Antonio Pappano / Petrassi / Čajkovskij

Why it is worth going

Pappano was music director of the Santa Cecilia orchestra from 2005 and has been chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2024.¹ This is the first of two programmes he conducts this season as the Accademia's Conductor Emeritus.² The first half is Goffredo Petrassi's Psalm IX of 1934 to 1936, for chorus and a large orchestra in which percussion and pianos carry much of the weight; the chorus is prepared by Andrea Secchi.² After the interval comes Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 6, the Pathétique.³ The concerts are in the Sala Santa Cecilia, Renzo Piano's 2,800-seat hall with a stage at its centre, seating in vineyard terraces and a ceiling of 26 American cherry shells.⁴