Wednesday 18 & Thursday 19 September 2019

RATTLE: ROOTS & ORIGINS RACHMANINOV SECOND SYMPHONY

Brahms Piano No 2 WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS Interval Farnham U3A Concert Club Rachmaninov Symphony No 2 Adele Friedland & Friends Hertford U3A Concert Group Sir Simon Rattle conductor Gerrards Cross Community Association Emanuel Ax piano Ian Fyfe & Friends Maria Sturdy-Morton & Friends Concert ends approx 10pm Dartford Grammar School BRAHMS University of North Carolina FREE PRE-CONCERT PERFORMANCE Cazenove Capital 6.30pm Barbican Foyers The John Lyon School Fanfares played by Signum Brass, a quintet & of Guildhall School musicians RACHMANINOV

46 Johannes Brahms Piano Concerto No 2 in B-flat major Op 83 1878–81 / programme note by Stephen Johnson

1 Allegro non troppo least since his early 20s. His First Piano That said, there are passages in Brahms’ as could be imagined – a superb dramatic 2 Allegro appassionato Concerto (1854–58) actually began life as a Second Piano Concerto where the listener foil. It’s hard to imagine conventional 3 Andante symphony and Brahms only gradually gave is more likely to be reminded of the spirit concerto triumphalism after a movement 4 Allegretto grazioso up the idea of retaining the original slow of chamber music, not least at the very like this, so instead Brahms crowns his Scherzo movement – its themes were later beginning, where the soloist quietly replies symphony-concerto with an unusually Emanuel Ax piano reprocessed in the movement ‘All flesh is to and echoes the theme presented by a light-footed, playful finale: even in the as grass’ from the German Requiem. The solo horn. But then the piano begins a long gypsyish melancholy of the second theme have written a tiny, tiny piano Violin Concerto (1878) was also originally forceful solo, building up tension before (woodwind alternating with strings) there ‘ concerto with a tiny, tiny wisp of intended to have a Scherzo; that idea was handing the baton over to the are glimpses of an ironic smile. At last the a scherzo’, wrote Brahms to his soon dropped, but the material was clearly for an extended symphonic passage. From tempo quickens and the concerto ends with close confidante, Elisabet von Herzogenberg, too good to be discarded, and before long this grows a first movement that is not a display of relaxed, witty brilliance that is on 7 July 1881. Von Herzogenberg knew the it resurfaced in the Allegro appassionato of only rich in contrast and imagination but unique in Brahms. The ghost of the giant composer well enough to take that kind of the Second Piano Concerto. compellingly organic. Many composers Beethoven has been faced, exorcised and remark with several sacks of salt. So too did would have been happy to go on from that finally forgotten. his friend, the surgeon Theodor Billroth, to Interestingly, that stormy second movement to a meditative, lyrical slow movement. whom Brahms posted the manuscript, with is closer in style and spirit to Beethoven’s But Brahms intensifies the drama with his the accompanying message: ‘I am sending colossal symphonic scherzos than anything stirring scherzo second movement – the you a few small piano pieces’. Billroth in Brahms’ four numbered symphonies. dark, impassioned minor-key outer sections would only have had to glance at the score Brahms once complained of the difficulty of framing a blazing major-key trio section. to realise that what Brahms had sent him composing in Beethoven’s shadow: ‘You’ve was in fact unusually ambitious: a hybrid no idea how hard it is with such a giant Now follows the slow movement. It begins of concerto and symphony, laid out in four marching behind you!’. So it was crucial for with a long, exquisite melody for solo big movements instead of the conventional Brahms to find a solution on his own terms – cello, to which the soloist eventually adds three – all hugely challenging for the soloist, not by simply marching ahead of Beethoven, their own reflective commentary. Stormier but with the orchestra as equal protagonist but by extending Beethoven’s triumphs music follows, but the true heart of the in a sustained, developing musical drama. into new territory. One can perhaps sense movement comes in a slower pianissimo something of his pride in that achievement passage just before the return of the cello Interval – 20 minutes The idea of creating a four-movement in the dedication of the Second Piano theme, in which the piano seems to float There are bars on all levels of the concerto, with its roots as firmly in the Concerto: here at last, Brahms had found dreamily through languid, slow-moving concert hall. Ice cream can be bought Beethovenian symphony as in his grander something worthy to offer ‘to his beloved clarinet and string figures. It is about as far at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. , had haunted Brahms at friend and teacher Eduard Marxsen’. removed from the turbulence of the scherzo

