Vienna Phil ignored Barenboim for 24 years
NewsAn outstandingly dull press conference for the New Year’s Day concert yielded one worthwhile item of information.
The Vienna Philharmonic chairman Daniel Froschauer recalled the Danel Barenboim, who is conducting New Years Day for the third time, made his debut with the orchestra in Salzburg as a pianist in 1965.
Although he became a full-time conductor a decade later, Vienna did not invite him to conduct them until 1989 – by which time he had been music director in Paris and was now in Berlin.
What took them so long?
“What took them so long?”
Good judgment.
And what about sir Simon Rattle, il n’a jamais dirigé le concert du nouvel an ?,
Thank God !
Thank God, what a crazy idea – the most overrated conductor of our time
Because he’s unmusical
He probably wouldn’t be worse than let’s say Dudamel, but not sure he has it in him, he’s wonderful in American light music like…. wonderful town, the only recording which stays in my collection.
That would be interesting. I’m still sorry they never invited Solti, either (or Bernstein).
Apparently they did – Lenny was due to do 1992 but Carlos Kleiber stepped in – the rest is history
Il ne le souhaite pas, trouvant qu’il ne sait pas suffisamment diriger cette musique typiquement autrichienne. Quelle probité !
“An outstandingly dull press conference for the New Year’s Day concert…”
Before an outstandingly dull concert which past its sell by date, emphasis on the sell, decades ago.
Don’t forget the Strauss Waltzes…pick up any New year’s concert with whatever conductor:same program for the dummies.
Easy job!
Couldn’t agree more – Kleiber 1992 should have been the last one but, as you infer, it’s all about money and this concert is the Vienna Phil’s biggest annual money-spinner
You are not forced to watch.
Millions apparently like it.
Vienna Phil does a lot of other programs too, there is also something for you in it probably.
Good for them to have an actively lived tradition.
I find this predictable lame snobbery of yours so boring.
“””What took them so long”””-May be Barenboim found it more financially interesting to stay where he was at the time!!
I’d be surprose if D Bareboim were motivote purely by financial concerns. He’s made enuf and given plenty, (foundations, youth orchestras, etc…). Prestige and glory wd be more likly. (Not a fan as codutor, and his pino plonking is past its bets….stil a remarkabull phenomene as a pollyvalent musican).
Solly, it’s Ewe Nears Heave….. fart oom any oysters & bianco…
A lot of great conductors have never directed the WP or did that tardily. I don’t think that Ivan Fischer or Neeme Järvi ever worked with the WP. But they are among the best conductors of the last 30 years without doubts.
Both Ivan Fischer and Neeme Järvi are competent conductors. Not more, not less.
Neeme Jarvi, really? Jarvi is an interesting conductor because of unusual broadness of his repertoire and curiosity, too bad he plays so much music unprepared, reading at sight.
The barbarians tried many times before the got into Rome.
I’m not a fan of Barenboim the conductor at all, although I’ll probably watch the New Year’s Day concert as it’s tradition. I can put up with his piano playing, although he would never be a first choice. Is it the case that he’s now to be known as ‘Danel’, as stated in the second paragraph of the above article. Maybe he’ll be better at ‘conduting’ than he is at conducting. I also take note of the new spelling of third as ‘thierd’ and will adopt it in my vokaboolarry immeediatelly. Naughty typos, I presume. I won’t charge a proofreader’s fee on this occasion.
Happy New Year to you all.
Ja! Ja! good comment ! The same thing happens to me when trying to write on the cell phone with my sausage fingers
I sympazise with the original! it’s quite irritating to be under consant supervision to avoid typos, while it’s only human. Language is evulving all the time so we should have some fredom in interpretation.
Sally
Sri, (Madeam), a mild case of dylsexier i persume…
“Sri, (Madeam), a mild case of dylsexier i persume…”
To be in on the joke, you’d have to have read the first rendition of this article. Someone* was clever enough to archive it:
https://web.archive.org/web/20211231143033/https://slippedisc.com/2021/12/vienna-phil-ignored-barenboim-for-24-years/
*) That clever someone wasn’t even me.
You, too, are always evulving, Sally, in your own special way. And that is one of the things that makes SD a must-read!
Ah yes, the great invulvment. Wouldn’t miss it for 2 tickets to paradise.
It seems there is an obligation to be invited by the VPO when you make a conducting career, like a stamp of approval.
I wonder if players will scowl at him and refuse to shake his hand again this year during the “Racist” Radetzky March….?
