London Symphony Orchestra: Online Concert Programme | Fri 12 April 2024
- Extended Concert Programme
Bristol Beacon presents
London Symphony Orchestra with Sir Antonio Pappano
Fri 12 April 2024, 7pm
This evening’s performance:
Sir Antonio Pappano Conductor
Alison Balsom Trumpet
Tenebrae Choir
London Symphony Orchestra
Wynton Marsalis Trumpet Concerto
Interval
Maurice Ravel Daphnis and Chloé
Pre-concert talk hosted by music educator Jonathan James
Welcome
Today is an important day in the developing relationship between the London Symphony Orchestra and Bristol Beacon as we welcome Chief Conductor Designate Sir Antonio Pappano to the Beacon Hall for the first time.
We also present virtuoso trumpeter Alison Balsom and the choral legends Tenebrae in a typically eclectic programme of Ravel and Wynton Marsalis.
I’m thrilled that we are able to bring these extraordinary musicians to Bristol, the first of many delights to come.
Look out for news of our 24/25 Orchestral Season which features further concerts from the LSO, to be announced later this spring.
Louise Mitchell CBE
Chief Executive, Bristol Beacon
Wynton Marsalis (b. 1961): Trumpet Concerto
1. March
2. Ballad
3. Mexican Son
4. Blues
5. French Pastoral (Flowing Waltz)
6. Harlequin Two-Step
Wynton Marsalis made his name as a classical trumpet virtuoso with recordings of the Haydn, Hummel and Leopold Mozart trumpet concertos. That disc won a Grammy in 1984, along with another of Marsalis’ albums, the jazz smash Think of One. Four decades later he has written a Trumpet Concerto of his own, drawing on both classical and jazz idioms, along with just about everything in between.
This sprawling, six-movement monster is a sort-of trumpet encyclopedia. Over 35 minutes Marsalis presents various snapshots of the instrument, tracing its evolution and paying flamboyant tribute to some of its most cherished performers. This rear-view mirror approach was conceived jointly with Cleveland Orchestra Principal Trumpet Michael Sachs, for whom the Concerto was written: ‘We started talking about form and movements and ended up talking for an hour about great trumpet players we’ve admired and loved,’ Marsalis recalls. ‘We went through person after person, and I think all of that is in the Concerto.’
Marsalis likes to joke that a trumpet sounded at the beginning of the world and will sound at its end too. So it does in his concerto. But, with typical Marsalian cheek, it is not the archangel Gabriel that sets things off – but a trumpeting elephant. This first-movement ‘March’ nods to the Classical concertos that brought Marsalis such renown, with its bright fanfares, lyrical counter melody and trumpet-timpani partnership. We also hear the first hints of what Marsalis calls ‘magical elements’: alternate fingerings, growls and flutters that spice up the trumpet’s palette and which are developed throughout the piece.
In the second movement, ‘Ballad’, the trumpet switches partners, leading the oboe in a doo-wop duet. Here Marsalis embraces the ‘unabashed romantic style of instrumental singing gifted to the world by Louis Armstrong’, taking the first movement countermelody and turning it up to maximum croon. But the mood shifts abruptly with ‘Mexican Son’, Marsalis’ ode to the Afro-Hispanic diaspora. Highlighting the ‘solitary, razor-sharp attack of the Spanish-inflected trumpet’, he reimagines the opening ‘March’ in a set of Spanish-inflected variations. A Spanish Bolero then sees the trumpet duel with a bassoon, before shuffling to a close in a 5/4-time Habanera.
The intellectual heart of the work, ‘Blues’, riffs on the idea of call-and-response to illustrate the tension within that genre between sacred and secular: as trombones and horns preach a po-faced sermon, the trumpet fidgets and jokes in the pews. Both grow in resolve before erupting into a lustrous brass chorale. A brief waltz, inspired by the dazzling trumpetry of Frenchmen Maurice André and Pierre Thibaud, then whisks us to the finale. Here, to the groove of an Eastern European two-step, Marsalis brings together themes from the five preceding movements in a manic jamboree; an army of orchestral percussion clatters while the soloist, wallowing in the full panoply of Marsalis’ ‘magical’ (or ‘Harlequin’) tricks, dances majestically atop the mayhem. At last, our elephant – who else? – brings the work to a close with a solitary fanfare.
