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Home , Albert Coates (musician), Gerard McBurney, Gianandrea Noseda, Legend (Tchaikovsky), Piano Concerto (Britten), Sadko (musical tableau)

Thursday 31 October 2019 7.30–9.45pm Barbican

LSO SEASON CONCERT SHOSTAKOVICH SIXTH SYMPHONY

Britten Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from ‘’ Prokofiev Piano No 2 Interval Shostakovich Symphony No 6

Gianandrea Noseda conductor Denis Matsuev piano

RUSSIAN Filmed for deferred broadcast on medici.tv.

Sunday 3 November 2019 7–9.25pm Barbican

LSO SEASON CONCERT TCHAIKOVSKY FIFTH SYMPHONY ROOTS Rimsky-Korsakov The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh – Suite Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 Interval Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5

Gianandrea Noseda conductor Denis Matsuev piano Welcome Latest News On Our Blog

cycle. Continuing on from last season, the FRANÇOIS-XAVIER ROTH FIVE REASONS WHY BERLIOZ'S LSO will perform Shostakovich’s Sixth, NOMINATED FOR RPS AWARD ROMEO AND JULIET IS UNMISSABLE Seventh and Ninth Symphonies. As we mark 20 years of the LSO’s own record label, each Earlier this month, the Royal Philharmonic From its influence on Wagner's Tristan und performance will be recorded for LSO Live, Society revealed the shortlist for the 2019 Isolde, to the rise of the sectional rehearsal, with Thursday’s concert also being filmed RPS Awards. These awards celebrate read all about Berlioz’s choral symphony, by medici.tv for deferred broadcast on 'the outstanding, the pioneering and the inspired by the composer's own Juliet. Wednesday 6 November. inspirational in classical music'. We are delighted that Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda conducts more Russian François-Xavier Roth has been shortlisted AUTUMN’S CLASSIC FM music at the Barbican on Thursday 28 for the Conductor Award. RECOMMENDED CONCERTS A warm welcome to these LSO concerts November and Thursday 5 December, and at the Barbican, where we are joined by on tour in Cologne, Dortmund, Frankfurt and • royalphilharmonicsociety.org.uk At the LSO, we are proud to have been Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Munich. Also in November, we celebrate LSO Classic FM’s in the City of London Noseda. Continuing the season theme of Conductor Laureate ’ for over 17 years. Each season, a selection of ‘Roots and Origins’, these two concerts 50-year relationship with the Orchestra, CELEBRATING 20 YEARS OF LSO LIVE our concerts come recommended by Classic explore the history and heritage of starting with a performance of Berlioz’s FM. Don’t miss our round-up of autumn’s Russian music. We are delighted to be Romeo and Juliet on Sunday 10 November Twenty years ago the LSO became the first Classic FM recommended concerts and a look welcoming soloist Denis Matsuev – who alongside the London Symphony Chorus. orchestra to start its own record label, LSO at where the music sits in the LSO’s history. recently joined the Orchestra on tour at I hope that you enjoy the performances and Live. To celebrate, we have launched a new the George Enescu Festival in Bucharest – that you are able to join us again soon. initiative to bring the themes of our 2019/20 • lso.co.uk/more/blog to perform Prokofiev’s Second and Third season to Apple Music via a series of artist- Piano . Denis Matsuev has been curated radio programming and playlists. a frequent guest soloist with the LSO over the years, notably in 2014 when he was the • lsolive.co.uk subject of our Artist Portrait, and we are • applemusic.com/lso pleased to have him join us at the Barbican Kathryn McDowell CBE DL once again. Managing Director

Throughout the 2019/20 season, Gianandrea Noseda celebrates the music of the Russian greats with his Shostakovich symphony

2 Welcome 31 October & 3 November 2019 Contributors Coming Up

PROGRAMME CONTRIBUTORS Friday 8 November 1pm Wednesday 13 November 6.30pm LSO St Luke’s Barbican Philip Reed’s publications include a six- David Nice writes, lectures and broadcasts volume edition of Britten’s letters (co-edited on music, notably for BBC Radio 3 and BEETHOVEN & TIPPETT HALF SIX FIX with Donald Mitchell, and then with Mervyn BBC Music Magazine. His books include PROKOFIEV FIFTH SYMPHONY Cooke), a Cambridge Handbook short studies of Richard Strauss, Elgar, Beethoven String Quartet in F major Op 135 on (with Mervyn Cooke), Tchaikovsky and Stravinsky, and a Prokofiev Tippett String Quartet No 3 An early evening fix of great music in just contributions to studies of Peter Grimes, biography, From Russia to the West 1891–1935. one hour, with insights from the conductor, , A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Heath Quartet projections of the Orchestra on the big screen War and . He is Jan Smaczny is the Sir and electronic programme notes on your phone. also the editor of On Mahler and Britten Professor of Music at Queen’s University, Recorded for future broadcast by BBC Radio 3 and The Travel Diaries of Peter Pears. Belfast. A well-known writer and ProkofievSymphony No 5 broadcaster, he specialises in the life and Saturday 9 November 6pm Andrew Stewart is a freelance music works of Dvořák and Czech opera, and has LSO St Luke’s Michael Tilson Thomas conductor & presenter journalist and writer. He is the author published books on the repertoire of the of The LSO at 90, and contributes to Prague Provisional Theatre and Dvořák's LSO DISCOVERY Recommended by Classic FM a wide variety of specialist classical Concerto. LSO EAST LONDON ACADEMY music publications. Sunday 15 December 3pm Be inspired by East London's home-grown Barbican Andrew Huth is a musician, writer and talent as we shine a spotlight on musicians translator who writes extensively on French, from our local community. LSO SING Russian and Eastern European music. A CHORAL CHRISTMAS Mozart Divertimento in D major Gerard McBurney divides his time between Mozart Early String Quartet K156 Sing your festive favourites with the LSO Brass composing and arranging, and teaching, Haydn String Quartet No 3 Op 33 Ensemble and a 300-strong choir of singers, writing and broadcasting, especially on Mozart String Quintet No 1 in B-flat major K174 and get the holiday season off to a flying start! the subject of contemporary Russian and Telemann Concerto for Four Violins in A major Soviet music. Piazzolla Libertango Simon Halsey conductor London Symphony Chorus LSO East London Academy Musicians LSO Community Choir LSO Discovery Choirs

Programme Contributors 3 Thursday 31 October 2019 Tonight’s Concert in Brief

LSO SEASON CONCERT WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S onight’s concert opens with music piano concertos, complete with virtuosic SHOSTAKOVICH SIXTH SYMPHONY GROUP BOOKERS from Britten’s 1944 opera Peter cadenzas and a ferocious finale. Grimes, with a libretto based on Britten Four Sea Interludes and The King’s School the poem of the same name from George Shostakovich’s Sixth Symphony concludes Passacaglia from ‘Peter Grimes’ FAIA UK Italian Heritage Trust Crabbe’s book The Borough. Though Britten the programme. Premiered just two years Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 2 had composed before, this was his after his Symphony No 5, No 6 is notably Interval first to be a resounding and popular success. different in character and tone, with a Shostakovich Symphony No 6 Brooding, atmospheric and evocative of structure that deviates from what might the coastal town of Aldeburgh, which later be considered the norm. The Symphony Gianandrea Noseda conductor became Britten’s home, Peter Grimes is begins with an introspective and drawn-out Denis Matsuev piano still regularly performed in full today, as first movement, which accounts for over are the Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia half of the work’s full length, followed by performed tonight, which were published two shorter and faster movements. The Artist biographies start on page 20 separately following the opera’s premiere composer himself considered the final performance in 1945. Presto movement to be the most successful, and indeed the finale was encored at the Tonight’s concert is being recorded for LSO Live and Prokofiev’s explosive Second Piano Concerto Symphony’s premiere in November 1939. Yet for deferred broadcast on Wednesday 6 November follows, demanding the utmost in technical set amongst the background of a turbulent by medici.tv. Please ensure all phones are switched off. ability from its soloist. Prokofiev began Stalinist Russia and the solemn first Photography and audio/video recording writing this concerto in 1912, and upon its movement, there is something that does not are not permitted during the performance. completion in 1913 it was dedicated to the ring altogether true in the jovial energy of memory of Maximilian Schmidthof, the the later movements. • composer’s dear friend at the St Petersburg Conservatory. The original score was tragically lost in a fire following the Russian Revolution. The work performed tonight is Prokofiev’s 1923 reconstruction of that original concerto, described by the composer as ‘so completely rewritten that it might also be considered [Concerto] No 4’. With its wild temperament, it is among the most dramatic music to be found in Prokofiev’s

