Simon Rattle

The Briton was born in Liverpool in 1955, studied percussion and conducting. At 25, he became chief conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Since 2002 he has been principal conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.

 

“Listening to Wagners music you always need a psychiatrist and in some ways it makes you sick, yes,” said the great english conductor”, “sooner or later you come to the point that the narcotic effect of his music, the intoxication you can no longer escape.”

 

In an interview Simon Rattle was asked if he loved Wagner? The answer was a clear „yes“ – and then the postscript: in any case the musician. And yet it becomes more and more difficult for him to perform Wagner’s music, after all, what he has read about him. He said that he would prefer to ignore what Wagner has written about Jews and anti-Semitism.

“The more I read about Richard Wagner the harder it is for me to perform his music. He must have been a terrible man. Here, however, one wonders: Who betrays who? Parsifal, the „Judaism in Music“ or „Judaism in Music“ Parsifal? Yes, anyway, for me it’s love. And there is little that can you make addictive as Wagner’s Die Walküre or Götterdämmerung” (see and listen to  these two youtube videos).

https://youtu.be/1aKAH_t0aXA

 

https://youtu.be/BmX9N8C8nko