London Symphony OrchestraLiving Music

London’s Symphony Orchestra

Friday 6 November 2015 7.30pm Barbican Hall

WYNTON MARSALIS WORLD PREMIERE

Bernstein Prelude, Fugue and Riffs Wynton Marsalis Concerto in D (world premiere) INTERVAL Stravinsky Symphony in Three Movements Bernstein Chichester Psalms

James Gaffigan conductor Nicola Benedetti violin Ben Hill boy treble London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director

Concert finishes approx 9.50pm

Welcome Kathryn McDowell

Living Music In Brief

Welcome to tonight’s LSO concert at the Barbican. We are delighted to welcome back American conductor James Gaffigan, following his debut performance with the Orchestra in 2014, for a programme of works by Bernstein, Wynton Marsalis and Stravinsky.

The concert opens with Bernstein’s Prelude, Fugue and Riffs for jazz combo and clarinet, in which the Orchestra’s Principal Clarinet Chris Richards is featured. This is followed by the world premiere of a new Violin Concerto by America’s pre-eminent jazz musician, Wynton Marsalis. Concerto in D was composed in close collaboration with violinist Nicola Benedetti – also a great friend of the LSO’s – and we are delighted that she will give the world premiere performance with the Orchestra this evening.

After the interval the Orchestra will be joined by the London Symphony Chorus to perform Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, their first concert with the LSO this season. The Orchestra and Chorus gave their first performance of the Chichester Psalms in 1986 under the baton of the composer himself.

I hope that you enjoy tonight’s concert and can join us again soon. The LSO returns to the Barbican on Thursday 12 November with Nikolaj Znaider, who conducts works by Strauss alongside Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony.

Kathryn McDowell CBE DL Managing Director

APPLICATIONS OPEN FOR THE 2016 PANUFNIK COMPOSERS SCHEME

The LSO Panufnik Composers Scheme is an exciting initiative offering six emerging composers each year the opportunity to write for and work with a world-class symphony orchestra. It has been devised by the Orchestra in association with Lady Panufnik in memory of her late husband, the composer Sir Andrzej Panufnik, and is generously supported by the Helen Hamlyn Trust.

We are now accepting applications for the 2016 scheme. The programme begins in February 2016 and culminates with a public workshop in April 2017. For more details on the scheme and how to apply, please visit the LSO website.

lso.co.uk/composing

A WARM WELCOME TO TONIGHT’S GROUPS

The LSO offers great benefits for groups of 10+ including 20% discount on standard tickets. At tonight’s concert, we are delighted to welcome: St Paul’s School King Edward VI Grammar School

lso.co.uk/groups

2 Welcome 6 November 2015

lso.co.uk Programme Notes 3

PROGRAMME NOTE AUTHOR

DAVID GUTMAN has written

four books on subjects ranging

from Prokofiev to Lennon, and is a

regular contributor to Gramophone,

International Record Review and

The Stage.

CHRIS RICHARDS CLARINET

Writing fluently for clarinet solo and jazz combo, he set down Prelude, Fugue and Riffs in November 1949, conceiving it as an American riposte to Stravinsky’s Ebony Concerto. And yet the jazz musician Woody Herman, who had also commissioned the Stravinsky, appears not even to have acknowledged receipt of Bernstein’s score, his own career in disarray. Its ‘real’ premiere did not take place until October 1955 with the new soloist and dedicatee Benny Goodman, presented in the context of one of Bernstein’s celebrated TV programmes, his second Omnibus show, an enquiry into the nature of jazz. Seemingly destined to remain a pièce d’occasion, it has instead become increasingly familiar in recent years.

As the title promises, the music integrates classical forms and contrapuntal structures with jazz/swing melodies and rhythms, doing so with such naturalness that it sounds sometimes as though the players are improvising. In fact, only at the very end is there some flexibility – the performers themselves decide when the piece should actually stop!

The Prelude is launched on trumpets and trombones, the Fugue on saxophones, the Riffs by the solo clarinet and piano. What remains is a kind of all-embracing, wild yet structured, written out jam session that seldom fails to bring the house down. Shamelessly eclectic as it is, ‘trying everything’ as it does – including what sounds like a visit to a strip club – Bernstein’s idiom is unmistakably his own.

Leonard Bernstein (1918–90) Prelude, Fugue and Riffs (1949)

Bernstein was not a natural improvising jazzman – however, composing ‘written-out’ jazz was no problem.

BENNY GOODMAN (1909–86)

was an American jazz and swing

bandleader and one of the most

influential clarinet players of the

20th century. His early career

established jazz and swing music

as popular forms and his band was

the first jazz ensemble to perform in

New York’s Carnegie Hall. Later on

in his career he began to focus on

refining a classical technique and

used his considerable influence to

commission works from many of

the century’s leading composers

including Copland, Bartók, Hindemith,

Arnold and Milhaud.

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London Symphony Orchestra

LSO SECTIONS UP CLOSE

LSO BRASS ENSEMBLE Thu 26 Nov 2015 7.30pm, Barbican

The heroes of the LSO brass section take centre stage in an evening of rousing fanfares, original works and new arrangements for ten-piece brass ensemble. Featuring works by Brahms, Bach, Grieg and Gershwin and the world premiere performance of a new piece by LSO Soundhub scheme alumnus Ayanna Witter-Johnson.

