Available to stream online from 7:30pm, 28 May 2021 until midnight, 6 June 2021 At The Ballet Presented by Errollyn Wallen

Programme

Errollyn Wallen Horseplay Stravinsky Pulcinella (full ballet with narration)

London Chamber

Violin 1 Clarinet Trombone Clio Gould Robert Max Mark van de Wiel Andrew Connington Manon Derome Julia Graham Charles Sewart Rachael Lander Bass Clarinet Percussion Sophie Lockett Becky Knight Jonathan Parkin Julian Poole Anna Harpham Joby Burgess Bass Soprano Saxophone Violin 2 Stacey Watton Simon Haram Kathy Shave Andy Marshall Ciaran McCabe Tim Amherst Bassoon With Alexandra Caldon Martin Ludenbach Meyrick Alexander Christopher Warren-Green, Guy Button Bartosz Kwasecki conductor Harriet Murray Flute Karen Jones Horn and special guests Viola Chris Hankin Alex Wide Errollyn Wallen, presenter & Kate Musker David McQueen narrator Becky Low Oboe Jenny Coombes Gordon Hunt Trumpet Lucy Crowe, soprano Mariam Ruetschi Alison Alty Ross Brown Toby Spence, tenor

If you’re joining us in the virtual concert hall, we’d love to know about it! Tag us on your social media using James Platt, bass the hashtag #LCOTogether

Errollyn Wallen on to study at and Cambridge universities. Tom Sapsford for the Royal Ballet, who gave the Her for Percussion and Orchestra was the premiere that year at the Theatre Royal, Sheffield. Horseplay first work by a black woman to be performed at the Proms. Indeed, she is the UK’s first internationally Sapsford writes: ‘Horseplay is a ballet for four male I. dark and mysterious celebrated black female , and has become dancers. The composer’s idea of the horse as archetype II. lively a figurehead for a whole new generation. She was was the impetus of the work. Each movement has its III. larghetto awarded an MBE in 2007 and a CBE in 2020. As for own colour and word or image associated with horses: IV. dark and mysterious - presto! her own role models, the figure she cites most often is the first is ‘dark’ and brooding, the second is ‘swift’ and JS Bach, not least for his intense, down-to-earth work is a winged horse cutting brightly through the sky. The Errollyn Wallen is celebrated both as a singer- ethic. word for the third movement is ‘rocking’ which sways songwriter and for her rigorous and communicative beautifully but uneasily, and the fourth, ‘race’, gallops contemporary music. Her works include operas Wallen has been recognised with commissions for the on to the climactic finishing post.’ of many different sizes (the latest, Dido’s Ghost, is Paralympics opening ceremony in 2012 and the Royal premiered this summer at the Barbican), as well as a Opera House, among many others. She has won an Ivor plethora of chamber music, solo and ensemble piano Novello Award, and teaches at Trinity Laban College pieces and , plus award-winning scores for of Music, Royal College of Music and Birmingham The Guardian described film and TV. Early in her career she started her own Conservatoire, where her students included the group, Ensemble X, with the motto: ‘We don’t break singer-songwriter Laura Mvula. She has recently been the 1998 ballet score Horseplay down barriers...we don’t see any.’ appointed Visiting Professor of Composition at the as ‘one of Wallen’s satisfyingly Royal Conservatoire of Scotland. “ dense dance scores... a four- Born in Belize, Wallen moved to the UK with her family movement array of melodic and at the age of two. Creating music absorbed her even The Guardian described the 1998 ballet score from childhood. Her passion for dance led her to train Horseplay as ‘one of Wallen’s satisfyingly dense dance textural delights.’ with the Dance Theater of Harlem, but she eventually scores… a four-movement array of melodic and textural left in order to concentrate on composition. She went delights.’ It was commissioned by the choreographer

