SIMON RATTLE: THE BERLIN YEARS (45 CDS)

The chemistry between tradition and innovation powered Sir Simon Rattle’s relationship with the Berliner Philharmoniker, above all during his time as the orchestra’s Chief Conductor and Artistic Director (2002-2018). As the successor to Wilhelm Furtwängler, Herbert von Karajan and Claudio Abbado, his mission was to take this pre-eminent musical institution into the 21st century. “What Rattle has brought … is a new spirit of adventure,” declared The Times in 2006, and later looked back on the “exhilarating, epoch-hopping eclecticism of Simon Rattle’s era in Berlin”. Through all this Rattle preserved the orchestra’s distinctive sonority, notable, in the words of the New York Times, for its “sheer grandeur … and rich, red-blooded warmth”. He first conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in 1987, and the recordings in this 45CD box span the years from 1994 to 2012. Very much reflecting Rattle’s vision for the orchestra, the symphonic, choral and operatic works range from pillars of Austro-German Classicism, Romanticism and Modernism through French, Russian and Czech repertoire to showcases for contemporary contemporary composers from around the world – and even a film soundtrack. As Rattle said at the end of his tenure in Berlin: “Music is for everybody, and we’ve all believed this.”

CD1        Eine Faust-Symphonie  1:08:54
CD2        Symphony No.10 1:17:23
CD 3-4        Gurrelieder
CD5        Symphony No.5 1:09:07
CD 6-7        Fidelio
CD8        Eclairs Sur L'Au-Delà...1:00:24
CD9        Carmina Burana 59:17
CD 10-11        4 Symphonic Poems
CD12        Prélude à L'Après Midi D'un Faune; La Mer; La Boite à Joujoux, Three Preldues
1:18:48
CD13        Les Illuminations; Serenade; Nocturne 1:14:56
CD14        Ein Heldenleben; Le Bourgeois Gentilhomme (Suite) 1:22:00
CD15        Symphony No.9 'The Great' 57:45
CD16- 1-5        Violin Concerto No.1
CD16- 6-8        Violin Concerto No.1
CD 17-18        Symphonies No.14 & 1
CD 19-20        The Planets / Asteroids / Tevot ....
CD21        Das Parfum (The Story Of A Murderer). Original Motion Picture Soudtrack
1:10:06
CD22        Ein Deutsches Requiem 1:07:08
CD23        Symphony No.4 1:11:20
CD 24-25        Symphonies Nos. 88-92 ; Sinfonia Concertante
CD26        Flute Concerto ; Clarinet Concerto; Wind Quintet 1:09:23
CD27- 1-15        Pictures At An Exhibition
CD27- 16-20        Symphony No.2; Polovtsian Dances
CD 28-29        Symphony No.9
CD29-3        Adagio For Strings
CD30        Symphony In Three Movements; Symphony Of Psalms; Symphony In C 1:15:35
CD31        Symphonie Fantastique; La Mort De Cléopâtre 1:16:00
CD32        L'Enfant Et Les Sortilèges; Ma Mère L'Oye 1:13:02
CD 33-35        Symphonies Nos. 1-4
CD 36-37        The Nutcracker
CD 38-39        Symphonie No.2 'Resurrection'
CD40        Orchestral Works 1:13:43
CD41        Symphony No.9 1:12:11
CD 42-43        Carmen
CD 44        Le Sacre Du Printemps; Symphonies Of Wind Instruments; Apollon Musagète 1:15:38
CD 45        The Bells; Symphonic Dances 1:11:39