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Home , Arthur Rubinstein, Barbara Hannigan, Guntram (opera), Helen Grime, Herbert Blomstedt, Leonidas Kavakos

Sunday 18 February 2018 7–9pm Barbican Hall

LSO SEASON CONCERT HARDING & KAVAKOS

Helen Grime Virga Prokofiev Violin Concerto No 2 HARDING & Interval Strauss An Alpine

Daniel Harding conductor KAVAKOS violin Welcome LSO News On Our Blog

marks a very welcome return. We also THE LSO’S 2018/19 SEASON NEW ON DIGITAL THEATRE welcome soloist Leonidas Kavakos, another artist with whom the LSO has worked The LSO’s 2018/19 season is now on sale. Visit our blog to find out more about LSO a great deal over the last decade. It is a Highlights include Music Director Sir Simon concert recordings available to enjoy from great pleasure to perform alongside him in Rattle’s exploration of folk-inspired music the comfort of your own home via Digital the season that marks his 50th birthday. in his series Roots and Origins; Artist Portraits Theatre, adding to the ’s ever- with and conductor growing collection on the online platform. I hope that you enjoy tonight’s concert and pianist Daniil Trifonov; and eight and that you can join us again soon. On premieres across the season. 22 February we delve further into repertoire ON YOUTUBE: for solo violin, with Alina Ibragimova Plus there’s much more to explore with MAHLER SYMPHONY NO 2 Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert performing Brahms’ Violin Concerto. LSO Discovery’s free lunchtime concerts, at the Barbican, which combines three vivid Discovery and Singing Days, as well as Watch the LSO, London Symphony Chorus works by Prokofiev, Strauss and British BBC Radio 3’s concerts at LSO St Luke’s. and conductor Semyon Bychkov performing composer Helen Grime. After participating Mahler’s monumental Second Symphony in the LSO’s schemes for emerging composers, Visit lso.co.uk/201819season for full listings. in full, recorded live at the Barbican on Helen Grime’s Virga was commissioned Sunday 4 February. by the Orchestra in 2007. Our relationship Kathryn McDowell CBE DL has since continued to go from strength Managing Director NEW ON LSO PLAY: DEBUSSY to strength, with the world premiere of PRÉLUDE À L’APRÈS-MIDI D’UN FAUNE Read our news, watch videos and more her work Fanfare opening the LSO season • lso.co.uk/news in September 2017, and a further world Watch Principal Guest Conductor • youtube.com/lso premiere still to come – Woven Space, François-Xavier Roth conduct Debussy’s • lso.co.uk/blog conducted by Sir on 19 April. Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune from multiple camera angles on our interactive We are delighted to be joined once again platform LSO Play. Available at play.lso.co.uk. by conductor Daniel Harding, who last conducted the Orchestra at the Barbican LSO Play is generously supported in June 2016 with a memorable performance by Reignwood. of Mahler's Second Symphony. His relationship with the LSO goes back over 20 years and this evening’s performance

