DANIEL BARENBOIM
LEADS THE ORCHESTRA OF LA SCALA IN ITS TRADITIONAL CHRISTMAS
CONCERT
December 2005
Daniel Barenboim conducted Beethoven's Ninth Symphony on 23 December at La Scala, Milan. The Orchestra e coro del Teatro alla Scala were joined by soloists Camilla Nylund, Michaela Schuster, Burkhard Fritz and Thomas Quasthoff. After the performance Mr. Barenboim received a 10-minute ovation and cries of "bravo" from the audience, chorus and orchestra. Corriere della Sera wrote that "Love has burst out between Barenboim and La Scala", adding that the conductor had succeeded in giving the orchestra "an entirely new sound identity." It was Mr. Barenboim's first appearance at La Scala in several decades.
DANIEL BARENBOIM CONDUCTS THE BERLIN
PHILHARMONIC IN A PROGRAM OF WEBERN, STRAVINSKY AND TCHAIKOVSKY
December 2005
On December 15, 16 and 17, Daniel Barenboim conducted the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir at Berlin's Philharmonie. The program consisted of Webern's Concerto op 24, Stravinsky's A Symphony of Psalms and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5. Der Tagesspiegel wrote, "Daniel Barenboim believes in the [Tchaikovsky] symphony's inherent message of the power of destiny and the Berlin Philharmonic charges behind him in full blast. . In his Symphony of Psalms, Stravinsky . asked for boys' voices - for the sake of clarity - and Barenboim transforms the archaically modern piece into a gentle motet."
DANIEL BARENBOIM CONDUCTS PREMIERE
OF A NEW BORIS GODUNOV PRODUCTION AT THE STAATSOPER BERLIN
December 2005
December 11 marked the premiere of a new Russian language production of Modest Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov at the Staatsoper Berlin. The director was the much praised young Russian Dmitri Tcherniakov. Daniel Barenboim conducted the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Staatsopernchor with René Pape as Boris, Sylvia Schwartz as Xenia, Burkhard Fritz as Grigory, Stephan Rügamer as Schuusky, Pavol Breslik as the Holy Fool and Alexander Vinogradov as Pimen. The Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung wrote, "Amazing, the orchestral excesses achieved by the Berlin Staatskapelle under Daniel Barenboim. Overwhelming, the impact of the united choirs (Staatsoper Choir, Concert Choir and Children's Choir). Sensational also, the way these dramatic moments are counterbalanced by interludes of sweet and touching instrumental calm, by tremors of lamentation and the fading away of desperation."
DANIEL BARENBOIM OPENS ISRAEL FILM
FESTIVAL IN BERLIN
December 2005
Daniel Barenboim opened the Israel Film Festival in Berlin on December 2nd, at the
Berlin Kulturhaus. The theme of the two-week-long festival was Israel and the Middle East.
DANIEL BARENBOIM AND RADU LUPU PERFORM
ALL-MOZART PROGRAM
December 2005
Daniel Barenboim and Radu Lupu performed a two-piano recital at the Staatsoper Berlin in anticipation of Mozart's 250th birthday on January 27. The repertoire included four works for piano four hands: the sonatas in C Major KV 521 and F Major KV 497, the Andante with Five Variations in G Major KV 501 and the Fantasie für ein Orgelwerk in einer Uhr f-Moll KV 608; as well as the Sonata in D Major KV 448 for Two Pianos.
DANIEL BARENBOIM CONDUCTS DIE MEISTERSINGER AT THE STAATSOPER BERLIN
November and December 2005
Daniel Barenboim conducted performances of Harry Kupfer's production of Die Meistersinger by Richard Wagner on November 20 and 27 and on December 1 and 4. The role of Hans Sachs was sung by Robert Holl, Sixtus Beckmesser by Andreas Schmidt, Walter von Stolzing by Ben Heppner, Velt Pogner by Kurt Rydl, David by Stephan Rügamer, Eva by Anna Samuil and Magdalene by Katharina Kammerloher.
DANIEL BARENBOIM AND THE STAATSKAPELLE
BERLIN PERFORM WORKS BY SCHOENBERG AND MAHLER
November 2005
Daniel Barenboim conducted the Staatskapelle Berlin in performances of Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde at Berlin's Philharmonie and Konzerthaus on November 15 and 16. The soloists for the Mahler were contralto Michelle DeYoung and tenor Peter Seiffert. The Berliner Zeitung wrote of the Schoenberg, "[Daniel Barenboim] adds to the score an incessant momentum, which also characterises his interpretation as a whole. . This makes for the grand final effect." The Berliner Morgenpost said, "Conductors tend to have certain tricks up their sleeve when performing 'new music' .. 'Just pretend you are playing Mahler,' some are known to have asked their musicians, when the demand is for more sensuality and harmony. We do not know what advice Daniel Barenboim gave to the Staatskapelle Orchestra. But there is an unmistakable echo of Mahler's moods and tonality in his interpretations of Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra." Musical America's Paul Moor posted his review online: "This wonderful orchestra, which probably would gladly follow its leader through Hell itself, brought to life this inhospitable score [Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra] in a manner that reinforced the Staatskapelle's position as one of the finest orchestras you will encounter anywhere in the world today." Of Das Lied he wrote that, "Seiffert . sailed right through even the most hazardous sections with a security that surpassed all the numerous performances I have heard. . Michelle DeYoung made her own valuable contribution of mingled lyricism plus vocal beauty."
DANIEL BARENBOIM TO RECEIVE CULTURE
GROSCHEN 1006 AWARD
November 2005
It was announced that Daniel Barenboim will receive the German cultural award "Kultur Groschen" in 2006 for his commitment to the arts, for his encouragement of intercultural dialogue and for promoting culture. The award ceremony will take place in Berlin in the spring of 2006.
ECHO AWARD
October 2005
Daniel Barenboim was awarded the Special Prize of the ECHO Klassik 2005 Awards as Ambassador of Music for his efforts toward improving communication between Israel and the Arab States.
DANIEL BARENBOIM LEADS THE CHICAGO
SYMPHONY IN AN EAST COAST TOUR INCLUDING THREE CONCERTS AT NEW
YORK'S CARNEGIE HALL AND ONE AT THE NEW JERSEY PERFORMING ARTS
CENTER
November 2005
In early November, Daniel Barenboim conducted the CSO
in three concerts at Carnegie Hall in New York City, followed
by a concert at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center.
The first program of the Carnegie Hall residency included Mozart's Sinfonia concertante and Bruckner's Symphony No. 5, the Mozart featured the Orchestra's former Principal Oboe Alex Klein, alongside current CSO principal players Larry Combs (clarinet), David McGill (bassoon) and Dale Clevenger (horn). In the second program Mathieu Dufour was the soloist for Mozart's Flute Concerto K313, sharing the program with Elliott Carter's Soundings and Schubert's Ninth Symphony. The final concert consisted of Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra and Mahler's Symphony No. 5.
