Simon Rattle to conduct outreach with London orchestra

Simon Rattle has said his return to Britain as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra (LSO) is not dependent on a new concert hall being built in the capital. After a lengthy courtship, Rattle will take up his new role at the LSO in September 2017, after he completes his tenure in charge of the Berlin Philharmonic.

Rattle had made no secret of his belief that London lacked a truly world-class concert hall, and his appointment came just weeks after chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne commissioned a feasibility study, to be led by the National Theatre's departing director, Nicholas Hytner.

But was a new hall a pre-condition for him accepting the London job? "Honestly, no," says Rattle - although it would be "incredibly important not only for the orchestra but for the city and the country as a whole … to be able to bring a new vision to music, one that can include as many people as possible".

Rattle officially leaves Berlin, regarded by many as the finest orchestra in the world, in 2018. "Yes, I'm leaving a world-class orchestra. I'm coming to another very different type of world-class orchestra. Fortunately as a wine lover, there's not only one kind of wine you can drink," he says.

"There are a few great orchestras in the world, thank goodness. Although some people do put them in ranking order, it's not like a snooker match. Each orchestra has different things to offer. In some ways these two orchestras are as different as you can imagine."

Liverpool-born Rattle is following in the footsteps of such LSO principal conductors as André Previn, Michael Tilson Thomas, Colin Davis and the incumbent, Valery Gergiev, who leaves for Munich at the end of this year. Rattle will be the first LSO music director since Claudio Abbado in the 1980s.

The orchestra is resident in the Barbican Centre, which has a concert hall that Rattle previously called "serviceable".