Sunday 16 June 2019 7–9pm Barbican

LSO SEASON CONCERT ARTIST PORTRAIT: DANIIL TRIFONOV

Beethoven Overture: Egmont Shostakovich Concerto No 1 for HAROLD Piano, Trumpet and Strings Interval Berlioz Harold in Italy *

Gianandrea Noseda conductor Daniil Trifonov piano Philip Cobb trumpet IN ITALY Antoine Tamestit viola * Welcome Latest News On our Blog

After the interval, Antoine Tamestit joins BMW CLASSICS IN TRAFALGAR SQUARE DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY GROUP: the Orchestra as viola soloist in Berlioz’s WORKS IN PROGRESS Harold in Italy, a work originally written for On 30 June, the LSO takes over Trafalgar violin and viola virtuoso Niccolò Paganini. Square as Sir Simon Rattle conducts a This month’s LSO Discovery Showcase, This four-movement symphony is inspired dance-inspired programme of music by ‘One Night, One Thousand and One by a poem by Lord Byron, describing Childe Dvořák, Poulenc, Ravel and Bushra El-Turk. Stories’, featured pieces for electronics, Harold’s pilgrimage through Italy. This There will also be performances by young live performance and video presented concert forms part of Berlioz 150, as we musicians from the LSO On Track scheme in by Ife Olalusi and Ken Burnett, members celebrate the composer’s life and music East London and from the Guildhall School. of the LSO Digital Technology Group. across 2019, marking 150 years since We spoke to Ken and Ife about their Berlioz’s death. inspirations and influences, and how elcome to tonight’s LSO concert LSO AT THE BBC PROMS 2019 they produced music for the concert. at the Barbican conducted by A very warm welcome to the retired LSO Gianandrea Noseda. Pianist Daniil players who join us tonight for their annual The LSO and a 300-strong choir perform Trifonov makes the final appearance in his reunion. It is always a pleasure to see LSO Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast on Tuesday ‘TO BE SOMEONE ELSE IS A BATTLE’ LSO Artist Portrait series of 2018/19, and members from years gone by, and I am 20 August at the BBC Proms, conducted passes on the torch to viola player Antoine delighted that they have this opportunity by Sir Simon Rattle. The programme also LSO Jerwood Composer+ Amir Konjani Tamestit for next season’s LSO Artist to hear today’s Orchestra perform. includes Varèse’s Amériques and French discusses To Be Someone Else is a Battle Portrait, which will bring together some of composer Charles Koechlin’s Les bandar-log. at LSO St Luke’s, his first event of the the most beautiful and innovative music I hope that you enjoy the concert and that we 16-month LSO Jerwood Composer+ Scheme, composed for viola, and showcase the full will see you again soon. Later this month, sharing thoughts on art, artists and how range of Antoine Tamestit’s artistry. the LSO performs Janáček’s The Cunning WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS he created his immersive installation. Little Vixen in a semi-staged production This evening’s concert begins with conducted by Sir Simon Rattle and directed We are delighted to welcome Beethoven’s Egmont Overture, followed by Peter Sellars. Jelena Nehodova and friends Read these articles and more by Shostakovich’s Concerto No 1 for who join us in the audience tonight. • lso.co.uk/blog Piano, Trumpet and Strings. The LSO is delighted to welcome LSO Principal Please ensure all phones are switched off. Trumpet Philip Cobb to perform as soloist Photography and audio/video recording alongside Daniil Trifonov in this piece. are not permitted during the performance. Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Managing Director

