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Home , Klaus Tennstedt, Sergiu Celibidache, Vladimir Jurowski

Vladimir Jurowski: BBC presenter Andrew McGregor caught up Principal Conductor with between performances of Brett Dean's Hamlet at Glyndebourne (from 2007) in June 2017 to find out more about his relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, and the context of the repertoire Vladimir Jurowski is the leading selected for this anniversary box set. conductor of his generation, and one of the most sought-after, universally acclaimed for his incisive musicianship and artistic vision. His relationship with the London Philharmonic Orchestra started in 2001, and over the ensuing years has become a dynamic and revered artistic partnership. In celebrating Vladimir Jurowski’s first 10 years as Principal Conductor since 2007, this set of recordings embraces established orchestral classics as well as unearthing rarely heard masterpieces, certain to both challenge and reward the listener simultaneously. AM: We’re here at Glyndebourne, where coming to conduct, I think it is an indispensable the LPO has been Resident Symphony part of any conductor’s CV. And interestingly, Orchestra for over 50 years and where you Glyndebourne, although an international were Music Director from 2001–13. How opera festival, shares some of those positive much has your relationship with the LPO aspects of a repertoire company, most of all grown from that connection and from the because of the number of performances they Orchestra’s work here? give over the summer; they perform literally VJ: Entirely, I would say. It’s from here in every day between mid-May and the end this pit and in these surroundings that our of August. artistic understanding, bond and friendship arose. I think it’s quite logical, because it’s AM: What sort of effect does that have on only in the opera house that an orchestra the Orchestra’s concert work back in London and the conductor really get to know one and elsewhere? Have you been able to feel another, spending time together on a daily that change over the years you’ve been basis. As well as the benefit of the extra with them? rehearsal time, it’s also working in the VJ: It creates a whole different sense of service of something bigger, a bigger cause. flexibility and open-mindedness on the side In the concert hall it’s all about us – our of the musicians. They are truly great interpretations, our idiosyncrasies, our accompanists, even in languages they don’t whims – but in the opera house we are speak – although having said that we have serving the theatre. I’ve always said that 25 nationalities in the LPO, and long may it’s the sign of a great orchestra: one that this diversity last. I sometimes have this can play opera as well as it can play the image of the whole Orchestra becoming symphonic repertoire, and LPO certainly one large pair of ears – for me that is the falls into this category. The same goes for greatest way of making music. conductors: there have been some great conductors who never conducted opera, such AM: It must work the other way around as or , as well, because if you take a symphony but most of the great conductors came from orchestra like the LPO and bring them the opera world. So, having myself been to play in the pit at Glyndebourne, they through that German system, repetiteuring, bring different qualities to a full-time coaching soloists and choruses, and then opera orchestra?

01 VJ: It’s true. There’s also an incredible sense Symphony and I was astonished at how precise of pride among the LPO musicians – they the Orchestra was at producing the very are always eager to get things right, so if intricate rhythms – not only of Prokofiev, but something didn’t come out well in the first of other too. I think it’s a universal few performances they will always fix it British virtue, the rhythmic precision – you as the run goes on. This aspiration to the observe the same with British singers: they are highest quality often brings about a very all incredibly well-prepared. We have a lot of unusual energy for an opera orchestra – real virtuosi in the Orchestra, and yet they have they’re sometimes almost too energetic, and the capability to play music with other people, occasionally that can backfire and affect the and make the conscious decision to engage balance between the stage and the pit. But with one another during the music-making. again, that’s something we’ve learned over the years: how to operate in this pit without AM: You said when you became LPO losing any of the LPO’s typical brilliance Principal Conductor that it was going to and projection, and without overwhelming be very important to you to programme the singers. 20th and 21st-century repertoire, for which this enthusiasm, accuracy and sight-reading AM: Let’s go back to when you first worked ability become vital. with the LPO in 2001. What attracted you VJ: Yes, I felt that music of the late 20th to the Orchestra, and what sort of character century had been somewhat neglected did you find? by the LPO. But I also had a feeling that with VJ: It was a completely different orchestra this Orchestra you could achieve almost then; it has changed enormously over the anything. I also sensed that, unlike some years in terms of personnel, and in terms other UK orchestras I had previously worked of the average age and gender mix. What with, the LPO seemed to have no limitations immediately struck me was that they were when it came to style; that national styles, extremely passionate about rehearsing be it French, German or Russian music, or things properly, and that they seemed something else, wouldn’t scare them – they grateful to me for taking time to work would be just as open-minded and malleable on details. The other thing that fascinated to the demands of any piece. The LPO already me was their infallible sense of rhythm – had a great reputation as the most ‘German’ we were rehearsing Prokofiev’s Fifth of the London orchestras, because of its many