Programme Notes 47 Johannes Brahms in Profile 1833–97 / profile by Andrew Stewart

ohannes Brahms was born while the relationship did not develop as him freedom to experiment and de­­v­el­op in Hamburg, the son of an Brahms wished, their close friendship did new ideas, the relationship crowned by the impecunious musician; his mother survive. In 1862 Brahms moved to Vienna premiere of his Fourth Symphony of 1884. later opened a haberdashery business to where he found fame as a conductor, pianist help lift the family out of poverty. Showing and composer and met Richard Wagner In his later years, Brahms considered that he early musical promise he became a pupil of the following year. Brahms was appointed might retire from composing and began to the distinguished local pianist and composer to the position of conductor at the Vienna find companionship in escorting Alice Barbi, Eduard Marxsen, who had been a personal Singakademie. To the surprise of audiences a 28-year-old mezzo-soprano (to whom acquaintance of Beethoven and Schubert. his programming focused on early German he may have proposed marriage). Yet his In his early career Brahms supplemented music by J S Bach, Heinrich Schütz and fondness for a Meiningen clarinettist Richard his parents’ meagre income by playing other composers, including Giovanni Gabrieli. Mühlfeld drew him to compose a series of in the bars and brothels of Hamburg’s profound works which explored matters of infamous red-light district before he met In 1864 Brahms quit his conducting post in life and death in his Four Serious Songs. Hungarian violinist Eduard Reményi, who he order to devote more time to composing. accompanied in recital and who introduced He spent time in Lichtental where he In 1896 Brahms was diagnosed with liver him to the Hungarian ‘gypsy-style’ music worked on many of his most famous cancer, the same disease that had killed his which would form the inspiration for some compositions, including the German father Jakob 25 years earlier. He made his of his most popular compositions. Requiem. The Leipzig premiere in 1869 final public appearance to hear Hans Richter proved a triumph, with subsequent conduct his Fourth Symphony in March 1897 In 1853 Brahms presented himself to performances establishing Brahms as one and died at his modest lodgings in Vienna, Robert Schumann in Düsseldorf, winning of the emerging German nation’s foremost receiving a hero’s funeral at the city’s central unqualified approval from the older composers. Following the long-delayed cemetery three days later. • composer, who hailed him as ‘fated to give completion of his First Symphony in 1876, expression to the times in the highest and he composed in quick succession: the most ideal manner’. The elder composer’s majestic Violin Concerto; the two piano admiration led to the first publication of Rhapsodies Op 79; the First Violin Sonata Brahms’ work. After Schumann’s attempted in G major; and the Second Symphony. suicide in February 1854, Brahms decided to base himself in Düsseldorf where he Brahms was now firmly established as supported Schumann’s wife, Clara, during a major figure in the world of music. His her husband’s illness and death. Brahms subsequent association with the much- developed a deep affection for Clara, and admired court orchestra in Meiningen allowed

48 Composer Profile 18 & 19 September 2019 Sergei Rachmaninov in Profile 1873–1943 / profile by Andrew Stewart

elody is music’, wrote and gave him the will to complete his Second • RACHMANINOV ON LSO LIVE ‘ Rachmaninov, ‘the basis of music Piano Concerto, widely known through its as a whole, since a perfect melody later use as the sound-track for the classic implies and calls into being its own harmonic film Brief Encounter. Thereafter, his creative design’. The Russian composer, pianist and imagination ran free to produce a string conductor’s passion for melody was central of unashamedly romantic works divorced to his work, clearly heard in his Rhapsody on from newer musical trends. He left Russia a Theme of Paganini, a brilliant and diverse shortly before the October Revolution in 1917, set of variations on a tune by the great touring as pianist and conductor and buying 19th-century violinist and composer Niccolò properties in Europe and the United States. • Paganini. Although the young Sergei’s father squandered much of the family inheritance, he at first invested wisely in his son’s musical education.

