Rattle Charts New Course for Berlin Philharmonic Fri Nov 14, 9:31 PM ET By Anastasia Tsioulcas http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&u=/nm/20031115/music_nm/music_classical_rattle_dc NEW YORK (Billboard) - During his recent visit to New York, I sat down with Sir Simon Rattle, the Berlin Philharmonic's dynamic 48-year-old English music director and EMI Classics artist, to discuss his second year at what may well be the world's best orchestra. "I love wine," Sir Simon says, "and Berlin is a really deep, rich red. I want to choose repertoire that suits that palate." The conductor sees many opportunities to expand the orchestra's reach. "I looked at what the orchestra has been playing in the past 20 years. They had done more Mahler and Brahms than any other composer," he says, "but almost no Mozart or Haydn. On the contemporary front, they had played a lot of Kurtag and Rihm and some Ligeti, but never John Adams or Magnus Lindberg, just to pick out two great names. "I want to give this great big bird as many colored feathers as it can take," he says. "I'm doing the big central pieces, but we're also doing works like Messiaen's 'Eclairs sur l'Au-Dela,' which the whole orchestra feels is such a raving masterpiece. And we're going to record the extraordinary Dvorak late tone poems, which nobody knows." What does Sir Simon see as his role in Berlin? "My job," he says, "is to build the orchestra, build on its extraordinary tradition and expand it. It's such a young group now; there are so many players in their 20s. I'm one of the only gray-haired people there!" he says with a laugh. "And it's a very international group as well. As one of the older musicians reminded me, we don't have a shared memory of how 'we' play very much music, so we need to build up this generation's foundation." What has the response been in Berlin thus far? "Although more people canceled their subscriptions than usual after my first year," he notes, "many more people have come in as new subscribers. They are definitely seeing the shift in the music and in the orchestra." While many labels and orchestras bemoan declines, perhaps they should take their cues from Sir Simon, who continues to clear a new path and set a new pace. Reuters/Billboard -Neb Rodgers <[log in to unmask]>