Simon Rattle’s farewell with Mahler’s Sixth

A musical highlight and the end of an era: the audience gave Sir Simon Rattle a standing ovation as he bid farewell as chief conductor of the Berliner Philharmoniker with Gustav Mahler’s breathtaking Sixth Symphony. The fact that he had conducted this very symphony when he made his debut with the orchestra lent this farewell a symbolic dimension: a circle was complete – and a major chapter in the history of the Berliner Philharmoniker came to a close.