London Symphony Orchestra
Aix-en-Provence Festival Gianandrea Noseda leads a four-year success story to its finale Sir Colin Davis A tribute to the LSO’s longest serving President City to City From the Square Mile to Derry~Londonderry
contents page 4
CONTENTS
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A tribute to Sir Colin Davis
page 9
LSO On Track: A Year On page 6
page 12
Four years at the Aix-en-Provence Festival
Gergiev at 60
page 14
page 10
The year in review
City to City London to Derry~Londonderry
2013 page 15
Become a Pioneer
page 16
LSO Live Cover Gianandrea Noseda conducting the LSO at Aix-en-Provence Editor & Design Edward Appleyard – edward.appleyard@lso.co.uk Print Tradewinds Photography Gautier Deblonde, Igor Emmerich, Festival d’Aix-en-Provence, Kevin Leighton, Bill Robinson, Matt Stuart, Hannah Taylor, Alberto Venzago
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LSO MOVING MUSIC
welcome
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WELCOME
Kathryn McDowell CBE DL LSO Managing Director
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elcome to the latest edition of Living Music magazine which looks back at the life of the London Symphony Orchestra over the past year. 2013 has certainly been an eventful year for the Orchestra. The spring saw two major events for the LSO. One looking back and celebrating the last ten years of LSO St Luke’s, our venue on Old Street, with a vast array of concerts – everything from family events for toddlers, to a six-concert consecutive run of BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime recitals. The second looked forwards with LSO Futures – a four-day festival celebrating composing and 21st century composers, with concerts at the Barbican and LSO St Luke’s, and our annual Panufnik Young Composers Workshops. Later in the spring, the LSO – its members, audience and staff alike – suffered a collective sadness when it learned of the passing of its longest serving President, and one of the most revered and admired Principal Conductors in its history – Sir Colin Davis. Turn to page 4 to read a short tribute from David Cairns, and a minute glimpse into Sir Colin’s time with the Orchestra. As the LSO approached summer, things took a more celebratory tone. Valery Gergiev marked his 60th birthday with several events, we celebrated the cultural ties between the City of London and Derry~Londonderry in their Capital of Culture year, our second BMW LSO Open Air Classics concert in Trafalgar Square was once again a wonderful event for thousands of people, and we ended the 2012/13 season with a poignant but joyful celebration at the Barbican and BBC Proms of Sir Colin.
Summer itself saw the Orchestra resident in the south of France for the last in its four-year run at the Aix-enProvence Festival. It has been a joy to be part of this annual summer event and be their Resident Orchestra since 2009. You can read all about our activities there from pages 6 to 8, including an interview with conductor Gianandrea Noseda who led an exceptional run of performances of Verdi’s Rigoletto. As we approached Autumn, our 2013/14 season saw Rigoletto re-created as a concert performance at the Barbican, Valery Gergiev explored the dramatic works of Hector Berlioz, Bernard Haitink and pianist Emanuel Ax performed a pair of wonderfully-received concerts in London and New York, we celebrated film music composer Patrick Doyle’s 60th birthday in glorious style, and Principal Guest Conductor Michael Tilson Thomas rounded off our concert calendar year with pianists Simon Trpcˇeski and Evgeny Kissin. Finally, as we go to print, the LSO’s Moving Music campaign is gathering pace as we hit the half-way mark in our fundraising. I am delighted to announce that Jonathan Moulds is supporting an LSO International Violin Festival in the latter half of the 2014/15 season in aid of the campaign. The series will see twelve of the most renowned and internationally recognised violinists from across the globe playing the cornerstones of the violin repertoire in a concert series that will be remembered for years to come. I do hope you enjoy reading this magazine, and can join us in the coming months – at the Barbican, at LSO St Luke’s, or elsewhere around the globe.
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London Symphony Orchestra Barbican Centre, Silk Street, London EC2Y 8DS 020 7588 1116 | lso.co.uk Registered charity number 232391 Patron Her Majesty The Queen Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev Principal Guest Conductors Daniel Harding, Michael Tilson Thomas Conductor Laureate André Previn KBE
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1927–2013
Sir Colin Davis
Mitsuko Uchida, pianist
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ir Colin Davis gave his final concert with the LSO at St Paul’s Cathedral during the 2012 City of London Festival in a remarkable performance of Berlioz’s Requiem, captured forever on film and audio for LSO Live.
SIR COLIN DAVIS
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‘When you are performing it is easy to forget to enjoy the music: Colin never forgot.’
While last season was to have been a year-long celebration of Sir Colin’s 85th birthday, in the end all 13 of his LSO Barbican concerts were conducted by others, and after his death on 14 April 2013 the final two concerts of the season became fitting tributes to the ‘Head of the LSO Family’, with the conducting shared by his son Joseph Wolfe, by violinist Nikolaj Znaider, and with the Orchestra being led in an electric performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No 8 (the work that sparked Sir Colin’s conducting ambitions) by LSO Leader Gordan Nikolitch. Afterwards, in the foyer of the Barbican, audience, friends, family and Orchestra mingled for a wee dram of Sir Colin’s favourite post-concert whisky tipple to remember him. At the BBC Proms last summer Daniel Harding took over the planned LSO concert with Sir Colin, and Prommers and international audiences were able to celebrate his life in an all-British programme of Tippett, Britten and Elgar. And at the start of the 2013/14 season Sir Colin’s dearest friend, pianist Mitsuko Uchida, made her own dedication, playing Mozart’s Rondo for Solo Piano – the work was one of Sir Colin’s favourites.
