Thursday 11 January 2018 7.30–9.55pm Barbican Hall

LSO SEASON CONCERT RAMEAU TO MAHLER

Schubert Symphony No 8, ‘Unfinished’ Mahler Rückert Lieder RATTLE & Interval Handel Three Arias Rameau Les Boréades – Suite

Sir Simon Rattle conductor Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano KOŽEN A Supported by LSO Music Director Donors Welcome LSO News On Our Blog

Tonight’s performance is supported by BRITISH COMPOSER AWARDS FOR FAREWELL TO NIGEL BROADBENT, the LSO’s Music Director Donors, some SOUNDHUB AND PANUFNIK COMPOSERS FIRST VIOLIN of whom join us in the audience this evening. Our Music Director Donors provide Five of the 13 BASCA British Composer On Thursday 21 December we said goodbye leading support for our work and stand Awards this year went to current composers to one of the stalwarts of the London side-by-side with the Orchestra in our and alumni of the LSO’s artist development Symphony Orchestra, First Violin Nigel ambitious plans with Sir Simon Rattle. schemes. Congratulations go to Cevanne Broadbent, who retires after 38 years in I would like to thank them for their Horrocks-Hopayian (Panufnik 2010, the Orchestra. He will be very much exceptional contribution to the LSO at Soundhub Associate), Emily Howard missed by everyone in the LSO. this exciting time in the our history. (Panufnik 2007), Robin Haigh (Soundhub 2017), Deborah Pritchard (Panufnik 2015) and Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert I hope you enjoy the performance and Philip Venables (Panufnik 2005). WELCOME TO NEW PRINCIPAL at the Barbican, our first of 2018. Tonight that you will join us again soon. In our TRUMPET DAVID ELTON Music Director Sir Simon Rattle conducts next concert on 13 January, in partnership a programme pairing the Romantic with with the Barbican, Sir Simon Rattle is THE LSO’S 2018/19 SEASON On 11 December we welcomed a new member the Baroque, and orchestral with opera. joined by a cast of narrators, including of the Orchestra, as David Elton joined Helen McCrory and Simon Callow, for a Details of the LSO’s 2018/19 season will Philip Cobb as Principal Trumpet. David We begin with Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ rare performance of the Genesis Suite, be announced on Tuesday 23 January, with comes to the LSO from the Sydney Eighth Symphony, followed by Mahler’s directed by Gerard McBurney and with public booking open from Friday 2 February. Symphony Orchestra where he has been Rückert Lieder and three arias by Handel. specially created visual projections by Visit our website lso.co.uk to find out Principal Trumpet for the last six years. For these vocal works we are delighted to projection designer Mike Tutaj. what's in store. welcome mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená, Read our blog, watch videos and more who returns following her performance in LSO Friends will receive priority booking • youtube.com/lso Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande with for the 2018/19 season. If you would like • lso.co.uk/blog the Orchestra and Sir Simon in 2016. to find out more about joining, visit lso.co.uk/support-us. Continuing Sir Simon’s focus on late works Kathryn McDowell CBE DL WELCOME TO TONIGHT'S GROUPS across the 2017/18 season, including some Managing Director that were never heard during their composers’ Read our news online We are delighted to welcome tonight's groups: lifetimes, the concert closes with Sir Simon’s • lso.co.uk/news Ann Parish & Friends own suite from the opera Les Boréades, Edgbaston High School Old Girls’ Association written in the final years of Rameau’s life.

2 Welcome 11 January 2018 Tonight’s Concert / introduction by Lindsay Kemp Coming Up: Sir Simon Rattle

onight’s concert mixes vocal PROGRAMME NOTE WRITERS Saturday 13 January 2018 7.30pm Thursday 19 & 26 April 2018 7.30pm articulacy of two very different kinds Barbican Hall with music written for dramatic Lindsay Kemp is a senior producer for MUSIC OF EXILE dance, and a masterpiece of abstract BBC Radio 3, including programming Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Milhaud et al Helen Grime Woven Space * orchestral expression so wordlessly specific lunchtime concerts at Wigmore Hall and Genesis Suite (world premiere) that it is possible to imagine its composer LSO St Luke’s; Artistic Advisor to York Bartók Concerto for Orchestra Mahler Symphony No 9 unable to think how to continue work on it. Early Music Festival; Artistic Director of Baroque at the Edge Festival; and a regular Sir Simon Rattle conductor Sir Simon Rattle conductor Mahler’s typically personal settings of words contributor to Gramophone magazine. Helen McCrory, Simon Callow, by the Romantic poet Friedrich Rückert are Rodney Earl Clarke, Sara Kestelman narrators * Commissioned for Sir Simon Rattle and the the product of two happy summers in his Andrew Stewart is a freelance music journalist Gerard McBurney creative director LSO by the Barbican early 40s, spent far from the stresses of and writer. He is the author of The LSO at Mike Tutaj projection design town, conscious of his art and in the act of 90, and contributes to a wide variety of London Symphony Chorus 26 April generously supported by Baker McKenzie finding the love of his life. specialist classical music publications. Simon Halsey chorus director London Symphony Orchestra The emotions revealed in the Handel arias Stephen Johnson is the author of Bruckner are both more public and more vicarious, Remembered (Faber) and Mahler: His Life Produced by the LSO and the Barbican. Part of but his opera arias are just as able to and Music (Naxos). He also contributes the LSO’s 2017/18 Season and Barbican Presents. Sunday 22 April 2018 7pm access a psychological state with empathy regularly to BBC Music Magazine and The Barbican Hall and expressive power. Rameau’s dances Guardian, and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3, may seem at first to be peripheral to the Radio 4 and the World Service. Tippett The Rose Lake † stirring stories from which they come, but Mahler comp Cooke Symphony No 10 the way in they can reflect emotion and Sunday 14 January 2018 7pm enhance atmosphere shows the touch of Barbican Hall Sir Simon Rattle conductor a true musical dramatist. And Schubert’s ‘Unfinished’ Symphony, with which we Janáček Overture: From the House of the Dead † Supported by Resonate, a PRS Foundation start, is intense poetry of almost Carter Instances initiative in partnership with Association of British unbearable beauty. Berg Violin Concerto Orchestras, BBC Radio 3 and Boltini Trust Bartók Concerto for Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle conductor lso.co.uk/whatson Isabelle Faust violin 020 7638 8891

