You’d think Godzilla, or at least an enemy flotilla, had stormed the gates of the city, the way the media has trumpeted the news; the Financial Times announces, “Daniel Barenboim has invaded New York.” The 66-year-old pianist-conductor, born in Buenos Aires to a family of Russian Ashkenazic Jews who later immigrated to Israel, is definitely in town.
Barenboim lives in Berlin, but he retains citizenship, actual or honorary, from Argentina, Israel, Spain and Palestine. A whirlwind stay during which he will play solo, as well as chamber music, and conduct at several of the most celebrated venues of the East Coast will culminate in a solo piano recital on the stage of the Metropolitan Opera. This all-Liszt December 14 program will be the first such recital since a Vladimir Horowitz event in 1983. Barenboim gave a tryout performance of the Liszt recital December 8 at Philadelphia’s Kimmel Center, although, as he told the Philadelphia Inquirer, he is “suffering very badly from gout. I’m in quite a lot of pain.”
A newly available book of autobiographical musings, “Music Quickens Time” (Verso Books; a British edition last year from Weidenfeld & Nicholson bore a different title: “Everything Is Connected”) accompanies his concerts. Yet, is everything connected in the hyperactive world of Barenboim? His Liszt recital may be previewed on DVD (Euroarts) and CD (Warner Classics) from a performance given last year at La Scala in Milan, Italy. Barenboim is an absorbing, highly able recitalist with AN intense overall grasp of excerpts from Liszt’s “Années de Pèlerinage” that in other hands might seem diffuse. For decades, Barenboim has been an impressive pianist — despite short fingers and arms, an impression accentuated by an unusually high-seated position that makes him loom over the keyboard in apparent masterful disdain. His first recording, at age 12 in 1954, of music by Johann Christian Bach has a haughty and rather superior tone. See YouTube clip below:
Someone with Barenboim’s multiple gifts may be excused for a certain feeling of superiority. During his tenure as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1991–2006), musicians nicknamed Barenboim “The Spoiled Brat.” Even earlier, Barenboim was mockingly called “Daniel McBoing-Boing,” in a reference to the 1960s cartoon character Gerald McBoing-Boing, an infinitely energetic tyke. Barenboim’s energy is not in doubt, nor are his musical gifts. Yet, his fluent volubility in several languages (apart from his native Spanish, his Hebrew, German, Italian, French and English are more than serviceable) is no guarantee of trustworthiness, and statements on just about everything are open to multilingual questions.
As a conductor who is sometimes oppressively influenced by the leaden ghost of Wilhelm Furtwängler, his crawling tempos and lack of attention to detail can be enervating. Barenboim told a Met press conference that “Tristan” is not “about love, but about death. The fear of death. This is the motor of the opera. There’s nothing more democratic than death.” Apparently, he feels that instead of the famous “Liebestod,” Isolde should sing a “Tod,” plain and simple. In another interview on the Playbill Web site, Barenboim spoke of his Liszt recital, focusing on the composer’s “Paraphrases” from such Verdi operas as “Aida” and “Rigoletto,” saying, “The concert-going public does not know these pieces.” In fact the “Paraphrase” from “Rigoletto” is hardly a rarity, frequently programmed in concert and having been recorded dozens of times by other pianists. Even the somewhat less familiar “Paraphrases” from “Il Trovatore” and “Aida” have been recorded by a gaggle of noted pianists, so these are not really Barenboim’s personal discovery.
Similarly, “Music Quickens Time” is a mix of banalities, like “When you teach, you learn and when you give, you receive,” and more death obsession, reflected in his statement that by playing music, “one can control, through sound, the relationship between life and death.… Since every note produced by a human being has a human quality, there is a feeling of death with the end of each one.” There are also statements with no clear meaning, like “the disappearance of sound by its transformation into silence is the definition of its being limited in time.” Huh? Or “Mozart’s music is a really impressive model for democratic living: Everything is connected into it.” Or when Barenboim likens Wagner’s “Tristan und Isolde” prelude to political hegemony after the Cold War: “The prelude would be entirely different if the first statement in the opening three bars had a full harmonic resolution.… In the same way it is interesting to imagine how the world would be different today if more than one superpower existed and the Cold War continued to prevail.”
