Symphony Living Music

Friday 9 October 2015 7.30pm Barbican Hall

VALERY GERGIEV: MAN OF THE THEATRE

London’s Symphony Orchestra Bartók Dance Suite Bartók No 2 INTERVAL Stravinsky The Firebird

Valery Gergiev conductor Yefim Bronfman piano

Concert finishes approx 9.45pm

Generously supported by Jonathan Moulds CBE 2 Welcome 9 October 2015

Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief

Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert at the THE LSO ON TOUR Barbican, the first in a series exploring the ballet scores of Bartók and Stravinsky. These two Tonight’s concert marks the LSO’s return to London composers redefined the art form with bold, after a two-week tour of Japan with conductor dramatic music, and there are few who can bring out , pianist Murray Perahia and soprano these qualities quite like Valery Gergiev. Tonight he Anna Lucia Richter. Together they visited Tokyo, opens the final project of his tenure as LSO Principal Kawasaki and Kyoto, while the LSO Brass Ensemble Conductor with Bartók’s modernist re-imagining of gave a concert in Shizuoka, and the Orchestra the Baroque Dance Suite and Stravinsky’s first major performed three concerts of the music from the ballet score, The Firebird. popular Final Fantasy video games.

We are also very pleased to be joined by pianist Yefim Bronfman, who recently appeared with the THE RITE OF SPRING ON LSO PLAY Orchestra at this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. Tonight, he performs Bartók’s Piano This month, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring comes Concerto No 2. to LSO Play, the award-winning interactive online experience that allows you to get inside the This evening’s concert is generously supported by orchestra. Using HD footage of the LSO in concert, Jonathan Moulds, Chairman of the LSO Advisory LSO Play gives you the opportunity to see up to four Council. We are delighted to welcome Jonathan different camera angles at once, focus in on different this evening, and also his mother Sheila, who is sections of the orchestra, get a close-up view of celebrating a special birthday. the conductor, and find out more about the music and the instruments of the orchestra. LSO Play is I hope that you enjoy the concert and can join us generously supported by The Reignwood Group. again. The series continues with Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring on Sunday 11 October, and Bartók’s play.lso.co.uk Concerto for Orchestra on Sunday 18 October.

A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS The LSO offers great benefits for groups of 10 or more, including a 20% discount on standard tickets, a dedicated group booking hotline and the chance to Kathryn McDowell CBE DL meet LSO musicians at private interval receptions. Managing Director At tonight’s concert, we are delighted to welcome: Mariinsky Theatre Trust and Tim Carter & Friends

lso.co.uk/groups lso.co.uk Programme Notes 3

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) Dance Suite Sz 77 (1923)

1 MODERATO – RITORNELLO (TRANQUILLO) The Dance Suite is arranged in six sections played 2 ALLEGRO MOLTO – RITORNELLO (TRANQUILLO) without a break. Holding the work together is a 3 ALLEGRO VIVACE Hungarian-inflected Ritornello, often defusing the 4 MOLTO TRANQUILLO – RITORNELLO (LENTO) tensions generated by the intoxicating vigour in 5 COMODO – FINALE (ALLEGRO) many of the movements. The first section begins 6 FINALE (ALLEGRO) with a chromatic, Arab-influenced melody delivered by a pair of to which strings and piano PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Folk-dance rhythms run strongly through much of respond with aggressive chords leading to an JAN SMACZNY is the Sir Hamilton Bartók’s music, though rarely more pungently than exciting climax. The Allegro molto second section Harty Professor of Music at in the Dance Suite. Completed in August 1923, it generates breathtaking activity before the Ritornello Queen’s University, Belfast. A well- was written to commemorate the 50th anniversary reappears, as at the end of the first section, and known writer and broadcaster, he of the unifying of Buda, Pest and Óbuda (Old Buda) restores calm. specialises in the life and works of to create the Hungarian capital Budapest. Alongside Dvorˇák and Czech opera, and has the Dance Suite were premiered works by Bartók’s The third section is a heady mix of Hungarian published books on the repertoire two great Hungarian composer compatriots: the bagpipe melody and folk violin writing of a Romanian of the Prague Provisional Theatre Festival Overture by Erno˝ Dohnányi and the Psalmus character. The fourth section is a tranquil interlude, and Dvorˇák’s Cello Concerto. Hungaricus by Zoltán Kodály. All three works were at the end of which the now familiar Ritornello leads given in a concert of much grandeur on 20 November into a chromatic section, which in turn introduces 1923 with Dohnányi conducting. the Finale. Here, melodic elements from previous sections are drawn together into an exhilarating A RITORNELLO (from the Italian, From the end of World War I, Bartók’s reputation as climax, held up only briefly by a fleeting meaning ‘little return’) is a recurring a composer and pianist grew markedly with headline reappearance of the Ritornello. passage of music, which alternates performances in Britain, France and Germany. At with sections of contrasting material. home, however, he was facing attacks from the right- wing Hungarian press which criticised his radical style and also questioned his national credentials owing to his use of Romanian folk songs. Against this background, the Dance Suite might have seemed rather ambiguous; while Bartók uses Hungarian folk melodies throughout, he also includes Arab and Romanian native material. 4 Programme Notes 9 October 2015

