Holst: The Planets / Bax: Tintagel

A New Regime Burns the Whole Solar System First

In September 2024, Pappano officially took up the baton as Chief Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra.

After twenty-two years in an opera house, a man finally has an orchestra of his own. His first move? The Planets. The message is unmistakable: where I’m taking you is bigger than any opera stage — big enough to hold the entire solar system.

Released on LSO Live in March 2026, the disc captures two 2024 Barbican live concerts: the Planets from September 12, Tintagel from December 15. High-resolution DSD recording, sixty-nine minutes total.

Mars: Scared into Your Seat First

When that grinding 5/4 ostinato of “Mars, the Bringer of War” kicks in, I sank back into my chair.

Pappano’s Mars is in no hurry. He lets the timpani pile up blow by blow, like an army marching in from the horizon — you can see the dust, but not yet the men. The most terrifying thing is always what hasn’t happened yet.

This is the LSO’s fourth Planets on record: Holst himself conducted one, then Previn, then Colin Davis. With three mountains in the way, Pappano deliberately takes a slower, darker road.

Venus and Mercury: The Opera Man Does Lyrical Differently

Twenty-two years at the Royal Opera House gives a conductor a different touch with things light and beautiful. The strings in “Venus” and “Mercury” lie like velvet; the flute lines spin so fine they threaten to break but never do — that’s an ear trained by nightly Puccini sopranos.

In the great hymn at the heart of “Jupiter,” Pappano doesn’t push or milk it — he simply lets the brass blaze up on its own. That’s when you understand: some conductors push the music toward you; Pappano stands behind the music and lets it walk to you by itself.

Neptune: The Vanishing Chorus

The wordless women’s chorus closing “Neptune” is the suite’s most magical stroke: voices singing offstage, growing softer and softer, until the final note doesn’t end but “disappears” — the score instructs them to keep singing until nothing can be heard.

Here it’s sung by Tenebrae. On the recording you can hear the voices being eaten by the darkness one bite at a time, like an outgoing tide. Afterward there are seconds when you don’t dare breathe, for fear of waking the silence.

Second Half: From Space Back to the Sea

Many listeners won’t know Bax’s Tintagel. It depicts the cliff-top castle in Cornwall of Arthurian legend, waves beating below for thousands of years.

Fresh back from Neptune in the first half, you dive straight into Atlantic surf in the second — a brilliant piece of programming. Both are water: one imagined (outer space), one real (earthly). With a single concert, Pappano shows you how vast the sea inside British composers really is.

Taiwan Knows Him

Pappano came to Taipei on November 20, 2018, with Santa Cecilia and pianist Trifonov. Plenty of people still remember that night’s Tchaikovsky Fourth.

At the end of September he takes the LSO to Japan (Kyoto, Tokyo, Osaka, September 26–30). A Taiwan return — who knows when. But at least the Barbican nights on this disc are only one record away.