When Simon Rattle gave his inaugural concert as the new chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker in 2002, he put Gustav Mahler’s Fifth Symphony on the program. And when he said goodbye as boss there in 2018, it was the sixth. The large-format works by the Viennese composer were always at the center of the life of the British conductor. Only last summer Rattle played the “Rückert-Lieder” with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, the solo part of which was performed by his wife, mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kožená. There was still a rumor that was cast in contracts in January of this year: that Rattle will be the new chief conductor of the BR-Symphoniker from 2023 on. At the benefit concert for the SZ advent calendar this Friday, he will lead his future orchestra through Mahler’s last completed Symphony, the Ninth Symphony.
How the liaison between Rattle and the BR Symphony Orchestra develops that evening, of course, only a few listeners will be able to check live. According to the new regulations of the Bavarian state government, only 450 of the 1,800 seats in the Isarphilharmonie can be occupied. As in the previous year, all other listeners have to make do with the stream. The fact that no more people can experience the concert directly in the concert hall is annoying in several ways.
On the one hand, because the ticket proceeds from the concert on Friday will benefit the project “Music for all children”, which gives children from socially disadvantaged families access to music and instrument lessons and thus indirectly attracts future concert-goers. On the other hand, from a purely musical perspective, because you can only understand how Rattle deals with the acoustics in the new Isarphilharmonie on site. Already last Monday he should have conducted Johann Sebastian Bach’s St. Matthew Passion there, here it stayed with the stream from the Herkulessaal, created the previous week.
The question of the concert hall is probably one of the main reasons why Bayerischer Rundfunk has relied on Rattle to succeed Mariss Jansons, since appropriate places for music are just as important to him as to his predecessor. When Rattle first became conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra at the age of 25 in 1980 and then ten years later chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, he not only turned the ensemble into a world-renowned orchestra. The English city built a new concert hall, the Symphony Hall, largely at his instigation.
The concert hall is a matter for the boss
Even when he took over the London Symphony Orchestra in 2017 after leaving Berlin, his voice was one of the most energetic for a new concert hall in London. The fact that this will not be built for the time being due to the pandemic emptiness in the public coffers can be counted among the reasons why Rattle would prefer to move to Munich in 2023. But in Bavaria too, financing large new buildings is likely to become difficult in the coming years.
This makes the personal commitment of the chief conductor all the more important to ensure that the BR-Symphoniker get their planned new concert hall in the Werksviertel behind the Ostbahnhof. After all, Rattle is regarded as a good communicator who can impress politicians and sponsors with his charm, but also as a tough negotiator who, for example, first pushed through salary increases for the musicians before taking office with the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Just as Rattle was still considered to be an unusual line-up for the chief position of the most renowned of all German orchestras at the time. The fact that he originally started out as a drummer gave him a reputation that was refreshing, but also frightening to some. The fact that Beethoven, Brahms and Bruckner initially took a back seat when choosing a repertoire did not necessarily meet with approval from traditionalists.
Instead, Rattle promoted peripheral areas that up until then – and in some places until today – were not actually considered a matter for the boss. As one of the first traditionally trained conductors, he dealt intensively with historical instruments and the corresponding playing techniques and brought impulses from historically inspired performance practice to work with symphony orchestras.
However, not only did the 18th century repeatedly find a strong advocate in him, but also the music of the later 20th and 21st centuries. The fact that he himself led the BR Symphony Orchestra at a world premiere for the Musica Viva concert series in March of this year continues this line.
Much of what Rattle initiated has prevailed
Nevertheless, Rattle always disdained the term “new music” because his openness always extended to non-classical forms of music. Among other things, with the “Swing Symphony” he sought to cross the border to jazz by setting up a dance project for 170 pupils and young people together with the trumpeter Wynton Marsalis. It immediately followed the legendary “Rhythm Is It!” at which Rattle made 239 young people from 25 nations dance together to Igor Stravinsky’s “Sacre du printemps” in 2004.
Here, too, Rattle did pioneering work long before “education” became a regular part of orchestral programs. It fits in with the fact that the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra would like to expand its educational work via the new concert hall in the Werksviertel. How much of what Rattle initiated has prevailed. For many younger conductors, it is taken for granted to deal with historical performance practice as well as with contemporary music. But Rattle remains, so to speak, the original, from whose experience the BR Symphony Orchestra will benefit in the years to come.
Concert stream
Many SZ readers will regret that they were not able to get hold of a ticket for the benefit concert in favor of the SZ Advent Calendar with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) under its future chief conductor Sir Simon Rattle. After the audience size had to be reduced due to the Corona regulations, the sale of tickets was reopened. The remaining 450 tickets were sold within hours. All tickets already purchased have been automatically canceled and the purchase price will be refunded. Music lovers can still watch the concert via livestream at sz.de/benefizkonzert follow. It is also available at www.br-klassik.de/concert or on the website of the symphony orchestra.