to take it on an even bigger tour now the most admired of all. While Ravel long opening melody seems utterly natural, ‘across five continents’. At about the same had been writing his concertos the tragic so it is astonishing to discover that the time he received a commission from Paul consequences of the Wall Street Crash and composing of it did not ‘flow’ at all but was Wittgenstein, a concert pianist who had lost the resulting worldwide recession started to a laborious process achieved only through his right arm in the war and had set about bite hard. In some quarters the more gritty continual struggle, one bar at a time. As the commissioning an impressive series of left- side of Ravel (represented by the other, left- orchestra joins the piano, harmony and hand concertos. Ravel thus found himself hand concerto among other works) seemed arabesque intertwine and intensify, eventually writing two piano concertos at the same time. more appropriate to the time than the resolving as the opening melody returns present work’s exquisitely crafted diamonds. in the haunting tones of the cor anglais, Ravel Le tombeau de Couperin Completely contrasting with the often wreathed, as Florent Schmidt wrote, in the Ravel Daphnis and Chloé – Suite No 2 brooding and powerful Concerto for the A crack of the whip launches the first piano’s ‘seraphic garlands’. The finale is Dutilleux L’arbre de songes Left Hand, the Piano Concerto in G major is movement with a perky tune on the piccolo, a helter-skelter ride of fun, fireworks and Dutilleux Métaboles bright and sparkling, returning to what was, an idea probably first sketched for Zaspiak- slapstick, with a note of anarchy bubbling up Delage Four Hindu Poems for Ravel, the true meaning of the concerto – Bat, a never-completed piece celebrating in the middle of the piece, and the sound and not the heroic struggle favoured by the Basque culture (Ravel was half-Basque, banter of the circus very much to the fore. • Sir Simon Rattle conductor Romantics, but a divertissement in which and visited the region regularly), with the Leonidas Kavakos violin virtuosity would bring delight, in the spirit piccolo imitating a characteristic three- Julia Bullock soprano of Mozart and Saint-Saëns. holed Basque pipe. Ravel’s skill is such Interval – 20 minutes that it seems entirely natural to move Filmed at the Barbican in January 2016. There are bars on all levels. Ravel’s plans for a world tour had to from this rural folktune, via spirited and Visit the Barbican Shop to see our be scaled down: his own energies were urbane neo-Classicism, to moments of Blu-ray and DVD available to purchase at range of Gifts and Accessories. beginning to feel in shorter supply, so jazz, whose sounds had fascinated Ravel lsolive.lso.co.uk

