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Home , The Proms, Totentanz (Adès), Totentanz (Liszt)

Sunday 26 November 2017 7–9.15pm Barbican Hall

LSO SEASON CONCERT LISZT

Liszt orch Sciarrino Sposalizio Liszt TOTAL LISZT Interval Liszt A Faust

Sir Antonio Pappano conductor Alice Sara Ott Brenden Gunnell tenor Gentlemen of the Symphony Chorus chorus director

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we are pleased to welcome her back to the STEP INSIDE THE BEHIND THE SCENES LSO. It also a pleasure to be joined by tenor WITH LSO PLAY WITH ALICE SARA OTT soloist Brenden Gunnell and the Gentlemen of the London Symphony Chorus, led by our Our digital platform LSO Play has been On our YouTube channel, Alice Sara Ott plays Choral Director Simon Halsey, for the final re-designed by original developers Sennep a dazzling, explosive excerpt from Liszt’s movement of the . and can now be viewed on smartphones and Totentanz, and shows us her talent for tablets. Watch the Orchestra’s performances solving a Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute – Tonight we recognise the vital contribution in exquisite detail, choose between multiple part of her warm-up routine before a concert. made by our Patrons, many of whom join us in camera angles, and learn more about the the audience. Patrons share each new step Orchestra and the music at play.lso.co.uk. THE LSO & ELGAR’S CELLO CONCERTO in our work and become close members of Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert. our family of supporters. As the LSO begins DESIGN TEAM FOR CENTRE FOR MUSIC 98 years ago, in October 1919, the Orchestra We are delighted to welcome conductor an exciting new era under Sir , performed the world premiere of one of the Sir Antonio Pappano to realise a programme the generosity and passion of our Patrons The Barbican, LSO and Guildhall School, most popular works in the repertoire: Elgar’s devoted to the dramatic music of Liszt – an help us to go even further in our ambitions backed by the City of London Corporation, Cello Concerto. It may be popular now, but idea he has been developing for some time. for world-class music-making. I thank each have announced that design studio Diller that wasn’t always the case … Read the full of our Patrons for their important support. Scofidio + Renfro, in collaboration with story and view photos and programmes from The concert explores the different architecture firm Sheppard Robson, have been the LSO Archive on our blog. dimensions of Liszt’s musical imagination: I hope you enjoy the concert and will join us appointed to develop a concept design for a artistic inspirations in a recent orchestration again soon. On 3 December, the first Sunday new Centre for Music in the City of London. Read our blog, watch videos and more of his work for piano Sposalizio, his musical of Advent, our combined Choirs and Brass • youtube.com/lso re-telling of Goethe’s powerful drama Faust, Ensemble, led by Simon Halsey, will give our 2018 PANUFNIK COMPOSERS SCHEME • lso.co.uk/blog and Totentanz, a characteristically virtuosic annual Choral Christmas concert, featuring work for his own instrument, the piano. festive music and traditional carols. Applications for the 2018 Panufnik Composers Scheme are open until For Totenanz we are joined by soloist 13 December, offering six composers Alice Sara Ott, who played Liszt in her first the chance to work with the Orchestra appearance with the LSO in 2010, when and composition director . she stepped in at short notice to deliver a highly acclaimed performance. Since then Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Read our news online she has also given a number of BBC Radio 3 Managing Director • lso.co.uk/news Lunchtime Concerts at LSO St Luke’s, and

2 Welcome 26 November 2017 Tonight’s Concert / introduction by Malcolm Hayes Coming Up

he greatest composer-pianist PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Thursday 7 December 2017 7.30pm Thursday 11 January 2018 7.30pm who ever lived? was Barbican Hall Barbican Hall certainly one of them. In his Malcolm Hayes is a composer, writer teenage years he was already famous across and music journalist, whose books Mozart No 2 Schubert Symphony No 8, ‘Unfinished’ Europe as a pianist of mesmerising artistry include a biography of Liszt (Naxos) and Mozart Violin Concerto No 3 Mahler Rückert-Lieder and virtuosity. It took longer for Liszt’s The Selected Letters of Tchaikovsky Symphony No 6, ‘Pathétique’ Handel Three Arias reputation as a composer to match this – (Faber). His BBC-commissioned Violin Rameau Les Boréades – Suite not least because his years of touring as a Concerto was premiered at in 2016. Nikolaj Znaider violin/conductor concert pianist (from Ireland to Istanbul, Sir Simon Rattle conductor literally), along with passionate romantic Recommended by Classic FM Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano interludes (one serious, others less so), left him short of time to get the music in 6pm Barbican Hall his head written down. This was especially LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists true of his major orchestral works, including Free pre-concert recital the two we hear this evening.

