Philharmonic Reviews Rattle’s Conducting Post : Music: The principal guest conductor is in town for his sole appearances of the year. Once highly visible here, he’s staying closer to home in England.

Simon Rattle is making a rare return visit with the Los Angeles Philharmonic this week. In fact, the Tuesday and Thursday night engagements at Hollywood Bowl will be the British conductor’s only appearances this year with the orchestra.

When it comes to subscription concerts, Rattle, 35, is even less visible. He was not at the Music Center last year, nor will he be at the helm of the Philharmonic next year. A Philharmonic spokeswoman said he is not expected to lead the orchestra again until possibly the 1992-93 season.

In fact, his appearances with the orchestra have diminished to the point where Frank Salomon, Rattle’s manager for North America, says whether Rattle retains his post as principal guest conductor, a title he assumed in 1981, is under discussion.

Ernest Fleischmann, the Philharmonic’s executive vice president and managing director, confirms that Rattle’s “title as principal guest conductor is under negotiation.” He declined to elaborate.

Considered a conductor of great promise by the L.A. Philharmonic--he was offered the music directorship here before he was 30--Rattle’s once-visible role has dwindled to the two Bowl series over the past two years.

Rattle’s devotion to his family--he is married to American soprano Elise Ross and has two young sons--as well as his loyalty to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra in England, which he has headed since 1980, are cited by Salomon for the scarcity of his visits here. This might preclude the conductor from committing to more than two to four weeks of engagements each year in North America, Salomon said.

“Simon has his professional integrity and tries to keep his personal life straight as well,” Salomon said. “He decides what he is going to do, when and how much.”

Rattle declined The Times’ request for an interview.

In his decade-long association with the Philharmonic, Rattle has conducted about 110 performances--68 took place during the 1978-1984 tenure of music director Carlo Maria Giulini, who appointed two principal guest conductors, Rattle and Michael Tilson Thomas. Thomas left at the end of the 1984-85 season.

In 1989-90, the year marking the end of Andre Previn’s term, Rattle conducted six subscription concerts. He conducted the same number of concerts in 1989-90, earning a salary of $70,000, the last year a salary figure was readily available.

In 1990, his only appearances with the Philharmonic were at Hollywood Bowl. During the upcoming subscription season, he will bypass the Philharmonic entirely. He is to appear at the Music Center next spring, but with his Birmingham Symphony as part of a United States tour that also stops in New York, Boston and San Francisco.

By contrast, David Alan Miller, an assistant conductor at the L.A. Philharmonic since 1987, has conducted 23 subscription concerts as well as numerous Bowl dates and youth concerts, and recently was named associate conductor. Miller leaves in 1992 to take over the music directorship of the Albany Symphony in New York.

In the United States, the only orchestras with budgets in excess of $9 million that employ principal guest conductors are Cincinnati, Cleveland and Los Angeles. No such positions are in place at the New York Philharmonic, Boston Symphony or Philadelphia Orchestra.

Additionally, principal guest conductors are on staff at the orchestras of Pittsburgh, Pa.; New Orleans; Ft. Worth; Vancouver, Canada, and Albany, among others, according to the American Symphony Orchestra League.

One of the few renowned names on the roster is Vladimir Ashkenazy, a pianist-conductor who has held his post since 1987 in Cleveland. He annually conducts three weeks of subscription concerts, as well as one week at the Blossom Music Center summer festival, and also takes the orchestra on tour and makes recordings.

In its recent “Guide to Orchestra Governance,” the league describes the role of a principal guest conductor as one that “. . . usually signifies a multiseasonal relationship and more than several subscription concerts per season with a conductor who is not otherwise a part of the conducting staff of the orchestra.”

Rattle, who was born in Liverpool and began his musical career as a percussionist and pianist, has been noted for his fierce dedication to his Birmingham Symphony, which he has transformed from a regional band to an internationally acclaimed orchestra.

The largely blue-collar city of Birmingham, in turn, has rewarded Rattle with a new $48-million, 2,250-seat concert hall (built as part of a large international convention center) that is expected to showcase the Birmingham Symphony in 50 concerts each year. Rattle will conduct about half of those performances.

“Simon was definitely the catalyst for the hall being built,” said Symphony Hall director Andrew Jowett, who said Rattle had bought a home in Birmingham. “He has been very influential in encouraging the city, which is trying to emulate the great European cities like Vienna and Berlin, to take note of what the arts can do for its image.”

According to Rattle’s London manager, Rona Eastwood, the conductor limits his guest appearances. He has taken sabbaticals, whether to study literature at Oxford or to help out at home. He continues his guest appearances with the London Sinfonietta and is strengthening his ties with the Berlin Philharmonic. Rattle, who made his debut with the Berlin Philharmonic in 1987, usually conducts two or three concerts per season, but this can vary depending on his availability, said Eastwood.

Among the highlights of Rattle’s tenure with the L.A. Philharmonic, which generally garnered favorable reviews, have been performances of Mahler’s Tenth, Sibelius’ Fourth and Prokofiev’s Third symphonies. He has also conducted much contemporary music, including several premieres.

In December, 1988, he conducted the Los Angeles Philharmonic in the Los Angeles Music Center Opera production of Alban Berg’s “Wozzeck,” with his wife, Ross, singing the role of Marie.

According to the Philharmonic’s Fleischmann, negotiations are under way for Rattle to once again conduct the orchestra for an opera during the 1994-95 season.