2 Welcome 16 June 2019 Tonight’s Concert In Brief Daniil Trifonov In Conversation

oethe’s Egmont is a play that PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTORS Scriabin’s ‘Poem of Ecstasy’ … mixes romance and political That’s the piece which started my love for intrigue with an overarching fight David Cairns won the biography category . I was already playing the for freedom, and Beethoven’s Egmont of the Whitbread Prize and the Samuel piano when I first heard it. Once I did, I had Overture captures all the drive, heroism Johnson Prize for Non-Fiction for his Scriabin fever! I think that for the next five and exuberance of the story. The music second volume biography on Berlioz: years I played more than half of the piano enacts a struggle between fear and youthful Servitude and Greatness. music that Scriabin wrote. ambition, culminating with a silence that represents Egmont’s execution, followed by Andrew Huth is a musician, writer and What do you do in your downtime? a heady and rousing ‘Victory Symphony’. translator who writes extensively on French, I really enjoy hiking and walking. Especially Russian and Eastern European music. in the mountains. I like to do long trips, say Shostakovich’s early Concerto for Piano, 10 to 30 kilometres in length. I was always Trumpet and String Orchestra is compact Lindsay Kemp is a senior producer for BBC interested in geography – I suppose that’s and brilliant. Composed around the time Radio 3, including programming lunchtime where it comes from. And in city planning – of his opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk concerts at Wigmore Hall and LSO St Luke’s. I enjoy exploring London on foot, that’s one District and the inventive Op 34 Preludes He is also Artistic Advisor to York Early Music of my favourite activities while here. I also for Piano, the concerto shows a flashier side Festival, Artistic Director at Baroque at the sometimes do some light coding. to Shostakovich, written to be premiered Edge Festival and a regular contributor to by the composer himself and filled with Gramophone magazine. What do you listen to beyond classical music? What advice would you give to an aspiring cinematic twists and turns. Outside of classical, I would say one of musician at the outset of their career? Andrew Stewart is a freelance music the most interesting experiences for me is I would say that it’s good to explore, to go Inspired by Byron’s poem Childe Harold’s journalist and writer. He is the author of The listening to King Crimson, especially the beyond just piano literature and understand Pilgrimage, in Harold in Italy Berlioz LSO at 90 and contributes to a wide variety early albums from the 1970s, like In the that the piano does not exist in a vacuum. depicts the dreamy wanderings of Harold of specialist classical music publications. Court of the Crimson King and Larks’ There are other arts and other musics. through the Italian countryside. The first Tongues in Aspic. I really like their music, it’s I think it’s very important to listen widely, movement depicts Harold in the midst of very instrumental rock. My father used to to orchestral music and opera. Also to enjoy Italy’s mountain ranges. In the following be in a rock band too. He played keyboards other art forms as well. Movies, literature, movements, Harold encounters pilgrims, in this underground band back in the 1980s and of course painting – it all helps. pifferari(wandering wind players) and a when he was studying. I quite like the sound romantic serenade, before he comes across of the electric guitar, but the furthest I’ve Read the full interview at a fearsome gang of brigands. ventured from the piano is an organ! lso.co.uk/blog

Tonight’s Concert 3 Ludwig van Beethoven Overture: Egmont Op 84 1810 / note by Lindsay Kemp

or all that Beethoven claimed he The Egmont Overture starts with a slow had agreed to compose incidental introduction, contrasting a stern and music for the first Viennese fatalistic-sounding string motif with lyrical BEETHOVEN 250 production of Goethe’s drama Egmont woodwind phrases which eventually lead Sir Simon Rattle conducts the LSO at the Barbican in the composer’s in 1810 ‘purely out of love for the poet’ the music into the main Allegro section. 250th anniversary year (apparently he would have preferred to write Egmont’s youthful impetuosity is perhaps music for Schiller’s Wilhelm Tell, also in the represented here, though threatened by repertory that season), it is not hard to see reminiscences of the opening string figure. how much the story would have inspired After an emphatic statement backed up him. Set in the 16th century, it has Count by trumpets and timpani, the music cuts Egmont, governor of Spanish-ruled Flanders, off unexpectedly. If this brief silence is falling in love with Clärchen and through showing us Egmont’s death, there can her finding sympathy for an oppressed be no doubt that it is a joyous uprising people. He tries to persuade Philip II to that subsequently whisks the overture show leniency but ends up on the scaffold, to its heady conclusion, in the music of convinced that his death will inspire a new the Victory Symphony – enough to inspire fight for freedom. anyone to cast off their chains. • Singing Day: Discovery Day Christ on the Mount of Olives 19 January 2020 For the composer of Fidelio this was a 22 September 2019 Barbican & LSO St Luke’s godsend, and Beethoven’s incidental score LSO St Luke’s includes four entr’actes, a melodrama Christ on the Mount of Olives (ie speech over music) and a climactic HALF SIX FIX 19 January & 13 February 2020 ‘Victory Symphony’. Only the overture has Beethoven Symphony No 7 remained in the repertory, however, though & Berg Seven Early Songs HALF SIX FIX its dramatic drive and heroic exuberance 15 January 2020 Beethoven Symphony No 9 make it a powerful enough encapsulation 12 February 2020 of the story in itself. Indeed, as in the Beethoven Symphony No 7 dynamic overtures to Coriolan and Leonore, & Berg Early Works Beethoven Symphony No 9 Beethoven here produced one of the earliest 16 January 2020 16 February 2020 examples of the symphonic poem, one of the 19th century’s favourite forms. Part of Beethoven 250 at the Barbican lso.co.uk/201920season

