London Symphony Orchestra Living Music

Sunday 25 January 2015 7.30pm Barbican Hall

MAHLER’S FOURTH SYMPHONY

Toshio Hosokawa Blossoming II Ravel Concerto in G major INTERVAL London’s Symphony Orchestra Mahler Symphony No 4 conductor Simon Trpcˇeski piano mezzo-soprano

Concert finishes approx 9.50pm

Broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 2 Welcome 25 January 2015

Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief

Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert at the Barbican. 2015/16 SEASON LAUNCH Following performances in Vienna and Linz, Robin Ticciati and the Orchestra bring the programme We’re delighted to announce details of a brand back to London, beginning with a work by Japanese new season of LSO concerts, taking place between Toshio Hosokawa, followed by Ravel’s September 2015 and June 2016. The concerts jazz-inspired Piano Concerto and Mahler’s Fourth are now available to browse on lso.co.uk; online Symphony. Robin Ticciati has been a regular guest booking will open on 4 February, with telephone on the podium since his LSO debut in 2010, and this booking available from 18 February. LSO Friends get performance and tour mark a welcome return. priority booking, along with a range of other benefits; find out more at lso.co.uk/lsofriends. The Orchestra is also joined on stage this evening by two soloists: pianist Simon Trpcˇeski and mezzo- lso.co.uk/201516season soprano Karen Cargill. Both artists are long-standing friends of the LSO and last appeared in the 2013/14 season, with Karen Cargill performing with us again CONTESSA YOKO CESCHINA (1932–2015) in June this year in Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with conductor . The LSO was greatly saddened to learn of the death over the weekend of 10/11 January of Contessa I hope you enjoy tonight’s concert, which is also being Yoko Ceschina, a loyal supporter of the Orchestra. broadcast live by our media partner BBC Radio 3, A trained classical harpist, Yoko supported a large whom I would like to thank for their continued support. number of classical music organisations and Following the concert, you will be able to listen back to held close relationships with some of the world’s the performance on BBC iPlayer. leading artists, most notably . Yoko was a wonderful friend of the LSO, offering Next Sunday, 1 February, David Afkham, a previous generous support to the organisation and players. Assistant Conductor of the LSO and winner of the She will be greatly missed, and our deepest 2008 Donatella Flick Conducting Competition, will sympathies are with her friends and family. conduct the Orchestra in a programme that includes works by Beethoven, Brahms and Webern. Do join us then. A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS

The LSO offers great benefits for groups of 10+ including a 20% discount on tickets. Tonight we are delighted to welcome: Mrs E Budd & Friends and Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Merchant Taylors’ School Managing Director lso.co.uk/groups Something for every mood with the London Symphony Orchestra To roll our online dice, visit: lso.co.uk/findmeaconcert

London Symphony Orchestra London’s Music

lso.co.uk/findmeaconcert 4 Programme Notes 25 January 2015

Toshio Hosokawa (b 1955) Blossoming II (2011)

PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER I have composed many works on the theme of I have also given this Blossoming another meaning. TOSHIO HOSOKAWA ‘blossoming’; expressing musically the energy of In a lecture on the theme of ‘The Westernisation of a flower’s blossoming is deeply significant for me. Present-Day Japan’ by the first master of modern I perceive music as having plant-like development Japanese literature, Natsume So¯seki (1867–1916), and growth, and I want to continue composing So¯seki severely criticises the fact that Japan in his SEASON 2014/15: with a different viewpoint from that of European day, on suddenly encountering western civilisation, CONTEMPORARY VOICES , who tend to construct their music accepted it as it was (a superficial blossoming) rather architecturally. Although Blossoming II is a chamber than letting it slowly mature in its own internal world. Thu 23 Apr 7.30pm, Barbican orchestra version of Blossoming for string quartet, Even today, over a hundred years since So¯seki’s Pierre Boulez: it is not an exact of the original work time, we Japanese, rather than reflecting on our 90th Birthday Festival and many parts have been rewritten. own roots and creating our own culture from them, Peter Eötvös conductor maintain an interest only in culture coming from ‘Music is the place where notes outside. We have become obsessed by pursuing with Aftershock and silence meet.’ western civilisation as if, were we not to adopt it, Post-Concert Club Night featuring we would fall behind the times: we have forgotten LSO musicians and Toshio Hosokawa our own point of departure. In creating my own music, LSO Soundhub composers I want to base it firmly in my own musical and cultural A distinctive feature of the Blossoming pieces is roots, and from there let it blossom internally. Fri 5 Jun 10am–1pm & 2–6pm, that at the beginning there is one long, sustained LSO St Luke’s note in the middle register, out of which develops Blossoming II was commissioned by the Edinburgh LSO Discovery: the mother’s body; from which is born a song International Festival and is dedicated to its first Panufnik Composers Workshop (a fragment of melody) – the flower. This sustained performers, the Scottish Chamber Orchestra and François-Xavier Roth conductor note symbolises the surface of a pond; sounds that Robin Ticciati. are lower than the note represent what is under Sun 5 Jul 7.30pm, Barbican the water, while those that are higher portray the Jonathan Dove: world above. The flower grows from the womb of The Monster in the Maze harmony, lying dormant deep beneath the surface, Sir conductor and continues to rise towards it. The inspiration for this series came from a book on Buddhism about the lso.co.uk/contemporary-voices way in which the lotus blossom comes into flower. lso.co.uk Composer Profile 5

