BMW Classics 2025

The Concert

BMW Classics, the London Symphony Orchestra’s free outdoor summer concert in Trafalgar Square, last took place on Sunday 15 June 2025 – conducted for the first time by LSO Chief Conductor Sir Antonio Pappano. Watch the live-stream recording on our YouTube channel, available until September.

The Music

The programme celebrates Sir Antonio Pappano’s Italian heritage with the prerequisite passion and soaring melodies from some of the great Italian composers for opera and orchestra.

The concert opens with the spirited overture to Rossini’s final Italian opera Semiramide, before Puccini’s dramatic early orchestral work Capriccio sinfonico, filled with familiar themes that the composer would go on to revisit for some of his biggest operas.

At the centre of the concert, the LSO gives the world premiere of Isabella Gellis’ new work Opera for Orchestra, which has been specially commissioned for this occasion. Her piece, written for a mixed-ability orchestra, brings together LSO and Guildhall School musicians with 55 young musicians from east London as part of the LSO Discovery programmes.

To finish, the Orchestra performs the rousing Grand March from Verdi’s opera Aida, and the final flourish of Victor de Sabata’s luscious symphonic hymn to youth, Juventus.

Read the digital Concert Guide to find out more about what’s being performed.

This annual event highlights the continued partnership between BMW Group and the London Symphony Orchestra, which for over a decade has brought superlative live orchestral music to audiences in one of the world’s most iconic public spaces and to tens of thousands more watching around the globe via streaming.