Giovanni Gabrieli Canzon primi toni à 8 Canzon duodecimi toni à 8 Antonio Vivaldi Concerto for Four Violins in B minor Goffredo Petrassi Concerto for Orchestra No 5 Interval Giacomo Puccini Capriccio sinfonico Victor de Sabata Juventus Sir Antonio Pappano conductor Recorded for LSO Live and deferred broadcast on Symphony and BBC Radio 3 SIR ANTONIO PAPP ANO PETRASSI, PUCCINI & DE SABATA Thursday 2 June 2022 7–9pm Barbican RESPIGHI & DALLAPICCOLA Sunday 5 June 2022 7–9pm Barbican Ottorino Respighi Church Windows Interval Luigi Dallapiccola Il prigioniero Sir Antonio Pappano conductor Ángeles Blancas GulÍn Mother Eric Greene Prisoner Stefano Secco Gaoler/Grand Inquisitor Egor Zhuravskii First Priest Chuma Sijeqa Second Priest London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director Guildhall School Singers
Transcript
Giovanni Gabrieli Canzon primi toni à 8 Canzon duodecimi toni à 8 Antonio Vivaldi Concerto for Four Violins in B minor Goffredo Petrassi Concerto for Orchestra No 5 Interval Giacomo Puccini Capriccio sinfonico Victor de Sabata Juventus
Sir Antonio Pappano conductor Recorded for LSO Live and deferred broadcast on Symphony and BBC Radio 3
SIR ANTONIOPAPPANO
PETRASSI, PUCCINI & DE SABATA Thursday 2 June 2022 7–9pm Barbican
RESPIGHI & DALLAPICCOLA Sunday 5 June 2022 7–9pm Barbican
Ottorino Respighi Church Windows Interval Luigi Dallapiccola Il prigioniero
Sir Antonio Pappano conductor Ángeles Blancas GulÍn Mother Eric Greene Prisoner Stefano Secco Gaoler/Grand Inquisitor Egor Zhuravskii First Priest Chuma Sijeqa Second Priest London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director Guildhall School Singers
Welcome
On Thursday the Orchestra performs a variety of music by Italian composers from the 16th to the 20th centuries, opening with two short pieces for brass players by Giovanni Gabrieli, followed by Antonio Vivaldi’s Concerto for Four Violins. Orchestral works by 20th-century Italian greats Goffredo Petrassi and Victor de Sabata, and by renowned operatic composer Giacomo Puccini, complete the programme. This performance is being recorded for LSO Live and deferred broadcast on Symphony and BBC Radio 3.
Sunday’s concert brings more Italian music, begininning with Ottorino Respighi’s Church Windows, followed after the interval by Luigi Dallapiccola’s 20th-century opera Il prigioniero. We are delighted to be joined by singers Ángeles Blancas Gulín, Eric Greene, Stefano Secco, Egor Zhuravskii and Chuma Sijeqa, who are all making their first appearances with the LSO at the Barbican, and by the London Symphony Chorus and singers from the Guildhall School, directed by Simon Halsey. We also extend a warm welcome on Sunday to past Members of the Orchestra, who join us in the audience.
I hope you enjoy the concerts and that you will be able to join us again soon. Later this month Music Director Sir Simon Rattle conducts our annual BMW Classics concert in Trafalgar Square (11 June), as well as concerts at the Barbican with Imogen Cooper and Håkan Hardenberger (12 and 16 June) and a spectacular gala concert at St Paul’s Cathedral (23 June).
A warm welcome to these LSO concerts over The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee weekend. Over the last 70 years,
the LSO has been privileged to enjoy the Patronage of Her Majesty The Queen, and we extend our warmest wishes on the occasion of Her Majesty’s Platinum Jubilee.
The LSO is delighted to welcome Sir Antonio Pappano to conduct these concerts. This is the first time he has worked with us since it was announced that he will become LSO Chief Conductor Designate from the 2023/24 season, taking up the role of Chief Conductor from 2024/25. We thoroughly look forward to developing rewarding projects with him, building on the success of the many memorable concerts we have enjoyed together thus far.
Kathryn McDowell CBE DL LSO Managing Director
2 Welcome 2 & 5 June 2022
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Contents
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Editorial Photography Ranald Mackechnie, Bridgeman Images, Musacchio & Ianniello, Ricardo Rios, James Bellorini, Matthias Heyde Print John Good 024 7692 0059 Advertising Cabbells Ltd 020 3603 7937 Details in this publication were correct at time of going to press.
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THURSDAY 2 JUNE 8 Canzon primi toni à 8 & Canzon duodecimi toni à 8 9 Giovanni Gabrieli 10 Concerto for Four Violins in B minor 11 Antonio Vivaldi 12 Concerto for Orchestra No 5 13 Goffredo Petrassi 14 Capriccio sinfonico 15 Giacomo Puccini 16 Juventus 17 Victor de Sabata 18 Sir Antonio Pappano 19 The Orchestra
SUNDAY 5 JUNE 22 Church Windows 23 Ottorino Respighi 24 Il prigioniero 26 Luigi Dallapiccola 27 Ángeles Blancas GulÍn & Eric Greene 28 Stefano Secco & Egor Zhuravskii 29 Chuma Sijeqa & Simon Halsey 30 London Symphony Chorus & Guildhall School Singers 32 The Orchestra Please switch off all phones. Photography and audio/video recording are not permitted during the performance.
