I was reared on Bach. My father was virtually my only teacher, and he attached great importance to my growing up with Bach’s keyboard music. He considered it to be very important, not only for its musical and pianistic aspects, but also for everything else that is played on the piano. For him polyphonic music-making was simply one of the most important issues concerning everything relating to piano-playing. In itself …
How Pierre Boulez and I first came to make music together is a rather long story. I had been invited to play with the Berlin Philharmonic by Wilhelm Furtwängler in 1954, when I was eleven years old. My father declined the invitation, telling Furtwängler that he felt that this was the greatest honor that he could bestow upon me, but that we were a Jewish family that had immigrated to …
Middle East unavoidably leads to the rapid establishment of two independent states and the dismantling of the Jewish settlements in the occupied territories. At the moment, we have a state ruled by apartheid. As a medium-term solution, there must be an independent Palestinian state in federation with Israel. Two independent states, but also two states that depend upon one another and understand that their destinies are inseparably linked. Jerusalem has …
Wilhelm Furtwängler was always a stranger in this world. He was someone who went his own way and stood apart from the others: he could not be pigeonholed in any one category, no matter how broad. Furtwängler is the ultimate embodiment of the musician who refuses to adapt to preexisting molds, the anti-ideologue par excellence-and I mean the present tense here quite seriously, for this is what makes Furtwängler still …
Translated from the Spanish by Kimberly Borchard Edward Said was many things for many people, but in reality, his was a musician’s soul, in the deepest sense of the word. He wrote about important universal issues such as exile, politics, integration. However, the most surprising thing for me, as his friend and great admirer, was the realization that, on many occasions, he actually formulated ideas and reached conclusions through music; …
The Barenboim-Said Foundation organized a four-day symposium in Seville, Spain during the summer of 2004, attended by intellectuals and historians from Israel and Palestine. Also present was Felipe González, former Prime Minister of Spain and a leading player in the Middle East peace process for many years. At the conclusion of the symposium, the participants issued a Declaration calling on the countries of Europe to seize the initiative in breaking …
I would like to express my deep gratitude to the Wolf Foundation for the great honour that is being bestowed upon me today. This recognition is for me not only an honour,but also a source of inspiration for additional creative activity. It was in 1952, four years after the Declaration of Israel’s Independence, that I, as a 10-year old boy, came to Israel with my parents from Argentina. The Declaration …
I have always been opposed to targeted assassinations out of principle. First, they are immoral, second they are irresponsible, and third, they do not serve Israel’s long-term interests. Focusing only on extremists and hate cannot be the way! Hate consumes more energy than reason, let alone love. Hate agitates people, is extremely dangerous—and violates all principles of Judaism. The wealth of the Jewish people rests on one thing alone: morality. …
On Silence and Sound In the beginning, there was silence. And out of the silence came the sound. The sound is not here. The Fifth Symphony of Beethoven existed in his brain as he was imagining it and comes into being every time a group of musicians get together somewhere on this globe and literally bring the sound from space. They bring it into the world. The sound does not …
Bad Nauheim, Germany, March 2004 Ladies and Gentlemen, This praise has deeply moved me. Moreover I’m hesitant to believe that I can meet these expectations. Many of the things I did, and still am doing, I do them, believe it or not, simply because I enjoy them. As it was mentioned before, I was born in Argentina. I then moved to Israel at the age of ten together with my …