The London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) has announced changes to its line-up of conductors for next season, with Gianandrea Noseda (above) named as principal guest conductor, Michael Tilson Thomas as conductor laureate and André Previn as conductor emeritus.
André Previn, 86, has been associated with the LSO for over 50 years. He became the orchestra’s principal conductor in 1968, remaining in the post for over 11 years and making landmark EMI recordings including Rachmaninov’s Symphony No. 2 and Gershwin’s Rhapsody in Blue, while raising the orchestra’s profile on TV - not least a famous appearance with Morecambe and Wise in 1971.
As conductor laureate, Michael Tilson Thomas, 71, continues his longstanding association with the LSO that goes back to 1970 when he stepped in for Gennady Rozhdestvensky at the Royal Festival Hall. The American became the orchestra’s 13th principal conductor in 1987, pioneering the successful series of Discovery concert lectures and making highly acclaimed recordings, including Mahler’s Seventh Symphony. ‘Making music with the orchestra for over 40 years has been one of the great joys of my life,’ he says.
The Italian Gianandrea Noseda, 51, will work alongside existing principal guest conductor Daniel Harding. Noseda first worked with the LSO in 2008 and has since explored a wide range of repertoire with the orchestra, most notably Britten’s War Requiem (released in 2012 on disc), a concert performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto from 2013, and Sally Beamish’s Equal Voices, a World War One centenary commission that was premiered at the Barbican in 2014. He is a former pupil of Valery Gergiev, the LSO's most recent principal conductor.
Sir Simon Rattle, who takes up his appointment as the LSO's music director in 2017, says: ‘I am delighted that Gianandrea will become an even closer member of the LSO family. I have long admired his music-making, with its unusual marriage of lyricism and drama.’
