His return has renewed hopes for a new important salon. The London Symphony performs mainly at the Barbican Center, a space that Mr. Rattle once euphemistically described as “useful”. Plans were made for the Music Center, which would house the orchestra and the Guildhall School of Music and Drama, and would be administered by the Barbican. It would be built on the site of the London Museum, which is in the process of building a new home in West Smithfield.
Rattle has been a mobilizing force behind the Center for Music – designed by architecture firm Diller Scofidio + Renfro, with acoustics in mind – but the project faced difficulties, with unreliable government funding pledges and an uncertain schedule .
On the day of the Brexit vote in 2016, Mr. Rattle was with the London Symphony musicians. Speaking with Agence France-Press last year, he described his tearful reaction. “In fact, we couldn’t start the rehearsal until we had a big discussion,” he said. “The older British musicians were thrilled with what happened to our country – that we are willing to isolate ourselves.”
Like many in the arts, Mr. Rattle was opposed to Brexit. He drew attention to the European roots of the London Symphony, an orchestra conducted initially by Hans Richter. And he expressed concern about the future of tours after Britain risked becoming a “self-built cultural prison”. Although the London Symphony could previously travel to Europe en masse with little bureaucratic headache or delay, it now faces the prospect of a long wait for customs, visas and more.
“Our touring life is completely different,” Rattle told Agence France-Presse.
In Munich, Mr. Rattle will not have to face Brexit problems, but he will once again find himself involved in the construction of a new concert hall in the Werksviertel-Mitte area – a modern contrast to the neoclassical herkulessaal In the center of the city . The project, funded and led by the state of Bavaria, started while Jansons was still alive. Construction is scheduled to begin in 2022 and is likely to take three or four years, Nikolaus Pont, manager of the Bavarian Radio Symphony, said in an interview.
“The inauguration will fall under Simon Rattle’s reign as chief conductor,” said Pont, adding that Rattle would be involved in its development, particularly in its educational programming.