Toshio Hosokawa Composer Profile

Toshio Hosokawa, Japan’s pre-eminent living A number of Hosokawa’s large-scale works have composer, constantly explores the boundaries been premiered in the last few years, including between cultures. His distinctive compositions the Matsukaze, staged by in 2011 examine the relationship between western avant- at La Monnaie in Brussels; Singing Garden, inspired garde art and traditional Japanese culture, and are by Vivaldi‘s concertos for recorder; his monodrama influenced by the static structures of the Gagaku The Raven for mezzo-soprano and ensemble, music of the Japanese court. Nature and its inherent premiered in Brussels in 2012; Meditation, dedicated transience also greatly influence his compositions. to the victims of the Tsunami disaster in Fukushima, ‘Transience is beautiful’, says Hosokawa, who uses premiered in 2012; Klage for soprano and orchestra, the Buddhist notion of balance between life and based on a text by Georg Trakl, first performed at the death to describe his musical language: ‘The tone 2013 Salzburg Festival; and the trumpet concerto comes from silence, it lives, it returns to silence’. Im Nebel, premiered in 2013.

Born in in 1955, Toshio Hosokawa moved The 2014/15 season started with the world to Berlin in 1976 to study composition with . premieres of two pieces for orchestra: Aeolus He continued his studies with and Brian for harp and orchestra (Naoko Yoshino and the Ferneyhough. Initially Hosokawa based his music Scottish Chamber Orchestra), followed by Fluss on the western avant garde, but he soon began to for string quartet and orchestra ( explore new musical terrain, composing his first and WDR Symphony Orchestra). Following its world opera Vision of Lear in a style that brought together premiere in Cologne, Fluss was performed at the eastern and western influences to great critical Concertgebouw Bruges, which dedicated a three- acclaim. His second opera Hanjo (2004) is regularly day festival to the works of Hosokawa. programmed by opera houses and festivals. Toshio Hosokawa has received numerous awards Hosokawa made a name for himself at new and prizes. He has been a member of the Academy music festivals in the early 1990s with chamber of Fine Arts Berlin since 2001 and a fellow of the music works such as Landscapes I–V. Following Institute for Advanced Study in Berlin since 2006. the success of his oratorio Voiceless Voice and He is the Artistic Director of the Takefu International his orchestral work Circulating Ocean, which Music Festival and a frequent guest at prominent was premiered by the Vienna Philharmonic at contemporary music festivals, such as the the Salzburg Festival in 2005, his music began to Pacific Music Festival in Sapporo, Japan, Salzburg be performed in concert halls around the world. Biennale, and the MITO Chamber music is still a big part of Hosokawa’s SettembreMusica Festival in and Turin. compositional output; in 2008 he wrote Stunden- In spring 2012 he was Composer-in-Residence Blumen, a quartet with the same instrumentation as at the Tongyeong International Music Festival. Messiaen’s Quartet for the End of Time. Japanese In summer 2012, he began a three-year appointment instruments are utilised in many of his works, often as Artistic Director of the Suntory Hall International combined with traditional European instruments. Program for Music Composition. 6 Programme Notes 25 January 2015

Maurice Ravel (1875–1937) Piano Concerto in G major (1929–31)

