sign in sign up
<<
Home , Akhnaten (opera), Holy minimalism, Raymond Yiu, Simone Dinnerstein, Two Boys, Violin Concerto (Glass)

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 Piano No 3 (UK premiere) Interval Kristjan Järvi Too Hot to Handel (UK premiere) 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 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 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 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, – 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 tonality signifying a recourse to order and Jo Kirkbride is a freelance writer on classical London Symphony Chorus Chris Richards 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 , 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 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 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. And while the outer original version but of the arrangement in sections of Drenched inhabit a distinctly B minor by the Russian pianist Alexander contemporary soundworld, at its centre Siloti. The third movement, an orchestration we hear Handels Bourrée ‘slowed down, of Bach’s chorale ‘Nun komm’ der Heiden Programme notes by Jo Kirkbride

4 Programme Notes 29 November 2018 Charles Coleman in Profile b 1968

omposer, vocalist and conductor, Many commissions followed including Coleman’s works have appeared on many Charles Coleman’s musical life Pavement (2002) with the Dogs of Desire recordings, notably Absolute Mix which won began as a boy at the chamber orchestra conducted by David the German Record Critics Award in the year Metropolitan and has evolved into a Alan Miller. Latarnia (2005) for 2000. In January 2011, Coleman’s Streetscape career composing works for many ensembles and Orchestra was performed by the Riga and Deep Woods appeared on a release both in America and abroad. Chamber Players under Normunds Sne. entitled American Portraits featuring Paavo Red Oak Dawn (2006) was premiered by Järvi and the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra He studied at the Manhattan School of Music the New Jersey Symphony under the baton on their record label CSO Media. In 2017, where he met conductor Kristjan Järvi, with of Neeme Järvi. his orchestral arrangement of Philip Glass’ whom he and Gene Pritsker founded the Aguas da Amazonia was released on the Absolute Ensemble. Coleman was named In early 2007, Coleman spent five weeks Orange Mountain Music label with Kristjan Composer-in-Residence of the ensemble as Composer-in-Residence with the Järvi leading the MDR Symphony Orchestra in 1997, writing his 1999 work Absolution for Cincinnati Symphony, teaching, composing of Leipzig. them. The piece was recorded for the ENJA and lecturing as part of ‘Music Alive’, a NOVA label and nominated for the Best Small programme that partners the ‘Meet the As a vocalist, Coleman has Ensemble Performance Grammy in 2002. Composer’ Foundation with the American particularly championed the music of Gene Symphony Orchestra League. The main Pritsker, Dan Cooper and Elias Tannenbaum. In 2000, Coleman received a commission to event of this residency featured the He has performed and co-produced A Night write a major symphonic work celebrating Cincinnati Symphony-commissioned of Grand Opera for two seasons at the the opening of the Cincinnati Symphony world premiere of his Deep Woods at the Sandisfield Arts Center in Massachusetts, Orchestra’s 2001/02 season with its then CSO Music Hall conducted by Paavo Järvi. hosted by the baritone Benjamin Luxon. new Music Director, Paavo Järvi. Streetscape Coleman returned to New York later that Coleman has also performed in the world for Full Orchestra – a furious walk through year to premiere his new chamber opera, premieres of twelve different the streets of Coleman’s native Manhattan, Redemption, commissioned by Golden (including his own Redemption). He is was first performed on 14 September, Fleece Ltd. In October of 2013 the premiere a regular performer with Composers 2001 in Cincinnati, three days after the of his Violin Concerto took place with the Concordance and the ‘Caffe Taci Opera Nights’ destruction of the World Trade Center. Constella Music Festival Orchestra and violin at the Papillion Bistro in . • Streetscape has since been performed by soloist Tatiana Berman, once again, under various groups including the San Francisco the baton of Paavo Järvi. The piece received Symphony and the Riga Festival Orchestra. its European premiere a year later with the Pärnu Music Festival in Estonia.

