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Home , 2012 Echo Klassik Awards, String Quartet (Debussy), The Nightingale (opera)

Sunday 25 March 2018 7–9.30pm Barbican Hall

LSO Season Concert and beyond

Boulez Livre pour cordes Bartók Violin Concerto No 2 Interval Ewan Campbell Frail Skies (world premiere, Panufnik Commission) * Stravinsky Chant du rossignol DEBUSSY Debussy

François-Xavier Roth conductor Renaud Capuçon violin

* Panufnik commission generously supported by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust

5.30pm Barbican Hall LSO Platforms: Guildhall Artists Debussy Danse sacrée et danse profane for harp and strings Debussy in G minor Op 10 Welcome LSO News Online

2005, acting as a mentor to participants the lso’s 2018/19 Season Debussy on LSO play during public workshops, which this year took place on 18 March. With his ongoing The LSO’s 2018/19 season is now on sale. Watch François-Xavier Roth conduct commitment to the scheme it is particularly Highlights include Music Director Sir Simon Debussy’s Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune special that he conducts the premiere of Rattle’s exploration of folk-inspired music in exquisite detail on our digital platform, Frail Skies this evening. in his series Roots and Origins; Artist Portraits LSO Play. Choose between multiple camera with soprano and conductor Barbara Hannigan angles and learn more about the Orchestra It is also a great pleasure to be joined by and pianist Daniil Trifonov; and eight and the music at play.lso.co.uk. regular LSO collaborator Renaud Capuçon, premieres across the season. Full listings who brings his lyricism and energy to are available at lso.co.uk/201819season. Bartók’s Second Violin Concerto. watch again: YOUTUBE LIVE STREAM Welcome to tonight’s LSO concert, on the day that marks 100 years since the death of A pre-concert performance given by Gruppen at Tate Modern Missed our latest live stream on Sunday . We began our celebration Guildhall School musicians also took place 11 March with Sir ? of the composer’s work in January, when this evening. These recitals, which are free The LSO has announced two performances Then head to our YouTube channel, Principal Guest Conductor François-Xavier to ticket-holders, take place on selected of Stockhausen’s Gruppen in Tate Modern’s where the whole concert is available Roth presented two concerts of Debussy’s dates throughout the season and provide Turbine Hall with Sir on to watch for free. early influences and greatest orchestral works. a platform for the musicians of the future. Saturday 30 June 2018. Tickets will go on This evening we come full circle, with music sale in April; visit lso.co.uk/tate for details. from the 20th and 21st centuries that was I hope that you enjoy tonight’s concert Interview: Ann hallenberg influenced by Debussy’s innovative style. and that you can join us again soon. François-Xavier Roth returns to Debussy welcome to tonight’s groups On the LSO Blog, mezzo-soprano We are delighted to feature a world premiere in our next Half Six Fix concert on 28 March, Ann Hallenberg, our soloist on Sunday in tonight’s programme, Frail Skies by Ewan an hour-long, informal performance with Tonight we are delighted to welcome 11 March, tells us more about her mission Campbell. This work was commissioned by the digital programme notes. EF Cultural Tours and to perform lost and forgotten pieces. LSO following the 2015 Panufnik Composers Educational Travel Adventures. Scheme, an LSO Discovery initiative that provides invaluable experience to six emerging Read our news, watch videos and more composers each year, with generous support • lso.co.uk/news from Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn • youtube.com/lso Trust. François-Xavier Roth has been a key Kathryn McDowell CBE DL • lso.co.uk/blog figure in the Scheme since its inception in Managing Director

2 Welcome 25 March 2018 Tonight’s Concert / by François-Xavier Roth Coming Up in April

ith 2018 being 100 years since the Programme Note writers Sunday 8 April 2018 7pm Thursday 19 & 26 April 2018 7.30pm death of Debussy I wanted to find Barbican Hall Barbican Hall a way to celebrate this major figure Jan Smaczny is the Sir Hamilton Harty in music history, whom many people believe Professor of Music at Queen’s University, SHOSTAKOVICH’s EIGHTH Mahler’s Ninth was the first to really advance modern music. Belfast. A well-known writer and broadcaster, Although Debussy is an important composer he specialises in the life and works of Dvořák Beethoven Piano Concerto No 4 Helen Grime Woven Space * for the orchestra he actually didn’t create that and Czech , and has published books Shostakovich Symphony No 8 (world premiere) many works for these forces – no symphonies on the repertoire of the Prague Provisional Mahler Symphony No 9 and only one opera. I thought it would be great Theatre and Dvořák’s Cello Concerto. Gianandrea Noseda conductor to have three different programmes that Nikolai Lugansky piano Sir Simon Rattle conductor guide us through Debussy’s music, from his Jeremy Thurlow is a composer; his music influences through to whom he influenced. ranges from string quartets to video-opera, * Commissioned for Sir Simon Rattle and the It’s fantastic to be celebrating this most and he won the George Butterworth Award Sunday 15 April 2018 7pm LSO by the Barbican important of French composers with the LSO. in 2007. The author of a book on Dutilleux, Barbican Hall he broadcasts on BBC Radio 3 and is a Fellow 26 April generously supported by Baker McKenzie Tonight’s programme, the final of the series, of Robinson College, Cambridge. Elgar’s cello concerto was conceived with music by those whom I consider to be Debussy’s ‘sons’, the next Jo Kirkbride is a freelance writer on classical Patrick Giguère Revealing generation influenced by Debussy. There’s music, whose broad roster of clients includes (world premiere, Panufnik Commission *) no doubt that was heavily the London Sinfonietta, Britten Sinfonia, Elgar Cello Concerto Sunday 22 April 2018 7pm influenced by his music, and you can hear Aldeburgh Productions, Cheltenham Festival Sibelius Symphony No 5 Barbican Hall it in so many of his works, including Livre and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. She pour cordes. We have Bartók’s Second Violin holds a masters from Cambridge University Susanna Mälkki conductor Mahler’s Tenth Concerto with Renaud Capuçon, Stravinsky’s and a doctorate from Durham University. Daniel Müller-Schott cello Chant du rossignol and, by Debussy himself, Tippett The Rose Lake * La mer. We will also hear a new work by Andrew Stewart is a freelance music * The Panufnik Composers Scheme is generously Mahler comp Cooke Symphony No 10 Ewan Campbell from the LSO’s Panufnik journalist and writer. He is the author supported by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust Composers Scheme. It’s great to see the of The LSO at 90, and contributes to Sir Simon Rattle conductor commitment for the next generation of a wide variety of specialist classical composers, and it’s something that every music publications. * Supported by Resonate, a PRS Foundation initiative orchestra should take as seriously and as in partnership with the Association of British Orchestras, joyfully as the LSO. • BBC Radio 3 and the Boltini Trust

