Simon Rattle grits his teeth and flares his nostrils. He raises his silver eyebrows, opens his mouth in vowel shapes, closes his eyes again in an ecstatic expression, bounces his baton off the air. These are his ways of expressing how the music makes him feel. They are also the tics that bother some of the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic. Part of the orchestra finds him tense, nervous, controlling. They want their space to play. At the end of Rattleâs 16-year tenure as music director of the orchestra, their relationship is not unlike a couple thatâs been married for too long. A former member of the Karajan Academy told VAN, âThere are some members who take off as many weeks as they canâ for Rattleâs concerts.
âThe orchestra doesnât look at him anymore,â one string player familiar with the situation in the orchestra said. This loss of âmagnetismâ isnât unique to Rattle. At the end of the Karajan era, his arrogance and hunger for power had completely alienated the orchestra; and when Claudio Abbado retired, he had already become a target for the musiciansâ jokes. A popular impression involved his wavering voice in rehearsing, calling out to groups of instruments: âhorns!â or âflutes!â heâd say, and no one knew exactly what the horns or flutes should do. Tension at the end of the relationship is more the rule than the exception. Maybe it would be healthier for all involved if music directorships lasted closer to five years, or if the orchestra could play a year or two without a music director.

The Berlin Philharmonic makes things unusually difficult for its conductors. Its famous solo players, like Emmanuel Pahud, Albrecht Mayer, Andreas Ottensamer, and others, are used to interpreting music in their own way, and are opinionated and willful. (Many of them conduct on the side as well.) It takes talentâsome might say arroganceâto manage an orchestra that sees itself like Real Madridâs GalĂĄcticos, each player of whom would be the captain of any other team. The orchestra expects a conductor to impress them. âAfter half the rehearsal, the orchestra makes up its mind: letâs just do it ourselves,â a wind player who substitutes with the Philharmonic said. Thatâs when the autopilot switches on. In 2013, it took the group less than an hour to dismiss Jaap van Zweden, the music director designate at the New York Philharmonic, who was substituting for Mariss Jansons. He hasnât been invited back. This is an attitude stemming from the Berlin Philharmonicâs long, legendary traditionâthe orchestra of FurtwĂ€ngler and Karajanâand, maybe, a need to reassure themselves that they still really are the best. Meanwhile, other crack ensembles around the world chip away at that status.
When Rattle was voted music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, in 1999, the result was approximately 60 to 40 percent in his favor. Soon after, rumors began leaking to the press that the musicians were unhappy. Rattle felt humiliated and told the orchestra that such discussions donât belong in public, and requested a vote of no confidence before renewing his contract with the ensemble, in 2009. Again, approximately 60 percent of the musicians voted for him to stay. The episode showed that the musicians were willing to put pressure on him from outside, and that the divisions in the orchestra hadnât been smoothed over. âIt was a pretty ugly story,â said a musician who played in Philharmonic at the time.

With all this in mind, Rattle can come as across too mild-mannered, even âpleasant,â in rehearsal. During rehearsals for Georg Friedrich Haasâs âdark dreamsâ in 2014, the strings goofed off with their glissandi and didnât immediately stop playing when Rattle cut them off, more like a student ensemble than the worldâs most prestigious orchestra. Rattle is âthe nicest and most diplomatic guy on the planet,â the former member of the Karajan Academy said. âBut particularly with this orchestra, if the conductor isnât demanding something bigger than themselves, itâs a free-for-all.â
When Rattle and the orchestra arenât getting along, it makes its way on stage. While the debate about Rattleâs approach to the so-called German sound has been exaggerated, thereâs no denying that in certain repertoire, like Bruckner and Debussy, the orchestra lacks lushness; pizzicati fall flat, and complex textures fail to draw you in. The sound of the orchestra under Rattle can be hard and angular. âThereâs always been a fraction that was in favor of a warmer approach to the sound,â the substitute musician said. âHe always has a knife.â The former Karajan Academy member recently saw the Berlin Philharmonic play Brucknerâs Symphony No. 9 on tour. The performance lacked both the warm of the old style and the freshness of the best of Rattle. âIt was a fuck fest,â he said. âThe orchestra played like hell, but loud and wild, without shape and depth, as if there was no conductor at all.â
In April of 2009, the Berlin Philharmonic was rehearsing Beethovenâs Symphony No. 3 in Salzburg. In the third movement, the Scherzo, a famous horn trio arches up and down an Eb major chord. Radek BaborĂĄk, then the principal horn of the orchestra, wanted to play in passage in a hunting style. Rattle had a different musical idea, which BaborĂĄk felt wasnât explained clearly. The two men argued back and forth, until Rattle finally said, âRadek, just do it, because I am the boss.â
BaborĂĄk joined the Berlin Philharmonic in 2003. He was never a Rattle enthusiast. But starting with their open disagreement about Beethovenâs horn trio, their relationship became particularly tense. Musical discussions âescalated in a few different rehearsals,â BaborĂĄk said. While he was still under contract at the Philharmonic, BaborĂĄk made comments to a Czech journalist mildly criticizing Rattle, and in response, he received a letter of censure from the artistic director and the board. âThey were upset [that] I didnât support the orchestra,â he said. For him, this was in direct contradiction to the Berlin Philharmonicâs understanding of itself as an âorchestra republicâ with a democratic culture. âIâm from a different planet,â BaborĂĄk said. âI was too naive.â

