Thursday 8 February 2018 7.30–9.40pm Barbican Hall

LSO SEASON CONCERT ELGAR, BARTÓK & JANÁČEK

Janáček Schluck und Jau Bartók Piano Concerto No 3 SIR MARK Interval Elgar Symphony No 1

Sir Mark Elder conductor ELDER Francesco Piemontesi piano Welcome LSO News On Our Blog

In this evening’s concert we also hear THE LSO’S 2018/19 SEASON 2018 LSO PANUFNIK COMPOSERS Janáček’s theatre music for Schluck und Jau ANNOUNCED and Bartók’s romantic study of nature The LSO’s 2018/19 season is now on sale. and folk music, the Third Piano Concerto. Highlights include Music Director Sir Simon The LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme For this, we are pleased to be joined Rattle’s exploration of folk-inspired music in enables composers to experiment and by pianist Francesco Piemontesi, who his series Roots and Origins; Artist Portraits develop their orchestral writing skills. makes his debut with the Orchestra. with soprano Barbara Hannigan and pianist Congratulations go to Joel Järventausta, Daniil Trifonov; and eight premieres. Cassie Kinoshi, Lara Poe, Ido Romano, I hope that you enjoy tonight’s concert, and George Stevenson and Alex Tay, who that you will be able to join us again soon. Plus there’s much more to explore with join the 2018 scheme. On Sunday, you can explore Elgar’s music LSO Discovery’s free Lunchtime Concerts, A warm welcome to this evening’s LSO in greater depth at a Discovery Day, with Discovery and Singing Days, as well as concert at the Barbican. For the first in access to the morning rehearsal and an BBC Radio 3’s concerts at LSO St Luke’s. BEHIND-THE-SCENES: WHY IS A GREEN a pair of performances exploring Elgar’s afternoon of talks and chamber music at ROOM CALLED A GREEN ROOM? symphonies, we welcome a conductor LSO St Luke’s. This is followed by a free Visit lso.co.uk/201819season for full listings. who shares a long history with the LSO, pre-concert recital by musicians from the Why are performers’ rooms in a venue Sir Mark Elder. Guildhall School, before Sir Mark Elder called green rooms? We look further into returns to conduct Elgar’s Second Symphony WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS this question. Sir Mark Elder is known for his insightful on Sunday 11 February at 7pm. interpretations of Elgar’s music, and has Tonight we are delighted to welcome: previously conducted The Kingdom and Read our news, watch videos and more The Dream of Gerontius with the LSO to Royal Holloway University of London • lso.co.uk/news great acclaim. This series, however, marks Ann Parish & Friends • lso.co.uk/blog his first performances of the symphonies FIE Ltd • youtube.com/lso with the Orchestra. We begin tonight with Kathryn McDowell CBE DL the Symphony No 1 – a work first performed Managing Director by the LSO under the baton of the composer himself in 1909.

