This is Biography Daniel Harding (Oxford, 31 August 1975) is a British conductor. He studied trumpet at the prestigious Chetham’s School of Music in Manchester and joined the National Youth Orchestra at the age of 13.
At just 17, after assembling a group of musicians, he conducted Arnold Schönberg’s Pierrot Lunaire and sent the recording to conductor Simon Rattle, who took him on as an assistant to the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra for the 1993-1994 season.
After attending his first year at Cambridge University, in 1996 he was called by Claudio Abbado as his assistant at the Berliner Philharmoniker. In the same year he appeared on the bill at The Proms, becoming the youngest conductor (21 years old) in the history of the festival to date.
He was Music Director of the Trondheim Symphony Orchestra (1997-2000), Norrköping Symfoniorkester (1997-2003), Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen (1999-2003) and Orchestre de Paris (2016-2019). A special relationship links him to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, of which he was Principal Guest Conductor (1998-2003), Music Director (2003-2008), Principal Conductor (2008-2011) and has been Honorary Conductor since 2011.
He has been Principal Guest Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra since 2006 and Music Director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra since 2007. He is also music partner of the New Japan Philharmonic and Artistic Director of Ohga Hall in Karuizawa.
In 1998 he conducted the first performance in the New Small Teatro (Milan) of Don Giovanni (opera) or both Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart’s The dissolute punished.
At the Salzburg Festival he made his debut in 2001 in concert with Viktoria Mullova and Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, in 2003 with the Sächsische Staatskapelle Dresden, in 2006 Don Giovanni with the Wiener Philharmoniker, Thomas Hampson, Ildebrando D’Arcangelo, Robert Lloyd and Piotr Beczała, in 2007 Le nozze di Figaro with Diana Damrau and a concert with Renée Fleming and in 2012 Ariadne auf Naxos with Jonas Kaufmann and two concerts with the Hagen Quartet and Sabine Meyer.
At the Aix-en-Provence Festival with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra in 2001 he conducted The turn of the screw (of which there is a video) and Weddings di Figaro directed by Richard Eyre, in 2002 Don Giovanni directed by Peter Brook (of which there is a video) and Evgenij Onegin, in 2004 The beamed and in 2005 Così fan tutte with Barbara Bonney, Elīna Garanča and Ruggero Raimondi directed by Patrice Chéreau on television.
In 2002 he made his debut directing Benjamin Britten’s The Crackdown at the Royal Opera House in London where he directed Wozzeck in 2006, in 2002 he was appointed Knight of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government.
At the Edinburgh International Festival he directed The Crackdown in 2002,For the Teatro La Fenice in Venice he conducted a concert at the PalaFenice at Tronchetto in 2003, a concert in 2006 and the New Year’s Concert in Venice in 2011 with Desirée Rancatore and in 2015 with Maria Agresta.
In 2003 he conducted Die Entführung aus dem Serail with Paata Burchuladze at the Bayerische Staatsoper, he conducted Mozart’s Idomeneo on the opening night of the 2005/2006 opera season at La Scala in Milan, after the resignation of Riccardo Muti and again at La Scala in the same month a concert by the Mahler Chamber Orchestra.
In 2006 a concert by the Filarmonica della Scala, in 2007 Salomè and a live concert on RadioTre, in 2008 Il prigioniero by Luigi Dallapiccola and Il castello del Duca Barbablù by Béla Bartók and the premiere of Four adagios for recorder and orchestra by Salvatore Sciarrino. In 2009 he conducted a concert with the London Symphony Orchestra. In 2010 he conducted ballet shows and a concert, in 2011 two concerts and Pagliacci with José Cura and Rustic cavalry with Salvatore Licitra and Claudio Sgura and in 2013 Falstaff (Green).
In 2011 he conducted Die Zauberflöte at the Lucerne Festival,on 16 February 2013 he took part as a guest in the last evening of the Sanremo Festival, conducted by Fabio Fazio and Luciana Littizzetto, conducting the orchestra in Richard Wagner’s La Valchiria and Giuseppe Verdi’s Marcia Trionfale dell’Aida. In May he made his debut at the Wiener Staatsoper conducting Der Fliegende Holländer and in December he conducted the Berliner Philharmoniker in a concert with music by Richard Strauss and Der fliegende Holländer at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden.