1 ALLEGRAMENTE Classical forms. The opening Allegramente is built 2 ADAGIO ASSAI upon a pair of themes, the first announced by a solo 3 PRESTO piccolo after an initial whip-crack and some bitonal murmurings from the piano, the second given to SIMON TRPCˇ ESKI PIANO the horn and punctuated by wood‑block, while the piano constantly tries to subvert the music to its own PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER The two concertos for piano, this one in G major, improvisational ends. Finally, however, the soloist ANDREW CLEMENTS is Chief and the Concerto in D major for the Left Hand, were launches a cadenza based upon part of the second Music Critic for The Guardian. Ravel’s last major scores and evolved in parallel theme, and the movement careers to its close in a His study of the British composer between 1929 and 1931. The work for left hand kind of brassy unity. Mark-Anthony Turnage is published was prompted by a commission from the Austrian by Faber & Faber. pianist Paul Wittgenstein, who had been injured in The finale is even more concise and more brilliant, World War I, but Ravel appears to have begun the grounded in a moto perpetuo for the piano which Concerto in G major simply because he wanted to might have been derived from Saint‑Saëns, but write a work for French pianist Marguerite Long, serves here as the platform for a sequence of who had championed his solo pieces. And perhaps almost surreal musical images, while the orchestra’s it was in meeting the special technical challenges of opening staccato chords function throughout as a the left‑hand concerto with a dark, slightly forbidding kind of returning figure. piece, that he had felt the need to provide it with a light‑hearted, neo‑Classical counterpart. The second movement, though, is the heart of the concerto. Its opening rapt solo for the piano was Certainly, the G major Concerto conveys nothing if based, ‘bar by bar’, Ravel said, upon the Larghetto not a brilliant jeu d’esprit, a beautifully crafted piece, of Mozart’s Clarinet Quintet; but here the effect thoroughly pianistic and immaculately written for the is more akin to an enchanted nocturne, which RAVEL AND JAZZ soloist, which nevertheless acquires the character gradually draws the instruments of the orchestra Ravel was fascinated by jazz, with his of a divertissement. Ravel revealed something of into its spell, reaches a climax, and then restates enthusiasm strengthened by the four- his intentions in an interview given at the time of its opening material, this time with the cor anglais month tour of North America that he its composition: it was to be, he said, ‘a concerto taking the melody and the piano supplying a undertook in 1928, which took him to in the true sense of the word. I mean it is written relaxed accompaniment. 25 cities, including New Orleans, and very much in the same spirit as those of Mozart and brought him into contact with leading Saint‑Saëns. The music of a concerto, in my opinion, musicians and composers including should be light-hearted and brilliant, and not aim at INTERVAL – 20 minutes George Gershwin. He stated: profundity or at dramatic effects’. There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream ‘The most captivating part of jazz can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. is its rich and diverting rhythm … Elsewhere Ravel admitted that jazz had been a The Barbican shop will also be open. Jazz is a very rich and vital source primary influence, appearing most strikingly in the of inspiration for modern composers Concerto’s outer movements, with their blues- Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the and I am astonished that so few inflected sideslips and syncopations. Both these performance @londonsymphony, or come and talk to Americans are influenced by it’. movements, though, are strongly anchored in LSO staff at the Information Desk on the Circle level? lso.co.uk Composer Profile 7

Maurice Ravel Composer Profile

Although born in the rural Basque village of Ciboure, PIANO WORKS IN 2015 Ravel was raised in Paris. First-rate piano lessons and instruction in harmony and counterpoint ensured that the boy was accepted as a preparatory piano student at the Paris Conservatoire in 1889. As a full- time student, Ravel explored a wide variety of new music and forged a close friendship with the Spanish pianist Ricardo Viñes. Both men were introduced in 1893 to Chabrier, who Ravel regarded as ‘the most profoundly personal, the most French of our composers’. Ravel also met and was influenced by Erik Satie around this time. YUJA WANG (12 & 15 MAR) In the decade following his graduation in 1895, Ravel scored a notable hit with the Pavane pour une infante Sun 1 Feb 7.30pm défunte for piano (later orchestrated). Even so, his BEETHOVEN PIANO CONCERTO NO 3 Webern Passacaglia COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER works were rejected several times by the backward- Brahms Symphony No 2 ANDREW STEWART is a freelance looking judges of the Prix de Rome for not satisfying Nicholas Angelich piano | David Afkham conductor music journalist and writer. He is the demands of academic counterpoint. In the the author of The LSO at 90, and early years of the 20th century he completed many Thu 12 Mar 7.30pm contributes to a wide variety of outstanding works, including the evocative Miroirs GERSHWIN PIANO CONCERTO IN F MAJOR specialist classical music publications for piano and his first opera, L’heure espagnole. Colin Matthews Hidden Variables In 1909 Ravel was invited to write a large-scale work Shostakovich Symphony No 5 for Serge Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, completing the Yuja Wang piano | Michael Tilson Thomas conductor score to Daphnis et Chloé three years later. At this time he also met Stravinsky and first heard the Sun 15 Mar 7.30pm works of Arnold Schoenberg. SHOSTAKOVICH CONCERTO NO 1 FOR PIANO, TRUMPET AND STRINGS Britten Four Sea Interludes From 1932 until his death, he suffered from the Sibelius Symphony No 2 progressive effects of Pick’s Disease and was unable to compose. His emotional expression is Yuja Wang piano | Michael Tilson Thomas conductor most powerful in his imaginative interpretations Thu 2 Jul 7.30pm of the unaffected worlds of childhood and animals, BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTO NO 1 and in exotic tales such as the Greek lovers Dvorˇák The Wild Dove Daphnis et Chloé. Spain also influenced the Dvorˇák The Golden Spinning Wheel composer’s creative personality, his mother’s Basque Krystian Zimerman piano | Sir Simon Rattle conductor inheritance strongly reflected in a wide variety of works, together with his liking for the formal elegance of 18th-century French art and music. 020 7638 8891 | lso.co.uk 8 Programme Notes 25 January 2015

Gustav Mahler (1860–1911) Symphony No 4 (1899–1900, rev 1901–10)