“Music Quickens Time” also pays tribute to Barenboim’s “best friend,” Edward Said (1935–2003), the Palestinian-American critic and political activist who in 2000 memorably posed for press photographs hurling a rock across the Lebanon-Israel border in the direction of Israeli soldiers. Said’s expertise, even in his own field of cultural criticism, is now seen as dubious (The Times Literary Supplement headlined a May 7 article: “Edward Said’s Shadowy Legacy: Tricky With Argument, Weak in Languages, Careless of Facts”), and concerning music, Said was even more unreliable and narrow-minded. “Music at the Limits” (Columbia University Press, 2007), a collection of Said’s music criticism for “The Nation” prefaced by Barenboim, adores the often-unlistenable composer Pierre Boulez (a bizarre taste that Barenboim shares) and also the often-wrong theorist Theodor Adorno, dismisses such great composers as Verdi and Bartók, and calls Pavarotti “a grotesque.”
Barenboim, who idolizes the divisive and just plain wrong Said, may come to realize that his own actions, regardless of motive, sometimes have been like an unneeded extra bull at a corrida. Given the explosive Middle East situation, it hardly helps to add undiplomatic artistic willfulness into the mix, as Barenboim did in 2001 by insisting on performing Wagner in Israel after being asked not to by some Holocaust survivors and by the Israeli government. In September 2005, Barenboim physically confronted Dafna Arad, an Israel Army Radio reporter, taking her uniform as a personal insult to him as a famous defender of Palestinian rights. When Arad explained that she was required to wear her uniform, Barenboim shouted at her and yanked on her epaulets.
Some musicians have taken eloquent political stances, like the anti-fascists Toscanini and Casals, without resorting to this type of behavior. Or, on occasion, by just seeming silly. In 1996, Barenboim told Cigar Aficionado magazine — he is a longtime devotee of Hoyos, Cohibas and Esplendidos — that cigars are “beneficial to his health” and an ideal part of any weight-loss regime. Barenboim added, “The way American people are dealing with cigar smoking, and the way in which it is limited in public places, is against all the principles of American democracy and freedom of thought.” Fortunately, as he plays Liszt on the stage of the Met on December 14, all the posturing and verbiage will melt away, and Barenboim’s considerable musical talent will take precedence, as it always should when we consider this highly talented, if sometimes perplexing, musician.
Below hear a clip of Sonetto 47 - Benedetto sia’ l giorno:
Below hear a clip of Nocturne, Op.27 No.2 in D-flat major:
Benjamin Ivry is a frequent contributor to the Forward.
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What insightful critical comments! I wish that Barenboim had continued the balanced intensity of playing he evinces in the first movement of that J.C. Bach Sonata. Not to be picayune about the quite amazing playing of a child, but by the second movement he is already showing signs of the tedium that was to become of his playing.
As a professional pianist in New York City, I have always been in awe of his talent. Now I'm also in awe of his humorlessness. This is shown most clearly by his ill-advised attempt at playing the music of Duke Ellington. For all his amazing ability, he couldn't swing if you hung him from a tree.
