Driver: Where to?

Passenger: Carnegie Hall, please.

[background noise]

[music]

Ticketer: Okay, here are your tickets. Enjoy the show.

[background conversations]

Usher: Your tickets, please. Follow me.

[background conversations]

[music]

Jeff Spurgeon: In New York City, there have been lots of ways to get to Carnegie Hall. In 1891, when the hall first opened, you could have taken a cab. It would have been pulled by horses, but you could have taken a cab. Since then, well, you could have used motor cars or the subway or the always wonderful walk down 57th Street to 7th Avenue in New York City. This is another way to get to Carnegie Hall. The start of the 15th season, when you can get to this great performance space through this radio series, Carnegie Hall Live. Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon alongside John Schaefer.

John Schaefer: It is always fun to begin a new season of these Carnegie Hall Live broadcasts because we can count on Carnegie Hall to produce an all-star lineup. Tonight, it is literally a group of all-stars. The National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America, the NYO-USA All-Stars. These are musicians who have, at one point or another in the past 12 years, been part of Carnegie Hall's annual program that brings together young musicians from around the country. The NYO, the National Youth Orchestra, is coached and rehearsed. They do a little time as tourists here in New York, and then they have their big moment on stage at Carnegie Hall.

Jeff Spurgeon: As if it weren't enough, then the orchestra tours with some of the best conductors and soloists in the world. Those tours have taken the NYO to Europe, to South America, to Asia, and all across the USA. It really is a remarkable program of Carnegie Hall. Past conductors of the National Youth Orchestras have included Marin Alsop, David Robertson, Sir Andrew Davis, Gianandrea Noseda, and tonight's conductor, Daniel Harding, also a veteran of the NYO program. He conducted the NYO-USA in 2022.

John Schaefer: This is not just any edition of the NYO. These are the all-stars. These are musicians who have come from ensembles, orchestras, universities around the country, and now revisiting their youthful indiscretions and discretions on stage here at Carnegie Hall and in the surrounding environs of New York City.

As for Daniel Harding himself, he is currently the musical and artistic director of the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra. He'll be leaving them soon to become the music director of the National Academy of Santa Cecilia in Italy. He's also conductor laureate of the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, and he leads the Youth Music Culture The Greater Bay Area, which sounds like something from San Francisco, but is actually based in Guangzhou, China. He is clearly committed to the next generation of musicians.

Jeff Spurgeon: John, when you said youthful indiscretions, and I thought youth orchestra, yes, the indiscretions are certainly built right in.

John Schaefer: [laughs]

Jeff Spurgeon: What's remarkable about this group of musicians tonight is that they are all adults now. More than 90 of these musicians have been hired by some of the best orchestras in the United States and around the world. On stage tonight are veterans of the NYO who are currently members of the Boston Symphony, the Cleveland Orchestra, the LA Phil, the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the National Symphony, the New York Philharmonic, the Toronto Symphony, and many others. The roster of alums includes principal players, festival regulars, and a number of winners of the prestigious Avery Fisher Career Grant.

John Schaefer: Let's meet one of them now.

Audrey Chen: My name is Audrey Chen. I'm a cellist. I was in NYO in the inaugural year 2013, as well as the following year in 2014. As new as it was to all of us, it was also new to all the staff at Carnegie Hall. Also, being the first ones, we were setting a precedent. We were testing out logistics, and every step of the way, we were a cohort that was shaping and defining what NYO would look like for future generations. It's amazing how big the family has grown.

Every year, we get more and more people added to the NYO family. So much so that I'll walk on the street and I'll see someone with a case and an NYO sticker on there, or even at Yale, where my quartet teaches undergrad students. I'll find out some of my students are NYO alum. When I tell them I was part of this first year, we have this immediate shared bond of having had such a formative experience early on.

