Adrienne Arsht Center for the Performing Arts of Miami-Dade County presents
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Antonio Pappano, chief conductor
Janine Jansen, violin
Walker
Sinfonia No. 5, "Visions"
Bernstein
Serenade
—Intermission—
Elgar
Enigma Variations
Notes on the program
Sinfonia No. 5, “Visions”
George Walker (1922-2018)
A few weeks before his death in 2018 at 96 years old, George Walker told a friend how he wanted to be remembered. “He said, ‘I want people to play my music. I want people to play my music. I want people to play my music.’ He said it three consecutive times,” Howard University music professor Dr. Mickey Terry recalled on a 2022 episode of the podcast Classical Breakdown. “That was the one thing that really was important to him. He wanted people to play his music, to know his music and appreciate his music.”
There is indeed much to know and appreciate about Walker’s music. First things first: At 73, Walker became the first Black composer to win the Pulitzer Prize for music. When he was in his early 20s, Walker, a pianist, became the first Black instrumental soloist to perform at Town Hall in New York and, soon after, the first to perform with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Five years later, he became the first Black instrumentalist to be represented by the powerful National Concert Artists agency.
Walker’s more than 90 compositions include concertos, string quartets, sonatas, choral works, chamber pieces and overtures. He won the Pulitzer for “Lilacs, for voice and orchestra,” a Boston Symphony Orchestra commission that debuted in 1996. Frequently performed, the work is based on Walt Whitman’s elegy for Abraham Lincoln, “When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom’d.”
Walker was an ardent champion of Black classical composers, and was frustrated by the lack of attention afforded to him and peers such as Adolphus Hailstork, Olly Wilson and T.J. Anderson. “One of the things that he had a really difficult time with was the fact that oftentimes people would associate Black music immediately with jazz,” Terry told Classical Breakdown.
In a 1991 essay for The New York Times titled “Make Room for Black Classical Music,” Walker lamented the “tokenism” displayed by orchestras whose Black History Month and Martin Luther King Jr. Day concerts offer “potpourris of Black idioms: gospel, spirituals and jazz.” He added: “The diverse nature of music by Black classical composers refutes the all-too-prevalent notion that Black music must be rock, rap or jazz.”
Walker returned to this argument in his 2009 memoir, Reminiscences of an American Composer and Pianist. “No matter how much traditional training in classical music a Black artist has absorbed,” he wrote, “there’s the underlying suspicion for some that his native habitat is the realm of jazz.”
Walker wrote his first sinfonia in 1984 and completed the fifth and final one in 2016. Titled “Visions,” Sinfonia No. 5 contains Walker’s response to the 2015 massacre of nine Black churchgoers by a white supremacist in Charleston, South Carolina. The work is the longest of the sinfonias, and the last piece Walker completed before his death. At 18 minutes, “Visions” is turbulent and unnerving, with images of ocean reefs and slave ships present in the score’s textual passages and in an accompanying video Walker enlisted artist Frank Schramm to create. The text includes poetry written by Walker (“a lighthouse beams a stream of light that/Parts the misty shroud of starless night”) and lines from Ben Jonson and Stephen Foster. All are to be performed by soprano, tenor, bass-baritones and bass.
“He wasn’t worried about whether it would be comprehensible immediately,” the composer’s son Gregory Walker told The New York Times in 2019. “It’s an idealistic vision of what this combination of music and text and imagery could achieve.”
No matter how stormy or enigmatic Walker’s music gets, a listener can sense the composer’s absolute control. “One of the things about George Walker is the fact that he didn’t leave anything to chance,” Terry said. “Everything was calculated, premeditated, well-thought-out. And he was like that not only with regard to his musical compositions but in his attire. The way he dressed, it was always impeccable. His home, everything was in its place. It was just absolutely incredible. He was a very disciplined man. He had a very ordered demeanor. And he had a very ordered mind.”
Serenade (after Plato’s Symposium), solo violin, string orchestra, percussion
Leonard Bernstein (1918-1990)
“I am a hopeless addict of crosswords and anagrams,” Leonard Bernstein told a New York Times interviewer in 1977. “The whole linguistic idea is a magical one to me, almost as magical as the phenomenon of music.” Arguing that language “distinguishes humanity from the beast,” the great American conductor and composer—who sadly never got the opportunity to curse into the void while playing Wordle—claimed that “words or verbal ideas are always connected with everything I write, connected with the strongest impulse within me, which is music.”
In 1953, Bernstein began work on one of his most challenging lyrical puzzles. Commissioned by the Library of Congress’ Serge Koussevitzky Music Foundation, “Serenade” boasts literary roots that stretch back more than 2,000 years. Bernstein said he wrote the concerto following a rereading of Plato’s Symposium, an account of an Athenian drinking party where a group of male artists, scientists and philosophers—including, of course, Socrates—expound on various forms and meanings of love.
“The Symposium has been immensely influential on thinking about love from antiquity to the present day,” British scholar Christopher Gill wrote of the work, adding, “It raises questions about love that are absolutely fundamental.”
Bernstein said he based the movements of his “Serenade” on five of the thinkers featured in The Symposium: Socrates, Phaedrus, Aristophanes, Eryximachus and Agathon. Having scrambled the order in which the men speak, Bernstein cautioned listeners against taking his concerto literally. (If you brought a copy of The Symposium to the theater, feel free to tuck it away.)
“The relatedness of the movements does not depend on common thematic material,” Bernstein wrote in a program note, “but rather on a system whereby each movement evolves out of elements in the preceding one.”
A month after Bernstein finished writing “Serenade” in 1954, the concerto debuted in Venice with a performance by the Ochestra Del Teatro La Fenice and American violin soloist Isaac Stern. Bernstein conducted. Years later, Bernstein claimed to regret titling his composition “Serenade” and not “The Symposium” so “that people would know what it is based on.” Bernstein, it appears, could be tragically optimistic.
In a 2018 essay for music magazine The Strad, Israeli violinist Vadim Gluzman reflected on the challenges and rewards of tackling Bernstein’s “very difficult” work.
“I asked Isaac Stern how literally one should take the text when performing the piece, and how important it is to know what each of the quoted philosophers said,” Gluzman wrote. “Isaac said that Bernstein had told him, ‘Just think of love.’ From that, I took that for Bernstein, the music and the literary inspiration were parallel universes. You can try to make the connections, but love is always the guiding light when performing it.”
Enigma Variations
Edward Elgar (1857-1934)
Edward Elgar could keep a secret. From the time he introduced his orchestral work “Enigma Variations” in 1899 until his death 35 years later, the British composer remained mum about the origin of the mystery in the piece’s title. Divided into 14 movements meant to represent Elgar’s family and friends, plus an intransigent bulldog, the work, according to the composer, offers a countermelody to a well-known song that he refused to identify. Was it “Pop Goes the Weasel”? “Happy Birthday to You”? A diss track? We’ll never know.
What appears to have started as an inside joke, however, immediately escaped Elgar’s control. For the public premiere of Opus 36, Variations on a Theme (the work’s official title) at St. James’s Hall in London, Elgar distributed a snippy, somewhat defensive program note.
“It is true that I have sketched for their amusement and mine, the idiosyncrasies of fourteen of my friends; not necessarily musicians,” Elgar wrote, “but this is a personal matter, and need not have been mentioned publicly. The Variations should stand simply as a ‘piece’ of music. The Enigmas I will not explain.”
Should Elgar have been alive 100 years later, he no doubt would have been delighted (and a bit confused) to discover his music on the soundtrack of The Matrix, the mind-bending science fiction film starring Keanu Reeves. Australian DJ Rob Dougan appropriated part of Enigma Variations’ first movement for his instrumental trip-hop track “Clubbed to Death,” which is featured prominently in the movie. Another movement, the ninth, known as “Nimrod,” received even greater attention in 2012 when London Symphony Orchestra performed it during the opening ceremonies of the 2012 Summer Olympics. That probably would have gotten a “Whoa” out of Elgar, too.
— Jake Cline
London Symphony Orchestra – U.S. Tour
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 program, 60,000 people every year experience the transformative power of music, in person, on tour and online. The Orchestra’s musicians are at the heart of this unique program, 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 programs 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 program of works, the LSO will be opening up the venue’s facilities to more people than ever before, with new state-of-the-art recording facilities and dedicated spaces for LSO Discovery’s program.
The LSO’s record label, LSO Live, celebrates its 25th anniversary in 2024-25. It is a leader among orchestra-owned labels, bringing to life the excitement of a live performance. The catalog of over 200 acclaimed recordings reflects the artistic priorities of the Orchestra—from perennial favorites such as 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 Chloé with Sir Antonio Pappano.
LSO Live also enables the Orchestra to share its performances with millions of people around the world through an extensive program of live-streamed and on-demand content. Most recently, the LSO has partnered with Marquee TV, the leading global streaming service for the performing arts, to launch a documentary series titled 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 Prize-nominated Promises collaboration with Floating Points and Pharoah Sanders, appearing on screen and on the soundtrack for Oscar-nominated film Maestro and an Emmy-nominated performance of "Love Will Survive" with Barbra Streisand.
Through inspiring music, learning programs 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.
Explore recordings by the London Symphony Orchestra at Bio.to/LSO.
Sir Antonio Pappano
One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed for his charismatic leadership and inspirational performances in 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 to 2023. Pappano was appointed music director of Oslo’s Den Norske Opera in 1990, and from 1992 to 2002 served as music director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. From 1997 to 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 and 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 tour of the United States (including stops at Carnegie Hall), Japan, Korea, China and 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.
Janine Jansen
Violinist Janine Jansen has long-standing relationships with the world’s most eminent orchestras and conductors. This season’s highlights include a major U.S. 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 with Amsterdam Sinfonietta in Amsterdam and on tour across South America, including in Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Chile. Musikverein Wien in Vienna 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, Jansen offers recitals across Europe and the United States, including at New York's Carnegie Hall, Vienna Musikverein, Paris' Philharmonie and Amsterdam's Concertgebouw.
Jansen records exclusively for Decca Classics. Her latest recording, released in June 2024, features Sibelius' Violin Concerto and Prokofiev's Violin Concerto No. 1 together with Klaus Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra.
Jansen is founder and artistic director of the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht as well as co-artistic director of Sion Festival. Since November 2023, she has been professor of violin studies at Kronberg Academy. She studied with Coosje Wijzenbeek, Philipp Hirshhorn and Boris Belkin.
Jansen plays the Shumsky-Rode Stradivarius from 1715, on generous loan from a European benefactor. During the U.S. tour with London Symphony Orchestra, Jansen will be performing the "Glennie" violin from 1704 by Antonio Stradivari, on loan from a generous benefactor.
London Symphony Orchestra
With special thanks to the LSO’s 2025 U.S. 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.
Classical Conversations
Scott Flavin enjoys an incredibly versatile musical career. Since 1998, he has been professor of violin at the Frost School of Music, where he teaches violin, conducting and chamber music. As a violinist, he is in demand as a concertmaster, chamber musician and recitalist, and is first violinist of the internationally acclaimed Bergonzi String Quartet and violinist of PULSE Trio, in addition to the Bergonzi Trio. Flavin is resident conductor of The Henry Mancini Institute Orchestra, and regularly appears on the podium in concert, on television and on recordings. He is also an active arranger, composer and writer. His recordings include chamber music on the Naxos and Centaur labels, and commercial recordings on Sony, EMI and Warner Bros., including appearances on over a dozen Grammy Award-winning albums.
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