Prokofiev's Romeo and Juliet
Claude Debussy (1862-1918)
Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
I desire to perpetuate these nymphs. / So bright their light rosy flesh that it hovers in the air drowsy with tufted slumbers. / Did I love a dream?..
Mallarmé’s poem L’après-midi d’un faune isn’t about clarity or even about making perfect sense; it’s an exquisite attempt to capture a mood through the rhythms, textures and colours of language. Debussy, smitten with the poem, sought to do no less in his music. From its languorous opening on the solo flute’s sultry lower notes, to its final disappearance (so delicate that you mightn’t realise till it’s gone), Debussy’s Prélude is one of the most purely sensual experiences in all music. Classical rules about harmony, orchestration and form all come second to the creation of an intoxicating, wholly new atmosphere – warm, dreamlike, tender and unmistakably sexy.
Mallarmé was delighted: “I never expected anything like it. The music extends the emotion of my poem and paints its scenery more passionately than colours ever could!” And so seductive is its half-tone world of whispering flutes, dreaming horns, hazy string chords and swirling harps that it’s easy to forget that nothing like this piece had ever been heard before its première in Paris in December 1894.
William Walton (1902-1983)
Cello Concerto
Moderato – Allegro appasionato – Tema ed improvisazioni
In 1949 William Walton moved to the island of Ischia, in the Bay of Naples, where he and his wife Susanna built a home and cultivated a lush sub-tropical garden. And that’s where we find him in his Cello Concerto, a commission from the great Russian-American cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. It was mid-1955, and Walton’s response was down-to-earth. “Well, I’m a professional composer. I write anything for anybody if they pay me. Naturally I write much better if I am paid in American dollars”. Piatigorsky premiered the concerto in Boston on 25 January 1957
Over a rocking accompaniment, the first movement sings its heart out: the big opening theme isn’t a happy melody, but nor is it a cold one. There’s a calm smile behind its long, arching curves, and an unmistakable hint of southern sunshine. That same Mediterranean light seems to glitter off the second movement (a brilliant, tangy scherzo) and it makes the languorous final Tema (theme) and the five linked improvisazioni (improvisations – all fully written-down by Walton, of course) glow with an inner warmth, even at their most vigorous and brusque. The lapping chords from the opening of the concerto chime softly in the distance as the cello sinks, singing, into a final siesta.
Sergei Prokofiev (1891-1953)
Romeo and Juliet, Op. 75 – suite
Montagues and Capulets – Juliet as a Young Girl – Friar Laurence – Masks – Romeo and Juliet – Death of Tybalt – Romeo and Juliet Before Parting – Romeo at Juliet’s Grave
Prokofiev was initially optimistic about artistic life in the Soviet Union. “Soviet music must be melodious; moreover the melody must be simple and comprehensible” he wrote in 1934 – “not an old-fashioned simplicity, but a new simplicity”. A ballet version of Romeo and Juliet offered a chance to show that “new simplicity” in action, and between July and September 1935 Prokofiev wrote the entire score. Then the political realities began to bite. The Bolshoi declared the ballet “undanceable” and it was January 1940 before it was finally staged in Russia, at Leningrad’s Kirov (now Mariinsky) Theatre. Even then a joke ran round the Kirov: “For never was a story of more woe / Than Prokofiev’s music for Romeo”.
Yet the performance was a success. Galina Ulanova danced Juliet in that Kirov production, and at the post-show party, she invited Prokofiev to join her in a foxtrot. “He seemed always to be hearing some rhythm of his own” she recalled. “But as the dance gradually gathered momentum, I caught my partner’s unusual and utterly marvellous rhythm”. Prokofiev’s score takes both the tenderness and the savagery of Shakespeare’s drama, and paints it in clean lines and bold colours. This concert suite embraces the thunderous Montagues and Capulets, the blossoming passion of the young lovers, the rapier-edged violence of the Death of Tybalt and – of course – the heartrending final tragedy.
Gemma New
New Zealand-born Gemma New is Artistic Advisor & Principal Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra. She is the recipient of the prestigious 2021 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award and was appointed an Officer of the New Zealand Order of Merit in 2024.
Gemma New made her LPO debut in March 2024, when she conducted two programmes of Tchaikovsky, Mozart and Prokofiev at the Royal Festival Hall and Eastbourne’s Congress Theatre. Highlights of her 2025/26 season include debuts with the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, KBS Symphony Orchestra, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, Nashville Symphony Orchestra, Belgian National Orchestra, SWR Sinfonieorchester, and with Houston Grand Opera leading a production of Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. In the United States and Canada, she returns to lead the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra, San Diego Symphony Orchestra, Seattle Symphony Orchestra, and the National Arts Centre Orchestra in Ottawa, Canada.
In her fourth season as Artistic Advisor and Principal Conductor of the New Zealand Symphony Orchestra, New conducts a string of autumn 2025 performances in Wellington, Christchurch and Auckland, featuring the world premiere of an NZSO commission by Tabea Squire, and collaborations with mezzo-soprano Joyce DiDonato and saxophonist Jess Gillam. Other NZSO highlights include performances of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 7 and Mahler’s Symphony No. 6.
2023/24 marked Gemma New’s ninth and final season as Music Director of the Hamilton Philharmonic Orchestra in Ontario, Canada. She previously served as Principal Guest Conductor of the Dallas Symphony Orchestra, Resident Conductor of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra and Associate Conductor of the New Jersey Symphony. A former Dudamel Conducting Fellow with the Los Angeles Philharmonic and Conducting Fellow at Tanglewood Music Center, she was awarded Solti Foundation U.S. Career Assistance Awards in 2017, 2019 and 2020, before receiving the 2021 Sir Georg Solti Conducting Award.
Nicolas Altstaedt
German-French cellist Nicolas Altstaedt enjoys a multifaceted career as a soloist, conductor and artistic director. His acclaimed debut with the Vienna Philharmonic and Gustavo Dudamel at the Lucerne Festival launched collaborations with leading orchestras worldwide, including the Royal Concertgebouw, Budapest Festival, Philharmonia, Bavarian Radio Symphony and NHK Symphony orchestras, working with conductors such as Iván Fischer, Esa-Pekka Salonen, Lahav Shani, François-Xavier Roth, Gianandrea Noseda and Paavo Järvi. He often performs on period instruments and regularly collaborates with Il Giardino Armonico and Giovanni Antonini, Philippe Herreweghe, René Jacobs, Jean Rondeau and Thomas Dunford.
Joint appearances and premieres with Thomas Adès, Sofia Gubaidulina, Wolfgang Rihm, Jörg Widmann, Fazıl Say, Heinz Holliger and Liza Lim make Nicolas Altstaedt a passionate advocate for contemporary music. He was chosen by Gidon Kremer as Artistic Director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival in 2012, and is Artistic Partner of the Tapiola Sinfonietta for the next three seasons. His recordings have received numerous accolades, including the BBC Music Magazine Concerto Award and a Gramophone Classical Music Award.
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Uniquely groundbreaking and exhilarating to watch and hear, the London Philharmonic Orchestra has been celebrated as one of the world’s great orchestras since Sir Thomas Beecham founded it in 1932. Our mission is to share wonder with the modern world through the power of orchestral music, which we accomplish through live performances, online, and an extensive education and community programme.
Our home is at the Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, where we’re at the beating heart of London’s cultural life. You’ll also find us at our resident venues in Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden, and on tour worldwide. In 2024 we celebrated 60 years as Resident Symphony Orchestra at Glyndebourne Festival Opera, combining the magic of opera with Glyndebourne’s glorious setting in the Sussex countryside.
Edward Gardner has been our Principal Conductor since 2021, succeeding Vladimir Jurowski who in the same year became Conductor Emeritus. Karina Canellakis is our current Principal Guest Conductor, and Sir George Benjamin our Composer-in-Residence.
We’re one of the world’s most-streamed orchestras, with over 15 million plays of our content each month. In 2023 we were the most successful orchestra worldwide on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram, and in spring 2024 we featured in a behind-the-scenes TV documentary series on Sky Arts: ‘Backstage with the London Philharmonic Orchestra’. You can hear us on countless film soundtracks, and we’ve released ‘over 130 albums on our own LPO Label, which this year celebrates its 20th anniversary. During 2025/26 we’re once again working with Marquee TV to stream selected concerts to enjoy from your own living room.
We’re committed to nurturing the next generation of musicians and music-lovers: we love seeing the joy of children and families experiencing their first musical moments, and we’re passionate about inspiring schools and teachers through dedicated concerts, workshops, resources and training. Reflecting our values of collaboration and inclusivity, our OrchLab and Open Sound Ensemble projects offer music-making opportunities for adults and young people with disabilities and special educational needs.
Today’s young instrumentalists are the orchestra members of the future, and we have a number of opportunities to support their progression. Our LPO Junior Artists programme leads the way in creating pathways into the profession for young artists from under-represented communities, and our LPO Young Composers and Foyle Future Firsts schemes support the next generation of professional musicians, bridging the transition from education to professional careers. We also recently launched the LPO Conducting Fellowship, supporting the development of outstanding early-career conductors from backgrounds under-represented in the profession.
