Sunday 2 June 2019 7–9.10pm Barbican

LSO SEASON CONCERT ARTIST PORTRAIT: DANIIL TRIFONOV

Traditional A Selection of Hymns & Songs Ives A : New England Holidays EMPEROR Interval Beethoven Piano Concerto No 5, ‘Emperor’

Michael Tilson Thomas conductor Daniil Trifonov piano Felix Mildenberger assistant conductor Samuel West narrator Symphony Chorus chorus director Matthew Hamilton associate chorus director Welcome Latest News On our Blog

recital here in the Barbican and collaborating LSO AT THE BBC PROMS 2019 LOOKING BACK ON THE PUBLIC DOMAIN with LSO Principal Trumpet Philip Cobb in Shostakovich’s Concerto for Piano, Trumpet The LSO performs Walton’s Belshazzar’s Two months ago, over 500 singers came and Strings with Principal Guest Conductor Feast on Tuesday 20 August at the BBC together in the Barbican foyers to open that Gianandrea Noseda. Proms, with a 300-strong conducted evening’s concert with a unique performance by Sir . The programme also of David Lang’s the public domain. We look Today we also hosted an LSO Discovery includes Varèse’s Amériques – a portrait of a back at this astonishing performance and Day centred on Charles Ives. This morning, modern city in sound – and French composer the people who brought it to life. we welcomed participants to watch a final Charles Koechlin’s Les bandar-log from rehearsal for tonight’s concert, followed by a The Jungle Book, completed in 1939. discussion and presentation on Ives’ music LSO DIGITAL TECHNOLOGY GROUP: elcome to tonight’s LSO concert led by Dr William Brooks at LSO St Luke’s, WORKS IN PROGRESS at the Barbican, as the ’s with live musical examples performed by NEW COMMISSIONS FOR 2020/21 Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson members of the LSO and musicians from This month’s LSO Discovery Showcase, Thomas continues his long commitment the Guildhall School. George Stevenson and Joel Järventausta, two ‘One Night, One Thousand and One Stories’ to the music of Charles Ives, composers participating in the LSO Panufnik on 6 June, features pieces for electronics, A Symphony: New England Holidays. I hope you enjoy the concert and will join Scheme, have been commissioned to write live performance and video presented This work evokes Ives’ experiences of us again soon. The 2019/20 season marks new music for the Orchestra to perform in by Ife Olalusi and Ken Burnett, members music heard on national holidays during ’ 50th year working the LSO’s 2020/21 season at the Barbican. of the LSO Discovery Digital Technology his childhood in New England, tying into with the Orchestra. To celebrate this These commissions support composers at a Group. We spoke to Ken and Ife about their the LSO’s 2018/19 season theme of ‘roots anniversary, he will return in the 2019/20 critical stage in their careers, providing them inspirations and influences, and how they’ve and origins’. Before the Symphony begins, season to conduct Berlioz’s Romeo and with time, resources and expertise. written and produced music for the concert. the London Symphony Chorus will perform Juliet, Prokofiev’s Fifth Symphony and extracts from the hymns which inspired the Beethoven’s Violin Concerto with soloist piece, later joining in for the work’s finale. Nicola Benedetti. WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS Read these articles and more at • lso.co.uk/blog In the second half, pianist Daniil Trifonov Welcome to the Gerrards Cross Community joins the Orchestra as soloist in Beethoven’s Association attending tonight’s concert. spirited Fifth Piano Concerto, a landmark in the concerto repertoire. Daniil Trifonov Please ensure all phones are switched off. will return twice more in June as part of his Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Photography and audio/video recording LSO Artist Portrait series, performing a solo Managing Director are not permitted during the performance.

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

onight’s concert begins with PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTORS Scriabin’s ‘Poem of Ecstasy’ … a performance by the London That’s the piece which started my love for Symphony Chorus of the traditional Lindsay Kemp is a senior producer for BBC . I was already playing the American songs that influenced Charles Radio 3, including programming lunchtime piano when I first heard it. Once I did, I had Ives’ A Symphony: New England Holidays. concerts at Wigmore Hall and LSO St Luke’s. Scriabin fever! I think that for the next five The symphony is an enigmatic masterpiece He is also Artistic Advisor to York Early Music years I played more than half of the piano by one of the great innovators of American Festival, Artistic Director of Baroque at the music that Scriabin wrote. classical music. Edge Festival, and a regular contributor to Gramophone magazine. What do you do in your downtime? Written between 1897 and 1913, New I really enjoy hiking and walking, especially England Holidays is a four-movement work Andrew Stewart is a freelance music in the mountains. I like to do long trips, say inspired by the sounds and experiences of journalist and writer. He is the author of The 10 to 30 kilometres in length. I was always national holidays celebrated in New England, LSO at 90 and contributes to a wide variety interested in geography – I suppose that’s where Ives grew up. The sounds of marching of specialist classical music publications. where it comes from. And in city planning – bands converge with hymn tunes, gospel I enjoy exploring London on foot, that’s one songs and ceremonial brass in Ives’ music, Wendy Thompson studied at the Royal of my favourite activities while here. I also which blends rich orchestral textures with College of Music, before taking an MMus sometimes do some light coding. experiments in dissonance and bitonality, in musicology at King’s College, London. and melodic instrumental solos. In addition to writing about music What do you listen to beyond classical music? What advice would you give to an aspiring she is Executive Director of Classical Outside of classical, I would say one of musician at the outset of their career? The second half comprises Beethoven’s Arts Productions, a major supplier of the most interesting experiences for me is I would say that it’s good to explore, to go ‘Emperor’ Concerto, one of the composer’s independent programmes to BBC Radio. listening to the band King Crimson, especially beyond just piano literature and understand most extrovert creations. Written in E-flat the early albums from the 1970s, like In the that the piano does not exist in a vacuum. major, the same key as his Third Symphony, Court of the Crimson King and Larks’ There are other arts and other musics. ‘Eroica’, the soloist is hero, with sparkling To mark his LSO Artist Portrait, Tongues in Aspic. I really like their music, it’s I think it’s very important to listen widely, passage-work and trills against a lush Daniil Trifonov has curated a selection very instrumental rock. My father used to to orchestral music and opera, and to enjoy orchestral backdrop. A stirring opening of recordings for Apple Music’s Classical be in a rock band too. He played keyboards other art forms as well. Movies, literature, movement is followed by a serene, hymnic radio channel. in this underground band back in the 1980s and of course painting – it all helps. Adagio in the distant key of B major. As the when he was studying. I quite like the sound Adagio fizzles to its close, a contemplative Visit applemusic.com/lso of the electric guitar, but the furthest I’ve Read the full interview at postlude for solo piano segues into a to listen now. ventured from the piano is an organ! lso.co.uk/blog glittering, dance-like finale.

