Kristjan Järvi
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Thursday 29 November 7.30–10.05pm Barbican Hall LSO SEASON CONCERT KRISTJAN JÄRVI Charles Coleman Drenched (UK premiere) Charles Coleman Bach Inspired (UK premiere) DIVINE Philip Glass Piano Concerto No 3 (UK premiere) Interval Kristjan Järvi Too Hot to Handel (UK premiere) Steve Reich Music for Ensemble and Orchestra (UK premiere, co-commissioned by the LSO) Kristjan Järvi conductor Simone Dinnerstein piano GEOMETRY Recorded for broadcast on Monday 3 December by BBC Radio 3 Welcome Latest News On Our Blog Making her debut with the LSO this evening, BRITISH COMPOSER NOMINATIONS TWO YEARS ON: IN CONVERSATION Simone Dinnerstein performs a work written WITH NIKLAS BENJAMIN HOFFMAN for her: Philip Glass’ Piano Concerto No 3. The British Academy of Songwriters, We’ll also hear pieces by Charles Coleman Composers and Authors has announced Two years after he won the 2016 Donatella and Kristjan Järvi, which interweave music by its nominations for the 2018 British Flick LSO Conducting Competition, we Bach and Handel with original new material. Composer Awards. caught up with conductor Niklas Benjamin Hoffman to find out how the competition I would like to take this opportunity to Nominees include 2012 LSO Soundhub affected his career and what’s in store for thank BBC Radio 3, which is recording Member Richard Bullen, Soundhub this year’s winner as they take on the role tonight’s concert for broadcast on Associates Matt London and Liam Taylor- of the LSO’s Assistant Conductor. Monday 3 December. West, as well as Panufnik composers warm welcome to this evening’s Raymond Yiu (2008), Cevanne Horrocks- • lso.co.uk/blog LSO concert at the Barbican. I hope that you enjoy the concert and that Hopayian (2010) and Cassie Kinoshi Tonight we are joined by conductor you can join us again soon. On Saturday 8 (current). The winners are to be announced WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS Kristjan Järvi, as we traverse 300 years of and Sunday 9 December, Marin Alsop is joined on 4 December – the very best of luck to all. music in a unique programme illuminating by an exceptional cast of soloists and the We are delighted to welcome the the commonalities between Baroque music London Symphony Chorus to close our year • lso.co.uk/panufnik group attending tonight’s concert: and contemporary music of the 20th and of Bernstein centenary celebrations with a Linda Diggin & Friends 21st centuries. semi-staged performance of his operetta LSO EAST LONDON ACADEMY based on the novella by Voltaire, Candide. Tonight’s concert features no fewer than Developed in partnership with ten East five UK premieres and culminates in Steve London boroughs, the LSO East London Reich’s first major orchestral work for 30 Academy is the first step on a path to years, Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, making the Orchestra truly representative which was co-commissioned by the LSO Kathryn McDowell CBE DL of its community in London. Opening at LSO in partnership with an international Managing Director St Luke’s in spring 2019, it aims to identify consortium of six major orchestras. and develop the potential of young East A tireless champion of new music, Kristjan Londoners who show exceptional musical Järvi has a long-standing relationship talent, irrespective of their background or with Steve Reich, and his last performance financial circumstance. with the LSO was our Steve Reich at 80 birthday concert in 2016. • lso.co.uk/news 2 Welcome 29 November 2018 Tonight’s Concert in Brief / by Jo Kirkbride Coming Up Saturday 8 December 3–5.30pm Thursday 13 December 7.30–9.40pm ost ‘isms’ begin as reactionary the ‘divine geometry’ of the Baroque is Sunday 9 December 7–9.30pm Barbican Hall movements. Impressionism, as thrilling now as it would have been to Barbican Hall expressionism, serialism – all 17th-century ears. And by reimagining these Bartók Hungarian Peasant Songs began as a response – a retort, even – to works in the language of the 21st century Bernstein Candide (semi-staged performance) Szymanowski Harnasie prevailing trends, with those that pioneered he hopes that today’s listeners will ‘start Stravinsky Ebony Concerto them seeking to redress the balance and by closing their eyes and gradually wake up Marin Alsop conductor Osvaldo Golijov arr Gonzalo Grau kick-start new directions in music. The same in a new dimension of reality’. Garnett Bruce director Nazareno for two pianos and orchestra is true of minimalism, which emerged in the Leonardo Capalbo Candide Bernstein Prelude, Fugue and Riffs mid-20th century as a reaction to the hyper- Jane Archibald Cunegonde expressionism of the post-war era, its clear PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Anne Sofie von Otter The Old Lady Sir Simon Rattle conductor contours, repetitive structures and return to Sir Thomas Allen Dr Pangloss, Narrator Edgaras Montvidas tenor tonality signifying a recourse to order and Jo Kirkbride is a freelance writer on classical London Symphony Chorus Chris Richards clarinet balance, to objectivity over subjectivity. But music, whose broad roster of clients includes Katia and Marielle Labèque pianos as with most ‘isms’ it is locked into ideas the London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, Wednesday 12 December 6.30–7.30pm London Symphony Chorus from the past too, every step taken forward Aldeburgh Productions, Cheltenham Festival Barbican Hall Simon Halsey chorus director casting a glance backwards at the same time. and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She holds a masters from Cambridge University HALF SIX FIX: JAZZ ROOTS Sunday 16 December 7–9.15pm Today’s programme connects the dots. It is and a doctorate from Durham University. Tuesday 18 December 7.30–9.45pm a story, as Kristjan Järvi puts it, of ‘two boys A one-hour, early-evening performance. Barbican Hall from the same neighbourhood in Germany Soak up the informal atmosphere, hear and two boys from the same neighbourhood introductions from the conductor, bring in Brahms Violin Concerto in New York. It’s the story of how these two your drink and enjoy the music. Debussy Images Baroque masters are reborn, reincarnated Enescu Romanian Rhapsody No 1 * in the 20th century as Steve Reich and Stravinsky Ebony Concerto Phillip Glass.’ Separated by more than 350 Osvaldo Golijov arr Gonzalo Grau Nazareno Sir Simon Rattle conductor years, the music in today’s programme for two pianos and orchestra Leonidas Kavakos violin nevertheless coalesces in both sound and Bernstein Prelude, Fugue and Riffs spirit. This is music united by counterpoint, * Performance of Enescu’s Romanian Rhapsody No 1 interplay and motoric rhythmic momentum, Sir Simon Rattle conductor supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute by its defined tonal language and clear Chris Richards clarinet harmonic patterns, by what Järvi calls Katia and Marielle Labèque pianos ‘unbelievably perfect symmetry’. For Järvi Tonight’s Concert 3 Charles Coleman Drenched 2014 (UK premiere) Charles Coleman Bach Inspired 2014 (UK premiere) harles Coleman’s style is not reharmonised and reworked’, its features 1 Prelude in B minor Heiland’, is based upon Ferruccio Busoni’s easy to classify. His scores bear amplified rather than redesigned. ‘This 2 Innovation J.S. 1907 arrangement for piano, orchestrated by traces of jazz, traditional and series of beloved suites by Handel have 3 Chorale ‘Nun komm’ der Heiden Heiland’ Coleman for strings alone. ‘For me’, writes even rock influences, just as readily as they a plethora of material familiar to most 4 Branded Coleman, ‘there was something alluring in the incorporate ideas and procedures from the classical music lovers’, says Coleman, intimacy and lyricalness of the work, that western classical tradition. He is fascinated ‘which I had a lot of fun playing with and ccording to Charles Coleman, ‘For adding additional instruments felt intrusive. by the principles of neoclassicism and, like incorporating in my compositional kitchen.’ • us composers, Johann Sebastian Using the strings alone felt right as rain.’ The Stravinsky (whom he cites as one of his Bach represents the best in all effect of these extraordinary orchestrations ‘heroes’), he thrives on the opportunity to music making. Bach’s oeuvre is the template is that Bach no longer sounds like Bach – the take something antiquated and reinvent it on which we depend when we try to write Prelude in B minor, with its gently oscillating as something contemporary and relevant. the best music we can. In short, Bach is arpeggios over sustained, ethereal strings, God!’ Few would argue with Coleman’s hushed dynamics and brooding brass sounds Handel, he says, has always been an ‘indirect assessment, with countless composers utterly of the 19th century. The ‘Coleman influence’ on his work as a composer, but having arranged and adapted Bach’s movements’, meanwhile, reimagine Bach’s recomposing Handel’s Water Music for music over the years. But Bach Inspired is inherent rippling textures in a more driving, Drenched offered Coleman the chance a little different. Of its four movements, upbeat context, coalescing into what to revel in and reaffirm the ‘unparalleled two comprise new material composed by Coleman describes as ‘a relentless groove gloriousness that grabs everyone who Coleman and based on fragments lifted and affluent atmosphere’. • comes across his oeuvre’. Tinged with from Bach’s original scores, which Coleman minimalist impulses and a guided by ‘tossed into his mixing bowl’. The other two a strong rhythmic current, Drenched is movements, meanwhile, are arrangements of less a complete recomposition of one of arrangements. That is, they are orchestrations Handel’s best-known works and more a of keyboard works by Bach that have already magnification of the score. Stretched out been adapted by other composers. across a broad orchestral landscape, these isolated fragments zoom into view and Thus, the first movement is an orchestration take on new stature, becoming grander by Coleman of Bach’s Prelude in E minor and more imposing with Coleman’s bold from The Well-Tempered Clavier – not of its reorchestration.