PROKOFIEV VIOLIN CONCERTO NO. 1 SYMPHONY NO. 3 RÊVES ALEXANDER LAZAREV conductor violin SIMON CALLOW narrator LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The First World War and its aftermath played I represented in the past and what I have now havoc with the hopes and dreams of the young become.’ Prokofiev. Up to 1915, his path seemed easy and assured: from the creation of snappy piano Perhaps Prokofiev did not revise the miniatures and an early symphony in 1908 to work simply because it represents that the one-act ballet commissioned by Diaghilev impressionistic, late-romantic vein so well, and several weeks before war broke out, all went because the orchestration – including triple well. It was with incredible confidence, not woodwind, six horns and two harps – is, for to say clairvoyance, that Prokofiev declared in the piece in question, unimprovable. In his that year, ‘I am in no doubt that given time my autobiography, hardly less blunt than the more classic status will be beyond contention’. immediate 1927 diary, Prokofiev admits that the dedication of Dreams to Scriabin – clearly Undeniably true, but Prokofiev was destined there in the manuscripts to ‘the composer who to see many important projects fall by the began with Reverie’ – shows more resolve to wayside, productions cancelled – including the follow in the footsteps of his then-idol than original operatic settings of Dostoyevsky’s The the music itself. Indeed, the obsessive opening Gambler and Bryusov’s , stalling figurations on muted second violas and violins over which led him to rework the material into bring us closer to a work he mentions in his third symphony – and much else turn to connection with Autumnal, Rachmaninoff’s dust and ashes in the years following his return haunting The Isle of the Dead. The two melodic to the in 1936. Back in 1911, ideas are suggestive and atmospheric rather however, he had everything to hope for. Rêves than expansive, and there are two rich (Dreams) was one of the few works he did not climaxes, restrained in comparison to Scriabin subsequently revise, unlike its more sombre who made such a powerful impact on the companion-piece Autumnal. In 1927 Konstantin adolescent Prokofiev and his fellow students, Sarazhev, the conductor responsible for its but effective none the less; after the first, initial success in May 1911, resurrected Dreams earlier dreams resurface in their original form during Prokofiev’s first visit to what was now and after the second the music returns to its the Soviet Union. Describing it in his diary as hypnotic starting point. ‘sweet, gentle, rather soporific’, the composer observed: ‘if my style has changed now, so Having anticipated conducting Dreams himself much the better: everybody will see what in August 1913, when in fact he only played the solo role in his First Piano Concerto – and Braving a difficult journey through war-torn after sketching ‘a beautiful, tender theme’ Europe in 1915, Prokofiev met up again with for an intended Violin Concertino, Prokofiev Diaghilev, his new young lover the dancer set off for , – where, inter alia, he and choreographer Leonide Massine and – saw the ’ Petrushka (though not eventually – Stravinsky to discuss a different the new sensation of the season, The Rite of theme. This was to give a novel twist on Spring) – and London, where he witnessed the sadism inflicted on Stravinsky’s puppet Diaghilev’s selective version of Mussorgsky’s Petrushka. A fantastical, desensitised reflection Boris Godunov orchestrated by Rimsky-Korsakov of the Russian capacity for wife-battering, with Chaliapin in the title role. One year later so unflinchingly depicted in Maxim Gorky’s he finally met the great impresario in London, autobiographical writings, Chout (The Buffoon) first for lunch and a play-through including his is a vivid tale drawn from Alexander Afanasyev’s Second Piano Concerto which ‘sent him into comprehensive folk-tale collection, with plenty ecstasies,’ according to the 1914 diary, then of scope for laughter at its ingenious savagery. a second meeting at the Cecil Hotel where Diaghilev wondered if the Concerto might be The voluminous ballet score starts with what choreographed, and finally at the Savoy. This Prokofiev described as ‘whirring and rattling… time Diaghilev recommended meeting up with as if dust were being wiped off the orchestra ‘a proper Russian writer, [Sergey] Gorodetsky, at the beginning of the performance’. Curtain for example’ when Prokofiev returned to up: enter the buffoon and his wife, sidling on St Petersburg. with a sinuous, -meets-the-east melody on solo wind against a seething chromatic The result, Ala and Lolly, based on a tale of backdrop typical of Prokofiev’s style in the Russian’s primitive ancestors, was too close 1920s; the buffoon explains his plan and they to the world of The Rite of Spring for comfort; execute a spangled victory dance complete Diaghilev never cared for repetition of a with brilliant orchestral chuckles. Seven other successful formula. Much of the music was buffoons appear in a garish wash of orchestral repackaged into the , which colour to watch a pantomime they take for real; was something of a succès de scandale at its the buffoon and his wife argue in discordant concert premiere in the summer concert hall of Scythian style, he strikes her supposedly Pavlovsky outside St Petersburg. dead at the height of the brassy discords and resurrects her with his ‘magic’ whip to a mysterious weave of clarinets. The dupes take Brass discords hail the arrival of the merchant, counsel, buy the whip and clear the stage for a true Russian to judge from his singing theme, the conspirators to rejoice in their good luck. which is subjected to ever thicker orchestration as he falls in love, not with any of the Another densely supported melody with daughters, but with the cook. Brassy violence oriental inflections introduces us to the home then reaches its apogee as the unsuccessful of the seven buffoons. Their waiting wives are would-be-brides are soundly thrashed. altogether more delicate, but the brutes are back and a sharp-edged fugato on the scene’s The longest of the interludes makes no opening melody leads to a shrill repetition of return to the opening mockery, but instead the first wife-murder – this time for real. glides serenely into the merchant’s bedroom, There are wry hints of the charlatan’s music where he serenades his new love on the from Petrushka as the buffoons vainly ply the wedding-night; the buffoon’s embarrassment whip (an upward flick of piccolo and piano). is represented by a pecking motif on cor A frantic, whirling reapplication of the whip anglais and morbid trumpets, resulting in the achieves nothing and the buffoons mourn oddest of love duets. The merchant lets his the most feminine of the wives’ themes in an quacking, indisposed ‘bride’ down from the Andante lugubre. Back at buffoon No. 1’s house bedroom window in a sheet; but his sweet there is panic – with a rare touch of metrical dreams are shattered by what comes back up: variety – before the vengeful seven return. The a goat – witchcraft! Panic breaks out on violins uproar cuts short as the buffoon reappears playing sul ponticello (close to the bridge of the disguised as his own sister. The buffoons instrument); the servants arrive and shake the interrogate the ‘sister’ (trumpets) and despite goat with Scythian chanting, culminating in an her plangent protests, carry her off to be their orchestral orgy. cook. The transformed ‘wife’ dies, mourned by A stately oriental melody with glittering interlude meditations on the first buffoon’s accompaniment – the tuba hints at lurking theme and buried in a ritual which evokes brutality – finds the buffoons awaiting a rich that of Stravinsky’s ancestors in The Rite of merchant who has come to choose a bride from Spring without actually parodying it. The their seven daughters; the daughters spin like poor merchant is savagely mocked by the tops