6 Programme Notes 17 February 2019 Maurice Ravel in profile 1875–1937 / by Andrew Stewart

lthough born in the rural Basque In 1909 Ravel was invited to write a large- village of Ciboure, Ravel was raised scale work for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets BBC RADIO 3 LUNCHTIME CONCERTS in Paris and positively encouraged Russes, completing the score to Daphnis LES SONORES DE by his engineer father to develop and refine and Chloé three years later. At this time he his evident musical skills. First-rate piano also met Igor Stravinsky and first heard the Friday 22 February 1–2pm lessons and instruction in harmony and expressionist works of . LSO St Luke’s counterpoint ensured that the boy was During World War I he enlisted with the accepted as a preparatory piano student at motor transport corps, and returned to Widor Suite Op 34 the Paris Conservatoire in 1889. As a full- composition slowly after 1918, completing Milhaud Sonatine time student, Ravel explored a wide variety La valse for Diaghilev and beginning work Messiaen Vocalise of new music and forged a close friendship on his second opera L’enfant et les sortilèges. Messiaen Le merle noir with the Spanish pianist Ricardo Vines. Boulez Sonatine Both men were introduced in 1893 to From 1932 until his death, he suffered from Chabrier, who Ravel regarded as ‘the most the progressive effects of Pick’s Disease and Adam Walker flute profoundly personal, the most French of was unable to compose. A shy and intensely Alasdair Beatson piano our composers’. Ravel also met and was private man, Ravel reluctantly exposed his influenced by Erik Satie around this time. emotions almost exclusively through the Friday 1 March 1–2pm medium of music. His emotional outbursts LSO St Luke’s In the decade following his graduation in are most powerful in his imaginative 1895, Ravel forged his reputation as an interpretations of the unaffected worlds of Debussy Fêtes galantes innovative composer and scored a notable childhood and animals, and in the exotic, Ravel Sur l’herbe hit with the Pavane pour une infante défunte far-distant tales such as the Greek lovers Fauré Clair de lune & La bonne chanson for piano (later orchestrated). Even so his Daphnis and Chloé. Spain also influenced De Séverac Le ciel est, par-dessus le toit works were rejected several times by the the composer’s creative personality, his Hahn Tous deux & L’heure exquise from backward-looking judges of the Prix de mother’s Basque inheritance strongly ‘Chansons grises’ Rome for not satisfying the demands of reflected in a wide variety of works, together Bordes Colloque sentimental academic counterpoint. In the early years with his liking for the formal elegance of Saint-Saëns Le vent dans la plaine of the 20th century he completed many 18th-century French art and music. • De Séverac Paysages tristes outstanding works, including the evocative Miroirs for piano, his first operaL’heure Carolyn Sampson soprano espagnole and the Introduction et allegro Joseph Middleton piano for harp and ensemble.

Programme Notes 7 Daniil Trifonov in Conversation

What do you like about Ravel’s music?

ell, I really love the music of Ravel, especially his harmonic language. I haven’t had the chance to play so many of his works, but I love La valse and his Piano Concerto. This piece has the most incredible chamber music moments – for example, in the second movement, the piano plays around the main theme with the horn. It also has a lot of jazz elements, which I like, and those influenced later concertos like Rachmaninov’s Fourth Piano Concerto.

Would you say you’re a jazz fan? Do you have any favourite artists?

I don’t know so much about jazz! But I What else do you listen to? What do you do in your downtime? What advice would you give to an aspiring really like listening to one of my favourite musician at the outset of their career? artists, Art Tatum, who is this jazz pianist Outside of classical, I would say one of I really enjoy hiking and walking. Especially who played in Cleveland for a long time. the most interesting experiences for me is in the mountains. I like to do long trips, say I would say that it’s good to explore, to go That was where I used to study, so I found listening to King Crimson, especially the 10 to 30 kilometres in length. I was always beyond just piano literature and understand out about him that way. early albums from the 1970s, like In the interested in geography – I suppose that’s that the piano does not exist in a vacuum. Court of the Crimson King and Larks’ where it comes from. And in city planning – There are other arts and other musics. Do you remember when you first Tongues in Aspic. I really like their music, it’s I enjoy exploring London on foot, that’s one I think it’s very important to listen widely, encountered Ravel’s Piano Concerto? very instrumental rock. My father used to of my favourite activities while here. I also to orchestral music and opera. Also to enjoy be in a rock band too. He played keyboards sometimes do some light coding. other art forms as well. Movies, literature, It was quite late, I think. I was already a in this underground band back in the 1980s and of course painting – it all helps. teenager studying in by the time when he was studying. I quite like the sound I heard it. It’s actually a quite recent piece of the electric guitar, but the furthest I’ve Read the full interview at for me; I only learned it a year or two ago. ventured from the piano is an organ! lso.co.uk/blog

8 Daniil Trifonov in Conversation 17 February 2019 Continuing the LSO's concert series with two of the most astounding musicians of our time ... ARTIST

Ligeti, Haydn, Berg and Gershwin with Barbara Hannigan 17 March

Ives & Beethoven with Daniil Trifonov & Michael Tilson Thomas 2 June

Solo Recital: Beethoven & Prokofiev with Daniil Trifonov 10 June Daniil Trifonov & Barbara Hannigan Beethoven, Berlioz & Shostakovich with Daniil Trifonov & Gianandrea Noseda 16 June