Tonight’s Concert 3 50th Anniversary with the LSO in 2019/20

Berlioz: Romeo and Juliet 10 November 2019

HALF SIX FIX Prokofi ev: Symphony No 5 13 November 2019 TILSON Michael Tilson Thomas: Agnegram Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto Prokofi ev: Symphony No 5 with Nicola Benedetti violin 14 November 2019 THOMAS

Explore the new season at lso.co.uk/201920season Charles Ives A Symphony: New England Holidays – Hymns & Songs

o introduce Ives’ New England Great God, We Sing That Mighty Hand Shining Shore Home, Sweet Home Holidays, Michael Tilson Thomas (Verses 1 & 3) (Verses 1 & 3) conducts the London Symphony ‘Mid pleasures and palaces though we Chorus in a short selection of the hymns Great God, we sing that mighty hand My days are gliding swiftly by, may roam, and songs that inspired the Symphony. Set By which supported still we stand. And I, a pilgrim stranger, Be it ever so humble there’s no place to music in 1828, ‘Great God, We Sing That The opening year Thy mercy shows; Would not detain them as they fly – like home! Mighty Hand’ was sung as a Lutheran hymn Let mercy crown it till it close. Those hours of toil and danger. A charm from the skies seems to hallow in New England’s churches. Around the us there, same time, John Hatton’s setting of With grateful hearts the past we own; For now we stand on Jordan’s strand; All seek it through the world, tis’ ne’er ‘O God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand’ became a The future, all to us unknown, Our friends are passing over; met with elsewhere! popular Anniversary hymn, and David Nelson We to Thy guardian care commit And, just before, the shining shore penned ‘My Days are gliding swiftly by’. And, peaceful, leave before Thy feet. We may almost discover. Home, home, sweet, sweet home! Be it ever so humble, there’s no place ‘Good Night, Ladies’ is a folk song attributed Philip Doddridge poet Let sorrow’s rudest tempest blow, like home! to Edwin Pearce Christy, first published Henry K Oliver composer Each cord on earth to sever: in 1867. It was intended to be sung in a Our King says, Come, and there’s our home, John Howard Payne poet minstrel show, and Ives uses the tune at the Forever, oh! Forever. Sir Henry Bishop composer end of the Symphony’s first movement. O God, Beneath Thy Guiding Hand Michael Tilson Thomas arranger (Verses 1 & 3) David Nelson poet Henry Bishop’s song ‘Home, Sweet Home’ George F Root composer first featured in John Howard Payne’s O God, beneath Thy guiding hand opera Clari; or the Maid of Milan, premiered Our exiled fathers crossed the sea, in Philadelphia in 1823. The song was And when they trod the wintry strand, Good Night, Ladies re-launched as a parlour song in 1852, With prayer and psalm they worshipped Thee. and rose to widespread popularity in the Good night ladies, 1860s, throughout the American Civil War. Laws, freedom, truth, and faith in God We’re going to leave you now. Came with those exiles o’er the waves, Merrily we roll along Programme Notes for the Symphony And where their pilgrim feet have trod, O’er the dark blue sea can be found on Pages 6–7 • The God they trusted guards their graves. Anon, attributed to Leonard Bacon poet Edwin Pearce Christy John Hatton composer

Hymns & Songs 5 Charles Ives A Symphony: New England Holidays 1897–1913 / note by Wendy Thompson