Daneil barenboim shares the same opinions of Jews as does Richard Wagner. By his actions, he provides tacit support for terror against Jews. He reminds me of Josef Mengele, who would whistle Tosca while selecting his victims
I wonder if Mr. Ivry would be so touchy and ironic were Mr. Barenboim behaving as a "regular good Jewish boy"; i.e. a conformist, non questioning the colonial policies of the State of Israel after 1967. Is it pointing out the hypocritical banning of Wagner (while silencing the general European complicity with antisemitism) something to mock at? So then, Baremboim's friend Edward Said made wrong assumptions? What about the myth of "the arabs fleeing their homes expecting to return victorious" of our traditional Zionist education, now that Israelis historians recounted some 600 Arab places harassed after expelling its owners? I became a Forward reader since I got Internet facilities because I remember its democratic, socialist original orientation. Instead I found a conformist press ready to please the opulent, wealthy Jewish middle class. During the military dictatorship in Argentina I worked for a weekly (Nueva Presencia) that engaged in denouncing the silence and passivity of the Jewish (and Israeli) establishment, provoking their wrath. The good Jewish bourgeoisie trusted better the rich bankers that lead the community almost to bankrupt. How does it feels it in your own skin today? Nueva Presencia has just been honored by the Buenos Aires legislature (report at my blog) for its brave stand in the dark times. How will The Forward be remembered by future historians? http://gloriamundi.blogsome.com
Nueva Presencia has just been honored by the Buenos Aires legislature (report at my blog) for its brave stand in the dark times. How will The Forward be remembered by future historians?... More that Nueva Presencia. The history of Argentine Jewry will be remembered by nothing more than the bombing of the AMIA building and the Israeli embassy. DOes Mr Bobrow condemn or praise these attacks? Since he gloats over the misfortune of American Jewry, does he gloat over the Argentine Jews that were killed by these "militants"
It is appropriate that barenboim lives in Berlin, since he shares the cheapness of Jewish life that characterized wartime Berlin.. Like Wagner for the Nazis, barenboim is the muse of palestinian terror. Perhaps he will be inspired by Wagner and write an opera glorifying the murder of Dr Appelbaum and his daughter Nava the day prior to her wedding
I think Mr. Shammanov should not to talk about a tragedy where many Argentines (jewish and gentiles alike) lost their lives. He seems to know who were the "militants" responsible for those murders. Its interesting as nobody else knows. The judge in charge of the case is in jail as well as the then president of the Kehilah (a great donor in the style of Madoff and his wealthy friends). The Israeli ambassador at the time (Mr. Aviran) after his term in office became a bussiness partner of the then Argentinian president (Mr. Menem) of Syrian origin. The Israeli intelligence didn't help at all to uncover the truth which in the end resided more in the wicked connexions between Mr. Menem and Mr Assad and the local net. Israel's only interest was to boost its own agenda against Iran in the same way that your Mr. Bush took advantage of the 9/11 to pursue his own agenda in Irak.
dear Mr Bobrow We in the US were not happy with the events that have beset Argentine Jewry. Many in the US tried to help Argentine Jews in concrete ways. In contrast, your letter indicates your happiness with our misfortune. You quote He seems to know who were the "militants" responsible for those murders...No, I just know about the Interpol warrants that have been issued against members of Iranian intelligence officers. Given the suffering that Argentine Jewry has experienced at the hands of terrorists, I find it curious that you and Barenboim have a soft spot for terrorists, but hatred for Israel and your fellow Jews. Perhaps it is a variant of Stockholm syndrome called Buenos Aires syndrome. Perhaps Eichmann should never been captured in Buenos Aires, so you guys could give him a big hug and take him to a kosher steakhouse for dinner
Thank you, Mr. Ivry for this excellent essay. However, I believe that you underestimate Barenboim's arrogance. The Wagner incident was not quite as you described. As i recall, Barenboim had not only failed to accede to the wishes of the gov't and of survivors, but broke the agreement he had made with his hosts. In return for being sponsored and for being allowed to take the stage, Barenboim and his German Orchestra had agreed to NOT play Wagner. That was a specific condition. Barenboim agreed to the condition and then palyed a Wagner encore anyway, just to prove that (as always) Barenboim knows what is best. The cigar interview is exactly the same - - hilariously so -- only Barenboim will decide whether cigar smoke is pleasant to the public nostrils, not the public.
I think people are way too emotional regarding Barenboim. He is a great artist with all his quirks and while often critiqued for his liberties regarding tempo his expressiveness is absolutely superb. His complete Beethoven sonata recordings are one of the best and do not shy comparison with e.g. Brendel.
As far as Wagner is concerned - for me this is a laudable stance against a nonsense ideology. Yes, Wagner was antisemitic. On the other hand he held friendships and working relationships with Jews. Furthermore, in the context of the time Jews just started to get full citizenship rights across Europe (in other parts of the world they still hadn't). Coupled with the emerging German nationalism after centuries of small state misery this was very mainstream.
If you subject to this in principle, you would have to condemn the works of many famous authors, artists,... which is just nonsense. Thridly, to give Wagner's music the label of conveying antisemitism in itself is just ridiculous.