Daniel Barenboim - Biography, Discography & Albums

Biography

Daniel Barenboim stands among the foremost conductors and pianists on the world stage, commanding an unusually broad spectrum of orchestral and operatic works. He holds the post of general music director and chief conductor for life at the Staatsoper Berlin.

Born in Buenos Aires on November 15, 1942, into a family of Ukrainian Jewish ancestry, Barenboim received his earliest piano instruction from his mother. He continued lessons under his father, the distinguished music professor Enrique Barenboim. After performing for violinist Adolf Busch, who recognized his exceptional promise, the young musician gave his first public recital at age seven. In 1951 he appeared at Salzburg’s Mozarteum and attended Igor Markevitch’s conducting sessions. The family relocated to Israel in 1952; two years later Barenboim returned to Salzburg for further conducting study with Markevitch, piano work with Edwin Fischer, and chamber-music coaching from Enrico Mainardi. He also pursued conducting with Carlo Zecchi at Siena’s Accademia Musicale Chigiana and took theory and composition classes with Nadia Boulanger at Fontainebleau. His American debut took place at Carnegie Hall on January 20, 1957, when he performed Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto No. 1 with Leopold Stokowski and the Symphony of the Air.

Subsequent first appearances with major ensembles encompassed the London Symphony Orchestra in New York in 1968, the Berlin Philharmonic in 1969, and the New York Philharmonic in 1970. In 1967 he married cellist Jacqueline Du Pré, and together they produced several distinguished recital recordings. The collaboration ceased after Du Pré developed multiple sclerosis and retired from performance in 1972; she passed away in 1987. Barenboim began his enduring partnership with Deutsche Grammophon in 1972, releasing the following year a recording of Bruckner’s Symphony No. 4 in E flat major (“Romantic”) with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He has sustained close ties with both that ensemble and Bruckner’s music. In 1982 he recorded an album of Ravel’s works with the Orchestre de Paris and has since appeared as guest conductor with nearly every leading orchestra worldwide.

In 1989 he succeeded Sir Georg Solti as music director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He assumed the music directorship of the Staatsoper Berlin in 1992 and was appointed chief conductor for life by its orchestra in 2002. Together with Palestinian-American scholar Edward Said, Barenboim established the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra in 1999, a youth ensemble intended to promote dialogue and collaboration; he also founded the Barenboim-Said Academy in Berlin, which opened in 2016 to train young Arab and Israeli musicians. A 2013 recording of Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9 by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra appeared, and several of the orchestra’s alumni have built international careers, occasionally joining Barenboim in performance and on disc.

His discography spans conducting, solo piano, accompaniment, and chamber music. As a pianist he concentrates chiefly on Mozart, Beethoven, and the early Romantics, whereas his conducting favors later Romantic repertoire, especially Brahms and Bruckner, for which he received a medal from the Bruckner Society of America. Recordings continued to flow abundantly into his ninth decade, among them the 2016 album On My New Piano, which showcased an instrument built for him by Chris Maene after a design once owned by Liszt. Lengthy scores by Bruckner and Mahler remained central to his conducting activities. His 2017 account of Elgar’s The Dream of Gerontius with the Staatskapelle Berlin earned widespread praise. Frequently issuing more than a dozen recordings in a single year, his catalog surpassed 500 releases by 2022. Early that year three projects awaited release: an album of Mozart and Strauss oboe concertos performed with the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra and oboist Cristina Gómez Godoy, a collection of piano encores, and the Vienna Philharmonic New Year’s Concert, which he has led on multiple occasions. In early 2023, however, health concerns compelled him to resign from the Staatsoper, as he could no longer fulfill every obligation of the post.