1 Washington’s Birthday of Danbury, Connecticut, the son of George Ives’ harmonically complex score, for strings, ‘Decoration Day’, which Ives completed in 2 Decoration Day Ives, an eccentric bandleader who had horn, flute, bells and jew’s harps, recreates a 1912, starts with a sombre introduction 3 The Fourth of July served in the Union Army during the Civil bleak winter’s night, opening with whole-tone symbolising ‘the awakening of memory,’ 4 Thanksgiving and Forefathers’ Day War. As a child, Charles was mesmerised by chords rising and falling to give the impression predominantly scored for strings, and hearing multiple marching bands converging of snowdrifts. The dissonant middle section wavering between major and minor Samuel West narrator from different directions, each playing evokes a lively crowd dancing to the strains keys. During this section, one or two solo Felix Mildenberger assistant conductor in a different key and tempo – a polytonal of a country fiddler, then snatches of old barn players are directed to separate from the London Symphony Chorus effect he frequently tried to recreate in dance tunes dissolve into the tune of ‘Good orchestra and play as if alone, which Ives Simon Halsey chorus director his own music, together with remembered Night, Ladies’ as the tired crowd disperses, called ‘shadow lines’. Recognisable Civil Matthew Hamilton guest chorus master snatches of hymn tunes, gospel songs, while wisps of tunes they have heard during War-era tunes begin to emerge – ‘Marching barn dances, popular songs and ragtime. the evening recur on a solo violin. through Georgia’, and ‘Tenting on the Old harles Ives was one of the most Campground’. The music stops, just as the elusive and interesting composers — marching band used to, and the haunting of his generation. He is now Charles was mesmerised by hearing multiple marching bands converging bugle call of Taps is heard, while the strings regarded as the father of American ‘classical’ intone the funereal hymn tune ‘Nearer, My music, and certainly as the first American from different directions, each playing in a different key and tempo. God, to Thee’. (This, coincidentally, was the composer of real international significance. — last tune allegedly played by the doomed But his highly idiosyncratic music, which dance band on the liner Titanic as she experiments with dissonance, bitonality, These elements coalesce in his four- The second movement, ‘Decoration Day’, sank in April 1912, the year Ives composed and other advanced and unusual techniques, movement Holiday Symphony, composed commemorates the solemn federal holiday ‘Decoration Day’.) Taps ends with a was largely ignored during his lifetime. between 1897 and 1913, which encapsulates for remembering the dead of the US Armed drumbeat, gradually increasing in volume as It was taken up and enthusiastically his childhood memories of annual patriotic Forces, held on the last Monday of May. mourning gives way to a festive atmosphere promoted in the 1950s by , celebrations in Danbury. As a child, Ives would listen to his father’s and the orchestra breaks out into the Second who described Ives as ‘an authentic band marching from the Soldiers’ Monument Regiment National Guard March. The piece primitive, who stands at the beginning The four movements can be performed in the middle of Danbury to Wooster ends with a reminiscence of the opening. of American music’, and praised his separately, and Ives said that there was Ceremony, where the band-leader would ‘strong, personal and original message.’ no special musical connection between play ‘Taps’, the American equivalent of the Summer brings ‘The Fourth of July’, them. They do however coincide with ‘Last Post’ – a bugle call played at dusk, America’s national holiday. Also known Ives’ ‘real life was composing’, as Bernstein each of the four seasons, beginning with during flag ceremonies and at military as Independence Day, the festival said, though he pursued a successful career ‘Washington’s Birthday’, which celebrates funerals. The band would then leave in a commemorates the signing of the as an insurance salesman. He grew up in the Founding Father and First President more upbeat mood, playing the Second Declaration of Independence on 4 July 1776, the small, conservative New England town of the United States, born on 22 February. Regiment Connecticut National Guard March. when the Continental Congress declared

6 Programme Notes 2 June 2019 Charles Ives in Profile 1874–1954 / by Mark Parker that the American colonies were free, instituted by the Pilgrim Fathers in 1621, innovations, where layers upon layers of independent and the United States no longer has always had particular resonance in sounds written in different keys, styles subject to the British Crown. Since then, New England, where the settlers first or even tempos, could be woven together the day has been celebrated with parades, landed. Ives attempts to replicate the into a heterogeneous musical whole huge bonfires (especially in New England Puritan qualities of strength, austerity, put him decades ahead of his European towns) and firework displays, accompanied and folk-like simplicity with solemn major counterparts. And the extensive quotations by bands playing patriotic songs, many and minor chords, alternating by step. • from the vernacular sounds of his youth from the Civil War era. gave his music the unmistakable stamp of IVES’ EXPLOSIONS his home country, leaving Ives to be regarded Ives builds up a palpable feeling of as the first truly American composer. excitement, starting quietly with strings, • This was not the first time Ives had then increasing in speed and intensity as a composed fires and explosions in his music: And yet, to almost all of his contemporaries, dissonant patchwork of fragmented patriotic in 1904, he sketched a short tone-poem and for the entirety of his creative career, tunes in many different keys begins to depicting the catastrophe of the General Charles Ives was just a full-time insurance coalesce – recognisable quotations include Slocum, a New York paddle-steamer man who ran a successful agency in New ‘Columbia, the Gem of the Ocean’, ‘Yankee which caught fire in the East River while orn in Danbury, Connecticut, Charles York. In fact, the bouts of composition that Doodle’, ‘Dixie’, ‘Battle Cry of Freedom’, transporting over 1,000 German Lutheran Ives spent his youth as an organist produced this rich and diverse corpus of ‘Battle Hymn of the Republic’ and ‘Marching immigrant families to a picnic ground. and player in the local marching more than 350 pieces took place in the scant Through Georgia’. Towards the end, aural bands, where he enjoyed a thorough but hours left free from his business duties. This fireworks anda shower of falling sparks • Ives was so affected by the tragedy that he eccentric course of instruction from his dual existence placed heavy demands on signal the close of the day’s festivities. was unable to finish the piece, which began, father. A typical exercise might have had Ives’ already fragile psyche, and eventually like ‘The Fourth of July’, in a convivial holiday young Charles singing hymns in one key while took its toll when, in 1927, with tears in The last movement of A Holiday Symphony – atmosphere with several bands playing accompanying himself in another, but he his eyes, he suddenly announced to his ‘Thanksgiving and Forefathers’ Day’ – was popular tunes, and ended with an explosion. went on to receive a more orthodox education wife Harmony that nothing sounded right actually the first to be composed. It started as a music student at Yale University. anymore and he never wrote another note. out as a prelude and a postlude for organ written in 1887 for a Thanksgiving church We now consider him a seminal composer, Ives spent his remaining years fighting for service, which Ives arranged and orchestrated a maverick and a radical, who developed a recognition and organising performances Interval – 20 minutes in 1904. The annual Thanksgiving holiday rich vocabulary of complex polyrhythms, for his long dormant works, like the Third There are bars on all levels. on the fourth Thursday in November, during quartal harmonies and tone clusters to Symphony, which won him the Pulitzer Prize Visit the Barbican Shop to see our which American families gather for a meal manipulate the rules of music towards in 1947 in the year after its premiere, but range of Gifts and Accessories. to commemorate the first harvest festival his own expressive ends. His formal almost 40 after it was completed. • Piano Concerto No 5 in E-flat major Op 73, ‘Emperor’ 1809–11