The London Symphony Orchestra is joining with other leading arts venues and organisations to support the Disaster Emergency Committee’s (DEC’s) Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
DEC charities, and their local partners, are working to meet the immediate needs of people and will also help people affected by the conflict to rebuild their lives in the months and years to come. Please join us in supporting the DEC’s Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal.
To donate visit dec.org.uk, scan the QR code, or text ARTS to 70150 to donate £10. Texts cost £10 plus the standard network charge. £10 goes to the DEC Ukraine Humanitarian Appeal. You must be 16 or over and please ask the bill payer’s permission. For full terms and conditions visit dec.org.uk
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Coming Up
Saturday 11 June 5pm Trafalgar Square BMW CLASSICS 2022 A free open air-concert in the heart of London, conducted by Sir Simon Rattle with soloist Sheku Kanneh-Mason. Join the audience in Trafalgar Square or watch live on YouTube.
Sunday 12 June 7pm Barbican HAYDN, MOZART, GERSHWIN & JOHN ADAMS Sir Simon Rattle kicks up his heels in music by Haydn, Mozart and Gershwin – and introduces the latest showstopper from John Adams, a London premiere. lso.co.uk/whats-on
4 Her Majesty The Queen, LSO Patron 2 & 5 June 2022
Her Majesty has been the LSO’s Patron since her accession to the throne. We are privileged and grateful for the support offered by Her Majesty’s Patronage over the last 70 years, of which we share
fond memories on the occassion of her Platinum Jubilee.
Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II LSO Patron
1950s With conductor Richard Farrell 1970s With LSO Leader John Georgiadis
1982 The opening of the Barbican Centre
1982 The first LSO performance in the Barbican Hall
5Her Majesty The Queen, LSO Patron
1986 With Leonard Bernstein at the LSO’s Bernstein Festival
2004 At the LSO’s Centenary Gala1995 With Clive Gillinson at a Royal Gala at the Barbican
2009 Meeting LSO Members at the Mansion House
6 Her Majesty The Queen, LSO Patron 2 & 5 June 2022
2015 With Yuja Wang & Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas, LSO Members & Managing Director Kathryn McDowell at Buckingham Palace
2012 With Lennox Mackenzie & Roman Simovic
2009 Awarding Sir Colin Davis The Queen’s Medal for Music
2012 The Queen’s Medal for Music Gala
Ottorino Respighi Church Windows Interval Luigi Dallapiccola Il prigioniero
Sir Antonio Pappano conductor Ángeles Blancas GulÍn Mother Eric Greene Prisoner Stefano Secco Gaoler / Grand Inquisitor Egor Zhuravskii First Priest Chuma Sijeqa Second Priest London Symphony Chorus Simon Halsey chorus director Guildhall School Singers
RESPIGHI & DALLAPICCOLASunday 5 June 2022 7–9pm Barbican
SUNDAY5 JUNE
21Sunday 5 June
A free open-air concertwith Sir Simon Rattle & Sheku Kanneh-MasonSaturday 11 June 2022 5pmTrafalgar Square
Read the name Ottorino Respighi and you will likely encounter the word ‘technicolour’ somewhere nearby.
The Italian never composed for the silver screen but his extravagant music (he studied with that master of orchestral colour, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov) sometimes sounds as if it should be gracing a Hollywood blockbuster. He is best known for his Pines and Fountains of Rome, symphonic poems vividly depicting locations around Rome, but there is much more to this composer, such as his opulent ballet Belkis, Queen of Sheba, or the gorgeous lyric poem Il tramonto, or his impressions for orchestra entitled Church Windows.
In January 1919, Respighi married Elsa Olivieri Sangiacomo, a singer, composer and scholar. She had studied Gregorian chant and introduced her husband to the world of plainsong, inspiring works such as the Concerto in modo Misolidio (1925) and Concerto Gregoriano (1921). The summer after they were married, he also composed Three Piano Preludes on Gregorian Melodies on the island of Capri, Elsa describing her husband’s desire ‘to recast those magnificent melodies in a new language of sounds’. These preludes were published in 1922 and three years later, Respighi orchestrated them, adding a fourth to create a symphonic suite that was premiered in 1927 by the Boston Symphony under Serge Koussevitzky.
Unlike the Pines and Fountains of Rome, Church Windows is not a symphonic poem. Rather than depicting specific places or stories in music, Respighi added the titles afterwards. It was Claudio Guastalla, a professor of literature who had written the libretto to Respighi’s opera Belfagor, who suggested the title Stained Glass Windows of a Church (Vetrate di chiesa). They then added individual movement titles that related to Biblical texts or religious scenes they felt fitted Respighi’s music.
THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT Written in 5/4 time and with fragrant orchestral colours, Guastalla saw this languorous music as the Holy Family travelling to safety in Egypt. ‘A little caravan proceeded through the desert, in the starry night, bearing the Treasure of the World.’
SAINT MICHAEL THE ARCHANGEL ‘A clash of weapons – a battle in the skies’ suggested Guastalla, prompting him to think of St Michael and his angels fighting Satan in the heavens, taken from the Book of Revelation (12:7), although misattributed in the score to St Matthew’s Gospel. ‘And there was war in heaven: Michael and his angels fought against the dragon; and the dragon fought and his angels, And prevailed not’. It is stirring, edge-of-the-seat stuff, with a fierce theme for trombones, another led by
1 The Flight into Egypt 2 Saint Michael the Archangel 3 The Matins of St Clare 4 Saint Gregory the Great
1919–25
27 minutes
Programme note by Mark Pullinger
5 June 2022
Church WindowsOttorino Respighi
the horns and an aerial battle culminating in a triple fortissimo (very loud) crash on the tam-tam as Satan is banished from heaven.
THE MATINS OF SAINT CLARE Guastalla felt the third movement was ‘mystical, pure and convent-like’ and landed upon a passage from The Little Flowers of St Francis recounting how St Clare, founder of the Order of Poor Ladies, was borne on her sickbed by angels to the Church of St Francis so that she could attend Matins. Delicately scored, harp and celeste feature prominently in Respighi’s orchestration. This is rapt, tender music.
SAINT GREGORY THE GREAT In this magnificent finale, Respighi really lets rip, prompting Guastalla to suggest it should represent St Gregory the Great, the sixth-century Pope associated with liturgical reform. ‘Behold the Pontiff! … Bless the Lord … sing the hymn to God. Alleluia!’ The writer Edward Johnson described this movement as a ‘Papal Coronation in sound’. Distant bells are heard at the beginning, then muted horns sound a Gregorian chorale. A Mass is taking place in a church – cue a loud organ solo intoning the Missa de Angelis – before an ecstatic conclusion that truly deserves the adjective ‘technicolour’!
Born in Bologna on 9 July 1879, Ottorino Respighi pursued studies in violin and composition at Bologna’s Liceo
Musicale. He became Principal Viola in the St Petersburg Opera orchestra for the duration of the Italian opera season in 1900. He studied for five months with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov in St Petersburg, gaining invaluable experience in the techniques of orchestration from his famous teacher.
Respighi moved to Rome in 1913 to become Professor of Composition at the Liceo (later Conservatorio) di Santa Cecilia. In 1924 he was appointed director of the Conservatorio but resigned two years later to concentrate on composition and performing. Respighi toured the United States as a conductor and pianist in 1925–26 and again in 1932.
The sights and sounds of Rome, in particular those associated with its Imperial past, richly charged Respighi’s imagination. In 1916 he completed the first of a triptych of symphonic poems for large orchestra, Fountains of Rome. Ten years later there followed Pines of Rome; the third Roman work, Roman Festivals, was completed in 1928. All three pieces possess an abundance of evocative melodies and boldly colourful orchestrations.
During the final decade of his life, Respighi turned his energies to the composition of opera, including La fiamma (1933) and Lucrezia (1935). His most successful stage work, however, is generally acknowledged to be La bella dormente nel bosco, originally written for a Roman marionette theatre (1922) and later adapted for child mimes (1934). Respighi died in Rome on 18 April 1936.
IN BRIEF
Born 1879, Bologna
Died 1936, Rome
Musical training Bologna Conservatory, private study with Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Musical acquaintances The conductor Artur Nikitsch, fellow composers including Ildebrando Pizzetti and Gian Francesco Malipiero
Best known for The tone poems Fountains of Rome and Pines of Rome, the orchestral suites The Birds and Ancient Airs and Dances, Concerto Gregoriano
Composer profile by Andrew Stewart
1879 to 1936 (Italy)Ottorino Respighi In Profile
INTERVAL 20 minutes
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@londonsymphony
24 Programme Notes
‘Nobody expects the Spanish Inquisition!’ – except, perhaps, in Monty Python sketches – but
the Tribunal of the Holy Office puts in a few guest appearances in the world of orchestral music. Boris Blacher’s dark oratorio The Grand Inquisitor (1942) is based on a sequence from Dostoyevsky’s novel The Brothers Karamazov, while the Portuguese branch pops up in Leonard Bernstein’s Candide, where the title character and Dr Pangloss are tried as heretics. ‘What a day, what a day for an auto-da-fé!’ goes Bernstein’s jolly chorus.
These sentiments – if not the exact words – are also heard in Giuseppe Verdi’s Don Carlos, perhaps the most famous instance of the Spanish Inquisition in all opera. Ninety and blind, the Grand Inquisitor is a creepy character, whose arrival is heralded by a slippery contra bassoon motif. He exerts a powerful influence over Philip II in a titanic battle of wills between church and state, demanding the king hands over his confidant, the Marquis of Posa, a political free-thinker. Philip’s Grand Inquisitor casts his sinister shadow over Luigi Dallapiccola’s 1949 opera Il prigioniero (The Prisoner), although his true identity is not revealed until the chilling final part of the narrative.
