Prospero | The Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra

London calling

The Berlin Philharmonic and Sir Simon Rattle head to London for what may be their last residency together in Britain

By H.R. | BERLIN

THE Berlin Philharmonic has long been one of the world’s greatest orchestras. It developed its luxurious sound during the tenure of Herbert von Karajan, who was chief conductor between 1954 and 1989, and his legacy persists. The orchestra is still renowned for both the collective beauty of its playing and the virtuosity of its individual players. For Fergus McWilliam, a Scottish horn-player who has been a member since 1985, fierce dedication is what makes the orchestra unique. “We Berlin musicians play passionately and emotionally, throwing ourselves gung-ho into the music,” he says.

Sir Simon Rattle, the Briton who became chief conductor in 2002, after Claudio Abbado, has been eager to put his own stamp on the orchestra. Under his leadership, the number of contemporary works in the repertoire has increased, and he has also established the orchestra’s first educational outreach programme. Now 60, Sir Simon is a star in his own right. But what sets him apart from other conductors is the sheer breadth of music that he has covered in his career. Aside from standard works by the likes of Beethoven, Brahms and Mahler, Sir Simon is at home with French baroque opera, Leonard Bernstein musicals and contemporary works. It is a range that bespeaks a conductor who is keen to keep challenging himself and, by extension, the formidable forces of the Berlin Philharmonic.

The orchestra’s forthcoming residency in London is therefore one of the most hotly anticipated classical music events of 2015. From February 10th-15th it will play a series of concerts at the Barbican Centre and Southbank Centre, and will offer orchestral workshops for young people, a chamber concert and a family concert by "The 12 Cellists of the Berlin Philharmonic".

The orchestra and its conductor are not unfamiliar to British audiences. This will be a second London residency in four years—in 2011 they played a series of five concerts by Mahler, Haydn and Schubert. They also performed at two Proms concerts last year, and Sir Simon regularly conducts the Orchestra for the Age of Enlightenment, a period-instrument ensemble.

This residency will mark the 150th anniversary of the birth of Jean Sibelius, so the first three concerts will present the cycle of the Finnish composer’s seven symphonies, as well as his Violin Concerto, where Leonidas Kavakos will play the solo.

The Philharmonic’s relationship with Sibelius has not always been straightforward, though. Thanks to the influence of writers such as Theodor Adorno, a 20th-century German musicologist who said Sibelius’s music was reactionary and inept, the Finn has never become a staple of the orchestra’s repertoire. Before Sir Simon first conducted the full cycle of Sibelius’s symphonies in 2010, the Philharmonic had never actually played his Third Symphony. When it revisits the Sibelius cycle in 2015, audiences may catch the orchestra’s relationship with the music at just the right moment: when it is still new enough to be exciting, but familiar enough for the players to really understand it.

The residency will be completed with two concerts of Mahler’s massive Second Symphony, paired with “Tableau for Orchestra” (1988-9) by Helmut Lachenmann, a German composer. Though Mahler’s Second 2 has a special importance for Sir Simon (he claims to have been inspired to become a conductor at the age of 11 when he first heard the work), Mr Lachenmann represents a more interesting programming choice. The composer celebrates his 80th birthday in 2015, but this has passed largely unnoticed in Britain. The London residency will, at least briefly, shine a welcome spotlight on this senior figure in musical modernism.

Since Sir Simon will be leaving his post at the Berlin Philharmonic in 2018, the fact that the residency has been sold out comes as no surprise. It could offer a final opportunity for London audiences to see this particularly stellar combination of orchestra and conductor playing together.

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