John Schaefer: Cellist Audrey Chen; she was part of the inaugural class of the NYO-USA and now is one of the NYO All-Stars on stage at Carnegie Hall. We have a pretty special guest soloist tonight, one of the brightest stars in the classical music firmament, and that is the pianist Yuja Wang. She'll join the orchestra as both soloist and conductor in the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. We'll also be hearing works by Leonard Bernstein and Igor Stravinsky. Jeff, it is opening night, and many people tune in to hear you wax poetic about the floral arrangements on stage. What do you think of what we have this year?

Jeff Spurgeon: They are a really beautiful lilac-colored grouping of orchids and roses.

John Schaefer: Are they?

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes, they're--

John Schaefer: I just thought they were geraniums.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: I think you haven't checked the Carnegie Hall or WQXR's social media posts-

John Schaefer: Oh, no.

Jeff Spurgeon: -because the flowers are already up there. Also blooming in the audience tonight, a great audience of patrons of Carnegie Hall. We're going to have to wait a couple of minutes because there's a pre-concert cocktail party on opening night, and that means that everybody who comes to the concert gets a little chatty before the thing begins. While people are being herded into their seats to get ready for this concert, we have a couple of minutes to go yet, I think.

John Schaefer: We have a chance to hear the last time Daniel Harding conducted the NYO here at Carnegie Hall. It was just July of 2022. Here is a little bit of Mahler's Symphony No. 5.

[MUSIC - The National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America: Mahler's Symphony No. 5]

Jeff Spurgeon: The opening moments of Mahler's Symphony No. 5, there from the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America in 2022, when the orchestra was conducted by Daniel Harding, who is back at Carnegie Hall tonight to lead this orchestra, the NYO All-Stars, in this opening concert of the Carnegie Hall season. Let's hear from another member of the NYO-USA All-Stars, Michael Stevens. He was in the NYO in 2015, '16, and '17. Currently, he's acting principal horn at the San Francisco Symphony. He told us he learned a valuable lesson during his time with the NYO.

Michael Stevens: You should always be happy when practicing or performing. NYO was always filled with such joy, such raw young energy. That's something that I try to replicate through my adult career. It's easy to go through the cycle of showing up to work, practicing your scales, but I always think back to how much fun I had. Even through these long rehearsals, grueling concerts, I always had fun. You look around the orchestra, smiles everywhere. That's always something that I kept in my pocket, I'd say, just as a little reminder, I'm in it for the fun.

John Schaefer: Well, Michael Stevens, then you have come to the right place because there is fun to be had on stage tonight at Carnegie Hall, the gala opening night of the new season, featuring the NYO All-Stars, and three colorful works for orchestra. Three excerpts from Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story, the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, and Stravinsky's Firebird.

We'll begin with the Bernstein. The plot, as you know, is loosely based on Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet, involving a forbidden love affair and rival teenage gangs here in New York City. The suite from the original music theater piece by Bernstein was assembled in 1960. He took nine movements from his musical score and arranged them for symphony orchestra. The Symphonic Dances, the full nine-movement piece, had its debut with the New York Phil in 1961. We'll be hearing three of those nine in a couple of moments somewhere, and then the Scherzo, and then they'll kind of dance us into a little break with the Mambo.

Jeff Spurgeon: Then we will have a stage change to bring the piano out for Yuja Wang to perform the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. Then that will be withdrawn. The piano will be withdrawn, and Daniel Harding will be back out to lead the NYO All-Stars in a suite of music from Stravinsky's Firebird.

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: Now, the stage door has opened, and out goes our concert master for tonight's event, Matthew Hakkarainen. He was in the NYO back in 2018 and currently is associate concertmaster at the Toronto Symphony.

Again, we can mention that all the musicians here on stage were once in the National Youth Orchestra of the United States and have since found themselves in some kind of professional musical position, either as an orchestra member, faculty in a music school, some freelance musicians.

John Schaefer: Chamber music ensembles.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes, string quartet players

John Schaefer: This is not only opening night of Carnegie Hall season, it's the 15th season of these Carnegie Hall Live broadcasts, and the NYO has been a part of 12 of those.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes, that's right. We've presented their annual concert before they go on tour each year in July. This is the first time that the NYO alumni have been gathered together for a performance after the fact.

