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Home , Fatum (Tchaikovsky), Richard Strauss

London Living Music

Thursday 25 February 2016 7.30pm Barbican Hall

SHAKESPEARE 400

Smetana Richard III Liszt Piano No 2 INTERVAL Tchaikovsky Fantasy : Romeo and Juliet Strauss

Gianandrea Noseda conductor London’s Symphony Orchestra Simon Trpcˇ eski piano

Concert finishes approx 9.20pm

Part of

shakespeare400.org 2 Welcome 25 February 2016

Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief

Welcome to the LSO concert this evening, conducted LSO 2016/17 SEASON NOW ON SALE by Gianandrea Noseda. Earlier this week the LSO was delighted to announce that he will take up the Booking is now open for the LSO’s 2016/17 season. position of Principal Guest Conductor from August Full listings for all concerts taking place between 2016 (for further information see page 3). September 2016 and July 2017 can be found on the LSO website, along with details of how to In this concert, Gianandrea Noseda brings together purchase tickets. a trio of works inspired by three of Shakespeare’s plays: Smetana’s Richard III, Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy lso.co.uk/201617season Overture to Romeo and Juliet, and one of Strauss’ less well-known , Macbeth. This concert is the second in the LSO’s Shakespeare 400 series, SHAKESPEARE 400 a programme of concerts and events celebrating the Bard’s influence on the world of music in the year The LSO’s Shakespeare celebrations form part of marking the quatercentenary of his death. Shakespeare 400, a consortium of leading cultural and educational organisations, coordinated This evening, we also welcome back soloist by King’s College London, marking the 400th Simon Trpcˇeski, who last appeared with the Orchestra anniversary of Shakespeare’s death in 2016. in January 2015, to perform Liszt’s A connected series of public performances, No 2. broadcasts, exhibitions and educational outreach events will underline London’s pivotal role in Thank you to our media partner Classic FM, who have the performance and public understanding of recommended tonight’s concert to their listeners. Shakespeare’s works.

I hope you enjoy the performance and can join us lso.co.uk/shakespeare again at the Barbican soon. The LSO’s Shakespeare shakespeare400.org 400 series continues in February: a free Friday Lunchtime Concert takes place at LSO St Luke’s tomorrow, and on Sunday 28 February there is an A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS LSO Discovery Day, exploring the theme of Berlioz and Shakespeare, which informs Gianandrea The LSO offers great benefits to groups of 10+, Noseda’s second concert with the LSO that evening. including 20% discount on standard tickets. Tonight we are delighted to welcome:

Hertford U3A Gerrards Cross Community Association Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Managing Director lso.co.uk/groups London Symphony Orchestra Living Music

The LSO presents its new family of conductors

We are delighted to announce exciting changes to our line-up of conductors, taking effect from the 2016/17 season. On Wednesday 24 February we announced that Gianandrea Noseda will join Daniel Harding as Principal Guest Conductor; Michael Tilson Thomas will become Conductor Laureate; and will become Conductor Emeritus.

Managing Director Kathryn McDowell said: ‘The LSO is delighted to welcome Gianandrea Noseda as Principal Guest Conductor, joining Daniel Harding, and that Michael Tilson Thomas and André Previn, who both have a long and illustrious history with the LSO will strengthen their bond as Conductors Laureate and Emeritus respectively. Following our appointment of Sir Simon Rattle as Music Director from 2017/18 these changes bring together a world-class family of conductors, including our Assistant Conductor Elim Chan, who will bring the richest music-making to the LSO’s audiences around the world in the years ahead.’

