Rattle brings modern touch to tradition-bound Berlin

In September, Simon Rattle will get the keys to the finest music-making machine in the world, the Berlin Philharmonic.

The British conductor has a stellar reputation built on 18 acclaimed years leading the City of Birmingham (England) Symphony Orchestra (CBSO). Now, music lovers the world over are eager to find out what he can do on the podium of one of the world's great orchestras.

American audiences will have an opportunity to hear what makes the recently knighted Sir Simon so special in concerts with the Philadelphia Orchestra March 14-16 at the new Kimmel Center and March 19 at New York's Carnegie Hall.

For others eager to hear his work, there are new recordings with the Berlin orchestra (Mahler's Tenth and Beethoven's Fifth, both on EMI Classics) and a newly augmented biography, "Simon Rattle: From Birmingham to Berlin," by Nicholas Kenyon (Faber & Faber).

Is all this Rattle rattle justified?

"Clearly, [Berlin] is one of two or three greatest orchestras in the world," Mr. Kenyon says, explaining the importance of Sir Simon's new post. "Berlin has a central repertory of Beethoven, Brahms, and Wagner." With Rattle, he says, they will face someone whose repertory ranges from relatively unknown 18th-century French composer Jean-Philippe Rameau to 20th-century composers Pierre Boulez and Leonard Bernstein.

The "prestige attached to the music directorship [at Berlin] is off the scale," agrees London-based American conductor David Charles Abell, who has led Rattle's CBSO and is invited back for next year. Rattle was chosen by the musicians themselves, Mr. Abell says, "which completes his beatification in the music world!"

Another American living in London, Marin Alsop, who has just been named music director of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra, was ranked No. 2 (just after Rattle) in a recent Independent newspaper list of Britain's finest conductors.

Ms. Alsop is struck by the way Rattle's going to Berlin "shows a new, fresh openness from one of the most conservative and traditional orchestra organizations in the world.

"Perhaps it will send a signal that the times are indeed changing and that the symphonic music business needs to get with the times in order to maintain some relevance. It signals a dramatic shift in the mythology and mystery surrounding the role of the conductor - from an unapproachable, distantly enigmatic, eccentric figure to a proactive, hands-on, engaging human being that musicians and the public can relate to!"

Rattle "might so easily have been working in America," author Kenyon points out. At various times in recent years, he almost accepted the music directorships at Los Angeles, Philadelphia, and Boston. Of these, Boston was the closest to being a done deal. But the Boston Symphony dithered and delayed before finally announcing that Seiji Ozawa would be leaving. By then, Rattle had signed with Berlin.

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