Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks and Sir Simon Rattle

“Des Canyons aux étoiles …” Sir Simon Rattle conducts Messiaen

To conclude the festival, Musikfest Berlin and the Karajan Academy under Simon Rattle fly through the red gorges of the canyons in Utah and up to the stars: Olivier Messiaen’s “Des Canyons aux étoiles …” is a birthday gift to the USA and also a spiritual hymn to the closely woven links between the divine and nature, between birdsong and the shades of colour in the rainbow.

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

For his second concert as the new Chief Conductor of the BRSO, Simon Rattle has also chosen a piece that is very dear to him: Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. He once said in an interview that Haydn and Mahler were the two composers for whom he needed no translation; they had come to live with him. Similar to Haydn’s Creation, Mahler’s music is about the whole world – but a world that, only 100 years later, is already showing traces of considerable degradation. Mahler, especially in his Sixth Symphony and its devastating final movement, heralds the totality of human experience in the modern age. It is a work that Rattle considers an “icon,” and with his performance he joins the great Mahler tradition of the BRSO and its former chief conductors. Simon Rattle was already enthusiastic about the music of Betsy Jolas as a student, saying it was “like a late summer day, like a premium wine, full of character and color.” It was only much later that he got to know the French-American composer personally. The new piece by the 97-year-old, who for him remains youthfully wise, will “blend wonderfully with Mahler’s wild, timeless Sixth.”

Sir Simon Rattle

For his second concert as the new Chief Conductor of the BRSO, Simon Rattle has also chosen a piece that is very dear to him: Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. He once said in an interview that Haydn and Mahler were the two composers for whom he needed no translation; they had come to live with him. Similar to Haydn’s Creation, Mahler’s music is about the whole world – but a world that, only 100 years later, is already showing traces of considerable degradation. Mahler, especially in his Sixth Symphony and its devastating final movement, heralds the totality of human experience in the modern age. It is a work that Rattle considers an “icon,” and with his performance he joins the great Mahler tradition of the BRSO and its former chief conductors. Simon Rattle was already enthusiastic about the music of Betsy Jolas as a student, saying it was “like a late summer day, like a premium wine, full of character and color.” It was only much later that he got to know the French-American composer personally. The new piece by the 97-year-old, who for him remains youthfully wise, will “blend wonderfully with Mahler’s wild, timeless Sixth.”

Sir Simon Rattle

For his second concert as the new Chief Conductor of the BRSO, Simon Rattle has also chosen a piece that is very dear to him: Mahler’s Sixth Symphony. He once said in an interview that Haydn and Mahler were the two composers for whom he needed no translation; they had come to live with him. Similar to Haydn’s Creation, Mahler’s music is about the whole world – but a world that, only 100 years later, is already showing traces of considerable degradation. Mahler, especially in his Sixth Symphony and its devastating final movement, heralds the totality of human experience in the modern age. It is a work that Rattle considers an “icon,” and with his performance he joins the great Mahler tradition of the BRSO and its former chief conductors. Simon Rattle was already enthusiastic about the music of Betsy Jolas as a student, saying it was “like a late summer day, like a premium wine, full of character and color.” It was only much later that he got to know the French-American composer personally. The new piece by the 97-year-old, who for him remains youthfully wise, will “blend wonderfully with Mahler’s wild, timeless Sixth.”

Sir Simon Rattle

Sir Simon Rattle

A cleverly woven programme in which demise comes first: Sir Simon Rattle begins by letting Tristan and Isolde “lament, drown, and sink” in their “swelling, welling, resounding, flowing, urgent, vibrant” yearning for love. However, this sensation that has been transposed into music by Wagner along with its obsessive tragedy finally dissolves into the peaceful, contemplative atmosphere of birdsong, the babbling of a brook, footsteps, and a cleansing thunderstorm: Beethoven’s Pastoral transforms the walk of a city dweller in nature into an onomatopoeic experience and is thus decidedly reminiscent of Rattle’s inaugural concert as Chief Conductor that featured Haydn’s Creation. Between breathtaking harmonies and an intimate finale lies a substantial new orchestral work by Thomas Adès, composed for the 75th anniversary of the BRSO. Greatness in every respect.

Sir Simon Rattle

A cleverly woven programme in which demise comes first: Sir Simon Rattle begins by letting Tristan and Isolde “lament, drown, and sink” in their “swelling, welling, resounding, flowing, urgent, vibrant” yearning for love. However, this sensation that has been transposed into music by Wagner along with its obsessive tragedy finally dissolves into the peaceful, contemplative atmosphere of birdsong, the babbling of a brook, footsteps, and a cleansing thunderstorm: Beethoven’s Pastoral transforms the walk of a city dweller in nature into an onomatopoeic experience and is thus decidedly reminiscent of Rattle’s inaugural concert as Chief Conductor that featured Haydn’s Creation. Between breathtaking harmonies and an intimate finale lies a substantial new orchestral work by Thomas Adès, composed for the 75th anniversary of the BRSO. Greatness in every respect.

Sir Simon Rattle

A cleverly woven programme in which demise comes first: Sir Simon Rattle begins by letting Tristan and Isolde “lament, drown, and sink” in their “swelling, welling, resounding, flowing, urgent, vibrant” yearning for love. However, this sensation that has been transposed into music by Wagner along with its obsessive tragedy finally dissolves into the peaceful, contemplative atmosphere of birdsong, the babbling of a brook, footsteps, and a cleansing thunderstorm: Beethoven’s Pastoral transforms the walk of a city dweller in nature into an onomatopoeic experience and is thus decidedly reminiscent of Rattle’s inaugural concert as Chief Conductor that featured Haydn’s Creation. Between breathtaking harmonies and an intimate finale lies a substantial new orchestral work by Thomas Adès, composed for the 75th anniversary of the BRSO. Greatness in every respect.