1 BEDÄCHTIG. NICHT EILEN (DELIBERATE. NOT HURRIED) – the oxen’. A moment or two earlier we catch a glimpse RECHT GEMÄCHLICH (VERY LEISURELY) of ‘the butcher Herod’, on whose orders the children 2 IN GEMÄCHLICHER BEWEGUNG. OHNE HAST were massacred in the Biblical Christmas story. (AT A LEISURELY PACE. WITHOUT HASTE) 3 RUHEVOLL (RESTFUL) What are images like these doing in Heaven? Apart 4 SEHR BEHAGLICH (VERY COSY) from its ambiguous vision, this song-movement also offers one of the most original and satisfying KAREN CARGILL MEZZO-SOPRANO solutions to the Romantic symphonists’ perpetual ‘finale problem’. It couldn’t be less like the massive, In 1900, just after he’d finished his Fourth Symphony, all-encompassing finales many composers had Mahler wrote about how the work had taken shape. struggled to provide in the wake of Beethoven’s He had set out with clear ideas, but then the titanic Fifth and Ninth Symphonies. Interestingly work had ‘turned upside down’ on him: ‘To my Mahler wrote this movement before he’d written a astonishment it became plain to me that I had note of the preceding three. It was one of several PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER entered a totally different realm, just as in a dream settings of poems from the classic German folk STEPHEN JOHNSON is the author one imagines oneself wandering through the flower- collection Des Knaben Wunderhorn (Youth’s Magic of Bruckner Remembered (Faber). scented garden of Elysium and it suddenly changes Horn) Mahler had composed in the 1890s. At one He also contributes regularly to BBC to a nightmare of finding oneself in a Hades full of stage Mahler thought of including it in his huge Third Music Magazine and The Guardian, terrors … This time it is a forest with all its mysteries Symphony; but then he began to see it as more and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 and its horrors which forces my hand and weaves clearly the ending of his next symphony, the Fourth. (Discovering Music), BBC Radio 4 itself into my work. It becomes even clearer to me and the BBC World Service. that one does not compose; one is composed’. Even then, as we have seen, Mahler’s ideas changed as the new work took shape. At first he was thinking Mahler’s remarks about ‘mysteries and horrors’ in terms of a ‘symphonic humoresque’, but then the may surprise some readers. Writers often portray ideas took on a life of their own and the symphony DES KNABEN WUNDERHORN the Fourth as his sunniest and simplest symphony: ‘turned upside down’. In its final form, the first (Youth’s Magic Horn) is a collection an affectionate recollection of infant happiness, three movements of the Fourth Symphony prepare of over 700 German folk poems and culminating in a vision of Heaven seen through the way for the closing vision of ‘Das himmlische songs, brought together in the early the eyes of a child – with only the occasional pang Leben’ on every possible level: its themes, orchestral 19th century by the poets Achim von of adult nostalgia to cloud its radiant blue skies. colours, tonal scheme, most of all that strange Arnim and Clemens Brentano. Mahler But Mahler was too sophisticated to fall for the emotional ambiguity – blissful dream touched set a number of the poems for voice sentimental 19th-century idea of childhood as by images of nightmare. Far from being Mahler’s and piano or orchestra, and drew a Paradise Lost. He knew that children could be simplest symphony, it is one of the subtlest things on the texts and his own settings in cruel, and that their capacity for suffering was he ever created. many of his symphonies. often underestimated by adults. There is cruelty in the seemingly naïve text Mahler sets in his finale, First Movement ‘Das himmlische Leben’ (Heavenly Life): ‘We led a The very opening of the Fourth Symphony is a patient, guiltless darling lambkin to death,’ the child foretaste of the finale. Woodwind and jingling sleigh- tells us contentedly, adding that ‘Saint Luke is slaying bells set off at a slow jog-trot, then a languid rising lso.co.uk Programme Notes 9