Tonight’s Concert 3 Pierre Boulez Livre pour cordes 1968–88 / note by Jo Kirkbride

1a Variation Livre pour cordes (Book for Strings), the Both versions of Boulez emerge in the Livre, • Stéphane mallarmé 1b Mouvement aim being to make it more palatable for which in its rich swathes of string texture performance. ‘When I reread the Quatuor (more than 34 voices deep) is a world away Stéphane Mallarmé (1842–98) was a French ew works in Boulez’s oeuvre are a cordes, which had long been finished’, he from the quartet with which it originated. symbolist poet and a major literary figure as instructive to an understanding said publicly, ‘I saw that the performance There are echoes here of the pointillist style of the late 19th century. Spending much of of his music as Livre pour cordes. problems for a quartet were very great and Boulez inherited from Webern in many of his life as an English teacher, by the 1890s Its extended genesis, revision history and that a conductor would be necessary to his early works, but a lyrical thread runs his poetry had gained recognition in literary structural complexity make it one of the resolve them. Yet a conductor in front of a through this fragmented landscape, at journals and established his reputation. most unusual and – in terms of its ambition, quartet is not really convincing, so I thought, times almost BartÓkian in its resplendence. His work is known for its complexity and at least – comprehensive scores that he after having played Webern’s Opus 5 several Boulez, for his part, acknowledged that the ambiguity, with importance placed on ever put together. Boulez was just 23 when, times, that the way to take this text and work veers between ‘intentionally austere sounds rather than meaning and on the in 1948, he began work on his First String make it really give its maximum was to bareness’ and ‘the most proliferating physical spacing of words on the page. Quartet. It was to be his first score without orchestrate it.’ exuberance’ – itself a neat summary of His writing has inspired many musical piano and, in a reference to French symbolist his career as a whole. • interpretations, notably Debussy’s Prélude poet Stéphane Mallarmé •, it was conceived For Boulez, however, re-imagining the à l’après-midi d’un faune, Ravel’s Trois as a work with moveable parts. That is, its work for orchestra meant re-thinking poèmes de Mallarmé. The poet also inspired six movements were to be performed in the music altogether, which resulted in • Boulez and the lso Boulez’s Livre pour Quatuor and his whichever order the musicians might choose, Livre pour cordes becoming, in his words, Pli selon Pli (1957–62), a portrait of the perhaps even performed in isolation, with few ‘practically a new piece’. 20 years later, he Boulez first collaborated with the LSO in 1967, poet for soprano and orchestra. other musical directions (tempo, dynamics) revised the work once more – and in doing appearing regularly with the Orchestra as both to aid the performers. But the complexity so encapsulated 40 years of his creative conductor and composer. His programmes of the Livre pour Quator (Book for Quartet) thinking into a single ten-minute work. with the LSO focused on great works of the meant that it was almost a decade before it In 1948, Boulez had just met Cage and 20th century, the works of living composers was published, at last, in its entirety. Even Stockhausen and made headlines for his and occasionally performances of his own then, performances of the complete quartet blunt and polemical musings on music, compositions. Boulez was also involved with remained rare, thanks – as Boulez himself many of which were directed towards the Orchestra’s education programme, LSO admitted – to its fiendish difficulty. anyone who disavowed the new serialism. Discovery, giving conducting masterclasses Then a vehement anti-tonalist, by the time and guided concerts exploring key works by But Boulez’s scores never stayed finished he recomposed the Livre pour cordes two Stravinsky, Webern and Bartók. for long. A master of revision and redrafting, decades later, a more expressive, perhaps Boulez returned to the score in 1968 and even more relaxed voice had materialised. revised two of its movements into the

