The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) opened its 2024-25 season with a series of four concerts designed to showcase the virtuosity of its players and the musical passions of its new Chief Conductor, the renowned Sir Antonio Pappano.
Elgar & Holst, the second concert in the season, featured two monumental works from the British music canon, Edward Elgar’s wonderful Violin Concerto in B minor and Gustav Holst’s ethereal masterwork The Planets.
Legend has it that a musical soul is enshrined in Elgar’s Violin Concerto and it’s easy to believe when you hear this magical work played live on stage. Indeed, it seems impossible that Elgar was almost entirely self-taught as a musician and a conductor, and was a jobbing muso for many years. This included a stint as conductor of the band at the Worcester County Pauper and Lunatic Asylum (now Powick Hospital). But he is very much a part of the heritage of the LSO, with the Orchestra giving the premiere performance of this work in 1910. And Elgar, who was by then Sir Edward, was appointed as Principal Conductor of the LSO in 1911.
Pappano is a vigorous presence on stage. Conducting without a baton, he urged the orchestra to create a deeply layered soundscape that fully explored the unresolved angst and turmoil at the heart of the Concerto.
Guest soloist, the acclaimed Norwegian violinist Vilde Frang, gave a superb account from the anguished opening bars of the first movement to the dramatic and moving climax of the third. Playing a precious 1743 ‘Rode’ Guarneri violin, loaned by a European benefactor, Frang was a delight to watch, absolutely in the moment on every bar and showing deep emotional intelligence as she worked with the Orchestra. Only in the closing bars of the demanding Allegro first movement did she allow herself the smallest of smiles for a job well done. Her performance was rewarded with fulsome applause from the very appreciative full house.
After interval, Pappano and the LSO launched us into outer space with The Planets, a musical journey through the cosmos. Premiering in London in 1918, the score was musically radical and highly inventive and portrayed space as it was then known and understood.
Each of the seven pieces in the suite has its own planetary personality, from the “brutal and elemental” opening piece Mars – the Bringer of War, to the wordless ‘chorus-of-ahs’ in the spectacular closing piece Neptune – the Mystic. The voices were the lovely sopranos and altos of London’s superb Tenebrae Choir, singing offstage and therefore unseen (which is usual, but did seem a shame). The fifth piece, Saturn – the Bringer of Old Age, opened gently with wonderful work from the harps. It’s such a treat to see two harps working together so seamlessly. And throughout the concert, the musicians were guided with clarity and verve by orchestra leader Benjamin Gilmore.
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This was a wonderful Season Opener and clearly demonstrated the depth of respect and understanding between the LSO and its new chief conductor. It’s going to be a very good season!
London Symphony Orchestra with conductor Sir Antonio Pappano and soloist Vilde Frang with the Tenebrae Choir.
London Symphony Orchestra Season Opening Concerts performs on 11, 12, 15 and 19 September at the Barbican. Elgar & Holst was performed in Concert 2, 12 September 2024.
