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Home , After (Elgar), Alisa Weilerstein, Edward Elgar, Ernest Newman, Gerard McBurney, Joseph Hallman

London Living Music

Sunday 17 January 2016 7pm Barbican Hall

PABLO HERAS-CASADO

Tchaikovsky The Tempest: Fantasy London’s Symphony Orchestra Elgar INTERVAL Dvorˇák Symphony No 7

Pablo Heras-Casado conductor Alisa Weilerstein cello

Concert finishes approx 9.15pm

2 Welcome 17 January 2016

Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief

Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert. We are JACK MAXWELL JP, 1925–2015 delighted that Spanish conductor Pablo Heras-Casado returns to the LSO to conduct a programme featuring The LSO was saddened to learn of the death of Jack a work by Tchaikovsky inspired by Shakespeare, 400 Maxwell in December. Jack, together with his wife years the great playwright’s death, Elgar’s Cello Pamela, had been a patron of the LSO since the Concerto and Dvorˇák’s Seventh Symphony. early 1970s and endowed the chair of the Principal Second Violin. For the Elgar Concerto, our soloist is the American cellist Alisa Weilerstein, who makes her debut Jack joined the LSO Advisory Council in 1971 and with the Orchestra this evening. Alisa is rapidly later became a Trustee. He was always concerned establishing a strong reputation as one of the leading for the welfare of the players and to this end founded cellists of her generation and in 2011 was awarded the LSO Musicians Welfare Fund in 1977. On many the prestigious MacArthur Genius Grant. occasions Jack and Pamela funded celebratory dinners for the members of the Orchestra and administration I would like to take this opportunity to thank our which would never have taken place without their media partner Classic FM, who recommended generosity. In 2001 Jack stood down as a Trustee. To tonight’s concert to their listeners. thank him for his support over so many years, the LSO appointed him an Honorary Member of the Orchestra. I hope you enjoy the performance and can join us again for our next concert. On Thursday 21 January we will be joined by conductor François-Xavier Roth A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS for the first instalment of his ‘After ’ series, exploring music composed on the cusp of The LSO offers great benefits for groups of 10+, modernity with works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler. including 20% discount on standard tickets. Tonight we are delighted to welcome:

Hertford U3A Renaissance Tours Old Bexley Music Society Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Ann Parrish & Friends Managing Director Robina Frosinini & Friends Marina Comas-Castineira & Friends

lso.co.uk/groups 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 MACBETH, 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 21 Jan 1pm, LSO St Luke’s Mendelssohn Symphony No 1; Smetana Richard III Shakespeare needs the help of Puck James Gilchrist & Anna Tilbrook A Midsummer Night’s Dream Liszt No 2 and the LSO to get over his writer’s Tchaikovsky Romeo and Juliet block. With music by Mendelssohn, Thu 28 Jan 1pm, LSO St Luke’s Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor Strauss Macbeth Prokofiev, Walton, Sibelius and BBC Singers & David Hill Monteverdi Choir Shostakovich Actors from the Guildhall School Gianandrea Noseda conductor Simon Trpcˇeski piano LSO DISCOVERY DAY: BERLIOZ AND SHAKESPEARE ROMEO AND JULIET shakespeare400.org Sun 28 Feb 10am–5pm Sun 28 Feb 7pm Barbican & LSO St Luke’s Shostakovich No 2 Watch a morning rehearsal with 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 020 7638 8891 4 Programme Notes 17 January 2016

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93) The Tempest: Fantasy Overture Op 18 (1873)

PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Tchaikovsky’s first Shakespearean orchestral fantasy, For the next few months, Tchaikovsky was busy with GERARD MCBURNEY divides Romeo and Juliet (1869), established the composer other things. But on 19 August 1873, while staying on his time between composing and as a leader of Russian music in his time. The idea the remote country estate of a friend, he sat down arranging, teaching, writing and had originally (and generously) been suggested by to work, and completed a draft in just eleven days. broadcasting, especially on the another composer, Balakirev, who concocted an Even he was impressed by his own speed. subject of contemporary Russian extremely simplified version of Shakespeare’s love- and Soviet music. story for Tchaikovsky to follow. Intriguingly, when The composer provided his own scenario for his four years later Tchaikovsky thought of writing a piece: ‘The sea. The magician Prospero sends his similar piece, the exact same process took place. obedient spirit Ariel to raise a tempest. Wreck of the ship bearing Ferdinand. The magic island. First timid VLADIMIR STASOV (1824–1906) ‘Be not afeard; the isle is full of feelings of love between Miranda and Ferdinand. was one of the most respected noises. Sounds, and sweet airs, Ariel. Caliban. The lovers give themselves to the Russian critics of his day. During his enchantments of passion. Prospero renounces his time he discovered and nurtured that give delight and hurt not.’ magic powers and leaves the island. The sea.’ many of Russia’s greatest artistic The Tempest Act II, Scene 2 talents. He was a key figure in What Tchaikovsky offers here is an elegantly simple establishing a distinctively Russian and symmetrical arch structure. The music begins aesthetic in the arts; it was his This time the suggestion came from the critic and and ends with the sea, waves rising and falling in opinion that art should not only scholar Vladimir Stasov. In January 1873, at a dinner eerie, almost disconnected chords, the presence of portray people’s lives but also show in Rimsky-Korsakov’s apartment in St Petersburg, magic signified by long horn-calls. And within this them how to live. Stasov asked Tchaikovsky what his next piece outer frame, an inner frame, a portrait of the lordly would be. Presumably Tchaikovsky answered ‘a master of the island, Prospero. As befits the old ’, as shortly afterwards Stasov man’s priestly role, Tchaikovsky gives him a chorale- TCHAIKOVSKY ON wrote suggesting three subjects: Shakespeare’s like theme, while Ariel dances in the woodwind. The COMPOSING THE TEMPEST The Tempest, ’s Ivanhoe, and Nikolai storm, when it arrives, is short. ‘I was in a kind of exalted, blissful Gogol’s . Tchaikovsky chose The Tempest. frame of mind, wandering during And within this double frame of sea and Prospero, the day alone in the woods, To start with, the two men disagreed about the the composer places the haunting and noble love- towards evening over the shape. Stasov wanted a noisy storm, for example, music for Ferdinand and Miranda, and within the immeasurable steppes, and sitting while Tchaikovsky thought he should drop the love-music, at the heart of his symphonic fantasy, at night by the open window storm and concentrate on the love-music. He also the two spirits, Ariel and Caliban. We should listening to the solemn silence … wondered about calling the work ‘Miranda’ after remember, as Tchaikovsky no doubt wanted us to, During these two weeks I wrote Shakespeare’s heroine. But eventually the two that it is to Caliban that Shakespeare gives some of The Tempest in rough without any agreed: a sea; a storm; Prospero and his magic; the most beautiful lines in the play: effort, as though moved by some the love between Ferdinand and Miranda; and the supernatural force.’ spirits, Ariel and Caliban. ‘Be not afeard; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurt not. Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears …’ lso.co.uk Composer Profiles 5

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Composer Profile Composer Profile

Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko- Elgar’s father, a trained piano- Votkinsk in the Vyatka province tuner, ran a music shop in of Russia on 7 May 1840. His Worcester in the 1860s. Young father was a mining engi­n­eer, his Edward, the fourth of seven mother of French extraction. He children, showed musical talent began to study the piano at five, but was largely self-taught as benefiting also from the mus­ical a player and composer. During instruction of his elder brother’s his early freelance career, which French governess. In 1848 the included work conducting the family moved to the imperial staff band at the County Lunatic capital, St Petersburg, where Pyotr Asylum in , he suffered was enrolled at the School of many setbacks. He was forced to Jurisprudence. He overcame his continue teaching long after the grief at his mother’s death in 1854 desire to compose full-time had by composing and performing, taken hold. A picture emerges although music was to remain a of a frustrated, pessimistic man, diversion from his job – as a clerk at the Ministry of Justice – until he whose creative impulses were restrained by his circumstances and enrolled as a full-time student at the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1863. apparent lack of progress. The cantata Caractacus, commissioned by the Leeds Festival and premiered in 1898, brought the composer His First Symphony was warmly received at its St Peters­­burg premiere recognition beyond his native city. in 1868 and he completed an on a melodrama by Ostrovsky, which he later destroyed. Swan Lake, the first of Tchaikovsky’s three At the end of March 1891 the Elgars were invited to travel to Bayreuth great ballet scores, was written in 1876 for ’s Bolshoi Theatre. for that summer’s festival of Wagner’s , a prospect that inspired Edward immediately to compose three movements for , Tchaikovsky’s hasty decision to marry an almost unknown admirer in the . The Variations on an Original Theme ‘Enigma’ (1898–99) 1877 proved a disaster, his homosexuality combining strongly with his and his (1900) cemented his position sense of entrapment. By now he had completed his Fourth Symphony, as ’s finest composer, crowned by two further , a was about to finish his opera Eugene Onegin, and had attracted the series of ceremonial works, two and for violin considerable financial and moral support of Nadezhda von Meck, an and cello. affluent widow. She helped him through his personal crisis and in 1878 he returned to com­position with the Violin Concerto, although his work Elgar, who was knighted in 1904, became the LSO’s Principal Conductor remained inhibited until the completion in 1885 of the Byron-inspired in 1911 and premiered many of his works with the Orchestra. Shortly Manfred Symphony. Tchaikovsky claimed that his Sixth Symphony before the end of World War I he entered an almost cathartic period represented his best work. The mood of crushing despair heard in of composition, completing the slow movement of his all but the work’s third move­ment reflected the composer’s troubled soon after Armistice Day. The was finished state of mind. He committed suicide nine days after its premiere on in February 1919 and reveals the composer’s deep nostalgia for times 6 November 1893. past. In his final years he recorded many of his works with the LSO and, despite illness, managed to sketch movements of a Third Symphony. Composer Profiles © Andrew Stewart 6 Programme Notes 17 January 2016

Edward Elgar (1857–1934) in Op 85 (1919)

1 ADAGIO – MODERATO hour remaining it can have been little more than a 2 LENTO – ALLEGRO MOLTO play-through. On the day of the concert, Coates did 3 ADAGIO it again, and only because the band volunteered to 4 ALLEGRO MA NON TROPPO stay for an extra half-hour, unpaid, was it possible to have any rehearsal at all. Not surprisingly, it had ALISA WEILERSTEIN CELLO mixed reviews.

PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER In the latter part of 1917 and early part of 1918, LEWIS FOREMAN Elgar was constantly ill and eventually it was Elgar’s Cello Concerto grew out decided to remove his tonsils, the operation taking of the war ... It was a terrible place on 15 March 1918. This was successful and on 22 March, the night before returning home, he wrote time for so many, and particularly ELGAR AND THE LSO a theme which we now know as the opening theme painful for Elgar, when so much of By the time the London Symphony of the Cello Concerto. The Elgars soon decamped Orchestra was established in 1904, to ‘Brinkwells’, their cottage. However, there the world he had known and loved Elgar was a major figure in British was no immediate mention of any Cello Concerto, was irrevocably changed. musical life. His and indeed, when he resumed composing, it was were performed in the LSO’s first to write the Violin , quickly followed by the concert and he first conducted the Piano Quintet. The actual composition of the Cello Until well into World War II the Cello Concerto Orchestra in 1905. From 1911/12 Concerto seems to have taken place in the spring remained something of a connoisseur’s piece. he was Principal Conductor and and early summer of 1919. Gradually a number of celebrated cellists championed he continued to appear with the it, but it was Pablo Casals’ performance in November Orchestra after this. A number of Although there had been a major tradition of new 1936, under Sir , that announced the Elgar’s most important works were concertos for both violin and piano during the 30 years work’s final acceptance, in spite of much grumbling, premiered by the LSO including before World War I, there were practically no British characteristic of that time, that a non-British cellist his Introduction & Allegro and the cello concertos since Sullivan’s youthful effort in the could not understand it. Cello and Violin Concertos. 1860s. It is undeniable that Elgar’s concerto grew out of the war, but there is little direct external evidence. The Concerto is dedicated to Sidney and Francis It was a terrible time for so many, and particularly Colvin, two of Elgar’s literary friends. Sidney painful for Elgar, when so much of the world he had Colvin was Director of the Fitzwilliam Museum at known and loved was irrevocably changed. Cambridge, Keeper of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum and President of the Literary Society. The Cello Concerto was premiered in the opening It was he who had successfully interested Elgar in concert of the LSO’s Queen’s Hall Winter 1919/20 setting Binyon’s poems in what became the three- season. When Elgar arrived to rehearse the concerto part wartime choral work . the day before the concert, , who was conducting the remainder of the programme, kept Although Elgar made no overtly programmatic claims him waiting for over an hour, so the concerto’s about this work, many have argued that it is an rehearsal became a brief scramble: in the half- elegy for World War I. This is a persuasive assertion, lso.co.uk Programme Notes 7

EARLY REVIEWS vindicated for the commentator by internal evidence. with a wonderfully ever-extending line, for a world Despite a disastrously under- You might like to make your own decision during this that has been lost. At the beginning of the finale it rehearsed first performance, Elgar’s evening’s performance. A motto for our discussion is linked by a – a sort of – to the Cello Concerto received favourable is that of the tempo marking used almost uniquely apparently extrovert finale, which is again marked reviews from critics who could by Elgar: nobilmente (nobly). On looking at the score nobilmente as Elgar strides out into the world once hear potential beyond the work’s of the Cello Concerto, one’s first surprise is that more. But the bravado is short-lived, and the more imperfect realisation. The following he marks the opening with this instruction. What introspective music underlines the fact that this is was written by , a can he mean – for this is far from the grand, even the final ghost of a world that has passed. critic for : grandiloquent manner associated with this mood in some of his other music? Towards the end Elgar springs the surprise of a ‘The work itself is lovely stuff, very new slow theme, a passage of unprecedented simple – that pregnant simplicity We have a four-movement concerto with a break , focusing all his pathos and autumnal that has come upon Elgar’s music between the second and third movements. The feeling, a cry of anguish if ever there was one. This in the last couple of years – but shape of the first movement is simpler than in is merged with the wraith of the slow movement, with a profound wisdom and beauty many concertos. Here, after the soloist’s resonant giving the effect of a despairing mourner refusing underlying its simplicity.’ introductory chords, the main theme in 9/8 metre to accept events. Then suddenly, as if Elgar has is repeated six times in various colourings and woken from his reverie, we have the return of the treatments, before the romantic middle section, opening flourish, and the curt eight orchestral bars which develops the 9/8 theme and sends the cello of dismissal. into flights of reminiscent romantic fantasy. The main 9/8 theme was first sketched in March 1918, At the end, all are playing together almost for the which perhaps gives us a first clue to its wartime first time, as if the composer is brusquely saying, provenance. Its elegiac character is reinforced when ‘well that’s enough of all that’. In his own list of it returns for four further repetitions and the mood works, Elgar wrote against this concerto ‘Finis RIP’: becomes more and more autumnal. The music runs his age indeed had passed. MORE ELGAR WITH THE LSO on into a scherzo, which begins with a pizzicato IN 2016 version of the opening chords. Then, after slow questioning phrases, it whirls away in a torrent of INTRODUCTION & ALLEGRO thistledown semiquavers. This is the world of Elgar’s Wed 3 Feb 2016 7.30pm youth, complete with a brief, swaggering romantic LSO String Ensemble extension. They combine and Elgar is brought back Roman Simovic director to present realities, perhaps musing on what might have been. INTERVAL – 20 minutes THE DREAM OF GERONTIUS There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream Sun 24 Apr 2016 7pm The Adagio is not only the shortest and most can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. Sir Mark Elder conductor concentrated movement in the concerto, but also London Symphony Chorus requires a smaller orchestra than the others. It is Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the chorus director framed by eight exquisite bars of yearning phrases performance @londonsymphony, or come and talk to London Symphony Orchestra for the soloist, and then Elgar’s cello sings elegiacally, LSO staff at the information point on the Circle level? 8 Programme Notes 17 January 2016

