Daniel Barenboim

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Daniel Barenboim
Daniel Barenboim conducting
Daniel Barenboim conducting
Background information
Born November 15, 1942, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Genre(s) Classical Music
Occupation(s) pianist, conductor
Instrument(s) piano
Notable instrument(s)
Piano
Orchestra

Daniel Barenboim (born November 15, 1942) is an Argentinean-Israeli pianist and conductor. He was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina; his parents were Russian Jews. He holds both Israeli and Argentine citizenship. Barenboim first came to fame as a pianist but now is as well-known as a conductor, and for his work with mixed orchestras of Arabs and Jews, and for his collaboration with Palestinian American intellectual and activist Edward Said. In 2001, he sparked a controversy in Israel by conducting the music of Wagner. He is also a Spanish citizen.

Contents

[edit] Marriages

Daniel Barenboim was married to Jacqueline du Pré until her death in 1987. His friendship with musicians Itzhak Perlman, Zubin Mehta, and Pinchas Zukerman, and marriage to du Pré led to the famous film by Christopher Nupen of their Schubert "Trout" Quintet; collectively, the five referred to themselves as The Kosher Nostra.

Du Pré developed advanced multiple sclerosis, and in the early 1980s Barenboim started an affair with the Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova, today his wife. They have two sons; David Arthur (a manager-writer for the German hip-hop band Level 8, b.1982 in Paris) and Michael Barenboim (a classical violinist, b.1985 in Paris), both born before Du Pré's death. Barenboim and Bashkirova were officially married in 1988.

[edit] Career

Barenboim started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father Enrique, who remained his only teacher. In August 1950, when he was only seven years old, he gave his first formal concert in Buenos Aires.

In 1952, the Barenboim family moved to Israel. Two years later, in the summer of 1954, his parents brought him to Salzburg to take part in Igor Markevitch's conducting classes. During that summer he also met and played for Wilhelm Furtwängler. In 1955 he studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Barenboim made his debut as a pianist in Vienna and Rome in 1952, Paris in 1955, London in 1956, and New York in 1957 under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia and the Far East followed thereafter.

Barenboim made his first recording in 1954, and later recorded complete cycles of the piano sonatas of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Ludwig van Beethoven and piano concertos by Mozart (as both conductor and pianist), Beethoven (with Otto Klemperer and later as conductor and pianist with the Berlin Philharmonic), Johannes Brahms (with John Barbirolli and Zubin Mehta) and Bartók (with Pierre Boulez).

Following his debut as a conductor with the Philharmonia Orchestra in London in 1967, Barenboim was invited to conduct by many European and American symphony orchestras. Between 1975 and 1989 he was Music Director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.

Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival. He made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999.

Barenboim completed his tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra on June 17, 2006, a position he took up in 1991, following in the footsteps of Georg Solti. It has been reported that he was disliked by many musicians and board members of the CSO, allegedly for his support of complex modern music despite dwindling concert attendance. He also is music director of the Berlin State Opera, a position which he has held since 1992. On May 15th, 2006 Barenboim was named Principal Guest Conductor of the La Scala opera house, in Milan, Italy.

Barenboim was also the 2006 BBC Reith Lecturer, giving five lectures from significant venues around the world on various aspects of music. In the fall of 2006, Barenboim was the Charles Eliot Norton Lecturer at Harvard University.

[edit] Music

Daniel Barenboim is considered one of the most prominent musicians of the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, as both pianist and conductor. He is noted for his mastery of conveying musical structure, and for a deep sensitivity to harmonic nuances [citation needed].

In the beginning of his career, Barenboim gained widespread acceptance mainly as a pianist. He concentrated on music of the Classical Era, as well as some Romantic composers. Notable Classical recordings include: the complete cycles of Mozart's and Beethoven's piano sonatas, and Mozart's piano concertos (in the latter, taking part as both soloist and conductor). Notable Romantic recordings include: Brahms's piano concertos (with John Barbirolli), Mendelssohn's Lieder ohne Worte, and Chopin's nocturnes. Barenboim also recorded many chamber works, especially in collaboration with his first wife, Jacqueline du Pre, the violinist Itzhak Perlman, and the violinist and violist Pinchas Zukerman. Noted perfomances include: the complete Mozart violin sonatas (with Perlman), Brahms's violin sonatas (live concert with Perlman), Beethoven's and Brahms's cello sonatas (with du Pre), Beethoven's and Tchaikovsky's piano trios (with du Pre and Zukerman), and Schubert's Trout Quintet (with du Pre, Perlman, Zukerman, and Zubin Mehta).

As a pianist, especially in his later career, Barenboim has been frequently criticized for an unperfected technique, perhaps the result of lack of regular practice [citation needed].

There are some who praise Barenboim's conducting, especially in his later years[citation needed]. Notable recordings include: the complete symphonies of Beethoven, Brahms, Bruckner and Schumann, many operas by Wagner, and various concertos. His recording of Beethoven's symphonies is highly controversial, frequently changing speeds within single movements – probably by inspiration from Wilhelm Furtwangler, his favourite conductor [citation needed].

In his later years, Barenboim widened his repertoire, performing works by Baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers. Examples include: Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier and Goldberg Variations, and Debussy's preludes. In addition, he turned to other musical genres, such as Jazz, and folk music of his birthplace, Argentina.