In 2014 he conducted Il tabarro with Lucio Gallo and Barbara Frittoli and Don Carlo with Vittorio Grigolo and Daniela Barcellona in Verbier, Harding has two children, Adele and George, who he has had since his marriage to Béatrice Muthelet, violist and violinist of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, from whom he has separated.
Discography
Bartók: Violin Concertos No. 1 & 2 – Isabelle Faust/Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding, 2013 harmonia mundi
Beethoven: Piano Concertos Nos. 3 & 4 – Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding/Maria João Pires, 2014 ONYX
Beethoven: Emperor Concerto – Schumann: Fantasy – Yundi Li/Berliner Philharmoniker/Daniel Harding, 2014 Mercury/Deutsche Grammophon
Beethoven: Overtures – Daniel Harding/Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie, 1999 EMI/Erato
Brahms: Violin Concerto, String Sextet no. 2 – Isabelle Faust/Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Daniel Harding, 2011 harmonia mundi
Brahms: Symphonies Nos. 3 & 4 – Daniel Harding/Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen, 2001 Erato/Warner
Brahms Berg Violin Concertos – Daniel Harding/Wiener Philharmoniker, 2012 EMI/Erato
Britten: Billy Budd – Nathan Gunn/Ian Bostridge/Gidon Saks/Neal Davies/Jonathan Lemalu/Matthew Rose/London Symphony Orchestra, 2008 Virgin Classics/EMI Records – Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording 2010
Britten: The Turn of the Screw, Op. 54 – Daniel Harding/Ian Bostridge/Joan Rodgers/Mahler Chamber Orchestra, 2002 EMI/Erato
Britten: Serenade for Tenor, Horn & Strings etc. – Ian Bostridge/Bamberger Symphoniker/Britten Sinfonia/Daniel Harding/Ingo Metzmacher/Marie-Luise Neunecker, 1999 EMI/Warner
Ciaikovskij, Conc. per vl./Souvenir d’un lieu cher – Janses/Harding/Mahler CO, 2008 Decca
Dvořák: Cello Concertos – Steven Isserlis/Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Daniel Harding, 2013 Hyperion
Mahler: Symphony No 4 in G major – Daniel Harding/Mahler Chamber Orchestra, 2005 EMI/Erato
Mahler, Sinf. n. 10 – Harding/WPO, 2007 Deutsche Grammophon
Mendelssohn & Schumann: Violin Concertos – Daniel Harding/Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Renaud Capuçon, 2004 Erato/Warner
Mozart: Don Giovanni – Carmela Remigio/Daniel Harding/Lisa Larsson/Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Mark Padmore/Véronique Gens, 2000 EMI/Virgin/Erato
Orff: Carmina Burana – Daniel Harding/Der Tölzer Knabenchor/Christian Gerhaher/Symphonieorchester & Chor des Bayerischen Rundfunks/Patricia Petibon/Hans-Werner Bunz, 2010 Deutsche Grammophon
Strauss: Alpine Symphony – Saito Kinen Orchestra/Daniel Harding, 2014 Saito Kinen Festival/Decca
Szymanowski: Violin Concerto No. 1 – Daniel Harding/London Symphony Orchestra/Nicola Benedetti, 2005 Deutsche Grammophon
Tchaikovsky: Violin Concerto – Janine Jansen/Mahler Chamber Orchestra/Daniel Harding, 2013 Decca
Tchaikovsky and Mendelssohn: Violin Concertos – Ray Chen/Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra/Daniel Harding, 2012 Sony
Amoureuses – Patricia Petibon/Concerto Köln/Daniel Harding, 2003 Deutsche Grammophon
Romantische Arien – Christian Gerhaher/Daniel Harding/Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks, 2012 Sony
Le Boeuf sur le toit – Daniel Harding/Die Deutsche Kammerphilharmonie Bremen/Renaud Capuçon, 2001 Erato/Warner