Composer Profile 5 Philip Glass Piano Concerto No 3 2017 (UK premiere) / note by Jo Kirkbride

1 Movement I fragments and cyclical rhythms have Three years later his Piano Concerto No 3 into a piano ‘cadenza’ that is not so much 2 Movement II become features that colour the surface, came to fruition, its score a testament to an opportunity for flashy passagework 3 Movement III (for Arvo Pärt) the hallmarks of a style that has matured the ‘depth of emotion and understanding’ as a thoughtful soliloquy that emerges and developed but never quite renounced that Glass heard in Dinnerstein’s playing organically out of the orchestral texture. Simone Dinnerstein piano its origins. If anything, Glass has allowed on their very first meeting. But if there is understatement elsewhere in himself to step backwards, to embrace Glass’ concerto, then the last movement is lass has never liked the term rich, romantic sonorities that in the 1960s Although deeply heartfelt, this is not a its apotheosis, a meditative, slow-moving ‘minimalism’, preferring instead would have seemed outdated but which showy, virtuosic score. On the contrary, the expanse of score in which Glass pays homage to call himself a composer of now, in the early years of the 21st century, Third Piano Concerto seems to retreat into to the ‘holy minimalism’ of Arvo Pärt. ‘It’s a ‘music with repetitive structures’. Glass have regained their appeal. itself, becoming ever more introspective over piece which you’ll recognise as being inspired studied alongside Reich at the Julliard the course of its three movements which – by him’, Glass says, ‘yet it’s something that School of Music before moving to northern His three piano – from No 1 flying in the face of the fast–slow–fast he would never have written.’ Europe to study with Nadia Boulanger and ‘Tirol’ in 2000, through No 2 ‘After Lewis & concerto tradition – proceed from slow, to renowned Indian musician and composer, Clark’ in 2004, to the Piano Concerto No 3, slower to slowest. Neither is the pianist Ravi Shankar. A visit to India followed in completed in 2017 and receiving its UK cast in opposition to the orchestra; rather, 1966 and Glass soon renounced his earlier premiere this evening – all embrace this says Dinnerstein, ‘it’s as if the orchestra works, instead pursuing a more ‘minimalist’ deeply expressive, post-Romantic idiom. grows out of the piano’. So, as the work approach to composition using the repetitive It is as though the piano brings out in eases into motion, we hear the gentle rhythmic structures of Indian music. Over Glass a more expansive means of writing, oscillation of soft piano chords against a the next few years, his works would become a more impassioned voice stripped of the quietly moving bassline, which is gradually increasingly rigorous, focusing intently on processes and rigour that characterise many joined by the , then the double intricate rhythmic patterns and repeated of his other scores. It took Glass 13 years to basses and eventually the violins. As the harmonic structures, stripping music back consider composing another piano concerto texture thickens, so the ensemble gains to its barest elements. after his Second and even then, the work momentum too, the crotchets exchanged came about partly by chance. ‘Several years for rippling quavers, then triplets, as the More than half a century later, Glass’ style ago’, Glass remembers, ‘Simone Dinnerstein movement swells from that first piano has moved on, but his signature remains the visited me at my home in New York City kernel – only returning to the solo piano in same. The repetitive, ‘additive processes’ and played a short programme of Schubert the movement’s closing bars. Arpeggiated Interval – 20 minutes that earned Glass his association with and Glass. She played with a complete fragments – a familiar feature of Glass’ There are bars on all levels. minimalism remain present, but these have mastery of technique, depth of emotion, signature style – dominate the second Visit the Barbican Shop on Level -1 to become less and less of a driving factor in and understanding. Right away I knew I movement, which cycles in increasingly see our range of Gifts and Accessories. his scores. Instead, these repeated melodic would someday compose music for her.’ dense, repeated pockets, before melting

