London Symphony Orchestra

Living Music

Wednesday 3 February 2016 7.30pm Barbican Hall

LSO STRING ENSEMBLE

Elgar Introduction and AllegroVaughan Williams Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas TallisINTERVAL Vaughan Williams Phantasy QuintetBritten Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge

Roman Simovic directorLSO String Ensemble

Concert finishes at approx 9.30pm

A WARM WELCOME TO OUR GROUPS

The LSO offers great benefits

for groups of 10+, including

20% discount on standard

tickets. We are delighted

to welcome:

Hannah Dummett and Friends

lso.co.uk/groups

Programme Notes 3

WelcomeKathryn McDowell

The sound of a string orchestra seems to possess a uniquely ‘English’ flavour. Elgar’s two masterly examples – the early Serenade of 1892 and the later Introduction and Allegro – in turn inspired works by Vaughan Williams, Holst, Warlock, Lennox Berkeley, Britten and Tippett, among others. The key to this love affair with string timbre may lie in Elgar’s own response, when asked for the secret of his understanding of string instruments: ‘Study old Handel. I went to him for help ages ago’.

In October 1904 Elgar’s friend and editor August Jaeger suggested that the composer should write a new piece for the newly formed London Symphony Orchestra. By late January 1905 Elgar told Jaeger: ‘I’m doing that string thing in time for the Sym. Orch. concert. Intro. & Allegro – no working-out part but a devil of a fugue instead …’. The new piece incorporated a theme with a falling third which Elgar had sketched down some years earlier after hearing some distant singing during a holiday on the Cardiganshire coast, but he confessed that ‘the work really is a tribute to that sweet borderland Malvern where I have made my home’.

Elgar conducted the premiere of the Introduction and Allegro with the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra at the Queen’s Hall in London on 8 March 1905. To his dismay it did not go down well at first, and only gained true recognition as a much-loved masterpiece in the second half of the 20th century.

The Introduction and Allegro is designed as a concertante piece for string orchestra, highlighting a solo quartet within the main body of strings. After a powerful, majestic Introduction comes a gently undulating theme which forms the basis of the Allegro, and which Elgar described in Shakespearean terms as ‘Smiling with a sigh’. The ‘Welsh tune’, with its characteristic falling third, is given to a solo viola. But instead of a development section Elgar worked the material up into his ‘devil of a fugue’, which eventually leads to a return of the opening Allegro section.

Sir Edward Elgar (1837–1934)

Introduction and Allegro for Strings Op 47

2 Welcome 3 February 2016

Welcome to the Barbican for this evening’s concert with the LSO String Ensemble, directed by the Orchestra’s Leader Roman Simovic. The string section’s sound is a defining feature of the LSO, and we are delighted to present the strings following recent concerts by their colleagues in the woodwind, percussion and brass sections.

Tonight’s programme consists entirely of British music for strings written during the first half of the 20th century by composers whose work was championed by the LSO in their day. We open with a work by Sir Edward Elgar, a former Principal Conductor of the LSO. The Introduction and Allegro was premiered by the LSO, but it was only later on tour with the Orchestra that Elgar confided in a friend that he had ‘at last’ got it played as he wished.

Vaughan Williams also had a strong relationship with the LSO – especially through recordings of his symphonies. Tonight we play his well known Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis, and the lesser known Phantasy Quintet. We conclude the programme with Britten’s Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge, a tribute to the composer’s former teacher.

I hope you enjoy tonight’s concert and can join us again on 16 February, when the Orchestra returns with conductor Sir John Eliot Gardiner for an all-Mendelssohn programme that opens our Shakespeare 400 concert series.

Kathryn McDowell LSO Managing Director CBE DL

PROGRAMME NOTE WRITER

WENDY THOMPSON

Having studied at the Royal College

of Music, Wendy 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.

EDWARD ELGAR was largely

self-taught as a player and

composer and during his early

freelance career, which included

work conducting the staff band

at the County Lunatic Asylum

in Powick, he suffered many

setbacks. It was not until he wrote

the Variations on an Original

Theme ‘Enigma’ (1898–99) and his

oratorio The Dream of Gerontius

(1900) that he cemented his

position as England’s finest

composer. Elgar, who was knighted

in 1904, became the LSO’s

Principal Conductor in 1911 and

premiered many of his works with

the Orchestra.

