“A simmering performance that lives up to the high expectations”, wrote the New York Times of the Bach St John Passion presented by the great American director Peter Sellars and star conductor Simon Rattle in the Berlin Philharmonie. This St John Passion shows Simon Rattle, Peter Sellars, the Berlin Philharmonic and “a real dream team of singers” (Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung) building on the brilliant success of the St Matthew Passion and being as wildly applauded as before.
Salzburg Festival 2013: Simon Rattle conducts Mahler 1
“When I first conducted the Infantil Orchestra three years ago in Caracas, I could not believe that children as young as nine and never older than 14 could not only play all the notes, but also could make such wonderful music. It is exhilarating and life-enhancing. This is, quite simply, the future of music. Those of you lucky enough to hear the concerts will see why.” Simon Rattle —– PROGRAM: Gershwin: Cuban Overture; Ginastera: Danzas de Estancia; Gustav Mahler: Symphony No. 1
Salzburg Festival 2024: Simon Rattle conducts Mahler 6
The concert is the culmination of the 2024 Salzburg Festival with the BRSO and Simon Rattle taking the stage. Mahler’s Sixth Symphony, known for its tragic and dramatic elements, marks the end of the festival at the Großes Festspielhaus with a symphonic performance that ranges from tranquil countryside depictions to profoundly emotional moments.
BBC Proms 2016: Simon Rattle conducts Mahler 7
For the opening of his last season as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker, Sir Simon Rattle chose Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. Following the performance at the Philharmonie in Berlin, Rattle took his orchestra to London, to present Mahler’s mighty work to his new concert audience from next year on. Indeed it was Mahler’s music that initially led Rattle to the idea of pursuing a career on the podium. And it was an interpretation of Mahler’s 7th that made a significant contribution to the Berliner Philharmoniker selecting the maestro as their chief conductor. “The Berliner Philharmoniker led off in ravishing brass colours that punched the air with exalted penetration before softening to an equally glorious restraint. Thereafter, with dynamics that turned on a sixpence the symphony held together as persuasively as I’ve heard it” (Bachtrack). PROGRAM: Boulez: Éclat, Mahler: Symphony No 7 in E minor
Simon Rattle conducts Sibelius
For the recent major London residency of the Berliner Philharmoniker at the Barbican Sir Simon Rattle has chosen music that means most to him, the complete cycle of Sibelius symphonies in honour of the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth: “Sibelius is so concentrated and exact. With Sibelius you feel that if one drop touches your skin it would burn right through the bone.“ “High-voltage Sibelius kicks off Rattle’s London Residency” raved the press consequently over the opening of the cycle. The Telegraph agreed: “Sibelius’s symphonies sounded thrillingly new in the hands of Simon Rattle and the Berlin Phil”, in a way, that “a great orchestra and conductor can make familiar music seem the hottest thing in town”.
BBC Proms 2017: Rattle conducts Schönberg’s Gurre Lieder
Sir Simon Rattle starts his tenure as the London Symphony Orchestra’s new Music Director with a concert at the prestigious BBC Proms – 40 years after his first appearance with the LSO, in October 1977 at the age of 22. The Royal Albert Hall’s cavernous space provides the perfect surroundings for this supersize scale performance of Arnold Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder. The force of over five hundred voices from the London Symphony Chorus, the CBSO Chorus, and Orfeó Català meet the LSO and a superb lineup of soloists, led by Rattle, putting on “a brilliantly blazing show” (The Daily Telegraph). Their BBC Proms performance is “an intoxicating embrace of the gigantic ebb and flow of Schoenberg’s score … an ecstatic celebration!” (The Guardian)
Lucerne Festival 2016: Rattle conducts Berliner Philharmoniker
Even if the music world is often dominated by rivalry, examples of genuine friendships can certainly be found. Take Johannes Brahms and Antonín Dvorák: a pair whose friendship was free of self-interest. And sure enough, his first publication, the spirited Slavonic Dances, enjoyed a sensational success. The Berlin Philharmonic paid homage to this musical friendship by pairing Dvorák’s bravura Slavonic Dances with the Second Symphony of Brahms, also composed in 1877. And as an “appetizer” Sir Simon Rattle has commissioned a new work from his compatriot Julian Anderson. PROGRAM: Julian Anderson: Incantesimi for Orchestra; Dvorák: Slavonic Dances, Op. 46; Brahms: Symphony No. 2
Lucerne Festival: Moving to Modern Times: Simon Rattle conducts works by Ligeti, Wagner, Sibelius, Debussy and Ravel
In 2011, theBerliner Philharmoniker under Sir Simon Rattle started their Lucerne series ‘Moving to Modern Times’. In 2012 they continued their celebrated and acclaimed start with pieces by Ligeti, Sibelius and Wagner. —— PROGRAM: György LIGETI ‘Atmosphères’ for full orchestra; Richard WAGNER: Prelude to ‘Lohengrin’; Jean SIBELIUS: Symphony No.4 in A minor, op. 63; Claude DEBUSSY ‘Jeux. Poème dansé pour orchestre’; Maurice RAVEL: ‘Daphnis et Chloé’. 2ème Suite
Rattle conducts Haydn and Mozart
At this summer’s Lucerne Festival, Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker presented a new Haydn symphony that never existed before: Rattle gathered together ten of the most original and avant-garde-like instrumental movements by Joseph Haydn to fashion a “Symphonie imaginaire,” a new Haydn symphony that never existed before. In addition to this astonishing Haydn Pasticcio, Rattle conducted Mozart’s Sinfonia concertante for violin, viola and orchestra, soloists were Daishin Kashimoto (violin) and Amihai Grosz (viola).
LSO: Rattle conducts Haydn “The Seasons”
The London Symphony Chorus celebrate its 50th anniversary with Haydn’s ‘nature’ oratorio The Seasons, a stellar cast of international singers and Sir Simon Rattle. The Seasons is divided in to four sections: Spring, Summer, Autumn, Winter charting a musical year with rousing choruses, a riotous wine tasting with dancing peasants, a loud thunderstorm, even the croaking of frogs. In his old age Haydn achieved fame and fortune in London following visits here in the 1790s. ‘Papa Haydn’ was encouraged to write The Seasons by the great success of his previous oratorio The Creation, which was performed all over Europe.