6 Programme Notes 29 November 2018 Philip Glass in Profile b 1937

hrough his operas, his symphonies, Chicago, the and in Aspen from new scores for the stylised classics of his compositions for his own with Darius Milhaud. Finding himself Jean Cocteau to Errol Morris’ documentary ensemble, and his wide-ranging dissatisfied with much of modern music, about former defence secretary Robert collaborations with artists ranging from he moved to Europe, where he studied with McNamara; string quartets; and a growing Twyla Tharp to Allen Ginsberg, Woody Allen the legendary pedagogue Nadia Boulanger body of work for solo piano and organ. He to David Bowie, Philip Glass has had an (who also taught , Virgil has collaborated with Paul Simon, Linda extraordinary and unprecedented impact upon Thomson and Quincy Jones) and worked Ronstadt, Yo-Yo Ma and Doris Lessing, the musical and intellectual life of his times. closely with the sitar virtuoso and composer among many others. He presents lectures, Ravi Shankar. He returned to New York in workshops, and solo keyboard performances His operas , 1967 and formed the – around the world, and continues to appear , , and , seven musicians playing keyboards and a regularly with the Philip Glass Ensemble. • among others, play throughout the world’s variety of woodwinds, amplified and fed leading houses. Glass has written music through a mixer. for experimental theatre and for Academy Award-winning motion pictures such as The new musical style that Glass and The Hours and Martin Scorsese’s , others were evolving was eventually dubbed while , his initial filmic ‘minimalism.’ Glass himself never liked landscape with Godfrey Reggio and the the term and preferred to speak of himself Philip Glass Ensemble, is a radical and as a composer of ‘music with repetitive influential mating of sound and vision. structures.’ Much of his early work was His associations, personal and professional, based on the extended reiteration of brief, with leading rock, pop and world music melodic fragments that wove in and out artists date back to the 1960s, including the of an aural tapestry. beginning of his collaborative relationship with artist . Indeed, Glass is There has been nothing ‘minimalist’ about the first composer to win a wide, multi- his output. In the past 25 years, Glass has generational audience in the opera house, composed more than 20 operas, large and the concert hall, the dance world, in film small; ten symphonies (with others already and in popular music simultaneously. on the way); and three piano concertos, as well as concertos for violin, piano, timpani, Glass was born in 1937 and grew up in and saxophone quartet and orchestra. He Baltimore. He studied at the University of has written soundtracks to films ranging

Composer Profile 7 Simone Dinnerstein in Conversation

with this extremely meditative movement with a drone that’s in the for almost the whole movement. As a piece of music, it’s not about flash, it’s philosophical and personal. Rather than piano and orchestra being pitched against one another, the piano and orchestra unite seamlessly, which is what gives it a real sense of intimacy.

This programme bridges Baroque and contemporary music, something you’ve done quite a lot. What do you think links this music together so well?

The first thing our audience should know Billboard charts in the same week that I live). I was on his show talking about my Well, one commonality is that they both about you is that you’re something of an it came out. Suddenly, my whole career new release, and we didn’t know about leave a great deal to the performer and entrepreneur – you self-published your changed. That moment led to me having the Billboard then but we knew about the interpreter. In both Philip Glass’ music first album. How did that happen? an international concert career. And at that , and for some of the time I was and Bach’s, there’s very little written in time people weren’t really doing crowd- on his show, it was ahead of the White the score to indicate how to interpret the o back in 2005, I was a freelance sourcing and it was more of an indie-rock Stripes! He found this out and he was music, in terms of phrasing, dynamics, pianist in New York. I didn’t have approach to building your career. So I’ve just so excited, here was his daughter’s tempo and articulation. As a result I think any management or a record label had an unusual route to where I am right now! piano teacher doing this! The whole thing their music is very flexible. You could hear and I hadn’t won any major competitions. felt quite unreal and I felt dazed. In fact I a jazz pianist play Bach and you could hear But I had been performing Bach’s Goldberg Do you remember the moment you found felt dazed for several years actually! a very Romantic interpretation or a period Variations and I felt like I had something out that the record had got to Number One? interpretation on a harpsichord, but it’s all to say. So I raised the money, found a How would you describe the Philip Glass Bach. And Glass is the same. • producer and made a recording of them. Yes, I remember very well, because I was on concerto to someone who doesn’t know it? And that recording eventually got picked the radio in New York City being interviewed Read the whole interview at lso.co.uk/blog up by Telarc, which is an audiophile label in by our local public radio station. The host I think it’s quite an introspective, lyrical the US, and through a series of remarkable of the show was the father of one of my work. It has a really lush sound that at times circumstances it got a lot of attention and ten-year-old piano students (that was part can get quite edgy. To me, it sounds like it went to Number One on the classical music of how I made my living in where even borders on classic rock at times. It ends

8 Simone Dinnerstein in Conversation 29 November 2018 New Music in 2019

‘It is an amazing work for a huge orchestra that surrounds the whole audience on various levels. The piece is a firework of amazing sound.’