Marsalis is a collaborator as much as he is composer, and has clearly relished the opportunity to learn about his instrument while working on this Concerto: ‘[Sachs] has a very different body of knowledge and set of skills to the ones that I have,’ he admits, and plenty of the music therefore sits outside the composer’s usual fare. But the collaborative process goes both ways, and by tapping the limits of his own trumpet virtuosity, Marsalis wills the soloist to convey ‘the broad depth of feeling and the joy of defying technical limitations that defines our legacy as trumpeters’. And, being a jazzer, he has also left plenty of room in the score for spontaneity, thus allowing tonight’s soloist, Alison Balsom, to stomp her own mark on this emphatic, elephantic joyride.
© Timmy Fisher
Maurice Ravel (1875-1937): Daphnis and Chloé
Dance holds a treasured and central place in Ravel’s music, from La Valse and Boléro to the many pavanes, minuets, waltzes, foxtrots and tangos which pervade his instrumental and operatic music. The hour-long ballet Daphnis et Chloé makes a strong claim to be his greatest work; Ravel called it a ‘choreographic symphony’, indicating his pride at the way its kaleidoscopic moods, colours and dance-rhythms are integrated into a compelling musical and dramatic arc. Serge Diaghilev commissioned the new piece for his Ballets Russes in 1909, bringing together an impressive creative team: Nijinsky and Karsavina dancing the title roles; Mikhail Fokine as choreographer; Leon Bakst as designer; and Pierre Monteux to conduct Ravel’s new score. Things did not go smoothly, however, particularly between Ravel and Fokine. Each spoke almost nothing of the other’s language, and their artistic visions differed too. As he said, Ravel aimed “to compose a vast musical fresco in which I was less concerned with archaism than with reproducing faithfully the Greece of my dreams, very like that imagined by French artists at the turn of the eighteenth century.” It did not prove easy to reconcile this with Fokine’s vision of the “archaic dancing painted in red and black on Attic vases,” and when arguments also broke out between Fokine and Nijinsky Diaghilev came close to calling the whole thing off. The last straw was Ravel’s long-drawn out difficulty completing the final riotous danse générale, which in the end took him almost a year. Initially scheduled for the 1910 season, Daphnis was twice postponed and finally presented in May 1912.
The scenario is adapted from an erotic pastoral by the 2nd-century Greek writer Longus. From the hushed beauty of the opening bars Ravel evokes ‘the Greece of his dreams’ in shimmering perfection, conjuring an enchanted vision of the pastures of Lesbos where young men and women bring offerings for the nymphs whose statues guard the spot. Naïve Daphnis and clumsy Dorcon compete for a kiss from Chloe (beautiful, but no less naïve) which sends the victorious Daphnis into ecstacies, so that he is in no mood for an attempted seduction by Lyceion, which merely disturbs and confuses him. (In Longus’ original she is more successful, and teaches him the arts of love. In general, it is noteworthy how the stage scenario for this sumptuously sensual score avoids love-scenes; against all expectations, there is not even a pas-de-deux for Daphnis and Chloe. The music, however, more than makes up for this!) At this moment pirates attack and Chloe is kidnapped. Daphnis curses the powers who failed to protect her, and swoons. Magically the nymphs descend from their pedestals, dance around Daphnis, and lead him to a rock which transforms into a vast image of Pan. As darkness descends we hear distant voices as the curtain rises on the second tableau, a rough coast where the pirates are raucously celebrating their success. Forced to dance, Chloe tries feebly to escape, only to be carried off by the pirate leader Bryaxis. But mysterious sounds and apparitions intrude, and suddenly Pan himself appears, as the pirates run in terror.
The third and final tableau falls into three broad sequences. In the first, dawn steals over the cave where Daphnis wakes, and he is reunited with Chloe; this glorious scene is one of Ravel’s most sumptuous inspirations, both exquisite and powerful as it evokes the babbling stream, the rising sun and the lover’s rapturous emotions. In the second sequence the lovers show their gratitude to the gods by enacting Pan’s seduction of Syrinx, to a long and infinitely seductive flute solo which is another highpoint of the work. Finally, forgetting their roles, the lovers fall into each other’s arms; everyone joins them in the final dance, a wild and wine-fuelled affair of sheer pagan joy and exhilaration. Ultimately Daphnis et Chloé is, more than a tale of two lovers, the celebration of an idyllic fantasy-world: his Classical Neverland inspired Ravel to the richest and fullest expression of his art.
© Jeremy Thurlow
Sir Antonio Pappano
Conductor
One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed for his charismatic leadership and inspirational performances in both symphonic and operatic repertoire, Sir Antonio Pappano is Chief Conductor Designate of the London Symphony Orchestra (assuming the full title from the 2024/2025 season) and has been Music Director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden since 2002. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, having served as Music Director from 2005-2023. Nurtured as a pianist, repetiteur and assistant conductor at many of the most important opera houses of Europe and North America, including at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and several seasons at the Bayreuth Festival as musical assistant to Daniel Barenboim, Pappano was appointed Music Director of Oslo’s Den Norske Opera in 1990, and from 1992-2002 served as Music Director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. From 1997-1999 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Pappano is in demand as an opera conductor at the highest international level, including with the Metropolitan Opera New York, the State Operas of Vienna and Berlin, the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Teatro alla Scala, and has appeared as a guest conductor with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin, Vienna and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Bavarian Radio, Chicago and Boston Symphonies, the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and the Orchestre de Paris. He maintains a particularly strong relationship with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Highlights of the 23/24 season and beyond include and wide-ranging European tours with the London Symphony, and flagship concerts at their home in London’s Barbican Centre, with repertoire including Mendelssohn’s Elijah, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloe, orchestral masterpieces from Beethoven and Strauss to Bartok, Boulanger, Ades and Rachmaninov, and world premieres by Hannah Kendall and Wynton Marsalis. He also makes his debut with the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, return visits to the Royal Concertgebouw and Staatskapelle Dresden, and new productions of Elektra and Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen at the Royal Opera House. Pappano will also appear at the Salzburg Easter Festival with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in a residency including performances of Verdi’s Requiem, and a staging of Ponchielli’s La Gioconda.
Pappano has been an exclusive recording artist for Warner Classics (formerly EMI Classics) since 1995, and his discography features numerous complete operas, including Don Carlo, La Rondine, Guillaume Tell, Il Trittico, Werther, Il Trovatore, Tristan und Isolde, and Aida. 2022 saw the release on Sony Classical of Verdi’s Otello, and a disc of Verdi duets with Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tezier, and Vaughan William’s 4th and 6th symphonies for LSO Live, and in 2023 Warner released the first studio recording of Puccini’s Turandot with the complete conclusion by Alfano, recorded in Rome with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Pappano’s orchestral recordings with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia include Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, Rachmaninov’s 2nd, Mahler’s 6th, Dvorak’s 9th and Tchaikovsky’s 4th, 5th and 6th symphonies, Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Petite Messe Solenelle and selected Overtures, Britten’s War Requiem, and Verdi’s Requiem, and his discography also documents his work with other ensembles including the London Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, and the orchestras of the Royal Opera House and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, in music ranging from Pergolesi and Mendelssohn through to Panufnik, Boesmans and Maxwell Davies. Numerous productions from the Royal Opera House have been released on DVD, including Carmen, Les Troyens, Parsifal, Simon Boccanegra, Le nozze di Figaro, and Manon Lescaut. His recordings have received extensive accolades including Classic BRIT, ECHO Klassik, BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone Awards.
As a pianist, Antonio Pappano appears as an accompanist with some of the most celebrated singers, including Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Gerald Finley and Ian Bostridge. He has also partnered singers and instrumental soloists on disc, including in operatic recitals with Nina Stemme, Placido Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann, concerto recordings with soloists including Leif Ove Andsnes, Maxim Vengerov, Janine Jansen, Jan Lisiecki and Beatrice Rana, and chamber recitals with Ian Bostridge, Barbara Bonney and Joyce DiDonato. He has a strong commitment to nurturing young singers and instrumentalists, close connections with the Aldeburgh and Verbier Festivals, leading concerts and masterclasses.
Antonio Pappano was born in London to Italian parents and moved with his family to the United States at the age of 13. He studied piano with Norma Verrilli, composition with Arnold Franchetti and conducting with Gustav Meier. His awards and honours include Gramophone’s ‘Artist of the Year’ in 2000, the 2003 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, the 2004 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, and the Bruno Walter prize from the Académie du Disque Lyrique in Paris. In 2012 he was created a Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Republic of Italy, and a Knight of the British Empire for his services to music, and in 2015 he was named the 100th recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal, the body’s highest honour. He has also developed a notable career as a speaker and presenter, and has fronted several critically-acclaimed BBC Television documentaries including ‘Opera Italia’, ‘Pappano’s Essential Ring Cycle’ and ‘Pappano’s Classical Voices’.
Alison Balsom
Trumpet
Described as “…simply divine” by Sunday Telegraph, Alison Balsom’s life in music has been much more than as a virtuoso and ambassador for her instrument. Her outstanding talent and approach to trumpet repertoire have been critically acclaimed, and she has engaged herself more widely in creating new formats and pathways for her creative life. Alison Balsom has performed with some of the greatest conductors and orchestras of our time including Pierre Boulez, Lorin Maazel, Sir Roger Norrington, Trevor Pinnock, Orchestre de Paris, Philadelphia Orchestra, San Francisco and Toronto Symphony orchestras, New York and London Philharmonic orchestras, Britten Sinfonia, the Academy of Ancient Music, Scottish Ensemble, Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, The English Concert, where she has been a trustee since 2020, as well as The Balsom Ensemble, a handpicked group of leading Baroque soloists.
Alison has recorded exclusively with EMI Classics (now Warner Classics) since 2001. Her next album (her sixteenth with the label) will be the hotly anticipated Baroque Concertos album with Trevor Pinnock, and will be recorded in January 2024. Alison is a three-time recipient of Germany’s Echo Klassik Award and three Classic BRIT awards – two of which as Female Artist of the Year. Alison was named Gramophone Artist of the Year 2013 and has received a Nordoff Robbins O2 Silver Clef Award.
Alison conceived and then became creative producer and protagonist of the critically acclaimed production Gabriel at Shakespeare’s Globe in London in 2013. This project was revived in concert at the Barbican in October 2019 as part of her 2022 residency at Milton Court.
During her time as Artistic Director of Cheltenham Music Festival in 2018 and 2019, Alison brought together London Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Academy of Ancient Music with soloists Nicola Benedetti, Jess Gillam and Danielle de Niese; she commissioned twenty new works to celebrate the Festival’s 75th anniversary and founded the contemporary music symposium – Composium.
Alison commissioned and gave the Premiere of Thea Musgrave’s Trumpet Concerto at Cheltenham Music Festival, and its US premiere with Los Angeles Philharmonic at the Hollywood Bowl in 2021. Constantly exploring the boundaries of her instrument, she has had numerous concertos written for her including World Premieres of Thea Musgrave’s Trumpet Concerto, Qigang-Chen’s Joie Eternelle and Guy Barker’s Lanterne of Light at the BBC Proms, and in Spring 2024 will give the UK and German Premieres of Wynton Marsalis’ Trumpet Concerto with Sir Antonio Pappano and London Symphony Orchestra and Sweden premiere with Cristian Măcelaru and Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Alison was the first brass player to be selected by the prestigious BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists scheme, and gave regular performances with all of the BBC Orchestras. In 2009 she was the soloist at the Last Night of the BBC Proms. She studied at the Paris Conservatoire, and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. She is now an honorary Fellow and visiting Professor at the Guildhall, and has received honorary doctorates from The University of York, Anglia Ruskin University, the University of Leicester. Alison has taught masterclasses worldwide, including at the Juilliard School and the Curtis Institute.
Alison has given a TED talk, entitled ‘Music as a Healer’ and a lecture at Somerville College, Oxford University on ‘Women in the Arts’. Alison is a passionate advocate of the importance of music education and is an ambassador for the BBC Ten Pieces project.
Alison was awarded an OBE for Services to Music in the Queens 90th Birthday honours (2016). Alison was a guest on the renowned BBC Radio 4 programme Desert Island Discs presented by Kirsty Young in 2015.
Tenebrae
Described as “phenomenal” (The Times) and “devastatingly beautiful” (Gramophone Magazine), award-winning choir Tenebrae is one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, renowned for its passion and precision.
Under the direction of Nigel Short, Tenebrae performs at major festivals and venues across the globe, including the BBC Proms, Wigmore Hall, Elbphilharmonie Hamburg, Rheingau Musik Festival and Sydney Festival. The choir has earned international acclaim for its interpretations of choral works from the Renaissance through to contemporary masterpieces, and it regularly commissions new music. It has enjoyed collaborations with some of the UK’s leading orchestras, including the London Symphony Orchestra, Aurora Orchestra, the Academy of Ancient Music and Britten Sinfonia.
Tenebrae has won two BBC Music Magazine Awards and an Edison Classical Music Award, and earned a Grammy nomination for its album Music of the Spheres. The ensemble also undertakes regular session work, most recently contributing the vocals for the soundtrack to blockbuster sci-fi movie Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).
Alongside its performance and recording schedule, Tenebrae runs a thriving Learning & Connection programme, through which it works with hundreds of children, young people and amateur singers each year.
Choir Credits
Soprano
Jennifer Clark
Elizabeth Drury
Fiona Fraser
Isabella Gibber
Catriona Holsgrove
Marie Macklin
Laura Newey
Elisabeth Partridge
Áine Smith
Rosanna Wicks
Alto
Helena Cooke
Eleanor Minney
Sophie Overin
Lorna Price
Shivani Rattan
Anna Semple
Olivia Shotton
Joy Sutcliffe
Tenor
James Beddoe
Jeremy Budd
Jacob Ewens
Jack Granby
Jack Harberd
Sam Madden
Carlos Otero
Dominic Wallis
Edward Woodhouse
Bass
Gregory Bannan
Tom Butler
Gavin Cranmer-Moralee
Joseph Edwards
Simon Grant
Stephen Kennedy
Thomas Lowen
James Mawson
Jonathan Pratt
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra is built on the belief that extraordinary music should be available to everyone, everywhere.
