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Home , Alice Sara Ott, Ernest Ansermet, James Rhodes (pianist), Nicola Benedetti, Night music (Bartók), Serge Koussevitzky

Symphony Living Music

Sunday 18 October 2015 7pm Barbican Hall

VALERY GERGIEV: MAN OF THE THEATRE London’s Symphony Orchestra Bartók Stravinsky Chant du rossignol INTERVAL Bartók for Orchestra

Valery Gergiev conductor

Concert finishes approx 9pm 2 Welcome 18 October 2015

Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief

Welcome to this evening’s concert, which marks THE LSO ON TOUR Valery Gergiev’s final appearance at the Barbican as LSO Principal Conductor. Gergiev’s time with This evening we welcome the Orchestra back from the Orchestra has been defined by ambitious a tour to Vienna, Luxembourg and with Valery programming and imaginative music-making. His Gergiev and pianist Yefim Bronfman. Next week, comprehensive cycles of Prokofiev, Mahler, Berlioz they depart to the US for Gergiev’s last concerts as and Brahms have won critical acclaim across the LSO Principal Conductor, taking place in Newark and globe. He brought the music of Shchedrin, Scriabin, New York. Follow the LSO on Facebook, Twitter and Dutilleux and Szymanowski to London audiences, Instagram for the latest tour news and updates. all the while staying close to the core Russian repertoire that he knows so well. ON LSO PLAY Across the world, and indeed in London, Gergiev has expanded our audience, leading the Orchestra’s first This month, Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring comes tour to Australia in 30 years and initiating our annual to LSO Play, the award-winning interactive online free BMW LSO Open Air Classics performances in experience that allows you to get inside the Trafalgar Square. He is one of our most recorded orchestra. Using HD footage of the LSO in concert, artists on LSO Live and his performances have been LSO Play gives you the opportunity to see up to four used to break new digital ground through LSO Play different camera angles at once, focus in on different and Digital Theatre. sections of the orchestra, get a close-up view of the conductor, and find out more about the music But what has made the partnership between Valery and the instruments of the orchestra. LSO Play is Gergiev and the LSO truly special is the quality of generously supported by the Reignwood Group. their live performances. Tonight’s concert will be a showcase of their abilities, culminating in Bartók’s play.lso.co.uk virtuosic Concerto for Orchestra, a fitting capstone to a remarkable relationship. A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS We are delighted that Valery Gergiev will return as a regular conductor in our future seasons and we The LSO offers great benefits for groups of 10+ wish him much success as he begins his new role as including 20% discount on standard tickets. Music Director of the Philharmonic Orchestra. At tonight’s concert, we are delighted to welcome: Trust Scancoming UK

lso.co.uk/groups

Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Managing Director London Symphony Orchestra Season 2015/16

2015/16 Autumn Highlights

PROGRAMME NOTE AUTHOR LINDSAY KEMP is a senior producer for BBC Radio 3, including programming lunchtime concerts from LSO St Luke’s, Artistic Director ‘Aof theperformance Lufthansa Festival ofof superb mentalBaroque Music, and and physical a regular control.’ contributor to Gramophone magazine. on Hélène Grimaud

JOHN ADAMS: A WHOLE NEW WORLD BBC RADIO 3 AMERICAN PIONEER CONDUCTS STRAUSS WITH MANFRED HONECK LUNCHTIME CONCERTS AT LSO ST LUKE’S

Thu 29 Oct 7.30pm Thu 12 Nov 7.30pm Thu 19 Nov 7.30pm London Resounding Ravel Pavane pour une infante défunte Beethoven Symphony No 5 Jana´cˇek Jenu˚fa – Suite Thu 22 Oct Ronald Brautigam Ravel Mother Goose Strauss Death and Transfiguration Ravel Concerto in G major Thu 12 Nov Fretwork John Adams Scheherazade.2 Strauss Closing Scene from ‘Capriccio’ Dvorˇák Symphony No 9 Thu 19 Nov Musica ad Rhenum (UK premiere) (‘From the New World’) Chopin, Liszt and Bartók John Adams conductor Nikolaj Znaider conductor Manfred Honeck conductor Thu 29 Oct Alice Sara Ott Leila Josefowicz soprano Hélène Grimaud piano Thu 5 Nov Ashley Wass Thu 26 Nov Maria João Pires & Ashot Khachatourian

lso.co.uk 020 7638 8891 4 Programme Notes 18 October 2015

Béla Bartók (1881–1945) The Miraculous Mandarin – Concert Version (1918–24)

