Wednesday 22 May: Concert Programme - London Symphony ...

London Symphony Orchestra
Living Music
Wednesday 22 May 2013 7.30pm
Barbican Hall
VALERY GERGIEV’S 60th BIRTHDAY GALA CONCERT
Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 2
Paganini ‘Rondo’ from Violin Concerto No 2
Ravel Tzigane for Violin and Orchestra
Sarasate Zigeunerweisen for Violin and Orchestra
Interval
Berlioz Act V from ‘The Trojans’
Supported by the Rothermere Foundation
in memory of the Third Viscount
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Valery Gergiev conductor
Leonidas Kavakos violin
Alexander Toradze piano
Concert ends approx 10.10pm
Valery Gergiev © Alberto Venzago

Welcome
Welcome to tonight’s special LSO concert celebrating the 60th
birthday of the Orchestra’s Principal Conductor, Valery Gergiev.
Happy birthday Valery! And many congratulations on the recent
opening of your fabulous new theatre in St Petersburg. The LSO is
much looking forward to being the first international orchestra to
play on your new stage next week.
It is a pleasure to welcome two soloists in the first half of tonight’s
concert who are particularly special to Gergiev: his long-time friend
and musical partner, the pianist Alexander Toradze, and the violinist
with whom he has so often shared the LSO platform in London and
abroad: Leonidas Kavakos. No birthday celebration for Gergiev would
be complete without opera, so we have devoted the second half
of tonight’s performance to the fifth act from Berlioz’s The Trojans,
and extend a warm welcome to Ekaterina Semenchuck and Sergei
Semishkur, who have sung these roles with Gergiev many times;
and to our other vocal soloists and the London Symphony Chorus.
I would like to take the opportunity to thank Lord Rothermere for
generously supporting tonight’s concert. His late father, the Third
Viscount, was passionate about music and enjoyed very much his
friendship with Valery Gergiev.
I hope you enjoy tonight’s performance. Join us again on Bank Holiday
Monday when Gergiev conducts more Berlioz with the Orchestra
in Trafalgar Square in the second of its BMW LSO Open Air Classics
concerts at 6.30pm.
Kathryn McDowell
LSO Managing Director
2 Welcome
Kathryn McDowell © Camilla Panufnik

Bank Holiday Monday
27 May 2013 6.30pm
Trafalgar Square
Free entry, arrive early to secure your place
No glass or furniture can be taken into the Square
lso.co.uk/openair

Programme Notes
The LSO’s Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev
celebrates his 60th birthday with this special
gala concert. He starts, appropriately, with a
Russian classic …
DMITRI SHOSTAKOVICH (1906–75)
Piano Concerto No 2 in F major Op 102 (1957)
1 Allegro
2 Andante
3 Allegro
Alexander Toradze piano
Shostakovich could equally well have been a composer or a concert
pianist. He began to learn the piano with his mother, a professional
pianist, from the age of nine and in 1919, aged 13, he entered
the Leningrad Conservatory to study piano with Leonid Nikolayev
and composition with Maximilian Steinberg. In 1927 he won an
‘honourable mention’ as an entrant in the First International Chopin
Competition in Warsaw, but composition prevailed and between 1925
and 1933 he completed three symphonies, the First Piano Sonata,
and the operas The Nose and Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District,
as well as his tongue-in-cheek First Piano Concerto, scored for piano,
trumpet and strings.
24 years separated the composition of the First and Second Piano
Concertos, during which time Shostakovich’s youthful ebullience had
evaporated under a barrage of menacing, politically-inspired criticism
from the Soviet cultural party machine. While his First Concerto
had been written for himself to play, his Second was written for his
19-year-old son Maxim, a talented pianist who was applying to study
with Jacob Flier at the Moscow Conservatory. Father and son played
the Concerto in a two-piano arrangement in April 1957 at the USSR
Ministry of Culture: the piece was officially ‘approved’, and went
on to receive its public premiere in the Great Hall of the Moscow
Conservatory on 10 May 1957 with Maxim Shostakovich as soloist,
and the USSR Symphony Orchestra conducted by Nikolai Anosov.
Shostakovich himself went on to record the solo part twice, but Maxim
only recorded it as a conductor (his preferred career), once with his
own son Dmitri as soloist.
The Second Concerto is light-hearted and uncomplicated in style.
It requires agile fingerwork rather than power, and the orchestra is
slimmed down, particularly in the weightier brass section, to allow
the piano part to cut through. Much of the material on which the
opening sonata-form Allegro is based is presented by the soloist in
octaves at the outset, and the movement contains a traditional but
short cadenza just before the recapitulation. The lyrical Andante
opens with strings in Shostakovich’s favourite sarabande rhythm,
while the piano’s initial phrase pays homage to the slow movement
of Beethoven’s Fifth Concerto. A piano link leads without a break into
the spirited Allegro finale, which plays with three contrasting ideas –
the perky initial theme, a riotous dance section in 7/8 rhythm, and a
parody of piano finger exercises.
Now the LSO is joined by the distinguished Greek violinist Leonidas
Kavakos, a former winner of the Paganini, Naumburg and International
Sibelius Competitions, for three virtuoso classics of the violin
repertoire, all influenced to some degree by the Central European
gypsy fiddler tradition.
Niccolò Paganini (1782–1840)
‘Rondo’ from Violin Concerto No 2 in B minor Op 7 (1826)
Leonidas Kavakos violin
The Italian violinist and composer Niccolò Paganini is still revered
as the greatest virtuoso of them all – a ‘wizard of the violin’ whose
technical mastery has never been equalled. At his 1813 debut concert
at La Scala, Milan, a critic wrote: ‘He is without question the foremost
and greatest violinist in the world. His playing is truly inconceivable.
He performs certain passage-work, leaps, and double stops that have
never been heard from any violinist’. Such extraordinary virtuosity –
partly facilitated by his extremely long, thin fingers – together with
his gaunt, rather sinister appearance (he may have suffered from
Marfan’s syndrome), triggered rumours that he had sold his soul to
4 Programme Notes

the Devil, and undoubtedly influenced the Church’s refusal to allow
him a
Christian burial when he died aged 58. Paganini’s brilliant 24 Caprices
for solo violin spawned many imitations, and his concertos and
variations are still part of the virtuoso violin repertoire.
His Second Violin Concerto in B minor was written in 1826, when
he was at the height of his powers. The last movement is a gypsyinfluenced
rondo, in which the return of the theme is introduced by a
triangle, imitating a small bell – hence the nickname ‘la campanella’
(little bell). The well-known theme was later used by Liszt in the third
of his Grandes études d’après Paganini for piano, while the episodes
exploit all the violinistic tricks in the book.
Maurice Ravel (1875–1937)
Tzigane (1924)
Leonidas Kavakos violin
Maurice Ravel wrote the virtuoso concert rhapsody Tzigane in the
spring of 1924 for the Hungarian virtuoso Jelly d’Aranyi (1893–1966),
who settled in England in the 1920s and took British nationality.
Bartók dedicated both his sonatas for violin and piano to her, and
she was also the dedicatee of Vaughan Williams’ violin concerto.
Tzigane was written in a hurry: d’Aranyi only had a few days to study
the score before giving the first performance in its original version
for violin and piano at the Aeolian Hall in London on 26 April 1924.
Later the same year, at the end of November, she gave the premiere
of the orchestral version in Paris.
as a series of sections in contrasting moods and tempi. It begins with
a slow introduction for the violin alone, presenting several themes
that subsequently crop up in different guises throughout the piece,
and works its way up to a fast and furious final dance.
Pablo de Sarasate (1844–1908)
Zigeunerweisen (1878)
Leonidas Kavakos violin
Like Tzigane, Pablo de Sarasate’s Zigeunerweisen (Gypsy Melodies)
is a romantic evocation of Eastern European gypsy music. Sarasate,
a contemporary of Joachim, was one of the great 19th-century
violin virtuosos. He was born in the northern Spanish city of Pamplona,
made his public debut at the age of eight, and won a first prize at the
Paris Conservatoire at 13. Two years later he embarked on a starry
international solo career, inspiring works such as Bruch’s Second
Violin Concerto and Scottish Fantasy, Saint-Saëns’ First and Third
Violin Concertos and the Introduction and Rondo Capriccioso,
and Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole.
As a composer, he made his name in 1878 with Zigeunerweisen.
It was an instant hit, reflecting the current craze for the haunting,
characteristically modal melodies of ‘gypsy-style’ works by Joachim,
Brahms, Liszt and Dvořák. Sarasate directed that the piece should
be played ‘very freely, as closely as possible to the gypsy style’.
It is in several contrasting sections, varied in mood and tempo.
INTERVAL: 20 minutes
Tzigane celebrates the flamboyant Hungarian gypsy style of violin
playing popularised by d’Aranyi’s great-uncle Joseph Joachim in the
19th century, and which in turn inspired Liszt, Brahms and Bruch,
among others. It also exploits the kind of violinistic tricks, such as
harmonics, trills, double-stopping and perpetual motion passages,
found in Paganini’s 24 Caprices (Ravel asked his friend Hélène
Jourdan-Morhange to play the Caprices through to him while he was
working on Tzigane). Like Liszt’s Hungarian Rhapsodies for piano,
Tzigane uses the ‘gypsy’ mode (E F G-sharp A), and is constructed
Programme Notes
5

Programme Notes (continued)
HectoR Berlioz (1803–69)
Act V from ‘The Trojans’ (1856–58)
Ekaterina Semenchuk Didon mezzo-soprano
Sergei Semishkur Aeneas tenor
Ed Lyon Hylas / Iopas tenor
Lukas Jakobski Panthee / Narbal bass
Claudia Huckle Anna contralto
Duncan Rock First Soldier baritone
Gary Griffiths Second Soldier baritone
Grace Durham Ghost of Cassandre mezzo-soprano
James Platt Ghost of Priam bass-baritone
Szymon Komasa Ghost of Chorebus baritone
Rick Zwart Ghost of Hector bass-baritone
London Symphony Chorus
As a great opera conductor, Valery Gergiev has chosen to end
his birthday gala with a concert performance of Act V of Berlioz’s
mammoth opera Les troyens (The Trojans), based on Virgil’s epic
poem about the Trojan Wars. Berlioz was familiar with The Aeneid
from childhood, and the scene of Dido on her funeral pyre was
the one which appealed most vividly to his imagination. He worked
on The Trojans in the mid-1850s, completing it by 1858, but all
his efforts to have it staged at the Paris Opéra came to nothing.
Eventually, in 1863, a three-act version (Les Troyens à Carthage) was
staged at the Théâtre Lyrique, but lasted for just one night before
Berlioz was obliged to start hacking away at the colossal score.
The opera was never staged complete in his lifetime, and the first
more or less complete performance was given at Karlsruhe in 1890.
Not until the 1960s and the determined advocacy of conductors such
as Sir Colin Davis was it assimilated into the operatic mainstream.
Act Five opens, the Trojan retinue is being harried by the ghosts
of their dead Trojan comrades, urging them onwards to Italy.
Aeneas sings of his bitter but fruitless regret at the thought of
abandoning Dido (‘Inutiles regrets’), and is minded to stay longer,
until the ghosts of Priam, Hector, Cassandra and Chorebus urge him to
leave. He hurries his troops down to the harbour, bids a final farewell
to the scene of his brief happiness, and sets sail. Dido rushes in,
appalled at this inexplicable turn of events, and curses her faithless
lover, as the fleet disappears to the sound of the Trojan March.
Left alone, Dido realises that pursuit is useless and gives way to
despair. She orders a funeral pyre to be constructed and resolves
on death (‘Je vais mourir’). She bids farewell to her city, while
momentarily recalling the bliss of her doomed love affair. A pyre is
built in the palace gardens, on which are placed mementos of Aeneas,
including the bed he had shared with Dido. The queen ascends the
pyre, throwing Aeneas’s toga and her own veil on to it. In a prophetic
vision, she foresees her death avenged by Rome’s nemesis Hannibal.
She stabs herself and dies, as her people curse Aeneas and the
Trojans, but the music of the Trojan March returns and the final scene
is an apotheosis of the future glory of the Roman Empire.
Acts One and Two deal with the final, bloody stages of the Trojan War.
After the fall of Troy, the Trojan prince, Aeneas escapes with a small
band of followers and sets sail for Italy, where he is destined to found
a mighty empire. In Acts Three and Four, a storm forces his fleet to
take shelter at Carthage, on the North African coast, where he falls
in love with its queen, Dido. But he is not allowed to dally long; as
6 Programme Notes

