Book Description
A LIFE IN MUSIC reviews five decades of the rich and uniquely varied musical life of Daniel Barenboim. A child prodigy as a pianist and a virtuoso conductor of symphonies and opera, he has known and worked with many of the most distinguished and exciting musicians of the 20th century, including Rubinstein, Klemperer, Furtwangler, Zubin Mehta, Pierre Boulez, Fischer-Dieskau, Pablo Casals and not least his own wife Jacqueline du Pré, among many others. `He still insists on undertaking grand projects that only a madman or genius would contemplate', The Times noted in August 2001, and recent years have included his work at the annual Wagner Festival in Bayreuth; his involvement with the rebirth of the State Opera House in Berlin; taking over from George Solti's 22-year reign in Chicago; his summer festivals at Weimar in Germany where young Arab and Israelis can play music together; and his worldwide travels. He gives us his trenchant thoughts on Israel today, the problems facing young musicians and the changing world of music at the beginning of the 21st century.
About the author
Daniel Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in 1942, educated in Rome and made his piano debut at the age of eight and as a solo pianist at the age of eleven with the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra. His musical tours have taken him all over the world and he has made regular appearances at the Bayreuth, Edinburgh, Lucerne, Prague and Salzburg festivals. In 1967 he married the cellist Jacqueline du Pré (who died in 1987). In 1988 he married Elena Bashkirova. He was musical director of the Paris Orchestra 1975-88, and he has been Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra since 1991 and of the Berlin State Opera since 1992.