02 illustrious former Principal Conductors such was not paired with something highly as , , and before unconventional. As a result, when we them , who specialised in the returned to Royal Festival Hall a new stratum Austro-German repertoire. But I was also of young, curious and open-minded astonished at how well they could play Russian audiences returned with us. music, and even French music – in spite of the old mythical feud between the British AM: Did that give you greater freedom when and the French, I always thought they played you came to developing the seasons – we’ve Debussy really well. I think they’re playing had The Rest Is Noise festival in 2013,Belief it even better now because we’ve done so and Beyond Belief in 2017 and you’ve got much over the years, and not only Debussy, Stravinsky coming up in 2018. It must give but other French music too. you greater confidence, but do you feel it gives you greater freedom as a planner? AM: Did you imagine it would be a VJ: Of course in London we must still count challenge to develop audiences for this every penny before programming something. new and contemporary repertoire? Yet every now and then there is enough VJ: It certainly was, although before I got freedom to plan a concert that will never the final invitation to become Principal sell out; one example is a concert we gave Conductor, in my previous role as Principal last season with Henze’s Seventh Symphony Guest Conductor I’d already had the chance and two relatively unfamiliar pieces by to explore a lot of unfamiliar repertoire, Stravinsky: the 1947 version of the Symphonies when the Orchestra was taken out of its of Wind Instruments and the Aldous Huxley usual habitat. The temporary closure of Variations, as well as Zimmermann’s Violin Royal Festival Hall meant that between 2005 Concerto. So with these four items on the and 2007 we were giving concerts in much programme we had perhaps 1,000 audience smaller venues – mostly Queen Elizabeth members at most, but those that came were Hall – and this was crucial for exploring new passionate about this kind of repertoire. repertoire and bringing in new audiences. It’s still an important thing to do, and I think it Even as Principal Guest Conductor I would contributes to the reputation of the Orchestra. design my four programmes a year The LPO is already known in London as the with great care, so there was no repetition, adventurous orchestra; the orchestra with and not a single traditional work that a vision.

03 AM: I wanted to talk about a different VJ: Obviously all the operas and ballets tradition, about what might be called the he had been . He also performed ‘Jurowski dynasty’, because your father is a a lot of contemporary Soviet music. Every conductor, your grandfather was a year he would participate in the Moscow and your great-grandfather a violinist and Autumn Festival, a festival of contemporary conductor. Was there ever any idea that music, and sometimes he would even perform you wouldn’t be a musician? music by foreign composers. I remember there VJ: Oh yes! Actually my father was was a piece by Luigi Nono once, which was instrumental in planting a doubt in me when a bit of a strange situation because Nono I was still at a relatively early age, 14 or 15. was obviously one of the fiercest modernists He said, ‘Look, you don’t have to become of the era, and there couldn’t have been a musician. Maybe it’s better if you consider anything in common with him and the something else’, because at the time I was Soviet officials, but he was a member passionately into pop music, and all sorts of the Communist Party so they had to play of other things, and – as teenagers do – him. I also remember my father once gave I neglected my studies. I never asked my a performance of a work by Tristan Murail, father afterwards if it had been part of his one of the French spectralist composers – cunning plan or if he genuinely didn’t want all foreign words for me at the time, so to force me into becoming a musician if growing up there was a great diversity I wasn’t interested in it. Obviously I had other of music I listened to. Also my father had interests too – literature, theatre and film – been through a period of assistantship but eventually it all came back to music when at the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra I discovered a passion for , in the late 1960s before I was born. He was a composer whose music I barely ever assistant to Gennady Rozhdestvensky, who heard live. It was very rarely performed was then Principal Conductor – Gennady in , so I could only listen to it on had performed a whole array of 20th-century LPs in my father’s collection. classics that were still uncommon in Soviet Russia: Bartók’s The Miraculous Mandarin; AM: What sort of music had you grown up Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste; hearing, because your father was conducting other works by Bartók, Stravinsky, and lots at the Stanislavski and Bolshoi theatres, of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. wasn’t he?

04 AM: You must have met a lot of the musicians electronic studio from Cologne. Conductors your father worked with. Who are the ones like Christoph von Dohnányi and Gary Bertini you remember most, and most fondly? came; all the West German radio orchestras VJ: I remember meeting the violinist Oleg came; so we heard Zimmermann’s Kagan: he came to work with my father Die Soldaten; Henze’s The Bassarids; music on Brahms’s Violin Concerto, so they would by Rihm, Hartmann, you name it. We were rehearse in my father’s study, and I stood hungry for all kinds of art: theatre and film, there turning pages for my father. And too – the retrospective screenings of Fellini, I remember the warmth this man was Buñuel, Tarkovsky – we had the chance radiating, and this incredibly big violin to see it all for the first time. So it started sound: I’d never heard anything like it there, in my mid-late teens, and then when before. I also remember meeting Mikhail I moved to the information broke Chernyakhovsky, the old concertmaster over me like a thunderstorm, and from then of the Moscow Radio Symphony Orchestra. on it was more about selecting what to listen He’d been one of the closest collaborators to, what to read, what to watch. It was a very of Rozhdestvensky in that era, and at that happy period of my life, accumulating all time was playing Principal Second Violin of that knowledge that I had been so eager in the Moscow Philharmonic. to learn for so many years.