Liszt had been thinking about Totentanz Wednesday 13 December 2017 7.30pm (Dance of Death) and the Faust Symphony Sunday 17 December 2017 7pm while still in his 20s. It was only when he Barbican Hall stopped touring and settled in Weimar, with an orchestra conveniently to hand, Strauss Metamorphosen that each work reached its final shape. Mahler Das Lied von der Erde Tonight’s programme opens with Sposalizio, one of Liszt’s loveliest piano pieces, here Sir Simon Rattle conductor played in an orchestral arrangement by Simon O’Neill tenor Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino. Christian Gerhaher Totentanz, with Alice Sara Ott taking on its barnstorming solo piano part, presents the 13 Dec 6pm Barbican Hall Liszt phenomenon at its wildest. And the LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists lso.co.uk/whatson four-movement Faust Symphony is today Free pre-concert recital 020 7638 8891 regarded as one of the supreme orchestral achievements of the 19th century.

Tonight’s Concert 3 Franz Liszt Sposalizio S161 No 1 1838–39 rev 1849, orch Salvatore Sciarrino 2015 / note by Malcolm Hayes

n 1835 Liszt had eloped from Paris until a decade later that Sposalizio appeared instantly capturing the mood of innocence • LO SPOSALIZIO DELLA VERGINE to Switzerland with Countess in print, as the opening item in a second, and loveliness that Liszt picked up on in Marie d’Agoult, who was seven Italian volume of Années de pèlerinage. Raphael’s painting. After an early climax years older than him, and married with a Liszt would often revise his earlier music comes a second, quietly radiant theme (solo young daughter. Marie was already pregnant extensively for publication, depending on , accompanied by strings, low flutes with her and Liszt’s first child and the what its new context in a collection required. and harp), combining with the music of the unconventional couple needed to be out of But the final version ofSposalizio remains opening to build towards an outpouring of reach, in legal terms, of her first husband. close to the original: Liszt must have sensed ecstatic adoration. Eventually this calms, The move opened up artistic possibilities also. that the freshness of his response to with descending woodwind arabesques With the Romantic age well under way, Raphael’s painting held up beautifully, leading to a serene conclusion. • the Swiss pastoral scene and mountain and needed only minor reworking. landscapes were ‘good copy’ for writers and artists, and supplied Liszt with the material The process of arranging this music for for what later became the first volume of his orchestra – as Italian composer Salvatore piano cycle Années de pèlerinage (Years of Sciarrino • has, in the version we hear Pilgrimage), subtitled ‘Suisse’ (Switzerland). this evening – raises intriguing issues. Should the arrangement process use Two years later Liszt and Marie moved to Italy, only the style, and the likely choice of staying on the shores of Lake Como. Milan instruments, of that period? Sciarrino has was only 35 miles away; and during one of taken a different approach, equally valid their visits there, they saw the painting Lo from a present-day perspective. We hear sposalizio della Vergine • (The Marriage of the the original piano work through a lens of Virgin Mary) by Raphael of Urbino (1483–1520), sophisticated, modernist orchestration, with • SALVATORE SCIARRINO which hangs in the city’s Brera Gallery. percussion instruments (including bells and glockenspiel) deployed more extensively Salvatore Sciarrino (b 1947) is an Italian Liszt was a supreme improviser, able to sit than would have happened in Liszt’s time. composer. He has composed in almost every down at the piano and create a more or less musical genre, writing works for a number fully-fledged work on the spot, which would The music grows from the two ideas of leading , opera houses and then be written down with the same kind of heard at the very beginning – a five-note, festivals, including Teatro alla Scala, Teatro instant fluency. His musical response to the descending fragment of melody (here played La Fenice di Venezia, La Monnaie, Frankfurt stylised grace of Raphael’s painting almost by piccolo and ), answered by Opera and Suntory Hall, Tokyo, and his certainly began life like that; but it was not an upwards-curling figure (on muted horns), discography encompasses over 100 recordings.