Tonight's Concert 3 Franz Schubert Symphony No 8, ‘Unfinished’ 1822 / note by Lindsay Kemp

1 Allegro moderato duly given to the Society’s representatives, years around 1820. Maybe, too, in his mind Schubert casts the slow second movement 2 Andante con moto Joseph and Anselm Hüttenbrenner, in whose he had simply moved on by the time the in E major, a distant key from the B minor private hands it then remained. That they chance to resume work on the ‘Unfinished’ of the first which enhances the sense of usic history is littered with saw no reason to release it is not as perverse presented itself; certainly its uniquely entering a different world. Indeed, the incomplete compositions, from as it sounds; Schubert’s contemporary sustained brand of pained poetic lyricism relationship between the two movements Bach’s Art of Fugue to Berg’s opera reputation was almost exclusively as a was not one to which he later returned. has been described by one writer as that Lulu. So why, alone among them all, has the composer of vocal music, and, as far as we of ‘a certain premonition of death and a symphony that Schubert began in October know, no symphony of his was accepted for The opening presents a bleak vision: a vision of heaven’. But despite the Elysian 1822, and then abandoned with only two of public performance anywhere between the sinuous and menacingly subterranean beauty of the tender first theme, and even its intended four movements completed, premiere of the Sixth in 1818 and his death theme intoned by cellos and double the apparent gruff cheerfulness with which become known as the ‘Unfinished’? Why ten years later. Thus it was only when latter- basses, followed by a nervous string its striding bass line at one point offers to are Bruckner’s Ninth or Mahler’s Tenth, both day Schubert-lovers wrested the score of the accompaniment to an aching tune given take things over, the night-terrors still lurk. regularly performed today in their partial ‘Unfinished’ from Anselm over 40 years after out on oboe and clarinet. The music then The clarinet’s nostalgic second theme is the state, not similarly entitled? it was written that it finally came to light, builds steadily in volume until a held note on first to hint at disquiet, but the orchestral receiving its premiere • in Vienna in 1865 to horns and bassoons swells into a brief but outburst which rears its head later on leaves The probable reason is that in most cases it keen public interest. sturdy bridge to the lilting second theme. no doubt that true peace of mind is not to was death that prevented fulfilment of the Announced by cellos and taken up by the be had here. work, an implacable external force which Whatever it was that stopped Schubert from violins, this new, major-key theme seems at gives no reason to cast doubt on a composer’s completing the symphony we shall probably first to promise a more carefree mood, but Schubert’s half-composed third movement motivation or drive. Short though his life never know. A number of theories have been interruptions from the full orchestra suggest is a bold and vigorous scherzo; what the finale was, Schubert had another six years in which suggested, among the most convincing of otherwise, and it is with a sense of relief might have been remains a mystery. But then, to finish the ‘Unfinished’, and he wrote many which is that, having broken off composition that the theme later emerges in a sweetly given the power of the music he had written other works after it. Clearly the reason for with the third movement just begun, extended version. After this first section already, perhaps that was too difficult a its abandonment was an inner one. Schubert simply felt unable to pick up the has been repeated, a brief reminder of the question even for Schubert to answer. • threads of such an intensely personal work. opening then leads us into the dark realms The known facts are inconclusive. When of the central development section, which in August 1823 Schubert was elected an His development as an instrumental takes the cello-and-bass theme and works honorary member of a music society based composer was rapid at this time, and an it up to a pitch of nightmarish intensity. in Graz, he offered to present them with the ambitious desire to forge for himself a The sequence of first and second themes is manuscript of the incomplete symphony as position as Beethoven’s acknowledged then reprised, before the introductory theme a token of thanks, perhaps with a promise to successor may well be the reason for a large returns once again to initiate a world-weary, compose the rest of it soon. The score was number of other broken works from the dejected coda.

4 Programme Notes 11 January 2018 Franz Schubert in Profile 1797–1828 / by Andrew Stewart

• THE 1865 PREMIERE n childhood, Schubert was taught critics did not restrict his creativity, nor his the violin by his schoolmaster enjoyment of composition; illness, however, The partially completed symphony was father and piano by his eldest did affect his work and outlook. premiered on Sunday 17 December 1865 brother. He rapidly became more proficient in Vienna, almost 40 years after the than his teachers, and showed considerable In 1824 Schubert was admitted to Vienna’s composer's death. Music critic Eduard musical talent, so much so that in 1808 General Hospital for treatment for syphilis. Hanslick attended the premiere, writing he became a member of Vienna’s famous Although his condition improved, he suffered afterwards that: Imperial Court chapel choir. He was educated side-effects from his medication, including at the Imperial City College, where he severe depression. During the final four ‘When, after a few introductory bars, clarinet received lessons from the composer Salieri. years of his life, Schubert’s health declined; and oboe sound una voce a sweet melody on His father, eager that Franz should qualify meanwhile, he created some of his finest top of the quiet murmuring of the strings, as a teacher and work in the family’s compositions, chief among which are the a half-suppressed exclamation ‘Schubert’ schoolhouse, encouraged the boy to return song-cycles Winterreise and Schwanengesang, runs hummingly through the hall. Any child home in 1814. Compositions soon began to and the last piano sonatas. • knows the composer. He has hardly entered, flow, although teaching duties interrupted but it is as if you knew his steps, his very progress. Despite his daily classroom way of opening the door … routine, Schubert managed to compose 145 songs in 1815, together with four stage The whole movement is a sweet stream of works, two symphonies, two masses and a melodies, in spite of its vigour and geniality large number of chamber pieces. so crystal-clear that you can see every pebble on the bottom. And everywhere the Though the quantity of Schubert’s output same warmth, the same golden sunshine is astonishing enough, it is the quality of that makes buds grow! … his melodic invention and the richness of his harmonic conception that are the most With a few horn passages, an occasional remarkable features of his work. He was brief clarinet or oboe solo on the simplest, able to convey dramatic images and deal most natural basis of orchestration, with powerful emotions within the space of Schubert achieves sound effects which no a few bars, as he so often did in his songs refinement of Wagner's instrumentation and chamber works. The public failure of his ever attains.' stage works and the reactionary attitudes to his music of conservative Viennese

