Daniel Barenboim

Background

Daniel Barenboim was born on November 15, 1942, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Argentinian-Jewish parents. Moved to Israel with parents as a child in 1952. He was the son of Aida Schuster and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists.

Education

Daniel Barenboim started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher. Then the family moved to Europe where Barenboim played at the Salzburg Mozarteum and studied conducting with Igor Markevich. The following year, 1952, the family settled in Israel, although Barenboim returned to Europe to study piano with Edwin Fischer. At this time, Daniel Barenboim met the conductor Wilhelm Furtwängler, who influenced Barenboim's conducting.

Daniel Barenboim studied at the Accademia di Santa Cecilia in Rome where, as one of the youngest graduates ever, he received a diploma in 1956. During this period he also took composition lessons from Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Daniel Barenboim received honored degrees in Hebrew University of Jerusalem (1996, Doctor of Philosophy), Vrije Universiteit Brussel (2003), University of Oxford (2007, Doctor of Music), SOAS University of London (2008, Doctor of Music), Royal Academy of Music (2010, Doctor of Music), Weizmann Institute of Science (2013, Doctor of Philosophy), University of Florence (2020).

Career

Daniel Barenboim made his international debut as a pianist at the age of 10 in 1952 in Vienna and Rome. In 1955 he performed in Paris, in 1956 in London, and in 1957 in New York, where he played Prokofiev's First Piano Concerto under the baton of Leopold Stokowski. Regular concert tours of Europe, the United States, South America, Australia, and the Far East followed thereafter.

The following year Daniel Barenboim played again in New York and gave concerts throughout the world as well. He began conducting in Israel in 1962 and then appeared on the podium in Australia. In 1964, Daniel Barenboim made the first of his appearances with the English Chamber Orchestra, an ensemble he both conducted and performed with as a pianist regularly. He also toured with the English Chamber Orchestra in Latin America and the Far East. In June 1967, Daniel Barenboim and his then-fiancée Jacqueline du Pré gave concerts in Jerusalem, Tel Aviv, Haifa, and Beersheba before and during the Six-Day War.

Daniel Barenboim conducted the London Symphony Orchestra in 1968 in New York and appeared with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in 1969 and with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra in 1970. After 1970, he appeared regularly with the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and other major orchestras in the United States.

Daniel Barenboim also frequently appeared with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and with the Orchestra de Paris, of which he was named conductor in 1975. He directed London's South Bank Summer Music Festival for two seasons in 1968 and 1970. He conducted Mozart's Don Giovanni at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973. Between 1975 and 1989, he was music director of the Orchestre de Paris, where he conducted much contemporary music.

Since 1992, Daniel Barenboim has been music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, succeeding in maintaining the independent status of the State Opera. On 15 May 2006, he was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation. He subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.

In the autumn of 2006, Daniel Barenboim gave the Charles Eliot Norton Lectures at Harvard University, entitling his talk "Sound and Thought". In 2009, he conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time. In his New Year message, he expressed the hope that 2009 would be a year for peace and for human justice in the Middle East. Daniel Barenboim returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and he is scheduled to conduct the 2022 Vienna New Year's Concert.

In 2014, construction began on the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin. A joint project Barenboim developed with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, the academy was planned as a site for young music students from the Arab world and Israel to study music and humanities in Berlin.

Achievements

• Daniel Barenboim has received many awards and prizes, including an honorary Knight Commander of the Order of the British Empire, France's Légion d'honneur both as a Commander and Grand Officier, and the German Großes Bundesverdienstkreuz and Willy Brandt Award. Together with the Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, he was given Spain's Prince of Asturias Concord Award. He has won seven Grammy awards for his work and discography.

Works

More photos

• Audio CD

  • Complete Piano Sonatas

    (Ted Libbey: "On the evidence of this 1985 collection, Dan...)

  • Daniel Barenboim Solo Recordings On Deutsche Grammophon 39 CD

    (This 38 CDs + 1 Bonus CD with rare first recordings from ...)

  • Beethoven: The 9 Symphonies (6CD)

    ("I waited a very long time to record the Beethoven sympho...)

    2000
  • Tchaikovsky / Mendelssohn: First Piano Concertos
  • Beethoven: Complete Piano Sonatas
  • Mozart: Complete Piano Concertos 1-27
  • On My New Piano
  • Beethoven: Piano Sonata No.14 In C Sharp Minor, Op.27 No.2 -"Moonlight" - 3. Presto agitato
  • Piazzolla et al : Mi Buenos Aires querido
  • Schubert: Piano Sonatas [5 CD]

• book

  • Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society

    (These free-wheeling, often exhilarating dialogues - which...)

    2004
  • An Orchestra Beyond Borders: Voices of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

    (Bringing together young musicians from Palestine, Israel,...)

    2009
  • Everything is Connected: The Power of Music

    (Daniel Barenboim's new book vividly describes his lifelon...)

    2009
  • Perspectives: Daniel Barenboim

    (This large 27 page stapled booklet discusses Barenboim's ...)

    2000
  • Daniel Barenboim: A Life in Music

    (His parents, both musicians, taught Barenboim to play the...)

    1992

Politics

Daniel Barenboim, a supporter of human rights, including Palestinian rights, is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

In an interview with the British music critic Norman Lebrecht in 2003, Barenboim accused Israel of behaving in a manner which was, "morally abhorrent and strategically wrong", and, "putting in danger the very existence of the state of Israel".

In 1967, at the start of the Six-Day War, Daniel Barenboim and du Pré had performed for the Israeli troops on the front lines, as well as during the Yom Kippur war in 1973. During the Gulf War, he and an orchestra performed in Israel in gas masks.

Daniel Barenboim has argued publicly for a Two-state solution for Israel and Palestinians. In November 2014, in an opinion piece in The Guardian, he wrote that the "ongoing security of the state of Israel...is only possible in the long term if the future of the Palestinian people, too, is secured in its own sovereign state. If this does not happen, the wars and history of that region will be constantly repeated and the unbearable stalemate will continue."

Views

Daniel Barenboim is a self-described Spinozist, he is significantly influenced by Spinoza's life and thought.

Connections

Daniel Barenboim met English cellist Jacqueline du Pré on New Year's Eve 1966. Shortly after the end of the Six-Day War, they flew to Jerusalem. She converted to Judaism, and they were married on 15 June 1967 at the Western Wall. She was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis in October 1973 and died in October 1987.

In the early 1980s, Daniel Barenboim had an affair with the Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova. The two lived together and had two children and were married in 1988, a year after Jacqueline's death.

Father:

Enrique Barenboim

Mother:

Aida Schuster

Spouse:

Elena Bashkirova

Elena Dmitrievna Bashkirova is a Russian-born Israeli pianist and musical director.

Spouse:

Jacqueline du Pré

Jacqueline Mary du Pré (26 January 1945 - 19 October 1987) was a British cellist. At a young age, she achieved enduring mainstream popularity. Despite her short career, she is regarded as one of the greatest cellists of all time.

Son:

Michael Barenboim

Son:

David Arthur Barenboim

References

• Who's Who in World Jewry: A Biographical Dictionary of Outstanding Jews
  1965