2 Welcome 18 February 2018 Tonight’s Concert Coming Up in March & April

his concert of musical journeys PROGRAMME NOTE WRITERS Sunday 11 March 2018 7pm Thursday 19 & 26 April 2018 7.30pm and vivid storytelling begins in Barbican Hall Barbican Hall the intricately woven soundworld John Fallas is a writer and editor. of Helen Grime’s Virga. The piece – Grime’s He regularly contributes CD booklet essays GARDINER’S SCHUMANN HELEN GRIME WORLD PREMIERE first work for full orchestra, written in 2007 – to labels including NMC (London) and aeon takes its title from the hazy streaks of (), and is Publications Officer for Schumann Overture: Genoveva Helen Grime Woven Space * precipitation that drop from clouds and Delphian Records (Edinburgh). Berlioz Les nuits d’été (world premiere) evaporate before reaching the ground, Schumann Symphony No 2 Mahler Symphony No 9 evoked, in Grime’s own words, through David Gutman has written four books on ‘falling cascades of sound’. subjects ranging from Prokofiev to Lennon, Sir conductor Sir Simon Rattle conductor and is a regular contributor to Gramophone, Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano Strauss’ tone poem is International Record Review and The Stage. * Commissioned for Sir Simon Rattle and the also inspired by the natural world, but takes Recommended by Classic FM LSO by the Barbican listeners on an altogether different journey: Andrew Stewart is a freelance music an ascent to the heights of an Alpine peak. journalist and writer. He is the author 26 April generously supported by Baker McKenzie A story of extremes, illustrated by a vast of The LSO at 90, and contributes to Thursday 15 March 2018 7.30pm orchestra, every daring step and awe-inspiring a wide variety of specialist classical Barbican Hall force of nature – including, in a parallel to music publications. Virga, a conjuring up of misty rainfall – is GARDINER’S SCHUMANN captured in Strauss’ music, from sunrise to Sunday 22 April 2018 7pm the summit, violent thunder to nightfall. Schumann Overture: Genoveva Barbican Hall WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS Mozart Concerto No 25 K503 Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto sits Schumann Overture, Scherzo and Finale TIPPETT’S THE ROSE LAKE between these two works. The composer Tonight we are delighted to welcome Schumann Symphony No 4 wrote that the piece was the product Gerrards Cross Community Association Tippett The Rose Lake † of his ‘nomadic concert-tour existence’, Sir John Eliot Gardiner conductor Mahler comp Cooke Symphony No 10 which took him from to Baku, Madrid Piotr Anderszewski piano to Morocco. Despite this, its fluid, lyrical Sir Simon Rattle conductor melodies carry more than a hint of the composer’s Russian homeland, to which he † Supported by Resonate, a PRS Foundation initiative was about to return, along with tinges of lso.co.uk/whatson in partnership with the Association of British , in the finale’s clicking castanets. 020 7638 8891 BBC Radio 3 and the Boltini Trust

Tonight’s Concert 3 Helen Grime Virga 2007 / note by John Fallas

ike Strauss’ vast Alpine Symphony, textures, or the stabs and dots of harmony revisit all of its earlier materials and show • NATURE IN MUSIC AND ART this short but incident-packed that surround its melodic lines. It is also them as parts of its diverse unity – of its concert opener has a title that an exploration of the orchestra – and weather system, as it were. The violins are refers to something in the outside world. in particular of the orchestra’s registral joined by celeste, harp and piccolos in a Such titles gained popularity in the Romantic extremes, which are first opened out at moment of magical, expectant stillness. period • when, pushing music in the the very beginning of the piece, with celeste The line gradually re-forms, at first direction of images and stories, they also and two piccolos exchanging arabesques from isolated notes, and above these low offered composers the opportunity to over a long held note in the double basses. rumblings the melody descends. The brass invent new forms, or to give new meaning And it is an exploration, too, of different re-enter. Over a more continuous bass line, to old ones. A century and a half later, when types of musical motion, as when that held the melody is taken up by all of the strings pre-established formal shapes are no more bass note unfolds into a slow-moving line together now – a gradually blurred unison, than one option among many and musical rising through the brass, or when this slow plangent, insistent, trumpets crowning meaning is correspondingly less likely to build-up releases into a more lightly-scored a final climax before the music fades back arise from their transgression, composers section in which the orchestra’s stabs of into the atmosphere. need no such pretext. But they may still harmony accompany little scurrying figures Nature has long served as a source need images and stories, and even when in two clarinets. Composed in 2007 as part of the London of artistic inspiration, particularly during a piece’s purely musical construction is as Symphony Orchestra’s UBS Sound Adventures the Romantic era of the late 18th and early tight as here, its title may enable us to listen At the centre of the piece comes something scheme, Virga had remarkable early 19th centuries. In this school of thought, ‘poetically’, imagining extra-musical parallels unexpected – a remarkable, entirely successes: it was taken up by , which was partly a reaction against the for what the piece expresses musically. unaccompanied melody for the first violins. who conducted it at the BBC Proms in August growing industrialisation and modernisation Structurally, this is the opposite of all 2009, and by no less a figure than Pierre of society, the beauty of nature – and the Poetry, indeed, seems to be the appropriate that has gone before, with the orchestra’s Boulez, who gave the French premiere with retreat of the individual into the natural metaphor here: where Strauss’ images and high and low extremities emptied out to the Orchestre de Paris in May 2010. Further world – served as one of the artist’s most stories are explicit and writ large, Helen bring the middle register into startlingly performances followed in Grime’s home important sources of inspiration. This Grime’s preference is for the glancing and close focus. Metaphorically, too, everything country of Scotland and in Manchester, is famously illustrated by Friedrich's suggestive, and her ‘outside-world’ reference is different here, the kaleidoscope of droplets as part of her three-year Associate Wanderer Above the Sea of Fog (1818), is correspondingly unusual, yet still intensely replaced by a solid shelf of melody (perhaps, Composership with the Hallé (2011–14). pictured above, as well as in Beethoven’s evocative. Virga is precipitation that falls imaginatively, we might hear this as Tonight, Virga returns to the orchestra that Symphony No 6, the ‘Pastoral’ (1808) and from a cloud but evaporates before reaching representing the altitude at which a change in commissioned it, in advance of Grime’s Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Overture (1832) – the ground, and Grime’s piece is full of air pressure causes precipitation to evaporate substantial new work for that orchestra – dramatic landscapes and soundscapes rain-like sounds: the falling cascades of and disappear from sight). Yet from this point Woven Space, to be premiered under all inspired by natural wonders encountered woodwind droplets that often dominate its of greatest contrast the piece will return to Sir Simon Rattle on 19 April. • by their creators.