Read more and book online lso.co.uk/whats-on Betsy Jolas A Little Summer Suite 2015 Betsy Jolas in profile b 1926

1 Strolling away Much of her music takes pleasure in Copley Foundation of Chicago (1954), ORTF 2 Knocks and clocks exploring the lyrical, voice-like potential of (1961), American Academy of Arts (1973), 3 Strolling about different instruments and in developing Koussevitsky Fondation (1974), Grand Prix 4 Shakes and quakes characters for them, as though they each National de la Musique (1974), Grand Prix 5 Strolling under have a role in some imaginary opera. de la Ville de Paris (1981), Grand Prix de la 6 Chants and cheers SACEM (1982). Jolas became a member of 7 Strolling home A Little Summer Suite was written for the American Academy of Arts and Letters Sir Simon Rattle and the , in 1983. In 1985 she became a Commandeur etsy Jolas has always followed her who gave the premiere in June 2016, des Arts et des Lettres. In 1992 she received own path. Though she studied shortly before Jolas’ 90th birthday. Its the Maurice Ravel Prix International and was at the Paris Conservatoire with seven movements join together in a single named ‘Personality of the Year’ for France. both Milhaud and Messiaen, while also continuous flow. Rather like the Promenade She was elected to the American Academy attending ground-breaking performances movements in Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an of Arts and Sciences in 1995 and made of Boulez, Stockhausen, Berio and Kagel in Exhibition, which lead us from picture to Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur in 1997. the 1950s and 60s which deeply impressed picture, the Summer Suite is tied together her, her artistic vision seems untouched by four ‘strolling’ movements whose long, etsy Jolas was born in Paris, the She has also taught at Tanglewood, Yale, by the influence of any of these strong leisurely lines are perhaps a distant echo daughter of translator Maria Jolas Harvard, Mills College ( chair), personalities and her sound-world remains of the Renaissance polyphony that Jolas and poet and journalist Eugène Berkeley, USC and San Diego University. essentially her own. If one is determined was so inspired by as a young woman. Jolas. She moved to the US in 1940 and Her works have been widely performed to find a source, at least one part of Jolas’ completed her schooling before studying throughout the world by artists including music personality can perhaps be traced The ‘paintings’ that we encounter along the composition with Paul Boepple, piano Elisabeth Chojnacka, , William back to her inspiring experience, aged 20, way are vivid sound-pictures, their moods with Helen Schnabel and organ with Carl Christie, Claude Helffer and Kim Kashkashian. of singing Lassus and other Renaissance and textures vividly defined by their titles – Weinrich. After graduating from Bennington Her pieces have been performed by leading music with Paul Boepple in New York. This ‘knocks and clocks’, ‘shakes and quakes’. College, Jolas returned to Paris in 1946 to groups including the Boston Symphony may have sparked her instinct for flowing ‘Chants and cheers’ brings the suite’s most continue her studies with Darius Milhaud, Chamber Players, the Concord Quartet, lines and beautiful phrase-shapes, as soulful moments, followed by a gentle and Simone Plé-Caussade and the , the Percussions de well as a vivid sense of the expressive and knowing return homewards with a final nod, at the Conservatoire National Supérieur de Strasbourg, the Lincoln Center Chamber lyrical power of the singing voice. A brilliant perhaps, to the insouciant parting gesture Musique of Paris. Music Society, the London Sinfonietta and demonstration of this, her Second Quartet of Debussy’s Jeux. • the Philharmonia. Twelve of her works of 1964 for three string players and wordless Prize winner of the International Conducting have been recorded for EMI, CRI, Erato and soprano allows voice and instruments to Programme note by Jeremy Thurlow Competition of Besançon (1953), she has Barclay, including several Gramophone meet and mingle on equal terms. since won many awards, including the award winners. •

