Posted on 04/16/2009 8:26:38 PM PDT by forkinsocket
In a rare performance by a prominent Israeli musician in Egypt, Daniel Barenboim has received a rapturous reception at the Cairo Opera House.
Mr Barenboim conducted the Cairo Symphony Orchestra playing Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
The famed conductor and pianist has long strived to use music to bring people together in the region.
He is a supporter of Palestinian statehood and a critic of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians.
'Human project'
His visit - the result of an invitation from the Austrian embassy in Cairo - is believed to be the first by a prominent Israeli musician in Egypt, one of the few Arab states to have signed a peace deal with Israel.
As well as conducting the orchestra, Mr Barenboim played Beethoven's Pathetique piano sonata.
Answering criticism that the time was not right for such a visit, following Israel's offensive in Gaza earlier this year, Mr Barenboim said bringing musicians from both sides together was not a political project, but a human one.
"For 60 years they have been trying with force and they haven't solved anything," he said during rehearsals for the concert. "Every military victory of Israel has left it politically weaker."
"I hope very much that this, my first visit to Egypt, will maybe allow another way of thinking to come," he added.
The concert was largely welcomed in Egypt, but has been criticised by some who feel Egypt should resist closer ties with Israel until a final peace deal is reached with the Palestinians.
The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, refused an invitation to attend from the Egyptian culture minister.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.bbc.co.uk ...
Barenboim-can’t stand his politics, can’t stand his pianism. Ham-handed, tin eared...
Go figure.
Leni
...a prominent Israeli musician in Egypt, Daniel Barenboim has received a rapturous reception at the Cairo Opera House... He is a supporter of Palestinian statehood and a critic of Israeli policy toward the Palestinians... His visit -- the result of an invitation from the Austrian embassy in Cairo -- is believed to be the first by a prominent Israeli musician in Egypt, one of the few Arab states to have signed a peace deal with Israel... "Every military victory of Israel has left it politically weaker." ...The Secretary-General of the Arab League, Amr Moussa, refused an invitation to attend from the Egyptian culture minister.Every military defeat of the Arabs has made them politically, uh, oh wait...
He also performed Wagner in Israel which was a taboo.
Ham handed? He’s known for his restraint and attention to detail.
Classical Music ping
Not when he first started conducting.
You may call it restraint, I call it an inability to fit the notes into the composer’s tempi. The Beethoven concerti are a perfect example. I never realied how inept he was until I heard him try to cram all of the notes into glacial tempi. (1963 Klemperer, Barenboim, New Philharmonia). It was painful to hear...almost as though he was wearing boxing gloves...and his Goldberg? Pathetic! Simone Dinnerstein sends me to the moon with her’s...WOW!
He DID have a hot wife, though...dunno how he managed to land her...shame about her untimely demise.
He does take slow tempii most of the time. He’s a Bruckner conductor after all. I’ve never heard his Goldberg Var. but Dinnerstein makes them. sound like tinkly dinner music.
I’m talking about his conducting in the last 20 years or so when he was at Chicago.
re: 5
why?
We know Wagner now as a composer. By the musicians’ opinion he is up there placed in a classification anywhere from 4th place down (after Beethoven, Mozart and Bach) in the top 10 or at least top 20 for sure - opinions vary of course.
But he was not just a composer. He was a philosopher, very vocal and very much beloved later by the fuhrer and Nazis - not just as a composer but specifically for his loud uncompromising anti-semitism.
There are calls to separate music from politics and enjoy the music regardless of the composer’s persona. OK, I personally indeed do this for other casual anti-semites like Chopin or Tchaikovsky. I draw a line for Wagner. I can’t make myself enjoy his music.
You will find a ton of material on the Internet googling “Wagner’s antisemitism”.
Check for example this very reserved in tone article: http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/anti-semitism/Wagner.html
I appreciate the info Tolik thank you.
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