Daniel Harding joins worst-run symphony orchestra

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande has appointed Daniel Harding as its resident conductor.

The Geneva ensemble has a British music director Jonathan Nott. Why it needs a resident conductor, also British, is unexplained.

But so much about the OSR over the last decade – the comings and goings of managers and conductors, the decline in quality and profile – is a mystery to outside observers that we can only wonder at this latest twist. Search Slipped Disc for the entertaining twists of the OSR.

Harding is committed to two series each season for the next two years. He is also working as a pilot for Air France.

Harding has issued this comment on his agent’s website:

‘It was an unexpected pleasure to get to know the OSR during these last months. I am grateful to my friend Maria João Pires for having asked me to come and work with her and them. That was the beginning of a special friendship with the musicians of the OSR, which we will celebrate and develop over the next two years. When Steve Roger and his team proposed to me some irresistible musical and thematic ideas I was hooked immediately. I look forward to spending more time with this orchestra and enjoying their unique and gorgeous musical personality.’