“Seven years after being elected as music director and four after his triumphal entry to Berlin with his portrait plastered on bus stops, Rattle, 51, is facing an ocean of troubles that cannot be held back by lashings of charm and spin control. The question being asked is whether he has the intellect, the emotional strength and the clarity of purpose to develop the orchestra for a very different age of media dissemination. Setting aside for the moment the quality of performances, there is no denying that the Berlin Philharmonic is not what it was.”