Saturday 16 December 2017 7.30–9.45pm Barbican Hall LSO SEASON CONCERT BERNSTEIN 100 Bernstein Symphony No 2, ‘The Age of Anxiety’ Interval Bernstein Wonderful Town (concert version) Sir Simon Rattle conductor Krystian Zimerman piano WONDERFUL Danielle de Niese Eileen Alysha Umphress Ruth Nathan Gunn Bob Baker Duncan Rock Wreck/Second Associate Editor David Butt Philip Lonigan Ashley Riches Guide/First Editor/Frank Kevin Brewis Third Cop/First Man/Cadet/Villager Stephen John Davis First Cop/Chick Clark Flora Dawson Violet TOWN Second Woman Soophia Foroughi Andrew Keelan Second Cop/Second Man Jane Quinn First Woman Michael Baxter Fourth Cop Daniele Quilleri, Gary Brown casting consultants London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director Part of Bernstein 100 at the Barbican Welcome LSO News On Our Blog Bernstein was also known for some LSO LIVE’S A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S PANUFNIK COMPOSER BUSHRA EL-TURK of the 20th century’s greatest musicals, DREAM WINS RECORDING OF THE YEAR and this evening’s programme concludes A former participant on the LSO's Panufnik with his 1953 work Wonderful Town. This The LSO’s recording of Mendelssohn’s Composers Scheme, Bushra El-Turk tells is a piece well-known to Sir Simon Rattle, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, performed with us what it was like working with the LSO who created a landmark recording in 1999. Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the Monteverdi Choir and how she combined Middle Eastern and It is a pleasure to welcome a brand new cast and three artists from the Guildhall School, Western art music in her piece Tmesis. of soloists, with a number of performers has been awarded Symphonic Recording making their LSO debuts. of the Year by two French classical music BEHIND THE SCENES monthly publications, Classica and Diapason. WITH ALICE SARA OTT I hope that you enjoy tonight’s performance A warm welcome to this evening’s concert. and that you can join us again soon. On LSO FRIENDS PRIORITY BOOKING On our YouTube channel, Alice Sara Ott plays Tonight LSO Music Director Sir Simon Rattle 13 January Sir Simon Rattle is joined by a FOR THE 2018/19 SEASON a dazzling, explosive excerpt from Liszt’s continues our celebration of Leonard Bernstein, cast of narrators, including Helen McCrory Totentanz, and shows us her talent for as we approach his centenary year in 2018. and Simon Callow, for a rare performance LSO Friends will receive priority booking for solving a Rubik’s Cube in less than a minute – Bernstein was one of the 20th century’s most of the Genesis Suite, directed by Gerard the 2018/19 Season when it goes on sale in part of her warm-up routine before a concert. influential musicians and a close associate McBurney and with specially created visual January. Find out more about joining the of the LSO, holding the title of President projections by production designer Mike Tutaj. Friends at lso.co.uk/friends. SIR SIMON RATTLE ON BERNSTEIN from 1987 to 1990. WELCOME TO OUR GROUPS Also on our YouTube channel, Sir Simon This programme is a portrait of the city where Rattle talks about his love of Bernstein's Bernstein made his name, New York, beginning A warm welcome to our groups tonight: music and tells us more about why he chose with his ‘Age of Anxiety’, a work for solo Judith Howick & Friends the pieces featured in tonight's concert. piano and orchestra based on W H Auden’s Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Konzertdirektion Schmid ode to war time in the city. We are delighted Managing Director Nicole Hu & Friends Read our blog, watch videos and more to be joined by Krystian Zimerman, who ACFEA Tour Consultants • youtube.com/lso was a great friend of Bernstein and is a British Emunah Entertains • lso.co.uk/blog very special interpreter of his music. Marjorie Wilkins & Friends The two performed this piece together many times during the composer’s lifetime, Read our news online notably during the LSO’s extensive • lso.co.uk/news 1986 Bernstein Festival. 2 Welcome 16 December 2017 Tonight’s Concert Sir Simon Rattle in 2018 ymphonic and orchestral music, PROGRAMME NOTE WRITERS Thursday 11 January 2018 7.30pm Thursday 19 April 2018 7.30pm ballets, musicals, film, choral works, Barbican Hall Thursday 26 April 2018 7.30pm operas – Leonard Bernstein was David Gutman is a writer of CD and Barbican Hall one of the most multifaceted composers programme notes who has provided Schubert Symphony No 8, ‘Unfinished’ of the 20th century, writing music for just extensive commentary for the BBC Proms Mahler Rückert Lieder Helen Grime Woven Space * about every genre there is. ‘He’s a man since 1996. His books cover subjects Handel Three Arias (world premiere) of endless contradictions,’ says Sir Simon as wide-ranging as Prokofiev and