Intermezzo

Simon Rattle to leave Berlin Philharmonic

But not quite yet.

Sir Simon announced to the orchestra earlier today that he won't seek reappointment when his current contract expires in 2018.

The timing leaves the Berlin Philharmonic plenty of time to find a replacement (and Sir Simon to find a new job, assuming he wants one).

*UPDATE* - Berlin Philharmonic Press Release:

"In 2018 I will have been with the orchestra for 16 years. Before this I was chief conductor in Birmingham for 18 years. In 2018 I will be nearly 64 years old. As a Liverpool boy, it is impossible not to think of the Beatles’ question, “Will you still need me...when I’m 64?” and I am sure that then it will be time for somebody else to take on the magnificent challenge that is the Berliner Philharmoniker."

"This was not an easy decision. I love this orchestra and therefore wanted to tell them my decision as early as possible. I deeply hope that this will give them enough time to start new plans. I look forward with great pleasure to our next five years together and hopefully many years afterwards. I am thankful for the time that we have spent together so far."

 

Carmen without bull

Carmen - Salzburg Festival, 25 August 2012

Who is Carmen? A seething volcano of unfettered passions? An independent woman with the courage to forge her own destiny? A projection of male nympho fantasies? Or a whey-faced Berlin housewife with the voice of an angel and two left feet?

Simon Rattle slams British music

At the  launch of the Berlin Philharmonic's 2013 Baden Baden Easter Festival programme,  Sir Simon Rattle was asked by a journalist whether the Festival might ever focus on British music.

"We British have every reason to be modest about our music," was the conductor's response, "Maybe in homeopathic doses".

The Badische Zeitung diplomatically write off the comment of the "maestro aus Liverpool" as "britischer Humor".  Otherwise known as Big Scouse Gob.

Hands off my Wiener Simon, hints Welser-Most

Straight-talking Franz Welser-Möst has been talking straight again.

Asked by Wien.ORF.at who he'd like to see conducting the Wiener Philharmoniker's New Year concert, frank Franz tells them instead who shouldn't.

Simon Rattle is "fantastische" but, one infers, not quite Austrian enough. As Franz puts it, Sir Simon  - whose numerous crimes against fashion have yet to incorporate lederhosen - doesn't know how to connect with this sort of music, and said as much to Welser-Möst. 

Franz concludes "Not everyone can do everything, that's how it is." 

Simon Rattle's late niters

The Berlin Philharmonic are taking a leaf out of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment's book next season.

In the spirit of the OAE and their after-hours Night Shift, the Berlin Philharmonic are trying out late evening concerts in 2011/12. Simon Rattle will conduct five hour-long sessions beginning at 22.30. These will follow regular subscription concerts. Admission will be free for visitors to the earlier concert, and 10 euros otherwise. With regular prices at the Philharmonie topping out at nearly ten times that amount, it's a real bargain.

yea verily the Berlin Philharmonic have walkethed among us

Berlin Philharmonic / Simon Rattle - Barbican and Southbank, 20 - 23 February 2011

If you've been reading the papers over the past few days, you might be forgiven for thinking you'd missed the Second Coming. 

The Berlin Philharmonic's four back-to-back nights in London have been greeted by near-universal gushing, including an emotional Guardian editorial invoking Karajan and Furtwängler. Has there been anything quite that overheated since, well, since the last time we had Berliners over? - Daniel Barenboim and his "handsome mahogany-toned Staatskapelle Berlin" to be precise.

And did they earn it?

 

Good Gott - Salzburg Easter Festival part 5

Götterdämmerung - Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg, 5 April 2010

If only Stephane Braunschweig's Götterdämmerung was half as interesting as the zombie death bunnies I spotted in this Salzburg baker's window. 

The lacquered minimalism of his boutique hotel-style sets was certainly easy on the eye, but hardly fascinating enough to compensate for a largely static production, bereft of dramatic tension or any overarching concept. Wagner's contextual challenges were dodged with limp fire and water projections and a Tarnhelm that brought to mind that immortal line from Raising Arizona: "son you got a panty on your head". It's hard to escape the conclusion that he simply lost interest in the project somewhere down the line.

