Sir Simon Rattle
Chief conductor of Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks
Compelling charisma, a love of experimentation, a commitment to contemporary music, great social and pedagogical engagement, and unreserved artistic seriousness – all this makes Liverpool-born Simon Rattle one of the most fascinating conducting personalities of our time.
Since the 2023/2024 season, Sir Simon Rattle is the new chief conductor of the Chor and Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks.
Sir Simon Rattle conducted the Bavarian Radio Chorus and the BRSO for the first time in 2010 with Schumann’s Paradise and the Peri. Since then, an intensive collaboration has developed and his performances in Munich have always been highlights. In 2021, Simon Rattle and the BRSO cemented their deep mutual affection with the signing of Simon Rattle’s contract for the position of Chief Conductor from the 2023/2024 season. The Briton with a German passport thus took over the direction of the orchestra he has admired since his youth. As before taking up his post, Simon Rattle presents himself with a broad repertoire: from Rameau, Bach, Haydn and Mozart to modern and contemporary music.
Under the label ’hip – historically informed performance’, he has also established the playing of early music on original instruments at the BRSO. Simon Rattle is also passionate about music education. Ambitious projects with the BRSO Academy or the Bavarian State Youth Orchestra are a top priority for him.
Simon Rattle’s career began with the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Between 1980 and 1998, he led it to world fame. He was Chief Conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker from 2002 to 2018 and Music Director of the London Symphony Orchestra from 2017 to 2023, with which he will remain associated as Conductor Emeritus. Simon Rattle is also Principal Artist of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Principal Guest Conductor of the Czech Philharmonic and has long-standing relationships with other top orchestras, such as the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Staatskapelle, and with renowned opera houses, including the Royal Opera House in London, the Berlin State Opera, the New York’s Metropolitan Opera and the Festival d’Aix-en-Provence. A new collaboration recently led him to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
Simon Rattle has received numerous high honours. Among the CDs released with the BRSO, Mahler’s Ninth Symphony has been honoured with a Diapason d’or and a Gramophone Editor’s Choice, and the Sixth Symphony with a Gramophone Editor’s Choice and the “Preis der deutschen Schallplattenkritik”.
Podcast with Sir Simon Rattle
Get to know the new principal conductor of the BRSO! Sir Simon Rattle is a guest on our orchestra podcast. Talking to Anne SCHOENHOLTZ, he reveals where his love for the BRSO comes from, what excites him about Munich, and what ideas and visions he plans to pursue in the coming years. This episode is also available in English!
Sir Simon Rattle conducts Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No. 9
Videos with Sir Simon Rattle
All concert videos and other video content of the BRSO with Sir Simon Rattle can be found in our media library.
First encounter with the symphony orchestra 50 years ago
In October 1970, the teenage Simon Rattle experienced Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in his home town of Liverpool, performed by the BRSO under the leadership of Rafael Kubelík while on tour in England.
Sir Simon:
“Attending this concert changed my life. Already a Kubelík fan, I was aware of the BRSO through many recordings I had bought. But the orchestra’s visit to Liverpool made a profound impression on a teenager who wished to be a conductor – to experience such a symbiotic relationship between conductor and players, and the unanimity of concept and philosophy was as evident as the sheer pleasure the musicians emanated. This concert became a kind of benchmark for me, a goal towards which musicians should strive.
When in 2010, nearly 40 years later, I found myself standing in front of this orchestra for the first time, playing my beloved Schumann, I felt exactly the same spirit, even though only a couple of players had remained from that time. Kubelík had somehow set the tone, the atmosphere of flexible, refined and loving music making – qualities that have only been amplified by the great conductors who came in between, culminating in my much missed friend Mariss.
When I look forward to collaborating with this great orchestra and their astonishing chorus, I would therefore like to pay tribute to all the extraordinary musicians who came before and who created such artistic warmth and ’Menschlichkeit’. The people change, but the ethos remains.
Building on wonderful moments of music-making together over the last ten years, we will explore a wide range of wonderful music together and craft programs across many genres – both for our live-audiences and for viewers and listeners of the BR’s media channels. Our ambitions include the development of the orchestra’s creativity with period performance practice, as well as building closer connections with the Musica Viva series in the city.”
Shared challenges: Social participation at the new concert hall
Sir Simon and the BRSO are looking forward not just to their artistic work together, but also to further challenges. They want to provide access to music for as many people as possible in Bavaria – especially for those whose access may be limited by their backgrounds or social environments. This aim is shared by Bavaria’s Konzerthaus project in Munich, where the priority is to build a hall with first-class acoustics, and to create a suitable infrastructure for music education and education projects. The broad accessibility of these projects is essential both to Sir Simon and to the BRSO.