LSO STRING ENSEMBLE Wed 3 Feb 2016 7.30pm, Barbican

The string players of the LSO, led by director and LSO Leader Roman Simovic, will perform a programme featuring music by three of this country’s best-loved composers – Elgar, Vaughan Williams and Britten

A series of concerts showcasing the virtuosity

and musicianship of the LSO’s players

4 Programme Notes 6 November 2015

Wynton Marsalis (b 1961) Concerto in D (2015)

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Nicola Benedetti is someone he has known a long time, and he sees similarities in her career and his own, outside music as well, sharing similar social and educational concerns. He also believes that even her celebrated recording catalogue does not really do justice to her abilities and depth as an artist. By contrast, she responded to his first drafts for this concerto by telling him it was too easy, and she needed to be challenged further. The result is a piece that pushes her violin technique to the limit.

Most of Marsalis’ compositions have an underlying story, and this is no exception, with a narrative that unfolds across the work’s four movements as follows:

FIRST MOVEMENT Movement 1, ‘Rhapsody’, concerns sleep. It starts with a lullaby catching the following moods: sweet, angsty, nurturing, humble, sensual, sanctified and angelic. There follows a nightmare, which is by turns anxious, introspective, fearful and courageous, before finally retreating into the mind. Then comes peace, in music that Wynton sees as high-minded, wise, deep and serene. From peace, the movement turns to recollection, which is sweet, wistful, optimistic and pure. The final section he describes as ‘gleaming’, with moments that are whimsical, playful, dancing, syncopated, energetic and childlike, like a harlequin or griot.

RHAPSODY

RONDO BURLESQUE

BLUES

HOOTENANNY

NICOLA BENEDETTI VIOLIN

As a composer he has not been shy of stretching himself, writing his extended jazz oratorio, Blood on the Fields, in 1994 (which went on to win the Pulitzer Prize three years later), and more recently composing his Blues Symphony (premiered in Atlanta in 2009) and the Abyssinian Mass (given its first European performance here at the Barbican in 2012).

His life is something of a miracle of time management, as he leads the Jazz At Lincoln Center Orchestra (currently on a 14-concert tour of the Eastern seaboard of the United States), is artistic director of the entire programme for Jazz At Lincoln Center in New York, and also manages to lead his own jazz septet (they’re appearing in Philadelphia next week). Consequently, finding space in his schedule to compose – particularly sizeable works – is not easy. ‘It takes so much time to write something like this concerto that I really have to want to write it. Most of the time it’s for specific people. I pick out the ones that I write for. I don’t have any other reason to do it but for them. I work on it until it’s something I think that is deserving of them, and I don’t mind changing it, as I go, because I’m doing it for them.’

PROGRAMME NOTE AUTHOR

ALYN SHIPTON is author of A New

History of Jazz and presenter of Jazz

Record Requests for BBC Radio 3.

Few musicians have excelled so prominently in the fields of jazz and classical music as Wynton Marsalis, with Grammy awards to his credit for recordings in both genres. ‘It has been a very collaborative

and incredible process.’

Nicola Benedetti

lso.co.uk Programme Notes 5

And from courtship we find ourselves in church, full of congregational call and response, which builds quite freely until we reach the sermon: a fiery one that is exhorting, shouting, hollering, repetitive, and finally introspective. As the sermon ends, we hear the big collective sigh, combining all the feelings it has aroused: wistfulness, loss, cleansing grief, ascendance, transcendence and acceptance.

FOURTH MOVEMENT Movement 4, ‘Hootenanny’, follows the courtship and the service with a celebration. It runs through a number of textures that Wynton says were exciting to explore, bringing ideas from his big band work to the timbres and tones of the symphony orchestra. So we begin with a reel shared between solo violin and the strings that’s exuberant, gritty, rough, grooving, dancing and wild, with barely controlled violence. This is followed by a calm, pastoral chorale that ushers in a spiritual: it’s African, persistent, inevitable, songlike, repetitive and optimistic. It prepares the ground for the final ancestral dance, which in Wynton’s words is raucous, stomping, mirthful, dancing, wistful, playful, parading and finally whimsical.

INTERVAL – 20 minutes

There are bars on all levels of the Concert Hall; ice cream

can be bought at the stands on Stalls and Circle level.

Why not tweet us your thoughts on the first half of the

performance @londonsymphony, or come and talk to

LSO staff at the Information Point on the Circle level?

SECOND MOVEMENT Movement 2, ‘Rondo Burlesque’, brings us wide awake. It starts with a section marked ‘animato’, and moves through phases that are virtuosic and fiery, precise, complex and unapologetic. This takes us to a depiction of the circus, violin and orchestra sharing music that is acrobatic, mocking, mimicking, ironic, fanciful, at times becoming a parody. The final section titled ‘giocoso’ swaggers through a post-circus celebration that is raucous, drunken, noisy, playful; rambunctious, and ultimately unruly.

THIRD MOVEMENT Movement 3, ‘Blues’, picks up on ideas of relationships explored in earlier Marsalis works such as his album He and She. It begins with flirtation, juxtaposing seriousness and playfulness, with quick changes from introspection to sensuality, to holiness, to transcendence, repose, pastoral lyricism and finally courtship. Here, as the pizzicato violin and ‘wa-wa’ brass exchange phrases with the woodwind, we hear ‘yes but no … no but yes’, a somewhat halting conversation.

NICOLA BENEDETTI:

COLLABORATING WITH

WYNTON MARSALIS

’Wynton and I have known each

other for over eleven years.

We first met at the Academy of

Achievements Summit in New

York. I attended some of his

performances and we struck up

a friendship. Ever since, he has

offered me lots of advice and

become a bit of a mentor. We had

discussed Wynton writing a piece

for me on and off for the last five

years. For a long time it was going

to be just for solo violin, but then

he decided he wanted to write

for orchestra again.

The process has been much more

involved than I ever imagined.

Wynton is based in New York and

I am based in London, although

of course we are both travelling a

lot of the time for performances.

We spent many hours discussing

the minutiae of violin technique,

the structure of the work and the

meaning behind each theme over

phone calls and audio clips. It has

been a very collaborative and

incredible process.’