May Be due a mistake like yours unable, to typing “Daniel” twice…
The Berlin Philharmonic established in the concert hall in central Berlin by October 1963. At the end of the first season in the new building, Director General Wolfgang Stresemann commissioned the young Barenboim for a concert including Bela Bartok’s first Piano Concerto. Five years after his debut on piano, Barenboim performed as a conductor with the orchestra.
Stresemann had a stern warning for him, though, saying he wouldn’t be able to pull off being a pianist as well as a conductor. “You have to choose,” he told the young star.
DB is the only musician who can cope with both functions that he loves very much.Unlike some “pianists” who switch to conducting as discussed in an old post no longer available.
Heard about Mikhail Pletnēv?
He didn’t chose and went from wunderkind to average conductor and pianist , greedy for money, power, political insight…..
Well, Stresemann got that one wrong. Did he extend his gratuitous professional advice to composer/conductors, composer/pianists and the like? Somewhat ironic considering that DB was performing Bartok.
Gee, that’s such a tough one. But they also hired Thielemann to do their recent live Bruckner recordings with, as an aside, decidedly mixed results; whose Bruckner do you think we’ll still be listening to in 50 years, Thielemann or Barenboim? Just Google “Berlin Operas Are Feuding, With Anti-Semitic Overtones” and maybe the causative problem emerges?
Thielemann with Bruckner definitely, Barenboim never
Bruckner himself is enough of a deterrent, never mind Thielemann or Barenboim. They’re just collateral damage.
Memo to the boffins: less is more.
I think the more pertinent question is, who will care in fifty years time. I’m not sure many do today.
We probably will be listening to neither in 50 years; there are many other excellent choices.
Nydo That is what I am wondering with all this talk/criticism – the excellent choices are? I have seen only a bit of a Christmas concert years ago on TV. After waltzing around the house with my husband, I had to retreat to other listening but that’s just me.. Is it all Strauss(or Strauss family)? In the land of Mozart, Haydn. I know tradition… so let them enjoy.
Furtwängler, Horenstein, Haitink, Wand. Certainly not Barenboim.
Good taste. Another ego with nothing to say was simply not needed.
“Another ego with nothing to say…” – I don’t judge him too harshly on musical matters. I place him alongside Menuhin and Mazael, two other baton waivers, steeped in the humanities, multilingual, and overflowing with musical talent and skill. In my utopian thoughts I envision Barenboim to be the perfect philosopher-king to solve the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. His work with Edward Said fostered the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a noble institution to teach and train young musicians of varied ethnicities and nationalities in the peaceful, collaborative effort in making music that, I pray, will lay the groundwork for future generations to build on. I shall enjoy watching and listening to Daniel Barenboim conduct the VPO on New Year’s day and reaffirm my belief in the power of music. Happy New Year to everyone who visit this blog: the creators, the regular commentators, the reticent commentators, and the quiet readers.
Probably anti-semitism – a ubiquitous problem in Austrian society, even in relatively liberal and cosmopolitan Vienna, especially back then.
Then why did they invite Maazel so often?
Parce que D.Barenboim est un chef brouillon !
Et qu’à l’époque il y avait des chefs d’orchestre d’une autre envergure.
(You’re aware this is an english-speaking forum, are you?)
Pourquoi mettre des parenthèses.
Ce n’est pas écrire en anglais !
“Danel Barenboim, who is conduting New Years Day for the thierd time”
Happy new year!
I thought there was going to be answer about that 24-year gap.
They didn’t invite Blomstedt until he was in his 80s.
Blomstedt is a great conductor. Many have known it since the 1970s, but he mostly conducted in East Germany. I have known it since the late 1980s when I used listened to the San Francisco Symphony radio broadcasts, and then bought some Blomstedt CDs. He has kind of a stodgy personality. It wasn’t until Blomstedt went back to conduct regularly in Europe in the 1990s that the Concertgebouw and VPO wanted him for Bruckner first, and then everything else.
thierd time’s a charm.
Herbert Blomstedt was first invited to conduct the VPO when he was nearly 90. I am not sure Gunther Wand ever conducted the orchestra…
“What took them so long?”
Natural good taste.
1989 Karajan died
I’m not a big fan of Barenboim as an interpreter though I don’t dispute his mastery of the craft.
I find the VPO New Year’s show a bit tedious, as there is so little variety in the pieces – if only they would work in a few more composers not named Strauss (or another one who is) – but I appreciate that no other orchestra can do this kind of program nearly as well, though many sort of try – “New Years in Vienna” being kind of a programming cliche. The stylistic cohesion, the “Vienna 3/4,” etc..
All I know is that I tried to view the concert on American TV and failed miserably.