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

Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle and the BRSO in Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall

By Rohan Shotton, 11 November 2025

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“treating it as a concerto for orchestra rather than mere ballet accompaniment”

Reviewed at Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool on 10 November 2025

Schumann, Symphony no. 2 in C major, Op.61

Stravinsky, The Firebird

Fauré, Pelléas et Mélisande, Op.80 (excerpt)

Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra

Sir Simon Rattle, Conductor

Vivid Janáček and flowing Bruckner from Rattle and the BRSO

Roy Westbrook, 12th November

The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conclude the UK leg of their European tour at the Barbican, pairing Janáček’s Taras Bulba with Bruckner's Seventh Symphony.

*****

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...

Rohan Shotton

Rohan has reviewed concerts and opera across the UK and Europe, but chiefly in Manchester, where he enjoys conducting and playing percussion and piano. He works as a hospital doctor, having studied in St Andrews and Manchester, and tweets as @RohanShotton.