Event
London Symphony Orchestra
Visiting Orchestras Series
London Symphony Orchestra
Sir Antonio Pappano, chief conductor
Thursday Performance
Janine Jansen, violin
Walker — Sinfonia No. 5
Bernstein — Serenade
Walton — Symphony No. 1
Friday Performance
Elgar — Enigma Variations
Mahler — Symphony No. 1
The London Symphony Orchestra, regarded by many as one of the world’s best, makes its Naples debut under the baton of Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano — and serves as the ultimate closer to the season’s Visiting Orchestras series.
Founded in 1904, the London Symphony Orchestra is the oldest in London. It is also believed to be the world’s most-recorded orchestra, with recordings ranging from Beethoven’s Egmont Overture and Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet to a pair of albums by composer and rock musician Frank Zappa, as well as numerous film scores, including Star Wars, Indiana Jones and more.
The Thursday night performance begins with Pulitzer Prize-winning composer George Walker’s Sinfonia No. 5 and concludes with Walton’s First Symphony. In between the Walker and the Walton, violinist Janine Jansen and her Shumsky-Rode Stradivarius violin from 1715 join the LSO for Bernstein’s Serenade. Known for her continuous work with the world’s most eminent orchestras and conductors, the Dutch violinist is sure to ignite Bernstein’s Serenade after Plato’s Symposium.
While Friday evening’s performances feature Elgar’s Enigma Variations and Mahler’s First Symphony, Mahler’s fingerprints can be found on both compositions. Almost immediately after the Enigma Variations’ successful London premiere in mid-1899, several composers, including Mahler, raced to conduct it. Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, a work the composer conducted more than any other of his symphonies, concludes the program. Often erroneously referred to as Titan — a nickname Mahler gave to the work and later dropped following a series of post-premiere revisions — Mahler instilled his Symphony No. 1 with a variety of bucolic sounds from nature including a cuckoo call depicting nature awakening in the springtime and a lively German folk dance. The work concludes with a truly epic Mahlerian finale, serving as a fitting conclusion to an extraordinary season of performances by some of the world’s finest orchestras.
Music and Museum
All Visiting Orchestras tickets include same-day admission to the The Baker Museum. Special museum hours on day of the performance: Noon-7:30pm. In addition, the doors to Hayes Hall will open 60 minutes prior to this performance. Arrive early to enjoy the exhibitions and light fare available at Heidi's Place.
The Visiting Orchestras series is generously sponsored by Judy and Verne Istock.
London Symphony Orchestra
London Symphony Orchestra
The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) was established in 1904 as one of the first orchestras shaped by its musicians. Since then, generations of remarkable talents have built the LSO’s reputation for uncompromising quality and inspirational repertoires.
Today, the orchestra is ranked among the world’s top orchestras. As resident orchestra at the Barbican Centre since it opened in 1982, we perform some 70 concerts there every year. The orchestra’s family of artists includes Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, Conductor Emeritus Sir Simon Rattle, Principal Guest Conductors Gianandrea Noseda and François-Xavier Roth, Conductor Laureate Michael Tilson Thomas and Associate Artists Barbara Hannigan and André J Thomas.
The LSO also performs more than 50 concerts a year to audiences throughout the U.K. and worldwide. The orchestra also delivers a far-reaching program of recordings, live streams and on-demand broadcasts that reach millions each year. The LSO has major artistic residencies in Paris, Dortmund, Tokyo and Aix-en-Provence, as well as a growing presence across Australasia and Latin America, and a transatlantic partnership with the Music Academy in Santa Barbara.
Sir Antonio Pappano
Sir Antonio Pappano
One of today’s most sought-after conductors, acclaimed for his charismatic leadership and inspirational performances in both symphonic and operatic repertoire, Sir Antonio Pappano is chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra and has been music director of the Royal Opera House Covent Garden since 2002. He is music director emeritus of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, having served as music director from 2005 to 2023. Pappano previously served as music director of the Den Norske Opera and Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels, as well as principal guest conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
Pappano is in demand as an opera conductor at the highest international level, including with the Metropolitan Opera New York, Teatro alla Scala and numerous others, and he has appeared as a guest conductor with many of the world’s most prestigious orchestras, including the Berliner Philharmoniker, Vienna Philharmonic, New York Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chicago Symphony Orchestra and The Philadelphia Orchestra and The Cleveland Orchestra.
Pappano’s awards and honors include Gramophone’s Artist of the Year in 2000, the 2003 Olivier Award for Outstanding Achievement in Opera, the 2004 Royal Philharmonic Society Music Award, and the Bruno Walter prize from the Académie du Disque Lyrique in Paris. In 2012, he was made a Cavaliere di Gran Croce of the Republic of Italy and a Knight of the British Empire for his services to music. In 2015, he was named the 100th recipient of the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal, the body’s highest honor. He has also developed a notable career as a speaker and presenter and has fronted several critically acclaimed BBC Television documentaries.
Janine Jansen
Janine Jansen
“Among the world’s star soloists, she’s as keen a listener, as adept and intimate a chamber partner, as it gets.” The New York Times
Violinist Janine Jansen works regularly with the world’s most eminent orchestras and conductors. Her longstanding orchestra relationships include the Berliner Philharmoniker, Orchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, London Symphony Orchestra, Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Chamber Orchestra of Europe, NHK Symphony, Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia and the New York Philharmonic, among others.
Her discography includes performances of Bartók’s Violin Concerto No. 1 with the London Symphony Orchestra and Brahms’ Violin Concerto with the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia conducted by Sir Antonio Pappano. She is guest artistic director at the International Chamber Music Festival Utrecht, a festival she founded back in 2003. Since 2019, she has been a professor of violin at the HÉMU Sion (Haute École de Musique Vaud Valais Fribourg).
Jansen has won numerous prizes, including the Herbert-von-Karajan Preis 2020, the Vermeer Prize 2018 awarded by the Dutch government, five Edison Klassiek Awards, der Preis der Deutschen Schallplattenkritik, the Concertgebouw Prize and others.