AM: It’s extraordinary to think about what AM: Would you consider yourself a you didn’t have access to unless your father German conductor in a lot of ways, having had it in his record collection. You must have been brought up in that tradition as been hungry for many kinds of music when a student musician? your family moved to Germany in 1990. VJ: The first 18 years of my life were spent VJ: Thanks to Gorbachev’s Perestroika and in Moscow, and those were highly important, his good relationship with West Germany, so I would never consider myself a German and the upcoming fall of the Berlin Wall conductor. I saw my German education in and the reunification of Germany, there a way as an addition, a bonus, coming on top was a two-week festival of German music of what I had already accumulated in Russia. in Moscow, where they performed masses And I must say that Russian training, although of West German music, including still being very traditional, very conservative, Stockhausen, who came himself with his was incredibly thorough – the capability to

05 analyse a piece of music, dissect it in the AM: I suppose the experience of working smallest detail, and then put it back together with three LPO Composers in Residence – – I learned it all there. Obviously there were Mark-Anthony Turnage, Julian Anderson things I had to learn in the West, about and now Magnus Lindberg – and working the twelve-tone technique; about the later with them on completely new music, developments in the music of the 20th must change the way that not only your century; but on the other hand, while still relationship with the players works, but in Russia I met people like Alfred Schnittke, the players’ approach to music in general? Edison Denisov and , VJ: Yes, and I think what has changed over and had the opportunity to speak to them the years is that orchestras have generally about music, and they were incredibly become much more appreciative of living knowledgeable about everything that composers. I saw this recently when they was happening in the West. So we were were working with Brett Dean for the first hungry, but not that unaware. time, on Hamlet at Glyndebourne: the respect, the interest and the curiosity they AM: You’ve already said that the sound bring is immense. They ask very intelligent of the LPO has changed a lot since you first questions because they want to understand. heard it in 2001. How has the sound changed It’s very stimulating to observe. while you’ve been working with them? VJ: I think the sound has become lighter AM: This set of recordings celebrates a decade and more transparent. That I see as my of your work with the LPO: do you see it personal contribution, because I’ve always as a snapshot of the LPO’s work; is it a history insisted from the very start that it can’t of your relationship? be all meat and potatoes and heavy food – VJ: We’ve produced so much over the years it’s got to have the lightness, the exquisite – I’ve tried to count all the different works detail, and the transparency; however rich we’ve done together and failed. Many of our the sound is, it’s got to have the layers. I think concerts have been recorded, so it has taken the LPO is immensely attentive to dynamics, us a while to select what we wanted to keep articulation, and generally consciously for posterity, and also what was – in our involved in the process of music-making. opinion – most important to leave to listeners as a memory of our collective work over the years. I’ve tried to opt for lesser-known

06 repertoire, but also things that felt very are real gems, and then there are the two important to me or to the Orchestra, and the operas, Rusalka and The Stone Guest. The things that have been our biggest successes. latter especially is incredibly virtuosic, with So for example on the contemporary an absolutely unmistakable personal stamp music disc [CD7] there are two symphonies: on it. Yes, there are influences; he has some Silvestrov’s Fifth Symphony, which was of the Italian and French moments of performed back in 2009, and Denisov’s influence, obviously Berlioz and maybe Liszt, Second Symphony, which was actually the but at the same time it’s unmistakably him, first UK performance in 2017, and this will as is the case with Glinka. And there are also be the first commercial recording. Plus there two different versions of Night on a Bare is a work by Giya Kancheli, and Atmosphères Mountain by Mussorgsky. First is the one by Ligeti. So four very different compositions everybody knows, though our rendition may – you could find something in common be very far from tradition – it’s actually closer between the approach of Kancheli and to what we call the Russian tradition, so Silvestrov, but there’s certainly nothing that it’s quite mad, and pulled in every possible would connect those with Denisov or Ligeti, direction tempo-wise, and there is almost so there’s a real variety. CD2, the short Russian nothing in it from the classical tautness orchestral masterpieces disc, comprises three and very strict academic style of Rimsky- works by Glinka – but interestingly the Ruslan Korsakov. It was actually recorded before Overture is not featured there – there is the we performed Mussorgsky’s original version, Waltz Fantasy and the two Spanish Overtures, which is also on the disc, and is even madder. and the symphonic scherzo Baba-Yaga by Dargomyzhsky, which is almost never AM: That original version is really startling performed here in the West. when you hear it for the first time. It’s so stripped-back, and you can see why AM: If we know one Baba-Yaga it’s someone like Rimsky-Korsakov would the Liadov, but Dargomyzhsky is a sort want to re-orchestrate it, yet the starkness of missing link in Russian music between and the strength of the timbres are Glinka and Tchaikovsky, isn’t he? completely original. VJ: I would say between Glinka and the VJ: Absolutely, though the difference in this Mighty Handful. And for me he has always particular composition is that in the case of been an astonishing composer – his songs Mussorgsky’s Boris, Rimsky-Korsakov changed