Hector Berlioz
The Trojans – Act Five: Libretto
Scene 1
(Le bord de la mer, couvert de tentes troyennes. On voit les vaisseaux
troyens dans le port. Il fait nuit. Un jeune matelot phrygien chante en
se balançant au haut du mât d’un navire. Deux sentinelles montent la
garde devant les tentes au fond de la scène.)
(The sea shore, covered with Trojan tents. Trojan ships are visible in
the harbour. It is night. A young Phrygian sailor sings as he rocks at
the masthead of a ship. Two sentries are on guard at the back of the
stage before the tents.)
No 38: Chanson d’Hylas
Hylas
Vallon sonore,
Où dès l’aurore
Je m’en allais chantant, hélas!
Sous tes grands bois chantera-t-il encore,
Le pauvre Hylas?
Berce mollement sur ton sein sublime,
Ô puissante mer, l’enfant de Dindyme!
Fraîche ramée,
Retraite aimée
Contre les feux du jour, hélas!
Quand rendras-tu ton ombre parfumée
Au pauvre Hylas?
Berce mollement sur ton sein sublime,
Ô puissante mer, l’enfant de Dindyme!
Humble chaumière
Où de ma mère
Je reçus les adieux,
Trojan Sentry 1
Il rêve à son pays …
Trojan Sentry 2
Qu’il ne reverra pas.
Hylas
Hélas!
Reverra-t-il ton heureuse misère,
Le pauvre Hylas?
Berce mollement sur ton sein sublime,
Ô puissante mer, l’enfant …
O echoing vale,
Where from first light
I used to wander singing – alas!
Will he sing again beneath your great trees,
Poor Hylas?
Rock gently on your mighty breast,
Eternal sea, the child of Dindyma.
Cool, green branches,
Cherished retreat
From the day’s heat – alas!
When will you restore your scented shade
To poor Hylas?
Rock gently on your mighty breast,
Eternal sea, the child of Dindyma.
Humble cottage
Where I received
My mother’s last farewell –
He’s dreaming of his homeland …
Which he won’t see again.
Alas!
Will he see your happy poverty again,
Poor Hylas?
Rock gently on your mighty breast,
Eternal sea, the child …
(Il s’endort.)
(He falls asleep.)
The Trojans – Texts
7

No 39: Récitatif et Choeur
(Entrent Panthée et les Chefs Troyens.)
Panthée
Préparez tout, il faut partir enfin.
Énée en vain
Voit avec désespoir l’angoisse de la reine.
La gloire et le devoir sauront briser sa chaîne
Et son cœur sera fort au moment des adieux.
Panthus, The Chieftains
Chaque jour voit grandir la colère des dieux.
Des signes effrayants déjà nous avertissent;
La mer, les monts, les bois rofonds gémissent;
Sous d’invisibles coups nos armes retentissent;
Comme dans Troie en la fatale nuit,
Hector, dont l’œil courroucé luit,
En armes apparaît; un chœur d’ombres le suit;
Et ces morts irrités
La nuit dernière encore ont crié trois fois –
The Ghost of Hector
Italie! Italie! Italie!
Panthus, The Chieftains
Dieux vengeurs! c’est leur voix! …
Nous avons trop longtemps bravé l’ordre céleste;
Quittons sans plus tarder ce rivage funeste!
A demain! à demain!
Préparons tout, il faut partir enfin.
(Ils entrent dans les tentes.)
(Panthus and the Trojan chieftains enter.)
Get everything ready, we must leave.
In vain Aeneas
With despair beholds the agony of the Queen;
Glory and duty will be able to break his chain,
And his heart will be firm at the moment of farewell.
Each day the wrath of the gods grows greater.
Already ghastly portents warn us:
The sea, the mountains, the forests groan aloud;
Invisible blows make our armour ring.
As in Troy on the fatal night,
Hector in arms is seen,
His angry eyes aglow; a chorus of spirits follow him,
And these same wrathful dead
Last night again cried out three times –
Italy! Italy! Italy!
Avenging gods! That is their voice!
Too long have we defied the divine command.
Let us leave this ill-omened coast without delay.
Tomorrow! tomorrow!
Get everything ready, we must leave.
(They go inside the tents.)
No 40: Duo
(Les deux sentinelles marchent, l’un de droite à gauche, l’autre de
gauche à droite. Ils s’arrêtent de temps en temps l’un près de l’autre
vers le milieu du théâtre.)
Trojan Sentry 1
Par Bacchus! ils sont fous
avec leur Italie!
Je n’ai rien entendu.
Trojan Sentry 2
Ni moi.
(The two sentries march up and down, one from right to left, the other
from left to right. From time to time they stop near one another in the
middle of the stage.)
By Bacchus, they’re mad,
with their ‘Italy’.
I haven’t heard anything.
Nor have I.
8 The Trojans – Texts

Trojan Sentry 1
La belle vie,
Pourtant, qu’on mène ici!
Trojan Sentry 2
Dans plus d’une maison
Nous trouvons et bon vin et
grasse venaison.
Trojan Sentry 1
A ma belle Carthaginoise,
Je puis déjà parler phénicien.
Trojan Sentry 2
La mienne comprend le troyen,
M’obéit sans me chercher noise.
Trojan Sentry 1
La tienne comprend le troyen?
Trojan Sentry 2
M’obéit sans me chercher noise.
La femme n’est point rude ici pour l’étranger.
Both
Non, la femme n’est point rude ici pour l’étranger.
Trojan Sentry 1
Et l’on nous veut faire changer
Ces douceurs contre un long voyage!
Trojan Sentry 2
Les caresses de l’orage!
Trojan Sentry 1
La faim.
Trojan Sentry 2
La soif.
Trojan Sentry 1
Vingt maux d’enfer!
Trojan Sentry 2
Et tous les ennuis de la mer!
Trojan Sentry 1
Maudite folie!
It’s a fine life
We’re leading here.
More than one house
Gives us good wine and
tasty venison.
I can already talk Phoenician
To my Carthaginian girl.
Mine understands Trojan,
Does what I tell her without complaining.
Yours understands Trojan?
Does what I tell her without complaining.
The women here know how to look after a foreigner.
The women here know how to look after a foreigner.
And they want us to exchange
All this for a long voyage!
The pleasures of a storm!
Hunger!
Thirst!
A dog’s life!
And the boredom of the sea!
Curse their folly!
The Trojans – Texts
9

Trojan Sentry 2
Pour cette Italie …
Trojan Sentry 1
Où nous devons jouir du fruit de nos travaux.
Both
En nous faisant rompre les os!
Trojan Sentry 2
Encor pâtir!
Trojan Sentry 1
Encor pâtir!
Notre lot est l’obéissance.
Trojan Sentry 2
Silence!
Je vois Énée à grands pas accourir.
(Les deux sentinelles s’éloignent et disparaissent.)
And all for this Italy …
Where we’re to enjoy the fruits of our labours.
By breaking our backs!
To go through it all again!
To go through it all again!
It’s orders, orders all the time.
Be quiet!
Aeneas is coming.
(The two sentries withdraw and disappear.)
No 41: Récitatif et Air
Aeneas
(S’avançant dans une grande agitation)
Inutiles regrets! je dois quitter Carthage!
Didon le sait. Son effroi, sa stupeur,
En l’apprenant, ont brisé mon courage …
Mais je le dois, il le faut!
Non, je ne puis oublier la pâleur
Frappant de mort son beau visage,
Son silence obstiné, ses yeux
Fixes et pleins d’un feu sombre.
En vain ai-je parlé des prodiges sans nombre
Me rappelant l’ordre des dieux,
Invoqué la grandeur de ma sainte entreprise,
L’avenir de mon fils et le sort des Troyens,
La triomphale mort par les destins promise,
Pour couronner ma gloire aux champs ausoniens;
Rien n’a pu la toucher; sans vaincre son silence
J’ai fui de son regard la terrible éloquence.
Ah! quand viendra l’instant des suprêmes adieux,
Heure d’angoisse et de larmes baignée,
Comment subir l’aspect affreux
De cette douleur indignée?
(Hurrying, in great agitation)
Futile regrets! I must leave Carthage.
Dido knows. Her terror, her amazement
When she learned it have shattered my nerve …
But I must, it has to be!
No, I cannot forget how her fair face
Turned deathly pale;
She would not say a word but her eyes
Stared and blazed darkly.
In vain I told her of the countless portents
Which remind me of the gods’ command,
Invoked the greatness of my sacred mission,
My son’s future and the destiny of the Trojans,
The heroic death, promised by the fates,
That is to crown my glory on the Ausonian fields;
Nothing moved her. I could not break her silence,
And I fled from the terrible power of her look.
But ah! when the moment comes for the last farewell,
Moment of anguish and tears unstinted,
How to bear the dreadful sight
Of her indignant grief?
10 The Trojans – Texts

Lutter contre moi-même et contre toi, Didon!
En déchirant ton cœur implorer mon pardon!
En serai-je capable? En un dernier naufrage,
Ah! puissé-je périr, si je quittais Carthage
Sans te revoir pourtant!
Sans la voir? lâcheté!
Mépris des droits sacrés de l’hospitalité!
Non, non, reine adorée,
Âme sublime et par moi déchirée,
Bienfaitrice des miens! Non, je veux te revoir,
Une dernière fois presser tes mains tremblantes,
Arroser tes genoux de mes larmes brûlantes,
Dussé-je être brisé par un tel désespoir.
To strive against myself, and against you, Dido!
Implore forgiveness while I break your heart!
How can I do it? Ah, may I go down and perish
In the depths of the sea if I leave Carthage
Without seeing you again!
Without seeing her? Am I a coward?
To spurn the sacred laws of hospitality?
No, no, beloved Queen,
Sublime soul that I have torn asunder!
Benefactress of my people! No, I will see you once more,
For the last time press your trembling hands,
Wash your knees with my burning tears,
Though the despair of it should break me utterly.
No 42: Scène
Chorus of Ghosts
Énée!
Aeneas
Encor ces voix!
(Les quatre spectres voilés paraissent succession, le premier à
l’entrée des coulisses à gauche du spectateur, la deuxième à l’entrée
des coulisses à droite, et les deux autres au fond du théâtre.
Sur la tête de chaque un brille une couronne de flammes pâles.)
De la sombre demeure,
Messager menaçant, qui donc t’a fait sortir?
Ghost of Priam
Ta faiblesse et ta gloire …
Aeneas
Ah! je voudrais mourir!
Ghost of Priam
Plus de retards!
Ghost of Corebus
Pas un jour!
Ghosts of Hector & Cassandra
Pas une heure!
Ghost of Priam
(Il lève son voile devant les yeux d’Énée)
Aeneas!
Those voices again!
(Four veiled spirits appear in succession, one at the entrance to
the wings on the left of the spectator, the second at the entrance
to the wings on the right, the other two at the back of the stage.
Above the head of each a crown of pale flames shines.)
Grim messenger,
What has brought you from the realm of the dead?
Your weakness and your glory …
Ah, would I could die!
No more delay!
Not a day!
Not an hour!
(Lifting his veil before Aeneas)
The Trojans – Texts
11