The LSO was established in 1904 as one of the first orchestras shaped by its musicians. Today it is ranked among the world’s top orchestras, with a family of artists that includes Chief Conductor Designate Sir Antonio Pappano, Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle, Principal Guest Conductors Gianandrea Noseda and François-Xavier Roth, Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas and Associate Artists Barbara Hannigan and André J Thomas.
The LSO is Resident Orchestra at the Barbican in the City of London, and reaches international audiences through touring and artistic residencies, and through digital partnerships and an extensive programme of live-streamed and on-demand online broadcasts.
Through a world-leading learning and community programme, LSO Discovery, the LSO connects people from all walks of life to the power of great music. LSO musicians are at the heart of this unique programme, leading workshops, mentoring bright young talent, performing at free concerts for the local community and using music to support neurodiverse adults. LSO musicians also visit children’s hospitals and lead training programmes for teachers.
In 1999, the LSO formed its own recording label, LSO Live. It has become one of the world’s most talked-about classical labels, and has over 200 recordings in the catalogue so far. The LSO is a leading orchestra for film, and uses streaming services to reach a worldwide online audience totalling millions every month. Through inspiring music, learning programmes and technological innovations, the LSO’s reach extends far beyond the concert hall.
Orchestra Credits
Violin 1
Roman Simovic, Leader
Noé Inui
Ginette Decuyper
Maxine Kwok
William Melvin
Stefano Mengoli
Claire Parfitt
Elizabeth Pigram
Laurent Quénelle
Harriet Rayfield
Sylvain Vasseur
Richard Blayden
Laura Dixon
Dániel Mészöly
Shoshanah Sievers
Rhys Watkins
Violin 2
Julián Gil Rodríguez
Thomas Norris
Sarah Quinn
Miya Väisänen
David Ballesteros
Matthew Gardner
Alix Lagasse
Belinda McFarlane
Iwona Muszynska
Csilla Pogány
Andrew Pollock
Paul Robson
Ricky Gore
Naoko Keatley
Viola
Gillianne Haddow
Malcolm Johnston
Matan Gilitchensky
Steve Doman
Thomas Beer
Germán Clavijo
Julia O’Riordan
Robert Turner
Mizuho Ueyama
May Dolan
Shiry Rashkovsky
Martin Schaefer
Cello
Rebecca Gilliver
Laure Le Dantec
Alastair Blayden
Ève-Marie Caravassilis
Daniel Gardner
Amanda Truelove
Judith Fleet
Ghislaine McMullin
Peteris Sokolovskis
Joanna Twaddle
Double Bass
Rodrigo Moro Martín
Patrick Laurence
Joe Melvin
Jani Pensola
Chaemun Im
Thomas Goodman
Ben Griffiths
Adam Wynter
Flute
Gareth Davies
Imogen Royce
Patricia Moynihan
Piccolo
Sharon Williams
Oboe
Juliana Koch
Olivier Stankiewicz
Rosie Jenkins
Cor Anglais
Augustin Gorisse
Clarinet
Sérgio Pires
James Gilbert
Chi-Yu Mo
Bass Clarinet
Martino Moruzzi
Bassoon
Rachel Gough
Joost Bosdijk
Lois Au
Contra Bassoon
Martin Field
Horn
Timothy Jones
Diego Incertis Sánchez
Angela Barnes
James Pillai
Jonathan Maloney
Brendan Thomas
Trumpet
James Fountain
Imogen Whitehead
Adam Wright
Kaitlin Wild
Jon Holland
Trombone
Simon Johnson
Jonathan Hollick
Bass Trombone
Paul Milner
Tuba
Ben Thomson
Timpani
Nigel Thomas
Patrick King
Percussion
Neil Percy
David Jackson
Sam Walton
Patrick King
Tom Edwards
Jacob Brown
Matthew Farthing
Benedict Hoffnung
Barnaby Archer
Harp
Bryn Lewis
Elizabeth Bass
Celeste
Catherine Edwards
LSO Admin
Dame Kathryn McDowell DBE DL, Managing Director
Miriam Loeben, Tours Manager
Emily Rutherford, Personnel Manager
Kenneth Chung, Librarian
Al Goode, Operations Manager
Jakub Drewa, Stage Manager
Fern Wilson, Stage Manager