9dec12 - lpo programme note eastbourne

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Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI* Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUIN Leader PIETER SCHOEMAN Composer in Residence JULIAN ANDERSON Patron HRH THE DUKE OF KENT KG Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOTHY WALKER AM PROGRAMME £2.50 CONTENTS 2 Welcome 3 Today’s performers 4 About the Orchestra 5 Vladimir Jurowski 6 Leader / Alexandra Silocea 7 Programme notes 10 2012/13 Eastbourne Appeal 11 Supporters 12 LPO administration The timings shown are not precise and are given only as a guide. * supported by the Tsukanov Family and one anonymous donor CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN ASSOCIATION WITH EASTBOURNE BOROUGH COUNCIL CONGRESS THEATRE, EASTBOURNE Sunday 9 December 2012 | 3.00pm VLADIMIR JUROWSKI conductor ALEXANDRA SILOCEA piano BRAHMS Tragic Overture (13’) MOZART Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K453 (32’) Interval BRUCKNER Symphony No. 1 in C minor (Linz version, 1865–66/1877) (48’) Box Office: 01323 412000 eastbournetheatres.co.uk

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9Dec12 - LPO programme note Eastbourne

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Page 1: 9Dec12  - LPO programme note Eastbourne

Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor VLADIMIR JUROWSKI*Principal Guest Conductor YANNICK NÉZET-SÉGUINLeader pIETER SChOEMANComposer in Residence JULIAN ANDERSONPatron hRh ThE DUKE OF KENT KG

Chief Executive and Artistic Director TIMOThY WALKER AM

pROGRAMME £2.50

CONTENTS 2 Welcome 3 Today’s performers4 About the Orchestra 5 Vladimir Jurowski 6 Leader / Alexandra Silocea7 Programme notes10 2012/13 Eastbourne Appeal11 Supporters12 LPO administration

The timings shown are not precise and

are given only as a guide.

* supported by the Tsukanov Family and one anonymous donor

CONCERT PRESENTED BY THE LONDON PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN ASSOCIATION WITH EASTBOURNE BOROUGH COUNCIL

CONGRESS ThEATRE, EASTBOURNESunday 9 December 2012 | 3.00pm

VLADIMIR JUROWSKIconductor

ALEXANDRA SILOCEApiano

BRAhMS Tragic Overture (13’)

MOZART Piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K453 (32’)

Interval

BRUCKNER Symphony No. 1 in C minor (Linz version, 1865–66/1877) (48’)

Box Office: 01323 412000eastbournetheatres.co.uk

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2 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

WELCOME

Welcome to the Congress Theatre, EastbourneARTISTIC DIRECTOR Chris Jordan GENERAL MANAGER Gavin Davis

Sunday 27 January 2013 | 3.00pm

Mendelssohn Hebrides Overture Mozart Clarinet Concerto Beethoven Symphony No. 3 (Eroica)

Jaime Martín conductor Nicholas Carpenter clarinet Sunday 17 March 2013 | 3.00pm

Ireland A London Overture Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 Sibelius Symphony No. 2

Mark Fitz-Gerald conductor Jarosław Nadrzycki violin

Sunday 19 May 2013 | 3.00pm

Wagner Overture, Die Meistersinger Schumann Piano Concerto Wagner Siegfried Idyll Beethoven Symphony No. 5

Nicholas Collon conductor Benjamin Grosvenor piano ‘Grosvenor’s performance was so alluring, so alive to the music’s poetry, so colourfully detailed.’ The Telegraph

London philharmonic Orchestra 2012/13 season at the Congress TheatrePick up a brochure in the foyer today or browse the full season at lpo.org.uk

Tickets £12–£28 | Box Office 01323 412000 | Book online at eastbournetheatres.co.uk

Welcome to this afternoon’s performance by the London Philharmonic Orchestra. We hope you enjoy the concert and your visit here. As a courtesy to others, please ensure mobile phones and watch alarms are switched off during the performance. Thank you.

We are delighted and proud to have the London Philharmonic Orchestra reside at the Congress Theatre for the 17th year. Thank you, our audience, for continuing to support the concert series. Without you, these concerts would not be possible.

We welcome comments from our customers. Should you wish to contribute, please speak to the House Manager on duty, email [email protected] or write to Suzanne Hopp, Marketing Manager, Eastbourne Theatres, Compton Street, Eastbourne, East Sussex, BN21 4BP.

