LSO Discovery
Free Friday Lunchtime Concert
TODAY'S CONCERT
Joseph Haydn Adagio cantabile and Finale: Vivace assai from String Quartet Op 50 No 2
Florence Price arr Sam Araya Adoration
Ludwig van Beethoven Poco adagio – Allegro from String Quartet No 10
Clare Duckworth violin
Thomas Norris violin
Malcolm Johnston viola
Ève-Marie Caravassilis cello
Rachel Leach presenter
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Joseph Haydn (1732 to 1809)
String Quartet Op 50 No 2
✒️ 1787 | ⏰9 minutes
2 Adagio cantabile
4 Finale: Vivace assai
Known as ‘the father of classical music’, Joseph Haydn was a very, very important composer in Austria in the 1700s. He ‘invented’ the symphony and revolutionised the string quartet as well as transforming many older techniques and forms. He also taught both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven and generously promoted their careers at the expense of his own. Op 50 is a set of six string quartets written in 1787 and dedicated to King Frederick William II of Prussia. The King had been impressed with Haydn’s Paris Symphonies and sent the composer a golden ring. Haydn returned the gesture with the dedication and by including small, simple cello solos throughout – the King was an amateur cellist. After a bit of dodgy dealing from Haydn that involved tricking two publishing houses into believing they each had exclusive rights, the original manuscripts went missing for almost 200 years turning up in 1982 in Melbourne, Australia!
Note by Rachel Leach
Florence Price (1887 to 1953)
Adoration
✒️ 1951 | ⏰4 minutes
Florence Price was born in Little Rock Arkansas into a well-respected mixed-race family. Her father was a dentist and her mother was a music teacher. She began piano lessons with her mum aged four and composed her first pieces aged eleven. After moving with her husband to Chicago to escape the racism of the Deep South, she became the first African-American composer to have a piece played by a major American symphony orchestra. Florence Price was a true pioneer. She was not only an African-American working during a time of segregation, but she was a woman working within the very male dominated area of orchestral music. Luckily, she had a very supportive family and came across very good teachers. Price often incorporated Southern African American spirituals into her works thus honoring her own history and she does so beautifully in Adoration written in 1951.
Note by Rachel Leach
Ludwig van Beethoven (1770 to 1827)
String Quartet No 10
✒️ 1809 | ⏰9 minutes
1 Poco adagio – Allegro
Ludwig van Beethoven was in appearance and manner a very unlikely genius. He was often dirty, disheveled, rude, and eccentric but his music radically developed and transformed every genre he wrote in. At age 28 he began to go deaf and soon could only communicate through the use of a notebook. He only heard his greatest works by imagining the sounds in his head. This, his tenth string quartet, was written around 1809 at the same time as the mighty Symphony No 5 and is in a similar ‘heroic’ style. It begins with a mysterious, slow introduction, an idea Beethoven borrowed from Haydn. The introduction is there to create tension and has been described as ‘a jumble of dissonance’; although to modern ears, it is quite pleasant. The Allegro that follows is a neat sonata. The quartet’s nickname ‘The Harp’ was coined by the publisher as a way of distinguishing it from Beethoven’s other quartets. It refers to the pizzicato arpeggios that rise up across the ensemble.
Note by Rachel Leach
About the Artists
Clare Duckworth
LSO First Violin
Clare Duckworth studied with Richard Deakin at the Junior School of the RNCM and Mateja Marinkovic and Hugh Bean at the Royal Academy of Music. Having been lucky to receive fantastic training in the National Children’s Orchestra, National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain and European Union Youth Orchestra, all of which she led, Clare went on to hold jobs with the Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, the London Philharmonic (Co-Principal Second Violin) and the Royal Philharmonic (Principal First Violin) before joining the LSO as Sub-Principal First Violin in 2014.
She has coached the violin sections of the NYO, the EUYO and London’s RAM, RCM and GSMD, and served for three years as one of the LSO’s Vice Chairs. When not performing, Clare can usually be found in a book shop, art gallery or up a hill, either at home or (with a bit of luck) abroad.
Thomas Norris
LSO Co-Principal Second Violin
Thomas Norris graduated from London’s Guildhall School of Music & Drama in 1994, and went on to study in Banff, Canada before joining the Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra as Principal Second Violin. Since returning to London, Tom has been a violinist of the LSO.
Tom has collaborated with countless musicians, ranging from the Schubert Ensemble to Roger Daltrey and The Who. He has recorded with Nanci Griffith, Elvis Costello and Andrea Bocelli, and formed the Puertas Quartet, whose debut CD was critics’ choice in the Strad magazine. He has collaborated with Manu Delago and Living Room in London.
Tom is a member of the Puertas Quartet, formed in 2009, which was critics’ choice in the Strad magazine for its recording of music by Maurice Ravel and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. Tom is also a singer, songwriter and composer, writing for TV and film. He released his debut album, Edge Of The World, in 2009.
Malcolm Johnston
LSO Sub-Principal Viola
Malcolm Johnston earned his Bachelor’s degree at the Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama and continued his post-graduate studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London.
In 1992 Malcolm became violist with the Amernet String Quartet in the US, with whom he played for four years. The quartet won numerous major awards, including the Gold Medal at the 1992 Tokyo International Chamber Music Competition. More recently he has worked as guest violist with the Leopold String Trio at the Edinburgh Festival and the Snape Proms and also participated in the Chamber Music Series at the Wigmore Hall with the LPO Chamber Players
Ève-Marie Caravassilis
LSO Cello
French-Guadeloupean-Greek cellist Ève-Marie Caravassilis became a member of the LSO in 2013, following seven years with the acclaimed French ensemble and BBC New Generation Artists Quatuor PSOPHOS, collaborating with renowned artists as Alina Ibragimova, Imogen Cooper, Renaud & Gautier Capucon, and the Ebene Quartet. She regularly performs as Guest Principal with numerous orchestras, including the English National Opera and City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra.
Ève-Marie studied with Philippe Muller at the Conservatoire National de Musique de Paris and Jens Peter Maintz at the Universität der Künste in Berlin, obtaining the highest distinctions for her Master and KonzertExam recitals. During her studies, she took part in masterclasses with Mstislav Rostropovitch, Yo-Yo Ma, David Geringas and Jerome Pernoo.
She plays an anonymous French 19th-century cello, generously entrusted to her by the Fonds Instrumental Français.
Rachel Leach
presenter
© Kevin Leighton
Rachel Leach was born in Sheffield. She studied composition, and her music has been recorded by NMC and published by Faber. She has won several awards including, with English Touring Opera (ETO), the RPS award for best education project 2009 for One Day, Two Dawns.
Rachel has worked within the education departments of most of the UK’s orchestras and opera companies. The majority of her work is for the London Symphony Orchestra and the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Rachel has written well over 20 pieces for LSO Discovery and 15 community operas, including seven for the English Touring Opera.
Increasingly in demand as a concert presenter, as well as presenting the LSO Discovery Free Friday Lunchtime Concert series, she regularly presents children’s concerts and pre-concert events for the LSO, LPO, Philharmonia Orchestra, Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Royal College of Music and Royal Northern Sinfonia.
© Kevin Leighton
© Kevin Leighton
Next Friday Lunchtime Concert
Friday 27 September 2024
Programme to be announced
Rachel Leach presenter
This Friday Lunchtime Concert will feature performances from students on the LSO String Experience Scheme.
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