Sunday 30 October 2011 - London Symphony Orchestra

Sunday 30 October 2011 7.30pm
Barbican Hall
Wagner Overture: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg
Schumann Piano Concerto
INteRvAL
Brahms Symphony No 4
Nikolaj Znaider conductor
Saleem Abboud Ashkar piano
Concert ends approx 9.30pm
Nikolaj Znaider © George Lange, Saleem Abboud Ashkar © Monika Rittershaus
the Lord Mayor’s Concert
Recommended by Classic FM
London Symphony Orchestra
Living Music

Welcome News
Welcome to this evening’s concert at the Barbican. It is a delight
to welcome Nikolaj Znaider to conduct the LSO for the first time in
London, following a highly successful conducting debut with the
Orchestra in Bucharest in September. He will be joined this evening
by pianist Saleem Abboud Ashkar, also making his LSO debut.
Nikolaj will join us again later this season, as soloist, to play
Bartók’s violin Concerto No 2 on 8 May 2012.
this evening, the LSO is joined by Lord Mayor, Alderman Michael
Bear, and members of the Common Council of the City of London
Corporation. the LSO is deeply grateful for their continued support.
I would also like to take the opportunity to thank our media partner
Classic FM for continuing to be a strong advocate of the LSO.
I hope you enjoy the concert and that you can join us for our
next two performances which form part of a weekend-long
celebration of French heroine Joan of Arc’s 600th birthday with
conductor Marin Alsop.
Kathryn McDowell
LSO Managing Director
LSO Backstage Pass – for our teenage audiences
If you’re aged 12–18, join our free ‘LSO Backstage Pass’ teens
scheme and take advantage of cheap tickets, pre-concert events
and exclusive chances to meet the LSO players. Before tonight’s
concert there was a free talk introducing this evening’s music and
what it’s like to play in the Orchestra, plus a sneak peak backstage.
Find out more at lso.co.uk/backstagepass
The LSO’s 2011 New York tour
earlier this month the Orchestra took up a week-long residency in
New York’s Lincoln Center. Under the baton of Sir Colin Davis,
Nikolaj Znaider performed Sibelius’ violin Concerto on 19 October,
and on 21 October Sir Colin Davis led the Orchestra in Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis with the London Symphony Chorus.
Finally, on Sunday 23 October, Gianandrea Noseda conducted
Britten’s War Requiem with soloists Ian Bostridge and Simon
Keenlyside in the wake of rave reviews for their London performances
at the Barbican. LSO Principal Flute Gareth Davies has been closely
following the progress of the tour in his blog.
lsoontour.wordpress.com
Nikolaj Znaider and Sir Colin Davis in conversation
at LSO St Luke’s, Monday 31 October 11am
tomorrow morning at LSO St Luke’s, Nikolaj Znaider will be in
conversation with his conducting mentor, Sir Colin Davis,
sharing their experiences of working on stage as part of
Centre for Orchestra.
Watch live and submit your questions online at
facebook.com/londonsymphonyorchestra
2 Welcome & News Kathryn McDowell © Camilla Panufnik

Richard Wagner (1813–1883)
Overture: Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg (1868)
First performed in Munich in 1868, Die Meistersinger von Nürmberg
is Wagner’s only mature comedy; it is also a vast and – dramatically
and musically – a super-enriched work and indeed one of the longest
operas ever composed. It was a success from the first, and continues
to hold a regular place in the repertory, even if its association with
German Nationalism at various points has besmirched its reputation.
Despite that, in its wisdom and rich humanity of characterisation
it can provide one of the most life-affirming experiences the
theatre has to offer.
Unusually for Wagner, the action takes place in a specific period
and location: the German city of Nuremberg in the mid-16th century.
there prospers the guild of Mastersingers, its members local artisans
and merchants who create art – specifically songs – as a central
activity of their lives and according to strict, time-honoured rules.
Into this intensely traditional community bursts the unruly knight
Walther von Stolzing, who wants to win the hand of eva as the
prize in a forthcoming singing contest. Supported by the local
cobbler-poet Hans Sachs (one of the opera’s genuine historical
figures), but opposed by the pernickety town-clerk Beckmesser,
in the final scene Walther is able to defeat his rival with his inspired
‘Prize Song’ and thus claim his bride.
