A Thoroughly Modern Maestro

Sir Simon Rattle wields his baton more skillfully than his tongue. A recent interview with the long-reigning wunderkind of classical music — a conversation held in English, translated into German and published in Die Zeit, then retranslated back into English by the British press — came off like a tirade against Brit Art stars Damien Hirst and Tracey Emin. ("Much of this English, very biographically-oriented art is bull___.") "I opened the papers and thought, 'I said what?'" he recalls. "It's embarrassing, because it's not what I meant and it's certainly not what I think." Let's hope he finds a better translator...