The outgoing Music Director of the New York Philharmonic has lashed Donald Trump in an interview for German public broadcaster Norddeutscher Rundfunk. The American conductor, who will be celebrating the final subscription concerts of his tenure with concerts featuring musicians from around the world – including violist Rosmary Curtin from the Sydney Symphony Orchestra and cellist David Berlin from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra – was asked his opinion on the US President.

“So the subject is Donald Trump, yet again. We always try when we have dinner to make a deal that we’re not going to talk about politics, we’re not going to talk about Donald Trump, but somehow it always ends up being the subject matter and here I am again being asked what I think of this, well, really horrible person,” he told NDR. “It’s a scary time because truth and honesty seem not to have currency, I think, it’s hard to know sometimes whether this man lies just habitually or if it’s strategic. But he plays on people’s fears and seems to use dissembling and lying as political strategies.”

Gilbert issued a warning, but also a call to arms for musicians. “I think...