Summarize this content to 2000 words in 6 paragraphs in Arabic Unlock the Editor’s Digest for freeRoula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.The changing of the guard at the London Symphony Orchestra is almost over. There has been an interregnum since Simon Rattle bade goodbye after last year’s BBC Proms, but now the orchestra is poised to welcome its new chief conductor, Antonio Pappano, who takes over next month.Never one to be caught slacking, Pappano has been increasing his engagements with the LSO for some time. He made his debut at the BBC Proms with this orchestra as far back as 2001 and was on hand for the LSO’s single appearance this summer, performing Britten’s War Requiem in Prom 37.In his long years at the Royal Opera, Pappano had limited opportunity to show his love for English music, but he is going to make up for it with the LSO (Vaughan Williams, Elgar, Walton and Maconchy will be run through his first season). In the War Requiem, he teased out details that dramatised the settings of Wilfred Owen’s poems, but for the most part this was a well-judged performance that refused to exaggerate for effect.What was striking was how much of this work was intensely quiet. With the Tiffin Boys’ Choir incanting confidently from high in the gallery and the combined forces of the BBC Symphony and London Symphony Choruses, sounding vast but sometimes unfocused, there was no lack of grand, spatial effects, yet a feeling of awed hush prevailed.That was specially the case in the Owen settings with their separate chamber ensemble, also conducted by Pappano (it is rare now to see two conductors in this work, as happened at the premiere in 1962 in the newly rebuilt Coventry Cathedral, with the composer himself taking a baton). The outstanding soloist this time was tenor Allan Clayton, projecting strongly and making the poems admirably clear, though we lost the words when he sang with excessive softness in Owen’s final “Strange Meeting”. Will Liverman partnered him as a firm, true baritone and Natalya Romaniw sang with authority in front of the organ, where the bust of Proms founder Henry Wood sits imposingly. This, though, was Pappano’s evening. His ability to hold the intensity so keenly through Britten’s deeply felt, pacifist work was the key factor. ★★★★☆Just over 12 hours later, the Royal Albert Hall was filling up again. The novelty of Sunday morning’s Prom 38 with the BBC Symphony Orchestra was the first UK performance of Spanish composer Francisco Coll’s Cello Concerto, a BBC co-commission which premiered in France in 2022. Described as “full of colour and characters”, it feels like a substantial slow movement, mournful with mysterious overtones, flanked by two jagged, irregular dances.At a first hearing it was hard to grasp how the parts fit together, though Coll’s writing for the orchestra has acquired a bracing, clean-cut, modern edge. That anxious, restless tone means it is not entirely an audience-friendly piece. What is not in doubt is that Argentine cellist Sol Gabetta is a fine ambassador for the concerto, which was written for her, playing with impressive fullness of tone.The rest of the programme — a short anniversary tribute to Puccini with his Preludio sinfonico and two colourful narrative works, Paul Dukas’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice and the 1945 Suite from Stravinsky’s The Firebird — brought confident playing under conductor Tianyi Lu. This concert was almost sold out at 11am on a Sunday morning, more than 5,000 people. That is double the audience capacity of most concert halls. How do the BBC Proms do it? ★★★☆☆To September 14, bbc.co.uk/proms