Béla Bartók No 2 Sz 95 (1930–31)

1 ALLEGRO The Second Piano Concerto is actually far from light 2 ADAGIO – PRESTO – ADAGIO and popular, and its first movement, like that of 3 ALLEGRO MOLTO the First Piano Concerto, is replete with irregular, mechanistic rhythms and angular folk-inflected YEFIM BRONFMAN PIANO melodies. It also continues Bartók’s preoccupation with exploring the percussive sonorities of the piano. PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER As with Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin and Rachmaninov But the overall mood is less starkly acerbic: stabbing EDWARD BHESANIA is a writer before him, Bartók’s stimulus for writing piano orchestral chords are replaced by colourful fanfares, and editor who reviews for The was chiefly the need to provide a vehicle and dark-tinged ritual turns towards a brighter vein Strad and The Stage. He has also for his own pianistic skills on concert tours. By the of theatricality. written for The Observer, BBC 1920s his playing career had again taken wing, Music Magazine, International and by the end of the decade he had given tours FIRST MOVEMENT Piano, The Tablet and Country Life, in western Europe, the Soviet Union and the US. The influence of Stravinsky is strong in this and contributed to 1,001 Classical Only his third and final concerto was written for movement. The perky opening recalls Recordings You Must Hear Before other hands – those of his second wife, Ditta, also the theme from the final scene of The Firebird You Die. a pianist – whom he hoped might make some (1909–10), and the piano’s first entry mirrors the money by performing the work after his death, fast-shifting parallel chords of the ‘Danse russe’ since by the time of its composition (1945) he from Petrushka (1910–11). A fleeting reference was succumbing to leukaemia. to Bachian counterpoint reflects Stravinsky’s later neo-Classicism, and the instrumental colouring BARTÓK on LSO LIVE ‘I wished to compose the Piano of the whole of the first movement – which Concerto No 2 with fewer difficulties dispenses altogether with the orchestral strings – Tchaikovsky: is a homage to Stravinsky’s Concerto for Piano Serenade for the orchestra [than the Piano and Wind Instruments (1923–4). & Bartók: Concerto No 1] and more pleasing Divertimento SECOND MOVEMENT £7.99 in its thematic material … Most of The second movement brings a sea-change in the themes in the piece are more sonority, opening with sustained muted strings ‘A reminder – if a reminder were playing a hushed, foggy chorale. The piano needed – of just how world-class light and popular in character.’ (partnered by rumbling timpani) alternates with this the of the London music before launching into the scurrying central Symphony Orchestra is … Both Though Bartók was fond of his First Piano Concerto Presto. The three-part layout of this movement, pieces here are given performances (1926), conductors and found it a challenge, Adagio–Presto–Adagio, lies at the centre of the of great authority.’ and the composer soon recognised a need for a Second Piano Concerto’s symmetrical ‘arch-form’, Classical CD Choice work that was ‘less bristling with difficulties for the which Bartók also employed in his Fourth and Fifth orchestra’ – perhaps something of more immediate String Quartets (1928 and 1934). The outer Adagio Available to buy online at appeal to his growing international audience – and sections, in their tranquillity, spaciousness and lsolive.lso.co.uk or as a digital whose themes were by comparison ‘light and popular’. luminosity, represent notable examples of Bartók’s download on iTunes so-called ‘night music’ style. lso.co.uk Programme Notes 5

Béla Bartók Composer Profile

THIRD MOVEMENT Born in 1881 in Hungary, Bartók began piano lessons A thwack of the bass drum and a primitive alternating with his mother at the age of five. He studied piano pattern on timpani open the finale, which for the and composition at the first time in the concerto draws the whole orchestra in Budapest, where he created a number of works together. Again, Stravinsky is a key reference: in the echoing the style of Brahms and Richard Strauss. appearance of folk elements (though Hungarian, not After graduating he discovered Austro-Hungarian Russian) and in a celebration of primeval energy. and Slavic folk music, travelling extensively with his The blustery rhetoric and percussive violence recall friend Zoltán Kodály and recording countless ethnic Bartók’s abrasive solo-piano Allegro barbaro of 1911. songs and dances, which began to influence his own But optimistic exuberance eventually wins out, and compositions. Kodály also introduced him to the works the movement ends with a jubilant flourish. of Debussy in 1907, the year in which he became Professor of Piano at the Budapest Conservatory.

Bartók established his mature style with such scores as the ballet The Miraculous Mandarin and his opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. He revived his career as a COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER concert pianist in 1927, when he gave the premiere ANDREW STEWART of his First Piano Concerto in Mannheim.

Bartók detested the rise of fascism and in October 1940 he quit Budapest and travelled to the US. At first he concentrated on ethno-musicological research, but eventually returned to composition and created a significant group of ‘American’ works, including the Concerto for Orchestra and his Third Piano Concerto.

His character was distinguished by a firm, almost stubborn, refusal to compromise or be diverted from his musical instincts by money or position. Throughout his working life, Bartók collected, transcribed and annotated the folk-songs of many INTERVAL – 20 minutes countries, a commitment that brought little financial There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream return or recognition but one which he regarded can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. as his most important contribution to music.

Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the performance @londonsymphony, or come and talk to LSO staff at the Information Desk on the Circle level? 6 Programme Notes 9 October 2015

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) The Firebird (original ballet) (1909–10)

1 INTRODUCTION Nor was Stravinsky Diaghilev’s first choice for the FIRST TABLEAU Firebird project. Even though the Paris press had 2 THE ENCHANTED GARDEN OF KASHCHEI found fault with the 1909 season for the mediocre 3 APPEARANCE OF THE FIREBIRD, PURSUED BY PRINCE IVAN quality of its music as compared with the brilliantly 4 DANCE OF THE FIREBIRD innovative dance and design, Diaghilev’s first instinct 5 CAPTURE OF THE FIREBIRD BY PRINCE IVAN was still to shuffle the old Russian musical pack: he 6 SUPPLICATION OF THE FIREBIRD – APPEARANCE OF THE approached Liadov and Tcherepnin (whose music THIRTEEN ENCHANTED PRINCESSES had already been denigrated by the Paris critics), 7 THE PRINCESSES’ GAME WITH THE GOLDEN APPLES and considered asking Glazunov, among other 8 SUDDEN APPEARANCE OF PRINCE IVAN orthodox Rimsky-Korsakov pupils, before finally 9 ROUND DANCE OF THE PRINCESSES taking the plunge with this largely untried son of 10 DAYBREAK – PRINCE IVAN PENETRATES KASHCHEI’S PALACE a leading bass-baritone at the Mariinsky Opera. 11 MAGIC CARILLON, APPEARANCE OF KASHCHEI’S MONSTER GUARDIANS, AND CAPTURE OF PRINCE IVAN – ARRIVAL Nobody knew what kind of music might correspond OF KASHCHEI THE IMMORTAL – DIALOGUE OF KASHCHEI to the dazzling stage pictures of Bakst and Benois, AND PRINCE IVAN – INTERCESSION OF THE PRINCESSES – or the intensely exciting and expressive APPEARANCE OF THE FIREBIRD choreography of Fokine. Even today, if we want 12 DANCE OF KASHCHEI’S RETINUE, ENCHANTED BY THE FIREBIRD to re-experience the frisson which ran through 13 INFERNAL DANCE OF ALL KASHCHEI’S SUBJECTS – Proust’s Paris when The Firebird finally had its LULLABY – KASHCHEI’S AWAKENING – KASHCHEI’S DEATH – premiere at the Opéra in June 1910, we have to PROFOUND DARKNESS put ourselves in the position of an audience who SECOND TABLEAU knew no orchestral music by Scriabin, rather little 14 DISAPPEARANCE OF KASHCHEI’S PALACE AND MAGICAL by Borodin or Rimsky-Korsakov, still less by Glinka CREATIONS, RETURN TO LIFE OF THE PETRIFIED KNIGHTS, or Glazunov. Stravinsky’s music alludes, more or GENERAL REJOICING less directly, to these and others. The Firebird has the simple derivativeness of inexperience. PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Stravinsky was 27, and unknown outside Russia, STEPHEN WALSH is a well-known when the impresario Sergei Diaghilev commissioned Its debt to Rimsky-Korsakov is instantly apparent to writer on music, the author of a him to write a ballet on the legend of the Firebird for anyone who knows the late operas of that major two-volume biography of his Russian ballet season in Paris in 1910. The only composer. The idea of representing the oppositions Stravinsky and also a book on his work by Stravinsky that had previously been heard of good/evil, normal/magical, through diatonic/ music. He holds a personal Chair at outside Russia was a pair of Chopin arrangements chromatic harmony comes directly from The Golden Cardiff University. which he had made for Les Sylphides in Diaghilev’s Cockerel, but is in any case a commonplace of 1909 season. These in turn had been a speculative Russian 19th-century opera from Glinka’s Ruslan commission by Diaghilev on the strength of a single and Lyudmila onwards. The folksong manner of hearing of Stravinsky’s Scherzo fantastique at a the princesses’ round dance (‘Khorovod’) and the St Petersburg concert in January 1909. finale is pure kuchkism, derived from the colour variation technique of the Russian nationalists (the so-called ‘kuchka’, or ‘mighty handful’), of whom lso.co.uk Programme Notes 7

