Video Daniel Barenboim: Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 1 in C major Op. 15

From the Klavierfestival Ruhr in the Jahrhunderthalle Bochum

Daniel Barenboim, soloist and conductor
Staatskapelle Berlin

0:50 I. Allegro con brio (15:51)
17:03 II. Largo (12:07)
29:11 III. Rondo. Allegro scherzando (10:58)

In time for his 65th birthday in 2007, Daniel Barenboim has completed a cycle of Beethoven's piano concertos. Recorded live at the prestigious Klavier-Festival Ruhr in May 2007, this recording reflects both a very individual and special reading of Beethoven’s music and the artist’s life-long dedication to the composer. Daniel Barenboim is one of the most prolific and high-profile artists performing on international stages today and Beethoven’s masterpieces have been a key part of his repertoire throughout his career, both as conductor and as pianist.
Beethoven himself was a keyboard virtuoso of almost awesome abilities who created a sensation wherever he played. It is no wonder, therefore, that the piano was central to Beethoven’s overall output. Daniel Barenboim, artistic personality and former wunderkind, long an essential part of the international musical scene both on the conductor’s podium and at the piano, is the perfect match for this demanding music. Conducting and playing at the same time, Barenboim chose his orchestra of almost two decades, the Staatskapelle Berlin, which he has praised warmly for its exceptional, dark and warm sound. With a tradition reaching back to 1570, the Staatskapelle Berlin is one of the oldest orchestras in the world.
Barenboim plays Beethoven brings together two musical masterminds.

Daniel Barenboim

Daniel Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in 1942. He received his first piano lessons at the age of five, and was first taught by his mother. Later, he studied under his father, who would remain his only piano teacher. He gave his first public concert when he was seven. In 1952, he moved with his parents to Israel.
At age eleven, Daniel Barenboim took part in conducting classes in Salzburg under Igor Markevitch. In that summer, he also met Wilhelm Furtwängler and played for him. Furtwängler then wrote, "The eleven-year-old Daniel Barenboim is a phenomenon." In 1955 and 1956 Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
At age ten, Daniel Barenboim gave his international début performance as a solo pianist in Vienna and Rome; Paris (1955), London (1956) and New York (1957) then followed, where he played with Leopold Stokowski. Since then, he has regularly toured Europa and the United States, but also South America, Australia and the Far East.
In 1954 Daniel Barenboim began his recording career as a pianist. In the 1960s he recorded Beethoven's piano concertos with Otto Klemperer, Brahms piano concertos with Sir John Barbirolli and all the Mozart piano concertos with the English Chamber Orchestra, this time serving both as pianist and conductor.
Ever since his conducting début in 1967 in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim has been in great demand with leading orchestras around the world. Between 1975 and 1989 he was chief conductor of the Orchestre da Paris, where he often programmed contemporary works by composers such as Lutostawski, Beria, Boulez, Henze, Dutilleux and Takemitsu.
Daniel Barenboim gave his début as an opera conductor at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973 with Mozart's Don Giovanni. In 1981 he conducted for the first time in Bayreuth, where he would conduct every summer tor eighteen years, until 1999.
From 1991 until June 2006 Daniel Barenboim was Music Director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. The musicians of the orchestra have since named him Honorary Conductor for Life. In 1992, he became General Music Director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden, where he was also Artistic Director from 1992 to August 2002. In 2000 the Staatskapelle Berlin voted him Chief Conductor tor Life.
In 1999 Daniel Barenboim founded together with the Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said the West-Eastern Divan Workshop, which brings together young musicians from Israel and the Arab countries every summer to play music together. In summer 2005, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra presented in the Palestinian city of Ramallah a concert of historical significance.
For his music making es well as for his commitment to peace, tolerance and understanding in the world, Daniel Barenboim has been honoured with rnany an award.