4 Programme Notes 16 June 2019 Ludwig van Beethoven in Profile 1770–1827 / by Andrew Stewart

eethoven showed early musical In 1800 Beethoven began to complain promise, yet reacted against his bitterly of deafness, but despite suffering father’s attempts to train him as the distress and pain of tinnitus, chronic a child prodigy. The boy pianist attracted stomach ailments, liver problems and an the support of the Prince-Archbishop, embittered legal case for the guardianship who supported his studies with leading of his nephew, Beethoven created a series of musicians at the Bonn court. By the early remarkable new works, including the Missa 1780s Beethoven had completed his first Solemnis and his late symphonies and piano compositions, all of which were for keyboard. sonatas. It is thought that around 10,000 With the decline of his alcoholic father, people followed his funeral procession on Ludwig became the family breadwinner 29 March 1827. as a musician at court. Certainly, his posthumous reputation Encouraged by his employer, the Prince- developed to influence successive Archbishop Maximilian Franz, Beethoven generations of composers and other travelled to Vienna to study with Joseph artists inspired by the heroic aspects of • BEETHOVEN ON LSO LIVE Haydn. The younger composer fell out Beethoven’s character and the profound with his renowned mentor when the latter humanity of his music. • Few musicians have as deep an discovered he was secretly taking lessons understanding of Beethoven’s music as from several other teachers. Although Bernard Haitink. This concerto album Maximilian Franz withdrew payments couples the Piano Concerto No 2, featuring for Beethoven’s Viennese education, the soloist Maria João Pires, with the Triple talented musician had already attracted Concerto, played by Lars Vogt, Gordan support from some of the city’s wealthiest Nikolitch and Tim Hugh. arts patrons. His public performances in 1795 were well received, and he shrewdly Available at lsolive.co.uk negotiated a contract with Artaria & Co, the largest music publisher in Vienna. He was soon able to devote his time to composition and the performance of his own works.

Composer Profile 5 Dmitri Shostakovich Concerto No 1 in C minor for piano, trumpet and strings Op 35 1933

1 Allegretto — PARODY 2 Lento The concerto constantly teases the listener with half-quotations, 3 Moderato • A distinctive feature of Shostakovich’s 4 Allegro con brio parodies and sudden changes of direction. musical style is his use of quotation and — parody. His entire compositional output, Daniil Trifonov piano from the youthful First Symphony to his Philip Cobb trumpet of the Leningrad Philharmonic conducted equally important is Shostakovich’s own final work, the Viola Sonata, is peppered by Fritz Stiedry on 13 October 1933. approach to music for stage and film. with musical quotations. These range from s a young man Shostakovich Shostakovich twice recorded the work, and tongue-in-cheek references to popular had ambitions to become a there is even a brief film clip of him playing One account suggests that Shostakovich’s tunes and allusions to his own works, composer-pianist in the mould of the finale at a recklessly fast tempo. initial idea was for a solo trumpet concerto. to the recurring use of personal musical Rachmaninov or Prokofiev, and by his early Whether there is any truth in this or not, motifs, the most famous and recognisable twenties he had gained a notable position in For a decade Shostakovich had taken full the final result is by no means a double of which is the ‘DSCH’ motif (D, E-flat, C, B), as a solo pianist. In 1927 he had even advantage of the excitement and confusion concerto for equally-matched soloists, for his musical signature. been one of the Russian competitors at the that reigned in post-Revolutionary Russia, the piano is very much in the foreground all Chopin Competition in Warsaw, though he producing a vast body of work that ranged the time. The trumpet plays a major role, achieved only an honourable mention. from the modernist brutalism of the Second however, often a thoroughly subversive one, and Third Symphonies to the biting satire and achieves a kind of lunatic glory in the His performing style was very individual. of the opera The Nose, from light-hearted Rossini-meets-Mickey Mouse conclusion. • ‘Shostakovich emphasised the linear aspect ballet scores to the deep seriousness of of music and was very precise in all the Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. Programme Note by Andrew Huth details of performance,’ recalled a friend. ‘He used little rubato in his playing, and The concerto is one of his most accessible it lacked extreme dynamic contrasts. It was and justly popular works from this period. an ‘anti-sentimental’ approach to playing Short and compact, it constantly teases the which showed incredible clarity of thought.’ listener with half-quotations, parodies • and sudden changes of direction. Although Shostakovich wrote this concerto for himself it has moments of seriousness, they tend Interval – 20 minutes to play, composing it soon after completing to be swept aside by the anarchic humour There are bars on all levels. the opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk which was a speciality of the young Visit the Barbican Shop to see our District and the 24 Preludes for Piano, and Shostakovich. Influences of Ravel, Prokofiev, range of Gifts and Accessories. gave the first performance with members Gershwin and Stravinsky can be heard, but