1 INTRODUCTION (STREET NOISES); The opening of the work evokes the sounds of the THE COMMAND OF THE HOODLUMS DIRECTED TO THE GIRL city outside the tawdry room in which the action 2 THE GIRL’S FIRST INVITING GESTURES, IN RESPONSE TO takes place. Three hoodlums force a girl to lure WHICH THE OLD GENTLEMAN APPEARS, WHO GETS THROWN men from the street, whom they intend to beat OUT IN THE END BY THE HOODLUMS up and rob. There are three victims lured by the 3 THE GIRL’S SECOND INVITING GESTURES, UPON WHICH girl, depicted in sinuous clarinet solos: a penniless APPEARS THE YOUNG LAD, WHO IS ALSO THROWN OUT roué, an attractive young man and finally a strange 4 THE GIRL’S THIRD INVITING GESTURES; Mandarin with an intense stare. He pursues and THE MANDARIN APPEARS captures the girl at which point the robbers emerge. 5 THE GIRL’S SEDUCTIVE DANCE BEFORE THE MANDARIN The last part of the ballet moves from the brutally 6 THE MANDARIN CATCHES UP WITH THE GIRL AFTER physical to the eerily metaphysical. Despite the AN EVER WILDER CHASE hoodlums’ attempts to smother and stab the Mandarin, he refuses to die. After they hang him, PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Bartók’s last work for the stage originated in a he begins to glow with a greenish-blue light; the JAN SMACZNY is the Sir Hamilton ‘grotesque pantomime’ by the Hungarian playwright girl accepts his embrace, and at last his wounds Harty Professor of Music at Queen’s Menyhért (Melchior) Lengyel (1890–1974), which begin to bleed and he dies. University, Belfast. A well-known the came across in 1917. With its low-life writer and broadcaster, he specialises setting, this story of prostitution and violence was as The musical style of the work is perceptibly harder in the life and works of Dvorˇák and remote from the fairy-tale world of his second stage edged than in the composer’s earlier stage works Czech , and has published work, , as the graphic action of and the expression more succinct. Moments of books on the repertoire of the that ballet had been from the dark intensity of the stillness alternate with frantic activity in a score Prague Provisional Theatre and opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. A clear connection which has more than a hint of Stravinsky’s The Rite Dvorˇák’s Concerto. between the three works, however, is the composer’s of Spring. As contemporary reactions showed, the close attention to orchestral sonority; although accompaniment to this bizarre scenario is appallingly Bartók completed the piano score of The Miraculous vivid, but it makes for compulsive listening. COMPOSER PROFILE Mandarin by the spring of 1919, the orchestration PAGE 8 was not finished until the autumn of 1924. Bartók prepared a concert version of the ballet almost as soon as its was completed; he intended it Bartók’s music plots the course of Lengyel’s bizarre, to be based on the scenes up to and including the expressionistic tale in compelling detail, and from Mandarin catching the girl. Rather than calling it a its premiere in Cologne in 1926 a whiff of scandal Suite, which would imply a conventional collection shadowed the work; a staging in Budapest planned of dances, he preferred the title ‘Music from to honour Bartók’s 50th birthday in 1931 did not The Miraculous Mandarin’. survive the dress rehearsal. The presentation of the story is far from the conventionally balletic. Indeed, the action of the Mandarin is propelled as much by mime as by dance. Nevertheless, Bartók’s control of the dramatic structure is superbly assured. lso.co.uk Programme Notes 5

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Chant du rossignol (Song of the ) (1914–17)

