BRSO with Sir Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Rattle & BRSO academy

“A group like this academy is the future of music. There is no question for me to want to be part of it”, Simon Rattle says. When he became the new Chief Conductor, he also assumed patronage of the BRSO’s renowned training center. He had already pointed out that academy students were getting better and better during his time in Berlin: “There is nothing they can’t do.” And so, for the first joint project with the BRSO Academy, he chose a particularly demanding work right away: Schubert’s Winterreise by Hans Zender. The work’s subtitle, “a composed interpretation”, suggests that it goes beyond a mere orchestral arrangement. Zender illuminates Schubert’s depths with stylistic elements of modernism – which poses considerable technical and interpretive challenges for the young musicians. The vocal part is performed by Allan Clayton, one of today’s leading tenors, who most recently excelled in the title role of Brett Dean’s Hamlet at the Bayerische Staatsoper.

Sir Simon Rattle & BRSO Academy

Since becoming the BRSO’s Chief Conductor, Sir Simon Rattle has also been a mentor of the Orchestra Academy, as the promotion of young talent is particularly close to his heart. He calls it a “no brainer” – such promotion is self-evident. He performed his first project with the BRSO Academy last season, and will continue his work with the scholarship recipients in the new season with this special concert. This concert is exclusively geared towards young people: Sir Simon has carefully selected works for this ensemble and for Tsotne Zedginidze, the incredible young pianist from Georgia that Sir Simon had introduced to Munich audiences last season.

Sir Simon Rattle · BRSO hip

“HIP” is not only the abbreviation for ’Historically Informed Performance,’ but above all denotes Sir Simon Rattle’s initiative to expand the BRSO repertoire with baroque music – played on period instruments. The Chief Conductor commences with three of Bach’s most beautiful cantatas. Herr, gehe nicht ins Gericht is full of poignant friction and sigh-laden progressions. Every note of Liebster Gott, wenn werd ich sterben contains a longing for death, but also the assurance of an eternal life. Was Gott tut, das ist wohlgetan is probably most akin to chamber music: with its sparse instrumentation and the omission of a final chorale, it occupies a unique position among Bach’s cantatas.

Sir Simon Rattle

“The Mount Everest of music”: that’s what American stage director Peter Sellar’s once called Bach’s St Matthew Passion. Now Simon Rattle will scale this summit of western music with his future Munich ensembles, the BRSO and the Bavarian Radio Chorus. The choice team of vocal soloists likewise raises expectations. A key role is conferred upon the Evangelist, who not only relates the story of the Passion, but participates in and responds to it inwardly as a witness. With British tenor Mark Padmore this part will be taken by one of the most charismatic Evangelists of our time. For the BRSO it marks a happy reunion with a longstanding artistic friend – and a former artist-in-residence.

Sir Simon Rattle

On 15 January 2020 the BRSO played a Mahler symphony for the last time before the onset of the pandemic: the “Resurrection” Symphony, in memory of Mariss Jansons. No one could have guessed that Mahler and Bruckner, two pillars of the repertoire, would soon vanish from concert programmes for almost two years. So it is a special sign of hope that the orchestra is finally bringing Mahler symphonies to life again. After the fourth symphony in October under the dircetion of Klaus Mäkelä, the future principal conductor Simon Rattle now conducts the ninth symphony with its nimbus between bold anticipation of modernism and late romantic swan song. For the BRSO, this is at the same time a departure into a new chapter of its Mahler performances, because with Simon Rattle, no less a fervent Mahler aficionado is at the helm of the orchestra as his predecessors Jansons, Maazel and Kubelík once were.

Sir Simon Rattle

On 15 January 2020 the BRSO played a Mahler symphony for the last time before the onset of the pandemic: the “Resurrection” Symphony, in memory of Mariss Jansons. No one could have guessed that Mahler and Bruckner, two pillars of the repertoire, would soon vanish from concert programmes for almost two years. So it is a special sign of hope that the orchestra is finally bringing Mahler symphonies to life again. After the fourth symphony in October under the dircetion of Klaus Mäkelä, the future principal conductor Simon Rattle now conducts the ninth symphony with its nimbus between bold anticipation of modernism and late romantic swan song. For the BRSO, this is at the same time a departure into a new chapter of its Mahler performances, because with Simon Rattle, no less a fervent Mahler aficionado is at the helm of the orchestra as his predecessors Jansons, Maazel and Kubelík once were.

Sir Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Rattle