Rattle, Simon

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SIMON RATTLE

Born: Liverpool, England, 19 January 1955

Genre: Classical

Simon Rattle is the most highly sought-after conductor of his generation. He took the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO) from a provincial band with a history of problems and built it into one of the more respected and accomplished orchestras in Britain. His high standing in the orchestral world was confirmed in 1999, when he was appointed music director of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Rattle was born in Liverpool in 1955 and spent much of his childhood studying music and organizing his family in informal music performances. He appeared as a percussionist with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic at the age of eleven, put together his first professional orchestra at the age of fifteen, and later became conductor of the Merseyside Youth Orchestra. At sixteen he began studies at the Royal Academy of Music in London, and at nineteen he won the John Player International Conducting Competition. He became the assistant conductor of the Bournemouth Symphony and Sinfonietta and then landed the same jobs with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, the BBC Scottish Symphony, and the Rotterdam Philharmonic. During this time he guest-conducted the London Sinfonietta, Philharmonia and London Philharmonic.

Rattle's big break came in 1980, when he was appointed principal conductor and artistic advisor to the ailing City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He and the orchestra manager, Ed Smith, embarked on an ambitious program to turn the orchestra around. The charismatic Rattle worked closely with musicians, training the ensemble in music that ranged across the orchestral literature. Programs were carefully balanced between familiar classics and challenging twentieth-century fare, and audiences responded enthusiastically.

As the orchestra's abilities improved, critics took notice, the City of Birmingham responded with increased financial support, and EMI signed the orchestra for a series of highly regarded recordings. As its reputation spread, the orchestra also began touring—through Europe, to North and South America, and Asia. In 1991 the orchestra built a brilliant new concert home.

Rattle became a highly sought-after guest conductor and began working with many of the world's major orchestras. He was appointed principal guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic (1981–1994), and principal guest conductor of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. He worked regularly with the Boston Symphony
and Philadelphia Orchestra as well as several European ensembles, but his guest conducting was limited because of his commitment to the CBSO.

Throughout the 1990s Rattle was courted by major orchestras interested in signing him up as music director. But he stayed in Birmingham for eighteen years, a remarkable tenure given his expanding career. In Birmingham Rattle had an opportunity to build something, and his star status helped give the orchestra the resources he needed to record and mount ambitious repertoire such as his decade-by-decade survey of music of the twentieth century. He and the orchestra were also frequently on television, notably in a series called Leaving Home, which featured Rattle talking at length about the music of the twentieth century. By the time Rattle left Birmingham as music director in 1998, he had conducted the orchestra in 934 concerts and more than 10,000 hours of rehearsals. He also made more than sixty recordings, picking up numerous awards.

For a few years Rattle enjoyed grazing on a succession of well-regarded projects while speculation mounted about which orchestra might be able to snag him as its music director. Rumors had him heading to Philadelphia or Boston, but in 1999 Rattle accepted the job as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic beginning in 2002.

Rattle is the complete package as a music director. As a musician he has an insatiable curiosity that spans the earliest music (he is an expert conductor of music performed on period instruments) to the thorniest modern compositions. He holds modern masters such as Boulez and Messaien in the kind of high regard usually reserved for Beethoven and Brahms and Mozart.

As a conductor he brings a penetrating mind, a charismatic style, and a personal passion for music. He is comfortable with the colossal repertoire of Mahler and Bruckner but seems equally at home with a Haydn symphony. As an ambassador for his profession, he is one of the best arguments for a musical tradition that can keep on renewing itself. It is no surprise that when Rattle finally took up his new post leading the Berlin Philharmonic in the fall of 2002, he was greeted as a major celebrity in a city rich with culture. Even as he began his new post, there were signs that an orchestra with a long and distinguished tradition would be transformed by its new music director.

Spot Light: Towards the Millennium

The gods of classical music prefer that a piece of music be around for several decades (even centuries) before it is declared a classic. In some circles, music from the first two decades of the twentieth century is still considered shocking. Through the 1990s Simon Rattle embarked on a decade-by-decade survey of the serious music of the twentieth century—Towards the Millennium. Each year's program was Rattle's vote for the most significant music composed in a decade of the century. How do you represent the music of ten years in one program? Given the swirling eddies and simultaneous currents of musical styles that came and went during the century, it is an impossible task. Yet it is just this kind of ambitious personal history that can begin to stitch together a narrative of an era. The last of these concerts, performed in the beginning of 2000, included Hans Werner Henze's A Tempest, Gyorgy Ligeti's Violin Concerto, Simon Holt's Sunrise's Yellow Noise, and Michael Tippett's The Rose Lake. Haven't heard of some of them? Let a few decades go by.

SELECTIVE DISCOGRAPHY:

Mahler: Symphony 10, Berliner Philharmoniker (Angel, 2000); Rattle Directs 20th Century Orchestral Masterworks (Capitol, 1994); John Adams Harmonielehre; The Chairman Dances; Tromba lontana; Short Ride in a Fast Machine, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (EMI, 1994).