07 a few harmonies but left the texture of AM: I was immediately interested in the piece largely untouched. Night on a the choral disc when I saw it: Taneyev, Bare Mountain, on the other hand, has been Szymanowski and Zemlinsky. They’re all totally recomposed and seems to be some making that transition into the 20th century drug-fuelled product of the late 20th century and dealing with it quite differently. – it’s completely mad. But in its madness How were you thinking of these works it’s got this incredible power of originality, together on a disc? and I’m amazed at how well the orchestration VJ: I really find it highly satisfying – works. It’s against every single rule of not just intellectually, but also musically – orchestration, but it works! to programme things together that people wouldn’t expect. Hearing a certain work after AM: Prokofiev is also featured, and a work another influences the way you hear it, and that’s still not particularly well-known: in turn hearing the second work makes you Chout (The Buffoon). I heard this at the Proms think differently about the first. So when it when I was a teenager, and I don’t think came to arranging the works together on a I’ve had an opportunity to hear it live since, disc, we couldn’t find a companion to Enescu’s and that’s going back quite a long time. Symphony. There were various possibilities VJ: Well this is a bow to Rozhdestvensky, but I didn’t like any of them, and then suddenly and obviously to my father; to that whole I realised that Enescu started writing his tradition that I accumulated in Russia – the Symphony during the last stages of the First unknown Prokofiev, the neglected Prokofiev. World War, and Janácˇek wrote The Eternal We actually had an LPO festival dedicated Gospel on the eve of the outbreak of that to Prokofiev in 2012, and this is the only same War, so something connects them, and fragment from that large canvas we designed it is this impossible image of eternal peace; back then that has made it into this set this illusion, which would never be reached of discs. But then there are other works – certainly not in our lifetime. that are very important and dear to my heart, such as Enescu’s Third Symphony, Janácˇek’s The Eternal Gospel, Szymanowski’s Symphony No. 3 and Zemlinsky’s Psalm No. 23 – middle- and Eastern European repertoire of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

08 AM: You can understand Enescu, when he AM: We must talk about the LPO at the BBC finished his Symphony in 1918, knowing Proms in 2011, because in this set we have that peace was so far away, yet Janácˇek the Faust Symphony by Liszt. It was a great at the beginning of the First World War occasion. What do you remember about has optimism. It doesn’t feel unreachable that performance? somehow, there’s a harbinger of a possible VJ: Well the reception at the Proms is the human future that’s positive. most amazing in the world, and among those VJ: It’s often hard to analyse what’s going one-of-a-kind experiences in a musician’s life. on around us, and much easier to analyse But that particular performance came the times long past. But creative artists often immediately after a run of Die Meistersinger have an ability to receive those signals, those at Glyndebourne, so the Orchestra and I had tectonic changes well beneath their feet: played that opera a good ten times, and we they sometimes don’t interpret them in felt as if we were standing on top of a very the right way, but they do register them. high mountain. The Prom seems to have In my mind Janácˇek in The Eternal Gospel, been fuelled by this sense of pride and the like Scriabin with his Prometheus and so sensation that anything was possible, and many other works written on the outbreak we plunged into the Faust Symphony, which of the great catastrophe that led to all the is very Wagnerian in many ways. And when other 20th-century calamities, sensed that I listened to it again, it came across as if the something was coming, but simply didn’t Orchestra had been on some kind of drugs know what it was. A lot of works written – although I certainly didn’t take any! – at the beginning of the 20th century speak but I think it was that knock-on effect from of an apocalypse, but an apocalypse in the the Meistersinger run. Die Meistersinger poetic sense, as they had read in the Bible. has been released on both video and audio, The apocalypse came, but it came much so I thought now it was time to release the dirtier and bloodier than anybody expected. Faust. Orchestrally it’s among the most So that’s why I decided to put those two stunning things I’ve heard the LPO play. pieces together on the same disc, and I think they make an unlikely couple but it will be very gratifying for people who don’t know either work to listen to them.

09 AM: So the Faust is the consequence of AM: Let’s talk about the Brahms disc: Meistersinger. It’s an extraordinary piece. why didn’t you play Brahms in your early It feels like one of those pieces that’s years with the LPO? a great fit for the Proms season, but it’s VJ: I did avoid Brahms in the beginning, not a straightforward narrative; you have in the first three years, because I thought these three symphonic portraits of Faust, that the Orchestra had done so much Brahms of Gretchen, and of Mephistopheles, and with Kurt Masur, and Masur was so much what Liszt does to Faust’s themes in that more part of that tradition than me, so why last section with Mephistopheles is almost should I start with my Brahms straight away? deranged. You can feel so much incredibly I thought: let them wait; let myself also advanced musical thinking there. This is mature into it, and then we’ll try it slowly. a step beyond anything in the Liszt tone- At the age of 37 or 38 I felt up to it. I did the poems, isn’t it? Brahms works consecutively, in chronological VJ: Well it’s certainly a step towards the order, so the Alto Rhapsody came somewhere tone-poems of , and I also in the middle and the German Requiem after felt a particular interest in that work because all four symphonies. So again, like everything of its link with Mahler: having embarked I’ve done with the LPO, there was some kind on a Mahler cycle quite early on with the LPO of plan. Not everything has been pre-planned, I knew that sooner or later the mythical Eighth but I’ve been extremely conscious with Symphony would surface. We have now done all my choices. Besides, if you look at the it, in April 2017, and it has also been recorded, programmes, how these pieces surfaced, although not released yet. Obviously the link the Alto Rhapsody was performed in a is that Liszt and Mahler used the same text, concert with Wagner’s Faust Overture and the last stanza of Faust, although Mahler did the Liszt Faust Symphony, and the German more, he did the whole epilogue. It would Requiem was originally performed with have been impossible for Mahler’s music to Zimmermann’s Ecclesiastical Action, with have turned out the way it did – in the Second the same baritone, Dietrich Henschel, singing and Eighth symphonies especially – without both works. So there’s nothing conventional Liszt’s Faust preceding it in the way it did. about it; it’s just that the two Brahms pieces ended up on the same disc.

10 AM: And we’re so used to it now, but AM: You’ve already spoken of your pride in sometimes it’s important to remember the LPO’s sound in the French repertoire, and that Brahm’s German Requiem is quite you’re celebrating that with Daphnis et Chloé. an unconventional requiem. VJ: Yes, although technically speaking this VJ: Completely: it’s one of those pieces French music received a lot of influences from that reformed the idea of the requiem. Russia, particularly from Rimsky-Korsakov. It’s a requiem not written in Latin; a requiem With the Ravel it was quite interesting without a mention of Christ – Christ isn’t because the LPO has played suites from even mentioned once. It’s a requiem written Daphnis countless times, but I have never by an agnostic, by a doubting intellectual done any of the suites by choice: I think they who is trying to give consolation to other betray the whole sense of the narrative that people without actually believing in it the ballet presents so beautifully. But playing himself. He’s trying to believe but there are those well-known bits in the context of the issues there. And there are issues in the complete ballet completely changed the Alto Rhapsody, too. It was given as a wedding way the musicians play them. The same gift to one of Clara Schumann’s daughters – thing happens if you perform The Firebird I don’t know what must have been on his as a complete ballet, having played the suites mind for him to give such a work as a wedding many times before. And then of course the gift! It’s completely absurd – very strange. textures of Daphnis are extremely delicate So I think if you just forget for a second that and it’s not all about this French ‘refinement’, there is such a thing as conventional as they say. Yes, the harmonies are perfumed repertoire, every piece has its own history, and the orchestration is amazing, but it’s also every piece has its own biography, and every an extremely well structured and calculated piece is, in its own way, an unconventional work, so my understanding of Ravel has exploration of something. changed over the years as well. I grew up listening to the old French conductors, and especially Charles Munch with the great Boston Symphony, but then I heard Boulez conduct this music, and it completely changed my personal approach. I don’t do it the way Boulez did it, but I have been very strongly influenced by him.

11 AM: If I just say ‘clarity’ in the context of sound as we approach the music. Then Boulez, is that part of what you’re talking there’s also the thing that the LPO has got about? That famous ear for incredible detail? that brings us back to the beginning of And when you come back to this score again our conversation about Glyndebourne, that and again, you notice something you weren’t they’ve got this sense of drama in their bones, aware of the last time you listened to it. so it’s not just the beautiful sounds they It’s endlessly fascinating. weave and pull together – they’re also telling VJ: Although clarity has always been the a story. It might not be a straightforward, famous virtue of French music, I think the concrete narrative, but there’s always a story layers of interpretive traditions have blurred to their music-making, and I’ve always also this clarity over the years, and so now I feel been very intensely encouraging in trying much calmer when approaching the French to coax this story-telling from them. Music repertoire – before, I always had a feeling of cannot just be emotional; generic emotion stepping on some forbidden territory. But is not an emotion at all. Emotion has to also we’ve done such unusual French works, be caused by something, and it is actually like late Debussy: Le Martyre de Saint not an emotion we play, but rather a series Sébastien, Jeux, Images… all works that of musical events that provoke an emotion you very rarely hear in concerts, so that in the listener – sometimes even in us then when coming to play something much ourselves. But we act rather than react. more conventional such as Daphnis et Chloé, And I think that that’s the whole difference these previous experiences translate into between passionate and sentimental.

12 On tour with the LPO in Australia, 2009 Jurowski and pianist Marc-André Hamelin on tour in Germany, 2015

The LPO announces Vladimir Jurowski as Principal Conductor, 2006 With musicians from the LPO, 2007 Vladimir Jurowski Principal He is a regular guest with many leading Conductor & Artistic Advisor orchestras in Europe and North America, including the Berlin and orchestras; the Royal One of today’s most sought-after conductors, Concertgebouw Orchestra; The acclaimed worldwide for his incisive Orchestra; The ; the musicianship and adventurous artistic Boston, San Francisco and Chicago symphony commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in orchestras; the Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich, Moscow and studied at the Music Academies Leipzig Gewandhausorchester, Mahler of Dresden and Berlin. In 1995 he made his Chamber Orchestra, Staatskapelle Dresden international debut at the Wexford Festival and Chamber Orchestra of Europe. conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s , and the same year saw his debut at the Royal His opera engagements have included Opera House, , with Nabucco. Rigoletto, Jenu˚fa, The Queen of Spades, Hansel and Gretel and Die Frau ohne Schatten Jurowski was appointed Principal Guest at the , New York; Parsifal Conductor of the London Philharmonic and Wozzeck at ; Orchestra in 2003, becoming Principal War and Peace at the Opéra national de ; Conductor in 2007. He also holds the titles Eugene Onegin at the Teatro alla Scala, Milan; of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; Age of Enlightenment, Artistic Director at of the Russian State Academic Symphony and Iolanta and Die Teufel von Loudun at Orchestra and in 2017 became Chief Conductor Dresden, and numerous operas and Artistic Director of the Rundfunk- at Glyndebourne including Otello, Macbeth, Sinfonieorchester Berlin. He has previously Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Don Giovanni, held the positions of First Kapellmeister The Cunning Little Vixen, Peter Eötvös’s Love of the Komische Oper Berlin (1997–2001), and Other Demons, Ariadne auf Naxos and Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, which won Comunale di Bologna (2000–03), Principal the 2015 BBC Music Magazine Opera Award. Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005–09), and Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera (2001–13).

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London Philharmonic Orchestra The Orchestra is based at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has been Resident Orchestra since 1992, giving The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one around 30 concerts a season. Each summer it of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing takes up its annual residency at Glyndebourne a long and distinguished history with its Festival Opera where it has been Resident present-day position as one of the most Symphony Orchestra for over 50 years. The dynamic and forward-looking ensembles Orchestra performs at venues around the UK in the UK. This reputation has been secured and has made numerous international tours, by the Orchestra’s performances in the performing to sell-out audiences in America, concert hall and opera house, its many Europe, Asia and Australasia. award-winning recordings, trail-blazing international tours and wide-ranging The London Philharmonic Orchestra made educational work. its first recordings on 10 October 1932, just three days after its first public performance. Founded by Sir in 1932, It has recorded and broadcast regularly ever the Orchestra has since been headed by many since, and in 2005 established its own record of the world’s greatest conductors, including label. These recordings are taken mainly Sir , Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg from live concerts given by conductors Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. including LPO Principal Conductors from Vladimir Jurowski was appointed the Beecham and Boult, through Haitink, Orchestra’s Principal Guest Conductor Solti and Tennstedt, to Masur and Jurowski. in March 2003, and became Principal Conductor in September 2007. lpo.org.uk

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Jeremy Ovenden tenor Sofia Fomina soprano

Jeremy Ovenden studied at the Royal Praised for her ‘formidably striking’ and College of Music, London, and privately ‘stunning silvery’ soprano sound, Sofia with Nicolai Gedda. Fomina first burst onto the international operatic scene in 2012 when she made He has appeared regularly on opera stages a sensational debut at the throughout the world including the Royal as Isabelle in Meyerbeer’s Robert le diable. Opera, Covent Garden; the Staatsoper Berlin; A former member of the Saarländisches La Scala, Milan; the Opéra National de Paris; Staatstheater and Frankfurt Opera, she La Monnaie, Brussels; Dutch National Opera has since appeared at the Opéra National and the Salzburg International Festival. Roles de Paris, the Bayerische Staatsoper, include the title roles in Mozart’s Idomeneo Hungarian National Opera, the Théâtre and Lucio Silla, Ferrando in Così fan tutte, du Capitole de Toulouse, the Theater an der Belfiore inLa finta giardiniera and Nerone in Wien and the Amsterdam Concertgebouw. Monteverdi’s L’incoronazione di Poppea, while roles in Handel include Bajazet in Tamerlano, A frequent collaborator with Vladimir Tigrane in Radamisto and Jupiter inSemele . Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Sofia has performed with them Jeremy’s concert repertoire ranges from in Fidelio and Mahler’s Symphonies Nos. Monteverdi, Bach and Handel through Mozart 4 and 8 in London and on tour. Other concert and Haydn, to Berlioz, Britten, Szymanowski appearances include Mahler’s Symphony and Henze, with orchestras including the No. 2 at the Teatro Real; New Year’s Gala London Philharmonic and London Symphony concerts with the Accademia Nazionale orchestras, the Deutsches Symphonie- di Santa Cecilia and the Czech Philharmonic Orchester Berlin, the Budapest Festival Orchestra; Falstaff with the City of Orchestra and the Royal Concertgebouw Birmingham Symphony Orchestra; and Orchestra, working with the late Sir Mahler’s Symphony No. 4 with the Mahler and Nikolaus Haroncourt, Vladimir Jurowski, Chamber Orchestra and Vladimir Jurowski. , Paul McCreesh, René Jacobs and Ivor Bolton.

20 Adrian Thompson tenor Marco Jentzsch tenor

London-born Adrian Thompson is an German tenor Marco Jentzsch started his artist of extraordinary versatility with career with a scholarship at the Staatsoper a wide-ranging opera, concert and recital Berlin, later becoming a member of the Alte repertoire of works from the Renaissance Oper Erfurt and the Staatsoper Hannover. to contemporary periods. He made his debut at the Dutch National Opera in 2010 and his Glyndbourne Festival Adrian is long established as one of Britain’s debut the following year. In the 2010/11 leading operatic character tenors, and has season he made his debut as Froh appeared on the stages of The Royal Opera, (Das Rheingold) under Daniel Barenboim Covent Garden; English National Opera; at the Mailänder Scala, and sang the same Welsh National Opera; Glyndebourne role at the Staatsoper Berlin, also under Festival Opera and Garsington Festival. Barenboim. Since 2009 he has enjoyed close He has made guest appearances at La Scala, relationships with Oper Köln, the Opernhaus Milan; Geneva Opera; the Canadian Opera Zürich and the Staatstheater Darmstadt. Company; the Nederlandse Reisopera In May 2017 he sang Max Der( Freischütz) and the Aix-en-Provence Festival, as well at the Dresdner Semperoper. as in concert with all the leading orchestras in the UK and abroad. Over his career Adrian His main roles include the Wagnerian roles has developed a particular relationship with of Stolzing, Parsifal and Lohengrin, as well the music of Britten and Elgar, for which as Erik (Der fliegende Holländer) and Max he is much in demand both on the concert (Der Freischütz). Forthcoming projects platform and in the recording studio. include Schreker’s Die Gezeichneten (Oper Köln), Erik (Zürich and Darmstadt) Adrian trained at the Guildhall School of and Alfred (Die Fledermaus)in Cologne. Music & Drama, where he is now a Professor.

21 Miah Persson soprano Dietrich Henschel baritone

Internationally renowned Swedish soprano German baritone Dietrich Henschel’s Miah Persson has appeared all over the world repertoire extends from the beginning as a concert artist and recitalist, as well as of Baroque opera to the modern day avant- on the operatic stage. garde. A regular at all the major European opera houses, his recent engagements Throughout her distinguished career Miah include the title roles in Enescu’s Oedipe has performed at the Vienna Staatsoper; (La Monnaie) and Manfred Trojahn’s Orest the Metropolitan Opera, New York; The Royal (De Nederlandse Opera). Opera, Covent Garden; the Aix-en-Provence Festival; the Staatsoper Berlin; the Bayerische In addition to opera, a wide range Staatsoper, ; La Monnaie, Brussels; of acclaimed recordings with great the Frankfurt Opera; De Doelen, Rotterdam; accompanists, orchestras and conductors the New Zealand Festival; the Théâtre testifies to Dietrich’s success as a Lieder des Champs-Elysées, Paris; L’Opéra national interpreter and oratorio soloist. Recently he du Rhin, Strasbourg; the New National has explored the intersection between music, Theatre, Tokyo; the Theater an der Wien; theatre and visual media with a staging of the Gran Teatro del Liceu, and many others. Schubert’s Schwanengesang and two films directed by Clara Pons: the first –IRRSAL/ Miah’s solo recordings include Soul and Forbidden Prayers – is based on Hugo Wolf’s Landscape with Roger Vignoles (Hyperion), settings of poems by Eduard Mörike, and Mozart: Un moto di gioia: Opera and Concert the second on Mahler’s Wunderhorn songs. Arias (BIS) with Sebastian Weigle and the Both films serve to accompany live Swedish Chamber Orchestra, and Portraits – orchestral performances. Songs by Clara and (BIS) with pianist Joseph Breinl. Dietrich Henschel is signed to the Belgian record label Evil Penguin Records Classic.

