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London's Symphony Orchestra

London's Symphony Orchestra

London Symphony Orchestra Living Music

AFTER ROMANTICISM

Thursday 21 January 2016 7.30pm Barbican Hall

Wagner Prelude to Act I from ‘Parsifal’ Berg Seven Early Songs INTERVAL Mahler Symphony No 5

François-Xavier Roth conductor Camilla Tilling soprano

Concert finishes approx 9.55pm

Sunday 24 January 2016 7pm London’s Symphony Orchestra Barbican Hall

Webern Im Sommerwind Berg Concerto INTERVAL Strauss

François-Xavier Roth conductor Renaud Capuçon violin

Concert finishes approx 9pm 2 Welcome 21 & 24 January 2016

Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief

Welcome to the LSO for the first set of concerts in LSO LIVE WINS GRAMOFON AWARD ‘After Romanticism’, a series exploring the changes and innovations that took place in music during LSO Live, the Orchestra’s , is delighted to the end of the 19th century and the beginning of announce that its release of Mendelssohn’s Symphony the 20th. We are delighted to be joined for this by No 3 with Sir and Schumann’s conductor François-Xavier Roth, who introduces the Concerto with Maria João Pires was named series on page 4. Foreign Classical Compact Disc of the Year by the renowned Hungarian quarterly Gramofon. Order In the first concert on 21 January, we will trace the your copy through the LSO Live website. journey from the Prelude to Wagner’s final , Parsifal, through Mahler’s Symphony No 5, on to lsolive.lso.co.uk the musical innovations found in Berg’s Seven Early Songs, sung tonight by Camilla Tilling. THE LSO JANUARY SALE For the second concert on 24 January, we begin with two works from composers of the Second Viennese Nothing beats the January like a good concert! School, taken from different points in their careers: The LSO January Sale is now on, giving you the an early orchestral work by Webern, followed by chance to save 20% on selected LSO concerts in the Berg’s final composition – the – new year. For full details of the events included in for which we are delighted to welcome back French the sale, visit the LSO website. violinist Renaud Capuçon. Closing the programme is ’ musical ode to the heroic life, lso.co.uk/januarysale written in the final years of the 19th century: Ein Heldenleben. A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS We hope you can join us again on 31 January when Sir will conduct Respighi’s The LSO offers great benefits for groups of 10+, Roman Trilogy, and pianist Alice Sara Ott joins us for including 20% discount on standard tickets. Rachmaninov’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Tonight we are delighted to welcome:

Conservatorio Profesional de Musica Benjamin Brody and Friends

lso.co.uk/groups Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Managing Director London Symphony Orchestra Living Music

Shakespeare 400 His words come to life in music

PROGRAMME NOTE AUTHOR LINDSAY KEMP is a senior producer for BBC Radio 3, including ‘Gianandreaprogramming lunchtime Noseda concerts fromwhipped LSO St Luke’s, up Artistic a demonic Director storm.’ of the Lufthansa Festival of BaroqueThe Independent Music, and a regular contributor to Gramophone magazine.

A MIDSUMMER , RICHARD III & FAMILY CONCERT: BBC RADIO 3 NIGHT’S DREAM ROMEO AND JULIET PLAY ON, SHAKESPEARE! LUNCHTIME CONCERTS

Tue 16 Feb 7.30pm Thu 25 Feb 7.30pm Sun 7 Feb 2.30pm Thu 28 Jan 1pm, LSO St Luke’s Mendelssohn Symphony No 1; Smetana Richard III Shakespeare needs the help of Puck BBC Singers & David Hill A Midsummer Night’s Dream Liszt Piano Concerto No 2 and the LSO to get over his writer’s Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet block. With music by Mendelssohn, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor Strauss Macbeth Prokofiev, Walton, Sibelius and Monteverdi Choir Shostakovich Actors from the Guildhall School Gianandrea Noseda conductor LSO DISCOVERY: Simon Trpcˇeski piano LSO DISCOVERY DAY: FREE LUNCHTIME CONCERT BERLIOZ AND SHAKESPEARE ROMEO AND JULIET Fri 26 Feb 12.30pm, shakespeare400.org Sun 28 Feb 10am–5pm LSO St Luke’s Sun 28 Feb 7pm Barbican & LSO St Luke’s Korngold Nine Shakespeare Songs Shostakovich Violin Concerto No 2 Watch a morning rehearsal with Guildhall School Musicians Berlioz Romeo and Juliet – Suite Gianandrea Noseda before spending the afternoon exploring lso.co.uk Gianandrea Noseda conductor Berlioz and Shakespeare with guest Janine Jansen violin speaker Julian Rushton 020 7638 8891 4 Interview with François-Xavier Roth 21 & 24 January 2016

François-Xavier Roth After Romanticism

François-Xavier Roth introduces his After Romanticism Strauss, and you can very easily hear how different series, and tells us more about this fascinating period in languages come from these composers. Even if you look at someone like , or the history of music. even Webern at the beginning, you can hear how they changed over the course of their career, how the same composer produced different musical languages during their life.

What is especially exciting in this music is hearing how the composers extended or abandoned the musical language that was known at the time. With some composers, it was an extension of tonality, while others ignored this language to go in completely different directions. So from this point of view, and the architectural and structural point of view, there was so much exploration taking place, maybe more than at any other time in music history.

New perspectives

MORE INTERVIEWS ONLINE he idea for this series is something that has programmed these two concerts in a balanced Visit the LSO Blog to read more interested me for years and years: how the way. In fact that’s really the purpose of this theme, interviews with conductors Tmusic at the end of the 19th and beginning I‘After Romanticism’, which is to say that during and soloists. of the 20th centuries progressively and radically the same period in Europe you could hear so many lso.co.uk/blog changed to reflect ongoing developments in society. different directions in music. You had composers Also in this period you had what might have been looking towards the past and trying to develop the end of something old, but the beginning of what they had inherited. Or you had people who LSO DISCOVERY DAY something new in music – new directions, new were really reconsidering the musical language Sun 24 Jan 2016, 10am–5.30pm languages and new perspectives. So for me it’s really and opening up new perspectives. So it’s a balance Barbican & LSO St Luke’s one of the most fascinating periods in music history. between the two.

Find out more about the series in New languages For the audience, I have featured some of the our LSO Discovery Day. Watch a works from this period that they might already morning rehearsal with the LSO wanted to explore these different – I can’t know, like Mahler’s Fifth Symphony or Richard and François-Xavier Roth, engage say solutions, there are no solutions in music – Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, but then combined these in discussions about the era with Iproposals with the LSO. I wanted to explore the with lesser-known works written around the same writer Stephen Johnson in the different proposals put forward by composers in time. So they’ll get to hear the spirit of these new afternoon, and enjoy chamber these two programmes. So we have music by Alban areas of music on the same evening, and immerse music by Webern from LSO players. Berg, Anton Webern, and Richard themselves in the spirit of exploration from that time. lso.co.uk Programme Notes 5

Richard Wagner (1813–83) Prelude to Act I from ‘Parsifal’ (1882)

PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Parsifal was Wagner’s final work, first seen at This epic tale opens with a Prelude featuring GAVIN PLUMLEY specialises in Bayreuth on 26 July 1882. In the planning since the the work’s primary musical ideas, such as the the music and culture of Central 1840s, the piece was effectively a prequel to his 1850 initial monodic theme in A-flat major, signifying Europe and has written for The opera Lohengrin, which centres on the character Communion or the Last Supper. Within this is hidden Independent on Sunday and The of Parsifal’s son. Unlike Lohengrin, however, another motif associated with the spear that pierced Guardian. He appears frequently Wagner did not refer to Parsifal as an opera; it Christ’s side on the Cross and which is now in the on BBC Radio 3 and Radio 4 and was a Bühnenweihfestspiel, a stage consecration clutches of the malevolent Klingsor. Other prominent he commissions and edits the festival play, with which he reopened the Bayreuth motifs include a brass , linked to the idea of English-language programme Festspielhaus after the critically successful but faith, and the ‘Dresden Amen’, composed by Johann notes for the . financially ruinous 1876 performances of Der Ring Gottlieb Naumann for the Saxon Royal Chapel and des Nibelungen. quoted, with mystical connotations, by Wagner in his earlier , as well as by Mendelssohn and The religious air that hangs around Parsifal, Bruckner. Beyond such motivic associations, the encouraged by Wagner and his family’s insistence Prelude heralds this mystical drama’s yearning that it could only be performed at Bayreuth, stems tones and breadth of scale. from the story itself. The Kingdom of the Holy Grail, ruled by Amfortas, has fallen into decay. A young man called Parsifal is found shooting down one of the sacred swans in the surrounding forest and is interrogated by the community. But Gurnemanz, one THE INSPIRATION FOR PARSIFAL of the oldest knights, wonders whether Parsifal is Wagner noted in his autobiography how the idea to the promised ‘pure fool, enlightened by compassion’ write an opera on the story of Parsifal came to him who can purify the kingdom. The road to redemption while staying in a cottage near Zürich: is full of temptations, yet Parsifal triumphs over them and is blessed by a descending dove as the final ‘On Good Friday I awoke to find the sun shining curtain falls. brightly for the first time in this house: the little garden was radiant with green, the birds sang, and THE SET OF PARSIFAL I could sit on the roof and enjoy the long- Paul von Joukowsky’s original yearned-for peace with its message of promise. set design for the end of Act III Full of this sentiment, I suddenly remembered that in the 1882 production of Parsifal the day was Good Friday, and I called to mind the at Bayreuth significance this omen had already once assumed for me when I was reading Wolfram’s Parzival … now its noble possibilities struck me with overwhelming force and out of my thoughts about Good Friday I rapidly conceived a whole drama, of which I made a rough sketch with a few dashes of the pen, dividing the whole into three acts.’ 6 Composer Profiles 21 January 2016

Richard Wagner Composer Profile Composer Profile

Richard Wagner was born on 22 Although piano lessons formed May 1813 in Leipzig. His father’s part of Berg’s general education, identity remains uncertain, and the boy showed few signs of may have been either the police exceptional talent for music. official Carl Friedrich Wagner or He struggled to pass his final the actor and artist Ludwig Geyer. exams at the Gymnasium, Wagner’s interest in literature preferring to learn directly of new was kindled at school in Dresden; trends in art, literature, music and here, he translated Homer’s architecture from friends such as Odyssey into German and wrote Oskar Kokoschka, Gustav Klimt two tragedies. His musical talent and Adolf Loos. was encouraged at Leipzig’s Nicolaischule and through lessons On graduating from school, with Christian Gottlieb Müller. Berg accepted a post as a local In 1829 Wagner completed his government official, but in October first instrumental compositions, 1904 was inspired by a newspaper enrolling briefly as a music student at Leipzig University two years later. advertisement to study composition with Arnold Schoenberg. He In 1833 he wrote the libretto for his first opera, Die Feen. studied for six years with Schoenberg, who remained his close friend and mentor. During this time Schoenberg evolved a new approach to Wagner married the actress Minna Planer in November 1836, composing, gradually moving away from the norms of tonal harmony. six months after the premiere of his second opera, Das Liebesverbot. The couple moved from Riga to Paris in 1839 to escape Wagner’s In 1910 Berg completed his , Op 3, in which he revealed creditors, living there in extreme poverty. Here he completed Rienzi an independent creative flair. Berg’s self-confidence grew with the and created Der fliegende Holländer. Rienzi proved a big success at its composition of several miniature works and, in 1914, the large-scale Dresden premiere in October 1842, establishing Wagner’s reputation. Three Pieces for Orchestra. Service with the Austrian Imperial Army during World War I did not completely halt Berg’s output; indeed, he In the 1850s, he shaped the librettos and began composing his began his first opera, , in the summer of 1917. The work was monumental cycle of four Nibelung operas, also completing his premiered at the Berlin Staatsoper in December 1925 and, despite groundbreaking opera Tristan and Isolde. His financial difficulties hostile early criticism, has since entered the international repertoire. were removed in 1864 by the teenage King Ludwig II, a dedicated As an innovative composer, Berg successfully married atonality – Wagnerite who commissioned Der Ring des Nibelungen. Wagner’s and, later, a harmonic and melodic language based on the use of all comic masterpiece, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and parts of the twelve tones of the chromatic scale – with forms from the past. Traces Ring were premiered on Ludwig’s command; the king later funded of popular music also surface in his works, notably so in his opera the building of a new theatre at Bayreuth for the sole performance of (1929–35), a powerful tale of immorality, completed from the Wagner’s works. The Bayreuth Festival was launched in 1876 with the composer’s sketches only after the death of his widow in 1976. Berg first complete production of the Ring cycle. For the remaining years of himself died of septicaemia, almost certainly caused by complications his life, Wagner worked on establishing the Festival and composing his following an insect bite. final opera Parsifal, written specifically for Bayreuth. He died in Venice on 13 February 1883, suffering a heart attack. Composer Profiles © Andrew Stewart lso.co.uk Programme Notes 7

Alban Berg (1885–1935) Seven Early Songs (1905–08, arr 1928)

1 NACHT (NIGHT) The songs open with ‘Nacht’, a setting of words 2 SCHILFLIED (SONG AMID THE REEDS) by Carl Hauptmann, initially creeping into our 3 DIE NACHTIGALL (THE NIGHTINGALE) consciousness and then blooming into erotic 4 TRAUMGEKRÖNT (CROWNED IN DREAM) life. Nikolaus Lenau’s ‘Schilflied’ inspires a more 5 IM ZIMMER (INDOORS) harmonically grounded , with the beloved’s voice 6 LIEBESODE (ODE TO LOVE) described by a touching violin solo. Theodor Storm’s 7 SOMMERTAGE (SUMMER DAYS) ‘Die Nachtigall’ looks back, through Richard Strauss, to Brahms and Schumann, both in subject and in CAMILLA TILLING SOPRANO tone. This is followed by the more fractured beauties of ’s ‘Traumgekrönt’, whose final PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Alban Berg was a rather inattentive schoolboy, ellipsis triggers Berg’s brief but poignant postlude. GAVIN PLUMLEY though he compensated by being culturally voracious, reading widely, going to theatre and A domestic note is struck in Johannes Schlaf’s learning to play the piano. These elements combined fleeting ‘Im Zimmer’, followed by the darker ‘ecstatic in his early compositions, not least his youthful dreams’ of Otto Erich Hartleben’s ‘Liebesode’. ARNOLD SCHOENBERG outpouring of song. By the time that he began to Berg closes with ‘Sommertage’, to a poem by Paul (1874–1951), a fellow Austrian study with Arnold Schoenberg in 1904, Berg had Hohenberg. Its rising gestures mirror those of composer, was Berg’s musical written nearly 80 Lieder. His new teacher was ‘Nacht’, now told with greater urgency and building teacher between 1904–11. He certainly impressed, but felt that Berg’s talents to a fevered climax. initially tutored him in harmony needed testing further and so they began to focus and counterpoint, before adding on the piano, as well as writing string quartets. composition to their lessons in 1907. Schoenberg saw much promise Berg’s love of song would not be silenced, however, in Berg – ‘an extraordinarily gifted and his Sieben frühe Lieder (Seven Early Songs) were composer’ he wrote to his publisher – composed between 1905 and 1908, during which and he pushed the young composer time he met his future wife, Helene Nahowski. Unlike INTERVAL – 20 minutes to develop his skills and ideas further. much of his juvenilia, these seven songs, revised and There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream Schoenberg would go on to devise orchestrated in 1928, are landmark compositions. can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. the twelve-tone technique, one that Their chains of interlinked dissonance and the Berg used prodigiously and to great independence of the voice and accompaniment Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the effect in his later works. The two show great maturity, as does Berg’s distinctly performance @londonsymphony, or come and talk to remained lifelong friends. personal interpretation of the texts. LSO staff at the information point on the Circle level? 8 Texts 21 January 2016