himself had operated in earlier” decades. Crossing the Place de la Concorde in Paris with the composer, Pulcinella Diaghilev made the suggestion that he should look at some 18th-century pieces with a view to orchestrating I. Sinfonia them for a ballet. At the mention of Pergolesi, II. Serenata Stravinsky thought the impresario must be out of his III. Scherzino – Allegretto – Andantino mind. IV. Tarantella V. Toccata An examination of the Italian manuscript from 1700 VI. Gavotta (con due variazioni) that Diaghilev sent his way soon convinced him: ‘I VII. Vivo looked and fell in love,’ he later recalled. As it turns out, more than half the music was not at all by Pergolesi; VIII. Minuetto – Finale this Commedia dell’Arte story of wit, deception and mistaken identity unfurls thanks to the additional input Since its launch a century ago, the LCO has given of such as Domenico Gallo from Venice, numerous world and UK premieres of new works the Dutch diplomat Count von Wassenaer and a priest ranging all the way from Gabriel Fauré to Graham from Milan, Carlo Iganazio Monza. Fitkin. Perhaps one of the most significant was the UK premiere of Igor Stravinsky’s Suite from the ballet score ‘I began by composing on the Pergolesi manuscripts Pulcinella – and this work has remained associated themselves, as though I were correcting an old work with the orchestra ever since. of my own,’ Stravinsky wrote. ‘I knew that I could not produce a “forgery” of Pergolesi because my motor Tonight, we have not the Suite but the whole ballet, habits are so different; at best, I could repeat him in my complete with three solo singers and a new, specially own accent.’ He therefore retained the melodies and written narration by Freya Johnson, a student at the bass-line and worked that ‘accent’ into the music’s Queen Mary University of London. inner voices. At first it can sound like 18th-century music with ‘wrong notes’ – but there is amply more ‘I began by composing The world premiere of Pulcinella was given on 15 May to it than that. Stravinsky’s own voice twinkles out of on the Pergolesi manuscripts 1920 at the Paris Opéra, by Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets every bar. ‘The remarkable thing about Pulcinella,’ he Russes. Following Diaghilev’s principles of employing themselves, as though I were said, ‘is not how much but how little has been added “ the very best artists for every aspect of a new work, the correcting an old work of my or changed.’ designs were by Pablo Picasso and the choreography own,’ Stravinsky wrote. ‘I knew by Leonid Massine. Diaghilev, for whom Stravinsky Diaghilev, who had not expected more than a had written his three most famous ballet scores seven that I could not produce a reorchestration, was somewhat shocked and not a to ten years earlier – The Firebird, Petrushka and Le “forgery” of Pergolesi because little displeased by the result. It triumphed initially – Sacre du Printemps – was responsible for dreaming up Picasso’s designs in particular – but as a theatrical entity my motor habits are so different; the idea, partly in order to repair a relationship with the production was too soon forgotten. Stravinsky, Stravinsky that had turned shaky, and also perhaps to at best, I could repeat him in my who had real affection for this score, made the concert create something in tune with the new cultural mood own accent.’ suite in 1922 and later transformed it again into the emerging in the wake of World War I’s devastation. Suite Italienne for violin and piano. were smaller, the music written for them LCO gave the UK premiere of the Pulcinella Suite in inspired by the chamber orchestras of the classical era, 1925. It was described by The Sunday Times as ‘most in marked contrast to the extravagant scale on which admirable fooling’. composers such as Mahler, Debussy and Stravinsky Programme notes by Jessica Duchen ”

Christopher Warren-Green Errollyn Wallen Conductor Composer

British conductor Christopher Warren-Green is Music Director of both the London Errollyn Wallen is a Belize-born British composer whose output includes twenty Chamber Orchestra and Charlotte Symphony in North Carolina. operas and a large catalogue of works which are performed internationally. Her latest large-scale work, a re-imagining of Parry’s Jerusalem — JERUSALEM — our Warren-Green has worked extensively in North America, with key engagements clouded hills for soprano and orchestra was performed at last year’s Last Night of including The Philadelphia Orchestra, the Detroit, Houston, St. Louis, Toronto, the Proms and broadcast around the world from Royal Albert Hall. THIS FRAME Milwaukee, Seattle and Vancouver symphony orchestras, the Minnesota Orchestra IS PART OF THE PAINTING for mezzo-soprano and orchestra, is a BBC Proms and Washington’s National Symphony Orchestra. In Europe, he has worked with commission for 2019 and was performed by BBC National Orchestra of Wales, the , Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Royal Philharmonic conducted by Elim Chan, to a sold out Royal Albert Hall. Her acclaimed Concerto Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra and Iceland Symphony amongst others. And Grosso was released on the NMC label in January 2020, performed by Chineke! further afield, Warren-Green works with orchestras such as the NHK, Singapore who also premièred the chamber work NNENNA. Her opera The Silent Twins and Sapporo symphony orchestras and the Hong Kong Philharmonic. (libretto by April De Angelis) will receive its US première in New York in 2022.