4 Tonight’s Concert 31 October 2019 Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from ‘Peter Grimes’ 1944 / note by Philip Reed

Four Sea Interludes from ‘Peter Grimes’ left-wing writer Montagu Slater, with whom ‘Sunday Morning’ (‘Sunny, Sparkling music’) and were heard again later that summer 1 Dawn Britten had frequently collaborated in the is taken from the beginning of Act II of at the BBC Proms conducted by Sir Adrian 2 Sunday Morning 1930s – and serious progress made. the opera, where the schoolmistress Ellen Boult, when they were joined by another of 3 Moonlight Orford sings ‘Glitter of waves/And glitter of the opera’s interludes – the Passacaglia that 4 Storm From the outset, chief among the opera’s sunlight/Bid us rejoice/And lift our hearts precedes Act II Scene 2, the scene in Grimes’ distinctive features was the sequence of on high.’ Britten superimposes overlapping hut at the end of which the boy apprentice Passacaglia from ‘Peter Grimes’ Op33b orchestral interludes (six in all) that introduce chords on the horns with (at first) a spiky falls down the cliff to his death. or separate scenes, a device in which the idea on the woodwind, the quality enhanced hile staying with friends near influence of Shostakovich’sLady Macbeth of by the bright D major tonality, brightened This Passacaglia is an early example of what Los Angeles during the summer the Mtsensk District and Berg’s Wozzeck can further by the use of a sharpened fourth note was a favourite form in Britten’s output. of 1941, Britten and Peter Pears be felt. On early typed libretto drafts Britten (G-sharp) of the scale. Ellen’s words coincide Its short theme is derived from Grimes’ came across an article by E M Forster on the made important marginal notes throughout, with the second idea, an expressive melody line in the previous scene, ‘And God have Suffolk poet George Crabbe (1754–1832) in a in which he succinctly describes the kinds of on and . ‘Moonlight’ (‘Summer mercy upon us!’, when he strikes Ellen and back issue of The Listener. Britten (himself music he intended to write. Those concerning night, seascape, quiet’ in the composer’s accepts they have no shared future together. born in Suffolk) was later to comment: ‘I the interludes are of especial interest and description) introduces Act III of the opera. In his libretto drafts Britten’s annotations suddenly realised where I belonged and suggest that they were intended to have a Quiet, slow throbbing syncopations are for this interlude read: ‘‘Boy’s suffering’ what I lacked’, and even more revealingly, programmatic function within the structure, broken by chinks of moonlight ( and fugato’, with ‘fugato’ replaced in a later draft ‘that I must write an opera’. Pears discovered a point made even clearer by the arrangement harp), before reaching a tumultuous climax. with ‘passacaglia’. Of yet greater interest a copy of Crabbe’s poems, including The of four of them into a concert suite in which is Britten’s copy of the first edition (1946) Borough, in which is related the tragedy each was given a descriptive title by the The final interlude of the concert suite, of the miniature score of the Passacaglia, of the fisherman Peter Grimes, in a ‘Rare composer: ‘Dawn’ (Interlude I in the opera); ‘Storm’, speaks for itself. In the opera, it in which he has inscribed a whole series of Book Shop’. His and Britten’s enthusiasm ‘Sunday Morning’ (Interlude III); ‘Moonlight’ prefaces Act I Scene 2, set in The Boar, annotations which correlate descriptive and after making this discovery is obvious in a (Interlude V); and ‘Storm’ (Interlude II). and re-emerges throughout the scene as narrative elements with the music. These letter sent to their New York friend Elizabeth characters arrive at the pub. A rondo structure begin with ‘The ground bass = the walk from Mayer on 29 July: ‘We’ve just discovered the ‘Dawn’, described by Britten in his libretto in E-flat minor, the interlude not only provides the town to G’s hut’, and above the solo poetry of George Crabbe (all about Suffolk) marginalia as an ‘Everyday, grey seascape’, a graphic portrayal of the physical storm but theme, ‘The boy himself’; they conclude with and are very excited – maybe an opera one comprises three ideas operating on three also the psychological storm in Grimes’ mind. ‘G threatens’ and ‘The walk up the hill, the day … !!’ The remainder of 1941 and the early levels: the high-lying unison melody for boy’s terror’. It is at this point, when a posse part of 1942 were spent working on a draft flutes and violins; the bubbling rising and The Four Sea Interludes were first performed from the town hammer on Grimes’ door that synopsis and libretto for an opera based on falling arpeggios on , harp and under the composer’s baton at the the fisherman is momentarily distracted, Peter Grimes, but it was not until reaching violas; and the ominous chorale-like motif Cheltenham Festival in June 1945, only a week and the boy apprentice plunges to his death the UK that a librettist was found – the from , brass and low strings. after the opera’s premiere at Sadler’s Wells, with an ear-piercing scream. •

Programme Notes 5 Benjamin Britten in Profile 1913–76 Sergei Prokofievin Profile 1891–1953 / by Andrew Stewart

collaborating with such writers as WH Auden Before he left for exile, Prokofiev completed and Christopher lsherwood, and his lifelong his ‘Classical’ Symphony, a bold and appealing relationship and working partnership with work that revived aspects of 18th-century Peter Pears developed in the late 1930s. At musical form, clarity and elegance. He the beginning of World War II, Britten and received commissions from arts organisations Pears remained in the US; on their return, in the United States and France, composing they registered as conscientious objectors his sparkling opera The Love for Three and were exempted from military service. Oranges for the Chicago Opera Company in 1919–20. His engagements as a recitalist The first performance of the opera Peter and concerto soloist brought Prokofiev to Grimes in 1945 opened the way for a series a wide audience in Europe and the US, and of magnificent stage works mainly conceived he was in great demand to perform his own for the . In June 1948 Piano Concerto No 3. The ballet Romeo and Britten founded the Aldeburgh Festival of Juliet and the score for Feinzimmer’s film Music and the Arts, for which he subsequently Lieutenant Kijé were among Prokofiev’s ritten received his first piano lessons wrote many new works. By the mid-1950s rokofiev was born in Ukraine and first Soviet commissions, dating from the from his mother, a prominent he was generally regarded as the leading was encouraged to study music early 1930s. Both scores were subsequently member of the Lowestoft Choral British composer, helped by the success of from an early age by his mother, cast as concert suites, which have become Society who also encouraged her son’s operas such as , Billy Budd and a keen amateur pianist. The young Sergei cornerstones of the orchestral repertoire. earliest efforts at composition. In 1924 he The Turn of the Screw. One of his greatest showed prodigious ability as both composer heard Frank Bridge’s tone poem The Sea and masterpieces, the , was first and pianist, gaining a place at the St ‘The Fifth Symphony was intended as a began to study composition with him three performed on 30 May 1962 for the festival Petersburg Conservatory at the age of 13 and hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty years later. After leaving Gresham’s School, of consecration of St Michael’s Cathedral, shortly thereafter acquiring a reputation for powers, his pure and noble spirit.’ Prokofiev’s Holt, in 1930 he gained a scholarship to the Coventry, its anti-war message reflecting the uncompromising nature of his music. comments, written in 1944 as the Russian . Here he studied the composer’s pacifist beliefs. According to one critic, the audience at the army began to march towards Berlin, composition with John Ireland and piano 1913 premiere of the composer’s Second reflected his sense of hope in the future. with Arthur Benjamin. A remarkably prolific composer, Britten Piano Concerto was left ‘frozen with fright, Sadly, his later years were overshadowed by completed works in almost every genre and hair standing on end’. He left Russia after illness and the denunciation of his works as Britten attracted wide attention when for a wide range of musical abilities, from the 1917 Revolution, but decided to return ‘formalist’ by the Central Committee of the he conducted the premiere of his Simple those of schoolchildren and amateur singers to with his wife and family 19 Communist Party in 1948. • Symphony in 1934. He worked for the GPO to such artists as , years later, apparently unaware of Stalin’s Film Unit and various theatre companies, Julian Bream and Peter Pears. • repressive regime.

6 Composer Profiles 31 October 2019 Sergei Prokofievin Profile 1891–1953 / by Andrew Stewart Sergei ProkofievPiano Concerto No 2 in G minor Op 16 1912–13, rev 1924 / note by Andrew Huth

1 Andantino – Allegretto expecting soothing entertainment for a limited compass and repeated phrases, an • ON LSO LIVE 2 Scherzo: Vivace summer evening, was thoroughly shaken acknowledgement of the tradition that is 3 Intermezzo: Allegro Moderato by what it heard. the backbone of Prokofiev’s art. 4 Finale: Allegro Tempestoso Prokofiev himself suggested that the Second When Prokofiev abandoned Russia early Denis Matsuev piano Concerto was ‘more interesting for the in 1918 the orchestral score of the concerto soloist, less for the orchestra’ than the First. was left behind, and in 1923 he learned that rokofiev was a formidable pianist, By ‘interesting’ he perhaps meant difficult, it had been destroyed: apparently the new and his piano concertos (apart for its length alone requires great stamina tenants in his apartment had ‘burned it to from the Fourth, for the left hand) and the piano writing is as demanding as cook an omelette’. This was no thoughtless were designed to display his own wonderful anything in the repertory. The sequence of vandalism but evidence of the terrible technique: sharp, accurate, with a steely movements is unusual. The first, containing conditions in Petrograd during the Civil War brilliance and great sense of rhythmic some of the most massive writing for when people were dying of cold and hunger. excitement. The concerto form also suited keyboard in Prokofiev’s output, is only Prokofiev reconstructed the orchestral score his dramatic sense, with striking images moderately paced. It is followed by the short from memory, and took the opportunity to of contrast and confrontation, strange scherzo, a very fast moto perpetuo where revise the whole concerto. In this new form, juxtapositions of mood, powerful rhetoric the soloist’s left and right hands scamper he introduced it in on 8 May 1924. • Shostakovich Symphony No 4 followed by shy or tender reflection. The away in semiquavers in octaves throughout, First Concerto, which he introduced in 1912, without a single moment’s rest. Gianandrea Noseda conductor caused something of a scandal and, with the Second, composed the following year, The third movement is a march, now brutal, Experience the London Symphony Orchestra he clearly intended to expand on its style, now sinister, oddly titled ‘Intermezzo’, at full strength as LSO Principal Guest dimensions and emotional range. In the though it has nothing restful or in-between Conductor Gianandrea Noseda continues summer of 1913 he went on a European about it. This foreshadowing of Prokofiev’s his survey of Shostakovich with the holiday with his mother, practising the mechanistic music of the 1920s was monumental Fourth Symphony. new concerto whenever possible, and probably the movement that caused most confessing that it ‘has turned out to be offence at the Concerto’s premiere. The Available to purchase in the Barbican Shop, incredibly difficult and mercilessly tiring’. finale, after a whirling piano-and-orchestra Interval – 20 minutes at lsolive.co.uk, on iTunes and Amazon, Prokofiev gave the first performance on 23 flourish, launches into a percussive, leaping There are bars on all levels. or to stream on Spotify and Apple Music. August 1913 at a concert in the grounds of texture for the piano. But in the centre of Visit the Barbican Shop to see our range the 18th-century palace of Pavlovsk near the movement there appears a theme which of Gifts and Accessories. St Petersburg. The audience, no doubt is very Russian in its initially simple texture,

Programme Notes 7 Symphony No 6 in B minor Op 54 1939 / note by Gerard McBurney

1 Largo wanted to communicate feelings of , Here, beneath a surface that is indeed opens by rocking backwards and forwards 2 Allegro happiness and youth’. This last remark is a sometimes unexpected, we can hear between a major and a minor third. The 3 Presto characteristically Shostakovichian diversion; Shostakovich, almost for the first time in newness of the musical landscape at this while it might just be true of the, as yet his life, engaging seriously and deeply with point is reinforced by the constant presence ollowing the triumphant premiere unwritten, last movement, it is simply absurd some of the most hallowed formal concerns of a B-flat in the harmony (the fundamental of the Fifth Symphony • in the as a description of the two movements whose of the symphonic tradition. And beyond key of the movement is B minor). Gradually, autumn of 1937, Shostakovich completion he was announcing. those formal concerns, he is also engaging however, we begin to recognise that the found himself once again on the crest of a with something else: counterpoint. For apparent newness of this music is an wave of success. But the young composer The Symphony was finally finished just the young Shostakovich, the combining illusion. What we are listening to is actually must have been well aware that a great three weeks before the first performance, of melodies was something hardly more a development section in a mono-thematic number of other people in the artistic and at a concert by the Leningrad Philharmonic important than a kind of cheeky decoration. sonata form •. This becomes even clearer intellectual world were continuing to suffer Orchestra conducted by Evgeny Mravinsky, But here in the Sixth Symphony he finally as we feel ourselves being led back towards the same terror and persecution that he had on 5 November 1939 in honour of the 22nd confronts the problem of articulating an a recapitulation of the opening. When we endured, and many were confronting worse anniversary of the October Revolution. The entire movement in contrapuntal terms. get there, however, the recapitulation itself fates than he; often ending up in prison reaction of the audience was so enthusiastic In a way, this work represents not only a turns out to be an illusion. The material or – in some cases – dead. Shostakovich that the orchestra immediately played leap forward in Shostakovich’s mastery of of the first section reappears only in a now retreated into the safer and more the last movement again. The critics, on symphonic scale, but also the beginning of a fragmentary form, compressed, and twisted mechanical world of commercial music; the other hand, were not so keen. Their fascinating contrapuntal journey – one that to suggest doubt and lack of resolution. almost the only serious music that occupied message was clear: the composer is sailing was to lead to much of his finest music for him at this time was the First String Quartet. dangerously close to the wind by not string quartet, as well as to the great cycle SECOND MOVEMENT writing a symphony that sits passively of 24 Preludes and Fugues of 1950–51. The second movement has the character On 15 April 1939 he finally sat down to within a framework that has already been of a terrifyingly speeded-up chase. This write his next big, serious work: the Sixth agreed. In particular, one critic’s use of the FIRST MOVEMENT is a direct descendant of those panic- Symphony. On 28 August, he announced word ‘unexpected’ is evidently intended Several commentators have pointed to stricken galops that are typical of so many that he had finished the first two to carry the implication ‘impertinently the Bach-like feel of the first few bars of of Shostakovich’s earlier works. But the movements and that ‘the Sixth Symphony individualistic’. The irony of this criticism the opening Largo. The texture of this first difference here is that the style is no longer will be different in mood and emotional tone is that the Sixth, underneath its strange section unfolds in a grandly elaborate multi- literally that of a galop; the metre is a from the Fifth, which was characterised by three-movement form – a slow movement voiced web where every passing motif and breathtaking triple-time, and instead elements of tragedy and tension. In this followed by two fast movements – is note derives from ideas heard in the very of the galop’s usual tune and vamped one, music of a contemplative and lyrical actually, along with the Ninth, one of opening bars. The middle section of the accompaniment, the whole movement is kind predominates’. Then, quickly covering Shostakovich’s most ‘Classical’ and even movement seems to begin far away, with dominated by a vertiginously contrapuntal his tracks, he added, ‘In my new work I ‘Classicising’ symphonies. the cor anglais playing a new melody that race between the soprano and bass registers