Wagner first drafted the scenario in 1845, though it was not until
Tristan und Isolde was finished that he began to set Act One to
music in 1863; the whole opera was completed four years later.
Yet, amazingly, so sure was he of its musical content that he had
already composed the overture and conducted its premiere in 1862.
Its main themes represent the Mastersingers and their cheeky young
apprentices, as well as Walther’s ‘Prize Song’, with Wagner bringing
them all together at the close in a stunning display of counterpoint.
Programme Note © George Hall
George Hall writes widely on classical music, including for
The Guardian, BBC Music Magazine and Opera.
Richard Wagner
Composer Profile
Richard Wagner was born on 22 May 1813 in Leipzig. His musical
talent was encouraged at Leipzig’s Nicolaischule and through
lessons with Christian Gottlieb Müller. In 1829 he completed his first
instrumental compositions, enrolling briefly as a music student at
Leipzig University two years later. Wagner married the actress Minna
Planer in November 1836, the couple moving from Riga to Paris
in 1839 to escape Wagner’s creditors and living there in extreme
poverty. Here he completed Rienzi and created The Flying Dutchman.
Rienzi proved a big success at its Dresden premiere in October 1842,
establishing Wagner’s reputation.
In the 1850s, he began composing his monumental cycle of four
Nibelung operas, also completing his ground-breaking opera
Tristan und Isolde. His financial difficulties were removed in 1864
by the teenage King Ludwig II, a dedicated Wagnerite who
commissioned Der Ring des Nibelungen. Wagner’s comic masterpiece,
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg was premiered on Ludwig’s
command; the King later funded the building of a new theatre at
Bayreuth for the sole performance of Wagner’s works.
For the remaining years of his life, Wagner worked on establishing
the Bayreuth Festival and composing Parsifal, written specifically for
Bayreuth. He died in venice on 13 February 1883, suffering a heart
attack after an impassioned row with his second wife, Cosima.
According to Wagnerian legend, there has been more written about
the composer than anybody other than Napoleon and Jesus Christ.
Although the claim is inaccurate, it is typical of the myths that have
become attached to Wagner’s life and works. the vast scale of his
creative output, its revolutionary influence on the development of
Western music and the controversial nature of many of his views
ensured the development of strong, even fanatical, support both
for and against Wagner.
Programme Notes
3

Robert Schumann (1810–1856)
Piano Concerto in A minor Op 54 (1841–1845)
1 Allegro affettuoso
2 Intermezzo grazioso –
3 Allegro vivace
Saleem Abboud Ashkar piano
One of the most impressive features of Schumann’s only Piano
Concerto is its remarkable organic unity. So many ideas in this richly
imaginative work stem in one way or another from the lovely first
movement melody (wind, then solo piano) that follows the concerto’s
arresting opening. So it comes as quite a surprise to discover that
the concerto was actually written in two separate instalments, and
at two very different times in Schumann’s life. the first movement
was originally written as a self-sufficient Fantasie for Piano and
Orchestra in 1841 – the year that also saw the composition of the
First Symphony, the original version of the Fourth, and the orchestral
Overture, Scherzo and Finale. Schumann’s long-thwarted marriage
to the brilliant concert pianist Clara Wieck the previous year had
released a torrent of creativity: the first years of their life together
saw the production of some of his finest pieces, often composed
at breathtaking speed.
then, in 1844, after Schumann and Clara had returned from a
concert tour of Russia, Schumann experienced a crippling mental
breakdown, followed by a terrible plunge into depression. At the end
of the year he and Clara moved to Dresden with their two children,
where gradually Schumann’s spirits began to recover. For a long
time Schumann was unable to compose, but by the end of 1845
he completed his Symphony No 2, a work which bears powerful
witness to his struggles to regain health and stability. And before he
started the symphony, Schumann added two more movements to
the Fantasie, thus creating his Piano Concerto. How long the ideas for
these two movements had been incubating in his mind is impossible
to say, but it is certain that the act of putting them to paper was a
major step forward on his road to psychological recovery. the result
was one of Schumann’s most daring and romantically delightful
works. It is easy to single out innovatory elements: the piano’s striking,
downward-plunging opening gesture – after a single incisive chord
4 Programme Notes
from the full orchestra – is unlike the beginning of any concerto
before. It clearly left a strong impression on the Norwegian composer
edvard Grieg, who began his famous Piano Concerto (also in A minor)
with a strikingly similar gesture. And although Schumann’s first
movement appears to be full of melodic ideas, most of these derive
directly from the original wind-piano tune – so much so that the
movement has been described as ’monothematic’ – also very unusual
for an early 19th-century concerto.