Alban Berg Seven Early Songs: Texts

1 NACHT 1 NIGHT Dämmern Wolken über Nacht und Thal, Twilight floats above the valley’s night, Nebel schweben. Wasser rauschen sacht. Mists are hanging, there’s a whisp’ring brook. Nun entschleiert sich’s mit einem Mal: Now the cov’ring veil is lifted quite: O gieb acht! gieb acht! Come and look! O look!

Weites Wunderland ist aufgethan, See the magic land before our gaze: Silbern ragen Berge traumhaft gross, Tall as dreams the silver mountains stand, Stille Pfade silberlicht thalan Crossed by silent silver paths Aus verborg’nem Schoss. Shining from a secret land.

Und die hehre Welt so traumhaft rein. Noble, pure, the dreaming country sleeps. Stummer Buchenbaum am Wege steht By the path the shadow black and high of a beech; Schattenschwarz – ein Hauch vom fernen Hain A wisp of white smoke creeps to the dark’ning sky Einsam leise weht. Where the valley is the darkest hued.

Und aus tiefen Grundes Düsterheit By the path the shadow black and high of a beech; Blinken Lichter auf in stummer Nacht. Countless little lights shine silently. Trinke Seele! trinke Einsamkeit! O my soul! Drink of solitude! O gieb acht! gieb acht! Come and see! O see! Text: Carl Hauptmann

2 SCHILFLIED 2 SONG AMONGST THE REEDS Auf geheimem Waldespfade Through green secret paths I wander Schleich ich gern im Abendschein To the reedy pool’s quiet brink, An das öde Schilfgestade, In the evening there to ponder, Mädchen, und gedenke dein! Sweet girl, there of thee to think.

Wenn sich dann der Busch verdüstert, Soon the sun’s rays will be dying, Rauscht das Rohr geheimnisvoll, Rustling reeds speak secretly, Und es klaget, und es flüstert, Ever moaning, ever sighing, Daß ich weinen, weinen soll. Telling me to weep for thee.

Und ich mein, ich höre wehen And it seems the breezes blowing Leise deiner Stimme Klang In the air your voice retain, Und im Weiher untergehen And the water, scarcely flowing, Deinen lieblichen Gesang. Brings your song to me again. Text: Nikolaus Lenau lso.co.uk Texts 9

3 DIE NACHTIGALL 3 THE NIGHTINGALE Das macht, es hat die Nachtigall The nightingale, Die ganze Nacht gesungen; Which sings to thee throughout the night, Da sind von ihrem süßen Schall, Discloses in gardens its sweet melody, Da sind in Hall und Widerhall Heard echoing from tree to tree, Die Rosen aufgesprungen. That bears a thousand roses. Sie war doch sonst ein wildes Blut; She used to be a wild young maid, Nun geht sie tief in Sinnen, Now she in meditation Trägt in der Hand den Sommerhut Walks in the sun and scorns the shade, Und duldet still der Sonne Glut Nor of the wind and rain afraid: Und weiß nicht, was beginnen. Is it pain or exaltation?

Das macht, es hat die Nachtigall The nightingale, Die ganze Nacht gesungen; Which sings to thee throughout the night, Da sind von ihrem süßen Schall, Discloses in gardens its sweet melody, Da sind in Hall und Widerhall Heard echoing from tree to tree, Die Rosen aufgesprungen. That bears a thousand roses. Text: Theodor Storm

4 TRAUMGEKRÖNT 4 A CROWN OF DREAMS Das war der Tag der weißen Chrysanthemem, The white chrysanthemums did bloom as never: Mir bangte fast vor seiner Pracht … I almost feared their brilliant light. Und dann, dann kamst du mir die Seele nehmen And then, and then you came my soul to gather Tief in der Nacht. deep in the night. Mir war so bang, und du kamst lieb und leise, I was afraid, and you came softly to me, Ich hatte grad im Traum an dich gedacht. As I’d just hoped in dreaming that you might. Du kamst, und leis’ wie eine Märchenweise You came, and softly like an old, old story Erklang die Nacht. We heard the night. Text: Rainer Maria Rilke

10 Texts 21 January 2016

Alban Berg Seven Early Songs: Texts (continued)

5 IM ZIMMER 5 INDOORS Herbstsonnenschein, An autumn night. Der liebe Abend lacht so still herein, The evening looks in with its dying light. Ein Feuerlein rot A fire gaily burns, Knistert im Ofenloch und loht. Crackles and brightly glows by turns. So! Meinen Kopf auf deinen Knien, So! My head upon your knee: So ist mir gut; That’s happiness! Wenn mein Auge so in deinem ruht. When my eyes your lovely face caress, Wie leise die Minuten ziehn. How silently the minutes flee. Text: Johannes Schlaf

6 LIEBESODE 6 LOVER’S ODE Im Arm der Liebe schliefen wir selig ein. Embraced by love we blissfully fell asleep. Am offnen Fenster lauschte der Sommerwind, A breeze of summer stood by the garden door, und unsrer Atemzüge Frieden Waiting to bear our peaceful breathing trug er hinaus in die helle Mondnacht. Out to the night that was bathed in moonlight. Und aus dem Garten tastete zagend sich And from the garden came to us timidly ein Rosenduft an unserer Liebe Bett The roses’ fragrance blessing our bed of love und gab uns wundervolle Träume, And bringing wonderful sweet dreaming, Träume des Rausches – so reich an ! Dreaming in rapture, and filled with longing. Text: Otto Erich Hartleben

7 SOMMERTAGE 7 SUMMER DAYS Nun ziehen Tage über die Welt, Now days of summer ride through the world, gesandt aus blauer Ewigkeit, Heralds of blue eternity; im Sommerwind verweht die Zeit. On gentler winds the hours flee. Nun windet nächtens der Herr By night the Lord gently weaves Sternenkränze mit seliger Hand Starry posies with his blessed hand, über Wander – unt Wunderland. Hangs them over his magic land.