8 Programme Notes 31 October 2019 of the orchestra. The form too, despite the • SHOSTAKOVICH’S FIFTH SYMPHONY MICHAEL fear that seems to drive the music forward, is an elegant rondo. Shostakovich’s Symphony No 5 was TILSON premiered in November 1937, just two THIRD MOVEMENT years before his Sixth Symphony. It was THOMAS The composer himself judged the presto last a resounding success, earning an ovation 50TH ANNIVERSARY movement to be ‘the most successful finale’ that reportedly lasted well over half an he had yet written, and its success partly hour. Its reception was so overwhelmingly depends on a fantastical evocation of the positive, in fact, that it initially aroused Classical past not unlike that of Prokofiev’s suspicion among certain officials. Sunday 10 November 7pm Thursday 14 November 7.30pm ‘Classical’ Symphony. This finale also brings Barbican Barbican together the ‘Classical’ formal concerns of Over time, however, authorities came the two previous movements into a sonata- to see the Symphony as a confirmation Berlioz Romeo and Juliet Michael Tilson Thomas Agnegram rondo. Perhaps it was this in particular that of everything they had demanded of Tchaikovsky made one commentator think that it might Shostakovich. Curiously at the same time, Michael Tilson Thomas conductor ProkofievSymphony No 5 have given pleasure to Mozart or even Rossini. the public understood it to be an expression Alice Coote mezzo-soprano Yet, as so often with Shostakovich, nothing of the composer’s suffering under Stalin. Nicholas Phan tenor Michael Tilson Thomas conductor is ever quite what it seems. Especially Nicolas Courjal bass Nicola Benedetti violin towards the end, we begin to hear darker London Symphony Chorus shadows of the first and second movements • SONATA FORM Simon Halsey chorus director 6pm Barbican twisting among the dancers and disturbing LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists the apparent gaiety of the neo-Classical Popular in the Classical era, sonata form Supported by LSO Patrons Free pre-concert recital popping of 1930s champagne corks. • refers to a musical structure comprising three sections (exposition, development Wednesday 13 November 6.30pm Generously supported by The Atkin Foundation and recapitulation). Typically two themes Barbican (or subjects) are introduced in the From making his debut in his twenties exposition, expanded and explored while ProkofievSymphony No 5 to Principal Conductor and beyond, moving through different keys in the LSO Conductor Laureate Michael development, before closing with the Michael Tilson Thomas Tilson Thomas looks back at 50 recapitulation, which marks the return of conductor & presenter years of history with the LSO. the opening themes in the ‘home’ tonic key. lso.co.uk/MTT50th

ArtistProgramme Biographies Notes 9 Dmitri Shostakovich in Profile 1906–75 / profile by Andrew Stewart

fter early piano lessons with his With the outbreak of war against Nazi passions’, rather than the collective dogma mother, Shostakovich enrolled at Germany in June 1941, Shostakovich began of Communism. A few years before the the Petrograd Conservatory in to compose and arrange pieces to boost completion of his final and bleak Fifteenth 1919. He supplemented his family’s meagre public morale. He lived through the first String Quartet, Shostakovich suffered his income from his earnings as a cinema pianist, months of the German siege of Leningrad, second heart attack and the onset of severe but progressed to become a composer serving in the auxiliary fire service. arthritis. Many of his final works – in particular and concert pianist following the critical the penultimate symphony (No 14) – are success of his First Symphony in 1926 and In July he began work on the first three preoccupied with the subject of death. • an ‘honourable mention’ in the 1927 Chopin movements of his Seventh Symphony, International Piano Competition in Warsaw. completing the defiant finale after his Over the next decade he embraced the ideal evacuation in October and dedicating of composing for Soviet society and his the score to the city. A micro-filmed Second Symphony was dedicated to the copy was despatched by way of Teheran October Revolution of 1917. and an American warship to the US, where it was broadcast by the NBC Symphony Shostakovich announced his Fifth Symphony Orchestra and Toscanini. In 1943 Shostakovich of 1937 as ‘a Soviet artist’s practical creative completed his Eighth Symphony, its reply to just criticism’. A year before its emotionally shattering music compared premiere he had drawn a stinging attack by one critic to Picasso’s Guernica. from the official Soviet mouthpiecePravda , in an article headed ‘Muddle instead of In 1948 Shostakovich and other leading music’, in which Shostakovich’s initially composers, Prokofiev among them, were successful opera Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk forced by the Soviet cultural commissar, was condemned for its extreme modernism. Andrei Zhdanov, to concede that their ‘It is leftist bedlam instead of human work represented ‘most strikingly the music’, the article claimed. When the Fifth formalistic perversions and anti-democratic Symphony was premiered in Leningrad, tendencies in music’, a crippling blow to the composer’s reputation and career were Shostakovich’s artistic freedom that was rescued. Acclaim came not only from the healed only after the death of Stalin in 1953. Russian audience, who gave the work a Shostakovich answered his critics later that reported 40-minute ovation, but also from year with the powerful Tenth Symphony, musicians and critics overseas. in which he portrays ‘human emotions and

10 Composer Profile 31 October 2019 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns LSO String Experience Scheme Carmine Lauri Julian Gil Rodriguez Rebecca Gilliver Adam Walker Diego Incertis Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Victoria Daniel Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Alexander Edmundson Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Clare Duckworth Miya Väisänen Noel Bradshaw Piccolo Michael Kidd Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Ginette Decuyper David Ballesteros Eve-Marie Caravassilis Diomedes Matthew Farthing work experience by playing in rehearsals Laura Dixon Matthew Gardner Daniel Gardner Demetriades Oliver Yates and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Maxine Kwok-Adams Naoko Keatley Hilary Jones Paul Beniston Rachel Gledhill are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Laurent Quenelle Alix Lagasse Amanda Truelove Catherine Knight (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Colin Renwick Csilla Pogany Laure Le Dantec Olivier Stankiewicz Christopher Deacon Harps for their work in line with LSO section players. Sylvain Vasseur Belinda McFarlane Deborah Tolksdorf Ruth Contractor Bryn Lewis Rhys Watkins Iwona Muszynska Helen Tunstall The Scheme is supported by: Morane Cohen- Andrew Pollock Double Basses Cor Anglais Isobel Daws The Polonsky Foundation Lamberger Camille Joubert Sam Loeck Christine Pendrill James Maynard Celeste Derek Hill Foundation Lulu Fuller Hazel Mulligan Colin Paris Elizabeth Burley Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Lyrit Milgram Patrick Laurence Clarinets Bass Thistle Trust Mariam Nahapetyan Violas Matthew Gibson Chris Richards Paul Milner Hilary Jane Parker Rachel Roberts Thomas Goodman Chi-Yu Mo Jan Regulski Gillianne Haddow Joe Melvin Elizabeth Drew Benjamin Roskams Malcolm Johnston Simo Väisänen Ben Thomson German Clavijo Adam Wynter Bass Stephen Doman Christelle Pochet Carol Ella Robert Turner Bassoons Michelle Bruil Rachel Gough Alistair Scahill Joost Bosdijk Martin Schaefer Sofia Silva Sousa Contra Heather Wallington Dominic Morgan

The Orchestra 11 Gianandrea Noseda on Russian Roots

As we celebrate 20 years of the Orchestra’s own record label, LSO Live, Principal Guest Conductor Gianandrea Noseda reflects on his Shostakovich symphony cycle and how music speaks to us today.

In the 2019/20 season, we’ll perform the and to record Shostakovich in 2019 and 2020 Sixth, Seventh and Ninth Symphonies, is different, because the world is different, which are three of the four ‘War’ because we are different. Symphonies written during World War II. The Seventh coincided with the Siege of — Leningrad, and you can hear the march of Each interpretation tells the story of the soldiers, the obsessive repetition, a loop you cannot escape. But with the Ninth, its own time … because the world is Stalin wanted a celebration of the victory of different, because we are different. Russia, and Shostakovich came out with a — sort of opera buffa symphony – short, witty, lots of sarcasm. I can really feel his wish to Shostakovich speaks equally to us today. go against what was expected of him. I think art has this quality, this strength, to always be fresh. We tell stories that cycle of symphonies gives the Conducting a cycle with one orchestra — connect with us as human beings. As long ‘ complete picture. It’s storytelling also allows you to grow together, not just Shostakovich is one of the most as humankind occupies this planet, we will of [Shostakovich’s] life, but also as artists, but in the knowledge of the always love each other, hate each other, of what was going on in the history of the composer. Shostakovich is one of the most important symphonists. He knows how feel compassion, suffer … the infrastructure world in the 20th century. It’s fascinating to important symphonists. He knows how to use the orchestra, the instruments, of our lives may be different, but we belong see how an artist like Shostakovich reacted to use the orchestra, the instruments, the the combination of sounds. to humankind.’ • to that – how, with art, he tried to be true combination of sounds, but because of to himself, while also trying to accomplish that the music is incredibly demanding. — Listen to the cycle so far on LSO Live, the dictates of the Soviets. You have to find It requires stupendous virtuosity, and the It’s important that we continue to hear and featuring Symphonies Nos 4, 5 and 8. your way, to make your personal voice heard. LSO is that kind of orchestra. You have to perform this music. It’s not superfluous to • lsolive.co.uk When you listen to Shostakovich, it doesn’t keep the emotional charge without losing create another disc, another cycle, because sound out of fashion – it sounds important technical control. each interpretation tells the story of its own Read 'In Conversation with for our lives today. time. To record Shostakovich in the 1970s Denis Matsuev' on page 22

12 On Russian Roots 31 October 2019 RUSSIAN RUSSIAN ROOTS Gianandrea Noseda

Rimsky-Korsakov, Bruch, Tchaikovsky ROOTS 28 November 2019 Coming up in the Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich: Seventh Symphony 2019/20 season 5 December 2019 Prokofiev, Mozart, Mussorgksy, Shostakovich: Ninth Symphony 30 January 2020

Prokofiev, Mussorgsky, Shostakovich: Ninth Symphony 9 February 2020

James MacMillan: St John Passion Read more at 5 April 2020 lso.co.uk/201920season Sunday 3 November 2019 Tonight’s Concert in Brief

LSO SEASON CONCERT WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS onight’s programme is dedicated Tchaikovsky’s monumental Fifth Symphony TCHAIKOVSKY FIFTH SYMPHONY to Russian music of the 19th and finishes tonight’s concert. Composed in Adele Friedland & Friends 20th centuries, opening with 1888 and conducted by Tchaikovsky for Rimsky-Korsakov British Emunah Entertains Rimsky-Korsakov’s Suite from The Legend its November premiere that year, the The Legend of the Invisible City St Alban’s High School For Girls of the Invisible City of Kitezh. Based on symphony makes use of a recurring main of Kitezh – Suite Israel Philharmonic Orchestra Foundation UK Russian legends of St Fevroniya of Murom ‘Fate theme’ to bring together the work’s Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3 and the city of Kitezh, the opera was first four movements. Intense and dramatic at Interval premiered in St Petersburg in 1907 and has the outset, throughout the course of the Tchaikovsky Symphony No 5 gained a reputation as being one of Rimsky- symphony darkness gives way to light, Korsakov’s finest, with the composer the theme transforming from funereal to Gianandrea Noseda conductor utilising a glittering orchestral palette to triumphant, and drawing to a close with a Denis Matsuev piano paint a picture of a Russian forest steeped tangible sense of optimism. • in mystery. Please ensure all phones are switched off. Photography and audio/video recording Prokofiev’s spectacular Third Piano Concerto Tonight’s concert is being recorded for LSO Live. are not permitted during the performance. follows, a tour de force of the composer’s trademark piano writing techniques. The concerto’s premiere in 1921 featured Prokofiev himself as soloist, and though critics were initially underwhelmed, the work has since confirmed its place in the 20th century canon as perhaps the most popular of Prokofiev’s five piano concertos. Lyricism, such as that heard in the opening andante clarinet solo, is combined throughout with charged and galloping passages. The final movement, marked Allegro ma non troppo, is a blustering argument between soloist and orchestra, culminating in an explosive battle that ends with a final fortissimo flourish.

14 Welcome 3 November 2019 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov The Legend of the Invisible City of Kitezh – Suite 1905 / note by David Nice

