Daniel Barenboim - Marriages, Career, His Music, Conducting Wagner in Israel, Sympathies, Wolf Prize, Awards and Recognitions

Pianist and conductor, born in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Educated at Santa Cecilia Academy in Rome, he studied with his father, then with Nadia Boulanger and others. He made his debut with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra in 1953. A noted exponent of Mozart and Beethoven, he gained his reputation as pianist/conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra. He was musical director of the Orchestre de Paris (197587), and musical director-designate of the new Paris Opéra at the Place de la Bastille in 1987. He became musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (19912006) and general music director of the Deutsche Staatsoper, Berlin (19922002). In 1967 he married the cellist Jacqueline du Pré (d.1987).

Portions of the summary below have been contributed by Wikipedia.

Daniel Barenboim
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. 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.

Marriages

Daniel Barenboim was married to Jacqueline du Pré until her death in 1987.

Du Pré developed advanced multiple sclerosis, and in the early 1980s Barenboim started an affair with the russian pianist Elena Bashkirova, today his wife. 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.

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 1952, the Barenboim family moved to Israel.

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.

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.

Barenboim made his opera conducting debut in 1973 with a performance of Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival.

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. 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.

His 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.

In the beginning of his career, Barenboim gained widespread acceptance mainly as a pianist. 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.

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 .

Barenboim is also highly praised as a superb conductor, especially in his later career .

In his later years, Barenboim widened his repertoire, performing works by Baroque as well as twentieth-century classical composers.

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 . 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. 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 . 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. (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.)

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.

Barenboim originally had been scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walküre with three singers, including tenor Plácido Domingo.

Barenboim agreed to substitute music by Robert Schumann and Igor Stravinsky, for the offending piece, but expressed regret at the decision.

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.

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."

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.

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.

Wolf Prize

In May 2004, Barenboim was awarded the Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset.

Awards and Recognitions

Buber-Rosenzweig Medal, 2004 Wolf Prize in Arts, 2004 Wilhelm Furtwängler Prize, 2003 (with Staatskapelle Berlin) Doctor Honoris Causa, Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Belgium), 2003 Tolerance Prize, Evangelische Akademie Tutzing, 2002 Prince of Asturias Concord Prize, 2002 (jointly with Edward Said) Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz, 2002 Honorary Doctorate of Philosophy, Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 1996

Grammy Award for Best Opera Recording:

Christoph Classen (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel, Tobias Lehmann (engineers), Daniel Barenboim (conductor), Jane Eaglen, Thomas Hampson, Waltraud Meier, René Pape, Peter Seiffert, the Chor der Deutschen Staatsoper Berlin & the Staatskapelle Berlin for Wagner: Tannhäuser (2003)

Grammy Award for Best Chamber Music Performance:

Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Daniele Damiano, Hansjörg Schellenberger & the Berlin Philharmonic for Beethoven/Mozart: Quintets (Chicago-Berlin) (1995) Daniel Barenboim & Itzhak Perlman for Brahms: The Three Violin Sonatas (1991)

Grammy Award for Best Orchestral Performance:

Daniel Barenboim (conductor) & 1 (1992)

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

Martin Fouqué (producer), Eberhard Sengpiel (engineer), Daniel Barenboim, Dale Clevenger, Larry Combs, Alex Klein, David McGill & Oboe Concerto, etc.) (2002)