In the words of Bernard Holland, writing in The New York Times, "That Daniel Barenboim is leaving the Chicago Symphony at the end of this season is a misfortune. Fifteen years is indeed past the shelf life of most music directors at American orchestras; but listening to Mr. Barenboim and his musicians play Schubert's "Great" C major Symphony . one wondered how music making like this will be replaced. . Friday's Schubert was clarity without coldness and delicacy without fragility. The soft, drawn-out passages showed a virtuoso control among the strings and horns far more exacting than speed and loudness. Europe has a handful of exceptional orchestras with wonderful broadness and beauty, but this kind of elegance - with a power that ears can somehow see through - is almost unique to the Chicago, the Cleveland Orchestra, the Boston Symphony and the Metropolitan Opera orchestra in New York. Mr. Barenboim makes the C major Symphony big, as if it were Schubert's gift to the future. The past indeed treated it badly . But it has survived . Mr. Barenboim's sense of pace, balance and elasticity of movement was extraordinary. . The orchestra was at its best for Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra, strict in its 12-tone principles but nostalgically Romantic in its swimming lyrical lines and theatrical cries of alarm."
Completing the Orchestra's East Coast tour, the CSO performed Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra and Schubert's Symphony No. 9 at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center in Newark on November 6.
DANIEL BARENBOIM JOINS THE VIENNA
PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA IN FOUR CONCERTS AS CONDUCTOR AND PIANIST
October 2005
Daniel Barenboim performed two programs with the Vienna Philharmonic in October. The first, given at the Vienna Musikverein on the 22nd and 23rd of the month, featured Mozart's Piano Concerto in E-flat Major, K482, followed by four colorful works of Ravel: the Rapsodie espagnole, Pavane pour une Infante défunte, Alborada del gracioso and Boléro. Peter Vujica, writing in Der Standard, said, "Thanks to Daniel Barenboim's efforts as a conductor and soloist, the performance of Mozart's concerto . was one of the most gratifying I have ever heard . [His] feeling for Mozart and the rapport he establishes with the orchestra, are simply liberating. . the sole aim seems to be to make the music come to life, emotionally first and intellectually second."
On October 26th, Mr. Barenboim led the Vienna Philharmonic in the fourth annual Concert for Austria, held at the Wiener Staatsoper. The event, which marks the Austrian national holiday, consisted entirely of works by Austrian composers; in this case the composers' lives spanned three centuries. Mozart was represented by his Piano Concerto No. 22, K482, which Daniel Barenboim conducted from the piano. This was followed by the Rondo giocoso, op. 4 by Theodor Berger, who was one of the most often performed Austrian composers in the 1950s, 60s and 70s. (He died in 1992.) The Vienna Philharmonic's concertmaster, Volkhard Steude, was the soloist in Beethoven's Romance in F Major. The concert also included Johann Strauss's Emperor Waltz and Perpetuum mobile. The Orchestra reprised the program in a Gala Concert at the Musikverein on October 27th.
In the Wiener Zeitung, Markus Hennerfeind wrote that "Daniel Barenboim, who has played Mozart's piano concertos since he was a child, fully exploited the formal as well as the dynamic potential of the piece, especially in the finale. Boldly and playfully whirling his way through the score, Daniel Barenboim often conducted with one hand and, with the other, conjured up the most amazing musical fireworks."
2005-2006 CHICAGO SYMPHONY SEASON
GETS OFF TO A FLYING START
September and October 2005
Daniel Barenboim and the CSO opened the Orchestra's 2005-2006 concert season with a series of concerts featuring the four works by Ravel that they had performed the previous week at the Lucerne Festival to great acclaim: Rapsodie espagnole, Pavane pour une infante défunte, Alborada del gracioso and Boléro.
On September 22nd and 27th, the Ravel pieces were preceded by de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain with Mr. Barenboim doing double duty as pianist and conductor.
On September 23rd and 24th, the opening work was Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 5 (Turkish) with Pinchas Zukerman as the soloist. John von Rhein, in the Chicago Tribune, said that Mr. Barenboim despatched the roles of pianist and conductor in the de Falla work "with his customary verve and panache. .The pianist's idiomatic way of teasing the notes within a phrase made the work feel like a series of improvised episodes. The intimate dialogues between piano and orchestra proved as bracing as the fountains of the Alhambra. By the same token, each of Ravel's Spanish portraits took on an array of saturated color and lush atmosphere." Wynne Delacoma, in the Sun-Times, claimed "there was something more than skilled musicianship in the way [Barenboim] shaped the languorous ebb and flow of Falla's lush nocturnal landscape and the impetuous rhythms of Ravel's Rapsodie espagnole. Dramatically shaded, often flamboyant, the music had an organic sweep that was both utterly natural and meticulously controlled. In the opening section of Nights in the Gardens of Spain, Barenboim's piano had the edgy gleam of a seductive guitar."
Antoine Leboyer, reviewing the first program for www.concertonet.com,
described the quality of the CSO's orchestral sound under Barenboim:
"The instrumental quality of the Orchestra makes it one of the
best American ensembles and one of the few that one can compare
with those of Vienna or Berlin. Its sound is dense, in particular
in the desks of the contrabasses and cellos, the woodwinds full
of individuality and, contrary to many of the American orchestras,
the brass do not try systematically to cover the strings in
the tutti sections. . [Barenboim] conducts with great technical
mastery, intervening with a great deal of authority to put in
relief the poetry and the brilliance of the music."
On September 25th, Daniel Barenboim and members of the CSO presented a free concert at the Jay Pritzker Pavilion in downtown Chicago's Millennium Park. The performance, underwritten by a local businessman and his wife, consisted of Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 23, K488 (with Mr. Barenboim as soloist and conductor) and four orchestral works by Ravel. Although it rained earlier in the day, the concert attracted an audience estimated at 5,000 to 6,000. John von Rhein, in the Chicago Tribune, said that "the Mozart concerto found [Daniel Barenboim] in splendid form as both soloist and conductor, treating the crowd to as gracious, spontaneous and deeply felt a Mozart performance as he has ever given in his 17-year tenure. The Ravel Spanish portraits . glowed with [hot] colors and [snappy] rhythms."