Macabre in black leather - Salzburg Easter Festival part 4

Berliner Philharmoniker / Rattle - Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg, 4 April 2010

"You! Rude people! One boo and Barbara and I will break your legs!" Not the sort of comment you expect Simon Rattle to confront the audience with in the middle of his own concert.

St Matthew Passion - Salzburg Easter Festival part 3

Berliner Philharmoniker / Rattle - Grosses Festspielhaus Salzburg, 3 April 2010

Soloists - Camilla Tilling, Magdalena Kožená, Mark Padmore, Topi Lehtipuu, Christian Gerhaher, Thomas Quasthoff, Axel Scheidig, Soren von Billerbeck, Jorg Schneider; Rundfunkchor Berlin, Salzburger Festspiele Kinderchor

Bach's St Matthew Passion is big enough to stand up to almost any kind of treatment - or mistreatment. Opera, theatre, ballet, historically-informed, conductorless - you name it. Even so, placing the direction in the hands of Peter Sellars, best known for his interventionist opera productions, might sound on paper a step too far. But it turned out his direction (or 'ritualization' as the programme has it) was understated and intelligent, an aid to understanding not only the text, but also the musical structure of the work.

music for the end of the world - Salzburg Easter Festival part 1

As Simon Rattle explained to the audience at this morning's open rehearsal of Bach's St Matthew Passion, when he planned the programme for this year's Salzburg Easter Festival two or three years ago, he hadn't anticipated the dramatic events which would come to pass. (First the threat of the Berlin Philharmonic's withdrawal, then the financial scandal). But, with uncanny premonition, music for the end it is. Not just Götterdämmerung - which, incidentally, Rattle (with, what, ten years in Germany?) still can't pronounce correctly. But also last night's Verdi Requiem (of which more later), Ligeti's Mysteries of the Macabre (with its forewarnings of the apocalypse), Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, and tonight's Passion.

I'm at the second of the Festival's two four-night runs. Princess Caroline, Bianca Jagger, and all the other folks who come to be seen were at the first. They've all left now, leaving an odd mixture of devoted music lovers and the sort of people who arrive from Turin by helicopter. The smell of money lingers in the Grosses Festspielhaus air, even if the paps have packed up and gone home.

Easter Festival tickets are of course legendarily expensive, though not ruinously so. And when you hear the quality of what's on offer, they can seem like a bargain. For €460 (plus €50 patron's fee), I've got an opera, three concerts, a 90 minute rehearsal, talks including an interview with Stefan Herheim and another one with Thomas Quasthoff and a super-exclusive CD set of last year's Siegfried. Not bad I think, though the Berlin Philharmonic's idea to lower some of the prices in future years is probably now a necessity for the Festival's survival, not just a nice way to broaden the audience.

The first steps toward the future have already been taken. One of the most sensible decisions has been the appointment of Peter Alward (a former EMI Classics boss) as Festival chief. He stepped on stage this morning just before the rehearsal to introduce himself, addressing the international audience with the reassuring air of a top-price gynaecologist, in a winning mix of English and excellent German.

If only Sir Simon could manage the same. His only German to the audience was an apology for not speaking German. And he wonders why the Berlin press give him a hard time. At least he managed a little for the musicians during the rehearsal. His key points ("stop, stop, we've lost our piano and our minimum vibrato!") emerged in clear Liverpudlian, a contrast to the perfumed Elle Macpherson euro-speak he ladled on the audience.

The rehearsal itself was fascinating and not just for show. Rattle ran through the trickiest corners, with the director Peter Sellars on hand as well to poke and prod the participants around. Where he did repeat the odd section with additional instructions, the subtle differences were clear to the ear. It has clearly not been easy for the Berlin Phil to pick up the OAE-type period sound Rattle is after, but they are managing brilliantly. I'm really looking forward to tonight's concert proper, which like every night of the Festival begins at the civilised hour of 6.30.

*****   photos on next page   *****

Salzburg Easter Festival is GO

The 2010 Salzburg Easter Festival blasted off last night with Stéphane Braunschweig's Götterdämmerung, as premiered at last year's Aix Festival.

It may have been an unqualified hit in France, but the exacting Austrian critics (and the discriminating Osterfestspiele audience) have responded less kindly.