2 Welcome 8 February 2018 Tonight’s Concert / by Stephen Johnson Coming Up

Janáček’s theatre music, Schluck und Jau, triumph to round it all off, but between its Sunday 18 February 2018 7pm Thursday 19 & 26 April 2018 7.30pm and Bartók’s Third Piano Concerto are both ringing statements we hear dark, turbulent Barbican Hall Barbican Hall very late works – so late, in fact, that neither emotional drama, even violence, and was fully completed when its composer died. poignant, unfulfilled longing. STRAUSS’ ALPINE SYMPHONY HELEN GRIME WORLD PREMIERE There are times when Bartók's Concerto does sound like the work of a man calmly Massive hope or lingering doubt? That’s for Helen Grime Virga Helen Grime Woven Space * facing mortality. The mellow, lyrical first the listener to decide, but even if there are Prokofiev Violin Concerto No 2 (world premiere) movement is a long way from the intense, no clear answers, the journey of discovery Strauss An Alpine Symphony Mahler Symphony No 9 thorny modernism of Bartók's inter-war charted in this remarkable symphony years, while the slow movement represents remains captivating. Daniel Harding conductor Sir Simon Rattle conductor his atmospheric ‘night music’ at its most Leonidas Kavakos violin peaceful – we may sense something of * Commissioned for Sir Simon Rattle and the the comfort and strength the mortally ill LSO by the Barbican composer drew from nature. Sunday 11 March 2018 7pm Barbican Hall 26 April generously supported by Baker McKenzie Janáček’s Schluck und Jau, however, overflows PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER with life, like so many other creations of this SCHUMANN & BERLIOZ composer’s prodigious old age. Although Stephen Johnson is the author of Bruckner this music was composed to accompany a Remembered (Faber). He also contributes Schumann Overture: Genoveva satirical comedy by the German dramatist regularly to BBC Music Magazine and The Berlioz Les nuits d’été Sunday 22 April 2018 7pm Gerhart Hauptmann, it seems to follow its Guardian, and broadcasts for BBC Radio 3 Schumann Symphony No 2 Barbican Hall own manifesto – a colossal outpouring of (Discovering Music), BBC Radio 4 and the yearning tenderness and elemental passion, BBC World Service. Sir conductor TIPPETT’S THE ROSE LAKE culminating in thrilling affirmation. Ann Hallenberg mezzo-soprano Tippett The Rose Lake † So too does Elgar’s First Symphony – or COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER Mahler comp Cooke Symphony No 10 does it? On one level this music seems the embodiment of Edwardian England’s ‘glad Andrew Stewart is a freelance music Sir Simon Rattle conductor confident morning’, as Elgar himself called journalist and writer. He is the author it. But Elgar is a highly complicated figure, of The LSO at 90, and contributes to † Supported by Resonate, a PRS Foundation initiative both as man and artist. The symphony’s a wide variety of specialist classical lso.co.uk/whatson in partnership with the Association of British Orchestras, ‘massive hope’ first theme does return in music publications. 020 7638 8891 BBC Radio 3 and the Boltini Trust

Tonight’s Concert 3 Leoš Janáček Schluck und Jau 1928 / note by Stephen Johnson

1 Andante have had no resources to spare. Yet Janáček • GERHART HAUPTMANN • JANÁČEK IN 2018/19 2 Allegretto had the kind of creative energy at 74 that would have been impressive in a man half Tuesday 18 & Wednesday 19 September 2018 chluck and Jau are the pungently his age. He agreed, and at his death on 12 Barbican Hall flavoursome nicknames of two August he had laid out detailed sketches drunken vagrants in the play of for two movements of the theatre score. Janáček Sinfonietta the same name by the German dramatist Gerhart Hauptmann •. Although Hauptmann Quite how these movements might relate Sir Simon Rattle conductor was partly inspired by Shakespeare’s to Hauptmann’s worldly naturalistic comedy comedies – particularly The Taming of the isn’t easy to say. The music’s yearning Thursday 27 & Saturday 29 June 2019 Shrew, Twelfth Night and As You Like It – tenderness and elemental passion seem to Barbican Hall this comedy of social role-reversal also have much more to do with the ‘manifesto took a hefty swipe at Prussian officialdom on love’ contained in ‘Intimate Letters’, while Janáček and snobbery. the oceanic ending in D-flat major (Janáček’s (semi-staged performance, sung in Czech) favourite key) echoes the hymn to freedom In May 1928 Janáček was approached by in the closing pages of From the House of Sir Simon Rattle conductor the writer Max Brod and the conductor the Dead. Fortunately, the music, expertly Gerhart Hauptmann was a German dramatist Peter Sellars director Otto Klemperer to write incidental music brought to definitive form by Janáček’s and novelist who lived from 1862 to 1946. Lucy Crowe Vixen for a new production of Hauptmann’s play. biographer Jarmil Burghauser, speaks A Nobel Laureate in the field of literature, Gerald Finley Forester The first production ofSchluck und Jau, in stirringly enough for itself. • he is considered an important proponent Sophia Burgos Fox, Chocholka 1900, had been a failure, but since then of literary naturalism. Naturalism is related Peter Hoare Schoolmaster, Cock, Mosquito attitudes had changed, and Hauptmann’s to realism and emphasised the importance Willard White Badger, Parson reputation had been greatly enhanced by his of observation and the scientific method in London Symphony Chorus winning the Nobel Prize for Literature in 1912. the portrayal of fictional events, avoiding all Simon Halsey chorus director fantastical and supernatural influences. Ben Zamora lighting designer It’s surprising that Janáček agreed to this Nick Hillel video designer project at all. He’d only just finished his Hans Georg Lenhardt assistant director Second String Quartet, ‘Intimate Letters’, and was hard at work on the finishing stages Produced by LSO and Barbican. Part of the of his opera From the House of the Dead – LSO’s 2018/19 Season and Barbican Presents. two hugely demanding works, emotionally and intellectually – and by rights he should lso.co.uk/201819season

