London Symphony Orchestra
Program
George Walker Sinfonia No 5, 'Visions'
Felix Mendelssohn Violin Concerto in E minor, op. 64
Allegro molto appassionato
Andante
Allegretto non troppo – Allegro molto vivace
-Intermission-
Gustav Mahler Symphony No 1 in D major, 'Titan'
Langsam, schleppend
Frisch
Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen
Stürmisch bewegt
PROGRAM NOTES
George Walker (1922-2018): Sinfonia No 5
On July 2015, a young American white supremacist shot nine members of the Emanuel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Charleston, South Carolina. The 94-year-old composer George Walker had visited Charleston not long before this chilling, deranged event, and it shook him so deeply that he decided to channel his anger and anxiety into an orchestral composition. But this would be no pious white liberal protest song. Walker was black, and he felt the shock of this atrocity in his blood and bones.
Walker decided to channel his feelings into an orchestral work that reflected both the anxiety and unease of the times and his own sense of rage, bewilderment and grief. It became the fifth of his orchestral ‘Sinfonias’ – striking that the very title should both acknowledge and refuse to engage directly with the White European-American symphonic tradition. It would be an intensely political ‘Fifth’, like Beethoven’s, yet also not like Beethoven’s.
At first, Walker thought of having his Fifth Sinfonia accompanied by a video of Charleston and its tragedy, created by his friend, the photographer Frank Schramm, and with a fragmentary text sequence, read by a group of soloists. But the video idea was eventually dropped. Sinfonia No 5 has been recorded with the recited text, and it’s certainly powerful, but the music is quite strong enough to speak for itself. It’s composed in a style which in many ways seems modernist: agitated, restless, it jumps and swerves from idea to idea, as though intent on defying orthodox symphonic developmental logic.
Yet the effect isn’t fragmentary: the music is carried forward, it seems, by the visceral power of the emotions it taps and releases. And it’s surprisingly direct in its effect – listeners who know the plays of Samuel Beckett may be reminded of the terrifying Not I, in which a mouth, suspended in blackness, attempts manically to give form to some half-defined traumatic experience. At the head of the score, Walker wrote the words ‘in memoriam…’ (‘in memory’), a tribute to the Charleston victims, but also to the countless other victims of racial violence, and an expression of horror that such senseless crimes still continue. ‘The only lesson we learn from history’, said the philosopher Georg Hegel, ‘is that we learn nothing from history’. George Walker’s Sinfonia No 5 is the agonised expression of that terrible insight in music.
— Stephen Johnson
Felix Mendelssohn (1809-1847): Violin Concerto
Mendelssohn wanted his adopted hometown of Leipzig to have a thriving musical life. One of his key allies in that project was a violinist called Ferdinand David. Mendelssohn hired him as a teacher for his music school and a leader for his orchestra.
David was among the best violinists of his day. His playing was so seductive that it led Mendelssohn to convert a piano concerto he was writing into a concerto for violin instead.
Mendelssohn prized order, balance and sensitivity in music. His violin concerto embodies those principles while still managing to sound fervent and joyous.
The composer wanted the piece to sound fluent and continuous, like a flowing stream. Unusually, all three movements are linked: the first two by a single note on the bassoon, the second and third third via a short intermezzo.
The Violin Concerto is also a masterpiece of economy. The soloist enters almost immediately with the concerto’s arresting main tune. The middle movement is a distilled ‘song without words’, and the last frolics and celebrates with the lightness of a soufflé.
— Andrew Mellor © 2025
Andrew Mellor is author of The Northern Silence: Journeys in Nordic Music and Culture (Yale University Press, 2022)
Gustav Mahler (1860-1911): Symphony No 1 in D major
- Langsam. Schleppend [Slow. Dragging] - Immer sehr gemächlich [Always at a very leisurely pace]
- Kräftig bewegt, doch nicht zu schnell [With strong movement, but not too fast] - Trio: Recht gemächlich [Quite leisurely] - Tempo primo
- Feierlich und gemessen, ohne zu schleppen [Solemn and measured, without dragging]
- Stürmisch bewegt [Stormy]
When Gustav Mahler began his First Symphony in 1884, 'modern music' meant Wagner, while the standard by which new symphonies were judged was that of Brahms, the arch 'classical-romantic'. In a Brahmsian symphony there was little room for Wagnerian lush harmonies, or sensational new orchestral colours. In fact the orchestral forces Brahms employed were basically the same as those used by Beethoven and Schubert in their symphonies, three-quarters of a century earlier.