Je suis Priam! il faut vivre et partir!
(Sa couronne de flammes s’éteint; il disparaît.)
Ghost of Corebus
(levant son voile)
Je suis Chorèbe!
Il faut partir et vaincre!
(Sa couronne s’éteint; il disparaît.)
Aeneas
(Les reconnaissant au moment où ils se dévoilent)
Hector! dieux de l’Érèbe!
Cassandre!
Ghosts of Hector & Cassandra
Il faut vaincre et fonder!
(Leurs couronnes s’éteignent; ils disparaissent.)
Aeneas
Je dois céder
A vos ordres impitoyables!
J’obéis, j’obéis, spectres inexorables!
Je suis barbare, ingrat; vous l’ordonnez, grands dieux!
Et j’immole Didon, en détournant les yeux!
I am Priam. You must live and depart.
(His crown of flame goes out; he vanishes.)
(Lifting his veil)
I am Corebus!
You must depart and conquer.
(His crown goes out; he vanishes.)
(Recognising them as they unveil)
Hector, ye gods of Hades!
Cassandra!
You must conquer and found.
(Their crowns go out; they vanish.)
I must yield
To your pitiless commands.
I obey, I obey, inexorable spirits!
I am cruel and ungrateful: it is your decree, great gods.
Dido must be sacrificed, without a glance from me.
No 43: Scène et chœur
Aeneas
(Passant devant les tentes)
Debout, Troyens, éveillez-vous, alerte!
Le vent est bon, la mer nous est ouverte!
Éveillez-vous!
Il faut partir avant le lever du soleil!
The Trojans
(Dans les tentes)
Alerte! entendez-vous, amis, la voix d’Énée? …
Donnez partout le signal du réveil!
(Ils sortent des tentes.)
Aeneas
(À un chef)
Va, cours, porte cet ordre à l’oreille étonnée D’Ascagne:
Qu’il se lève et qu’il se rende à bord!
(Going from tent to tent.)
Trojans, arise, awake, hurry!
The wind is fair, the open sea awaits us.
Awake!
We must be off before sunrise.
(Within their tents)
Hurry! Comrades, do you hear Aeneas’ voice?
Sound the reveille all through the camp!
(They come out of their tents.)
(To a chieftain)
Quickly, take this order to the astonished Ascanius:
He must get up and go on board;
12 The Trojans – Texts

Avant le jour il faut quitter le port.
Ma tâche, jusqu’au bout, grands dieux, sera remplie.
Alerte, amis! profitons des instants!
Coupez les câbles, il est temps!
En mer! en mer! Italie! Italie!
Chorus
Voici le jour, profitons des instants!
Coupons les câbles, il est temps!
En mer! en mer! Italie! Italie!
Aeneas
(Se tournant du côté du palais de Didon)
A toi mon âme! Adieu! Digne de ton pardon,
Je pars, noble Didon!
L’impatient destin m’appelle;
Pour la mort des héros, je te suis infidèle.
(Tous se précipitent hors de la scène dans diverses directions, comme
pour faire des préparatifs de départ. On voit les vaisseaux commencer
à se mettre en mouvement. Éclairs et tonnerre lointain. Entre Didon.)
Before daybreak we must leave port.
My task, great gods, will be accomplished to the end.
Hurry, comrades, not a moment’s delay!
Cut the cables. The time has come!
To sea, to sea! Italy! Italy!
Daybreak is here; not a moment’s delay!
Cut the cables. The time has come!
To sea, to sea! Italy! Italy!
(Turning towards Dido’s palace)
To you, my soul, farewell! Deserving of your forgiveness,
go, noble Dido;
My impatient destiny summons me;
For a hero’s death I forsake you.
(All rush off in different directions to make ready for sailing.
The ships are seen to begin to move. Lightning and distant thunder.
Dido enters.)
No 44: Duo et chœur
Dido
Errante sur tes pas,
Sous la foudre qui gronde,
J’ai voulu voir, je vois et ne crois pas …
Tu prépares ta fuite?
Aeneas
En ma douleur profonde,
Chère Didon, épargnez-moi!
Dido
Tu pars? tu pars?
Sans remords! Quoi!
Dédaigneux du sceptre de Libie,
En m’arrachant le cœur tu cours en Italie!
Aeneas
J’ai trop tardé … des dieux les ordres souverains.
Dido
Il part! … il suit la voix d’implacables destins,
Sans écouter la mienne! à ses lâches dédains
Il me voit exposer ma douleur surhumaine,
I have sought you out
While the thunder rumbles;
I wanted to see. Now I see but cannot believe it.
You are getting ready to flee?
Spare me, Dido,
In my profound grief.
You are going? Going?
Without compunction! What!
Spurning the sceptre of Libya,
You tear my heart out and hurry away to Italy.
I have delayed too long – the gods’ imperious command …
He’s going – he follows the voice of cruel fate
And does not listen to mine. He can watch me
Expose my appalling grief to his cowardly scorn,
The Trojans – Texts
13

(Elle voit un groupe de Troyens sourire en la regardant.)
Et ma beauté de reine
Aux rires insolents de ces ingrats Troyens! …
Aeneas
Didon!
Dido
Sans qu’à l’aspect d’une telle misère
La pitié d’une larme humecte sa paupière!
Tu pars? Non ! ce n’est pas Vénus qui t’enfanta,
Quelque louve hideuse aux forêts t’allaita!
Aeneas
Ô Reine, quand à vous se dévoua mon âme,
Elle subit la loi d’un immortel amour,
Et jusqu’au dernier jour
Mon cœur vivra de cette flamme …
Dido
Tais-toi! rien ne t’arrête;
La mort qui plane sur ma tête,
Ma honte, mon amour, notre hymen commencé,
Mon nom du livre d’or dès ce jour effacé!
Encor, si de ta foi, j’avais un tendre gage,
Oui, si d’un fils d’Énée
Le fier et doux visage
Me rappelant tes traits, souriait sur mon sein,
Je serais moins abandonnée.
Aeneas
Je vous aime, Didon – grâce! l’ordre divin
Pouvait seul emporter la cruelle victoire.
(On entend la fanfare de la Marche Troyenne.)
Dido
A ce chant de triomphe où rayonne ta gloire,
Je te vois tressaillir!
Tu pars?
Aeneas
Je dois partir …
Dido
Tu pars?
(She sees a group of Trojans looking at her with smiles.)
And my queenly beauty
To the sneers of these ungrateful Trojans.
Dido!
And no tears of pity moisten his eye
At the sight of such misery.
You are going? No, it was not Venus who bore you –
Some hideous she-wolf in the forest gave you suck.
O Queen, when my soul first gave itself to you,
It was bound by the law of an undying love,
And till the end of time
This flame will live in my heart …
Silence! Nothing can stop you –
Not Death hovering over me,
My shame, my love, our wedded life begun.
My name wiped from this day from the book of honour!
Yet had I a tender pledge of your trust,
Yes, had I, cradled in my arms,
Aeneas’ son, his proud, sweet face
Smiling at me, to remind me of you,
I would be less forsaken.
I love you, Dido – Pardon! Only the divine command
Could so cruelly compel me.
(The fanfare of the Trojan March rings out.)
At the sound of this triumphal song proclaiming your glory
I see you quiver!
You are going?
I must go …
You are going?
14 The Trojans – Texts

Aeneas
Mais pour mourir,
Obéissant aux dieux,
Je pars et je vous aime!
Dido
Ne sois plus longtemps par mes cris arrêté,
Monstre de piété!
Va donc, va! je maudis et tes dieux et toi-même!
(Elle sort.)
Aeneas, The Trojans
Italie!
(Ascagne arrive conduit par un chef troyen. Énée monte sur un
vaisseau.)
Scene 2
(Un appartement de Didon. Le jour se lève.)
Yes, but to die,
Obedient to the gods,
I go, and I love you!
Do not let my tears delay you longer,
Monster of piety!
Go, get you gone! I curse your gods and you!
(She goes out.)
Italy!
(Ascanius enters, escorted by a Trojan chieftain. Aeneas goes on
board.)
(A room in Dido’s palace; dawn.)
No 45: Scène
Dido
Va, ma sœur, l’implorer
De mon âme abattue
L’orgueil a fui. Va! ce départ me tue
Et je le vois se préparer.
Anna
Hélas! moi seule fus coupable,
En vous encourageant à former d’autres nœuds.
Peut-on lutter contre les dieux?
Son départ est inévitable,
Et pourtant il vous aime.
Dido
Il m’aime! non! non! son cœur est glacé!
Ah! je connais l’amour, et si Jupiter même
M’eût défendu d’aimer, mon amour insensé
De Jupiter braverait l’anathème.
Mais va, ma sœur, allez, Narbal, le supplier
Pour qu’il m’accorde encore
Quelques jours seulement. Humblement je l’implore.
Ce que j’ai fait pour lui, pourra-t-il l’oublier …
Et repoussera-t-il cette instance suprême
De vous, sage Narbal, de toi, ma sœur, qu’il aime?
Go, my sister, entreat him.
My soul is abased,
My pride has fled. Go. This parting kills me –
And I see him make ready.
Alas! I alone am guilty,
For encouraging you to form new ties.
Can one strive against the gods?
Nothing can stop him going,
And yet he loves you.
He loves me? No, no, his heart is like ice.
Ah, I know love. If Jove himself
Forbade me love him, my reckless love
Would brave Jove’s interdict.
But go, sister, and you, Narbal, beg him
To grant me a few days more,
Only a few days. Humbly! entreat him.
Can he forget what I have done for him?
Surely he will not reject this urgent plea
From you, good Narbal, and you, sister, whom he loves.
The Trojans – Texts
15

No 46: Scène
Chorus
(Au loin)
En mer, voyez! six vaisseaux! sept! neuf! dix!
Iopas
(Entrant)
Les Troyens sont partis!
Dido
Qu’entends-je?
Iopas
Avant l’aurore
Leur flotte était en mer, on l’aperçoit encore!
Dido
Dieux immortels! il part! Armez-vous, Tyriens!
Carthaginois, courez, poursuivez les Troyens!
Courbez-vous sur les rames,
Volez sur les eaux,
Lancez des flammes,
Brûlez leurs vaisseaux!
Que la ville entière …
Que dis-je? Impuissante fureur!
Subis ton sort et désespère,
Dévore ta douleur,
Ô malheureuse!
Et voilà donc la foi de cette âme pieuse!
J’offrais un trône! Ah! je devais alors
Exterminer la race vagabonde
De ces maudits, et disperser sur l’onde
Les débris de leurs corps!
C’est alors qu’il fallait prévoir leur perfidie,
Livrer leur flotte à l’incendie,
Et me venger d’Énée et lui servir enfin
Les membres de son fils en un hideux festin!
A moi, dieux des enfers! l’Olympe est inflexible.
Aidez-moi! que par vous mon cœur soit enflammé
D’une haine terrible
Pour ce fugitif que j’aimai!
Du prêtre de Pluton, qu’on réclame l’office!
Pour apaiser mes douloureux transports,
A l’instant même offrons un sacrifice
(In the distance)
Look! They have set sail! Six ships, seven, nine, ten!
(Entering)
The Trojans have gone!
What are you saying?
Their fleet put to sea
Before dawn; but they are still in sight.
Immortal gods – he’s gone! Tyrians, to arms!
Carthaginians, hurry, pursue the Trojans!
Bend to the oars,
Fly over the water.
Hurl flames,
Burn their ships!
Let the whole city …
What am I saying? Pitiful rage!
Submit to your fate, abandon hope,
Choke back your grief,
Wretched one!
So this is the faith of that pious soul!
I offered a throne. Ah! I ought rather
To have wiped out that accursed race
Of wanderers and scattered on the sea
What was left of their corpses.
I should have foreseen their treachery then,
And set fire to their fleet,
Avenged myself on Aeneas and, to end, served him
His own son’s limbs for a hideous banquet.
To me now, gods of Hades; Olympus is inexorable.
Help me, inflame my heart
With a burning hatred
For this fugitive whom I loved.
Let the aid of Pluto’s priest be invoked.
To assuage my torments
Let us at once offer a sacrifice
16 The Trojans – Texts