Antonín Dvorˇák (1841–1904) Symphony No 7 in D minor Op 70 (1884–5)

1 ALLEGRO The hint of national struggle which shadows the first 2 POCO ADAGIO theme of the first movement adds a slightly more 3 SCHERZO: VIVACE; POCO MENO MOSSO public dimension to a composition which in many 4 ALLEGRO ways was the product of a personal crisis. Dvorˇák’s early career as an instrumental and operatic PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER It has long been known that the opening theme of composer had been marked by acute experiment. JAN SMACZNY is the Sir Hamilton the first movement of Dvorˇák’s Seventh Symphony Dvorˇák’s first three symphonies were a break from Harty Professor of Music at owed its inspiration to an express train. The composer the Czech symphony as it had been practised by Queen’s University, Belfast. A well- himself wrote that the main theme ‘came to me his predecessors. If his Fifth and Sixth symphonies known writer and broadcaster, he during the arrival of the festival express from Pest approach Germanic types more closely, they were specialises in the life and works of in the main station.’ The urgency of this opening still an appreciable advance on the work of his native Dvorˇák and Czech opera, and has melody belies the explanation that it was merely contemporaries. published books on the repertoire the stray fancy of a compulsive trainspotter, as of the Prague Provisional Theatre does the reason for Dvorˇák’s presence at the arrival By the time Dvorˇák put pen to the manuscript full and Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto. of the express. The train in question was full of score of his Seventh Symphony (he was annoyed anti-Austrian sympathisers who were coming to to find later that his publisher Simrock issued it Prague to attend a festival at the National Theatre as Number 2, although the composer was not a and whose progress through Moravia and Bohemia great deal better at finding a number for it), he had been a moving and inspiring event. If the Seventh was confident of his ability, although troubled by Symphony is not the composer’s most revolutionary his growing reputation as a musical Classicist. work in the form, it is certainly his most serious. The pull of Vienna and the siren voices of Brahms and Hanslick were a powerful draw for the Czech From the outset Dvorˇák was determined to produce composer. On a number of occasions he had DVORˇ ÁK on LSO LIVE a work which would ‘stir the world’ and, with the been tempted to settle in the Austrian capital encouragement of Brahms ringing in his ears, a in order to act as a counterweight to the forces Dvorˇák symphony which would differ from and transcend of what the conservatives considered to be the Symphonies his successful Symphony No 6 in D major, Op 60. musical extremists. The fact that Dvorˇák did not Nos 6–9 The earlier work had done much to secure Dvorˇák’s succumb says much for his integrity and wisdom £10.49 reputation among German and, in particular, English in recognising the value of his native surroundings. lsolive.lso.co.uk audiences. Indeed, the Seventh Symphony arose The musical public had been the beneficiary of this from a commission by the Philharmonic Society of period of storm and stress in the composer’s life and Sir conductor London. Dvorˇák approached his task with the utmost the Seventh Symphony was one of its greatest gifts, seriousness, beginning to sketch it in December refreshing and enriching the repertoire. ‘Colin Davis and the LSO give a 1884 and completing the full score on 17 March tremendous account … gorgeously 1885. The premiere took place at St James’ Hall on The shape of the first movement is by no means played … brilliantly executed.’ 22 April the same year. As was often the case with unconventional, but it is a perfect realisation of Evening Standard Dvorˇák, the composer made slight revisions, mainly the later ’s reinterpretation of Classical to the slow movement. principles. The brooding first theme provides potential for both drama and intense development. The lso.co.uk Programme Notes 9