6 Programme Notes 16 June 2019 Dmitri Shostakovich in Profile 1906–75 / by Andrew Stewart Gianandrea Noseda Russian Roots at the Barbican

fter early piano lessons with his In 1948 Shostakovich and other leading mother, Shostakovich enrolled composers, Prokofiev among them, were at the Petrograd Conservatoire in forced by the Soviet cultural commissar, 1919. He announced his Fifth Symphony of Andrey Zhdanov, to concede that their work 1937 as ‘a Soviet artist’s practical creative represented ‘most strikingly the formalistic reply to just criticism’. A year before its perversions and anti-democratic tendencies premiere he had drawn a stinging attack in music’, a crippling blow to Shostakovich’s from the official Soviet mouthpiece artistic freedom that was healed only after Pravda •, in which Shostakovich’s initially the death of Stalin in 1953. Shostakovich successful opera Lady Macbeth of the answered his critics later that year with Mtsensk District was condemned for its the Tenth Symphony, in which he portrays ‘leftist bedlam’ and extreme modernism. ‘human emotions and passions’, rather than With the Fifth Symphony came acclaim not the collective dogma of Communism. • only from the Russian audience, but also from musicians and critics overseas. PRAVDA Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony Shostakovich lived through the first months 31 October 2019 • Pravda is a Russian broadsheet of the German siege of Leningrad, serving newspaper which began publication in the as a member of the auxiliary fire service. He Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony Russian Empire in 1912. After the October completed his Seventh Symphony after his 3 & 28 November 2019 Revolution of 1917 its offices were moved evacuation and dedicated the score to the to , where it became an official city. A micro-filmed copy was despatched Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony publication of the Soviet Communist Party. by way of Teheran and an American warship 5 December 2019 Subscription to Pravda was mandatory for to the US, where it was broadcast by the state run companies, the armed services NBC Symphony Orchestra and Toscanini. Shostakovich’s Ninth Symphony and other organisations until 1989. In 1943 Shostakovich completed his Eighth 30 January & 9 February 2020 Symphony, its emotionally shattering music compared by one critic to Picasso’s Guernica. Explore the 2019/20 season lso.co.uk/201920season

Composer Profile 7 Hector Berlioz Harold in Italy Op 16 1834 / note by David Cairns

1 Harold in the mountains. Scenes of without Beethoven’s Fifth, Sixth and Ninth The influence of Beethoven, however, an encounter with a Venetian sea-captain melancholy, happiness and joy: symphonies and Weber’s Der Freischütz. could only be general, not specific. It was who claimed to have commanded the poet’s Adagio – Allegro Berlioz’s discovery of Beethoven and Weber a matter of inspiration, not of imitation. corvette on his journeys through the Adriatic 2 March of pilgrims singing the evening (paralleling his discovery of Shakespeare and So, though Berlioz is deeply concerned and the Greek islands. In the months that prayer: Allegretto Goethe) had a radical effect on the young with issues of musical architecture, he followed, Berlioz’s imagination would 3 Abruzzian mountain-dweller’s musician brought up on a diet of French works out his own salvation. Though he often give a Byronic slant to what he did serenade to his mistress: opera. A new world opened before him. will learn from Beethoven’s technique of or thought. During the dog days in Rome, Allegro assai – Allegretto thematic transformation, he will not use to escape the unbearable heat, he liked to 4 Brigands’ Orgy. Reminiscences of THE INFLUENCE OF BEETHOVEN him as a model. The Berliozian dramatic go to St Peter’s, taking with him a volume earlier scenes: Allegro frenetico symphony comes out of Beethoven but of Byron, and, ‘settling myself comfortably Beethoven, in particular, revealed the doesn’t copy him. And there is, each time, in a confessional, enjoy the cool of the Antoine Tamestit viola symphony as an undreamed of medium a fresh approach. Harold in Italy, his second cathedral in a religious silence unbroken for personal drama: music, by means of such work, has movement titles, like the by any sound but the murmur of the two he differences between Berlioz’s the modern orchestra, was free to say Symphonie fantastique, but no written fountains in the square outside, wafting music and that of his German what it liked how it liked, nothing in human programme. And though, as with the in as the wind stirred momentarily. I would contemporaries are much experience or in nature was alien, and Symphonie fantastique, there is a recurring sit there absorbed in that burning verse … more striking than the affinities. Except musical form was a living thing, no longer melody, it is used in a quite different way. I adored the extraordinary nature of the man, occasionally, when it recalls Weber or rule-bound and pre-ordained but created at once ruthless and of extreme tenderness, Beethoven, it doesn’t sound anything like afresh in response to the needs of the work THE BYRON CONNECTION generous-hearted and without pity’. them. Its separation of timbres and clarity in question. From now on Berlioz looked to of texture are far removed from the piano- Germany as the sacred homeland of music. How close is the Byronic connection PAGANINI’S COMMISSION suffused sonorities of Wagner and Schumann. Nothing in his career pleased him more than assumed by the title of the work? Berlioz’s formal procedures, too, are different. to be received by German musicians as one of Identification with the author ofChilde Harold originated in a request from Paganini, His symphonic movements rarely follow them, and to feel that, in return for what he Harold’s Pilgrimage was common among the legendary violinist and violist, for a piece Viennese sonata practice. Their roots in his had received, he was giving them something the French Romantics. Yet the title featuring the Stradivari viola he had recently French (or adopted French) forebears – Méhul, back – a process that began with Liszt being which Berlioz chose for the symphony, acquired. But when the first idea had been Spontini, Cherubini, Le Sueur – become clearer influenced by theSymphonie fantastique composed after his return from his year abandoned and replaced by a symphonic the more we get to know their work. (and making a piano reduction of it), and in Italy as winner of the Prix de Rome, work inspired by Berlioz’s wanderings in the that continued, through Wagner and the was more than just a gesture to fashion. foothills of the Abruzzi, the solo viola, cast Yet his music – if not its sound or structure, profound effect on him of theRomeo and It reflected a preoccupation that permeated in a less soloistic role, became (in Berlioz’s then the ideals behind it, the ethos, the Juliet symphony, at least as far as Mahler. his experience of Italy. That experience words) ‘a kind of melancholy dreamer in poetic assumptions – would be unthinkable began under the auspices of Byron, with the style of Byron’s Childe Harold’ – an