in a vivace nimbly launched by strings. thwarted buffoons, and there is militaristic uproar as the protagonist reappears as himself Arguably it was the limpid purity of Russia’s in the company of seven soldiers, stomping eastern rivers that found its way in to the his demands of compensation for his dead orchestration of the First Violin Concerto. ‘sister’. Then having authoritatively dismissed The river trip was a holiday that Prokofiev the the merchant in a heavy brass variation of careful Soviet autobiographer would be at his main motif, he flips back into clownish pains to pass over. A detour took him as far mood with a sprightly dance-tune on solo east as the foot of the Ural mountains, where violin, complemented by an even simpler ditty he described the scenery as ‘wild, virginal brightly proposed by the three clarinets; and so and exceptionally beautiful, with its red this often grotesquely-scored tale ends in a riot mountainous shores covered in dark Siberian of high spirits. pines’. The more aggressive vein he thought Diaghilev would want for his ballet score had A gentler mode frames the First Violin Concerto, made him ‘cool towards the lyricism of my surely that concertino theme of spring 1913. Violin Concerto’. So only its aggressive scherzo It was, however, against the background of took any kind of shape before the nature-idylls 1917’s February Revolution that work on the of 1917. Concerto finally blossomed. ‘How could it have happened that he did not hear the true music Years of displacement and uncertainty of the Revolution?’ asks Prokofiev’s dutiful intervened before the Concerto’s first Soviet biographer, Israel Nestyev. It happened performance in Paris on 18 October 1923, because the young composer spent very little with the 18-year-old leader of Koussevitzky’s time in the cities during the turbulent months orchestra, Marcel Darrieux as soloist. leading up to the yet more crucial events that ‘Now, to be sure, I’d do a lot of it very October. Both the ‘Classical’ Symphony and the differently’, Prokofiev told another settler in First Violin Concerto, alongside a new-found Paris, the musicologist Pyotr Souvchinsky. Pure passion for astronomy, occupied his calm song for the soloist at the very beginning of thoughts in the country so near to a turbulent a violin concerto was certainly nothing new, Petrograd, and yet so far from its unquiet spirit and the Parisian audience looked down its (he had, admittedly, toyed with the Concerto nose at one possible source, the Mendelssohn while shooting carried on beneath his window Concerto, though the start of the Sibelius in the city that February). Concerto is an equally plausible influence. Between the fugitive visions of the outer movements, the scherzo - the movement Venice two years later. Bruno Walter cancelled he liked best in 1923 - runs wild with every plans for the first performance in the Berlin conceivable violinistic effect: pizzicato, State ’s 1927-28 season on the grounds harmonics, spiccato (or staccato bowing) and that the parts were received too late, but sul ponticello against equally resourceful as Prokofiev angrily pointed out, he could orchestration. The affecting elaborations of have re-scheduled it; more likely the sober- clarinet and flute in the final vision were added minded Walter was scared off either by the in 1924 after early performances, Prokofiev devilish subject-matter or by the vocal and told Myaskovsky, ‘because without some dramatic difficulties. In the meantime, the sort of divertissement like that it sounded ever-supportive Serge Koussevitzky included dreadfully like the overture [Wagner’s Prelude] a sequence from the opera in one of his Paris to Lohengrin’. concerts in June 1928 and Prokofiev went about salvaging what material he could in Very little in his infernal opera of the 1920s The what was to have been a suite but developed Fiery Angel could be accused of the Lohengrin into a symphony. touch. As the old Russian proverb runs, ‘you can’t drive straight on a twisting lane’, and it Perhaps to please the Soviet authorities in his was not Prokofiev’s fault if few of his 1941 autobiography, Prokofiev disassociated had an easy journey from completion to the symphony’s subject matter from its suspect realisation. The Fiery Angel fared worse than operatic source. Several of its themes originated most. This evil-smelling brew, which occupied in 1918 sketches for a string quartet and are him for much of the iconoclastic 1920s, stood purely diatonic in character (in other words, little chance of being tolerated in Soviet Russia they could be played on the white notes of the – especially since its source was a thorny, piano). Much of the spine-tingling fascination densely-written novel of demonic possession by of The Fiery Angel, however, comes from the the ‘decadent’ Russian symbolist writer Valery way in which they are embedded in dense, Bryusov. malignant textures, and Prokofiev makes no attempt to free them from that context in the In the west, The Fiery Angel was only tentatively Symphony. established in the months and years after the composer’s death in 1953, with a concert The orchestra’s symphonic supremacy in the performance in Paris and a production in opera gives Prokofiev the cue for his climaxes here, though there is plenty of re-ordering. cloistered calm in the opera, where the heroine For instance the opera’s furthest point of seems to have found peace in a monastery; development, the overwhelming Act Three there, as here, it soon becomes clouded with interlude during which the knight Ruprecht ominous rhythms in the bass and weird violin rushes off to fight the human embodiment of glissandi. Then comes that answer in the Allegro tormented heroine Renata’s ‘Fiery Angel’ and agitato: a whirlwind of devilish activity that the diverse obsessive themes battle to the collapses in a meandering heap of skeetering death, is also the first-movement development strings, divided into thirteen parts. Only a firm of the Symphony; but it is plausibly linked to incantation, based on the Symphony’s opening the movement’s outer panels. A clamour of music of possession, can bring it to a halt; alarm bells introduces the frightening repeated a warmer pause for reflection, drawn from figure of Renata’s supposed possession – we Renata’s warped hymn of love for the wounded never do discover whether it is real or imagined Ruprecht in Act Three, is soon disturbed by – against the ominous brass chant used, in supernatural knockings, which now accompany the name of a dubious religion, to ward it off. the slithery return of the scherzo proper. The The ‘white-note’ theme of Renata’s love for final, dissonant turn of the screw comes from her ‘angel’ and the baser metal of Ruprecht’s the brass; it is also the ending of the opera. passion, ushered in by bassoon, follow in passionate suit. Their lightly scored return After that, it might have been difficult for after the central thrash is spellbinding: the Prokofiev to know where to turn. The Third first newly innocent and vulnerable (from the Symphony’s solution lies in the noisiest opera’s last act, where Renata begins to seem cabbalistic invocation of the opera, the Act Two more sinned against than sinning), the other interlude that prefaces Ruprecht’s interview softly ensnared in the possession-music before with a disingenuous necromancer and which the theme of Ruprecht as knight – so virile in also returns briefly at the climax of Act Five. the development, so drained now – sinks to the Prokofiev contents himself with a central depths on contrabassoon. interlude of further anticipation and rancid atmosphere; yet for all its brevity, the finale The central movements fit together well. of the Third Symphony keeps us in thrall, hair- The Andante hovers in uneasy anticipation of raising to the last. things to come. Its Russian-sounding opening on muted lower strings is a rare moment of Programme notes © David Nice ALEXANDER LAZAREV conductor