Composer Profile 5 Gustav Mahler Rückert Lieder 1901–02 / note by Lindsay Kemp

1 Liebst du um Schönheit As Mahler himself once said, it is not always ‘Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder’ is a playful 2 Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder desirable to set the best poetry ‘as if a lyric – almost a scherzo within the set – 3 Um Mitternacht sculptor chiselled a statue from marble and that one can imagine causing Mahler to 4 Ich atmet’ einen Linden duft a painter came along and coloured it’. Be that smile as he worked. The darkest song is 5 Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen as it may, clearly there was something in the ‘Um Mitternacht’, an atmospherically moody atmosphere of Rückert’s verse – three coloured, almost symphonic contemplation Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano of those seven settings of 1901 subsequently of Man’s fate and final triumphant found their way into the cycle Kindertotenlieder commendation to God. ahler spent the summer of 1901 in (‘Songs on the death of children’) – that the villa he had built the previous appealed to Mahler strongly. ‘Ich atmet’ einen Linden duft’, with its curling year at Maiernigg, on the shores string vapours, celebrates the exquisite of the Wörthersee in southern Austria as a Though each of the other four songs fragrance of the lime tree, and the refuge from the stresses of the conducting was initially published separately, they nobly borne ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden months in Vienna. His next five summers eventually appeared together with gekommen’ evokes the world of the creative were to be spent there composing in relative another later Rückert setting in delicately artist, cut off from the world by choice, peace, close to nature in the special hut he orchestrated versions as Fünf Lieder nach happy in isolation. Just what a composing • FRIEDRICH RÜCKERT had had made for him in the woods 200 Rückert. Thus they were not, nor claimed hut is for … • yards up the hill. That first full season it to be, a cycle in the narrative sense, and Friedrich Rückert was a German poet, worked well for him; by the time he returned performers down the years have accordingly Texts – Pages 8–9 translator and professor of Oriental to the city in the autumn he had drafted felt free to present them in whatever order languages working in the middle of the two movements of the Fifth Symphony and they think best. 19th century. Reportedly a master of 30 eight songs. different languages, he is chiefly known for ‘Liebst du um Schönheit’ was the last of the his translations of Oriental poetry and as an Remarkably, seven of those songs set words five to be composed, in the summer of 1902, author of poems conceived in the style of by the same poet. Friedrich Rückert • had after Mahler had fallen in love with and the Oriental masters. He is a notable source already proved inspirational to such notable married Alma Schindler. Written as a gift for of texts for musical compositions and there Interval – 20 minutes song-composers as Schubert, Robert and her, it is a serene love-song, the poet asking are approximately 120 settings of his works. There are bars on all levels of the Clara Schumann, Brahms, Wolf and Strauss, to be adored not for beauty, youth or riches, concert hall; ice cream can be bought and though he was not considered among but for love itself and love alone. Mahler at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. the front rank of Romantic poets, it is not never got round to orchestrating it, and Visit the Barbican Shop on Level -1 to see always the richest of verse that makes for the task was sympathetically completed our new range of Gifts and Accessories. the most satisfactory musical treatments. by Max Puttman.

6 Programme Notes 11 January 2018 Gustav Mahler in Profile 1860–1911 / by Stephen Johnson

ustav Mahler’s sense of being a presence from early on: six of Mahler’s Schindler in 1902. Alma’s infidelity – which an outsider, coupled with a siblings died in infancy. This no doubt partly almost certainly accelerated the final decline penetrating, restless intelligence, explains the obsession with mortality in in Mahler’s health in 1910/11 – has earned made him an acutely self-conscious searcher Mahler’s music. Few of his major works her black marks from some biographers; but after truth. For Mahler the purpose of art do not feature a funeral march: in fact it is hard not to feel some sympathy for her was, in Shakespeare’s famous phrase, Mahler’s first composition (at age ten) position as a ‘work widow’. to ‘hold the mirror up to nature’ in all its was a Funeral March with Polka – exactly bewildering richness. The symphony, he the kind of extreme juxtaposition one finds Nevertheless, many today have good cause told , ‘must be like the world. in his mature works. to be grateful to Mahler for his single- It must embrace everything’. minded devotion to his art. TS Eliot – another artist caught between the search for — faith and the horror of meaninglessness – ‘I am three times homeless: a native of Bohemia in Austria, wrote that ‘humankind cannot bear very much reality’. But Mahler’s music suggests an Austrian among Germans, a Jew throughout the world.’ another possibility. With his ability to — confront the terrifying possibility of a purposeless universe and the empty finality Mahler’s symphonies can seem almost For most of his life Mahler supported himself of death, Mahler can help us confront and over-full with intense emotions and ideas: by conducting, but this was no mere means endure stark reality. He can take us to the love and hate, joy in life and terror of death, to an end. Indeed his evident talent and edge of the abyss, then sing us the sweetest the beauty of nature, innocence and bitter energetic, disciplined commitment led to songs of consolation. If we allow ourselves experience. Similar themes can also be successive appointments at Prague, Leipzig, to make this journey with him, we may find found in his marvellous songs and song- Budapest, Hamburg and climactically, in that we too are the better for it. • cycles, though there the intensity is, 1897, the Vienna Court Opera. if anything, still more sharply focused. In the midst of this hugely demanding Gustav Mahler was born the second of schedule, Mahler composed whenever he 14 children. His parents were apparently could, usually during his summer holidays. ill-matched (Mahler remembered violent The rate at which he composed during these scenes), and young Gustav grew dreamy and brief periods is astonishing. The workload introspective, seeking comfort in nature in no way decreased after his marriage to rather than human company. Death was the charismatic and highly intelligent Alma