In 1882 the boy received a scholarship to study at the St Petersburg Conservatory, Rachmaninov but further disasters at home hindered Symphonies Nos 1 to 3 his progress and he moved to study at the Symphonic Dances Moscow Conservatory. Here he proved an outstanding piano pupil and began to study Valery Gergiev conductor composition. Rachmaninov’s early works reveal his debt to the music of Rimsky- ‘The LSO brass are on fire in these Korsakov and Tchaikovsky, although he performances, the strings rugged but precise, rapidly forged a personal, richly lyrical musical the woodwind rising to the demands of language, clearly expressed in his Prelude Rachmaninov’s voluptuous melodies.’ in C-sharp minor for piano of 1892. His First The Guardian Symphony of 1897 was savaged by the critics, which caused the composer’s confidence to Available at lsolive.co.uk, in the Barbican evaporate. In desperation he sought help Shop, online on iTunes & Amazon or on from Dr Nikolai Dahl, whose hypnotherapy Apple Music and Spotify sessions restored Rachmaninov’s self-belief

Composer Profile 49 Sergei Rachmaninov Symphony No 2 in E minor Op 27 1907 / programme note by Andrew Huth

1 Largo – Allegro moderato All sympathetic listeners agree that the The E minor Allegro moderato emerges main horn theme is not only the source of the 2 Allegro molto Second Symphony contains the very best organically from the introduction. Its yearning scampering contrapuntal ideas in the central 3 Adagio of Rachmaninov. Deliberately paced and first theme is carried forward with the same section, but towards the end of the movement 4 Allegro Vivace rhythmically flexible, it is above all propelled sequential techniques that characterise the declares its own derivation from the sinister by the wonderfully fertile melody of which introduction, but the quicker tempo gives wind chords in the symphony’s first bars. The ollowing the performances in he was such a master. The orchestral the music a more positive, striving character. music dies away in an ominous murmur. January 1906 of his two one- sound is full and rich, but unlike such The second theme, beginning and ending act , The Miserly Knight contemporaries as Strauss and Mahler, in G major, is not designed to contrast The Adagio turns from A minor vigour to and Francesca da Rimini, Rachmaninov Rachmaninov is relatively modest in his strongly with the first, but rather to continue A major lyricism. Its opening phrase, rising next turned to composing an on orchestral demands. He is also rather un- its melodic narrative into a different and on violins, comes again from the world of Maeterlinck’s , but this ran Russian in his approach to the orchestration. lighter-sounding tonal area. The turbulent Francesca da Rimini, this time its ecstatic into difficulties and remains a fragment. development, fragmenting motives from love duet. It is one of the three main Then in February 1907 he wrote to a friend Instead of the unmixed colour favoured by the introduction and the first subject, spills melodic elements in the movement, the about a rumour in the Russian press: so many of his countrymen from Glinka to over into the reprise of the first subject, others being the rapt clarinet solo which ‘It’s true, I have composed a symphony. Shostakovich, Rachmaninov deals in varied which then leads to the movement’s most follows immediately, and the third being the It’s only ready in rough. I finished it a month shades and combinations, producing a intense climax, with echoes of the music that motto violin phrase from the symphony’s ago, and immediately put it aside. It was a full, sonorous orchestral blend, with horns described the infernal whirlwind in Francesca introduction. The presentation, and then the severe worry to me, and I am not going to and low woodwind (particularly in the da Rimini. The return of the second theme subtle combination of these three elements, think about it any more. But I am mystified melancholy cor anglais and bass clarinet) marks the first appearance of E major, is vocal throughout, and sustained by a rich how the newspapers got onto it’. He was supporting the middle of the texture, and suggesting a major-key conclusion to the variety of accompaniment figures. bound to be wary of announcing a new the tuba doubling the long-held bass notes movement; but as the tempo quickens symphony, for the only performance of his that frequently underpin the music. for the coda, the music darkens again The breadth of scale is sustained in the finale, First Symphony, in 1897, had been a disaster. and ends in a stormy E minor. which is so balanced that reminiscences of The slow introduction begins with an entire the preceding movements are accommodated Rachmaninov conducted the first group of motto themes heard one after Although there is a great deal of activity in without losing momentum. It begins in a performance of the Second Symphony in the other: the initial unison phrase on the Allegro moderato, its deliberate pacing proud, boisterous style, and this is how the St Petersburg on 26 January 1908, and in cellos and basses, ominous brass and wind and generally slow rate of harmonic change symphony will eventually end. In the course Moscow a week later. He went on to conduct chords, and the phrase passed from first to do not make it a truly fast movement. The of the movement, however, there is room it several times in both Europe and the US second violins. This introduction, as well as quick A minor Scherzo therefore follows in for many shades of feeling and also for one over the next six years, but never conducted it being a rich mine of thematic material, also second, rather than in third place. It is one of of the very biggest of Rachmaninov’s ‘big after leaving Russia in 1918, and unfortunately announces the scale of what follows. Rachmaninov’s most vigorous movements, tunes’, given at each of its two appearances never had the chance to record it. rhythmically incisive and clear in design. The to massed strings. •