David Rameau Les Boréades – Suite Mahler Symphony No 9 Rattle. ‘I thought it would be wonderful Bowie and he is a regular contributor to pair these two different sides of him’. to Gramophone and The Stage. Sir Simon Rattle conductor Sir Simon Rattle conductor Magdalena Kožená mezzo-soprano ‘Age of Anxiety’ serves as one such example Edward Bhesania is a writer and editor * Commissioned for Sir Simon Rattle and the of Bernstein’s many influences. ‘It’s this who reviews for The Strad and The Stage. LSO by the Barbican amazing mixture of Mahler, jazz and He has also written for The Observer, Saturday 13 January 2018 7.30pm everything – you just see simply wonderful BBC Music Magazine, International Piano, Barbican Hall 26 April generously supported by Baker McKenzie music that stands the test of time,’ The Tablet and Country Life. Sir Simon remarks. MUSIC OF EXILE Sunday 22 April 2018 7pm Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Milhaud et al Barbican Hall ‘Wonderful Town is another story ... it’s a Genesis Suite masterpiece, in its completely different way.’ Bartók Concerto for Orchestra Tippett The Rose Lake † Written in 1953, it looks ahead to the later Mahler comp Cooke Symphony No 10 works that would come to cement Bernstein’s Sir Simon Rattle conductor place in the popular imagination. ‘It has so Helen McCrory, Simon Callow, Sir Simon Rattle conductor much of Bernstein’s very particular language – Rodney Earl Clarke, Sara Kestelman narrators you can see West Side Story coming, and you Gerard McBurney creative director † Supported by Resonate, a PRS Foundation can hear Prelude, Fugue and Riffs coming, Mike Tutaj projection design initiative in partnership with Association of British but you can also hear the ease with which London Symphony Chorus Orchestras, BBC Radio 3 and Boltini Trust he was able to enter into that extraordinary Simon Halsey chorus director world [of musical theatre].’ Produced by the LSO and the Barbican. Part of the lso.co.uk/whatson And for Sir Simon, pairing these two pieces LSO’s 2017/18 Season and Barbican Presents. 020 7638 8891 together is also making a statement – ‘We’re saying happy birthday, Lenny.’ Tonight’s Concert 3 Leonard Bernstein Symphony No 2, ‘The Age of Anxiety’ 1948–49 / note by David Gutman Part One or all their seriousness of purpose Perhaps Bernstein no longer felt overawed can depict with striking prescience the world 1 The Prologue: Lento moderato not one of Leonard Bernstein’s by W H Auden •. ‘At the time I wrote it, to come: ‘Odourless ages, an ordered world / 2 The Seven Ages: Variations 1–7 three symphonies conforms to I thought it was absolutely necessary; Of planned pleasures and passport-control / Variation 1: L’istesso tempo the generic stereotype of the big abstract the poem and the Symphony were mutually Sentry-go sedatives, soft drinks and / Variation 2: Poco più mosso statement. The composer later confessed integral … But now I don’t think so. Managed money, a moral planet / Variation 3: Largamente, ma mosso to harbouring ‘a deep suspicion that every The Symphony has acquired a life of its own’. Tamed by terror’. Variation 4: Più mosso work I write, for whatever medium, is really Variation 5: Agitato theatre music in some way’. True to form, his — Today, whatever we make of Auden’s Variation 6: Poco meno mosso ‘Age of Anxiety’ has been turned into a dance ‘Odourless ages, an ordered world quartet of misfits – Quant, a world-weary Variation 7: L’istesso tempo piece by choreographers including Jerome Irish businessman; Malin, a retired Canadian 3 The Seven Stages: Variations 8–14 Robbins, John Neumeier and Liam Scarlett. Of planned pleasures and doctor and airman; Rosetta, a Jewish Variation 8: Molto moderato, passport-control, department store buyer; and Emble, a young ma movendo The score has a complex intellectual Sentry-go sedatives, soft drinks and naval recruit – it is the ‘musical’ qualities of Variation 9: Più mosso (Tempo di Valse) superstructure which at first Bernstein Bernstein’s composition which explain its Variation 10: Più mosso regarded as essential, holding fast to his Managed money, a moral planet growing appeal. ‘The Age of Anxiety’ is not Variation 11: L’istesso tempo literary inspiration. ‘I had not planned a Tamed by terror’ the first symphony to include a substantial Variation 12: Poco più vivace ‘meaningful’ work, at least not in the sense — part for piano. Antecedents include Variation 13: L’istesso tempo of a piece whose meaning relied on details Vincent d’Indy’s Symphonie sur un chant Variation 14: Poco più vivace of programmatic implication. I was merely W H Auden, The Age of Anxiety montagnard français (1886). More pertinent writing a symphony inspired by a poem stylistic models could be found in ballets by Part Two and following the general form of that poem.