François-Xavier Roth on Philippe Manoury’s Ring (24 March)

LSO DISCOVERY FREE FRIDAY LUNCHTIME CONCERTS with LSO Musicians & Jerwood Composer+ Daniel Kidane 4 January to 22 March 2019, LSO St Luke’s

CREATIVE FORUM Getting It Right? New Music / New Technologies 20 March 2019, Milton Court Concert Hall FUTRES LSO SEASON CONCERT Donghoon Shin Kafka’s Dream (LSO Panufnik world premiere) Read more and book online Philippe Manoury Ring plus David Lang & Scriabin lso.co.uk with François-Xavier Roth 24 March 2019, Barbican

PUBLIC WORKSHOP Panufnik Composers Workshop with François-Xavier Roth 25 March 2019, LSO St Luke’s Kristjan Järvi Too Hot to Handel 2018 (UK premiere) / note by Jo Kirkbride

1 I attention to composing, and his style is just the traditional orchestral palette. At times, • LSO CURATED PLAYLIST 2 II as diverse and genre-defying as you might what Järvi offers comes close to a cacophony 3 III expect. ‘This is what happens when the of sound, each section of the orchestra 4 IV motoric beats of electronica meet Baroque seemingly riffing and extemporising at 5 V music – it’s like Radiohead that segues into will, both with and against the other 6 VI Handel,’ he says of tonight’s UK premiere, instruments around them. At others, Järvi 7 VII Too Hot to Handel. gives us ‘a sparse, minimal electronica type 8 VIII of vibe… almost a renaissance drumming 9 IX The humour of the work’s title is a feel.’ Järvi’s aim is to capture and transmit 10 X reflection of the score as a whole, the pun a the irresistible energy and propulsion of 11 XI testament to -heartedness and joy the Baroque, just as readily as he conveys 12 XII that Järvi wants to transmit to audiences its quieter, more reflective moments. And 13 XIII both inside and outside the concert hall. across the work’s 13 individual movements – What’s important is ‘that people see which mimic an enlarged Baroque dance ristjan Järvi is a conductor on a that [performance] is a living being, this suite – he combines the hallmarks of mission – to break down borders creation in front of them, that it happens Handel’s style with the unmistakeable in classical music. ‘They are only then and there and in the now’, he influence of minimalism. In movement Take the sounds of Baroque and the 21st everywhere’, he says. And dismantling says of the concert-going experience. Järvi IX, pulsing quavers suddenly mutate into century with you – just search ‘Divine them can only be achieved, he believes, wears his influences lightly, and whileToo the stately dotted rhythms of the Baroque Geometry’ on Apple Music and add us by ‘composers who think along the social Hot to Handel is of course a work written in overture; at the end of movement VII we to your library. fabric that exists outside of the realm of the homage to Handel, it is also a work written hear the brief, closing strains of a chorale; regular concert halls and the contemporary for the 21st century, with a view to reviving, in movement V what begins as a somewhat new music ‘avant-garde’, and really connect reinventing and transforming Handel’s delicate, triple-time dance eventually with the people.’ Järvi may just be one of music – rather than placing it on a pedestal. collapses into an ‘Explosif’ final section. • those composers. Järvi’s score bristles with influences almost Born in Estonia, Järvi grew up in New too disparate to pinpoint, the fragments of York City, the same musical melting pot Handel’s Baroque Concerti Grossi jostling that produced all the composers on the with the strains of jazz, minimalism, rock programme this evening. Although more and electronica. Enriching this soundworld familiar to concertgoers for his work on the are instruments typically foreign to the podium, in recent years Järvi has turned his orchestra too, which augment and enliven

10 Programme Notes 29 November 2018 Kristjan Järvi in Conversation

Can you tell us about the concept behind tonight’s programme?