SYNOPSIS Il prigioniero is a brief work – just 50 minutes – and tells the tale of a prisoner of the Spanish Inquisition. In the Prologue, a Mother is waiting to visit her son and sings of a dream which has tormented her sleep; a mysterious, forbidding figure approaches her (‘His iron lips know not what a smile is’). She
identifies him as Philip II – ‘Filippo, Il Gufo, figlio dell’Avvoltoio’ (Philip, the Owl, son of a Vulture). But slowly, his eyes vanish and only sockets remain, his cheeks hollowed, his hair falls away, revealing himself as Death.
Inside his cell, the Prisoner tells his Mother of his ordeals of torture, but explains how his Gaoler has restored his faith, sweetly calling him ‘fratello’ (brother). His Mother leaves and the Gaoler suddenly appears. He brings news of rebellion in Flanders, promising that the bell of Roelandt will ring out once more, signalling that the power of the Inquisition will be on the wane. The Prisoner thanks his Gaoler for bringing him hope and is told ‘Someone watches over you’.
The Gaoler leaves, but the Prisoner notices the cell door has not been completely closed. Creeping along the wall of the prison basement, his escape seemingly unnoticed by two monks, he eventually emerges from the shadows into a garden at night. He sees a large cedar tree and makes to embrace it … but finds himself in the arms of the Grand Inquisitor. The Prisoner recognises him by his voice as his Gaoler. ‘On the eve of your salvation, why ever did you want to abandon us?’ the Inquisitor asks. For the first time, the Prisoner considers that his death at the stake may lead to his salvation and whispers – rather than sings – his reply. ‘Freedom?’
THE MUSIC AND GENESIS OF ‘IL PRIGIONIERO’ Dallapiccola uses serial techniques in his writing, but there is lyricism and expressionism too, with shades of Alban Berg’s opera Wozzeck and Béla Bartók’s Bluebeard’s Castle in particular. The opening
5 June 2022
Ángeles Blancas GulÍn Mother Eric Greene Prisoner Stefano Secco Gaoler / Grand Inquisitor Egor Zhuravskii First Priest Chuma Sijeqa Second Priest London Symphony Chorus Guildhall School Singers
1943–48
50 minutes
Sung in Italian with English surtitles Operated by Paula Kennedy
Programme note by Mark Pullinger Serialism is a compositional technique in which a fixed series of notes, especially the twelve notes of the chromatic scale, are used to generate the harmonic and melodic basis of a piece. The notes are subject to change only in specific ways.
Luigi DallapiccolaIl prigioniero
25Programme Notes
of the opera features a motif of three dissonant chords that seem to clang like the closing of a cell door … or, indeed, like the promised bell of liberation. These chords echo through the opera, but there is much tenderness too, with Dallapiccola often reducing his orchestration to chamber-like dimensions. Off-stage choral intermezzos set Psalm verses.
The opera is subtitled Torture by Hope, taken from the novel La Torture par l’espérance by the French writer Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam which Dallapiccola’s wife, Laura, picked up from a bookstall along the Seine in Paris in 1939. She suggested that it would make a good subject for an opera, but Dallapiccola had already embarked on another work that focused on the theme of imprisonment, the choral Canti di prigionia. It was not until the end of 1943 that he began writing the libretto for Il prigioniero. Progress was slow and other work intervened, so the opera was not completed until May 1948, receiving its premiere as a radio broadcast in December 1949.
Just after the radio premiere, Dallapiccola happened to meet conductor Igor Markevitch, who directly asked him why he had been so compelled to write about prisons and prisoners. Writing in The Musical Quarterly (July 1953), Dallapiccola reflected on that question, recalling how, as an adolescent, he experienced internment for 20 months in Graz by the Austro-Hungarian government during World War I, removed there from his home in Istria.
But visits to the theatre in Graz were permitted, where Dallapicciola watched operas from the top gallery:
The experience of internment had lived with Dallapiccola, rising to the surface again when Mussolini began to adopt Hitler’s racial doctrine.
‘I felt in my soul that something unjust had befallen my family … Considering that the injustice of man had hit my father more than anyone else, and
that I could do nothing to redress its offenses, I felt very deeply humiliated.’
‘Unable to give me bread, my mother sent me to the theatre … One doesn’t feel the
pangs of hunger inside of the theatre.’
‘How should I describe my state of mind when I learned from the
radio of the decisions of the Fascist Government on that fatal September
afternoon? I should have liked to protest; but, at the same time, I was
aware that any gesture of mine would have been futile. Only through music
could I express my indignation.’
26
Luigi Dallapiccola was born to Italian parents in Pisino, Istria (then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Pazin
in Croatia) in 1904. The composer himself described Istria as ‘a crossroads between three frontiers’. His family was interned in Graz during World War I when the Austrian authorities suspected his father (headmaster of an Italian language school) of nationalist leanings. In Graz, the young Dallapiccola first heard operas by Richard Wagner and Giuseppe Verdi, which made him set his heart on a compositional career.
After the war, Dallapiccola continued his musical studies in Trieste and entered the Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini in Florence in 1921. Florence became his adopted city and he was appointed Professor of Piano at the conservatory there in 1934.
Dallapiccola showed an early interest in the music of Ferruccio Busoni, Arnold Schoenberg and Anton Webern and began to experiment in twelve-tone techniques.
His three-movement choral work Canti di prigionia (Songs of Prison), employing the Dies Irae chant along with twelve-tone technique, was his protest against Fascist doctrine. His vocal music was often based on highly charged texts, but composed with vivid imagination. Canti di liberazione (1955) celebrated Italy’s liberation from Fascist control. The premiere of his second opera, Il prigioniero, established his reputation internationally as the leading Italian composer of his generation.
During the 1950s and 60s, Dallpiccola taught composition in the United States and was a great influence on young composers such as Luciano Berio. Commiato for soprano and chamber ensemble (1972), was his final composition. Dallapiccola died in Florence on 19 February 1975.
5 June 2022
1904 (Austro-Hungarian Empire, now Croatia) to 1975 (Italy)Luigi Dallapiccola In Profile
IN BRIEF
Born 1904, Pisino
Died 1975, Florence
Musical training Conservatorio Luigi Cherubini, Florence
Musical acquaintances Arnold Schoenberg, Alfredo Casella, Gian Francesco Malipiero, Goffredo Petrassi, Luciano Berio
Best known for The operas Il prigioniero and Volo di notte, Partita for orchestra, the orchestral songs Liriche greche, the choral works Canti di prigionia and Canti di liberazione
Composer profile by Mark Pullinger
A free open-air concertwith Sir Simon Rattle & Sheku Kanneh-MasonSaturday 11 June 2022 5pmTrafalgar Square
Sir Antonio Pappano is one of today’s most sought-after conductors. He has been Music Director of the Royal
Opera since 2002, and Music Director of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome since 2005. He has previously held titles with Norwegian National Opera, Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, Brussels, and the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. In 2023 he will become Chief Conductor Designate of the London Symphony Orchestra, taking the Chief Conductor title from 2024.
Pappano appears as a guest conductor with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras and opera companies, including the Berlin, Munich and New York Philharmonic Orchestras, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, London, Chicago and Boston Symphony Orchestras, Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras, Staatskapelle Dresden, Staatskapelle Berlin, Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, Vienna State Opera, Metropolitan Opera, New York, and the Teatro alla Scala, Milan. He has performed at international festivals including those of Salzburg, Bayreuth, Aldeburgh and Verbier, and at the BBC Proms.
With the Royal Opera, Pappano’s repertoire has been notably wide-ranging. Highlights have included new productions of Rossini’s Semiramide and William Tell; Bellini’s Norma; Verdi’s The Sicilian Vespers, Aida and Otello; Wagner’s Tristan and Isolde, Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg and Parsifal; Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov; Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades; Puccini’s La bohème and Il trittico; Giordano’s Andrea Chénier; Masagni’s Cavalleria rusticana with Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci; Strauss’ Ariadne auf Naxos; Berg’s Wozzeck and Lulu; and Shostakovich’s Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk,
plus multiple performances of Wagner’s Der Ring des Nibelungen, and the world premieres of Harrison Birtwistle’s The Minotaur and Mark-Anthony Turnage’s Anna Nicole.
Since 1995 Pappano has been an exclusive recording artist for Warner Classics (formerly EMI Classics). His recordings have received many awards and include numerous complete operas (most recently Aida), and a wide range of orchestral repertory with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia. He has also made recordings with orchestras including the London Symphony Orchestra and the Berlin Philharmonic. Many of his performances with the Royal Opera have been recorded on DVD.
Pappano has 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. As a pianist he appears as an accompanist with celebrated singers such as Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Gerald Finley, Matthias Goerne, Jonas Kaufmann and Ian Bostridge.
His awards and honours include Gramophone’s Artist of the Year (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 Society’s highest honour.
conductorSir Antonio Pappano
American baritone Eric Greene’s most recent engagements include the title role in Verdi’s Rigoletto, Amonasro
(Verdi’s Aida) and Gunther (Wagner’s Götterdämmerung) for Opera North, Porgy (Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess) for Theater an der Wien and English National Opera, Richard Nixon (John Adams’ Nixon in China) for Scottish Opera, Count Monterone (Rigoletto) for Royal Opera House, Donner (Wagner’s Das Rheingold) and Gunther (Götterdämmerung) for Teatro Massimo di Palermo, the leading role of Oberon (Hans Gefors‘ Der Park) for Malmö Opera, Queequeg (Jack Heggie’s Moby Dick) for Washington National Opera, Trinity Moses (Weill’s Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny) for Salzburger Landestheater, Henry Davis
(Weill’s Street Scene) for Teatro Real, Madrid, and a range of roles for Birmingham Opera including Ivan Khovansky (Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina) and Segismundo (the world premiere of Jonathan Dove’s Life is a Dream).
Recent concert engagements include Mozart’s Requiem with the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra, Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Sir Simon Rattle, and The Word/Voice of God in Robert Nathaniel Dett’s Ordering of Moses, also with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Future seasons will include his debut at the Metropolitan Opera, Komische Oper Berlin and the Liceu, Barcelona.
Spanish soprano Ángeles Blancas Gulín’s repertory ranges from Mozart, Donizetti, Rossini and Bellini to
Verdi, Puccini, Cilea, Mascagni, Leoncavallo, and, more recently, Richard Strauss (including the title role of Salome) and Janáček (Emilia Marty in The Makropulos Affair and the Kostelnička in Jenůfa). Her concert repertory includes works by Schumann, Brahms, Mahler, Messiaen and Weill.
She has worked with many leading conductors and directors worldwide, and sung at opera houses including the Royal Opera House, Zürich Opera House, Teatro Real Madrid, Gran Teatre del
Liceu Barcelona, La Fenice Venice, Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, Teatro di San Carlo Naples, Teatro Regio Turin, Teatro Comunale di Bologna, Teatro Colón de Buenos Aires and at Washington National Opera and Carnegie Hall, among others.
Recent engagements include Minnie in Puccini’s La fanciulla del West (Teatro Bellas Artes, Mexico City), Anita in Rihm’s Das Gehege (Stuttgart Opera and La Monnaie, Brussels, with Andrea Breth and Franck Ollu) and Strauss’ Vier letzte Lieder with the Orquesta de Badajoz conducted by Álvaro Albiach.
Ángeles Blancas Gulín Mother
Eric Greene Prisoner
27Artist Biographies
28 Artist Biographies 5 June 2022
Russian tenor Egor Zhuravskii grew up in Astrakhan and studied at the Astrakhan State Conservatory, where
he obtained a Masters degree in Music. In September 2018 he joined Astrakhan State Theatre of Opera and Ballet, where he sang Lensky (Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin), Alfredo Germont (Verdi’s La traviata), Roderigo (Verdi’s Otello), Spoletta (Puccini’s Tosca) and Ruiz (Verdi’s Il trovatore). In spring and summer 2019 he performed with Astrakhan Drama Theatre. Zhuravskii has received awards from the 38th International Hans Gabor Belvedere Singing Competition, the 46th All-Russian Review Competition for vocalists and the Third International Maria Maksakova Competition.
He joined the Jette Parker Young Artists Programme at the Royal Opera House in the 2020/21 season and made his debut there as Brother (Weill’s The Seven Deadly Sins), Billy (Weill’s Mahagonny Songspiel) and roles in the JPYA Summer Performance. This season for the Royal Opera he sings Gastone de Letorières (La traviata), Malcolm (Verdi’s Macbeth), Borsa (Verdi’s Rigoletto), Beppe (Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci) and Uldino (Verdi’s Attila).
Stefano Secco studied piano and singing with Alberto Soresina, and percussion with Tullio De Piscopo. He also took
masterclasses with singers including Franco Corelli, Leyla Gencer and Renata Scotto. His early engagements included Puccini’s Messa di Gloria and Berlioz’s Te Deum at the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma. His recent operatic engagements include Rodolfo (Puccini’s La bohème) for Fondazioni Petruzzelli in Bari, Macduff (Verdi’s Macbeth) and the Duke of Mantua (Verdi’s Rigoletto) for Teatro Lirico di Cagliari, the title role of Gounod’s Faust for Opéra de Nice, Riccardo (Verdi’s Un ballo in maschera) for Angers-Nantes Opéra, Macduff for La Fenice, Venice, and the title role in Massenet’s Werther for Vienna
State Opera. He has also sung leading roles at opera houses including La Scala Milan, Opéra-Bastille Paris, Teatro Real Madrid, the Liceu Barcelona, the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, and Bavarian State Opera, and for Arena di Verona.
His concert appearances include Verdi’s Requiem in Frankfurt, at the Bolshoi, in St Petersburg and at the Arena di Verona; Rossini’s Stabat Mater in Trieste; and a New Year’s Concert at La Fenice. Secco has won prizes including the Jussi Björling Prize, the Beniamino Gigli Award and the Luigi Illica Prize. In 2019 he was made an Ambassador of Culture by the Institute for the Study and Promotion of Arts and Culture.
Egor Zhuravskii First Priest
Stefano Secco Gaoler/Grand Inquisitor
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From South Africa, Chuma Sijeqa is a Jette Parker Anniversary Company Artist for the Royal Opera House in
the 2021/22 season and was a Link Artist in the 2018/19 season. He studied in the Vocal Arts Department of Tshwane University of Technology where he sang Don Magnifico (Rossini’s La Cenerentola), Sir John Falstaff (Verdi’s Falstaff) and Don Alfonso (Mozart’s Così fan tutte). He joined Gauteng Opera in 2017, singing Gasparo (Donizetti’s Rita), Schaunard (Puccini’s La bohème) and Khetshengane’s Elixir to a text by Given Maxiya. He won Second Prize in the Voices of South Africa International Singing Competition in 2018 and participated in Les Azuriales Opera Festival in Nice, where he won the Joseph Karaviotis Prize.
He made his debut at the Royal Opera House in the 2019 Jette Parker Young Artists Summer Performance and returns in the 2021/22 season as Angelotti (Puccini’s Tosca) and Second Philistine (Saint-Saëns Samson and Delilah). He performed the baritone roles in Lost & Found: micro-opera premieres at St Pancras International as part of the Europalia Festival.
Simon Halsey holds positions across the UK and Europe as Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra
and Chorus, Chorus Director of City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra Chorus, Artistic Director of Orfeó Català Choirs and Artistic Adviser of Palau de la Música, Barcelona, Creative Director for Choral Music and Projects at WDR Rundfunkchor, Conductor Laureate of Rundfunkchor Berlin and Professor and Director of Choral Activities at the University of Birmingham.
Simon is the trusted advisor on choral singing to the world’s greatest conductors, orchestras and choruses, and also an inspirational teacher and ambassador for choral singing to amateurs of every age, ability and background. Making singing a
central part of the world-class institutions with which he is associated, he has been instrumental in changing the level of symphonic singing across Europe.
Simon has worked on nearly 80 recording projects, many of which have won major awards, including the Gramophone Award, Diapason d’Or, Echo Klassik, and three Grammy Awards with the Rundfunkchor Berlin. He was made Commander of the British Empire in 2015 and was awarded The Queen’s Medal for Music in 2014.
Since becoming Choral Director of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in 2012, Simon has been credited with bringing about a ‘spectacular transformation’ (Evening Standard) of the LSC.
Simon Halsey LSO Choral Director
Chuma Sijeqa Second Priest
Artist Biographies
30 London Symphony Chorus 5 June 2022
The London Symphony Chorus was formed in 1966 to complement the work of the London Symphony
Orchestra and is renowned internationally for its concerts and recordings with the Orchestra. Their important partnership was strengthened in 2012 with the appointment of Simon Halsey as joint Chorus Director of the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO. The Chorus plays a major role in furthering the vision of LSO Sing, which also encompasses the LSO Community Choir, LSO Discovery Choirs for young people and Singing Days at LSO St Luke’s.
The LSC has worked with many leading international conductors and other major orchestras, including the Berlin Philharmonic, Vienna Philharmonic, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Los Angeles Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and the European Union Youth Orchestra. It has also toured extensively throughout Europe and has visited North America, Israel, Australia and South East Asia.
The partnership between the LSC and LSO, particularly under Richard Hickox in the 1980s and 1990s, and later with Sir Colin Davis, led to its large catalogue of recordings which have won nine awards, including five Grammys. Gramophone included the recordings of Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and Romeo and Juliet on LSO Live with Sir Colin as two of the top ten Berlioz recordings. Recent LSO Live recordings with the Chorus include Bernstein’s Wonderful Town, Berlioz’s The Damnation of Faust and Beethoven’s Christ on the Mount of Olives, all with Sir Simon Rattle.
In early 2020 the chorus undertook a major European tour of Beethoven, including Christ on the Mount of Olives, with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle. Seven concerts were then cancelled because of the Covid pandemic but the chorus continued to rehearse online and performed outside or in masks when restrictions allowed. Recent performances include the world premieres of Howard Goodall’s Never to Forget and Errollyn Wallen’s After Winter with Simon Halsey at the Spitalfields Festival in July 2021, Beethoven’s Symphony No 9 with the Orchestre Philharmonique in Monte-Carlo and Aix-en-Provence with Kazuki Yamada, and Julian Anderson’s Exiles (an LSC co-commission) and Haydn’s The Creation with the LSO and Sir Simon Rattle this season.
Never to Forget is an LSC commission in memory of health and social care workers who died from Covid-19 while caring for others. An initial eight-minute version was recorded online by the chorus with LSO players and released as a video during the pandemic. Rambert choreographed and recorded a video of dance to this, and then performed the completed work with the chorus at a national Remember Me and Never to Forget Memorial Concert at St Paul’s Cathedral in March this year.
The Chorus is an independent charity run by its members. It is committed to excellence, to diversity, equity and inclusion, and the development of its members. It engages actively in the musical life of London, seeking new members and audiences, and commissioning and performing new works.
