London calling

What’s the antithesis of a tug of war? It took some heavy pulling from both sides of the ocean, in the same direction, to bring about a rare visit from the fabled London Philharmonic Orchestra to Michigan State University’s Wharton Center on Oct. 17.

“A United States tour is a huge commitment for us in every way, just like a United Kingdom tour for an American orchestra,” principal conductor Ed Gardner said.

It took over a year of planning and negotiation to slip an East Lansing date into the orchestra’s crowded two-week tour of California, the Midwest and New York. The tour packs 11 ambitious concerts into 13 days.

“The good thing is we’re mixing and matching with different symphonic works and different soloists,” Gardner said. “There’s some flexibility in the repertoire, which should keep everything alive, I think.”

Each tour stop had a choice between two programs. The “cold” option is a formidable flotilla of icy orchestral slabs: Dmitri Shostakovich’s jagged First Violin Concerto, Benjamin Britten’s elegiac “Sinfonia da Requiem” and Jean Sibelius’ glacial Fifth Symphony.

The Wharton Center and several other tour stops went for the “warm” option, full of hearth fires and fireworks: Ludvig van Beethoven’s “Egmont” overture, Samuel Barber’s songful violin concerto and Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky’s ecstatic Fourth Symphony.

Gardner chuckled at the “cold vs. warm” formula but didn’t take the bait.

“I don’t know about that,” he said. “But it’s funny — when we talked with the promoters about our program, I was hoping for a pretty even split between the two programs. But it’s no surprise that a lot of people said, ‘Yes, Tchaikovsky’s Fourth and Beethoven, thank you very much.’ What interests me is whether any people will go to both concerts.”

Mid-Michigan philharmonophiliacs can do just that by catching the “cold” program at the University of Michigan’s Hill Auditorium on Oct. 18, one night after the “warm” Wharton Center concert.

The London Philharmonic has conjured up many legendary nights since it gave its first public performance under founder Sir Thomas Beecham at London’s Queen’s Hall on Oct. 7, 1932. In May 1941, it played the last concert given in the hall before it was destroyed in the Blitz.

Although it has amassed some 120 recordings on its own LPO label, the orchestra is perhaps best known to listeners around the world for its work on the soundtracks of Peter Jackson’s “Lord of the Rings” film trilogy.

Ambitious tours — some of them historic — are an integral part of the orchestra’s fabric.

In 1956, the LPO was the first British orchestra to appear in the Soviet Union; in 1973, it was the first Western orchestra to be invited to play in China. In 1993, it was the first British orchestra to visit South Africa post-Apartheid.

The current U.S. tour concentrates on several venues in California, a smattering of Midwest dates and three stops on the East Coast, including New York’s Carnegie Hall.

“This is the perfect length,” Gardner said. “Two weeks and a bit is about right. We’ll be seeing lots of new cities, which is very exciting for us.”

Barber’s violin concerto is a gem of the repertoire and a uniquely American statement, lyrical and muscular by turns. Gardner called it a “huge honor” for a U.K. orchestra to play the concerto on American soil.

“It’s great to bring our personality to the music of your country,” he said. (The alternate slate of concerts also features an American composition, “Raíces (Origins),” by Cuban American composer Tania León.)

American violinist Randall Goosby, 28, will play the solo part in the Barber concerto.

“He’s a wonderful player and an incredible advocate for the art form,” Gardner said. “This tour will be my first time with him, and everything I’ve heard is absolutely wondrous.”

Gardner was born in Gloucester, England, and fell in love with choral music while singing in the historic Gloucester Cathedral’s choir.

He recalled sitting in the cathedral’s organ loft at age 6, listening to the music reverberating through the huge space and watching the sunlight stream through the stained-glass windows.

A sense of awe and wonderment at great music is still at the core of his art.

“Communication is fundamental for me,” he said. “I don’t differentiate between someone who’s heard Tchaikovsky’s Fourth a million times and someone who’s hearing it for the first time. My job is storytelling, isn’t it? It’s telling a story of what the emotional and musical journey is.”

Gardner isn’t interested in doing outré gyrations or gymnastics just to jolt the jaded.

“I think about that question a lot in the operatic world,” he said. (Gardner is also music director of the Norwegian Opera and Ballet.) “We’re often too concerned with productions that keep the people interested who are seeing ‘La Bohème’ for the hundredth time, where you should always be appealing to the first-time viewer.”

In the 1990s, Gardner began conducting choral groups and thrilled to hundreds of concerts by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, then led by future Berlin Philharmonic maestro Simon Rattle.

Gardner called Rattle a “leading light,” but he also drew inspiration from American conductors.

In the 1980s and ‘90s, he loved the magisterial sound of the San Francisco Symphony under music director Herbert Blomstedt.

“That was a big influence for me, and that Technicolor Solti Chicago thing,” he said, referring to the mighty Chicago Symphony Orchestra under its legendary maestro from 1969 to 1991, Sir Georg Solti. “It feels like a different era of music-making now, but it was completely wondrous.”

Although Gardner is looking forward to seeing more of the United States, the demands of the tour won’t leave much room for side excursions.

“The work level is so high, and I want to be absolutely fit for each performance,” he said. “I was just talking with my wife about how it’s going to be. I’m going to make sure I do some exercise every day and read. Those are my goals. I’ll have to come back to these wonderful cities another time to really see them.”