Find out more about our family of conductors at lso.co.uk /conductors 4 Programme Notes 25 February 2016

Bedrˇich Smetana (1824–84) Richard III Op 11 (1857–58)

Shakespeare was a powerful stimulus for Smetana at many Smetana was reluctant to provide a detailed stages in his career. Translations of Shakespeare into Czech programme for the work, but did admit that it follows the general trajectory of the play in outlining were frequent in the 1850s, and in 1855 the first volume of Richard’s rise to triumph through struggle and his a complete edition of the Bard’s plays in Czech was none final downfall. After a hesitant introduction, the rising figure representing Richard is heard in the ; other than Richard III. while it has the questing quality of ambition it also captures superbly the king’s lurching gait. A strong PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Smetana contributed an orchestral march to the sense of doom hangs over the work notwithstanding JAN SMACZNY is the Sir Hamilton 1864 celebrations in Prague of the tercentenary of an imposing central section, marked Grandioso, Harty Professor of Music at Queen’s Shakespeare’s birth, some fanfares for a performance in which Richard is crowned. Smetana was quite University, Belfast. A well-known of Richard III in 1867, and his last operatic project specific that the end is a depiction of Richard’s writer and broadcaster, he specialises was to a based on Twelfth Night. dream in which the hosts of his victims appear in the life and works of Dvorˇák and However, in 1859 he had composed an audaciously before the battle that brings his downfall. Czech , and has published avant-garde piano work entitled Sketch for Macbeth books on the repertoire of the and the Three Witches and on 17 July 1858, during RICHARD III: IN BRIEF Prague Provisional Theatre and his sojourn as a musical director in Gothenburg in Dvorˇák’s Concerto. Sweden, he completed a full-scale based on Richard III.

COMPOSER PROFILES Smetana was an avid admirer of Liszt’s symphonic PAGE 6 poems and visited him in in September 1857 to discuss them. He became an ardent convert to this new progressive trend and Richard III, he felt strongly, was the proof. Even so, Smetana was uncertain how to describe his ‘musical illustration’, Richard III is one of Shakespeare’s histories, telling the but eventually settled on ‘Symphonic Poem’ when story of the English king, his rise to the throne, and it was premiered, arranged for four pianos, in his death during the War of the Roses. In the play he Gothenburg on 24 April 1860. At its orchestral is depicted as a Machiavellian anti-hero, a hunchback, SMETANA on LSO LIVE premiere in Prague on 5 January 1862 it was ‘rudely stamp’d’, ‘deformed, unfinish’d’, ‘determined Sir ’ recording of Smetana’s described as a ‘Fantasy for full orchestra’. to prove a villain, and hate the idle pleasures of these six tone poems dedicated to the days’. He is ruthless and violent, and visited on the night composer’s homeland, Má vlast. before his final battle by the ghosts of all his victims. They tell him to ‘despair and die!’ and Richard wakes Available at up to realise that he is all alone in the world. During lsolive.lso.co.uk, the battle, he falls from his horse – ‘A horse, a horse, in the Barbican my kingdom for a horse!’ – and then dies at the hands Shop or online at of Henry VII, who succeeds him to the throne. iTunes & Amazon lso.co.uk Programme Notes 5

Franz Liszt (1811–86) Piano Concerto No 2 in A major (1839–61)

