In 1987, Sir Simon Rattle made his debut with the Berliner Philharmoniker, the beginning of a beautiful collaboration that saw him rise to the position of chief conductor in 2002. In 2018, he concluded his tenure with the piece that had started it all: Mahler's monumental "Tragic" Symphony No. 6. 

Timpani, snare drum, cymbals, glockenspiel, cowbells, and xylophone number among the massive orchestral forces called for by the Sixth, first performed in 1906 under the baton of the composer himself—who, despite the symphony's nickname, wrote it in the midst of a particularly happy period. Listen for the cowbell and the famous hammer blows in the work that Alban Berg called "the only Sixth—despite the Pastoral"!

Photo © Monika Rittershaus