Aux sombres déités de l’empire des morts!
Qu’on élève un bûcher!
Que les dons du perfide
Et ceux que je lui fis,
Dans la flamme livide,
Souvenirs détestés, disparaissent! … Sortez!
Narbal
(À Anna)
Son regard m’épouvante, ô princesse, restez!
Dido
Anna, suivez Narbal.
Anna
Que ma sœur me pardonne!
Dido
Je suis reine et j’ordonne;
Laissez-moi seule, Anna.
(Anna, Narbal et Iopas sortent.)
To the dark deities of the kingdom of the dead.
Let a pyre be raised,
And on it the traitor’s gifts
And those I gave to him,
Hateful memorials,
Vanish in the livid flames. Now go!
(To Anna)
Her look terrifies me, princess: stay!
Anna, go with Narbal.
Will my sister forgive me?
I am Queen, and I command it:
Anna, leave me.
(Anna, Narbal and Iopas go out.)
No 47: Monologue
(Didon parcourt la scène en s’arrachant les cheveux, se frappant la
poitrine et poussant des cris inarticulés.)
Dido
Ah! Ah!
(Elle s’arrête brusquement.)
Je vais mourir …
Dans ma douleur immense submergée,
Et mourir non vengée! …
Mourons pourtant! oui, puisse-t-il frémir
A la lueur lointaine de la flamme de mon bûcher!
S’il reste dans son âme quelque chose d’humain,
Peut-être il pleurera sur mon affreux destin.
Lui, me pleurer!
Énée! Énée!
Oh! mon âme te suit,
A son amour enchaînée,
Esclave, elle l’emporte en l’éternelle nuit …
Vénus! rends-moi ton fils! Inutile prière
D’un cœur qui se déchire! A la mort tout entière
Didon n’attend plus rien que de la mort.
(Dido paces the room, tearing her hair, beating her breast. and
uttering inarticulate cries.)
Ah! Ahl
(She stops abruptly.)
I am going to die …
Drowned in my great grief,
And die unavenged!
Yet I must die. Could he but tremble
When he sees from afar the glow of my funeral pyre!
If there is any human feeling left in his heart,
Perhaps he will weep at my pitiful fate.
He weep for me!
Aeneas, Aeneas!
Oh, my soul flies after you;
Chained to its love,
It bears it down to everlasting night …
Venus, give me back your son! Futile prayer
Of a heart torn asunder. To death devoted,
Dido has nothing more to look for but death.
The Trojans – Texts
17

No 48: Air
Dido
Adieu, fière cité, qu’un généreux effort
Si promptement éleva florissante;
Ma tendre sœur qui me suivis errante,
Adieu; mon peuple, adieu; adieu, rivage vénéré,
Toi qui jadis m’accueillis suppliante;
Adieu; beau ciel d’Afrique, astres que j’admirai
Aux nuits d’ivresse et d’extase infinie;
Je ne vous verrai plus, ma carrière est finie!
(Elle sort à pas lents.)
Farewell, proud city, raised
By selfless toil so swiftly to prosperity.
My gentle sister, who shared my wanderings,
Farewell; my people, farewell, and you, blessed shore
Which welcomed me when I begged for refuge;
Farewell, fair skies of Africa, stars I gazed on in wonder
On those nights of boundless ecstasy and rapture –
I shall see you no more, my career is ended.
(She goes slowly out.)
Scene 3
No 49: Cérémonie funèbre
(Les jardins de Didon sur le bord de la mer. Un vaste bûcher est élevé;
on y monte par les gradins latéraux. Sur la plate-forme du bûcher sont
placés un lit, une toge, un casque, une épée avec son baudrier, et
un buste d’Énée. Entrent les Prêtres de Pluton, revêtus de costumes
funèbres, ils viennent processionnellement se grouper auprès de
deux autels où brillent des flammes verdâtres, puis Anna, Narbal,
et enfin Didon voilée et couronnée de feuillage. Pendant la première
partie du chœur des prêtres, Anna, s’approchant de sa sœur, lui
dénoue sa chevelure et lui ôte le cothurne de son pied gauche.)
Chorus of Priests of Pluto
Dieux de l’oubli, dieux du Ténare,
Au cœur blessé rendez la force et le repos!
Des profondeurs du noir Tartare
Entendez-nous, Hécate, Érèbe, et toi Chaos!
Anna & Narbal
(Étendant le bras droit du côté de la mer)
S’il faut enfin qu’Énée aborde en Italie,
Qu’il y trouve un obscur trépas!
Que le peuple latin à l’ombrien s’allie
Pour arrêter ses pas!
Percé d’un trait vulgaire en la mêlée ardente,
Qu’il reste abandonné sur l’arène sanglante,
Pour servir de pâture aux dévorants oiseaux!
Entendez-nous, Hécate, Érèbe, et toi Chaos!
The Priests, Anna & Narbal
Dieux de l’oubli, dieux du Ténare, etc.
(Dido’s gardens, by the sea. A large pyre has been set up, with steps
on each side. On the platform are placed a bed, a toga, a helmet,
a sword with its belt, and a bust of Aeneas. The priests of Pluto enter
in procession, dressed in funeral robes; they group themselves about
two altars, which are burning with a greenish flame; after the priests,
Anna and Narbal and finally Dido, veiled and crowned with leaves.
During the first part of the priests’ chorus. Anna goes up to her sister
and unlooses her hair and takes off the shoe from her left foot –
part of the ritual of sacrificing to the infernal deities.)
Gods of oblivion, gods of Tenarus,
Restore strength and peace to the wounded heart.
From the depths of dark Tartarus
Hear us, Hecate, Erebus, and thou, Chaos!
(With their right arms extended towards the sea)
If Aeneas must land at last in Italy,
May he find there an inglorious death!
May the Latin people and the Umbrian unite
To arrest his course!
Pierced by a common arrow in the thick of battle,
May he lie abandoned on the bloody strand,
Carrion for birds of prey!
Hear us, Hecate, Erebus, and thou, Chaos!
Gods of oblivion, etc.
18 The Trojans – Texts

No 50: Scène
Dido
(Parlant comme en songe)
Pluton … semble m’être propice …
En ce cruel instant … Narbal … ma sœur …
C’en est fait … achevons le pieux sacrifice …
Je sens rentrer le calme … dans mon cœur.
(Saisi d’une énergie convulsive, Didon monte d’un pas rapide les
degrés du bûcher. Elle saisit la toge d’Énée, détache le voile brodé
d’or qui couvre sa tête, et les jetant l’une et l’autre sur le bûcher.)
D’un malheureux amour, funestes gages,
Dans la flamme emportez avec vous mes chagrins!
(Elle considère les armes d’Énée.)
Ah!
(Elle se prosterne sur le lit, qu’elle embrasse avec des sanglots
convulsifs. Elle se relève et prenant l’épée elle dit d’un ton
prophétique:)
Mon souvenir vivra parmi les âges.
Mon peuple accomplira d’héroïques destins.
Un jour sur la terre africaine,
Il naîtra de ma cendre un glorieux vengeur …
J’entends déjà tonner son nom vainqueur.
Annibal! Annibal! d’orgueil mon âme est pleine!
Plus de souvenirs amers!
C’est ainsi qu’il convient de descendre aux enfers!
No 51: Chœur
(Elle tire l’épée du fourreau, se frappe et tombe sur le lit.
Narbal sort comme pour aller chercher du secours.)
All
Ah! au secours! au secours!
la reine s’est frappée!
Chorus
(Dans la coulisse)
Quels cris! ah! dans son sang trempée
La reine meurt!
(Narbal rentre, le chœur entre en scène.)
Est-il vrai? jour d’horreur!
(Speaking as if in a dream)
Pluto … seems to be propitious …
In this bitter moment … Narbal …my sister …
All is over … let us finish the holy sacrifice …
I feel peace returning … to my heart.
(With sudden energy Dido rapidly climbs the steps of the pyre. She
seizes Aeneas’ toga, removes the veil from her head, and throws
them both on the pyre.)
You, sad pledges of an unhappy love,
Take with you into the flames all my grief
(She contemplates Aeneas’ armour.)
Ah!
(She throws herself on the bed, embracing it and sobbing
uncontrollably. Then she rises and, taking the sword, speaks in
prophetic tones.)
My memory will live throughout the ages,
My people will fulfil a heroic destiny
One day in the land of Africa
From my ashes a glorious avenger will be born.
Already I hear the thunder of his conquering name –
Hannibal, Hannibal! My soul swells with pride.
No more bitter memories;
Thus is it fitting to go down to the shades below!
(She pulls the sword from the scabbard, stabs herself and falls
on the bed. Narbal runs out in search of help.)
Ah! Help, help!
The Queen has stabbed herself!
(Behind the scenes, running up)
What cries are these? Ah, the Queen is lying
In her own blood; she is dying.
(Narbal returns, the chorus enters.)
Can it be true? Day of horror!
The Trojans – Texts
19

Dido
(Se relevant, appuyée sur son coude)
Ah!
(Elle retombe.)
Anna
(Sur le bûcher)
Ma sœur!
(Didon se relève.)
Dido
Ah!
(Elle lève les yeux au ciel et retombe gémissant.)
Anna
C’est moi,
C’est ta sœur qui t’appelle …
Dido (se relevant à demi)
Ah! Des destins ennemis …implacable fureur …
Carthage périra!
(Rising on her elbow)
Ah!
(She falls back.)
(On the pyre)
My sister!
(Dido rises.)
Ah!
(She lifts her eyes to the sky, then falls back with a groan.)
It is I,
It is your sister who calls you.
(Half-rising)
Ah! The fates are against us … their hate unrelenting …
Carthage will perish!
No 52: Imprécation
(On voit dans une gloire lointaine le Capitole.)
Dido
Rome … Rome … immortelle!
(Elle retombe, et meurt. Anna tombe évanouie à côté d’elle. Le
peuple de Carthage, s’avançant vers l’avant-scène et tournant le dos
au bûcher, lance son imprécation, premier cri de guerre punique,
contrastant par sa fureur avec la solennité de la Marche triomphale.)
Chorus
Haine éternelle à la race d’Énée!
Qu’une guerre acharnée
Précipite à jamais nos fils contre ses fils!
Que par nos vaisseaux assaillis
Leurs vaisseaux dans la mer profonde
Périssent abîmés! Que sur la terre et l’onde
Nos derniers descendants, contre eux toujours armés,
De leur massacre, un jour, épouvantent le monde.
(A distant radiance shows the Capitol.)
Rome … Rome … eternal!
(She falls back, and dies. Anna sinks swooning beside her. The people
of Carthage, advancing to the front of the stage with their backs to the
pyre, hurl out their imprecation, the first Punic war cry, contrasting in
its anger with the solemnity of the triumphal march.)
Undying hatred for the race of Aeneas!
May our sons hurl themselves against theirs
In relentless war for all time!
May our ships attack theirs
And send them shattered to the bottom
Of the sea! By land and water
May our last descendants, armed against them to the end,
One day astonish the world with their destruction.
20 The Trojans – Texts
Text by Hector Berlioz, after Virgil’s Aeneid
English translation © David Cairns