8 Programme Notes 16 June 2019 observer standing apart. The ‘Harold’ theme shorter form and in canon, richly scored. oboe and harp); a fragment of chorale for FOURTH MOVEMENT: preserves its identity unchanged throughout This leads to the Allegro, in 6/8 time woodwind alternating with muted strings; BRIGANDS’ ORGY (in this it differs from the idée fixe in the and with an easy, swinging gait (speed is and the comments of the solo viola, first Symphonie fantastique). At the same time, reserved for the coda). The sprightly second with the ‘Harold’ theme, then as a series The finale begins with a brusque call to it is through the consciousness of this theme only feints at the orthodox dominant of arpeggios played on the bridge of the order, full of vigorous syncopations. Then observer that the scenes of Italian nature key; and, once the exposition of the musical instrument. In a long final diminuendo the the themes of the previous movements and life are presented: the theme, as well material has run its course, the formal bell notes and the march theme (pizzicato are reviewed in turn and rejected, after the as recurring constantly, is the source from elements (development, recapitulation, strings) grow fainter and fainter till only manner of the finale of Beethoven’s Ninth, which much of the work’s thematic material coda) are merged in a continuous process the viola is left. though for opposite reasons: Beethoven’s is derived. The different sections are linked, in which the cross-rhythms and metrical is to clear the way for a new element, not merely at the surface level of a ‘motto’ superimpositions that are a feature of the THIRD MOVEMENT: the human voice, Berlioz’s to remove the theme but organically. work are prominently displayed. SERENADE soloist. Harold’s theme is the last to go, becoming gradually more indistinct before FIRST MOVEMENT: SECOND MOVEMENT: The idea for the third movement came from the gathering onslaught of the brigands. HAROLD IN THE MOUNTAINS PILGRIMS’ MARCH the pifferari, strolling wind players whom Rhythm, with the percussion unleashed, is Berlioz encountered during his stay in Italy. now dominant, and brilliant orchestral colour. The first movement opens with a darkly The Pilgrims’ March moves in a single arc A rapid tune on oboe and piccolo above a Towards the end the orchestral momentum chromatic fugato, beginning on cellos (extremely quiet to loud and then back to drone bass, accompanied by a persistent is halted, and we hear in the distance (two and basses, with a plaintive bassoon and extremely quiet again) which contains three rhythm on the orchestral violas, gives way violins and one cello offstage) an echo of oboe counter-subject. Woodwind add a musically developed ideas: the procession’s to an Allegretto half the speed, whose cor the Pilgrims’ March. The solo viola is stirred melancholy tune which will be revealed approach across the stretched-out evening anglais melody is embellished by the other to momentary response. Then its nostalgic as a minor-key version of the ‘Harold’ landscape and its disappearance into the woodwind and then combined with the comments merge once again in the tumult theme. The music rises to a grand, cloudy dusk, the gradual change from day to night, (thematically related) ‘Harold’ theme. of the orchestra, and the orgy resumes and fortissimo, after which the fugato resumes. and the curve of feeling in the solitary The brief Allegro is then repeated, after carries the movement con fuoco (‘with fire’) It culminates in a flourish, whereupon the observer of the scene, from contentment to which the music and tempos of the two to its headlong conclusion. • texture clears, G minor becomes G major angst and isolation. The musical materials sections are combined while, high above, the with the effect of sudden sunshine breaking are a broad E major theme repeated ‘Harold’ theme rings out on flute and harp. through, and harp arpeggios introduce the many times in differing forms, variously soloist. The viola’s statement of the main harmonised, above a trudging bass; two theme – an open-hearted melody with a bell-like sonorities which recur constantly touch of melancholy – runs to some 30 (a tolling C natural on horns and harp and bars. The theme is then restated in slightly a thinner, brighter sounding B on flute,