The programs on September 29th and 30th paired Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante for Winds with Bruckner's Symphony No. 5 and featured the Orchestra's former Principal Oboe Alex Klein, alongside current CSO principal players Larry Combs (clarinet), David McGill (bassoon) and Dale Clevenger (horn). Wynne Delacoma, in the Chicago Sun-Times, wrote, "one of the most striking elements .. was the profound sense of patience that Barenboim and his musicians brought to [the Bruckner Symphony]. Like Mahler and Wagner, Bruckner operates in a universe of seemingly limitless time and space. We either readjust our speeded-up 21st century internal clocks to match his more deliberate pace or we run screaming in frustration from the concert hall. With their expertly controlled pacing, Barenboim and the CSO all but guaranteed we would stay riveted in our seats. . Barenboim, one of the world's finest Bruckner conductors, found exactly the right balance [between tension and calm]. Ever alert, highly attuned to each other, everyone on stage seemed to know exactly where the music was headed and why. When highly charged phrases stopped unexpectedly in mid-breath, the long pauses that followed were powerful and full of meaning. . In the capable hands of Barenboim and the CSO, Bruckner seemed to be tapping into some timeless, ultimately reassuring force of nature rather than riding the cruel waves of a frantic cosmos." Describing the performance of Mozart's Sinfonia Concertante, John von Rhein said that "with his warm yet firmly centered tone and suave, stylish shaping of line, Klein was the group's primus inter pares. . And his Mozartean grace was seconded by Coombs' liquid phrasing, McGill's nimble articulation and Clevenger's mellow authority."
For the official "opening night gala" concert of the season on October 1st Daniel Barenboim and the CSO welcomed Itzhak Perlman, as soloist in Mozart's Violin Concerto No. 3 in G Major. Afterwards, the Orchestra performed Schubert's 'Great' Ninth Symphony. The Chicago Tribune said "There is a coating of sweetness to [Perlman's] sound that suits the composer's lyrical flights perfectly. ..It is this search for the inner song in Mozart that binds Perlman and Barenboim. Even passages that are normally tossed off as mere scales were beautifully shaped in both tutti and solo sections." As to the Schubert symphony, "this is music that can seem long-winded, but Barenboim made it cohere with his knack for harnessing the long line for structural re-enforcement. . the concert was a reminder that in this age of cookie-cutter homogenization, Barenboim is that rare artist who is comfortable taking risks, and has the artistry to pull them off."
There were two soloists on October 6th and 7th, one each for Mozart's Piano Concerto K491 and his Flute Concerto K313. Lang Lang was the piano soloist and the CSO's own Mathieu Dufour was the flute soloist. The other works on the program were Elliott Carter's Soundings, commissioned by the CSO and receiving its world premiere, and Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra. The Chicago Sun-Times described Soundings as "a lively little morsel . a work clearly tailored for Barenboim as pianist and his virtuoso CSO collaborators." Of the Mozart concertos, the reviewer wrote, "Lang Lang . has joined the ranks of Barenboim's favored young soloists, and their work together has given the young virtuoso sophisticated polish without undermining his electrifying energy. . A golden, singing line has been one of the gifts audiences have cherished in [Mathieu] Dufour since Barenboim brought him in the CSO in 1999 as principal flute. In Mozart's Flute Concerto No. 1 K313, he and the orchestra were in perfect balance. Dufour's sumptuously colored, seamless melodies glowing against the velvety, sensitive accompaniment. The Chicago Tribune wrote of the Schoenberg Variations that, "This first orchestral work to employ the 12-tone method of composition proved a stiff test of the musicians' fortitude at the end of a long evening. But they rose to the challenge, with Barenboim steering his huge orchestral apparatus through Schoenberg's absorbing complexities securely and coherently."
On October 8th, Daniel Barenboim joined Lang Lang in a duo piano recital and led the CSO in a concert as part of Symphony Center's ninth annual free Marshall Field's Day of Music. Symphony Center was open to the public all day at no charge and audiences were treated to a wide variety of musical talent from classical to jazz, world music to family-oriented artists. The soloists in the CSO's concert were Lang Lang and Mathieu Dufour.
Mathieu Dufour also performed Mozart's Flute Concerto K313 on October 11th, on this occasion paired with Bruckner's Symphony No. 5.
Mendelssohn's Violin Concerto was the centrepiece of the concerts on October 14th, 15th and 16th, performed by Nikolaj Znaider, and paired with Mahler's Symphony No. 5.
DANIEL BARENBOIM LEADS THE CHICAGO
SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA IN THREE PROGRAMS AT THE LUCERNE FESTIVAL
September 2005
In mid-September, Daniel Barenboim led the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in the three final concerts of this year's Lucerne Festival. All the programs were sold out. The first consisted of Mahler's Symphony No. 9; the second included Wagner's Prelude to Parsifal, Schoenberg's Five Pieces for Orchestra and Bruckner's Symphony No. 9; The final concert featured Mr. Barenboim as conductor and pianist in a Spanish-themed program of Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain and four pieces by Ravel: Rapsodie espagnole; Pavane pour une infante défunte, Alborada del gracioso and Boléro. The Neue Zürcher Zeitung wrote of the Mahler symphony that, "At the highest level of perfection, the orchestra delineated all the fracture lines, negotiated the gradual mood changes, and built climaxes and descended from them, the brass especially going to work with phenomenal skill. The strings projected a warmth and intensity seldom heard in American orchestras, but at the conclusion of the Adagio, which bids farewell to all emotion, they were able to recede into insubstantiality in a way which took the breath away." In the Bruckner symphony, Barenboim savored all the beauties, ... built the intensifying sections up to effective climaxes and let opposing forces clash with each other. None of this, however, seemed exaggerated or hollow but rather proceeded with utter naturalness. That he had a marvelous orchestra at his beck and call, which reacted with the greatest sensitivity to his slightest signal, formed the ideal basis for this auditory experience. The launching pad for the Bruckner symphony [on the second evening] was provided by two works of opposite character. The bold pairing of Richard Wagner's Prelude to Parsifal and Arnold Schoenberg's Pieces for Orchestra, Opus 16, led to a paradoxical experience: Whereas Barenboim soft-pedaled the sensuous sound elements of this work of Wagner's old age, he troweled on the sensuality in Schoenberg's atonal composition so thickly it could be cut with a knife." Der Landbote wrote, "in de Falla's Nights in the Gardens of Spain ... a complete mutual understanding and an excellent balance of sound combined with an infectious enthusiasm to make this unusually suggestive piano concerto an enthralling performance. ... Ravel's "Rapsodie espagnole", Pavane pour une infante défunte, and Alborada del gracioso presented a whole array of wonderful tonal fantasies, along with many rhythmic, agogic, and harmonic treasures. But the highpoint of the evening was Boléro. The way Barenboim, without conducting or even moving, allowed the machinery of rhythm and countless repetitions of the theme to propel itself, thus symbolizing the inalterability and inevitability of the giant crescendo - that was a masterpiece. Not until the piece had almost reached its end did Barenboim dive in and lead the performance to an almost apocalyptic eruption of a finish."
PARSIFAL AT THE STAATSOPER BERLIN
September 2005
On Sunday afternoon, September 11th, Daniel Barenboim conducted
a concert performance of Wagner's Parsifal at the Staatsoper
that was broadcast live at the Palast der Republik in Berlin,
as part of the ceremonies celebrating the 50th anniversary of
its reopening after World War II. The role of Kundry was sung
by Michaela Schuster, Parsifal by Burkhard Fritz, Amfortas by
Roman Trekel, Gurnemanz by René Pape, Titurel by Christof
Fischesser and Klingsor by Jochen Schmeckenbecher. The live
event was attended by many people and was a great success.
BENEFIT CONCERT FOR THE BERLIN MUSIKKINDERGARTEN
September 2005
Daniel Barenboim believes that children need more aesthetic
education at school than they are generally offered. He was
therefore instrumental in founding a Music Kindergarten in Berlin
that opened on September 5, 2005 with 20 three and four-year
olds. The children, who attend school for a full eight or nine-hour
day, do a lot of singing, rhythms, dancing and sport. From December,
members of the Staatskapelle Berlin and its singers of the Staatsoper
Berlin Choir will join them two to three times each week to
show them the instruments of the orchestra and to make music
with them. For more information about the Musikkindergarten
Berlin, which is housed in the Pestalozzi-Fröbel Haus in
Schöneberg, see www.musikkindergarten-berlin.de
and www.barenboim-said.org.
A benefit concert for the Musikkindergarten Berlin took place
on the morning of Sunday September 11th. In the first half,
Daniel Barenboim and the pianist Lang Lang played four
hand piano (Ravel's Ma mere l'oye, Liszt's Réminiscences
de Don Juan and Konzert-Fantasie über Motive aus
Mozarts Don Giovanni). After the interval, Daniel Barenboim
told the audience what a wonderful adventure this new school
was for him, for Lang Lang, who visited the school on one of
its first days in existence, and for the members of the Staatskapelle
Berlin. Then he conducted the Staatskapelle Berlin in
Chopin's Piano Concerto No. 1 with Lang Lang as the soloist.
The audience went wild after the Liszt works, which are not
often performed because of their difficulty, and gave Lang Lang
a standing ovation after the Chopin concerto. All the artists
donated their services for the concert.
DANIEL BARENBOIM OPENS THE STAATSKAPELLE
BERLIN SEASON WITH A PROGRAM OF SIBELIUS/MAETERLINCK AND DEBUSSY
September 2005
Daniel Barenboim opened the Staatskapelle Berlin's
2005-2006 season with a pair of concerts at the Philharmonie
in Berlin on September 9th and at the Konzerthaus the following
evening. Featured were works by Sibelius and Schoenberg based
on Maurice Maeterlinck's drama, Pelléas und Mélisande:
Sibelius's suite Pelléas und Mélisande,
Op. 46 (Auszuge) and Schoenberg's Symphonic Poem, Pelléas
und Mélisande, Op. 5.
These were complemented by Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 5
(Emperor) performed by Lang Lang.
The concerts were sold out and the program was subsequently
broadcast on German radio. Der Taggespiegel praised "Lang
Lang's masterly Beethoven interpretations" and wrote of
the Pelléas und Mélisande works that, "Barenboim
creates Jean Sibelius's stage music based almost entirely on
the sombre sound of the Staatskapelle strings. It turns into
a threatening saga from the dark northern woods. But the maestro
presents Arnold Schoenberg's symphonic poem à la Richard
Strauss: a shimmering ornament of the decadent art of the city."
The Berliner Morgenpost wrote of the Beethoven performance
that, "There were congratulations all around. … They
came for none so deservedly as for the Staatskapelle, artistically
nurtured by Barenboim for the past decade."
DANIEL BARENBOIM PERFORMS WITH MANY
DIFFERENT PARTNERS AT THE JERUSALEM INTERNATIONAL CHAMBER MUSIC
FESTIVAL
September 2005
Daniel Barenboim performed in a variety of chamber music
ensembles at the Jerusalem International Chamber Music Festival
on September 2nd, 3rd and 4th.
In the first program, devoted entirely to works by Mozart, he
joined Lang Lang for a sonata for piano four hands and
another for two pianos, and performed two piano trios with violinist
Nikolaj Znaider and cellist Kyril Zlotnikov.
In the second program, this time consisting of works by Schubert,
Daniel Barenboim performed the Marche Militaire No. 1
and the Andantino varié in B minor with Lang
Lang, the 'Arpeggione' Sonata with double bass player
Nabil Shehata, the lieder Die Trockne Blumen and
Die Forelle with tenor Stephan Rügamer, the
Introduction and Variations for Flute and Piano on Trockne
Blumen with flutist Mathieu Dufour, and the 'Trout'
Quintet with Michael Barenboim, Amichai Grosz, Nabil Shehata
and Kyril Zlotnikov.
The third program contained three works by Mozart, one by Mozart/Liszt
(the 'Reminiscences de Don Juan' for two pianos) and
the Mémoriale (...explosante-fixe...Originel)
by Pierre Boulez. Daniel Barenboim's partners were Kyril
Zlotnikov, Nikolaj Znaider, Gregor Witt, Ed Ronni Gal, Matthias
Glander, Ilya Shwartz, Dale Clevenger, Michal Mossek, Mauricio
Paez, Alexander Fine, Rashelly Davis, Yoel Abadi, Sharon Polvak,
Barbara Schmutzler, Nabil Shehata, Karl-Heinz Steffens, Gregor
Witt and Lang Lang.
STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN IN SPAIN
July 2005
Daniel Barenboim led the Staatskapelle Berlin
in a series of concerts between July 7 and 19 in Granada’s
Palacio Carlos V, Seville’s La Maestranza and Madrid’s
Plaza Mayor. The programs included Schoenberg’s Five Pieces,
Op. 16 and Variations Op. 31, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto
No. 3 (in which Mr. Barenboim was both conductor and pianist)
and Mahler’s Symphony No. 7. For Beethoven’s Symphony
No. 9, and a staged performance of Wagner’s Parsifal,
the Staatsopernchor joined the Orchestra. The soloists
for Beethoven’s Ninth in Granada were Angela Denoke,
Michelle DeYoung, Thomas Moser and René Pape;
in Madrid they were Angela Denoke, Simone Schröder,
Thomas Moser and Alexander Vinogradov. The Madrid
performance of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony was dedicated
to the memory of the victims of the July 7 bombings in London.
In Wagner’s Parsifal, René Pape, Michaela
Schuster, Hanno Müller-Brachmann and Jochen Schmeckenbecher
reprised the roles they had sung during the March 2005 Festtage
in Berlin
BEETHOVEN SONATAS CYCLE AT THE STAATSOPER
IN BERLIN
June and July 2005
Daniel Barenboim performed the complete piano sonatas
of Beethoven at the Staatsoper Berlin in eight concerts between
June 17 and July 6. Klaus Geitel, in the Berliner Morgenpost,
wrote that “what makes Daniel Barenboim’s interpretation
unique is the sensitivity and intensity with which he uses the
enormous range of these Sonatas to paint a picture of the man:
Beethoven, alone at the piano, aware of the isolating deafness
he cannot escape. Daniel Barenboim, deeply inspired, weaves
his way in and out of Beethoven’s tragic predicament. He
recreates Beethoven’s traumatic progressions as an artist.”
The same journalist also commented in a separate review that,
“What Barenboim conveyed to his audience was his determination
to be creative, the intensity of his technical achievement and
his musical sensuality. He swept his listeners along with their
eyes and ears wide open.”
Daniel Barenboim’s Beethoven Sonatas Cycle was recorded
for DVD release in 2006.
BEETHOVEN SONATAS CONCERT AT THE KÖLN
PHILHARMONIE
June 2005
Daniel Barenboim performed a recital of early and middle
Beethoven sonatas at the Köln Philharmonie on June 24 as
part of the Ruhr Piano Festival. The Kölner Stadt-Anzeiger
wrote, of his Waldstein sonata performance, that “all
movement turned to serenity and Daniel Barenboim created the
most fascinating insights into the clearest, purest sounds of
the piano. The transformation of this almost divine tranquillity
into the luminous, floating soundsheets of the final rondo was
an unrivalled experience.” Die Welt suggested that
“Daniel Barenboim’s interpretation conveyed to his
audience a sense of freedom and humanity.”
DANIEL BARENBOIM IS RECITALIST, CHAMBER
MUSICIAN AND CONCERTO SOLOIST IN VIENNA OVER A PERIOD OF TEN
DAYS IN JUNE
June 2005
On June 4 and 5, Daniel Barenboim performed Schoenberg’s
Piano Concerto Op. 42 with the Vienna Philharmonic under
the baton of his good friend and colleague, Pierre Boulez.
Die Presse said that Daniel Barenboim “demonstrated
how Viennese Schoenberg’s music can sound.”
On June 7, he performed Bach’s Well Tempered Clavier (Book
1) at the Konzerthaus. Die Presse wrote, “Daniel
Barenboim’s interpretation of the Well-Tempered Clavier
reveals his romantic vein as well as his experience of other,
quite different composers, such as Wagner and Schoenberg. …
He surprised his audience with a series of highly meditative
moments, dramatic changes in tempo and dynamic shifts.”
Two days later, he joined clarinettist Ernst Ottensamer
and cellist Franz Bartolomey for an all-Brahms program
consisting of the Sonata in E-flat Major, Op. 120 (clarinet
and piano), the Sonata in F Major, Op. 99 (cello and piano)
and the Trio in A minor, Op. 114. Wilhelm Sinkovicz, writing
in Die Presse, described the performance as “a masterly
event, which far surpassed any ordinary concert experience.”
He praised the soloists’ “sensitive collaboration
and delicate energy” adding that “a greater mutual
understanding would be difficult to imagine.”
On June 10, 11 and 12, Daniel Barenboim rejoined the Vienna
Philharmonic, this time as soloist in Brahms’s Piano
Concerto No. 2. Zubin Mehta was on the podium. They subsequently
performed the program on June 13th in the Theatre des Champs-Elysees
in Paris.
CHICAGO SYMPHONY SPRING SEASON
May 2005
Daniel Barenboim’s Spring Residency with
the CSO included a full month of concerts. There were
four different programs in Chicago and a triumphant East Coast
tour taking in Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York
City.
On May 5, 6 and 7, Daniel Barenboim and the CSO performed Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 7 and were joined by violinist Gidon Kremer
in Alfred Schnittke’s Concerti grossi Nos. 5 & 6. Barenboim
also took part as pianist in the Concerto grosso No. 6, which
is scored for violin, piano and a small group of strings. The
Schnittke works, modeled on the Baroque concerto grosso form
but very much reworked in 20th century style, were programmed
to honor what would have been the late composer’s 70th
birthday. The Chicago Tribune said, “Schnittke wrote
[the Concerto grosso No. 5] for Kremer, and I cannot imagine
a more fiercely committed performance – of either work
than what he, Barenboim, Mary Sauer (the invisible pianist)
and the CSO delivered. The Chicago Sun–Times added
that, “Beethoven’s Seventh Symphony seemed to sum
up all the energy and experimentation of Schnittke’s concertos.
Beethoven’s familiar themes and dancing rhythms have rarely
sounded so fresh.”
At the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C. on May 10, Daniel
Barenboim did double duty as pianist and conductor, leading
the Orchestra from the piano in the first half in Mozart’s
Concerto No. 23 in A Major and conducting Mahler’s Symphony
No. 9 after the intermission. The Baltimore Sun said,
“Barenboim set gently propulsive tempos and ensured that
the orchestral coloring always came through vividly. …
[His] approach to the Mahler score … delivered plenty of
expressive power. The modernity in the piece emerged with particular
clarity. The conductor gave each element in the symphony its
due – poetry, passion, sentiment, charm, terror –
without exaggerating any. The result was a remarkably cohesive,
revealing and involving experience. It would take two or more
ordinary orchestras to produce just the sheer volume of sound
that the Chicagoans summoned effortlessly in fortissimo passages.
That sonic wave will linger long in the ear. Results on the
opposite end of the dynamic scale were no less impressive. What
counted most was the communicative weight of the phrasing …
Throughout the taut, electric performance, Barenboim and the
orchestra enjoyed a seemingly intuitive rapport.”
At the Kimmel Center in Philadelphia the following day, the
program opened with the Prelude to Wagner’s Parsifal,
followed by Schoenberg’s Five Pieces for Orchestra (1909
version) and concluded with Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7.
As an encore, the CSO played the scherzo from Mendelssohn’s
A Midsummer Night’s Dream. David Patrick Stearns
in the Philadelphia Inquirer wrote, “Piece after
piece … unfolded with a sense that every phrase was an
entity with its own unique manner and message, growing organically
out of what came before. … [The Orchestra’s] responsiveness
to Barenboim allows the frisson of spontaneity, as opposed to
just giving a higher-temperature reprise of rehearsals.”
From Philadelphia the Orchestra traveled to Carnegie Hall for
performances on three consecutive days. On May 13th, the program
was Bach’s Suite No. 2 in b minor with the CSO’s own
Mathieu Dufour as flute soloist, followed by Mahler’s
Symphony No. 9. On May 14th, Pierre Boulez was on the
podium for an all-Bartók concert in which Daniel Barenboim
was the soloist in the Piano Concerto No. 1. The final program
consisted of the Prelude to Parsifal, Boulez’s Notations
I-IV and VII for Orchestra, followed by Beethoven’s
Symphony No. 7
Back in Chicago for three more programs: On May 16, Mr. Barenboim
was joined by Pinchas Zukerman in Alban Berg’s Chamber
Concerto. Pierre Boulez was on the podium. In 1967, when Barenboim
was 25-years old, he first performed this masterpiece of the
modern era with Boulez in Paris and Berlin.
On May 19, 20 and 21, the program opened with the Wagner Parsifal
Prelude, followed by the world premiere of Dance Figures
by George Benjamin and concluded with Beethoven’s Violin
Concerto performed by the CSO’s concertmaster, Robert
Chen. The Chicago Tribune commented that, “The
CSO’s luminous account of the Parsifal Prelude flowed
with the seamless, unpressured majesty of sonority and deep
romantic feeling that have always set Barenboim’s Wagner
apart.” The Chicago Sun-Times added that, “Benjamin’s
music grabs our attention from all directions, but he makes
sure that we feel a sense of underlying logic… The CSO
sounded like a band of individual virtuosos in his lively, intricate
textures.” The reviewer also praised Robert Chen’s
virtuosity in the Beethoven Concerto. “Under Barenboim’s
supple baton, they operated like two longtime partners in an
extended, intense pas de deux. Chen and the orchestra seemed
to be breathing in unison, his musical lines often emerging
from a mere thread of orchestral sound.”
On May 24, Daniel Barenboim was the soloist in Brahms’s
Piano Concerto No. 2 as James Levine conducted the CSO in a
musicians’ pension fund concert.
Finally, on May 26, 27 and 28, Barenboim conducted the Orchestra
in Mahler’s Songs of a Wayfarer, sung by the Swedish
baritone Peter Mattei and, after the intermission, Bruckner’s
Symphony No. 9. The Chicago Sun-Times, said, “this
performance had a deeply felt sweep that can only come from
long and loving familiarity with a composer’s language.
… [It] allowed Bruckner’s long, arching phrases plenty
of breathing room. But there was a sense of urgency to its rhythms
and full-throated melodies. When the brass section unleashed
a single-voiced command, or the strings unfurled a surprisingly
serene little dance, we felt the massed power of multiple voices
forging ahead with laser-like resolution as a single, unstoppable
force.”
DANIEL BARENBOIM IN RECITAL
April, May 2005
Daniel Barenboim performed Book 1 of Bach's Well-Tempered
Clavier at Amsterdam's Concertgebouw, Paris's Châtelet,
Barcelona's Palau de la Musica and London's Barbican Hall in
April and May. The Guardian commented that, "You
don't usually associate Daniel Barenboim with Bach. But his
performance of the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier was
a shattering experience, making this huge cycle of 24 preludes
and fugues a vivid emotional journey." The Dutch paper
The Guardian commented that, "You don't usually
associate Daniel Barenboim with Bach. But his performance of
the first book of The Well-Tempered Clavier was a shattering
experience, making this huge cycle of 24 preludes and fugues
a vivid emotional journey."NRC Handelsblad wrote,
"Barenboim transformed Bach's magical notes to a willful
musical cosmos, which fascinated by its richness of colour and
emotion."
A VOCAL RECITAL AND TWO SYMPHONY CONCERTS
AT VIENNA'S MUSIKVEREIN
April 2005
Daniel Barenboim and Thomas Quasthoff performed Schubert's
Die Winterreise at Vienna's Musikverein on April 22nd.
On the following days, April 23, 24 and 26, in the same hall,
Daniel Barenboim led the Vienna Philharmonic in
performances of Boulez's Messagesquisse, Notations I-III,
VII and Mémorial, and Beethoven's Symphony
No. 3. In its review, Die Standard wrote, "One cannot
underestimate Daniel Barenboim's contribution at the piano.
His playing was much more than mere accompaniment. In "Wie
still bist du geworden" he led Quasthoff into regions where
time seemed to stand still, allowing the listener to directly
feel the narrator's suffering. A greater art of dialogue is
inconceivable: Often Barenboim seems to extend the singing by
means of the piano; at other moments he offers a clear counterpoint.
At still other times, he creates the moods that allow Quasthoff's
timbre to fully unfold. … Daniel Barenboim remains the
same kind of musician when conducting. The next day his concept
of organising emotions to achieve effects could be clearly discerned
in Beethoven's Eroica Symphony."
BRAHMS PIANO CONCERTOS NOS 1 &
2 WITH THE LONDON SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA
April 2005
Daniel Barenboim was the soloist with the London Symphony
Orchestra in Brahms's Piano Concertos Nos. 1 and 2, conducted
by Antonio Pappano at the Barbican Hall in London on April 13th.
In the 1990s, Antonio Pappano was Daniel Barenboim's assistant
at the Bayreuth Festival.
DANIEL BARENBOIM AND CSO TOUR: AUSTRIA,
HUNGARY AND THE UK
March, April 2005
On March 29th and 30th, Daniel Barenboim and the Chicago
Symphony Orchestra performed Mahler’s Symphony No.
9 at Vienna’s Grosser Musikvereinsaal.
On March 31st and April 1st, the CSO was at Budapest’s
brand new National Philharmonic Hall performing, first the all-Bartók
program conducted by Pierre Boulez with Daniel Barenboim
as the soloist in Bartók’s Piano Concerto No. 1
and the following evening, Mahler’s Ninth Symphony with
Daniel Barenboim back on the podium. The Budapest Sun
wrote of the Mahler symphony performance, “Daniel Barenboim
led the huge orchestra through amassed sounds and transparent
chamber music textures … [his] vision of the all-encompassing
Alpha-Omega first movement … plumbed the depths of the
personal and collective tragedy that is life.”
From Budapest, the Orchestra and conductor travelled to London’s
Royal Festival Hall, where they performed Mahler’s Symphony
No. 9 on April 3rd and the all-Bartók program on April
4th. Reviewing, The Telegraph wrote, “Barenboim’s
vision of Mahler’s Ninth Symphony was typically one of
big vistas, with the music’s long paragraphs all unfolding
in their full expressive and emotional glory. … The orchestra
– gleaming strings, fruity woodwind, shattering brass –
made the experience a deeply felt and communal one. The following
evening, … Barenboim’s effortless assumption of the
percussive solo role was set against one of the most lucidly
drawn orchestral accompaniments one could imagine.”
The two remaining concerts of the tour, both featuring Mahler’s
Ninth Symphony, took The CSO and Daniel Barenboim
to Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall and Birmingham’s
Symphony Hall on April 5th and 6th. The Sunday Telegraph,
describing the Manchester concert, wrote, “The sepulchral
sounds of this orchestra's trombones and tuba evoked a vision
of the charnel house. The violas' halting last gasps as the
symphony faltered into silence exemplified the intensity the
conductor brought to this enigmatic masterpiece and which he
sustained by mastery of the long melodic line. But it was in
the two inner movements, the Landler scherzo and Rondo Burleske,
that he revealed the astounding virtuosity of the scoring. The
playing was breathtaking. This was not soulless mechanical perfection
but absolute certainty, with every player a potential soloist
and all at one with the conductor in flexibility of tempo and
phrasing. Unforgettable.” The Birmingham Post commented
that, “all the superb technique of this giant among orchestras
was streamlined into a dedicated unfolding of Mahler's painful
vision of death and eternity, an objectivity which also allowed
contemplation of the complexity of his new mode of expression.
… All this complexity was welded into a vast unity by Barenboim
and his wonderful players, sensitively balanced and revealingly
detailed.”
FESTTAGE 2005 ATTRACTS RECORD AUDIENCES
March 2005
Festtage 2005 was most successful to date. The four opera
performances were sold out and attendance at the concerts was
at 93.5% of capacity. The total number of people attending the
nine-day Festtage 2005 was 17,500.
Festtage 2005 consisted of a new production of Wagner's sacred
music drama Parsifal, directed by Bernd Eichinger, followed
by Martin Kušej's production of Carmen which had
premiered at the Staatsoper Berlin in December 2004. Two performances
of each opera were presented.
The cast of Parsifal included Michaela Schuster, René
Pape, Burkhard Fritz, Hanko Müller-Brachmann and Jochen
Schmeckenbecher. Die Welt wrote that, "Even the
Overture seems magical. … Pure, addictive beauty. With
the Staatskapelle excellently prepared and effortlessly following,
Daniel Barenboim surpasses even himself. … Wagner's expanded
spectrum of sound has rarely sounded so natural, so spotless.
One felt transported into a better opera world." The Berliner
Morgenpost said, "Barenboim celebrated the score…under
his guidance the orchestra played exquisitely." And Die
Tageszeitung Berlin added, "In Barenboim's hands the
music is allowed to bathe in its own beauty for a full six hours
… We already know that Barenboim loves this music…And
one can hear his love in the performance."
The Carmen cast included Marina Domashenko as Carmen,
Rolando Villazon as Don José and Anna Samuil as Micaëla.
The performances received long standing ovations. Andrew Patner
of the Chicago Sun-Times described the "edge-of-the-seat
excitement and riveting passion of Barenboim's musical powerhouse
of a Carmen."
The Chicago Symphony Orchestra gave three concerts at the Philharmonie:
in the first, Daniel Barenboim conducted Ravel's Rhapsodie
espagnole, Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2 with Lang
Lang as soloist, Pierre Boulez's "Originel aus …explosante
fixe…" with the CSO's Principal Flute, Mathieu
Dufour, as soloist and Ravel's Ma mère l'oye
and Daphnis et Chloé Suite No. 2. The second CSO
program, conducted by Pierre Boulez, was an all-Bartók
affair. Four pieces for orchestra, Op. 12 were followed by the
Piano Concerto No. 1 with Daniel Barenboim as the soloist
and the final work was the Concerto for Orchestra. In
the last CSO program, Daniel Barenboim was back on the podium
with pianist Mitsuko Uchida as the soloist in Bartók's
Piano Concerto No. 3, which was followed by a performance of
Mahler's Symphony No. 9.
Baritone Thomas Quasthoff and Daniel Barenboim
at the piano performed Schubert's Die Winterreise on
March 22 at the Philharmonie. The Berliner Morgenpost
commented that "Barenboim, accompanying on the piano, doesn't
let [Quasthoff] down for even a bar. He underscores what Quasthoff
sings in the most sensitive way imaginable."
On Easter Sunday morning at 11 a.m., the Staatskapelle Berlin
and Staatsopernchor performed Mahler's Symphony No.
2 in C minor, "Resurrection" with soloists
Diana Damrau, soprano, and Petra Lang, alto. Pierre
Boulez conducted at the Philharmonie. Later the same day,
at 6:30 p.m. at the Staatsoper, the Staatskapelle Berlin
and Daniel Barenboim were joined by the Ensemble Intercontemporain
and Pierre Boulez, and CSO assistant concertmaster Yuan-Quing
Yu for a special concert celebrating Pierre Boulez's 80th
Birthday. The all-Boulez program included his Anthèmes
2 (1997), Sur Incises (1996/98) and Notations
I-IV (1945/1978/1984) and VII (1945/1997)
CONCERT TO BENEFIT TSUNAMI VICTIMS
RAISES 154,500 EUROS
March 2005
The concert on March 3rd to raise funds for victims of the
December 26th Tsunami Southeast Asia was a great success, both
artistically and financially. Daniel Barenboim led the
Staatskapelle and Plácido Domingo, Thomas Quasthoff
and René Pape in a sold-out performance of Wagner's
Parsifal, Act III. All the artists gave their services
without a fee. The patron of the concert was the German Foreign
Minister Joschka Fischer and the German Foreign Office helped
the Staatsoper Berlin to identify a worthy recipient for the
funds raised. This was a kindergarten called Bhayangkari, which
is located in Banda Aceh. The kindergarten, which had served
220 children, was destroyed by the tsunami and hopes to re-open
after four months of rebuilding.
OLIVER KNUSSEN VIOLIN CONCERTO AND
MAHLER SYMPHONY PERFORMED IN BERLIN
February 2005
Back in Berlin, Daniel Barenboim led the Staatskapelle
Berlin in two performances of Oliver Knussen's Violin Concerto,
with Pinchas Zukerman as the soloist, and Mahler's Symphony
No. 7 at Berlin's Philharmonie and Konzerthaus respectively.
DANIEL BARENBOIM IN JAPAN FOR BACH
RECITALS AND A TOUR WITH THE STAATSKAPELLE BERLIN
February 2005
Daniel Barenboim performed Bach's Well Tempered Clavier
- Book I in Nagoya, Fukuoka and Tokyo and Book II at Suntory
Hall, Tokyo between February 11th and 15th. Following the recitals,
he led the Staatskapelle Berlin on a tour of Japan that
included concerts in Tokyo, Osaka and Sapporo. The programs
featured Beethoven's Piano Concertos Nos. 2, 3 and 4 with Mr.
Barenboim as both soloist and conductor, as well as Schumann's
Symphonies Nos. 2 & 4 and Mahler's Symphony No. 7.
DANIEL BARENBOIM IS NAMED 2006 CHARLES ELIOT NORTON PROFESSOR
OF POETRY AT HARVARD UNIVERSITY
February 2005
Daniel Barenboim has been appointed the 2006 Charles Eliot
Norton Professor of Poetry at Harvard University, joining a
distinguished list of scholars and professionals who have previously
received the Norton honor since it was established in 1925.
Daniel Barenboim, who will deliver the Norton Lectures in spring
2006, said, "It is a great honor. I look forward with joy
and not without trepidation to exchanging views with Harvard
students, speaking about the phenomenon of sound, its relation
to silence, and the very nature of music as human expression.
A central theme in my musical life has been and continues to
be the idea that music is at the nexus of cultural and humanistic
disciplines. In my lectures I look forward to exploring the
intimate relationship between music, other arts, and the humanities."
