Page 17 - Final_CBSO's 100th Birthday Celebration

with the Sinfonia No 4 by the black American composer George Walker, who died two years
ago.

These are not easy-listening concerts to glide the LSO gently back in the concert hall. For Rattle

and his players, the attitude appears to be: since we are allowed to have a only few dozen people

in the audience anyway, why not try out some really adventurous repertoire?

“Everyone is used to the LSO’s virtuoso playing,” Rattle says. “Now we have to do virtuoso

programming. We are exploring lots of wonderful things we have been thinking about for years

while wondering, ‘When will we have a chance to do this?’ Giving much more prominence to
women composers and composers of colour, for instance. But also, who do we give guest

conducting opportunities to? Shouldn’t we open that out a lot more?”