4 Programme Notes 18 February 2018 Helen Grime in profile b 1981 / by FIND THE PERFECT GIFT FROM OUR NEW RANGE Tote Bags Tea Towels Mugs

orn in York in 1981, Helen Grime York (Three Whistler Miniatures, 2011). was brought up in Aberdeenshire, Evocative titles and (highly appropriate) where her mother and grandparents references to visual art by no means ended were music teachers. there. Among her more recent works are responses to Joseph Cornell’s assemblages She studied at the (Aviary Sketches for string trio, 2014) and with and Edwin Roxburgh, Joan Eardley’s paintings (Two Eardley and in 2008 at . By that time Pictures, written for last year’s BBC Proms). she was already making a reputation. Virga Other times the stimulus seems to come (2007), an LSO commission, proved her more from the instrumental line-up, as in gift for lustrous textures, of lines engaging her Oboe Quartet (2011) or the Double Concerto with each other in lively interplay and for clarinet and trumpet that, in 2015, often worked from pregnant motifs that concluded an association with the Hallé. • run through a composition. Commissions followed for the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group (A Cold Spring, 2009), the BBC Available now on Level -1 Scottish Symphony Orchestra (Everyone Sang, 2010) and the Claremont Trio of New

Composer Profile 5 Sergei ProkofievViolin Concerto No 2 in G minor Op 63 1935 / note by David Gutman

1 Allegro moderato start the proceedings on its own. Whether with will-o’-the-wisp figurations fluttering Need such ideological point scoring detain 2 Andante assai or not this sombre opening truly evokes through the texture. The lyricism is balanced us tonight? The choice is yours. The Second 3 Allegro, ben marcato ‘the image of the snow-covered plains by the tingling excitement of the finale, a Violin Concerto has a secure place in the of Russia’ as discerned by Nestyev, spikier, rhythmically irregular version of the repertoire, and, on purely musical grounds, Leonidas Kavakos violin Prokofiev’s official Soviet biographer, the familiar 19th-century peasant rondo. Here the may even be regarded as superior to the seductive second theme is indeed ‘one composer, himself an expert pianist, takes five concertos Prokofiev composed for his fter almost 20 years of self- of the mature Prokofiev’s most felicitous particular care to ensure that his soloist is own instrument. • imposed exile in the west, melodic revelations’. never swamped. He also goes out of his way was arranging to flatter his original audience: the premiere for a permanent return to Russia when he This idea, not a million miles away from took place in Madrid on 1 December 1935 accepted a commission to write a violin some of the love music in Romeo and Juliet, and there’s more than a hint of Spanishness concerto expressly for the French violinist is a perfect demonstration of the way in the deployment of castanets. •. Significantly, the Prokofiev’s tunes can set out in routine composer chose not to depart from the fashion only to ‘slip’ to a quite unexpected With the arrival of his wife and children in approachable idiom of his massive work- pitch. Whether negotiating the pitfalls the following May, Prokofiev had in-progress, the Soviet-sponsored ballet of sentimentality or simply avoiding the turned himself into a bona fide Soviet artist. Romeo and Juliet •. Despite his stated obvious, the composer will often stretch The ‘romantic’ new concerto could even be desire to produce something ‘altogether his melodic line into a harmonic frame that taken to mark an appropriate volte-face in different from No 1’, this second concerto seems arbitrary or disconnected on the page the creative life of a renegade modernist, has the same generous lyricism, the same but actually produces, as here, the feeling the return of the prodigal. unforced variety of mood, and it maintains that his theme has been ‘refreshed’. the same exquisite balance between As with Shostakovich, so with Prokofiev: violin and orchestra. Only the formal plan, Another typical device is the pulsating, there has lately been some attempt totally assured as it is, seems relatively arpeggiated accompaniment with which to portray the composer as a musical conventional. For all its fine pointing, Prokofiev underpins the radiant arioso-like pamphleteer encoding messages of dissent. this G minor concerto is deliberately less melody of the slow movement; the treatment Those in thrall to this ‘revisionist’ view Interval – 20 minutes audacious than its predecessor •. is vaguely reminiscent of the corresponding have detected a parody of the Stalinist There are bars on all levels of the movement of Rachmaninov’s Second Piano demand for accessibility in the ‘simplified’ Concert Hall; ice cream can be bought The work begins with a movement of Concerto. While this Andante assai is more accompaniment of the slow movement at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. traditional sonata design, yet how typical tranquil and sustained than the younger and an atmosphere of threat in the finale’s Visit the Barbican Shop on Level -1 and see of Prokofiev’s subtle and unassuming Prokofiev would have allowed himself, it cadenza-like duet for soloist and bass drum. our new range of Gifts and Accessories. originality that the solo violin should nevertheless embodies a scherzo element