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: It's a very exciting way to begin a new season at Carnegie Hall. Now, the NYO All-Stars on their feet. Maestro Daniel Harding greeting various members of the orchestra and turning to this opening night gala concert audience to start things off with music of Leonard Bernstein from Carnegie Hall Live.

[MUSIC - The National Youth Orchestra of the USA All-Stars: Symphonic Dances from West Side Story]

[applause]

John Schaefer: That is one of the most reliable applause generators in classical music. The Mambo from Leonard Bernstein's Symphonic Dances from West Side Story. You heard three of those dances, Somewhere, the Scherzo, and Mambo, played live by the National Youth Orchestra of the USA All-Stars, conducted by Daniel Harding. With that, I declare-- Can I declare?

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes.

John Schaefer: I declare the 2025/26 season of Carnegie Hall officially open.

Jeff Spurgeon: So it is just like that. Now coming off stage is Maestro Daniel Harding. The orchestra was asked to rise; they did so. Now they're milling about because what's happening now is we have a stage change. The gala concert's always a festive affair. Star power is certainly at a 10. Yuja Wang is the soloist and, surprisingly, the conductor of the next work that we'll hear. Right now, a number of the NYO players are coming off stage because they have to move Yuja's piano onto the stage. You've seen those pictures, John, of when they moved the spacecraft down to the launch pad at Cape Canaveral.

John Schaefer: Yes.

Jeff Spurgeon: Moving a piano onto the stage at Carnegie Hall is something like that. We have a crew of three: a driver at the front who steers that side of the piano, and then a couple of big, strong stagehand horses at the back to push the thing on. That's the players out, and now goes the piano in one smooth motion.

John Schaefer: Right past us out onto center stage here at Carnegie Hall, where it will be played by Yuja Wang as she leads the orchestra in the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1. Jeff, we have seen pianists conduct from the keyboard.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes, we have.

John Schaefer: Usually, it's smaller pieces like Mozart piano concertos.

Jeff Spurgeon: That's right.

John Schaefer: I don't believe I've ever seen this massive romantic work conducted from the keyboard before.

Jeff Spurgeon: It's a remarkable thing that Yuja Wang has been adding to her performance repertoire of late. She's done a number of shows where she's been both a soloist and conductor, especially with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, over the past couple of years.

John Schaefer: The Mahler Chamber Orchestra, that's Mitsuko Uchida, who often conducts from the piano-

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes, that's right.

John Schaefer: -playing Mozart and Haydn and things like that. It is Tchaikovsky tonight. Cellist Audrey Chen from the NYO All-Stars tells us more about this version of this piece.

Audrey Chen: We've been playing Tchaikovsky's piano concerto with Yuja Wang. The piece itself is so brilliant and virtuosic, and yet there are also these very tender, whimsical moments. I think Yuja is the perfect pianist to capture all of that and so much more. She has brought so much energy and excitement to our rehearsals, and I think all of us can really feel that.

I've never played Tchaikovsky's piano concerto with the pianist conducting, and I think it's actually quite unusual, but she does a fantastic job. I feel like we're playing chamber music, which is really where my forte is. All of us are so alert. We're listening to each other, we're moving, we're feeling the movements and the gestures with her, so it feels incredible.

Jeff Spurgeon: Cellist Audrey Chen, a member of the NYO-USA All-Stars Orchestra. Audrey Chen is also a member of a string quartet, the Terra Quartet. She knows a thing or two about playing chamber music and speaks to that experience. Another cellist in the orchestra is named Miles Goosby. He had similar thoughts on playing in this ensemble.

Miles Goosby: What I learned most was that playing in an orchestra is absolutely no different from playing chamber music. In an orchestra, knowing what's going on, who to listen for, playing off of your colleagues as a cellist, not only within the section and amongst the strings, but winds, brass, percussion, every part has a very specific and important role in every piece. That ball started rolling from NYO2.