O Herz, was kann in diesen Tagen My heart, in these days summer’s bringing dein hellstes Wanderlied denn sagen What can you say with all your singing von deiner tiefen, tiefen Lust; Of what you deeply, deeply feel? Im Wiesensang verstummt die Brust, For beauty all your words doth steal, nun schweigt das Wort, wo Bild um Bild And comes in silence with the view zu dir zieht und dich ganz erfült. Of eventide, and filleth you. Text: Paul Hohenberg Texts/translations reprinted by permission of Universal Edition (London) Ltd lso.co.uk Composer Profile 11

Mahler the Man by Stephen Johnson

obsession with mortality in Mahler’s music. Few of his major works do not feature a funeral march: in fact Mahler’s first composition (at age ten) was I am … a Funeral March with Polka – exactly the kind of three times homeless extreme juxtaposition one finds in his mature works. a native of Bohemia in Austria For most of his life Mahler supported himself by , but this was no mere means to an end. an Austrian among Germans Indeed his evident talent and energetic, disciplined commitment led to successive appointments a Jew throughout the world. at , Leipzig, Budapest, Hamburg and climactically, in 1897, the Vienna Court Opera. In the midst of this hugely demanding schedule, Mahler composed whenever he could, usually during his summer holidays. The rate at which he composed during these brief periods is astonishing. Mahler’s sense of being an outsider, coupled with The workload in no way decreased after his marriage a penetrating, restless intelligence, made him an to the charismatic and highly intelligent Alma Schindler acutely self-conscious searcher after truth. For Mahler in 1902. Alma’s infidelity – which almost certainly the purpose of art was, in Shakespeare’s famous accelerated the final decline in Mahler’s health in phrase, to ‘hold the mirror up to nature’ in all its 1910/11 – has earned her black marks from some bewildering richness. The symphony, he told Jean biographers; but it is hard not to feel some sympathy Sibelius, ‘must be like the world. It must embrace for her position as a ‘work widow’. everything’. Mahler’s symphonies can seem almost over-full with intense emotions and ideas: love and Nevertheless, many today have good cause to hate, joy in life and terror of death, the beauty of be grateful to Mahler for his single-minded devotion nature, innocence and bitter experience. Similar to his art. T S Eliot – another artist caught between themes can also be found in his marvellous songs the search for faith and the horror of meaninglessness – and song-cycles, though there the intensity is, wrote that ‘humankind cannot bear very much reality’. if anything, still more sharply focused. But Mahler’s music suggests another possibility. With his ability to confront the terrifying possibility of a Gustav Mahler was born the second of 14 children. purposeless universe and the empty finality of death, His parents were apparently ill-matched (Mahler Mahler can help us confront and endure stark reality. remembered violent scenes), and young Gustav He can take us to the edge of the abyss, then sing grew dreamy and introspective, seeking comfort us the sweetest songs of consolation. If we allow in nature rather than human company. Death was ourselves to make this journey with him, we may a presence from early on: six of Mahler’s siblings find that we too are the better for it. died in infancy. This no doubt partly explains the 12 Programme Notes 21 January 2016

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) Symphony No 5 (1901–02)

PART I SECOND MOVEMENT 1 FUNERAL MARCH: IN GEMESSENEM SCHRITT. STRENG. Broadly speaking, the second movement is an WIE EIN KONDUKT (WITH MEASURED TREAD. STRICT. urgent, sometimes painful struggle. The shrill three- LIKE A PROCESSION) note woodwind figure near the start comes to 2 STURMISCH BEWEGT. MIT GRÖSSTER VEHEMENZ embody the idea of striving. Several times aspiration (STORMY. WITH UTMOST VEHEMENCE) falls back into sad rumination. At last the striving culminates in a radiant brass hymn tune, with PART II ecstatic interjections from the rest of the orchestra. 3 SCHERZO: KRÄFTIG, NICHT ZU SCHNELL Is the answer to death to be found in religious (VIGOROUS, NOT TOO FAST) consolation? But the affirmation is unstable, and the movement quickly fades into darkness. Now comes PART III a surprise. 4 ADAGIETTO: SEHR LANGSAM (VERY SLOW) 5 RONDO-FINALE: ALLEGRO THIRD MOVEMENT The Scherzo bursts onto the scene with a wildly PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Mahler began his Fifth Symphony in 1901. This had elated fanfare. The character is unmistakably STEPHEN JOHNSON is the author been a turbulent year: in February, after a near-fatal Viennese – a kind of frenetic waltz. But the change of of Bruckner Remembered (Faber). haemorrhage, Mahler had resigned as conductor mood has baffled some writers: the Fifth Symphony He also contributes regularly to BBC of the Orchestra; at about the has even been labelled ‘schizophrenic’. Actually Music Magazine, and broadcasts for same time he met his future wife, Alma Schindler, ‘manic depressive’ might be more appropriate. BBC Radio 3 (Discovering Music), and fell passionately in love. All this seems to have Many psychologists now believe that the over-elated Radio 4 and the World Service. left its mark on the Fifth Symphony’s character manic phase represents a deliberate mental flight and musical argument. But as Mahler was at pains from unbearable thoughts or situations, and certainly to point out, that doesn’t ultimately give us the there are parts of this movement where the gaiety ‘meaning’ of the Fifth Symphony. For that, one has sounds forced, even downright crazy. Mahler himself MAHLER wrote to his wife Alma to look directly at the music. wondered what people would say ‘to this primeval during rehearsals for the premiere: music, this foaming, roaring, raging sea of sound?’ ‘The Scherzo is the very devil of a FIRST MOVEMENT Still Mahler cunningly bases the germinal opening movement. I see it is in for a pack The first movement is a grim Funeral March, horn fanfare on the three-note ‘striving’ figure from of troubles! Conductors for the next opening with a fanfare, quiet at first but the second movement: musically the seeming 50 years will all take it too fast and growing menacingly. At its height, the full orchestra disunity is only skin-deep. make nonsense of it; and the public – thunders in with an unmistakable funereal tread. Oh, heavens! – what are they to Shuddering string trills and deep, rasping horn notes FOURTH MOVEMENT make of this chaos of which new evoke death in full grotesque pomp. Then comes a Now comes the famous Adagietto, for strings and worlds are forever being engendered, more intriguing pointer: the quieter march theme harp alone, and another profound change of mood. only to crumble in ruin the moment that follows is clearly related to Mahler’s song ‘Der Mahler, the great Lieder composer, clearly intended after? … Oh, that I might give my Tambourg’sell’ (The Drummer Lad), which tells of a this movement as a kind of wordless love-song symphonies their first performance pitiful young deserter facing execution – no more to his future wife, Alma. Here he quotes from one 50 years after my death!’ grandeur, just pity and desolation. of his greatest songs, ‘Ich bin der Welt abhanden lso.co.uk Programme Notes 13

London Symphony Orchestra

MAHLER on LSO LIVE gekommen’ (I am lost to the world) from his Rückert COMPOSER FOCUS Explore ’s critically Lieder. The poem ends with the phrase ‘I live alone acclaimed recordings of Mahler’s in my heaven, in my love, in my song’; Mahler quotes nine symphonies on LSO Live. the violin phrase that accompanies ‘in my love, Available as downloads, individual in my song’ at the very end of the Adagietto. This discs or as a 10-SACD box set. invocation of human love and song provides the true turning point in the Fifth Symphony. Available at lsolive.lso.co.uk, FIFTH MOVEMENT in the Barbican The finale is a vigorous, joyous contrapuntal display – Shop or online at genuine joy this time. Even motifs from the Adagietto iTunes & Amazon are drawn into the bustling textures. Finally, after a long and exciting build-up, the second movement’s brass chorale returns in full splendour, now firmly THOMAS ADÈS anchored in D major, the symphony’s home key. One of Britain’s most innovative The triumph of faith, hope and love? Not everyone composers conducts the LSO through finds this ending convincing; had his own work and others her doubts from the very beginning. But one can hear it either as a ringing affirmation or strained triumphalism and it still stirs. For all his apparent Wed 9 Mar 2016 7.30pm late-Romanticism, Mahler was also a very modern Thomas Adès Polaris composer: even in his most positive statements Brahms Violin Concerto there is room for doubt. Thomas Adès Brahms Thomas Adès Tevot

with Anne-Sophie Mutter violin and Samuel Dale Johnson Supported by the Atkin Foundation