Nicholas Collon and Benjamin Grosvenor

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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 3

First ViolinsPieter Schoeman* LeaderVesselin Gellev Sub-Leader

Chair supported by John & Angela Kessler

Ilyoung ChaeChair supported by Moya Greene

Katalin VarnagyCatherine CraigThomas EisnerTina Gruenberg Martin Höhmann Geoffrey LynnRobert PoolSarah StreatfeildYang Zhang

Second ViolinsFredrik Paulsson

Guest PrincipalJeongmin KimJoseph MaherFiona HighamAshley StevensMarie-Anne MairesseNancy ElanDean WilliamsonSioni WilliamsPeter GrahamMila Mustakova Elizabeth Baldey

Violas Cyrille Mercier

Guest PrincipalRobert DuncanGregory AronovichBenedetto Pollani Laura Vallejo Susanne Martens Isabel PereiraDaniel Cornford

CellosKristina Blaumane

PrincipalFrancis Bucknall Laura DonoghueJonathan Ayling

Chair supported by Caroline, Jamie & Zander Sharp

Gregory WalmsleySantiago Carvalho†Sue Sutherley

Double BassesKevin Rundell* PrincipalTim Gibbs Co-PrincipalLaurence LovelleGeorge PenistonRichard Lewis

FlutesSue Thomas Principal

Chair supported by the Sharp Family

Ian MullinStewart McIlwham*

piccoloStewart McIlwham*

Principal

OboesIan Hardwick PrincipalAngela Tennick

Cor AnglaisSue Bohling Principal

Chair supported by Julian & Gill Simmonds

ClarinetsNicholas Carpenter*

Principal Emily Meredith

BassoonsGareth Newman*

PrincipalDominic Tyler

TODAY’S pERFORMERS

Chair Supporters

The London Philharmonic Orchestra also acknowledges the following chair supporters whose players are not present at this concert:

Andrew Davenport David & Victoria Graham Fuller

hornsJohn Ryan*David Pyatt

Guest PrincipalMartin HobbsMark Vines Co-PrincipalGareth Mollison

TrumpetsPaul Beniston* PrincipalAnne McAneney*

Chair supported by Geoff & Meg Mann

TrombonesMark Templeton* PrincipalDavid Whitehouse

Bass TromboneLyndon Meredith Principal

TubaLee Tsarmaklis* Principal

TimpaniSimon Carrington*

Principal

* Holds a professorial appointment in London

† Chevalier of the Brazilian Order of Rio Branco

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4 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

LONDON phILhARMONIC ORChESTRA

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is one of the world’s finest orchestras, balancing a long and distinguished history with a reputation as one of the UK’s most adventurous and forward-looking orchestras. As well as giving classical concerts, the Orchestra also records film and video game soundtracks, has its own record label, and reaches thousands of Londoners every year through activities for schools and local communities.

The Orchestra was founded by Sir Thomas Beecham in 1932, and since then its Principal Conductors have included Sir Adrian Boult, Bernard Haitink, Sir Georg Solti, Klaus Tennstedt and Kurt Masur. The current Principal Conductor is Vladimir Jurowski, appointed in 2007, and Yannick Nézet-Séguin is Principal Guest Conductor.

The Orchestra is Resident Orchestra at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall in London, where it has performed since it opened in 1951, giving around 40 concerts there each season. 2012/13 highlights include three concerts with Vladimir Jurowski based around the theme of War and Peace in collaboration with the Russian National Orchestra; Kurt Weill’s The Threepenny Opera, also conducted by Jurowski; 20th-century American works with Marin Alsop; Haydn and Strauss with Yannick Nézet-Séguin; and the UK premiere of Carl Vine’s Second Piano Concerto with pianist Piers Lane under Vassily Sinaisky. Throughout 2013 the Orchestra will collaborate with Southbank Centre on The Rest Is Noise festival, based on Alex Ross’s book of the same name and charting the 20th century’s key musical works and historical events.

The Orchestra has flourishing residencies in Brighton and Eastbourne, and performs regularly around the UK. Every summer, the Orchestra leaves London for four months and takes up its annual residency accompanying the famous Glyndebourne Festival Opera, where it has been Resident Symphony Orchestra since 1964. The Orchestra also tours internationally, performing concerts to sell-out audiences worldwide. Tours in the 2012/13 season include visits to Spain, Germany, France, Switzerland, the USA and Austria.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra has recorded many blockbuster scores, from The Lord of the Rings trilogy to Lawrence of Arabia, The Mission, East is East, Hugo, and The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. It also broadcasts regularly on television and radio, and in 2005 established its own record label. There are now nearly 70 releases available on CD and to download. Recent additions include Dvořák’s Stabat Mater under Neeme Järvi; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 with Vladimir Jurowski; Sibelius’s Symphonies Nos. 5 & 6 under the late Paavo Berglund; and the world premiere of Ravi Shankar’s First Symphony conducted by David Murphy.

In summer 2012 the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed as part of The Queen’s Diamond Jubilee Pageant on the River Thames, and was also chosen to record all the world’s national anthems for the London 2012 Olympics.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra maintains an energetic programme of activities for young people and local communities. Highlights include the Deutsche Bank BrightSparks Series; the Leverhulme Young Composers project; and the Foyle Future Firsts orchestral training programme for outstanding young players. Over recent years, developments in technology and social networks have enabled the Orchestra to reach even more people worldwide: all its recordings are available to download from iTunes and, as well as a YouTube channel, news blog, iPhone app and regular podcasts, the Orchestra has a lively presence on Facebook and Twitter.

Find out more and get involved!

lpo.org.uk

facebook.com/londonphilharmonicorchestra

twitter.com/LpOrchestra

‘Jurowski and the LPO provided the impossible that is perfection ... As things stand now, the LPO must rate as an example to all orchestras.’Musicalcriticism.com, July 2011 (BBC Proms 2011: Liszt, Bartók and Kodály)

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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 5

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VLADIMIR JUROWSKIPrincipal Conductor and Artistic Advisor

One of today’s most sought-after and dynamic conductors, acclaimed worldwide for his incisive musicianship and adventurous artistic commitment, Vladimir Jurowski was born in Moscow, and completed the first

part of his musical studies at the Music College of the Moscow Conservatory. In 1990 he relocated with his family to Germany, continuing his studies at the High Schools of Music in Dresden and Berlin. In 1995 he made his international debut at the Wexford Festival conducting Rimsky-Korsakov’s May Night, and the same year saw his debut at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, with Nabucco.

Vladimir Jurowski has been Music Director of Glyndebourne Festival Opera since 2001, and in 2003 was appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, becoming the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor in September 2007. He also holds the titles of Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment and Artistic Director of the Russian State Academic Symphony Orchestra. He has also held the positions of First Kapellmeister of the Komische Oper, Berlin (1997–2001); Principal Guest Conductor of the Teatro Comunale di Bologna (2000–03); and Principal Guest Conductor of the Russian National Orchestra (2005–09).

Vladimir Jurowski is a regular guest with many leading orchestras in both Europe and North America, including the Berlin and Oslo Philharmonic orchestras; the Dresden Staatskapelle; the Leipzig Gewandhausorchester; the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich; and the Royal Concertgebouw, Philadelphia, Chicago Symphony, Bavarian Radio Symphony and Mahler Chamber orchestras. Highlights of the 2012/13 season and beyond include his debuts with the Vienna Philharmonic, Boston Symphony, New York Philharmonic, NHK Symphony and San Francisco Symphony orchestras, and return visits to the Chamber Orchestra of Europe; the Tonhalle Orchester Zurich; the Accademia di Santa Cecilia; and the Philadelphia, St Petersburg Philharmonic, Royal Concertgebouw and Chicago Symphony orchestras.

Jurowski made his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, New York, in 1999 with Rigoletto, and has since returned for Jenůfa, The Queen of Spades and Hansel and Gretel. He has conducted Parsifal and Wozzeck at Welsh National Opera; War and Peace at the Opera National de Paris; Eugene Onegin at Teatro alla Scala, Milan; Ruslan and Ludmila at the Bolshoi Theatre; and Iolanta and Die Teufel von Loudon at the Dresden Semperoper, as well as The Magic Flute, La Cenerentola, Otello, Macbeth, Falstaff, Tristan und Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Don Giovanni, The Rake’s Progress, The Cunning Little Vixen and Peter Eötvös’s Love and Other Demons at Glyndebourne Festival Opera. Future engagements include new productions of Ariadne auf Naxos at Glyndebourne; Die Frau ohne Schatten at the Metropolitan Opera; Moses und Aron at the Komische Oper, Berlin; and The Fiery Angel at the Bayerische Staatsoper in Munich.

Jurowski’s discography includes the first ever recording of the cantata Exil by Giya Kancheli for ECM; Meyerbeer’s L’etoile du Nord for Marco Polo; Massenet’s Werther for BMG; and a series of records for PentaTone with the Russian National Orchestra. The London Philharmonic Orchestra has released a wide selection of his live recordings on its LPO Live label, including Brahms’s Symphonies Nos. 1 and 2; Mahler’s Symphony No. 2; Rachmaninoff’s Symphonic Dances; Tchaikovsky’s Symphonies 1, 4, 5, 6 and Manfred; and works by Turnage, Holst, Britten, Shostakovich, Honegger and Haydn. His tenure as Music Director at Glyndebourne has been documented in a CD release of Prokofiev’s Betrothal in a Monastery, and DVD releases of his performances of La Cenerentola, Gianni Schicchi, Die Fledermaus, Don Giovanni, and Rachmaninoff’s The Miserly Knight. Other DVD releases include Hansel and Gretel from the Metropolitan Opera New York; his first concert as the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s Principal Conductor featuring works by Wagner, Berg and Mahler; and DVDs with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (Beethoven’s Symphonies Nos. 4 and 7) and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe (Strauss and Ravel), all released by Medici Arts.

