Cast
Program notes
Daniel Harding, portrait of a child prodigy of English music.
Born in Oxford in 1975, Daniel Harding studied the trumpet at Chetham music school and joined the National Youth Orchestra at the age of 13. He soon moved into conducting, and was spotted by Sir Simon Rattle, who hired him as an assistant conductor at Birmingham Symphonic Orchestra. He was then hired by Claudio Abbado to assist him with the Berliner Philharmoniker, which he led for the first time when he was only 21. The following year, he made his début at the BBC Proms, where he performed a programme dedicated to Stravinsky: he drew attention as the youngest ever conductor to take part in this event.
In his 20-year career, he has occupied a number of positions in many prestigious orchestras: the London Symphony Orchestra – where he is principal guest conductor –, the Vienna Philharmonic, the Royal Concertgebouworkest and the Orchestra Filarmonica della Scala amongst others. He is a special guest at La Scala, the Royal Opera House, the Aix-en-Provence Festival and other leading orchestral music establishments.