Daniel Barenboim to step back from performing ‘for the coming months’ to concentrate on health

Daniel Barenboim took to social media on the evening of 4th October 2022 to make the announcement. Picture: Alamy

By Siena Linton, ClassicFM

 

The 79-year-old conductor and pianist took to social media to share his important news on 4 October.

Legendary conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim has announced he will be stepping back from ‘some performing activities, especially conducting engagements for the coming months’ to concentrate on his health, following a diagnosis of a ‘serious neurological condition’.

The announcement, made on the 79-year-old’s social media channels, reads: “It is with a combination of pride and sadness that I announce today that I am taking a step back from some of my performing activities, especially conducting engagements, for the coming months.

“My health has deteriorated over the last months, and I have been diagnosed with a serious neurological condition. I must now focus on my physical well-being as much as possible.

“Music has always been and continues to be an essential and lasting part of my life. I have lived all my life in and through music, and I will continue to do so as long as my health allows me to. Looking back and ahead, I am not only content but deeply fulfilled.”

Shortly after Barenboim made his announcement, the conductor was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement award at the prestigious Gramophone Classical Music Awards 2022.

Announcing the Argentine-born musician as the winner, Gramophone Magazine editor in chief James Jolly remarked that Barenboim’s win was “bittersweet”, as he shared the news with gathered figures of the classical music industry.

In a video montage shown at the event, major classical artists including Simon Rattle, Maxim Vengerov, Yo-Yo Ma and Antonio Pappano, congratulated Barenboim on his extraordinary career to date, and wished him good health.

Simon Rattle said: “Daniel Barenboim really is the personification of lifetime achievement... I can’t think of any classical musician who has not been influenced, inspired, has learnt from Daniel over all these years – both as musician and as philosopher, with the extraordinary work he has done with the [West-Eastern] Divan Orchestra”.

Violinist Maxim Vengerov also congratulated Barenboim, thanking him for years of inspiration, and for “the most magical moments on stage, and some dangerous moments off stage... like driving a car with him”, he joked. 

As a young boy, Barenboim studied in Paris with Nadia Boulanger, whilst touring as a piano soloist throughout the 1950s and 60s. His conducting debut came in 1966, at the helm of the English Chamber Orchestra in the world-renowned Abbey Road Studios in London.

Since then, he has gone on to serve as music director of the Orchestre de Paris, Chicago Symphony Orchestra, La Scala opera house in Milan, and currently remains as music director of the Berlin State Opera and Staatskapelle Berlin.

A much-decorated figure in the industry, Barenboim is the recipient of seven Grammy awards and the Royal Philharmonic Society’s Gold Medal, and has been bestowed with Lifetime Achievement awards at both the Edison and Gramophone awards in The Netherlands and the UK, respectively.

In 2011, he was also awarded an honorary KBE for his work with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, which he co-founded in 1999. The orchestra, which is based in Seville, Spain, is made up of musicians from countries across the Middle East, and aims to promote peace and understanding between Arabs and Israelis.

Notably, Barenboim was the first person to hold citizenships in both Palestine and Israel, simultaneously.

Daniel Barenboim’s announcement follows a spate of cancellations and withdrawals from planned live performances in recent months. A social media post in February shared that he had recently undergone spinal surgery, and therefore would halt performances during his recovery, followed by further cancellations in April due to ‘circulatory problems’.

Classic FM wishes Daniel Barenboim a hasty recovery.

Carlos Kleiber -Johann Strauss II "Unter Donner und Blitz"

Shocking Blue - Venus (DJ Vini remix)

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Shocking Blue - Venus (DJ Vini remix)

1,693,582 views  Nov 27, 2017

Music

SONG

Venus (Remastered 2021) (Remastered 2021)

ARTIST

The Shocking Blue

ALBUM

Venus (Remastered 2021)

WRITERS

Edward Marshall

LICENSES

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41,418,739 views  Apr 22, 2012  "Wind Beneath My Wings" (sometimes titled "The Wind Beneath My Wings" and "Hero") is the title of a song written in 1982 by Jeff Silbar and Larry Henley. They recorded a demo of the song, which they gave to musician Bob Montgomery. Montgomery then recorded his own demo version of the song, changing it from the mid-tempo version he was given to a ballad. Silbar and Henley then shopped the song to many artists, eventually resulting in Roger Whittaker becoming the first to release the song commercially. It appeared on his 1982 studio album, also titled Wind Beneath My Wings.

Following Whittaker's recording, many other artists recorded the song, including Sheena Easton (who also recorded it in 1982). Easton's version appeared on her 1982 studio album Madness, Money & Music, though it was not released as a single by her record company. She did, however, perform it on The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson, The Merv Griffin Show, her HBO live concert special, as well as her NBC television special.