Vladimir Jurowski’s position as Principal Conductor and Artistic Advisor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra is generously supported by the Tsukanov Family and one anonymous donor.

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6 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

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After her debut at the Vienna Konzerthaus with the Vienna Chamber Orchestra in 2008, followed by recitals at the Vienna Musikverein and New York’s Carnegie Hall in 2009, Alexandra Silocea was hailed as a ‘truly natural’ artist by

Pizzicato magazine.

Born in 1984 in Romania, with German-Russian roots, Alexandra began her musical studies in her native country. From the age of 16, she continued her studies at the Music Academy in Vienna with internationally acclaimed teachers Oleg Maisenberg, Johannes Marian and Christoph Berner, and later at the Paris Conservatoire with Theodor Paraskivesco and Laurent Cabasso. She also received significant artistic guidance and inspiration from the pianist Maria João Pires.

Described as a ‘special talent’ (International Piano), with ‘musical grace and fluency’ (Gramophone), an ‘extraordinary clarity of playing’ (Radio New Zealand) and ‘musically tasteful’ (BBC Music Magazine), Alexandra is the winner of numerous awards in her native Romania as well as in Greece, France, Germany, Italy and the USA. During her time in Vienna, Alexandra was awarded the Herbert von Karajan Scholarship, the Theodor Rogler Foundation and the Meyer Foundation Scholarship, and received constant support from the Wiener Neustadt Rotary Club and the Wiener Neustädter Sparkasse bank.

In April 2011 Alexandra’s debut CD, Prokofiev Piano Sonatas Nos. 1–5, was released by Avie Records and received outstanding reviews (Editor’s Choice in International Piano magazine, 4 stars in The Telegraph, and the Supersonic Award in Pizzicato magazine).

Appearances in 2013 include recitals in Austria, France and the UK (Brighton Festival and the Nicholas Yonge Society, Lewes), and a tour of Italy with the Haydn Orchestra. Alexandra’s second CD recording on Avie Records, Soundwaves, will be launched in spring 2013. Today’s performance with the London Philharmonic Orchestra is her UK concert debut.

ALEXANDRA SILOCEApiano

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Pieter Schoeman was appointed Leader of the LPO in 2008, having previously been Co-Leader since 2002.

Born in South Africa, he made his solo debut aged 10 with the Cape Town Symphony Orchestra.

He studied with Jack de Wet in South Africa, winning numerous competitions including the 1984 World Youth Concerto Competition in the US. In 1987 he was offered the Heifetz Chair of Music scholarship to study with Eduard Schmieder in Los Angeles and in 1991 his talent was spotted by Pinchas Zukerman, who recommended that he move to New York to study with Sylvia Rosenberg. In 1994 he became her teaching assistant at Indiana University, Bloomington.

Pieter has performed worldwide as a soloist and recitalist in such famous halls as the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam, Moscow’s Rachmaninov Hall, Capella Hall in St Petersburg, Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, Hollywood Bowl in Los Angeles and Southbank Centre’s Queen Elizabeth Hall in London. As a chamber musician he regularly performs at London’s prestigious Wigmore Hall.

As a soloist with the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Pieter has performed Arvo Pärt’s Double Concerto with Boris Garlitsky, Brahms’s Double Concerto with Kristina Blaumane, and Britten’s Double Concerto with Alexander Zemtsov, which was recorded and released on the Orchestra’s own record label to great critical acclaim. He has recorded numerous violin solos with the London Philharmonic Orchestra for Chandos, Opera Rara, Naxos, X5, the BBC and for American film and television, and led the Orchestra in its soundtrack recordings for The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

In 1995 Pieter became Co-Leader of the Orchestre Philharmonique de Nice. Since then he has appeared frequently as Guest Leader with the Barcelona, Bordeaux, Lyon, Baltimore and BBC symphony orchestras, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra.