Alexander Lazarev and from 1997 to 2005 Principal Conductor is one of Russia’s of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra foremost conductors. where his conducting of the complete cycle He studied with Leo of Shostakovich symphonies was a high Ginsbourg at the point of his tenure. From 2008 – 2016 he was Conservatory Principal Conductor of the Japan Philharmonic and in 1971 won first Orchestra and now holds the position of prize in the Soviet Conductor Laureate. With them he has Union’s national recorded complete cycles of the symphonies of competition for conductors. The following year Prokofiev, Rachmaninov and Shostakovich. he went on to win first prize and gold medal at Other orchestras he has conducted the Karajan Competition in Berlin. include the Berlin Philharmonic, Munich From 1987 to 1995 Lazarev was Chief Philharmonic, Bavarian Radio Symphony, Royal Conductor and Artistic Director of the Bolshoi Concertgebouw, Orchestra Filarmonica della Theatre, the first person for over thirty Scala, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale years to hold both positions concurrently. di Santa Cecilia, Orchestre National de His leadership marked a period of intensive France, NHK Symphony, Cleveland Orchestra, activity with the Bolshoi Opera undertaking Philharmonia and London Philharmonic an unprecedented programme of prestigious orchestras, and he has appeared with opera foreign tours including Tokyo (1989), La Scala, companies such as the Théâtre Royal de la Milan (1989), the Edinburgh Festival (1990 Monnaie, Arena di Verona, Opéra Bastille, and 1991) and the Metropolitan Opera in Grand Théâtre de Genève, Bavarian State Opera New York (1991). Several of the Theatre’s most and Netherlands Opera. successful productions including Glinka’s A Life for the Tsar, Tchaikovsky’s The Maid of Orleans and Rimsky-Korsakov’s Mlada were recorded for DVD.