In addition to his international commitments, he has been invited to conduct at the Her arrangement of Johnetta Bryant’s song, I’m a Young Black Man (composed in weddings of the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge at in 2011 response to George Floyd’s murder) for and Friends has received over and the Duke and Duchess of Sussex at St George’s Chapel, Windsor, in 2018. He 86,000 views to date on YouTube. It features Grace Chatto, Sheku and Braimah conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra for HM The Queen’s 90th birthday concert Kanneh-Mason, Nicola and Stephanie Benedetti. at Theatre Royal, Drury Lane, as well as HRH The Prince of Wales’ 60th birthday concert in . Other works in progress include a piano concerto (commissioned by Royal Birmingham Conservatoire), a new opera for Chicago Opera Theatre and a book A violinist by training, Warren-Green began his career aged 19 as concertmaster on composing. of the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, followed by the Philharmonia Orchestra and the Academy of St Martin in the Fields. He is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Errollyn is co-curator of Spitalfields Festival 2020 and 2021. Her new radio Music, having been a Professor there for eight years, and has appeared numerous documentary, Classical Commonwealth, has just been broadcast on Radio 3. In times on television and radio. He has recorded extensively for Sony, Philips, Virgin 2015 she became an Honorary Fellow of Mansfield College, Oxford and in 2019 EMI, Chandos, Decca and Deutsche Grammophon, and records with the London an Honorary Fellow of Goldsmiths, London. Chamber Orchestra for Signum Classics.

Lucy Crowe Toby Spence James Platt Soprano Tenor Bass

Born in Staffordshire, Lucy Crowe studied at the Royal Toby Spence is an internationally renowned tenor, British bass James Platt was educated at Chetham’s Academy of Music, where she is now a Fellow. dividing his time between the concert platform and School of Music and went on to study at the Royal some of the world’s best opera houses. Academy of Music and the Opera Course of the With repertoire ranging from Purcell, Handel and Guildhall School of Music and Drama. He was a Mozart to Donizetti’s Adina, Verdi’s Gilda and He has sung with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic member of the Jette Parker Young Artist Programme Janacek’s Vixen, she has sung with opera companies orchestras under Rattle, San Francisco Symphony at the Royal Opera, Covent Garden from 2014-2016. throughout the world, including the Royal Opera under Tilson Thomas, Orchestra dell’Accademia House, Covent Garden, the Glyndebourne Festival, Nazionale di Santa Cecilia under Pappano, Rotterdam Recent highlights have included Crespel Les Contes , the Teatro Real Madrid, the Philharmonic Orchestra under Gergiev, Los Angeles d’Hoffmann and Basilio Il barbiere di Siviglia for the Deutsche Oper Berlin, the Bavarian State Opera, Philharmonic under Dudamel and at the Salzburg and Deutsche Oper, Berlin; Sarastro Die Zauberflöte and Munich, and the Metropolitan Opera, New York. Edinburgh Festivals under Norrington and Mackerras. Sparafucile Rigoletto for the Welsh National Opera; Ortel Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg for Teatro In concert, she has performed with many of the Highlights of this season include Florestan Fidelio in alla Scala, Milan; Il Commendatore Don Giovanni world’s finest conductors and orchestras including Stavanger and Garsington Opera; Mahler 8 at Atlanta for Opera North; and Notary Don Pasquale at the the Berlin Philharmonic/Harding and Nelsons, Vienna Symphony Hall; Das Lied von der Erde in São Carlos; Glyndebourne Festival. Philharmonic/Nelsons, the Monteverdi Orchestra/ The Dream of Gerontius at the Slovak Philharmonic Gardiner, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Concert Hall; Missa Solemnis with the Wroclaw His concert appearances include Handel’s Messiah Santa Cecilia/Pappano and the London Symphony Philharmonic and Britten’s Serenade with the Prague with the Hallé Orchestra/Christian Curnyn, Verdi’s Orchestra/Rattle. Radio Symphony Orchestra, l’Orchestre National de Requiem with the Orchestre National de Lyon/ Lyon and the Kanazawa Orchestra Ensemble in Tokyo. Leonard Slatkin, Dvorak’s Requiem with the BBC A committed recitalist she has appeared at the Symphony Orchestra/Jiri Belohlavek, Rossini’s Petite Amsterdam Concertgebouw, New York’s Carnegie Messe Solennelle at the BBC Proms with the BBC Hall, and the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh, Mostly Mozart Singers/David Hill and Nino’s Ghost in Rossini’s and Salzburg Festivals, and is a regular guest at the Semiramide also at the BBC Proms with the OAE/Sir BBC Proms and Wigmore Hall. Mark Elder.