1 Allegro The concerto is certainly not reticent about The second and third movements together Emperor in 1804, it may seem inappropriate. 2 Adagio un poco mosso – declaring itself. The first movement opens take less time to play than the first. The Yet there is an appositeness to it if we take 3 Rondo: Allegro with extravagant flourishes from the piano Adagio, in the distant key of B major, opens the music’s grandly heroic stance as a picture punctuated with stoic orchestral chords, with a serene, hymn-like tune from the of what, perhaps, an emperor ought to be. Daniil Trifonov piano leading us with unerring sense of direction strings, which the piano answers with a Beethoven once remarked that if he had towards the sturdy first theme. This march- theme of its own before itself taking up understood the arts of war as well as he ne has to wonder whether the like tune presents two important thematic the opening one in ornamented form. This had those of music, he could have defeated organisers of the concert at which reference-points in the shape of a melodic in turn leads to an orchestral reprise of the Napoleon. Who, listening to this concerto, Beethoven’s Fifth Piano Concerto turn and a tiny figure of just two notes same theme, now with greater participation could doubt that? • received its Viennese premiere in February (a long and a short) which Beethoven from the winds and with piano decoration. 1812 – the actual premiere having taken place refers to constantly in the course of At the end the music dissolves, then eerily Programme Note by Lindsay Kemp in Leipzig the previous November – provided the movement. The latter ushers in the drops down a semitone as the piano toys the ideal audience. A contemporary report chromatic scale with which the piano re- idly with some quiet, thickly scored chords. of the combined concert and art exhibition enters, and the same sequence of events In a flash, these are then transformed and mounted by the Society of Noble Ladies for later serves to introduce the development revealed to be the main theme of the bouncy Charity tells us that ‘the pictures offer a section. Here the turn dominates, dreamily Rondo finale, which has followed without a glorious treat; a new pianoforte concerto by passed around the woodwind, but the break. Physical joins between movements Beethoven failed’. And it is true that, while it two-note figure emerges ever more strongly, were a trend in Beethoven’s music at this was later to become as familiar a concerto as eventually firing off a stormy tirade of piano time, but so too were thematic ones. any, in its early years the ‘Emperor’ struggled octaves. The air quickly clears, however, and for popularity. Perhaps its leonine strength reappearances of the turn lead back to a At one point in this finale, with the main and symphonic sweep were simply too much recapitulation of the opening material. theme firmly established, the strings gently for everyone, not just the Noble Ladies. put forward the ‘experimental’ version Towards the end of the movement from the end of the slow movement, as if Cast in the same key as the ‘heroic’ Beethoven makes his most radical formal mocking the piano’s earlier tentativeness. Symphony No 3, it breathes much the move. In the early 19th century it was still The movement approaches its close, however, same majestically confident air, though in a customary at this point in a concerto for with piano and timpani in stealthy cahoots manner one could describe as more macho. the soloist to improvise a solo passage before, with a final flurry, the end is upon us. Composed in the first few months of 1809, (or cadenza); Beethoven did this in his first with war brewing between Austria and four concertos, but in the Fifth, for the first The concerto’s nickname was not chosen by France, this is Beethoven in what must have time, he includes one that is not only fully Beethoven, and, given the composer’s angry seemed an overbearingly optimistic mood. written out, but involves the orchestra as well. reaction to Napoleon’s self-appointment as

8 Programme Notes 2 June 2019 Ludwig van Beethoven in Profile 1770–1827 / by Andrew Stewart

with his renowned mentor when the latter discovered he was secretly taking lessons from several other teachers. Although BEETHOVEN 250 Maximilian Franz withdrew payments Sir Simon Rattle conducts the LSO at the Barbican in the composer’s for Beethoven’s Viennese education, the 250th Anniversary Year talented musician had already attracted support from some of the city’s wealthiest arts patrons. His public performances in 1795 were well received, and he shrewdly 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.

In 1800 Beethoven began to complain eethoven showed early musical bitterly of deafness, but despite suffering promise, yet reacted against his the distress and pain of tinnitus, chronic Singing Day: Discovery Day father’s attempts to train him as stomach ailments, liver problems and an Christ on the Mount of Olives 19 January 2020 a child prodigy. The boy pianist attracted embittered legal case for the guardianship 22 September 2019 Barbican & LSO St Luke’s the support of the Prince-Archbishop, of his nephew, Beethoven created a series of LSO St Luke’s who supported his studies with leading remarkable new works, including the Missa Christ on the Mount of Olives musicians at the Bonn court. By the early Solemnis and his late and piano HALF SIX FIX 19 January & 13 February 2020 1780s Beethoven had completed his first sonatas. It is thought that around 10,000 Beethoven Symphony No 7 compositions, all of which were for keyboard. people followed his funeral procession on & Berg Seven Early Songs HALF SIX FIX With the decline of his alcoholic father, 29 March 1827. 15 January 2020 Beethoven Symphony No 9 Ludwig became the family breadwinner 12 February 2020 as a musician at court. Certainly, his posthumous reputation Beethoven Symphony No 7 developed to influence successive & Berg Early Works Beethoven Symphony No 9 Encouraged by his employer, the Prince- generations of composers and other 16 January 2020 16 February 2020 Archbishop Maximilian Franz, Beethoven artists inspired by the heroic aspects of travelled to Vienna to study with Joseph Beethoven’s character and the profound lso.co.uk/201920season Haydn. The younger composer fell out humanity of his music. •

