Hello-o! Boston is getting The Berlin Philharmonic, too!

Back in July, conductor Simon Rattle talked with the Associated Press about his tenure with the Berlin Philharmonic. The interview was in large part to advance Rattle and the Philharmonic's impending tour of New York (November 13-18) and Boston (November 19). At least in theory. The article, inexplicably, mentions only the New York portion of the tour. Sigh.

This has nothing to do with any inferiority complex Boston may have in regard to Gotham City, and it has nothing to do with the New York Yankees (ok, so it may have something to do with the Yankees...) but we have the Berlin Philharmonic, too, with Ben Heppner and Thomas Quasthoff, to boot.

So there is something I have to do:

THE CELEBRITY SERIES OF BOSTON BRINGS THE BERLIN PHILHARMONIC, CONDUCTED BY SIR SIMON RATTLE WITH TENOR BEN HEPPNER and BASS-BARITONE THOMAS QUASTHOFF WITH A PROGRAM OF GYORGY KURTAG'S "STELE" AND GUSTAV MAHLER'S "DAS LIED VON DER ERDE" TO BOSTON'S SYMPHONY HALL ON MONDAY, NOVEMBER 19 AT 8PM. SUBSCRIPTIONS AVAILABLE NOW. INDIVIDUAL TICKETS GO ON SALE SEPTEMBER 10! BERLIN! RATTLE! HEPPNER! QUASTHOFF! MAHLER!!

There, I feel better now.

Oh, yeah, here is a snippet of Sir Simon's AP interview from The Deseret Morning News:

"AP: How has the orchestra changed during five years under Simon Rattle?

Rattle: I think you should ask other people than me. ... I would say that the first five years, at least, are always a transition. You can hear that, and — if you are listening to recordings — you can hear the orchestra gradually change, around year eight, nine, 10 of Karajan. And in the first years he's still dealing with (predecessor Wilhelm) Furtwaengler and the Furtwaengler style. These things move very very slowly. It's not like tectonic plates, but it's up there."

Read the entire interview with Sir Simon Rattle.