It was the blend of fairy tale and allegory so beloved of The story was divided into three sections: the fête the Russians that first drew Stravinsky to Hans Christian in the Emperor of China’s palace, the two nightingales, and the illness and recovery of the Andersen’s story of The Nightingale. Emperor of China. The brilliant opening section, depicting the fête in honour of the nightingale, PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER In the story, a nightingale sings to the Emperor clearly benefits from the composer’s experience JAN SMACZNY before being temporarily displaced by a mechanical with and The Rite. The latter in particular version. In the end, with the Emperor on his death- seems to hover in the middle distance during the bed, the nightingale returns to restore the Emperor’s ‘Marche Chinoise’, which announces the arrival COMPOSER PROFILE health with his sweet song. Stravinsky saw potential of the Emperor and concludes the first part. PAGE 8 in this story as the subject of his first opera and the oriental setting was an added attraction. The libretto The singing of the real nightingale begins the middle and first musical sketches secured the approval of section; the Japanese envoys arrive and present Stravinsky’s teacher Rimsky-Korsakov, and the first the artificial nightingale, whose song is played by act was completed in 1909. the oboe against a mechanical rumble in the piano, celeste, harp, clarinet and lower strings. In the third When Stravinsky began work on , section, Death, surrounded by his minions, sits on The Nightingale was interrupted, and it was not until the Emperor’s chest and wears his regalia. His fate 1913 that Stravinsky returned to the opera. By that seems sealed until the true nightingale comes and time, however, his style had passed through the sings outside the window when the mechanical one watershed of The Rite of Spring and the composer will not. Each outpouring from the nightingale results was deeply aware of the disparity between the in Death giving up one of the Emperor’s ornaments first act and the remaining two. The work was first until all have been surrendered. The work concludes THE (1909–29) performed by the Ballets Russes in in with a funeral march for the courtiers (briefly was a ballet company founded in Paris, and although Stravinsky considered it one reminiscent of Mussorgsky’s ) who Paris by . Through of his loveliest works from that period, he was come to look at their dead Emperor. However, collaboration with the leading worried by its lack of drama. he is awake and greets them, having been saved artists of the time, the company by the true nightingale’s song. endeavoured to create a body The composer’s interest in the work received new of work that combined fearless impetus in 1917 when Sergei Diaghilev suggested aesthetic exploration with the turning it into a ballet. Instead, Stravinsky worked highest artistic standards. They up a symphonic poem from the more recently produced Stravinsky’s The Rite of composed second and third acts of the opera, INTERVAL – 20 minutes Spring, Satie’s with a libretto and the new work was presented in 1920 under There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream by Jean Cocteau and designs by Swiss conductor Ernest Ansermet, with designs can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. , and their roster of by Henri Matisse. artists included such diverse luminaries Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the as Coco Chanel, , performance @londonsymphony, or come and talk to Joan Miró and . LSO staff at the Information Point on the Circle level? 6 Programme Notes 18 October 2015

Béla Bartók Concerto for Orchestra (1943–44)

1 INTRODUZIONE: ANDANTE NON TROPPO – ALLEGRO VIVACE efforts, too, seemed to have dried up: in the spring 2 ‘GIUCO DELLE COPPIE’: ALLEGRETTO SCHERZANDO of 1942 he wrote despairingly to his publisher: 3 ELEGIA: ANDANTE NON TROPPO ‘I really don’t know if and when I will be able to 4 INTERMEZZO INTERROTTO: ALLEGRETTO do some composing work. Artistic creative work 5 FINALE: PESANTE-PRESTO generally is the result of an outflow of strength, high-spiritedness, joy of life, etc – All these PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER The Concerto for Orchestra was among Bartók’s conditions are sadly missing with me at present’. WENDY THOMPSON last works. During the late 1930s he had produced some of his finest and most characteristic pieces, ‘The general mood of the work including the Music for Strings, Percussion and represents, apart from the jesting Celeste, the Sonata for Two and Percussion, the Second and the last two string second movement, a gradual quartets. But such an outpouring of energy had transition from the sternness of the sapped his strength, and meanwhile the political THE KOUSSEVITZKY situation in Europe began to deteriorate rapidly. first movement and the lugubrious FOUNDATION was established in After Hitler’s annexation of Austria in 1938, Bartók death-song of the third to the life- 1942 by the then Music Director of began to consider emigrating, but felt unable to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, leave his ailing mother. Only after her death in assertion of the last one.’ Serge Koussevitzky, to support the December 1939 could he begin to make plans, Bartók, on his Concerto for Orchestra composition of new works and helped by a successful concert tour of the US in fund their first performances. the spring of 1940. He and his second wife Ditta In the spring of 1943 Bartók accepted a visiting Britten’s and (also a concert pianist) finally left Hungary for appointment at Harvard to present a lecture series Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie New York in October that year. on Hungarian folk music. After giving only three were both the product of the lectures he collapsed and was rushed to hospital. foundation’s generosity, and the list Bartók’s American agent had held out the prospect Two fellow Hungarian émigrés, the conductor of receiving the benefit of a rosy future for him in America; but his high and the violinist József Szigeti, were of its support reads like a who’s who hopes were soon disappointed. Bartók was already so concerned at his plight that they persuaded of modern composition. unwell with early symptoms of leukaemia and Serge Koussevitzky, conductor of the Boston tuberculosis; his finances were precarious, and Symphony Orchestra and director of the wealthy the first US concerts he gave in partnership with Koussevitzky Foundation, to offer Bartók $1,000 for his wife were coolly received. He took on a few a new orchestral piece. Despite misgivings over his private pupils, and accepted a research fellowship poor state of health, Bartók found the commission at Columbia University, working on a collection of irresistible. He began work on the Concerto for Serbo-Croat folk songs. Orchestra in mid-August 1943 while convalescing in the Adirondack Mountains, and finished it just From November 1941, when he last appeared as two months later. Koussevitzky and the Boston a concerto soloist, his public appearances as a Symphony Orchestra gave the premiere at pianist were increasingly rare. His compositional Carnegie Hall in New York on 1 December 1944. lso.co.uk Programme Notes 7