MAHLER on LSO LIVE violin phrase turns out to be the beginning of a clarinets, glockenspiel, triangle and harp) leaves a Explore Principal Conductor disarmingly simple tune: Mahler in Mozartian vein. sulphurous aftertaste. Valery Gergiev’s critically acclaimed There is a note of contained yearning in the lovely recordings of Mahler’s nine second theme (cellos), but this soon subsides into the Third Movement symphonies on LSO Live. most childlike idea so far (solo oboe and bassoon). The slow movement is marked ‘restful’, but the Available as downloads, individual Later, another tune is introduced by four flutes in peace is profoundly equivocal. Mahler wrote that this discs or as a 10-SACD box set. unison – panpipes, or perhaps whistling boys. movement was inspired by ‘a vision of a tombstone on which was carved an image of the departed, Available at After this, the ‘mysteries and horrors’ of the forest with folded arms, in eternal sleep’ – an image half lso.co.uk/lsolive gradually make their presence felt until, in a superb consoling, half achingly sad, and clearly related to in the Barbican full orchestral climax, horns, trumpets, bells and the Freund Hain/Death imagery in the Scherzo. A set Shop or online at glittering high woodwind sound a triumphant of free variations on the first theme explore facets iTunes & Amazon medley of themes from earlier on. But this triumph of this ambiguity until Mahler springs a wonderful is dispelled by a dissonance, underlined by gong surprise: a full orchestral outburst of pure joy in and bass drum, then trumpets sound out the grim E major – the key in which the finale is to end. fanfare rhythm Mahler later used to begin the This passage looks forward and backward: horns Funeral March of his Fifth Symphony. How do we anticipate the clarinet tune which opens the finale, get back to the land of lost content glimpsed at then recall the whistling boys’ flute theme from the the beginning? Mahler simply stops the music, first movement. Then the movement slips back into MORE MAHLER THIS SEASON and the Mozartian theme starts again in mid-phrase, peaceful sleep, to awaken in … as though nothing had happened. All the main Tue 2 Jun 2015 7.30pm themes now return, but the dark disturbances of Finale SYMPHONY NO 5 the development keep casting shadows, at least … Paradise – or, at least, a child’s version of it. Edward Rushton new work until the brief, ebullient coda. Sleigh-bells open the finale, then the soprano enters Mendelssohn Violin Concerto for the first time. Possibly fearing what adult singers Daniel Harding conductor Second Movement might get up to if told to imitate a child, Mahler adds Janine Jansen violin The second movement, a Scherzo with two trios, an NB in the score: ‘To be sung in a happy childlike proceeds at a leisurely pace (really fast music is rare manner: absolutely without parody!’. At the mention Sun 14 Jun 2015 7.30pm in this symphony). Mahler described the first theme of St Peter, the writing becomes hymn-like, then SYMPHONY NO 1 (‘TITAN’) as ‘Freund Hain spielt auf’: the ‘Friend Hain’ who come those troubling images of slaughter. The singer Mozart Violin Concerto No 3 ‘strikes up’ here is a sinister figure from German seems unmoved by what she relates, but plaintive, folk-lore: a pied piper-like figure whose fiddle playing animal-like cries from oboe and low horn disturb the Bernard Haitink conductor leads those it enchants into the land of ‘Beyond’ – vision, if only momentarily. At last the music makes its Alina Ibragimova violin death in disguise? Mahler evokes Freund Hain’s final turn to E major, the key of the heavenly vision fiddle ingeniously by having the orchestral leader near the end of the slow movement. ‘No music on Part of the LSO International Violin Festival generously supported by play on a violin tuned a tone higher than normal, earth can be compared to ours’, the child tells us. Jonathan Moulds which makes the sound both coarser, and literally, Then the child falls silent (asleep?), and the music more highly-strung. Death doesn’t quite have the gradually fades until nothing is left but the soft low 020 7638 8891 | lso.co.uk last word, though the final shrill forte (flutes, oboes, repeated tolling of the harp. 10 Text 25 January 2015

Gustav Mahler Symphony No 4 – Finale: Text

Das himmlische Leben The Heavenly Life

Wir geniessen die himmlischen Freuden, We enjoy the heavenly pleasures Drum tun wir das Irdische meiden, and avoid earthly things. Kein weltlich Getümmel No worldly tumult Hört man nicht im Himmel! can be heard in Heaven! Lebt alles in sanftester Ruh’! Everything lives in the sweetest peace! Wir führen ein englisches Leben! We lead an angelic life! Sind dennoch ganz lustig daneben! Nevertheless we are very merry: Wir tanzen und springen, we dance and leap, Wir hüpfen und singen! hop and sing! Sankt Peter im Himmel sieht zu! Meanwhile, St Peter in the sky looks on.

Johannes das Lämmlein auslasset, St John has let his little lamb go Der Metzger Herodes drauf passet! and the butcher Herod looks on! Wir führen ein geduldig’s, We lead a patient, Unschuldig’s, geduldig’s, innocent, patient, Ein liebliches Lämmlein zu Tod! a dear little lamb to death! Sankt Lucas den Ochsen tät schlachten St Luke slaughters oxen Ohn’ einig’s Bedenken und Achten, without giving it thought or attention. Der Wein kost’ kein Heller Wine costs not a penny Im himmlischen Keller, in Heaven’s cellar; Die Englein, die backen das Brot. and the angels bake the bread.

Gut’ Kräuter von allerhand Arten, Good vegetables of all sorts Die wachsen im himmlischen Garten! grow in Heaven’s garden! Gut’ Spargel, Fisolen Good asparagus, beans Und was wir nur wollen! and whatever we wish! Ganze Schüsseln voll sind uns bereit! Bowls are heaped full, ready for us! Gut Äpfel, gut’ Birn’ und gut’ Trauben! Good apples, good pears and good grapes! Die Gärtner, die alles erlauben! The gardener permits us everything! Willst Rehbock, willst Hasen, Would you like roebuck, would you like hare? Auf offener Straßen They run free Sie laufen herbei! In the very streets! lso.co.uk Text 11

Sollt’ ein Fasttag etwa kommen, Should a fast-day arrive, Alle Fische gleich mit Freuden angeschwommen! all the fish swim up to us with joy! Dort läuft schon Sankt Peter Then off runs St Peter Mit Netz und mit Köder with his net and bait Zum himmlischen Weiher hinein. to the heavenly pond. Sankt Martha die Köchin muß sein. St Martha must be the cook.

Kein’ Musik ist ja nicht auf Erden, No music on earth Die uns’rer verglichen kann werden. can be compared to ours. Elftausend Jungfrauen Eleven thousand maidens Zu tanzen sich trauen! dare to dance! Sankt Ursula selbst dazu lacht! Even St Ursula herself is laughing! Cäcilia mit ihren Verwandten Cecilia and all her relatives Sind treffliche Hofmusikanten! make splendid court musicians! Die englischen Stimmen The angelic voices Ermuntern die Sinnen, rouse the senses Dass alles für Freuden erwacht. so that everything awakens with joy.