London Symphony Chorus
President Sir Simon Rattle om cbe
Vice President Michael Tilson Thomas
Patrons Simon Russell Beale cbe Howard Goodall cbe
Chorus Director Simon Halsey cbe
Associate Directors Barbara Hoefling Lucy Hollins David Lawrence Mariana Rosas
Chorus Accompanist Benjamin Frost
Chairman Owen Hanmer
LSO Choral Projects Manager Sumita Menon
Vocal Coaches Norbert Meyn Anita Morrison Rebecca Outram Robert Rice
lsc.org.uk
On Stage (5 June)
Sopranos Martha Barnes Franziska Braümer Harriet Crawford Sibel Demir Karaman Katharine Elliot Lucy Feldman Jo Gueritz Alice Jones Luca Kocsmarsky Caddy Kroll Jane Morley Emily Norton
Altos Enid Armstrong June Brawner Gina Broderick Jo Buchan Sheila Cobourne Maggie Donnelly Lynn Eaton Linda Evans Charlotte Hacking Yoko Harada Edda Hendry Vanessa Knapp Gilly Lawson Anne Loveluck Honey Millard-Clothier Dorothy Nesbitt Helen Palmer Beth Potter Susannah Priede Lis Smith Rafaela Tripalo
Tenors Paul Allatt Matteo Anelli Erik Azzopardi Paul Beecham Philipp Boeing Oliver Burrows Conor Cook James David Andrew Fuller Joaquim Badia Jude Lenier Alastair Mathews Chris Riley Mattia Romani Peter Sedgwick Richard Street Malcolm Taylor James Warbis Robert Ward Paul Williams-Burton
Basses Roger Blitz Gavin Buchan Andy Chan Matthew Clarke Damian Day Robert Garbolinski Bryan Hammersley Owen Hanmer Elan Higueras Douglas Jones Alex Kidney Alex Mackinder George Marshall Jesus Sanchez Sanzo Richard Tannenbaum Jez Wareing
Chorus Masters Simon Halsey William Spaulding
Guildhall School of Music & Drama is a vibrant, international community of musicians, actors and production artists in the heart of the City of London. Ranked as one of the top ten performing
arts institutions in the world (QS World University Rankings 2022), as well as the top conservatoire in the Guardian University Guide music league table, they deliver world-class professional training in partnership with distinguished artists, companies and ensembles. A global leader in creative and professional practice, they promote innovation, experiment and research, and are also one of the UK’s leading providers of lifelong learning in the performing arts, offering inspiring training for children, young people, adult learners, and creative and business professionals.
Guildhall School partners with the LSO through the postgraduate Orchestral Artistry programme, as well as other performance opportunities, ensuring that students benefit from links with the profession before they graduate.
Guildhall School Singers
31London Symphony Chorus & Guildhall School Singers
Sopranos Adaya Malka Peled Bethan Terry Elizabeth Thomson Chloe Todd
Altos Anika-France Forget Roza Herwig Aina Miyagi Magnell Elle Oldfield Karima El Demerdasch Lyla Levy-Jordan Katie Richardson McCrea Julia Sanchez Merino
Tenors Jacob Cole Hamish James Dominic Lee Thomas Lidgley
Basses Hector Bloggs Carlos Cerchiaro Rivero Thomas Litchev Leif Tse
32 The Orchestra 5 June 2022
Guest Leader Benjamin Gilmore
First Violins Julia Ungureanu Clare Duckworth Ginette Decuyper Laura Dixon Maxine Kwok William Melvin Claire Parfitt Elizabeth Pigram Harriet Rayfield Sylvain Vasseur Caroline Frenkel Victoria Irish
Second Violins David Alberman Thomas Norris Sarah Quinn Miya Väisänen David Ballesteros Matthew Gardner Alix Lagasse Iwona Muszynska Csilla Pogany Andrew Pollock Gordon MacKay Erzsebet Racz
London Symphony Orchestra On Stage (5 June)
Violas Edward Vanderspar Gillianne Haddow Malcolm Johnston Germán Clavijo Steve Doman Sofia Silva Sousa Robert Turner Michelle Bruil Luca Casciato Kimi Makino
Cellos Rebecca Gilliver Alastair Blayden Eve-Marie Caravassilis Daniel Gardner Laure Le Dantec Victoria Harrild Peteris Sokolovskis Simon Thompson
Double Basses Lorraine Campet Patrick Laurence Joe Melvin José Moreira Jani Pensola Simon Oliver Josie Ellis
Flutes Gareth Davies Sarah Bennett
Piccolo Sharon Williams
Oboes Juliana Koch Rosie Jenkins
Cor Anglais Christine Pendrill
Clarinets Matthew Glendening Chi-Yu Mo Melissa Youngs
Bass Clarinet Katy Ayling
Alto Saxophone Huw Wiggin
Tenor Saxophone Amy Green
Bassoons Daniel Jemison Joost Bosdijk
Contra Bassoon Gareth Twigg
Horns Timothy Jones Angela Barnes John Davy Jonathan Maloney Zachary Hayward
Trumpets James Fountain Christopher Hart Adam Wright Richard Blake David Carstairs
Trombones Peter Moore Jonathan Hollick
Bass Trombone Paul Milner
Tuba Ben Thomson
Timpani Nigel Thomas Jonathan Phillips
Percussion Neil Percy Tom Edwards Helen Edordu Jacob Brown James Bower
