Daniel Barenboim is one of the musical geniuses of the classical era. Due to an illness, the conductor had to celebrate his 80th birthday in a different way than expected. He now resigns as general music director of the Berlin State Opera Unter den Linden.
Hardly any other personality has shaped the world of classical music as actively as Daniel Barenboim in recent decades. Now the conductor and pianist, one of the musical geniuses of our time, is retiring from the front row: Barenboim, ill for some time, gives up his post as general music director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. The 80-year-old announced this on Friday in Berlin.
“Unfortunately my health has deteriorated considerably over the past year. I can no longer perform as is rightly required of a general music director,” he wrote in a personal statement. “Therefore, I ask for your understanding that I will be giving up this job on January 31, 2023.” He asks the culture senator of Berlin, Klaus Lederer, to cancel the contract.
Artist personality with worldwide charisma
Barenboim had been general music director since 1992 and was elected chief conductor for life by the Staatskapelle in autumn 2000. In a statement, Lederer said he was “convinced that Daniel Barenboim has made the right decision”. This puts the well-being of the State Opera and the Staatskapelle in the foreground. “All of this deserves the utmost respect,” said the leftist politician.
State Opera director Matthias Schulz sees his house as “indefinitely in debt”. For more than 30 years, Barenboim has enabled the Berlin State Opera and Staatskapelle to benefit from “his inexhaustible strength as an artistic personality with worldwide charisma”. “There is great respect that Daniel Barenboim is taking this step in the interest of the institution.” One can only imagine how difficult that must have been for him.
Minister of Cultural Affairs Claudia Rot Barenboim called him “one of the most important pianists and conductors of all time, who also had a decisive influence on German musical life for decades”. From the point of view of the green politician, his stint as director general of music was “a stroke of luck for Berlin and Germany, because it brought the opera house and the Staatskapelle to world fame after the fall of the wall”.
Barenboim only returned at the end of the year. Still clearly weakened, he conducted the Staatskapelle last Saturday with Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony. A concert scheduled for Friday evening with the Berlin Philharmonic has also not been cancelled.
In early October, the host announced that he now had to focus as much as possible on his physical well-being. “My health has deteriorated over the past few months and I have been diagnosed with a serious neurological condition,” he wrote.
He could no longer run the “Ring”.
The State Opera had to cancel a concert scheduled for his birthday, in which Barenboim was due to play the piano. Previously, Barenboim had already had to give up conducting the new production of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” at the State Opera, staged for his birthday. He was replaced by Christian Thielemann and Thomas Guggeis on the podium.
Thielemann also represented Barenboim during the Asian tour with the Staatskapelle. The Wagner specialist is considered a possible successor, but has recently repeatedly referred to his contract with the Dresden Staatskapelle, which runs until 2024.
Recently, Barenboim had failed several times. In February, he underwent spinal surgery.
Barenboim’s life in the name of music
Barenboim’s life has revolved around music since early childhood. The grandson of Jewish immigrants was born in Buenos Aires in 1942. His father gave the five-year-old boy piano lessons. “I hardly knew anyone who didn’t play the piano,” he later recalled, “in my childhood, everyone played the piano.” In 1952, Ada and Enrique Barenboim followed with their son Israel and therefore closer to European music centers.
Two years later he played for conductor Wilhelm Furtwangler. He was not allowed to accept an invitation to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic. Nine years after the end of the Nazi era, the time was not yet ripe for Barenboim’s father for a Jew to appear in Germany.
Barenboim’s life became international and artistically diverse. He made his debut at the Salzburg Festival at the age of ten, in Rome he was the youngest student in the conducting class of the Accademia di Santa Cecilia at the age of twelve and took composition lessons in Paris .
In the late 1960s, Barenboim was increasingly conducting international orchestras. He became artistic director of the Bastille Opera in Paris, music director of the Teatro alla Scala in Milan, principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has appeared on the podium in Bayreuth and Salzburg and conducted the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonic.
In 1992, Barenboim moved to the Berlin State Opera as general music director. While the call to the top of the neighboring Philharmonic did not materialize, the Staatskapelle under Barenboim has grown into a world-famous orchestra with its own sound. Also on the piano his repertoire goes far beyond the usual measure.
Even beyond the desk and keyboard, Barenboim focuses on diversity and connections. “I’m not just a Jew, an Argentinian or a musician living in Germany – a modern person is defined above all by the possibility of having multiple identities,” he said. The humanist and cosmopolitan caused a scandal in Israel when he played the anti-Semite Wagner. He over and over again commented on the conflict in the Middle East. “I fight against ignorance – of Israelis and Palestinians.”
In Berlin, with his help, an orchestra academy and an opera studio for young artists were launched. With the “State Opera for All” there is world-class classical music every year – free and outdoors. A musical kindergarten for education through music is born. The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra consists of young musicians from Israel and Arab countries. The Barenboim Said Academy, named after him and the Palestinian-American writer Edward Said (1935-2003), is a place of reconciliation turned into stone.
Three years ago, allegations were made that Barenboim was abusing power structures. Objections and inquiries followed. Finally, his contract as general music director has been extended until 2027. He now resigns early.
(Von Gerd Rothdpa)
