The London Symphony Orchestra today announced its 2024-25 season, the orchestra’s first season under the direction of principal conductor Antonio Pappano. A new work by James MacMillan opens the season on September 11, and the following nine months of concerts will be dominated by British music, with works by Bax, Elgar, Holst, Walton, Elizabeth Maconchy and Tippett.
More of the UK’s greatest composers will appear at Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle’s two 70th birthday concerts in January 2025. Rattle will be joined by LSO Associate Artist Barbara Hannigan and the Aria from her opera Lessons in Love and Violence for the world premiere of George Benjamin’s Interludes. American jazz guitarist John Scofield will perform Mark-Anthony Turnage’s new guitar concerto.
In other LSO highlights, the orchestra will celebrate the music and legacy of Pierre Boulez in his centennial in concerts led by Principal Guest Conductor Francois-Xavier Roth; Guest conductors include Klaus Mäkelä, Gustavo Dudamel, Susanna Malki and LSO Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas, who will conduct two performances of Mahler’s Symphony No. 2.
As part of the wider Barbican classical music programme, Dudamel will be at the venue in January to perform two concerts with the Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, the orchestra’s first visit to the capital since 2016. Rafael Payare, another star product of the El Sistema music education program, brings the Orchester symphony de Montréal to the concert hall for a program that includes Beethoven, Berlioz and the British premiere of Iranian-Canadian composer Iman Habibi’s Jeder Baum spricht. John Wilson and London’s Sinfonia team up with cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason to perform Shostakovich’s rarely heard Cello Concerto No. 2, and pianists Piotr Anderszewski, Stephen Hough and cellist Yo-Yo Ma perform solo or duo He is among the musicians who will perform. .
Rolf Hind’s new opera The Little Caged Sky, a poetic reflection on the life and works of the Sufi poet Rumi, will open the Barbican’s season on 8 September. Also included is a semi-staged performance of David Henry Hwang’s Broadway hit M. Butterfly, with music by Huang Ruo and libretto by Hwang, and the opportunity to hear Gorges Ocloo’s Ghanaian “AfrOpera”, The Golden Stool will be. The story of a heroic woman who confronted colonial injustice in Ghana at the turn of the 20th century.
The other semi-staged opera at the Barbican will be under Pappano’s direction, with the LSO performing Puccini’s La Rondine and Strauss’s Salome. Lithuanian soprano Asmik Grigorian will perform the song Salome, which is sure to be one of the most interesting concerts of the season.
Pappano spoke of his excitement about beginning his duties as principal conductor of the LSO. “I have been conducting this orchestra since 1996 and I always had a secret dream that maybe one day I would be where I am today… When you step on the gas pedal with this orchestra, there is nothing like it. His energy, all-encompassing appetite and ambition to bring music to life is something to behold!”
He lamented the difficulties the classical music industry has faced in recent months and the Arts Council’s failure to support this. He said orchestras increasingly find themselves unable to focus on what their priority should be: doing good work and performing it. He argued that every child should be exposed to music, but orchestras are trying to make up for the lack of music education in schools. “Exposing people to music at a young age is a known enhancer of brain development. [But] it is not the responsibility of the LSO or any orchestra to educate children. “It is the duty of the government to create not only the talents of the future but also the audiences of the future.”
In the meantime, talent and audiences will continue to be developed by the LSO’s Discovery program and young composers programme. The latter will benefit from a £2.5 million grant from The Helen Hamlyn Trust, and the former will be extended and enhanced by the redevelopment of the Grade I listed LSO church of St Luke’s, which was converted into a performance, rehearsal and showcase 25 years ago. Recording area for orchestra.
Managing director Kathryn McDowell said 70 per cent of the £8 million cost had been committed from the private sector. Some work will be carried out to the main performance area to improve acoustics, but the real changes will be downstairs; Here the building will be updated and reconfigured with high-tech audio and video recording facilities and new areas for training the orchestra. , early years and community work. But nothing too serious: “We love the building, but times are changing. “Our needs today are different than they were 25 years ago.”
The large kitchen will be redesigned, as will part of the existing cafe area, disabled access will be improved, the meters of cables running throughout the building will all be recessed into the walls, and a more user-friendly front door will be promised. McDowell said that by creating new spaces and making existing ones more flexible, they estimate 50% more people will be able to use the building and access the orchestra’s Discovery works.
Architects Levitt Bernstein, who carried out the award-winning transformation of the derelict and roofless church in 2003, will also undertake the development, with the building planned to be out of service for eight months from January 2025.