The chemistry between tradition and innovation powered Sir
Simon Rattle’s relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker, above all during
his time as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director (2002-2018).
As the successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio
Abbado, his mission was to take this pre-eminent musical institution into the
21st century.
“What Rattle has brought … is a new spirit of adventure,”
declared The Times in 2006, and later looked back on the “exhilarating, epoch-hopping
eclecticism of Simon Rattle’s era in Berlin”. Through all this Rattle preserved
the orchestra’s distinctive sonority, notable, in the words of the New York
Times, for its “sheer grandeur … and rich, red-blooded warmth”.
He first
conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1987, and the recordings in this 45CD
box span the years from 1994 to 2012. Very much reflecting Rattle’s vision for
the orchestra, the symphonic, choral and operatic works range from pillars of
Austro-German Classicism, Romanticism and Modernism through French, Russian and
Czech repertoire to showcases for contemporary contemporary composers from
around the world – and even a film soundtrack. As Rattle said at the end of his
tenure in Berlin: “Music is for everybody, and we’ve all believed this.”
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic – context
Sir Simon Rattle: The Berlin Years (45CDs) brings together
all the recordings that the British conductor Sir Simon Rattle (b.1955) made
with the Berliner Philharmoniker in the years from 1994 to 2012 for EMI
Classics (now Warner Classics).
Simon Rattle first conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in
1987 (Mahler’s Symphony No. 6) and later said: “I had the feeling that I would
find my voice that day.” (At the time he was Principal Conductor and Artistic
Adviser of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra – he was in charge of the
CBSO from 1980 to 1998. The first of his many recordings for EMI had been
released in 1978.)
In 2002, having conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker 58
times, Rattle became the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director. He
remained in the post until 2018.
In 2017, Rattle took up the position of Music Director of
the London Symphony Orchestra, ending his tenure in June 2023. In September
2023, he began his tenure as Chief Conductor of the Symphonieorchester des
Bayerischen Rundfunks in Munich.
The Berliner Philharmoniker, founded in 1882, is undoubtedly
among the world’s great orchestras. Indeed, it is often described as the
world’s greatest orchestra.
Simon Rattle’s immediate predecessor as Chief Conductor was
Claudio Abbado (tenure from 1990-2002), who succeeded Herbert von Karajan
(tenure 1957-1989) and Wilhelm Furtwängler (1922-1934 / 1952-1954).
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic – a
transformative era
The Berliner Philharmoniker is self-governing and Rattle was
elected as Chief Conductor by the orchestra’s players in 1999. The other main
contender was Daniel Barenboim. This is how one of the orchestra’s horn players
recalled the choice faced by the orchestra: “Do we turn the clock back, be a
more traditional orchestra with a living museum role, or do we embrace the
future?”
Rattle was a somewhat unorthodox choice: in 1999 he was
associated less with Austro-German symphonic music of the late 18th/19th
centuries than with diverse and eclectic repertoire from later eras. Over his
16 years with the Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle both asserted his authority
in the orchestra’s traditional repertoire and broadened its musical horizons to
run from early music to new commissions.
In 2018 The Guardian wrote of Rattle’s mission to “maintain
Berlin's wonderful sound, forged in the eras of Wilhelm Furtwängler and Herbert
von Karajan during the mid-20th century, but simultaneously throw open the
doors to the Philharmonie and drag what is still widely regarded as the
greatest symphony orchestra in the world into the 21st century.”
The writer
admired “the sheer quality and intensity of the orchestral playing … how [the]
wind players are at the same time … expressively independent and yet form a …
seamless, cohesive unit, and how the strings manage to combine a wealth of
detail with fathomless depth of tone.” In 2015 the New Yok Times had written of
“the sheer grandeur of the Berlin Philharmonic sound” and its “assertive
confidence and rich, red-blooded warmth”.
Citing the “exhilarating, epoch-hopping eclecticism” of
Rattle’s approach to repertoire in Berlin, the Times wrote that “What Rattle
has brought … is a new spirit of adventure … the Berliners sound rejuvenated.”
Rattle’s achievement in the Romantic Austro-German
repertoire was expressed in a 2018 Times review of a Berliner Philharmoniker
performance of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 9 (CD41): “What will chiefly be
remembered about his German years, however — and tremendously evident in this
turbulent and profound account of Bruckner’s complex score — is his genius for
digging beneath surfaces that say one thing and finding chasms of dark matter
saying something very different.
It’s possible to play this epic as the zenith
of 19th-century symphonic aspiration, but in Rattle’s hands it sounded
experimental and unresolved, as though Bruckner, even in his last moments, was
determined to say prophetic and challenging things to those who came after
him.”
At the end of his time as Chief Conductor, Rattle said: “I
think we moved this big, big ship forward … Music is for everybody, and we’ve
all believed this, and this was really one of my most important goals while I
was here … To spread it everywhere.”
Sir Simon Rattle: The Berlin Years – overview
The 45 CDs in the box provide a representative picture of
Rattle’s years with the Berlin Philharmonic. The repertoire ranges from the
18th century (Haydn – a composer long favoured by Rattle) to the 21st century
(even the score for the 2006 film Das Parfum). It embraces symphonic music
(including spectacular works from the late-Romantic/Modern eras), choral music
and opera, all from a diversity of national and cultural traditions. The
‘traditional’ Austro-German repertoire is given its due.
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