London Chamber Orchestra Musicians Ciaran McCabe Jennifer Coombes Rachael Lander Violin Viola Cello

When did you first start playing music? Describe your favourite LCO experience When did you first start playing music? I started the violin when I was 9, after taking an aural The very first time I played with LCO will be always I started playing when I was 8, having begged test at school. I was asked what instrument I’d like to etched in my memory. I was in a slight lull gig-wise, my parents, who are both professional orchestral play and I remember choosing cello. Unfortunately and I was booked very last minute to fill in for someone musicians and both remarried two more orchestral they had no cello places left and so I had to be content who couldn’t make the LCO concert, and the second musicians, for 3 years. They relented and let me start with my second choice! the rehearsal started I had the biggest smile on my playing the cello. face. The standard was incredibly high, but even more Describe your favourite LCO experience What are you most looking forward to doing as importantly for me at the time, everyone was giving My first major tour with the orchestra to Korea, back lockdown eases? in 2008. We performed with cellist Ha-na Chang in it their absolute all, and I can remember that feeling I work a lot in the West End and I love playing in pits wonderful concert halls to full audiences every night of euphoria that exciting music making brings so well, of packed theatres. I can’t wait to get to bustle my and received an incredibly warm reception. The local which I hadn’t felt for a while before that concert, and way through the throngs and sign in at the stage door culture and cuisine was good too! which, in some ways, made me fall in love with the again. profession all over again. What are you most looking forward to doing as lockdown eases? What are you most looking forward to doing as Karen Jones Like most musicians, playing to audiences and touring lockdown eases? again! Performing to a live audience! When I was little, one of Flute my teachers told me that a performance is made up of three ‘entities’ – the composer, the performer and the When did you first start playing music? Andrew Marshall audience. Each are important for a full performance, I am the fifth generation of professional orchestral and one-third of that has been missing for so long (the musicians. In fact my great grandmother was the Double Bass performers themselves have also been missing to a harpist in LPO, and the first female to be employed large degree!). It is going to be so exhilarating and I in a London orchestra. When did you first start playing music? cannot wait. We had a string class when I was about 7 and we were Describe your favourite LCO experience asked to choose a string instrument from the room. My outstanding memory of LCO is the very first time There were all these tiddly little fiddles and I ever played with them, nearly thirty years ago. I at the front, and then I saw this gigantic beast at the I can’t wait to get to bustle turned up to what was effectively my first professional back. I thought, “I’m having some of that...” my way through the throngs and engagement, and we recorded Mendelssohn 4th “ Symphony. I remember being so incredulous at the Have you been part of a performance that didn’t sign in at the stage door again pace of the outer movements, and felt as though feature classical music? we were all wildly on fire. That was my first taste One non-classical memory is playing for a Peter of the electricity that is palpably switched on when Gabriel gig at a festival in Portugal. At the end as the Meyrick Alexander Christopher Warren-Green is at the helm and he dusk settled, 50,000 people carried on singing the unleashes and empowers his musicians to play truly Bassoon ” from their hearts. last number “Don’t Give Up” back to us as we packed up and left the stage. It was magical. When did you first start playing music? Have you been part of a performance that didn’t What are you most looking forward to doing as I was taken to hear Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring when I feature classical music? lockdown eases? was seven years old and decided then and there to Most memorably and unbelievably was working with Definitely being able to perform to audiences again. become a bassoonist. I started on the violin and piano Chick Corea and his ensemble on and album called Having that connection again, it’s why we do it. That and began the bassoon when I was eleven SPAIN. In addition, recording with Stevie Wonder and being able to get away to the mountains when I’m was surreal and beyond my wildest dreams. not working! If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it be and why? Josef Haydn. He would be my favourite person to Ross Brown meet. We could talk about our shared interest of It felt as though we were all vegetable gardening and I could persuade him to Trumpet write a Bassoon Concerto. “wildly on fire. That was my first taste Describe your favourite LCO experience of the electricity that is palpably Impossible - there are so many! All LCO performances switched on when Christopher manage to be memorable in many ways, but being Andrew Connington part of the Royal Wedding in Westminster Abbey in Warren-Green is at the helm Trombone 2011 was particularly so – the atmosphere in London that day was so happy and optimistic. Julian Poole When did you first start playing music? ” I first started playing the piano when I was in year 1 or If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it Percussion 2 primary school. My sister was having lessons behind be and why? a closed door and I really wanted to know what was Bach’s trumpeter Gottfried Reiche must have been an When did you first start playing music? going on in there! I then moved onto the trombone in incredible player to get around the incredibly florid My mum and dad were both in the BBC Symphony year 3 after watching an Acker Bilk concert where he and strenuous trumpet parts that Bach wrote for him, Orchestra so I was surrounded by music from day one. had a small group with him – the trombonist looked all without valves! I’d love to have played in one of the When I realised playing for Spurs was never going to like he was having lots of fun and the instrument kept services in Leipzig, time-travel permitting! happen, I decided it had to be music and was always changing size! No going back after that! going to be the drums. If you could collaborate with anyone, who would it Have you been part of a performance that didn’t be and why? When I realised playing for feature classical music? I would love to have met Glenn Miller - growing up I Spurs was never going to happen, No - I’ve played my trombone whilst splashing around was obsessed with his dance band and he was taken “ in a paddling pool and in total darkness but no matter too soon! I said met rather than collaborate as I don’t I decided it had to be music how bizarre the setting, it’s always been based in think someone as incredibly gifted as Glenn Miller classical music! would be able to cope with my swing playing! ”