1 Prelude (Forest Scene) even more intense, and in The Legend of mate, who turns out to be Prince • ON APPLE MUSIC 2 Bridal Procession and Tatar Attack – the Invisible City of Kitezh and the Maiden Vsevolod (tenor), son of the ruler of Kitezh. 3 Battle of Kerzhenets Fevroniya, to give his penultimate work Their wedding procession in Act Two is 4 Apotheosis of Fevroniya; for the stage its full title, he managed to celebrated with brilliant orchestral colours Ascent to the Invisible City combine his nature worship with a dash of (a celebrated conductor of a balalaika Christianity in the character of the saintly orchestra reproached Rimsky-Korsakov imsky-Korsakov’s love of nature heroine and the legend of a city that vanishes for not including those instruments in his and his respect for the pantheism as a defence against its enemy. This was orchestra, but the string emulation of them of pagan Russia went hand in a powerful symbol of cultural survival in is impressive). Cheerfulness is short-lived; hand, and they had their roots in two key the face of domination by a corrupt and the drunken scoundrel Grishka gives the events of the late 1870s. In 1876 he made ineffectual regime. signal for Tatars to invade the city, and his own collection of Russian folk-songs, Vsevolod is killed. We move without a break rejecting the more recent anthologies of After many years of conflict with the to the highly effective ostinatos of the musical colleagues in favour of specimens Imperial Theatres and compromises with the battle in Act Three, surely an inspiration to which went back to the ceremonies and second-best efforts of independent Russian Prokofiev in his music for Eisenstein’s film games of ancient custom. ‘The pictures companies, the composer was anxious to Alexander Nevsky 30 years later. of the ancient pagan period and spirit ensure that his deepest operatic myth Gianandrea Noseda Curates: Russian Roots loomed before me, as it then seemed, with should be presented at the highest level. Fevroniya’s prayers have made Kitezh great clarity, luring me on with the charm The played host to the invisible; only its reflection remains in the You can enjoy our Principal Guest Conductor’s of antiquity,’ he later wrote in his candid first performance in February 1907, and lake, and the missing city plays a crucial Russian Roots selection playing on Apple autobiography My Musical Life. among the opera’s many admirers the young part in putting the Tatars to flight. Rimsky- Music now. Hear Russian masterpieces and went to see the opera Korsakov produced his most profound music highlights from his own curation of Russian His enthusiasm bore its first fruit four four times. It was the last to be staged in as Fevroniya, approaching death, ‘recalls repertoire. Find out more online or tune in years later, when he turned back to the Rimsky-Korsakov’s lifetime. and is solicitous about her implacable to Apple Music’s Classical Radio station to ‘marvellous poetic beauty’ of Nikolai foe and destroyer of Kitezh the Great’. hear his full set of choices. Ostrovsky’s ‘spring fairytale’ The Snow The Suite effectively balances poetry and Her transfiguration is remarkable for the Maiden and decided to set it to music. action. First, we meet Fevroniya deep in translucency of the scoring and the note of • applemusic.com/lso The beauty of the Russian countryside the contemplation of natural beauties. A autumnal poignancy, prefiguring late Strauss. led him to ‘pray to nature’, in the details minor-key homage to the forest murmurs It is only in the final bars, in which the spirits of which ‘I saw something peculiar and and birdsong of Wagner’s fringes a of Fevroniya and Vsevolod depart for the supernatural’. Two decades and ten operas proud and beautiful Russian melody. In the paradisical city of Kitezh, that the composer after that, his feelings were, if anything, forest, Fevroniya (soprano) meets her soul- resumes a childlike sense of wonder. •

Programme Notes 15 Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in Profile 1844–1908 / profile by David Nice LSO DISCOVERY

Saturday 9 November 6pm lthough music played an important Exotic melodies and orchestrations LSO St Luke’s part in the early life of Rimsky- became a hallmark of Rimsky-Korsakov’s Korsakov, he followed family mature compositions, powerfully so LSO EAST LONDON ACADEMY tradition and enrolled as a student at the in works such as the symphonic suite College of Naval Cadets in St Petersburg in Scheherazade, the operas , Tsar The first event of its kind, an evening 1856. He continued to take piano lessons, Saltan and , and the final of quintessentially Classical music, however, and was introduced to the influential version of his . • played by talented young musicians composer Balakirev and such outstanding from East London young musicians as Cui and Mussorgsky. Friday 15 November 12.30pm After graduating in 1862, Rimsky-Korsakov LSO St Luke’s joined the crew of the clipper Almaz and sailed on a voyage that lasted until FREE FRIDAY LUNCHTIME CONCERT: the summer of 1865. On his return to BOHEMIA & BEYOND St Petersburg, Balakirev encouraged him to complete the sketches he had made for his Explore Dvořák’s String Quartet No 12 First Symphony. Composition increasingly introduced by Rachel Leach. occupied Rimsky-Korsakov’s time, and in 1871 he became a professor of composition Sunday 24 November 10–10.45am at the St Petersburg Conservatory. LSO St Luke’s 11.30am–12.15pm

He remained on the staff for the rest of MUSICAL STORYTELLING his life, with a brief absence in 1905 when For under-5s he was censured for supporting students involved in the rebellion of that year. LSO musicians retell a popular children’s His pupils included Liadov, Glazunov, story through music. Dance and sing Tcherepnin, Miaskovsky and Stravinsky. your way through the concert as the instruments bring the tale to life.

lso.co.uk/discovery

16 Composer Profile 3 November 2019 Sergei ProkofievPiano Concerto No 3 in C major Op 26 1921 / note by Jan Smaczny

1 Andante – Allegro Concerto had divided critical opinion at its are apparent almost immediately as the • FROM THE ARCHIVES 2 Tema con variazioni first performance in 1912 and the Second Concerto begins: after a gentle, almost 3 Allegro ma non troppo had done much to advance his reputation as soulful introduction, the strings sweep up to In 1922 Prokofiev gave the UK premiere an enfant terrible when its boldly dissonant the initial piano entry, an energetic theme of his Third Piano Concerto with the LSO, Denis Matsuev piano musical language reached an easily outraged which supplies much of the material for the conducted by Albert Coates. public. Prokofiev was, however, aware that first movement. An ironic, march-like idea ven before he left his native land he had not achieved an entirely satisfactory leads to a more ruminative central section Ten years later, in June 1932, he recorded the in 1918 for a prolonged period of balance between piano virtuosity and the based on the opening idea of the Concerto. Concerto with the LSO. It is now the only travel, Prokofiev had some inkling orchestra in either work. existing recording of Prokofiev playing one of the opportunities afforded by exposure The soloist leads the return of the opening of his own piano concertos. to a broader international audience. Trips to The impulse to write a large-scale virtuoso material and also the final dash to the London and Italy, and a growing reputation piano concerto had been with him since 1911 double bar. The mood in the slow movement Composer profile on page 6 as a composer and pianist, were more than and over the next decade he added ideas is broad and wide-ranging. The measured enough to encourage the young artist that to the project. Although the Concerto bears theme with its almost pastiche quality a sustained assault abroad would impel his an opus number suggesting closeness to generates variations that encompass both career in a way he could never hope for if he the ‘Classical’ Symphony (the Symphony angularity and dazzling virtuosity, as well remained at home. If any further earnest were was composed in 1918), the designation as rhapsody and elegy. needed, then the success of his compatriot is only an indication, as was Prokofiev’s Stravinsky clinched the matter. Despite habit, of the date of conception of the Prokofiev himself indicated that the finale stirring events at home, Prokofiev petitioned work. His attentions in 1920 had been was based on themes for an incomplete string for and received permission to travel abroad taken up with music for the stage, but in quartet. As elsewhere in the Concerto, there from the Commissariat of Education ‘on the summer of 1921 he rented a cottage at is no sense that the material is not part of matters of art and to improve his health’. Étretat on the Breton coast and completed a coherent stream of inspiration. Like the the Concerto in good time for its premiere first movement, the Finale is built up of two Prokofiev took with him a number of that December in Chicago. The success of stretches of brisk heaven-storming virtuosity, completed scores, including the ‘Classical’ the Concerto in America and particularly surrounding a gentler central episode. • Symphony, the First Piano Concerto and Europe was immediate – it still remains one the score of his opera . In of Prokofiev’s most popular pieces and his Interval – 20 minutes addition to these were two important most frequently performed piano concerto. There are bars on all levels. uncompleted projects: another opera, The Visit the Barbican Shop to see our range Love for Three Oranges, and the sketches The qualities of clarity and vitality that of Gifts and Accessories. of a Third Piano Concerto. His First Piano appealed to the work’s original audiences