Bartók stated that the Concerto’s title is explained THIRD MOVEMENT & INTERMEZZO by ‘the tendency to treat the single instrument or Bartók described the central Elegy as a ‘lugubrious instrument groups of the orchestra in a ‘concertante’ death-song’, and its passionate outbursts may be or soloistic manner. The virtuoso treatment appears, interpreted as a cry from the heart of the stricken for instance, in the fugato sections of the development composer, lamenting both his exile and impending of the first movement (brass instruments), or in the death. The lyrical string theme of the fourth perpetuum mobile-like passage of the principal theme movement, ‘Interrupted Intermezzo’, was based BARTÓK on LSO LIVE in the last movement (strings), and especially in the on a Hungarian popular song by Zsigmond Vincze, second movement, in which pairs of instruments You are lovely, you are beautiful, Hungary, but Bartók Bartók consecutively appear with brilliant passages.’ interrupts this nostalgic paean to his homeland with Bluebeard’s a brittle, savage burlesque of the march theme from Castle The Concerto for Orchestra is cast in Bartók’s Shostakovich’s Seventh Symphony (the ‘Leningrad’), £7.19 favourite ‘arch-form’ – a symmetrical plan he which at the time was much played on American lsolive.lso.co.uk adopted either for individual movements or radio as a symbol of resistance to Nazi oppression. sometimes for complete works, such as the Fourth According to Peter Bartók, his father found the banal Valery Gergiev conductor Quartet. Here the weighty first and last movements ‘crescendo theme’ so ludicrous that he decided to frame a pair of movements in lighter styles – make fun of it, turning it into a quickstep parody, ‘Gergiev and his superlative a Scherzo and an Intermezzo, which in turn enclose and then getting the brass to blow raspberries at forces and vocal soloists, supported a central Elegy in Bartók’s typical ‘night-music’ mood. it. But one of Bartók’s last letters suggests that by magnificent sound quality, the quotation referred to Koussevitzky’s known present the enigmatic piece FIRST MOVEMENT admiration for Shostakovich; and another theory with great power.’ The first movement opens with a long, slow, suggests that the parodied tune is actually from BBC Music Magazine atmospheric introduction, which contains germs Lehár’s operetta The Merry Widow. In any case, of material taken from the rest of the work, and the graceful Intermezzo theme soon intervenes. thus serves as an introduction to the whole. FINALE SECOND MOVEMENT Bartók was not entirely happy with the Finale, and The second movement is called ‘Game of Pairs’, rewrote the ending after the first performances. referring to the way in which woodwind – bassoons, The movement opens with a horn fanfare, which oboes, clarinets, flutes – and finally muted heralds a brilliant moto perpetuo on the strings, present a rather jaunty little tune sequentially in inflected by the syncopated rhythms and inwardly pairs, imitating the parallel melodies found in a curling melodies of Central European folk music. collection of Dalmatian folk-songs which Bartók The opening brass fanfare is subjected to masterful was also working on. Their opening statements fugal treatment in the development section, referring are followed by a chorale-like interlude on brass, back to a similar brass fugato in the opening before the short sections return again, this time movement, but it is the strings which get their with the instruments mixed. chance to shine in this vivacious movement. 8 Composer Profiles 18 October 2015