Pieter is a Professor of Violin at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance.

pIETER SChOEMANleader

Page 7: 9Dec12  - LPO programme note Eastbourne

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 7

… is the traditional format for an orchestral concert, designed to provide – as it certainly does in this case – an arresting start, a brilliant interlude and a weighty conclusion. Brahms’s Tragic Overture was conceived as a concert piece, rather than as a prelude to a stage work; although it was completed in the composer’s late forties, it seems to have its origins in his youthful period of ‘storm and stress’. Mozart’s Piano Concerto K453 is one of the great series of concertos he wrote in his early years in Vienna, though unlike most of them it was intended not for his own concerts but for a pupil. Its three movements

are an Allegro rich in material and colouring, a serious Andante, with prominent parts for three woodwind soloists, and an inventive set of variations. Bruckner’s First Symphony is an early work, written before its composer left provincial Linz for the bright lights of Vienna; and, rather than looking ahead to the grand plans and lofty heights of his later symphonies, it is a compact, tightly integrated piece. But there are plenty of anticipations of the mature Bruckner’s blazing passages for full orchestra, intricate contrapuntal textures, wide-arching melodies and rhythmic drive.

pROGRAMME NOTES

Overture, concerto, symphony …

Brahms composed his Tragic Overture, in D minor, in 1880, as a contrasting companion-piece to the Academic Festival Overture, which he was writing at the same time for the University of Breslau. But there are sketches for it in a notebook dating from the end of the 1860s; and its origins may perhaps go back even further, to the symphony in D minor that Brahms was planning in the late 1850s, before he decided to turn it into the First Piano Concerto. This might suggest that the tragedy Brahms had in mind was the agonising decline and death of his friend and mentor Robert Schumann.

The formal plan of the work is unusual, in that the mysterious, bare modal theme heard at the beginning never reappears in its original form. The nearest approach to an exact reprise is at the start of the development section; but the downward scale that is one feature of the theme is extended to carry the music

into more sombre regions – after which there is an episode, in a much slower tempo, in which the figure in dotted (long–short) rhythms that forms the second limb of the theme is made the basis of a subdued march and a short fugato. The initial tempo is restored, and there are suggestions that the return of the first theme is imminent; but the brass instead transform it into a brief, shining major-key curve, which leads at once into the recapitulation of the consoling second subject. Finally, the coda appears to be heralding a full return of the first theme with the two brusque chords that started the work; but Brahms reintroduces the dotted figure, brings back the theme in a broad, slowed-down version, and allows it to die away almost to nothing before the stern conclusion.

Tragic Overture, Op. 81JohannesBrahms

1833–97

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8 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

pROGRAMME NOTES

This work belongs to the great procession of piano concertos that Mozart composed in Vienna between 1784 and 1786 – a sequence of 11 varied masterpieces that reveal him in his full maturity, at the height of his powers and his confidence. This particular example was written for one of his pupils, Barbara Ployer (‘Fräulein Babette’), the daughter of a Salzburg friend of his; she played it for the first time at a concert in her father’s house in Döbling, outside Vienna, in June 1784. It is no doubt because Mozart composed the work for someone else that his cadenzas for the first two movements (with alternatives) have survived: if he had kept the piece to himself, he would have improvised them afresh each time.

Not all piano concertos sound at once like piano concertos: caught unprepared, we might sometimes take a while to realise that an opening tutti was just that and not a symphonic exposition. This piece, from the start, could never be anything else: the very first theme seems tailor-made for the piano – as if beginning in the right hand on its own, then adding the left hand with accompanying figuration. Before the piano does indeed make its first entry with this idea, we have had a chance to discover three essential features of this first movement: its characteristic generosity of melodic invention – at a conservative estimate, nine separate thematic ideas in the first tutti, with the principal

‘second subject’ still, as usual, to be introduced by the soloist a little later on; its richness of harmony – to be memorably explored and expanded in the course of the development section; and the particular prominence given to the wind section of flute, oboes, bassoons and horns.

This emphasis on the wind section is even more marked in the deeply felt C major slow movement: after the opening five-bar sentence, Gluck-like in its solemnity, the flute, first oboe and first bassoon emerge in leading melodic roles; and they keep them up until the end of the movement. Their relationship to the solo piano resembles that of a group of concertante wind instruments to the solo singer in a set-piece operatic aria. There are operatic echoes in the variation finale as well: first in a chirpy, bird-like theme which, seven years later, Mozart might have given to Papageno in The Magic Flute; then, after five brilliantly inventive variations, in a presto coda which seems to round the whole work off in the manner of an opera buffa finale – beginning with a tremendous bustle of activity, reintroducing the principal theme just when it seems to have been forgotten completely, turning the spotlight on to the wind section once more, and ringing down the curtain in an atmosphere of reconciliation and great good humour.