Programme Notes 17 Symphony No 5 in E minor Op 64 1888 / note by Andrew Huth

1 Andante – Allegro con anima dedicated his next symphony. On his return concert was also a success. Best of all – The appearances of the motto theme are 2 Andantino cantabile, con alcuna licenza to Russia he sketched it in May and June of I have stopped disliking the symphony. ominous, perhaps an expression of the 3 Valse: Allegro moderato 1888, completing the score in October. I love it again.’ Unfortunately, we don’t composer’s own thwarted search for love. 4 Finale: Andante maestoso – Allegro vivace know the dedicatee’s opinion: old The Fifth Symphony has everything that Avé-Lallemant was too ill to come to THIRD MOVEMENT en years separate Tchaikovsky’s listeners to his music value: clarity of the concert. The third movement is a waltz, subtly Fourth and Fifth Symphonies, so ideas, a sensuous feeling for colour, and a referring back to a passage in the first it is hardly surprising that they powerful directness of effect. There is little FIRST MOVEMENT movement and reminding us that are very different in character. By the end of of the traditional German fondness for close The overall mood of each of Tchaikovsky’s Tchaikovsky’s next major work would be the decade 1878–88, Tchaikovsky’s personal motivic relationships, but the melancholy symphonies is established immediately his ballet The Sleeping Beauty, with its life had become far more stable and his and nostalgia that is so much a part of at the beginning. Here the low clarinet inexhaustible wealth of dance movements. public career had expanded into Western Tchaikovsky’s character is set within a firm and strings present a motto theme that Europe. He responded enthusiastically to Classical structure that balances inward recurs throughout the symphony. Among FINALE new impressions, at the same time thinking doubt against outward strength. Tchaikovsky’s sketches there is a scribbled The first three movements all open quietly; deeply about his own approach to balancing note that gives some idea of what was in his the waltz is the first to end loudly, after a Russian and Western styles. Tchaikovsky conducted the first performance mind: ‘Introduction. Complete submission subdued appearance of the motto theme. on 17 November 1888 in St Petersburg, then before Fate – or (what is the same thing) the This theme, now firm and confident in the In 1887 he found himself in Hamburg, after giving further performances in Russia inscrutable design of Providence. Allegro: 1 major mode, provides the long introduction where he was approached by an elderly he introduced it to Germany in Hamburg. Murmurs, doubts, laments … 2 Shall I cast to the finale. The main body of the musician called Theodor Avé-Lallemant. He found the next room in his hotel was myself into the embrace of faith?’ The music movement is a vigorous, at times hectic As Tchaikovsky recounted with a mixture occupied by Johannes Brahms, who had tells us that Tchaikovsky’s idea of Fate is not Russian dance full of rough high spirits. of affection and amusement, the old prolonged his stay to hear the rehearsal and the grim power that dominates the Fourth man frankly confessed that he didn’t like who ‘was very kind. We had lunch together Symphony but something less hostile, The motto theme is eventually absorbed into Tchaikovsky’s music, and ‘exhorted me after the rehearsal, and quite a few drinks. holding the possibility also of happiness. its course and dominates the coda, where it almost tearfully to leave Russia and settle He is very sympathetic and I like his honesty becomes exultant – or rather, shows a desire permanently in Germany, where Classical and open-mindedness. Neither he nor the SECOND MOVEMENT to be exultant, which is not quite the same traditions … would free me from my players liked the Finale, which I also think The central movements both relate to the thing, for there is something fragile even in shortcomings’. Such a move would have been rather horrible.’ A few days later, though, varying moods of the first. The horn theme Tchaikovsky’s most positive statements. • unthinkable. Tchaikovsky always felt himself Tchaikovsky wrote to his brother, ‘The of the slow movement, after the sombre intensely Russian and was usually homesick players by degrees came to appreciate the introductory string chords, is obviously a when abroad; but it was, surprisingly, to the symphony more and more, and at the last love song, and highlights Tchaikovsky’s obscure and ancient Avé-Lallemant that he rehearsal gave me an ovation. The outstanding sense of orchestral colour.

18 Programme Notes 3 November 2019 Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky in Profile 1840–93 / profile by Andrew Huth

chaikovsky was born in Kamsko- Tchaikovsky’s hasty decision to marry an • TCHAIKOVSKY ON LSO LIVE Votkinsk in the Vyatka province of almost unknown admirer in 1877 proved Russia on 7 May 1840; his father a disaster, his homosexuality combining was a mining engineer and his mother was strongly with his sense of entrapment. of French extraction. In 1848 the family By now he had completed his Fourth moved to the imperial capital, St Petersburg, Symphony, was about to finish his opera where Pyotr was enrolled at the School of , and had attracted the Juris­prudence. After his mother’s death in considerable financial and moral support of 1854, he overcame his grief by composing , an affluent widow. and performing, and music remained a She helped him through his personal crisis and diversion from his job – as a clerk at the in 1878 he returned to com­position with the Ministry of Justice – until he enrolled as Violin Concerto. Tchaikovsky claimed that his a full-time student at the St Petersburg Sixth Symphony represented his best work. Conservatory in 1863. The mood of crushing despair heard in all but the work’s third move­ment reflected Tchaikovsky’s First Symphony was warmly the composer’s troubled state of mind. received at its St Peters­­burg premiere in He died nine days after its premiere on Tchaikovsky Symphony No 4 1868. , the first of his three 6 November 1893. • Mussorgsky arr Ravel great ballet scores, was written in 1876 for Pictures at an Exhibition Moscow’s . Between 1869 and the year of his death, he composed over Gianandrea Noseda conductor 100 songs, cast mainly in the impassioned Romance style and textually preoccu­­pied ‘Bold, a performance of hot blood and with the frustration and despair associated obsessive thoughts.’ with love, con­ditions that characterised his (Symphony No 4) personal relationships. ‘Philip Cobb’s was devilish.’ Classical Source (Pictures at an Exhibition)

Available to purchase in the Barbican Shop, at lsolive.co.uk, on iTunes and Amazon, or to stream on Spotify and Apple Music.

Composer Profile 19 Gianandrea Noseda conductor

ianandrea Noseda is one of Noseda also serves as Principal Guest Noseda has an extensive discography of over the world’s most sought-after Conductor of the London Symphony 60 recordings for Chandos and Deutsche conductors, equally recognised Orchestra and Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Grammophon, among others. for his artistry in the concert hall and Principal Conductor of the Orquestra de opera house. He was named the National Cadaqués, and Artistic Director of the Stresa He is closely involved with the next Symphony Orchestra’s seventh Music Festival in Italy. In the 2021/22 season, generation of musicians through his work Director in January 2016, beginning his Noseda will become General Music Director as Music Director of the Tsinandali Festival four-year term in the 2017/18 season. of the Zurich Opera House, where he will and Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra, which In September 2018, his contract was lead his first Ring Cycle. From 2007 to 2018, just concluded its inaugural season, as well extended for four more years through Noseda served as Music Director of the as with other youth , including the to the 2024/25 season. In May 2019, Noseda Teatro Regio Torino, where his leadership European Union Youth Orchestra. and the NSO earned rave reviews for their and his initiatives propelled the company’s first concert together at Carnegie Hall in global reputation. A native of Milan, Noseda is Commendatore al New York. The 2019/20 season sees their Merito della Repubblica Italiana, marking his partnership continue to flourish with 12 During the 2019/20 season Noseda contribution to the artistic life of Italy. In 2015, weeks of concerts at the Kennedy Center – will guest conduct the Bavarian Radio he was Musical America’s Conductor of the including performances of Beethoven’s nine Symphony Orchestra, Danish National Year, and was named the 2016 International symphonies – their first appearance together Symphony Orchestra, Filarmonica della Opera Awards Conductor of the Year. • at Lincoln Center in November 2019, and Scala, Orchestre National de France, their first overseas tour together to Japan Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa and China in March 2020. Cecilia, Philharmonia Zurich, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Tonhalle Orchestra and the Vienna Symphony Orchestra.

