Randolph Magri-Overend

CONTEMPORARY CONDUCTORS : SIR SIMON RATTLE

A recent cartoon depicts an overbearing conductor berating a soloist clutching a violin. “It’s allright for you,” says the conductor. “You come from a wealthy family who bought you that Stradivarius.  All my family could afford was this baton!” Although slightly exaggerated, that sums up Simon Rattle’s early life as a musician.

Born in Liverpool, England in 1955 to Pauline and Dennis Rattle, a Commander in the Royal Navy, Simon Rattle studied piano and violin initially but his formative years were spent as a percussionist with various orchestras.  He enrolled at the Royal Academy of Music when 16 and graduated within 3 years having won the John Player Conducting Competition. His love of Gustav Mahler’s music and the subsequent conducting of his Second Symphony, while still a student, brought him to the attention of music agents Harold Holt (now Askonas Holt) who still manage his musical career.  Subsequently, Rattle went to Oxford to study English Language and Literature.

There followed a series of guest conducting stints both in the USA and England before Rattle was appointed principal conductor and music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra (CBSO).  That was in 1980 and he remained with them until 1998……Rattle always believed in long partnerships with orchestras. It enables him to have some form of musical influence in the education of both the orchestra players and the audiences they perform for.  

While with the CBSO, he was instrumental in performing a series of 20th century concerts entitled ‘Towards the Millenium’.  In 1991 he was also the motivating force in moving the orchestra from the Birmingham Town Hall to the newly built Symphony Hall.  From an orchestra with indifferent characteristics he built its reputation and repertoire to one where it rivalled the best in the world.  Plus, most importantly, it garnered recording contracts from EMI.  

Rattle joined the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra (BPO) on a full-time basis (he had guest-conducted before) in 2002.  The following extract is from the BPO home page: “When (the late) Claudio Abbado announced his resignation as principal conductor in 1998, he presented the Berliner Philharmoniker with a major challenge, namely to find a personality to get the orchestra ready for the 21st century. With Sir Simon Rattle…..the musicians got themselves a leader who started off with the objective of forming the Philharmoniker into a quintessentially European orchestra.”  What the extract does not mention is that the decision came after a close-run race between Rattle and Daniel Barenboim and what probably swung the vote in Rattle’s favour was that he was contracted to EMI and therefore a source of immediate revenue for the orchestra players.

Once selected Rattle soon began implementing the youth programme he had successfully instilled in the Birmingham musical scene.  There, in an effort to make school children aware of their musical heritage, he had twice tried to gain the record for the World’s Largest Orchestra.  A first attempt was unsuccessful, but he managed to wrest the record in 1998 with 4,000 musicians.

In Berlin he got on-side with the BPO musicians by ensuring they got fair payment for their efforts and also ensuring that the orchestra was free from the interference of politics that had blighted previous administrations.

In 1994 Rattle was knighted by Queen Elizabeth; in 2008 he was awarded the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany and in 2010 received a knighthood in the French Legion of Honour.

Musically, Rattle’s recording of Brahms’s Ein duetsches Requiem with the BPO received the Choral Performance Grammy award in 2008.  He has received 2 further Grammy Awards – for recordings of Stravinsky’s Symphony of Psalms (2007) and Mahler’s unfinished Symphony No. 10 (2000).  He was also voted into the inaugural Gramophone Hall of Fame in 2012.

Rattle’s repertoire tends to be varied with particular emphasis on interpretations of late 19th and early 20th century works.  His recording of Mahler’s Second Symphony has garnered several awards and is reputed to be one of his finest.  His acclaimed recording of Gershwin’s Porgy and Bess in 1989 was used as the soundtrack for the 1993 television production of the same opera.

In January 2013 Rattle announced he would leave the BPO.  “I will be nearly 64 years old” he is reported as saying. “As a Liverpool boy, it is impossible not to think of the Beatle’s question….will you still need me when I’m 64?”   In March 2015 Rattle accepted the post of Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO), an orchestra which he described in a BBC Radio interview as having the “rare mindset of always looking forward”.[41] He took up this position in September 2017.

On a personal note, Rattle has been married three times and has a total of 5 children, three with his current wife Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Kozena who is 18 years his junior.  They are Jonas (born 2005) and Milos (b. 2008), and a daughter Anežka (b. 2014).

Oh, and he supports the Liverpool Football club…ah well, you can’t be perfect all the time!

 

 

Published by Randolph Magri-Overend

One of the questions Randolph hates to answer is “Where do you come from?” Why? Because the answer can be so time-consuming and, in a way, also gives away how old he is!! Plus the questioner has to wrestle with the wish he hadn’t asked the question!! He was born in Cairo, Egypt, many moons ago of British parents although he can trace Maltese and Croatian ancestry in his lineage. Educated in a Jesuit college in London his wander lust for things unorthodox drove him to embark on a seafaring career with both Canadian Pacific Steamships and Shaw Savill. That in itself dates him because both lines have been redundant for many a year. One of his boasts is that he was the Purser on the “Gothic” which ten years previously had been Queen Elizabeth II’s Royal Yacht soon after her coronation in 1953. One of the objects imported on the ship by HM and left behind was a tape player which Randolph utilised on many a memorable Sunday evening with a classical concert for his passengers. Thus began a journey that not only awakened Randolph’s love for good music but also eventually led to his extensive knowledge of music in all forms. That he loves the era of Sinatra, Crosby, Armstrong, Dorsey (both) and many many more exponents of the post-war music scene is also part and parcel of his appreciation of the music of many an era. These days Randolph is retired but still reviews CDs and DVDs and has written articles on such diverse personalities as Yvonne Kenny, Teddy Tahu Rhodes, Alexander Briger, the late Sir John Tavener, Sir James Galway, Dawn Upshaw and countless probes into the music of Gustav Mahler, Elizabeth Shwarzkopf and her husband Walter Legge, Glenn Gould, Leonard Bernstein and many many more he regrets to admit he has lost track of! Before emigrating to Australia, Randolph spent a number of years as a Flight Dispatcher in Canada. Since arriving in Australia, Randolph has written for The Weekend Australian (especially in their travel pages), The Sydney Morning Herald, Opera Opera and Fine Music magazine as well as some jazz magazines. If you require an extensive coverage of your music to a public that, at last count, reaches the best part of 818,000 please contact David Kary on editor.sydneyartsguide@gmail.com or email me directly on ibmar@bigpond.com. This also includes advertising any forthcoming shows by promoting featured artists. Cheers and thank you.