4 Programme Notes 25 March 2018 Pierre Boulez in profile / by Benjamin Picard Béla Bartók in profile / by Andrew Stewart

Boulez’s appointment in 1971 as Principal he was introduced by Kodály in 1907, the year Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra in which he became Professor of Piano at the in London had far-reaching effects on the Budapest Conservatory. Bartók established musical life of Britain and Europe, while his his mature style with such scores as the acceptance of the Musical Director position ballet The Miraculous Mandarin (1918–19, of the New York Philharmonic had an equally completed 1926–31) and his opera Duke stimulating effect on American music, posts Bluebeard’s Castle (1911, completed 1918). he held until 1975 and 1977 respectively. In He revived his career as a concert pianist the mid 1970s until 1991, he concentrated on in 1927 when he gave the premiere of his work at IRCAM, the Institut de Recherche et First Piano Concerto in Mannheim. Coordination Acoustique/Musique, which he founded at the request of President Georges Bartók detested the rise of fascism and Pompidou. There his contact with computer in October 1940 he emigrated to the US. technicians and musicians influenced Répons At first he concentrated on ethno- (1981–84) and … explosante-fixe … (1991–93). musicological researches, but eventually orn in 1925, Pierre Boulez’s first orn in 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, returned to composition and created a compositions date back to the In 1992 he signed a contract with Deutsche Hungary (now Sinnicolau Mare, significant group of ‘American’ works, mid-1940s, when he had recently Grammophon, devoting a considerable Romania), Bartók began piano including the Concerto for Orchestra and emerged from studies in with Olivier amount of time to recording important lessons with his mother at the age of five. his Third Piano Concerto. Messiaen, who encouraged his curiosity works of the 20th century. His recordings From 1899 to 1903 he studied piano and about Asian, African and European music. have won more than 25 Grammy awards. composition at the Royal Academy of Music Throughout his working life, Bartók collected, At the same time, studies with René At the same time, he continued his work in Budapest, where he created a number of transcribed and annotated the folk-songs Leibowitz, a Schoenberg and Webern scholar, as a composer throughout the late 20th works that echoed the style of Brahms of many countries, a commitment that introduced him to twelve-note composition, and early 21st centuries writing Incises (1994), and Richard Strauss. brought little recognition but one which he which he adapted to his own purposes. Anthèmes 2 (1997), Notations VII (1998) regarded as his most important contribution His Second Piano Sonata (1947–48) marked and Dérive 2 (2006), as well as assuming After graduating he discovered Austro- to music. He declined the security of a his creative coming of age. The next step the Composer’s Chair at Carnegie Hall. Hungarian and Slavic folk music, travelling composition professorship during his final was an exhaustive examination of the basic Pierre Boulez died in 2016 at the age of 90. • extensively with his friend Zoltán Kodály years in America, although he did accept elements of music in an attempt to make and recording countless ethnic songs and the post of visiting assistant in music at rhythmic values, loudness and nuances obey dances which began to influence his own Columbia University from March 1941 to 1942 serial principles, evident in the first section compositions. His compositions were also until ill health forced his retirement. • of his Structures I for two pianos (1952). influenced by the works of Debussy, to which

Composer Profiles 5 Béla Bartók Violin Concerto No 2 BB 117 1937–38 / note by Jan Smaczny

1 Allegro non troppo much earlier work that had never been chord, is one of folk-inflected lyricism. • ZoltÁn SzÉkely 2 Andante tranquillo performed in Bartók’s lifetime. This ‘first’ For all the gentleness of its first entry, 3 Allegro molto violin concerto was revived after Bartók’s the part for the soloist is extraordinarily death and given its premiere in 1958. taxing: both musical tensions and virtuosity Renaud Capuçon violin The ‘second’ concerto was written for reach a climax in and around the cadenza. the Hungarian violinist Zoltán Székely •, The relaxed outer sections of the slow artók’s compositions of the between 1937 and 1938 when, amongst movement surround a brief, athletic 1930s are not noted for an air other things, Bartók was engaged in writing scherzando break led by the soloist. of compromise. The academic Contrasts for violin, clarinet and piano. The broadly developed finale has recognition he achieved by the middle of It seems that the composer had originally unconcealed affinities with the first the same decade did nothing to blunt a intended to write a series of variations movement, not least in the cut of its mind which fed on the challenges offered for violin and orchestra, but Székely had opening solo theme, but never does the by exploring and extending tonality. Despite insisted on the three movements of the resemblance lead to pointless repetition; success at home and a steady stream of standard concerto. as ever, Bartók looks beyond one range Zoltán Székely (1903–2001) was a Hungarian commissions, nowhere in Europe in this of thematic and harmonic possibilities violinist and composer. He studied period could be described as easy for those In the end, both artists had their own way: to discover a set of new ones. • composition under Kodály at the Franz Liszt who worked at the frontiers of artistic Székely was presented with a three- Academy in Budapest, and mainly composed endeavour, and Bartók came in for his movement concerto in accordance with . In 1935 he became the share of opprobrium from the right-wing his wishes, but the slow movement is a leader of the Hungarian String Quartet, press. One of the silliest of criticisms was set of free variations and the finale is a a position that he held until 1970, including that Bartók’s music was the product of kind of variation fantasy on the opening during World War II, when the quartet were ‘a bleak and destructive soul’. None of the Allegro non troppo. trapped in the Netherlands. At the age of works composed in any period of Bartók’s 18, he began appearing in sonata recitals life would lend credibility to this sort of As a whole, the musical language of the with Bartók (pictured with Székely above) nonsense, least of all (of the works of the concerto is more immediately approachable and became an interpreter of the older late 1930s) the Second Violin Concerto. than much of what Bartók wrote in the composer’s works, also arranging Bartók’s Interval – 20 minutes 1930s, yet this does not prevent moments Romanian Dances for violin and piano. There are bars on all levels of the As far as Bartók was concerned, the Second of extraordinary harmonic ferocity, In 1950 Székely and the Quartet moved to concert hall; ice cream can be bought Violin Concerto was, effectively, his only particularly in the outer movements. the US for a two-year residency at University at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. such work for public consumption. It has of Southern California, LA. He died in 2001 Visit the Barbican Shop on Level -1 and see been placed second since the composer’s The impression at the opening of the in Banff, Canada, where he was the long-time our new range of Gifts and Accessories. death in order to avoid confusion with a concerto, however, with its pulsing B-major artist-in-residence at the Banff Center.

