London Symphony Orchestra
Programme
- Hector Berlioz: Le corsaire, overture Op. 21
- Karol Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1 Op. 35
- Richard Strauss: Ein Heldenleben, symphonic poem Op. 40
Performers
- London Symphony Orchestra
- Sir Antonio Pappano - conductor
- Lisa Batiashvili - violin
After the very first public performance given by the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in 1904 the British daily The Times wrote: “The volume of tone was magnificent, and the effect of the performance under Dr Richter was truly memorable.” Since that time this prestigious London symphony orchestra has won millions of fans not only through its concerts but also thanks to the scores for film blockbusters such as Star Wars, Braveheart, Notting Hill and Harry Potter. Under the artistic direction of such maestros as André Previn, Claudio Abbado, Michael Tilson Thomas and Sir Simon Rattle it has earned a prime position among the world’s finest orchestras. The LSO first appeared at the Prague Spring in 1965 with Sir Georg Solti, and most recently in 2005 when, conducted by Sir Colin Davis, they opened the festival with Smetana’s Má vlast. They are now returning to Prague after a twenty-year absence and will perform under their new Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano in a programme combining the music of Hector Berlioz, Karol Szymanowski and Richard Strauss. The evening’s soloist will be stellar violinist Lisa Batiashvili, who plays with a “pure, gorgeous tone and fabulous technique,” as The New York Times described her performance. “I have been fortunate to have collaborated with Lisa Batiashvili on several occasions,” says Pappano. “Tchaikovsky to Sibelius, Szymanowski to Bartok; she brings fire, imagination and a gleaming sound to whatever she touches.”
The concert will open with the virtuosic overture Le corsaire, in which French composer Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) was inspired by the narrative poem of the same name by English romantic poet Lord Byron. The first half of the concert will culminate in a performance of Violin Concerto No. 1 by Polish classic Karol Szymanowski (1882–1937). “The sound is so magical that people here were completely transfixed,” Szymanowski wrote to his friend, the violinist Paweł Kochański immediately after the work’s premiere in 1922. This instrumentally vibrant and colourful piece, filled with “mysterious magic, nocturnal impressionistic scents and bird trills, longing and pain, flights of ecstasy, sublime tenderness and erotic sensuality”, reveals the influence of Richard Strauss, Claude Debussy and Maurice Ravel. It is also an essentially compelling personal testimony. “It tells of the love and pain of a man who had to deny his feelings for another man because, at the time, this love was condemned by both law and society,” states the concerto’s soloist Lisa Batiashvili. “The music dances between eroticism and pity, between a dream world and bitter reality. Moreover, it continually surprises us in so many ways, since you don’t always know what to expect. It’s romantic and such a beautiful work, in many respects highly sensuous. It sings of human fragility, of tenderness and love, and naturally also of despair,” adds the Tbilisi-born violinist, who chose Germany as her second home. One of the most sought-after artists on the current scene, she regularly works with the world’s finest conductors and orchestras. During last season alone she was Artist-in-Residence at the Berlin Philharmonic and she appeared with the likes of conductors Kirill Petrenko, Daniel Barenboim, Zubin Mehta and Esa-Pekka Salonen. She also recorded Szymanowski’s concerto on CD for the coveted label Deutsche Grammophon alongside the Philadelphia Orchestra under Yannick Nézet-Seguin. After her performance with the Boston Symphony Orchestra under Andris Nelsons, a critic for the Boston Classical Review described her appearance as “the highlight of the evening.”
The London Symphony Orchestra will end their Prague Spring concert with Richard Strauss’s (1864–1949) symphonic poem Ein Heldenleben. “Heldenleben is a very important piece of music for an orchestra. It’s autobiographical, telling the story not only of the composer, but also of his wife and, to a certain extent, his domestic situation,” says Sir Antonio Pappano, who will travel to Prague at the close of his first season as Chief Conductor of the LSO. He held the position of Music Director of the Royal Opera House in Covent Garden for twenty-two years and he also boasts the title of Music Director Emeritus of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, with whom he triumphed at the Prague Spring in 2015. “The wife is depicted through the violin solo played by the concertmaster; she is a highly unusual character – capricious, difficult and sentimental, but they love each other so much,” Pappano continues. “As in Mahler’s case, it was also imperative for Strauss – both were looking to Wagner – that the hero overcame whatever obstacles were put in front of him. In Ein Heldenleben Strauss depicts those struggles; we even have a musical scene where ugly sounds from the orchestra represent the critics of the time, who bite, who wound and, in voicing their opinions, cause injury to the artists. And Strauss is having fun here, of course.” This work, written in the late Romantic style, requires a huge orchestra, among others, eight horns, five trumpets, a large percussion section and more than sixty string instruments. The LSO – one of the most eagerly anticipated orchestras of the Prague Spring 2025 – will perform in Municipal House’s Smetana Hall in full force and splendour!