Wed 16 Mar 2016 7.30pm Thomas Adès Asyla Sibelius Violin Concerto Franck Symphony in D minor

with Christian Tetzlaff violin

020 7638 8891 lso.co.uk 14 Programme Notes 24 January 2016

Anton Webern (1883–1945) Im Sommerwind (1904)

Anton Webern entered the University of Vienna in 1902, elegance, not least in the ‘very quiet and solemn’ studying musicology, counterpoint and harmony with some conclusion that builds imitatively through the strings. of the institution’s leading figures. Yet an independence Unperformed during Webern’s lifetime, of mind, encouraged by his parents, meant that Webern Im Sommerwind only came to light in 1961, when Hans Moldenhauer found the manuscript continued to learn the piano and privately. among the composer’s daughter’s possessions. The world premiere and publication followed PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER He was also an avid composer, penning songs, quickly thereafter, presenting a much richer GAVIN PLUMLEY as well as some early instrumental and chamber portrait of this nature-loving composer. works. Yet his youthful masterpiece, written just before he began studying with Arnold Schoenberg, was Im Sommerwind.

Based in Vienna, Webern nonetheless continued to spend his summers at Preglhof, his family’s estate in Carinthia. It was there, in 1904, that he read a six-stanza poem entitled ‘Im Sommerwind’ from the German writer and thinker Bruno Wille’s collection Offenbarungen eines Wachholderbaums (Revelations of a Juniper Tree). Motivated by Nietzsche and a spiritual love of nature, Wille’s work chimed with Webern’s own passions for the natural world. Rather than being submerged in the ‘city’s dust THE and arid fraudulence’, Wille (and Webern) find release in the billowing corn and peaceful infinity The composers Alban Berg, Arnold Schoenberg of the countryside. and Anton Webern were collectively known as the ‘Second Viennese School’; the first, while not Webern responded to the poem by composing an officially given this title, comprised Haydn, Mozart orchestral idyll, at once expansive and concise. He and Beethoven. Both Berg and Webern studied with employs a large orchestra, in the mould of Richard Schoenberg at the start of the 20th century, and the Strauss’ or Mahler’s symphonies, three went on to share similar developments in their including six horns, though without the customary musical language: from expressive late-Romanticism, and . Despite these sizeable forces through free atonality and towards the use of serial and the unmistakable richness of its post-Romantic procedures to construct their compositions. Despite language, the piece is almost aphoristic, looking temporary strains in their respective relationships, ahead to the more distilled idiom for which Webern the three were lifelong friends and supporters of would later be famed. There are moments of great each other’s work. intoxication, but also a shivering softness and lso.co.uk Composer Profile 15

Anton Webern Composer Profile

Born in Vienna in 1883, Webern was introduced to Sunday 13 March music by his mother, a talented amateur pianist. He later studied piano, cello and music theory with 4PM Edwin Komauer in Klagenfurt, and in 1902 enrolled LSO ST LUKE’S as a student at the University of Vienna. From the Darren Bloom Dr Glaser’s Experiment autumn of 1904 until 1908, Webern took private (world premiere, LSO commission) composition lessons from Arnold Schoenberg. Thomas Adès Chamber Symphony The two men became close allies, and their pupil- Schoenberg Chamber Symphony No 1 teacher relationship endured long after formal studies were concluded. 7PM With limited experience and no training, Webern BARBICAN HALL slowly established a career as a conductor, Ligeti Atmosphères eventually working at the Deutsches Theater in Elizabeth Ogonek Sleep & Unremembrance Prague during the autumn of 1917. The following year (world premiere, Panufnik commission) he returned to the new Austrian Republic and took Berio Sinfonia COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER lodgings close to Schoenberg in the Vienna suburb of ANDREW STEWART Modling. During the 1920s and early 1930s he proved successful as a conductor, working with the Modling François-Xavier Roth conductor Male Chorus, the Vienna Workers’ Symphony Synergy Vocals Concerts and the Vienna Workers’ Chorus, and introducing new scores to his audiences. In 1929 London Symphony Orchestra he toured as a conductor to Munich, Frankfurt, Cologne and London. His mature works, lyrical and beautiful in nature, show a remarkable concision PLUS A conference on the dynamic relationship of thought, with formal procedures governed by between new music and dance (9 Mar), the Panufnik his development of the twelve-tone composition Composers Workshop (11 Mar) and a free recital method pioneered by Schoenberg. of Berio’s Folksongs by conductor Elim Chan and Guildhall School Musicians (13 Mar, 6pm) Following the of 1938, Webern’s post as a conductor for Austrian Radio was withdrawn and his Book now music was largely ignored during the war years. During the siege of Vienna in 1944 he and his wife moved to lso.co.uk/futures | 020 7638 8891 Mittersill, near Salzburg, to be with their daughters. On the evening of 15 September 1945 he was shot The London Symphony Orchestra gratefully and killed by an American soldier who is believed to acknowledges support from the PRS for Music have mistaken Webern for a black-marketeer. Foundation, Britten-Pears Foundation, the Esmée Fairbairn Foundation and The Helen Hamlyn Trust 16 Programme Notes 24 January 2016

Alban Berg (1885–1935) Violin Concerto (1935)

1 ANDANTE – ALLEGRETTO The first part of the Concerto, the linked Andante 2 ALLEGRO – ADAGIO and Allegretto, shows her in the prime of life, her carefree high spirits, her love of dancing; the second, RENAUD CAPUÇON VIOLIN an Allegro and Adagio, again linked, portrays the catastrophe of her painful illness, her death and PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER When he died on Christmas Eve, 1935, Berg left two spiritual configuration, portrayed in the use of the ANDREW CLEMENTS is Chief works to be performed posthumously. His second Bach Chorale ‘Es ist genug’, as the subject of a set Music Critic of The Guardian. His opera, Lulu, was incomplete, with its third act still of variations. The four movements also outline a study of the British composer to be fleshed out and orchestrated; that was not to symphonic shape, though a symphony of a singular Mark-Anthony Turnage is published be heard in its entirety until 1979, when Friedrich kind, with both its first and last movements slow. by Faber & Faber. Cerha’s faithful completion was finally performed. Mahler’s Ninth seems a possible model and the But the Violin Concerto was finished by the time of Concerto shares the same valedictory mood, the Berg’s death; it had been written in just four months, same acceptance of death in its final pages. an incredibly short period for a major work from THE PREMIERE of Berg’s Violin this composer. The first performance took place in Concerto was originally intended to Barcelona in March 1937; the soloist was the violinist be conducted by his close friend and who commissioned it, Louis Krasner. associate Anton Webern. Webern was a notorious and meticulous The Concerto carries a subtitle, ‘To the memory of an perfectionist, not least when trusted angel’, and in that lies one clue to its rapid genesis to perform the premiere of a work and profoundly elegiac character. Berg had already by someone he cared about (Webern accepted Krasner’s commission and was pondering was also known for his intense the shape his concerto should take when, in April emotional feelings) and so, on the day 1935, he heard the news of the death, from polio, before the premiere, he withdrew of the 18-year-old Manon Gropius, daughter of from the performance. The job fell Alma Mahler by her second marriage to the architect to Hermann Scherchen, who saw . Berg was stunned by the loss of the score for the first time at 11pm a close family friend and immediately set about on the eve of its premiere, and had composing a work in her memory. The Violin Concerto only a single 30-minute rehearsal to became that memorial, a ‘ for Manon’. prepare with the orchestra. Throughout his career, Berg had required his music INTERVAL – 20 minutes to carry, if not a specific programme, then at least There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream some extra-musical significance. By conceiving the can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. Violin Concerto as a musical biography of Manon, in which the solo violin represents the young girl, Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the he was able to give the motivation and the musical performance @londonsymphony, or come and talk to purpose to stir his powers of invention. LSO staff at the information point on the Circle level? Wed 24 Feb Maxim Vengerov in Recital Show-pieces from Beethoven to Ernst designed to put a smile on your face, from one of the world’s finest violinists