But it is the dream-like quality Schumann brings to this kind of
intricate thematic development that is most original. the piano writing
may be challenging, but the real challenge is to the player’s poetic
imagination rather than his or her virtuosity. even the first movement’s
solo cadenza is more like a meditation than a bravura display.
In general the relationship between the piano and the orchestra
is neither as one-sided nor as competitive as in most romantic
concertos. tender intimacy is much more typical. A couple of years
before he began the first movement, Schumann had written of his
hope that a new kind of ’genius’ might soon emerge: one ’who will
show us in a newer and more brilliant way how orchestra and piano
may be combined, how the soloist, dominant at the keyboard, may
unfold the wealth of his instrument and his art, while the orchestra,
no longer a mere spectator, may interweave its manifold facets into
the scene’. In the Piano Concerto he fulfilled his own prophecy.
the chamber music-like intimacy continues through the gentle
Intermezzo Schumann placed as the concerto’s second movement –
and again the way in which one motif seems to unfold from another
is achieved with great subtlety and ingenuity. Just before the end
of the movement comes a wonderful inspiration. Clarinets and
bassoons recall the seminal first phrase of the first movement’s
original melody – first in the major key, then in the minor – while the
piano adds magical liquid figurations (as though dreamily recalling the
concerto’s arresting opening). then the finale launches suddenly into
an exhilarating, seemingly unstoppable waltz momentum. It is hard
to believe that the man who wrote this gloriously alive dance music
was at the time emerging from chronic depression. the ending in
particular sounds like an outpouring of the purest joy.

Robert Schumann
Composer Profile
the youngest son of a Saxon bookseller, Robert Schumann was
encouraged by his father to study music. Soon after his tenth birthday
in 1820, young Robert began taking piano lessons in his home town
of Zwickau. Although Schumann enrolled as a law student at Leipzig
University in 1828, music remained an overriding passion and he
continued to study piano with Friedrich Wieck. the early death of
his father and two of his three brothers influenced Schumann’s
appreciation of the world’s suffering, intensified further by his
readings of Romantic poets such as Novalis, Byron and Hölderlin
and his own experiments as poet and playwright.
Schumann composed a number of songs in his youth, but it was not
until he fell in love with and became secretly engaged to the teenage
Clara Wieck in September 1837 that he seriously began to exploit
his song-writing gift. Besides welcoming the financial return that
published lieder [songs] could deliver, Schumann was also able to
preserve his intense feelings for Clara in the richly expressive medium
of song. the personal nature of Schumann’s art even influenced his
choice of certain themes, with the notes A – B – e – G – G enshrined
as the theme of one set of piano variations in tribute to his friend
Countess Meta von Abegg. Schumann also developed his skills as a
composer of symphonies and concertos during his years in Leipzig.
Four years after their marriage in September 1840, the Schumanns
moved to Dresden where Robert completed his C major Symphony.
In the early 1850s the composer’s health and mental state seriously
declined, perhaps as a consequence of tertiary syphilis. In March
1854 he decided to enter a sanatorium near Bonn, where he died
two years later.
Programme Note and Composer Profile © Stephen Johnson
Stephen Johnson is author of Bruckner Remembered (Faber).
He also contributes regularly to BBC Music Magazine, and broadcasts
for BBC Radio 3 (Discovering Music), Radio 4 and the World Service.
