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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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
Strauss' Salome
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Friday 11 July 2025 • 7pm
Sir Antonio Pappano conducts a concert performance of Strauss’ scandalous opera Salome, with the brilliant soprano Asmik Grigorian in the title role.
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Strauss' Salome
Sir Antonio Pappano
Sunday 13 July 2025 • 7pm
Sir Antonio Pappano conducts a concert performance of Strauss’ scandalous opera Salome, with the brilliant soprano Asmik Grigorian in the title role.
Limited Tickets
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Stream on BBC iPlayer
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BBC Proms: Puccini and Strauss
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Tuesday 19 August 2025 • 7.30pm
Sir Antonio Pappano and London Symphony Orchestra perform Puccini's Suor Angelica and Strauss' Die Frau ohne Schatten for the BBC Proms.