1 ADAGIO SOSTENUTO ASSAI – Liszt’s Second Piano Concerto begins with a wind 2 ALLEGRO AGITATO ASSAI – , led by the in a rather sad tune that 3 ALLEGRO MODERATO – does nothing to settle the . A key element 4 ALLEGRO DECISO – of this opening is a falling semitone heard several 5 MARZIALE UN POCO MENO ALLEGRO – times, including right at the end of the section – this 6 ALLEGRO ANIMATO will reappear throughout the concerto as a kind of . When the piano enters it is as accompanist, SIMON TRPCˇ ESKI PIANO but the technical virtuosity that this work demands is already quite clear. With this new section comes PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER was in many ways the ultimate Romantic a hint of impending turbulence, a promise that is ALISON BULLOCK is a freelance composer, combining the urge to express himself fulfilled when the piano has its first real theme, writer and music consultant whose technically with a talent for seeing and developing one of massive, dramatic chords accompanied by interests range from Machaut to new compositional techniques. His two surviving, a heavy, dotted rhythm. As the mood continuously Messiaen and beyond. complete piano were begun in the 1830s, develops, it is not difficult for us to create our own though he had written several concertante works imagery or scenarios for the music. The orchestra earlier than this (including some as a teenager). embarks on a ‘devil’s ride’, joined by the piano – THEMATIC TRANSFORMATION By 1839 he was travelling far and wide, giving recitals before a silent pause heralds the concerto’s first Liszt was known for developing all over Europe, which may partly explain why it took moment of calm, as filigree fountains in the piano new structures and departing him so long to complete these works. But there were lead to a lovely duet with the principal cello. from traditional forms in his music. no doubt other reasons – not least that he lacked He wrote that ‘music is never real experience in writing for orchestra. Liszt was stationary. Successive forms and also an inveterate reviser, which also contributed styles can only be like so many to these two works’ extremely long gestation. resting places – like tents pitched and taken down again on the road Liszt’s piano concertos were quite revolutionary, to the Ideal’. The Second Piano merging the usually separate movements of the Concerto uses the technique concerto into one long musical sweep. While the of ‘thematic transformation’, First Concerto was a slightly more traditional structuring the work around structure in four large sections, the Second broke a theme and its subsequent even these boundaries, reverting to a form familiar evolution and development. from Liszt’s – a succession of different moods bound together by a series of INTERVAL – 20 minutes constantly transformed themes. However, while in There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream his symphonic poems Liszt often took as his starting- can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level. point an existing story (literary works, myths or imagined fantasies), the piano concertos are abstract Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the works, leaving us, the listeners, to create our own performance @londonsymphony, or come and talk to stories from the unfolding musical drama. LSO staff at the Information Point on the Circle level? 6 Composer Profiles 25 February 2016

Bedrˇich Smetana Franz Liszt Composer Profile Composer Profile

Born in the East Bohemian town Liszt’s father, Adam, was a of Litomyšl on 2 March 1824, cellist in the court orchestra Bedrˇich Smetana became the first of Haydn’s employer, Prince composer of genuine talent to Nikolaus Esterházy. Adam Liszt reflect Czech stories, characters taught his son piano, and was and even the country’s scenery delighted when the boy gave in his music. The first of eleven his first public concerts in 1820. children to survive infancy, he The following year the family took music lessons from his moved to , where Franz father, a master brewer and studied with the great pianist Carl amateur violinist. Smetana moved Czerny and composition with to Prague in 1843 with his young Antonio Salieri, wife, teaching piano and studying at the imperial court. His debut composition with Josef Proksch. concerts in Vienna were a critical After the Prague Revolution success; Liszt later claimed of 1848, the German-speaking that Beethoven, who was in the Smetana began to learn Czech. He moved to Sweden in 1856 and audience for his second appearance in April 1823, had kissed the prospered there as pianist, conductor and composer. prodigy’s forehead. Liszt was soon in demand as a recitalist throughout Europe and beyond; aristocrats invited him to perform at their private Political changes in Bohemia convinced Smetana to return to Prague in salons, and audiences were driven wild by his incredible command 1861, where he became principal conductor of the newly established of the keyboard. He attracted and fell in love with many of his female Provisional Theatre. He almost single-handedly created a repertoire of fans and piano pupils, including Countess Marie d’Agoult, who left Czech , his The Bartered Bride and Dalibor outstanding among her husband for Liszt and bore him three children before they split up them. Traditionalists within the press and the conservative directors in 1843. He also formed friendships with leading writers, artists and of the theatre opposed Smetana’s attempts to alter the status quo, musicians, among them George Sand, Berlioz and Wagner, who married preferring Italian, French and German imports to the composer’s bold his youngest daughter, Cosima. Czech operas. In February 1848 Liszt became music director to the court of Weimar. Smetana stood up to his many critics but was forced to resign in 1874 Shortly before accepting this job, he fell in love with Princess Carolyne following the onset of syphilis. Although he soon became totally deaf, Sayn Wittgenstein but their wedding plans were thwarted in 1861 when the composer created a cycle of six symphonic poems, Má vlast, the annulment of her first marriage was declined. After the death of his embodying the prevailing spirit of Czech nationalism, and a series eldest daughter, Liszt entered the oratory of the Madonna del Rosario of emotionally turbulent late works. Professional success countered in Rome and, in 1865, took minor orders in the Roman Catholic Church. the composer’s depression and brought some comfort to his state of In his final years, he travelled extensively and composed a series of severe physical pain and mental distress. He was admitted to Prague’s elegiac, often mystical piano works. According to the pianist Louis Kentner, asylum for the insane three weeks before his death on 12 May 1884. ‘Liszt was a devout Catholic: he feared God, but he loved the Devil’.

