Sir Simon Rattle has been re-elected as chief conductor of the Berlin Philharmonic, despite fears that he would be ousted by a hardcore of naysayers.
The vote from the Philharmonic's players gives him a further decade at the helm of the orchestra, with effect from this autumn.
According to Martin Campbell-White, Rattle's manager, there was a "substantial vote" for the 53-year-old Liverpool-born conductor. However, tension had arisen between Rattle and certain players in the orchestra over accusations that he was insufficiently committed to programming the great Middle European composers such as Beethoven and Mahler, whose works have traditionally formed the basis of the Philharmonic's work.
In an interview with the Guardian in 2005, Rattle, who took up his post in 2002, called the Philharmonic players "wild tigers". He said: "They are not that easy to deal with but it's a lot of fun."