Programme Notes 9 Hector Berlioz in Profile 1803–69 / profile by David Cairns

event in his apprenticeship, turning his art of Faust), in Vienna, Prague, Budapest and BERLIOZ SOCIETY in a new direction: the dramatic concert London. These years of travel produced less work, incarnating a ‘poetic idea’ that is music. In 1849 he composed the Te Deum, • Join the Berlioz Society for more about ‘everywhere present’, but subservient to which had to wait six years to be performed. music’s great original. The Society promotes musical logic. But the unexpected success of L’enfance the music, writings and life of the composer, du Christ in Paris in 1854 encouraged him with activities including an annual Study His first large-scale orchestral work, the to embark on a project long resisted: Weekend in London in November, regular autobiographical Symphonie fantastique, the composition of an epic opera on meetings, and the publication three times a followed in 1830. After a year in Italy he The Aeneid which would assuage a lifelong year of a Bulletin including essays, articles returned to Paris and began what he later passion and pay homage to two great and reviews, all for an annual membership called his ‘Thirty Years War against the idols, Virgil and Shakespeare. fee of £30. David Cairns CBE, renowned routineers, the professors and the deaf’. author and expert on the composer, is the The 1830s and early 1840s saw a series Although Béatrice et Bénédict (1860–62) Society’s Chairman. of major works, including Harold in Italy came later, the opera The Trojans (1856–58) (1834), Benvenuto Cellini (1836), the Grande was the culmination of his career. It was For further information contact the ector Berlioz was born in south- Messe des Morts (1837), the Shakespearean also the cause of his final disillusionment Society’s Membership Secretary Peter east France in 1803, the son of a dramatic symphony Romeo and Juliet (1839), and the reason, together with the onset Payne at [email protected] or visit doctor. At the age of 17 he was sent the Symphonie funèbre et triomphale (1840) of ill-health, why he wrote nothing of theberliozsociety.org.uk to Paris to study medicine, but had already and Les nuits d’été (c 1841). Some were consequence in the remaining six years of conceived the ambition to be a musician well-received; but he soon discovered that his life. The work was cut in two, and only and soon became a pupil of the composer he could not rely on his music to earn him a part performed in 1863, in a theatre too small Jean-François Le Sueur. living. He became a prolific and influential and poorly equipped. Berlioz died in 1869. • critic – a heavy burden for a composer but Within two years he had composed the one that he could not throw off. Messe solennelle, successfully performed in 1825. In 1826 he entered the Paris In the 1840s he took his music abroad and Conservatoire, winning the Prix de Rome established a reputation as one of the four years later. Gluck and Spontini were leading composers and conductors of the important influences on the formation of day. He was celebrated in Germany (where his musical style, but it was his discovery of Liszt championed him), in Russia (where Beethoven at the Conservatoire concerts, receipts from his concerts paid off the debt inaugurated in 1828, that was the decisive from the Parisian failure of The Damnation

10 Artist Biographies 16 June 2019 Gianandrea Noseda conductor

ianandrea Noseda is one of Noseda has conducted the Berlin Conductor of the Rotterdam Philharmonic the world’s most sought-after Philharmonic, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, from 1999 to 2003 and Principal Guest conductors, equally recognised , , Conductor of the Orchestra Sinfonica for his artistry in both the concert hall and , NHK Symphony, Nazionale della RAI from 2003 to 2006. opera house. He was named the National Orchestre National de France, Philadelphia Symphony Orchestra’s seventh Music Orchestra, Vienna Symphony, and at leading Noseda’s recording catalogue numbers Director in January 2016 and at the start opera houses and festivals such as Zurich more than 60 CDs, many of which have been of his second season with the NSO his Opera House, La Scala and the Salzburg celebrated by critics and received awards. contract was extended for four more Festival. From 2007 until 2018, Noseda His Musica Italiana project, which he years, through to the 2024/25 season. was Music Director of Italy’s Teatro Regio initiated more than ten years ago, has Torino, ushering in an era of unmatched chronicled under-appreciated Italian In addition to his position with the NSO, international acclaim for its productions, repertoire of the 20th century and brought Noseda also serves as Principal Guest tours, recordings, and film projects. to light unheard masterpieces. Conducting Conductor of the London Symphony the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda also has a cherished the Orchestra Teatro Regio Torino, he has Principal Conductor of the Orquestra de relationship with the Metropolitan Opera. also recorded opera albums with celebrated Cadaqués, and Artistic Director of the Stresa He returned to the Met on New Year’s Eve vocalists such as Ildebrando d’Arcangelo, Festival in Italy. In July 2018, the Zurich 2018 to lead performances of Cilea’s Adriana Rolando Villazon, Anna Netrebko and Opera House appointed him the next General Lecouvreur featuring Anna Netrebko. In Diana Damrau. Music Director beginning in the 2021/22 recent years, he has conducted Gounod’s season, where the centrepiece of his tenure Roméo et Juliette, which received its A native of Milan, Noseda is Commendatore will be a new Ring Cycle directed by Andreas premiere at the New Year’s Eve Gala in al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, marking Homoki, the opera house’s artistic director. 2016, and a new production of Bizet’s his contribution to the artistic life of Italy. Les pêcheurs de perles in 2015. In 2015, he was honoured as Musical Nurturing the next generation of artists is America’s Conductor of the Year, and was important to Noseda, shown by his ongoing He has also played a significant role working named the 2016 International Opera Awards work with youth orchestras, including the with the BBC Philharmonic, the Pittsburgh Conductor of the Year. In December 2016 European Union Youth Orchestra, and his Symphony Orchestra and the Mariinsky he was privileged to conduct the Nobel Prize recent appointment as music director of Theatre in St Petersburg, which appointed Concert in Stockholm. • the newly-created Tsinandali Festival and him its first foreign Principal Guest Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra in Georgia. Conductor in 1997. He was Principal Guest