4 Programme Notes 26 November 2017 Franz Liszt Totentanz S126 1839–59 rev 1864 / note by Malcolm Hayes

Alice Sara Ott piano In 1839 Liszt drafted some early ideas for the Totentanz begins with sounds so startling • THE DANCE OF DEATH work for piano and orchestra that eventually that they could almost have been written 1 Variation I: Allegro moderato became Totentanz. But it was only in 1859, down by an avant-garde composer a hundred 2 Variation II: (L’istesso tempo) – towards the end of his time in Weimar, that years later. Accompanied by thudding chords Un poco animato the music reached its more or less final state, in the piano’s bass register, horns balefully 3 Variation III: Molto vivace and it seems that Liszt made some further hurl out the ‘’, to be answered by 4 Variation IV (canonique): Lento – Presto revisions before the music’s first performance the piano’s wild cadenza-like flourish. 5 Variation V: Vivace: Fugato – Cadenza and publication in 1865. The result was an The cascading variation sequence that follows 6 Variation VI: Sempre Allegro ultra-concentrated single-movement design was grouped by Liszt into six sections, (ma non troppo) – Un poco meno Allegro – based on the ‘Dies irae’ plainchant, from the as above: while the first three are very short, Cadenza – Presto – Allegro animato Requiem Mass for the Dead. the last three are longer, each amounting to a self-contained variation-group in itself. n 1838, during another of their This theme has haunted other composers culture-hunting trips across Italy, also. In 1830 Liszt had been among the Signposts along the way include Variation II, Liszt and Marie d’Agoult visited astonished Parisian audience at the first which has the pianist’s right hand hurtling . In the city’s Camposanto cemetery, performance of Berlioz’s Symphonie up and down the keyboard in sweeping Liszt was impressed by the 14th-century fantastique, whose ‘Witches Sabbath’ finale glissando figures. Variation IV seems to fresco Il trionfo della morte (The Triumph quotes the ‘Dies irae’. And for Rachmaninov sidestep suddenly into a calmer, Bach-like of Death); this depicts an angel of death the melody amounted to fixation, occurring world, with unaccompanied piano presenting wielding a scythe at her earthly victims, with in several works including his Rhapsody the theme in overlapping fugato-like entries; assorted angels and devils converging on on a Theme of Paganini. The dark side of later there are gleaming upper-register sounds One of Hans Holbein’s 40 woodcuts the bodies and fighting among each other Liszt’s imagination brooded on the same above deep bell-like bass notes. Variation V collectively titled Totentanz. over the newly dead souls. Liszt drew a idea. His obsessive playing of the ‘Dies irae’ presents a faster fugato section, plus yet parallel between this disturbing vision and once kept his Parisian neighbours awake another solo cadenza; and the final Variation a series of woodcuts he also knew, all night: among them was an aristocratic VI explores a new theme, different from the Interval – 20 minutes entitled Totentanz (Dance of Death), by the countess, who later wrote in her memoirs ‘Dies irae’ but fitting the words of its text. There are bars on all levels of the German artist Hans Holbein the Younger • that all the tenants ‘joined together to Another glissando barrage from the piano Concert Hall; ice cream can be bought (1497–1543). In these an army of skeletal ask for his expulsion. We would have got leads into a final peroration for orchestra: at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. figures avenges the sins of humanity by it, but he didn’t put us to the trouble: here Liszt left the piano part blank, allowing Visit the Barbican Shop on Level -1 and see propelling the living to their inevitable end. he left of his own accord’. the soloist to join in with an improvised our new range of Gifts and Accessories. conclusion – as Alice Sara Ott will tonight. •

Programme Notes 5 Franz Liszt A Faust Symphony S108 1857 / note by Malcolm Hayes

1 Faust: Lento assai – Allegro impetuoso – his soul. The legend had already generated Although Liszt was brought up in Liszt was aware that he was not a composer Allegro agitato ed appassionato assai multiple versions of itself when the a German-speaking family and read with the narrative-dramatic (ie operatic) 2 Gretchen: Andante soave presiding genius of the German Romantic voraciously during his teenage years in Paris, leanings of Berlioz or Wagner. Instead he 3 Mephistopheles: Allegro vivace, ironico – movement, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe •, he did not at that stage know Goethe’s poem. approached Goethe’s masterwork from a 4 Apotheosis: Andante mistico gave it a lifetime’s attention. In September 1830, he was among the different angle: each of his symphony’s astonished audience at the first performance first three movements is a conceptual Brenden Gunnell tenor Goethe chose to incorporate elements of of Berlioz’s . portrait of the three main characters. In Gentlemen of the London Symphony Chorus Christian tradition into his verse-play, with its The two composers began a lifelong friendship, the opening movement’s much-expanded initial challenge of God by Mephistopheles, and Berlioz introduced his young colleague sonata form, lasting nearly 30 minutes, the he central myths of European and Faust’s eventual redemption. Essentially, to Faust Part I (in Gérard de Nerval’s French multiple layers of Faust’s restless nature art can usually be traced back however, the story is about the corruption of translation). Enthralled, Liszt sketched out are depicted with an equally large number to ancient Egypt and Greece, to a secular, rational mind which, as it approaches some ideas first for an opera, then a symphony. of themes. The first, played by muted cellos distant Nordic times, or to the post-Roman, the boundaries of scientific knowledge, begins to launch the slow introduction, is a melodic pre-Saxon world of King Arthur. The Faust to dread the psychological void that appears Liszt’s subsequent years as a touring outline of four augmented triads, with no legend is a much more recent phenomenon – to lie beyond. Goethe’s Faust is a brilliant virtuoso put the idea on hold, until he sense of underlying key – a remarkable way a product of German-speaking central philosopher-thinker, whose disillusionment settled in Weimar (Goethe’s adopted town) of conveying both Faust’s psychological Europe in the early 16th century. Johann with his intellectual achievements leads him to take up the post of ‘Kapellmeister in rootlessness, and his absorption in Faustus was a self-styled magus – part to be waylaid by Mephistopheles’ offer of a Extraordinary’. He brooded on his Faust arcane magic. The solo ’s descending astrologer, part magician-illusionist – whose world of sensual and sexual satisfaction. project for several more years. Then in arabesque suggests inner questioning and dubious travelling career in and around the August 1854, the novelist George Eliot doubt; violins furiously launch the main south-east German region of Thuringia In the first part of Goethe’s poem, Faust is arrived in Weimar with her partner George Allegro, following this with an agitated, somehow secured him the award of a introduced to the beautiful and trusting Henry Lewes, who was researching a descending chromatic figure; a warmer doctorate by Heidelberg University in 1509. Gretchen, whom he seduces, impregnates, Goethe biography. Liszt’s response to their theme, answered by a solo viola, then abandons to destitution, madness and friendship and conversation was spectacular: speaks of romantic yearnings. Then the full The celebrated ‘Dr Faustus’ liked to death. The second part finds the satiated within just two months he had completed brass, in heroic E major, proclaim the sense proclaim that his apparently supernatural and remorseful hero slowly redeeming and orchestrated the first three movements of upward-striving aspiration which will powers came from consorting with the himself by the application of his powers of his Faust Symphony. Dedicating the new eventually bring about Faust’s redemption – Devil. Posthumous myth-making soon to the cause of human good; as his death work to Berlioz, he added the finale, with its but not yet, as the torrential development that transformed this into the idea of a contract approaches, Gretchen’s soul intercedes for tenor soloist and male-voice choir, for the propels the rest of the movement concludes with the Devil’s agent, Mephistopheles, who him, thwarting Mephistopheles’ claim, and first performance three years later. with a quietly unanswered question. offers Faust the gratification of his earthly angels carry Faust aloft to a higher world. desires in return for Hell’s ultimate claim on