Composer Profile 7 Gustav Mahler Rückert Lieder – Texts / English translation by John Bernhoff

1 LIEBST DU UM SCHÖNHEIT LOV’ST THOU BUT BEAUTY 3 UM MITTERNACHT AT MIDNIGHT HOUR Liebst du um Schönheit, Lov’st thou but beauty, Um Mitternacht The midnight hour o nicht mich liebe! o never love me! hab‘ ich gewacht boomed from the tower; Liebe die Sonne, Go, love the sunbeam, und aufgeblickt zum Himmel; tho’ bright the heavens were gleaming, sie trägt ein gold‘nes Haar! a stream with golden hair! kein Stern vom Sterngewimmel no star in azure beaming, Liebst du um Jugend, Lov’st thou but youthhood, hat mir gelacht smiled on my bower, o nicht mich liebe! o never love me! um Mitternacht. at midnight hour. Liebe den Frühling, Go, love the Mayqueen, Um Mitternacht At midnight hour, der jung ist jedes Jahr! for ever young and fair! hab‘ ich gedacht with all its power, Liebst du um Schätze, Lov’st thou but riches, hinaus in dunkle Schranken. my soul aspired to heaven. o nicht mich liebe! o never love me! Es hat kein Lichtgedanken O’er me no light from heaven Liebe die Meerfrau, Go, love the mermaid, mir Trost gebracht did solace pour sie hat viel Perlen klar! whose caverns pearls do bear! um Mitternacht. at midnight hour. Liebst du um Liebe, Lov’st thou for love’s sake, Um Mitternacht At midnight hour, o ja, mich liebe! then ever love me! nahm ich in acht throbbing with power, Liebe mich immer, Love me for ever, die Schläge meines Herzens; my heart desired the morrow, dich lieb‘ ich immerdar! I’ll love thee ever naught so dear! ein einz‘ger Puls des Schmerzens one constant thought of sorrow war angefacht would haunt my bower 2 BLICKE MIR NICHT IN DIE LIEDER! LOOK NOT, LOVE, ON MY WORK UNENDED um Mitternacht. at midnight hour. Blicke mir nicht in die Lieder! Look not, love, on my work unended! Um Mitternacht At midnight hour, Meine Augen schlag‘ ich nieder, Mine own eyes from my songs are wended, kämpft‘ ich die Schlacht, fled from my bower, wie ertappt auf böser Tat. as if caught in doing wrong. o Menschheit, deiner Leiden; I fought the fight of anguish; Selber darf ich nicht getrauen, Doubts my song-fed soul encumber, nicht konnt‘ ich sie entscheiden defeated, now I languish; ihrem Wachsen zuzuschauen. as I watch their waxing number. mit meiner Macht too faint my power, Deine Neugier ist Verrat! Wouldst thou desecrate one song? um Mitternacht. at midnight hour. Bienen, wenn sie Zellen bauen, Bees e’en build their cells in secret, Um Mitternacht At midnight hour, lassen auch niCht zu sich schauen, hide their hive, where none may seek it, hab‘ ich die Macht all earthly power schauen selbst auch nicht zu. nor one moment, watching, waste. in deine Hand gegeben! did I to Thee deliver, Lord! Wenn die reichen Honigwaben When the combs, with honey laden, Herr! Über Tod und Leben Thou of life and death the Giver, sie zu Tag befördert haben, eye and heart of all shall gladden, du hältst die Wacht Thy vigil keep, while mortals sleep. dann vor allen nasche du! then be love the first to taste! um Mitternacht! Lord! guard my bower at midnight hour!

8 Texts 11 January 2018 4 ICH ATMET‘ EINEN LINDEN DUFT I BREATHED THE BREATH OF BLOSSOMS RED Text and translation © Copyright by MORE ORCHESTRAL SONGS IN 2018 Ich atmet‘ einen linden Duft! I breathed the breath of blossoms red. Universal Edition A.G., Wien/ UE34122 Im Zimmer stand Their odours shed ein Zweig der Linde, sweet budding roses, Reproduced by permission of Universal ein Angebinde whose soul discloses Edition A.G. Wien von lieber Hand. fond hearts love-wed. Wie lieblich war der Lindenduft! How sweet the breath those roses shed! Wie lieblich ist der Lindenduft! How sweet the soul of roses red! das Lindenreis each rose thou gavest, brachst du gelinde! love discloses. Ich atme leis I breathe the soul im Duft der Linde of blushing roses, der Liebe linden Duft. the odour love hath shed. Ann Hallenberg 5 ICH BIN DER WELT ABHANDEN GEKOMMEN O GARISH WORLD, LONG SINCE THOU HAST LOST ME Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen, O garish world, long since thou hast lost me, Sunday 11 March 2018 7pm mit der ich sonst viele Zeit verdorben, whose sweet delights my fond heart once Barbican Hall cherished, sie hat so lange nichts von mir vernommen, beyond whose ken thy surging waves have Schumann Overture: Genoveva tossed me, Berlioz Les nuits d’été sie mag wohl glauben, ich sei gestorben! thou well mayst fancy that I have perished! Schumann Symphony No 2 Es ist mir auch gar nichts daran gelegen, I do not wonder on it, and I care not, ob sie mich für gestorben hält. e’en tho’ the world may think I’m dead, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor Ich kann auch gar nichts sagen dagegen, tho’ naught may I gainsay, I despair not, Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano denn wirklich bin ich gestorben der Welt. for truly, the hopes I cherished have perished, are dead. Ich bin gestorben dem Weltgetümmel My soul but listens for Nature’s steven, und ruh‘ in einem stillen Gebiet! whose charms my silent soul ever throng. Ich leb‘ allein in meinem Himmel, I live alone in mine own Heaven, in meinem Lieben, in meinem Lied. • I live for love’s sake whose life is song. •