Composer Profile 9 Michael Tilson Thomas conductor

ichael Tilson Thomas is Music until 1974. He was later Music Director of the anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima. Director of the San Francisco Buffalo Philharmonic and a Principal Guest His vocal music includes settings of poetry Symphony, Co-Founder and Conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic. by Walt Whitman and Emily Dickinson, and Artistic Director of the New World Symphony In 1988, he co-founded and became Artistic has been premiered by Thomas Hampson and Conductor Laureate of the London Director of the New World Symphony. That and Renée Fleming. Symphony Orchestra. Born in Los Angeles, same year, he was appointed Principal he is the third generation of his family to Conductor of the London Symphony Tilson Thomas co-founded the New pursue an artistic career. His grandparents Orchestra before becoming Music Director of World Symphony in Miami Beach as an were founding members of the Yiddish the San Francisco Symphony in 1995. He is orchestral academy dedicated to preparing Theater in America; his father was a Conductor Laureate of the LSO and becomes gifted graduates of distinguished music producer at the Mercury Theater Company Music Director Laureate of the SFS in 2020. programmes for leadership roles in classical in New York; and his mother was the head music. As Artistic Director, he works with of research for Columbia Pictures. A winner of eleven Grammy Awards, he NWS Fellows to further their artistic appears on more than 120 recordings. His development in performance and their Michael Tilson Thomas began his formal discography includes The Mahler Project, professional development. Of the more than studies at the University of Southern recordings of music by Charles Ives, Steve 1,100 alumni of the New World Symphony, California. At the age of 19 he was named Reich, John Cage, Morton Feldman, George 90% maintain careers in music, often Music Director of the Young Musicians Gershwin and Elvis Costello. His television as musicians or administrators in major Foundation Debut Orchestra. During this work includes broadcasts of the New York . The New World Symphony has same period, he worked with Stravinsky, Philharmonic Young People’s Concerts, long been at the forefront of developments Boulez, Stockhausen and Copland on productions on PBS’ Great Performances in the arts and education. Since 2011, the premieres of their compositions at and multi-tiered media project Keeping campus of the New World Symphony has Los Angeles’ Monday Evening Concerts. Score with the San Francisco Symphony. been the technologically advanced, Frank Gehry-designed New World Center. 50TH ANNIVERSARY CONCERTS In 1969, after winning the Koussevitzky He has been an active composer throughout Prize at Tanglewood, he was appointed his career and in 1991 presented a series Michael Tilson Thomas is a Chevalier de Berlioz Romeo and Juliet Assistant Conductor and pianist of the of benefit concerts for UNICEF featuring l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres of France Sunday 10 November Boston Symphony Orchestra. That year Audrey Hepburn as narrator of his work and a member of the American Academy of he also made his New York debut with the From the Diary of Anne Frank. In August Arts. He was awarded the National Medal Prokofiev & Tchaikovsky Boston Symphony. He was later appointed 1995, he led the Pacific Music Festival of Arts and was recently inducted into the Wednesday 13 November Principal Guest Conductor of the Boston Orchestra in the premiere of his composition California Hall of Fame. • Thursday 14 November Symphony Orchestra, a position he held Showa/Shoah, commemorating the 50th