6 Programme Notes 26 November 2017 Gretchen’s movement, like Gretchen herself, The tenor soloist weaves a new version of • FINALE – TEXTS • JOHANN WOLFGANG VON GOETHE is Faust’s polar opposite in its sweet-natured Gretchen’s theme into this transfigured winsomeness. Her main theme, for solo oboe musical world, as Faust’s ascending and Alles Vergängliche ist nur ein Gleichnis, accompanied by solo viola, is extended by redeemed soul is hymned in a crowning das Unzulängliche, hier wird’s Ereignis, woodwind and strings; three then peroration, complete with organ. • das Unbeschreibliche, hier wird es getan, alternate with divided strings to suggest the das Ewigweibliche zieht uns hinan. moment in Goethe’s play where she plucks the petals off a flower, while saying, ‘He loves All transitory things are but a likeness; me, he loves me not’. Faust’s approach is what is insufficient here comes to pass; signalled by his ‘yearning’ themes; Gretchen’s what is unwritten here is accomplished; response, at first hesitant and uneasy, then the eternal feminine draws us upwards. warmly accepting, leads towards a reprise of her main idea on solo strings.

Mephistopheles’ movement is a diabolic Scherzo. In a Lisztian master-stroke, this introduces no new ideas of its own, since Mephistopheles signifies nihilism itself: Johann Wolfgang von Goethe was a poet, instead, each of his tumultuous sequence playwright and scientist. Following the of themes is a distortion of those that success of his first novel, The Sorrows of portray Faust. The increasingly frenetic Young Werther (1774), he has remained orgy of virtuosity is interrupted for a an important figure in German and world moment by Gretchen’s music, unaltered literature. He is most widely known as the and uncorrupted. Then, at Mephistopheles’ author of the tragedy Faust, published in apparently supreme moment of triumph, two parts in 1808 and 1832. Gretchen’s spirit proves the stronger, and the symphony moves without a break into its finale – a choral setting, opening and closing in the purest C major, of the ‘Chorus mysticus’ that concludes Faust Part II.