Previous Charles Eliot Norton Professors of Poetry have included
T.S. Eliot, Harold Bloom, Frank Stella, Igor Stravinsky, John
Cage, Luciano Berio and Leonard Bernstein.
DANIEL BARENBOIM'S CHICAGO WINTER
RESIDENCY
January, February 2005
Daniel Barenboim's Chicago Winter Residency from January
5th to February 5th 2005 included four Chicago Symphony Orchestra
subscription programs, an Afterwork Masterworks rush-hour
concert with pianist Lang Lang (see below) , a series of four
lecture/demonstrations for local high school students, two days
of Beethoven sonata masterclasses, a recital with cellist Yo-Yo
Ma, a chamber music concert at Northwestern University and a
collaboration with Pierre Boulez in which Boulez conducted the
CSO and Mr. Barenboim was the soloist in Bartók's Piano
Concerto No. 1.
In response to a request by CSO patrons, the CSO has developed
a series called Afterwork Masterworks consisting of 90-minute
concerts in a more casual format: the concerts begin at 6:30,
have no intermission and are followed by an opportunity to meet
and greet the artists afterwards in Symphony Center's Grainger
Ballroom. On January 5th, Daniel Barenboim led an Afterwork
Masterworks program consisting of Haydn's Symphony No. 86 followed
by Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 2 performed by the acclaimed
young Chinese pianist Lang Lang. John von Rhein of the
Chicago Tribune wrote, "The pianist's amazing, piston-like
fingers slashed through the densest tone clusters; the pounding
motor-rhythms and spiky dissonances were as easy for him as
warm-up exercises. … Throughout the concerto, Barenboim
and the orchestra struck so many sparks off the soloist and
vice versa, you worried that the place might catch fire."
As a complement to the CSO's yearlong focus on the works of
Bartók and Haydn, Daniel Barenboim led four lecture/demonstration
seminars for 1,650 Chicago-area high school students on January
6, 13, 27 and February 3. The events included preparatory sessions
for students and their teachers, opportunities for the students
to attend CSO rehearsals, lectures by Mr. Barenboim, and question/answer
sessions following the CSO rehearsals.
On January 8th and 10th, Daniel Barenboim led two days of masterclasses
focusing on the piano sonatas of Beethoven. Seven accomplished
young pianists took part - Javier Pierianes, Shai Wosner,
Lang Lang, Saleem Abboud Ashkar, Jonathan Biss, David Kodouch
and Aleesio Bax - each performing movements from various
of Beethoven's sonatas. The masterclasses were taped for future
broadcast by New York's WNET Channel 13.
On January 6, 7, 8 and 11, traditional CSO subscription concerts,
the program included Bartók's Concerto No. 2 sandwiched
between Haydn's Symphonies Nos. 86 and 99. Once again, Lang
Lang was the exuberant soloist. The CSO is exploring the
major works of Bartók and Haydn this year.
On January 13, 14 and 15, the CSO's principal flutist, Mathieu
Dufour, was the soloist in Ibert's Flute concerto framed
by Haydn's Symphony No. 88 and Bartók's Music for Strings,
Percussion and Celesta. Wynne Delacoma of the Chicago Sun-Times
praised Dufour's "dazzling range" in the Ibert and
Barenboim and the Orchestra for performing Haydn "with
a distinctive glow and sense of gracious weight". About
the Bartók work, she commented, "the orchestra's
phrasing sounded exceptionally clear, and the spicy Hungarian
rhythms in the second movement were pungent and strong."
The first and third movements retained their "sense of
nocturnal mystery."
January 27, 28, 29 and February 1, Daniel Barenboim let the
CSO in performances of Haydn's first and last symphonies, Nos.
1 and 104, both in D Major. Mitsuko Uchida was the soloist
in Bartók's Piano Concerto No. 3. The Sun-Times called
the performances of the Haydn symphonies "illuminating"
and said the CSO performed them with "fast-paced verve
and big, rich tone." As for the Bartók, which the
composer completed only days before his death in 1945, the Chicago
Tribune, praising Uchida's "assured and perceptive
performance," noted that "her playing displayed marvelous
rhythmic acuity, a tensile tonal strength that never turned
ugly or percussive."
Cellist Yo-Yo Ma joined Daniel Barenboim on Sunday afternoon
January 16th for a recital of works by Chopin, Debussy and Franck.
"Ma and Barenboim," wrote the Chicago Tribune,
"play to the other's musical generosity. Each virtuoso
knows how to subsume his personality to the needs of the partnership."
They imparted a feeling "of creating the music as they
went along." After a program of Chopin's G-minor sonata,
Debussy's Cello Sonata and Franck's A-Major Sonata (in its cello
incarnation), they gave the audience two encores, a Mendelssohn
"Song Without Words" and Dvorak's "Silent Woods."
The evening of January 16th, following his recital with Yo-Yo
Ma, Daniel Barenboim took part in a chamber program at Northwestern
University in which he performed Schumann's Piano Quintet in
E-flat with violinists Robert Chen and Blair Milton,
violist Li-Kuo Chang and cellist Stephen Balderston.
"Barenboim presided at the piano with supple phrasing,
bold rhythmic momentum and quasi-symphonic sweep," wrote
John von Rhein of the Chicago Tribune. "Each musician
took time to caress lyrical ideas, point accents and weight
sonorities. A chamber masterpiece was presented to a packed
auditorium in all its full-blooded romantic grandeur."
Daniel Barenboim returned to the podium on February 3rd and
4th for performances of Pierre Boulez's Notations I-IV, VII
and Haydn's Symphony No. 95 in C minor. Then, handing the baton
to Pierre Boulez, Barenboim became the soloist in Bartók's
Piano Concerto No. 1. On February 5th, Daniel Barenboim conducted
the entire program in which the Bartók piano concerto
was replaced by two Ravel works: the Mother Goose Suite
and Daphnis and Chloé Suite No. 2. "By now,"
wrote the Chicago Tribune, "the Notations are standard
repertory for the CSO musicians, who dispatched this challenging
music with a cleanly detailed, eruptive energy all their own.
...The angular, driving rhythms of the Bartók concerto
made their visceral effect, with Barenboim digging into the
aggressive solo lines with icepick fingers and Boulez enforcing
a cooler-headed clarity within the orchestra. … Haydn's
Symphony No. 95 was marked by … precision and confidence.
Barenboim brought out the rhythmic mettle and vigorous minor-key
drama of this invective music."
DANIEL BARENBOIM DELIVERS FIRST
EDWARD SAID LECTURE AT COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY
January 2005
On Monday January 24th, one day after a massive snowstorm
blanketed New York City in two feet of snow, Daniel Barenboim
delivered the first Edward Said Lecture at Columbia University's
Miller Theatre. The event, open to the public free of charge,
was titled "Wagner, Israel and Palestine" and dealt
with music as a bridge for peace in the Middle East.
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