Sir Antonio Pappano
Features, videos, recordings and concerts with our Chief Conductor.
Sir Antonio Pappano is our Chief Conductor. He first collaborated with the Orchestra in 1996 at Abbey Road Studios for a recording of Puccini’s opera La rondine, and we have worked together regularly since then.
‘I’ll never forget the first down beat, when the orchestra just exploded with activity and panache and derring-do,’ recalls Pappano. ‘It felt like I’d gotten into a Ferrari and pushed the gas pedal down!’
Sir Antonio Pappano became Music Director of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden in 2002, a position he held until the end of the 2023/24 season, and was Music Director of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome between 2005 and 2023. In 2012 he was made a Knight of the British Empire for his services to music, and in 2015 he was named the 100th recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal, the body’s highest honour.
News & Stories
Sir Antonio Pappano: The 2024/25 Season
Our Chief Conductor introduces his 2024/25 season, from brand new works to British symphonies and opera classics.
Pappano: My relationship with the LSO
‘I’ve always had a very close relationship with the Orchestra. But I want that relationship to deepen. I hope I surprise them. I know they’ll surprise me.’
Pappano: 'That's what a conductor is, you are serving the music'
Sir Antonio Pappano discusses what it means to be a conductor, and his own personal conducting style.
Sir Antonio Pappano: The 2023/24 Season
‘I worked with the LSO for the first time in 1996, at Abbey Road Studios, to record an opera. I’ll never forget the first down beat, when the orchestra just exploded with activity and panache and derring-do. It felt like I’d gotten into a Ferrari and pushed the gas pedal down!’
Press Release: LSO appoints Sir Antonio Pappano as Chief Conductor
Videos
Concerts
On Tour in Stanford
Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
Sunday 23 February 2025 • 2.30pm
Music by Walker, Mendelssohn and Mahler on tour in California, with Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano and soloist Janine Jansen.
On Tour in Orlando
Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
Wednesday 26 February 2025 • 7.30pm
The London Symphony Orchestra visits the Dr Phillips Centre, under the leadership of Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, joined by soloist Janine Jansen.
On Tour in Naples, Florida
Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
Thursday 27 February 2025 • 7.30pm
For the first of two concerts in Naples, Florida, Sir Antonio Pappano conducts music by George Walker, Leonard Bernstein and William Walton, with soloist Janine Jansen.
On Tour in Naples, Florida
Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
Friday 28 February 2025 • 7.30pm
Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano conducts Elgar and Mahler, on tour in Florida.
On Tour in West Palm Beach
Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
Saturday 1 March 2025 • 2pm
Sir Antonio Pappano conducts Walton’s turbulent First Symphony and Walker's 'Visions' on tour in Florida, joined by soloist Janine Jansen for Bernstein's Serenade.
On Tour in Miami
Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
Sunday 2 March 2025 • 7pm
The LSO, Sir Antonio Pappano and soloist Janine Jansen are the perfect team for dramatic works by Elgar, Walker and Bernstein, in the Orchestra's debut performance at Knight Concert Hall.
On Tour in New York
Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
Wednesday 5 March 2025 • 8pm
For two consecutive nights, Sir Antonio Pappano leads the London Symphony Orchestra in the Orchestra's long-awaited return to Carnegie Hall, with violinist Janine Jansen as soloist.
On Tour in New York
Sir Antonio Pappano and Yunchan Lim
Thursday 6 March 2025 • 8pm
The London Symphony Orchestra returns to Carnegie Hall for the first time in 20 years, under the leadership of Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, joined by soloist Yunchan Lim.
Wynton Marsalis' 'The Jungle'
Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra
Saturday 15 March 2025 • 7pm
Sir Antonio Pappano and the LSO blend jazz, blues and classical music in a crossover collaboration with JLCO, performing Wynton Marsalis' wild musical portrait of New York.
Beethoven 'Choral' Symphony
Sir Antonio Pappano
Sunday 23 March 2025 • 7pm
Tippett’s moving pacifist oratorio, A Child of Our Time, meets Beethoven’s immense ‘Choral’ symphony – 200 years after its premiere.
Recordings
Reviews
‘I can’t remember hearing [Britten’s War Requiem] make so powerful an impact as it did in this stupendous Prom performance conducted by Antonio Pappano … the London Symphony Orchestra played with phenomenal virtuosity.’
★★★★★ Richard Morrison, The Times, Aug 2024
‘Pappano leads the LSO with terrifying finesse for Coleridge-Taylor, Strauss and Liszt works, in anticipation of his new role as chief conductor in 2024.’ ★★★★ The Guardian, Feb 2023
‘Pappano brought to this irresistible epic simply everything: invaluable detail, supercharged rhythms, precipitous drama, a larger-than-life tale gloriously paced and fabulously played. If this is the LSO’s future, bring it on.’ ★★★★★ inews, Feb 2023