INteRvAL: 20 Minutes
London Symphony Orchestra
Living Music
London Symphony Orchestra
Season 2011/12
International Pianists
Mitsuko Uchida
Sun 4 & tue 6 Dec 7.30pm
Beethoven
Piano Concerto No 4
6 Dec sponsored by Canon europe
Recommended by Classic FM
Sun 11 & tue 13 Dec 7.30pm
Beethoven
Piano Concerto No 5
Nicolas Hodges
Sun 15 Jan 7.30pm
Thomas Adès
In Seven Days for Piano &
Orchestra
tickets £10 to £35
Box Office
020 7638 8891 (bkg fee)
lso.co.uk (reduced bkg fee)
Nelson Freire
tue 24 Jan 7.30pm
Debussy
Fantasy for Piano & Orchestra
André Previn
Mon 20 Feb 7.30pm
Mozart, Previn &
Mendelssohn Piano trios
with Anne-Sophie Mutter and
Daniel Müller-Schott
Part of UBS Soundscapes
Programme Notes
5

Johannes Brahms (1833–97)
Symphony No 4 in e minor Op 98 (1884–85)
1 Allegro non troppo
2 Andante moderato
3 Allegro giocoso
4 Allegro energico e passionato
Brahms composed his last symphony during the summers of 1884
and 1885, although as so often with his major works he had been
turning over some of the ideas in his mind for many years. Instead
of a premiere in vienna, where the first three symphonies had been
introduced (in 1876, 77 and 83), he chose instead to entrust its first
performance to the small orchestra at the Ducal court of Meiningen
in Germany, where Hans von Bülow had been in charge since 1880
and was soon to be succeeded by the young Richard Strauss. Brahms
himself conducted the symphony’s premiere on 25 October 1885,
then the orchestra took it on tour through Germany and Holland,
with Brahms and von Bülow sharing the conducting.
time has softened one aspect of this symphony. We have become
used to music that is so much harsher on the ears that we are at
first struck by its richness of sound, so warm and seductive, and
by its passionate lyricism. It requires an effort of the imagination to
appreciate the impression of austerity and even grittiness that it made
120 years ago. even some of Brahms’ closest friends were dismayed.
His biographer Max Kalbeck, after hearing a performance on two
pianos, advised the composer to publish the finale separately and
scrap the third movement altogether. elisabeth von Herzogenberg
wrote, ‘It seems to me as though this particular work has been too
carefully designed for inspection through a microscope, as though
its charms were not open to just any music-lover, as though it
were a tiny world for the clever and the initiated’. A more balanced
appreciation came from the violinist Joseph Joachim, when in 1886
he told the composer, ‘the thrilling tension of the whole work, the
concentration of feeling, the wonderfully intertwined development
of motifs, even more than the richness and beauty of individual
details, appeal to me so much that I almost think the e minor is
my favourite of the four symphonies’.
6 Programme Notes
At times it seems that the essence of Brahms is a constant struggle
between tragic stoicism and romantic lyricism, and the Fourth
Symphony is the most dramatic expression of this conflict. Brahms’
mastery of classical forms creates an internal drama, his controlling
intellect leading the listener from bar to bar with an accumulation
of detail and incident that eventually build up to what is perhaps the
most complete picture we have of the composer’s emotional world.
the first movement’s theme, quietly spreading wider and wider, is in
a continuous state of development from the very beginning, and the
falling thirds which comprise it appear throughout the symphony in
one form or another. the motivic web is in fact more dense than in
the previous symphonies, though since the themes are so distinct
and characterful these cross-references are rarely heard on the
surface, but act as a current running through the entire score at a
subliminal level. the horn calls and dark modal colouring of the slow
movement are essential images of German Romanticism: to Richard
Strauss the movement suggested ‘a funeral procession moving in
silence across moonlit heights’. the third movement (the last to be
composed, and therefore well calculated for its overall effect in the
symphony) is a blaze of major-key energy, dispelling the shadows of
the Andante and setting up high expectations for a finale that will
crown the different areas that the symphony has so far explored.
the first three movements all follow some form of sonata structure.