6 Programme Notes 25 March 2018 RENAUD CAPUÇON_mono.indd 1 Bartók’s twoviolinconcertoswiththeLondonSymphonyOrchestraunder RENAUD CAPUÇON

Renaud Capuçonexpandshiswide-rangingconcertodiscographywith its PrincipalGuestConductor,François-XavierRoth. Available onCD,LP,Download,Streaming 0190295708078 NEW RELEASE–OUTNOW Renaud Capuçonwillbesigningcopiesof his recordingsintheBarbicanHall foyer level -1followingthisevening’s concert 12/03/2018 12:27

Ewan Campbell Frail Skies (world premiere) 2017 / note by Jo Kirkbride

have always loved the sky’, ‘For the first time I felt like a sculptor chromaticism of the strings maintains • panufnik composers scheme says Ewan Campbell. ‘I grew up adding and chiselling off parts as I gradually a sense of disquiet – the sky is never surrounded by fields in Kent, discovered the piece I wanted to write.’ calm for long. • Ewan Campbell was a participant of the and used to watch the sunset like it was 2015/16 Panufnik Composers Scheme, which TV every evening.’ It says much about Many of the ideas he scribbled down right offers six emerging composers each year Campbell’s musical style that these vivid at the outset are audible in the finished • Tam-tams the opportunity to write for the LSO. Guided childhood experiences have found their work. ‘An exquisite interference pattern’ by composer Colin Matthews, the scheme way into his music so many years later. over a low rumble at the opening, ‘string The tam-tam is a percussion instrument, enables composers to experiment over time For Campbell, composition is about bringing spiders’ that interweave and entangle as also known as a ‘chau gong’. It is a flat-faced and develop their orchestral writing skills. the world around him to the score, the texture thickens, the ‘woodwind strobe’ gong with no dome at its centre, and has and opening up that score to the world. we hear as the orchestra reaches its zenith – no definite pitch. The tam-tam has been The Panufnik Composers Scheme was Frail Skies is a tribute to the sky in all all made the final cut, each seamlessly used in western since the devised by the Orchestra in association its beauty and its volatility, but it is integrated into Campbell’s vast, sky-high late 18th century, but originated in China with Lady Panufnik in memory of her also a commentary on the political and canvas. The magnitude of this canvas is and can be traced back as far as the Han late husband, the composer Sir Andrzej environmental uncertainties of the times reinforced by the tam-tams • placed either Dynasty (c 200 BC). Panufnik, and is generously supported by we live in – where people are fickle and views side of the orchestra, their deep, lustrous Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust. seem to change as quickly as the winds. timbre framing the empty registral space of the opening. Still to come: While Campbell reveals that his scores panufnik world premieres typically take shape quickly, their whole Amidst these hazy, subterranean textures, structural sequence charted out ‘before I only a floating, stratospheric solo cello Sunday 15 April 2018 7pm, Barbican Hall actually write a single note’, Frail Skies was pierces the gloom, its frailty signalled Patrick Giguère different. ‘I only had the first few minutes when it falters and disappears amidst Susanna Mälkki conductor planned out when I began composing’, he the gathering woodwinds. This is just the says. ‘I then very roughly sketched most start of a gathering storm: soon, clouds Sunday 24 March 2019 7pm, Barbican Hall of the piece in notes directly onto the begin to grow and accumulate, and droplets Donghoon Shin computer, but was continually editing and start to fill the air. As the shrieking high François-Xavier Roth conductor changing what I had already written long strings and winds become ever more before the piece was finished.’ For someone incessant, at last the storm breaks with Sunday 9 June 2019 7pm, Barbican Hall fascinated – almost obsessed – with the a swell of thunder and a clatter of Frail Skies is an LSO Panufnik Composers Liam Mattison physical, structural reality of a work, it led percussion. After the squall comes Scheme commission, generously supported Elim Chan conductor to a rather beautiful creative moment. the sunshine, but even here the eerie by Lady Hamlyn and The Helen Hamlyn Trust.