10 Programme Notes 17 February 2019 Sir Simon Rattle in Conversation

etsy Jolas is an extraordinary person, and I’ve known her name SIR SIMON RATTLE THIS SUMMER for a very long time. She’s one of those people I used to read about: she Wednesday 1 May 7.30–9.30pm formed the Domaine musical with and she took over Messiaen’s ADAMS & BIRTWISTLE position as composition professor at the Paris Conservatoire. I used to see these Stravinsky Symphonies of Wind Instruments pieces and think, ‘This must be interesting Harrison Birtwistle Shadow of Night music’, but I’d never had the opportunity John Adams Harmonielehre to hear a note of it. Thursday 20 June 7.30–9.45pm That is, until I met Betsy at a dinner party — with Julian Anderson, one of our wonderful BRUCKNER SYMPHONY NO 4 British composers. I was sat next to her and ‘I thought, if her music is one tenth as extraordinary fell completely in love! And I thought, ‘this as she is, then we really have something.’ Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme is an extraordinary person. If her music is — by Thomas Tallis one tenth as extraordinary as she is, then Grainger Lincolnshire Posy for Winds we really have something.’ I must say the Berlin Philharmonic leapt on When you start talking to her, she talks Bruckner Symphony No 4 it with joy. We realised immediately how about when Varèse came to dinner, with Guildhall School musicians And thank God for YouTube! That evening well she could hear everything, and how and when she sang the Verdi Requiem Generously supported by Baker McKenzie I was able to hear some of her music she knew exactly what she wanted. It’s conducted by Toscanini. She’s truly a and by the end of the following week we interesting, François-Xavier Roth listened walking encyclopaedia. Her music is simply Thursday 27 June 7.30–9.25pm had commissioned a piece for the Berlin to the first performance on Berlin’s Digital wonderful. I’m thrilled that in the middle of Saturday 29 June 7.30–9.25pm Philharmonic, as part of the ‘Tapas’ series Concert Hall and when we spoke on the an all-French programme of Poulenc, Ravel (the collection of small pieces we were doing phone in the following days, suddenly it was and Rameau, we get to introduce a really THE CUNNING LITTLE VIXEN for the last two seasons). She came up with a competition as to who would get it in first astonishing composer.’ • a beautiful eight-or nine-minute piece called with the LSO! I’m thrilled to have introduced Janáček The Cunning Little Vixen A Little Summer Suite. It’s so full of depth, her to the Berlin audience and now to give (semi-staged performance, sung in Czech) humour and thought. I’m not sure it’s the her such a warm welcome in London. To Produced by the LSO and Barbican. Part of the kind of piece a young person could write. have discovered a wonderful composer that LSO’s 2018/19 Season and Barbican Presents. It has a wisdom, really, of a certain age. I didn’t know enough about is fantastic!

Sir Simon Rattle in Conversation 11 Francis Poulenc Les biches – Suite 1923 arr 1939–40 / note by Jeremy Thurlow