For the finale, though, Brahms drew on the ancient form of the
passacaglia, or variations on a repeated bass. As early as February
1869 he had written of his fondness for this technique: ‘With a theme
and variations it is really only the bass line which is important to me …
If I use just the melody as the basis for variations, I find it hard to
go beyond the witty or charming, though I may make something
pretty, perhaps developing on a lovely idea. Over a given bass line,
however, I can become truly innovative: I can create new melodies’.
the passacaglia theme of the Fourth Symphony is derived (with
alterations) from the final chorus of J S Bach’s Cantata BWv 150,
‘Nach dir, Herr, verlanget mich’ (For thee, O Lord, I long), and Brahms
must also have had in mind the extraordinary Chaconne which ends
Bach’s Partita for Solo violin in D minor, which he had arranged for

piano left-hand in 1877. the use of such a repeating pattern means
that there is none of the modulation from key to key which we
expect in a symphonic finale. Instead, Brahms created a scheme
of 32 variations which are firmly anchored in e minor, but display
such ingenuity and variety that there is a sense of headlong forward
movement right up to the final bars.
Programme Note © Andrew Huth
Andrew Huth is a musician, writer and translator who writes
extensively on French, Russian and Eastern European music.
Music’s better shared!
there’s never been a better time to bring all your friends to an
LSO concert. Groups of 10+ receive a 20% discount on all tickets,
plus a host of additional benefits. Call the dedicated Group Booking
Line on 020 7382 7211 visit lso.co.uk/groups or email
groups@barbican.org.uk
On Sunday 30 October we welcome the Enfield National Trust
Association, Gerrards Cross Community Association,
Kelvedon Hatch Village Society, Ruislip WCA Music Society
and Witham Choral Society.
Johannes Brahms
Composer Profile
Johannes Brahms was born in Hamburg, the son of an impecunious
musician; his mother later opened a haberdashery business to help
lift the family out of poverty. Showing early musical promise he
became a pupil of the distinguished local pianist and composer
eduard Marxsen and supplemented his parents’ meagre income
by playing in the bars and brothels of Hamburg’s infamous red-light
district. In 1853 Brahms presented himself to Robert Schumann in
Düsseldorf, winning unqualified approval from the older composer.
Brahms fell in love with Schumann’s wife, Clara, supporting her after
her husband’s illness and death. the relationship did not develop as
Brahms wished, and he returned to Hamburg; their close friendship,
however, survived. In 1862 Brahms moved to vienna where he found
fame as a conductor, pianist and composer. the Leipzig premiere
of his German Requiem in 1869 proved a triumph, with subsequent
performances establishing Brahms as one of the emerging German
nation’s foremost composers. Following the long-delayed completion
of his First Symphony in 1876, he composed in quick succession the
majestic violin Concerto, the two piano Rhapsodies, Op 79, the First
violin Sonata in G major and the Second Symphony. His subsequent
association with the much-admired court orchestra in Meiningen
allowed him freedom to experiment and de v el op new ideas, the
relationship crowned by the Fourth Symphony of 1884.
In his final years, Brahms composed a series of profound works
for the clarinettist Richard Mühlfeld, and explored matters of life
and death in his Four Serious Songs. He died at his modest lodgings
in vienna in 1897, receiving a hero’s funeral at the city’s central
cemetery three days later.
Profile © Andrew Stewart
Andrew Stewart is a freelance music journalist and writer.
He is the author of The LSO at 90, and contributes to a wide
variety of specialist classical music publications.
Programme Notes
7

Nikolaj Znaider
Conductor
‘A good conductor,
and time might well turn
him into a great one’
the Guardian, March 2010
Nikolaj Znaider is not only celebrated as one
of the foremost violinists of today, but is fast
becoming one of the most versatile artists of
his generation uniting his talents as soloist,
conductor and chamber musician.
this season Nikolaj Znaider was invited by
valery Gergiev to become Principal Guest
Conductor of the Mariinsky Orchestra in
St Petersburg where he will conduct a
production of The Marriage of Figaro and
a number of symphonic concerts. As well
as the LSO, he has been invited to guest
conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra,
Munich Philharmonic, Czech Philharmonic,
LA Philharmonic, Pittsburgh Symphony,
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France,
WDR Köln and already has re-invitations to
conduct the Dresden Staatskapelle, Russian
National Orchestra, the Hallé, Swedish
Radio Orchestra and Gothenburg Symphony.
the 2011/12 season sees Znaider as Artistin-Residence
with the Dresden Staatskapelle
Orchestra. He will conduct them in concert,
perform violin concertos with Sir Colin Davis
and play a recital.