50 Programme Notes 18 & 19 September 2019 Coming Up in 2019/20 HALF SIX FIX Early-evening concerts, HALF SIX FIX IN 2019/20 presented by the conductor Prokofiev Fifth Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas Every Half Six Fix concert promises insights from the conductor, a 13 November 2019 relaxed atmosphere, great music, and the full impact of the London Symphony Orchestra – all in around an hour. Beethoven & Berg with Sir Simon Rattle The concerts start at 6.30pm, without an interval. Grab a drink, 15 January 2020 take your seat in the Barbican Hall, and sit back and enjoy a short programme of one or two major works, which the conductor will Beethoven ‘Choral’ Symphony introduce from the stage. with Sir Simon Rattle 12 February 2020 To bring you closer to the action, we’ll have screens to showcase the performers and programme notes available Bartók The Wooden Prince electronically on your Android or Apple device. with François-Xavier Roth 18 March 2020

Tickets £12 to £37 + £10 Wildcards Bartók Concerto for Orchestra plus booking fee per transaction of £3 online, £4 phone with Sir Simon Rattle 22 April 2020 lso.co.uk/halfsixfix Emanuel Ax piano

orn in Lvov, Poland, Emanuel Ax as well as in Cincinnati, Houston, Los tangos by Astor Piazzolla, and the premiere moved to Winnipeg, Canada, with Angeles, Philadelphia and San Francisco, recording of John Adams’ Century Rolls with his family when he was a young among others. the Cleveland Orchestra for Nonesuch. In the boy. His studies at the Juilliard School were 2004/05 season Emanuel also contributed supported by the sponsorship of the Epstein Emanuel Ax is a committed exponent of to an International Emmy Award-winning Scholarship Program of the Boys Clubs of contemporary composers: his repertoire BBC documentary commemorating the America, and he subsequently won the already includes works written for him by Holocaust that aired on the 60th anniversary Young Concert Artists Award. Additionally, John Adams, Christopher Rouse, Krzysztof of the liberation of Auschwitz. he attended Columbia University, where Penderecki, Bright Sheng and Melinda he majored in French. Emanuel captured Wagner, to which he has recently added A frequent and committed partner for public attention in 1974 when he won the HK Gruber’s Piano Concerto and Samuel chamber music, he has worked regularly with first Arthur Rubinstein International Piano Adams’ Impromptus. such artists as Young Uck Kim, ChoLiang Lin, Competition in Tel Aviv and in 1979 he won Yo-Yo Ma, Edgar Meyer, Peter Serkin, Jaime the coveted Avery Fisher Prize in New York. A Sony Classical exclusive recording artist Laredo and the late Isaac Stern. since 1987, recent releases include Brahms This season Emanuel joins the London Trios with Yo-Yo Ma and Leonidas Kavakos, Emanuel lives in New York with his wife, Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle Strauss’ Enoch Arden narrated by Sir Patrick the pianist Yoko Nozaki, and they have two on an extensive tour of China and Hong Stewart, and discs of two-piano music children, Joseph and Sarah. He is a Fellow of Kong, as well as joining the Rotterdam by Brahms and Rachmaninov with Yefim the American Academy of Arts and Sciences Philharmonic at home in the Netherlands Bronfman. In 2015 Deutche Grammophon and holds honorary Doctorates of music and on tour to the United States. He also released a duo recording with Itzhak from Yale and Columbia Universities. • returns to the Frankfurt Radio Symphony Perlman of Sonatas by Fauré and Strauss, Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, which the two artists presented on tour Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, during the 2015/16 season. Emanuel has Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia received Grammy Awards for the second and Tonhalle Zurich, playing concertos by and third volumes of his cycle of Haydn’s Brahms, Mozart and Chopin. During Summer piano sonatas. He has also made a series of 2020 Emanuel will join the Staatskapelle Grammy-winning recordings with Yo-Yo Ma Dresden on tour in the Mediterranean with of the Beethoven and Brahms sonatas for Myung-Whun Chung. He also performs cello and piano. His other recordings include extensively in North America, including in his the concertos of Liszt and Schoenberg, hometown with the New York Philharmonic, three solo Brahms albums, an album of

52 Artist Biographies 18 & 19 September 2019 London Symphony Orchestra on stage 18 & 19 September

Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Carmine Lauri David Alberman Tim Hugh Gareth Davies Timothy Jones Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Charlotte Ashton Stephen Stirling Mark Robinson Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Miya Väisänen Jennifer Brown Jack Welch Angela Barnes from the London music conservatoires at Clare Duckworth Matthew Gardner Noel Bradshaw Alex Wide Percussion the start of their professional careers to gain Ginette Decuyper Julian Gil Rodriguez Daniel Gardner Piccolo Jonathan Maloney Neil Percy work experience by playing in rehearsals Claire Parfitt Belinda McFarlane Hilary Jones Sharon Williams David Jackson and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Laura Dixon Iwona Muszynska Laure Le Dantec Trumpets Sam Walton are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Maxine Kwok-Adams Paul Robson Amanda Truelove Oboes David Elton (additional to LSO members) and receive fees William Melvin Alix Lagasse Deborah Tolksdorf Juliana Koch Jason Evans Harp for their work in line with LSO section players. Elizabeth Pigram Csilla Pogany Leo Melvin Olivier Stankiewicz Robin Totterdell Bryn Lewis The Scheme is supported by: Laurent Quenelle Andrew Pollock Rosie Jenkins Niall Keatley The Polonsky Foundation Harriet Rayfield Siobhan Doyle Double Basses Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Sylvain Vasseur Greta Mutlu Graham Mitchell Cor Anglais Trombones Derek Hill Foundation Rhys Watkins Erzsebet Racz Colin Paris Christine Pendrill Peter Moore The Thistle Trust Julian Azkoul Patrick Laurence James Maynard Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Morane Cohen- Violas Matthew Gibson Clarinets Lamberger Edward Vanderspar Thomas Goodman Chris Richards Bass Trombone Grace Lee Gillianne Haddow Joe Melvin John Bradbury Paul Milner Helen Paterson Malcolm Johnston Jani Pensola Chi-Yu Mo German Clavijo José Moreira Tuba Stephen Doman Bass Clarinet Ben Thomson Lander Echevarria Renaud Robert Turner Guy- Rousseau Michelle Bruil Luca Casciato Bassoons May Dolan Daniel Jemison Stephanie Todd Gibson-Cornish Edmundson Joost Bosdijk Alistair Scahill

The Orchestra 53