London Symphony Orchestra Living Music Sunday 1 March 2015 7.30pm Barbican Hall DURUFLÉ REQUIEM Debussy La damoiselle élue Debussy La mer INTERVAL Duruflé Requiem London’s Symphony Orchestra Donald Runnicles conductor Nicole Cabell soprano Kelley O’Connor mezzo-soprano Duncan Rock baritone London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director Concert finishes approx 9.40pm 2 Welcome 1 March 2015 Welcome Living Music Kathryn McDowell In Brief Welcome to this evening’s LSO concert at the 2015/16 SEASON NOW ON SALE Barbican, for which we are joined by conductor Donald Runnicles for a programme of French The LSO 2015/16 season is now available to book. classics, from Debussy’s La mer to Duruflé’s Season themes include Creative Geniuses, a series meditative and moving Requiem. Donald Runnicles of concerts curated by Sir Simon Rattle, The Power was last with the Orchestra in 2006, conducting of the Voice, a celebration of great vocal works, a concert at the Barbican and leading a tour to Shakespeare 400, exploring the iconic playwright’s Germany; we are delighted to see him return tonight. influence on music, and Valery Gergiev: Man of the Theatre. Full details and listings can be found I would also like to extend a warm welcome to our on the LSO website. soloists – returning soloists Kelley O’Connor and Duncan Rock, and Nicole Cabell, who makes her lso.co.uk/201516season LSO debut tonight – and to the London Symphony Chorus with our Choral Director Simon Halsey. This performance forms part of LSO Sing, an LSO SINGING DAYS initiative that aims to involve Londoners in choral singing, and follows a Singing Day that took place If tonight’s concert has inspired you to get singing, at LSO St Luke’s on 7 February, which focused on why not join us for a Singing Day at LSO St Luke’s? Duruflé’s Requiem. I am particularly pleased that Led by the LSO’s experienced choral team, these many of the participants who attended this day workshops give you the chance to join a scratch join us in the audience this evening. choir for a day, meet other like-minded people and explore great choral works, including some of Thank you to our media partners Classic FM for their the music that influenced Brahms’ Requiem (9 May) continuing commitment to the LSO. and traditional gospel music (20 June). Enjoy the concert and please join us again as our lso.co.uk/singingdays season continues. On 12 and 15 March, the LSO presents two concerts celebrating the 70th birthday of Principal Guest Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, THE LATEST RELEASE ON LSO LIVE followed by a tour of the West Coast of America. For the latest release on LSO Live, violist Antoine Tamestit and mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill join forces with the LSO for the next instalment of Valery Gergiev’s revelatory Berlioz series, featuring Harold in Italy and the experimental cantata Kathryn McDowell CBE DL The Death of Cleopatra. Managing Director lso.co.uk/lsolive lso.co.uk LSO Sing 3 LSO Sing Highlights in 2015 SINGING DAYS AT LSO ST LUKE’S CHORAL CONCERTS AT THE BARBICAN BRAHMS CONNECTIONS AFRICAN/AMERICAN JOURNEY BRAHMS GERMAN REQUIEM BEETHOVEN SYMPHONY NO 9 Sat 9 May 2015 11am–4.30pm Sat 20 Jun 2015 10.30am–4.30pm Sun 24 May 7.30pm Sun 21 Jun 7.30pm Ahead of the LSO and LSC’s Come and explore how early traditional Daniel Harding conductor Bernard Haitink conductor performance of Brahms’ German gospel music evolved from African Dorothea Röschmann soprano Erin Wall soprano Requiem, Simon Halsey leads a spirituals and European hymnody. Matthias Goerne baritone Karen Cargill mezzo-soprano workshop on the music that inspired it, Led by David Lawrence, we’ll sing London Symphony Chorus Steve Davislim tenor including works by Schütz, Handel and our way through American soul and Simon Halsey chorus director Hanno Müller-Brachmann Bach, and an early Brahms motet. end up with the contemporary gospel bass-baritone Some sight-singing ability is required. sounds of today. London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director LSO Sing is generously supported by the John S Cohen Foundation, the J Paul Getty Jnr 020 7638 8891 Charitable Trust and Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary Settlement lso.co.uk 4 Programme Notes 1 March 2015 Claude Debussy (1862–1918) La damoiselle élue (1887–8) NICOLE CABELL SOPRANO The scene is set by a gently luminous orchestral KELLEY O’CONNOR MEZZO-SOPRANO prelude which unfolds three main leitmotifs – LADIES OF THE LONDON SYMPHONY CHORUS a soft celestial ‘circle’ of rising and falling string SIMON HALSEY CHORUS DIRECTOR chords heard at the very beginning; a flowing theme also in the strings, associated with the Damozel’s PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER Debussy came across