6 Programme Notes 18 February 2018 Prokofievin profile 1891–1953 / by Andrew Stewart

• ROBERT SOETENS Before he left for exile, Prokofiev completed his ‘Classical’ Symphony, a bold and appealing Robert Soetens (1897–1997) was a French work that revived aspects of 18th-century virtuoso violinist. Over the course of his musical form, clarity and elegance. He career he gave a number of significant received commissions from arts organisations premiere performances, such as Darius in the and France, composing Milhaud’s First String Quartet in 1912, his sparkling The Love for Three Ravel’s in 1925, and Prokofiev’s Oranges for the Chicago Opera Company Sonata for Two Violins in 1932 – the success in 1919–20. His engagements as a recitalist of which inspired the composer to write and concerto soloist brought Prokofiev to his Second Violin Concerto for Soetens. a wide audience in Europe and the US, and In 1925 he became Leader of the he was in great demand to perform his own Philharmonic, but continued to appear No 3. The ballet Romeo and as a soloist throughout Europe and Juliet and the score for Feinzimmer’s film later and . Lieutenant Kijé were among Prokofiev’s • ROMEO AND JULIET rokofiev was born in the Ukraine, first Soviet commissions, dating from the and was encouraged to study early 1930s. Both scores were subsequently • PROKOFIEV’S VIOLIN CONCERTO NO 1 Based on Shakespeare’s play, Prokofiev’s music from an early age by his cast as concert suites, which have become ballet Romeo and Juliet had a difficult history: mother, a keen amateur pianist. The young cornerstones of the orchestral repertoire. The composer’s First Violin Concerto the original 1935 version was deemed Sergei showed prodigious ability as both was written in 1917, a year which proved ‘undanceable’ by the Bolshoi’s prima ballerina composer and pianist, gaining a place at the ‘The Fifth Symphony was intended as a to be productive for Prokofiev musically due to its difficult rhythms. This, combined St Petersburg Conservatory at the age of 13 hymn to free and happy Man, to his mighty despite the surrounding political turmoil. with the Soviet authorities’ resistance to and shortly thereafter acquiring a reputation powers, his pure and noble spirit.’ Prokofiev’s The work received its premiere in 1923, all artistic modernism (which was seen as for the uncompromising nature of his music. comments, written in 1944 as the Russian with Marcel Darrieux playing the solo, a dangerous influence belonging to the According to one critic, the audience at the army began to march towards , but was overshadowed by Stravinsky’s ‘degenerate’ artists of the west), meant 1913 premiere of the composer’s Second reflected his sense of hope in the future. Octet for Wind Instruments which received that the Russian premiere did not take Piano Concerto were left ‘frozen with fright, Sadly, his later years were overshadowed by its premiere in the same performance place until 1940 in Leningrad, after Prokofiev hair standing on end’. He left Russia after illness and the denunciation of his works as (led by a young Stravinsky making his had made significant revisions in order to the 1917 Revolution, but decided to return ‘formalist’ by the Central Committee of the debut). make the work sound more traditional. to Moscow with his wife and family 19 Communist Party in 1948. • Galina Ulanova and Konstantin Sergeyev years later, apparently unaware of Stalin’s (pictured above) danced the main roles. repressive regime.

