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Richard Bratby

~ Classical music writer, critic and consultant

Richard Bratby

Tag Archives: Simon Rattle

Forward

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Andris Nelsons, Birmingham, CBSO, Forward, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Sakari Oramo, Simon Rattle

Cover Image

Forward: 100 Years of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is published by Elliott and Thompson on 29 November 2019, and is available from the CBSO website on 14 November 2019.

It’s been a while since I wrote here, and the only real excuse I can offer is that in January 2018 I was commissioned by Stephen Maddock and Abby Corfan of the CBSO to write a new illustrated history of the orchestra to celebrate its centenary in 2020. It was a thrilling commission to receive, but also an overwhelming one. With a copy deadline of Christmas 2018 – and no relaxation in my usual working schedule – that meant devoting almost all of my free time in 2018 to research in the CBSO Archive, reading some 61 books on the general subject, conducting interviews with over 30 living witnesses of the CBSO story (including Sir Simon Rattle, Andris Nelsons, Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla, Sakari Oramo and Simon Halsey), and then untangling various (often conflicting) narratives to write the story – trying all the while to make it both historically rigorous and an entertaining read. The aim was to create a sort of ‘100th birthday gift’ from the CBSO to its supporters: something that they could genuinely enjoy.

And then, after submitting the manuscript, there was almost as much work to be done again: proofreading, rewriting and discussing the design with my brilliantly sympathetic and patient editor Olivia at Elliott and Thompson; then seeking out around 100 historical images and obtaining the necessary legal permissions – a task in which I was helped, with enormous patience, imagination and enthusiasm, by my old CBSO colleague Maria Howes. The CBSO Archive is full of rarely-seen treasures; the aim was to get a few of them out there for people to enjoy. This sort of thing, for example:

Harold Gray grimace

CBSO associate conductor Harold Gray rehearses a group of management and music staff in Haydn’s ‘Toy Symphony’ some time in the 1970s – percussionist Annie Oakley (left) assists.

You wouldn’t imagine how much legwork is involved – even obtaining the necessary permissions for the cover image, Concerto by Alexander Walker, took us about two months of research. Who owns the intellectual property of a deceased Catholic monk, who had taken a vow of poverty? This was exactly the sort of thing I didn’t expect to learn when I started out on this project, and which kept me, Maria, Abby, and Olivia and her team busy right through until the end of last month (Even the index required weeks of work). Whereupon we all breathed an enormous sigh of relief and I, for one, cleared off on holiday to look at more Austro-Hungarian relics in Transylvania.

 

1664.jpg

Even the title took some thought and a few drafts. Forward is the motto of the City of Birmingham, and the book is about the city as much as its orchestra. The two cannot be separated and both share the same ambitious, forward-looking, sometimes impatient outlook – a subject that I’ve written on before now.

Anyway, it’s with the printers now – and rather to my surprise I feel distinctly nervous. It feels a bit like waiting to go onstage; there’s already been some press and part of me is terrified to see what glitches and howlers we missed (there are always some), just as an equal, if quieter, part of me is excited to see how people react. Above all, I hope that readers enjoy it, and that it deepens their enjoyment of and appreciation of the CBSO. It’s on sale from the CBSO website from 14 November and from Amazon and all good real-world bookstores from 28 November 2019. I may well be talking about it again…

West and East

22 Monday Jun 2015

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Amati Magazine, Andris Nelsons, CBSO, Ella Fitzgerald, Longborough Opera, Newark Violin School, Simon Rattle, Tristan und Isolde

Cotswold Bayreuth

Cotswold Bayreuth

I’ve been covering some fairly substantial mileage, both physically and in terms of repertoire, over the last seven days. Here, slightly delayed, is my review of Longborough Festival Opera’s Tristan und Isolde: another superb show whose musical glory wasn’t quite matched by directorial vision.

Newark Violin School

Newark Violin School

Then on Friday I was off to the far side of Nottinghamshire to visit the remarkable Newark Violin School, where I was made to feel extremely welcome. It’s a wonderful institution: you feel as if you’ve wandered into a modern-day medieval guild. Part of me simply wished I could just throw everything in and enrol myself. Maybe I will some day! That was another assignment courtesy of Jessica Duchen (whom I was delighted to see at Longborough – an island of sanity amidst all the black ties, vintage cars and popping champagne corks of country house opera: still a very disconcerting experience for me) for The Amati Magazine. Watch this space for the full report, probably next week.

Newark Violin School

Newark Violin School

Meanwhile – I’ve been writing sleeve notes for Warner Classics’ forthcoming 50-CD box of Simon Rattle‘s recordings with the CBSO. It was bittersweet, to say the least, to be writing those in the week when my former colleagues were marking the departure of Andris Nelsons – and a timely reminder that it takes more than just great conducting to make a great music director. And then, programme notes for the CBSO’s forthcoming Ella Fitzgerald tribute night. Talk about a  labour of love…Ella’s Rodgers and Hart Songbook was one of those albums that entered my life at the exact moment when it could strike deepest; she’s one of the only non-classical artists whose name on a CD sleeve will make me buy it on sight. I still can’t listen to A Ship Without a Sail without feeling crushed inside. Anyway, it’s an absolutely gorgeous programme…maybe someone will ask me to review it..?

