Do I detect a certain favouritism towards Simon Rattle in this "Guardian"
article...? I say, "Make an old man happy - appoint Lorin Maazel!"

   Rattle set for classic music's top job.  Conductor could pip Daniel
   Barenboim to the post in contest to head the Berlin Philharmonic.

   Fiachra Gibbons, Arts Correspondent and Kate Connolly
   Saturday June 12, 1999

   Simon Rattle is on the point of pulling off a spectacular coup by
   stealing the most coveted job in classical music from Daniel Barenboim.
   The wunderkind - who rescued the City of Birmingham symphony orchestra
   from provincial obscurity - is mounting a late challenge for the
   baton of the Berlin Philharmonic, the world's greatest orchestra.
   Until this week, when he performed three barnstorming concerts with
   the orchestra, Rattle was the rank outsider for a job which had long
   been assumed was Barenboim's for the taking.

   But the series of "heart-stopping" concerts has placed the 44-year-old
   conductor in pole position to take over from departing musical director
   Claudio Abbado.  The influential daily Die Welt said his performances
   had overshadowed all others.  "In the public's eye, Rattle has already
   been chosen as Abbado's successor."

   Ambition

   Barenboim, 56, has made no secret of his ambition to emulate his
   hero, Herbert Von Karajan - who led the orchestra for three decades
   - or his willingness to ditch the Chicago Symphony Orchestra if the
   call came.

   A child prodigy, he is one of the most gifted pianists as well
   as conductors of the post-war era.  His tumultuous marriage to the
   cellist Jacqueline Du Pre helped make both of them superstars.  No
   Jew has led the philharmonic, so his appointment has always been seen
   as a way of symbolically setting to rest the ghosts of its collaboration
   with the Nazis.

   Uniquely, the musicians themselves choose their own musical director.
   The process is shrouded in the kind of secrecy and intrigue which
   usually surrounds the election of a pope.  Preliminary elections are
   believed to be taking place this weekend, with a final, second-round
   vote on June 23.  The winning candidate must get a 51% majority.

   While Barenboim is said to have strong support from the orchestra's
   conservative element - the first woman was only admitted after a
   titanic struggle by Von Karajan in the 1980s - Rattle is the favourite
   of the younger players.

   Tactics

   In a shrewd political move, Rattle included a piece for strings by
   one of the orchestra's viola players, the Australian Brad Dean, in
   one of his concert programmes.  German critics have also been struck
   by the "visible joy" displayed by the orchestra when working with
   him.  Rattle's willingness to tackle new work, and reinterpret old
   stalwarts of the repertoire, has won him many fans on the platform.

   It was his radical rethinking of Haydn's rather dull 1788 symphony
   number 90 which really surprised and delighted Berliners.  The Berlin
   newspaper Der Tagesspiegel said he "overshadowed the rest of the
   capital's impressive classical offerings" and marvelled at how he
   had produced "such a wise, exciting performance hardly ever associated
   with the eternally undervalued Haydn."

   Die Welt praised his daring sense of humour in teasing the audience
   with false endings, "the man is first and foremost an entertainer.
   It is not possible to play with more enthusiasm and with such obvious
   enjoyment."

   "Rattle pushed the meticulously well-rehearsed philharmonic musicians
   to the very edge of their enormous technical abilities," echoed
   Berliner Morgenpost.  "Spectacular, unexpected and wonderful, he has
   shown his rivals the stuff out of which remarkable concerts are made."

   Rattle took six months out of his hectic concert schedule some
   years ago to master German, and it has been rumoured that Berlin's
   great rival, the Vienna Philharmonic, has considered abandoning its
   traditional reluctance to submit to a musical director in order to
   tempt him to Austria.  The Salzburg Festival, too, has long hankered
   after him.

   Strict secrecy

   If Rattle is appointed it would complete an unlikely British double
   on Potsdamer Platz with Sir Norman Foster's triumphant redesigned
   Reichstag.  Barenboim, however, is still the bookmaker's favourite.
   He already runs the nearby Staatsoper, and has also been groomed to
   succeed Wolfgang Wagner at the opera house at Bayreuth, the first
   non-family member linked with a job which has profound historical
   resonances.

   The philharmonic is remaining tight-lipped.  A spokeswoman said the
   dates of the election were only known by the musicians.  The candidates
   have not officially been announced, and everything about it is
   unofficial.  The contest is conducted in strict secrecy," she said.
   "As soon as the musicians make a decision they are likely to go public
   with it.  All I can say is that the philharmonic is well known for
   being surprising."

   Leaders: Power plays

   Sir Simon Rattle
   Born Liverpool, 1955
   Education Royal Academy of Music, London
   Career Music director, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra,
   1990-98; Principal guest conductor, Orchestra of the Age of
   Enlightenment, since 1992; Associate conductor, Royal Liverpool
   Philharmonic Soc, 1977-80 Conducted Northern Sinfonia; London
   Philharmonic; London Sinfonietta; Berlin Philharmonic; Boston
   Symphony; Stockholm Philharmonic; Toronto Symphony Awards Bournemouth
   John Player International Conducting Competition aged 19; Chevalier
   des Arts et des Lettres (France); Shakespeare Prize, Toepfer Foundation,
   Hamburg; Albert Medal, RSA, 1997

   Record contract EMI

   Daniel Barenboim
   Born Buenos Aires, 1942
   Education Santa Cecilia Academy, Rome
   Career Musical director, Berlin state opera, since 1992; Chicago
   Symphony Orchestra since 1991; Musical director, Orchestre de Paris,
   1975-88; Leading role in Brighton Festival 1967-69; Pianist with NY
   Philharmonic Orchestra, 1964; Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, 1963;
   Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, 1956; debut with Israel Philharmonic
   Orchestra, 1953 Conducted English Chamber Orchestra; Berlin
   Philharmonic; New York Philharmonic; Chicago Philharmonic; Vienna
   Philharmonic Awards Beethoven Medal, Paderewski Medal; Legion of
   Honour (France), 1987

   Record contract Warner Classics

James Kearney
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