4 Programme Notes 8 February 2018 Leoš Janáček in Profile 1854–1928 FIND THE PERFECT GIFT In 1887 he began work on his first opera, Šarka, but Moravian folk music and popular FROM OUR NEW RANGE culture increasingly fascinated Janáček, influencing a gradual rejection of the high Romantic musical language of Šarka for a Tote Bags style that reflected his passion for Slavic languages and the musicality of his native Tea Towels tongue. He worked from 1894 to 1903 on Mugs his opera JenŮfa, which was successfully premiered in Brno in January 1904 and for the next 20 years he concentrated on works for the stage. A creative upsurge in his 60s coincided with his impassioned though platonic affair with Kamilla Stösslová, wife of an antiques dealer and 37 years the composer’s junior. International recognition was underpinned by the Berlin and New York premieres of Jenůfa (1924) and the eoš left the family home at Hukvaldy overwhelming dramatic impact of his operas in 1865 to become a chorister in Brno, Káťa Kabanová, The Cunning Little Vixen and and in 1869 he received a state The Makropulos Case. The Glagolitic Mass scholarship to support studies at the Czech (1927), his last opera From the House of the Teachers’ Training Institute. He moved to Dead (1927–8) and the Second String Quartet Prague in 1874 and studied at the celebrated (1928) crowned Janáček’s creative Indian Organ School, returning to Brno the following summer, brought to a conclusion when he year. Composition studies in Leipzig and caught a chill which quickly developed into Vienna (1879–80) added to Janáček’s fatal pneumonia. • blossoming skills as a composer. In 1881 he married the 16-year-old Zdenka Schulzová but Composer profile by Andrew Stewart the marriage soon failed. During this period Available now on Level -1 he helped to found the Brno Organ School, which later became the Brno Conservatory.

Composer Profile 5 Béla Bartók Piano Concerto No 3 1945 / note by Stephen Johnson

1 Allegretto the grand piano, as a member of the SECOND MOVEMENT inspired in him something close to religious 2 Adagio Religioso percussion family. But the new Concerto Uniquely for Bartók, the slow movement feeling. He loved the sounds of the night 3 Allegro Vivace was much simpler, more genial, almost is marked ‘religioso’. Bartók had been an birds and the chirps, clicks and rustles of Classical at times, and refreshingly tuneful. atheist since his student days, and yet here nocturnal insects, and he evoked them Francesco Piemontesi piano Granted, some of Bartók’s earlier American are hymn-like piano phrases, alternating repeatedly in what he called ‘night-music’. period works had also shown a tendency to with flowing imitative string phrases in So perhaps we shouldn’t be surprised to artók’s Third Piano Concerto is simplify, as though Bartók had decided that a clear evocation of the slow movement encounter these sounds again in the central the last work he was able to finish – survival in his new homeland meant having of Beethoven’s late String Quartet in A section of this Adagio religioso. and even then it was a close-run to be more accessible. But there may have minor Op 132. Beethoven had subtitled thing. The orchestral score was almost been a more pressing practical reason in the that movement ‘Sacred song of thanks to FINALE fully written out when he was rushed to case of the Third Piano Concerto. Bartók was the Deity from a convalescent.’ Had Bartók If nature was one source of Bartók’s modernist hospital in New York. A few days later, on worried about how his wife, Ditta, might found God? Or was this another populist invention, the other was folk music – for 26 September 1945, he died of leukaemia. survive if he died. She was a fine pianist, so concession in a deeply religious country? Bartók this was the most ‘natural’ of human why not write her something that could be musics. Pounding, muscular Hungarian Bartók’s last years had been a severe strain: popular enough to bring her a small income? Perhaps neither. Like Beethoven, Bartók was dance-rhythms (often stressed, like the on top of failing health, plus the emotional recovering from a severe bout of sickness Hungarian language, on the first syllable) pain of exile from his native Hungary, he FIRST MOVEMENT when he wrote the Third Piano Concerto. power the finale forward. Some listeners had failed to make a mark in his adopted That would go some way to explain the He had found the peace he needed at find occasional echoes of the bitter humour American homeland. It seems he realised character of the first movement. It is set out Saranac Lake, some way from New York. and introspection of the recent Sixth Quartet; he might not have long to live, and yet was in a neatly Classical sonata form, with clearly City life had been an ordeal for Bartók: he if so they are only fleeting. In the end, the still full of plans when he died: symphonies, defined first and second themes, a climactic felt cut off from nature, the source of so dance of life must go on. • perhaps, and he had already sketched ideas development section and a more-or-less much of his inspiration. It’s possible that, for a Seventh String Quartet. orderly recapitulation. The long opening like Beethoven, he wanted to express his melody is securely tonal, though with a gratitude to the force that had helped him The Concerto’s premiere in Philadelphia the little piquant Balkan folk-colouring here and work again – not, in his case, a personal following year was a surprise to those who there. The syncopated second theme lives God, but certainly something transcending Interval – 20 minutes knew his music. Bartók’s name had been up to its marking of ‘scherzando’ (‘playful’ everyday human understanding. There are bars on all levels of the associated with combative modernism: or ‘jokey’), though the humour is on the Concert Hall; ice cream can be bought this was a composer who used weird scales whole gentle. There is little of that typically The slow movement’s contrasting middle at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. and quarter-tones, who devised grotesque Bartókian quality of unease – unless it section bears this out in a different way. Visit the Barbican Shop on Level -1 to see new effects in his string quartets and who surfaces for a moment in the final flicker of Bartók once confessed that the experience our new range of Gifts and Accessories. treated that noble, romantic instrument, the scherzando’s second theme on piano. of night on the Great Hungarian Plain

6 Programme Notes 8 February 2018 Béla Bartók in Profile 1881–1945

• BARTÓK AND NATIONALISM éla Bartók’s family boasted how the Bartók detested the rise of fascism and boy was able to recognise different in October 1940 he quit Budapest and Bartók’s music is often said to reflect two dance rhythms before he could travelled, via Lisbon, to the US. At first of the major changes undergone by classical speak. Born in 1881 in Nagyszentmiklós, he concentrated on ethnomusicological music at the beginning of the 20th century: Hungary (now Sinnicolau Mare, Romania), researches, but eventually returned to the collapse of the functional harmony he began piano lessons with his mother composition and created a significant group which had been so prevalent during the at the age of five. From 1899 to 1903 he of ‘American’ works, including the Concerto Common Practice Period, and the revival of studied piano and composition at the for Orchestra, his Third Piano Concerto and nationalistic sources of musical inspiration – in Budapest, where the draft of a Viola Concerto. the trend of using traditional folk music he created a number of works that echoed which had begun with Glinka and Dvořák in the style of Brahms and . His character was distinguished by a firm, the latter half of the 19th century. almost stubborn refusal to compromise or After graduating he discovered Austro- be diverted from his musical instincts by But the composer was gravely concerned Hungarian and Slavic folk music, travelling money or position. Throughout his working with wider nationalist movements and extensively with his friend Zoltán Kodály life, Bartók collected, transcribed and the intolerance which spread throughout and recording countless ethnic songs and annotated the folk songs of many countries, parts of Europe in the 1930s. In 1931 he dances which began to influence his own a commitment that brought little financial joined the League of Nations’ Committee compositions. His music was also influenced return or recognition but one which he on Intellectual Cooperation, the purpose of by the works of Debussy, to which he was regarded as his most important contribution which was to foster relationships between introduced by Kodály in 1907, the year in to music. He also declined the security of a scientists, artists and other intellectuals of which he became Professor of Piano at the composition professorship during his final different nationalities. His scholarly work Budapest Conservatory. years in America, although he did accept in ethnomusicology also became the target the post of visiting assistant in music at of nationalistic fervour in both Hungary Bartók established his mature style with Columbia University from March 1941 to and Romania, and when Germany annexed such scores as the ballets The Wooden the winter of 1942 until ill health forced Austria in 1938, Bartók was considerably Prince (1914–16, completed 1917) and his retirement. • distressed. He sought quickly to cut ties The Miraculous Mandarin (1918–19, with his publisher, Universal, as well as his completed 1926–31), and his opera Duke Composer profile by Andrew Stewart royalties agencies AKM and Austromechana, Bluebeard’s Castle (1911, completed 1918). all of which had come under the influence of He revived his career as a concert pianist the German Nazi party. in 1927 when he gave the premiere of his First Piano Concerto in Mannheim.