So for audiences brought up on Brahms, hearing Mahler's First Symphony would have been like stepping into a new world. The opening can still surprise even today: one note, an A, is spread through almost the entire range of the string section, topped with ghostly violin harmonics. Other unusual colours follow: distant trumpet fanfares, high clarinet cuckoo-calls, a plaintive cor anglais, the bell-like bass notes of the harp. All this would have been startlingly new in Mahler's time. And there's nothing tentative or experimental about this symphonic debut: at twenty four, Mahler knows precisely the sound he wants, and precisely how to get it.
Still, there's much more to Mahler's First Symphony than innovative orchestral colours and effects. When the symphony was first performed it had a title, 'Titan' - taken from the once-famous novel by the German romantic writer Jean Paul (the pen name of Johann Paul Richter). For Richter the ‘Titan’, the true genius, is a ‘Heaven-Stormer’ (Himmelsstürmer) – an obsessive, almost recklessly passionate idealist. The idea appealed strongly to Mahler, but so too did Richter’s descriptions of landscapes. For the premiere, Mahler set out his version of the Titan theme in an explanatory programme note, which told how the symphony progressed from 'the awakening of nature at early dawn', through youthful happiness and love, to the sardonic gloom of the funeral march, and then to the finale, subtitled 'From Inferno to Paradise'. And it was clear that Mahler's interest in Richter's theme was more than literary. Behind the symphony, he hinted to friends, was the memory of a love affair that had ended, painfully, at about the time he began work on the symphony.
But Mahler soon began to lose faith in programmes. 'I would like it stressed that the symphony is greater than the love affair it is based on', he wrote. 'The real affair became the reason for, but by no means the true meaning of, the work'. In later life he could be blunt: when someone raised the subject at an evening drinks party, Mahler is said to have leapt to his feet and shouted, 'Perish all programmes!' But for most listeners, music that is so passionate, dramatic and so full of the sounds of nature can't be fully explained in the detached terms of ‘pure’ musical analysis. Fortunately the First Symphony is full of pointers to possible meanings beyond the notes. The main theme of the first movement - heard on cellos and basses after the slow, intensely atmospheric 'dawn' introduction - is taken from the second of Mahler's four Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen ('Songs of a Wayfarer'), written as a 'memorial' to his affair with the singer Johanna Richter (no relation of the novelist, but the name-connection is striking). In the song, a young man, jilted in love, sets out on a beautiful spring morning, hoping that nature will help his own heart to heal. For most of the first movement, Mahler seems to share the young man's hope. The ending seems cheerful enough. But at the heart of the movement comes a darkly mysterious passage, echoing the 'dawn' introduction, but adding sinister new sounds: the low, quiet growl of a tuba, ominous drum-beats, and a repeated sighing figure for cellos. For a moment, the music seems to echo the final words of the song: 'So will my joy blossom too? No, no; it will never, never bloom again.'
Dance music dominates the second movement, especially the robust, earthy vigour of the Ländler (the country cousin of the sophisticated urban Waltz). There are hints here of another, earlier song, Hans und Grete, in which gawky young Hans finds a sweetheart at a village dance - all innocent happiness. But the slower, more reflective Trio brings more adult expression: nostalgia and, later, sarcasm (shrill high woodwind). The third movement is in complete contrast. This is an eerie, sardonic funeral march, partly inspired by a painting by Jacques Callot, 'The Huntsman’s Funeral', in which a procession of animals carry the hunter to his grave. One by one, the orchestral instruments enter quietly, playing a famous old nursery tune, 'Frère Jacques' – which sounds like another interesting name-connection, except that Austrians like Mahler would have known the tune to the words 'Brother Martin, are you sleeping?' At the heart of this movement, Mahler makes a lengthy quotation from the last of the Lieder eines fahrenden Gesellen. The song tells in soft, gentle tones of how a young man, stricken with grief at the loss of the girl he loves, finds consolation in the thought of death. This is the dark heart of the First Symphony.