10 Artist Biographies 2 June 2019 Daniil Trifonov piano

aniil Trifonov, winner of During a multi-faceted, season-long Last season, Trifonov released Chopin Gramophone’s 2016 Artist of the residency with the Berlin Philharmonic, Evocations, his fourth album for Deutsche Year Award, has made a rapid Trifonov also plays Scriabin’s F-sharp minor Grammophon, which pairs works by Chopin ascent as a solo artist, chamber musician Piano Concerto under Andris Nelsons. Other with those of the 20th-century composers and composer. Combining consummate orchestral highlights include a return to he influenced. Trifonov performed a similar technique with a rare sensitivity and depth, Carnegie Hall for Schumann’s Piano Concerto programme throughout the US, Europe and his performances are recognised for their with the Met Orchestra and , Asia, including at the Philharmonie de Paris, profound musical insight and expressive Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 with Marin Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, Carnegie Hall, intensity. Trifonov recently added a Grammy Alsop and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and Wigmore Hall. At Carnegie Hall, Trifonov Award to his already considerable string of and Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 curated his season-long Perspectives series, honours, winning Best Instrumental Solo with Andris Nelsons and the Boston which included a performance of his own Album of 2018 with Transcendental, a double Symphony. Trifonov also releases his Piano Concerto with Valery Gergiev and the album of Liszt’s works which marks his third new Deutsche Grammophon recording Mariinsky Orchestra, as well as a similar title as a Deutsche Grammophon artist. Destination Rachmaninov: Departure, on series at the Vienna Konzerthaus and a which he performs the Russian composer’s concert with the San Francisco Symphony. In September 2018, Trifonov launched the Second and Fourth Piano Concertos, again New York Philharmonic’s 2018/19 season, with the Philadelphia Orchestra and Born in Nizhny Novgorod in 1991, Trifonov playing Ravel’s Piano Concerto for the Yannick Nézet-Séguin, his partners on began his musical training at the age of opening night gala under incoming Music his 2015 disc Rachmaninov: Variations. five, and went on to attend Moscow’s Director Jaap van Zweden before rejoining the Gnessin School of Music as a student of Orchestra the following night for Beethoven’s In recital this season, Trifonov plays Tatiana Zelikman, before pursuing his Piano Concerto No 5. Trifonov performed the Beethoven, Schumann and Prokofiev on piano studies with Sergei Babayan at the same concerto as part of his residency at Carnegie’s main stage and in Berlin, where Cleveland Institute of Music. He has also Vienna’s Musikverein, which also included the his Berlin Philharmonic residency features studied composition, and continues to LSO ARTIST PORTRAIT 2018/19 Austrian premiere of his own Piano Concerto. multiple solo and chamber concerts. write for piano, chamber ensemble and Future performances as part of the LSO These include performances of his own orchestra. When he premiered his own Solo Recital: Artist Portrait Series include Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet, of which he also gives the Piano Concerto in 2013, the Cleveland Plain Beethoven, Schumann & Prokofiev Concerto No 1 for Piano, Trumpet and Strings Cincinnati premiere with the Ariel Quartet. Dealer commented, ‘Even having seen it, Monday 10 June with Gianandrea Noseda. In Berlin, and at New York’s 92nd Street Y, he one cannot quite believe it. Such is the plays duo recitals with his frequent partner, artistry of pianist-composer Daniil Trifonov.’ • Beethoven, Berlioz & Shostakovich German baritone Matthias Goerne. Sunday 16 June

Artist Biographies 11 Samuel West narrator Felix Mildenberger conductor

playing Kreutzer vs Kreutzer by Laura Wade Roth, Gianandrea Noseda, Emmanuel at the Sydney Opera House. Last year he Krivine and Gerhard Markson, Felix toured the UK performing the Arne-Garrick Mildenberger has worked with orchestras Ode to Shakespeare with Ex Cathedra. both at a national and international level, including the Orchestre National de France, Stage work as an actor includes The Writer Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, (Almeida), the title roles in Hamlet and Orquesta Sinfónica de Tenerife, Thüringer Richard II (Royal Shakespeare Company), Symphoniker, Heidelberger Philharmoniker, Valentine in the first production of Belgrade Philharmonic Orchestra and Stoppard’s Arcadia (National Theatre). Anhaltische Philharmonie Dessau. Films include Darkest Hour, On Chesil Beach and Zeffirelli’s Jane Eyre. Recent During the 2018/19 season, Felix TV includes W1A, Jonathan Strange & Mildenberger has made debut appearances Mr Norrell, The Hollow Crown II and four with the Nagoya Philharmonic Orchestra seasons of Mr Selfridge. He has directed in Japan, Magdeburger Philharmoniker, s a reciter, Samuel West has 13 plays and two operas: Mozart’s Così inner of the Donatella Flick LSO Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino and Bremen appeared with all the major fan tutte for ENO and The Magic Flute Conducting Competition 2018 Philharmonic Orchestra. In September British orchestras, with the Hong for the Palestine Mozart Festival. and of the second prize at the 2018, Felix stepped in for Augustin Dumay Kong Philharmonic, Strasbourg and Dallas 12th Cadaqués International Conducting to conduct the Kansai Philharmonic Symphony Orchestras, the Minnesota Sam’s six performances at the BBC Proms Competition, German conductor Felix Orchestra in Osaka, and in January 2019 Orchestra and the National Symphony include Walton’s Henry V at the Last Night Mildenberger is currently the Assistant he was assistant conductor to Bernard Orchestra of Washington DC. Recent in 2002. He has visited the West Bank three Conductor of both the London Symphony Haitink in Amsterdam. performances include the US and British times with the Choir of London and regularly Orchestra and the Orchestre National de premieres of Michel van der Aa’s The Book appears at Wigmore Hall. His repertoire of France. In the 2019/20 season, he will Highlights of the 2019/20 season of Disquiet, Berlioz’s Lelio with the BBC SSO, pieces requiring reciter now numbers over 50 become Paavo Järvi’s Assistant Conductor include debuts with the Orchestre Honegger’s King David, by and continues to grow. Sam is an Associate at the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich. Felix is National de Lille, Tonhalle Orchestra , Judith Bingham’s An Ancient Artist of the RSC and Chair of the National Principal Conductor and Artistic Director of Zurich, Hamburger Camerata, Aarhus Music, Stravinsky’s The Soldier’s Tale, Campaign for the Arts. In his spare time he the Symphonieorchester Crescendo Freiburg, Symfoniorkester, and a concert during Schoenberg’s A Survivor from Warsaw and grows chillies and goes birdwatching. • which he co-founded in 2014. the Salzburger Mozartwoche 2020. • the Britten-Auden film scores Night Mail and The Way to the Sea. In 2010 he toured Mentored by conductors such as Paavo with the Australian Chamber Orchestra, Järvi, Sir Simon Rattle, François-Xavier