Throwback Thursday: The Berlin Philharmonic in Liverpool

14 Thursday May 2015

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Berliner Philharmoniker, Jonathan Kelly, Liverpool Philharmonic, Metro, RLPO, Simon Rattle

There’s one orchestra in the news this week – though let’s be honest, as we saw in  February, everything the Berlin Philharmonic do is newsworthy. Here’s the article that I wrote for Metro in 2008, when they played at the Liverpool Philharmonic Hall as part of the city’s year as European Capital of Culture. I was particularly chuffed to be able to talk to my old Birmingham colleague Jonathan Kelly for this article – not the first great musician to take the journey from Birmingham to Berlin, and not, I rather suspect, the last…


“I don’t want to sound arrogant” says Pamela Rosenberg.  “I think we’re considered to be the flagship orchestra in Germany and I know that our city, and chancellor Angela Merkel, see us as ambassadors.  But internationally, there are a lot of wonderful orchestras – and we’re in the mix”.

Fair enough.  Until, that is, you realise that Rosenberg is General Manager of the Berlin Philharmonic – and suddenly it becomes an understatement on an heroic scale.  For classical music fans, the BPO’s Liverpool gig is the unquestioned climax of 2008.  Tickets sold out months ago.  Because as anyone even remotely interested in classical music knows, the Berlin Philharmonic is arguably the finest orchestra in the world.

And best of all, it’s conducted by a Liverpudlian.  There’s not a music-lover on Merseyside who isn’t choked with pride to see Sir Simon Rattle coming home at the head of this legendary band.  But to appreciate the true significance of Rattle’s appointment as principal conductor in 2002, you need to understand the BPO’s unique place in German culture.  In the first half of the twentieth century, under its visionary conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, it established itself as the supreme interpreter of the great German classics, from Bach through to Wagner.

Later, under the autocratic Herbert von Karajan, it developed a rich, silky-smooth sound that set a new international benchmark for orchestral playing.  “You may never again hear playing as beautiful as this” one critic is said to have told a younger colleague after a BPO concert “but now you know that it can be done”.

Berlin Phil oboist Jonathan Kelly feels the same way.  “I’ve been listening to CDs of this orchestra since I was a boy.  For me it’s always been an ideal”.  And seated bang in the centre of the orchestra, he’s uniquely placed to experience the Berlin sound.

“The sound is part of the orchestra’s tradition, something it’s very proud of” he explains.  “Everyone who joins the orchestra is aware of that, and maybe even adapts their own sound to fit.  What’s special about the sound is that it has this almost animal quality that rises up in concert, like a living thing.  It’s this wonderful dark sound, but also very strong.  This orchestra has incredible reserves of energy.  Everyone, from the front to the back, gives absolutely everything in a concert.  I love that.”

So what prompted the musicians to embrace a conductor as defiantly un-traditional as Rattle?  The BPO’s Liverpool programme – Messiaen’s orgasmic Turangalîla-Symphonie – could hardly be further from the orchestra’s ancestral heartland of Beethoven and Brahms.  Rosenberg sees Rattle’s appointment as proof of the musicians’ commitment to the future.

“I think it was a signal that the orchestra wanted to embrace innovation” she suggests. “Rattle’s broad-minded approach to music, and the huge scope of his interests, from early music to the 21st century – this was of great interest to the musicians.  Now, there’s a synergy – artistic exploration is fed by tradition, and that exploration refreshes the tradition.”  Kelly agrees:

“In some ways he’s found a meeting of two traditions.  Older players in the orchestra, especially the ones who played under Karajan, are very positive about him.  They like the fact that he’s so human.  He’s not a grand maestro type – he just wants to make music with them.”

And no orchestra makes music like the Berlin Phil.  At a time when Liverpool’s own rather fine Philharmonic is scaling new heights, the BPO is an inspiring example of how an orchestra can come to embody a modern city.  Rosenberg has a message for the European Capital of Culture:

“Classical music is vital for the communal health of a city.  It can be a galvanising instrument.  Both in Liverpool and in Berlin, orchestras have the potential to make a huge difference.  An orchestra contributes to both the social and the spiritual life of a city.  Without one, you’re looking at a wasteland”.

Young Orchestra for London

23 Monday Feb 2015

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Barbican, Ben Gernon, Berliner Philharmoniker, Salzburg Festival, Simon Rattle, Young Orchestra for London

I finished my full-time job at the CBSO on 11th February – and haven’t stopped for  a moment since. It’s no secret that freelance work tends to be higher-intensity than work in an office, and I’ve certainly found that to be the case; even more so since I’ve been entirely freelance.

Anyway, I didn’t have any time for nostalgia about my old career because first thing on 12th February, I was chatting on the phone to Gavin Plumley about this year’s Salzburg Festival programme. Then, with barely time for the big mug of freshly-ground coffee I’ve been promising myself as a perk of the freelance job, I was on the train down to London to attend the final rehearsals and debut performance of Sir Simon Rattle’s Young Orchestra for London at the Barbican – an afternoon’s work that, entirely unexpectedly, culminated in my hearing Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker perform the last three Sibelius symphonies. Now that is a perk – and definitely worth the mad sprint to Euston afterwards, just in time for the last train to Lichfield.

After nearly two decades in the orchestra business, it’s encouraging to know that I can still get a bit of a buzz from being given something like this.

20150223_145038

And it was fantastic to catch up with some old colleagues – Ben Gernon and Paul Keene – to meet hitherto Twitter-only acquaintance Kelly Lovelady and, of course, to gather vox pops and backstage stories for the purpose of my visit: a “Digital Essay” on this whole fantastic project. I finished the words on Sunday 15th February and Sidd Khajuria and his team at the Barbican transformed it into a rather fabulous-looking digital account of the Young Orchestra, ready to go live on Friday 20th.

Here it is. It was huge fun to write, but I can’t deny that I’m thrilled with the transformation that Sidd and his colleagues have wrought on my words. This was the first big job of my fully-freelance career, and I couldn’t have asked for a more inspiring one.

 

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