14 Jan programme ad v1.indd 1 14/01/2016 14:05 18 Programme Notes 24 January 2016

Richard Strauss (1864–1949) Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) Op 40 (1897–98)

1 THE HERO – to offset Strauss’ natural ambition to fill the shoes of 2 THE HERO’S ADVERSARIES – Beethoven and Brahms. His waggish Till Eulenspiegel 3 THE HERO’S COMPANION – had thumbed his nose at society before his creator 4 THE HERO AT BATTLE – embarked on a vast, incandescent homage to 5 THE HERO’S WORKS OF PEACE – Nietzsche, , itself hardly 6 THE HERO’S RETIREMENT FROM THIS WORLD lacking in humour. AND CONSUMMATION Ein Heldenleben, too, was to enjoy its fair element of PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER It is all too easy to look at the word ‘hero’ in the the tongue-in-cheek. Strauss maintained his ironic DAVID NICE writes, lectures title and the size of the orchestra for this work, distance from the start, even when he spoke of and broadcasts on music, notably and link them with the aggressive Wilhelminian another ‘Eroica’ Symphony which, like Beethoven’s, for BBC Radio 3 and BBC Music Germany in which the 34-year-old Richard Strauss would be in E-flat major with a flamboyant role for Magazine. His books include short concocted Ein Heldenleben, the most ambitious of horns (three in Beethoven, eight here to suit the studies of Richard Strauss, Elgar, his seven tone poems to date. The circumstances late-Romantic spirit of the age). Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, and a could easily reinforce that impression. In April 1898 Prokofiev biography, From Russia to Strauss moved to Berlin, the centre of Prussian The hero swaggers on to the the West 1891–1935. supremacy, to fill a prestigious conducting post, stage in a wide-spanning theme, taking with him his wife Pauline, his one-year-old son Franz and the sketches of his latest work. In July, as for , basses and two horns, he completed the short score of Ein Heldenleben which drives the introduction to and prepared to embark on its orchestration, he noted the death of Wilhelm II’s former chancellor, brilliant heights, throwing down the Bismarck, whose expansionist ambitions had been gauntlet with massive confidence. modest in comparison with those of his now- unbridled Emperor. A detailed explanatory booklet was provided to The hero of the work is ‘not a accompany the Berlin premiere in March 1899, so single poetical or historical figure, Strauss had no right to be surprised when the critics took it that ‘the hideously portrayed ‘fault-finders but rather a more general and free and adversaries’ are supposed to be themselves, ideal of great and manly heroism’. and the Hero me, which is only partly true’. Only ‘partly’, because the mock-heroic extravagance with Richard Strauss, writing about the inspiration which the elements of autobiography are treated behind Ein Heldenleben goes way beyond the realms of the realistic.

Yet Strauss, as he remarked to the French writer The hero swaggers on to the stage in a wide- Romain Rolland, was ‘not a hero; I haven’t the spanning theme, for cellos, basses and two necessary strength.’ What he could boast were wit horns, which drives the introduction to brilliant and high spirits. Time and again these qualities were heights, throwing down the gauntlet with massive lso.co.uk Programme Notes 19

IN BRIEF confidence; the depressing answer comes in They remain unimpressed; the hero flies into a rage Although the composer refuted it, miserable spittings and whinings from a tangle of and prepares for a noble retreat which, apart from Strauss’ seventh tone poem woodwind ‘adversaries’, underpinned by implacable another nightmare invasion of adversaries, is largely Ein Heldenleben (A Hero’s Life) tenor and bass . given over to a final meditation on the companion’s is often taken to be an auto- music. In the famous words from Goethe’s Faust, biographical expression of his The third set of themes comes from the hero’s ‘the eternal feminine draws us heavenwards’; egotism. He began the work after companion, a solo violin who sets about every trick though the brass and woodwind have the last resolving to compose a heroic in the book to rouse the hero from self-absorption. masculine word in an afterthought from the end of work fashioned after Beethoven’s This woman of infinite variety is the first of several 1898. At this final point in a 1946 performance, the ‘Eroica’ symphony, which was detailed portraits Strauss provided of his difficult, octogenarian Strauss turned to an eminent music originally dedicated to Napoleon often neurotic but fundamentally loving wife. ‘She is critic, winked and muttered ‘state funeral!’– giving Bonaparte, and it is conceivable very complex,’ Strauss said of his spouse, ‘very much us all a clue as to the spirit in which the work should that the composer wrote himself a woman, a little depraved, something of a flirt, never be taken. into the centre of the work’s story, twice alike, every minute different from what she given that Strauss indeed once was the minute before.’ Her more lovable aspects described himself as being ‘no less prevail in a passionate love scene perfumed by the interesting than Napoleon’. two swirling harps and graced by ecstatic writing for the collective .

The hero’s new-found contentment seems unruffled at first by the tiptoeing adversaries; but distant remind him that a battle is inevitable. He swings into action in a waltzing metre to suggest the underlying frivolity of the combat. The cacophony comes from the adversaries’ themes, but the companion’s sweetness hangs in the air and guides the hero to victory.

Strauss, the master of symphonic construction, now reviews his heroic material at the two-thirds mark with bracing new additions, crowned by another horn theme which Strauss-lovers will find familiar. It is the heroic high noon from , and it ushers in another passage of pure autobiography, a tapestry of Strauss’ best themes to date – including old friends Zarathustra, Till Eulenspiegel and – as an answer to those implacable critics the tubas. 20 Composer Profile 24 January 2016

Richard Strauss Composer Profile QUARTET

Richard Strauss was born in Munich in 1864, the son of Franz Strauss, a brilliant horn player in the Munich court orchestra; it is therefore perhaps not surprising that some of the composer’s most striking writing is for the . Strauss had his first piano lessons when he was four and he produced his first composition two years later, but surprisingly he did not attend a music academy, his formal education ending rather at Munich University where he studied philosophy and aesthetics, while continuing with his musical training at the same time.

