Interlude, a Hong Kong-based online classical magazine, has published an article with the curious title “The Curious Authority of Sir Simon Rattle (Born on January 19, 1955).” It touches on the main aspects of the conductor’s career but seems unaware that he has moved on from London to Munich. I am quoted as follows: “Rattle’s Berlin was never about inheriting a sound. It was about opening windows, sometimes to bracing effects.” Fortunately, I did not write this. The phrase “to bracing effects” isn’t idiomatic English. Also cited are Nicholas Kenyon, Mark Elder, Kate Molleson, Stephen Johnson, Norman Lebrecht, the late Andrew Porter, and the late Richard Taruskin (“Rattle represents a post-heroic model of conducting: less command-and-control, more cultural mediation”). Not one of the attributed quotations can be found elsewhere on the Internet. Notably, they tend to follow a pattern of “not [X] but [Y],” which happens to be a telltale tic of ChatGPT verbiage. Be that as it may: happy birthday, Sir Simon! Your post-heroic conducting has bracingly opened many a window.
Related: The husbands and wives of Missy Mazzoli.
Update: The article has disappeared from the Interlude website.