A musical odyssey by David Cairns
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n his monograph on Sir Colin Davis, published 15 years ago, Richard Alston quotes a revealing and characteristic remark by the conductor about Hylas, the young sailor whose nostalgic song, as he rocks at the masthead of a Trojan ship and dreams of his lost homeland, opens the fifth act of Berlioz’s opera: ‘The gentle swell of the music carries us back to the holy moment of childhood, and we sense, in the words of Hermann Broch, ‘the extraordinary oppression which falls on every human being when, childhood over, he begins to divine that he is fated to go in isolation and unaided toward his own death’.’ That may seem an odd way to begin an appreciation of a much-loved conductor; but he, I imagine, would not have
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taken it amiss, would in fact have regarded it as quite appropriate. Which would be entirely typical of him. For someone who spent his professional life very much in the public eye, he was an exceptionally private person, one who had deliberately forsworn the lifestyle of the jet-setting maestro; but who never shrank from expressing himself publicly on the great issues of human existence. He both thought deeply and said what he thought, without inhibition. The profound seriousness, the dark side of his nature, are things that I came to know only gradually over the years. It was the lack of inhibition that impressed me when I was first introduced to him, over 60 years ago – that and the humour, the spontaneity, the captivating quickness and subtlety of mind and the vividness of imagery in his conversation, the magnetism of the man. He was only 22, a clarinet student at the Royal College of Music, but he seemed to have complete authority. The moment you met him you believed in him. He was different – alive with a special intensity in so many respects, including an unusually acute visual sense.
And of course there was his musicianship. Acting on the advice of a fellow-student of his who said she had never met a musician who understood Mozart as he did, we chose him to conduct the first performance of what was to become the Chelsea Opera Group. It was obvious that he was born to it – a leader, a musician with passionate convictions about the music that was in him and an overwhelming need to give voice to them. The night before the performance, he and the singers of that first Don Giovanni met at my parents’ house to rehearse. As we sat round the kitchen table beforehand, someone pointed to an empty chair and a place laid, and asked, ‘Are we expecting someone else? Who’s that for?’, ‘The Commendatore’, said Colin. From that moment we were under his spell. That evening, and next day at the long orchestral rehearsal and then the performance, the power of his conducting and personality had us in thrall.
Part of a longer article written originally for Sir Colin’s 75th birthday concert. The full version, along with messages of condolence, is at lso.co.uk/sircolintribute
Sir Colin Davis and the LSO 1959 First conducts the LSO at the Royal Festival Hall: programme included Stravinsky’s Symphony in Three Movements and Vaughan Williams’ Tuba Concerto
Playing clarinet as a student, prior to LSO days
1960 First appearance with the LSO at the BBC Proms: programme included works for two pianos by Mozart and Bartók with Alfons and Aloys Kontarsky
1964 Conducts the LSO on its first world tour (New York, West Coast US, Japan, Korea, Hong Kong)
First tour to Daytona Beach, Florida
1975 Appointed Principal Guest Conductor of the LSO
1982 Conducts Tippett/Berlioz Festival at the Barbican, the LSO’s first major concert series in the new venue
1993 Three complete performances of Les Troyens at the Barbican
Aug 1963 Aug 1964 Feb 1966 Apr 1967 Jul 1968 Jun 1972 Oct 1974 Aug 1980 Jan 1988 Feb 1995 Sep 1996 Oct 1996 Jan 1998 May 2004 Feb 2005 Apr 2008
Michael Tippett Concerto for Orchestra Edinburgh Festival Hans Werner Henze Ariosi Edinburgh Festival Don Banks Horn Concerto Royal Festival Hall Michael Haydn Horn Concerto in D major Royal Festival Hall Lennox Berkeley Magnificat St Paul’s Cathedral Michael Tippett Symphony No 3 (LSO commission) Royal Festival Hall Hans Werner Henze Tristan (LSO commission) Barbican Michael Tippett Triple Concerto at BBC Proms, Royal Albert Hall Steve Gray Guitar Concerto Barbican Michael Tippett The Rose Lake Barbican Colin Matthews Cello Concerto Barbican James MacMillan Cello Concerto Barbican Michael Berkeley The Secret Garden Barbican Richard Bissill Sinfonia Concertante (LSO Centenary commission) Barbican Karl Jenkins Quirk (LSO Centenary commission) Barbican James MacMillan St John Passion (in honour of Sir Colin’s 80th birthday) Barbican
1995 Appointed Principal Conductor of the LSO, a position Sir Colin held until 2006, making him the longest serving of all the LSO’s Principal Conductors. Awarded the Royal Philharmonic Society Gold Medal.
1997 Conducts first LSO Residency at Lincoln Center, New York
1999–2000 ‘Berlioz Odyssey’: Sir Colin conducts a series of all Berlioz’s major works
Sir Colin receives The Queen’s Medal for Music during a Gala Concert at Mansion House celebrating his 50th anniversary with the LSO
2002 LSO Live wins two Grammy awards and a Classic Brit Award for Sir Colin’s recording of Les Troyens and Gramophone Award for Best Opera 2002
2006 LSO Live and Sir Colin win Best Opera Grammy Award for Verdi’s Falstaff
2007 Sir Colin becomes the LSO’s ninth President
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SIR COLIN DAVIS
1961 First visit with the LSO to the Edinburgh Festival with works by Britten, Ravel, Berlioz, Liszt, Haydn and Stravinsky
Highlight Premieres
LSO IN AIX
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More than an opera orchestra …
Festival d’Aix
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our years ago, the LSO embarked on its first summer residency at the Aix-en-Provence Festival in the south of France, the result of a four-year partnership engaging the LSO as pit orchestra in the Festival’s featured operas for two of those years, and to perform a series of concerts. The residency came to a close last summer. Here are a few reasons why the Festival chose the London Symphony Orchestra as its International Resident, and a showcase of just some of the work that took place on and off stage.