Composer Profile 7 Edward Elgar Symphony No 1 1907–8 / note by Stephen Johnson

1 Andante. Nobilmente e semplice – of the newly completed Symphony No 1 in Talk of key relationships can be off-putting So this isn’t simply a clever piece of musical Allegro December 1908 was an even more dizzying for non-musicians, but in this case it is game-playing: A-flat and D stand for two 2 Allegro molto success than that of the ‘Enigma’ Variations. relevant to the way we experience the music. different emotional worlds. Edwardian ‘glad 3 Adagio The conductor called it ‘the According to the conductor , confidence’ is pitched against something 4 Lento – Allegro greatest symphony of modern times’ a friend bet Elgar that he couldn’t write a darker, more unstable and ultimately (in and compared the slow third movement symphony in two keys at once. It is hard not the Adagio) more intimate. It is possible to he first performance of Elgar’s with Beethoven. Popular demand was so to see the First Symphony as the result of see in this dramatic opposition a portrait ’Enigma’ Variations in June 1899 insistent that by the end of the following that bet. It begins and ends in the nominal of Elgar himself, divided between public was the triumph the composer had year it had received nearly 100 performances. ‘home key’ of A-flat major – this is the key success – the ‘Bard of Empire’ – and his hungered for since his youth. Although he private, troubled, inner world: a world in had begun to attract the attention of musical — which we find a different kind of love from London with his Imperial March and The ‘There is no programme beyond a wide experience of human life Christian ‘charity’, mingled with self-doubt Banner of St George, composed two years and even violent passion. earlier for Queen Victoria’s Diamond Jubilee, with great charity (love) and a massive hope in the future.’ it was ‘Enigma’ that established him beyond — The first movement is the longest of the doubt as this country’s foremost composer four. It is also one of Elgar’s finest structural of symphonic music. But with success came achievements. The noble security of the a huge burden of responsibility. Not only was It was also widely noted that the symphony strongly associated with the symphony’s first, slow theme is wrenched away by the Elgar hailed as the ‘coming man’, it was now bore no title. So what had happened to the nobilmente (noble) first theme, a splendid music of the Allegro; but from time to time widely believed that he was the composer to General Gordon programme? Elgar insisted slow tune that easily suggests ‘great charity’ in the faster section we hear echoes of give the world the first great British symphony. that this was not the promised ‘Gordon’ and ‘massive hope’. But the beginning of the that nobilmente theme, encouraging the Symphony: ‘There is no programme beyond Allegro main movement brings a seismic music to keep up the struggle. Eventually When Elgar revealed that he was planning a a wide experience of human life with disruption: we are plunged into the remote the nobilmente theme returns gloriously symphony about the life and character of the great charity (love) and a massive hope in key of D minor, a tonal world that clearly in A-flat major, asserting itself through Victorian hero General Gordon – ‘his military the future’. Here, it seemed, was the first stands for turbulence, passion, conflict. a stormy counterpoint of motifs from achievements, his unbounded energy, his great expression of what Elgar was later D is also the key of the wonderful Adagio; the Allegro. But the ending is uncertain, self-sacrifice, his resolution, his deep religious to call the ‘glad confident morning’ of the and the finale, like the first movement, has still unstable – the spirit of the turbulent fervour’ – hopes soared. But it wasn’t until Edwardian age. But there is an aspect of the to fight its way back from D minor to the Allegro has not been vanquished yet. the summer of 1907, just after his 50th symphony’s structure that suggests more original A-flat and the long anticipated return birthday, that Elgar at last felt ready to take complex meanings. of the nobilmente ‘massive hope’ theme. up the challenge in earnest. The premiere