Artist Biographies 11 Daniil Trifonov piano

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

12 Artist Biographies 16 June 2019 Philip Cobb trumpet

hilip is a fourth generation awarded the Candide Award at the London He also appeared as a soloist in the Opening Salvationist and comes from a Symphony Orchestra’s Brass Academy and Closing Ceremonies of the 2012 London family that is intrinsically linked and also played with the European Youth Olympic and Paralympic Games. • with Salvation Army music-making at its Orchestra as Principal Trumpet. highest level. From a young age, Philip regularly featured as a cornet soloist, Prior to leaving the Guildhall School of appearing alongside his brother Matthew Music and Drama, Philip was already and father Stephen, accompanied by his working with orchestras such as the London mother Elaine. However, in subsequent Philharmonic, London Chamber and BBC years he found himself making more regular Symphony orchestras and by the time appearances as a soloist in his own right. he had completed his Bachelor of Music degree he had already secured his current In 2000 he gained a place in the National post in the London Symphony Orchestra. Youth Brass Band of Great Britain, where Philip has also played guest principal at the he became Principal Cornet on a number Concertgebouw Orchestra. Despite his heavy of courses and won the prestigious Harry schedule with the LSO, Philip maintains Mortimer award on four occasions. As a his solo career and his interest in brass student at the Guildhall School of Music bands, having released his second solo and Drama in London, Philip studied with CD Songs from the Heart accompanied Paul Beniston (Principal Trumpet of the by the International Staff Band. London Philharmonic Orchestra) and world- renowned trumpet soloist Alison Balsom. He is also actively involved with the In 2006 he took part in the prestigious Superbrass, Eminence Brass and Barbican Maurice André International Trumpet Brass ensembles. One of his other passions Competition and was awarded one of the is film music and he enjoys the opportunity major prizes in the competition as the of pursuing this area of music-making with Most Promising Performer. While studying, the LSO and also as a freelance trumpet Philip played in The Salvation Army’s player. Recent soundtracks on which International Staff Band and also released Philip can be heard include: a number his debut solo CD, Life Abundant, in 2007, of the Harry Potter films, Twilight: New accompanied by the Cory Band and organist Moon, The Pirates, Shrek, A Better Life, Ben Horden. The following year he was Rise of the Guardians and Monuments Men.

