On the same wavelength
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic
Sir Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic have entered a ten-year commitment with one another and after only two seasons they are already on the same wavelength. The charismatic maestro, not yet quite fifty, not only knows how to lead and guide his musicians but also how to enthral them. Anyone who heard them during Holy Week and at Easter in Salzburg playing Mozart as well as French Impressionist music and – under Pierre Boulez – works by Bartók, perceived a Berlin Philharmonic different from usual. This is evident in the way this first class orchestra has clearly become much younger (Karajan’s successor and Rattle’s predecessor Claudio Abbado already paved the way decisively towards achieving this) as well as in the openness and curiosity with which the Berliners venture into new terrain. For instance Mozart: the orchestra had never played Così fan tutte or Idomeneo before.
Sir Simon Rattle conducts two concerts by the
Berlin Philharmonic
Sir Simon electrified his musicians with insights gained from studying the so-called historical performance practice, transposed them to a “modern” ensemble, thereby producing his own kind of dialogue in sound. Flexibility and rhetorical accentuation are the hallmarks of this sound, which is at the same time characterised by emotional power, direct energy, intense feeling and sensitivity.
Simon Rattle breaks down barriers regardless of whether he is conducting Mahler, Schubert, Ligeti, Bruckner, Bach, Haydn, Stravinsky or John Adams. He does so in the way he compiles programmes and he also does so in his strong commitment to bringing music to children and young people. Rattle is also prepared to learn a lot himself (in particular more works from the German romantic period) and he is especially keen never to stop being amazed, almost like a child, about the “miracle of music” as he describes it. Approached with this attitude, classical music assumes a freshness that is infectious.
The “new” Berlin Philharmonic presented a fascinating visiting card with their concerts at the Salzburg Festival 2003 when they performed works ranging from Haydn to Magnus Lindberg. More was promised and in the coming summer two magnificent programmes are planned: on 30 August Debussy’s La Mer (Rattle does indeed interpret this as “symphonic sketches” and not as an Impressionist water-colour) and Olivier Messiaen’s last great composition Éclairs sur l’Au-Delà; on 31 August Schoenberg’s Variations, op. 31 and Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. The calibre of the orchestra and its programmes justifies the fact that the official programme booklet of the Salzburg Festival does not list the Berliners as a guest orchestra but in an individual section and on an equal footing with the Vienna Philharmonic, as the Berliner Philharmoniker.
Karl Harb
BERLIN PHILHARMONIC
1st Concert
30 August, 8 p.m.
Grosses Festspielhaus
Conductor Sir Simon Rattle
Claude Debussy La Mer
Olivier Messiaen Éclairs sur l’Au-delà
2nd Concert
31 August, 8 p.m.
Grosses Festspielhaus
Conductor Sir Simon Rattle
Soprano Christiane Oelze • Contralto Birgit
Remmert • Tenor Jonas Kaufmann •
Bass John Relyea
Berlin Radio Chorus • Chorus master Simon Halsey
Arnold Schoenberg
Variations for Orchestra op. 31
Ludwig van Beethoven
Symphony No. 9 in D minor, op. 125
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