12 Artist Biographies 2 June 2019 Simon Halsey choral director BARTÓK & STRAVINSKY

Chorus, Artistic Director of Orfeó Català PRINCIPAL GUEST CONDUCTOR and Artistic Adviser of Palau de la FRANÇOIS-XAVIER ROTH Música, Barcelona, Artistic Director of Berlin CONDUCTS THE LSO AT THE BARBICAN Philharmonic Youth Choral Programme, Director of BBC Proms Youth Choir, Artistic Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin Advisor of Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival 19 December 2019 Choir, Conductor Laureate of Rundfunkchor Berlin, and Professor and Director of Choral HALF SIX FIX Activities at the University of Birmingham. Bartók The Wooden Prince He is also a highly respected teacher and 18 March 2020 academic, nurturing the next generation of choral conductors on his post-graduate course Bartók The Wooden Prince in Birmingham and through masterclasses & Stravinsky Violin Concerto at Princeton, Yale and elsewhere. 19 March 2020

imon Halsey occupies a unique Halsey has worked on nearly 80 recording Dukas Symphony in C position in classical music. He projects, many of which have won major 22 March 2020 is the trusted advisor on choral awards, including the Gramophone Award, singing to the world’s greatest conductors, Diapason d’Or, Echo Klassik, and three Stravinsky’s The Firebird orchestras and choruses, and also an Grammy Awards with the Rundfunkchor 11 June 2020 inspirational teacher and ambassador for Berlin. He was made Commander of the choral singing to amateurs of every age, British Empire in 2015, was awarded Panufnik Composers Workshop ability and background. Making singing a The Queen’s Medal for Music in 2014, and 26 March 2020, LSO St Luke’s central part of the world-class institutions received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of with which he is associated, he has been Merit of the Federal Republic of instrumental in changing the level of in 2011 in recognition of his outstanding symphonic singing across Europe. contribution to choral music in Germany.

He holds positions across the UK and Europe Born in London, Simon Halsey sang in the Explore the 2019/20 season as Choral Director of the London Symphony choirs of New College, Oxford, and of King’s lso.co.uk/201920season Orchestra and Chorus, Chorus Director of the College, Cambridge, and studied conducting City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the Royal College of Music in London. •

Programme NotesArtist Biographies 13 London Symphony Chorus on stage

President he London Symphony Chorus was Belshazzar’s Feast by Walton, Otello by the public domain at the end of March, Sir Simon Rattle om cbe formed in 1966 to complement Verdi, and the world premiere of the St John before Janáček’s The Cunning Little Vixen the work of the London Symphony Passion by James MacMillan were all under with Sir Simon Rattle in June. Vice President Orchestra and in 2016 celebrated its 50th the baton of the late Sir . Michael Tilson Thomas anniversary. The partnership between the The recent recording of Götterdämmerung The LSC is always interested in recruiting LSC and LSO has continued to develop and was with the Hallé under Sir Mark Elder won a new members, welcoming applications Patrons strengthened in 2012 with the appointment Gramophone award and the recording of from singers of all backgrounds. Interested cbe of Simon Halsey as joint Chorus Director the Grande Messe des morts by Berlioz with singers are welcome to attend rehearsals Howard Goodall cbe of the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO. the LSO conducted by Sir Colin Davis won before arranging an audition. For further It now plays a major role in furthering the an International Music Award in the Choral information, visit lsc.org.uk. • Chorus Director vision of the LSO Sing initiative. Works category. In June 2015 the recording of Simon Halsey cbe Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ Tenth Symphony, The LSC has also partnered with many commissioned by the LSO and recorded Associate Director other major orchestras and has performed by the LSO and the LSC with Sir Antonio Matthew Hamilton nationally and internationally with the Pappano, won a prestigious South Bank Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, Sky Arts award in the Classical category. Chorus Accompanist and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Benjamin Frost Championing the musicians of tomorrow, In autumn 2019, the LSC will perform it has also worked with both the National Janáček’s with Sir John Chairman Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and Eliot Gardiner, Berlioz’s Romeo and Juliet Owen Hanmer the European Union Youth Orchestra. with Michael Tilson Thomas and Bartók’s The Chorus has toured extensively throughout The Miraculous Mandarin with François- Concert Manager Europe and has also visited North America, Xavier Roth. The 2017/18 season included Robert Garbolinski Israel, Australia and South East Asia. performances of Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the BBC Proms in 2017 with the LSO and LSO Choral Projects Much of the LSC repertoire has been captured Sir Simon Rattle; Bernstein’s Wonderful Andra East in its large catalogue of recordings, which Town and Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust, have won nine awards, including five also with Sir Simon Rattle; Mahler’s Second Grammys. Recent releases include Britten’s Symphony with Semyon Bychkov; and War with Gianandrea Noseda Liszt’s ‘Faust’ Symphony with Sir Antonio and Mahler’s Symphonies Nos 2, 3 and 8 Pappano. Highlights of the current season with Valery Gergiev. The Seasons by Haydn, include the performance of David Lang’s