8 Programme Notes 25 March 2018 Ewan Campbell in profile / by Jo Kirkbride

or a composer of his stature, to change direction and study music at Over the years his distinctive style Ewan Campbell is remarkably King’s College London. A Masters degree at has earned him numerous high-profile self-effacing. Although he learned Cambridge University followed and now he accolades, including prizes at the the cello and piano from a young age, taking counts himself among the teaching staff New York-based Counterpoint Competition, up the double aged twelve, he didn’t there too. ‘I think I had always wanted to the Forme uniche Competition in Adelaide try his hand at composition until he started be a composer’, he says, ‘and never quite and the Italian Mare Nostrum Competition. university several years later. He claims that admitted it to myself.’ His music has been performed by ensembles he has always been ‘a pretty poor pianist including Britten Sinfonia, Küss Quartet, and had to learn every piece pretty much by For Campbell, composing is a visceral, Fukio Ensemble, Lontano, Ensemble rote’, remembering with fondness the other instinctive artform. His creative process Matisse, Consortium 5, The Hermes musicians in his youth orchestra ‘fiercely begins with words, visualising what the Experiment, and Mercury Quartet. rehearsing their more difficult parts’ as he music will look like and feel like before he looked on from the comfort of the double transforms these ideas into something And next? A new cartographic work for bass section. But any lack of facility at the audible. He takes inspiration from the violinist Thomas Gould which will be written piano has always been at odds with his everyday – the sound of geese in the sky, directly onto a map of Arthur’s Seat in fondness for improvisation, with which dogs barking , motors rumbling – and is keen Edinburgh, its curves and contours allowing he feels much more at home. ‘I realised it to explore other ways in which music and Campbell to explore the landscape through was much more satisfying to improvise in the ‘real world’ can coincide. This fascination a three-dimensional virtual soundscape. the style and with the motifs of whatever with music’s structural, three-dimensional After that, he says, he would love nothing piece I happened to be learning’, he says. form has led him to develop an unusual more than to write another orchestral piece. ‘The pleasure of making up my own music, collaboration with Ordnance Survey, ‘They’re such hard work, but so rewarding.’ • quicker and more accurately than I could through which he creates cartographic learn someone else’s, first gave me the scores, transmuting maps into music and belief I might be able to become a composer.’ vice versa. ‘In many ways cartography is to a landscape, what music notation is to sound’, Still, the idea of becoming a professional he explains. ‘They both use two-dimensional musician was so far from his thoughts visualisation to represent something which is that he enrolled at university to study not multi-dimensional, and in the process create music but maths, ‘with the immodest a beautiful pictorial format of their own.’ hope to understand as much of everything as possible’. But by the end of his first week he had already made up his mind

Composer Profile 9 Chant du rossignol 1914–17 / note by Jan Smaczny

— deeply aware of the disparity between the The singing of the real begins • Stravinsky’s ballets It was the blend of fairy tale and first act and the remaining two. The work the middle section; the Japanese envoys was first performed by theBallets Russes • arrive and present the artificial nightingale, Among Stravinsky’s best known works are allegory so beloved of the Russians in in Paris, and although Stravinsky whose song is played by the oboe against his ballets, including (1909–10), that first drew Stravinsky to considered it one of his loveliest works a mechanical rumble in the piano, celeste, (1910–11) and ’s story from that period, he was worried by its harp, clarinet and lower strings. In the third (1913). Written in the space of just a few lack of drama. section, Death, surrounded by his minions, years, these works gained notoriety through of The Nightingale. sits on the Emperor’s chest and wears his The ’ lavish productions. — The composer’s interest in the work received regalia. His fate seems sealed until the true new impetus in 1917 when nightingale comes and sings outside the • the ballet russes (1909–29) n the story, a nightingale sings suggested turning it into a ballet. Instead, window when the mechanical one will not. to the Emperor before being Stravinsky worked up a symphonic poem Each outpouring from the nightingale results temporarily displaced by a from the more recently composed second in Death giving up one of the Emperor’s mechanical version. In the end, with the and third acts of the opera, and the new ornaments until all have been surrendered. Emperor on his death-bed, the nightingale work was presented in 1920 under Swiss The work concludes with a funeral march returns to restore the Emperor’s health conductor Ernest Ansermet, with designs for the courtiers (briefly reminiscent of with his sweet song. Stravinsky saw by Henri Matisse. Mussorgsky’s opera Boris Godunov) who potential in this story as the subject of his come to look at their dead Emperor. However, first opera and the oriental setting was The story was divided into three sections: he is awake and greets them, having been an added attraction. The libretto and first the fête in the Emperor of China’s palace, saved by the true nightingale’s song. • The Ballet Russes was a ballet company musical sketches secured the approval of the two nightingales, and the illness and founded in Paris by Sergei Diaghilev. Stravinsky’s teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, and recovery of the Emperor of China. The Through collaboration with the leading the first act was completed in 1909. brilliant opening section, depicting the artists of the time, the company fête in honour of the nightingale, clearly endeavoured to create a body of work that When Stravinsky began work on The Firebird, benefits from the composer’s experience combined fearless aesthetic exploration with The Nightingale was interrupted, and it with Petrushka and The Rite of Spring. the highest artistic standards. They produced was not until 1913 that Stravinsky returned The latter in particular seems to hover Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring (pictured to the opera. By that time, however, his in the middle distance during the ‘Marche above), Satie’s Parade with a libretto by style had passed through the watershed Chinoise’, which announces the arrival of Jean Cocteau and designs by Pablo Picasso, of The Rite of Spring and the composer was the Emperor and concludes the first part. and their roster of artists included such diverse luminaries as Coco Chanel, , Joan Miró and .

10 Programme Notes 25 March 2018 Igor Stravinsky in profile / by Andrew Stewart FIND THE PERFECT GIFT composer. Stravinsky now spent most of his time in Switzerland and France, but FROM OUR NEW RANGE continued to compose for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes: (1920), (1922), (1922), Les Noces (1923), Tote Bags Oedipus Rex (1927) and (1928). Tea Towels Stravinsky settled in France in 1920, Mugs eventually becoming a French citizen in 1934, and during this period moved away from his Russianism towards a new ‘neo- Classical’ style. Personal tragedy in the form of his daughter, wife and mother all dying within eight months of each other, and the onset of the World War II persuaded he son of the Principal Bass at Stravinsky to move to America in 1939, the Mariinsky Theatre, Stravinsky where he lived until his death. was born at the Baltic resort of Oranienbaum near St Petersburg in 1882. From the 1950s, his compositional style Through his father he met many of the again changed, this time in favour of a leading musicians of the day and came form of serialism. He continued to take into contact with the world of the musical on an exhausting schedule of conducting theatre. In 1903 he became a pupil of engagements until 1967, and died in Rimsky-Korsakov, which allowed him to New York in 1971. He was buried in Venice get his orchestral works performed and on the island of San Michele, close to as a result he came to the attention of the grave of Diaghilev. • Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned a new ballet from him, The Firebird.

The success of The Firebird, and then Available now on Level -1 Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913) confirmed his status as a leading young

Composer Profile 11 Claude Debussy La mer (The Sea): Three Symphonic Sketches 1903–5 / note by Jeremy Thurlow

1 De l’aube à midi sur la mer As Simon Tresize has observed, orchestral sea’, and within these simple outlines the In its originality of expression and range of (From dawn until noon on the sea) excerpts from Wagner were much more music suggests a thousand details, utterly feeling, however, Debussy’s musical seascape 2 de vagues commonly performed in France at that compelling and ‘exact’ even when it can stands alone, encompassing the majesty and (The play of the waves) time than the themselves, and may be hard to put into words the sensation delicacy, fury and stillness, effervescence 3 Dialogue du vent et de la mer have inspired the highly original form of that has been so exactly recreated. But and power of the sea in one of the great (Dialogue of the wind and the sea) Debussy’s three ‘symphonic sketches’ – this paradox – music that is so strongly masterpieces of 20th-century music. • particularly the first which unfolds as a suggestive, and yet so evasive with regard — succession of different evocative ‘scenes’. to what is suggested – is at the heart of ‘I was destined for the fine life Wagner’s evocations of sea-storms and Debussy’s achievement. When composing, • J M W Turner primeval rivers, forests and flames present he wrote, his ‘innumerable memories [were] of a sailor … I still have a great gradually evolving textures of subtly layered worth more than a reality which tends to passion for the sea.’ orchestral sound. In his operas these serve weigh too heavily on the imagination’. So we — as backdrops, though sometimes very should not be surprised to learn that much important ones; Debussy made them the of the work was written far from the sea. hough we should not take very central focus of his work. For once the term seriously his tongue-in-cheek ‘impressionism’, rarely very helpful when In fact, Debussy was buffeted by storms of a remark that if he had not been a applied to music, makes some sense: as different kind, for the years 1903–5 in which composer he would have liked to be a sailor, with Monet and his colleagues there is a he wrote La mer also saw the attempted there is no doubt that Debussy felt a lifelong desire to experience and capture a scene suicide of his wife Lily, his elopement with fascination for the sea. just for its own sake, a loving attention singer , later to become his Joseph Mallord William Turner (1775–1851) to ever-changing qualities of texture, second wife, and the ensuing scandal was an English Romantic landscape and The sea seems to have moved into the atmosphere and mood, and an ability (which included the rapid appearance of a watercolour painter. He became known centre of his compositional thoughts in through suggestive, unconventional highly successful play, closely and obviously as the ‘painter of light’ because of his his previous orchestral work, the , touches to bring the scene alive. modelled on the affair). While we should increasing interest in using brilliant colours a set of three evocative ‘sound-pictures’ avoid imputing any direct correspondence, for his land and seascapes. Marine art of which the third and longest is a seascape, The evocative power of La mer is uncanny: the tumult of the third movement might accounts for over two-thirds of Turner’s Sirènes. But here and in other pieces such no other piece of music has so vividly be felt to bear a trace of Debussy’s own works; he was so obsessed with the ever- as L’isle joyeuse and La cathédrale engloutie, recreated the sea in its infinite variety of personal melodrama. But perhaps the most changing and dramatic nature of the sea the sea remains a backdrop for mythological moods and textures. The titles of the three important stimulus here came from the that he is said to have lashed himself to scenes; in La mer it comes into its own as movements suggest a progression which visionary sea paintings of J M W Turner •, a mast, so that he could record the effects the central and only character of the drama. has been concisely summed up as ‘the described by Debussy as ‘the finest creator of a gale that blew up the North Sea as sea awakening; the sea at play; the wild of mystery in the whole of art!’. he left Harwich Docks.

12 Programme Notes 25 March 2018 Claude Debussy in profile / by Andrew Stewart

espite an insecure family Pelléas et Mélisande, which was inspired • Debussy on lso live background (his father was by Mæterlinck’s play. It was an immediate imprisoned as a revolutionary success after its first production in April in 1871), Debussy took piano lessons 1902. In 1904 he met Emma Bardac, the and was accepted as a pupil of the Paris former wife of a successful financier, and Conservatoire in 1872, but failed to make moved into an apartment with her; his wife, the grade as a concert pianist. Lily Texier, attempted suicide following — ‘Works of art make rules but rules do not make works of art.’ — Claude Debussy

The gifted musician directed his talents their separation. Debussy and Emma had towards composition, eventually winning a daughter and were subsequently married Debussy Pelléas et Mélisande the coveted Prix de Rome in 1884 and in January 1908. The composer’s troubled spending two years in Italy. During the domestic life did not affect the quality of Sir Simon Rattle conductor 1890s he lived in poverty with his mistress his work, with such magnificent scores Magdalena Kožená Mélisande Gabrielle Dupont, eventually marrying the as La mer for large orchestra and the first Christian Gerhaher Pelléas dressmaker Rosalie (Lily) Texier in 1899. set of for piano produced during Gerald Finley Golaud this period. Debussy’s ballet Jeux was first His Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune, performed by Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes £19.99 although regarded as a revolutionary in May 1913, a fortnight before the premiere work at the time of its premiere in of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring. Buy from LSO Live, Amazon, download on December 1894, soon found favour Apple Music or stream on Spotify with concertgoers and the habitually Although suffering from cancer, he conservative French press. Late managed to complete the first three of lsolive.co.uk in the summer of the previous a projected set of six instrumental sonatas. year he had begun work on He died at his Paris home and was buried the only opera he completed, at Passy cemetery. •

Composer Profile 13 François-Xavier Roth conductor

rançois-Xavier Roth is one of His third Cologne opera season features new Fifth Symphony, premiered in Cologne today’s most charismatic and productions of Wagner’s Tannhäuser and by the orchestra under Mahler in 1904, enterprising conductors. Since Die Soldaten by Bernd Alois Zimmermann, was released in December. 2015 he has been General Music Director marking the centenary of the composer’s of the City of Cologne, leading both the birth in Cologne. With the Gürzenich Engagement with new audiences is an Gürzenich Orchestra and the Opera. Orchestra, he continues a focus on the essential part of François-Xavier Roth’s This season he took up the position composer Philippe Manoury, from whom work. With the Festival Berlioz and Les of Principal Guest Conductor of the the orchestra has commissioned a trilogy Siècles, he founded the Jeune Orchestre London Symphony Orchestra. of works, the second of which, a Flute Européen Hector Berlioz, a unique orchestra- Concerto, will receive its premiere with academy with its own collection of period With a reputation for inventive programming, Emmanuel Pahud. instruments. Roth and Les Siècles devised his incisive approach and inspiring leadership Presto!, a television series for France 2, are valued around the world. He regularly As Principal Conductor of the SWR attracting weekly audiences of over three works with leading orchestras including Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden & Freiburg million. The Gürzenich Orchestra’s Ohrenauf! the Berlin Philharmonic and Staatskapelle, (2011–16), Roth recorded the complete tone youth programme received a Junge Ohren Royal Concertgebouw, Boston Symphony, poems of Richard Strauss. His recordings Produktion Award in February 2017. Munich Philharmonic and Zurich Tonhalle. of the Stravinsky ballets, The Firebird, A tireless champion of contemporary Petrushka and The Rite of Spring with music, he is conductor of the ground- In 2003 he founded Les Siècles, an Les Siècles have been widely acclaimed, breaking LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme. innovative orchestra performing contrasting the latter being awarded a German Record Roth has premiered works by Yann Robin, and colourful programmes on modern and Critics’ Prize. Together they embarked on Georg-Friedrich Haas and Simon Steen- period instruments, often within the same a complete Ravel cycle for Harmonia Mundi. Anderson and collaborated with composers concert. With Les Siècles, he has given The first release, Daphnis and Chloé, was like Pierre Boulez, , Jörg FranÇois-xavier roth in 2018/19 concerts in France, Italy, Germany, The a Gramophone magazine Editor’s Choice Widmann and Helmut Lachenmann. Netherlands, Belgium, England and Japan. and CD of the month in Rondo magazine. Wed 14 Nov 2018 7.30pm, Barbican Hall Recent highlights with Les Siècles include They have also recently released Mirages, For his achievements as musician, recreating the original sound of Stravinsky’s a vocal recital with Sabine Devieilhe for Erato, conductor, music director and teacher, Debussy Prélude à l’après midi d’un faune The Rite of Spring in its centenary year at winner of a Diapason d’Or and Victoires de François-Xavier Roth was made a Dvořák Cello Concerto the BBC Proms and Alte Oper, Frankfurt la Musique Classique Recording of the Year, Chevalier of the Légion d’honneur on Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra and, subsequently, with the Pina Bausch a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and Sunday Bastille Day 2017. In January 2018, he was and Dominique Brun dance companies. Times Album of the Week. His first recording appointed the first ever Associate Artist On sale now | lso.co.uk/whats-on with the Gürzenich Orchestra, Mahler’s of the Philharmonie de Paris. •

