London Symphony Orchestra

Thomas Adès: The Origin of the Harp for chamber orchestra – programme note (LSO)

Thomas Adès: The Origin of the Harp for chamber orchestra – programme note (LSO)

Composers have been revisiting their own material since time immemorial. For some (Handel, J. S. Bach) this was for practical reasons. For others (Brahms, Bruckner) revisions were borne of a relentless perfectionism. For Thomas Adès it was both nostalgia and curiosity that brought him back to The Origin of the Harp: ‘I wanted for some time to make a new orchestration of it for a more traditional orchestra, as the original ensemble [three clarinets, three violas, three cellos and percussion] is quite tricky to assemble, and also I was very interested to discover how to translate the music acoustically to a traditional orchestral structure.’

Thomas Adès: Aquifer – programme note (LSO)

Thomas Adès: Aquifer – programme note (LSO)

For Thomas Adès, an aquifer is analogous to the way a composer steers a musical impulse. The strength and direction of groundwater, flowing beneath us, is dictated by geology – layers of rock with varying degrees of permeability. So must musical material be channelled through a series of compositional tools: structure, harmony, orchestration and so on. It is from this process that Aquifer gets its title – representing a kind of inverse programme, in which the music informs the subject. Here, Adès enlists the full gamut of his considerable compositional technique to steer, contain and ultimately unleash a musical wave.

,

Boulez: Chamber Music – various programme notes (LSO)

,
Boulez: Chamber Music – various programme notes (LSO)

For much of his life Pierre Boulez was preoccupied by the idea of a work being continually ‘in progress’. So many of his compositions exist in multiple versions that those which don’t – his early masterpiece Le marteau sans maître (1953–5), for example – are the exceptions that prove the rule. And while Messagesquisse (1976), which opens tonight’s concert, is one of those exceptions, it also represents the first link in a chain of pieces that stretches over several decades.

Helmut Lachenmann: My Melodies – programme note and profile (LSO)

Helmut Lachenmann: My Melodies – programme note and profile (LSO)

‘Everyone will be waiting for a melody, and I will of course disappoint them all!’, Helmut Lachenmann said with a grin at the 2018 premiere of My Melodies. Indeed, this mammoth piece contains scant melody in the traditional sense. Pithy cells – scraps of fragments of melody – pepper the orchestral texture, cavorting and twisting in a multi layered dialogue. Stray patterns bump up alongside toneless whispers and scrapes. But a full-blooded, tubthumping tune? No chance.

Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour – programme note and profile (LSO)

Anna Clyne: This Midnight Hour – programme note and profile (LSO)

As with so many of Anna Clyne’s orchestral works, This Midnight Hour takes inspiration from nonmusical sources, in this case two poems. The first is Charles Baudelaire’s much-anthologised ‘Harmonie du soir’ (Evening Harmony) from the 1857 collection Les fleurs du mal. Stuffed with sensory observations and evocative similes – floral scent, tortured violins, a drowning, blood-clotted sun – the poem comprises a series of woozy repetitions that fold in on themselves like a hall of mirrors …

Ondřej Adámek: Follow Me – programme note and profile (LSO)

Ondřej Adámek: Follow Me – programme note and profile (LSO)

The ‘narrative concerto’ has its roots in the early 19th century. Think Harold in Italy, Hector Berlioz’s ‘symphony with viola obbligato’, or Carl Maria von Weber’s Konzertstück for piano and orchestra, both of which cast the soloist as protagonist in a musical drama. In Follow Me, Ondřej Adámek takes this idea and adds a macabre twist …

Wynton Marsalis: Trumpet Concerto – programme note and profile (LSO)

Wynton Marsalis: Trumpet Concerto – programme note and profile (LSO)

Wynton Marsalis made his name as a classical trumpet virtuoso with a recording of the Joseph Haydn, Johann 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 …

Donghoon Shin: Nachtergebung – programme note and profile (LSO)

Donghoon Shin: Nachtergebung – programme note and profile (LSO)

The poems of Georg Trakl have proved rich source material for composers: Anton Webern, Paul Hindemith, Peter Maxwell Davies and Thea Musgrave have all been drawn to the Austrian expressionist’s rich, macabre imagery. Donghoon Shin, who often looks to literature for inspiration, is the latest …

Abel Selaocoe: Four Spirits – Programme note and profile (LSO)

Abel Selaocoe: Four Spirits – Programme note and profile (LSO)

For Abel Selaocoe, tradition is something to be both revered and dismantled. His Four Spirits is, on the face of it, a concerto for cello, voice and percussion. There are soloists and an orchestra. There are four movements. But that is where any resemblance to the ‘Classical’ concerto ends …

Fazil Say: Violin Concerto – Programme Note and Profile (LSO)

Fazil Say: Violin Concerto – Programme Note and Profile (LSO)

Fazıl Say and Patricia Kopatchinskaja began performing together as an electrifying violinpiano duo in 2004. Four years later they released a CD of works by Béla Bartók, Ludwig van Beethoven, Maurice Ravel and Fazıl Say himself, exhibiting a kindred radicalism …

Betsy Jolas: Ces belles années... – programme note and profile (LSO)

Betsy Jolas: Ces belles années... – programme note and profile (LSO)

In 2014 Betsy Jolas met Sir Simon Rattle at a dinner in London. The encounter was auspicious. It led to a commission for the Berlin Philharmonic, A Little Summer Suite, and marked the beginning of what has been dubbed Jolas’ ‘Indian Summer’, a period of striking productivity and overdue celebrity …

Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 3 – programme note (LSO)

Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 3 – programme note (LSO)

Concertos often owe their origins to the inspiration of a great performer. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was so impressed with the pioneering clarinettist Anton Stadler that he wrote a concerto – along with several other works – especially for him. A close friendship with Mstislav Rostropovich spurred both of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concertos …

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Oboe Concerto – Programme Note & Profile (LSO)

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Oboe Concerto – Programme Note & Profile (LSO)

After a period of relative neglect, the oboe re-emerged in the 20th century as a fashionable solo instrument. The decade from 1945 to 1955 saw a glut of new oboe concertos from Richard Strauss, Jacques Ibert, Lukas Foss, Malcolm Arnold and Bohuslav Martinů – as well as Bernd Alois Zimmermann …

Wynton Marsalis: Tuba Concerto – programme note & profile (LSO)

Wynton Marsalis: Tuba Concerto – programme note & profile (LSO)

The tuba’s origins can be traced back to the development of the brass band in the early-19th century. Since then, it has found a permanent home in orchestral brass sections, as well as in other musical cultures. But it wasn’t until 1954 that the first tuba concerto was written …

Dani Howard: Trombone Concerto – programme note & profile (London Symphony Orchestra)

Dani Howard: Trombone Concerto – programme note & profile (London Symphony Orchestra)

When Dani Howard first mooted the idea of a concerto to Peter Moore, LSO Principal Trombone, Covid-19 was yet to strike. By the time she began writing the piece, in the summer of 2020, concert halls were silent and many of Howard’s musician colleagues had doggedly set up shop online …