Messages from Friends
Birthday Messages
21

From Lennox Mackenzie
LSO Chairman, on behalf of the Orchestra
Tonight, Ladies and Gentlemen, we celebrate our esteemed
Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev’s 60th birthday.
Valery, please accept the warmest wishes from us all in the London
Symphony Orchestra on this special occasion. You have brought
to us thrilling, moving and remarkable music-making in our concerts
across the globe during the last seven seasons whilst you have been
our Principal Conductor. The energy and drive you create in the music
is irresistible, and all of us in the LSO retain truly special memories of
our collaboration. I vividly remember the first time you conducted the
Orchestra in 1988 when you insisted on bringing relatively unknown
soloists to England for the first time. We were initially apprehensive
as the West had not yet heard of Vadim Repin, Evgeny Kissin and
Maxim Vengerov. The all Russian programmes were a sensation.
But it was the full Prokofiev symphonic cycle in 2004, which cemented
our relationship and led to you becoming our Principal Conductor.
A natural understanding and empathy occurred between orchestra
and conductor which was irrepressible, as you directed the music
with intensity, expression and extraordinary imagination. It has been
a wonderful period in the LSO’s history and we thank you most
sincerely for your musicianship.
Apart from our making music together we have been hugely
impressed by your achievements in St Petersburg where your drive
and tireless passion has resulted in a hugely increased prominence
worldwide of Mariinsky Theatre’s work, of which you have been
Artistic Director since 1996. Recently you have been responsible for
the building of a magnificent concert hall with excellent acoustics
and a second Opera Theatre with state-of-the-art stage facilities and
a beautiful auditorium, thereby further enhancing the artistic life of
the city. A truly awe-inspiring achievement.
Thank you for leading us, the LSO, down an exhilarating road and
we look forward to many more years of music-making together.
Happy Birthday!
Lennox Mackenzie
LSO Chairman
22 Birthday Messages

Alexander
Toradze
Leonidas
Kavakos
Henri
Dutilleux
Great, beloved Valery!
I am celebrating your remarkable jubilee
with an exhilarating joy and proudness.
Thank God, your mother Tamara
Tatarkhanovna, your father Abisal
Zaurbekovich, the Ossetian and Russian
nations and their culture for the creation of
an epochal personality – the great statesman
and musician, you – Valery Gergiev.
You’ve embraced and transformed the world
of art. It’s a great blessing and inspiration to
collaborate with you in music-making and
share your friendship. Thank you very much!
I wish unlimited happiness and great health
to you and your beautiful family.
Always yours, Lexo Toradze
Dearest Valery,
Your artistic genius and limitless offer of
great music fills people’s souls with strong
emotions. Your kindness, generosity and
profound human qualities are an inspiration
to everyone. Your charisma binds people in
the same way music and the arts do …
Your existence is a gift to the world. As a
musician, I feel privileged to make music
with you and, as a person, blessed to be a
friend of yours.
With all my love and wishes,
Leonidas
To Valery Gergiev,
At our first meeting in 2007, organised by my
dear friend Bruno Lussato, a sincere affection
and admiration connected me to the work
and talents of Valery Gergiev. Over the course
of several meetings, we were able to develop
a fruitful and enriching musical partnership.
There are few concerts that I remember
with such fond memories as the exiting
performances of the 2008 White Nights
Festival in St Petersburg, or those of the
2009/10 season in London, where Valery
Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra
(an orchestra with whom I have had a long
and warm relationship), programmed a
number of my works.
His performances of my pieces
Correspondances in Russia, and Le Temps
l’Horloge last summer in London with my
dear friend Renée Fleming, touched me
greatly. Over these years I have been able to
witness the many qualities of Valery Gergiev,
as well as his great sensitivity. His loyalty
and integrity have honoured me greatly,
and our many encounters have been
amongst the most enriching and pivotal
moments of my life.
All my thoughts are with you, dear friend
Valery Gergiev, on the occasion of your
birthday.
Henri Dutilleux
Birthday Messages
23

Denis
Matsuev
Anne-Sophie
Mutter
Nikolaj
Znaider
feel privileged that I can call maestro
I Gergiev my friend and that I can
communicate with this genius not only on
stage but in personal life. Every interaction
with him is a real masterclass.
We started playing together quite recently –
the first time we performed together was
only six years ago. But I can’t help the feeling
that we’ve known each other all my life.
He possesses an incredible amount of unique,
fascinating qualities that are too many to list.
He is a genius musician, brilliant manager,
unselfish, honest and open man who always
keeps his promises and takes responsibility
for what he does. In his profession (in music)
his distinguishing features are: a hurricane of
emotions, deep understanding of every piece,
fantastic interpretations, absolute universality,
unreal efficiency and his inimitable conducting
manner. All of this makes him so strong and
special. We should be proud to have him as
our contemporary.
He looks after the young generation of
Russian musicians, worries about our
Homeland and educates people through
his festivals, such as the Stars of the White
Nights and Moscow Easter Festival, which
have become as significant as many other
important festivals.
All around the world maestro Gergiev
personifies Russian culture. Russia is
fortunate to have him.
Denis Matsuev
Valery: An appreciation!
Dear Maestro!
You have an impressively large repertoire
which can partially be ascribed to the speed
with which you study.
Very often I feel that if someone were to walk
past you slowly, score in hand, you would
become familiar with it in record time.
Our concerts together were always
extremely intense and full of challenges.
I particularly remember the excitement of
your accompaniment of Sofia Gubaidulina’s
In tempus praesens with your wonderful LSO.
There are very few living musicians who
have left such a mark on their culture in their
homeland. You are surely a national treasure
right next to the Hermitage – although this is
only your Happy 60th Birthday.
There is no need to wish you more success
or other enconiums as the only thing you
might wish for is a little more sleep and fewer
phone calls.
Happy birthday and loads of love and health.
Anne-Sophie Mutter
Dear Valery, Maestro …’Boss’!
Your tireless energy never ceases to amaze
me … in fact, it is quite astonishing to think
that you are only 60.
In my family, on any birthday, we say ‘till 120!’.
So congratulations, you have now made
it halfway.
My sincere admiration for all that you have
achieved and continue to achieve in music,
as well as my gratitude for all that you
have meant to me throughout the years,
is boundless.
Let me join the innumerable voices in wishing
you good health, peace and joy.
I salute you!
24 Birthday Messages

Dr Thomas
Angyan
Laurent
Bayle
Louwrens
Langevoort
The real story of the Society of Friends of
Music in Vienna is the story of its concert
directors: famous musicians who served as
conductors at this house. Johannes Brahms,
Hans Richter and Wilhelm Furtwängler were
among them. Then followed – the last in this
office – Herbert von Karajan. Ten years after
his death there was a special Musikverein
concert in his memory. There, conducting the
Vienna Philharmonic, was Valery Gergiev.
As a former winner of the Herbert von
Karajan Competition, he was predestined.
But it was also for profound artistic
reasons that Gergiev was on the podium
this memorable concert. He is, as once
was Karajan, one of the most evocative
conductors of his time, a magician in the
transfer of energy and its conversion into
sound. How does he do it? ‘Much, very much
can be learned‘, Gergiev himself once wrote
in our magazine Friends of Music. But what
makes some more interesting than many
other conductors is a mystery, and it is good
that it remains one.
We in Vienna are very pleased with this
fantastic enigma named Valery Gergiev.
Congratulations and ad multos annos!
Dr Thomas Angyan
Director, Society of Friends of Music
in Vienna
For years in Paris we have had the
privilege of experiencing, thanks to
you, unforgettable musical moments at the
Théâtre du Châtelet, the Champs-Elysées
Théâtre, the Paris Opera, and, of course, the
Salle Pleyel. We are proud to welcome you
regularly at the head of not only the London
Symphony Orchestra and your Mariinsky
Orchestra, but also the Orchestre de Paris
and the Concertgebouw Orchestra.
What do we like the most about you, dear
Valery? Your charisma, the source of your
power of fascination that seems limitless?
A relentless work ethic which allows you to
conquer the greatest heights? Your mastery
of the science of colours and dynamics,
transmitted to musicians by gestures of such
elegance and unparalleled accuracy? In fact,
all these features – between instinct and
genius – are responsible for our admiration
of the artist that you are.
But, above all, what we love in you is the
man. You are someone deeply human who
understands contemporary reality, who
knows that he lives in a globalised world
dominated by the acceleration of time, but
who also has an artistic message that refuses
to submit to the current globalisation. You
continue to claim artistic identity, roots, and
memory, as well as a way of living your art
and its transmission to future generations.
Dear Valery, a man of heart, humanist and
creator, heir of the Renaissance spirit: happy
birthday beside our loyal friends of the LSO.
Dear Valery,
Congratulations!
Since your first concert in the Kölner
Philharmonie 24 years ago you have been a
leading guest with us in Cologne. You have
given concerts with all the major orchestras,
with programmes featuring the highlights of
European concert music as well as operas
in concert. A concert with you is always a
real pleasure for performers and audiences,
as we all discover music as new and as
unknown to us before.
As we all know conductors used to reach a
celestic age, so 60 years is only a good start.
I wish you a long life and I hope our paths
will cross often in all these following years
and am looking forward to the many projects
we can fulfil together in our fantastic Kölner
Philharmonie.
Best wishes,
Louwrens Langevoort
and the Team of the Kölner
Philharmonie, Cologne
Laurent Bayle
Directeur Général, Salle Pleyel
Birthday Messages
25