Antonín Dvorˇák Composer Profile

impetus of this opening is maintained throughout Born into a peasant family, Dvorˇák developed a love the movement, aided by one of the composer’s of folk tunes at an early age. His father inherited shortest and most powerful development sections the lease on a butcher’s shop in the small village of and a suitably hushed conclusion. Nelahozeves, north of Prague. When he was twelve, the boy left school and was apprenticed to become There is promise of trouble-free melody in the a butcher, at first working in his father’s shop and radiant opening of the slow movement, but this is later in the town of Zlonice. Here Dvorˇák learned soon succeeded by some soulful rising phrases German and also refined his musical talents to such from the strings before a solo horn regales the a level that his father agreed he should pursue a listener with one of the loveliest themes Dvorˇák career as a musician. In 1857 he enrolled at the Prague ever conceived. The climax of the movement comes Organ School, during which time he became inspired not in the succeeding passages, but in a splendidly by the music dramas of Wagner: opera was to opulent movement before the return of the opening become a constant feature of Dvorˇák’s creative life. theme, one which the composer saw fit to use again in his opera Jakobin some three years later. His first job was as a player, although he supplemented his income by teaching. In the mid- The Scherzo, with its cross-rhythms and delicate 1860s he began to compose a series of large-scale , has long attracted favourable COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER works, including his Symphony No 1 (‘The Bells of comment. Its heart lies in the Trio which starts ANDREW STEWART Zlonice’), and the Cello Concerto. Two operas, a with a gentle explosion of trills over a warmly second symphony, many songs and chamber works whispering string accompaniment. followed, before Dvorˇák decided to concentrate on composition. In 1873 he mar­ried one of his pupils, In the finale Dvorˇák tried an experiment which he and in 1874 received a much-needed cash grant was to repeat again at the beginning of his Eighth from the Austrian government. Symphony. To all intents and purposes there is a lobbied the publisher Simrock to accept Dvorˇák’s slow introduction, although it is marked Allegro work, leading to the publication of his Moravian maestoso and no time change is indicated when Duets and a commission for a set of Slavonic Dances. what appears to be the real first subject emerges. This allows Dvorˇák to make good use of the The nationalist themes expressed in Dvorˇák’s music introductory material without adjusting the tempo attracted considerable interest beyond Prague. In 1883 later in the movement. After a warmly lyrical second he was invited to London to conduct a concert of theme, the symphony turns towards a stem minor- his works, and he returned to England often in the key peroration. But far from disappearing into the 1880s to oversee the premieres of several important gloom with which it began, the finale concludes with commissions, including his Seventh Symphony and an unexpected and superbly eloquent turn to the Requiem Mass. Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto received its major key. world premiere in London in March 1896. His Ninth Symphony (‘From the New World’), a product of Dvorˇák’s American years (1892–5), confirmed his place among the finest of late 19th-century composers. 10 Artist Biographies 17 January 2016

Pablo Heras-Casado ‘Heras-Casado is the thinking person’s Conductor idea of a hotshot young conductor.’ The New York TImes