Artist Biographies 13 Antoine Tamestit viola

ntoine Tamestit is recognised Since giving the world premiere performance Antoine Tamestit records for Harmonia internationally as one of the great of Jörg Widmann’s Viola Concerto in 2015 Mundi, and his recording of the Widmann violists – as soloist, recitalist and with the Orchestre de Paris, Tamestit has Concerto with Daniel Harding in 2018 was chamber musician. He has been described also performed it with co-commissioners selected as Editor’s Choice in BBC Music as possessing ‘a flawless technique, and the Swedish Radio Symphony and Bavarian Magazine. His first recording on Harmonia combines effortless musicality with an easy Radio Symphony Orchestra, City of Mundi was Bel Canto: The Voice of the Viola, communicative power’ (Bachtrack), and he is Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Leipzig with Cédric Tiberghien, released in February known for the depth and beauty of his sound. Gewandhaus Orchestra, Finnish Radio 2017. For Naïve he has recorded three Bach Symphony Orchestra, Stavanger Symphony, Suites and works by Hindemith with Paavo In the 2018/19 season, Tamestit is Artist- and the Danish Radio Symphony Orchestra. Järvi. In 2016 he appeared with the Chamber in-Residence at SWR Symphony Orchestra Orchestra of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Stuttgart with whom he has performed Tamestit has also appeared as soloist with Orchestra on a new recording of Mozart’s concertos by Schnittke, Walton and orchestras such as the Czech Philharmonic, Sinfonia Concertante ( on Hännsler Classic). Hoffmeister. He has also play-directed Tonhalle Orchestra Zürich, WDR Köln, the Orchestra in a programme of Bach, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic, and the Tamestit’s other world premiere performances Hindemith, Britten and Brahms. With Philharmonia. He has worked with such and recordings include Thierry Escaich’s Sir John Eliot Gardiner and the Orchestre conductors as François-Xavier Roth, Riccardo La Nuit Des Chants in 2018 and the Concerto Révolutionnaire et Romantique he has Muti, Marek Janowski, Antonio Pappano, for Two Violas by Bruno Mantovani. Works toured the US and will appear as Gardiner’s Valery Gergiev and Franz Welser-Möst. composed for Tamestit also include soloist with the Orchestra of Accademia Neuwirth’s Weariness Heals Wounds and Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He also performs Antoine Tamestit is a founding member Gérard Tamestit’s Sakura. Together with with the NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra, of Trio Zimmermann with Frank Peter Nobuko Imai, Antoine Tamestit is co-artistic Dresden Staatskapelle, Orchestre de Paris Zimmermann and Christian Poltera. director of the Viola Space Festival in Japan. in Paris and on tour, Vienna Symphony Together they have recorded acclaimed CDs Orchestra, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony for BIS Records and played in Europe’s most Born in Paris, Antoine Tamestit studied Orchestra and the São Paulo Symphony famous concert halls. Other chamber music with Jean Sulem, Jesse Levine, and with Orchestra. In recital, he has appeared at the partners include Nicholas Angelich, Martin Tabea Zimmermann. He was the recipient Berlin Philharmonie, Wigmore Hall, Vienna Fröst, Leonidas Kavakos, Nikolai Lugansky, of first prize at the ARD International Konzerthaus, Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels Emmanuel Pahud, Francesco Piemontesi, Music Competition, the William Primrose and the Prinzregententheater in Munich. Christian Tetzlaff, Cédric Tiberghien, Yuja Competition, the Credit Suisse Young Wang, and the Ebene and Hagen quartets. Artist Award in 2008 and was a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. •

14 Artist Biographies 16 June 2019 LSO Artist Portrait in 2019/20

Jörg Widmann Viola Concerto with Daniel Harding 19 April 2020

Berio Voci with François-Xavier Roth 11 June 2020

Walton Viola Concerto with ANTOINE 14 June 2020

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts: Antoine Tamestit & Friends 8 & 15 May; 5 & 26 June 2020, LSO St Luke’s TAMESTIT Explore the new season at lso.co.uk/201920season London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Guest Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Trumpets LSO String Experience Scheme José Blumenschein Julián Gil Rodríguez Tim Hugh Gareth Davies Philip Cobb Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Patricia Moynihan David Carstairs Scheme has enabled string players at the First Violins Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Niall Keatley start of their professional careers to gain Clare Duckworth Miya Väisänen Noel Bradshaw Oboes Gerald Ruddock work experience by playing in rehearsals Emily Nebel Matthew Gardner Daniel Gardner Juliana Koch and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Ginette Decuyper Naoko Keatley Hilary Jones Max Spiers Trombones are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Laura Dixon Alix Lagasse Anna Beryl Isobel Daws (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Gerald Gregory Csilla Pogany Morwenna Del Mar Cor Anglais James Maynard for their work in line with LSO section players. William Melvin Andrew Pollock Leo Melvin Christine Pendrill Laurent Quenelle Paul Robson Joel Siepmann Bass Trombone The Scheme is supported by: Harriet Rayfield Dmitry Khakhamov Clarinets Paul Milner The Polonsky Foundation Colin Renwick Grace Lee Double Basses Andrew Marriner Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Sylvain Vasseur Hazel Mulligan Nikita Naumov Chi-Yu Mo Tuba Derek Hill Foundation Rhys Watkins Greta Mutlu Colin Paris Sam Elliot Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Marciana Buta Patrick Laurence Bassoons Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Hilary Jane Parker Violas Matthew Gibson Daniel Jemison Timpani Rod Stafford Lyrit Milrim Edward Vanderspar Thomas Goodman Christopher Gunia Nigel Thomas Erzsebet Racz Malcolm Johnston Joe Melvin Susan Frankel Performing tonight are: Harriet Haynes German Clavijo José Moreira Percussion (violin), Tamaki Sugimoto (cello), Kai Kim Stephen Doman Josie Ellis Contra Bassoon Neil Percy (double bass) Robert Turner Dominic Morgan David Jackson Heather Wallington Sam Walton Editor Michelle Bruil Horns Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Luca Casciato Timothy Jones Harp Editorial Photography May Dolan Angela Barnes Bryn Lewis Ranald Mackechnie, Chris Wahlberg, Philip Hall Alexander Edmundson Harald Hoffmann, Marco Borggreve Cynthia Perrin Jonathan Lipton Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Alistair Scahill Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

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

16 The Orchestra 16 June 2019