As a soloist, Znaider is regularly invited to
work with the world’s leading orchestras
and conductors such as Daniel Barenboim,
Sir Colin Davis, valery Gergiev, Lorin Maazel,
Zubin Mehta, Christian thielemann, Mariss
Jansons, Charles Dutoit, Christoph von
Dohnányi, Ivan Fischer and Gustavo Dudamel.
In recital and as a chamber musician he
appears at all the major concert halls. In
the 2008/9 season the LSO presented an
Artist Portrait of Znaider and in the 2012/13
season he will present a Carte Blanche at
the Musikverein in vienna.
An exclusive RCA Red Seal recording
artist, Znaider’s most recent addition to his
discography is the elgar violin Concerto with
Sir Colin Davis and the Dresden Staatskapelle.
His award-winning recordings of the Brahms
and Korngold violin Concertos with the
vienna Philharmonic and valery Gergiev, the
Beethoven and Mendelssohn Concertos with
Zubin Mehta and the Israel Philharmonic
and Prokofiev’s Second and Glazunov violin
Concertos with Mariss Jansons and the
Bayerische Rundfunk have been greeted
with great critical acclaim, as was his release
of the complete works for violin and piano
of Johannes Brahms with Yefim Bronfman.
For eMI Classics he has recorded the Mozart
Piano trios with Daniel Barenboim and
the Nielsen and Bruch Concertos with the
London Philharmonic Orchestra.
Znaider is passionate about the education
of musical talent and was for ten years
Founder and Artistic Director of the Nordic
Music Academy, an annual summer school
whose vision it was to create conscious
and focused musical development based
on quality and commitment.
8 The Artists Nikolaj Znaider © George Lange

Saleem Abboud Ashkar
Piano
‘Ashkar’s rubato lines almost
melted on the ears.’
New Zealand Herald, March 2011
Saleem Abboud Ashkar made his New York
Carnegie Hall debut at the age of 22 and
has since worked with many of the world’s
leading orchestras including the vienna
Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, Chicago
Symphony, La Scala Philharmonic, Leipzig
Gewandhaus, Deutsche Symphony Orchestra
Berlin, Radio Symphony Orchestra Berlin,
Maggio Musicale, New Zealand Symphony
Orchestra, Bergen Philharmonic, Mariinsky
Orchestra and the Orchestra of the Royal
Danish theatre.
He performs regularly with conductors
such as Zubin Mehta, Daniel Barenboim,
Riccardo Muti, Lawrence Foster, Bertrand
de Billy, Philippe Jordan and Ludovic Morlot,
and following a highly successful debut with
Christoph eschenbach and the NDR Hamburg
Orchestra, with whom he was immediately
re-invited to work, eschenbach invited Ashkar
Saleem Abboud Ashkar © Monika Rittershaus
to play the Schumann Piano Concerto with
the Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra in the
Schumann Birthday Concert in June 2010.
Ashkar has toured extensively with Riccardo
Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus
Orchestra performing Mendelssohn’s First
Piano Concerto, including appearances at
the BBC Proms and Lucerne Festivals, in a
tour celebrating the bicentennial anniversary
of the composer’s birth, and Chailly has
re-invited Saleem for concerts and to record
with him for Decca in the 2012/13 season.
Appearances in this and future seasons
include invitations to make debuts with the
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the LSO
playing concerts in London and Bucharest,
WDR Köln, the Konzerthaus Orchestra Berlin,
Danish National Symphony Orchestra,
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and National
Arts Centre Orchestra Ottawa at the invitation
of Pinchas Zukerman.
A dedicated recitalist and chamber
musician, Ashkar appears regularly in series
at venues such as the Concertgebouw,
Mozarteum Salzburg, Musikverein vienna,
Conservatorio Guiseppe verdi in Milan and
at festivals including Salzburg with the vienna
Philharmonic, the BBC Proms with Leipzig
Gewandhaus Orchestra, at tivoli with the
Israel Philharmonic and Zubin Mehta, in
Lucerne, Ravinia, Risor, Menton and the
Ruhr Klavier Festival, collaborating with
artists including Daniel Barenboim,
Nikolaj Znaider and Waltraud Meier.
BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concerts
Thursdays at 1pm, LSO St Luke’s
Beethoven Piano Sonatas
A complete retrospective
Thu 3 Nov 1pm
Nicholas Angelich
Sonatas Op 2 No 2, Op 31 No 1
Thu 10 & 17 Nov 1pm
elisabeth Leonskaja
Sonatas Op 13 (‘Pathétique’),
Op 14 No 1, Op 110, Op 49 No 2,
Op 109, Op 111
Thu 24 Nov 1pm
Barry Douglas
Sonatas Op 79,
Op 106 (‘Hammerklavier’)
Tickets £10
lso.co.uk/lunchtimeconcerts
020 7638 8891
The Artists
9

Nikolaj Znaider
on conducting the LSO
‘It is very much about
all of us on stage sharing
our passion for the music
we are performing.’
Nikolaj Znaider is not only celebrated as one of the
foremost violinists of today, but is fast becoming
one of the most versatile artists of his generation
uniting his talents as soloist, chamber musician
and most recently, as a conductor.
Just before the London season started Nikolaj Znaider
made his conducting debut with the LSO in Bucharest
and preceding his Barbican concert with the LSO on
30 October, Isla Jeffrey caught up with Nikolaj to
ask him about his experience as a conductor and
plans for the future.
10 Nikolaj Znaider Interview
Was there any particular moment in your life or a particular
piece of music that made you want to start conducting?
there were several but the first instance was when I was studying
the Beethoven symphonies, closely followed by attending a week’s
rehearsals for The Marriage of Figaro.
Do you have a favourite Beethoven symphony?
No! I don’t believe in favourite anything. I wouldn’t want to be
without any of them. Like people, good friends, you wouldn’t want
to miss any one of them.
What did your first professional conducting experience
feel like?
terrifying. Nothing can ever prepare you properly for it. You think you
can look at it from afar and predict how it’s all going to go but you just
can’t. As a violin soloist, I have been standing next to conductors –
very close to them on the stage – for many years, and yet the feeling
that your physical movements can impact in a very real way what
comes out is a totally overwhelming experience. I remember after
my first rehearsal being so exhausted, so overwhelmed that I went
straight to bed. It must have been only 2pm and I didn’t get out of bed
again until the rehearsal the next day!

Has your experience as a violin player influenced your
conducting style or understanding of conducting in any way?
I think it has to have. I would say that it has influenced the way I
conduct. the ideal sound that I hear in my head, and that I try to
recreate as a violinist, is the same in principle as when I hear my ideal
orchestral sound. this way of listening has very much informed the
way I conduct, and the way I listen to the orchestra’s sound.
What would you say is the biggest performing difference
between being a soloist and a conductor?
As a violinist you are directly responsible for the sound, and as a
conductor, indirectly responsible. Aside from that, and this is really
the miraculous discovery I made, there is no difference. It is the
same thing. It is all about sharing the delight in music with others,
being aware of what the musicians with you on stage are doing;
interacting with them and reacting to them. Yes, the function is
different but it’s really all the same thing.
You have described yourself as having ‘Mahleria’.
Are there any other great composers or works you
are looking forward to working on?
Anything Mozart, anything Beethoven, anything that when you return
to it remains our Holy Grail, the things that we can only hope to ever
get near. there’s opera, and I’m looking forward to getting into that.
Something coming up for me in the very near future are the Stravinsky
ballets; they really fascinate me and I haven’t been able to do
anything like that before. In the same way that Mahler didn’t write any
violin concertos, so Mahler was a new performing experience for me,
Stravinsky is something completely different that I can’t wait to sink
my teeth into. Stravinsky did write a violin concerto but it was much
later on and in a completely different style to the early ballets.
Is there a conductor who has influenced or inspired
you the most?
A lot. I really think there is so much to learn if one just opens one’s
eyes. Daniel Barenboim was a huge influence on helping me to think
like a conductor and of course, the person who has meant the most
to me on so many levels, humanly and musically is Sir Colin Davis.
He means so much to me in so many ways. One of the things which
makes my relationship with the LSO special is that we share that great
relationship with Colin.
What are you most looking forward to about your concert
with the LSO on 30 October?