Sir Nicholas
Kenyon
Jonathan
Mills
Stephan
Pauly
Dear Valery
With your untiring commitment to music and
your endless energy in promoting it, you have
brought a unique excitement to our musical
life – especially here at the Barbican, where
your leadership of the LSO has produced
so many thrilling concerts for us, and in
St Petersburg, where the triumphant opening
of your new opera house has begun a new
chapter in the life of the city.
We will never know how you do so much:
at the BBC Proms you were once early for
a rehearsal, and complained to me wistfully
‘Ah, I could have caught a later plane!’. You
have been such a stimulating companion
and such a great presence on our musical
scene: many happy returns, and many more
triumphs to come.
Sir Nicholas Kenyon
Managing Director, Barbican
26 Birthday Messages
Vivienne
Westwood
Happy Birthday Maestro,
love Vivienne and Andreas
You first appeared at the Edinburgh
International Festival on 10 August 1991,
marking your UK debut with a sensational
performance. All who experienced those
performances of Mussorgsky from then
a relatively unknown maestro from
St Petersburg knew they had witnessed
something very rare and remarkable. In the
subsequent two decades, you have thrilled
Edinburgh audiences in your appearances
with the Mariinsky Orchestra, the Rotterdam
Philharmonic and, of course, the London
Symphony Orchestra.Your performances in
2008 of the complete Prokofiev Symphonies
and Violin Concertos with Leonidas Kavakos
and the LSO, and Szymanowski’s opera King
Roger at the Festival Theatre were landmark
events in the history of this Festival.
Beyond your position as a conductor, you
have forged a crucial role as an artistic
diplomat, often demonstrating that the baton
is mightier than the sword. For you are not
only a great musician, you are a great human
being. A man who believes passionately in
the capacity of culture to enrich the lives of
people irrespective of class or creed.
You bring the experience of an extremely
busy lifetime, great wisdom and humility,
and above all, a deep insight into the
fragility of the human condition, which is
an inspiration to audiences and artists alike.
We hope to benefit from your friendship
and artistry for many years to come.
Happy Birthday Maestro!
Jonathan Mills
Director, Edinburgh International Festival
Maestro, dear Valery Gergiev,
For more than two decades now we have
enjoyed the artistic collaboration between you
and the Alte Oper Frankfurt. Time and time
again you have conducted concerts with
‘your’ orchestras, the London Symphony
Orchestra, the Orchestra of the Mariinsky,
and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. You thrilled
the Alte Oper audiences in the 1990s, when
the ‘Mariinsky’ still operated under the
name ‘Kirov Opera’, just as you thrilled them
when you came here in October last year
with the LSO. All of us are grateful for these
unforgettable concert experiences. Just think
of your extended visit with the whole Mariinsky
Theatre ensemble, when you gave the German
premiere of Rodion Shchedrin’s Enchanted
Wanderer, Mussorgsky’s Boris Godunov and
Tchaikovsky’s dramatic Queen of Spades in
our concert hall! Russian repertoire can hardly
be given so authentically – you have set
standards with your interpretations of
orchestral works by Rachmaninov, Tchaikovsky
and Stravinsky. Between the Alte Oper and
you, an artistic friendship has grown out
of valuable regular artistic collaboration –
we are very grateful for this and we all are
looking forward to many more concerts with
you in the future! On behalf of the entire
team of the Alte Oper Frankfurt, I wish you
with all my heart a very happy birthday,
as well as every success and fulfilment for
your work and for you personally!
Stephan Pauly
Artistic Director, Alte Oper Frankfurt

Happy Birthday Valery!
Birthday Messages
27

Valery Gergiev
Conductor
‘Valery Gergiev is the mastermind
behind the series and
his command of scintillating
textures, learnt in the fantasy
operas and ballets of his
native Russian composers,
was put to good use.’
Financial Times on Gergiev and the LSO’s
Brahms/Szymanowski series, September 2012
Principal Conductor of the London Symphony
Orchestra since January 2007, Valery Gergiev
performs regularly with the LSO at the
Barbican, the Proms and the Edinburgh
Festival, as well as on regular tours of
Europe, North America and Asia. During the
2011/12 season he led them in appearances
throughout Europe and Asia and in 2012/13
will return with the Orchestra to the US.
Valery Gergiev is also Artistic and General
Director of the Mariinsky Theatre, founder
and Artistic Director of the Stars of the
White Nights Festival and New Horizons
Festival in St Petersburg, the Moscow Easter
Festival, the Gergiev Rotterdam Festival,
the Mikkeli International Festival, and the
Red Sea Festival in Eilat, Israel. He succeeded
Sir Georg Solti as conductor of the World
Orchestra for Peace in 1998 and has led them
in many capitals worldwide. Gergiev’s inspired
leadership of the Mariinsky Theatre since
1988 has taken the Mariinsky ensembles
to 45 countries and has brought universal
acclaim to this legendary institution, now in
its 230th season. Having opened a concert
hall in St Petersburg in 2006, Gergiev looks
forward to the opening of the new Mariinsky
Opera House in 2013 when he celebrates
25 years at the helm of the Mariinsky Theatre.
Born in Moscow, Valery Gergiev studied
conducting with Ilya Musin at the Leningrad
Conservatory. Aged 24 he won the Herbert
von Karajan Conductors’ Competition in
Berlin and made his Mariinsky Opera debut
one year later in 1978 conducting Prokofiev’s
War and Peace. In 2003 he led St Petersburg’s
300th anniversary celebrations, and opened
the Carnegie Hall season with the Mariinsky
Orchestra, the first Russian conductor to do
so since Tchaikovsky conducted the Hall’s
inaugural concert in 1891.
A regular figure in all the world’s major concert
halls, he has led the LSO and the Mariinsky
Orchestra in a symphonic cycle of the works
of Prokofiev as well as in a Centennial Mahler
Cycle in New York and other world capitals.
Gergiev has led several cycles previously in
New York including Shostakovich, Stravinsky,
Berlioz and Richard Wagner’s Ring. He has
also introduced audiences to several rarely
performed Russian operas.
Valery Gergiev’s many awards include a
Grammy, the Dmitri Shostakovich Award,
the Golden Mask Award, People’s Artist of
Russia Award, the World Economic Forum’s
Crystal Award, Sweden’s Polar Music Prize,
Netherlands’ Knight of the Order of the
Dutch Lion, Japan’s Order of the Rising Sun,
Valencia’s Silver Medal, the Herbert von
Karajan prize and the French Order of the
Legion of Honour.
Currently recording for LSO Live, his releases
include Richard Strauss’ Elektra, Rachmaninov’s
Symphonic Dances and Stravinsky’s Symphony
in Three Movements, Mahler Symphonies
Nos 1–9, Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé, Rachmaninov
Symphony No 2, Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet,
which won the BBC Music Magazine Disc of
the Year, and Bartók’s Duke Bluebeard’s Castle.
His recordings on the Mariinsky Label include
Shostakovich’s The Nose and Symphonies
Nos 1, 2, 3, 10, 11 and 15, Tchaikovsky’s 1812
Overture and Symphonies Nos 4, 5 and 6,
Rachmaninov’s Piano Concerto No 3 and
Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, Rodion
Shchedrin’s The Enchanted Wanderer,
Stravinsky’s Les Noces and Oedipus Rex,
Wagner’s Parsifal and Shostakovich’s First
and Second Piano Concertos.
28 The Artists Valery Gergiev © Alberto Venzago

Leonidas Kavakos
Violin
‘Kavakos … achieved
something near perfection –
a beautifully considered,
understated performance.’
Tim Ashley, The Guardian
on Leonidas Kavakos, December 2012
Leonidas Kavakos is known for his virtuosity,
superb musicianship and the integrity of his
playing. International recognition first came
while he was still in his teens, winning the
Sibelius Competition in 1985 and, three years
later, the Paganini Competition.
Kavakos now works with the world’s major
orchestras and conductors – the LSO, the
Vienna Philharmonic, Berlin Philharmonic,
Leipzig Gewandhaus, Royal Concertgebouw,
Orchestre de Paris, Budapest Festival,
La Scala Philharmonic, Mariinsky Theatre
Orchestra, New York Philharmonic, Boston
Symphony, Philadelphia Orchestra and
Los Angeles Philharmonic.
In the 2012/13 season, as well as completing
the UBS Soundscapes: LSO Artist Portrait
series, he is also the Berlin Philharmonic’s
Artist-in-Residence.
Kavakos is a committed chamber musician
and recitalist, and is a favoured artist at
the Verbier, Montreux-Vevey, Bad Kissingen
and Edinburgh Festivals and at the Salzburg
Festival, where in August 2012, together
with Enrico Pace, he played the complete
violin sonatas by Beethoven. He and Pace
have recorded the sonatas for Decca
Classics, to be released in January 2013,
and the cycle was also recorded as part
of a television documentary about Kavakos
by the Bayerischer Rundfunk.
In the 2012/13 season, Leonidas Kavakos and
Emanuel Ax also play the Beethoven sonata
cycle in the Musikverein, Vienna, as well as
a single Beethoven sonata programme in
Berlin. He also performs the cycle with Enrico
Pace at the Concertgebouw, Amsterdam.
In chamber music, Kavakos’ distinguished
partners include Gautier and Renaud Capuçon,
Antoine Tamestit, Nikolai Lugansky, Denis
Kozhukhin and Yuja Wang, with whom he will
give a series of recitals in Europe in 2013/14.
Leonidas Kavakos is increasingly recognised
as a conductor of considerable musicianship
and will make his conducting debut with the
LSO in the 2013/14 season. He has worked
as conductor/soloist with the Boston
Symphony, Atlanta Symphony, Deutsches
Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, Budapest
Festival Orchestra, Rotterdam Philharmonic,
Stockholm Philharmonic, Gothenburg
Symphony, La Scala Philharmonic, Maggio
Musicale Fiorentino and Orchestra
dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Conducting debuts in the 2012/13 season
include the Finnish Radio Symphony and
the Vienna Symphony Orchestras, and he
returned to the Accademia Nazionale di Santa
Cecilia in October 2012, where he appeared
in a variety of programmes in a special series,
Focus Kavakos.
Kavakos is an exclusive Decca recording
artist, and his first release on the label is
the complete Beethoven Violin Sonatas
with Enrico Pace. Kavakos already has a
distinguished discography with a number of
award-winning recordings – his Mendelssohn
Violin Concerto disc on Sony Classical
receiving an ECHO Klassik award for Best
Concerto Recording 2009. Also on Sony, he
recorded live Mozart’s five violin concertos
and Symphony No 39 with the Camerata
Salzburg. In 1991, shortly after winning
the Sibelius Competition, Kavakos won
a Gramophone Award for the first ever
recording of the original version of
Sibelius’ Violin Concerto (1903/04),
recorded on BIS. For ECM, he has released
recordings of sonatas by Enescu and Ravel
with pianist Péter Nagy, and a recording
of Bach and Stravinsky.
Leonidas Kavakos plays the ‘Abergavenny’
Stradivarius of 1724.
Leonidas Kavakos © Bill Robinson
The Artists
29

Alexander Toradze
Piano
‘His hands become as
varied and expressive as
a full orchestra.’
The Guardian
Alexander Toradze is universally recognised
as a virtuoso in the Romantic tradition.
With his unorthodox interpretations, deeply
poetic lyricism, and intense emotional
excitement, he lays claim to his own place
in the lineage of the great Russian pianists.
Toradze maintains frequent appearances
with the leading orchestras of North America,
including the New York Philharmonic, the Met,
Boston, Chicago, Cleveland, Philadelphia,
Los Angeles, San Francisco, Minnesota,
Houston, Montreal, Toronto, Detroit, Pittsburgh,
Baltimore, Cincinnati, and Seattle symphony
orchestras. He appears regularly with the
Mariinsky Orchestra, La Scala Philharmonic,
Bavarian Radio Symphony, St Petersburg
Philharmonic, Orchestre National de France,
City of Birmingham Symphony, London
Philharmonic, Israel Philharmonic, and the
30 The Artists
orchestras of Germany, Poland, Czech
Republic, the Netherlands, Finland, Norway,
Sweden, and Italy. In June 2003, he made
his triumphant US debut with the Berlin
Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by
Vladimir Jurowski. In October 2006, he toured
the US with the Kirov Orchestra of the Mariinsky
Theatre conducted by Valery Gergiev.
In October 2011, Toradze embarked on
a North American tour with Mariinsky
Orchestra, Valery Gergiev conducting,
playing Shostakovich Piano Concerto No 1
and Prokofiev Piano Concerto No 3. He also
returned to the Seattle Symphony in April 2012.
He has performed recently with the Swedish
Radio Orchestra, Czech Philharmonic,
Orchestre National de France, Pacific Symphony,
Montreal Symphony, London Symphony,
BBC Philharmonic, Dresden Philharmonic,
Toronto Symphony, Seattle Symphony and
London Philharmonic, among others.
In 2012 the label Pan and Hessischer Rundfunk
released a highly acclaimed recording of
Toradze performing Shostakovich Piano
concertos with Frankfurt Radio Orchestra
and Paavo Järvi. Toradze’s recording of all
five Prokofiev concertos with Valery Gergiev
and the Kirov Orchestra for the Philips
label is considered definitive among critics.
Additionally, International Piano Quarterly
named his recording of Prokofiev’s Piano
Concerto No 3 ‘historically the best on
record’. Other highly successful recordings
have included Scriabin’s Prometheus: The
Poem of Fire with the Kirov Orchestra and
Valery Gergiev, as well as recital albums of
the works of Mussorgsky, Stravinsky, Ravel,
and Prokofiev for the Angel/EMI label.
Toradze regularly participates in summer
music festivals including Salzburg, the White
Nights in St Petersburg, London’s BBC Proms,
Edinburgh, Rotterdam, Mikkeli (Finland),
the Hollywood Bowl, Saratoga, and Ravinia
festivals.
Born in 1952 in Tbilisi, Georgia, Alexander
Toradze graduated from the Tchaikovsky
Conservatory in Moscow and soon became
a professor there. In 1983, he moved
permanently to the United States. In 1991,
he was appointed as the Martin Endowed
Chair Professor of Piano at Indiana University
South Bend, where he has created a teaching
environment that is unparalleled in its unique
methods. The members of the multi-national
Toradze Piano Studio have developed
into a worldwide touring ensemble that
has gathered great critical acclaim on an
international level. In the 2002/03 season,
the Studio appeared in New York performing
the complete cycle of Bach solo concerti,
as well as Scriabin’s complete sonata cycle.
The Studio has also performed projects
detailing the piano and chamber works
of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev, Dvořák, and
Stravinsky, in Rome, Venice, and Ravenna,
Italy; the Klavier Festival Ruhr and Berlin
festivals in Germany; and in Boston, Chicago,
and Washington DC.