14 Artist Biographies 2 June 2019 Matthew Hamilton associate chorus director

Sopranos Altos Curzon Tussaud Basses Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama. He Frankie Arnull Lauren Au Kathryn Wells Chris Bourne participated in masterclasses with some of Phoebe Bagge Elizabeth Boyden Gavin Buchan Europe’s finest professional choirs, including Kerry Baker June Brawner Tenors Andy Chan the Berlin Radio Choir and Netherlands Anjali Christopher Gina Broderick Jorge Aguilar Steve Chevis Chamber Choir, and in 2010 won the Eve Commander Jo Buchan* Paul Allatt* Giles Clayton Bramstrup Conducting Award in Denmark. Katharine Elliott Liz Cole Matteo Anelli Damian Day Kara Florish Janik Dale Eric Azzopardi Thomas Fea Matthew has prepared choirs for Sir Mark Maureen Hall Maggie Donnelly Joaquim Badia Robert Garbolinski* Elder, Gustavo Dudamel, Fabio Luisi, Isobel Hammond Lynn Eaton Paul Beecham Bryan Hammersley , Valery Gergiev, Gianandrea Sophie Hill Linda Evans Philipp Boeing Owen Hanmer* Noseda, Edward Gardner, John Wilson and Denise Hoilette Amanda Freshwater Raymond Brien Elam Higueras Mark Minkowski, and for festivals including Claire Hussey Rachel Green Oliver Burrows Alex Kidney Edinburgh International Festival, Brighton Debbie Jones Kate Harrison Ethem Demir Thomas Kohut Festival, Spitalfields Festival and the BBC Marylyn Lewin Jane Hickey John Farrington Hugh Macleod Proms, where he has worked on music from Christina Long Jo Houston Matthew Fernando Geoffrey Newman atthew Hamilton is a regular Birtwistle to the Pet Shop Boys. He has Louisa Martin Christine Jasper Matthew Flood Michael Robson- collaborator with leading choirs. conducted first performances of works by Jane Morley Jill Jones Andrew Fuller* Kiernan He has been Choral Director at the composers including Harrison Birtwistle, Emily Norton Vanessa Knapp Patrizio Giovannotti Alan Rochford Hallé since 2015, and is Associate Director of , Simon Holt, Nico Muhly, Iain Maggie Owen Freja Leveritt Simon Goldman Rod Stevens the London Symphony Chorus and Musical Bell, Eriks Esenvalds and Gabriel Jackson. Alison Ryan Belinda Liao* Michael Harman Richard Tannenbaum Director of New London Chamber Choir. Deborah Staunton Anne Loveluck Matthew Journee Gordon Thomson As a guest conductor he has appeared with In the current season Matthew has worked Giulia Steidl Liz McCaw Jude Lenier Robin Thurston the BBC Singers, BBC Symphony Chorus, with the choirs for Stockhausen’s Donnerstag Jessica Villiers Aoife McInerney John Marks Evan Troendle Choeur de Radio France, ChorWerk Ruhr, aus Licht at the Southbank Centre, and later Gabrielle Walton- Jane Muir Alastair Mathews CBSO Chorus and National Youth Choirs in the year he directs New London Chamber Green Caroline Mustill Davide Prezzi Vocal Coaches of Great Britain. He has also worked with Choir in world premieres by Laurence Osborn Lizzie Webb* Dorothy Nesbit Chris Straw Norbert Meyn Manchester Camerata, the Hallé, and many and Julien le Herriseri in London and France. Olivia Wilkinson Helen Palmer Richard Street * Anita Morrison period-instrument specialists. He also debuts with Netherlands Chamber Rachel Wilson Susannah Priede Stephan Sykora Rebecca Outram Choir, and with the Royal Scottish National Lis Smith Malcolm Taylor Robert Rice Matthew read music at Oxford, before Orchestra and Choirs. • *Denotes LSC Council Linda Thomas James Warbis studying composition at the University of member Claire Trocmé Robert Ward* Manchester and choral conducting at the

Artist Biographies 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Carmine Lauri David Alberman Tim Hugh Ileana Ruhemann Tim Jones Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Mia Väisänen Alastair Blayden Camilla Marchant Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins David Ballesteros Noel Bradshaw Sophie Johnson Alexander Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Gerald Gregory Matthew Gardner Eve-Marie Edmundson Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Maxine Kwok-Adams Julian Gil Rodriguez Caravassilis Piccolo Jonathan Lipton Sam Walton work experience by playing in rehearsals Claire Parfitt Belinda McFarlane Daniel Gardner Trish Moynihan Glyn Matthews and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Laurent Quenelle Csilla Pogany Hilary Jones Trumpets Jacob Brown are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Harriet Rayfield Andrew Pollock Leo Melvin Oboes Jason Evans Matthew Farthing (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Colin Renwick Paul Robson Miwa Rosso Olivier Stankiewicz Adam Wright for their work in line with LSO section players. Rhys Watkins Louise Shackelton Ella Rundle Daniel Finney Niall Keatley Piano Adrian Adlam Aliayta Foon-Dancoes Peteris Sokolovskis Neil Fulton Catherine Edwards The Scheme is supported by: Emmanuel Bach Caroline Frenkel Cor Anglais The Polonsky Foundation Marciana Buta Dmitry Khakhamov Double Basses Christine Pendrill Trombones Celeste Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Molly Cockburn Eugenio Sacchetti Nikita Naumov Jono Ramsay John Alley Derek Hill Foundation Lulu Fuller Colin Paris Clarinets James Maynard Lord and Lady Lurgan Trust Ruth Heney Violas Matthew Gibson Andrew Marriner Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Dániel Mészöly Vicci Wardman Thomas Goodman Chris Richards Bass Trombone Rod Stafford Erzsebet Racz Gillianne Haddow Joe Melvin Paul Milner German Clavijo José Moreira E-Flat Clarinet Lander Echevarria Emre Ersahin Chi-Yu Mo Tuba Editor Julia O’Riordan Simo Väisänen Daniel Trodden Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Robert Turner Bassoons Editorial Photography Luca Casciato Daniel Jemison Ranald Mackechnie, Chris Wahlberg, Fiona Dalgliesh Joost Bosdijk Harald Hoffmann, Marco Borggreve, Bruce May Dolan Chatterton, Dario Acosta, Holger Talinsku, Francis Kefford Contra Bassoon Spencer Lowell, Elle Logan Martin Schaefer Dominic Morgan Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Sofia Silva Sousa Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

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16 The Orchestra 2 June 2019