London Symphony Orchestra

Rimsky-Korsakov had been a leading member. But LSO DISCOVERY DAY the score also draws on the very different style of STRAVINSKY & DANCE the Moscow composer Alexander Scriabin, whose Sun 11 Oct 10am–5.30pm work Stravinsky at the time still admired (later he Barbican and LSO St Luke’s was invariably rude about it). The Firebird’s dance is

indebted to the gasping, ejaculatory manner of The Explore the great ballet composer of the 20th century Poem of Ecstasy and Prometheus, subsequently in our first LSO Discovery Day of the season. Watch described by Stravinsky as ‘those severe cases of Valery Gergiev rehearse Stravinsky’s most iconic score, LÉON BAKST (1866–1924) was a musical emphysema’. And yet the music’s brilliance The Rite of Spring, in the morning. Then delve deeper revolutionary theatre designer who and assurance as a whole are still enough in into the composer’s lifelong fascination with movement was associated with Diaghilev’s themselves to take one’s breath away in a good and music that afternoon, with a special illustrated Ballet Russes. His costumes were performance. Combined with Fokine’s choreography, talk from Millicent Hodson and Kenneth Archer, who reconstructed Nijinsky’s original choreography from ornate, intricate and cast in bold his and Karsavina’s dancing, and Golovine’s and historical sources. This is followed by live chamber colours to heighten the effect of this Bakst’s intensely atmospheric designs, it had Paris music and a film screening. new choreography. The image below at Stravinsky’s feet overnight. is taken from his original design for Tickets £20 (£15 concessions) the character of the Firebird. The story, which was handed to the young composer plus booking fee of £0.60 online or £0.70 by phone on a plate, is a standard issue 19th-century Russian fairy tale. Diaghilev had stunned Paris in 1909 with what has since been unkindly dubbed travel-poster THE LOST RITE Russianism, and he had no intention of disappointing by Millicent Hodson & Kenneth Archer expectations in his second ballet season. So This unique book details the Stravinsky was landed with a plot involving the usual recreation of Nijinsky’s original handsome prince lost in a forest and blundering into lost ballet. Featuring stop-frame the magic garden of an evil sorcerer who has cast performance photography a spell on a baker’s dozen of beautiful princesses. by Shira Klasmer of the The prince destroys the sorcerer with the help of reconstructed ballet performed the magic firebird and marries the most beautiful by the Polish National Ballet; of the princesses. and original quotes to help readers to ‘see’ the ballet as Stravinsky’s great achievement was to match this they ‘hear’ the voices of 1913. farrago with music that seemed at the time – and On sale now at the Barbican Shop for £81. in some ways can still seem – as extravagant and Signed copies available at the LSO Discovery Day exotic as the scenario. In particular his handling of on Sunday 11 October. the large orchestra was almost miraculous in its flair and inventiveness, perhaps in part the outcome of his student work with Rimsky-Korsakov, which had 020 7638 8891 involved score-copying and possibly even some lso.co.uk touchings-in of his own. 8 Composer Profile 9 October 2015

Igor Stravinsky Composer Profile

The son of the Principal Bass at the Mariinsky Theatre, Stravinsky was born at the Baltic resort of

Oranienbaum near St Petersburg in 1882. Through London Symphony Orchestra his father he met many of the leading musicians of the day and came into contact with the world of the musical theatre. In 1903 he became a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, which allowed him to get his orchestral works performed and as a result he came to the attention of Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned a new ballet from him, The Firebird.