Programme Notes 7 Franz Liszt in Profile 1811–86

ranciscus Liszt – named after the second wife). When the river Danube flooded forms in Harmonies poétiques et religieuses monastic order which his father in 1838, Liszt’s fundraising concert awoke (1833–52). Besides the Sonata in B minor Adam had once joined – was born in him a proud awareness of his Hungarian (1853), Liszt also completed two Piano in Raiding, eastern Austria, where his father roots. The following years of concert touring Concertos (1832–57); his was a manager on the Eszterházy estates, thrilled audiences from Ireland to Ukraine, (1856) and Faust Symphony (1854–57); a and had been a cellist in the palace orchestra with Liszt performing a formidable repertory Missa solemnis for the new cathedral of when Haydn was Kapellmeister. Adam took ranging from Handel through to Chopin Esztergom (Gran) in 1855; and an uneven, his amazingly gifted young son first to besides his own music. but powerfully influential set of twelve Vienna to study with Czerny (piano) and (1841–58). Salieri (composition), then to Paris. Aged From 1847 Liszt rarely played in public. 16 when his father died, Liszt was already Settling in Weimar with the Ukrainian In 1861 Liszt followed Princess Carolyne famous as a pianist of mesmerising (and married) Princess Carolyne Sayn- to Rome, where Vatican-related intrigues virtuosity and musicianship. Wittgenstein, he composed, taught piano concerning the annulment of her Catholic marriage destroyed her and Liszt’s own — marriage plans. Staying on in the city, ‘My sole ambition as a composer is to hurl my javelin Liszt took minor Catholic orders and completed two large-scale oratorios, into the infinite space of the future.’ St Elisabeth (1857–62) and Christus Franz Liszt (1855–68). From 1869 Abbé Liszt divided — his life between Rome, Weimar and Budapest, completing perhaps his greatest piano masterpiece, a third book of Années The 1830 Paris revolution established Liszt’s pupils, and conducted and enlarged the de pèlerinage (1877–82), and exploring an republican political sympathies. Further Weimar orchestra; major events were the astonishing, pre-modernist soundworld radical influences were the music of Berlioz, premiere of Wagner’s opera Lohengrin in his last piano and choral works. • Paganini’s violin-playing, and friendship (1850) and two Berlioz festivals. Revisions of with the maverick Catholic Abbé Lamennais. piano music from the Swiss and Italian years A relationship with the older (and married) produced supreme Romantic masterworks Countess Marie d’Agoult necessitated the in Études d’exécution transcendante couple’s elopement to Switzerland and Italy, (1837–51) and the first two books ofAnnées where their three children were born (their de pèlerinage (1835–54), and a remarkable daughter Cosima was to become Wagner’s fusion of sacred inspiration and secular

8 Composer Profile 26 November 2017 Sir Antonio Pappano conductor

cclaimed for his charismatic generating acclaim in productions including Classics) since 1995, and his discography leadership and inspirational Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos, Berg’s Wozzeck, features numerous operas, including performances in both symphonic Verdi’s Falstaff and Aida, Puccini’s La bohème, Verdi’s Don Carlo and Il trovatore, Puccini’s and operatic repertoire, Sir Antonio Pappano Mozart’s Don Giovanni, and Shostakovich’s La rondine, La bohème, Il trittico, Tosca and has been Music Director of Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District. In Madame Butterfly, Rossini’s William Tell, House Covent Garden since 2002, and Music the 2017/18 season and beyond he conducts and Massenet’s Werther and Manon. Director of the Orchestra dell’Accademia new productions of La bohème and Rossini’s His discography includes many recordings Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome since Semiramide, as well as revivals of Verdi’s with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa 2005. He began as a pianist, repetiteur and Macbeth, Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of the Cecilia and other ensembles including the assistant conductor at many of the most Mtsensk District, and Wagner’s Ring Cycle. LSO and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, important opera houses of Europe and North and the orchestras of the Royal Opera House America. He was appointed Music Director of Pappano has appeared as a guest conductor and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie. the Norwegian National Opera and Ballet in with many of the world’s most prestigious 1990, and from 1992 to 2002 served as Music orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna, New Antonio Pappano was born in London to Director of La Monnaie in Brussels. From 1997 York and Munich Philharmonic Orchestras, Italian parents, and moved with his family to 1999 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the to the US at the age of thirteen. His awards the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, and honours include Gramophone’s Artist the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras of the Year in 2000, the 2003 Olivier Award Pappano made his debut at the Vienna and the Orchestre de Paris. He maintains for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, the State Opera in 1993, replacing Christoph von a strong relationship with the London 2004 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Dohnànyi in a new production of Wagner’s Symphony Orchestra, the LSO Award, and the Bruno Walter prize from the Siegfried. His debut at the Metropolitan annually at the Barbican and regularly on Académie du Disque Lyrique in Paris. In 2012 Opera in New York followed in 1997 with a tour. Recent highlights include debuts with he was awarded the Cavaliere di Gran Croce new production of Tchaikovsky’s Eugene the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and the of the Republic of Italy, and knighted for Onegin, and in 1999 he conducted a new London Philharmonic at the Aldeburgh his services to music in the UK. In 2015 he production of Wagner’s Lohengrin at the Festival, performances at the BBC Proms was named the 100th recipient of the Royal Bayreuth Festival. Highlights of recent and Bucharest Festival with the Accademia Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal. He has seasons include his operatic debut at the Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, and his debut also developed a notable career as a speaker Salzburg Festival with Verdi’s Don Carlo with the Verbier Festival Orchestra. and presenter, and has fronted several BBC and at the Teatro alla Scala with Berlioz’s Television documentaries including Opera The Trojans. His repertoire at the Royal Pappano has been an exclusive recording Italia, Pappano’s Essential Ring Cycle and Opera House has been wide-ranging, artist for Warner Classics (formerly EMI Pappano’s Classical Voices. •

