“Their long flirtation is over, and now they are engaged: Simon Rattle, the Liverpool-born maestro who rose to become chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, said Tuesday that he would return to Britain in 2017 as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra,” writes Michael Cooper in Tuesday’s (3/3) New York Times. “In accepting the London post Mr. Rattle, 60, said in a statement released Tuesday morning in London that he liked the fact that the orchestra rarely referred to what he called its ‘long and illustrious history…. In terms of philosophy, they constantly strive to be a 21st-century orchestra.’ … Rattle … startled the music world two years ago when he announced that he would step down from his Berlin post … when his contract expired in 2018…. The Berlin Philharmonic plans to meet this spring to choose a successor.… In London Mr. Rattle will succeed Valery Gergiev, who has been the orchestra’s principal conductor since 2007. But the London orchestra will give Mr. Rattle the rare title of ‘music director,’ which was also held by Claudio Abbado from 1984 to 1987.”
Posted March 3, 2015
Pictured: Simon Rattle leads the London Symphony Orchestra at the opening ceremony of the London 2012 Olympics. Photo by Laurence Griffiths / Getty Images