Béla Bartók Composer Profile Composer Profile

Born in 1881 in Hungary, Bartók The son of the Principal at began piano lessons with his the Mariinsky Theatre, Stravinsky mother at the age of five. He was born at the Baltic resort of studied piano and composition at Oranienbaum near St Petersburg the Royal Academy of Music in 1882. Through his father he met in Budapest, where he created many of the leading musicians of a number of works echoing the the day and came into contact style of Brahms and Richard with the world of the musical Strauss. After graduating he theatre. In 1903 he became a discovered Austro-Hungarian pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, which and Slavic folk music, travelling allowed him to get his orchestral extensively with his friend Zoltán works performed and as a result Kodály and recording countless he came to the attention of Sergei ethnic songs and dances, which Diaghilev, who commissioned a began to influence his own new ballet from him, The Firebird. compositions. Kodály also introduced him to the works of Debussy in 1907, the year in which The success of The Firebird, and then Petrushka (1911) and The Rite he became Professor of Piano at the Budapest Conservatory. of Spring (1913) confirmed his status as a leading young composer. Stravinsky now spent most of his time in Switzerland and France, but Bartók established his mature style with such scores as the ballet continued to compose for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes: The Miraculous Mandarin and his opera Duke Bluebeard’s Castle. (1920), (1922), (1922), (1923), He revived his career as a concert pianist in 1927, when he gave (1927) and (1928). the premiere of his First in Mannheim. Stravinsky settled in France in 1920, eventually becoming a French Bartók detested the rise of fascism and in October 1940 he quit citizen in 1934, and during this period moved away from his Russianism Budapest and travelled to the US. At first he concentrated on ethno- towards a new ‘neo-Classical’ style. Personal tragedy in the form of musicological research, but eventually returned to composition and his daughter, wife and mother all dying within eight months of each created a significant group of ‘American’ works, including the Concerto other, and the onset of World War II persuaded Stravinsky to move for Orchestra and Third Piano Concerto. to the US in 1939, where he lived until his death. From the 1950s, his compositional style again changed, this time in favour of a form His character was distinguished by a firm, almost stubborn, refusal of serialism. He continued to take on an exhausting schedule of to compromise or be diverted from his musical instincts by money engagements until 1967, and died in New York in 1971. or position. Throughout his working life, Bartók collected, transcribed He was buried in Venice on the island of San Michele, close to the and annotated the folk-songs of many countries, a commitment that grave of Diaghilev. brought little financial return or recognition but one which he regarded as his most important contribution to music. Composer Profiles © Andrew Stewart OU

Sat 31 Oct & Sun 1 Nov Sound Unbound: U The Barbican Classical Weekender O

New to or know someone who is?

For those curious about classical: a weekend festival releasing music from its traditional confines and showcasing some of the most experimental voices in the genre.

Artists include John Adams with the London Symphony Orchestra, U Max Richter, Nicola Benedetti, Gabriel Prokofiev, LSO Co-Principal Trombone Peter Moore, Speak Percussion, James Rhodes, , Jeremy Denk, Manu Delago, Joby Burgess, BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers, Signum Saxophone Quartet, Mahan Esfahani, VOCES8, The Samuelsons, Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia; plus talks with guest speakers and film showings. O Sound Unbound will take place across the , Milton Court, LSO St Luke’s and St Giles Cripplegate.

Day passes £25 | Weekend passes £40 plus booking fee (£3 online, £4 by phone)

For more info see barbican.org.uk/soundunbound U O

Sound Unbound LSO Programme Ad (mono).indd 1 13/10/2015 15:24 10 Artist Biographies 18 October 2015

Valery Gergiev ‘A virtuoso performance. Conductor This is what makes Gergiev special’ The Times