8 Programme Notes 8 February 2018 Edward Elgar in Profile 1857–1934

A restless, sometimes stormy Allegro molto This drive is sustained magnificently until near Festival and premiered in 1898, brought the follows, with a grim march tune that attempts the end, when the energy seems to fizzle out composer recognition beyond his native city. to impose order, but fails. This theme is and the first movementnobilmente theme contrasted with calmer, sweeter, more returns, enfeebled, in the minor. But now At the end of March 1891 the Elgars were delicate music, which Elgar told orchestras begins a remarkable passage in which the invited to travel to Bayreuth for that to play ‘like something you hear down by the finale theme soars out on the strings at half summer’s festival of Wagner’s operas, a river’. Eventually the storm blows itself out; its original speed, embellished by radiantly prospect that inspired Edward immediately then comes a miraculous transformation. rippling harps. The struggle is resumed, until to compose three movements for string the nobilmente theme returns in splendour orchestra, the Serenade. The Variations on The rushing violin figure heard at the start on trumpets, through flurries of string an Original Theme, ‘Enigma’ (1898–99) and of the movement slows down and stabilises and woodwind figures. Has ‘massive hope’ The Dream of Gerontius (1900) cemented in a rapt, slow melody – the Adagio has triumphed? Has Elgar overcome inner his position as England’s finest composer, begun. Towards the end of the movement turmoil and darkness? Impressive, stirring crowned by two further oratorios, a series a wonderful new tune for strings appears, as this ending is, the final pages of the of ceremonial works, two symphonies and marked Molto espressivo a sostenuto, which First Symphony leave room for doubt. • concertos for violin and cello. later alternates magically with triplet figures on muted brass and timpani (a reminder of lgar’s father, a trained piano-tuner, Elgar, who was knighted in 1904, became earlier struggles?). In fact this string tune ran a music shop in Worcester the LSO’s Principal Conductor in 1911 and isn’t as new as it sounds – it is actually a in the 1860s. Young Edward, the premiered many of his works with the cunning reworking of the first movement’s fourth of seven children, showed musical Orchestra. Shortly before the end of World nobilmente theme: ‘massive hope’ has been talent but was largely self-taught as a player War I, he entered an almost cathartic period reborn. The opening of the finale is sombre and composer. During his early freelance of chamber music composition, completing and mysterious, with fragments of themes career, which included work conducting the the peaceful slow movement of his String passed between the various sections of the staff band at the County Lunatic Asylum Quartet soon after Armistice Day. The Piano orchestra. Suddenly the Allegro bursts into in Powick, he suffered many setbacks. He Quintet was finished in February 1919 and action with a surging energy. was forced to continue teaching long after reveals the composer’s deep nostalgia for the desire to compose full-time had taken times past. In his final years he recorded hold. A picture emerges of a frustrated, many of his works with the LSO and, despite pessimistic man, whose creative impulses illness, managed to sketch movements of were restrained by his circumstances and a Third Symphony. apparent lack of progress. The cantata Caractacus, commissioned by the Leeds Composer profile by Andrew Stewart

