Simon Rattle and the new London concert hall...

[Petrushka]

Valery Gergiev has announced his departure from the London Symphony Orchestra when his contract expires in 2015 to take over the Munich Philharmonic. His contract there runs until 2020 thus ruling him out of the running for Berlin.

There looks like being a fair amount of jockeying for position in the conducting world in the coming months.

So who would be the right man (or woman) for the LSO?

[Nick Armstrong]

Thanks Pet - much more sensible to have a special thread for this, (rather than my earlier tacking it onto the BPO thread).

I read this on Jessica Duchen's blog: http://jessicamusic.blogspot.co.uk/

Has anyone heard/seen Gábor Takács-Nagy, about whom she speaks?

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feat...2R1Fg_q5WZ2EZ9

[Dave2002]

Thanks Pet - much more sensible to have a special thread for this, (rather than my earlier tacking it onto the BPO thread).

I read this on Jessica Duchen's blog: http://jessicamusic.blogspot.co.uk/

Has anyone heard/seen Gábor Takács-Nagy, about whom she speaks?

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?feat...2R1Fg_q5WZ2EZ9

I think he did one of the BBC Maida Vale Invitation concerts (freebies) with the BBCSO maybe 7 or 8 years ago. I can't remember the details, though I think it was a decent concert. I've not been there recently.

[Barbirollians]

George Osborne at The Ring - erm which character I wonder - Alberich perhaps ?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

How about the Liverpudlian from Berlin?

[BBMmk2]

Oh that's a pity! I thought there was something special going on there! The projects he has done with them were very good, imo.

[Petrushka]

Oh that's a pity! I thought there was something special going on there! The projects he has done with them were very good, imo.

A certain staleness in the relationship has been noted in recent months so time for Gergiev and the LSO to move on. Has no-one any thoughts as to the likely successor or have we all had enough of guessing Rattle's in Berlin? Plenty of musical chairs will be going on in the months and years ahead as the conducting world reshapes itself.

[BBMmk2]

Gianandrea Noseda?

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

Rattle returning to Britten would be good for more than just whatever orchestra he were to conduct. His campaigning for better musical education is sorely missed. In many ways, it has suffered in his absence. Just don't get me started on the utterly appalling SingUp.

[Thropplenoggin]

Jonathan Nott.

I wonder if part of the test for applicants will be to see if they conduct with something smaller than a cocktail stick.

[bluestateprommer]

One place to start looking might be the LSO's 2013-2014 schedule, accessible from this page (the pdf doesn't have a direct HTML link that I see):

http://www.lso.co.uk/2013-14-season

In terms of conductors who might be in the running, and who have already guested with the orchestra, the younger names that stand out are:

Daniel Harding
Gianandrea Noseda
Antonio Pappano

Mark Elder and John Eliot Gardiner also are on the roster as guest conductors for next season, but given their ages, I doubt that either is in the running. Rattle is also on the guest roster, with an unusually standard program for him (Beethoven Violin Concerto & Brahms 4). One wonders, though, if having led the charge to get Symphony Hall in Birmingham built, he would really want to conduct regularly in the Barbican, given what I understand of their antipodal reputations as concert halls, in terms of acoustics (I haven't heard music live in either, mind you; I'm just going by their respective reputations).

By default, with Harding as one of the LSO's principal guest conductors, this presumably has worked out as a long-term test run to see if DH might have the stuff to be principal conductor. It's been several years now, so they've obviously had plenty of opportunities to evaluate him, and presumably they know now if they would want him for the top job, or not. Obviously, though, I don't know anyone in the orchestra and don't have the opportunity to gauge shop talk as to how they rate various conductors, whereas others here might.

But going on gut feeling at a distance rather than any first-hand observation or knowledge, I wonder if Noseda might be top of the list. I would imagine that GN stepping in for Sir Colin Davis for that performance of the War Requiem that made it to LSO Live raised his stock with the orchestra. The fact that GN is starting off the fall season, with no less than a concert performance of Rigoletto, might also lend credence to the idea.

OTOH, in the brochure, you'll note this section at the beginning:

"The LSO invites …

Over the next three years the LSO is inviting a panoply of conductors to the podium to guest conduct them in repertoire synonymous with the Orchestra. The line-up includes established conductors new to the LSO but not to London, such as Daniele Gatti, Thomas Dausgaard and Jonathan Nott, two conductors well-known to the Orchestra as violinists, Leonidas Kavakos and Nikolaj Znaider, plus James Gaffigan and Jaap van Zweden.

9 concerts with 8 new faces:
Thomas Dausgaard 25 Sep 2013
Jaap van Zweden 9 Feb 2014
James Gaffigan 13 Feb 2014
Daniele Gatti 27 Apr 2014
Nikolaj Znaider 1 May 2014
Leonidas Kavakos 6 Jun 2014
Fabio Luisi 19 & 22 Jun 2014
Jonathan Nott 29 Jun 2014"

Instinctly, I doubt that the LSO would be the kind of band to choose a conductor on the basis of one guest-conducting appearance, although with Gergiev, that wasn't far off, since his 2004 concerts of the complete Prokofiev symphonies were collectively his 2nd appearance with them, after a 16-year absence. By all reports, sparks flew from those 2004 concerts, which led to the choice of Gergiev as principal conductor. So who knows.

BTW, and FWIW, Jessica Duchen relied on Lebrecht regarding Gergiev's departure. While it's perfectly plausible that Gergiev will stand down in 2016, it's worth nothing that there hasn't been a formal announcement from LSO as of yet. Since Lebrecht's reputation, such as it is, precedes him, any news from him needs to be taken with a grain, if not a pillar (bad for the heart), of salt. Of course, the LSO may want to wait until the formal election of a new principal conductor, and then to do a joint announcement.

[amateur51]

Rattle returning to Britten would be good for more than just whatever orchestra he were to conduct. His campaigning for better musical education is sorely missed. In many ways, it has suffered in his absence. Just don't get me started on the utterly appalling SingUp.

I think it would a great shame if he were only to programme Britten with the LSO

[MrGongGong]

Rattle returning to Britten would be good for more than just whatever orchestra he were to conduct. His campaigning for better musical education is sorely missed. In many ways, it has suffered in his absence. Just don't get me started on the utterly appalling SingUp.

GO on
(start a new thread)

hope your "hubs" are functioning well
from what I glean on my travels its more than a little patchy

[AjAjAjH]

Gianandrea Noseda?

O dear no. In Manchester we had to put up with is sighs, sobs, grunts, groan and jumping up and down on the podium when he was with the BBC Philharmonic and I wouldn't wish that on any audience. Ever.

[Eine Alpensinfonie]

GO on
(start a new thread)

hope your "hubs" are functioning well
from what I glean on my travels its more than a little patchy

Starved of funds, they will become sick and may die.