Valery Gergiev has been Principal Conductor of Recent releases on the Mariinsky Label include the London Symphony Orchestra since 2007, Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 1, Stravinsky’s with performances at the Barbican, BBC Proms Capriccio, and Shchedrin’s Piano Concerto No 2 and International Festival, as well as with ; Shchedrin’s The Left Hander; leading the LSO on extensive tours of Europe, North Shostakovich’s Symphony No 9 and Violin Concerto America and Asia. As Artistic and General Director No 1 featuring Leonidas Kavakos; Mussorgsky’s of St Petersburg’s Mariinsky Theatre since 1988, he Pictures at an Exhibition, Dances of Death and has taken the , opera and orchestra Night on Bare Mountain. Earlier releases include ensembles to more than 45 countries. He is Principal Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet and on Conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace and DVD, Shostakovich’s Symphonies No 4, 5, 6 and 8, assumes the role of Principal Conductor of the Tchaikovsky’s Piano No 1 and 2, and Orchestra this autumn. Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No 3 with Denis Matsuev His other roles include Founder and Artistic Director and Prokofiev’s Symphony No 5. of the Stars of the White Nights, New Horizons and Mariinsky Piano festivals in St Petersburg, the Valery Gergiev’s many awards include the People’s Moscow Easter Festival, Rotterdam Philharmonic’s Artist of , the Award, the Principal Conductor Gergiev Festival, and the Gergiev Festival in Mikkeli. , the Netherlands’ Knight of the London Symphony Orchestra Order of the Dutch Lion, Japan’s Order of the Rising Gergiev has led numerous composer-centred concert Sun and the French Order of the Legion of Honour. Artistic & General Director cycles in New York, London and other international Mariinsky Theatre cities, featuring works by Berlioz, Brahms, Dutilleux, Mahler, Prokofiev, Shostakovich, Stravinsky, Principal Conductor Tchaikovsky and Wagner, as well as introducing World Orchestra for Peace audiences around the world to several rarely performed Russian . He also serves as Chair Artistic Director of the Organisational Committee of the International Stars of the Tchaikovsky Competition, Honorary President of the Edinburgh International Festival and Dean of the Artistic Director Faculty of Arts at the St Petersburg State University. Moscow Easter Festival Gergiev’s recordings on LSO Live and the Mariinsky Label continually win awards in Europe, Asia, and the United States. Recent releases on LSO Live include Rachmaninov’s Symphony No 3; Berlioz’s Harold in Italy, The Death of Cleopatra and Symphonie fantastique; Brahms’ German Requiem and complete symphonies; Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater and complete symphonic works. Earlier releases include the symphonies of Tchaikovsky and Mahler. lso.co.uk Timeline 11

Valery Gergiev LSO Principal Conductor, 2007–15

An electrifying musical personality. 2010 NOVEMBER 2014 Major tour to Singapore ‘Russia’s Jeux d’Esprit’ series and Australia, the Orchestra’s first visit to After his triumphant cycle of the complete Prokofiev explores Russian music from the continent for 30 years Symphonies in the LSO’s 2004 centenary year, Tchaikovsky to Shchedrin Valery Gergiev was named Principal Conductor and took up his post in January 2007, one of the 2015 Final release on most talked about appointments in classical music. LSO Live as Principal Here we look back at some of the highlights of the Conductor: Scriabin past nine years with Gergiev at the helm. Symphonies 3 & 4

2012–13 SEPTEMBER 2007 First cycle as 2012 and 2013 saw several key projects Principal Conductor: ‘Gergiev’s Mahler’ including a Szymanowski and Brahms 2007 cycle and an in-depth Berlioz exploration

2015

JANUARY 2007 First concert as LSO Principal Conductor, NOVEMBER 2014 ‘Revolutionary Russians’ including Stravinsky’s The Firebird series with pianist Denis Matsuev explores and Prokofiev’s the music of Gergiev’s Russian homeland: Rachmaninov, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky SEPTEMBER 2008 First concert of the ‘Émigré’ series featuring OCTOBER 2015 works by Rachmaninov, Prokofiev, Final concerts as LSO Principal Bartók, Schoenberg and Korngold Conductor. ‘Gergiev: Man of the Theatre’ explores the stage works of Bartók and Stravinsky 2009 ‘20th Century Remembered’ series features a major focus on the works of Dutilleux MAY 2012 Gergiev conducts the first BMW LSO Open Air Classics NOVEMBER 2007 concert in London’s Trafalgar Square. For the past four years First recording for LSO Live: this annual concert has introduced crowds of thousands to Mahler Symphony No 6 the music of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Berlioz and Shostakovich 12 Toothpicks and Triumphs 18 October 2015

Gareth Davies, LSO Principal Flute Toothpicks and Triumphs

When Valery Gergiev arrived, it was like an electrical storm had blown into town. Most conductors when working with a new orchestra might begin with their party piece, a favourite symphony, a well trusted soloist in an old warhorse concerto, safe territory for maestro and musicians to weigh each other up before getting in the ring.

But Gergiev isn’t most conductors. He came with a complete cycle of Prokofiev symphonies.

We had a week to learn and perform all seven, many of which were unfamiliar. Difficult enough, but to add to the excitement, the concerts were broadcast live on BBC Radio 3 and recorded for release by Philips. It was a bold statement of intent, and a thrilling, if terrifying week. The results were extraordinary and it was no surprise that shortly afterwards he was appointed Principal Conductor of the LSO. lso.co.uk Toothpicks and Triumphs 13

A man who demands flexibility as the formal relationship draws to a close in these and fleetness of foot … concerts, there is a beautiful symmetry in the return to the repertoire which perhaps draws the finest performances of this passionate partnership. That first glimpse of the intensity and speed at which he worked has proven to be the blueprint for It’s no surprise that Valery the way Gergiev’s version of the LSO has evolved. should have a particular affinity In many ways, it was always destined to be an exciting partnership. The LSO (in my opinion) is the for the music of his homeland … fastest and most flexible ensemble a conductor could ask for; coupled with a man who famously It’s no surprise that Valery should have a particular jets around the world playing multiple concerts affinity for the music of his homeland, and yet there is in different time zones, sometimes on the same something else, something in the performances that day, a champion of Russian repertoire, a man who you can’t quite describe in words. I will never forget a demands flexibility and fleetness of foot from performance of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony in Dublin his players. After our explosive courtship the a few years back. It’s one of those favourites that gets relationship has continued at the same trajectory – played to death, though more often than not, a hollow with speed, colour, excitement and risk. shell of its true self. The thing with Gergiev is this: I don’t think we’ve ever given the same performance of a There have been many highlights along the way work twice. That’s not to say it’s unreliable or inconsistent, and the repertoire has been varied. A Mahler cycle, but every performance has something unique to say. the Brahms and Szymanowski pairings, Scriabin, I can guarantee that the performance of The Firebird a different take on Berlioz … the expected and or The Rite of Spring you hear in London will not be the unexpected, the dazzling and visceral. However, same as the performances next week in New York. 14 Toothpicks and Triumphs 18 October 2015

Toothpicks and Triumphs continued

GARETH DAVIES has been LSO How can a man influence the same notes on Principal Flute since 2000. the page and get such different but equally Alongside playing with the LSO, thrilling performances? The truth is, I don’t know, Gareth writes regularly for BBC and don’t really think he does either. I often Music Magazine, Classic FM and his remember tiny details in performance; the way own blog, has written a book on a the leader lingered on a phrase, a distant off stage century of LSO touring, and is a , the warm embrace of the string section. professor of flute at the Royal College In Dublin that night, I don’t recall the details. of Music and Guildhall School. What I do remember is Valery ushering in the bass section at the beginning and then urging them on to play quieter and quieter at the end. Somewhere in between was a perfectly judged arc of music. Unforgettable. I came off stage exhausted and wrung out. Ironically, a performance I remember so little about is the one that haunts me the most. I came off stage exhausted and wrung out. Ironically, a performance I remember so little about is the one that haunts me the most.

The questions I get asked regularly are, ‘how do you follow his beat’, usually followed by, ‘is it a toothpick?’. The answer to the second question is ‘yes’. Why? Does it matter? Not really. The first question is a little more tricky to answer. Is it a toothpick? Does it matter? Not really.

Even if you have only the most basic knowledge of conducting technique you’ll recognise that Gergiev’s style is unconventional. Beats often move horizontally where you’d expect a vertical, the fingers quiver, there are times when it looks more like he’s trying to play the rather than direct them. But it works, which is sort of the point. lso.co.uk Toothpicks and Triumphs 15

The ride with the LSO and Gergiev … has been exhilarating and exhausting, but one which I’d London Symphony Orchestra happily strap myself in for again.

I don’t know where you’ll be sitting in the auditorium GERGIEV’S SCRIABIN tonight, but when you see him conduct you’ll ON LSO LIVE watch his swooping arms, the flicks of his head, the jerking of his body and the fluttering of ‘I don’t think I’ve seen Gergiev smile so much as his fingers. But take a moment and look at the during Poem of Ecstasy, a work he clearly loves and musicians. When they look up from the blur whose delicate and dance-like spirit he liberated.’ of notes, they will be watching his eyes. The ride **** The Times with the LSO and Gergiev, all 327 concerts, has been exhilarating and exhausting, but one which I’d happily strap myself in for again.

