Rattle brings modern touch to tradition-bound Berlin

Will his path ever lead to an American conducting post, or will Rattle conduct in Berlin for life, like Herbert von Karajan?

He will go "where he feels most comfortable making music," Abell says. "During his years in Birmingham, he declined many invitations to more prestigious posts. He is very loyal to his musicians, and if he feels that the level of communication and musicianship in Berlin is to his liking, he is likely to stay put."

But longtime Rattle-watcher Kenyon - the first edition of his biography of the conductor appeared in 1987 - suggests that Sir Simon's March visit to Philadelphia shows that work with other orchestras still interests him.

All the experts agree that it isn't Rattle's relative youth per se (he's in his mid-40s), but his interpretive insights into an unusual repertory that make him worthy of attention. Abell praises his "brilliance" at communicating "the joys of 20th-century music to an audience. And it is safe to assume he will do the same with the growing 21st-century repertory. He seems to have a strong link with the works of Mahler and Sibelius. There are few other conductors who can claim the same level of stylistic credibility in earlier periods as well, going back to the 17th century.

"Yet Rattle's performances are never dry or scholarly," Abel adds. "One is always aware of a keen interpretative will driving the music on."

When it comes to the bread-and-butter works of Romantic music, opinions on Rattle are split.

One Beethoven expert, teacher and critic Harris Goldsmith, says he found Rattle's recent recording of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony "too light on its feet; it tends to be a little fussy, and the new edition he uses tends to put Beethoven back into the 18th century."

But more modern works always have been the core of Rattle's musicmaking, Kenyon notes. He has "worked backward to Brahms, Beethoven, and Mozart, rather than the reverse, which is the way of most German orchestras. It will be very interesting in Berlin, as he feels he has a lot to learn from the players."

The Berlin position may at first turn out to be highly visible on-the-job training.

But concertgoers will surely get their money's worth from the imaginative Rattle, who is praised by Alsop for his "enthusiastic ability to verbalize the 'story' of a particular piece and composer.

"The thing that I admire most about Simon is his personal integrity and sense of responsibility to his own instincts," she says. "He is true to himself...."

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