Traditional text from Des Knaben Wunderhorn Translation anonymous 12 Composer Profile 25 January 2015

Mahler the Man by Stephen Johnson

obsession with mortality in Mahler’s music. Few of his major works do not feature a funeral march: in fact Mahler’s first composition (at age ten) was I am … a Funeral March with Polka – exactly the kind of three times homeless extreme juxtaposition one finds in his mature works. a native of Bohemia in Austria For most of his life Mahler supported himself by conducting, but this was no mere means to an end. an Austrian among Germans Indeed his evident talent and energetic, disciplined commitment led to successive appointments a Jew throughout the world. at Prague, Leipzig, Budapest, and climactically, in 1897, the Vienna Court Opera. In the midst of this hugely demanding schedule, Mahler composed whenever he could, usually during his summer holidays. The rate at which he composed during these brief periods is astonishing. Mahler’s sense of being an outsider, coupled with The workload in no way decreased after his marriage a penetrating, restless intelligence, made him an to the charismatic and highly intelligent Alma Schindler acutely self-conscious searcher after truth. For Mahler in 1902. Alma’s infidelity – which almost certainly the purpose of art was, in Shakespeare’s famous accelerated the final decline in Mahler’s health in phrase, to ‘hold the mirror up to nature’ in all its 1910/11 – has earned her black marks from some bewildering richness. The symphony, he told Jean biographers; but it is hard not to feel some sympathy Sibelius, ‘must be like the world. It must embrace for her position as a ‘work widow’. everything’. Mahler’s symphonies can seem almost over-full with intense emotions and ideas: love and Nevertheless, many today have good cause to hate, joy in life and terror of death, the beauty of be grateful to Mahler for his single-minded devotion nature, innocence and bitter experience. Similar to his art. T S Eliot – another artist caught between themes can also be found in his marvellous songs the search for faith and the horror of meaninglessness – and song-cycles, though there the intensity is, wrote that ‘humankind cannot bear very much reality’. if anything, still more sharply focused. But Mahler’s music suggests another possibility. With his ability to confront the terrifying possibility of a Gustav Mahler was born the second of 14 children. purposeless universe and the empty finality of death, His parents were apparently ill-matched (Mahler Mahler can help us confront and endure stark reality. remembered violent scenes), and young Gustav He can take us to the edge of the abyss, then sing grew dreamy and introspective, seeking comfort us the sweetest songs of consolation. If we allow in nature rather than human company. Death was ourselves to make this journey with him, we may a presence from early on: six of Mahler’s siblings find that we too are the better for it. died in infancy. This no doubt partly explains the lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 13

Robin Ticciati ‘Ticciati was all fire and brilliance and headlong exuberance.’ Conductor Rupert Christiansen, The Telegraph

Robin Ticciati has been Principal Conductor of the Salzburg Festival, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin at Scottish Chamber Orchestra since the 2009/10 the Royal Opera House, and a season and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival debut with Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel, which Opera since summer 2014. led to an immediate re-invitation.

2013/14 guest conducting engagements included Robin Ticciati is in his sixth season as Principal debuts with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Conductor of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Orchestra and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich, and His 2014/15 season with the SCO features a twin return engagements with the LSO, Swedish Radio focus on Mahler and Haydn. Together, Ticciati and Symphony Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic, the Orchestra have toured extensively in Europe Philadelphia Orchestra, and Asia, and their three recordings for Linn Records and Bamberg Symphony Orchestra. so far – two Berlioz discs (Symphonie fantastique; Les nuits d’été and The Death of Cleopatra) This season Robin Ticciati is undertaking a major and a double featuring Schumann’s four residency project at Vienna’s Konzerthaus, symphonies – have attracted critical acclaim. featuring performances with the LSO, Scottish Principal Conductor Chamber Orchestra and Vienna Symphony. Robin Ticciati’s discography also includes Berlioz’s Scottish Chamber Orchestra Guest conducting projects within the next two L’enfance du Christ with the Swedish Radio seasons include a European tour with the Royal Symphony Orchestra (Linn), Dvorˇák’s Symphony No Music Director Concertgebouw Orchestra, return engagements with 9, Bruckner’s Mass No 3 and a Brahms disc with the Glyndebourne Festival Opera the Gewandhaus Orchester Leipzig, Staatskapelle Bamberg Symphony Orchestra and the Chorus of the Dresden, Swedish Radio Symphony, London Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (Tudor) as well Philharmonic, Rotterdam Philharmonic, Cleveland as a number of opera releases on Opus Arte and on Orchestra, Philadelphia Orchestra and Los Angeles Glyndebourne’s own label. Philharmonic, as well as debuts with the DSO-Berlin, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Born in London, Robin Ticciati is a violinist, pianist NDR Hamburg and Orchestre National de France. and percussionist by training. He was a member of the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain For his first season as Music Director of when he turned to conducting, aged 15, under the Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Robin Ticciati guidance of Sir and Sir Simon Rattle. conducted new productions of Richard Strauss’ He was recently appointed Sir Colin Davis Fellow of Der Rosenkavalier and Mozart’s La finta giardiniera. Conducting by the Royal Academy of Music. In 2015, he will conduct a new production of Mozart’s Die Entführung aus dem Serail and a revival of a Ravel double-bill with L’heure Espagnole and L’enfant et les sortilèges. Aside from Glyndebourne, recent opera projects have included new productions of Britten’s Peter Grimes at La Scala Milan, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro at the 14 Artist Biographies 25 January 2015

