Music without borders: On the occasion of Daniel Barenboim's 80th birthday

Created: 2022-11-14 15:54

By: Markus Thiel

Daniel Barenboim is probably the only person who has Argentine, Israeli and Palestinian citizenship.

© akg-images/epd

Music cannot exist in a vacuum and without politics.

This is also what the art and work of Daniel Barenboim stand for.

A tribute to the 80th birthday.

Once you see the teenager at the piano, another photo shows him with a baton, obviously in black and white.

Then there is a video from 1970, plus many snapshots from concerts.

It's a little shocking to look at the Berlin State Opera's Unter den Linden Facebook page.

It looks so retrospective, after letting a fulfilled life pass by, a bit like saying goodbye.

The house sees the campaign as a "countdown" to November 15, to Daniel Barenboim's 80th birthday.

It is well known that there is no birthday concert anywhere.

Originally, Barenboim wanted to celebrate on stage with his artist friend Zubin Mehta, for example in Munich or Berlin, and they were happy to do it that way for their milestone birthdays.

But Barenboim has still not recovered from his serious illness, an inflammation of the blood vessels.

He performed again in August.

At the Salzburg Festival, you could see the serious effects this vasculitis can have.

Only in the past few months has it really become clear how much this great artist is missing.

Not only on the concert stages or in the orchestra pits of the opera houses, but also as a warning, as a combative humanist.

It may not even be possible for a man like him to accept barriers, whether national or political.

Born in Argentina, soon moved to Israel, studied in Paris and Vienna: Thanks to his biography, Barenboim experienced cross-border thinking, the awareness that life only works in cohesion, not as narrow-minded demarcation, as a defense of entrenched positions.

He is also believed to be the only person who holds Israeli and Palestinian citizenship in addition to Argentine citizenship.

Achievements on the once deep brown Green Hill

And that's why Barenboim became a nuisance.

For decades he has been infuriating the politicians in Israel with his offensive calls for reconciliation.

Also with his advocacy of the work of the anti-Semite Richard Wagner.

The latter in particular demonstrates that there is no such thing as clarity, only constant questioning.

It is one of the greatest paradoxes not only in music history that Barenboim celebrated his most important successes at the Bayreuth Festival, with the "Ring des Nibelungen" and with "Tristan und Isolde", i.e. on the Green Hill, which was once dark brown in color.

In general, it is significant that Barenboim feels most at home musically in the German tradition.

Not only with Wagner, but also with Brahms, Schumann or Beethoven.

In his preference for juicy things, he largely ignores the findings of the more recent history of interpretation: Barenboim sees himself more as the heir of Furtwängler (who once patronized him) than as committed to the Harnoncourt team - here there is obviously another Barenboimian paradox, but limits.

Barenboim, the pianist, enjoyed success at the conductor's podium early on.

The richly and softly shaded piano playing, the instinctive grasp of dramatic lines of development are almost unprecedented.

Barenboim always demanded this flexibility, this awareness of sound from the orchestras.

He trained the Berlin Staatskapelle (also using old Maestri methods) to become a top-class ensemble.

In general, the Linden Opera can hardly be imagined without its general music director: not only is the rank of the house to thank for him, but also that it still exists in the financially stricken city with its three opera houses.

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra as a life's work

Barenboim's life's work also includes the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, founded in 1999 with the Palestinian publicist Edward Said.

The ensemble demonstrates a lived coexistence between Israel and the Palestinians - and with it the reconciling power of music.

This initiative was supplemented by the Berlin Barenboim Said Academy with its wonderful Pierre Boulez Hall.

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This is not the only way Barenboim proves that music cannot exist in a vacuum and without politics, but has to face it and interact with it.

In this respect, the question does not even arise as to whether Barenboim would have become a passable politician.

"For heaven's sake," he once said in an interview with our newspaper.

"I'd much rather be a musician who pours his heart out on politics than a politician who talks about music - or thinks he can." a lot of politicians, but hardly any statesmen.”