But this is not the end of the story. In the finale Mahler strives onward—in the words of the discarded programme, 'From Inferno to Paradise'. At first all is turbulence, but when the storm has died down, strings present an ardent, slower melody - unmistakably a love theme. There's a brief memory of the first movement's 'dawn' music, then the struggle begins again. Eventually massed horns introduce a new, radiantly hopeful theme, strongly reminiscent of 'And he shall reign' from Handel's Messiah. More reminiscences and still more heroic struggles follow, until dark introspection is finally overcome, and the symphony ends in jubilation. Mahler's hero has survived to live, and love, another day.
— Stephen Johnson
Sir Antonio Pappano, Chief Conductor
Janine Jansen, violin
London Symphony Orchestra
One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed for his charismatic leadership and inspirational performances in both symphonic and operatic repertoire, Sir Antonio Pappano is Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and was Music Director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden from 2002 until 2024. He is Music Director Emeritus of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, having served as Music Director from 2005-2023. Nurtured as a pianist, repetiteur and assistant conductor at many of the most important opera houses of Europe and North America, including at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and several seasons at the Bayreuth Festival as musical assistant to Daniel Barenboim, Pappano was appointed Music Director of Oslo’s Den Norske Opera in 1990, and from 1992-2002 served as Music Director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. From 1997-1999 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Pappano is in demand as an opera conductor at the highest international level, including with the Metropolitan Opera New York, the State Operas of Vienna and Berlin, the Bayreuth and Salzburg Festivals, Lyric Opera of Chicago and the Teatro alla Scala, and has appeared as a guest conductor with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic Orchestras, the Staatskapelle Dresden, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig, the Bavarian Radio, the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, as well as the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, Chicago and Boston Symphonies, the Philadelphia and Cleveland Orchestras. He maintains a particularly strong relationship with the Chamber Orchestra of Europe.
Highlights of the 2024/25 season and beyond include return visits to Boston Symphony, the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig and a new production of Die Walkure at the Royal Opera House. In his first season as Chief Conductor of the London Symphony, Pappano takes the orchestra on a wide-ranging touring to the USA, including Carnegie Hall, Japan, Korea, China and across major European capitals and festivals. This collaboration also includes flagship concerts at London’s Barbican Centre with concertante performances of Puccini’s La rondine and Strauss’ opera Salome, and symphonic repertoire including Mahler’s and Walton’s first symphonies, Holst’s Planets, Strauss’ Ein Heldenleben, Tippett’s A Child Of Our Time and Vaughan Williams' first and ninth symphonies in the continuation of Pappano’s Vaughan Williams recording cycle for LSO Live.
Pappano has been an exclusive recording artist for Warner Classics (formerly EMI Classics) since 1995, and his discography features numerous complete operas, including Don Carlo, La Rondine, Guillaume Tell, Il Trittico, Werther, Il Trovatore, Tristan und Isolde, and Aida. 2022 saw the release on Sony Classical of Verdi’s Otello, and a disc of Verdi duets with Jonas Kaufmann and Ludovic Tezier, and Vaughan William’s 4th and 6th symphonies for LSO Live, and in 2023 Warner released the first studio recording of Puccini's Turandot with the complete conclusion by Alfano, recorded in Rome with Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia.
Pappano’s orchestral recordings with the Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia include Strauss’s Ein Heldenleben, Rachmaninov’s 2nd, Mahler’s 6th, Dvorak’s 9th and Tchaikovsky’s 4th, 5th and 6th symphonies, Respighi’s Roman Trilogy, Rossini’s Stabat Mater, Petite Messe Solenelle and selected Overtures, Britten’s War Requiem, and Verdi’s Requiem, and his discography also documents his work with other ensembles including the London Symphony and Berlin Philharmonic Orchestras, and the orchestras of the Royal Opera House and the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie, in music ranging from Pergolesi and Mendelssohn through to Panufnik, Boesmans and Maxwell Davies. Numerous productions from the Royal Opera House have been released on DVD, including Carmen, Les Troyens, Parsifal, Simon Boccanegra, Le nozze di Figaro, and Manon Lescaut. His recordings have received extensive accolades including Classic BRIT, ECHO Klassik, BBC Music Magazine and Gramophone Awards.
