On June 20, the British maestro conducts his last symphony concert as the Berlin Philharmonic’s music director. The collaboration between orchestra and conductor ends as it began: with Mahler’s Sixth Symphony.The end of an era: In the Berlin Philharmonie and in live transmissions via live stream and in movie theaters across Europe, Sir Simon gives the downbeat to his farewell at 7:30 p.m. CEST on Wednesday.
It ends as it began. In 1987, Rattle gave his debut with the Berliners with the same work, Mahler’s Sixth.
In 2002, he began his stint as artistic director and principal conductor of the renowned orchestra with Mahler as well; then it was the Symphony No. 5.
The combination of Mahler, Rattle and the Philharmonic marked other highlights during his tenure in Berlin, notably in 2010/11 and 2011/12 seasons, when he conducted the composer’s complete symphonies.
An open-air event titled “Goodbye, Sir Simon” on June 24 marks Rattle’s very last appearance as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic. The playbill at Berlin’s Waldbühne includes popular works by the composers Joseph Canteloube and Paul Lincke.
Rattle’s switch to the London Symphony Orchestra was announced in 2015, and he has stood at the helm of both orchestras since September 2017. After he is succeeded in Berlin by Kirill Petrenko, Rattle plans to remain a resident of the German capital and to lead orchestral and opera performances there.
Strong numbers in the Rattle era
In his 16-year tenure, Sir Simon Rattle led the Berlin Philharmonic in some 1,100 concerts. The 63-year-old’s achievements include a strong public relations campaign, multimedia dissemination of music notably with the “Digital Concert Hall” program, the establishment of the orchestra’s own CD label and various projects exposing non-concert goers to classical music. The Berlin Philharmonic’s sponsorship of the National Youth Orchestra of Germany is a further achievement.
Read more: #BerlinPhil: How the Berlin Philharmonic became a global brand
Rattle, who the German daily Die Welt described as having a “ravenous appetite for repertory,” opened wide sectors of music to his Berlin musicians, including works by British and Nordic composers, notably Sibelius.
This brought criticism from within the orchestra in the early years, some members feeling that this had come at the expense of maintaining the core German repertory by this tradition-steeped orchestra. A trained percussionist, Rattle has often been praised for the rhythmic power of his renditions and his transparent sound.
Petrenko takes the baton
As the world’s only classical music orchestra whose musicians elect their principal conductors, the Berlin Philharmonic chose Kirill Petrenko as Rattle’s successor in 2015. It was a difficult process, and an apparent change of direction.
Unlike Rattle, the 46-year-old Russian maestro gives no interviews. Credited by the Süddeutsche Zeitung with a “relentless dedication to music,” Petrenko is notoriously tuned to detail and a fanatic rehearser.
His tenure begins officially in the summer of 2019, but Petrenko will appear with the orchestra at the opening of the 2018/19 season in a program with Beethoven and Richard Strauss, perhaps signaling a return to the German core repertory. In a subsequent tour to Salzburg, Lucerne and to the London Proms, the playbill includes works by Paul Dukas, Sergei Prokofiev and Franz Schmidt.
Read more: Opinion: Back to basics with Petrenko
Difficult – and beautiful
“It is at once the world’s most beautiful and most difficult conducting job,” Sir Simon Rattle revealed to Die Welt in 2015. “Usually at the same time! And there’s no way whatsoever one can prepare for how hard it can really be.” Rattle continued, “This orchestra has made it very clear to me that I cannot begin rehearsals with them without having a concept for the sound I am seeking.”
In extensive interviews for a DW radio series in 2004, Sir Simon summed up his work with the Berliners thus: “The job of being the music director of the Berliner Philharmoniker is sometimes like being the most privileged animal tamer in the world. You go up to the door of the cage of these wild tigers, and you let them out, and you see what happens when they run rampant.”
Despite episodes of friction with the self-confident and self-managed Berlin musicians, Sir Simon Rattle had these typically enthusiastic words: “They don’t ask, ‘How?’ They ask, ‘Why?’ That’s why I love working with them.”