Ekaterina Semenchuk
Didon (mezzo-soprano)
Sergei Semishkur
Aeneas (tenor)
Ed Lyon
Hylas / Iopas (tenor)
The brilliant Russian mezzo-soprano
Ekaterina Semenchuk makes her Salzburg
Festival debut next year as Eboli in a new
production of Don Carlo under the direction
of Sir Antonio Pappano. Other highlights of
the 2012/13 season included La Gioconda
at the Rome Opera, concerts of the Dvořák
Requiem with the Orchestre de Paris with
James Conlon and Aida with Berlin Staatsoper.
In past seasons, she has sung Marina (Boris
Godunov), Sonya (War and Peace) and Polina
(Pique Dame) at the Metropolitan Opera
as well as her first Azucena (Il Trovatore)
in Valencia under the direction of Zubin
Mehta. She has also sung at the Royal Opera
House as Olga (Eugene Onegin) and the
Berlin Staatsoper as Preziosilla (La Forza
del Destino) under the direction of Daniel
Barenboim. With Valery Gergiev, she has
performed Didon (Les Troyens) both at the
Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg and at
Carnegie Hall in New York.
As a recitalist, Semenchuk has toured Europe,
North America. With her accompanist Simion
Skigin, she recently celebrated Shostakovich
in recital at the Vienna Konzerthaus and will
return to the Wigmore Hall. On the concert
podium, she has sung the Verdi Requiem with
Gustavo Dudamel, Das Klagende Lied at the
Ravinia Festival with Conlon and Alexander
Nevsky at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in
Rome under the direction of Vasily Petrenko.
At the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam she
has performed Berlioz’s La Mort de Cleopatre
under the direction of Gergiev.
Sergei Semishkur was born in Kirov, Russia
and graduated from the Nizhny-Novgorod
State Glinka Conservatory with degrees in
choral conducting and voice. He has been a
soloist of the Mariinsky Theatre since 2007
where his wide range of operatic repertoire
spans from the Italian masters – Donizetti,
Puccini and Verdi – to the pillars of the
Russian tradition in Borodin, Mussorgsky,
Shostakovich, and Tchaikovsky; the artist
also has sung in the heroic French roles of
Berlioz and Offenbach and as impassioned
Bohemian protagonists in the operas of
Janáček and Szymanowski.
On the concert stage, Semishkur has toured
the world and has given performances of
Requiems by Berlioz, Mozart, and Verdi,
Beethoven’s Symphony No 9, Mahler’s
Symphony No 8, Stravinsky’s Oedipus
Rex and Les Noces, and The Bells by
Rachmaninov. His symphonic appearances
have taken him to Carnegie Hall, the
Kennedy Center, Edinburgh Festival and
he enjoys musical relationships with the
City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,
Chorus and Orchestra of the Mariinsky Theater
and the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra.
Highlights of the 2012/13 season included
performances as Alfredo in La Traviata
with the Opéra de Monte Carlo conducted
by Marco Armiliato, Pinkerton in Madama
Butterfly at the Royal Opera House Muscat
in Oman, the title role of Benvenuto Cellini
in Paris with Valery Gergiev and the Orchestra
and Chorus of the Mariinsky, and Dvořák’s
Requiem with James Conlon leading the
Orchestre de Paris.
Ed Lyon was educated at St John’s College,
Cambridge, the Royal Academy of Music
and the National Opera Studio. He made his
professional debut at Snape Maltings when he
sang the Evangelist in Telemann’s St Matthew
Passion, and returned to perform Britten’s
Cantata Misericordium and Acis in Handel’s
Acis and Galatea.
Operatic roles include Hyllus in Hercules
with William Christie and Les Arts Florissants
in London and New York, the title role in
Monteverdi’s L’Orfeo at the Aix-en-Provence
Festival, Pane in La Calisto with at Covent
Garden and for the Bayerische Staatsoper in
Munich, Telemaco in Monteverdi’s Il ritorno
d’Ulisse in patria for Welsh National Opera,
Tamin in The Magic Flute for Opera North,
Lucano in L’incorronazione di Poppea for
the Opera Theatre Company in Dublin and
also at the Buxton and Aldeburgh Festivals,
and Purcell’s The Fairy Queen for the 2009
Glyndebourne Festival.
More recent concert engagements have
included Grandi’s Vespers with Bach
Akademie Stuttgart, Berlioz L’Enfance
du Christ with the Mozarteum Orchester
Salzburg, Rameau’s Les Indes Galantes with
Les Arts Florissants, Bach’s St Matthew
Passion with the Bach Choir in the Royal
Festival Hall, Britten’s War Requiem at the
Berlin Philharmonie, Maxwell Davies’ Solstice
of Light for the BBC Proms and Britten
Les Illuminations with the National Youth
Orchestra of Scotland.
The Artists
31

Lukas Jakobski
Panthee / Narbal (bass)
Claudia Huckle
Anna (contralto)
Duncan Rock
First Soldier (baritone)
Born in Poland, Lukas Jakobski was a
member of the Jette Parker Young Artist
Programme at the Royal Opera House, from
2009–11 where his roles included Pietro
in Simon Boccanegra; Tall Englishman in
Prokofiev’s The Gambler, King in Aida and
Angelotti in Tosca.
Plans this season and beyond include
La Cuisinière in Prokofiev The Love for Three
Oranges for Netherlands Opera; Pietro in
Simon Boccanegra for Opera National de
Lyon; Handel’s The Resurrection; Bach’s
St Matthew Passion (Christus) for the London
Handel Festival at Wigmore Hall, with
conductors Adrian Butterfield and Laurence
Cummings; Britten’s Church Parables with
Mahogany Opera, the Aurora Orchestra
and Roger Vignoles on tour, and Polyphemus
in Acis and Galatea with Christian Curnyn
at Iford Festival.
For Royal Opera, Covent Garden Lukas has
sung Pistola in Falstaff, Greek Captain in
Les Troyens and Don Profundo in Il viaggio
a Reims; and for Glyndebourne on Tour,
Colline in La bohème and Zuniga in Carmen.
Concerts have included Bach’s St Matthew
Passion (Christus) with the Residentie Orchestra
in The Hague; St John Passion (arias) with
Stephen Layton and Polyphony in London
and St Matthew Passion (arias) with the Choir
of King’s College Cambridge and Stephen
Cleobury; Mozart’s Requiem in Trondheim
with Richard Egarr; and Galatea at the
London Handel Festival conducted by
Laurence Cummings.
British contralto Claudia Huckle studied at
the Royal College of Music, New England
Conservatory and the Curtis Institute of Music.
She was the 2004 winner of The Metropolitan
Opera National Council Auditions and is a
graduate of the prestigious Domingo-Cafritz
Young Artist Program with the Washington
National Opera.
Opera plans this season and beyond include
the title role in Britten’s The Rape of Lucretia
in a new production by Fiona Shaw for
Glyndebourne on Tour; Marfa in Graham
Vick’s new production of Mussorgsky’s
Khovanshchina for the Birmingham Opera
Company; Smeton in Anna Bolena for
Washington National Opera; Hänsel for
Garsington Opera; and Third Lady in The
Magic Flute for the Festival d’Aix en Provence
and the Royal Opera, Covent Garden.
Recent and future concert highlights include
Handel’s Messiah with the Academy of Ancient
Music; Orquesta Sinfónica de Navarro, Spain
and San Francisco Symphony Orchestra;
Beethoven Symphony No 9 with the RTÉ
National Symphony and Gerhard Markson;
Mahler Rückert Lieder with the Britten
Sinfonia, on tour in Spain; Haydn’s Nelson
Mass with the Northern Sinfonia; Beethoven’s
Missa Solemnis with Sir Roger Norrington at
King’s College, Cambridge and Bruckner’s
Te Deum with the Rheinische Philharmonie
and Jochen Schaaf.
Baritone Duncan Rock studied at the Guildhall
School and subsequently at the National
Opera Studio. A Jerwood Young Artist at the
Glyndebourne Festival, he was the recipient
of the 2010 John Christie Award and he is
the winner of the 2012 Chilcott Award –
the inaugural award from the Susan Chilcott
Scholarship to support a ‘major young artist
with the potential to make an international
impact’. He was named One to Watch in 2013
by Time Out magazine.
Fast establishing himself as an outstanding
young singer and performer, his engagements
in the 2012/13 season include Papageno
in The Magic Flute at the English National
Opera (where he is a Harewood Young Artist),
a return to the Glyndebourne Festival as
Novice’s Friend in Billy Budd and his debut
at the Théâtre du Châtelet as Billy Bigelow
in Carousel.
His engagements next season include
Tarquinius in Fiona Shaw’s new production
of The Rape of Lucretia for Glyndebourne,
Novice’s Friend at the Brooklyn Academy of
Music on tour with Glyndebourne and his
role debut as Marcello in La bohème for
Opera North. Future seasons will see him
return to the Glyndebourne Festival and
make major debuts at the Boston Lyric Opera
and the Frankfurt Opera.
32 The Artists