1 Rondeau 2 Adagietto — 3 Rag-Mazurka ‘Nijinska is really a genius. Listen to this: having decided that the sofa is a ‘star’, 4 5 Final just as she herself is, she is making it dance throughout the Game!’ Poulenc on the choreography of Bronislaw Nijinska (pictured) lways on the look-out for new and provocative projects, in November — 1921 Sergei Diaghilev invited the 22-year old Francis Poulenc to compose a new over the course of 72 rehearsals. Set in a and her admirer reappear (Andantino), after ballet for his Ballets Russes on a scenario drawing room furnished only with a large which two young women break out from by the fashion designer Germaine Bongard blue sofa, the ballet unfolds in a series of the corps de ballet and dance together with entitled Les Demoiselles. She later decided scenes of coquetery and seduction. Of his ‘suave closeness’, and everyone joins in the not to release her scenario to Diaghilev, but biches (the word ‘biche’ means a doe, and exuberant Final. Poulenc was undaunted and simply decided carries a note of innuendo) Poulenc said, • THE BALLETS RUSSES to write a without any ‘these are woman used to Rolls-Royces and Clearly, sexual taboos are gleefully particular story. Nonetheless, some features Cartier pearl necklaces. In this time of dance challenged on all sides, but both music and The Ballets Russes company was conceived of Bongard’s scheme survived, notably the halls, they are hectic and elastic, subjected dance project a kind of bright innocence like by impresario Sergei Diaghilev and corps de ballet composed of flirtatious young to the rhythm of modern life.’ a mask. One critic commented ‘one can bring performed throughout Europe and on women and the inclusion of three choral young, well-mannered girls to Les biches tours to North and South America between pieces sung from the orchestra pit (not Young girls in peach-blossom pink drift without worry; they won’t see anything – 1909 and 1929, though the company never included in the orchestral suite heard today). between moods of pleasant laziness and only beauty’, while Poulenc added, ‘one can performed in . It is widely regarded playful agility, before three male athletes either see nothing, or imagine the worst.’ • as the most influential of the 20th century, Poulenc finished the music by summer bounce onto the scene. In the Adagietto a partly because of its ground-breaking artistic 1923, calling his new score ‘very clear, sturdy ‘woman in blue’ wearing a skin-tight vest collaborations with young composers, and Classical’, and it plays with Classical and shorts strikes a note of risqué sexual designers, dancers and choreographers. snippets, repetitions and clichés in a way ambiguity; the most elegant athlete is Aside from Poulenc, Diaghilev commissioned that has been described as ‘shameless, especially entranced. After a flirtatious game music from Stravinsky, Debussy, Ravel bordering on reckless … more like outright of hide-and-seek the ‘Hostess’ appears and Prokofiev, as well as artwork from robbery than theft by stealth’. He was (Rag-mazurka, originally danced by Nijinska Wasily Kandinsky, Alexandre Benois and delighted by the ‘ravishing’ choreography herself) and seduces the two remaining Pablo Picasso, and designs from Léon Bakst that Bronislav Nijinska • then elaborated athletes. The cross-dressing ‘woman in blue’ and Coco Chanel.