Programme Notes 9 Sir Mark Elder conductor

ir Mark Elder has been Music Director first English conductor to conduct a new Symphony, and in 2012 fronted BBC2’s TV of the Hallé since 2000. He was production), Munich, Amsterdam, Zürich, series Maestro at the Opera. He presented a Music Director of English National Geneva, Berlin and the Bregenz Festival. series of TV programmes on BBC4 during the Opera (1979–93), Principal Guest Conductor 2015 Proms in which he talked about eight of the City of Birmingham Symphony Sir Mark Elder has made many recordings symphonies ranging from Beethoven to Orchestra (1992–5) and Music Director of with orchestras including the Hallé, London MacMillan featuring performances from the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, US Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw season’s concerts. (1989–94). He has held positions as Principal Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Guest Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Symphony, OAE, Orchestra In April 2011, he took up the position of Orchestra and the . of House and ENO, in Artistic Director of Opera Rara, for whom repertoire ranging from Verdi, Strauss and recording projects have included Donizetti’s He has worked with many of the world’s Wagner to contemporary music. In 2003 Dom Sebastien, Imelda di Lambertazzi, leading symphony orchestras, including the Hallé launched its own CD label and Linda di Chamounix, Maria di Rohan and a the Berlin Philharmonic, Orchestre de Paris, releases have met with universal critical multi-award-winning release of Les Martyrs. Chicago Symphony, Boston Symphony, acclaim, culminating in Gramophone Awards Royal Concertgebouw and Munich for Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius and Sir Mark Elder was appointed a Companion Philharmonic. He is a Principal Artist of Violin Concerto in 2009–10 and Wagner’s of Honour in the 2017 Queen’s Birthday the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment Götterdämmerung in 2010. His recording Honours, was knighted in 2008 and awarded and works regularly with the LSO. He has of Elgar’s The Apostles won Recording of the CBE in 1989. He won an Olivier Award in appeared annually at the BBC Proms for many the Year in the 2013 BBC Music Magazine 1991 for his outstanding work at ENO and in years, including the internationally televised Awards. Other Hallé CD releases include May 2006 he was named Conductor of the Last Night of in 1987 and 2006, complete recordings of Wagner’s Die Year by the Royal Philharmonic Society. He and from 2003 with the Hallé Orchestra. Walküre and Götterdämmerung. A live was awarded Honorary Membership of the recording of Wagner’s Lohengrin has Royal Philharmonic Society in 2011. • He works regularly in the most prominent recently been released by the Royal international opera houses, including: Concertgebouw Orchestra. the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden; Metropolitan Opera, New York; Opéra TV appearances include a two-part film on National de Paris; Lyric Opera, Chicago; the life and music of Verdi for BBC TV in and Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Other 1994 and a similar project on Donizetti for guest engagements have taken him to German television in 1996. In November 2011 the Bayreuth Festival (where he was the he co-presented BBC TV’s four part series

10 Artist Biographies 8 February 2018 Francesco Piemontesi piano

idely renowned for his Yuri Temirkanov. Piemontesi is also a autumn 2015, piano works by Mozart, and interpretations of Mozart and natural chamber musician and plays with the Schumann and Dvořák Piano Concertos the early-Romantic repertoire, a variety of partners – Leif Ove Andsnes, with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Jiří Francesco Piemontesi appears with Yuri Bashmet, Renaud and Gautier Capuçon, Bělohlávek. His recording of Mozart’s Piano major ensembles worldwide: the , Heinrich Schiff, Christian Concertos Nos 25 and 26 with the Scottish Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Munich Tetzlaff, Tabea Zimmermann and the Chamber Orchestra and Andrew Manze were Philharmonic, Berlin Radio Symphony, Emerson Quartet. released on Linn Records in August 2017. Bavarian Radio Symphony, Bamberg Symphony Orchestra, Frankfurt Radio In solo recital, he has appeared in many Born in Locarno, Switzerland, Francesco Symphony, Vienna Symphony, Czech prestigious venues including London’s Piemontesi studied with Arie Vardi before Philharmonic, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Wigmore Hall, Amsterdam’s Concertgebouw, working with , Murray Perahia, Oslo Philharmonic, Danish National Rotterdam’s De Doelen, the Berlin Cécile Ousset and Alexis Weissenberg. He Symphony, Swedish Radio Symphony Philharmonie, Zürich’s Tonhalle, Vienna’s rose to international prominence with prizes Orchestra, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Konzerthaus and Musikverein, Carnegie at several major competitions, including London Philharmonic, Philharmonia, BBC Hall and Avery Fisher Hall in New York, the 2007 Queen Elisabeth Competition, and Symphony, The Hallé Orchestra, Tonhalle- and Suntory Hall Tokyo. In January 2016, between 2009 and 2011 he was a BBC New Orchestra Zurich, Orchestre de la Suisse Piemontesi launched his complete Mozart Generation Artist. Since 2012, Piemontesi Romande, Orchestre Philharmonique Odyssey at the Wigmore Hall, performing has been the Artistic Director of the de Radio France, Orchestre National de the sonatas in a series of recitals over the Settimane Musicali di Ascona. • France, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, course of three seasons. Israel Philharmonic, NHK Symphony, Seoul Philharmonic, the , Piemontesi has performed at the Verbier Pittsburgh Symphony, Dallas Symphony Festival, Edinburgh International Festival, and Los Angeles Philharmonic. La Roque d’Anthéron, Chopin International Music Festival in Warsaw, Lucerne Festival, He has performed with conductors such Schubertiade, Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival, as , Nicholas Collon, Rheingau and Schleswig-Holstein Festivals, Sir Mark Elder, Iván Fischer, Mirga Gražinytė- and New York Mostly Mozart Festival. Tyla, Manfred Honeck, , Neeme Järvi, Ton Koopman, Andrew Francesco Piemontesi has released a number Manze, , Sir , of recordings, including three for Naïve Gianandrea Noseda, Sakari Oramo and Classique: the Debussy Préludes, released in