Following the first public performances of his work, The award-winning Pavel Haas String Quartet he received a commission from Hans von Bülow in takes up residence at LSO St Luke’s for four 1882 and two years later was appointed Bülow’s BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts Assistant Musical Director at the Meiningen Court COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER Orchestra, the beginning of a career in which ANDREW STEWART Strauss was to conduct many of the world’s great Thu 4 Feb 1pm orchestras, in addition to holding positions at opera Smetana String Quartets Nos 1 & 2 houses in Munich , Berlin and Vienna. While at Munich, he married the singer , Thu 11 Feb 1pm for whom he wrote many of his greatest songs. ProkofievString Quartet No 1 Bartók String Quartet No 5 Strauss’ legacy is to be found in his operas and his magnificent symphonic poems. Scores such as Till Thu 18 Feb 1pm Eulenspiegel, Also sprach Zarathustra, Don Juan and Shostakovich String Quartet No 10 Ein Heldenleben demonstrate his supreme mastery Shostakovich Piano Quintet of orchestration; the thoroughly modern operas with Denis Kozhukhin piano and , with their Freudian themes and atonal scoring, are landmarks in the development of Thu 25 Feb 1pm 20th­­-century music, and the neo-Classical Schubert String Quintet ­ has become one of the most with cello popular operas of the century. Strauss spent his last years in self-imposed exile in Switzerland, waiting to be officially cleared of complicity in the Nazi regime. He died at Garmisch Partenkirchen in 1949, shortly Book now after his widely-celebrated 85th birthday. lso.co.uk/lsostlukes lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 21

François-Xavier Roth Conductor

François-Xavier Roth, born in Paris in November With a reputation for enterprising programming, 1971, is one of the most charismatic and enterprising his incisive approach and communication skills conductors of his generation. He is General Music are valued around the world. He works with leading Director of the City of Cologne, leading both orchestras including the , the Gürzenich Orchestra and the Opera, and Royal and Boston Symphony. Principal Conductor of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Over the next two seasons he curates a series Baden-Baden und Freiburg. with the London Symphony Orchestra, exploring the musical legacy of the post-Romantic period. His repertoire ranges from music of the 17th century to contemporary work and encompasses His work in the opera house has included all genres: symphonic, operatic and chamber. In productions of Thomas’ Mignon, Offenbach’s Les 2003 he founded the innovative orchestra Les Brigands and Delibes’ Lakmé at the Opéra Comique Siècles, which performs contrasting and colourful in Paris, Morton Feldman’s Neither at the Berlin programmes on modern and period instruments, Staatsoper and Wagner’s The Flying Dutchman with often within the same concert. With Les Siècles he Les Siècles. His first Cologne opera season includes has given concerts in France, , Germany, England Berlioz’s Benvenuto Cellini, in a new production by General Music Director and Japan. To mark the centenary of The Rite of La Fura dels Baus, and Mozart’s Don Giovanni. City of Cologne Spring they toured the work on period instruments including performances at the BBC Proms and the Outreach projects are an important aspect of Principal Conductor Alte Oper, Frankfurt, captured in a widely acclaimed François-Xavier Roth’s work. He is conductor of SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden and award-winning recording. They will partner with the ground-breaking LSO Panufnik Composers und Freiburg the Pina Bausch Company for danced performances Scheme and, with the Festival Berlioz and Les of the work in summer 2016. Siècles, founded the Jeune Orchestre Européen Hector Berlioz, an orchestra academy with its own He leads the SWR Sinfonieorchester Freiburg und collection of period instruments. Baden-Baden during its 70th anniversary year in guest visits to London (BBC Proms), Hamburg and Roth and Les Siècles devised Presto!, their own the Lucerne and Berlin festivals. They will complete television series for France 2, attracting weekly their cycle of performances and recordings of the audiences of over three million. In Cologne, he symphonic poems of Richard Strauss. With this has announced initiatives to take music to new, orchestra he has premiered works by Philippe unconventional venues and initiate collaborations Manoury, Yann Robin and Georg Friedrich Haas with the City’s cultural institutions. and collaborated with composers , Jörg Widmann and . 22 Artist Biographies 21 & 24 January 2016

Camilla Tilling Soprano

Since her acclaimed 1999 debut as Corinna Staatsoper. Last season Camilla returned to Opéra (Rossini’s ) at , National de Paris as Pamina and sang her first Swedish soprano Camilla Tilling has not looked back. Contessa (Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro) at The combination of her beautiful voice, musicality Drottningholms Slottsteater. and winning stage personality has launched her onto the stages of the world’s most prominent opera A highly regarded concert performer, Camilla is a houses, concert halls and to regular collaborations regular guest of the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre with the greatest orchestras and conductors. de Paris, Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, NDR Sinfonieorchester and the Boston A graduate of both the University of Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra. Recent highlights include and the Royal College of Music, Camilla made Berg’s Seven Early Songs with the Los Angeles an early debut at House Covent Philharmonic under Lionel Bringuier and Strauss’ Garden as Sophie (Strauss’ Der Rosenkavalier), a at the Salzburg Festival with the role she went on to sing at Lyric Opera of Chicago, under Christoph von Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre, La Monnaie and the Dohnányi. Last season she performed Mahler’s Munich Opera Festival. An ongoing relationship Symphony No 4 with the Orchestre National de with the Royal Opera House has seen her return France under Robin Ticciati and with the Vienna as Pamina (Mozart’s The Magic ), Dorinda Symphony under Philippe Jordan, while recent (Handel’s ), Oscar (Verdi’s Un ballo in performances with the Berlin Philharmonic include maschera), Arminda (Mozart’s La finta giardiniera), Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 at Berlin’s Waldbühne Gretel (Humperdinck’s Hansel und Gretel) and under Sir , Handel’s La resurrezione most recently as Susanna (Mozart’s The Marriage under Emmanuelle Haïm, and Peter Sellars’ highly of Figaro). At the she has acclaimed production of Bach’s St Matthew Passion appeared as both Zerlina (Mozart’s Don Giovanni) in Lucerne, London and New York. and Nannetta (Verdi’s ). As Susanna she has performed at the San Francisco Opera, Festival Current season highlights include Schumann’s d’Aix-en-Provence, Bayerische Staatsoper, and Scenes from Goethe’s ‘Faust’ with NDR Opéra National de Paris. Sinfonieorchester under Thomas Hengelbrock. She performs Brahms’ German Requiem with With the vocal flexibility to embrace a diverse Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich and with the orchestra repertoire, Camilla has enjoyed success as the of Teatro alla Scala, both under , Governess (Britten’s The Turn of the Screw) at and also with the the Glyndebourne Festival, as l’Ange (Messiaen’s under Christoph von Dohnányi. She returns to Saint François d’Assise) at De Nederlandse Opera, the for Dutilleux’s as Mélisande (Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande) at Correspondances and concert performances as Teatro Real Madrid and last season in her debut at Mélisande (Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande) under Sächsische Staatsoper Dresden, as Euridice (Gluck’s Esa-Pekka Salonen. Orfeo ed Euridice) at Salzburg Mozartwoche, and as Donna Clara (Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg) at Bayerische lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 23