12 Programme Notes 17 February 2019 Francis Poulenc in Profile 1889–1963 Maurice Ravel La valse 1919–20

surviving work (Poulenc destroyed many of he idea of celebrating the giddy and all this activity, I thought of death, his initial compositions) dates from 1917. glamour of the Viennese Waltz of the ephemeral nature of everything, I Rapsodie nègre received its premiere in Paris had been in Ravel’s mind for a long imagined balls from past generations who to modest success. He was conscripted the time. The elegance and hedonism of this are now nothing but dust, as will be all the following year, serving as part of an anti- dance was tinged with a hint of danger – the masks I saw, and in a short while!’ Perhaps aircraft unit in Bordeaux. Poulenc continued heroines of countless novels are swept off these thoughts made an impression on the to compose, producing Trois mouvements their feet in the waltz’s powerfully seductive composer; they seem to offer an uncannily perpétuels and his first Mélodies while rhythms, and not always by the most apt reading of the dazzling and unnerving still in military service. After the war, he honourable of gentlemen. Work on the piece work that Ravel was to complete some 15 studied with Charles Koechlin and was in 1914 was almost immediately interrupted years later. commissioned by Sergei Daghilev to write by the outbreak of war and not resumed Les biches, to popular and critical success. until it had ended. The music begins mysteriously, with Despite his increasing fame and success, dancing couples glimpsed through swirling throughout the decade that followed, No doubt the shattering experience of the clouds. Impressionist delicacy gradually Poulenc was troubled, suffering a major war years, in which he lost his beloved turns to sumptuousness as the full glory bout of depression at the end of the 1920s. mother as well as countless friends and of the crowded ballroom is revealed. About o-existent strands of religiosity colleagues, caused the music to emerge halfway through the music dies down and and irreverence pervade the music In the 1930s, he formed recital partnerships differently when he returned to it towards seems to begin again, tracing a similar of Francis Poulenc. He received a with baritone Pierre Bernac and soprano the end of 1919. In fact the underlying idea course as dancers gradually emerge to form deeply held Catholic faith from his father, Denise Duval and from then alternated went back much further even than 1914. a brilliant circling throng. But this time their the Aveyronnais director of a pharmaceutical between periods of touring and periods of In 1906 Ravel had written to a friend, ‘you unstoppable rhythms become increasingly business, while inheriting a love of music secluded composition. During this time, he know my intense feeling for [the waltz’s] menacing, and towards the end the dance and the arts from his mother, a Parisian produced a number of religious works, which marvellous rhythms’, shortly before planning seems to spiral out of control, tearing itself native from artistic stock who first taught sit alongside his oeuvre of inconsequential, a new orchestral work to be called Vienne to pieces. Ravel imagined the piece would be him to play the piano. Their influence would profane, even absurd music for the stage. (and later Wien, the final title only appearing staged as a ballet, but Diaghilev refused to remain tragically short, however, and both The combination led musicologist Claude in 1920). Earlier still, in 1905, Ravel had take it up. La valse has been choreographed parents had died by the time Poulenc was 18. Rostand to utter his celebrated remark that, attended a grand Ball at the Opéra with numerous times since, but like his Daphnis ‘in Poulenc there is something of the monk a group of friends. Roger Nichols cites a et Chloé, Debussy’s Jeux and many of In their absence, the Spanish pianist Ricardo and something of the rascal’. The composer fascinating diary entry from one of these Stravinsky’s ballets, it has particularly Viñes provided a great deal of spiritual died of a heart attack in Paris in 1963.• friends, Ricardo Viñes, thinking back on flourished in hall. • guidance and helped to solidify Poulenc’s that memorable evening: ‘as always when intention to pursue a musical career. His first Profile by Liam Hennebry I see young beautiful women, lights, music Programme note by Jeremy Thurlow

Programme Notes 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 . 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 17 February 2019 Daniil Trifonov piano

aniil Trifonov, winner of During a multi-faceted, season-long Last season, Trifonov released Chopin Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the residency with the Berlin Philharmonic, Evocations, his fourth album for Deutsche Year Award, has made a rapid Trifonov also plays Scriabin’s concerto Grammophon, which pairs works by Chopin ascent as a solo artist, chamber musician under . Other orchestral with those of the 20th-century composers and composer. Combining consummate highlights include a return to he influenced. Trifonov performed a similar technique with a rare sensitivity and depth, for Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Met programme throughout the US, Europe his performances are recognised for their Orchestra and , Prokofiev’s and Asia, including at Amsterdam’s profound musical insight and expressive Piano Concerto No 3 with Marin Alsop and , Carnegie Hall, the intensity. Trifonov recently added a Grammy the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Philharmonie de Paris and Wigmore Award to his already considerable string of Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 Hall. At Carnegie Hall, Trifonov curated his honours, winning Best Instrumental Solo with Andris Nelsons and the Boston season-long Perspectives series, which Album of 2018 with Transcendental, a double Symphony. Trifonov also releases his included a performance of his own piano album of Liszt’s works which marks his third new recording concerto with Valery Gergiev and the title as a Deutsche Grammophon artist. Destination Rachmaninov: Departure, on Mariinsky Orchestra, as well as a similar series which he performs the Russian composer’s at the Vienna Konzerthaus and a concert In September 2018, Trifonov launched the Second and Fourth Piano Concertos, again with the . ’s 2018/19 Season, with the Philadelphia Orchestra and playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Yannick Nézet-Séguin, his partners on Born in in 1991, Trifonov opening night gala under incoming Music his 2015 disc Rachmaninov: Variations. began his musical training at the age of Director Jaap van Zweden before rejoining five, and went on to attend Moscow’s the orchestra the following night for In recital this season, Trifonov plays Gnessin School of Music as a student of Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5. Trifonov Beethoven, Schumann and Prokofiev on Tatiana Zelikman, before pursuing his performs the same concerto as part of his Carnegie’s main stage and in Berlin, where piano studies with at the residency at Vienna’s Musikverein, which his Berlin Philharmonic residency features Cleveland Institute of Music. He has also also includes the Austrian premiere of his multiple solo and chamber concerts. studied composition, and continues to own Piano Concerto. Future performances as These include performances of his own write for piano, chamber ensemble, and part of the LSO Artist Portrait Series include Piano Quintet, of which he also gives the orchestra. When he premiered his own Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 with Cincinnati premiere with the Ariel Quartet. Piano Concerto in 2013, the Cleveland Plain Michael Tilson Thomas and Shostakovich’s In Berlin, as well as at New York’s 92nd Street Dealer commented, ‘Even having seen it, Concerto No 1 for piano, trumpet and strings Y, he plays duo recitals with his frequent one cannot quite believe it. Such is the with Gianandrea Noseda. partner, German baritone . artistry of pianist-composer Daniil Trifonov.’ •