There were a few boos for Katarina Dalayman's Brünnhilde and even more for the director, whose "static" staging was widely criticised. Stefan Vinke (a late substitute for the inevitably ailing Ben Heppner) was praised for the stamina of his Siegfried, though some found him underpowered. Simon Rattle's conducting, variously described as fast, analytical and translucent, received mixed reviews. Only Anne Sofie von Otter's Waltraute and Mikhail Petrenko's Hagen completely escaped a critical mauling. The audience were more generous than the critics, with booers outnumbered by enthusiastic applauders.

After the recently-uncovered financial scandal threatened to torpedo it, the Festival seems to have picked itself up and dusted itself off in record time. A small but important indicator - the formerly prehistoric Festival website has finally been dragged into the 21st century. A new financing and management structure has been set up under the direction of Peter Alward (generally described in the Austrian press as 'British' Peter Alward, as if his nationality is some sort of talismanic barrier to financial impropriety).

85% of tickets have already been sold for this year's Festival, and only 5% handed out as freebies (far fewer than in the scam-hit years, Alward has hinted). Although the withdrawal of a couple of key sponsors means that this year's Festival will lose at least 880,000 euros, Alward is positive about the future, as are the Berlin Philharmonic. Their media head (and cellist) Olaf Maninger wants to expand the youth side of the programme and to reduce the ticket prices (currently €190 to €510 for opera and €90 to €240 for concerts) by up to 30 percent to "make the festival more accessible and get away from the elite Festspielhaus environment."

Here are some pictures from the Götterdämmerung dress rehearsal. 

Stefan Vinke, left, as Siegfried and Emma Vetter as Gutrune:

********   more photos on next page   ********

Berlin Philharmonic want your money and they want it now

Thought about what you're doing in 15 months time yet? Tickets for the Berlin Philharmonic's February 2011 London visit went on sale today.

The Berliner's four-night residency takes in both the Barbican and Southbank, and members of either can buy tickets now. Non-members will have to wait until 14 December.

Although the concerts are unlikely to sell out immediately, most tickets are at the spendy end of the scale (up to £75), and already the limited 'cheap' (£15) seats are thin on the ground - so early booking is advisable for these.

More details and ticket sales link here.

Simon Rattle and Magdalena Kozena get married

They've been together for so long now, many people probably assumed they were anyway.

But, as Magdalena Kožená has revealed for the first time to the Berliner Zeitung, she only tied the knot formally with Simon Rattle last year, a fact they've deliberately kept hidden up till now *. (After four years of press intrusion into their private lives, it's hard to blame them).

And there may be further congratulations in order. Speculation that she may be pregnant with the couple's third child is given weight by recently-announced cancellations in the new year.

 

* Though a bit of digging reveals a profile in Die Welt last November drops in casually "by the way, they got married three weeks ago" - a revelation that doesn't seem to have been followed up anywhere else.

Sir Simon had a little lamb

In the weekend edition of the Financial Times, Sir Simon Rattle enjoys (or perhaps endures) 'Lunch with the FT' in the person of Andrew Clark.

No restaurant, no Barenboim-style personal chef - the versatile Sir Simon whips the whole thing up himself at the Provençal villa he makes his temporary home during the Aix Festival.

Sir Simon follows "a platter of cherry tomatoes and salami slices" with a shoulder of lamb “because they didn’t have a leg”.  The lamb we are told was marinated overnight and cooked on a low heat for four and a half hours in an "old French oven", then served up with "an aubergine ragout spiced with garlic, ginger, onions and Thai fish sauce".

Red wine (Château Yon-Figeac 2003) of course.

And he cunningly stashes the summer berry tart brought by the reporter so he can scoff the lot later. "A bowl of sliced melon" is the disappointing substitute.

Finally, he proffers coffee with the alarming rejoinder that “Every drug helps”.

Oh, and there's even some stuff about music in there too.

L’Enfant et le Berlin Phil

Berliner Philharmoniker/Rattle - Philharmonie Berlin, 26 September 2008

The Berlin Philharmonic rarely sound like the world's greatest orchestra in the boomy Royal Albert Hall or the desiccated Barbican, but on their home patch, in the acoustically-engineered architecture of the Philharmonie, it's a different matter. Its strange angles seem to pinpoint every note. The precision tapestries of Ravel's Ma Mère l’oye and L’Enfant et les sortilèges< came alive.

Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic were performing the same double bill 

for three nights in a row (beneath a mic-draped ceiling, suggesting a recording is in the offing). It made for a short evening - 30 minutes one end, 45 the other - but like one of those incredibly dense, incredibly rich chocolate cakes, a little went a long way.  

Ma Mère l’oye balanced complexity with weightlessness. Only the surprise volume of the sudden fortissimo a few bars from the end made me realise how quietly the rest had been played, and how subtly Rattle had delineated the crisp changes of texture. Like a series of dressage manoeuvres, it's partly a showcase for solo skills, and all were faultlessly handled.  

I recall Simon Rattle, as he left England to take up the Berlin job, criticising modern British artists for being 'biographical'. Well, no composer could be less biographical than Ravel, so perhaps it was predictable that Rattle seemed in his element. He didn't search dig or embellish, simply presented it in crystal clear focus. A masterpiece of charm, taste and workmanship.

L’Enfant et les sortilèges is a difficult one. It doesn't get many fully-staged outings on account of its odd length and the physical demands of its fantasy storyline. In some ways it's more like a cartoon script than a theatrical text. But the same demands would make a totally straight concert performance confusing and inadequate. The choice here, a concert performance with indicative costume and movement, seemed a reasonable compromise, and the singers had enormous fun with it.

Magdalena Kožená made a wonderfully brattish, exasperating Child, even if the Pudelkopf did her no favours. The other singers threw themselves into their multiple roles with great gusto, tiptoeing round Simon Rattle's podium for a bit of physical interaction where required. The miaow duet of Sophie Koch and François Le Roux was the go-for-broke highlight, but the flowing coloratura of Annick Massis as Princess and Nightingale, and Nathalie Stutzmann's carefully variegated Mother, Teacup and Dragonfly enriched the mix too.

Rattle kept the orchestra unassertive, but there was no loss of intensity or commitment, and it was clear they were thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The subject-matter and its glib treatment may suggest both pieces are 'children's music' (and I did love Andre Previn's classic LSO recording all those years ago) but there's enough wit, invention and plain old craftsmanship there to draw in the most demanding adult too. I can't say I was spiritually uplifted, but I was at least cheered up.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Magdalena Kozena turns into Simon Rattle

Yes, it really is her. And I don't think it's a wig either. Just mad tonging skillz and Elnett. Magdalena chose tonight's performance of L’Enfant et les sortilèges by Sir Simon and his Berliner Philharmoniker to unveil this 'interesting' tribute 'do.

 

Sir Simon, meanwhile, found another dame to channel:

Berliner Philharmoniker - beautiful isn't always best

Proms 64 and 65: Berliner Philharmoniker / Simon Rattle - Royal Albert Hall, 2 and 3 September 2008

Wagner Tristan und Isolde - Prelude and Liebestod, Messiaen Turangalîla Symphony

Brahms Symphony No.3, Shostakovich Symphony No.10

If you've ever seen photos of Simon Rattle in action, you might assume he just stands there with his gob gated open all night, like an angler fish on the ocean bed. In reality, he talks non-stop, or at least mouths. I wish I could lip read. I'm pretty sure I caught a couple of "help me"s but the rest is a mystery.

I was able to study the Rattle platform manner at close hand on Tuesday night from my surprisingly pricy (£23) seat in the choir stalls, tucked behind the Berlin Philharmonic's gleaming tubular bells and pleasingly close to the Berlin motor itself, the tigerish growl of the basses.

Of course a lot of water can be lost through an open mouth. That's why marathon runners keep theirs shut, and overheated doggies don't.

No wonder Sir Simon needed a mini-break halfway through the hour-plus Turangalîla Symphony to chug back some water behind the piano, coaxing the obliging violas into a bit of quite unnecessary 'retuning' to cover.

It was a wonderfully lucid account of this lengthy and problematical, inherently episodic work. If talent borrows and genius steals, then Messiaen could be a musical Einstein. Rattle drew out the direct quotations from Wagner's Tristan more clearly than I've ever heard before - and of course it did no harm to hear the wellspring itself, exquisitely presented, at the start of the evening.

Messiaen's anointed, Pierre-Laurent Aimard at the piano and Tristan Murail at the ondes Martenot, brought a special authority. Where the work could have tipped over into Gershwin-pastiche vulgarity, Rattle wisely settled on festive exuberance.  

There was a more honed predictability about the second concert. Despite the near-perfection of the orchestra's playing - or perhaps because of it - Rattle seemed content to lay back and bathe in the immaculately polished sound.  While there's nothing wrong with loveliness for its own sake, I find this orchestra at their best when they're nearer the edges of their comfort zone, as they were with the previous night's Messiaen.

 

  

 

Why Youth Orchestras matter - the maestros speak

Today's Daily Telegraph asks the maestros why we need youth orchestras:

Antonio Pappano - "The potential for a kinetic explosive type of energy is endless. People want that."

Sir Simon Rattle - "A few years ago it did seem that some notice of the need for music education was taken in Britain and it seems to be better now than it was. It can save people's lives in so many different ways."

Gianandrea Noseda - "With professional orchestras, concerts become like normal life. It's not the case with the kids. Working with them is re-energising."

and with the telling last word, Sir Colin Davis - "people are telling us that classical music is old hat and the world has moved on, and yet the youth orchestras are all there. They've never had such a high level of attainment as they have in the last few years, and yet they're told it's all over, which leads one to ask, is that really true? I don't think so at all. The passion for music is inextinguishable."

 

Simon Rattle shakes some Schumann sugar - Das Paradies und die Peri at the RFH

Schumann's Das Paradies und die Peri  - Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Rattle - Royal Festival Hall, 7 December 2007

Speaking about this rarely heard Schumann oratorio earlier in the week, Simon Rattle warned that "to our very puritanical, middle-European ears, people think this is simply too beautiful, the dissonances are too extraordinary. People have a problem with ecstatic music".

And Schumann biographer Robert Haven Schauffler wrote in 1945 that it was “too consistently sweet. After an evening of it you feel as if you had taken a bath in liquid honey.”

Having steeled my puritan ears for the promised ecstasy, I was surprised at the graceful restraint of the scoring. More like being sprinkled with sugar than dunked in syrup.

And although it avoids the solemnity we associate with the oratorio form, it's not all froth either. Episodically ravishing, beautiful even, it is however fleshed out with too many orchestrate-by-numbers passages to deserve labelling as a masterpiece. The near-impenetrable libretto, a word thicket of typically Victorian density, doesn't help its case.

The simple story of the Peri (a Persian fairy) who must devise a gift in order to enter the gates of heaven was narrated by Mark Padmore with interventions from the Peri (Sally Matthews) and other characters, portrayed by Bernarda Fink, Kate Royal, Timothy Robinson and David Wilson Johnson.

The female soloists were thoughtfully co-ordinated in taffeta gowns (left) so it was a pity that only Sally Matthews and Mark Padmore sang from the front of the stage, the other soloists being tucked back with the choir.

I'd never thought of Schumann as a choral writer until now, but the Choir of the Enlightenment had some of the best music, and they made the most of it in a series of luminously coloured passages. The ethereal Nile Spirits chorus, beautifully executed, was exquisite in its detail, and the soaring Blessed Spirits chorus was a suitably ecstatic finale.

The lustrous, knife-sharp soprano of Sally Matthews brought an other-worldly radiance to the part of the Peri. It contrasted with Mark Padmore's grave demeanour, which sometimes seemed at odds with the music. He didn't seem to be on his best form tonight, losing some of the lower notes, and a bit shouty overall.

I've heard Bernarda Fink sing better too, but her second half was better than her rather wobbly first. David Wilson Johnson's rich baritone was a highlight, but unfortunately he didn't have a great deal to do.

Neither did Kate Royal, here on absolutely stunning form, but with only one aria to lend her shimmering silvery soprano to.

Timothy Robinson made a varied impression, never quite as focused and convincing as in his recent hugely impressive Turn of the Screw stint at ENO.

Simon Rattle drove things along with a characteristic enthusiasm, drawing a vigorous and committed performance from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. Their raw-textured sound went some to countering any charges of excessive prettiness in the music, but ultimately the writing gripped only sporadically. When it did - there is some strange and wonderful harmonic exposition tucked away in there - it convinced that at least part of the work is worth further exploration.

It wasn't quite enough to persuade that Das Paradies und die Peri is a neglected masterpiece - and it certainly needs a top drawer cast like tonight's to give it any chance at all - but Simon Rattle deserves credit for organising this airing.