Tonight:
9°c
Latest: Policeman pleads guilty to murdering his police constable fiancée hours before they were due to fly out to their wedding in St Lucia
More...
An awesome and ridiculous film that leaves you thrilled beyond the point of your natural endurance
2012
Theatre
The show has suddenly become quite wonderful, and the galvanising factor is the terrific stage debut of Melanie C
Blood Brothers
Music
The British pop music industry may be eating itself but if Muse are the pick of what it can offer the world in 2010 then British music is in rude health indeed
Muse
I was smitten by both Gilberts enormous luxuriant moustache and the intelligence and nuance of this highly entertaining play
I totally recommend Babbo to anyone who is looking for really good and traditional Italian food
Always been a fan but never seen them live. I was ecstatic to be part of this epic event. WOW!
London,
Barry Millington's rating
Reader rating
Description: A programme of Tchaikovsky's overture Francesca da Rimini, Saint-Saens' noble Second Piano Concert and Rachmaninov's final work, the colourful Symphonic Dances, conducted by Antonio Pappano and featuring the prize-winning Macedonian-born pianist Simon Trpceski.
Phone: 0845120 7500
Website: www.barbican.org.uk
Email: info@barbican.org.uk
Trains: Tube/BR: Moorgate/Barbican 
Opening hours: Mon-Sat 9am-8pm, Sun 11am-8pm
Extra info: Food, Parking, Pub
Antonio Pappano is one of the LSO's starriest guest conductors
The LSO, playing with the same distinction as ever, is poised at an interesting juncture. As the volatile Valery Gergiev prepares to take over from the patrician Colin Davis, the big question is not whether but how he will change the orchestra.
Meanwhile, one of the LSO's starriest guest conductors, Antonio Pappano, last night tackled Russian repertoire more naturally associated with Gergiev, demonstrating a marked contrast with the approach of the Mariinsky maestro.
He relished the operatic impulse of Tchaikovsky's symphonic poem Francesca da Rimini, highlighting its graphic, gestural elements and whipping up Dante's infernal whirlwind with a theatrical tension that spoke of the tormented passions of the illicit lovers as much as the meteorological phenomenon with which they were punished.
In the second-movement waltz of Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, Pappano found the dark, seductive quality as well as the macabre bite. His sound-world is rich and voluptuous, where Gergiev's is savage and earthy. Not that Pappano lacks dynamism, but he seeks beauty even in the eye of the storm. For all his Italianate lyricism and sensuality, his climaxes pack a powerful punch, albeit one delivered in a velvet glove.
Between the Russian items came Saint-Saens's Second Piano Concerto. In the first movement the soloist, Simon Trpceski, dazzled with his handling of the often predictable virtuosity, transfiguring the banal into magical Chopinesque filigree. The second movement is an irreverent subversion of the Mendelssohnian scherzo, and Trpceski and Pappano alike played up the French operetta interludes for all they were worth.
Returning to the elfin style for the movement's throw-away conclusion, however, they drew delighted gasps and a spontaneous round of applause from a capacity audience. With talents like these in the wings, the LSO clearly has more golden times ahead.
Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.