Artist Biographies 11 London Symphony Orchestra on stage tonight

Leader Second Violins Cellos Flutes Horns Timpani LSO String Experience Scheme Roman Simovic Thomas Norris Tim Hugh Adam Walker Timothy Jones Nigel Thomas Since 1992, the LSO String Experience Sarah Quinn Alastair Blayden Alex Jakeman Angela Barnes Scheme has enabled young string players First Violins Miya Väisänen Jennifer Brown Julian Sperry Andrew Budden Percussion from the London music conservatoires at Carmine Lauri David Ballesteros Noel Bradshaw Jonathan Lipton Neil Percy the start of their professional careers to gain Lennox Mackenzie Matthew Gardner Daniel Gardner Piccolo Paul Gardham David Jackson work experience by playing in rehearsals Clare Duckworth Julian Gil Rodriguez Hilary Jones Patricia Moynihan Sam Walton and concerts with the LSO. The musicians Ginette Decuyper Naoko Keatley Amanda Truelove Trumpets are treated as professional ‘extra’ players Gerald Gregory Belinda McFarlane Victoria Harrild Oboes David Elton Harps (additional to LSO members) and receive Maxine Kwok-Adams William Melvin Victoria Simonsen Jose Vegara Gerald Ruddock Bryn Lewis fees for their work in line with LSO Section Elizabeth Pigram Iwona Muszynska Peteris Sokoloskis Rosie Jenkins Niall Keatley Lucy Wakeford players. The Scheme is supported by Claire Parfitt Paul Robson The Polonsky Foundation, Barbara Laurent Quenelle Hazel Mulligan Double Basses Cor Anglais Trombones Whatmore Charitable Trust, The Thistle Harriet Rayfield Csilla Pogany Colin Paris Christine Pendrill Dudley Bright Trust and Idlewild Trust. Performing in Sylvain Vasseur Eugenio Sacchetti Patrick Laurence James Maynard tonight’s concert are Alexander McFarlane Rhys Watkins Matthew Gibson Clarinet and Mario Torres Valdivieso. Shlomy Dobrinsky Violas Thomas Goodman Chris Richards Bass Trombone Aischa Gündisch Jane Atkins Joe Melvin Sarah Thurlow Paul Milner Benjamin Roskams Gillianne Haddow Jani Pensola Malcolm Johnston Paul Sherman E-Flat Clarinet Tuba Anna Bastow Nicholas Worters Chi-Yu Mo David Kendall German Clavijo Editor Julia O’Riordan Bass Clarinet Edward Appleyard | [email protected] Robert Turner Jernej Albreht Fiona Dinsdale | [email protected] Stephanie Edmundson Editorial Photography Katrin Burger Bassoons Ranald Mackechnie, Benjamin Ealovega, Fiona Dalgliesh Daniel Jemison Marco Borggreve Carol Ella Joost Bosdijk Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937 Contra Bassoon Dominic Morgan Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.

12 The Orchestra 8 February 2018