think there’s a certain thread that connects this music. The concert is called ‘Divine Geometry’ and it centres around two boys from the same neighbourhood in Germany (Handel and Bach) and two boys from the same neighbourhood in New York (Reich and Glass). It’s the story of how these two Baroque masters are reborn, reincarnated in the 20th century as Steve Reich and Phillip Glass. Grossi which Kristjan has orchestrated. Why does Baroque music fascinate you? between Baroque and minimalism, and get There are so many similarities. Baroque Hopefully they won’t even see it as an a footing on what connects them. Even if music has got a motoric beat, and a defined old piece – they’ll see it as a new piece by Well, Baroque is ba-rock, you know? If you you don’t care about Reich, Glass or Baroque chordal structure, and a perfect symmetry Handel, just written in the 21st century. played Baroque music to someone who music, there’s a correspondence that you in its larger form and internal overtone doesn’t know classical music, and if you can hear in the music. structure. It’s a very similar way of writing What would you want the audience to hold play that to them in a gutsy, committed to Reich and Glass, who do it in their own in their minds as they listen to Too Hot to way that rocks out, I think they would fall Are there any challenges that go along with unique languages just like Bach and Handel. Handel for the first time? in love with it immediately. They’d think, playing your own works? ‘This is the most modern, hippest music There’s also a sense of connectivity to their That it’s a journey. If I had to say, what I’d around!’ – and that’s my experience. Well there’s no problem with interpretation! surroundings. Bach and Handel were writing like for them to do is to start by closing And there’s the advantage that the players with the natural surroundings which existed their eyes and gradually wake up in some It’s actually really progressive, Handel in can question the content directly because 300 years ago, before electricity and the rush new dimension of reality. It should be their particular. People wouldn’t say Telemann the composer’s right there. But you are of modern life. They were resonating their reality, maybe somewhere they having gone was hip, but he is! It just doesn’t sound 100% exposed. You really are taking all your surroundings in the same way the Reich and before, but where they are the main actor. sexy to say I’m going to listen to some clothes off in front of everyone, and unless Glass resonate with the 21st century. Telemann. But if you include it in a concept you’re comfortable with doing that, you But there’s no doctrine here. It’s more about like in tonight’s concert, Divine Geometry, shouldn’t really do it! • For my piece, I wouldn’t want people to what the listener can imagine rather than then people can understand how the old and think that it’s a collection of Handel Concerti what I can imagine for the listener! new relate. They’ll understand the bridge Read the whole interview at lso.co.uk/blog

Kristjan Järvi in Conversation 11 Steve Reich Music for Ensemble and Orchestra 2018 (UK premiere) / note by Jo Kirkbride

1 Today, however, the orchestral landscape In Reich’s words: ‘The tempo is fixed Co-commissioned by 2 is very different. ‘A lot of the orchestral but the speed varies from movement to Los Angeles Philharmonic Association, 3 musicians know my style’, Reich says, movement via different note values: 16ths, Gustavo Dudamel, Music & Artistic Director 4 ‘particularly the percussionists, and there 8ths, quarters, 8ths and 16ths.’ This arch , 5 is a new generation of younger conductors is reflected, too, in the work’s key scheme, Jaap van Zweden, Music Director that are well aware of my music and very which moves between tonal areas each a London Symphony Orchestra hen Reich published Music for 18 skilled at performing it.’ 30 years since his minor third apart: A–C–E-flat–F-sharp–A. San Francisco Symphony Musicians in 1976, it signified a last orchestral score, Music for Ensemble Sydney Symphony Orchestra sea change in his output. In its and Orchestra represents Reich’s return to Reich’s orchestra takes something of Baltic Sea Philharmonic instrumental scale, performance length and a large-scale canvas, its design combining a supporting role here, the intricacy of harmonic design, the work represented the the intricate detailing of the ensemble with the melodic writing largely given over to greatest advancement in Reich’s exploration the grandiose soundworld afforded by the the members of the ensemble who, in of minimalism to date. And at around an orchestra. Part concerto, part orchestral characteristic Reich fashion, echo, chase hour for a typical performance, it was also suite, the work pits these components and overlap one another as they exchange the largest and most complex work he had against one another in two distinct structural fragments of the melodic material. Within yet written, centred around the same phase- layers, each with different functions. the ensemble, Reich provides pairings too – shifting techniques that had anchored his ‘I looked at the orchestral stage and saw that first violin and first , then second earlier – smaller-scale – compositions. In the an ensemble very similar to what I usually violin and second flute, and so on – with decade that followed he would concentrate write for was already sitting there in two these pairings swapping around as new on longer, more substantial works for larger horseshoes, with the front strings and the ideas are introduced. While these pairings ensembles, including The Desert Music (1983) principal woodwinds’, Reich explains. ‘These interlock with one another to form the and Three Movements (1986), but in 1987 his players, together with two pianos and two familiar musical patchwork of Reich’s score, output for orchestra came to an abrupt halt. vibes became my ensemble. For the orchestra the exchange of instrumentation ensures I added four and a .’ that the colours of this fabric remain ever- ‘I was starting to write for larger forces changing too, creating a rippling, iridescent beyond the size that my ensemble could Conceived in five untitled movements, the effect that pulses and shimmers above the tour’, Reich explains, adding that the work’s large-scale design is – true to form – sustained orchestral backdrop. • orchestras who were being asked to perform tethered to the detail of the small-scale his music were ‘completely out of touch with processes too. So, Reich creates a five-part my idiom and were unable to play it well at arch form (a reference to his admiration all.’ Dissatisfied and disheartened, Reich for Bartók) which is delineated by the ceased composing for orchestra altogether. rhythmic pulse of each individual movement.