Composer Profile 7 An Alpine Symphony 1911–15 / note by Andrew Stewart

1 Nacht (Night) n 1900 Strauss wrote to his parents the conformity and routine of Christianity. poem’s 22 sections. Here the ‘programme’ 2 Sonnenaufgang (Sunrise) – with news of his latest inspiration The hard work required to create An Alpine deals with 24 hours in the life of a mountain 3 Der Anstieg (The ascent) – for a , ‘which would Symphony, however, proved anything but and those engaged in the business of 4 Eintritt in den Wald begin with a sunrise in . Otherwise liberating: Strauss said that the process was climbing it, embracing the transformation (Entering the forest) – so far only the idea (love tragedy of an artist) less appealing than chasing cockroaches! from night to dawn, the mountaineers’ 5 Wanderung neben dem Bache and a few themes exist’. Two years later he He began sketching themes and ideas for ascent, the natural wonders they encounter, (Wandering by the brookside) – constructed an outline plan for a four-part the work in 1911, although did not tackle the the joy of reaching the summit, the perils of 6 Am Wasserfall (At the waterfall) – symphony, its first movement almost certainly task of orchestration until November 1914. descent, and the gradual return of night. 7 Erscheinung (Apparition) – coloured by his boyhood experience of a 8 Auf blumigen Wiesen mountaineering expedition in which he and ‘, … and (On flowering meadows) – his companions had become lost and were — An Alpine Symphony,’ observed one New 9 Auf der Alm (In the mountain pasture) – caught in a fierce storm: ‘Night; sunrise / ‘He who climbs upon the highest York critic, ‘are makeshift, slack, slovenly … 10 Durch Dickicht und Gestrüpp auf ascent; forest (hunt) / waterfall (Alpine Strauss’ music is singularly flat and hollow Irrwegen sprite) / flowery meadows (shepherds) / mountains laughs at all tragic plays and dun, joyless and soggy.’ Although (On the wrong track through thicket glacier / thunderstorm / descent and rest’. and tragic reality.’ judgement on the two mentioned and undergrowth) – — above has moved almost universally in 11 Auf dem Gletscher (On the glacier) – The ‘alpine’ idea was shelved for many years, their favour, An Alpine Symphony remains 12 Gefahrvolle Augenblicke although Strauss returned to it at the time Friedrich Nietzsche, among the curiosities of Strauss’ output, (Precarious moments) – of ’s death in May 1911. ‘I want still burdened by dismissive criticism, 13 Auf dem Gipfel (On the summit) – to call my alpine symphony The Antichrist,’ An Alpine Symphony was completed on reactions against the excesses of late- 14 Vision (Vision) – he noted in his diary at the time, ‘because 8 February 1915, its monumental score calling Romantic orchestration and distrust of 15 Nebel steigen auf (Rising mists) – in it there is: moral purification through for at least 123 instruments and playing of its programme. Some have likened the 16 Die Sonne verdüstert sich allmählich one’s own strength, liberation through work, considerable virtuosity. ‘At last I have learnt work to a musical travelogue, conveniently (The sun gradually dims) – worship of eternal and glorious nature.’ The to orchestrate,’ Strauss remarked during missing its pantheistic celebration of nature 17 Elegie (Elegy) – composer adopted the Antichrist sobriquet rehearsals for the work’s first performance and of man’s fragile attempts to master 18 Stille vor den Sturm from Friedrich Nietzsche’s • book of the by the Dresden Hofkapelle on 25 October. it. According to the German musicologist (Calm before the storm) – same name, which Strauss had read shortly The instrumental colours and textures Franz-Peter Messmer, Strauss’ Also sprach 19 Gewitter und Sturm, Abstieg after its publication in 1895. Nietzsche’s available from such a large ensemble were Zarathustra shares a complementary (Thunderstorm, descent) – views on ‘the revaluation of Christian values’ indeed skilfully handled by the composer, relationship with An Alpine Symphony: 20 Sonnenuntergang (Sunset) – found favour with Strauss, who fervently who conjured up rich combinations of sounds ‘Zarathustra descends from the mountains 21 Ausklang (Waning tones) – believed that the challenges and pleasures to evoke images and events outlined in the to the lowlands of humanity; the wanderer 22 Nacht (Night) of hard work would lead to liberation from titles he gave to each of the symphonic in An Alpine Symphony takes the opposite

