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It’s always a delight to see the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) in full flight with their colourful Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano at the Orchestra’s London home, Barbican Hall. He programmed two American symphonic masterpieces for the concert to launch their 2025-26 Season. Leonard Bernstein’s lachrymose Kaddish Third Symphony was paired with the optimism and ambition of Aaron Copland’s Symphony No 3.
Pappano was born in England to Italian parents who moved to America when he was a teenager. He has worked with many of the leading American orchestras and opera companies, so the American canon is deep in his musical DNA.
London Symphony Orchestra and Dame Felicity Palmer
The Season Opening Concert was a rare opportunity to hear one of Bernstein’s symphonies played live on stage. The mournful and deeply spiritual Kaddish with its narrator, soprano soloist, and choirs, is a huge undertaking. The Kaddish is a traditional Jewish prayer and the 81-year-old Dame Felicity Palmer gave the complex spoken words and spiritual yearning a worthy emotional resonance.
The stage was full to overflowing with the London Symphony Chorus crowded behind the players and the Tiffin Boys Choir to the side of the stage. It was hard not to feel Bernstein’s religious and personal angst as Dame Felicity cried out ‘Believe! Believe!’ Soprano Katharina Konradi sang with beautiful clarity, her voice making a piercing contrast to the orchestral clamour surrounding her. Whilst a few more moments of quiet reflection would have been welcome, Pappano is an invigorating conductor and his energy is inspiring.
After interval, the mood lifted with Copland’s fulsome Symphony No 3, played with considerable vigour and volume. There is something almost Brutalist about this work, especially played here at the Barbican, such an icon of Brutalist architecture.
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While some might favour a rather more restrained reading to bring out more nuance, this was certainly a big and bold performance. Pappano’s conducting was impressive as always, urging the Orchestra ever onwards and finding all the moments of emotion and exultation in the score. The grand finale builds from an unadorned iteration of his Fanfare for the Common Man and speaks to rebirth and a new lease of life, ending with a celebratory climax that talks to hope, possibility, and a bright future.
This was a dramatic Opening Concert that set high expectations for the coming LSO season.
LSO Season Opener with conductor Sir Antonio Pappano; narrator Dame Felicity Palmer; soloist Katharina Konradi; the London Symphony Chorus; and the Tiffin Boys Choir. One performance only, Sunday 14 September at Barbican Hall.