Composer Profiles © Andrew Stewart lso.co.uk Programme Notes 7

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky (1840–93) Fantasy Overture: Romeo and Juliet (1869, rev 1880)

Love crushed by a hostile fate was a subject that appealed Tchaikovsky finished the piece that November, and deeply to Tchaikovsky, and he treated it many times in it was performed in on 16 March 1870. Neither he nor Balakirev was entirely happy with various guises. His Fantasy Overture: Romeo and Juliet is the beginning and ending, and Tchaikovsky revised often considered to be his first undisputed masterpiece. the score; a further big revision was undertaken in 1880, and this is the version we hear today. The score is dedicated to Balakirev, although their PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER He was stimulated, helped, and at times confused association soon cooled, and it was ten years before ANDREW HUTH is a musician, and bullied during its composition by the strange, they met again in person when Balakirev was to writer and translator who writes brilliant and dogmatic composer , the provide Tchaikovsky with inspiration for his ‘Manfred’ extensively on French, Russian and leader of the Nationalist composers in St Petersburg. Symphony. And although we might think that this Eastern European music. After a performance there of Tchaikovsky’s tone- overture was Tchaikovsky’s last word on the subject, poem Fatum, Balakirev gave the younger composer he was later fired to write a Romeo and Juliet opera, some frank and generally beneficial advice; and an idea that came to nothing, although he was still COMPOSER PROFILE when the two men spent some time together in thinking of it shortly before his death in 1893. PAGE 9 Moscow in the summer of 1869 it was Balakirev who not only suggested the subject of Shakespeare’s ROMEO AND JULIET: IN BRIEF play but also tried to dictate to Tchaikovsky the MILY BALAKIREV (1837–1910) exact shape it should take. was part of a group of composers in St Petersburg known as The Five, Tchaikovsky began the composition that October, together with Alexander Borodin, but soon after wrote to Balakirev, ‘I’m completely César Cui, and played out, and not even one mildly tolerable idea Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov. Balakirev comes into my head’. Balakirev was having none Romeo and Juliet tells the story of two ‘star cross’d took on the unofficial role of mentor of that. Under his encouragement Tchaikovsky lovers’ from warring families. They meet at a ball to the group but became somewhat worked out an elaborate sonata structure in which and disclose their feelings for one another later of an authoritarian. He would reject episodes not only describe the characters of the that night during the famous balcony scene – outright any musical opinion that play, but express the relations between them. Thus ‘Romeo, Romeo! Wherefore art thou Romeo?’ They differed from his own, which led the solemn introduction conveys the pervasive are married the next day. Meanwhile, Romeo’s best to all of The Five’s music sounding role of Friar Lawrence, while the stormy Allegro friend is killed in a duel by Juliet’s cousin. Romeo increasingly similar and more like his first subject with its violent off-beats expresses the kills the cousin in revenge and is sent into exile. own. He had a nervous breakdown in deadly feud between the Montague and Capulet Juliet is distraught, and fakes her own death with 1871, and abandoned all aspects of families. The two young lovers are enshrined in the a sleeping potion to avoid marrying a new suitor. his musical life to find solace in the extended second theme, one of Tchaikovsky’s great But Romeo believes that she has actually died, and Russian Orthodox Church and new melodic inspirations. The progress of the music rides back to Verona to die next to his beloved. employment as a provincial railway sets the different ideas in changing relationships Juliet wakes up too late and, seeing his body, she clerk. By this point he had stopped to one another, with the coda presenting the play’s too commits suicide. It is their deaths that finally composing altogether. tragic conclusion of the deaths of the lovers and the reconciliation of their families. bring an end to their families’ ancient grudge. 8 Programme Notes 25 February 2016

