** Show: Pippo Baudo 85 years old, ‘I would have liked to be an orchestra conductor’ **

“The conductor!”. Pippo Baudo, 85 years old on Monday – was born on 7 June 1936 in Militello in the province of Catania – and a very long and ‘very wide’ career, studded with successes and audiences, confesses to AdnKronos as one of the many commitments and roles he had in the he never held his artistic life and on which he would rather have so much wanted to measure himself: “Without a doubt, I would have liked to be an orchestra conductor – confesses the Sicilian presenter, without thinking about it for a moment – It’s really something I’ve been so much about tied but that unfortunately I have never been able to realize: in this sense I envied the skill of Pippo Caruso, the conductor with whom I made a strong friendship. Conducting so many musicians is truly an indescribable emotion: I can only play the piano”. Ever done, not even as a test or as a joke? “No, I’ve never tried: you don’t mess with serious things; they seem easy gestures but it is one of the most difficult professions, as also taught by Fellini’s film, ‘Orchestra Rehearsal’, a very hard film”. Even conductors often are … “It’s true: I met Von Karajan, I know Maestro Riccardo Muti well, all people with a very strong character – observes Baudo – In Rai, I have wonderful memories of Gorni Kramer , an absolute genius, by Bruno Canfora, by Enrico Simonetti, by Lelio Luttazzi and then there is still the very good Beppe Vessicchio “. The thing he is more proud of, professionally,” is having created so many programs even more than having them then introduce yourself. I recognize a good dose of imagination … “, he admits without false modesty. And to the other members of the historic ‘four musketeers’ – with Pippo Baudo, also Mike Bongiorno, Corrado and Enzo Tortora – as the four best presenters and most present on TV were then defined, what does the King of Presenters envy? “To Corrado certainly the innate sympathy, the irony; to Tortora his great culture; to Mike the method and the professionalism pushed to the maximum. For me, as a personal quality, I keep close to the imagination and the taste and the art of improvisation “. (by Enzo Bonaiuto)