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
Half Six Fix: Berlioz
Sir Antonio Pappano
Wednesday 21 May 2025 • 6.30pm
Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert, delving into the musical imagination of Hector Berlioz. Introduced by the performers, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
Limited Tickets
Szymanowski and Symphonie fantastique
LSO Artist Portrait: Lisa Batiashvili
Thursday 22 May 2025 • 7pm
Dreams and fantasies from enigmatic Szymanowski, in his Violin Concerto, to Berlioz’s most rock’n’roll work, the Symphonie fantastique.
Mozart and Strauss Ein Heldenleben
LSO Artist Portrait: Lisa Batiashvili
Sunday 25 May 2025 • 7pm
Two portraits from a magician of orchestral colour, Richard Strauss – plus a young Mozart dances on the violin, in his Fifth Violin Concerto.
On Tour in Vienna
Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili
Tuesday 27 May 2025 • 7.30pm
Music by Berlioz and Szymanowski on tour in Vienna, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili.
On Tour in Vienna
Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili
Wednesday 28 May 2025 • 7.30pm
Music by Mozart and Strauss on tour in Vienna, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili.
On Tour in Prague
Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili
Thursday 29 May 2025 • 8pm
Music by Berlioz, Szymanowski and Strauss on tour in Prague, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili.
On Tour in Dresden
Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili
Friday 30 May 2025 • 7.30pm
Music by Mozart and Berlioz, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili.
On Tour in Cologne
Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili
Sunday 1 June 2025 • 8pm
Music by Berlioz and Szymanowski on tour in Cologne, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili.
On Tour in Frankfurt
Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili
Monday 2 June 2025 • 8pm
Music by Berlioz and Mozart on tour in Frankfurt, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili.
On Tour in Heidelberg
Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili
Tuesday 3 June 2025 • 8pm
Music by Berlioz and Szymanowski on tour in Heidelberg, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Lisa Batiashvili.
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
