Sir Simon Rattle and the question of managing a difficult inheritance

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra makes a guest appearance in Vienna for the first time with its new boss. Sir Simon Rattle talks about the “other Germany” he discovered.

“It was a completely different Germany,” says Simon Rattle, when asked about his first recordings as chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra. This weekend, the new community of musicians will perform their first joint guest performance at the Vienna Musikverein. Rattle already had experience in the “other Germany”: he was chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic for 16 years. Now he gets to know completely different parts of the south. “You know,” you think Germany when you grow up in Britain? It is a united country. But when you come from Berlin to Munich, you realize how wrong you are.

The polyglot maestro with the fuzzy mane was initially young in his native England. A trained pianist and percussionist from Liverpool, he became principal conductor at Bournemouth when he won a conducting competition aged 19 and, in 1977, was the youngest maestro to conduct an opera at the prestigious Clyndebourne Festival. When he became artistic director of the Birmingham Orchestra in 1980, followed by several years as an assistant in his native Liverpool and the BBC's Scottish Symphony Orchestra, the world was soon taken aback. The first CD recordings made there revealed a secret to international music lovers: Birmingham had an orchestra!

Before Rattle took over management, no one knew this. The lively conductor, who has not lost any of his youthful, mischievous charm even today, proved to be a real charmer: thanks to his energetic work, there was a noticeable increase in the quality of the orchestra; And audiences loved him, thanks to his charming personality, which knew how to make difficult-to-digest food palatable. Rattle inspired Mozart and Stravinsky.

No position in Vienna

Soon popular bands started vying for him. The Vienna Philharmonic made highly acclaimed recordings with the newcomer, but no vacancy; So the competition took action. In 1999, Rattle succeeded Claudio Abbado as president of the Berlin Philharmonic. Also marks the opening of a traditional orchestra with several programs. After a stint as conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, Rattle is now back on the ground in Germany. In rankings among professionals, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra is often second only to the Berlin Philharmonic.

According to Rattle, his new partners are also “an incredibly sensitive group of people”, although the differences in mentality between Berlin and Munich are also evident musically. This is primarily related to the history of the respective orchestras: “Let's think about the personalities behind them,” Rattle philosophizes the artistic past of the two orchestras and calls out: “Could there be a greater difference than between Herbert von Karajan and “Raphael Kubelik?” The rhetorical question of the Berlin Philharmonic and Represents the musical style of two influential masters of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.

Munich musicians and Kubelik played an important role in the life of the young Simon Rattle: “A performance of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Liverpool changed my life – played by the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra under Raphael Kubelik.” They were then. On a guest tour. “I have never experienced such a harmonious partnership between an orchestra and a conductor. Then Kubelik tried to rehearse as often as possible. I would never have dreamed that one day I would be able to conduct this orchestra myself.

The gene code of the orchestra

A band where you can still hear the long collaboration with Kubelik, as Rattle says: “When I was allowed to stand in front of this band for the first time – it was more than a decade – there were still three musicians. Active in Liverpool at the time. To this day it is somehow Kubelik's band. The orchestra in Cleveland is somehow George Schell's orchestra. There's a genetic code,” says Rattle, and his happiness about his Munich commitment is mixed with a bit of sadness: “We hoped we'd have many more wonderful years with the Maurice Jansens,” said a colleague who felt deeply connected.

Aware of the give-and-take dynamics that exist between any orchestra and its conductor, Rattle is also aware of the fact that in Munich, “I'm so ordinary, they didn't hire him.” He describes himself as “a bit eccentric” – something musicians love about him as much as audiences: you're never safe from surprises.