Simon Rattle (1955-)

[Herman]

Clearly Rattle does something orchestras like, I mean, LSO, BPO and now BRSO...

I agree with previous posters who say he hardly ever is best.

I remember watching a Sol Gabetta performance of the Elgar Cello concerto, with the Berlin Phil conducted by Rattle, and noticing that Gabetta kind of took over direction, by keeping eye contact with the concertmaster to her right, because Rattle was just not quite there.

[Mandryka]

Clearly Rattle does something orchestras like, I mean, LSO, BPO and now BRSO...

I agree with previous posters who say he hardly ever is best.

I remember watching a Sol Gabetta performance of the Elgar Cello concerto, with the Berlin Phil conducted by Rattle, and noticing that Gabetta kind of took over direction, by keeping eye contact with the concertmaster to her right, because Rattle was just not quite there.

That reminds of a time when I saw him conduct an unstaged Wagner opera and at some point he put his baton down and just listened to the music. In fact, I knew the guy who sang Fasholt in the performance and he never commented on it, he thought all went well.

[lordlance]

Despite being one of the six non British Rattle fans, despite the vitriolic phrasing of Dave, he has a point when he was going over the CBSO box... He made our 50 or 60 discs with them... Another twenty? With BPO.... Let's say another 15 with BRSO and LSO combined... We're talking about a discography that's 80-90 discs... How much, if any of it, will survive the test of time? In the standard repertoire that is.

Not a lot of competition for things like a Henze symphony or Peter Maxwell Davies 1 or Turnage...

[Herman]

That reminds of a time when I saw him conduct an unstaged Wagner opera and at some point he put his baton down and just listened to the music. In fact, I knew the guy who sang Fasholt in the performance and he never commented on it, he thought all went well.

It could mean everything was well prepared in rehearsal.

[ultralinear]

It could mean everything was well prepared in rehearsal.

That was my impression on the occasion when I saw Gerd Albrecht conduct Bruckner's 8th Symphony, in which at various points he let his arms hang by his sides, appearing simply to be listening to what was one of the most convincing performances I'd heard, needing no additional direction by that stage.

[San Antone]

Some recordings by Simon Rattle which I think are surprisingly good were his Gershwin group:

Rhapsody in Blue
The Songbook
Piano Concerto in F (all with pianist Peter Donohoe)

And most impressive, his recording of Porgy & Bess in at the time the most complete version.

Rattle managed to do a very good job with this most American of composers.

[Brian]

That was my impression on the occasion when I saw Gerd Albrecht conduct Bruckner's 8th Symphony, in which at various points he let his arms hang by his sides, appearing simply to be listening to what was one of the most convincing performances I'd heard, needing no additional direction by that stage.

Albrecht and his orchestra are so experienced in Bruckner that it would not surprise me.

Similarly when I saw Antoni Wit in Warsaw with Mahler 3, he simply counted 1-2-3-4 (or 1-2-3) and did nothing else whatsoever. The one exception was to turn and face the children's chorus for all of "bim-bam."

[Spotted Horses]

DG released a video in which various performers reminisced about their interaction with Karajan. Rattle appeared, and after remarking that Karajan had been very kind and generous with him early in his career, went on to excoriate Karajan's musical legacy. It put me off Rattle as a self-important, ungrateful asshole. I don't recall listening to any Rattle after seeing that.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

DG released a video in which various performers reminisced about their interaction with Karajan. Rattle appeared, and after remarking that Karajan had been very kind and generous with him early in his career, went on to excoriate Karajan's musical legacy. It put me off Rattle as a self-important, ungrateful asshole. I don't recall listening to any Rattle after seeing that.

The thing with Rattle is there isn't much repertoire that he's recorded that someone else hasn't done already with the exception of some British composers like Adès or Nicholas Maw. When he speaks about not caring much for Karajan, it really doesn't matter, because Karajan's grip on the Austro-Germanic repertoire will elude Rattle for as long as he lives. Also, it doesn't matter how hard Rattle works, Karajan's place in the history of this music will continue to weigh on Rattle who really hasn't made much of a dent.

That's my two measly cents. I like some of Rattle's recordings, but I wouldn't say he's the bee's knees.