Simon Rattle to leave the LSO

[alison]

Surprised nobody's yet commented on yesterday's rather shock announcement that Sir Simon Rattle is to step down from his position at the head of the London Symphony Orchestra (he's off to Germany to take on the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, "replacing" the late Mariss Jansons).  Did he give any particular reason why?  It's perhaps not the most obvious step I could have thought of.

[Guest oncnp]

51 minutes ago, alison said:

Surprised nobody's yet commented on yesterday's rather shock announcement that Sir Simon Rattle is to step down from his position at the head of the London Symphony Orchestra (he's off to Germany to take on the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, "replacing" the late Mariss Jansons).  Did he give any particular reason why?  It's perhaps not the most obvious step I could have thought of.

 

From the Guardian

"Rattle said his reasons for accepting the Munich job were “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”.

 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/11/simon-rattle-extends-contract-london-symphony-orchestra-conductor-bavarian

 

Also from the BBC

 

"According to The Times, one of the main reasons for Sir Simon's departure was the declining prospect of a new concert hall being built for the LSO in London."

 

Edited January 13, 2021 by oncnp

[Ian Macmillan]

From Richard Morrison, The Times' Arts chief, on Monday:

 

Why Simon Rattle is leaving London: Brexit, family and Britain’s indifference to classical music

 

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ca04b450-541d-11eb-b0d0-071d11d2d557?shareToken=f1eb3e58ba4895b167bb9373a5766158

 

And another view from Charlotte Higgins in today's Guardian:

 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/13/simon-rattle-leaving-london-taste-future-concert-hall

 

 

 

 

[JohnS]

All good wishes to Simon Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra but desperately sad for London and the the UK. The various discussions on the reasons for his decision (in addition to personal/family reasons) make for very uncomfortable reading.

[alison]

Thank you (especially for the Times article): it does mention several of the reasons I thought were likely, but didn't want to speculate on, although I hadn't realised that Rattle was still mainly based in Berlin, which would explain a lot.

[Sebastian]

There has been some discussion here:

 

https://slippedisc.com/2021/01/breaking-rattle-extends-with-london-while-signing-for-munich/

 

https://slippedisc.com/2021/01/is-brexit-the-reason-for-rattles-move-to-munich/

 

https://slippedisc.com/2021/01/after-rattle-where-does-the-lso-turn/

 

 

 

[Pas de Quatre]

Maintaining Berlin as his main residence with his young family living there shows how much he had committed to London. I can't help feeling it is wrong for a few famous names to hoover up several prestgious appointments, rather like Directorships in the City.  This sort of jet setting commute between countries is not good for music in the long run, it blocks younger talent and is certainly not ecologically sound.

[Guest oncnp]

and is becoming a German citizen.....

 

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2021/jan/16/simon-rattle-applies-for-german-citizenship-brexit

[JohnS]

“The fact that musicians and artists in general suddenly have to get visas for Europe is absolutely not the Brexit bonus we were talking about. We will have to fight it.” Saddened to see but I fear this is the reality.

[Guest oncnp]

Curious....How difficult is it to get a visa? At the moment, I suspect very but once the dust settles? He makes it sound as if its/will be impossible but does anyone really know what the situation will be by the time artists will be able to travel to the EU?

 

Aren't guestings planned months/years in advance?  The ROH has said it plans opera singers 5 years in advance and at least one of the dancers I follow has talked about guestings being planned a year in advance.  Will it take that long to get a visa? Is it impossible to build the lag time into planning horizons? 

[Jan McNulty]

Brexit brings with it very strong opinions on both sides of the debate.

 

The answer is that we just don't know.  As a point of interest, of course, foreign artistes are going to have to get visas to perform here and that can be very difficult as one or two non-European dancers have found to their cost in the past (one of them being Australian).

[Lizbie1]

I think, to put it bluntly, it depends how much the hiring organisation wants you. In-demand performers might find it makes little difference, whereas lower down the ranks it could well be harder to find work in Europe, though as Jan alludes to this is nothing many other nationalities haven't dealt with when performing here and in the EU.

 

I saw one prominent Australian singer being fairly short on sympathy for his British colleagues on this matter - FWIW, while he was at it he gave an example of being hired to cover in Germany for an ailing singer at very short notice, with paperwork being completed retrospectively IIRC. But he is an internationally known singer in quite a specialised repertoire, so they will have been strongly motivated to make things happen.