‘It’s been rewarding for me to work with Nicola, and she’s taught me a lot. It’s interesting when you work with somebody who is a lot younger, and you are teaching them and telling them things, and then you get older and they tell you things!’

Wynton Marsalis

6 Composer Profiles 6 November 2015

A gifted scholar, Bernstein took his first piano lessons at the age of ten and continued to study the instrument when he enrolled at Harvard University in 1935. From 1939 to 1941 he pursued graduate studies at the Curtis Institute, emerging as a star pupil in Fritz Reiner’s conducting class. Bernstein made front-page news on 13 November 1943 when he deputised for Bruno Walter as conductor of the New York Philharmonic, achieving instant critical success and breaking the

mould by being the first person ever to give a public performance with that orchestra wearing a grey lounge suit. His progress as a conductor was rapid, and in 1958 he was appointed Music Director and Chief Conductor of the New York Philharmonic. In the same year he launched a series of televised children’s concerts. Bernstein was also active as a writer and regular broadcaster, although he managed to find time to create a large output of works.

Since his death, the music of Leonard Bernstein has been subjected to close scrutiny under the musicologist’s microscope. Although opinions on his posthumous reputation are divided, it could be reasonably argued that his work as a composer, performer and educator have had a greater influence on current trends in contemporary music than, for example, the avant-garde compositions of Stockhausen or Boulez. Unlike many of his contemporaries, Bernstein kept faith with the aesthetic ideals and artistic concerns of composers from an earlier age, reaching audiences with powerful, often dramatic scores and crafting memorable, heart-on-sleeve melodies. Essentially, he posed music that was approachable without being banal, sentimental without being mawkish. Above all, he knew how to write a good tune.

Leonard Bernstein Composer Profile

Wynton Marsalis is an acclaimed musician, composer, bandleader and educator, and a leading advocate of American culture. By creating and performing an expansive range of brilliant new music for quartets to big bands, chamber music ensembles to symphony orchestras and tap dance to ballet, Marsalis has expanded the vocabulary for jazz and created a vital body of work that places him among the world’s finest musicians and composers.

Wynton was born in New Orleans, Louisiana, on 18 October 1961. He began his classical training on trumpet at age 12 and by age 17 he entered The Juilliard School. Soon after, he joined Art Blakey and the Jazz Messengers. Marsalis made his recording debut as a leader in 1982 and has since made more than 80 jazz and classical recordings

Wynton Marsalis is also a prolific and inventive composer. He collaborated with the Lincoln Center Chamber Music Society in 1995 to compose his first string quartet At The Octoroon Balls. In his Pulitzer Prize winning oratorio Blood On The Fields, Marsalis invented a fresh conception for extended form compositions. In December 1999 Marsalis extended his achievements with All Rise, an epic composition for big band, gospel choir, and symphony orchestra – a classic work of high art – which was performed by the New York Philharmonic under the baton of Kurt Masur along with the Morgan State University Choir and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra

In the autumn of 2009 the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra premiered Marsalis’ composition Blues Symphony. By infusing blues and ragtime rhythms with symphonic orchestrations, Marsalis broadened the scope of classical repertoire. Employing complex layers of collective improvisation, Marsalis further expanded his repertoire for symphony orchestra with Swing Symphony, premiered by the Berlin Philharmonic in June 2010.

Wynton Marsalis Composer Profile

lso.co.uk Programme Notes 7

PROGRAMME NOTE AUTHOR

DAVID NICE

CROTCHET = 160

ANDANTE – PIÙ MOSSO – TEMPO 1

CON MOTO

’The more characteristic a work of Stravinsky, the further it is from the symphonic idea’, wrote Robert Simpson in the long-superseded Pelican Guide to the Symphony. Although Simpson may have been rather prescriptive in admitting the Symphony in Three Movements into the canon of 20th-century symphonies, he certainly admired this ’brilliant and original work’, and he was right in the sense that the young Stravinsky’s attempt to write a well-made symphony under the guidance of his teacher Rimsky- Korsakov (the E-flat specimen of 1905–07, his official Op 1) has no individuality at all, while the Symphony in Three Movements is an utterly characteristic and dynamic masterpiece of his maturity.

The hybrid origins of tonight’s work did, in fact, cause Stravinsky to wonder whether he ought not to have called the result ’Three Symphonic Movements’. The first movement material, composed in 1942, was originally intended as a dark, tense concerto for orchestra with a role for the piano employed ’concertante’ style. The piano then bowed out to harp in what became the second movement – sketches for Stravinsky’s unlikely (and swiftly terminated) contribution to Franz Werfel’s film The Song of Bernadette. The finale was completed some time later, before the New York premiere of 1946.

What unites the Symphony in Three Movements is the powering rhythmic intensity which holds the sectional structure together. It is the most insistent since The Rite of Spring over 30 years earlier and it has its roots in Stravinsky’s response to newsreel images of World War II which, in an unguarded moment, he specifically attached to certain sections.

THE MUSIC In the first movement, the ’rumba’ played by the timpani ’associated in my imagination with the movements of war machines’, Stravinsky told Robert Craft. The spiky shuffling of piano and strings yield to brighter, more lightly scored sequences, but the ’war’ element gains the upper hand in insistent semiquaver figures for clarinet, piano and strings. These in turn lead to full-orchestral explosions which Stravinsky described as ’instrumental conversations showing the Chinese people scratching and digging in their fields’ before being overrun by scorched-earth tactics. The writing for woodwind that follows is surely a Requiem, although thanks to the movement’s uniform tempo, tension never slackens.

