Simon Rattle

Latest Articles

All you need is love

Marylou Speaker Churchill memorial, Emmanuel Music’s Haydn/Schoenberg, and more
Outpourings of love have been flooding the Boston musical scene.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | April 21, 2010

Conductor karaoke

Xavier Le Roy at the ICA
Surrealists who work with movement have to manage a demanding slight-of-hand.
By DEBRA CASH | April 06, 2010

BLO's The Turn of the S crew, Levine's Carter and Simon Boccanegra, Teatro Lirico, the Berlin Philharmonic Wind Quintet, and more
Boston Lyric Opera's debut Opera Annex production was so good in so many ways, it's painful that one bad idea just about sank it.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | February 09, 2010

2009: The year in Classical

Beating the quease
This was a queasy year for classical music.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | January 04, 2010

Open spaces

The BSO's Brahms, Ben Zander's Wagner, Collage New Music, and the BEMF's Handel
In my review of the memorable Brahms performances Sir Simon Rattle led with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra for the Celebrity Series of Boston last month, I should have mentioned that one decision responsible for the beauty and spaciousness of the orchestral sound was the placement of the first and second violin sections on opposite sides of the stage.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 02, 2009

Creationists

Simon Rattle and the BPO, Fabio Luisi and the BSO, John Harbison and Emmanuel Music
Simon Rattle and the BPO, Fabio Luisi and the BSO, John Harbison and Emmanuel Music
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 18, 2009

Baroque and beyond

Betting on the best this fall
Ten-best lists usually come at the end of the season, but this year the Phoenix has asked its critics to provide a calendar of 10 events that, at least on paper, might wind up on an end-of-season Top 10. Boston, in case you didn't know it, is a great city for classical music, so it's not easy to keep the list short. But here goes.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 14, 2009

Love and loss

Classical: 2007 in review
Boston’s biggest classical-music story this year was also its saddest.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 18, 2007

Hail and farewell

The Berlin Philharmonic’s Mahler, the St. Lawrence String Quartet, and the BSO’s Smetana
The season’s most eagerly awaited (and, with its $187 top ticket price, most expensive) classical concert was not a disappointment.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | November 27, 2007

Not quite eternal

Simon Rattle and the Berlin Philharmonic in Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde
When what’s arguably the world’s best symphony orchestra expectations run high.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 26, 2007

Voice of authority

Thomas Quasthoff holds forth
German baritone Thomas Quasthoff has overcome adversity (his mother took Thalidomide) to become the outstanding German lieder singer of his generation.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 14, 2007

The people's choice?

Gustavo Dudamel and the Simón Bolívar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel, in case you hadn’t heard, is the 26-year-old Venezuelan conductor who’s going to save classical music.
By JEFFREY GANTZ | November 08, 2007

The hottest and brightest

Rescued by music
The New England Conservatory is bringing to Symphony Hall the hottest of young conductors.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 16, 2008

World music

The BSO goes traveling, and Berlin comes to Boston
There’s more to Boston’s classical music scene than the Boston Symphony Orchestra.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | September 12, 2007

Heroics

Ricardo Chailly and the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Teatro Lirico, and the BSO’s latest guests
It’s been eight years since Ricardo Chailly made his last Boston appearance.
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | March 13, 2007

Changing lives

The New England Conservatory’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra visits Venezuela and Brazil
People who love the arts are fond of saying that art changes our lives. Slideshow: The New England Conservatory’s Youth Philharmonic Orchestra visits Venezuela and Brazil
By LLOYD SCHWARTZ | December 15, 2006

Good vibrations?

Roger Norrington cleans up classical music
The string vibrato developed as an orchestral sonority only in the 20th century. Does that mean that your favorite performances of everyone from Bach to Berg don’t really sound the way the composer intended?
By JEFFREY GANTZ | March 14, 2006

Size isn’t everything

Schoenberg’s Gurrelieder
Phase one of the BSO’s two-year Beethoven/Schoenberg project continues next week with three performances of Gurrelieder , Schoenberg’s three-part cantata/song cycle/symphony, led by James Levine.
By DAVID WEININGER | February 14, 2006