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LSO IN AIX
Gianandrea Noseda’s Rigoletto
Bernard Foccroulle General Manager of the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence
Verdi’s Rigoletto formed the core of the 2013 Festival. Conducted by Gianandrea Noseda, the opera gained rave reviews from local and international press alike. Just after the Festival, and before the work was performed in concert to open the LSO 2013/14 concert season at the Barbican, Edward Appleyard caught up with Noseda to get his insight into what made the performance so special.
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This residency originated from our desire to collaborate with the leading orchestras of the world. After having had the Berlin Philharmonic in residency, inviting the LSO seemed obvious because of its high standards and its impressive educational projects. The performances in Aix have confirmed its exceptional artistic level. Over four years we have been developing activities together around instrumental practice.
onducting Rigoletto with the LSO in Aix was a fantastic experience – because of the long run, we were able to be incredibly consistent. During the ten performances we gave the artists had so much energy and the Orchestra, well, they went for it!
much closer together will help. Despite the closeness, of course the singers’ voices are directed towards the audience, so the Orchestra has to catch that. In the pit, the voices travel across the players’ heads. It’s all about balance, you have to find ways to adjust. Of course, in our concert performance at the Barbican there’ll be no sets, no costumes. It’ll be wonderful to be much more focused on the music itself.
The open-air Théâtre de l’Archevêché is pretty special as far as outdoor venues go because it‘s shaped like a courtyard, which actually makes the acoustics function surprisingly well. Since last summer the Festival has worked greatly to improve the acoustics in the pit for the Orchestra which makes so much difference, and as luck would have it, during the ten-performance run of Rigoletto there wasn’t a single drop of rain. We had packed audiences night after night; not just music-lovers, plenty of different people.
The LSO plays with the singers in such a unique way – without losing its virtuosity – but they also follow the singers, and the way the players breathe with them, you simply don’t expect that kind of intuition. They immediately realise when the singers need to underline a phrase and so on – it’s fascinating!
There are many different challenges when you perform opera in a theatre compared to the concert hall. In the theatre, the singers and orchestra are much further away from each other, so sometimes co-ordinating the two things and trying to gain a perfect sync is tricky. When everyone’s on the same stage the fact that we are
The LSO has virtuosity, limitless virtuosity, flexibility, much attention to detail and care about the production of sound. These are among some of the best qualities for a modern orchestra – to be consistent, to be flexible, and to be so committed to sound and style. Like many professional British orchestras the LSO is quick – like myself, they don’t like to waste time. They are able to act like a chameleon, to change styles without losing that precision, technique, intonation and flexibility. In these performances of Rigoletto, the LSO sounded like the best Italian orchestra in style.
LSO musicians have coached the Orchestre des Jeunes de la Méditerranée, a symphonic ensemble with young artists coming from the Mediterranean Basin. We have established coaching programmes, gathering experienced young musicians and beginners within the Junior Orchestra. LSO Discovery has been leading workshops with different communities. A memorable example is Boras, a project where LSO musicians helped mothers and children from the Comorian community of Marseille present a beautiful performance based on traditional Comorian lullabies. This collaboration has built a bridge from the Thames to the Mediterranean Sea and contributes towards us achieving one of our dearest tasks: to open Europe’s doors to Mediterranean culture.
RIGOLETTO IN THE PRESS ‘Under living, nervous, sensual, admirably phrased direction from Italian conductor Gianandrea Noseda, making his Aix debut, the London Symphony Orchestra proved that Verdi is their ‘cup of tea’.’ Le Monde ‘The London Symphony Chorus and the soloists – all three principals new to the cast – seemed fired by Gianandrea Noseda’s electrifying conducting, which banished any hint of routine from an opera that rarely fares as well as this in the theatre.’ The Sunday Times
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LSO IN AIX
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Discovery in Aix W
hat makes the LSO special in London is its commitment to learning, and that is something we take around the globe too.
Across the four-year residency, a number of LSO Discovery projects have taken place in partnership with the Festival – from a major Youth Orchestra project to working with local communities in Provence, and much more. Head of LSO Discovery Eleanor Gussman provides a brief insight into the work in the Mediterranean.
Our four-year partnership with the Aix-en-Provence Festival has given us a real opportunity to work closely on a long-term basis with the local community, and to establish programmes for young musicians that will have a lasting legacy for years to come. Two such projects for young musicians that ran throughout that period – the Aix Festival Academie, which gave pre-professional string quartets and piano trios two weeks of intense coaching with LSO string principal players; and the Aix Festival Youth Orchestra – not unlike LSO On Track here in London, each year concluding with concerts in Aix, Manosque and Nice performing side-by-side with LSO players – have led to new and unrivalled opportunities for the next generation of musicians in the French Mediterranean.
workshops from LSO St Luke’s to Aix too, re-telling a popular children’s story to music performed by LSO players.
Whilst providing a nurturing environment for the potential professionals of tomorrow is an obvious responsibility of the Orchestra, the LSO has a much wider aim of involving as many people as it can in music-making, so equally important for the young musicians of Aix was the Festival’s Junior Youth Orchestra which comprised approximately 125 children and young adults who played instruments up to Grade Five standard. Focusing on professional repertoire that’s been re-arranged for different abilities – such as La Traviata and The Firebird – is at the core of the project’s success. For even younger children, we took our ever-popular Sound Explorers
The following summer, over two months, community groups worked with the Festival to create recordings (both soundscapes and dialogue) based on the story of Ravel’s L’enfant et les sortilèges. The LSO worked with a group of 15 participants, including adults from a local choir plus a group of teenagers and children from the area to create music to unite the soundscapes and dialogue into a cohesive ‘radio-opera’. The final recording was broadcast on local radio in July 2012.