Artist Biographies 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Guest Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme George Tudorache David Alberman Tim Hugh Gareth Davies Jose Asensi Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Camilla Marchant Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Alexander Edmundson Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Carmine Lauri Miya Väisänen Noel Bradshaw Piccolo Jonathan Lipton Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Clare Duckworth David Ballesteros Eve-Marie Caravassilis Patricia Moynihan Stephen Craigen David Jackson work experience by playing in rehearsals Ginette Decuyper Matthew Gardner Daniel Gardner Sam Walton and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Laura Dixon Julian Gil Rodriguez Hilary Jones Oboes Trumpets Tom Edwards are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Gerald Gregory Alix Lagasse Amanda Truelove Juliana Koch David Elton Paul Stoneman (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Maxine Kwok-Adams Belinda McFarlane Laure Le Dantec Remi Grouiller Nikolaj Viltoft Jeremy Cornes for their work in line with LSO section players. William Melvin Iwona Muszynska Simon Thompson Robin Totterdell Benedict Hoffnung Claire Parfitt Paul Robson Cor Anglais Niall Keatley The Scheme is supported by: Laurent Quenelle Siobhan Doyle Double Basses Christine Pendrill Harps The Polonsky Foundation Harriet Rayfield Grace Lee Burak Marlali Trombones Bryn Lewis Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Colin Renwick Hazel Mulligan Colin Paris Clarinets Dávur Magnussen Lucy Wakeford Derek Hill Foundation Sylvain Vasseur Patrick Laurence Andrew Marriner Jim Maynard Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Richard Blayden Violas Matthew Gibson Chi-Yu Mo Piano / Celeste Rod Stafford Morane Cohen- Edward Vanderspar Thomas Goodman Bass Trombone Elizabeth Burley Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Lamberger Malcolm Johnston Joe Melvin Bass Clarinet Paul Milner Hilary Jane Parker Anna Bastow Jani Pensola Laurent Ben Slimane Harpsichord Stephen Doman Emre Ersahin Tuba James Johnstone Carol Ella Bassoons Daniel Trodden Robert Turner Daniel Jemison Editor Ilona Bondar Joost Bosdijk Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Samuel Burstin Dominic Tyler Editorial Photography May Dolan Ranald Mackechnie, Oliver Helbig, Philip Hall Contra Bassoon Dario Acosta, Jean Christophe Marmara Cynthia Perrin Dominic Morgan Pictorial Press Ltd / Alamy Stock Photo Alistair Scahill Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937 Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.

16 The Orchestra 17 February 2019