From 1992 to 1995 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, VADIM REPIN violin

Siberian-born sonatas with Nikolai Lugansky, winning the BBC Vadim Repin won Music Award. His partnership with the Bolshoi the Wienawski and La Scala prima ballerina Svetlana Zakharova Competition’s gold in their ‘Pas de Deux’ programme has been medal and gave debuts internationally acclaimed for its remarkable in Moscow and St combination of music and dance. Petersburg at age 11, followed by Tokyo, In 2010 he received the Victoire d’Honneur, © Gela Megrelidze Munich, Berlin, Helsinki France’s most prestigious musical award for and Carnegie Hall. At only 17 he was the a lifetime’s dedication to music, and became youngest ever winner of the Queen Elisabeth Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres. In 2014 Competition. Since then he has performed with he became Honorary Professor at the Beijing the world’s greatest orchestras and conductors. Central Conservatory of Music, and in 2015 at the Shanghai Conservatory, in recognition of Among the highlights of his career in the past his work with young musicians. His acclaimed few seasons have been tours with the London Transsiberian Arts Festival has annually since Symphony Orchestra and , the 2014 brought exceptional music to his home NHK Orchestra and Dutoit; a tour of Australia region, including new commissions from Lera with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Auerbach, Mark-Anthony Turnage and Sofia Vladimir Jurowski, and acclaimed premières Gubaidulina, and has reached out to Israel, in London, Philadelphia, New York’s Carnegie Korea, the USA, Japan and other destinations. Hall, the Salle Pleyel in Paris and Amsterdam’s He currently plays on the 1733 Stradivarius Concertgebouw of the violin concerto written ‘Rode’ violin. for him by Sir James MacMillan, culminating in a BBC Prom at the Royal Albert Hall.