Renaud Capuçon Violin

French violinist Renaud Capuçon is firmly Capuçon has a great commitment to chamber established as a major soloist, recitalist and music and has worked with: Argerich, Barenboim, chamber musician, working with the top Bronfman, Buniatishvili, Grimaud, Pires, Pletnev, international orchestras and conductors and Repin, Bashmet and Mørk, as well as with his performing in the most prestigious venues. brother, cellist Gautier Capuçon. These collaborations have taken him, among others, to the festivals Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon of Edinburgh, Berlin, Lucerne, Verbier, Aix-en- began his studies at the Conservatoire National Provence, Roque d’Anthéron, San Sebastian, Stresa, Supérieur de Musique de Paris at the age of 14, Tanglewood and Salzburg. winning numerous awards during his five years there. Following this, Capuçon moved to Berlin to He is the Artistic Director of the Easter Festival in study with Thomas Brandis and , and Aix-en-Provence which he founded in 2013, and was awarded the Prize of the Berlin Academy of he was recently appointed Artistic Director of the Arts. In 1997 he was invited by Claudio Abbado Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad. to become concert master of the Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, which he led for three summers, Recording exclusively with EMI/Virgin Classics, Artistic Director working with conductors such as , Capuçon has built an extensive discography. Recent Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival , , Franz Welser-Möst releases include Bach and Vasks Concertos as and Abbado himself. conductor and soloist with the Chamber Orchestra Artistic Director of Europe, and Brahms and Berg Concertos with the Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad Since then Capuçon has established himself as a Vienna Philharmonic under . soloist at the highest level. He has played concertos His latest recording is a disc of with the Berlin Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink Franck, Grieg and Dvorˇák sonatas with Khatia and David Robertson, the Boston Symphony under Buniatishvili. His recording of Fauré’s complete Christoph von Dohnányi, the Orchestre de Paris chamber music for strings with Nicholas Angelich, under and Paavo Järvi, Gautier Capuçon, Michel Dalberto, Gérard Caussé Philharmonique de Radio France and Filarmonica and the Ebène Quartet won the Prize for della Scala orchestras with Myung-Whun Chung, chamber music in 2012. Orchestre National de France with , the New York Philharmonic with Charles Dutoit, and the Renaud Capuçon plays the Guarneri del Gesù Simón Bolívar Orchestra with . ‘Panette’ (1737) that belonged to Isaac Stern, bought for him by the Banca Svizzera Italiana (BSI). In June Capuçon also tours extensively as a solo recitalist 2011 he was appointed ‘Chevalier dans l’Ordre and will perform complete cycles of the Beethoven National du Mérite’ by the French Government. violin sonatas with pianist Frank Braley around the world during the coming seasons. 24 The Orchestra 21 & 24 January 2016

London Symphony Orchestra London Symphony Orchestra On stage (21 Jan) On stage (24 Jan)

FIRST VIOLINS TRUMPETS FIRST VIOLINS VIOLAS FLUTES HORNS Roman Simovic Leader Hungwei Huang Gareth Davies Nicholas Betts Roman Simovic Leader Hungwei Huang Adam Walker Bertrand Chatenet Carmine Lauri Gillianne Haddow Alex Jakeman Christopher Deacon Lennox Mackenzie Gillianne Haddow Patricia Moynihan Angela Barnes Clare Duckworth Lander Echevarria Patricia Moynihan Gerald Ruddock Clare Duckworth Malcolm Johnston Gareth Davies Alexander Edmundson Gerald Gregory Anna Bastow Daniel Newell Ginette Decuyper Lander Echevarria Jonathan Lipton Jörg Hammann Julia O’Riordan PICCOLO Simon Cox Jörg Hammann Anna Bastow PICCOLO Mark Almond Claire Parfitt Robert Turner Sharon Williams Maxine Kwok-Adams Julia O’Riordan Sharon Williams Jonathan Durrant Elizabeth Pigram Heather Wallington TROMBONES Claire Parfitt Robert Turner Jocelyn Lightfoot Laurent Quenelle Jonathan Welch Peter Moore Elizabeth Pigram Heather Wallington OBOES Kathryn Saunders Harriet Rayfield Elizabeth Butler Olivier Stankiewicz James Maynard Laurent Quenelle Jonathan Welch Olivier Stankiewicz James Pillai Ian Rhodes Nancy Johnson Fraser MacAulay Ian Rhodes Elizabeth Butler Rosie Jenkins Sylvain Vasseur Cian O’Duill Maxwell Spiers BASS Sylvain Vasseur Cian O’Duill Maxwell Spiers TRUMPETS Rhys Watkins Anna Dorothea Vogel Paul Milner Rhys Watkins Alistair Scahill Philip Cobb COR ANGLAIS David Worswick David Worswick Gerald Ruddock Christine Pendrill TUBA Christine Pendrill Erzsebet Racz CELLOS Eleanor Fagg CELLOS Daniel Newell Tim Hugh Patrick Harrild Tim Hugh Christopher Deacon Jan Regulski Alain Petitclerc CLARINETS Alastair Blayden Alastair Blayden Simon Cox Patrick Savage Chris Richards Erzsebet Racz Chris Richards Noel Bradshaw Noel Bradshaw Chi-Yu Mo Antoine Bedewi Chi-Yu Mo SECOND VIOLINS Daniel Gardner SECOND VIOLINS Daniel Gardner OFF-STAGE TRUMPETS Sarah Thurlow David Van Dijk Hilary Jones David Van Dijk Hilary Jones Paul Beniston BASS PERCUSSION Jane Calderbank Sarah Quinn Amanda Truelove Thomas Norris Amanda Truelove David Geoghegan Laurent Ben Slimane Neil Percy Angela Whelan Miya Väisänen Victoria Harrild David Jackson Miya Väisänen James Barralet David Ballesteros Steffan Morris David Ballesteros Victoria Harrild Sam Walton Laurent Ben Slimane TROMBONES Richard Blayden Miwa Rosso Richard Blayden Miwa Rosso Rachel Gough Paul Stoneman Peter Moore Matthew Gardner Deborah Tolksdorf Matthew Gardner Hester Snell Joost Bosdijk E-FLAT CLARINET James Maynard Julian Gil Rodriguez Julian Gil Rodriguez Christopher Gunia HARP Chi-Yu Mo Emma Bassett Naoko Keatley DOUBLE BASSES Bryn Lewis Naoko Keatley DOUBLE BASSES Rick Stotijn Nicholas Bayley Belinda McFarlane CONTRA Belinda McFarlane SAXOPHONE BASS TROMBONE Patrick Laurence Patrick Laurence William Melvin Dominic Morgan CELESTE Iwona Muszynska Simon Haram Paul Milner Iwona Muszynska Matthew Gibson John Alley Andrew Pollock Matthew Gibson Paul Robson Thomas Goodman HORNS Paul Robson Joe Melvin BASSOONS TUBA Hazel Mulligan Joe Melvin Vittorio Schiavone Gordon MacKay Jani Pensola Rachel Gough Patrick Harrild Robert Yeomans Jani Pensola Angela Barnes Hazel Mulligan Benjamin Griffiths Joost Bosdijk Benjamin Griffiths Alexander Edmundson Jeremy Watt Christopher Gunia TIMPANI Jeremy Watt Jonathan Lipton Simo Väisänen Nigel Thomas Jonathan Bareham CONTRA BASSOON Mark Almond Dominic Morgan PERCUSSION Andrew Budden Neil Percy David Jackson Sam Walton Paul Stoneman

HARPS Bryn Lewis Helen Sharp

LSO STRING EXPERIENCE SCHEME

Established in 1992, the LSO String Experience The Scheme is supported by London Symphony Orchestra Editor Scheme enables young string players at the Help Musicians UK Barbican Edward Appleyard start of their professional careers to gain The Lefever Award Silk Street [email protected] work experience by playing in rehearsals The Polonsky Foundation London and concerts with the LSO. The scheme The Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust EC2Y 8DS Photography auditions students from the London music The Idlewild Trust Ranald Mackechnie, Mats Widén, conservatoires, and 15 students per year Registered charity in England No 232391 Marco Borggreve, François Darmigny are selected to participate. The musicians Taking part in the rehearsals for these Details in this publication were correct Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 are treated as professional ’extra’ players concerts were Eleanor Corr, May Dolan, Julie Svecena and Lisa Bucknell. Ben Daniel-Greep at time of going to press. (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Advertising Cabbell Ltd 020 3603 7937 for their work in line with LSO section players. will be performing with the LSO on 24 Jan.

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