Our verdict on Pappano’s first months at the London Symphony Orchestra

Sir Antonio Pappano began 2024 as music director of the Royal Opera and ended as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra. Around the middle of the year, there was a sort of retrospective; a stock-taking, if you like, as he made the transition to this third act of his career. Warner Classics released a box set of Pappano’s recordings with the Santa Cecilia Orchestra in Rome, where he held the top job from 2005 to 2023. And Pappano published a memoir, My Life in Music – a masterclass in diplomacy. No beans were spilled, and they were never likely to be. You don’t survive 22 years in an international opera house without learning discretion; not, that is, if you intend to remain sane.

Pappano seems eminently sane. It’s been a volatile two decades at the LSO, which hasn’t had a really stable relationship with a chief conductor since Sir Colin Davis stood down in 2006. After the psychodrama of the (now memory-holed) Gergiev years and the frustrated hopes of Simon Rattle’s tenure, it’s easy to see the appeal of a trooper like Sir Tony. A safe pair of hands? Your words, not mine. But Pappano presumably understands the deal – you’ll play in the Barbican and lump it – and no one imagines for a second that he’s going to start, say, endorsing Vladimir Putin, or succumbing to late-onset Brexit Derangement Syndrome.

Still, this is Pappano’s first UK symphony orchestra, so it’s reasonable to wonder what to expect. His book and discography offer encouraging clues. He began as an opera house répétiteur and learned on the job – the old-school kapellmeister career path of Erich Kleiber and Bruno Walter. There’s a boyish glee in his description of the moment when he was offered his Rome orchestra (‘A symphony orchestra! A dream come true’) and that same enthusiasm – a smiling, sunny tone and an exuberant forward sweep – carries over into his Roman discography.