Bernadette’s vision, a cantabile flute melody offset by strings and harp, brings a change of air, though there is disquiet in this Andante’s middle section, as well as eloquent writing for string quartet. The brass, silent except for horns here, goose-steps into action near the start of the third movement – an image of military force as graphic as anything in the later symphonies of Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Stravinsky was unequivocal on the imagery of German arrogance, overturned and immobile in the fugue launched by trombone and piano before the Allies fight against the first movement’s ’rumba’ figure and move on to victory.

The composer’s disingenuous claim, ’in spite of what I have said, the Symphony is not programmatic’, is best interpreted by noting that the description does not account for some of the surprisingly good-humoured invention along the way. It is, then, a symphony with war footage, but nothing as straightforward as a ’war symphony’.

Igor Stravinsky (1882–1971) Symphony in Three Movements (1942–45)

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STRAVINSKY on LSO LIVE

Stravinsky

Symphony

in Three

Movements

£6.39

lsolive.lso.co.uk

Valery Gergiev conductor

‘There is much to enjoy here, not

least an orchestra that is at the

very top of its game under its

charismatic conductor.’

International Record Review (UK)

8 Programme Notes 6 November 2015

Igor Stravinsky Composer Profile

The son of the Principal Bass at the Mariinsky Theatre, Stravinsky was born at the Baltic resort of Oranienbaum near St Petersburg in 1882. Through his father he met many of the leading musicians of the day and came into contact with the world of the musical theatre. In 1903 he became a pupil of Rimsky-Korsakov, which allowed him to get his orchestral works performed and as a result he came to the attention of Sergei Diaghilev, who commissioned a new ballet from him, The Firebird.

The success of The Firebird, and then Petrushka (1911) and The Rite of Spring (1913) confirmed his status as a leading young composer. Stravinsky now spent most of his time in Switzerland and France, but continued to compose for Diaghilev and the Ballets Russes: Pulcinella (1920), Mavra (1922), Renard (1922), Les Noces (1923), Oedipus Rex (1927) and Apollo (1928).

Stravinsky settled in France in 1920, eventually becoming a French citizen in 1934, and during this period moved away from his Russianism towards a new ‘neo-Classical’ style. Personal tragedy in the form of his daughter, wife and mother all dying within eight months of each other, and the onset of World War II, persuaded Stravinsky to move to the US in 1939, where he lived until his death. From the 1950s, his compositional style again changed, this time in favour of a form of serialism. He continued to take on an exhausting schedule of conducting engagements until 1967, and died in New York in 1971. He was buried in Venice on the island of San Michele, close to the grave of Diaghilev.

COMPOSER PROFILE WRITER

ANDREW STEWART

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London Symphony Orchestra

WORLD PREMIERES WITH THE LSO

LSO FUTURES CHAMBER CONCERT Sun 13 Mar 2016 4pm, LSO St Luke’s

The world premiere of LSO Soundhub scheme alumnus Darren Bloom’s immersive work for chamber orchestra, Dr Glaser’s Experiment, featuring live visuals and atmospheric light design. Commission generously supported by the PRS for Music Foundation and the Britten-Pears Foundation

LSO FUTURES SYMPHONIC CONCERT Sun 13 Mar 2016 7pm, Barbican

Panufnik scheme alumnus Elizabeth Ogonek’s work for orchestra Sleep & Unremembrance receives its first performance alongside 20th-century masterworks by Berio and Ligeti. Generously supported by the Helen Hamlyn Trust

THE HOGBOON Sun 26 Jun 2016 7pm, Barbican

Iconic British composer Sir Peter Maxwell Davies’ new children’s opera The Hogboon will be performed for the first time under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle.

Three more world premiere performances with the LSO this season

lso.co.uk Programme Notes 9

PROGRAMME NOTE AUTHOR

WENDY THOMPSON

Having studied at the Royal College

of Music, Wendy Thompson took

an MMus in musicology at King’s

College, London. In addition to

writing about music she is Executive

Director of Classic Arts Productions,

a major supplier of independent

programmes to BBC Radio.

BEN HILL BOY TREBLE

LONDON SYMPHONY CHORUS

SIMON HALSEY CHORUS DIRECTOR

Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms were commissioned for the 1965 Southern Cathedrals Festival by the then organist of Chichester Cathedral, John Birch, and the dean, Walter Hussey. The work was first performed in the Philharmonic Hall, New York, on 15 July 1965, with Bernstein conducting, followed by the British premiere at Chichester a fortnight later. It is scored for a boy-treble soloist, solo quartet of voices, choir, and an orchestra of trumpets, trombones, timpani, percussion, two harps and strings. The text consists of excerpts from the Psalms sung in Hebrew, arranged in three movements, and the piece – although commissioned for an Anglican cathedral – is one of Bernstein’s most Jewish works.

The first movement is a festive song of praise. It begins with a verse from Psalm 108, ‘Awake thou lute and harp; I myself will awake right early’; followed by Psalm 100 (Jubilate Deo), ‘O be joyful in the Lord, all ye lands: serve the Lord with gladness, and come before his presence with a song’. This movement is dominated by the dissonant interval of a 7th, and is written in 7/4 metre – the number seven being particularly significant in Judeo-Christian tradition. The presence of perfect fourths and fifths in the harmony may suggest the tuning of ‘lute and harp’ strings. The soprano and alto parts make much of a recurring motif consisting of a falling fourth, ascending minor seventh, and falling fifth – a motif which reappears at the end of the movement at the words ‘The Lord is good’, in the prelude to the third movement, and again in the soprano part of the final unaccompanied vocal section of the last movement, at the words ‘Behold how good and pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity’.