Artist Biographies 9 Alice Sara Ott piano

s one of the world’s most in-demand Myung-Whun Chung, Hannu Lintu and soloists, German-Japanese pianist Robin Ticciati. She has also worked with Alice Sara Ott continues to develop ensembles including the Los Angeles and reach new audiences every season. She Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago Symphony regularly works with the world’s leading Orchestra, Washington National Symphony conductors and orchestras, and performs on Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra the world’s most hallowed stages. She also and Vienna Symphony Orchestra. expresses her diverse creativity through a number of design and brand partnerships. The pianist’s 2017/18 season began at home in Germany with the Berlin Radio Symphony In 2016/17 Alice continued her long, Orchestra, followed by a tour with the Czech established relationship with Deutsche Philharmonic Orchestra for Beethoven’s Grammophon – for whom she has been an No 5 and concerts in the exclusive recording artist for almost ten United States with the Cincinnati Symphony years – with the release of her eighth album, Orchestra, conducted by Paavo Järvi. Wonderland. Recorded with the Bavarian She will soon embark on a tour to China Radio Symphony Orchestra and Esa-Pekka before returning to Europe in the New Year. Salonen, the album features repertoire by In 2018 Alice will give concerts with the and explores the world of magic WDR Symphony Orchestra Köln, Orchestre and folklore with the Norwegian composer’s National de France, Dresden Philharmonic virtuosic Piano Concerto, Lyric Pieces and and Düsseldorfer Symphoniker. Peer Gynt suite. The 2016/17 season also saw Alice take the project on tour to Japan, Alice’s creative flair has led to her being Taiwan and Europe. personally requested to design a signature line of high-end leather bags, featuring her Alice has worked with conductors at own hand-drawn designs, including origami the highest level including Lorin Maazel, elements inspired by her Japanese heritage. Gustavo Dudamel, Charles Dutoit, Alice’s gift for illustration also extends to Pablo Heras-Casado, Paavo Järvi, Neeme Järvi, smartphones, with her designs for a range Gianandrea Noseda, Andrés Orozco-Estrada, of messaging stickers reaching millions of Yuri Temirkanov, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Sakari users worldwide. • Oramo, Osmo Vänskä, ,

10 Artist Biographies 26 November 2017 Brenden Gunnell tenor

merican-born heldentenor Munich State Opera, a role he also sang for Past engagements include the title role Brenden Patrick Gunnell the Cologne Opera. For the Teatro dell’Opera in Britten’s Peter Grimes at the Saarbrücken received his diploma from di Roma he enjoyed success as the Painter State Theatre, Jimmy Mahoney in Kurt Weill’s the Curtis Institute of Music in 2006. and Negro in William Kentridge’s production Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny at of Berg’s . the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and the title Most recently he debuted the title role in role in Mozart’s Idomeneo at the Teatro La ’s The Judas Passion with Following his recent success in Elgar’s Fenice. He made his Glyndebourne Festival the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment The Dream of Gerontius (a central work of debut in 2015 in Mozart’s Die Entführung in London and the Philharmonia Baroque Brenden’s repertoire) with the Hamburger aus dem Serail. Orchestra in San Francisco (his US debut), Symphoniker for the Rheingau Festival, both conducted by Nicholas MacGegan. he was invited to perform the role at King’s Since 2012 he has been a student of the Brenden recently returned to the RAI Radio College, Cambridge with Stephen Cleobury, American heldentenor Robert Gambill. • Symphony Orchestra in Turin to sing Mahler’s the BBC Concert Orchestra and Philharmonia Das klagende Lied with James Conlon, as well Chorus on Good Friday in March 2018. as Mendelssohn’s St Paul at the Tonhalle Orchester, Zurich. In recital, he recently performed Schubert’s Winterreise for the Marigny Opera House Future engagements include roles in three in New Orleans, Louisiana. In February of Wagner’s operas. He will perform Erik in 2018 he will give a recital at the Hugo The Flying Dutchman at the Teatro Petruzzelli Wolf Academy, Stuttgart. in Bari; Loge in Das Rheingold in Stephen Langridge’s new Ring cycle for the Göteborg Brenden’s discography includes three Opera; and David in Die Meistersinger volumes of songs for piano and voice by von Nürnberg at the National Centre for accompanied by Malcolm Performing Arts in Beijing. He will also Martineau, which were release on the Two perform Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde Pianists record label. He has also recorded and Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the role of Kappelmeister Stroh in Strauss’ the Hamburger Symphoniker. Intermezzo for the CPO label. Forthcoming recordings include The Judas Passion with He recently made his debut as Hüon de Philharmonie Baroque, and a new recording Bordeaux in a new production of Weber’s of Mahler’s Symphony No 8 with the Oberon at the Summer Festival of the Dortmund Philharmonic and Gabriel Feltz.