Musical America’s 2014 Conductor of the Year, Heras-Casado records for harmonia mundi, as well Pablo Heras-Casado enjoys an unusually varied as Deutsche Grammophon’s Archiv Produktion, career encompassing the great symphonic and where he is an ‘Archiv Ambassador’. He has received operatic repertoire, historically informed performance numerous prizes for his recordings, including and cutting-edge contemporary scores. Principal three ECHO Klassik awards, Preis der deutschen Conductor of the Orchestra of St Luke’s in New York Schallplattenkritik, two Diapason d’Or and a Latin since the 2012/13 season, he was also appointed Grammy. Recent releases on harmonia mundi Principal Guest Conductor of Teatro Real, Madrid include Schumann’s Violin and Piano Concertos in 2014. with Isabelle Faust and Alexander Melnikov, Schubert’s Symphonies Nos 3 and 4 with Freiburger Heras-Casado is a regular guest with the Chicago Barockorchester, and Mendelssohn’s Symphony and San Francisco Symphony , No 2 with Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen , , Rundfunks. For Archiv, he has recorded a disc of the Münchner Philharmoniker, Symphonieorchester works by Jacob, Hieronymus and Michael Praetorius, des Bayerischen Rundfunks, Mariinsky Orchestra and an album celebrating the legendary castrato and the Metropolitan Opera. In 2015/16, he also singer and maestro Farinelli. He also conducted on Principal Conductor returns to the , Orchestra a Sony release of Verdi’s arias with Plácido Orchestra of St Luke’s dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and Domingo and a Deutsche Grammophon DVD of Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra. He makes Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore from Festspielhaus Principal Guest Conductor his debuts with the Wiener Philharmoniker, the Baden Baden. Teatro Real, Madrid Orchestra, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra and Wiener Symphoniker; continues his Pablo Heras-Casado holds the Medalla de Honor of collaborations with Ensemble intercontemporain, the Rodriguez Acosta Foundation. In February 2012, Freiburger Barockorchester and the Balthasar he was awarded the Golden Medal of Merit by the Neumann Chor & Ensemble; and appears at the Council of Granada, his hometown, of which he is Mozarteum Salzburg, where he is invited annually for also an Honorary Ambassador. He is an Honorary Mozartwoche. The season’s opera projects include Citizen of the Province of Granada, and in June Rigoletto at the Metropolitan Opera and I due Foscari 2014 he joined Spanish charity Ayuda en Acción at Teatro Real. supporting the eradication of poverty and injustice in the world. In previous seasons he has conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker, Gewandhausorchester , Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, , Boston Symphony Orchestra, the and Mahler Chamber Orchestra. He has also appeared at Festspielhaus Baden Baden, Salzburger Festspiele and Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, and regularly returns to the Lucerne Festival. lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 11

Alisa Weilerstein ‘Weilerstein rises to the challenge Cello with an arresting physicality.’ The Independent

The American-born cellist Alisa Weilerstein has Following the October release of their duo album attracted attention worldwide for her natural debut on Decca, comprising by Chopin virtuosity, the intensity of her playing and the and Rachmaninov, Alisa reunited with her longtime spontaneity and sensitivity of her interpretations. recital partner, pianist Inon Barnatan, for a tour of In 2010 she was invited by and the North America and six European capitals, taking in Berlin Philharmonic to play the Elgar Concerto in the London’s . orchestra’s annual Europakonzert which that year took place in Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre. She has An ardent champion of new music, she has worked appeared with all of the major orchestras throughout extensively with and premiered the US and Europe with conductors including Pablo works by and Joseph Hallman. Heras-Casado, Gustavo Dudamel, Sir Mark Elder, Last season she gave the New York premiere of Christoph Eschenbach, Paavo Järvi, Zubin Mehta, Matthias Pintscher’s Reflections on Narcissus under Matthias Pintscher, Yuri Temirkanov, Juraj Valcuha, the composer’s direction during the New York Osmo Vänskä, Semyon Bychkov, Simone Young and Philharmonic’s inaugural Biennial. She appears at Jaap van Zweden. She has also appeared at major major music festivals worldwide, and regularly music festivals throughout the world as a soloist, collaborates with Venezuela’s Simón Bolívar Symphony recitalist and as a chamber musician. Orchestra and the El Sistema education programme.

