Hear me out: Rattle’s LSO heads down under
NewsSir Simon Rattle will make a farewell tour of Australia with the London Symphony Orchestra next year.
Is this journey really necessary?
Special announcement from the Melbourne Symphony:
The London Symphony Orchestra makes its triumphant return to Melbourne in May 2023 with internationally revered conductor, Sir Simon Rattle leading in his final season as LSO Music Director.
Among the world’s finest orchestras, this is the first LSO Australian tour since 2014, and only their fourth trip Down Under in their 120-year history. Melbourne will provide a fitting finale for this special, three-city tour and we invite you to hear them at their ‘magnificent, virtuosic best’ over two extraordinary programs in Hamer Hall. Featuring 114 musicians, this will be the largest orchestra the LSO has ever brought to Australia.
On Friday 5 May, the LSO perform signature favourites: John Adams’ Harmonielehre, La Mer by Debussy, and Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé Suite No.2
On Saturday 6 May, the program described by Sir Simon Rattle is one of the ‘most astonishing, surprising, and most forward-looking’ of Mahler’s symphonies, the Seventh!
The MSO is proud to present our dear friends from London, and to share our home with them over two special evenings.
According to the MSO’s website, the London Symphony Orchestra performances are supported by the Gandel Foundation, through the MSO’s Now & Forever Future Fund. I would be very interested to hear from MSO management as to whether any financial resources have been diverted from those specifically allocated to support the MSO.
Is this journey necessary? Well orchestras still rely on touring to establish and maintain their international reputation, and this, in tun, assists ticket sales. Probabl, it’s easier to travel to Melbourne that tour around Europe under Brexit bureaucracy these days!
I think that you’ve answered your own question. And Brexshit is a complete disaster for all British musicians wanting to perform in the EU, even if your conductor now has a German passport.
Six years on and you are still throwing your toys out of your pram.
Surely Australia is as entitled to hear top quality orchestras as any other country?
I agree. Looking at Birmingham’s THSH offerings of international orchestras for next season, we still have some way to go to get to pre-Brexshit levels.
The local council before Brexit decided to radically cut funding for the international series.
Still nobody knows why he left the Berlin Philharmonic.
If he’d anticipated Brexshit, he might not have. We’ll never know.
Because sixteen years is a long enough tenure, for both sides. What more do you need?
Because of Karajan we assume a conductor
Will stay for life. Things have changed.
Very likely he and the Berlin Philharmonic know, so that’s almost everybody. (who should know why)
Now touring is forbidden? On whose authority? I’m reading Julian Barnes’ book on Shostakovich. I’m recognizing far too many details.
Why do you ask if it is necessary? Orchestral touring is part of the concert life of any major outfit. Is there a reason why they should not go to Australia? Unless of course the issue is to do with air travel and green issues, in which case I guess there is something to debate.
I agree with both your comments. So far as the green is concerned, going there by boat would probably be even less green, musicians need to travel around the world & we want to hear them.
What is “necessary”? The LSO clearly thinks there will be the audiences for the tour. Isn’t that enough?
Is any journey really necessary?
The journey toward death is compulsory..
I know there’s a lot of talk about whether orchestras should keep touring, carbon footprints and all, but that doesn’t mean they shouldn’t do it at all. So one plane will fly to Sydney, Melbourne, and I would guess Perth or Brisbane? Out of thousands of planes that fly every day. They do have terrific orchestras Down Under, but still good for them to hear the likes of the LSO on occasion.
I attended two concerts in Sydney recently. Despite both programmes being repeated, both concerts were almost sold out.
Clearly there are those in Australia who love classical music.
Perhaps the BBC should invite the Sydney Symphony to play at the Proms.
Indeed they should.
yes….a fabulous orchestra.Like the Melbourne Symphony,who gave a fantastic prom under Sir Andrew some years ago.
Totally superfluos question…It is necessary because Australians can hear a top orchestra under a top conductor live…Same as i enjoy them coming to Germany,where i live….period
Recommendation requested. Of the three programs Le Mer, Mahler 7 and Bruckner 7 which do you suggest will see Rattle and LSO at their best?
If Rattle’s conducting the Mahler 7.
I wouldn’t go with Bruckner 7, Rattle’s Bruckner is a bit questionable, at least for me.
I’d go for either the Debussy/Ravel/Adams or Mahler 7.
More power to Melbourne for achieving this coup. Grand visit for LSO awaits a classical-music-hungry city.
They’re playing Brisbane and Sydney as well
This is great news, but I must confess to some disappointment with the programmes as listed. We are not exactly starved of very fine Mahler performances down here, and apart from the Adams, this is all pretty standard. Where is the Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Tippett, etc., etc., played by an orchestra which has them all as part of its DNA?
Given that the mandolin is completely inaudible in Rattle’s Birmingham recording of Mahler 7 on EMI (not a huge issue, I know), it wouldn’t hurt my feelings if LSO Live were to issue a Rattle conducted recording of it. Then again, the L.S.O. has already made two really good recordings of M7 with their fine brass section: Michal Tilson Thomas (RCA) and V. Gergiev (LSO Live). They’re among the better Mahler recordings from both of those conductors. . . . If you buy the Berlin Phil’s own box of live Mahler performances, that does have both a very good Mahler 7 and 8 from Sir Simon (Says). The 8th from Berlin was the last recording of the tenor part being sung by the late Johan Botha.
For those still fighting the battle of Brexit, or the Battle of Hastings, it is worth pointing out that any touring visa issues in EU countries for UK orchestras are entirely down to EU intransigence, as with other sectors.
Australia are an ally of the UK not a hostile entity. A member of the Five Eyes security alliance no less.Therefore the LSO can head down under with no problems.
In the past week both the Vienna Symphony Orchestra and the Oslo Philharmonic have played in the UK at the Proms. Do you seriously think the UK government roadblocks up to hinder that process?
Cue Remainer abuse….
Non-Australian musicians need to have a visa to perform in Australia. It costs a few hundred dollars to get the visa and they need supporting documents.