Sir Antonio Pappano conductor
Denis Kozhukhin piano
London Symphony Orchestra
Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 3 Op. 37
Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 Op. 74 Pathétique
In his Third Piano Concerto, by turns tempestuous, tuneful and tender, Beethoven typically transformed any passing hints of pessimism into an ending of ebullient, unalloyed joy. Tchaikovsky, by contrast, concluded his symphonic swansong, premiered just nine days before his untimely death from cholera, with a headlong descent from the heady heights of euphoria into the dark depths of despair – and yet the Pathétique Symphony still lives on as one of the most poignantly personal last testaments in all of Western classical music.
One of the world’s finest ensembles, the London Symphony Orchestra makes its annual visit to the Brighton Festival under its Chief Conductor, Sir Antonio Pappano, cementing a musical partnership that just goes from strength to strength.
They’re joined by expatriate Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin, who won First Prize in the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Competition in Brussels in 2010 and has recently performed concerts for the Barenboim-Said Foundation in aid of Ukrainian refugees.
Supported by Prof David Gann CBE FREng
The Foyer Bar will be open from 6pm, with live music, and the visual art exhibition Act 0 presented by the Adelaide Salon will be open (for ticket holders only)
Act 0: Shirley Archibald - Hagess
Hagess draws upon myth, transformation and embodied memory, tracing the figure of the ‘hag’ as both feared and reclaimed presence. Moving between states—girl, mother, creature, force—the performance evokes cycles of becoming that resist fixed identity. Rooted in folklore and the natural world, it inhabits a space where instinct and intention blur into something both fragile and feral.
Shirley Archibald is a Brighton-based artist working across sculpture, installation and performance. Her practice interrogates histories of witchcraft and the construction of the outsider figure, reclaiming these narratives as sites of resistance. Engaging with place as a carrier of memory, her work responds to legacies of erasure, silence and transformation.
★★★★★ '….this stupendous Prom performance conducted by Antonio Pappano, the London Symphony Orchestra played with phenomenal virtuosity'Richard Morrison, The Times
About Sir Antonio Pappeno
One of today’s most sought-after conductors, Sir Antonio Pappano is renowned for his charismatic leadership and inspiring performances across both symphonic and operatic repertoires.
He is Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, and Conductor Laureate of the Royal Opera and Ballet Covent Garden and Music Director Emeritus of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome, having held the position of Music Director at both institutions from 2002-2024 and 2005-2023 respectively.
Nurtured as a pianist, repetiteur and assistant conductor at many of the most important opera houses of Europe and North America, including at the Lyric Opera of Chicago and several seasons at the Bayreuth Festival as musical assistant to Daniel Barenboim, Pappano was appointed Music Director of Oslo’s Den Norske Opera in 1990, and from 1992-2002 served as Music Director of the Théâtre Royal de la Monnaie in Brussels. From 1997-1999 he was Principal Guest Conductor of the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra.
The Steinway concert piano chosen and hired by the Brighton Festival is supplied and maintained by Steinway & Sons, London.
*There is a £3.50 per order charge for all phone and online bookings (not applicable to Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival members)
**Stage timings are subject to change
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