Simon Rattle: From Birmingham to Berlin

Still only in his mid-forties, Simon Rattle is a musician for the new century, equally at home conducting Beethoven symphonies, the twentieth-century repertory with which he made his reputation with the City of Birmingham Orchestra, new works he has commissioned, jazz by Ellington and Bernstein, or baroque opera. Nicholas Kenyon charts the whole of Rattle's career as this master musician prepares to take on the music directorship of the Berlin Philharmonic, perhaps the most prestigious position in all of classical music, and looks ahead to the challenges that await him in Berlin.