In recent years, Barenboim is generally considered a conservative interpreter in his tendency for keeping with old traditions, and disregarding newer musical fashions supported by current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement [citation needed]. A notable example is his neglect of Breitkopf & Härtel's highly praised new edition (edited by Jonathan del Mar) of Beethoven's symphonies for his recording of those works [citation needed]. Barenboim has opposed the trend of choosing the tempo of a piece according to the alleged "true intention" of the composer and the accepted musical style of his era. He argues instead for the importance of harmony and harmonic rhythm, in dictating the 'correct' tempo (see below). The general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, reflecting this belief, usually adhere to early twentieth-century tradition, and are not influenced by faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as Roger Norrington and David Zinman. Similarly, Barenboim's Well-Tempered Clavier is played with frequent use of the right pedal, a device absent from the keyboard instruments of Bach's time, and one which creates a very different sonority from that favored by interpreters such as Glenn Gould [citation needed]. Moreover, in the fugues, one voice is often played considerably louder than the others, favouring a "melodistic" interpretation, rather than emphasizing Bach's counterpoint, as in Gould's interpretation [citation needed]. When justifying his interpretation of Bach, Barenboim claims that he is interested in the long tradition of playing Bach, that has existed for two and a half centuries, rather than in the exact style of performance that existed in Bach's time:

"The study of old instruments and historic performance practice has taught us a great deal, but the main point, the impact of harmony, has been ignored. This is proved by the fact that tempo is described as an independent phenomenon. It is claimed that one of Bach's gavottes must be played fast and another one slowly. But tempo is not independent!... I think that concerning oneself purely with historic performance practice and the attempt to reproduce the sound of older styles of music-making is limiting and no indication of progress. Mendelssohn and Schumann tried to introduce Bach into their own period, as did Liszt with his transcriptions and Busoni with his arrangements. In America Leopold Stokowski also tried to do it with his arrangements for orchestra. This was always the result of "progressive" efforts to bring Bach closer to the particular period. I have no philosophical problem with someone playing Bach and making it sound like Boulez. My problem is more with someone who tries to imitate the sound of that time..."
(cited from "Ich bin mit Bach aufgewachsen" ["I was reared on Bach"], article by Daniel Barenboim, published in the booklets of his recordings of the Well-Tempered Clavier. Translated by Gery Bramall.)

[edit] Conducting Wagner in Israel

On July 7, 2001, Barenboim led the Berlin Staatskapelle in part of Wagner's opera Tristan und Isolde at the Israel Festival in Jerusalem. The concert sparked an outcry, with Barenboim being branded as a fascist by some Israelis. Wagner's music has been taboo in Israel, because Adolf Hitler's theories of racial purity and extermination of Jews drew partly from anti-Semitic writings by Wagner, his favorite composer.

Barenboim originally had been scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo. However strong protests by Holocaust survivors, as well as the Israeli government, led the festival authorities to ask for an alternative program.

Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Robert Schumann and Igor Stravinsky, for the offending piece, but expressed regret at the decision. At the end of the concert he declared that he would play Wagner as an encore and invited those who objected to leave.

Barenboim spent a half-hour speaking to the audience in Hebrew, explaining his rationale behind playing the piece and appealing to the protestors to let the music be heard.

Barenboim said he had decided to defy the taboo on Wagner when a news conference he held the previous week was interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's Ride of the Valkyries. "I thought if it can be heard on the ring of a telephone, why can't it be played in a concert hall?" he said.

[edit] Sympathies

Barenboim is a vehement critic of the Israeli presence in the West Bank, saying his adopted homeland is, "losing its moral capital [by] fighting against the identity of a people." In an interview with British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, he accused the Israeli government of behaving in a manner which was, "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong", and, "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel." [1]

As a gesture of solidarity with the Palestinians, Barenboim has given performances in the Palestinian Territories, in particular on the West Bank.

In 1999, Barenboim jointly founded the West-Eastern Divan orchestra with the late Palestinian-American writer and activist Edward Said, who was a close friend. It is an initiative to bring together, every summer, a group of talented young classical musicians from Israel and Arab countries. Barenboim and Said were among the recipients of the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations."

Barenboim wrote a book together with Said, Parallels and Paradoxes, based on a series of public discussions held at New York's Carnegie Hall.

In September 2005 Barenboim refused to be interviewed by a uniformed Israeli Army radio reporter, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive to the Palestinians present. [2]

He claims that because of his political views he has been called "'self-hating' at best and traitorous at worst".[3]

[edit] Wolf Prize

In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset. He took the opportunity to express his opinions on the political situation:

"With pain in my heart, I ask today whether a situation of conquest and control can be reconciled with Israel's Declaration of Independence? Is there logic to the independence of one people if the cost is a blow to the fundamental rights of another people? Can the Jewish people, whose history is full of suffering and persecution, allow itself to be apathetic about the rights and suffering of a neighboring people? Can the state of Israel allow itself to indulge an unrealistic dream whose meaning is an ambition to bring an ideological resolution to the dispute, rather than the aim of attaining a pragmatic, humanitarian solution, based on social justice?"

Several Israeli politicians and the Israeli President criticised him for those remarks [name a specific person/group][dubious — see talk page].

[edit] Awards and Recognitions

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):

Grammy Award for Best Instrumental Soloist(s) Performance (with orchestra):

[edit] External links

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Preceded by
Georg Solti		 Music Director, Orchestre de Paris
1975–1989		 Succeeded by
Semyon Bychkov
Preceded by
Georg Solti		 Music Director, Chicago Symphony Orchestra
1991–2006		 Succeeded by
Bernard Haitink scheduled to take up the post of Principal Conductor in September 2007
Preceded by
Riccardo Muti		 Music Directors, La Scala, Milan
2006– (as Principal Guest Conductor)		 Succeeded by
incumbent
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