Questioning Everything – Strauss, Liszt and Kendall
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The Concert
Hannah Kendall O flower of fire (world premiere)
Franz Liszt Totentanz
Interval – 20 minutes
Richard Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra
Sir Antonio Pappano conductor
Alice Sara Ott piano
London Symphony Orchestra
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Available to watch on Marquee TV (subscription required)
Pop culture’s most famous fanfare sets the mood – this is music that tells you: wake up!
The Programme
A blast of trumpets, a pounding of timpani: the opening of Richard Strauss’ Also sprach Zarathustra heralds the rise of the sun. Stanley Kubrick used it to grab viewers’ attention in his film 2001: A Space Odyssey.
But for Strauss, this is the dawn of an age full of questions: what does it mean to be alive? Joining the debate, Liszt’s Totentanz is a ferocious vision of mortality, complete with ghoulish jangling bones. And there’s a new work by Hannah Kendall, a composer whose music, in Pappano’s own words, ‘has an amazing ability to really grip the listener’.
The Performers
In his first concert as Chief Conductor Designate of the LSO, Sir Antonio Pappano brings emotional depth to the music’s thrills and chills. Alice Sara Ott masters the breakneck glissandos of Liszt’s showpiece music for piano.
Hannah Kendall’s music has an amazing ability to really grip the listener, to draw the listener in. It’s percussive, it’s lyrical, it’s very atmospheric, with the use of really beautiful chords, and an amazing use of silence, which makes you really want to listen to her music.
– Sir Antonio Pappano
Commission for O flower of fire generously supported by The Boltini Trust
Header Image © Mark Allan
Dive Deeper
Sir Antonio Pappano, LSO Chief Conductor Designate, introduces this concert and Alice Sara Ott performs a short clip of Franz Liszt’s Totentanz.
Read: 'Creolised' sounds in O flower of fire
Hannah Kendall discusses unexpected instruments and the inspirations behind her new piece for the LSO.
Concerts with Pappano in 2023/24
BMW Classics 2025
Stream on YouTube
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Limited Tickets
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Kick-start your evening with a 60-minute Half Six Fix concert. Sir Antonio Pappano introduces and conducts Copland's Third Symphony, with screens in the hall to bring you closer to the action.
Prokofiev and Beethoven
Seong-Jin Cho: Artist Portrait
Thursday 18 September 2025 • 7pm
Beethoven’s defiant Symphony No 5 meets the sneering mockery of Shostakovich and Prokofiev in exhilarating mood. Sir Antonio Pappano conducts, as pianist Seong-Jin Cho begins his Artist Portrait series.
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Violinist Janine Jansen showcases Britten’s soulful concerto before the LSO launches into Shostakovich’s scathing criticism of Stalin, his Tenth Symphony.
Limited Tickets
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Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
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Music by Shostakovich, Britten and Beethoven on tour in Paris, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen.
On Tour in Luxembourg
Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen
Tuesday 23 September 2025 • 7.30pm
Music by Shostakovich and Britten on tour in Luxembourg, with Sir Antonio Pappano and Janine Jansen.
Season Opening: MacMillan and Sibelius 1
Available from 26 September
Sir Antonio Pappano opens the 2024/25 season with Nielsen, Sibelius and a world premiere from James MacMillan.