Richard Strauss (1864–1949) Symphonic Poem: Macbeth Op 23 (1887–88)

PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER ‘How one becomes what one is’ is the subtitle ‘Hie thee hither, that I may pour my STEPHEN JOHNSON is the author of the book Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) by spirits in thine ear, and chastise of Bruckner Remembered (Faber). , the youthful Strauss’ favourite He also contributes regularly to BBC philosopher. It could also be a subtitle for Macbeth, with the valour of my tongue, Music Magazine, and broadcasts for the first work to which Strauss gave the designation all that impedes thee from the BBC Radio 3 (Discovering Music), ‘Symphonic Poem’. In his previous orchestral work, Radio 4 and the World Service. (From Italy, 1886), Strauss had given golden round, which fate and pictorial titles to each of the four movements, and metaphysical aid doth seem to taken delight in creating sound-pictures to match. MACBETH: IN BRIEF But in Macbeth (1887–88) he moves a step further have thee crowned withal.’ towards the progressive camp in late 19th-century music, as especially represented by Wagner – to the Lady Macbeth’s music is at first hushed and horror of his conservative father. seductive (woodwind), but before long her own dark, more elemental passion breaks out. The conflict and In Macbeth the emphasis is not on musical not-quite coming together of the two characters’ illustration – there’s no music for the witches for themes eventually builds to a tragic climax, then example – but on psychological character-study. In quieter fanfares appear to hymn the victory of a letter to his uncle, Strauss revealed that he had Macbeth’s rival Macduff. ‘written a sort of symphonic poem, but not after Liszt’. However much the 23-year-old Strauss may Originally Strauss’ Macbeth ended in triumph, but have been drawn to Liszt’s bold experimentation, he when Strauss showed the score to the conductor was less impressed at this stage by Liszt’s attempts Hans von Bülow the latter was unimpressed and told The Tragedy of Macbeth tells the to ‘tell stories’ in music. Macbeth doesn’t follow the him to change it. Eventually, after some grumbling, story of its title character, who dramatic plan of Shakespeare’s play. Instead we are Strauss gave in, and the result is the much more uses the prophecy of three introduced to the two key players – the driven but convincing tragic ending. We hear of Macduff’s witches to guide his rise to the unstable would-be king and his still more ferociously triumph from a distance, but the images of the Scottish throne. He is first a ambitious wife – and shown through music how two protagonists, thwarted and finally destroyed, Thane, until he kills the king, their personalities, and their fates develop. remains centre-stage. blames the servants, causes the rightful heirs to flee and takes After a stark introductory fanfare, Macbeth himself on the crown. But he becomes is introduced by two themes: the first passionately paranoid, trying to avoid the aspiring, the second (, basses and low prophecy, which foretold his woodwind) sinister and chromatically tortuous in demise. He begins to see shape – the self-defeating element in Macbeth’s the ghosts of those he has character? Then comes the music associated with murdered and dies in a siege Lady Macbeth, accompanied in the score by her on his castle, ending his own words: murderous reign and bringing order to the country at last. lso.co.uk Composer Profiles 9

Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Richard Strauss Composer Profile Composer Profile