8 Programme Notes 18 February 2018 Strauss in profile 1864–1949 / by Andrew Stewart course, scaling the heights of a mountain • FRIEDRICH NIETZSCHE was appointed Bülow’s Assistant Musical top.’ Unlike Zarathustra, however, An Alpine Director at the Meiningen Court Orchestra, Symphony deals not with philosophical Friedrich Nietzsche (1844–1900) was the beginning of a career in which Strauss concepts but with the overwhelming, awe- a German philosopher, whose highly was to conduct many of the world’s great inspiring force of nature, a force that Strauss influential works included texts on art, orchestras, in addition to holding positions was able to appreciate and experience on theatre and music. His work is associated at opera houses in Munich, Weimar, Berlin walking expeditions from his new villa in the with Nihilism, the belief that life has no and Vienna. While at Munich, he married the Bavarian highlands at Garmisch. meaning or value, and the ‘Death of God’. singer , for whom he wrote His 1895 publication The Antichrist was many of his greatest songs. The work’s fertile proliferation of themes a systematic attack on Christian values, and their developments appear to match particularly the emphasis on what he termed Strauss’ legacy is to be found in his operas the mutability of alpine weather, often set ‘slave morality’: humility, compassion and and his magnificent symphonic poems. against a return of the opening theme on kindness. Strauss’ interest in Nietzsche Scores such as Till Eulenspiegel, Also sprach low brass that represents the mountain can be traced back as early as 1894 in his Zarathustra, and itself. Strauss’ expansive ‘sunrise’ theme, first opera Guntram, where individualism demonstrate his supreme mastery of introduced on high strings, woodwinds and triumphs and the guilty hero chooses ichard Strauss was born in Munich orchestration; the thoroughly modern operas trumpets, echoes Mahler’s nature-music his own form of expiation rather than in 1864, the son of , and , with their Freudian at its best. Elsewhere, the score boasts a surrendering to the judgement of his peers. a brilliant horn player in the Munich themes and atonal scoring, are landmarks variety of naturalistic effects, distant horn court orchestra; it is therefore perhaps not in the development of 20th­­-century music, calls, cow bells and even a wind machine surprising that some of the composer’s most and the neo-Classical Der Rosenkavalier­ among them. Above all, the composer striking writing is for the French Horn. Strauss has become one of the most popular operas successfully draws together the many had his first piano lessons when he was four, of the century. Strauss spent his last years episodes and sonic effects inAn Alpine and he produced his first composition two in self-imposed exile in Switzerland, waiting Symphony to create a unified work, in years later, but surprisingly he did not attend to be officially cleared of complicity in essence greater than the sum of its parts. • a music academy, his formal education ending the Nazi regime. He died at Garmisch rather at Munich University where he studied Partenkirchen in 1949, shortly after his philosophy and aesthetics, continuing with widely celebrated 85th birthday. • his musical training at the same time.

Following the first public performances of his work, he received a commission from Hans von Bülow in 1882 and two years later

