The Full Score
Maestro announced as the London Symphony Orchestra’s chief conductor from 2024
From Hans Richter in 1904 to Sir Simon Rattle today, the London Symphony Orchestra’s list of chief conductors is a prestigious one. Now Sir Antonio Pappano is to join that list, as the LSO announces he is to take over the reins in September 2024. Before that, Pappano will spend a year as chief conductor designate as he brings his 22-year stint as music director of the Royal Opera House to a close.
The LSO has acted quickly in appointing a successor to Rattle, whose decision to move to the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra was announced in January. Though it is not an exact likefor-like replacement, as Rattle held the wider-reaching post of music director, the orchestra is welcoming into the fold a familiar friend – Pappano first conducted the LSO back in 1996 and has performed and recorded with the orchestra on many occasions, including this month’s BBC Music Magazine Recording of the Month of Vaughan Williams’s Symphonies Nos 4 and 6 (see p96).
‘Since I first collaborated with the LSO, I have time and again been overwhelmed by the team spirit inherent in this fabulously talented group of musicians,’ says the conductor himself. ‘The combination of a unique energy, flair and virtuosity has always set this orchestra apart. That I have been chosen as chief conductor is a dream come true and a most wonderful gi . I am humbled and excited to receive this honour and trust.’
Born in Essex to Italian parents, Pappano began his career as a répétiteur at New York City Opera, having moved with his family to the US as a teenager. He has since held conducting posts in a number of countries, not least Italy where he has taken Rome’s Orchestra dell’accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia to new heights since becoming its music director in 2005.
Though not all have held the position for long periods, Pappano’s predecessors at the LSO – from Edward Elgar and Arthur Nikisch at one end of the 20th century to André Previn and Claudio Abbado at the other – have each done their bit to shape the history and character of one of the world’s great orchestras. These include, famously, the great Pierre Monteux who, when taking up the post at the age of 86 in 1961, insisted on a 25-year contract with the option to renew…
Since 1996 Pappano has often performed and recorded with the LSO
Le Dudamel de Paris
Gustavo Dudamel has been named as the next music director of Paris Opera. The brilliant Venezuelan, 39, who first made his name as music director of his home country’s Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra (as it was called then) before joining the Los Angeles Philharmonic in 2009, begins his new role this August. He says his aim is ‘to build on the success of the past, but at the same time look toward the future.’
Key signatures
The New York music world is mourning the death of Lois Kirschenbaum, a familiar figure at The Metropolitan Opera, even though she never appeared on its stage. Instead, Kirschenbaum, 88, made her name at the venue as the autograph hunter sans pareil, waiting patiently to grab singers’ attention at the stage door over a period of more than 50 years. Opera greats such as Beverly Sills and Plácido Domingo are among those to have known her in person.
Leipzig Jabhaus
We have been reporting how music venues and religious buildings – not least Salisbury Cathedral – have been doing their bit for the Covid-19 effort by opening their doors as vaccination centres. To this list we can now add the famous Leipzig Gewandhaus in Germany. Where the likes of Mendelssohn and Bruno Walter once thrilled audiences, today Messrs Pfizer and Astrazeneca offer much needed hope for the future.
Proms ahoy!
Finally, a reminder to mark the diary with the recently announced details of this year’s BBC Proms. The 2021 season will begin on Friday 30 July and end on Saturday 11 September and, fingers crossed, concertgoers may be even able to attend the Royal Albert Hall in person. Further details will follow in our July and August issues.