Simon Trpcˇeski ‘There’s a grand romanticism about Trpcˇeski’s Piano interpretations, as well as an attention to detail.’ BBC Music Magazine

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpcˇeski has established The 2014/15 season includes regular visits himself as one of the most remarkable musicians to to London and return appearances with the have emerged in recent years. He is praised not only Los Angeles Philharmonic, Seattle, Baltimore for his impeccable technique and delicate expression, and St Louis Symphonies, Minnesota Orchestra, but also for his warm personality and commitment to Netherlands Radio Philharmonic, Russian National strengthening Macedonia’s cultural image. Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Armenian Philharmonic, Barcelona and Galicia Symphonies, Trpcˇeski is a frequent soloist with the LSO and with Strasbourg Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Teatro the City of Birmingham Symphony, Philharmonia, Regio in Turin, Ulster Orchestra, City of Birmingham Hallé, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and London Symphony, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Suisse Philharmonic Orchestras. Other engagements Romande Orchestra and Iceland Symphony. with European ensembles include the Royal In the summer of 2015 he also undertakes a tour Concertgebouw, Russian National and Bolshoi of Australia and New Zealand with Vasily Petrenko. Theatre Orchestras, NDR Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Berlin Radio Trpcˇeski has received widespread acclaim for his Symphony Orchestra, WDR Symphony Orchestra recital recordings on EMI, winning two Gramophone Cologne, MDR Leipzig Radio Symphony Orchestra, Awards for his first recording in 2002. Most recently, Tonkünstler Orchestra in Vienna, Danish National his 2012 recital at Wigmore Hall was released on Symphony Orchestra and the Rotterdam, Royal Wigmore Hall Live, and his 2014 performance will be Stockholm, Oslo and St Petersburg Philharmonics. a forthcoming release. He has made three concerto recordings with conductor Vasily Petrenko and the In North America he has performed with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra, showcasing New York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the music by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky. Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras and the Boston, San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Toronto Simon Trpcˇeski has won prizes in piano competitions and Baltimore Symphony Orchestras. Elsewhere in the UK, Italy and Czech Republic. Between he has performed with the New Japan, Seoul and 2001 and 2003 he was a member of the BBC New Hong Kong Philharmonic, Sydney and Melbourne Generation Artists Scheme, and in 2003 he was Symphony Orchestras, and has toured with the honoured with the Young Artist Award by the Royal New Zealand Symphony. Trpcˇeski has worked with Philharmonic Society. In 2009, he was awarded prominent conductors including Vladimir Ashkenazy, the Presidential Order of Merit for Macedonia, a Lionel Bringuier, Andrew Davis, Gustavo Dudamel, decoration given to dignitaries responsible for the Charles Dutoit, , Lorin Maazel, affirmation of Macedonia abroad. In 2011 he was Sir Antonio Pappano, Vasily Petrenko, Yan Pascal awarded the first ever title of National Artist of the Tortelier, Marin Alsop and Gianandrea Noseda. Republic of Macedonia. With the support of KulturOp, Macedonia’s leading cultural organisation, and the A superb recitalist, he has given solo performances Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, in cultural capitals throughout the world, and he works with young musicians to support the appears regularly at chamber music festivals. country’s next generation of artists. lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 15

Karen Cargill ‘Karen Cargill has a remarkably beautiful voice, Mezzo-soprano full of sunny delicacy and warmth.’ BBC Music Magazine

Scottish mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill studied at the conductors including James Levine, Valery Gergiev, Royal Conservatoire of Scotland, the University of Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Myung-Whun Chung, Toronto and the National Opera Studio, London, and Bernard Haitink, Sir Simon Rattle and Robin Ticciati. was the winner of the 2002 Kathleen Ferrier Award. Previous opera highlights have included roles with the Royal Opera, Covent Garden; Metropolitan Opera, Past and future highlights with her regular recital New York; and Deutsche Oper, Berlin. partner Simon Lepper include appearances at Wigmore Hall, the Concertgebouw Amsterdam, In 2013 Karen was appointed Associate Artist of the the Kennedy Center Washington and, this season, Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Past performances her New York recital debut at , as well together have included Berlioz’s The Death of as regular recitals for BBC Radio 3. With Simon she Cleopatra, L’enfance du Christ and Les nuits d’été; recently recorded a critically acclaimed recital of Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde; Wagner’s Lieder by Alma and Gustav Mahler for Linn Records. Wesendonck Lieder and the role of Béatrice in Berlioz’s Béatrice et Bénedict. Their recent Linn Concerts in the 2014/15 season include Bach’s Records recording of Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été St Matthew Passion and Handel’s Messiah with the and The Death of Cleopatra with Robin Ticciati Philadelphia Orchestra; Berlioz’s Les nuits d’été with was chosen as Gramophone’s recording of the the ; Elgar’s Sea Pictures with month in June 2013. the Dresden Staatskapelle; Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with Bernard Haitink and the LSO in June; and An early highlight of her career was singing Wagner’s Wesendonck Lieder with the Netherlands Mendelssohn’s Elijah with Kurt Masur and the Philharmonic Orchestra. With the Scottish Chamber London Philharmonic Orchestra at the BBC Proms. Orchestra, Karen will sing Mahler’s Symphony No 4, Since then, her regular relationships with the Kindertotenlieder and Das Lied von der Erde, BBC Symphony and Scottish Symphony Orchestras conducted by Robin Ticciati, and the Wesendonck have taken her back to the BBC Proms to sing Lieder with Emmanuel Krivine. This year, Karen will Mahler’s Symphony No 3 and Das Lied von der Erde make her debut at the Salzburg Festival. and Waltraute in Götterdämmerung, as well as Constant Lambert’s The Rio Grande at a ‘Last Night’. On the opera stage, plans include a return to the Metropolitan Opera, New York to sing Magdalene in Wagner’s Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Waltraute in Götterdämmerung for the Canadian Opera Company, and return invitations to The Royal Opera, Covent Garden and English National Opera.

Karen sings regularly with the Boston, Rotterdam, Seoul and Orchestras, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the LSO and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, working with 16 The Orchestra 25 January 2015

London Symphony Orchestra Your views On stage Inbox

FIRST VIOLINS VIOLAS FLUTES HORNS Benjamin James Roman Simovic Leader Edward Vanderspar Gareth Davies Timothy Jones Still buzzing after last night’s concert with #SimonRattle, Tomo Keller Gillianne Haddow Adam Walker Samuel Jacobs Carmine Lauri Malcolm Johnston Alex Jakeman Angela Barnes @HanniganBarbara and the tremendous musicians of the Lennox Mackenzie Anna Green Alexander Edmundson @londonsymphony #WorldClass PICCOLO Clare Duckworth Julia O’Riordan Jonathan Bareham on Thu 15 Jan, with Sir Simon Rattle & Ginette Decuyper Robert Turner Sharon Williams Gerald Gregory Jonathan Welch TRUMPETS OBOES Jörg Hammann Elizabeth Butler Philip Cobb Olivier Stankiewicz David Todd Maxine Kwok-Adams Phil Hall Gerald Ruddock Lauren Weavers Elizabeth Pigram Richard Holttum Niall Keatley Incredible playing last night from the @londonsymphony Claire Parfitt Caroline O’Neill COR ANGLAIS TROMBONE with Simon Rattle. It took hours to recover from The Rite Laurent Quenelle Alistair Scahill Christine Pendrill Peter Moore of Spring – terrifying! Harriet Rayfield CELLOS Colin Renwick CLARINETS TIMPANI on Thu 15 Jan, with Sir Simon Rattle & Barbara Hannigan Tim Hugh Ian Rhodes Andrew Marriner Nigel Thomas Sylvain Vasseur Alastair Blayden Chris Richards Jennifer Brown Chi-Yu Mo PERCUSSION Paul C Roberts SECOND VIOLINS Noel Bradshaw Neil Percy Fantastic concert last night at The Barbican. For me BASS CLARINET David Alberman Eve-Marie Caravassilis David Jackson the highlight was the Ligeti, but I loved the intensity Thomas Norris Daniel Gardner Lorenzo Iosco Antoine Bedewi Sarah Quinn Hilary Jones Tom Edwards of the Webern. E-FLAT CLARINET Miya Väisänen Minat Lyons Chi-Yu Mo on Thu 15 Jan, with Sir Simon Rattle & Barbara Hannigan Matthew Gardner Amanda Truelove HARP Bryn Lewis Naoko Keatley Orlando Jopling BASSOONS William Melvin Rachel Gough Tom Seligman DOUBLE BASSES Iwona Muszynska Christopher Gunia Barbara Hannigan and Ligeti: ten minutes of absolute Paul Robson Rick Stotijn Katerina Mitchell Colin Paris CONTRA BASSOON performing genius! Never to be forgotten! Hazel Mulligan Nicholas Worters Dominic Morgan on Thu 15 Jan, with Sir Simon Rattle & Barbara Hannigan Alain Petitclerc Patrick Laurence Julia Rumley Matthew Gibson Helena Smart Joe Melvin Robert Yeomans Jani Pensola Benjamin Griffiths

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 Garrick Charitable Trust Silk Street [email protected] work experience by playing in rehearsals The Lefever Award London and concerts with the LSO. The scheme The Polonsky Foundation EC2Y 8DS Photography auditions students from the London music Igor Emmerich, Kevin Leighton, conservatoires, and 15 students per year Registered charity in England No 232391 Bill Robinson, Alberto Venzago are selected to participate. The musicians Details in this publication were correct Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 are treated as professional ’extra’ players 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.