Composer Profile 9 Daniel Harding conductor

orn in Oxford, Daniel Harding began Symphony Orchestra, Gewandhaus with the Aix-en-Provence Festival, he has his career assisting Sir Simon and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala. conducted new productions of Così fan tutte, Rattle at the City of Birmingham Other guest conducting engagements Don Giovanni, The Turn of the Screw, Verdi’s Symphony Orchestra, with which he made have included the , La Traviata, Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin his professional debut in 1994. He went Orchestre National de Lyon, , and The Marriage of Figaro. on to assist at the Berlin London Philharmonic, Royal Stockholm Philharmonic and made his debut with the Philharmonic, Accademia Nazionale di For he has recorded orchestra at the 1996 Berlin Festival. Santa Cecilia, Orchestra of the Age of Mahler’s Symphony No 10 with the Vienna Enlightenment, Rotterdam Philharmonic Philharmonic and Orff’s This season he continues his role as Music and the Orchestre des Champs-Elysées. with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony In the US he has also performed with Orchestra. For Virgin/EMI he has recorded Orchestra and the Orchestre de Paris. He the , Philadelphia Mahler’s Symphony No 4 with the Mahler was recently honoured with the lifetime Orchestra, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra; Britten’s Billy Budd with title of Conductor Laureate of the Mahler and Chicago the London Symphony Orchestra (winner of Chamber Orchestra. His previous positions Symphony Orchestra. a Grammy Award for best opera recording); include Principal Guest Conductor of the and Don Giovanni and The Turn of the Screw London Symphony Orchestra (2006–17), In 2005 he opened the season at La Scala, (awarded the ‘Choc de l’Année 2002’, the Principal Conductor and Music Director of the Milan, conducting a new production of ‘Grand Prix de l’Académie Charles Cros’ and MCO (2003–11), Principal Conductor of the Mozart’s Idomeneo. He returned in 2011 a Gramophone award), both with the Mahler Symphony Orchestra (1997–2000), for Mascagni’s Cavalleria Rusticana and Chamber Orchestra. A regular collaborator Principal Guest Conductor of the Norrköping Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci, for which he was with Harmonia Mundi, his recording of Symphony (1997–2003), Music Director of awarded the prestigious Premio della Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique and the Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen Critica Musicale ‘Franco Abbiati’; he returns Rameau’s Hippolyte et Aricie Suite with the (1997–2003), Music Partner of the New Japan in 2018 for Schubert’s Fierrabras. His Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra was Philharmonic and Artistic Director of the operatic experience also includes Mozart’s released in 2016 to great critical acclaim. Ohga Hall in Karuizawa, Japan. Don Giovanni and The Marriage of Figaro at the with the Vienna In 2002 he was awarded the title Chevalier He is a regular visitor to the , Britten’s The Turn of the Screw de l’Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the Philharmonic, Dresden Staatskapelle and Berg’s Wozzeck at the Royal Opera French Government and in 2017 nominated (both of which he has conducted at the House, Covent Garden, The Magic Flute at to the position Officier Arts et Lettres. Salzburg Festival), Royal Concertgebouw, the Vienna Festival and Wozzeck at the In 2012, he was elected a member of , Bavarian Radio Theater an der Wien. Closely associated The Royal Swedish Academy of Music. •

10 Artist Biographies 18 February 2018 Leonidas Kavakos violin

eonidas Kavakos is known at the In the 2017/18 season Kavakos is Artist in Teatro La Fenice and Budapest Festival highest level for his virtuosity, Residence at both the Concertgebouw in orchestras. In the 2017/18 season he will superb musicianship and the Amsterdam and the Vienna Musikverein. conduct the Orchestre Philharmonique de integrity of his playing. He works with the He tours Europe with the Filharmonica della Radio France, Danish Radio Symphony world’s greatest orchestras and conductors. Scala and and tours Europe Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, and Asia with the Gewandhausorchester Orchestre de la Suisse Romande and The three important mentors in his life have Leipzig and . Elsewhere, Vienna Symphony. been Stelios Kafantaris, and he performs widely as soloist including Ferenc Rados. By the age of 21 Leonidas with the Berlin Philharmonic, Royal With Decca Classics Leonidas Kavakos has Kavakos had already won three major Concertgebouw Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic, recorded Beethoven Violin Sonatas with competitions: the Sibelius Competition Boston Symphony Orchestra and Chicago Enrico Pace (January 2013), which was in 1985, and the Paganini and Naumburg Symphony Orchestra. awarded the ECHO Klassik ‘Instrumentalist competitions in 1988. This success led to of the Year’. This was followed by him recording the original Sibelius Violin Kavakos also gives the European premiere the Brahms Violin Concerto with the Concerto, the first recording of this work of Lera Auerbach’s Nyx: Fractured Dreams Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and Riccardo in history, which won Gramophone Concerto (Violin Concerto No 4) with the ORF Vienna Chailly (October 2013), Brahms Violin of the Year Award in 1991. Radio Symphony Orchestra. In December Sonatas with (March 2014), 2017 Kavakos embarked on a European and Virtuoso (April 2016). He was awarded Leonidas Kavakos was the winner of the recital tour with Yuja Wang, and in February Gramophone Artist of the Year 2014. In Léonie Sonning Music Prize 2017. This 2018 he tours performing September 2017 Leonidas Kavakos joined prestigious prize is ’s highest Brahms and Schubert trios with Yo-Yo Ma Yo-Yo Ma and on a record of musical honour and is awarded annually and Emanuel Ax. He will also appear in Brahms Trios released by Sony Classical. to an internationally recognised composer, recital with regular partner instrumentalist, conductor or singer. Enrico Pace in Asia and Europe. Born and brought up in a musical family LEONIDAS KAVAKOS IN 2018/19: Previous winners include , in and still resident there, Kavakos BRAHMS VIOLIN CONCERTO , , Yehudi Leonidas Kavakos has built a strong profile curates an annual violin and chamber music Menuhin, , Mstislav as a conductor, and has conducted the masterclass in the City, attracting violinists Sunday 16 & Tuesday 18 December 2018 Rostropovich, , , London Symphony Orchestra, New York and ensembles from all over the world. Barbican Hall and Sir Simon Rattle. Philharmonic, Boston Symphony Orchestra, He plays the ‘Willemotte’ Stradivarius Houston Symphony, Deutsches Symphonie- violin of 1734 and owns modern violins Sir Simon Rattle conductor Orchester Berlin, Gürzenich Orchester, made by F Leonhard, S P Greiner, E Haahti Leonidas Kavakos violin Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, Filarmonica and D Bagué. •