The second movement is a setting of Psalm 23, ‘The Lord is my shepherd’. Much of this movement is serene and pastoral in tone, with a treble soloist representing the boy David (in material originally intended for an unrealised musical based on Thornton Wilder’s The Skin of Our Teeth). But this tranquillity is shattered by the menacing undertone of men’s voices singing words from Psalm 2, ‘Why do the heathen so furiously rage together?’. The soprano voices are directed to continue singing ‘blissfully unaware of threat’, and David’s voice reasserts his faith: ‘Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, And I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever’.

After a busy instrumental prelude, the last movement sets four verses of Psalm 131 (‘Lord, I am not high- minded: I have no proud looks’), set as a gently swaying chorale. Finally the motifs from the opening of the work return to close it as the choir quotes the first verse of Psalm 133, and after the words ‘for brethren to dwell together in unity, Amen’, voices and instruments coalesce gently on a single unison note.

Leonard Bernstein Chichester Psalms (1965)

BERNSTEIN ON HIS CHICHESTER PSALMS

For hours on end I brooded and mused.

On materiae musicae, used and abused;

On aspects of unconventionality,

Over the death in our time of tonality …

Pieces for nattering, clucking sopranos

With squadrons of vibraphones, fleets of pianos

Played with the forearms, the fists and the palms –

And then I came up with the Chichester Psalms.

… My youngest child, old-fashioned and sweet.

And he stands on his own two tonal feet.

THE SKIN OF OUR TEETH

Much of the music in Chichester

Psalms is recycled from a terminated

theatre work based on Thornton

Wilder’s play The Skin of Our Teeth,

which Bernstein had been working

on during his year-long sabbatical

from conducting duties from the

New York Philharmonic Orchestra.

Bernstein’s biographer Humphrey

Burton has demonstrated that the

choice of specific Psalms and verses

in Chichester Psalms was informed

by their potential adaptability to the

rhythm and cadence of music that

Bernstein had already written for

The Skin of Our Teeth.

10 Texts 6 November 2015

Leonard Bernstein Chichester Psalms: Texts

Awake, psaltery and harp: I will rouse the dawn!

Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands. Serve the Lord with gladness. Come before His presence with singing. Know ye that the Lord, He is God. It is He that hath made us, and not we ourselves. We are His people, and the sheep of His pasture. Enter into His gates with thanksgiving, and into His courts with praise. Be thankful unto Him, and bless His name. For the Lord Is good, His mercy is everlasting, and His truth endureth to all generations. Psalm 108: 2; Psalm 100

The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: He leadeth me beside the still waters. He restoreth my soul: He leadeth me in the paths of righteousness, for His name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil; for Thou art with me; Thy rod and Thy staff they comfort me. Psalm 23: 1–4

Why do the nations rage, And the people imagine a vain thing? The kings of the earth set themselves, and the rulers take counsel together,

Movement 1

Urah, hanevel, v’chinor! A-irah shahar!

Hariu l’Adonai kol haarets. Iv’du et Adonai b’simcha. Bo-u l’fanav bir’nanah. D’u ki Adonai Hu Elohim. Hu asanu, v’lo anahnu. Amo v’tson mar’ito. Bo-u sh’arav b’todah, Hatseirotav bit’hilah, Hodu lo, bar’chu sh’mo. Ki tov Adonai, l’olam has’do, V’ad dor vador emunato.

Movement 2

Adonai ro-i, lo ehsar. Bin’ot deshe yarbitseini, Al mei m’nuhot y’nahaleini, Naf’shi y’shovev, Yan’heini b’ma’aglei tsedek, L’ma’an sh’mo. Gam ki eilech B’gei tsalmavet, Lo ira ra, Ki Atah imadi. Shiv’t’cha umishan’techa Hemah y’nahamuni.

Lamah rag’shu goyim Ul’umim yeh’gu rik? Yit’yats’vu malchei erets, V’roznim nos’du yahad

lso.co.uk Texts 11

against the Lord and against His anointed, saying, Let us break their bands asunder, and cast away their cords from us. He that sitteth in the heavens shall laugh, and the Lord shall have them in derision! Psalm 2: 1–4

Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: Thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the Lord Forever. Psalm 23: 5–6

Lord, Lord, my heart is not haughty, nor mine eyes lofty: neither do I exercise myself in great matters, or in things too high for me. Surely I have behaved and quieted myself, as a child that is weaned of his mother: my soul is even as a weaned child. Let Israel hope in the Lord, from henceforth and for ever. Psalm 131

Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity. Psalm 133: 1

Al Adonai v’al m’shiho. N’natkah et mos’roteimo, V’nashlichah mimenu avoteimo. Yoshev bashamayim Yis’hak, Adonai Yil’ag lamo!

Ta’aroch l’fanai shulchan Neged tsor’rai Dishanta vashemen roshi Cosi r’vayah. Ach tov vahesed Yird’funi kol y’mei hayai, V’shav’ti b’veit Adonai L’orech yamim.

Movement 3

Adonai, Adonai, Lo gavah libi, V’lo ramu einai, V’lo hilachti Big’dolot uv’niflaot Mimeni. Im lo shiviti V’domam’ti, Naf’shi k’gamul alei imo, Kagamul alai naf’shi. Yahel Yis’rael el Adonai Me’atah v’ad olam.

Hineh mah tov, Umah nayim, Shevet ahim Gam yahad.

‘His conducting style is direct and communicative. He likes to whip up excitement, and he does it well.’ The LA Times

12 Artist Biographies 6 November 2015

Chief Conductor

Lucerne Symphony Orchestra

Principal Guest Conductor

Netherlands Radio Philharmonic

Orchestra

Principal Guest Conductor

Gürzenich Orchestra, Cologne

Hailed for the natural ease of his conducting and the compelling insight of his musicianship, James Gaffigan continues to attract international attention and is one of the most outstanding American conductors working today. He is currently the Chief Conductor of the Lucerne Symphony Orchestra, and Principal Guest Conductor of the Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra. He was also appointed the first Principal Guest Conductor of the Gürzenich Orchestra, Cologne in September 2013, a position that was created for him.

In addition to these titled positions, James Gaffigan is in high demand working with leading orchestras and opera houses throughout Europe, the US and Asia. In recent seasons, Gaffigan’s guest engagements have included the Munich, London, Dresden, Oslo, Czech and Rotterdam Philharmonics, Vienna Symphoniker, Dresden Staatskapelle, Deutsches Symphonie Orchester (Berlin), Konzerthaus Berlin, RSO Berlin, Orchestre de Paris, Zurich Tonhalle, London, BBC, Gothenburg, Bournemouth and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestras, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Leipzig and Stuttgart Radio Orchestras, Tokyo Metropolitan Symphony and Sydney Symphony. In the States, he has worked with the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, San Francisco and Los Angeles Philharmonic, Chicago, St Louis, Cincinnati, Indianapolis, Minnesota, Dallas, Detroit, Houston, Baltimore, Pittsburgh and National Symphony Orchestras and the St Paul Chamber Orchestra among others.

As an opera conductor, James Gaffigan made his Vienna State Opera debut in 2011/12 with Puccini’s La Bohème and was immediately invited back to conduct Mozart’s Don Giovanni during the 2012/13 season. Gaffigan continues his relationship with both the Vienna State Opera and the

Glyndebourne Festival – in 2012, he conducted a production of Rossini’s La Cenerentola at Glyndebourne and returned for performances of Verdi’s Falstaff during the summer of 2013. In the 2014/15 season he conducted the Hamburg Opera with performances of Strauss’ Salome and the Norwegian Opera with a new production of Verdi’s La Traviata. He made his opera debut at the Zurich Opera in 2005 conducting Puccini’s La Bohème.

Highlights of the 2015/16 season include debuts with the New York Philharmonic (Don Giovanni) at the Bayerische Staatsoper Munich. Gaffigan will also return to the Munich and Los Angeles Philharmonics, Orchestre de Paris, Orchestre National de France, and the Vienna Staatsoper to conduct Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

Born in New York City in 1979, Gaffigan has degrees from both the New England Conservatory of Music and the Shepherd School of Music at Rice University in Houston. He also studied at the American Academy of Conducting at the Aspen Music Festival, and was a conducting fellow at the Tanglewood Music Center.

In 2009, Gaffigan completed a three-year tenure as Associate Conductor of the San Francisco Symphony in a position specially created for him. Prior to that appointment, he was the Assistant Conductor of the Cleveland Orchestra where he worked under Music Director Franz Welser-Möst from 2003 through 2006. James was also named a first prize winner at the 2004 Sir Georg Solti International Conducting Competition. He lives in Lucerne with his wife Lee and their two children Sofia and Liam.

James Gaffigan Conductor

lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 13

Nicola Benedetti is one of the most sought after violinists of her generation. Her ability to captivate audiences with her innate musicianship and dynamic presence, coupled with her wide appeal as a high-profile advocate for classical music, has made her one of the most influential classical artists of today.

With concerto performances at the heart of her career, Nicola is in much demand with major orchestras and conductors across the globe. Most recently Nicola enjoyed collaborations with the LSO, London Philharmonic, Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theatre, Berlin Konzerthausorchester, WDR Cologne, Camerata Salzburg, Danish National Symphony Orchestra, La Cetra Barockorchester, Czech Philharmonic, Royal Scottish National Orchestra, Iceland Symphony Orchestra, Orchestre Capitole du Toulouse, Toronto Symphony Orchestra, Atlanta Symphony, Pittsburgh Symphony and Melbourne Symphony Orchestras.

Conductors with whom Nicola has worked and will work include Vladimir Ashkenazy, Jirí Belohlávek, Stéphane Denève, Christoph Eschenbach, James Gaffigan, Hans Graf, Valery Gergiev, Alan Gilbert, Jakub Hrusa, Kirill Karabits, Louis Langrée, Andrew Litton, Kristjan Järvi, Neeme Järvi, Paavo Järvi, Vladimir Jurowski, Cristian Macelaru, Andrea Marcon, Sir Neville Marriner, Diego Matheuz, Peter Oundjian, Vasily Petrenko, Donald Runnicles, Thomas Søndergard, Yan Pascal Tortelier, Krzysztof Urbanski, Juraj Valcuha, Pinchas Zukerman and Jaap van Zweden.

Fiercely committed to music education and to developing young talent, Nicola has formed associations with education establishments including schools, music colleges and local authorities. In 2010, she became Sistema Scotland’s official musical ‘Big Sister’ for the Big Noise project, a music initiative

partnered with Venezuela’s El Sistema (Fundación Musical Simón Bolívar). As a board member and teacher, Nicola embraces her position of role model to encourage young people to take up music and work hard at it, and she continues to spread this message in school visits and masterclasses, not only in Scotland, but all around the world.

Winner of Best Female Artist at both 2012 and 2013 Classical BRIT Awards, Nicola records exclusively for Decca (Universal Music). The enormous success of Nicola’s most recent recording, Homecoming: A Scottish Fantasy, made Nicola the first solo British violinist since the 1990s to enter the Top 20 of the Official UK Albums Chart. The Silver Violin also enjoyed a similar success in reaching No 30 in the UK Albums Chart, simultaneously to topping the classical charts.

Nicola was appointed as a Member of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (MBE) in the 2013 New Year Honours, in recognition of her international music career and work with musical charities throughout the UK. In addition, Nicola has received eight honorary degrees to date.