Texts 9 George Frideric Handel Three Arias 1709–35 / note by Lindsay Kemp

1 Pensieri, voi mi tormentate of Baroque music in general, and with unscrupulous empress Agrippina schemes Ginevra is unfaithful, and now he resolves to from ‘Agrippina’ it a greater understanding of the opera to place Nerone (Nero), her son from a kill himself. In one of Handel’s finest arias, 2 Scherza infida from ‘Ariodante’ seria form in which Handel worked. This previous marriage, on to the imperial throne. Ariodante’s vocal lines are full of resignation 3 Dopo notte from ‘Ariodante’ seemingly rigid genre – in which sparsely The opera’s essential amorality (Agrippina and pained disbelief, while muted upper accompanied recitatives carry the action succeeds in her plans, without any apparent strings and a pair of bassoons ache in Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano forward while more richly scored, often cost to herself or her son) is somewhat sympathy. ‘Dopo notte’ comes from the third showy set-piece arias stop to examine the typical of Venetian opera. ‘Pensieri, voi mi and final act, when all is resolved. Polinesso or most of the two-and-a-half emotions of individual characters – was tormentate’ comes from Act 2, and is less an has been killed, Ginevra’s innocence proved, centuries or so since Handel for many years considered too artificial for aria than a powerful little dramatic scene in and, in an energetic aria driven forward by died, he has been remembered the modern stage, but for those growing which Agrippina realises that her plans are carefree syncopations, Ariodante can allow chiefly for his oratorios. For nearly four numbers of performers, listeners and on a perilous knife-edge and that she must himself some joy once more. • decades of his own lifetime, however, it directors who have been prepared to meet it redouble her cunning. was opera that concerned him most. His on its own terms the dramatic rewards have first opera was written in 1704, his last in been high. And as for the arias themselves, Ariodante was first performed at Covent • ORLANDO FURIOSO 1741, and in between came over 40 stage their rich variety and masterly construction Garden in January 1735, and is the middle works demonstrating a keen dramatic support musicologist Winton Dean’s opinion work in a trilogy of superb Handel operas The influence of Ludovico Ariosto's epic sense and brilliantly pragmatic adaptability that ‘few people familiar with [Handel’s] from the mid-1730s (the others being poem Orlando furioso was considerable. to performance conditions, at the centre operas would deny him the title of the Orlando and Alcina), all of which took First published in its complete form in 1532, of which lay an acute awareness of the greatest melodist in musical history’. episodes from Ludovico Ariosto’s poetic the work won immediate fame – its 38,736 strengths and weaknesses of his singers. romance Orlando furioso • as a starting- lines making it one of the longest texts in To these are added a compassionate Agrippina was the second of two operas point. It is set in medieval Scotland and western poetry. Criticised and applauded in understanding of a broad range of human Handel composed during his four-year stay centres on the efforts of the villainous Duke equal measure for its lack of structural unity, feeling and an unsurpassed talent for in Italy when he was in his early twenties, Polinesso to separate Ariodante, a prince, the text forms the basis of many Baroque psychological portrayal, both of which and his first major success; 27 performances from his love the princess Ginevra. Both of operas and influenced the work of Vivaldi, more fundamental but less commonly were given in Venice’s Teatro S Giovanni tonight’s arias for Ariodante were originally Ristori, Lully and Rameau. encountered qualities help assure Handel’s Grisostomo over the winter of 1709–10, at sung by the castrato Giovanni Carestini, position as one of the greatest operatic which, according to Handel’s first biographer, famed for his ability in fast passagework, geniuses before Mozart. ‘the theatre, at almost every pause, but also for his strong acting ability. ‘Scherza resounded with shouts and exclamations infida’ comes from Act 2, where things The renaissance in recent decades of of ‘viva il caro Sassone!’ (‘long live the first begin to go wrong for Ariodante. In interest in staging Handel’s operas has dear Saxon!’). The story takes place in the moonlight in the palace garden, he has owed much to an increased appreciation ancient Rome, where the ambitious and been tricked by Polinesso into believing that

10 Programme Notes 11 January 2018 Texts / English translations by Kate Singleton Handel in Profile 1685–1759 / by Alison Bullock