Jeff Spurgeon: Cellist Miles Goosby. He mentioned NYO2. That is another National Youth Orchestra, part of Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra Program, but for younger musicians ages 14 to 17. The NYO is for 16 to 19-year-olds. Miles Goosby has degrees in cello performance from the Manhattan School of Music and the Juilliard School and is currently back at the Manhattan School of Music pursuing a certificate in orchestra performance.

John Schaefer: Jeff, you mentioned that NYO-USA 16 to 19-year-olds. Again, these are the all-stars. They are alumni of the orchestra, off doing their own professional playing and teaching and things like that. These musicians are a little more seasoned, shall we say.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yet, if they were 19 years old 12 years ago, so the oldest of these young musicians is just in their early 30s and still well on their way in their professional career. Well, now the stage door has been closed. The NYO All-Stars are back on stage, and so is the piano. I feel like we're missing something.

John Schaefer: [chuckles] Someone to play it, perhaps.

Jeff Spurgeon: Maybe that's it.

John Schaefer: Yuja Wang is going to play and conduct the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1, which is a favorite with audiences and performers alike. Somewhat surprisingly, it was not premiered in Tchaikovsky's native Russia, but here in the States in Boston. It also has its own moment in Carnegie Hall history when Carnegie had their opening festival in May of 1891. Tchaikovsky conducted this piece with the New York Symphony Orchestra here at Carnegie Hall and featuring the German pianist Adele aus der Ohe as the soloist. Aus der Ohe was a student of Franz Liszt and a friend of Tchaikovsky's. That's how she got the gig.

Jeff Spurgeon: [chuckles] The legacy is just incredible. It goes all the way from 1891 in that performance to this moment here in 2025 as the new Carnegie Hall season begins and this 15th season of these broadcasts from Carnegie Hall Live. We're taking just a couple because it's a gala concert and a gala night, a couple of pre-performance backstage photos, and then a little collection by the performers as the audience in the hall is just getting ready for the entrance of our soloist and conductor tonight. Yuja Wang is just about to take the stage. There's the door, and there she is.

[cheers and applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: Now you hear the crowd sing.

John Schaefer: When you said star power out of 10 tonight, the audience response will definitely confirm that.

[MUSIC - The National Youth Orchestra of the USA All-Stars: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1]

[cheers and applause]

[MUSIC - The National Youth Orchestra of the USA All-Stars: Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 continues] [applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: From Carnegie Hall Live, you just heard a performance of Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1, to begin the 2025/2026 season of concerts at Carnegie Hall, the performance by pianist Yuja Wang, who also conducted the NYO All-Stars, alumni of Carnegie Hall's National Youth Orchestra, a program begun by Carnegie Hall about a dozen years ago to bring together the best young orchestral musicians in the United States for an experience of making music together and taking the music on tour. This time around, some of the alumni of that orchestra are here at Carnegie Hall to begin the brand new season. Backstage at Carnegie Hall, I'm Jeff Spurgeon alongside John Schaeffer.

John Schaeffer: Even though it is now 130-some odd years old, playing that piece is still the hallmark of a true virtuoso pianist. To play that piece and also conduct-

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs]

John Schaeffer: -is an astonishing feat.

Jeff Spurgeon: It is.

John Schaeffer: There were moments we were here laughing because Yuja Wang was standing and conducting the orchestra, and then suddenly just sat down and dashed off an impossible set of runs up and down the keyboard.

John Schaeffer: The audience obviously very appreciative. Yuja Wang back at center stage and asking for various members of the NYO All-Stars to share in the applause, and now accepting a bouquet of flowers on stage here at Carnegie Hall. [cheers]

Jeff Spurgeon: Which stopped her from applauding her fellow musicians,-

John Schaeffer: [laughs]

Jeff Spurgeon: -which was too bad. Now the entire NYO All-Stars ensemble on their feet. If you've seen the National Youth Orchestra in its dozen or so years of existence, you know that they wear red slacks. There's a slight tribute to that tonight. Each of the NYO All-Stars has a red carnation pinned to one side or the other of them. Just a small tribute to the usual outfit. No black Converse All-Star sneakers. Tonight, it's dress and shoes for the National Youth Orchestra All Stars.