Born in Scotland of Italian heritage, Nicola began violin lessons at the age of five with Brenda Smith. In 1997, she entered the Yehudi Menuhin School, where she studied with Natasha Boyarskaya. Upon leaving, she continued her studies with Maciej Rakowski and then Pavel Vernikov, and continues to work with multiple acclaimed teachers and performers.

Nicola plays the Gariel Stradivarius (1717), courtesy of Jonathan Moulds CBE.

‘The timing and dynamic contour of every phrase is created with utter confidence.’ Bachtrack

Nicola Benedetti Violin

14 Artist Biographies 6 November 2015

Ben Hill Treble

Simon Halsey Choral Director

13-year-old Ben Hill is a Music Scholar at Trinity School, Croydon, and a senior member of Trinity Boys Choir. He has performed in operas at the Royal Opera House and most recently in the Aix-en-Provence Festival where he sang the role of ‘Cobweb’ in Britten’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

He has sung on the soundtracks of various films, including Maleficent (as a named soloist), The Hunger Games: Mockingjay and San Andreas. TV appearances include Handel’s Messiah at

the Foundling Hospital with the Gabrieli Consort and Paul McCreesh for BBC 2. Ben has appeared in two BBC Proms concerts with Trinity Boys Choir and in broadcast concerts from the Royal Festival Hall, the Barbican, King’s College, Cambridge, and the Royal Albert Hall. He has toured Germany and this December tours with the choir to Japan. Forthcoming engagements include Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.

Ben is a trumpeter with the National Children’s Orchestra and recently was privileged to be coached by Wynton Marsalis. He is also a keen photographer and artist.

Simon Halsey is a sought-after conductor of choral repertoire at the very highest level and an ambassador for choral singing across the world. Halsey is the Chorus Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Choruses, and the Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus. He is also Conductor Laureate of the Rundfunkchor Berlin, the permanent partner of the Berliner Philharmoniker, where he has been Principal Conductor for 14 years.

Since becoming Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2012, Halsey has been credited with bringing about a ‘spectacular transformation’ (Evening Standard) of the LSC. 2015/16 highlights with the LSO include Debussy’s Pelléas et Mélisande and Haydn’s The Seasons with Sir Simon Rattle, Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Sir Mark Elder, and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with Michael Tilson Thomas.

Simon Halsey is Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Birmingham, where he directs a postgraduate course in Choral Conducting, in association with the CBSO. He is in great demand as a teacher at other universities and has presented masterclasses at top universities such as Princeton and Yale. In 2011 Schott Music published his book and DVD on choral conducting, Chorleitung: Vom Konzept zum Konzert, as part of its ‘Master Class’ series.

Halsey was awarded The Queen’s Medal for Music 2014 for his influence on the musical life of the UK, and was also made Commander of Order of the British Empire in The Queen’s Birthday Honours 2015. In recognition of his outstanding contribution to choral music in Germany, Halsey was also given the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany in 2011.

lso.co.uk Artist Biographies 15

London Symphony Chorus On stage

BASSES Simon Backhouse * Roger Blitz Bruce Boyd Andy Chan ** Steve Chevis James Chute Damian Day Thomas Fea Ian Fletcher Robert Garbolinski * Gerald Goh John Graham Owen Hanmer * Anthony Howick Alex Kidney Thomas Kohut Georges Leaver Hugh McLeod Keith McLean George Marshall Geoff Newman Peter Niven Tim Riley Alan Rochford Rod Stevens Robin Thurston Anthony Wilder Sam Foster Richard Tannenbaum

* denotes council member

** denotes quartet soloists

SOPRANOS Kerry Baker Faith Baxter Louisa Blankson Evaleen Brinton Carol Capper * Jessica Collins Shelagh Connolly Emma Craven Rebecca Dent Katalin Farsang Lucy Feldman Joanna Gueritz Maureen Hall Isobel Hammond Emma Harry Emily Hoffnung Debbie Jones Luca Kocsmarszky Mimi Kroll Marylyn Lewin Meg Makower Jane Morley Fiona Mortimer Jennifer Norman Emily Norton Jessica Norton ** Maggie Owen Andra Patterson Carole Radford Liz Reeve Mikiko Ridd Chen Theresa Shwartz Laura Catala-Ubassy Becky Wheaton Miji Yi

ALTOS Kate Aitchison ** Hetty Boardman-Weston Liz Boyden Gina Broderick Jo Buchan * Lizzy Campbell Zoe Davis Diane Dwyer Linda Evans Amanda Freshwater Lydia Frankenburg * Joanna Gill Kate Harrison Yoko Harada Amanda Holden Jo Houston Ginger Hunter Lis Iles Kristi Jagodin Ella Jackson Christine Jasper Jill Jones Belinda Liao * Anne Loveluck * Liz McCaw Aoife McInerney Jane Muir Caroline Mustill Siu-Wai Ng Helen Palmer Maud Saint-Sardos Sarah Scott Lis Smith Jane Steel Margaret Stephen Claire Trocme Rachael Twyford Magdalena Ziarko

TENORS David Aldred Paul Allatt * Robin Anderson Dan Ehrlich Matthew Fernando Matthew Flood Andrew Fuller Simon Goldman Michael Harman Matt Horne John Marks Alastair Mathews Daniel Owers ** Peter Sedgwick Malcolm Taylor James Warbis Robert Ward * Paul Williams-Burton

President Sir Simon Rattle OM CBE

President Emeritus André Previn KBE

Vice President Michael Tilson Thomas

Patrons Simon Russell Beale CBE and Howard Goodall CBE

Chorus Director Simon Halsey CBE

Assistant Directors Neil Ferris and Matthew Hamilton

Chorus Accompanist Roger Sayer

Chairman Owen Hanmer

The London Symphony Chorus was formed in 1966 to complement the work of the London Symphony Orchestra and this season marks its 50th anniversary. The partnership between the LSC and LSO has continued to develop and was strengthened in 2012 with the appointment of Simon Halsey as joint Chorus Director of the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO.