Composer Profiles © Andrew Stewart

ENJOY MORE ELGAR AND VAUGHAN WILLIAMS THIS APRIL

Sun 24 Apr 7pm, Barbican

Elgar The Dream of Gerontius

Sir Mark Elder conductorwith Alice Coote, Allan Clayton and Gerald Finley

Thu 28 Apr 7.30pm

Butterworth A Shropshire LadVaughan Williams A Pastoral Symphony*Ravel Concerto for the Left HandDebussy La Mer

Sir Mark Elder conductorwith Elizabeth Watts* and Cédric Tiberghien

Book now lso.co.uk | 020 7638 8891

4 Programme Notes 3 February 2016

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)

Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (1910)

Vaughan Williams’ most famous Fantasia sprang from a combination of passions: his absorption in Tudor music and English folk song, collecting, and from his editorship of The English Hymnal, which occupied him almost exclusively from 1904 to 1906. Several of the tunes included in the Hymnal influenced his own subsequent compositions, including the third of nine Psalm tunes by the Elizabethan composer Thomas Tallis, originally printed in Archbishop Parker’s metrical Psalter of 1567. This melody, in the Phrygian mode, is set in the English Hymnal to Addison’s words ‘When rising from the bed of death’.

In 1910, Vaughan Williams was commissioned to write a piece for the Three Choirs Festival. His piece was to be performed in Gloucester Cathedral alongside Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius, and Elgar’s Introduction and Allegro probably inspired Vaughan Williams to use the same forces in a Fantasia based on Tallis’ psalm melody. He conducted the strings of the London Symphony Orchestra at the work’s premiere on 6 September 1910. On the whole, the critics received it coolly, and after its London premiere in February 1913, Vaughan Williams withdrew it for substantial revision. It took another two decades for the work to be recognised as a minor masterpiece, and it has since been one of the composer’s most popular and frequently performed pieces.

The Fantasia is scored for double string orchestra of unequal size (the second consists of only nine players), from which the section leaders emerge as a solo quartet Vaughan Williams took as his starting point Tallis’ original harmonisation of his modal melody, and based his structure on the sectional concept of the Tudor fantasia. The theme itself appears in various embellished guises, before reappearing in its original grandeur in the closing section.

INTERVAL – 20 minutesThere 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?

lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts Programme Notes 5

PRELUDE: LENTO MA NON TROPPO –

SCHERZO: PRESTISSIMO –

ALLA SARABANDA: LENTO –

BURLESCA: ALLEGRO MODERATO – POCO PIÙ MOSSO – ANDANTE –

TEMPO DEL PRELUDIO – POCO PIÙ MOSSO – ANDANTE

Vaughan Williams’ modest output of chamber music includes two string quartets and this Phantasy Quintet for two violins, two violas and cello. The Quintet was composed in 1912 at the suggestion of the wealthy amateur violinist and chamber music enthusiast WW Cobbett, who, apart from publishing a Cyclopaedic Survey of Chamber Music in 1929, established a composition prize in 1905 for chamber works he described as ‘phantasies’. These were inspired by the sectional Elizabethan instrumental fantasy, and usually comprised single-movement works or else several short movements played continuously, like a compressed sonata.

Distinguished winners of the Cobbett prize included Bridge, Britten and Ireland, but Vaughan Williams’ Quintet, although it falls into this category, was never entered for the competition. It comprises four short movements, played ‘attacca’, and woven together by a single, pentatonic theme of a folksong-like quality, which is introduced by a solo viola (an instrument much loved by Vaughan Williams).

