In my next Lebrecht Interview on BBC Radio 3, the conductor Sir Simon Rattle talks frankly about his often-turbulent 16 years at the head of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
“You try lots of things,” Rattle says, shrugging. “Eye contact doesn’t always work. And it’s difficult to keep your confidence. I certainly struggled at some times.’
… Rattle lasted 16 years at the wheel of the orchestral Porsche before he walked away again. “As a conductor in Berlin,” he explains, “it can be friendly, it can be polite, but you are not a member of the guild. They are the Mastersingers. They are the ones who remain. Conductors come and go.”
His successor, Kirill Petrenko, is an introvert who never gives interviews or makes recordings. Rattle is delighted. “They have a great conductor to work with who is totally uncompromising in areas where I compromised. Kirill never gives up, and I’m sure it drives them completely crazy, but he’s made them an orchestra that’s … much easier … for the rest of us to conduct.”…
Read extracts from the interview here.
Listen to the full 45-minute interview next Saturday at 9.45 pm on BBC Radio 3.
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