Conductor Simon Rattle’s decision to leave his post as music director of the London Symphony Orchestra has raised questions about Diller Scofidio & Renfro’s £288m plans for a new concert hall for the capital.

Proposals for the 2,000-capacity venue, earmarked for the current site of Powell & Moya’s Museum of London, at the south-west corner of the Barbican, were understood to have been the deal-clincher that brought Rattle to the LSO in 2017 – following 18 years as principal conductor with the Berlin Philharnonic Orchestra.

Rattle yesterday announced that he will leave his post at the LSO at the end of 2023 – a one-year extension to his current contract but not the second five-year term that some had expected. The conductor will take up a new role as chief conductor of the Munich-based Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, but he will also become lifetime conductor emeritus of the LSO.

…