Skip to main content
Read page text
page 16
FOR THE RECORD Sir Simon Rattle (centre, front) with smiling members of the LSO on the morning of the announcement Simon Rattle appointed Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra S ir Simon Rattle has been appointed Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, a role he assumes in 2017. Rattle, who recently celebrated his 60th birthday, is currently Principal Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he has held since 2002 and which he will relinquish when his contract expires in 2018. Rattle will be the second conductor to have held the top job with both orchestras – Claudio Abbado was the LSO’s Principal Conductor from 1979 to 1988 and the BPO’s from 1989 to 2002. Of the appointment, Rattle said: ‘During my work with the LSO over the last years, I noticed that despite the orchestra’s long and illustrious history, they almost never refer to it. Instead, refreshingly, they talk about the future, what can they make anew, what can they improve, how can they reach further into the community. In terms of musical excellence, it is clear that the sky’s the limit, but equally important, in terms of philosophy, they constantly strive to be a 21st-century orchestra. We share a dream in which performing, teaching and learning are indivisible, with wider dissemination of our art at its centre. I cannot imagine a better or more inspiring way to spend my next years, and feel immensely fortunate to have the LSO as my musical family and co-conspirators.’ When asked about the tenure at the press conference, Rattle announced, ‘This is my last big job.’ The contract is initially for five years but has the potential to roll on for longer. Rattle added, ‘It’s obvious in all our minds that this is a long-term thing.’ Rattle will remain resident in Berlin, where his children attend school, but will spend four months a year in London. A feasibility study for a new concert hall in London is underway, but Rattle said that his appointment wasn’t contingent on a new hall. Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the LSO, said: ‘This is the realisation of a dream. We look forward to a new chapter of ambitious music-making that reaches deep into the communities we serve and touches people’s lives with the power of music.’ Rattle’s reputation was built during his tenure as, first, Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser and then Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980-98), during which time he made a huge number of Alan Gilbert to leave the New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, has said he will be stepping down from the post in 2017. The conductor, aged 47 and a native New Yorker, will have been at the helm of the NYPO for eight seasons. The reason he has cited is that with the renovation (planned for 2019) of the orchestra’s home venue, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, he wants his successor to be able to head up the orchestra during the period away from the hall and take it back into the hall thereafter. Gilbert has presided over a shake-up of repertoire at the NYPO with a renewed focus on contemporary music. He has also recently completed a cycle of the Nielsen symphonies which was recorded by Dacapo and which has garnered considerable critical acclaim. Wigmore Hall to start streaming concerts from next season Wigmore Hall will begin streaming performances from the 2015/16 season, joining international institutions including the Berlin Philharmonie and France’s new Philharmonie de Paris in offering audiences throughout the world the chance to watch their music-making live. Major refurbishment work at the iconic London venue, planned for the summer, will include the installation of state-of-the-art digital facilities which will give the ability to capture and stream concerts. Further details will be announced in the autumn, but it is suggested that potentially up to one concert a month might be made available, and that they will be free to watch. recordings for EMI, including a number of Gramophone Award-winners. Rattle’s relationship with the LSO on disc dates back to July 1977 when he recorded piano concertos by Prokofiev and Ravel with Andrei Gavrilov for EMI. As Gramophone critic Robert Layton wrote in September 1978, ‘At no time was there any doubt in my mind that there was a strong musical personality at the helm and a conductor of keen responsiveness and sensitivity.’ 8 GRAMOPHONE APRIL 2015 gramophone.co.uk
page 17
FOR THE RECORD I R B Y KI M : T I O N I L L U S T R A T Y O R K , N E W K A P L A N I L B E R T GO F I O N , C O L L E C T S C H O W N S S T E P H E N : P H O T O G R A P H Y Entrance of the singer: Mahler’s much-loved song Entrance of the singer: Mahler’s much-loved song Mahler song offered to the world A facsimile edition of Mahler’s Ich bin der Welt abhanden gekommen (‘I am lost to the world’), complete with historical background, has been published by Gilbert Kaplan, who purchased the score in 2004. Visit Gramophone’s website for a gallery of excerpts from the 92-page publication, which also includes the piano version, preliminary sketches and pages from a copy Alma Mahler made for the printer. Mark Simpson given new role with the BBC Philharmonic The clarinettist and composer Mark Simpson (b1988) has been named as the BBC Philharmonic’s new Composer-in-Association. Simpson won the 2006 BBC Young Musician of the Year competition playing Nielsen’s Clarinet Concerto. He also won the BBC Proms Young Composers Competition in the same year, making him the first person to win both competitions. Simpson is also a former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist. His new role, which runs from September 2015 until 2019 will involve the composition of three new orchestral works, and the BBC Philharmonic will also perform his existing music for orchestra. The LSO, London’s oldest symphony orchestra, was founded in 1904 and has operated as a self-governing body ever since. It also claims to be the world’s most recorded ensemble with an output that ranges from symphonic work and opera to film scores and games soundtracks. Its current Principal Conductor Valery Gergiev, who has held the post since 2007, relinquishes the role later this year to focus on his work with the Munich Philharmonic Orchestra. gramophone.co.uk New report calls for creation of cultural ‘Digital Public Space’ Areport backed by some of the leading figures in UK art and culture has called for the creation of a cultural ‘Digital Public Space’, to be ‘free from political and commercial interference and created solely for the public good’. Such an online area would aim to ensure all publicly funded creative content ‘be made easily discoverable and available to the public’. Once the commercial value of any such content was felt to have passed it would then be available for free, ensuring cultural content doesn’t disappear as today’s digital technology and websites evolve or are superseded. It would also address concerns the report’s authors have about the influence that an ‘over-reliance on the large commercial search engines’ can have on the visibility of content. The proposal was one of the recommendations of Enriching Britain: Culture, Creativity and Growth, produced by the Warwick Commission (part of the University of Warwick) following two years of preparation. It was chaired by Vikki Heywood (RSA chairman), and its commissioners included Sir Peter Bazalgette (ACE chairman), Darren Henley (new Arts Council CEO) and Sir Nicholas Serota (Tate Director). The overall report argues for a greater understanding of, and more support for, what it describes as the ‘ecosystem’ uniting the UK’s cultural sectors and creative industries. At the launch, it was suggested it could be seen as a ‘score-card’ by which the next government could be judged. The new report from the University of Warwick The magazine is just the beginning Visit gramophone.co.uk for… PODCASTS Martin Cullingford meets with Julian Lloyd Webber (pictured) to discuss his new recording as conductor of English works for strings, which also features his —inal recording as cellist (reviewed on page 62). BLOGS Gramophone’s blogs are often at the centre of the debate when it comes to the latest classical music news stories, but they also often re—lect on more rari—ied areas of music that are worth discovering. Recently, conductor Peter Phillips has brilliantly analysed Arvo Pärt’s choral music, cellist Thomas Carroll has responded to the news of Rattle’s LSO appointment, composer Mark Simpson has shared his creative process and his plans for the future with the BBC Philharmonic, academic Jonathan Clinch has told the story behind his completion of Herbert Howells’s un—inished Cello Concerto, and pianist Christina McMaster has written in praise of women composers and artistic diversity to mark International Women’s Day. FACEBOOK, TWITTER & GOOGLE Follow us to hear about – and then discuss with our online community – the latest classical music news and anniversaries. GRAMOPHONE APRIL 2015 9

Page Text

View plaintext

FOR THE RECORD

Sir Simon Rattle (centre, front) with smiling members of the LSO on the morning of the announcement

Simon Rattle appointed Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra S

ir Simon Rattle has been appointed Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra, a role he assumes in 2017. Rattle, who recently celebrated his 60th birthday, is currently Principal Conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, a post he has held since 2002 and which he will relinquish when his contract expires in 2018. Rattle will be the second conductor to have held the top job with both orchestras – Claudio Abbado was the LSO’s Principal Conductor from 1979 to 1988 and the BPO’s from 1989 to 2002.

Of the appointment, Rattle said: ‘During my work with the LSO over the last years, I noticed that despite the orchestra’s long and illustrious history, they almost never refer to it. Instead, refreshingly, they talk about the future, what can they make anew, what can they improve, how can they reach further into the community. In terms of musical excellence, it is clear that the sky’s the limit, but equally important, in terms of philosophy, they constantly strive to be a 21st-century orchestra. We share a dream in which performing, teaching and learning are indivisible, with wider dissemination of our art at its centre. I cannot imagine a better or more inspiring way to spend my next years, and feel immensely fortunate to have the LSO as my musical family and co-conspirators.’ When asked about the tenure at the press conference, Rattle announced, ‘This is my last big job.’ The contract is initially for five years but has the potential to roll on for longer. Rattle added, ‘It’s obvious in all our minds that this is a long-term thing.’ Rattle will remain resident in Berlin, where his children attend school, but will spend four months a year in London.

A feasibility study for a new concert hall in London is underway, but Rattle said that his appointment wasn’t contingent on a new hall.

Kathryn McDowell, Managing Director of the LSO, said: ‘This is the realisation of a dream. We look forward to a new chapter of ambitious music-making that reaches deep into the communities we serve and touches people’s lives with the power of music.’

Rattle’s reputation was built during his tenure as, first, Principal Conductor and Artistic Adviser and then Music Director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (1980-98), during which time he made a huge number of

Alan Gilbert to leave the New York Philharmonic Alan Gilbert, Music Director of the New York Philharmonic, has said he will be stepping down from the post in 2017. The conductor, aged 47 and a native New Yorker, will have been at the helm of the NYPO for eight seasons. The reason he has cited is that with the renovation (planned for 2019) of the orchestra’s home venue, Avery Fisher Hall at Lincoln Center, he wants his successor to be able to head up the orchestra during the period away from the hall and take it back into the hall thereafter.

Gilbert has presided over a shake-up of repertoire at the NYPO with a renewed focus on contemporary music. He has also recently completed a cycle of the Nielsen symphonies which was recorded by Dacapo and which has garnered considerable critical acclaim. Wigmore Hall to start streaming concerts from next season Wigmore Hall will begin streaming performances from the 2015/16 season, joining international institutions including the Berlin Philharmonie and France’s new Philharmonie de Paris in offering audiences throughout the world the chance to watch their music-making live. Major refurbishment work at the iconic London venue, planned for the summer, will include the installation of state-of-the-art digital facilities which will give the ability to capture and stream concerts. Further details will be announced in the autumn, but it is suggested that potentially up to one concert a month might be made available, and that they will be free to watch.

recordings for EMI, including a number of Gramophone Award-winners. Rattle’s relationship with the LSO on disc dates back to July 1977 when he recorded piano concertos by Prokofiev and Ravel with Andrei Gavrilov for EMI. As Gramophone critic Robert Layton wrote in September 1978, ‘At no time was there any doubt in my mind that there was a strong musical personality at the helm and a conductor of keen responsiveness and sensitivity.’

8 GRAMOPHONE APRIL 2015

gramophone.co.uk

read next page

My Bookmarks

Buy this Book
Skip to main content