22 Anna Larsson mezzo-soprano London Philharmonic Choir

Swedish mezzo-soprano Anna Larsson is a The London Philharmonic Choir was globally renowned artist, known particularly founded in 1947 as the chorus for the for her consummate interpretations of Mahler. London Philharmonic Orchestra. It is widely She has sung with the world’s greatest regarded as one of Britain’s finest choirs orchestras and conductors including the and consistently meets with critical acclaim. , Vienna Philharmonic, Performing regularly with the London Lucerne Festival, London Philharmonic, Philharmonic Orchestra, the London London Symphony, New York Philharmonic Philharmonic Choir also works with many and Chicago Symphony orchestras, with other orchestras throughout the UK and conductors including the late Kurt Masur, makes annual appearances at the BBC Proms. , It has performed under some of the world’s and , Vladimir Jurowski, Zubin most eminent conductors, among them Mehta, Esa-Pekka Salonen, , the late , Bernard Haitink, Sir and . Sir , Klaus Tennstedt, Kurt Masur, Vladimir Jurowski, Sir Mark Elder, A hugely versatile artist, she has sung roles Sir , Yannick Nézet-Séguin including Waltraute, Erda and Klytaemnestra and Sir . at the Vienna State Opera; Gaea in Daphne in Toulouse; Kundry in Bologna; Herodias The London Philharmonic Choir has made in Stockholm; and Waldtaube in Gurrelieder numerous recordings for CD, radio and at the Dutch National Opera, Amsterdam. television. The Choir often travels overseas She is an intellectual and vocal commentator and in recent years it has given concerts and ambassador for the future of opera and in many European countries, Hong Kong, classical music. In 2014 she was awarded the Malaysia and Australia. Royal Medal ‘Litteris et Artibus’ by the King of Sweden.

23 London Symphony Chorus Trinity Boys Choir

The London Symphony Chorus was The members of Trinity Boys Choir are formed in 1966 to complement the work all pupils at Trinity School, Croydon, an of the London Symphony Orchestra and independent day school. The choir frequently in 2016 celebrated its 50th anniversary. appears in operas and concerts at home and The partnership between the LSC and abroad including at the Royal Opera House, LSO has continued to develop and was Glyndebourne, English National Opera and strengthened in 2012 with the appointment the Aix-en-Provence Festival. Soloists from of Simon Halsey as joint Chorus Director the choir have recently performed at La Scala, of the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO. Milan, the Konzerthaus, Vienna, and the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam. The LSC has also partnered many other major orchestras and has performed nationally and The choir tours extensively with regular visits internationally with the Berlin Philharmonic to China, Japan and other European countries. and Vienna Philharmonic orchestras, and the The boys have sung with John Eliot Gardiner Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Championing and the Monteverdi Choir in Germany, the musicians of tomorrow, it has also worked Italy and Spain and on their recent recording with both the NYOGB and the EUYO. The of Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Chorus has toured extensively throughout Europe and has also visited North America, The boys feature on the soundtracks of many Israel, Australia and South East Asia. major films including Disney’sMaleficent , The Hunger Games: Mockingjay 1 and 2 and Much of the LSC repertoire has been captured Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. in its large catalogue of recordings featuring renowned conductors and soloists, which have won nine awards, including five Grammys.

24 Recordings by Vladimir Jurowski Holst on the LPO Label Honegger Pastorale d’été; Symphony No. 4; Une Cantate de Noël Mahler Symphonies Nos. 1 & 2 Vladimir Jurowski has recorded the following Mendelssohn Vom Himmel hoch works with the London Philharmonic Rachmaninoff Symphony No. 3; Symphonic Orchestra. These recordings are available Dances; The Isle of the Dead; 10 Songs on CD, and via download and streaming Shostakovich Symphonies Nos. 6 & 14; services. See lpo.org.uk /recordings Piano Concertos Nos. 1 & 2 for more information, and to purchase: Stravinsky Petrushka; Symphonies of Wind Instruments; Orpheus Anderson Fantasias; The Crazed Moon; Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos. 1–6; In lieblicher Bläue; Alleluia; The Stations ; Francesca da Rimini; of the Sun Serenade for Strings J S Bach Cantata No. 63 Turnage Evening Songs; When I woke; Beethoven Symphony No. 3; Overture, Fidelio Lullaby for Hans; Mambo, Blues and Tarantella Brahms Symphonies Nos. 1–4 (also on LP) Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 8; Britten Double Concerto for Violin and Viola; The First Nowell Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge; Zemlinsky A Florentine Tragedy; Les lluminations Six Maeterlinck Songs Haydn The Seven Last Words of our Saviour on the Cross

Design: Ross Shaw Image credits: Front cover © Thomas Kurek. Inside front cover and onsert © Karen Robinson. Page 13 © Daniel Boud. Page 14 (above) © Tibor-Florestan Pluto. Page 15 © Richard Cannon. Page 17 © Chris Christodoulou. Page 19 © Benjamin Ealovega

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