The 2015/16 season sees Alisa give world premiere Weilerstein, whose honours include ’s performances of two major new concertos, both 2008 Martin E Segal prize and the 2006 Leonard of them commissioned from leading composers Bernstein Award, is a graduate of the Cleveland and written for her. With the Chicago Symphony Institute of Music and . she gives the world premiere of ’s Diagnosed with type 1 diabetes aged nine, she is new concerto, before undertaking its European now a Celebrity Advocate for the Juvenile Diabetes premiere with the Stuttgart Opera Orchestra as well Research Foundation. as the Paris Opera Orchestra. Similarly, with the composer on the podium, she will give the world premiere of Matthias Pintscher’s new concerto with the Danish National Symphony Orchestra, followed by performances with Cologne’s WDR Symphony Orchestra. Other highlights include performances with the Bavarian Radio Symphony, London Symphony, NDR Hamburg, Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris. 12 The Orchestra 17 January 2016

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FIRST VIOLINS HORNS 9 & 10 Jan: Sir and Peter Sellars – Pelléas et Mélisande Roman Simovic Leader Andriy Viytovych Adam Walker Timothy Jones Carmine Lauri Gillianne Haddow Alex Jakeman Jonathan Bareham Lennox Mackenzie Malcolm Johnston Alexander Edmundson David Miller Wonderful, moving performance of Pelléas Clare Duckworth Lander Echevarria PICCOLO Jonathan Lipton et Mélisande by @londonsymphony under @SirSimonRattle Sharon Williams Ginette Decuyper Julia O’Riordan Jocelyn Lightfoot dir Peter Sellars Gerald Gregory Robert Turner Claire Parfitt Jonathan Welch Timothy Rundle Laurent Quenelle Elizabeth Butler Philip Cobb Rosie Jenkins John Earls Gripping performance of #Debussy’s Pelléas et Harriet Rayfield Fiona Dalgliesh Gerald Ruddock Ian Rhodes Nancy Johnson Mélisande @BarbicanCentre tonight with Simon Rattle. Sylvain Vasseur Alistair Scahill Chris Richards Dudley Bright @londonsymphony played wonderfully. Rhys Watkins Anna Dorothea Vogel Chi-Yu Mo James Maynard David Worswick Michael Foyle Kathy Brown Being transported by an otherworldly, Timothy Walden Eleanor Fagg Daniel Jemison Paul Milner ethereal & sumptuous #lsopelleas w Sir Simon Rattle tonight Erzsebet Racz Alastair Blayden Joost Bosdijk Noel Bradshaw #lovelondon SECOND VIOLINS Eve-Marie Caravassilis Patrick Harrild David Alberman Daniel Gardner Lirim Greiçevci I thoroughly enjoyed Debussy’s Mélisande Thomas Norris Hilary Jones Sarah Quinn Victoria Simonsen Antoine Bedewi & Pelléas. Dreamlike perform. by Sir Simon Rattle @LSChorus Miya Väisänen Hester Snell PERCUSSION @londonsymphony David Ballesteros Amanda Truelove Neil Percy Richard Blayden Victoria Harrild David Jackson Matthew Gardner DOUBLE BASSES Julian Gil Rodriguez Janne Saksala Naoko Keatley Colin Paris Belinda McFarlane Patrick Laurence William Melvin Matthew Gibson Philip Nolte Thomas Goodman Andrew Pollock Joe Melvin Paul Robson Jani Pensola Sebastian Pennar

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 Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Silk Street [email protected] work experience by playing in rehearsals The Idlewild Trust London and concerts with the LSO. The scheme The Lefever Award EC2Y 8DS Photography auditions students from the London music The Polonsky Foundation Ranald Mackechnie, Fernando Sancho, conservatoires, and 15 students per year Registered charity in England No 232391 Harald Hoffmann are selected to participate. The musicians Taking part in rehearsals for this concert as Details in this publication were correct Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 are treated as professional ’extra’ players part of LSO String Experience are: Anna Lee*, Ghislaine McMullin 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. * Also performing in the concert