INTERVAL – 20 minutesA bell will be rung 3, 2 and 1 minute before the end of the interval.

piano Concerto No. 17 in G major, K453

Alexandra Silocea piano

1 Allegro2 Andante3 Allegretto

Wolfgang AmadeusMozart

1756–91

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London Philharmonic Orchestra | 9

Bruckner put himself through a severe apprenticeship as a symphonist, writing a so-called ‘Study Symphony’ in F minor and beginning another one in D minor, later dubbed ‘Die Nullte’ or ‘No. 0’, before embarking on a work he was prepared to number as his First. He wrote it in 1865–66 in Linz, where he was organist of the cathedral, and conducted the first performance there in May 1868, shortly before leaving to take up a teaching post in Vienna. He made some revisions to this version in 1877. But these were minor compared to the complete overhaul he gave the work in 1890/91, after the Viennese court conductor Hans Richter had expressed an interest in performing it. This final revised version, published in 1893, has been much regretted by Bruckner’s admirers, who point out that it treats an early work from the inappropriate perspective of his later style, and who resent the time spent on it that could have been devoted to the Ninth Symphony, which remained unfinished at the composer’s death. In any case, tonight’s performance is of what the composer and Bruckner expert Robert Simpson called ‘the bold, clean Linz version’, in its 1877 revision, as first published in an edition by Robert Haas in 1935.

In later life, Bruckner referred to the First Symphony as ‘das Beserl’, which like its English equivalent ‘the besom’ can indicate either a fierce female battleaxe or a new broom that sweeps clean. The Symphony is on a relatively compact scale compared to the composer’s later masterpieces, and full of Beethoven-like passages in which a small motif is repeated and developed, generating great rhythmic energy; and its outer movements are studded with strikingly vehement passages for the full orchestra, with different rhythmic layers in counterpoint as if Bruckner were improvising at the organ on two manuals and pedals.

The first movement begins, in a manner untypical of the mature Bruckner, in urgent march time with a melody in crisp dotted rhythms. The main contrasting ideas are a singing second theme in contrapuntal textures, and a plunging trombone figure accompanied by upper string figurations recalling Wagner’s Tannhäuser overture. The closing themes of the opening exposition section, a wide-arching woodwind melody answered by strings, provide (as often in Bruckner) the starting-point for the ensuing development. The trombone melody reappears in a new version, with its Wagnerian descant, as the centrepiece of the development; but it is omitted from the recapitulation, which instead turns towards the initial march rhythms for the C minor coda.

The A-flat major slow movement (the last of the four to be written) begins restlessly with a series of fragmentary ideas, before easing into more melodic writing with a chorale for the strings answered by three flutes, and a long, winding theme for the violins over undulating violas. The tempo then changes from Adagio (‘broad’) to Andante (‘walking pace’), and the metre from 4/4 to 3/4, for a middle section in which a long, ornate melodic line starts out in the first violins, is taken up at different times by the oboes, flute and bassoons, and returns to the violins again. The violin line overlaps into the unsettled beginning of the reprise of the Adagio; the chorale returns on horns and woodwind, and the winding melody begins on clarinets and bassoons, before the strings work it up to the movement’s shining climax.

The third movement is a rhythmically insistent Scherzo in G minor, with a slower and more relaxed trio section in G major, and an exact reprise of the scherzo, which spills over into a coda.

Symphony No. 1 in C minor(Linz version, 1865–66/1877)

1 Allegro2 Adagio – Andante – Adagio 3 Scherzo: Schnell – Trio: Langsamer 4 Finale: Bewegt, feurig

AntonBruckner

1824–96

Continued overleaf

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10 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

The London Philharmonic Orchestra is extremely proud of its longstanding relationship with Eastbourne. The Orchestra has performed in the town regularly since the 1930s and this year is celebrating its 17th season of concerts at the Congress Theatre. From the Orchestra’s inaugural performance 80 years ago this season, we have continued to support the talent of young musicians – beginning with the then 16-year-old Yehudi Menuhin and continuing to this day in Eastbourne’s 2012/13 season.

Already this season, Dimitri Mayboroda wowed audiences with Rachmaninoff’s Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini; Jamie Walton playfully characterised Saint-Saëns’s Cello Concerto No. 2; and tonight Alexandra Silocea will charm the audience with Mozart’s sweetly melodious Piano Concerto No. 17 in G. To come, the young Polish violinist Jarosław Nadrzycki will weave a musical web around the audience with Bruch’s intricate Violin Concerto No. 1 on 17 March 2013, and we welcome BBC Young Musician of the Year 2004 finalist Benjamin Grosvenor on 19 May 2013 conducted by former Assistant Conductor to the Orchestra, Nicholas Collon.

The Orchestra is proud to continue its exciting programme at the Congress Theatre and we are immensely grateful for the support Eastbourne audiences have shown over the years. Generous donations from audience members like you have helped us to raise nearly £2,500 so far this season, helping to secure the Orchestra’s continued presence in Eastbourne for years to come and providing extraordinary opportunities for exceptional young musicians. Please support this year’s Appeal and donate by contacting Sarah Fletcher at the Orchestra’s office on 020 7840 4225 or [email protected].

Thank you for your support.

London philharmonic Orchestra 2012/13 Eastbourne Appeal

The Finale (marked ‘with movement, solemn’) is dominated by passages of fierce full-orchestra counterpoint, including the opening theme. The contrasting second subject is an airy string melody including an elegant trill and turn, accompanied by violas off the beat. The closing statement is allocated, as in the first movement, to woodwind (and horns) answered by strings. The development section falls into three phases: the first building up from the closing theme, by way of chorale prelude textures over tramping quavers in the bass, to a fierce fortissimo; the second growing out of the second subject and ending in a thicket of trills; the third a strenuous contrapuntal discussion of a handful of motifs, leading to a transition joined by a timpani roll on a low G. The first two themes return in short order, the second of them in C major – which opens the way to a ringing C major coda.

Programme notes by Anthony Burton © 2012

Join the LpO mailing list to be in with a chance of winning a CD!

If you would like to find out more about London Philharmonic Orchestra concerts at the Congress Theatre and about the Orchestra’s other news, including podcasts, CD releases and touring news, join our monthly e-bulletin. To join, send an email to [email protected] with ‘Eastbourne e-bulletin CD prize’ in the subject line.

Everyone who signs up to the e-bulletin will be entered into a prize draw to win one of the LPO Label’s newest CD releases: Tchaikovsky Symphonies Nos. 4 & 5 under Vladimir Jurowski.

Page 11: 9Dec12  - LPO programme note Eastbourne

London Philharmonic Orchestra | 11

Thomas Beecham GroupThe Tsukanov Family Anonymous

The Sharp FamilyJulian & Gill Simmonds

Garf & Gill CollinsAndrew Davenport Mrs Sonja DrexlerDavid & Victoria Graham FullerMoya GreeneJohn & Angela KesslerMr & Mrs MakharinskyGeoff & Meg MannCaroline, Jamie & Zander SharpEric Tomsett

Guy & Utti Whittaker Manon Williams

principal BenefactorsMark & Elizabeth AdamsJane AttiasLady Jane BerrillDesmond & Ruth CecilMr John H CookMr Charles Dumas

David EllenCommander Vincent Evans Mr Daniel GoldsteinMr & Mrs Jeffrey HerrmannPeter MacDonald EggersMr & Mrs David MalpasAndrew T MillsMr Maxwell MorrisonMr Michael PosenMr & Mrs Thierry SciardMr John Soderquist & Mr Costas MichaelidesMr & Mrs G SteinMr & Mrs John C TuckerMr & Mrs John & Susi Underwood Lady Marina VaizeyHoward & Sheelagh WatsonMr Laurie Watt Mr Anthony Yolland

BenefactorsMrs A BeareDr & Mrs Alan Carrington CBE FRSMr & Mrs Stewart CohenMr Alistair CorbettMr David DennisMr David EdgecombeMr Richard Fernyhough

Ken FollettPauline & Peter HallidayMichael & Christine HenryMr Ivan HurryMr Glenn HurstfieldMr R K JehaMr Gerald LevinSheila Ashley LewisWg. Cdr. & Mrs M T Liddiard OBE JP RAFMr Frank LimPaul & Brigitta LockMr Brian MarshJohn Montgomery Mr & Mrs Andrew NeillEdmund PirouetMr Peter TausigMrs Kazue TurnerDes & Maggie WhitelockBill Yoe

hon. BenefactorElliott Bernerd

hon. Life MembersKenneth Goode Pehr G GyllenhammarEdmund Pirouet Mrs Jackie Rosenfeld OBE

We would like to acknowledge the generous support of the following Thomas Beecham Group patrons, principal Benefactors and Benefactors:

The generosity of our Sponsors, Corporate Members, supporters and donors is gratefully acknowledged:

Corporate Members

Silver: AREVA UKBritish American Business Hermes Fund Managers Pritchard Englefield

Bronze: Lisa Bolgar Smith and Felix

Appelbe of Ambrose AppelbeAppleyard & Trew LLPBerkeley LawCharles RussellLazardLeventis Overseas

Education partner Boeing

Corporate DonorLombard Street Research

preferred partners Corinthia Hotel London Heineken Lindt & Sprüngli Ltd Villa Maria

In-kind SponsorsGoogle IncSela / Tilley’s Sweets

Trusts and FoundationsAddleshaw Goddard Charitable Trust Angus Allnatt Charitable FoundationBBC Performing Arts Fund The Boltini TrustSir William Boreman’s FoundationBritten-Pears FoundationThe Candide TrustThe Coutts Charitable TrustDiaphonique, Franco-British fund for

contemporary musicDunard FundThe Equitable Charitable TrustThe Eranda FoundationFidelio Charitable TrustThe Foyle FoundationJ Paul Getty Junior Charitable TrustThe Jeniffer and Jonathan Harris Charitable TrustCapital Radio’s Help a London ChildThe Hobson CharityThe Kirby Laing Foundation

The Idlewild TrustThe Leverhulme TrustMarsh Christian TrustAdam Mickiewicz Institute The Peter Minet TrustPaul Morgan Charitable TrustThe Diana and Allan Morgenthau

Charitable TrustMaxwell Morrison Charitable TrustMusicians Benevolent FundNewcomen Collett Foundation The Austin & Hope Pilkington Trust Serge Rachmaninoff FoundationThe Rothschild Foundation The Samuel Sebba Charitable TrustThe Bernard Sunley Charitable

FoundationJohn Thaw Foundation The Tillett TrustThe Underwood Trust Sir Siegmund Warburg’s Voluntary

SettlementKurt Weill Foundation for MusicGarfield Weston Foundation and others who wish to remain

anonymous

Page 12: 9Dec12  - LPO programme note Eastbourne

12 | London Philharmonic Orchestra

ADMINISTRATION

Board of Directors

Victoria Sharp ChairmanStewart McIlwham* PresidentGareth Newman*

Vice-PresidentDesmond Cecil CMG Vesselin Gellev* Jonathan Harris CBE FRICS Dr Catherine C. HøgelMartin Höhmann* Angela Kessler George Peniston* Sir Bernard RixKevin Rundell* Julian SimmondsMark Templeton*Sir Philip ThomasNatasha TsukanovaTimothy Walker AM Laurence Watt Dr Manon Williams

* Player-Director

Advisory Council

Jonathan DawsonClive Marks OBE FCALord Sharman of Redlynch OBEVictoria Sharp Timothy Walker AM

American Friends of the London philharmonic Orchestra, Inc.

Margot Astrachan ChairmanDavid E. R. Dangoor

Vice Chair/TreasurerKyung-Wha ChungPeter M. Felix CBE Alexandra JupinDr. Felisa B. KaplanWilliam A. KerrJill Fine MainelliKristina McPhee Dr. Joseph Mulvehill Harvey M. Spear, Esq.Danny Lopez

Honorary ChairmanNoel Kilkenny

Honorary DirectorVictoria Sharp

Honorary Director

Richard Gee, Esq Of CounselRobert Kuchner, CPA

General Administration

Timothy Walker AM Chief Executive and Artistic Director

Alison AtkinsonDigital Projects Manager

Finance

David BurkeGeneral Manager andFinance Director

David GreensladeFinance and IT Manager Concert Management

Roanna Gibson Concerts Director (maternity leave)

Ruth SansomArtistic Administrator / Acting Head of Concerts Department

Graham WoodConcerts and Recordings Manager

Barbara Palczynski Glyndebourne and Projects Administrator

Jenny Chadwick Tours and Engagements Manager

Alison JonesConcerts Co-ordinator

Jo OrrPA to the Chief Executive / Concerts Assistant

Matthew FreemanRecordings Consultant Education & Community

Patrick BaileyEducation and Community Director

Alexandra ClarkeEducation Manager

Caz ValeCommunity and Young Talent Manager

Richard MallettEducation and Community Producer

Orchestra personnel

Andrew CheneryOrchestra Personnel Manager

Sarah ThomasLibrarian

Michael PattisonStage Manager

Julia BoonAssistant Orchestra Personnel Manager

Ken Graham TruckingInstrument Transportation Development

Nick JackmanDevelopment Director

Helen Searl Corporate Relations Manager

Katherine HattersleyCharitable Giving Manager

Melissa Van EmdenEvents Manager

Laura LuckhurstCorporate Relations and Events Officer

Sarah FletcherDevelopment and Finance Officer Marketing

Kath TroutMarketing Director

Mia RobertsMarketing Manager

Rachel WilliamsPublications Manager

Samantha KendallBox Office Manager(Tel: 020 7840 4242)

Libby Northcote-GreenMarketing Co-ordinator

Claire LamponIntern

Albion Media Public Relations (Tel: 020 3077 4930)

Archives

Philip StuartDiscographer

Gillian PoleRecordings Archive professional Services

Charles RussellSolicitors

Crowe Clark Whitehill LLPAuditors

Dr Louise MillerHonorary Doctor

London philharmonic Orchestra89 Albert Embankment London SE1 7TPTel: 020 7840 4200Fax: 020 7840 4201Box Office: 020 7840 4242lpo.org.uk

The London Philharmonic Orchestra Limited is a registered charity No. 238045.

Photographs of Brahms, Mozart and Bruckner courtesy of the Royal College of Music, London. Front cover photograph © Patrick Harrison.

Printed by Cantate.

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