The charismatic Italian-British conductor Sir Antonio Pappano, absent from the season since 2018, returns to lead the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, a forty-year-old ensemble bringing together musicians from all over Europe. The all-20th-century program evokes the spirit of American jazz, from the ballets La création du monde by Milhaud and Fancy Free by Bernstein to Gershwin’s Variations on «I Got Rhythm». The highlight of the evening is Saint-Saëns’s Second Concerto, which Pappano presents entrusting it to the luminous piano playing of Bertrand Chamayou, the five-time winner of the French “Victoires de la Musique” award and a previous guest at the Lingotto in 2016.