Gary Griffiths
Second Soldier (baritone)
Simon Halsey
Chorus Director
Welsh baritone Gary Griffiths studied at the
Guildhall School where he was the 2009
winner of the coveted Gold Medal Competition.
Gary is an Associate Artist with Welsh National
Opera where he debuted to critical acclaim in
2011 as Guglielmo in Così fan tutte. His roles
with the company have included Masetto in
Don Giovanni, Claudio in Béatrice et Bénédict,
and Schaunard in a new production of La
bohème. This season he returns to the role of
Guglielmo in a revival of Così fan tutte and
appears in concert with the orchestra of
Welsh National Opera conducted by Christoph
Poppen in a performance of Mozart’s Requiem.
His concert repertoire includes Mendelsson’s
Elijah; Mozart’s Requiem and Mass in
C minor; Haydn’s The Seasons, Nelson
Mass and Paukenmesse; Brahms’ German
Requiem; Duruflé’s Requiem; and Handel’s
Messiah. His recent concert appearances
include a gala performance at the National
Eisteddfod of Wales with the Welsh Chamber
Orchestra and the BBC Wales Chorus, and
a performance of Belshazzar’s Feast at
the Barbican with the Guildhall Symphony
Orchestra conducted by Martyn Brabbins.
A Samling Scholar, he studies with Robert Dean.
He is the recipient of the WNO Chris Ball
Bursary, the WNO Sir John Moores Award
and the Elizabeth Parry Family Bursary, and is
supported by the Joseph Strong Frazer Trust.
Winner of the Welsh Singers Competition
in 2012, he will represent Wales in the
BBC Cardiff Singer of the World in 2013.
Simon Halsey is one of the world’s leading
conductors of choral repertoire, regularly
conducting prestigious orchestras and choirs
worldwide. Halsey holds the position of Chief
Conductor of the Berlin Radio Choir, he has
been Chorus Director of the CBSO Chorus for
over 25 years, and in 2012 was announced
Choral Director of the London Symphony
Orchestra and London Symphony Chorus.
Simon Halsey also holds the positions of
Artistic Director of the Berlin Philharmonic’s
Youth Choral Programme and Director of
the BBC Proms Youth Choir.
Projects in the 2012/13 season with the
London Symphony Orchestra and London
Symphony Chorus included Szymanowski’s
Stabat Mater and Brahms’ German Requiem
with Valery Gergiev. Highlights of Simon
Halsey’s work in Birmingham include
Symphony Hall’s 21st anniversary concerts in
June where he will be conducting the CBSO
and its Chorus in Elgar’s The Music Makers.
His work in Birmingham is complemented
by a new role as Professor and Director
of Choral Activities at the University of
Birmingham.
Halsey has worked on countless major
recording projects, many of which have won
major awards including several Gramophone
Awards and Preis der Deutschen
Schallplattenkritik. In February 2011 Halsey
received his third Grammy Award for Best
Choral Performance for the recording of
L’Amour de Loin by the Finnish composer
Kaija Saariaho, having previously won a
Grammy in both 2008 and 2009 for the Berlin
Radio Choir’s recordings of works by Brahms
and Stravinsky respectively.
In January 2011, Simon Halsey was presented
with the prestigious Bundesverdienstkreuz
Erste Klasse, Germany’s Order of Merit by
State Cultural Secretary André Schmitz in
Berlin, in recognition of outstanding services
to choral music in Germany.
The Artists
33

London Symphony Chorus
President Emeritus
André Previn KBE
Vice Presidents
Claudio Abbado
Michael Tilson Thomas
Patron
Simon Russell Beale
Chorus Director
Simon Halsey
Chairman
Lydia Frankenburg
Accompanist
Roger Sayer
The London Symphony Chorus was formed in 1966 to complement
the work of the London Symphony Orchestra. It continues to maintain
a close association with the Orchestra today and the partnership
between the LSC and LSO was developed and strengthened last
year with the joint appointment of Simon Halsey as Chorus Director of
the LSC and Choral Director for the LSO. The LSC has also partnered
other major UK orchestras and internationally worked with orchestras
such as the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Boston
Symphony Orchestra and the European Union Youth Orchestra.
The LSC tours extensively throughout Europe and has visited North
America, Israel, Australia and South East Asia. This season’s highlights
included performances of Szymanowski Symphony No 3 with the LSO
under Valery Gergiev in Luxembourg and Paris.
The Chorus has recorded extensively, with recent releases including
Britten’s War Requiem with Gianandrea Noseda, Haydn’s The Seasons,
Walton’s Belshazzar’s Feast, Verdi’s Otello and the world premiere of
James MacMillan’s St John Passion, all with Sir Colin Davis. The Chorus
also partnered the LSO on Gergiev’s recordings of Mahler Symphonies
Nos 2, 3 and 8, while the men of the Chorus took part in the recent
Gramophone award-winning recording of Götterdämmerung with the
Hallé and Sir Mark Elder. Other award-winning recordings include
Britten’s Peter Grimes (with the late Richard Hickox), which received
a Grammy Award. Two further Grammys were received for Berlioz’s
Les Troyens with Sir Colin Davis and the LSO in 2000. Other collaborations
with Sir Colin Davis and the LSO on LSO Live are Verdi’s Falstaff (which
won a Grammy Award), Sibelius’ Kullervo (which won a BBC Music
Magazine Award). More recently, Britten’s Billy Budd conducted by
Daniel Harding won Best Opera Recording at the 2010 Grammy Awards.
The Chorus has also commissioned new works from composers
such as Sir John Tavener, Sir Peter Maxwell Davies, Michael Berkeley
and Jonathan Dove, and took part in the world premiere of James
MacMillan’s St John Passion with the LSO and Sir Colin Davis in 2008,
and in the second London performance in February 2010.
Sopranos
Kerry Baker, Carol Capper, Sara Daintree, Lucy Feldman,
Eileen Fox, Joanna Gueritz, Maureen Hall, Jessica Harris,
Emily Hoffnung*, Gladys Hosken, Claire Hussey,
Helen Lawford*, Debbie Lee, Meg Makower, Alison Marshall,
Irene McGregor, Jane Morley, Dorothy Nesbitt, Jenny Norman,
Emily Norton, Maggie Owen, Isabel Paintin, Oktawia Petronella,
Ann Pfeiffer, Carole Radford, Mikiko Ridd, Amanda Thomas*,
Joanna Turner, Lizzie Webb
Alto
Elizabeth Boyden, Gina Broderick*, Jo Buchan*,
Janette Daines, Zoë Davis, Maggie Donnelly, Diane Dwyer,
Linda Evans, Lydia Frankenburg*, Amanda Freshwater,
Christina Gibbs, Rachel Green, Elisabeth Iles, Marina Kurkina,
Selena Lemalu*, Belinda Liao, Anne Loveluck, Liz McCaw,
Aoife McInerney, Jane Muir, Caroline Mustill, Alex O’Shea,
Lucy Reay, Lis Smith, Jane Steele, Claire Trocmé,
Curzon Tussaud, Agnes Vigh, Mimi Zadeh, Magdalena Ziarko
Tenor
David Aldred, Paul Allatt, John Farrington, Warwick Hood,
Tony Instrall, John Marks, Alastair Mathews, John Moses*,
Chris Riley, Peter Sedgwick, Richard Street,
Anthony Stutchbury, Malcolm Taylor, Owen Toller,
James Warbis, Robert Ward*, Paul Williams-Burton
Bass
David Armour, Bruce Boyd, Dominic Beecher,
Andy Chan, Steve Chevis, Ian Fletcher, Robert French,
Robert Garbolinski*, John Graham, Gergo Hahn,
Brian Hammersley, Owen Hanmer*, Derrick Hogermeer,
Antony Howick, Alex Kidney*, Thomas Kohut,
Gregor Kowalski*, Georges Leaver, Geoff Newman,
Peter Niven, Caleb Pillsbury, Tim Riley, Alan Rochford,
Malcolm Rowat, Nic Seager, Zac Smith, Jez Wareing,
Nick Weekes
*denotes Council Member
34 The Chorus

On stage
First Violins
Roman Simovic Leader
Tomo Keller
Lennox Mackenzie
Martyn Jackson
Nigel Broadbent
Elizabeth Pigram
Harriet Rayfield
Claire Parfitt
Ian Rhodes
Rhys Watkins
David Worswick
Gerald Gregory
Erzsebet Racz
Second Violins
Thomas Norris
Sarah Quinn
Miya Vaisanen
David Ballesteros
Matthew Gardner
Belinda McFarlane
Philip Nolte
Andrew Pollock
Paul Robson
Hazel Mulligan
Helena Smart
Robert Yeomans
Violas
Edward Vanderspar
Gillianne Haddow
Lander Echevarria
German Clavijo
Anna Green
Robert Turner
Heather Wallington
Jonathan Welch
Julia O’Riordan
Triona Milne
Cellos
Timothy Hugh
Alastair Blayden
Jennifer Brown
Noel Bradshaw
Eve-Marie Caravassilis
Daniel Gardner
Hilary Jones
Minat Lyons
Amanda Truelove
Double Basses
Colin Paris
Patrick Laurence
Matthew Gibson
Jani Pensola
Joseph Melvin
Simo Vaisanen
Flutes
Gareth Davies
Siobhan Grealy
Piccolo
Sharon Williams
Oboes
Emanuel Abbühl
Lauren Weavers
Cor Anglais
Maxwell Spiers
Clarinets
Chris Richards
Chi-Yu Mo
Bassoons
Rachel Gough
Joost Bosdijk
Dominic Tyler
Contra Bassoon
Dominic Morgan
Horns
Timothy Jones
Angela Barnes
Hugh Sisley
Jonathan Lipton
Alex Wide
Trumpets
Roderick Franks
Gerald Ruddock
Joe Sharp
Christopher Deacon
Trombones
Dudley Bright
James Maynard
Bass Trombone
Paul Milner
Tuba
Patrick Harrild
Timpani
Antoine Bedewi
Percussion
Neil Percy
David Jackson
Harps
Bryn Lewis
Karen Vaughan
Nuala Herbert
Helen Tunstall
Celeste
John Alley
LSO String
Experience Scheme
Established in 1992, the
LSO String Experience
Scheme enables young string
players at the start of their
professional careers to gain
work experience by playing in
rehearsals and concerts with
the LSO. The scheme auditions
students from the London
music conservatoires, and 20
students per year are selected
to participate. The musicians
are treated as professional
’extra’ players (additional to
LSO members) and receive
fees for their work in line with
LSO section players.
The Scheme is supported by:
Fidelio Charitable Trust
The Lefever Award
Musicians Benevolent Fund
List correct at time of
going to press
See page x for London
Symphony Orchestra members
Editor
Edward Appleyard
edward.appleyard@lso.co.uk
Photography
Igor Emmerich, Kevin Leighton,
Bill Robinson, Alberto Venzago
Print
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The Orchestra
35

London Symphony Orchestra
Living Music
Thu 31 Oct & Thu 14 Nov 2013 7.30pm
Berlioz Overture: Waverley
Berlioz Les nuits d’été
Berlioz Symphonie fantastique
When the music
stopped a footballstyle
roar erupted.
The Times
on Valery Gergiev
Valery Gergiev conductor
Fri 1 & Tue 12 Nov 2013 7.30pm
Berlioz Overture: Benvenuto Cellini
Berlioz The Death of Cleopatra
Berlioz Harold in Italy for Viola and Orchestra
Valery Gergiev conductor
Antoine Tamestit viola
Sun 3 Nov 2013 10am–5.30pm
Barbican and LSO St Luke’s
LSO Discovery Day: Hector Berlioz
Full day tickets £17 (£13.50 concessions)
Sun 3 & Thu 7 Nov 2013 7pm
London’s Symphony Orchestra
Gergiev’s Berlioz
LSO Season 2013/14
Berlioz The Damnation of Faust
Valery Gergiev conductor
Soloists include:
Olga Borodina Marguerite
Ildar Abdrazakov Mephistopheles
London Symphony Chorus
Wed 6 & 13 Nov 2013 7.30pm
Berlioz Romeo and Juliet
Valery Gergiev conductor
Soloists include:
Olga Borodina mezzo-soprano
Ildar Abdrazakov bass
London Symphony Chorus
lso.co.uk