Dante Gabriel Rossetti’s hope to be soon reunited with her beloved; and JEREMY THURLOW is a composer; poem The Blessed Damozel in a book of modern a supple flute melody evoking the figure of the his music ranges from chamber and English poetry translated into French by Gabriel Damozel herself. orchestral music to video-opera. He won Sarrazin. The depiction of a Christian afterlife filled the George Butterworth Award 2007. with sensual longing was striking, as was the The chorus enters, taking turns with the soloist Author of a book on Dutilleux, he damozel herself, chaste but passionate, with long to act as narrator and describe the scene. The broadcasts on BBC Radio 3, and is a and resplendent hair, a precursor of the future words are sung in a plain, syllabic style somewhere Fellow of Robinson College, Cambridge. Mélisande of Maeterlinck’s play and Debussy’s between speech and plainchant, later to become a opera, Pelléas et Mélisande. hallmark of Pelléas et Mélisande. It is not until almost halfway through the work that the soloist takes up DANTE GABRIEL ROSSETTI Attracted by the poem’s symbolist and Wagnerian the voice of the Damozel herself, singing in a long (1828–82) was an English poet and resonances, Debussy set La damoiselle élue to rhapsodic soliloquy of how she can find no joy in painter, one of the three founders music in 1887–8, not long after cutting short his paradise while her lover remains apart from her on of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. prestigious (but, to him, tedious) four-year stay in earth below. The sentiment of luxurious melancholy Along with his poem The Blessed Rome and returning to Paris. It was first performed captured Debussy’s imagination perfectly: seamless Damozel, first published in 1850, at the Société Nationale in 1893, raising a few and unhurried melodies rise from delicacy to passion he also gave the title to a painting, eyebrows, and not only at the Conservatoire over subtly floating harmonies and sensuous, one of his most famous, which whose top prize had earned him his trip to Rome. shimmering timbres. The young composer had depicts the Damozel in paradise, The fact that Debussy described himself at this found his voice. with her lover below on earth. time as ‘madly Wagnerian’ (he made his first visit to Bayreuth in 1888) certainly leaves its mark on PELLÉAS ET MÉLISANDE the piece. But Debussy was quick to turn Wagner’s Sat 9 & Sun 10 Jan 2016, Barbican influence to his own ends, and already his own distinctive sound-world is beginning to emerge. Next season, the LSO performs a semi-staged version of Debussy’s opera Pelléas et Mélisande, directed by Peter Sellars and conducted by Sir Simon Rattle. For more information, visit lso.co.uk/201516season lso.co.uk Text 5 Claude Debussy La damoiselle élue: Text LA DAMOISELLE ÉLUE THE BLESSED DAMOZEL Chorus La damoiselle élue s’appuyait The blessed damozel leaned out Sur la barrière du Ciel, From the gold bar of Heaven; Ses yeux étaient plus profonds que l’abîme Her eyes were deeper than the depth Des eaux calmes au soir. Of waters still at even; Elle avait trois lys à la main She had three lilies in her hand, Et sept étoiles dans les cheveux. And the stars in her hair were seven. Narrator Sa robe flottante Her robe, ungirt from clasp to hem, N’était point ornée de fleurs brodées, No wrought flowers did adorn, Mais d’une rose blanche, présent de Marie, But a white rose of Mary’s gift, Pour le divin service justement portée; For service meetly worn; Ses cheveux qui tombaient le long de ses épaules, Her hair that lay along her back Étaient jaunes comme le blé mûr. Was yellow like ripe corn. Chorus Autour d’elle des amants Around her, lovers, newly met Nouvellement réunis, ‘Mid deathless love’s acclaims, Répétaient pour toujours, entre eux, Spoke evermore among themselves Leurs nouveaux noms d’extase; Their rapturous new names; Et les âmes, qui montaient à Dieu, And the souls mounting up to God Passaient près d’elle comme de fines flammes. Went by her like thin flames. Narrator Alors, elle s’inclina de nouveau et se pencha And still she bowed herself and stooped En dehors du charme encerclant, Out of the circling charm; Jusqu’à ce que son sein eut échauffé Until her bosom must have made La barrière sur laquelle elle s’appuyait, The bar she leaned on warm, Et que les lys gisent comme endormis And the lilies lay as if asleep Le long de son bras étendu. Along her bended arm. Chorus Le soleil avait disparu, la lune annelée The sun was gone now; the curled moon Était comme une petite plume Was like a little feather Flottant au loin dans l’espace; et voilà Fluttering far down the gulf; and now 6 Text 1 March 2015 Claude Debussy La damoiselle élue: Text continued Qu’elle parla à travers l’air calme, She spoke through the still weather.