LONDON — Whenever the conductor Simon Rattle takes his Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra to London, there’s a sense of reckoning: about the boy who went away, made good and is now bringing home the proof. For British audiences, the very idea that a conductor from England — what Germans used to call “the land without music” — is in charge of Germany’s flagship orchestra is a continuing source of national delight. British music lovers are always curious to know how the relationship has worked out.
Last week’s London residency, in which Mr. Rattle and the Philharmonic gave concerts from Tuesday to Sunday at the Southbank Center and the Barbican, drew even more news media attention than usual, for two reasons. One is that Mr. Rattle’s engagement with Berlin is drawing to a close — he leaves in 2018, at the end of 16 years in the job — and it raises the question, what comes next? A possible answer is that he takes over the London Symphony. After prolonged periods of will-he-won’t-he flirting with that orchestra, there was the prospect of an announcement last weekend, but nothing was said. (Recent word that Alan Gilbert will leave the New York Philharmonic in 2017 has raised similar speculation.)
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But in London, in a time of lingering economic crisis, with no public will to fund the arts, it’s almost certainly too big a request. So he must either climb down or look elsewhere — maybe to the New York Philharmonic. It would be enormously to London’s loss, and maybe there are possibilities for compromise. They’re just not obvious right now.
A version of this article appears in print on February 17, 2015, on page C1 of the New York edition with the headline: A Maestro’s London Return Fuels Theories. Order Reprints| Today’s Paper|Subscribe