14 Artist Biographies 25 March 2018 Renaud Capuçon violin

rench violinist Renaud Capuçon and the Simón Bolivar Orchestra and Los Artistic Director of the Sommets is firmly established as a major Angeles Philharmonic with Gustavo Dudamel. Musicaux de Gstaad in 2016. soloist, recitalist and chamber musician, working with the top international Forthcoming concerto engagements include Recording exclusively with Erato/Warner orchestras and conductors and performing concerts with the Chamber Orchestra of Classics, Capuçon has built an extensive in the most prestigious venues. Europe with Jaap van Zweden, Detroit discography. Recent releases include Bach Symphony Orchestra with Leonard Slatkin, and Vasks Concertos as conductor and Born in Chambéry in 1976, Renaud Capuçon Los Angeles Philharmonic with Matthias soloist with the Chamber Orchestra of began his studies at the Conservatoire Pintscher and Camerata Salzburg with Europe, and Brahms and Berg Concertos National Supérieur de Musique de Paris at Robin Ticciati. with the Vienna Philharmonic under Daniel the age of 14, winning numerous awards Harding. His latest chamber music recording during his five years there. Capuçon then Capuçon also tours extensively as a solo is a disc of Franck, Grieg and Dvořák sonatas moved to Berlin to study with Thomas recitalist and will play-direct groups including with Khatia Buniatishvili. His recording of Brandis and Isaac Stern, and was awarded Camerata Salzburg, Festival Strings Lucerne Fauré’s complete chamber music for strings the Prize of the Berlin Academy of Arts. and Basel Chamber Orchestra. with Nicholas Angelich, Gautier Capuçon, In 1997, he was invited by to Michel Dalberto, Gérard Caussé and the become concert master of the Gustav Mahler Capuçon has a great commitment to Ebène Quartet won the Prize Jugendorchester, which he led for three chamber music and has worked with artists for chamber music in 2012. His compilation summers, working with conductors such as including Martha Argerich, Nicholas Angelich, Le Violon Roi received the Disque d’Or Pierre Boulez, Seiji Ozawa, , Daniel Barenboim, Yefim Bronfman, and his latest recording of contemporary Franz Welser-Moest and Abbado himself. Yuja Wang, Khatia Buniatishvili, Hélène concertos by Rihm, Dusapin and Montovani Grimaud and Maria João Pires, as well as was nominated the best recording by French Since then, Capuçon has played concertos with his brother, cellist Gautier Capuçon. Victoires de la Musique 2017 and awarded with orchestras such as the Berlin These collaborations have taken him to the ECHO Klassik Prize in 2017. Philharmonic under Bernard Haitink, the the festivals of Edinburgh, Berlin, Lucerne, Boston Symphony under Christoph von Verbier, Aix-en-Provence, Roque d’Anthéron, Renaud Capuçon plays the Guarneri del Dohnányi, the Orchestre de Paris under San Sebastian, Stresa, Tanglewood and Gesù ‘Panette’ (1737) that belonged to Christoph Eschenbach and Paavo Järvi, Salzburg, among others. Isaac Stern. In June 2011 he was appointed Philharmonique de Radio France and Chevalier dans l’Ordre National du Mérite Filarmonica della Scala orchestras with He is the Artistic Director of the Easter and in March 2016 Chevalier de la Légion Myung-Whun Chung, Orchestre National de Festival in Aix-en-Provence, which he d’honneur by the French Government. • France with Daniele Gatti and Valery Gergiev, founded in 2013, and was appointed

Artist Biographies 15 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Roman Simovic David Alberman Tim Hugh Gareth Davies Timothy Jones Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Thomas Norris Alastair Blayden Alex Jakeman Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Alexander Edmundson Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Carmine Lauri Miya Väisänen Noel Bradshaw Piccolo Jonathan Lipton Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Lennox Mackenzie Matthew Gardner Eve-Marie Caravassilis Patricia Moynihan Stephen Craigen David Jackson work experience by playing in rehearsals Ginette Decuyper Julian Gil Rodriguez Daniel Gardner Sam Walton and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Gerald Gregory Naoko Keatley Hilary Jones Oboes Trumpets Tom Edwards are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Claire Parfitt Belinda McFarlane Amanda Truelove Olivier Stankiewicz Gerald Ruddock Paul Stoneman (additional to LSO members) and receive Laurent Quenelle William Melvin Victoria Harrild Rosie Jenkins Niall Keatley fees for their work in line with LSO section Harriet Rayfield Iwona Muszynska Deborah Tolksdorf David Elton Harps players. The Scheme is supported by: Colin Renwick Andrew Pollock Cor Anglais Robin Totterdell Bryn Lewis The Polonsky Foundation Sylvain Vasseur Paul Robson Double Basses Christine Pendrill David Geoghegan Eluned Pierce Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Julian Azkoul Daniele D’Andria Ander Perrino The Thistle Trust Morane Cohen- Jan Regulski Colin Paris Clarinets Trombones Piano The Idlewild Trust Lamberger Helena Smart Patrick Laurence Chris Richards Peter Moore Elizabeth Burley Angus Allnatt Charitable Foundation Laura Dixon Matthew Gibson Chi-Yu Mo James Maynard Shlomy Dobrinsky Violas Thomas Goodman Celeste Performing in tonight’s concert are Alain Petitclerc Edward Vanderspar Joe Melvin Bass Clarinet Bass Trombone John Alley Liza Tyun (Second Violin), Nathalie Green- Malcolm Johnston Jani Pensola Francois Lemoine Paul Milner Buckley (Viola) and Joel Siepman (Cello). Anna Bastow Emre Ersahin Julia O’Riordan Bassoons Tuba Editor Robert Turner Rachel Gough Peter Smith Edward Appleyard | [email protected] Heather Wallington Joost Bosdijk Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Jonathan Welch Shelly Organ Editorial Photography Fiona Dalgliesh Ranald Mackechnie, Holger Talinski, Cynthia Perrin Contra Bassoon Mat Henek Shiry Rashkovsky Dominic Morgan Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Alistair Scahill Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937 Martin Schaefer Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.

16 The Orchestra 25 March 2018