Vivid Janáček and flowing Bruckner from Rattle and the BRSO

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

By Roy Westbrook, 13 November 2025

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“Rattle achieved a peak of eloquence in this slow movement”

Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 12 November 2025

Janáček, Taras Bulba

Bruckner, Symphony no. 7 in E major, WAB 107

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor

Sir Simon Rattle opens the Bavarian RSO tour on his home turf

Rohan Shotton, 10th November

Sir Simon Rattle returns to Liverpool to conduct his new orchestra, the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, in Schumann and Stravinsky.

*****

Rattle and the BRSO offer a glimmer of hope in epic Mahler 6

Nick Boston, 6th September

Stunning orchestral colour from the BRSO, with command and total coherency from Sir Simon Rattle in Mahler's “Tragic” Symphony.

*****

Adès and Bruckner: Rattle and his Bavarians arrive at the Proms

Roy Westbrook, 5th September

Sir Simon Rattle awards Thomas Adès a Royal Philharmonic Society medal during the first visit this summer of the BRSO to the BBC Proms.

****1

Rattle and the Bavarian RSO return to Carnegie Hall

Susan Stempleski, 3rd May

Winding up his inaugural tour with the BRSO, new Chief Conductor Sir Simon Rattle delivered a superbly performed program of Wagner, Adès and Beethoven.

****1

Sir Simon Rattle brings the BRSO to Philadelphia in Mahler 6

Cameron Kelsall, 1st May

After an eight-year absence, Rattle returned to deliver the kind of Mahler performance only he can offer: probingly intelligent and wonderfully idiosyncratic.

*****

Rattle's penultimate instalment of the Ring cycle in Hamburg

Alexander Hall, 8th February

A long stellar night of supremely assured singing and playing in Wagner's Siegfried, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Sir Simon Rattle on top form.

*****

More reviews...

Roy Westbrook

Roy Westbrook gained a diploma in music history at London University (Morley College) and was for some years the head of music day schools at Oxford University, where he also led music summer schools. After some years leading the University's business school he has returned to music teaching and writing, and recently took part in the Arts in Residence courses on Bruckner, Mahler and Bach He is co-author (with Terry Barfoot) of a history of opera, and has taught day schools on Sibelius in Oxford and elsewhere.

Vivid Janáček and flowing Bruckner from Rattle and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra