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Daniel Barenboim returns
Plus Pirates and Hänsel und Gretel
BY DAVID WEININGER

When Daniel Barenboim arrives in Boston to give a FleetBoston Celebrity Series piano recital next weekend at Symphony Hall, it’ll be the first time he’s done so here since 1974. Surprising? Sure, for someone who’s habitually placed among the finest keyboard artists of his age. Yet the most surprising thing may be the fact that he still has time to be a pianist at all.

It’s become increasingly common for musicians to wear multiple hats, and many pianists have carved out niches for themselves as conductors (e.g., Christoph Eschenbach and Vladimir Ashkenazy). But Barenboim stands out for the frenetic pace at which his musical life runs. He is music director of both the Deutsche Staatsoper in Berlin and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra. He was a leading candidate to take over the Berlin Philharmonic this summer, a post that eventually went to Simon Rattle. He records with all three ensembles: a recent Chicago recording brought together works by Boulez, Stravinsky, and Debussy, even as in Berlin he continues his Wagner series at the Staatsoper with a newly released performance of Der fliegende Holländer ("The Flying Dutchman") and is in the midst of recording the Mozart piano concertos with the Philharmonic.

One distinction he has almost to himself among contemporary musicians is his very visible political activity. Barenboim, who was raised in Tel Aviv, holds acutely dovish views on Israeli-Palestinian relations. With Edward W. Said, he founded the West-Eastern-Divan Workshop in 1999, a project intended to bring Palestinian and Israeli musicians to play in an orchestra together in Weimar. His vigorous advocacy of the peace process and his enthusiasm for Wagner have aroused the ire of Israelis more than once. After playing a concert in the occupied city of Ramallah this summer, Barenboim was set upon by members of the right-wing Kach party, who threatened him with physical violence. In a truly surreal twist, his wife fought the attackers off by throwing salad at them. (Never let it be said that vegetables aren’t good for you.)

And Barenboim can now add the author label to his résumé. He and Said recently wrote Parallels and Paradoxes: Explorations in Music and Society (Knopf). The book is made up of conversations between the two that cover not only Wagner and the Oslo Accord but also the phenomenology of sound and Germany’s historical burdens. One of the discussions took place while Barenboim was in New York to conduct a complete cycle of the Beethoven symphonies, so there’s lots of provocative material about Beethoven interpretation. It’s an engaging work, and given the intellectual output of most high-profile musicians, Barenboim raises the bar in a significant and welcome way.

Well, that’s all fine and good, you say, but can the man still play the piano? We’ll have to wait until he shows up to find out for sure, but recordings from the last half-dozen years or so hardly suggest he’s lost his touch. A recording of works for four-hand piano by Schubert with Radu Lupu from 1997 is especially impressive, not least for the clarity the two pianists bring to the music’s dense textures.

At Symphony Hall he’ll start with Mozart’s C-major Sonata (K.330) and Beethoven’s Appassionata. Liszt dominates after the break: the three Petrarch Sonnets and the Dante Sonata. It’s a daunting program, and who knows when we’ll have the chance to hear him play another one? He’ll be here next Sunday, December 1, at 3 p.m. Remaining tickets are $45, $50, and $60; call (617) 482-6661.

OPERA LITE. Not that Die Entführung aus dem Serail is the weightiest fare, but the upcoming opera events are even less solemn. Boston Academy of Music gives us its traditional Gilbert & Sullivan Thanksgiving-weekend production; this year’s choice is The Pirates of Penzance. The Emerson Majestic is still undergoing renovation, so BAM will be holding forth at the Blackman Theatre at Northeastern University. Performances are November 29 at 7:30 p.m., November 30 at 2 and 7, and December 1 at 2. Call (617) 373-2247. And Marek Janowski brings Engelbert Humperdinck’s fairy-tale classic Hänsel und Gretel to Symphony Hall for the first of his two programs with the BSO. The cast includes Ruxandra Donose and Ruth Ziesak in the title roles. Performances are November 29 at 1:30 p.m. and November 30 and December 3 at 8; call (617) 266-1200.


Issue Date: November 21 - 28, 2002
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