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Conductor to take up new position with Bavarian Radio Symphony in 2023
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Simon Rattle has revealed that he is to step down as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra in 2023 to take up the post of chief conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra (BRSO) in Munich. He will continue working with the LSO as lifetime conductor emeritus, a position previously held by André Previn.
Rattle is leaving a good deal sooner than was hoped, but the conductor says that his reasons for the latest move in his distinguished career are ‘entirely personal, enabling me to better manage the balance of my work and be close enough to home to be present for my children in a meaningful way’. Home for Rattle means Berlin where, following his 16-year spell as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, he still lives with his wife, the Czech mezzo-soprano Magdalena Ko ená, and three children. His departure from London will bring an end to just six years with the LSO, having taken over from Valery Gergiev in 2017.
For its part, the LSO has said in a statement that Rattle’s final couple of years in post will see him continue a variety of projects including ‘a cycle of Janá ek operas, a number of ambitious new commissions and his continued work with young people on our east London music education problems’.
The conductor has also led the way in calling for the construction of a new concert hall in London, a project that he hoped to see to its fruition and which is presumably now on ice. A new venue, coincidentally, is also something that he will presumably want to address in Munich, which is similarly lacking a world-class venue. In taking on the role with the BRSO, he follows in the footsteps of Colin Davis, Lorin Maazel and Rafael Kubelík, as well as the orchestra’s most recent chief conductor Mariss Jansons, who died in December 2019.
Rattle has signed an initial five-year contract with the German orchestra, e ective from the 2023/24 concert season. In the meantime, the LSO will begin its search to find a successor to greats such as Pierre Monteux, André Previn, Claudio Abbado and, of course, Rattle himself, in what remains one of the most prestigious conducting jobs in the world.
See Richard Morrison, p25
Simon Rattle led the way in calling for a new concert hall in London