Daniele Gatti has long been linked primarily with opera, yet his catalog of recordings points more strongly toward symphonic repertoire, where distinguished accounts of Tchaikovsky and Mahler symphonies stand out. For the greater part of his professional life he has divided his time equally between the two spheres, appearing regularly at major opera houses while also directing prominent orchestras across the globe, among them the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. Within opera he has shown a clear inclination toward the standard Italian works while still embracing music from nearly every era; on the concert platform his strongest affinities lie with the post-Romantic and early-twentieth-century periods, embracing not only Tchaikovsky and Mahler but also Bartók, Prokofiev, and Respighi. In 2021 he directed the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig in a recording of Mieczyslaw Weinberg’s Violin Concerto featuring Gidon Kremer.
Milan-born on November 6, 1961, Gatti completed his earliest advanced training at the Milan Conservatory and made his formal debut in that city in 1982, leading Verdi’s Giovanna d’Arco. In the years immediately following he worked chiefly at smaller Italian theaters. His decisive breakthrough came again in Milan when, in 1988, he conducted Rossini’s L’occasione fa il ladro at La Scala to widespread critical praise. His first appearance on an American operatic stage occurred in 1991 at Chicago Lyric Opera with Madama Butterfly. Between 1992 and 1997 he served as principal conductor of the Orchestra dell’Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia in Rome; the same year he made his Covent Garden debut and later held the post of principal guest conductor there from 1994 to 1997.
At the Metropolitan Opera he made his bow in 1994, again with Madama Butterfly, and that same season guest-conducted the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra—an engagement that led, two years later, to his appointment as the orchestra’s principal conductor, a position he held until 2009. In 1997 he also became music director of the Teatro Comunale in Bologna, remaining until 2007. From 2008 to 2016 he served as music director of the Orchestre National de France. Appointed chief conductor of the Royal Concertgebouworchest in 2016, he left the post in 2018 after his contract was terminated amid allegations of sexual misconduct. Since 2016 he has acted as artistic advisor to the Mahler Chamber Orchestra; in 2018 he was named music director of the Teatro dell’Opera di Roma, and the following year he assumed the same title with Orchestra Mozart.
His recordings have appeared on Harmonia Mundi, Conifer, RCA, and other labels. Two early releases with the Royal Philharmonic—the Mahler Symphony No. 5 on Conifer and Romeo and Juliet on RCA—earned particular acclaim. His discographic activity expanded considerably in the new century, encompassing Stravinsky’s Pétrouchka and Le Sacre du printemps with the Orchestre National de France and Richard Strauss’s Salome with the Royal Concertgebouworchest, as well as the aforementioned 2021 account of Weinberg’s Violin Concerto with Gidon Kremer and the Gewandhausorchester Leipzig.