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Opera was the cornerstone of the LSO’s performance activity during the Festival itself, and so many projects took on an operatic theme. A Community Opera was a creative collaboration bringing together LSO musicians with 80 people from the diverse communities in Marseille and Aix, including ‘Slam’ poet teenagers, an Arabic choir and video artists, to develop their own response to Mozart’s La Clemenza di Tito. Responding to the challenge set by Mozart, the community participants created their own opera in just 18 days. The final piece was performed at the Bois de l’Aune in the 2011 Festival.
The longest opera community project, which ran for a whole year during 2012/13, involved a group of mothers
and young children from the Comoros Islands who live in Marseille. Joined by the same group of teenagers who took part in the 2011 Community Opera, music-making was inspired by traditional Comorian lullabies (called ‘boras’), providing an opportunity for the mothers involved not only to reconnect with their musical heritage but also to pass on these cultural memories onto their children. Through a series of workshops with the LSO and also a choreographer, Thierry Thieû, and Musiciens-relais from Aix Festival Youth Orchestra, the group created accompaniments to the lullabies, combining song, music and movement. The project culminated in a series of concerts in Marseille and Aix, which was also performed to a London audience at LSO St Luke’s. Finally, in the last summer of the LSO’s residency, Summer Serenades – a three-day project for 60 participants of all ages from Aix’s community and school groups – created music inspired by Britten’s Four Sea Interludes and wrote soundtracks for two French silent films. They also worked on music which incorporated the Comorian lullabies, again with the group who created Boras, as well as reworking some more pieces of traditional music from other cultures. It concluded in a performance of the group’s pieces at the Amphithéâtre de la Verrière in Aix.
One year on from the Games 9
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LSO ON TRACK
hen London won the bid to host the 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games, long before trumpeter Joe Linton (right) started playing with LSO On Track, the LSO put plans in motion to echo the London 2012 mantra – to inspire a generation – and committed to working with ten East London borough music services with a parallel goal. Not only were the Olympics a unique opportunity to direct the world’s attention to the sporting achievements of the UK; they also celebrated the vibrancy of London’s flourishing cultural offer and young talent. A host of activity makes up LSO On Track – from captivating visits to schools by LSO players, to inspirational group coaching in music service ensembles, to special performances at LSO St Luke’s, and to training teachers in motivating and encouraging music-making. For Joe Linton it started when he was put forward for the LSO On Track Summer Camp (an intense three-day course where all participants play in a Youth Orchestra mentored by LSO musicians and work in groups on composition, improvisation and chamber music) by one of the LSO’s partners, Lewisham Music Service, on which LSO On Track is so dependent for its success, and who spotted Joe’s potential from the start. Since then, through LSO On Track Joe has played on stage in the LSO’s first ever concert in Trafalgar Square and performed at both the Barbican and LSO St Luke’s. Most memorably, Joe was one of the 81 young players who introduced the London 2012 Olympic Opening Ceremony with a performance of Elgar’s Nimrod, as the 80,000 plus audience members were swathed in a sea of blue, encircling the Green and Pleasant Land. It wasn’t just this performance itself that provided such a unique and exciting opportunity. The preparation for the event involved recording sessions at Abbey Road Studios, rehearsals both inside and outside the stadium, and working with LSO players on an unprecedented level. A year on, Joe and some of the young musicians who were in that performance re-visited the Olympic Park for the first time since the Games, performing at the Open East Festival in July 2013. For the 17-year-old trumpeter, the events of summer 2012 seem just as unbelievable as they did then, but remain one of the most incredible experiences of his life.
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2013 IN REVIEW
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SO St Luke’s turned 10 years old on 27 March 2013. Pre-2003 this most stunningly-restored of churches was a mere skeleton … … four lonely walls and a spire, no roof, over-run with weeds. Thanks to LSO Principal Partners UBS and an injection of Lottery funding, a building that English Heritage had at the top of their ‘at risk’ register was restored to become one of this country’s most vibrant and diverse education and performance hubs. March 2013 saw a twelve-day festival celebrating a decade of music-making, both community and professional, with BBC Radio 3 broadcasting live daily from the building.
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SO Sing, the London Symphony Orchestra’s new singing programme devised by LSO Choral Director Simon Halsey …
… The Film Music of Dmitri Tiomkin and Valery Gergiev’s recording of Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances, and was delighted that James Mallinson was nominated for Producer of the Year. Three audience development projects were put forward for the 2012 RPS awards: the Student Pulse mobile app, BMW Open Air Classics 2012 in Trafalgar Square and LSO On Track at the Olympics..
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March
February
January
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he LSO kicked off the year with Grammy nominations for two LSO albums …
… properly got going this year when the first ever LSO Singing Day on Brahms’ Requiem attracted over 250 singers raising the roof of LSO St Luke’s on 16 February. With six ‘Singing Sundays’ concerts at the Barbican; three more Singing Days; new conductors for the Junior, Senior and Community choirs and a new piece by David Lang coming up next year for 1,000 participants in London, Berlin and Birmingham; singing at the LSO is gathering pace.
September
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he LSO has long been recognised as outstanding in the social media field, not just for its number of followers …
August
July
2013 in review … on Facebook (164,000), Twitter (163,000), Google+ (155,000) and YouTube (8.6 million), but for the quality of its interactions with the public. The LSO digital team is regularly approached for its expertise in social media. In July it advised the Nobel Peace Center in Oslo; more recently the LSO gave a lecture to MBA alumni at the Cranfield School of Management.