12 Programme Notes 29 November 2018 Steve Reich in Profile b 1936

teve Reich’s music has been Reich’s documentary video opera works The the Golden Lion at the Venice Biennale. influential for composers and Cave and Three Tales – done in collaboration He also received the 2016 Nemmers Prize mainstream musicians all over with video artist Beryl Korot – have pushed in Music Composition from Northwestern the world. His work is known for a steady the boundaries of the operatic medium and University as well as the Schuman Award pulse, repetition and a fascination with have been presented on four continents. from Columbia University, the Montgomery canons. It combines rigorous structures Fellowship from Dartmouth College, and the with propulsive rhythms and seductive Reich’s music has been performed by major Regent’s Lectureship at the University of instrumental colour, and also embraces non- orchestras and ensembles around the world, California at Berkeley. He has been awarded western harmonies and those of American including the New York and Los Angeles honorary doctorates from the Royal College vernacular music (especially jazz). Philharmonics, as well as the London, of Music, the Juilliard School, the Liszt Sydney, San Francisco and Boston Symphony Academy in Budapest, and the New Born in New York and raised between there Orchestras. His compositions have also Conservatory of Music. and California, Reich graduated with a been performed by London Sinfonietta, degree in philosophy from Cornell University , Ensemble Modern, This November, Susanna Mälkki led the Los in 1957. For the next two years, he studied Ensemble Intercontemporain, Ensemble Angeles Philharmonic in the world premiere composition with Hall Overton, and from Signal, International Contemporary of Reich’s Music for Ensemble and Orchestra, 1958 to 1961, he studied at the Juilliard Ensemble, Bang on a Can All-Stars, Alarm which receives its UK premiere with the LSO School of Music with William Bergsma Will Sound and eighth blackbird. Several and Kristjan Järvi this evening. The work is and Vincent Persichetti. Reich received his noted choreographers have created dances also performed this season by the Sydney master’s degree in music from Mills College to his music, including Anne Teresa de Symphony Orchestra under David Robertson, in 1963, where he worked with Luciano Berio Keersmaeker, Jiří Kylián, Jerome Robbins, and San Francisco Symphony with Michael and Darius Milhaud. His studies have also Justin Peck, Wayne McGregor, Benjamin Tilson Thomas. Reich has also composed included Balinese gamelan, African drumming Millepied and Christopher Wheeldon. a new collaborative art piece with Gerhard (at the University of Ghana), and traditional Richter for the opening of The Shed, a new forms of chanting of the Hebrew scriptures. Reich was awarded the Gold Medal in Music multi-arts centre in New York City. Debuting by the American Academy of Arts and this spring, the new large ensemble work His works Different Trains and Music for 18 Letters in 2012. He was named Commandeur explores the shared structure of Reich’s Musicians have earned Grammy Awards, de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in France, new work and Richter’s Patterns, and is as has an album of his percussion works. as well as member in the Bavarian Academy premiered by musicians from Ensemble Double Sextet won the Pulitzer Prize in 2009. of Fine Arts. His honours include the Signal, the International Contemporary Japan’s Praemium Imperiale, Sweden’s Ensemble and AXIOM. • Polar Music Prize, Spain’s BBVA Award and

Programme Notes 13 Kristjan Järvi conductor

s a conductor, producer, composer Absolute Ensemble and the MDR Radio and arranger, Kristjan Järvi Symphony Orchestra. LEEDS PIANO FESTIVAL IN LONDON embraces everything in his professional life with an indomitable spirit As a recording artist Järvi has more than 60 Thursday 4 April 1pm, LSO St Luke’s of creative and innovative entrepreneurship. albums to his credit, from soundtracks to SCHOLARS Hollywood films like Cloud Atlas, Sense 8 According to Reuters, he has ‘earned a (both productions of the Wachowski sisters), Three young pianists, hand-picked by reputation as one of the canniest and most and Hologram for the King (Tom Tykwer) to Lang Lang, showcase their talents. innovative programmers on the classical award-winning albums on Sony Classical scene’. As a conductor, he directs music and Chandos, to his eponymous series: Thursday 4 April 7.30pm, LSO St Luke’s ranging from Wagner to Radiohead on many The Kristjan Järvi Sound Project. ERIC LU of the big international concert stages. An entrepreneur by nature and a passionate Be one of the first to hear Eric Lu, winner In both his programming and composition, producer, Kristjan Järvi runs his own of ‘The Leeds’ 2018, who held jury and Kristjan Järvi aims to defy musical production company, Sunbeam Productions, audience spellbound by his performances. orthodoxy, instead pursuing pioneering ideas which bundles all his activities. Sunbeam and concepts which he realises principally Productions is the producer of the latest Thursday 5 April 7.30pm, LSO St Luke’s with three main bands and orchestras. concert shows Waterworks (2017/18), STEVEN OSBORNE Together with Gene Pritsker and Charles Absolute Club featuring Francesco Tristano Coleman, he is a co-founder of the New York- and Nordic Pulse (2018). Known for his insightful interpretations, based classical-hip-hop-jazz group Absolute Steven Osborne explores Beethoven’s Ensemble. He is also founder-conductor Born in Estonia, Kristjan Järvi emigrated to final, profound piano sonatas. and artistic director of the Baltic Sea the United States as a child and grew up in Philharmonic and he is leader of Sunbeam New York City. Kristjan comes from a family Saturday 6 April 7.30pm, LSO St Luke’s Production’s in-house band Nordic Pulse. of conductors including his father Neeme BARRY DOUGLAS and his elder brother Paavo. In 2015, Kristjan Kristjan Järvi collaborates internationally relocated his centre of life from the US back Barry Douglas pairs miniatures with more with outstanding and creative personalities to Tallinn, Estonia. • expansive works, in a concert featuring across the art, music and film scenes. He Tchaikovsky, Rachmaninov and Schubert. has written music for Tom Tykwer’s German crime drama series Babylon Berlin, and lso.co.uk/leedsinlondon recorded music for the series with both the

