Salzburg puts on a Daniel Barenboim charity gala
UncategorizedThe Salzburg Festival has put together an all-star charity gala in honour of the stricken Daniel Barenboim.
Schedlued for May 29, 2023, it features Zubin Mehta with his Orchestra del Maggio Musicale Fiorentino, alongside Martha Argerich, Cecilia Bartoli, Plácido Domingo, Lang Lang, Rolando Villazón and Sonya Yoncheva.
The contents have yet to be finalised.
Based on a close up view of Mehta in Florence in October I cannot see him being in any way capable of conducting again unless there has been a major recovery in his balance, which is very unlikely. He can no longer walk any distance from what I saw.
I agree…I was in Florence too and M°Metha was in no good conditions…
If he’s not playing nor conducting…
He was fine at the BBC Proms conducting with his experience and sat down. Yes, he needed help walking on but then so what? That was okay too.
Proms was July. This was end October. At his age things move quickly. I saw him in a wheelchair off stage and he looked awful. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a big fan. But he almost fell several times that night. I just don’t see how he’ll be better, and likely he’ll be a lot worse, by the end of next May. And the festpielhaus stage is huge. The walk on alone would take quite some time.
He should enjoy his retirement in my view.
The whole thing is grotesque
What do you mean? Grotesque?
so true
I wish Maestro Mehta good health and hope he is able to conduct. The only other one I would love to see and hear is the great Martha Argerich. The others listed are well pass the sell before date. I would not pay or travel to hear them.
That’s right – who would want to hear Domingo ?
I completely agree with you, Ms.Melody, and I’d like to add my best wishes for Barenboim as well.
The problem is that you all come to SEE the conductor not HEAR the music they are making. I’m reminded of the conducting class at the Mozarteum in Salzburg on the afternoon when Karajan taught the class. After watching the young conductors ‘showing off’ without actually doing any rehearsing he stopped the class. He told the aspiring ‘maestros’ that the rehearsal “belongs to the conductor” and that the concert “belongs to the musicians”, and that the conductor must then get out of the way to let the orchestra express what they had rehearsed. I see the opposite in many of the young conductors who mistake flailing away on the podium with conducting. Too bad so many in the public buy this. For context watch Blomstedt conduct Bruckner and lead the orchestra with intensity and a minimum of gesturing.
Blomstedt is a great example. Another is Mravinsky. How he created uniquely electrifying performances of Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky via such an undemonstrative style on the podium is a beautiful mystery.
Why not instead have young musicians who have benefitted from Barenboim’s tutelage perform? I’d want to attend that performance. That would be interesting, energizing, …
But this? Sheesh.
You call that lineup “all star”?
Might as well invite Perlman, Zuckerman, Carreras too.
I’ll just watch youtube videos from the 1980s.
It’s “Zukerman”.