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rom the outside, summer can look like downtime for the Orchestra, as they break between seasons. But in reality, nothing is further from the truth. While the LSO was absent from the Barbican stage this July and August, it was busy bringing a spectacular four-year residency at the Aixen-Provence Festival to a close – see page 6 for more. In addition, it performed two BBC Proms at the Royal Albert Hall (the second, with Daniel Harding, televised), and worked the summer festival circuit with tours to Villach and Grafenegg (Austria) with Andrés Orozco-Estrada and Nikolaj Znaider, as well as giving a chamber performance at Versailles Palace. The Orchestra also stacked up hours of studio time at Abbey Road Studio and Blackheath Halls.
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s the 2013/14 season began, the LSO launched two educational initiatives to broaden its appeal and reach. LSO Play is an interactive web application allowing users to ‘get inside’ the Orchestra by selecting preferred camera angles from which to view superb high definition performance footage. Supplemented by video masterclasses from LSO players and contextual information on the repertoire, LSO Play was recently awarded Site of the Day by the Favourite Website Awards. The Student Pulse app, uniting ten of London’s professional orchestras and venues, first launched in September 2012, seeking to offer one platform for university students to purchase low-cost tickets to orchestral performances in the capital. A year on, and more arts organisations are asking to join the consortium. Six designated ‘Pulse’ concerts have taken place in the LSO’s 2013/14 season so far, with over 400 students in attendance.
One such multi-talented figure is LSO Principal Flute Gareth Davies whose ‘LSO on Tour’ blogs dating from 2007 gathered such a following that before long he was writing a book. The Show Must Go On (Elliot & Thompson) compares LSO touring in 2012 with archive material from the Orchestra’s first tour to America in 1912. The book has received unanimous praise with BBC Music Magazine calling the book a ‘deftly written, insightful and … poignant travelogue [which] deserves the widest circulation’, and The Financial Times citing it as one of their ‘Books of the Year’.
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ovember was remarkable for the scale and ambition of the Berlioz series with Valery Gergiev … Masterminded by the team behind the Cultural Olympiad and supported by Arts Council England, the Festival united music, theatre, circus, dance and visual arts in a bid to encourage intergenerational arts attendance and share best practice towards families among arts organisations. The LSO’s contributions included a sold-out Witches concert for 7- to 12-year-olds, a pre-concert creative session for over-12s and lunchtime concerts at LSO St Luke’s. The Festival takes place in autumn half term 2014 and 2015; visit the flagship website for more: familyartsfestival.com.
… who passed away in April, with the conducting shared by his son, Joseph Wolfe, and violinists Nikolaj Znaider and Gordan Nikolitch. Afterwards, in the Barbican foyer, audiences, friends, family and Orchestra mingled for a wee dram of Sir Colin’s favourite post-concert whisky tipple to remember him by. Since then, conductor Daniel Harding, pianist Mitsuko Uchida and violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter have all made their own LSO concert dedications to Sir Colin.
December
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rom 18 October to 3 November, the inaugural Family Arts Festival took place across the country.
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he final two concerts of the 2012/13 LSO Barbican Season were turned into fitting tributes to the ‘Head of the LSO Family’, Sir Colin Davis …
The Show Must Go On is available on the high street at all good book sellers, and on Amazon and Waterstones websites as well as other online retailers.
November
October
‘There can hardly be a better and more productive way of remembering a composer than an enterprise such as this. The present disc shows that composing in Britain is not only alive and well but incredibly fruitful. I urge music-lovers everywhere to listen to this and get an insight into where some of the future’s great music will be coming from.’ Music Web International
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s another year comes to a close, the LSO can feel justifiably proud of its hard-work ethic, with … 70 Barbican concerts performed, 13 foreign countries visited, 623 Discovery projects delivered, 8 LSO Live CDs released, 6 film soundtracks recorded, and a plethora of other activities from performing at Ambassadors’ Residences to blogging. 2013 has shown LSO musicians, and the administration which supports them, to be utterly committed to bringing the joy of music to the widest possible audience, in a myriad of inventive ways.
… which were also recorded for broadcast on Mezzo, and for a future Berlioz focus on LSO Play, the new website, and for LSO Live. At LSO St Luke’s an eight-part Mozart series of BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime concerts featuring Christian Blackshaw, Michael Collins, London Winds and the Ebène Quartet drew to a close. November also marked the final stages of a special filmed LSO Discovery collaboration. Details will be announced in the New Year and the resulting documentary will be screened next spring.
winter 2013
2013 IN REVIEW
…introduced by Colin Matthews and François-Xavier Roth, the conductor who has fronted the Panufnik Composers Scheme right from its inception in 2006. A new Panufnik Legacies CD soon followed, and was reviewed on BBC Radio 3 CD Review; the album has since been downloaded more than 35,000 times on Spotify, earning industry accolades:
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usicians often have other talents: qualified doctors, archaeologists and chemists reside within the ranks of the LSO.