Once in Hanover, however, he applied for 1 PENSIERI, VOI MI TORMENTATE leave to go to England, and spent most Pensieri, voi mi tormentate! O my thoughts, how you torment me! of the next few years in London, where Ciel, soccorri a miei di segni! Heavens, help me in my intent! his opera Rinaldo was produced in 1711. il mio figlio fà che regni, See to it that my son reigns, The same year he was also awarded a e voi Numi il secondate! support him in this, you gods! royal pension, and in 1714, after the death of Queen Anne, he found himself in the Quel ch’oprai è soggeto a gran perglio. What I have done is full of peril. service of his old master, now King. In Creduto Claudio estinto, a Narciso e a Pallante Believing Claudius dead to Narcissus and 1717 he entered the service of the soon- fidai troppo me stessa. Ottone ha merto, ed Pallas I confided more than was wise. Otho to-be Duke of Chandos. During the next ha Poppea coraggio, s’è scoperto l’inganno di has the ability, and Poppea the courage, to few years London heard some of his best riparar l’oltraggio. Mà fra tanti nemici a voi, repair the damage if the trick is discovered. works, including the operas Giulio Cesare frodi, or è tempo; deh non m’abbandonate; But surrounded by enemies, I must use all my and Rodelinda and music for the Chapel cunning; may it not forsake me. Royal. Handel became a British citizen in 1727 and he remained in London, putting 2 SCHERZA INFIDA andel was born Georg Friedrich on operas and writing music for King and Scherza infida in grembo al drudo, Faithless you revel in your lover’s arms, Händel in Halle, Germany, in 1685, court. He was nonetheless unsure of his io tradito a morte in braccio betrayed I succumb to death’s embrace the son of a barber-surgeon. His future, and after the first performance of his per tua colpa ora men vo. and you are the cause of this. father wanted him to become a lawyer, Messiah in Dublin in 1742 he concentrated on but after the young composer showed oratorios, all performed in English and often Mà a spezzar l’indegno laccio, But to cleave the wretched bond, musical aptitude (he practised in secret), including a concerto grosso performance in ombra mesta e spirto ignudo, a rueful shadow and bereaved spirit, he was allowed to study music formally. the interval. His performances of Messiah per tua pena io tornerò. I shall return to punish you. At 17 he was appointed organist of Halle became a regular feature of London life; in Cathedral, but the following year left for 1749 he composed his Music for the Royal 3 DOPO NOTTE Hamburg, where he played in the opera Fireworks, and in 1752 he composed his last Dopo notte, atra e funesta, After a dark, foreboding night, orchestra and, in 1704, had his first opera oratorio, the masterful Jephtha. While he splende in Ciel più vago il sole, more lovely the sun shines in the sky, Almira performed. In 1706 he was invited was writing this work, Handel became blind, e di gioja empie la terra; filling the earth with joy; to Italy, and several major Italian cities saw first in his left eye and then totally. He died performances of his works before he left in in 1759, and his funeral at Westminster Mentre in orrida tempesta In a raging storm 1710 for the court of the Elector of Hanover Abbey was attended by over 3000 people. • il mio legno è quasi assorto, my boat is almost submerged, (later King George I of England). giunge in porto, e’llido afferra. but on reaching the port, it fastens to land.

Programme Notes 11 Jean-Philippe Rameau Les Boréades – Suite 1763 / note by Lindsay Kemp

1 Ouverture — when his first opera,Hippolyte et Aricie, hit conducted it at the Aix-en-Provence 2 Menuet ‘No one knew as well as he how to the stage in 1733 to much hullabaloo. Some Festival, revealing it to have been a 3 Allegro devise an expressive dance, how listeners were delighted by the richness of great loss indeed, if nothing else for 4 Rondeau vif this music, by its imaginative scoring, daring the unflagging daring of the 80-year-old 5 Gavotte vive – Gavotte to summon up each in their turn harmonies and ravishing melodies, while composer’s orchestral imagination. 6 Contredanse en Rondeau a white procession of priestesses, others were appalled by the lack of regard for 7 Air andante et gracieux pour Orithie et a horde of demons, a tumult of ‘classical’ Lullian simplicity. There can be little The title refers to the fact that although ses compagnes doubt that the dances provided as much of the Queen of Bactria, Alphisa, must by 8 Entr’acte, suite des vents warriors, or the innocent, florid a talking-point as anything else, for where tradition marry a prince of the line of Boreas, 9 Entrée: Abaris, Polimnie, les Muses, games of shepherds.’ Lully’s examples had been polished and god of the North Wind, her true love is a Zephirs, Saisons Les Heures et les Arts — courtly, occasionally dramatic but uniformly foreigner named Abaris. She decides to 10 Gavotte pour le Heures et les Zéphirs scored and rarely melodically memorable, abdicate so that she can marry him, thereby 11 Rigaudons uch was the opinion of one 18th- Rameau’s were boldly tuneful, harmonically provoking Boreas to summon a storm and 12 Borée et choeur de vents souterrains century observer concerning the exciting and shot through with dazzling carry her away to his subterranean kingdom. 13 Contredanses tres vive dance movements of Rameau’s glints of orchestral colour. Rameau’s Attempts are made to rescue her, but the operas. Dance had played an important part subsequent operatic career – which included situation is only really resolved when Apollo in French opera ever since Lully more or less other musical-dramatic forms such as reveals that Abaris is his son by a nymph of created the genre of the tragédie lyrique • opéras-ballets, comédies-ballets and short the line of Boreas, and therefore eligible to in the 1670s, and Rameau, though regarded actes de ballets as well as further tragédies marry Alphisa after all. in some ways as an operatic radical, had for the court and the public stage – brought no intention of reducing it. Like Lully’s, his forth dozens more of these superb dances, The orchestral numbers in tonight’s suite are operas are full of set-piece divertissements, and it is no surprise that his popularity today presented in the order in which they come celebrations and colourful entrances, all is thanks in no small part to performances in the opera. The grand Ouverture in three of which provided ample opportunities for of orchestral suites drawn from the operas. sections (Ouverture – Menuet – Allegro) has the corps de ballet to show their artistry. prominent parts for horns reflecting the Indeed, we can be sure that there were many Les Boréades was Rameau’s last full-scale fact the action is about to open in a hunting audience-members who came to the opera five-act tragédie, though he himself never scene. The light and graceful Rondeau vif primarily to watch the dancing. saw it on to the stage; for some reason and two Gavottes are from an entertainment rehearsals in 1763 were halted, and when created for Alphisa by one of her two Borean It was this milieu that the 51-old Rameau, the composer died the following year it suitors, to which the Contredanse en hitherto known mainly as a keyboard-player was shelved. Its first full production had to rondeau is the rousingly exciting conclusion. and somewhat dogged theorist, entered wait until 1982 when Sir John Eliot Gardiner

12 Programme Notes 11 January 2018 Rameau in Profile 1683–1764 / by Lindsay Kemp

The loping Air andante et gracieux for Oritheia • TRAGÉDIE LYRIQUE It drew instant acclaim for the 50-year-old and her companions comes from Act 2, where composer, as well as controversy for the way it initiates another set-piece ballet sequence, The genre of tragédie lyrique, also known he had taken the classic French tragédie this time one that will re-enact the historical as a tragédie en musique, was popularised form devised some 60 years earlier by abduction of the Athenian princess Oritheia by during the second half of the 18th century Lully to a new level of complexity. Rameau Boreas. The Entr’acte ‘Suite des vents’ is from following its introduction by Jean-Baptiste lived out the rest of his life as a figure of the end of Act 3, in the aftermath of Boreas’ Lully. While Italian opera of the day was considerable eminence, dividing his time stormy, here-and-now abduction of Alphisa. developing into the opera seria style, with between some 30 more works for the stage its alternating recitative and da capo arias, and further theoretical writings. Act 4 brings one of the loveliest of all Lully focused on the dramatic elements of Rameau’s orchestral compositions in the each work, which were expressed in a variety One of the greatest composers of the Entrée, the entrance of Polyhymnia, muse of vocal forms. Baroque era, Rameau has long been familiar of song and mime, along with the other to harpsichordists, but the last half-century muses and a host of other divinities. This is Operas in this genre were usually based has seen him increasingly appreciated by the point in the opera when, with Apollo’s on stories from Classical mythology or musicians and listeners alike for all areas aid, Abaris’ struggle to win Alphisa takes the Italian Romantic epics of Tasso and ean-Philippe Rameau was born in of his output. The ever more frequent a turn for the better, and Rameau’s music Ariosto. Contrary to the genre’s name, Dijon in 1683, the son of a church performances of his stage-works have for Polyhymnia is both suitably cathartic these narratives did not demand a tragic organist. After a period of study won the highest admiration; in addition and fittingly eloquent in its rich harmonies ending, but did require an atmosphere of in Italy during his teens, he spent 20 years to their expressive power and dramatic and meltingly exquisite writing for bassoon. nobility and refinement. They were typically as an organist in Clermont, Dijon and Lyon effectiveness, their unfailing tunefulness The charming Gavottes pour les Heures arranged into five acts, each following a before moving to Paris in 1722, where over and colourful orchestration have endeared et les Zéphirs, in which the muses conjure basic pattern which begins with an aria the next decade he published a number of them to audiences, and suites of dances both the sound of a clock and the embrace from one of the main characters followed boldly original harpsichord pieces as well as drawn from them now make frequent of a warm wind, follows soon after along by recitative dialogue intermingled with his Traité de l’harmonie, the composition appearances in concerts of Baroque with the exotic Rigaudons. There is a highly short arias and traditionally ending with a treatise which made his initial fame as a orchestral music. • imaginative example of tone-painting at the divertissement, a short ballet displaying the writer on, rather than of, music. beginning of Act 5 as disjointed scraps of technical dance skills of the company. melody evoke the last exhausted gasps of Yet all this time he had been itching to the subterranean winds that signal Boreas’ compose operas, and finally, following an race is run, and finally, after the story has encounter with the playwright Pellegrin, reached its happy conclusion, the opera his first full-scale opera, Hippolyte et Aricie, concludes with another joyous Contredanse. • was premiered at the Paris Opéra in 1733.

Programme Notes 13 Sir Simon Rattle conductor

ir Simon Rattle was born in has broken new ground with the education London, Europe and the US, initially working Liverpool and studied at the programme Zukunft@Bphil, earning closely with the Royal Academy of Music. the Comenius Prize in 2004, the Schiller Orchestra and Boston Symphony Orchestra, Special Prize from the city of Mannheim and more recently with the Philadelphia From 1980 to 1998, Sir Simon was Principal in May 2005, the Golden Camera and the Orchestra. He regularly conducts the Vienna Conductor and Artistic Adviser of the City of Urania Medal in Spring 2007. He and the Philharmonic, with which he has recorded Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and was Berlin Philharmonic were also appointed the complete Beethoven symphonies and appointed Music Director in 1990. In 2002 International UNICEF Ambassadors in the piano concertos (with Alfred Brendel) and is he took up his current position of Artistic same year – the first time this honour has also a Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Director and Chief Conductor of the Berlin been conferred on an artistic ensemble. Age of Enlightenment and Founding Patron Philharmonic where he will remain until of Birmingham Contemporary Music Group. 2018. In September 2017 he became Music In 2013, Sir Simon and the Berlin Philharmonic Director of the London Symphony Orchestra. took up a residency at the Baden-Baden In September 2017, Sir Simon opened his Osterfestspiele performing Mozart’s The first season as Music Director of the London Sir Simon has made over 70 recordings Magic Flute. Past seasons have included Symphony Orchestra with a programme of for EMI (now Warner Classics), and has Puccini’s Manon Lescaut and Peter Sellars’ British music, a concert performance of received numerous prestigious international ritualisation of Bach’s St John Passion, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, and the awards for his recordings on various labels. Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier, Berlioz’s The Stravinsky ballets. In November, he toured Releases on EMI include Stravinsky’s Damnation of Faust and Wagner’s Tristan Asia with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Symphony of Psalms, Berlioz’s Symphonie and Isolde. For the Salzburg Osterfestspiele with soloists Yuja Wang and Seong-Jin Cho. fantastique, Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges, Rattle conducted staged productions of The rest of the 2017/18 season will take Tchaikovsky’s The Nutcracker Suite and Beethoven’s Fidelio, Mozart’s Così fan Sir Simon on a European and US tour with Mahler’s Symphony No 2. Sir Simon’s tutte, Britten’s Peter Grimes and Debussy’s the LSO, to Munich with the Bayerische most recently released recordings in 2017 Pelléas et Mélisande. He also conducted Rundfunk Orchestra, and he will return to (Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Ravel, Wagner’s complete Ring Cycle with the Baden-Baden with the Berlin Philharmonic Dutilleux and Delage on Blu-Ray and DVD) Berlin Philharmonic for the Aix-en-Provence for a production of Wagner’s Parsifal. were released on LSO Live. Festival and Salzburg Osterfestspiele and most recently at the Deutsche Oper, Berlin Sir Simon Rattle was knighted in 1994 and in As well as fulfilling a taxing concert schedule and the Wiener Staatsoper. the 2014 New Year’s Honours he received the in Berlin, Sir Simon regularly tours within Order of Merit from Her Majesty the Queen. • Europe, North America and Asia. His Sir Simon has strong, long-standing partnership with the Berlin Philharmonic relationships with the leading orchestras in