Our 100th birthday raffle is now open!

Prizes include state of the art speakers from Q Acoustics, a digital piano from Markson Pianos in London, and many more from luxury lifestyle brands.

All funds raised will go towards LCO’s Centenary Appeal, meaning every ticket you buy supports our orchestra’s future. Take a chance and be in to win! www.lco.co.uk/raffle

LCO Online LCO Together

For the first time, all of our 20/21 season concerts will We are extremely grateful for the support of donors, trusts and partners like you, who allow us to deliver our be made available to stream online via our website pioneering music education project, Music Junction, and the highest quality orchestral concerts, to bring the and YouTube channel, and accessible to audiences joy of music to all. During these unprecedented times of uncertainty, we rely on your support more than ever, wherever you are. and look forward to shaping our future together. All of our financial supporters become members of our LCO Together scheme and are welcomed into the LCO family.

Your generosity allows us not just to survive but to thrive.

A Unique Design Starting from £100 per year, LCO Together is unique in rewarding ongoing loyalty as well as one-off If you’re joining us in the virtual concert hall, we’d donations. Membership tiers are calculated on accumulated lifetime donations, and sponsors and donors love to hear about it! are able to pause and restart their membership at any time. On rejoining LCO Together membership tiers continue at the same level as in the previous membership period, again calculated on accumulated donations. Tag us on your social media using the hashtag #LCOTogether Online Members Area Along with the membership benefits listed below all members have exclusive access to LCO’s online members area containing concerts, exclusive interviews and much more. @LCOOrchestra Membership Benefits LCO Together rewards supporters with tiered membership benefits for one year following their most recent @LCOOrchestra donation, including discounted or complimentary tickets to our main season concerts, Meet & Greets with our orchestral musicians, soloists and conductors, and access to our Members’ Area online for exclusive materials.

@lcoorchestra Please visit our website or email [email protected] for more information.

www.lco.co.uk

At the Ballet was recorded at St John’s Smith Square, Westminster, London SW1P 3HA

This concert is generously supported by Arts Council ’s Culture Recovery Fund & The Garfield Weston Foundation

Partnered with Bluestone Vineyards

Don’t miss our next concert...

25 June 2021 Airs and Organists Presented by Anna Lapwood

Andrée Concert Overture Annamaria Kowalsky Rhizom Poulenc Organ Concerto Chloé van Soeterstède

Chloé van Soeterstède conductor Anna Lapwood presenter & organ soloist London Chamber Orchestra

London Chamber Orchestra Queen Mary University of London, Mile End Road, London E1 4NS

[email protected] 020 3397 1298