RATTLED

The Berlin Philharmonic has been counting on Simon Rattle, its new music director, to infuse new life into the orchestra. But the conductor’s recipe for doing that has some a little nervous. “Rattle has made it clear that the Berliners will be lucky to get Brahms once a year, and should be thinking more in terms of Adès and Turnage. He told a German publication that the orchestra plays beautifully ‘but also very loudly’; that it will have to start justifying its annual subsidy; that it should stop turning its nose up at crossover music; that it should spend more time in Germany, instead of trying to be the touring orchestra with the best Tchaikovsky Fifth; that it can no longer expect people to roll up at its doors in time-honoured fashion.” – Financial Times