As a pianist, Antonio Pappano appears as an accompanist with some of the most celebrated singers, including Joyce DiDonato, Diana Damrau, Gerald Finley and Ian Bostridge. He has also partnered singers and instrumental soloists on disc, including in operatic recitals with Nina Stemme, Placido Domingo, Anna Netrebko and Jonas Kaufmann, concerto recordings with soloists including Leif Ove Andsnes, Maxim Vengerov, Janine Jansen, Jan Lisiecki and Beatrice Rana, and chamber recitals with Ian Bostridge, Barbara Bonney and Joyce DiDonato. He has a strong commitment to nurturing young singers and instrumentalists, close connections with the Aldeburgh and Verbier Festivals, leading concerts and masterclasses.
Antonio Pappano was born in London to Italian parents and moved with his family to the United States at the age of 13. He studied piano with Norma Verrilli, composition with Arnold Franchetti and conducting with Gustav Meier. His awards and honours include Gramophone’s ‘Artist of the Year’ in 2000, the 2003 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, the 2004 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, and the Bruno Walter prize from the Académie du Disque Lyrique in Paris. In 2012 he was created a Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Republic of Italy, and a Knight of the British Empire for his services to music, and in 2015 he was named the 100th recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal, the body’s highest honour. He has also developed a notable career as a speaker and presenter, and has fronted several critically-acclaimed BBC Television documentaries including ‘Opera Italia’, ‘Pappano’s Essential Ring Cycle’ and ‘Pappano’s Classical Voices’.
"Among the world's star soloists, she's as keen a listener, as adept and intimate a chamber partner, as it gets." — New York Times
Violinist Janine Jansen has longstanding relationships with the world’s most eminent orchestras and conductors. This season’s highlights include a major US tour with London Symphony Orchestra under the direction of Sir Antonio Pappano, and European tours with Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra under Klaus Mäkelä and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie under the direction of Paavo Järvi. She continues her Artistic Partnership with Camerata Salzburg and returns to perform Vivaldi’s “Four Seasons” together with Amsterdam Sinfonietta in Amsterdam and on tour across South America including in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. Musikverein Wien features Janine Jansen as an “Artist in Focus“ with a variety of projects throughout its 2024/25 season.
Further orchestral engagements are planned with the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Gaffigan, Luzern Sinfonieorchester/Sanderling and NDR Elbphilharmonie/Oramo with whom she performs the German premiere of Britta Byström’s violin concerto “Shortening Days”, a work co-commissioned by the orchestra.
Together with duo partners Denis Kozhukhin and Sunwook Kim she offers recitals across Europe and the USA including at New York Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Paris Philharmonie and Amsterdam Concertgebouw.
Janine records exclusively for Decca Classics. Her latest recording released in June 2024 features Sibelius Violin Concerto and Prokofiev Violin Concerto No 1 together with Klaus Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra and was met with high critical acclaim throughout.
She is the Founder and Artistic Director of the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht as well as Co-Artistic Director of Sion Festival. Since November 2023 she is Professor of Violin Studies at Kronberg Academy where she will perform concerts together with Gidon Kremer and Kremerata Baltica during the Kronberg Festival in October 2024.
Janine studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn and Boris Belkin.
During the US tour with the London Symphony Orchestra Janine Jansen will be performing the "Glennie" violin from 1704 by Antonio Stradivari, on loan from a generous benefactor.
Janine Jansen plays the Shumsky-Rode Stradivarius from 1715, on generous loan from a European benefactor.
The London Symphony Orchestra believes that extraordinary music should be available to everyone, everywhere – from orchestral fans in the concert hall to first-time listeners all over the world.