The LSC has partnered many other major orchestras and has performed nationally and internationally with the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra. Championing the musicians of tomorrow, it has also worked with both the NYOGB and the EUYO. The chorus has toured extensively throughout Europe and has also visited North America, Israel, Australia and South East Asia.

Highlights from last season include Haydn’s The Creation with Ed Gardner at the City of London Festival, Brahms’ Requiem with Daniel Harding, and critically acclaimed performances with Sir Simon Rattle of Schumann’s rarely performed Das Paradies und die Peri with the LSO at the Barbican, and Mahler’s Second Symphony with the Berlin Philharmonic and the CBSO Chorus at the Royal Festival Hall.

In the 2015/16 season the LSC celebrates its 50th anniversary with a range of performances, including Rachmaninov’s All-Night Vigil in Temple Church; Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms with James Gaffigan; Haydn’s The Seasons with Rattle; Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with Sir Mark Elder; and a new opera by Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, The Hogboon.

SING WITH THE LSC

The LSC is always interested in recruiting new members, welcoming

applications from singers of all backgrounds. Interested singers are always

welcome to attend rehearsals before arranging an audition. For further

information, email auditions@lsc.org.uk or visit lsc.org.uk.

London Symphony Orchestra On stage

London Symphony Orchestra Barbican Silk Street London EC2Y 8DS

Registered charity in England No 232391

Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.

Editor Edward Appleyard edward.appleyard@lso.co.uk

Photography Igor Emmerich, Kevin Leighton, Bill Robinson, Alberto Venzago

Print Cantate 020 3651 1690

Advertising Cabbell Ltd 020 3603 7937

The Scheme is supported by Help Musicians UK The Lefever Award The Polonsky Foundation The Barbican Whatmore Charitable Trust

LSO STRING EXPERIENCE SCHEME

Established in 1992, the LSO String Experience Scheme enables young string players at the start of their professional careers to gain work experience by playing in rehearsals and concerts with the LSO. The scheme auditions students from the London music conservatoires, and 15 students per year are selected to participate. The musicians are treated as professional ’extra’ players (additional to LSO members) and receive fees for their work in line with LSO section players.

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Andrew H King Sensational UK Premiere of John Adams ravishing Scheherazade.2 with the @londonsymphony and Leila Josefowicz. @Boosey_London on the LSO with John Adams (29 Oct)

Fiona Harvey A fantastic new (to the UK) John Adams piece enters the repertoire. Congrats @londonsymphony on the LSO with John Adams (29 Oct)

Marek Rymaszewski Brutal punches & luxuriant textures at @barbicancentre with John Adams conducting Leila J & @londonsymphony at Scheherazade.2 UK premiere. on the LSO with John Adams (29 Oct)

Stefano @londonsymphony shone thoroughly. A well-deserved standing ovation. #HarmonieLehre #SoundUnbound on the LSO with John Adams at Sound Unbound (1 Nov)

VIOLAS Edward Vanderspar Gillianne Haddow Malcolm Johnston Anna Bastow Lander Echevarria Julia O’Riordan Robert Turner Jonathan Welch Michelle Bruil Fiona Dalgliesh Caroline O’Neill Richard Holttum

CELLOS Tim Hugh Alastair Blayden Eve-Marie Caravassilis Daniel Gardner Hilary Jones Amanda Truelove Victoria Harrild Alexandra Mackenzie Miwa Rosso Peteris Sokolovskis

DOUBLE BASSES Rick Stotijn Colin Paris Patrick Laurence Matthew Gibson Thomas Goodman Jani Pensola Simo Väisänen Nicholas Worters

FLUTES Gareth Davies Alex Jakeman

PICCOLO Sharon Williams

OBOES Christopher Cowie Rosie Jenkins

COR ANGLAIS Jane Marshall

CLARINETS Chris Richards Chi-Yu Mo

BASS CLARINET Duncan Gould

ALTO SAXOPHONES James Mainwaring Rob Buckland

TENOR SAXOPHONES Shaun Thompson Timothy Holmes

BARITONE SAXOPHONE Bradley Grant

BASSOONS Rachel Gough Joost Bosdijk

CONTRA BASSOON Dominic Morgan

HORNS Timothy Jones Angela Barnes Alexander Edmundson Jonathan Lipton Jonathan Bareham

TRUMPETS Philip Cobb, Gerald Ruddock Daniel Newell Robin Totterdell Tom Rees-Roberts

TROMBONES Dudley Bright James Maynard Emma Bassett

BASS TROMBONE Paul Milner

TUBA Patrick Harrild

TIMPANI Nigel Thomas

PERCUSSION Neil Percy Antoine Bedewi Barnaby Archer Helen Edordu Benedict Hoffnung Tom Lee Ignacio Molins Adrian Spillett

KIT Martin France

HARPS Bryn Lewis Helen Sharp

PIANO Catherine Edwards

16 The Orchestra 6 November 2015

FIRST VIOLINS Roman Simovic Leader Lennox Mackenzie Clare Duckworth Nigel Broadbent Ginette Decuyper Jörg Hammann Maxine Kwok-Adams Claire Parfitt Elizabeth Pigram Harriet Rayfield Colin Renwick Ian Rhodes Sylvain Vasseur David Worswick Gerald Gregory Gabrielle Painter

SECOND VIOLINS Rieho Yu Thomas Norris Sarah Quinn Miya Väisänen Richard Blayden Matthew Gardner Julian Gil Rodriguez Naoko Keatley William Melvin Iwona Muszynska Andrew Pollock Paul Robson Hazel Mulligan Helen Paterson