Simon Rattle

Talk story about Simon Rattle, a 33 year-old Englishman who was passing through town on his way from California, where he had been a guest conductor of the Los Angeles Philharmonic, to England, where he has been musical director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for the past eight years. The Birmingham Symphony, a lively young orchestra with an opulent sound, is rapidly moving into the international orbit and will be making its first American tour this spring. The trip, Mr. Rattle told writer, will permit American audiences to compare the Birmingham's recordings--there have been more than twenty--with the real thing. Tells about Rattle's life. At 19, after 3 years at the Royal Academy of Music, he found himself directing 2 professional orchestras--the 80 member Bournemouth Symphony and the smaller Bournemouth Sinfonietta. Now, he has built the Birmingham Symphony into a virtuoso orchestra, and has made 19 television documentaries, in which he conducted and discussed composers from Elgar to Gershwin. In L.A., he conducted the local premiere of a big choral work by John Adams, called 'Harmonium.' Writer asks Rattle what he considered the main characteristics of the three orchestras--Los Angeles, Birmingham, and Berlin. Rattle explains. He also gives advice on conducting, how you never conduct as if you were playing the piece yourself. What's important is what musicians do together. Guest conducting is hard on the nerves--it's like being married to a different person every couple of weeks. A conductor can have an extraordinary impact on music if he stays in one place long enough. Rattle intends to do that.

See the rest of the story at newyorker.com