The LSO was established in 1904 as one of the first orchestras shaped by its musicians. Since then, generations of remarkable talents have built the LSO’s reputation for quality, daring, ambition and a commitment to sharing the joy of music with everyone. Today, the LSO is ranked among the world’s top orchestras, reaching tens of thousands of people in London, more on stages around the world, and millions through streaming, downloads, radio and television.
As Resident Orchestra at the Barbican since the Centre opened in 1982, the LSO performs some 70 concerts there every year with its family of artists: Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle, Principal Guest Conductors Gianandrea Noseda and François-Xavier Roth, Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas, and Associate Artists Barbara Hannigan and André J Thomas. The LSO has major artistic residencies in Paris, Tokyo and at the Aix-en-Provence Festival, and a growing presence across Australasia.
Through LSO Discovery, the LSO’s learning and community programme, 60,000 people each year experience the transformative power of music, in person, on tour and online. The Orchestra’s musicians are at the heart of this unique programme, leading workshops, mentoring bright young talent, working with emerging composers, visiting children’s hospitals, performing at free concerts for the local community and using music to support neurodiverse adults. Concerts for schools and families introduce children to music and the instruments of the Orchestra, with an ever-growing range of digital resources and training programmes supporting teachers in the classroom.
The ambition of LSO Discovery is to share inspiring, inclusive opportunities with performers, creators and listeners of all ages. The home of much of this work is LSO St Luke’s, the LSO’s venue on Old Street. In 2025, following a programme of works, the LSO will be opening up the venue’s unique facilities to more people than ever before, with new state-of-the-art recording facilities and dedicated spaces for LSO Discovery’s programme.
The LSO’s record label LSO Live celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024/25, and is a leader among orchestra-owned labels, bringing to life the excitement of a live performance. The catalogue of over 200 acclaimed recordings reflects the artistic priorities of the Orchestra—from perennial favourites including Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring with Sir Simon Rattle and Verdi’s Requiem with Gianandrea Noseda, to popular new releases such as Ravel's Daphnis et Chloe with Sir Antonio Pappano.
LSO Live also enables the Orchestra to share its performances with millions of people around the world through an extensive programme of live-streamed and on-demand content. Most recently, the LSO has partnered with the leading global streaming service for the performing arts, Marquee TV, to launch a new documentary series entitled Pappano: Behind the Symphony. In this exclusive series, Pappano explores the history and artistry of three iconic symphonies, revealing the secrets that make them so extraordinary.
The LSO has been prolific in the studio since the infancy of orchestral recording, and has made more recordings than any other orchestra—over 2,500 projects to date—across film, video games and bespoke audio collaborations. Recent highlights include the Mercury-Music-Prize-nominated Promises collaboration with Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders, appearing on screen and on the soundtrack for the Oscar-nominated film Maestro, and an Emmy-nominated performance of Love Will Survive with Barbra Streisand.
Through inspiring music, learning programmes and digital innovations, the LSO’s reach extends far beyond the concert hall. And thanks to the generous support of The City of London Corporation, Arts Council England, corporate supporters, trusts and foundations, and individual donors, the LSO is able to continue sharing extraordinary music with as many people as possible, across London, and the world.
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London Symphony Orchestra
Chief Conductor: Sir Antonio Pappano
Conductor Emeritus: Sir Simon Rattle
Principal Guest Conductors: Gianandrea Noseda, François-Xavier Roth
Associate Artists: Barbara Hannigan, André J Thomas
Conductor Laureate: Michael Tilson Thomas
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CELLOS DOUBLE BASSES FLUTES PICCOLO OBOES COR ANGLAIS CLARINETS BASS CLARINET BASSOONS
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CONTRA BASSOON HORNS TRUMPETS TROMBONES BASS TROMBONE TUBA TIMPANI PERCUSSION HARP PIANO LSO ADMIN |
With special thanks to the LSO’s 2025 US Tour Syndicate, who have helped to make our visit possible. We would also like to extend our thanks to those who support the wider work of the LSO through the American LSO Foundation
Acknowledgments
This performance is sponsored by: