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Rattle's post as principal conductor at the Berlin
Philharmonic ends in 2018 while the LSO's principal conductor,
Valery Gergiev, winds up his posting this year. Gergiev will
continue to conduct the LSO while Rattle will start taking over
during the interval.
"This is my last job, this is my last big job," Rattle, 60, said
at a news conference.
"At the moment it is a normal five-year term with a rolling
(extension) possibility," Rattle said when asked about the terms
of the appointment. "But it is obvious in all of our minds this
is a long-term thing."
He said he had been attracted to the LSO in part because of the
orchestra's education program and the quality of the musicians.
"We share a dream in which performing, teaching and learning are
indivisible, with wider dissemination of our art at its center,"
Rattle said.
The Briton also said he enjoyed the notion of "coming home".
Liverpool-born Rattle, who in his youth had a distinctive mop of
curly black hair that has now turned gray, is considered one of
the world's top conductors.
He announced in January 2013 he would not stay in Berlin beyond
the end of his current contract, giving rise to the
not-so-secret prospect that he would be heading back to Britain
to take over the LSO from Gergiev.
He declined to speculate on a possible successor in Berlin.
Rattle earned a reputation as a whiz-kid conductor following his
graduation from London's Royal Academy of Music in 1974, where
he won a prestigious conducting competition.
From 1980-1998 he was principal conductor of the City of
Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. He pushed for a new Symphony Hall
which opened in 1991 and is considered one of the best in
Britain.
His appointment in 2002 as chief conductor of the Berlin
Philharmonic, often ranked as the world's best orchestra, was
not without controversy, with some of the orchestra members, who
vote for their leader, voting for Daniel Barenboim instead.
Some German critics were not pleased with his performances, but
in 2008 the orchestra voted to extend his contract for an
additional 10 years until 2018. He and the orchestra won a
Grammy for orchestral performance in 2001.
(Editing by Jeremy Gaunt)
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