Yuja Wang: That was fun.

John Schaeffer: That was fun. [laughs]

Jeff Spurgeon: That was Yuja Wang saying that was fun. She had a good time. That's what you're supposed to do.

John Schaeffer: Obviously, the audience had a good time as well, and continuing their applause, not quite willing to allow Yuja Wang to--

Jeff Spurgeon: They would like to see the soloist at least on stage again.

John Schaeffer: [laughs]

Jeff Spurgeon: We'll see if that happens.

John Schaeffer: Door is open.

Jeff Spurgeon: There she goes.

[applause]

John Schaeffer: It is opening night. It's a festive occasion. It's a gala. One of the most popular pianists on the planet is at center stage. You can hear the appreciation of this sold-out audience at opening night of this Carnegie Hall season, the 2025/'26 season. With the Tchaikovsky out of the way, we have another little set change.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yes, I think so, because the next work on the program is a suite from Stravinsky's ballet, The Firebird. There's no solo piano in that particular work, but there is the need for a conductor's podium. Just as you said, John, I think the orchestra will be removing at least most of itself from the Carnegie Hall stage so the crew can go out once again, take off the solo piano, put back the conductor's podium, and then we'll be ready for the next work on our program. Interestingly, though, we will not lose the soloist.

John Schaeffer: That's true because The Firebird calls for a large orchestra that includes an arsenal of percussion instruments, a harp, and a piano. Not a star turn, but just part of the ensemble. Yuja Wang will play that piano.

Jeff Spurgeon: She said that she didn't want to do this concert because also she conducted the Tchaikovsky. She said, "Otherwise, I won't get to work with Daniel Harding."

John Schaeffer: Right.

Jeff Spurgeon: Yuja Wang is going to be the orchestral pianist in this Stravinsky.

John Schaeffer: [laughs] That is the definition of luxury casting.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: A great tribute to all the musicians here that they would want to keep the chemistry going tonight.

John Schaeffer: A great tribute to Daniel Harding, who has put his jacket back on,-

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs]

John Schaeffer: -because he's turn back out on stage momentarily.

Jeff Spurgeon: He did take it off. That's right. To relax a little bit backstage. Here come the stagehands as they bring the piano by us to stash it backstage. We will remind you that you are listening to a broadcast, the opening concert of the 2025/'26 season, and you're hearing it from Carnegie Hall Live. This is Classical New York, WQXR 105.9 FM HD Newark, 90.3 FM WQXW Ossinning, and WNYC FM HD2 New York.

John Schaeffer: The final piece on the concert is Stravinsky's Firebird suite. This is the 1919 version. The initial version was written nine years earlier, one of the pieces that Serge Diaghilev commissioned from Stravinsky for his famous Ballets Russes company. It premiered at the Paris Opera. Like many of Stravinsky's works, it's based on an old Russian fairy tale about a magical glowing bird that is both a blessing and a curse to its captor.

Jeff Spurgeon: We mentioned that Yuja Wang is going to be staff piano in this performance because otherwise she wouldn't get to spend any time on stage with Daniel Harding. The fact that Yuja Wang showed up as pianist in this next work was a surprise in rehearsal to horn player Michael Stevens.

Michael Stevens: I looked up during rehearsal, and I was not expecting to see her playing piano during the Stravinsky. That's really cool and definitely a unique experience that I'll be able to have. I can't imagine that's very common.

Jeff Spurgeon: The work is a favorite of Michael Stevens, the horn player, but he said there's more to this experience for him than just the music.

Michael Stevens: That's a wonderful horn part and it's something I've always wanted to play. I'd say my actual highlight is seen some of my longtime friends. All of the principal grass players this program are all of my closest friends from the past decade. It's so good to see them again. I'd say just seeing them, regardless of what the repertoire is, is the highlight for me

John Schaeffer: That is one of the many All-Stars on stage at Carnegie Hall to open the new season.

Jeff Spurgeon: Horn player Michael Stevens talking about his experience and recalling rich times that he had as a member of the National Youth Orchestra when he was but a youth. Now all of the young people, and they are all young musicians in their early 30s at oldest, are alumni of the National Youth-

John Schaeffer: [laughs]

Jeff Spurgeon: -Orchestra of the United States of America, but now are professional musicians in one capacity or another. What we understand over the about dozen years of the National Youth Orchestra is that about half of the students who come through the program become professional musicians, and the rest go into their communities in other professional capacities, in other fields with music as a very strong part, obviously, of their upbringing.

The National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America has been a successful and growing program over its dozen or so years. Starting out as a single ensemble, they added a jazz orchestra, and then the younger division of the NYO, a second jazz orchestra as well, and now the NYO All-Stars, this ensemble that had its first appearance on stage in March of 2024. Now they're back to start this brand new season at Carnegie Hall.

John Schaeffer: To conclude the this opening night gala concert, it'll be Stravinsky's Firebird suite. It's an early work by Stravinsky and it remains a favorite. It's a brightly colored piece, although there was one writer who found it too long, too over the top, lacking in creativity and invention. That writer was Igor Stravinsky,-

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs]

John Schaeffer: -who rarely had a nice word for other composers and so didn't spare his own music either in this case.

Jeff Spurgeon: At least he was fair.

John Schaeffer: [laughs]

Jeff Spurgeon: At least he judged the music on the same criteria.

John Schaeffer: Yes. He was an equal opportunity-- [laughs]

Jeff Spurgeon: Disappointee.

[laughter]

John Schaeffer: This is the 1919 revision of the 1910 original that we'll be hearing. Once again, the members of the NYO All-Stars on stage, tuned, ready to go. We are awaiting the arrival once again of our conductor, Daniel Harding.

[applause]

John Schaeffer: Stage door opens, out he goes, to applause from this festive opening night audience here at Carnegie Hall.

Jeff Spurgeon: A unique maestro, Daniel Harding, for he is also a professional airline pilot, but tonight, he's flying Stravinsky Airlines with the NYO All-Stars as they bring you The Firebird from Carnegie Hall Live.

[MUSIC - Stravinsky: The Fireball]

[applause]

John Schaeffer: The Firebird by Igor Stravinsky, the 1919 version of his suite from that ballet score, concluding the opening night concert here at Carnegie Hall, opening night of the 2025/'26 season. Daniel Harding conducts the NYO All-Stars. Some of the alumni of the now 12-year-old project here at Carnegie Hall known as NYO-USA, the National Youth Orchestra of the United States of America. These All-Stars now professionals who have come together to usher in the new season of Carnegie Hall and these Carnegie Hall Live broadcasts. Jeff, there are few better showpieces for an orchestra than Stravinsky's Firebird.

Jeff Spurgeon: There is so much color in the orchestration.

[applause]

Jeff Spurgeon: So many wonderful solos. Daniel Harding now back on stage, pointing out various members who brought you those thrilling moments. The bassoon, the flute, the horn solos.

John Schaeffer: Some very exposed horn solos, and all done with aplomb by these musicians.

Jeff Spurgeon: Just amazing. Now all of the NYO All-Stars on their feet along with Maestro Harding on stage.

John Schaeffer: Lurking among those-

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs]

John Schaeffer: NYO All-Stars is the star pianist Yuja Wang, who was playing the orchestral piano off to the side where the harp is. She wanted to play with conductor Daniel Harding. Since we had heard her conducting her own performance of the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto earlier on the program, this was her opportunity to get to play with Daniel Harding.

Jeff Spurgeon: Daniel Harding is making a note of that fact that she's in the ensemble now. He took the flowers that he was offered as a congratulatory note and has passed them back to Yuja Wang at the orchestral piano position where she's been during this last work. It's a reunion. I guess we'll get a chance to talk to Daniel Harding about this, but it's a little bit of a reunion tonight for the NYO All-Stars.

This conductor for Daniel Harding was one of the NYO conductors just three years ago when these musicians from around the United States, the NYO, coming from all across the country, ages 14 to 17 in the NYO, 2 for younger players and the 16 to 19 year olds in the NYO itself. Daniel Harding, a conductor of the orchestra three years ago, so he's definitely seeing some of the musicians he knew in that time. There's a little reunion here. As you heard some of the orchestral players mention, it's a reunion for them too to come back and see some of the friends they made in their NYO experience several years ago.

John Schaeffer: It's been 12 years that NYO-USA has been going on here at Carnegie Hall. It is now, Jeff, as you were mentioning before, the seed of an even bigger youth music program that has expanded to include the smaller, or rather the younger, NYO2 and a couple of jazz ensembles, all part of the idea that bringing music to a younger generation is important, not just because it gives us great musicians to listen to, but even those people who go through the program and don't become professional musicians, when they go out into the world, that musical grounding is something that stays with you. It is a tool that you can use.

Jeff Spurgeon: You know how to be with people. You know how to deal with ideas that may not be your own. You know how to be part of a cooperative effort to make something great at the end, and so there are wonderful experiences everywhere. That concludes our concert tonight. The orchestra continues to mingle on stage and backstage, or rather just off a few feet from the stage door. You want more or less?

Daniel Harding: Less.

Jeff Spurgeon: Less. Okay. [crosstalk]

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: Daniel Harding is joining us now. Let's see. Is that turning it down a little bit?

Daniel Harding: [unintelligible 01:38:20]

Jeff Spurgeon: Great.

John Schaeffer: [laughs] Just adjusting the headphone levels. Yes.

Jeff Spurgeon: [laughs]

John Schaeffer: Well done, Jeff.

Jeff Spurgeon: Thank you.

John Schaeffer: Well done, Daniel Harding.

Daniel Harding: Thank you.

John Schaeffer: There must be a special kind of challenge to doing a program like this. If you come to New York to conduct the New York Phil, or you go to Philadelphia to conduct the Philadelphia Orchestra, those are teams that play together all the time. These All-Stars, it's what it says. It's an all-star team. What kind of challenge is that?

Daniel Harding: It's funny because A few years ago, I did a long summer tour with the National Youth Orchestra. In a way, that's more of a normal challenge. You get all these incredibly talented people together who don't know each other, but we have a lot of rehearsal time and a lot of concerts, and you create this team and this spirit together. This one, these guys are the, as you say, the all-stars.

They're the people who've gone off from the NYO and done amazing things. They come from 12 years of the orchestra, so a lot of them probably meeting for the first time. It's a much quicker process, but they're phenomenal. They have that spirit and joy in music making that they had when they were back in the youth orchestra. I think this is a special occasion for everyone, and everyone so up for it. With such high level of musicians, you can only have fun.

Jeff Spurgeon: How did you manage to find the pianist for the Stravinsky?

Daniel Harding: We had a look around.

John Schaeffer: [laughs]

Daniel Harding: There was this young lady who seemed to be talented.

John Schaeffer: [laughs]

Daniel Harding: We asked her if she had another conducting engagement or if she would be free to come and play in the orchestra. She bailed us out.

[laughter]

John Schaeffer: She did say that she wanted the opportunity to work with you. You can take that as a kind of a personal tribute from Yuja Wang.

Daniel Harding: She sat through three hours of orchestra rehearsal very well behaved.

John Schaeffer: [laughs]

Daniel Harding: I'll never forget it.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: We'll take that report back to her team and let them know. Maestro, you had a reunion too, right? You saw some musicians who you knew.

Daniel Harding: A few. I had to ask them which ones they were, because, of course, when I met them, they were all wearing masks.

John Schaeffer: Oh, yes.

Jeff Spurgeon: Oh, that's right.

Daniel Harding: You remember those days?

John Schaeffer: Yes.

Daniel Harding: There were some eyes I recognized, but not the rest of the face.

[laughter]

John Schaeffer: There was something else that COVID prevented you from doing, right? Weren't you going to take a year off to work as a pilot for Air France?

Daniel Harding: Yes.

John Schaeffer: Giving new meaning to the term jet set conductor.

Daniel Harding: [laughs] The thing is all it did was it delayed my start, but I've been working Air France for nearly, what? Four and a half years now. COVID put paid to the idea of taking a sabbatical and just focusing on that. Once COVID was over and everyone was back working, I joined the company. Now I split my time between these two activities.

Jeff Spurgeon: What a remarkable pair of vocations that you get to practice. Your youth orchestra work continues as well. Tell us about the project in China.

Daniel Harding: We have this fantastic project every January or February in Guangzhou, so in the south of China, in this amazing bay area, which is a very vibrant and economically interesting area. A lot of the technology, I think-- I don't know. These things are big subjects, but I think until quite recently, your iPhone was definitely made there.

John Schaeffer: [laughs]

Daniel Harding: It's a project that's been going on for a long time. Yo-Yo Ma was there for a few years. I think it was a slightly different focus when he was there. They said to me, "Yes, he's been spending a lot of time doing something called improvisation,-"

[laughter]

Daniel Harding: -as if they've never heard of it. [laughs] We're very orchestra-focused. We have young musicians from all over China, but also elsewhere in Asia, and indeed further afield. Some Chinese musicians who've come to the United States to study. We have some Spanish people. It's a fantastic melting pot of young musicians. I get this joy of bringing 10 or 12 of my favorite colleagues from great orchestras around the world who come and work as coaches.

It's funny. I learn a lot from having these amazing people from the Vienna Philharmonic and the Berlin Philharmonic, and all these fantastic places, and seeing how they delve technically into the way of playing these pieces we do. We spent some long evenings having very serious conversations about music and a little glass of water. It's a very inspiring place for us. Thinking about the very first thing you said about this orchestra, the wonderful thing is our cello coach is from the Berlin Philharmonic. He discovered on the third day of the first year that none of the students knew each other's names. He said, "How can you play music together if you don't talk to each other?"

We got to the final concert, and it's the thing I remember from Youth Orchestra. We played the encore of the piece and all these kids on stage were in floods of tears. They'd begun the week too nervous to look at the conductor, too nervous to talk to each other, too nervous to look at their coaches. By the end, the thought that tomorrow they had to go home and leave their friends-- That's a wonderful thing to experience.

John Schaeffer: You will, when you're done here, get on a plane, presumably, and go somewhere else. Will you be flying that plane?

Daniel Harding: I shall be on a plane tonight. I will be in the back with a glass of wine and letting my colleagues transport me back to Paris. Maybe I'll bring them some chocolates to say thank you.

[laughter]

Jeff Spurgeon: Daniel Harding, we have to say thank you for spending a little time with us tonight. Thank you so much for giving us a great, great evening to begin the new Carnegie Hall season.

John Schaeffer: Thank you so much. My pleasure.

Jeff Spurgeon: Conductor Daniel Harding with us. He was the conductor of tonight's concert. Two of the three works on the program, he conducted with the NYO All-Stars. The third one conducted by the soloist pianist Yuja Wang. With that, we wrap up this broadcast of Carnegie Hall Live. With our thanks to Clive Gillinson and the staff of Carnegie Hall.

John Schaeffer: WQXR's team includes engineers George Wellington, Edward Haber, Noriko Okabe, Bill Siegmund, and Neal Shaw. Our production team, Eileen Delahunty, Laura Boyman, Lauren Purcell-Joyner, and Christine Herskovits. I'm John Schaefer.

Jeff Spurgeon: I'm Jeff Spurgeon. Tip of the cap as well to Edward Haber who joined our crew this evening. Carnegie Hall Live is a co-production of Carnegie Hall and WQXR in New York.

[01:45:27] [END OF AUDIO]

 

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