Artist Biographies 11 Simon Halsey chorus director

imon Halsey holds positions across three honorary doctorates from universities Born in London, Simon Halsey sang in the the UK and Europe as Choral Director in the UK, and in 2011 Schott Music published choirs of New College, Oxford, and of King’s of the London Symphony Orchestra his book and DVD on choral conducting, College, Cambridge, and studied conducting and Chorus; Chorus Director of the City of Chorleitung: Vom Konzept zum Konzert. at the in London. In Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus; 1987, he founded the City of Birmingham Artistic Director of Orfeó Català Choirs Halsey has worked on nearly 80 recording Touring Opera with Graham Vick. He was and Artistic Adviser of Palau de la Música, projects, many of which have won major Chief Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Barcelona; Artistic Director of Berliner awards, including the Gramophone Award, Choir from 1997 to 2008 and Principal Philharmoniker Youth Choral Programme; Diapason d’Or, Echo Klassik, and three Conductor of the Northern ’s Choral Director of the BBC Proms Youth Choir; Artistic Grammy Awards with the Rundfunkchor Programme from 2004 to 2012. From 2001 Advisor of Schleswig-Holstein Musik Festival Berlin. He was made Commander of the to 2015 he led the Rundfunkchor Berlin (of Choir; Conductor Laureate of Rundfunkchor British Empire in 2015, was awarded which he is now Conductor Laureate); under Berlin; and Professor and Director of Choral The Queen’s Medal for Music in 2014, and his leadership the chorus gained a reputation Activities at the University of Birmingham. received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of internationally as one of the finest professional Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany choral ensembles. Halsey also initiated Simon Halsey occupies a unique position in 2011 in recognition of his outstanding innovative projects in unconventional in . He is the trusted advisor contribution to choral music in Germany. venues and interdisciplinary formats. • on choral singing to the world’s greatest conductors, orchestras and choruses, Since becoming Choral Director of and also an inspirational teacher and the London Symphony Orchestra and ambassador for choral singing to amateurs Chorus in 2012, Halsey has been credited of every age, ability and background. Making with bringing about a ‘spectacular singing a central part of the world-class transformation’ (Evening Standard) of the institutions with which he is associated, he LSC. Highlights with the LSO in 2017/18 has been instrumental in changing the level include Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder at the BBC of symphonic singing across Europe. Proms with Sir Simon Rattle and Halsey’s CBSO and Orfeó Català choruses; Mahler’s He is also a highly respected teacher and Symphony No 2 with Semyon Bychkov; academic, nurturing the next generation of and performances of Berlioz and Bernstein choral conductors on his post-graduate course with Rattle in his inaugural year as in Birmingham and through masterclasses Music Director of the LSO. at Princeton, Yale and elsewhere. He holds

12 Artist Biographies 26 November 2017 THE 2017/18 SEASON CONTINUES …

21 January 2018 with Edgar Moreau cello

25 January 2018 with Cédric Tiberghien piano

25 March 2018 with Renaud Capuçon violin

His influences, his greatest orchestral works, and the music he inspired

conducted by François-Xavier Roth lso.co.uk/debussy 020 7638 8891 London Symphony Chorus on stage

President Sir won a Gramophone award and Sir Simon Rattle om cbe the recording of the Grande Messe des Morts by Berlioz with the LSO conducted by Sir Colin President Emeritus Davis won an International Music Award in André Previn kbe the Choral Works category. In June 2015 the recording of Sir ’ Tenth Vice President Symphony, commissioned by the LSO Michael Tilson Thomas and recorded by the LSO and the LSC with Sir Antonio Pappano, won a prestigious South Patrons Bank Sky Arts award in the Classical category. Simon Russell Beale cbe Howard Goodall cbe The 2016/17 season included performances of Verdi’s Requiem with Gianandrea Noseda Chorus Director he London Symphony Chorus was Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and in the Barbican and at the Lincoln Center in Simon Halsey cbe formed in 1966 to complement the European Union Youth Orchestra. New York, a semi-staging of Ligeti’s Le grand the work of the London Symphony The Chorus has toured extensively throughout macabre with Sir Simon Rattle and Peter Associate Director Orchestra and in 2016 celebrated its 50th Europe and has also visited North America, Sellars, and Brahms’ Requiem with Fabio Luisi. Matthew Hamilton anniversary. The partnership between the Israel, Australia and South East Asia. The LSC also collaborated with the CBSO LSC and LSO has continued to develop and was and Orfeó Català choruses for Schoenberg’s Chorus Accompanist strengthened in 2012 with the appointment Much of the LSC repertoire has been captured Gurrelieder at the BBC Proms with the Benjamin Frost of Simon Halsey as joint Chorus Director in its large catalogue of recordings featuring London Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon of the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO. renowned conductors and soloists, which Rattle in August. Highlights of 2017/18 Chairman It now plays a major role in furthering the have won nine awards, including five Grammys. include Bernstein’s Wonderful Town with Owen Hanmer vision of the LSO Sing initiative. Recent releases include Britten’s War Requiem Sir Simon Rattle and Mahler’s Symphony with Gianandrea Noseda and Mahler’s No 2 with Semyon Bychkov. Concert Manager The LSC has also partnered many other Nos 2, 3 and 8 with Valery Gergiev. Robert Garbolinski major orchestras and has performed The Seasons by Haydn, Belshazzar’s Feast by The LSC is always interested in recruiting nationally and internationally with the Walton, Otello by Verdi, and the world premiere new members, welcoming applications LSO Choral Projects Manager Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, of the St John Passion by James MacMillan from singers of all backgrounds. Interested Andra East and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. were all under the baton of the late singers are welcome to attend rehearsals Championing the musicians of tomorrow, Sir . The recent recording of before arranging an audition. For further it has also worked with both the National Götterdämmerung with the Hallé under information, visit lsc.org.uk. •

14 London Symphony Chorus 26 November 2017 Thu 18 Jan Tenors Basses Robin Thurston Jorge Aguilar Roger Blitz Evan Troendle plays the Liszt Paul Allatt * Chris Bourne Liam Velez Jack Apperley Andy Chan Jez Wareing Piano Sonata Erik Azzopardi Steve Chevis Tyler Wert Abduraimov performs Liszt’s B minor Paul Beecham Matthew Clarke masterpiece alongside Wagner’s Raymond Brien Giles Clayton Isolde’s Liebestod and pieces from Oliver Burrows Damian Day * denotes LSC Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. John Farrington Joe Dodd council member Book now at Matthew Fernando Ian Fletcher barbican.org.uk/classical Simon Goldman Robert Garbolinski * Michael Harman John Graham Anthony Madonna Bryan Hammersley John Marks Owen Hanmer * Alastair Mathews J-C Higgins * Tom McNeill Nathan Homan Daniel Owers Anthony Howick Davide Prezzi Peter Kellett Chris Riley Andy Langley Peter Sedgwick George Marshall Chris Straw Hugh McLeod Richard Street * Ron Packowitz Malcolm Taylor Jamie Patrick Simon Wales Alan Rochford James Warbis Rod Stevens Robert Ward * Richard Tannenbaum Paul Williams-Burton Gordon Thomson Image: Behzod Abduraimov © Nissor Abdourazakov

London Symphony Chorus 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns LSO String Experience Scheme Carmine Lauri Thomas Norris Rebecca Gilliver Adam Walker Katy Woolley Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Sarah Quinn Alastair Blayden Rebecca Larsen Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Miya Väisänen Jennifer Brown Alexander Edmundson Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Lennox Mackenzie Matthew Gardner Noel Bradshaw Piccolo Kathryn Saunders Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Clare Duckworth Naoko Keatley Eve-Marie Caravassilis Sharon Williams Fabian van de Geest David Jackson work experience by playing in rehearsals Nigel Broadbent Belinda McFarlane Daniel Gardner Sam Walton and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Ginette Decuyper Iwona Muszynska Hilary Jones are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Gerald Gregory Paul Robson Morwenna Del Mar Bobby Cheng Philip Cobb Harp (additional to LSO members) and receive Maxine Kwok-Adams Dmitry Khakhamov Victoria Harrild Rosie Jenkins Gerald Ruddock Bryn Lewis fees for their work in line with LSO section Claire Parfitt Oriana Kriszten Deborah Tolksdorf Niall Keatley players. The Scheme is supported by Laurent Quenelle Gordon MacKay Organ The Polonsky Foundation, Lord and Lady Harriet Rayfield Hazel Mulligan Double Basses Christine Pendrill Richard Pearce Lurgan Trust, Barbara Whatmore Charitable Colin Renwick Greta Mutlu Colin Paris Dudley Bright Trust and The Thistle Trust. Sylvain Vasseur Philip Nolte Patrick Laurence Clarinets James Maynard Eleanor Fagg Matthew Gibson Chris Richards Alix Lagasse Violas Thomas Goodman Chi-Yu Mo Bass Helen Paterson Edward Vanderspar Jani Pensola Paul Milner Helena Smart Gillianne Haddow Emre Ersahin Bass Clarinet Malcolm Johnston Katy Furmanski Jernej Albreht Anna Bastow Jeremy Watt David Kendall Lander Echevarria Editor Julia O’Riordan Rachel Gough Edward Appleyard | [email protected] Robert Turner Joost Bosdijk Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Jonathan Welch Editorial Photography Cameron Campbell Ranald Mackechnie, Musacchio & Ianniello – Fiona Dalgliesh licensed to EMI Classics, Jonas Becker Cynthia Perrin Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Shiry Rashkovsky Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937

Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.

16 The Orchestra 26 November 2017