The success of The Firebird, and then Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913) confirmed his status as a leading young composer. Stravinsky now spent most of his time in Switzerland and France, but continued to compose for Diaghilev and the Ballets BBC RADIO 3 LUNCHTIME CONCERTS COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER Russes: Pulcinella (1920), Mavra (1922), Renard AT LSO ST LUKE’S ANDREW STEWART (1922), Les Noces (1923), Oedipus Rex (1927) and Apollo (1928). CHOPIN, LISZT & LONDON RESOUNDING BARTÓK Stravinsky settled in France in 1920, eventually becoming a French citizen in 1934, and during this Thu 29 Oct 2015 1pm Thu 15 Oct 2015 1pm period moved away from his Russianism towards Alice Sara Ott piano Florilegium a new ‘neo-Classical’ style. Personal tragedy in the form of his daughter, wife and mother all dying Thu 5 Nov 2015 1pm Thu 22 Oct 2015 1pm Ashley Wass piano Ronald Brautigam within eight months of each other, and the onset of fortepiano World War II persuaded Stravinsky to move to the Thu 26 Nov 2015 1pm US in 1939, where he lived until his death. From the Maria João Pires, Thu 12 Nov 2015 1pm 1950s, his compositional style again changed, this Ashot Khachatourian Fretwork time in favour of a form of serialism. He continued piano to take on an exhausting schedule of conducting Thu 19 Nov 2015 1pm engagements until 1967, and died in in Musica ad Rhenum 1971. He was buried in Venice on the island of San Michele, close to the grave of Diaghilev. Tickets £12 (£10 concessions) plus booking fee 020 7638 8891 lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts lso.co.uk Timeline 9

Valery Gergiev LSO Principal Conductor

An electrifying musical personality. 2010 NOVEMBER 2014 Major tour to Singapore ‘Russia’s Jeux d’Esprit’ series and Australia, the Orchestra’s first visit to After his triumphant cycle of the complete Prokofiev explores Russian music from the continent for 30 years Symphonies in the LSO’s 2004 centenary year, Tchaikovsky to Shchedrin Valery Gergiev was named Principal Conductor and took up his post in January 2007, one of the 2015 Final release on most talked about appointments in classical music. LSO Live as Principal Here we look back at some of the highlights of the Conductor: Scriabin past nine years with Gergiev at the helm … Symphonies 3 & 4

SEPTEMBER 2007 First cycle as Principal Conductor: ‘Gergiev’s Mahler’ 2012–13 2012 and 2013 saw several key projects including a Szymanowski and Brahms 2007 cycle and an in-depth Berlioz exploration

2015

JANUARY 2007 First concert as LSO Principal Conductor, NOVEMBER 2014 ‘Revolutionary Russians’ including Stravinsky’s The Firebird series with pianist Denis Matsuev explores and Prokofiev’s Scythian Suite the music of Gergiev’s Russian homeland: Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky SEPTEMBER 2008 First concert of the ‘Émigré’ series featuring OCTOBER 2015 works by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Final three concerts as LSO Principal Bartók, Schoenberg and Korngold Conductor. ‘Gergiev: Man of the Theatre’ explores the stage works of Bartók and Stravinsky 2009 ‘20th Century Remembered’ series features a major focus on the works of Dutilleux MAY 2012 Gergiev conducts the first BMW LSO Open Air Classics NOVEMBER 2007 concert in London’s Trafalgar Square. For the past four years First recording for LSO Live: this annual concert has introduced crowds of thousands to Mahler Symphony No 6 the music of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Berlioz and Shostakovich 10 Article 9 October 2015

Gareth Davies, LSO Principal Flute Toothpicks and Triumphs

When Valery Gergiev arrived, it was like an electrical storm had blown into town. Most conductors when working with a new orchestra might begin with their party piece, a favourite symphony, a well trusted soloist in an old warhorse concerto, safe territory for maestro and musicians to weigh each other up before getting in the ring.

But Gergiev isn’t most conductors. He came with a complete cycle of Prokofiev symphonies.