20 Artist Biographies 31 October & 3 November 2019 Denis Matsuev piano

ince his triumph at the eleventh As a recitalist Matsuev can be heard in the Since 2008, Denis Matsuev has presided International Tchaikovsky world’s greatest halls, including a yearly over New Names, a charitable foundation Competition in 1998, Denis Matsuev appearance at Carnegie Hall. His extensive that selects and supports talented young has become a virtuoso of the grandest discography includes highly acclaimed Russian musicians, artists and poets toward Russian piano music and is one of the most recital discs as well as concerto recordings achieving their professional goals. More than prominent pianists performing today. with the LSO, New York Philharmonic and 10,000 children have received monetary Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen grants and/or the opportunity to perform Matsuev regularly performs with the Rundfunks, and cyclical recordings of the on the professional stage. For his work Berlin, Vienna, New York, Munich and great Russian concertos with the Mariinsky with New Names, Denis Matsuev has been Israel Philharmonics, Chicago, London and Orchestra and . named a UNESCO Goodwill Ambassador. • Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestras, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Filharmonica As one of Russia’s pre-eminent musicians della Scala, Lucerne Festival Orchestra and a distinguished public figure, Denis and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Matsuev is a member of The Presidential Rundfunks. As Capell-Virtuos of the Council for Culture and Arts and was the Staatskapelle during the 2017/18 official ambassador for the 2018 FIFA season, Matsuev performed in numerous World Cup, which he opened with a globally concerts in Dresden and on tour with broadcast performance in Moscow’s Red Music Director Christian Thielemann, Square. Matsuev is also Artistic Director and he is continually re-engaged with of the Foundation in the legendary Russian orchestras such Switzerland, and curates and directs his own as the St Petersburg Philharmonic, the prestigious concert series, Denis Matsuev Mariinsky Orchestra and the Russian Invites, at the Great Hall of the Moscow National Orchestra. In the 2019/20 season Conservatory. He chaired the piano jury at he is Artist-in-Residence at the Montreal the 2019 Tchaikovsky Competition. Symphony Orchestra.

Artist Biographies 21 In Conversation with Denis Matsuev / interview by Lydia Heald Ahead of his performances of Prokofiev’s Second and Third Piano Concertos, we caught up with Denis Matsuev to talk about the great Russian composers, performing with Gianandrea Noseda and the magic of the stage.

You’ve been described as the ideal latter- You can spend a lifetime learning these day soul mate to Rachmaninov. What does concertos, feeling how you change inside Rachmaninov mean to you? with each different interpretation, and a When it comes to Rachmaninov, I always lot depends on who is on-stage with you think that, without him, we pianists would in that moment. feel orphaned. He is very special to me! I still go to Villa Senar (the composer’s Swiss Finally what is it like working with Noseda estate) to play his piano and work with the and the LSO? Serge Rachmaninoff Foundation. I have a long-standing friendship with the LSO. Together we’ve played a huge number of What generally goes through your head as concerts covering lots of different repertoire. you step on stage? It’s a unique orchestra of the highest world- It is magic! Being on stage enriches and class quality. The Orchestra doesn’t just play inspires me, the energy that comes from the the notes, they create music. audience has a miraculous healing effect. I cannot exist without a stage. I perform As for Gianandrea Noseda, he is a great How did you first get into music? And now you regularly perform the likes of about 265 concerts a year and each is a friend. We’ve performed together many My parents are musicians, so I was Rachmaninov and Prokofiev. moment of great happiness. times with the greatest orchestras of the surrounded by music from birth. When Yes, I’ve been performing Prokofiev’s Second world. Performing Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto I was three years old I walked up to a Piano Concerto for just five years now. What is it about music from 20th-century No 2 at the Enescu Festival with Noseda was piano for the first time and repeated a It is a truly challenging work for a pianist; Russian composers that continues to a moment of pure happiness, so I have been melody I had just heard on the weather emotionally intense and tragic, this is enthral audiences? looking forward to our concerts in London. • forecast with a single finger. I’ve been Prokofiev’s premonition of Revolution. These composers are the geniuses of involved in music since then. The only way to perform it is to give the 20th century, their music will exist yourself over to it completely. for hundreds of years. In my opinion, the biggest intrigue and pleasure is that no matter how many times you’ve played their Read the full interview online concertos, it always feels like the first time. lso.co.uk/blog

22 In Conversation 31 October & 3 November 2019 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Carmine Lauri Julian Gil Rodriguez Rebecca Gilliver Gareth Davies Diego Incertis Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Sarah Bennett Timothy Jones Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Angela Barnes Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Clare Duckworth Miya Väisänen Noel Bradshaw Piccolo Alexander Edmundson Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Ginette Decuyper David Ballesteros Eve-Marie Caravassilis Patricia Moynihan Michael Kidd David Jackson work experience by playing in rehearsals Laura Dixon Matthew Gardner Daniel Gardner Sam Walton and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Gerald Gregory Naoko Keatley Hilary Jones Oboes Trumpets Tom Edwards are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Maxine Kwok-Adams Csilla Pogany Amanda Truelove Olivier Stankiewicz Philip Cobb Helen Edordu (additional to LSO members) and receive fees William Melvin Iwona Muszynska Laure Le Dantec Rosie Jenkins Robin Totterdell for their work in line with LSO section players. Elizabeth Pigram Andrew Pollock Francois Thirault Paul Mayes Harps Laurent Quenelle Paul Robson Cor Anglais Bryn Lewis The Scheme is supported by: Harriet Rayfield Camille Joubert Double Basses Christine Pendrill Trombones Helen Tunstall The Polonsky Foundation Colin Renwick Erzsebet Racz David Desimppelaere Mark Templeton Derek Hill Foundation Sylvain Vasseur Helena Smart Colin Paris Clarinets Dudley Bright Piano Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Rhys Watkins Patrick Laurence Chris Richards James Maynard Elizabeth Burley Thistle Trust Mariam Nahapetyan Violas Matthew Gibson Chi-Yu Mo Richard Blayden Rebecca Jones Jani Pensola Bass Trombone Marciana Buta Malcolm Johnston José Moreira Bass Clarinet Paul Milner German Clavijo Benjamin Griffiths Katy Ayling Stephen Doman Adam Wynter Tuba Julia O’Riordan Bassoons Ben Thomson Carol Ella Rachel Gough Editorial Photography Robert Turner Joost Bosdijk Ranald Mackechnie, Chris Wahlberg, Heather Wallington Harald Hoffmann, Marco Borggreve, Michelle Bruil Contra Basson Spencer Lowell, Stefano Pasqualetti, Ilona Bondar Dominic Morgan Andrey Mustafaev, Pavel Antonov Luca Casciato Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Stephanie Edmundson Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

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The Orchestra 23 Coming Up in 2019/20 HALF SIX FIX Early-evening concerts, HALF SIX FIX IN 2019/20 presented by the conductor Prokofiev Fifth Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas Every Half Six Fix concert promises insights from the conductor, a 13 November 2019 relaxed atmosphere, great music, and the full impact of the London Symphony Orchestra – all in around an hour. Beethoven & Berg with Sir The concerts start at 6.30pm, without an interval. Grab a drink, 15 January 2020 take your seat in the Barbican Hall, and sit back and enjoy a short programme of one or two major works, which the conductor will Beethoven ‘Choral’ Symphony introduce from the stage. with Sir Simon Rattle 12 February 2020 To bring you closer to the action, we’ll have screens to showcase the performers and programme notes available Bartók The Wooden Prince electronically on your Android or Apple device. with François-Xavier Roth 18 March 2020

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