June
May
April
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he first LSO Futures Week took place from 9 to 13 April at the Barbican and LSO St Luke’s, featuring 22 of the LSO’s team of young composers …
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GERGIEV 60
Gergiev: 60 years young LSO Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev has a reputation as one of the most indemand and on-the-go conductors working today. 2013 saw Gergiev celebrate his 60th birthday. For most of us, such a landmark would signal the gradual replacement of a work-fuelled life for a more leisure-filled one; not so in the conducting arena, one of the few professions where practitioners in their 70s and 80s are often regarded as being in their prime, and even less so for a workaholic like Valery Gergiev. Gergiev’s projects with the LSO alone in 2013 included wrapping up a season-long Brahms/Szymanowski cycle, a free outdoor concert to an audience of 10,000+ in the heart of the capital, new releases on LSO Live, a BBC Prom featuring the UK premiere of Sofia Gubaidulina’s apocalyptic The Rider on the White Horse, and most recently, a three-week long Berlioz series encompassing 13 concerts across five European countries. All this in addition to responsibilities elsewhere: he is Artistic Director of St Petersburg’s White Nights Festival, conductor of the World Orchestra for Peace, and most impressively, Artistic and General Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, Russia’s biggest arts institution, proving he has corporate as well as creative vision.
Birthday Gala In May 2013 Gergiev launched his latest LSO project: a major exploration of Hector Berlioz’s choral and orchestral works. How better to begin the celebrations than as part of Valery’s own 60th birthday concert? On 22 May at the Barbican, the entire second half was devoted to Act V of Berlioz’s tragedy The Trojans, performed by the London Symphony Chorus and soloists from the Mariinsky Theatre. Virtuosos Leonidas Kavakos (violin) and Alexander Toradze (piano) were on hand to perform a series of showstoppers by the likes of Paganini and Sarasate, and the evening culminated in a larger-than-life rendition of Happy Birthday from the Orchestra, Chorus and audience. In the audience were The Viscount and Viscountess Rothermere, who generously supported the concert in memory of Lord Rothermere’s late father.
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A few days later the Orchestra received first-hand insight into the world of Valery Gergiev as they jetted off to St Petersburg to perform in Mariinsky II, the Mariinsky Theatre’s new concert hall. They were the first international orchestra to do so.
BMW LSO Open Air Classics The very next day, on Bank Holiday Monday, Gergeiv and the LSO were back in the UK for the second annual BMW LSO Open Air Classics concert, which saw a crowd of over 10,000 fill Trafalgar Square to hear Berlioz’s Le Corsaire Overture and Symphonie fantastique. Members of LSO On Track, the Orchestra’s education programme for school children in East London, shared the stage with LSO professionals; this, together with free entry for all, succeeding in bringing the Orchestra’s access message to vivid life.
‘The LSO ticked all the boxes in introducing hundreds, possibly thousands, to their first classical concert.’ David Nice, The Arts Desk
‘No one could accuse Valery Gergiev of underselling. His interpretations, not least of Russian repertoire, have all the colour and explosiveness of a firework display.’
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Richard Fairman, Financial Times
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Proms In between seasons, Gergiev returned to London and the Royal Albert Hall to conduct the first of the LSO’s two BBC Proms. The concert was a feast of all-Russian repertoire: Borodin’s Second Symphony, Mussorgsky’s Pictures at an Exhibition and Sofia Gubaidulina’s Rider on the White Horse, described by The Guardian as ‘stunning in conception and realisation, with Gergiev marshalling immense forces … in a performance of awesome clarity and colour’.
Berlioz
at the Barbican and across Europe A long-standing admirer of Berlioz, Gergiev has said that what attracts him to the music is how ‘contemporary, fresh and unpredictable’ it sounds. From 31 October to 17 November the Orchestra and Gergiev immersed themselves in the mind and music of this most flamboyant of Frenchmen, with eight concerts at the Barbican, a further five in Brno (Czech Republic), St Pölten (Austria), Essen and Paris, and a series of pre-concert talks, Guildhall recitals, family events and study days. Epic dramas Harold in Italy, The Death of Cleopatra, The Damnation of Faust and Romeo and Juliet were performed along with the Waverley and Benvenuto Cellini overtures, song cycle Les nuits d’été and the seminal Symphonie fantastique. Soloists included British mezzo-soprano Karen Cargill and viola player Antoine Tamestit, who was delighted to be sharing the stage with Gergiev for the first time.
LSO Live
‘Because he is such a passionate musician and performer, I can only imagine that he will fit perfectly with Berlioz, who was so avant-garde as a man and a composer. It’s this combination of elements that I cannot wait to experience.’ Antoine Tamestit, viola
2013 LSO Live releases with Valery Gergiev included:
25 years of Gergiev and the LSO
Brahms Symphonies Nos 1 & 2 Tragic Overture Variations on a Theme of Haydn
Gergiev first conducted the LSO in 1988, aged 35. He would not visit the Orchestra for another 16 years, but when he did, with a complete Prokofiev symphony cycle in the 2003/4 season, the impact was huge. In 2005 word went out that this new superman would be taking over from Sir Colin Davis as the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, effective from 2007. Since then Gergiev and the Orchestra have presented the complete symphonies of Mahler (07/08) and Tchaikovsky (11/12); extended focuses on Dutilleux (09/10), Shchedrin (10/11), Stravinsky (11/12) and Szymanowski (12/13), as well as an Émigré series (08/09) on displaced composers.
Szymanowski Symphonies Nos 1 to 4 Stabat Mater Both Szymanowski recordings have received nominations in the International Classical Music Awards – for Best Collection and Best Symphonic Music, respectively – with winners to be announced in January 2014.
Valery Gergiev will stand down as LSO Principal Conductor in 2016. But before he goes, we have a number of large projects to look forward to including the complete orchestral works of Scriabin at the Barbican and across Europe (March/April 2014), and a fascinating exploration of what he calls ‘Heartland’ Russian repertoire in 2014/15, where works by Tischenko, Balakirev, Glazunov and Lyapunov will sit alongside more regularly lauded Russian musical icons Shostakovich, Rachmaninov and Prokofiev.
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‘For once, an official celebration has actually inspired a commemorative piece worth hearing … a piece that successfully speaks beyond the City of Culture year to a wider audience.’
LONDON > DERRY~LONDONDERRY
Richard Fairman, Financial Times
A tale of two walled cities
London to Derry~Londonderry
W
alls are amongst the most powerful and ambiguous of symbols. Viewed from the outside, they speak of exclusion and hostility. Inside, the structure can act as both cocoon and cage. Walls stand long after everything else has crumbled, a visible sign of durability in a rapidly changing world. The long-standing relationship between Derry~Londonderry and the City of London is similarly characterised by contradiction. When in the early 1600s King James I organised the plantation of Ulster, in the process creating the new city of Londonderry, the Londoners tasked to go were about as keen as the native Irish; one group displaced, the other marginalised. In a recent BBC Radio 4 documentary ‘Letting the Walls Speak’, Marie Louise Muir refers to the union as an ‘arranged marriage’.
At Sixes and Sevens received not one, but two world premieres, being performed on 3 July at London’s Guildhall by an ensemble of LSO and Guildhall School players under Nicholas Collon as part of the City of London Festival, and simultaneously in Derry~Londonderry’s Guildhall by Camerata Ireland with Barry Douglas. Both performances incorporated local young people performing their own music and poetry inspired by Turnage and Muldoon’s work. In Derry, The Verbal Arts Centre and Wall2Wall music, led by LSO Discovery animateur Paul Griffiths (pictured below), worked with teenagers in six local schools for a month. Over in London 11- to 14-year-olds from three City of London-sponsored Academies took part in similar creative workshops.
Fairytale wedding it wasn’t, but the bond between the two cities has endured. In 2013, 400 years after the partnership was forged, original financial backers The Honourable The Irish Society partnered with the City of London Corporation, Arts Council England and others, to raise money once more, this time for something artistic. English composer Mark-Anthony Turnage (pictured far right) and Northern Irish poet Paul Muldoon were commissioned to create a cantata to mark the 400-year anniversary; At Sixes and Sevens was the resulting piece. The phrase originates from a 14th-century dispute between the Merchant Taylors’ and Skinners’ Livery Companies – founded in the same year, they squabbled over order of precedence, eventually agreeing to swap between sixth and seventh place annually. Muldoon felt the notion of one group’s precarious power over another to be particularly relevant to the Derry~Londonderry/City project. Turnage’s music too has a restless quality with a recurring uneasy motif cutting through all manner of moods from energetic to dream-like to chaotic.
living music
Coincidentally, the spotlight was already trained on Derry~Londonderry in 2013: the city has enjoyed its accolade as the inaugural UK City of Culture with a host of arts and culture events on offer. In March, the LSO and conductor Frank Strobel performed in probably the largest marquee they’ll ever see – The Venue – as part of the City of Culture Festival. The Orchestra brought a John Williams programme to an audience of 2,500, accompanied by excerpts of the related blockbusters. Having recorded the original soundtracks to Star Wars, Superman and Raiders of the Lost Ark, amongst others, the LSO remains unparalleled in its delivery of Williams’ scores. Players Belinda McFarlane
(violin), Robert Turner (viola), Noel Bradshaw (cello) and Gareth Davies (Principal Flute) visited local schools, engaging in Q&As with children and offering an insight into the life of the professional musician – and no doubt a few impromptu renditions of Star Wars. From bringing film scores to local people, to playing its part in marking a landmark political anniversary, the LSO has been proud to be involved with Derry~Londonderry in this most significant of years. The cities are no longer bound by their walls and the Square Mile’s involvement in Derry~ Londonderry is nowadays mostly titular – but the two cities have a shared history and, from that, much common ground. And that will remain standing for years to come.
Moving Music
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W
hat does it mean to be a pioneer? The dictionary definition is, ‘A person who is among the first to explore or settle a new country or area.’ At the LSO, our Pioneers are inspired individuals who can see what is around the corner and want to help make it a reality. The next decade is going to witness an explosion in the LSO’s ability to disseminate its core product – live concerts – to a global audience. Regularly playing to capacity audiences at its Barbican home and repeatedly selling out concert halls abroad from China to India, there is a currently limit on how many people can enjoy the transformative soundworld of the symphony orchestra. This is about to change. LSO Live, founded in 2000, was the first radical break in this direction. For the last 13 years, people from all corners of the world have been able to hear the LSO perform on CD, and more recently via downloads. Partnerships with industry leaders like iTunes have ensured the LSO is at the forefront of making classical music available to all who are curious about it, not just those who happen to live near a concert hall. It’s not just audio. As internet use has become increasingly ubiquitous (a third of the world’s population are now online) the LSO has kept pace with lightning developments in technology to set the benchmark in social media. These platforms are not about selling – they are hubs for sharing and building trust. Channels like Facebook, Google+ and YouTube allow a crucial visual component to be introduced: the LSO’s YouTube Channel alone elicits thousands of comments from seasoned symphony-lovers and novices alike. It is clear: the appetite for classical music is alive and well. Moreover, some of the most eager voices are precisely those who do not have the luxury of a world-class orchestra on their doorstep.
This is where LSO Pioneers come in. By making a gift of £3,000 between now and May 2015 Pioneers form a key component in the LSO’s Moving Music campaign, the three-year match-funding initiative to raise £9 million for the Orchestra and support the digital mission. LSO Pioneers are influential individuals in their own sectors who are passionate about bringing the joy of music to the widest possible audience. Current Pioneers come from a variety of professions from banking, retail and consultancy to law and the arts. Donations are just one half of the story: conceived as a peer-to-peer scheme, Pioneers are encouraged to bring clients, colleagues and friends to see the Orchestra perform, thereby expanding the circle of potential supporters. Their expertise and networks are proving invaluable, allowing the Orchestra unprecedented access to inspiring individuals and organisations. In an economy where tried and tested funding sources are increasingly fragile, unlocking new support has never been so critical. The words ‘arts patron’ may retain the connotations of a bygone era but in truth 21st-century donors are just as likely to be found supporting education and outreach programmes as they are mixing with conductors and soloists. As we reach the halfway point of the Moving Music campaign, we are delighted to have raised nearly half of our £6 million target. But there is still a long way to go. So to those who love music, and feel, as we do, that the joy it brings is a basic human right – join us. Be pioneering.
Cathy Wearing
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hen a friend asked me why he should become an LSO Pioneer rather than donate to the Orchestra’s core programme, I told him the two reasons I became one. The first is that my donation is matched by Arts Council England funding, making it much more valuable to the orchestra. The second is that I want to help reach people who don’t already come to hear the LSO in the concert hall. That’s because I’ve seen from my own experience how music has the power to change lives. I’ve seen one of my own children, silenced by a learning difficulty in school, find his voice through singing. A boy who didn’t talk in school was transformed when he was given the chance to sing on the stage of an opera house. That young boy with very little self-esteem has grown into a young man with a steely inner confidence as a result of the self-expression he found through music. My child had many opportunities because I’ve always been involved with music. I’d now like to help create those opportunities for other children. Becoming an LSO Pioneer enables me to do just that.
For more information on joining LSO Pioneers, contact: Fabienne Morris 020 7382 2545 or fabienne.morris@lso.co.uk
The LSO wants to share more, with more people. Audio alone and ad hoc video clips of the Orchestra are not enough. Systematic, high quality audio visual dissemination is the name of the game. Over the next five years, LSO performances will be captured using the latest high definition recording technologies and disseminated to millions worldwide through television and the internet. Re-purposed material will go directly into schools and cinemas providing a truly 21st-century educational resource and revolutionising the scope of the Orchestra’s award-winning education and outreach programme, LSO Discovery, which currently reaches over 60,000 participants a year; just like our live concerts, LSO Discovery is operating at capacity.
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MOVING MUSIC – PIONEERS
LSO Pioneers
Why I’m an LSO Pioneer …
See more at lso.co.uk/lsolive
Berlioz
Szymanowski
Britten
Sir Colin Davis was a revered Berlioz expert and his LSO Live Berlioz recordings were one of the most widely acclaimed series of classical recordings of recent years, collecting numerous awards, including two Grammy Awards for Les Troyens. The release of the monumental Grande Messe des morts marked the completion of this cycle and further confirms Sir Colin’s status as one of the greatest conductors of Berlioz’s music.
This second, star-studded instalment of Gergiev’s Szymanowski cycle features Toby Spence as soloist in the Third Symphony (‘Song of the Night’) and internationally renowned pianist, Denis Matsuev in the virtuosic Symphony No 4. Szymanowski’s deeply personal choral work, the Stabat Mater, completes the cycle staring Sally Matthews and Ekaterina Gubanova, and introduces the young baritone, Kostas Smoriginas to LSO Live listeners.
Released in celebration of Britten’s centenary year, Richard Farnes, Music Director of Opera North who led their own critically acclaimed production of The Turn of the Screw in 2010, conducts an all-English cast in Britten’s most ingeniously crafted opera, including Andrew Kennedy, Sally Matthews, and 11-year-old Michael Clayton-Jolly in the role of Miles.
Recorded in St Paul’s Cathedral, a fitting acoustic for the work, the London Symphony Orchestra is joined by English lyric tenor Barry Banks and two of London’s finest choirs, the London Symphony Chorus and London Philharmonic Choir.
Szymanowski’s desire to embody the music of his native land, and his incorporation of the folkloric sounds of the Polish mountains, make his orchestral works a must for anyone with an interest in Polish culture and music.
LSO LIVE
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LSO Live Latest releases
‘An essential purchase.’ The Arts Desk
‘A hothouse performance.’ BBC Music Magazine
In 1932, the 18-year-old Britten heard on the radio ‘a wonderful, impressive but terribly eerie and scary play, The Turn of the Screw by Henry James’. Britten’s version of the ghost story, premiered in 1954, is a chamber opera in a prologue and two acts. The opera tells the story of a governess and a housekeeper who vow to protect two children, Miles and Flora, from the strange happenings that occur in the grounds of their English country house.
Supported by the Adam Mickiewicz Institute as part of the Polska Music programme.
‘Could hardly be bettered.’ SA-CD.net
The 100th LSO Live Release SIR COLIN DAVIS BOXSET In April 2014 the LSO will be celebrating its 100th LSO Live release on the anniversary of the death of Sir Colin Davis, with a special edition boxset of selected highlight recordings and previously unreleased material conducted by Sir Colin. Keep an eye on lso.co.uk/lsolive for more details later in the spring.
living music
Recent Awards Over the past six months, LSO Live recordings have received Grammy award nominations for Best Choral Performance (Berlioz’s Grande Messe des morts) and Best Classical Producer (James Mallinson); and also six nominations for The Independent Classical Music Awards Best Collection (Szymanowski’s Symphonies Nos 3 & 4), Contemporary award (Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Speranza and From the Wreckage), Choral Work award (Fauré’s Requiem and Berlioz’s Grande Messe des morts) and Symphonic Music awards (Szymanowski and Nielsen).