We had a week to learn and perform all seven, many of which were unfamiliar. Difficult enough, but to add to the excitement, the concerts were broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and recorded for release by Philips. It was a bold statement of intent, and a thrilling, if terrifying week. The results were extraordinary and it was no surprise that shortly afterwards he was appointed Principal Conductor of the LSO. lso.co.uk Article 11

A man who demands flexibility as the formal relationship draws to a close in these and fleetness of foot … concerts, there is a beautiful symmetry in the return to the repertoire which perhaps draws the finest performances of this passionate partnership. That first glimpse of the intensity and speed at which he worked has proven to be the blueprint for It’s no surprise that Valery the way Gergiev’s version of the LSO has evolved. should have a particular affinity In many ways, it was always destined to be an exciting partnership. The LSO (in my opinion) is the for the music of his homeland … fastest and most flexible ensemble a conductor could ask for; coupled with a man who famously It’s no surprise that Valery should have a particular jets around the world playing multiple concerts affinity for the music of his homeland, and yet there is in different time zones, sometimes on the same something else, something in the performances that day, a champion of Russian repertoire, a man who you can’t quite describe in words. I will never forget a demands flexibility and fleetness of foot from performance of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony in Dublin his players. After our explosive courtship the a few years back. It’s one of those favourites that gets relationship has continued at the same trajectory – played to death, though more often than not, a hollow with speed, colour, excitement and risk. shell of its true self. The thing with Gergiev is this: I don’t think we’ve ever given the same performance of a There have been many highlights along the way work twice. That’s not to say it’s unreliable or inconsistent, and the repertoire has been varied. A Mahler cycle, but every performance has something unique to say. the Brahms and Szymanowski pairings, Scriabin, I can guarantee that the performance of The Firebird a different take on Berlioz … the expected and or The Rite of Spring you hear in London will not be the unexpected, the dazzling and visceral. However, same as the performances next week in New York. 12 Article 9 October 2015

Toothpicks and Triumphs continued

GARETH DAVIES has been LSO How can a man influence the same notes on Principal Flute since 2000. the page and get such different but equally Alongside playing with the LSO, thrilling performances? The truth is, I don’t know, Gareth writes regularly for BBC and don’t really think he does either. I often Music Magazine, Classic FM and his remember tiny details in performance; the way own blog, has written a book on a the leader lingered on a phrase, a distant off stage century of LSO touring, and is a trumpet, the warm embrace of the string section. professor of flute at the Royal College In Dublin that night, I don’t recall the details. of Music and Guildhall School. What I do remember is Valery ushering in the bass section at the beginning and then urging them on to play quieter and quieter at the end. Somewhere in between was a perfectly judged arc of music. Unforgettable. I came off stage exhausted and wrung out. Ironically, a performance I remember so little about is the one that haunts me the most. I came off stage exhausted and wrung out. Ironically, a performance I remember so little about is the one that haunts me the most.

The questions I get asked regularly are, ‘how do you follow his beat’, usually followed by, ‘is it a toothpick?’. The answer to the second question is ‘yes’. Why? Does it matter? Not really. The first question is a little more tricky to answer. Is it a toothpick? Does it matter? Not really.

Even if you have only the most basic knowledge of conducting technique you’ll recognise that Gergiev’s style is unconventional. Beats often move horizontally where you’d expect a vertical, the fingers quiver, there are times when it looks more like he’s trying to play the violins rather than direct them. But it works, which is sort of the point. lso.co.uk Article 13

The ride with the LSO and Gergiev … has been exhilarating and exhausting, but one which I’d London Symphony Orchestra happily strap myself in for again.

I don’t know where you’ll be sitting in the auditorium VALERY GERGIEV’S tonight, but when you see him conduct you’ll SEASON CONTINUES watch his swooping arms, the flicks of his head, the jerking of his body and the fluttering of his fingers. But take a moment and look at the musicians. When they look up from the blur of notes, they will be watching his eyes. The ride with the LSO and Gergiev, all 327 concerts, has been exhilarating and exhausting, but one which I’d happily strap myself in for again.

Sun 11 Oct 2015 7pm Stravinsky Symphony in C major GARETH DAVIES Bartók Piano Concerto No 3 THE SHOW MUST GO ON Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Valery Gergiev conductor | Yefim Bronfman piano Gareth Davies’ book, The Show Music Go On, tells stories from Sun 18 Oct 2015 7pm LSO tours, from its first trip to Bartók The Miraculous Mandarin (concert version) the US in 1912, fast-forwarding Stravinsky Chant du rossignol to a century later with tales of Bartók Concerto for Orchestra tours from 2012. Both accounts Valery Gergiev conductor include many trials and Sun 11 Oct 2015 10am–5.30pm, tribulations – volcanoes, the joy Barbican and LSO St Luke’s of airports, travel strikes, illness LSO Discovery Day: Stravinsky and Dance and life and death situations – Witness the LSO rehearse scores by Stravinsky but also the vivid descriptions of the magic in the morning, followed by chamber music and of the music-making. Get a glimpse into the discussion in the afternoon. backstage goings on and see inside the mind of the professional musician like never before. lso.co.uk | 020 7638 8891 Available online and at all good retailers. 14 Artist Biographies 9 October 2015

Valery Gergiev Conductor

Valery Gergiev has been Principal Conductor of Recent releases on the Mariinsky Label include the London Symphony Orchestra since 2007, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 1, Stravinsky’s with performances at the Barbican, BBC Proms Capriccio, and Shchedrin’s Piano Concerto No 2 and Edinburgh International Festival, as well as with Denis Matsuev; Shchedrin’s The Left Hander; leading the LSO on extensive tours of Europe, North Shostakovich’s Symphony No 9 and America and Asia. As Artistic and General Director No 1 featuring Leonidas Kavakos; Mussorgsky’s of St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre since 1988, he Pictures at an Exhibition, Dances of Death and has taken the Mariinsky ballet, opera and orchestra Night on Bare Mountain. Earlier releases include ensembles to more than 45 countries. He is Principal Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and The Gambler on Conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace and DVD, Shostakovich’s Symphonies No 4, 5, 6 and 8, assumes the role of Principal Conductor of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concertos No 1 and 2 and Munich Philharmonic Orchestra in autumn 2015. Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 with Denis Matsuev His other roles include Founder and Artistic Director and Prokofiev’s Symphony No 5. of the Stars of the White Nights, New Horizons and Mariinsky Piano festivals in St Petersburg, the Valery Gergiev’s many awards include the People’s Moscow Easter Festival, Rotterdam Philharmonic’s Artist of Russia, the Dmitri Shostakovich Award, the Principal Conductor Gergiev Festival, and the Gergiev Festival in Mikkeli. Polar Music Prize, the Netherlands’ Knight of the London Symphony Orchestra Order of the Dutch Lion, Japan’s Order of the Rising Gergiev has led numerous composer-centred concert Sun and the French Order of the Legion of Honour. Artistic & General Director cycles in New York, London and other international Mariinsky Theatre cities, featuring works by Berlioz, Brahms, Dutilleux, Mahler, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Principal Conductor Tchaikovsky, and Wagner, as well as introducing World Orchestra for Peace audiences around the world to several rarely performed Russian operas. He also serves as Chair Artistic Director of the Organisational Committee of the International Stars of the White Nights Festival Tchaikovsky Competition, Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival and Dean of the Artistic Director Faculty of Arts at the St Petersburg State University. Moscow Easter Festival Gergiev’s recordings on LSO Live and the Mariinsky Label continually win awards in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Recent releases on LSO Live include Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 3; Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, The Death of Cleopatra and Symphonie fantastique; Brahms’ German Requiem and complete symphonies; Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater and complete symphonic works. Earlier releases include the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and Mahler. lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 15

Yefim Bronfman Piano

Internationally recognised as one of today’s most Andris Nelsons, Yannick Nézet-Séguin, Sir Simon acclaimed and admired pianists, Yefim Bronfman Rattle, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Franz Welser-Möst and stands among a handful of artists regularly sought David Zinman. Summer engagements regularly take by festivals, orchestras, conductors and recital series. him to the major festivals of Europe and the US. His commanding technique, power and exceptional lyrical gifts are consistently acknowledged by the He has also given numerous solo recitals in the press and audiences alike. leading halls of North America, Europe and the Far East, including acclaimed debuts at Carnegie Hall in At the centre of the current season is a residency 1989 and David Geffen Hall, formerly Avery Fisher with the Staatskapelle Dresden, which includes Hall, in 1993. In 1991 he gave a series of joint recitals all of Beethoven’s Piano Concertos conducted by with in Russia, marking Bronfman’s first Christian Thielemann in Dresden and on tour in public performances there since his emigration to Europe. Recital performances will capture audiences Israel at age 15. That same year he was awarded the with the cycles of the daunting complete Prokofiev prestigious Avery Fisher Prize, one of the highest sonatas over three programmes in Berlin, New York’s honours given to American instrumentalists. In 2010 Carnegie Hall, and Cal Performances, Berkeley. he was the recipient of the Jean Gimbel Lane prize in piano performance from . As a regular guest, Bronfman will return to the Vienna, New York and Los Angeles Philharmonic Born in Tashkent in the Soviet Union, Yefim Bronfman Orchestras, Mariinsky, Cleveland and emigrated to Israel with his family in 1973, where Orchestras, as well as the Symphony Orchestras of he studied with pianist Arie Vardi, head of the Boston, Montreal, Toronto, San Francisco and Seattle. Rubin Academy of Music at Tel Aviv University. In the United States he studied at The , Following the success of their first US tour last Marlboro School of Music and the Curtis Institute spring, Bronfman will rejoin Anne-Sophie Mutter and of Music, under Rudolf Firkušný, Leon Fleisher and in May for a European tour that takes . He received an honorary doctorate in them from Madrid to Berlin, Moscow and Milan. 2015 from the Manhattan School of Music. Always keen to explore chamber music repertoire, his partners have also included , Magdalena Kožená, , Pinchas Zukerman and many others.

Yefim Bronfman works regularly with an illustrious group of conductors, including , Herbert Blomstedt, Semyon Bychkov, , Christoph von Dohnányi, , Charles Dutoit, Daniele Gatti, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, , Vladimir Jurowski, , , , 16 The Orchestra 9 October 2015

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FIRST VIOLINS VIOLAS FLUTES HORNS TIMPANI Paul Davies A very big, expansive and Roman Simovic Leader Edward Vanderspar Gareth Davies Timothy Jones Nigel Thomas forceful Bruckner 7 – a great start to the Carmine Lauri Gillianne Haddow Adam Walker Jose Garcia Gutierrez Antoine Bedewi Lennox Mackenzie German Clavijo Alex Jakeman Angela Barnes season and the first of three fantastic Clare Duckworth Lander Echevarria Alexander Edmundson PERCUSSION concerts under Maestro Haitink. PICCOLO Neil Percy Nigel Broadbent Anna Bastow Jonathan Lipton on the LSO with Bernard Haitink & Ginette Decuyper Julia O’Riordan Sharon Williams David Jackson Gerald Gregory Robert Turner Sam Walton Murray Perahia (15 Sep 2015) Jörg Hammann Jonathan Welch Philip Cobb Antoine Bedewi Emanuel Abbühl Maxine Kwok-Adams Elizabeth Butler Jason Evans Jeremy Cornes Katie Bennington Claire Parfitt Carol Ella Gerald Ruddock Tom Edwards Rider Dyce @londonsymphony Mind- Daniel Finney Laurent Quenelle Francis Kefford Paul Mayes HARPS blowing Bruckner at the Barbican! Harriet Rayfield Melanie Martin Bryn Lewis Thank you Maestro Haitink. Ian Rhodes Maxwell Spiers Dudley Bright Nuala Herbert Sylvain Vasseur CELLOS on the LSO with Bernard Haitink & Peter Moore Ruth Holden Rhys Watkins Tim Hugh Murray Perahia (15 Sep 2015) Alastair Blayden James Maynard Shlomy Dobrinsky Andrew Marriner CELESTE/PIANO Jennifer Brown Chris Richards BASS Elizabeth Burley SECOND VIOLINS Noel Bradshaw Chi-Yu Mo Paul Milner Keith McDonnell A magnificent David Alberman Eve-Marie Caravassilis PIANO/CELESTE #Bruckner 7 from @londonsymphony Thomas Norris Daniel Gardner BASS TUBA Catherine Edwards Miya Väisänen Hilary Jones Lorenzo Iosco Patrick Harrild @BarbicanCentre. Haitink incomparable – David Ballesteros Amanda Truelove E-FLAT CLARINET superb. Unforgettable. Richard Blayden Judith Herbert Chi-Yu Mo Matthew Gardner Orlando Jopling on the LSO with Bernard Haitink & Murray Julian Gil Rodriguez BASSOONS Perahia (15 Sep 2015) DOUBLE BASSES William Melvin Rachel Gough Colin Paris Iwona Muszynska Daniel Jemison Patrick Laurence Andrew Pollock Joost Bosdijk Louise Shackelton Matthew Gibson Oriana Kriszten Thomas Goodman CONTRA BASSOONS Gordon MacKay Joe Melvin Dominic Morgan Katerina Nazarova Jani Pensola Fraser Gordon Benjamin Griffiths Simo Väisänen

LSO STRING EXPERIENCE SCHEME

Established in 1992, the LSO String Experience The Scheme is supported by London Symphony Orchestra Editor Scheme enables young string players at the Help Musicians UK Barbican Edward Appleyard start of their professional careers to gain The Lefever Award Silk Street [email protected] work experience by playing in rehearsals The Polonsky Foundation London and concerts with the LSO. The scheme 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 Ranald Mackechnie, Dario Acosta Details in this publication were correct are treated as professional ’extra’ players at time of going to press. Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 (additional to LSO members) and receive fees for their work in line with LSO section players. Advertising Cabbell Ltd 020 3603 7937