Tchaikovsky was born in Kamsko- Richard Strauss was born in Votkinsk in the Vyatka province in 1864, the son of , of Russia on 7 May 1840. His a brilliant player in the Munich father was a mining engineer, his court orchestra; it is therefore mother of French extraction. He perhaps not surprising that began to study the piano at five, some of the composer’s most benefiting also from the musical striking writing is for the French instruction of his elder brother’s horn. Strauss had his first piano French governess. In 1848 the lessons when he was four and family moved to the imperial he produced his first composition capital, St Petersburg, where Pyotr two years later, but surprisingly he was enrolled at the School of did not attend a music academy, Jurisprudence. He overcame his his formal education ending rather grief at his mother’s death in 1854 at Munich University where he by composing and performing, studied philosophy and aesthetics, although music was to remain a while continuing with his musical diversion from his job – as a clerk at the Ministry of Justice – until he training at the same time. Following the first public performances of enrolled as a full-time student at the St Petersburg Conservatory in 1863. his work, he received a commission from Hans von Bülow in 1882 and two years later was appointed Bülow’s Assistant Musical Director at the His First Symphony was warmly received at its St Petersburg premiere Court Orchestra, the beginning of a career in which Strauss in 1868 and he completed an opera on a by Ostrovsky, was to conduct many of the world’s great , in addition which he later destroyed. , the first of Tchaikovsky’s three to holding positions at opera houses in Munich, Weimar, Berlin and great ballet scores, was written in 1876 for Moscow’s Bolshoi Theatre. Vienna. While at Munich, he married the singer , for whom he wrote many of his greatest songs. Tchaikovsky’s hasty decision to marry an almost unknown admirer in 1877 proved a disaster, his homosexuality combining strongly with his Strauss’ legacy is to be found in his operas and his magnificent sense of entrapment. By now he had completed his Fourth Symphony, symphonic poems. Scores such as , Also sprach was about to finish his opera , and had attracted the Zarathustra, and demonstrate his supreme considerable financial and moral support of , an mastery of ; the thoroughly modern operas and affluent widow. She helped him through his personal crisis and in 1878 , with their Freudian themes and atonal scoring, are landmarks he returned to composition with the Violin Concerto, although his work in the development of 20th-century music, and the neo-Classical remained inhibited until the completion in 1885 of the Byron-inspired has become one of the most popular operas . Tchaikovsky claimed that his Sixth Symphony of the century. Strauss spent his last years in self-imposed exile in represented his best work. The mood of crushing despair heard in Switzerland, waiting to be officially cleared of complicity in the Nazi all but the work’s third movement reflected the composer’s troubled regime. He died at Garmisch Partenkirchen in 1949, shortly after his state of mind. He committed suicide nine days after its premiere on widely celebrated 85th birthday. 6 November 1893.

Composer Profiles © Andrew Stewart 10 Artist Biographies 25 February 2016

Gianandrea Noseda Conductor

Gianandrea Noseda was recently appointed Principal France, the Orchestre de , the Filarmonica Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra della Scala, the Orchestra of Santa Cecilia and the from August 2016, and as the new Music Director Vienna Symphony Orchestra in Europe. Gianandrea of the National Symphony Orchestra in Washington, Noseda has a long-standing relationship with The succeeding Christoph Eschenbach from the 2017/18 Metropolitan Opera dating back to 2002 and has season. Widely recognised as one of the leading conducted many new productions including a widely conductors of his generation, he was named Musical praised Prince Igor (Borodin), now available as a DVD America’s 2015 Conductor of the Year, and made for . two significant achievements in the 2014/15 season: debuts with the Orchestra and Highlights of 2015 included performances with the at the , the Vienna Israel Philharmonic, the and Philharmonic in a highly acclaimed production of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia Orchestra, in addition Verdi’s Il Trovatore. to his return to the Verbier Festival. Conducting the Filarmonica Teatro Regio Torino, he made his Since 2007 he has been the Music Director of the debut at the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival. His Teatro Regio Torino; his initiatives have propelled commitment to young musicians continued with Music Director it onto the global stage, where it has become one the European Union Youth Orchestra’s European Teatro Regio Torino of Italy’s most important cultural ambassadors. Tour in August 2015, which included concerts at the Under his leadership the Teatro Regio Torino has Edinburgh and Grafenegg Festivals. Principal Guest Conductor recorded with the leading singers of our time and The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra toured in Austria, China, France, , Japan Gianandrea Noseda’s intense recording activity (two residences at the Bunka Kaikan), Russia and includes over 50 CDs, many of which have been Principal Conductor the United States (including the historical debut celebrated by critics and received awards. His Orquestra de Cadaqués at , acclaimed as one of the most Musica Italiana project, which he initiated over ten important events of the season). years ago, has chronicled under-appreciated Italian Artistic Director repertoire of the 20th century. Conducting the Vienna Stresa Festival Gianandrea Noseda is also Principal Guest Conductor Philharmonic Orchestra and the Orchestra Teatro Regio of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, Principal Torino, he has also recorded opera albums with LSO DISCOVERY DAY: Conductor of the Orquestra de Cadaqués and celebrated vocalists such as Ildebrando d’Arcangelo, BERLIOZ AND SHAKESPEARE Artistic Director of the Stresa Festival (Italy). He was Rolando Villazón, and . Sun 28 Feb 10am–5pm at the helm of the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra from A morning rehearsal with Gianandrea 2002 to 2011 and in 1997 he was appointed the first A native of Milan, Maestro Noseda is Cavaliere Noseda followed by an afternoon at foreign Principal Guest Conductor of the Mariinsky Ufficiale al Merito della Repubblica Italiana, marking LSO St Luke’s, with a talk by Berlioz expert Professor Julian Rushton, and Theatre, a position he held for a decade. his contribution to the artistic life of Italy. Berlioz songs on Shakespeare texts performed by soprano Ruby Hughes. In addition, Gianandrea Noseda works regularly with Tickets from £14 (plus booking fees) the NHK Symphony in Japan, with the Cleveland, Philadelphia, Washington and Toronto orchestras lso.co.uk/discoverydays in North America, with the Orchestre National de lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 11

Simon Trpcˇeski Piano

Macedonian pianist Simon Trpcˇeski has established The 2015/16 season sees Trpcˇeski continuing to himself as one of the most remarkable musicians to perform at the highest level across the globe. As have emerged in recent years, performing with many always, he makes regular visits to the UK, giving of the world’s greatest orchestras and captivating performances with the LSO, the Royal Liverpool audiences worldwide. He is praised not only for his Philharmonic Orchestra, City of Birmingham and impeccable technique and delicate expression, but Bournemouth Symphony orchestras. Elsewhere, also for his warm personality and commitment to he returns to play with the San Francisco, Atlanta, strengthening Macedonia’s cultural image. Vancouver and Detroit Symphony orchestras, Rotterdam Philharmonic and Orquestra Sinfónica Simon Trpcˇeski is a frequent soloist in the UK Portuguesa. He also undertakes a tour of Spain with with the London Symphony, City of Birmingham the Helsinki Philharmonic, and the UK with the Oslo Symphony, the Philharmonia and Hallé, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Liverpool and the London Philharmonic orchestras. Other engagements with major European ensembles With the special support of KulturOp – Macedonia’s include the Royal , Russian leading cultural and arts organisation – and the National and Bolshoi Theatre orchestras, NDR Ministry of Culture of the Republic of Macedonia, he Sinfonieorchester Hamburg, DSO and RSO Berlin, works regularly with young musicians in Macedonia WDR Cologne, MDR Leipzig, Tonkünstler Orchestra in order to cultivate the talent of the country’s next in Vienna, the Danish National Symphony Orchestra generation of artists. and the Rotterdam, Strasbourg, Royal Stockholm, Helsinki, Oslo, Royal Flanders and St Petersburg Born in the Republic of Macedonia in 1979, Simon Philharmonic orchestras. Trpcˇeski has won prizes in international piano competitions in the United Kingdom, Italy and In North America he has performed with the New the Czech Republic. From 2001 to 2003, he was a York and Los Angeles Philharmonics, the Philadelphia member of the BBC New Generation Artists, and and Cleveland orchestras and the Boston, San in May 2003, he was honoured with the Young Francisco, Pittsburgh, Chicago, Toronto and Baltimore Artist Award by the Royal Philharmonic Society. Symphony orchestras, among others. Elsewhere In December 2009, the President of Macedonia he has performed with the New Japan, Seoul and honoured him with the Presidential Order of Merit Hong Kong Philharmonics, Sydney, Adelaide and for Macedonia, a decoration given to foreign and Melbourne Symphony orchestras, and has toured domestic dignitaries responsible for the affirmation with the New Zealand Symphony. Simon Trpcˇeski has of Macedonia abroad. Most recently, in September worked with a prominent list of conductors including 2011, he was the first recipient of the title ‘National , Lionel Bringuier, Andrew Davis, Artist of the Republic of Macedonia’. , Charles Dutoit, , , Sir Antonio Pappano, Vasily Petrenko, He is a graduate of the School of Music at the University Robin Ticciati, Yan Pascal Tortelier, David Zinman, of St Cyril and St Methodius in Skopje, where he Marin Alsop and Gianandrea Noseda. studied with Professor Boris Romanov and where he lives with his family. 12 The Orchestra 25 February 2016

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FIRST VIOLINS 16 FEB: SIR JOHN ELIOT GARDINER – SHAKESPEARE 400 Roman Simovic Leader Rachel Roberts Adam Walker Philip Cobb Carmine Lauri Gillianne Haddow Alex Jakeman Gerald Ruddock Lennox Mackenzie Malcolm Johnston Daniel Newell Peter Bingle Last night’s concert by @londonsymphony at Clare Duckworth Lander Echevarria PICCOLO @BarbicanCentre was superb. Performance of A Midsummer Sharon Williams BASS Nigel Broadbent Anna Bastow Night’s Dream music was magical Ginette Decuyper Julia O’Riordan James Maynard Gerald Gregory Robert Turner Olivier Stankiewicz Jörg Hammann Jonathan Welch Rosie Jenkins Dudley Bright Jessie McDonald Wonderful performance Maxine Kwok-Adams Elizabeth Butler Peter Moore Claire Parfitt Fiona Dalgliesh @londonsymphony tonight @BarbicanCentre James Maynard Elizabeth Pigram Richard Holttum Christine Pendrill Midsummer Night’s Dream – so special #Shakespeare400 Laurent Quenelle Caroline O’Neill BASS Colin Renwick Paul Milner Ian Rhodes CELLOS Chris Richards Clemency Horsell Enchanting performance of Sylvain Vasseur Rebecca Gilliver Chi-Yu Mo #Mendelssohn A Midsummer Night’s Dream by Rhys Watkins Alastair Blayden Patrick Harrild @londonsymphony and the ladies of @mco_london Noel Bradshaw Katy Ayling SECOND VIOLINS Eve-Marie Caravassilis Nigel Thomas David Alberman Daniel Gardner Robert Stagg Mendelssohn’s MND @BarbicanCentre Thomas Norris Hilary Jones Rachel Gough PERCUSSION @londonsymphony @S400events brings to the fore the Sarah Quinn Amanda Truelove Susan Frankel Neil Percy Miya Väisänen Victoria Harrild David Jackson play’s strange self-haunting. A fine performance. David Ballesteros Steffan Morris CONTRA Sam Walton Richard Blayden Hester Snell Dominic Morgan Matthew Gardner HARP Julian Gil Rodriguez DOUBLE BASSES HORNS Bryn Lewis Naoko Keatley Edicson Ruiz Timothy Jones Belinda McFarlane Colin Paris Angela Barnes William Melvin Patrick Laurence Alexander Edmundson Iwona Muszynska Matthew Gibson Jonathan Lipton Paul Robson Joe Melvin Jonathan Bareham Harriet Rayfield Jani Pensola Marco Behtash Simo Väisänen

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 Barbara Whatmore Charitable Trust Silk Street [email protected] work experience by playing in rehearsals The Idlewild Trust London and concerts with the LSO. The scheme The Lefever Award EC2Y 8DS Photography auditions students from the London music The Polonsky Foundation Ranald Mackechnie, Simon Fowler, conservatoires, and 15 students per year Registered charity in England No 232391 Lube Saveski are selected to participate. The musicians Taking part in the rehearsals for this concert Details in this publication were correct Print Cantate 020 3651 1690 are treated as professional ’extra’ players were Bryony Gibson-Cornish (viola) and Kristiana Ignatjeva (cello). at time of going to press. (additional to LSO members) and receive fees Advertising Cabbell Ltd 020 3603 7937 for their work in line with LSO section players.