Vadim Repin recorded concerti by Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky on Warner Classics, Beethoven and Brahms on Deutsche Grammophon, trios with and Lang Lang (winning the Echo Classic) and SIMON CALLOW narrator

Simon Callow is He has written biographies of Oscar Wilde, an actor, author Charles Laughton and Charles Dickens, and and director. three autobiographical books: Being An Actor, He studied Love Is Where It Falls, and My Life in Pieces. at Queen’s The third volume of his massive Orson Welles University, Belfast, biography, One Man Band, appeared in 2016; and then trained Being Wagner: The Triumph of the Will, a short as an actor at the biography of Wagner, was published last year. Drama Centre in London. He joined Music is his great passion, and he has the National made many appearances with the London Theatre in 1979, Philharmonic Orchestra, the London Symphony where he created Orchestra and the London Mozart Players. the role of Mozart in Peter Shaffer’sAmadeus . His many one-man shows include The Mystery of Charles Dickens, Being Shakespeare, A Christmas Carol, Inside Wagner’s Head, Juvenalia, The Man Jesus and Tuesday at Tesco’s.

He has appeared in many films including A Room with a View, Four Weddings and a Funeral, Shakespeare in Love, Phantom of the Opera, The Man Who Invented Christmas and Victoria & Abdul.

He directed Shirley Valentine in the West End and on Broadway, Single Spies at the NT and Carmen Jones at the Old Vic, as well as the film of The Ballad of the Sad Café. LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has and distinguished history with its present- been Resident Orchestra since 1992, giving day position as one of the most dynamic and around 30 concerts a season. Each summer it forward-looking ensembles in the UK. This takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne reputation has been secured by the Orchestra’s Festival Opera where it has been Resident performances in the concert hall and opera Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The house, its many award-winning recordings, Orchestra performs at venues around the UK trail-blazing international tours and wide- and has made numerous international tours, ranging educational work. performing to sell-out audiences in America, Europe, Asia and Australasia. Founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, the Orchestra has since been headed by many of The London Philharmonic Orchestra made its the world’s greatest conductors, including first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg days after its first public performance. It has Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and . recorded and broadcast regularly ever since, Vladimir Jurowski was appointed the and in 2005 established its own record label. Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor in March These recordings are taken mainly from live 2003, and became Principal Conductor in concerts given by conductors including LPO September 2007. Principal Conductors from Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Solti and Tennstedt, to Masur and Jurowski. lpo.org.uk

© Benjamin Ealovega / Drew Kelley SERGEI PROKOFIEV (1891–1953) CD1 55:49

20:42 Violin Concerto No. 1 in D 01 08:54 I. Andantino 02 03:28 II. Scherzo: Vivacissimo 03 08:13 III. Moderato

35:07 Symphony No. 3 in C minor 04 13:26 I. Moderato 05 06:38 II. Andante 06 08:07 III. Allegro agitato 07 06:41 IV. Andante mosso - Allegro moderato

CD2 60:41

49:52 Chout (The Buffoon) 01 10:07 Scene I: The Buffoon and his Wife 02 02:21 Entr’acte I 03 06:21 Scene II: The Seven Buffoons 04 02:40 Entr’acte II 05 04:19 Scene III: The Buffoon’s Courtyard 06 01:51 Entr’acte III ALEXANDER LAZAREV conductor 07 06:07 Scene IV: The Buffoon’s Sitting Room VADIM REPIN violin 08 03:05 Entr’acte IV SIMON CALLOW narrator 09 05:30 Scene V: The Merchant’s Bedroom LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA 10 01:02 Entr’acte V Joakim Svenheden leader 11 06:30 Scene VI: The Merchant’s Garden Recorded live at Southbank Centre’s 12 10:44 Rêves (Dreams) ROYAL FESTIVAL HALL, London

LPO – 0107