GARETH DAVIES

THE SHOW MUST GO ON Gareth Davies’ book, The Show Music Go On, tells stories from LSO tours, from its first trip to the US in 1912, fast-forwarding to a century later with tales of tours from 2012. Both accounts SCRIABIN: SYMPHONIES NOS 3 & 4 include many trials and Released 30 October 2015 tribulations – volcanoes, the joy Valery Gergiev conducts revelatory performances of airports, travel strikes, illness of Scriabin’s Symphony No 3 (‘The Divine Poem’) and life and death situations – and Symphony No 4 (‘The Poem of Ecstasy’). but also the vivid descriptions of the magic of the music-making. Get a glimpse into the backstage goings on and see inside the mind Pre-order now of the professional musician like never before. lsolive.lso.co.uk Available online and at all good retailers. 16 The Orchestra 18 October 2015

London Symphony Orchestra Your views On stage Inbox

FIRST VIOLINS VIOLAS FLUTES HORNS TIMPANI Peter Maniura @londonsymphony Roman Simovic Leader Edward Vanderspar Gareth Davies Timothy Jones Nigel Thomas @BarbicanCentre Gergiev shattering Carmine Lauri Gillianne Haddow Adam Walker Jose Garcia Gutierrez Antoine Bedewi Lennox Mackenzie German Clavijo Alex Jakeman Angela Barnes in Sacre and blistering and beautiful in Clare Duckworth Lander Echevarria Alexander Edmundson PERCUSSION Bartok 3rd piano concerto with Bronfman PICCOLO Neil Percy Nigel Broadbent Anna Bastow Jonathan Lipton on the LSO with Valery Gergiev and Ginette Decuyper Julia O’Riordan Sharon Williams David Jackson Gerald Gregory Robert Turner TRUMPETS Sam Walton Yefim Bronfman on 11 October 2015 OBOES Jörg Hammann Jonathan Welch Jason Evans Antoine Bedewi Emanuel Abbühl Maxine Kwok-Adams Elizabeth Butler Philip Cobb Tom Edwards Katie Bennington Claire Parfitt Carol Ella Gerald Ruddock John Bennett @londonsymphony gave HARPS Laurent Quenelle Francis Kefford Paul Mayes COR ANGLAIS Bryn Lewis spectacular performance of Stravinsky’s Harriet Rayfield Melanie Martin Maxwell Spiers TROMBONES Nuala Herbert Rite of Spring, Gergiev conducting. Also Ian Rhodes Dudley Bright Sylvain Vasseur CLARINETS Bartok’s piano concerto. Great evening Peter Moore PIANO Rhys Watkins Tim Hugh Andrew Marriner James Maynard Elizabeth Burley on the LSO with Valery Gergiev and Shlomy Dobrinsky Alastair Blayden Chris Richards Jennifer Brown Yefim Bronfman on 11 October 2015 Chi-Yu Mo BASS TROMBONE CELESTE SECOND VIOLINS Noel Bradshaw Paul Milner Catherine Edwards BASS CLARINET David Alberman Eve-Marie Caravassilis Neil Wallington A fantastic performance Thomas Norris Daniel Gardner Lorenzo Iosco TUBA Miya Väisänen Hilary Jones Patrick Harrild of The #Firebird that had me gripped from E-FLAT CLARINET David Ballesteros Amanda Truelove Chi-Yu Mo the dark and menacing introduction on Richard Blayden Judith Herbert the low strings. @londonsymphony Matthew Gardner Orlando Jopling BASSOONS Julian Gil Rodriguez Rachel Gough on the LSO with Valery Gergiev and DOUBLE BASSES William Melvin Daniel Jemison Colin Paris Yefim Bronfman on 9 October 2015 Iwona Muszynska Joost Bosdijk Andrew Pollock Patrick Laurence Louise Shackelton Matthew Gibson CONTRA BASSOON Julian Griffiths Great concert tonight Thomas Goodman Dominic Morgan Oriana Kriszten Magnificent Bartok and Firebird! Gordon MacKay Joe Melvin Katerina Nazarova Jani Pensola Great performances from the band Benjamin Griffiths Simo Väisänen and Maestro! on the LSO with Valery Gergiev and Yefim Bronfman on 9 October 2015

LSO STRING EXPERIENCE SCHEME

Established in 1992, the LSO String Experience The Scheme is supported by London Symphony Orchestra Editor Scheme enables young string players at the Help Musicians UK Barbican Edward Appleyard start of their professional careers to gain The Lefever Award Silk Street [email protected] work experience by playing in rehearsals The Polonsky Foundation London and concerts with the LSO. The scheme EC2Y 8DS Photography auditions students from the London music Igor Emmerich, Kevin Leighton, conservatoires, and 15 students per year Registered charity in England No 232391 Bill Robinson, Alberto Venzago, are selected to participate. The musicians Ranald Mackechnie, Dario Acosta Details in this publication were correct are treated as professional ’extra’ players at time of going to press. Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 (additional to LSO members) and receive fees for their work in line with LSO section players. Advertising Cabbell Ltd 020 3603 7937