“You Have to Be Relentless”

To look at his schedule or to watch him huff, stomp and jab with his hands—without a baton, always—at the podium, Antonio Pappano would seem to be one of the hardest-working conductors in the classical music business. For much of the past two decades, he has led Italy’s finest symphony orchestra, the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, while also serving as music director for the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden. Unlike his predecessors at these positions, Pappano didn’t go to a tony conservatory; instead, his musical training started at age 10, accompanying his immigrant father, a singer and voice teacher, on the piano. Pappano’s style at the podium may be more pugilistic than balletic, but his ear, his diplomacy and most of all, the quality of sound he consistently delivers is why star singers and soloists continue to trust him. 

In the last two years, Pappano stepped away from these prominent posts at Covent Garden and in Rome and has taken the reins of the London Symphony Orchestra. He recently led his first tour with them to the United States, culminating in the LSO’s first performances at Carnegie Hall in 20 years. The works presented suggest his vision for the orchestra. Besides two symphonic chestnuts (Mahler’s Symphony No. 1, Rachmaninoff’s Piano Concerto No. 2) to show off the LSO’s posh, majestic sound, Pappano programmed an eclectic mix of American and English scores by William Walton, Leonard Bernstein and George Walker. He is a champion of music old and new, big and small, popular and obscure.

Speaking with him—and watching him rehearse and perform at Carnegie—it’s clear that for Pappano, classical music making is about figuring out what works best and then rolling up your sleeves to get it done. Born to working-class Italian parents in England, moving to America as a teenager, and then returning to the UK (to be knighted and eventually conduct the music at King Charles III’s coronation), he holds a unique place at a moment when support and funding for classical music in Europe is wavering. His status—earned, rather than inherited—means Pappano knows well the value of music, art and culture; and in this new post at the LSO, he appears willing to fight—and raise his voice—in support of it.