Sir Antonio Pappano: Bartók, Say and Beethoven

Sir Antonio Pappano conducts the LSO on tour in Essen, joined by violinist Patricia Kopatchinskaja.

The fairy-tale heroine Scheherazade must keep her audience entertained on pain of death in the One Thousand and One Nights. In Fazıl Say’s concerto, the violin plays the part of the endlessly fascinating tale-teller.

At the first performance of Beethoven’s Symphony No 7, the crowd demanded an immediate encore of the astonishingly beautiful second movement. 21st-century listeners may be familiar with its stirring melody from the climactic moment of the film The King’s Speech. Beethoven himself wrote that this ‘Grand Symphony in A’ was ‘one of my very best’. To hear it live is a thrilling experience.