14 Artist Biographies 29 November 2018 Simone Dinnerstein piano

merican pianist Simone , which reached No 1 on Orchestra, Orquestra Sinfonica Brasileira, Dinnerstein is known for her the US Billboard Classical Chart in its first and the Tokyo Symphony. ‘majestic originality of vision’ week of sales and was named in many ‘Best (The Independent) and her ‘lean, knowing of 2007’ lists including those of The New Dinnerstein has played concerts throughout and unpretentious elegance’ (The New York Times, The Los Angeles Times and The the US for the Piatigorsky Foundation, an Yorker). The 2017/18 season saw several New Yorker. The recording also received the organisation dedicated to bringing classical major projects for her, including the release prestigious Diapason D’Or. The New York music to non-traditional venues. She gave of her album Mozart in Havana, which Times called her ‘a unique voice in the forest the first classical music performance in was recorded in Cuba with the Havana of Bach interpretation’ and she has gone on the Louisiana state prison system at the Lyceum Orchestra. She went on to bring to make a further eight albums since, with Avoyelles Correctional Center, and performed the orchestra to the United States for repertoire ranging from Beethoven to Ravel. at the Maryland Correctional Institution their first ever American tour, playing for Women in a concert organised by the eleven concerts from Miami to Boston. Since 2007 the New York-based pianist’s Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Dedicated performance schedule has taken her to her community, Dinnerstein founded Philip Glass wrote his Third Piano Concerto around the world. She has performed at Neighborhood Classics in 2009, a concert for Dinnerstein, co-commissioned by a venues including the Kennedy Center for series open to the public hosted by New York consortium of twelve orchestras. She the Performing Arts, Konzerthaus, public schools to raise funds for their music gave the world premiere of the piece in Berlin Philharmonie, Sydney Opera education programs. She has also created a Boston with A Far Cry string orchestra in House, Seoul Arts Center, and Wigmore programme called Bachpacking for elementary what the Wall Street Journal described Hall. She has also appeared at festivals schools. She takes a digital keyboard into as a ‘graceful, fluid reading.’ During 2018 including the Lincoln Center Mostly Mozart individual classrooms, helping young children Dinnerstein performs the concerto with Festival, the Aspen, Verbier, and Ravinia to get close to the music she loves. twelve orchestras across America and Festivals; and given performances with internationally. Aside from the LSO, she the Vienna Symphony Orchestra, Dresden A winner of Astral Artists’ National Auditions, performs the work with the Manitoba Philharmonic, Staatskapelle Berlin and RAI Dinnerstein studied at The Juilliard School Chamber Orchestra and the MDR Leipzig National Symphony Orchestra. She has where she was a student of . Radio Symphony Orchestra. She also performed with the Royal Scottish National She also studied with Solomon Mikowsky released a recording of Glass’ Piano Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, Danish at the Manhattan School of Music and in Concerto No 3 with A Far Cry in spring 2018. National Symphony Orchestra, New York London with Maria Curcio. She is on the Philharmonic, Minnesota Orchestra, Atlanta faculty of the Mannes School of Music and Dinnerstein first attracted attention in 2007 Symphony, Baltimore Symphony, Montreal lives in Brooklyn with her husband and son. • with her self-produced recording of Bach’s Symphony Orchestra, Melbourne Symphony

Artist Biographies 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Violas Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Roman Simovic Gillianne Haddow Gareth Davies Katy Woolley Tom Edwards Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Malcolm Johnston Jack Welch Beth Randell Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Anna Bastow Stephen Craigen Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Carmine Lauri German Clavijo Piccolo Jonathan Lipton Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Clare Duckworth Robert Turner Rebecca Larsen Sam Walton work experience by playing in rehearsals Ginette Decuyper Ilona Bondar Trumpets Jake Brown and concerts with the LSO. The musicians William Melvin May Dolan Philip Cobb are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Elizabeth Pigram Nancy Johnson Christopher Cowie Catherine Knight Keyboards (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Claire Parfitt Erika Horsley Rosie Jenkins Niall Keatley John Alley for their work in line with LSO section players. Sylvain Vasseur Rachel Robson David Geoghegan Philip Moore Rhys Watkins The Scheme is supported by: Rebecca Dinning Cellos Chris Richards Bass Guitar The Polonsky Foundation Eleanor Fagg Tim Hugh Chi-Yu Mo Donal Bannister Chris Hill Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Takane Funatsu Alastair Blayden James Maynard Derek Hill Foundation Hilary Jane Parker Jennifer Brown Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation André Gaio Pereira Noel Bradshaw Dan Jemison Bass Rod Stafford Eve-Marie Caravassilis Lawrence O’Donnell Paul Milner Second Violin Daniel Gardner Julian Gil Rodriguez Hilary Jones Contra Bassoon Thomas Norris Simon Thompson Dominic Morgan Sasha Koushk-Jalali Sarah Quinn Editor Matthew Gardner Double Basses Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Naoko Keatley Nikita Naumov Editorial Photography Belinda McFarlane Colin Paris Ranald Mackechnie, Steve Pyke, Andrew Pollock Patrick Laurence Jay Blakesberg, Lisa Marie Mazzucco, Paul Robson Matthew Gibson Kofi Hayford Dániel Mészöly Matthias Bensmana Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Hazel Mulligan Paul Sherman Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937 Alix Lagasse Grace Lee Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.

16 The Orchestra 29 November 2018