Sir Simon Rattle _320
SIR Simon Rattle returned home to Liverpool last night for a string of special engagements including a return to conducting the RLPO, and finally getting round to taking up his Freedom of the City.
Straight from landing at John Lennon Airport last night, he rushed right into a press conference at the Bluecoat with assembled media, casually dressed in a hippy-ish light grey shirt.
Despite being held up for more than 90 minutes, the conductor took it all in his stride with his familiar irrepressible grin.
"It’s great to be back," he said.
It marks the second visit to the place of his birth in just under a month, following a sensational appearance with his Berlin Philharmonic in September.
"What was completely extraordinary was the waves of memories that came over me as soon as I walked into the hall last month," he said.
"In some ways – in a very good way – it was like a procession of ghosts, so many things that had been at the back of my mind coming back.
"I learned what an orchestra sounds like from Liverpool Phil, and what a concert hall was at that hall.
"As a little kid, I just wandered into everybody’s rehearsals at the time and every concert I could get in to.
"For me, it is a very important musical homecoming."
Tomorrow, he picks up his scroll giving him Freedom of the City of Liverpool in a special ceremony at the Town Hall – an honour that was actually bestowed upon him in 2001.
"I’m looking forward to seeing what hidden bonuses come with it. In Birmingham [where he is awarded freedom of the city] I’m allowed to drive sheep through Corporation Street," he said.
"But it’s great. When you’re born here and a Scouser there could be nothing more lovely."
Sir Simon’s relationship with the Philharmonic dates back to 1966, when he joined the Merseyside Youth Orchestra at the tender age of 11 – two years earlier than children were usually allowed.
By the age of 20, he was conducting the orchestra proper with a piece he returns to conduct at Thursday’s sold out concert at his own request, Sibelius’s Fifth, alongside two extracts from Wagner’s Ring and a world premiere of a new commission by composer Brett Dean, Songs of Joy.
Still close to his heart, he says that the RLPO is something the city must really look after.
"It feels like the orchestra is in the ascendence. From all over the place I hear of the success of Vasily Petrenko and the orchestra, there is a fantastic grapevine.
"Look after this orchestra, it is a treasure."
New converts to his cause are the musicians of the Berlin Philharmonic, of which Sir Simon has been chief conductor and artistic director since 2002.
"We loved it," he says, of their recent Liverpool concert.
"The orchestra were stunned by the hall and the warmth of the sound.
"A lot of them stayed and met people from the RLPO and the audience after – now they keep on asking me to do Scouse at them.
"They heard someone say to me ‘your orchestra’s a bit of alright’ and I had to explain!"