The Prelude unwinds quietly and slowly, with the theme largely passed between first viola and first violin, returning at the end to the viola. The ensuing Scherzo begins with a spiky cello ostinato, over which the jaunty, syncopated theme is passed between the other instruments. The cello is silent and the other instruments muted during the slow Sarabanda, in which the first violin and first viola engage in dialogue through a long-breathed melody. The cello returns to open the final Burlesca with a pompous ostinato bass, over which the other instruments enter in counterpoint, becoming increasingly skittish in mood. A short section reminiscent of a sea shanty leads into a sonorous Andante, before the Quintet’s opening melody returns on the principal viola, taken up by the first violin and elaborated into a rhapsodic cadenza-like passage presaging The Lark Ascending, written two years later. The sea shanty-like ‘Poco più mosso’ puts in another brief appearance before the mood of the opening returns, and the first violin ascends into the stratosphere over quiet chords.

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RALPH VAUGHAN WILLIAMS

was born in Gloucestershire on

12 October 1872 and enjoyed a

musical upbringing. In 1890 he

enrolled at the Royal College of

Music, becoming a pupil of Sir

Hubert Parry. Weekly lessons

at the RCM continued when he

entered Trinity College, Cambridge,

in 1892. His ‘discovery’ of folk song

in 1903 was a major influence on

the development of his style. A

period of study with Maurice Ravel

in 1908 was also very successful.

Over his long life, he contributed

notably to all musical forms,

including film music.

THE ENGLISH HYMNAL was, as

it said in the preface, ‘A collection

of the best hymns in the English

language’ published by the Church

of England in 1906.

Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872–1958)

Phantasy Quintet (1912)

THE LARK ASCENDING is

Vaughan Williams’ most popular

work, and it regularly tops polls

of the nation’s favourite classical

music.

ATTACCA, meaning ‘to tie’

in Italian, is a performance

direction to indicate that the next

movement of a piece of music is

to begin immediately after the end

of the previous one, sometimes

even taking the form of a musical

elision.

Roman SimovicDirector

lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts Artist Biographies 7

‘Simovic played with both physical and linguistic ease.’ The Telegraph

6 Programme Notes 3 February 2016

Benjamin Britten (1913–76)

Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge Op 10 (1937)

INTRODUCTION AND THEME

VARIATION 1: ADAGIO

VARIATION 2: MARCH

VARIATION 3: ROMANCE

VARIATION 4: ARIA ITALIANA

VARIATION 5: BOURRÉE CLASSIQUE

VARIATION 6: WIENER WALTZER

VARIATION 7: MOTO PERPETUO

VARIATION 8: FUNERAL MARCH

VARIATION 9: CHANT

VARIATION 10: FUGUE AND FINALE

Britten wrote this astonishingly skilful piece – a series of ten ‘character’ variations on a theme by his composition teacher Frank Bridge – in the space of a few weeks for the Boyd Neel String Orchestra to play at the Salzburg Festival in August 1937. It made its young composer’s name, and has remained one of his most popular pieces.

Britten derived his theme from the second of Bridge’s Three Idylls for string quartet Op 6, a work clearly influenced by Elgar. This theme, which first emerges tentatively after a bold and strikingly modern Introduction, undergoes a brilliant series of transformations, each intended to reflect a particular trait of Bridge’s personality, from his integrity and respect for tradition to his sense of humour.

The opening movement, a passionate and emotional Adagio, is followed by an energetic March and a graceful Romance, clearly influenced by Gallic charm. The exhilarating ‘Aria Italiana’ is launched by a pizzicato accompaniment evoking thrumming guitars, and recalls Rossini arias in its stratospheric coloratura scales and trills; while the neo-Classical ‘Bourrée classique’ pays homage to Baroque string writing, with its emphasis on open fifths.

The next variation, in the style of an exuberant Viennese waltz, is followed by a brilliant ‘Moto perpetuo’. Then follow two slow variations – a Funeral March and a hymn-like Chant; while the final Fugue draws all the threads together in homage to Bridge’s compositional skill. At the end, Bridge’s theme emerges in its most clear-cut, unvarnished statement, demonstrating the sincere mutual affection of teacher and pupil.

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BENJAMIN BRITTEN received

his first piano lessons from his

mother, who encouraged her son’s

earliest efforts at composition.

In 1930 he gained a scholarship to

the Royal College of Music, where

he studied composition with John

Ireland and piano with Arthur

Benjamin. In June 1948 Britten

founded the Aldeburgh Festival of

Music and the Arts, for which he

subsequently wrote many new

works. By the mid-1950s he was

generally regarded as the leading

British composer, helped by the

international success of operas

such as Albert Herring, Billy Budd

and The Turn of the Screw.

Roman Simovic has performed in many of the world’s leading concert halls, including the Bolshoi Hall of the Tchaikovsky Conservatory, Mariinsky Hall in St Petersburg, Grand Opera House in Tel-Aviv, Victoria Hall in Geneva, Rudolfinum Hall in Prague, Barbican Hall in London, Art Centre in Seoul, Grieg Hall in Bergen and Rachmaninov Hall in Moscow.

Simovic has been awarded prizes at a number of international competitions, including the Premio Rodolfo Lipizer International Violin Competition, International Sion-Valais, Yampolsky Violin Competition and the Henryk Wieniawski Violin Competition, placing him among the foremost violinists of his generation.

As a soloist, he has appeared with the world’s leading orchestras, including the LSO, Mariinsky Orchestra, Symphony Nova Scotia, Franz Liszt Chamber Orchestra, Camerata Bern, Camerata Salzburg, CRR Chamber Orchestra, Poznan Philharmonic and the Prague Philharmonia. Conductors he has worked with include Valery Gergiev, Daniel Harding, Sir Antonio Pappano, Kristjan Järvi, Nikolaj Znaider and Pablo Heras-Casado.

A sought-after artist, Simovic has been invited to perform at various distinguished festivals such as the White Nights Festival in St Petersburg, Moscow Easter Festival, Dubrovnik Summer Festival, Kotor Art Festival, the BEMUS and NOMUS Festivals, Sion Valais Festival, Bergen Festival, Moscow Winter Festival, Portogruaro Festival, and the Granada Music Festival. This year he will play chamber music at the Verbier festival with world leading musicians including Leonidas Kavakos, Yuja Wang, Gautier Capuçon, Tabea Zimmermann, Mischa Maisky and in recital with Itamar Golan. Orchestra invitations include the Shanghai Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre, Australian Chamber and London Symphony orchestras among others.

Aside from being an active soloist, Roman Simovic is also an avid chamber musician, and is a founding member of the distinguished Rubicon String Quartet. As an educator, he has given masterclasses in the US, UK, South Korea, Serbia, Montenegro and Israel.

Roman Simovic plays a 1709 Stradivarius violin, generously loaned to him by Jonathan Moulds CBE. He has been Leader of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2010.

LSO STRING ENSEMBLE

on LSO LIVE

Pre-order the new recording from

the LSO String Ensemble, directed by

Roman Simovic, featuring Schubert’s

Death and the Maiden (arr Mahler)

alongside Shostakovich’s Chamber

Symphony in C minor.

The CD also features 360° Virtual

Reality footage of the Shostakovich

Chamber Symphony in C minor for

playback on compatible devices.

Released 4 Mar 2016

Available to pre-

order now from

lsolive.lso.co.uk

8 On Stage 3 February 2016

FIRST VIOLINS Roman Simovic Leader/DirectorLennox MackenzieGinette Decuyper Maxine Kwok-Adams Elizabeth Pigram Sylvain Vasseur Rhys Watkins SECOND VIOLINS Thomas NorrisMatthew Gardner Julian Gil Rodriguez Naoko Keatley Belinda McFarlane Paul Robson

VIOLAS Edward VandersparGillianne Haddow Lander Echevarria Anna Bastow Heather Wallington CELLOS Tim HughAlastair BlaydenJennifer Brown Eve-Marie Caravassilis Daniel Gardner

DOUBLE BASSES Colin ParisPatrick Laurence Jani Pensola

On StageLSO String Ensemble

London Symphony Orchestra

BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts: Elgar Up Close Four concerts dedicated to the best-loved chamber music music of Elgar and featuring the Elias String Quartet.

Elgar Up Close

LSO St Luke’s

Thu 14, 21, 28 Apr & 5 May 1pm

Book now lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts