He said, “It’s almost a miracle it’s happening.”
The U.S. Tour began Saturday in Palo Alto and continued to Berkeley, Costa Mesa, before ending with three concerts in Santa Barbara.
In 2018, the symphony began its partnership with the academy. Five section principals spent 10 days instructing and then selected a dozen students to be fellows for the orchestra in London. Rattle was unable to accompany the company’s summer 2019 trip in California because of the pandemic that decimated the world.
Rattle, a 67-year old Briton and one of the most respected conductors in the world, was at his Berlin home for much the year after.
He said, “We spent so many of our lives having everything organized two to three years in advance at most.” “Now, the fact that we don’t always know what’s happening next week can sometimes give you vertigo but it can also make you feel very alive for everything.
He said that he still had a pile of programs on his desk. “The first change was the fourth.” “In a way, I think musicians should be open to doing whatever comes up. We’ve learned to be more flexible and not be able to book far in advance.
Rattle was the head of Britain’s City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra between 1980-98. He then succeeded Claudio Abbado to become chief conductor of Berlin Philharmonic, 2002-18.
He listens to old recordings from time to time.
Sometimes you feel better than you thought. Sometimes you might think, “Oh, God, that should’ve been taken behind the barn, and shot,” he stated. It doesn’t feel the same person every time.
Rattle’s white, bushy hair is trimmed as he ages. He was appointed music director of LSO in 2017. His tenure ends in 2023 when Rattle begins a five-year contract to be chief conductor of Munich’s Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
He said, “Every great orchestra has their own personality.” There is a certain type of fierceness. The kind of excitement that makes you feel like you’re going to hell for leather. This was always a London Symphony Orchestra quality. But there is a certain type of feeling. It’s an electric and rhythmic feeling that they have.
“The Berlin Philharmonic’s weight is very special, but they would love to have the rhythmic precision of an Orchestra like the LSO. Conductors find it fascinating because you often play the same piece with several orchestras, and come up with completely different stories.
William Cedeno is a principal flutist with the South Dakota Symphony Orchestra at the age of 30. He was awarded a fellowship by the music academy in order to train with Rattle. He draws inspiration from the conductor’s techniques as much as his mechanics.
Cedeno stated that Cedeno has a contagious aura about music. Cedeno said that one of the most fascinating things I discovered was his approach to music and how he performed in rehearsals. It was a way to explain things in a philosophical, emotional way. He’s very skilled at showing them, rather than just fixing rehearsal things like “Oh, you guys are louder, you guys are softer, and you have more articulation.”
Rattle pulled out of concerts celebrating the 40th anniversary London’s Barbican Centre on March 3rd and 6, while he was recovering after neck surgery. Rattle is less likely to accept opera engagements away from home. He was a star performer at New York’s Metropolitan Opera, Debussy’s “Pelleas et Melisande” (2010), Wagner’s”Tristan und Isolde”, 2016 and Strauss” “Der Rosenkavalier”, 2019, with his wife Magdalena Kozena as Octavian.
“I cannot imagine that my life now allows me to spend two months away, away from my young family. That’s how much has changed over the past years. He said that he believes that this part of his life is over. “I wasn’t a very peripatetic conductor, like some of my colleagues. But I was still away a lot. We all have to figure out how we can make it work. I’ve always been a fan of long-lasting relationships so I quit the permanent guest-conducting tennis match fairly early.
His outlook was strengthened by his decision to remain at home during the pandemic.
He said, “Anybody in Europe that had a garden was so pathetically thankful.” We missed many extraordinary musical experiences. But, I was there for them. My 5-year-old daughter, learning to ride a bike. I would not have missed it. All of us have experienced a reset. Everyone must decide what is most important to them, and how they want to live their lives. We are the fortunate ones who have been able find these benefits.