BaborĂĄk believes that several planned concerts with the Philharmonic as a concerto soloist were canceled due to his open defiance of Rattle. (Another orchestra member who remembers the events denies this.) Either way, BaborĂĄk made up his mind that he was ready to move on. He resigned from the orchestra in 2010 to pursue a career as a soloist, chamber musician and conductor. But he was philosophical and good-humored about his time with the Berlin Philharmonic. He spoke to VAN by phone from Japan, where he was conducting, and he seemed happy to be independent and responsible for his own musical decisions. âIâm not a follower,â he said.
For Guy Braunstein, the first concertmaster of the Berlin Philharmonic from 2000 to 2013, the tension with Rattle was what made his time in the orchestra so rewarding. He remembers living in Paris in the summer of 1999, going to the post office to send off some job applications, and seeing the newspaper headlines that Rattle was succeeding Abbado at the orchestra. âMy first reaction was: strange,â he said. But he applied to the job anyway and was accepted. It took only 15 minutes, playing Messiaenâs âEclairs sur lâau-delĂ â under Rattle, for him to realize that the British conductor was the right choice for the orchestra. Rather than trying to overhaul the Berlin Philharmonicâs sound, Rattle âcherry-picked what he liked and added things we didnât possess,â Braunstein said. Rattle dived enthusiastically into Haasâs microtonal world and found a new, clean sound for the classical repertoire. Studying pieces like Schubertâs Symphony No. 9 in C Major âThe Greatâ was âlike going back to school,â Braunstein said. âWe worked like maniacs.â
For Braunstein, Rattleâs rehearsal technique was just right. He didnât âcompromise on his artistry in order to be polite.â In fact, Braunstein admired Rattle for his strong will. Like BaborĂĄk, Braunstein âclashedâ with the conductor, but unlike the Czech hornist, he enjoyed the back-and-forth and felt that it made the orchestra stronger. âThere were times that I wanted to kill him,â Braunstein said. âAnd Iâm sure he still wants to kill me. And thatâs the fun of it.â He continued, âwith some down parts, there were quite a lot of times where he took usâme at leastâto heaven. And thatâs not a contradiction.â

That the Berlin Philharmonic is what Braunstein called a âcollection of very strong personalitiesâ is both its biggest strength and biggest weakness. The struggle can be both invigorating and, eventually, exhausting. Perhaps thatâs why the orchestraâs tolerance for public debate is far lower than its democratic rhetoric would suggest. While reporting this story, VAN reached out to a current active member of the Berlin Philharmonic for comment. The musician forwarded our email to the orchestraâs press representative, who chided us for contacting musicians directly. When we asked if we could speak with a current member of the orchestra about Rattle on the record, the entire ensemble apparently declined. âThe orchestraâs unanimous opinion is that the interview with BaborĂĄk should stand for itself,â the press representative wrote in an email.
So far, Rattle has only given one exit interview, to 128, the official Berlin Philharmonic magazine. âThis orchestra doesnât make life easy for itself,â he said. âBut when youâve reached your goal, and the blisters are healed, then you know that it was worth it.â He added, âYou probably need to be 90 to conduct this orchestra correctly.â In any case, as one orchestra member wrote VAN in an email, âThe relationship ends this season, so thereâs nothing more to talk about.â Rattle will focus his musical energies on the London Symphony Orchestra, and Kirill Petrenko, the music director designate starting in 2019, will lead the Berlin Philharmonic in music by Strauss and Beethoven in their season opener this August. Meanwhile, Herbert-von-Karajan-StraĂe, right outside the Philharmonie, is under construction. Itâs being torn up and rebuilt from scratch. ¶
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