Artist Biographies 11 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Gordon MacKay Double Basses E-Flat Clarinet Stephen Craigen Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Roman Simovic Hazel Mulligan Enno Senft Chi-Yu Mo Hugh Seenan Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Greta Mutlu Patrick Laurence Mark Vines Antoine Bedewi Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Jan Regulski Matthew Gibson Bass Clarinet Finlay Bain from the London music conservatoires at Lennox Mackenzie Thomas Goodman Arthur Stockel David McQueen Percussion the start of their professional careers to gain Clare Duckworth Violas Jani Pensola Jeff Bryant Neil Percy work experience by playing in rehearsals Ginette Decuyper Edward Vanderspar Josie Ellis Bassoons David Jackson and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Gerald Gregory Gillianne Haddow Benjamin Griffiths Rachel Gough Trumpets Sam Walton are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Maxine Kwok-Adams Malcolm Johnston Paul Sherman Joost Bosdijk David Elton Tom Edwards (additional to LSO members) and receive Claire Parfitt Julia O’Riordan Dominic Tyler Gerald Ruddock fees for their work in line with LSO section Laurent Quenelle Robert Turner Flutes Niall Keatley Harps players. The Scheme is supported by Harriet Rayfield Jonathan Welch Gareth Davies Contra Bassoon David Geoghegan Bryn Lewis The Polonsky Foundation, Barbara Colin Renwick Ilona Bondar Alex Jakeman Dominic Morgan Susan Blair Whatmore Charitable Trust, The Thistle Sylvain Vasseur Fiona Dalgliesh Julian Sperry Off-Stage Trumpets Trust and Idlewild Trust. Rhys Watkins Stephen Doman Horns Nicholas Betts Celeste Richard Blayden Stephanie Edmundson Piccolo Timothy Jones Simon Cox John Alley Morane Cohen Shiry Rashkovsky Owain Bailey Alberto Menendez Lamberger David Vainsot Angela Barnes Trombones Organ Laura Dixon Oboes Alexander Edmundson Peter Moore Catherine Edwards Shlomy Dobrinsky Cellos Olivier Stankiewicz Jonathan Lipton James Maynard Rebecca Gilliver Rosie Jenkins David Cripps Editor Second Violins Minat Lyons Meilyr Hughes Bass Trombones Edward Appleyard | [email protected] David Alberman Alastair Blayden Cor Anglais Andrew Sutton Paul Milner Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Sarah Quinn Jennifer Brown Christine Pendrill Tim Ball Barry Clements Editorial Photography Miya Väisänen Noel Bradshaw Ranald Mackechnie, Marco Borggreve, Matthew Gardner Eve-Marie Caravassilis Bass Oboe Off-Stage Horns Off-Stage Trombones Harald Hoffmann David Ballesteros Daniel Gardner Christopher Redgate James Pillai Rebecca Smith Julian Gil Rodriguez Hilary Jones Andrew Budden David Whitehouse Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Naoko Keatley Amanda Truelove Clarinets Jocelyn Lightfoot Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937 Belinda McFarlane Deborah Tolksdorf Andrew Marriner Kathryn Saunders Tubas William Melvin Chris Richards Jason Koczur David Kendall Details in this publication were correct Andrew Pollock Peter Sparks Michael Kidd Jonathan Riches at time of going to press.

12 The Orchestra 18 February 2018