Now that I have conducted them already, what I know about them
is that they are all such generous musicians and a music-making
experience with them is truly about love. It is very much about all
of us on stage sharing our passion for the music we are performing.
this Orchestra has so much to give, and that is what I am looking
forward to most about being on stage with them.
Coming up with Nikolaj Znaider
Tue 8 May 7.30pm
Bartók Music for Strings, Percussion and Celeste
Bartók violin Concerto No 2
Szymanowski Symphony No 3 (‘Song of the Night’)
with Pierre Boulez conductor
Tickets from £10
Box Office 020 7638 8891 (bkg fee)
lso.co.uk (reduced bkg fee)
Nikolaj Znaider Interview
11

On stage
First Violins
Carmine Lauri Leader
Lennox Mackenzie
Ginette Decuyper
Jörg Hammann
Maxine Kwok-Adams
Claire Parfitt
Colin Renwick
Sylvain vasseur
Rhys Watkins
David Worswick
Daniel Bhattacharya
Sophie Mather
Hilary Jane Parker
Alina Petrenko
erzsebet Racz
Helena Smart
Second Violins
evgeny Grach
thomas Norris
Miya vaisanen
David Ballesteros
Belinda McFarlane
Iwona Muszynska
Philip Nolte
Paul Robson
Raja Halder
William Melvin
Katerina Mitchell
Stephen Rowlinson
Julia Rumley
Samantha Wickramasinghe
12 The Orchestra
Violas
edward vanderspar
Malcolm Johnston
Regina Beukes
German Clavijo
Anna Green
Richard Holttum
Robert turner
Jonathan Welch
Melanie Martin
Caroline O’Neill
Fiona Opie
Alistair Scahill
Cellos
David Cohen
Alastair Blayden
Mary Bergin
Noel Bradshaw
Hilary Jones
Amanda truelove
Delphine Biron
Judit Berendschot
Penny Driver
Judith Herbert
Double Basses
Anthony Alcock
Colin Paris
Patrick Laurence
Matthew Gibson
thomas Goodman
David Gordon
Rachel Meerloo
Simo vaisanen
Flutes
Gareth Davies
Julian Sperry
Piccolo
Sharon Williams
Oboes
Steven Hudson
Michael O’Donnell
Clainets
Andrew Marriner
Chris Richards
Chi-Yu Mo
Bassoons
Daniel Jemison
Joost Bosdijk
Contra-bassoon
Dominic Morgan
Horns
timothy Jones
David Pyatt
Angela Barnes
Antonio Geremia Iezzi
Jonathan Lipton
Trumpets
Philip Cobb
Christopher Deacon
Gerald Ruddock
Robin totterdell
Trombones
Dudley Bright
Katy Jones
Bass Trombone
Paul Milner
Tuba
Patrick Harrild
Timpani
Antoine Bedewi
Percussion
Neil Percy
David Jackson
Harp
Karen vaughan
LSO String
Experience Scheme
established in 1992, the
LSO String experience Scheme
enables young string players
at the start of their careers
to gain work experience
by playing in rehearsals
and concerts with the LSO.
20 students per year from
across the London music
conservatoires are selected
to participate. the musicians
are treated as professional
’extra’ players (additional to
LSO members) and receive
fees for their work. Students
of wind, brass or percussion
instruments who are in their
final year or on a postgraduate
course at one of the London
conservatoires can also
benefit from training with LSO
musicians in a similar scheme.
tonight, Aki Sawa (First violin),
Stephanie edmundson (viola),
Mark Lindley (Cello) all took
part in rehearsals and will be
performing on stage in Brahms
Symphony No 4.
the Scheme is supported by:
the Barbers’ Company
the Carpenters’ Company
Charles and Pascale Clark
the Ironmongers’ Company
Robert and Margaret Lefever
LSO Friends
Musicians Benevolent Fund
the Polonsky Foundation
Editor
edward Appleyard
edward.appleyard@lso.co.uk
Photography
Mark Harrison, Kevin Leighton,
Bill Robinson, Alberto venzago,
Nigel Wilkinson
Print
Cantate 020 7622 3401
Advertising
Cabbell Ltd 020 8971 8450