From catalysing the building of Birmingham’s Symphony Hall in the early 1990s - still the UK’s finest concert hall for orchestras, to transforming the identity of the Berliner Philharmonic at the Philharmonie and engaging with Berlin’s communities and audiences in completely new ways, it’s almost impossible to imagine orchestral music and the idea of what an orchestra could and should be in the 21st century without Simon Rattle’s example and inspiration. Above all, that’s thanks to the essential concerts and recordings he has led and made in his career – a handful of which are below.

Mahler 2, CBSO, Symphony Hall, 1998

The piece that made Rattle want to be a conductor, and a performance of life-enhancing, visionary power.

Mahler 5, Berliner Philharmoniker, Philharmonie, 2002

Rattle’s inaugural programme as principal conductor of the Berliners: conducting, playing, and communication of searing commitment.



Sibelius 7, The Royal Danish Orchestra, Copenhagen, 2013



Rattle’s Sibelius has always been special, and it is only growing in depth and intensity, as this recent performance shows.

Schoenberg: A Survivor From Warsaw

This recording is from Rattle’s landmark TV series on 20th century music, Leaving Home. The series went beyond mere “advocacy” - Rattle’s passionate belief in the centrality of 20th century music to the orchestral repertoire shone through whole series, blazing especially bright in this performance of Schoenberg’s terrifying melodrama.



Adès: Asyla, CBSO, 1997



One of the finest works that Rattle commissioned during his time in Birmingham, his recording of Adès’s dazzling, profound music is still, I think, a classic of the contemporary gramophone.

Haydn: Symphony 92, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, 2009

Rattle’s Haydn symphonies are always revelations of imagination and structural momentum; here’s a performance to prove why.

Messiaen: Eclairs sur l’au-delà, Berliner Philharmoniker, Philharmonie

Proof of Rattle’s continuing conviction for contemporary music in Messiaen’s radiantly moving work, the last he lived to complete.

Wagner: Das Rheingold, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Baden-Baden, 2004

The opening instalment of Wagner’s Ring Cycle on the period instruments of the OAE – Rattle’s imagination is just as bold when it comes to reinterpreting the past as it is in realising the present.

Schumann, Das Paradies und die Peri, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, 2013

Rattle’s advocacy of Schumann’s still-overlooked oratorio recently flowered in a performance with the London Symphony Orchestra – it was equally fine in 2010 with the Bavarians, as you can hear.

Adams: Harmonielehre, CBSO

Another recording of the newer repertoire that comes close to defining the piece in the public imagination – this is the recording of Adams’s symphony-in-all-but-name that packs the greatest expressive and structural punch.

Radio 3’s Celebrating Simon Rattle season continues this week with the first-ever broadcasts of his Beethoven cycle with the CBSO in Frankfurt.