58 Facts About Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim is an Argentine-born classical pianist and conductor based in Berlin.

From 1992 until January 2023, Barenboim was the General Music Director of the Berlin State Opera and "Staatskapellmeister" of its orchestra, the Staatskapelle Berlin.

The former music director of the Berlin State Opera and the Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim previously served as Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, the Orchestre de Paris and La Scala in Milan.

Daniel Barenboim is multilingual, fluent in Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian, and German.

Daniel Barenboim was born on 15 November 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents Aida and Enrique Barenboim, both professional pianists.

Daniel Barenboim started piano lessons at the age of five with his mother, continuing to study with his father, who remained his only teacher.

In 1955, Daniel Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.

Daniel Barenboim worked to keep his relationship with Bashkirova hidden from du Pre, and believed he had succeeded.

Daniel Barenboim holds citizenship in Argentina, Israel, Palestine, and Spain, and was the first person to hold Palestinian and Israeli citizenship simultaneously.

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

Daniel Barenboim made his debut at Bayreuth in 1981, conducting there regularly until 1999.

Daniel Barenboim was named music director designate of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1989 and succeeded Sir Georg Solti as its music director in 1991, a post he held until 17 June 2006.

Daniel Barenboim expressed frustration with the need for fund-raising duties in the United States as part of being a music director of an American orchestra.

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.

Daniel Barenboim has tried to maintain the orchestra's traditional sound and style.

On 15 May 2006, Daniel Barenboim was named principal guest conductor of La Scala opera house, in Milan, after Riccardo Muti's resignation.

Daniel Barenboim subsequently became music director of La Scala in 2011.

In 2006, Daniel Barenboim presented the BBC Reith Lectures, presenting a series of five lectures titled In the Beginning was Sound.

Daniel Barenboim said he was flattered but "nothing could be further from my thoughts at the moment than the possibility of returning to the United States for a permanent position", repeating in April 2007 his lack of interest in the New York Philharmonic's music directorship or its newly created principal conductor position.

Daniel Barenboim made his conducting debut on 28 November 2008 at the Metropolitan Opera in New York for the House's 450th performance of Wagner's Tristan und Isolde.

In 2009, Daniel Barenboim conducted the Vienna New Year's Concert of the Vienna Philharmonic for the first time.

Daniel Barenboim returned to conduct the 2014 Vienna New Year's Concert, and conducted the 2022 Concert.

In October 2022, Daniel Barenboim announced on social media that he would be reducing his conducting and other engagements for health reasons.

Daniel Barenboim has rejected musical fashions based on current musicological research, such as the authentic performance movement.

Daniel Barenboim's recording of Beethoven's symphonies shows his preference for some conventional practices, rather than fully adhering to Barenreiter's new edition.

Daniel Barenboim has opposed the practice of choosing the tempo of a piece based on historical evidence, such as the composer's metronome marks.

Daniel Barenboim argues instead for finding the tempo from within the music, especially from its harmony and harmonic rhythm.

Daniel Barenboim has reflected this in the general tempi chosen in his recording of Beethoven's symphonies, usually adhering to early-twentieth-century practices.

Daniel Barenboim has not been influenced by the faster tempos chosen by other conductors such as David Zinman and authentic movement advocate Roger Norrington.

Daniel Barenboim 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.

Daniel Barenboim has written about his changing attitude to the music of Mahler; he has recorded Mahler's Fifth, Seventh, and Ninth symphonies and Das Lied von der Erde.

Daniel Barenboim has performed and recorded the Concierto de Aranjuez by Rodrigo and Villa-Lobos guitar concerto with John Williams as the guitar soloist.

Daniel Barenboim conducted the 2006 New Year's Eve concert in Buenos Aires, in which tangos were played.

Daniel Barenboim has continued to perform and record chamber music, sometimes with members of the orchestras he has led.

Daniel Barenboim, who had been selected to head the production of Wagner's operas at the 1988 Bayreuth Festival, had since at least 1989 publicly opposed the Israeli ban.

In 1990, Daniel Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra in its first appearance in Israel, but he excluded Wagner's works.

At the Israel Festival in Jerusalem in July 2001, Daniel Barenboim had scheduled to perform the first act of Die Walkure with three singers, including tenor Placido Domingo.

In September 2001, a public relations associate for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, where Daniel Barenboim was the Music Director, revealed that season ticket-holders were about evenly divided about the wisdom of Daniel Barenboim's decision to play Wagner in Jerusalem.

Daniel Barenboim said he had decided to defy the ban on Wagner after having a news conference he held the previous week interrupted by the ringing of a mobile phone to the tune of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries".

In 2005, Daniel Barenboim gave the inaugural Edward Said Memorial Lecture at Columbia University, entitled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine".

The speech caused controversy; the Jewish Telegraphic Agency wrote that Daniel Barenboim had "compared Herzl's ideas to Wagner's; criticized Palestinian terrorist attacks but justified them; and said Israeli actions contributed to the rise of international anti-Semitism".

Daniel Barenboim is an outspoken critic of Israel's conservative governments and the Israeli occupation of the Palestinian territories.

Daniel Barenboim has argued publicly for a two-state solution for Israelis and Palestinians.

Daniel Barenboim and Said jointly received the 2002 Prince of Asturias Awards for their work in "improving understanding between nations".

In September 2005, presenting the book written with Said, Daniel Barenboim refused to be interviewed by uniformed Israel Defense Forces Radio reporter Dafna Arad, considering the wearing of the uniform insensitive for the occasion.

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

Education Minister Livnat held up the nomination until Daniel Barenboim apologized for his performance of Wagner in Israel.

Livnat accused him of attacking the state of Israel, to which Daniel Barenboim replied that he had not done so, but that he instead had cited the text of the Israeli Declaration of Independence.

Daniel Barenboim has performed several times in the West Bank: at Bir Zeit University in 1999 and several times in Ramallah.

In January 2008, after performing in Ramallah, Daniel Barenboim accepted honorary Palestinian citizenship, becoming the first Jewish Israeli citizen to be offered the status.

Daniel Barenboim said he hoped it would serve as a public gesture of peace.

The parliamentary faction chairman of the Shas party demanded that Daniel Barenboim be stripped of his Israeli citizenship, but the Interior Minister told the media that "the matter is not even up for discussion".

In May 2011, Daniel Barenboim conducted the "Orchestra for Gaza" composed of volunteers from the Berlin Philharmonic, the Berlin Staatskapelle, the Orchestra of La Scala in Milan, the Vienna Philharmonic and the Orchestre de Paris, at al-Mathaf Cultural House.

The orchestra flew from Berlin to Vienna and from there to El Arish on a plane chartered by Daniel Barenboim, entering the Gaza Strip at the Egyptian Rafah Border Crossing.

In 2017, Daniel Barenboim unveiled a piano that has straight-strung bass strings, as opposed to the crossed-stringed modern instrument.

Daniel Barenboim was inspired by Liszt's Erard piano, which has straight strings.

Daniel Barenboim appreciates the clarity of tone and a greater control over the tonal quality his new instrument gives.

In 2019, Daniel Barenboim used this instrument to perform at Berliner Philhamoniker.