The first year "Wind Beneath My Wings" appeared on music industry trade publication charts in the United States was 1983. Singer Lou Rawls was the first to score a major hit with the song, as his version peaked at #10 on the Billboard Adult Contemporary chart, as well as #60 on the Billboard Hot Black Singles chart and #65 on the main Billboard Hot 100 singles chart. Gladys Knight & The Pips also released a recording of the song in 1983 under the title "Hero", and their version peaked at #64 on Billboard' Hot Black Singles chart[2] while also reaching #23 on Billboard's Adult Contemporary chart. Singer Gary Morris released a country version of the song in 1983 that charted highest on any of the Billboard music charts that year. Morris's version of the song peaked at #4 on Billboard's Hot Country Singles chart, and also later won both the Academy of Country Music and the Country Music Association awards for Song Of The Year.

The highest-charting version of the song to date was recorded in 1988 by singer and actress Bette Midler for the soundtrack to the film Beaches. This version was released as a single in early 1989, spent one week at #1 on the Billboard Hot 100 singles chart in June 1989, and won Grammy Awards for both Record of the Year and Song of the Year in February 1990. On October 24, 1991, Midler's single was also certitifed Platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America for shipment of one million copies in the United States.

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.From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Play Always as if in the Presence of a Master

by Frances Wilson, Interlude

Lang Lang masterclass

The title of this article is a quote from Robert Schumann’s ‘Advice to Young Musicians’, a cornucopia of practical advice and poetic words of wisdom for young people beginning their musical education, which still has plenty of relevance for musicians of all ages and abilities today.

When we see the word “master” in relation to music, most of us immediately think of the “masterclass”, the private lesson in public where participants submit their playing to the scrutiny of a “master teacher” such as Angela Hewitt or Maxim Vengerov. At one time, such classes were quite terrifying for the participants (I remember watching masterclasses with cellist Paul Tortelier on the TV in the 1970s and 80s and he seemed very fierce!), but in these more enlightened times, the masterclass, sometimes rebranded as “workshop”, has become a valuable forum for critique, support and advice, not only from the “master” but also from active listeners – something private lessons do not offer.

Watching a masterclass, especially with high-level players, is an opportunity to watch artists at work. It reveals what musicians do when they practice and often confirms the huge amounts of time and effort which go into refining music – something which is often forgotten when we see musicians performing. One of the most exciting aspects of the masterclass is witnessing breakthroughs and seeing how just a few words from an experienced master teacher can transform the participant’s playing. It’s an exciting and rewarding experience shared by both performers and observers. 

Robert Schumann’s ‘Advice to Young Musicians’
© Amazon

In fact, I don’t believe Schumann was thinking of the masterclass as we know it today in his aphorism, but was actually referring to an attitude of mind which should colour one’s practicing and playing at all times. It is a fact universally acknowledged amongst musicians and music teachers that mindless practice is not only unproductive but also unmusical. But if we play “as if in the presence of a master”, we raise our game. In short, what Schumann is suggesting is that one should always play (and I include “practice” in the word “play”) with all one’s critical and artistic faculties fully alert – mindfully, deeply and beautifully. Repetitive practise is important, for sure, but it should be always be both thoughtful and repetitive – and each repetition should be considered and reflected upon. Taking notice of what one is playing – each phrase, dynamic nuance, subtleties of touch, expression, articulation – will result in more efficient and rewarding practice, leading to the kind of vibrant and authoritative playing one would be happy to present to a master teacher. In effect, one is putting into practice the habits of a master musician; this approach is relevant to from the beginner to the highly advanced player and is one we should carry with us at all times, from the practice room to the performance stage.

For me, Schumann’s comment also suggests one should not fear playing to a master. If you become accustomed to playing with that mindset, what is there to fear?

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Symphony No. 2, Op 27: III · Silver State Orchestra · Rachmaninov

A Time For Reflection: Classical Music

℗ 2016 Black Barn Music

Released on: 2022-09-14

Composer: Rachmaninov

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We are most familiar with Carl Maria von Weber (1786-1826) from his opera Der Freischütz. Weber’s connections with the theatre began in childhood where he grew up in his father’s traveling theatre. His father, uncle to Mozart’s wife Constanze Weber, had been, with his brother, a member of the orchestra in Mannheim. Weber went on to write other operas, including Silvana (1810), Euryanthe for Vienna (1822-23), Oberon for London (1825-26) and, at his death, left the unfinished opera Die drei Pintos, which was completed by Mahler some 60 years later in 1888.

In 1807, Weber wrote two symphonies. At the time, he was in Carlsruhe working for Duke Eugen, who was himself a talented oboist. The orchestration of the symphonies matches the staff of the duke’s orchestra: a single flute, pairs of oboes, bassoons, horns, and trumpets, but no clarinets. There was the usual string complement, although sometimes the double basses are permitted freedom from being always tied to the cellos.

Weber’s Symphony No. 1 has closer ties with his operatic work than with the changes in symphonic form that Beethoven was experimenting with at the same time. Weber’s work would have fallen right in the middle between Beethoven’s Eroica (1805), his 4th symphony (1807), and his 5th (1807-8).

Just like an opera overture, the first movement starts with a call for attention. The first theme comes in the lower strings and the second theme was for the wind players. Even Weber described the movement as more of an overture than a symphonic movement.

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