A maestro flies his orchestra to work
OrchestrasDaniel Harding, a part-time Air France pilot, flew the Santa Cecilia orchstra from Rome to Paris, pausing to take a New York Times crew on board – just for the record.
In the cabin, the musicians cheered their leader on. They joked about what to call him. Maestro? Pilot? Captain? They passed the two-hour journey with some music, singing a rendition of “Volare.” At one point, the clarinetist Alessandro Carbonare performed an excerpt from Puccini’s “Tosca” from his seat in row 19.
Read on here.
And, I bet he lets the players put their instruments in the overhead bins.
⭐️ EPIC comment ⭐️
And I bet he let the cellos and basses have a discount on seats for their instruments! Ryanair take note.
It’s great when violinists, violists, cellists, and bassists can fly with no strings attached.
.. except the cellists.
But absolutely nothing else!
“Harding invited Santa Cecilia’s concert master and its assistant conductor into the cockpit to watch the landing”
What did they talk about?
“Do you like movies about gladiators?”
I’m only starting to realize how flushed with cash the NYT classical department is: not only can it afford to pay its critics to attend the most posh European music festivals from Bayreuth, to Aix, to Lucerne, but it can pay for fluff pieces where a reporter and a photographer go to Rome just to be flown to Paris.
Not really, these critics live full-time in Europe and are paid a modest amount for each article published in the newspaper. They aren’t full-time staff-writers on expenses.
So cool.
Is Harding a Captain, or a First Officer? Usually one starts as First Officer.
In this role, he’s known as Pilot Easing, easing up, way up.
How delighted musicians would be to see him offered a full time position with Air France. Next up—conducting a train!
Bravo!
Love it. Such fun!
I’m surprised they didn’t play the Flying Dutchman Overture.
Ok, it’s only a small A220 but pretty good all the same. Many strings to Daniel’s bow.
A220 Hz? The A below middle C?
Luckily it wasn’t Gergiev who flew his orchestra. Otherwise everyone would have arrived 5 hours late.
No wonder his interpretations are so bad
Is this unnecessary malice really necessary? Harding is a serious musician with great abilities and a lot of intelligence. Does the fact that he’s also an excellent pilot bother you? Jealousy?