Daniel Barenboim was born in
Buenos Aires, Argentina, in 1942. When he was five years old, he began
his first piano lessons with his mother, continuing with his father,
who remained his only other teacher. In August 1950, when the young
artist was just seven, he gave his first official concert in Buenos
Aires.
Mr. Barenboim received his general education in Israel, where his
family moved in 1952. Artur Rubinstein and Adolf Busch, who had already
made great impressions on him in Argentina, as well as Edwin Fischer
and Wilhelm Furtwängler, whom he met in Salzburg, became important
influences in his development as a musician. He also attended Igor
Markevich's conducting classes in Salzburg and studied harmony and
composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
Mr. Barenboim made his debut as a pianist in Vienna and Rome in 1952,
in Paris in 1955, in London in 1956, and in New York in 1957 with
Leopold Stokowski. From then on, he made annual concert tours of the
United States and Europe. He toured Australia in 1958 and soon became
known as one of the most versatile pianists of his generation. His
recording activities as a pianist began in 1954 and during the 1960s he
recorded the Beethoven piano concertos with Klemperer, the Brahms
concertos with Barbirolli, and all the Mozart concertos in the dual
role of soloist and conductor with the English Chamber Orchestra.
During the same period, Mr. Barenboim started to devote more time to
conducting, and, in 1965, he established a close relationship with the
English Chamber Orchestra that was to last for more than a decade.
Together they played innumerable concerts in England, the United
States, and Japan. Mr. Barenboim made his conducting debut in London
with the New Philharmonia Orchestra in 1967, Berlin in 1969, and in New
York soon after that.
Daniel Barenboim has always been active as a chamber musician, with his
late wife, cellist Jacqueline du Pré, and with Gregor
Piatigorsky, Itzhak Perlman, and Pinchas Zukerman, among others. As a
lieder accompanist he has performed extensively with Dietrich
Fischer-Dieskau.
Between 1968 and 1970 Mr. Barenboim served as artistic director of
South Bank Music in London and until 1973 also was director of the
Israel Festival. From 1975 to 1989 Maestro Barenboim was music director
of the Orchestre de Paris placing special emphasis on contemporary
music, giving performances of works by Lutoslawski, Berio, Boulez,
Henze, and Dutilleux. He also founded the chorus of the Orchestre de
Paris.
Daniel Barenboim first conducted opera at the Edinburgh Festival in
1972. He has been associated with the Bayreuth Festival since 1981,
leading performances of Tristan and Isolde, Parsifal, and beginning in
1988, the Ring cycle, which concluded in 1992.
In 1982 Daniel Barenboim created a Mozart festival with the Orchestre
de Paris, leading performances of The Marriage of Figaro, Don Giovanni,
and Così fan tutte as well as concerts of the composer's
orchestral works. In 1987 he led a new production of The Magic Flute
which inaugurated the season of the newly restored Théâtre
des Champs-Elysées.
In addition to his position in Chicago, Mr. Barenboim is Artistic
Director and General Music Director of the Deutsche Staatsoper Berlin.
In recent years Mr. Barenboim has also established close relationships
with the Berlin Philharmonic and Vienna Philharmonic with whom he often
tours.
Mr. Barenboim has made several videos, including the last eight Mozart
concertos with the Berlin Philharmonic. Other videos are the Beethoven
and Mozart piano sonatas, major works by Liszt, and the Brahms violin
sonatas with Itzhak Perlman, which were recorded at Orchestra Hall. He
has also made several videos of opera productions including the
complete Ring Cycle at Bayreuth as well as Parsifal and Wozzeck with
the Staatsoper Berlin.
New Barenboim/Chicago Symphony Orchestra and solo recordings available
on the Teldec label include Mahler's Symphony No. 5, the Brahms Double
Concerto with Itzhak Perlman and Yo-Yo Ma; violin concertos by
Stravinsky and Prokofiev with Itzhak Perlman; Tchaikovsky's Symphony
No. 4 and Romeo and Juliet; an all-Schubert recording of duo piano
works with Radu Lupu; and a disc of solo piano works by Brahms.
Additional recordings include: Sibelius and Nielsen violin concertos
with soloist Maxim Vengerov; African Portraits by Hannibal; Wagner's
Overtures and Preludes; Berlioz's arrangement of La Marseillaise (with
Plácido Domingo and the Chicago Symphony Chorus) and Symphonie
fantastique; and Tchaikovsky's Symphony No. 5 and 1812 Overture. In
August 1996, Mr. Barenboim released a recording of Argentinean tangos,
Mi Buenos Aires Querido: Tangos Among Friends in collaboration with
Rodolfo Mederos and Héctor Console. His first book, A Life in
Music, has been published in both Europe and the United States.