14 Artist Biographies 11 January 2018 Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano

agdalena Kožená was born in the Sir Charles Mackerras and Sir Roger Figaro and has since been a regular guest. Czech city of Brno and studied Norrington. Her list of distinguished recital She sang Zerlina for the company’s tour voice and piano at the Brno partners includes the pianists Daniel to Japan in 2006 and returned to New York Conservatory and later with Eva Bláhová Barenboim, Yefim Bronfman, Malcolm to take the title-role in Jonathan Miller’s at Bratislava’s Academy of Performing Martineau, András Schiff and Mitsuko production of Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande Arts. She has been awarded several major Uchida, with whom she has performed in 2010/11. Her opera credits also include prizes both in the Czech Republic and at such prestigious venues as Carnegie Angelina in Rossini’s La Cenerentola (Royal internationally, culminating in the Sixth Hall, Wigmore Hall, Alice Tully Hall, the Opera House, 2007), Oktavian in Richard International Mozart Competition in Concertgebouw Amsterdam, and at Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier (Staatsoper Salzburg in 1995. the Aldeburgh, Edinburgh and Salzburg Berlin 2009 and Osterfestspiele Baden festivals. Magdalena’s understanding of Baden 2015), the title-role in Bizet’s Carmen She was signed by Deutsche Grammophon historical performance practices has been (Osterfestspiele and Sommerfestspiele in 1999 and immediately released her first cultivated in collaboration with outstanding Salzburg 2012), Charpentier’s Médée album of Bach arias on its Archiv label. Her period-instrument ensembles, including (Theater Basel 2015) and Martinů’s Juliette recital debut recording, an album of songs the English Baroque Soloists, the Gabrieli (Staatsoper Berlin 2016). by Dvořák, Janáček and Martinů, appeared Consort and Players, Il Giardino Armonico, on Deutsche Grammophon’s Yellow Label in Les Musiciens du Louvre, the Orchestra of In the autumn of 2017, Magdalena joined 2001 and was honoured with Gramophone’s the Age of Enlightenment, Venice Baroque dancer Antonio El Pipa, the Compañía Solo Vocal Award. She was named Artist of Orchestra and Le Concert d’Astrée. She de Flamenco and Baroque ensemble the Year by Gramophone in 2004 and has is also in demand as soloist with the Private Musicke, for a new collaborative won numerous other awards since, including Berlin, Vienna and Czech Philharmonics performance piece entwining the roots of the Echo Award, Record Academy Prize, and the Cleveland, Philadelphia and Royal raw flamenco with the music of the Spanish Tokyo, and Diapason d’or. In 2017 she began Concertgebouw Orchestras. Baroque era. In 2018 Magdalena will embark a long-term relationship with Dutch classical on tours with the LSO, Bayerische Rundfunk, music label Pentatone, with whom she plans Magdalena first performed at the Salzburg le Concert d’Astreé under the direction of to release an album in 2018. Festival in 2002 as Zerlina in Mozart’s Don Emmanuelle Haim, and La Cetra Basel with Giovanni and returned in 2013 as Idamante, a conductor Andrea Marcon. • Magdalena has worked with many of the role she has also sung for the Glyndebourne world’s leading conductors: Claudio Abbado, Festival and in Berlin and Lucerne. Pierre Boulez, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir John Magdalena made her first appearance at Eliot Gardiner, Bernard Haitink, Nikolaus New York’s Metropolitan Opera in 2003 Harnoncourt, Mariss Jansons, James Levine, as Cherubino in Mozart’s The Marriage of

Artist Biographies 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Violas Flutes Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Andrew Haveron Edward Vanderspar Gareth Davies Timothy Jones Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Gillianne Haddow Alex Jakeman Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Malcolm Johnston Benjamin Jacks Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Carmine Lauri Lander Echevarria Piccolo Jonathan Lipton Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Lennox Mackenzie Julia O'Riordan Sharon Williams David Jackson work experience by playing in rehearsals Ginette Decuyper Robert Turner Trumpets and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Gerald Gregory Heather Wallington Oboes David Elton Harp are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Maxine Kwok-Adams Jonathan Welch Olivier Stankiewicz Gerald Ruddock Bryn Lewis (additional to LSO members) and receive Elizabeth Pigram Juliana Koch fees for their work in line with LSO section Claire Parfitt Cellos Rosie Jenkins Trombones Piano & Celeste players. The Scheme is supported by The Laurent Quenelle Tim Hugh Peter Moore Elizabeth Burley Polonsky Foundation, Lord and Lady Lurgan Harriet Rayfield Alastair Blayden Cor Anglais James Maynard Trust, Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Sylvain Vasseur Jennifer Brown Christine Pendrill Harpsichord and The Thistle Trust. Rhys Watkins Noel Bradshaw Bass Trombone James Johnstone Daniel Gardner Clarinets Paul Milner Second Violins Hilary Jones Andrew Marriner David Alberman Chris Richards Tuba Thomas Norris Double Basses Peter Sparks Alberto Azzolini Miya Väisänen Colin Paris David Ballesteros Patrick Laurence Bassoons Matthew Gardner Matthew Gibson Rachel Gough Editor Julian Gil Rodriguez Joe Melvin Daniel Jemison Edward Appleyard | [email protected] Belinda McFarlane Jani Pensola Joost Bosdijk Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] William Melvin Editorial Photography Iwona Muszynska Contra Bassoon Ranald Mackechnie, Örjan Jakobsson, Paul Robson Dominic Morgan Oleg Rostovtsev, Oliver Helbig Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

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16 The Orchestra 11 January 2018