Daniel Barenboim: We cannot afford the luxury of pessimism
OrchestrasIn a moving Times conversation with ex-Diwan violinist Clemency Burton-Hill, Barenboim stays positive about the orchestra he created: ‘We were very lucky that there were enough people on both sides that were interested. When you get a young community like this, it burns quickly in a good way — it didn’t have to be led, it just happened… We discovered a special musical quality that came into being. Maybe exactly because of where they each came from, how they all had to really think alike.’
Barenboim, 81, is suffering from vasculities. Burton-Hill, 42, is struggling with the effects of a brain injury.
Her series 25 Years of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra can be heard on BBC Radio 3
Well worth a listen. I caught the first 25 minutes yesterday afternoon, before going to a matinee.
I had the pleasure of working with Clemmie a few years ago. She is phenomenally multi-talented and as nice a person as you could hope to meet. The fact that she she is also beautiful makes her the sort of person that you should hate, but that would be out of the question!
Her slow recovery from a horrendous near-death experience is both painful and inspiring.
It goes without saying that Barenboim and Edward Said have shown humanity at its best, by setting up the orchestra.
Edward Said is the person most responsible for legitimizing the fake,genocidal “Palestinian” cause as “humanitarian” and “progressive”. Barenboim is contemptible for having associated with this lying monster.
Although this comment may seem unreasonably harsh, there is good reason to be suspicious about Said’s legacy. He is the author of the notorious book ‘Orientalism’ which claims that all Western attempts to understand ‘the East’ are projections of prejudices and of colonialism and appropriations – yes, in short: Said wrote woke avant la lettre. Roger Scruton has debunked those claims effectively, drawing on extensive evidence of Western scholars who understood ‘the East’ better than Said.
His book on classical music: ‘Musical Elaborations’, is saturated with sociology jargon and reveals someone claiming to be an expert in a field that is not his.
Beware of such people.
And Ilan Pappé has endorsed Said’s claims about “Orientalism.” The proof is on display before our eyes for those who will see.
Your books are saturated with sociology jargon and reveal someone claiming to be an expert on various fields that are not yours.beware of such people…And Scruton, give me a break!
Edward Said has only shown us the worst of humanity, not the best. He was a sad, hateful figure. Barenboim is the greater human being even though he had the sad association with Said.
He would be more believable in this statement, if he as a leader had brought much less of fear and toxic aggression into his work related interactions with structurally inferior coworkers and had instilled an atmosphere of empathetic peace and creative freedom instead.
All these people, many in the arts that got vaxxed up to the nines with a bioweapon that was in development long before the fake virus was announced – rebranded flu, so many falling seriously ill, many no longer alive, it’s downhill from here if you took it.
Open your eyes to what’s going on, before it’s too late!
They’re also trying to remove cash use, banks closing, card only self service tills everywhere so they can control you with a digital ID. Reject it!!
Don´t forget to polish your tin foil hat…..LOL
Your name is apt.
Just.. wow. With all due respect, your username is the only truthful and accurate assessment contained in the post. A troll on a roll. Thanks for the link, Norman, which reminds us that hope can only exist in a space reserved for a shared sense of humanity. Sending my best wishes to both Clemency and DB.
https://rumble.com/v3zq2jj-mike-yeadon-address-to-parliamentary-special-meeting-4122023.html
Yes I have that too, regularly.
Sally
I didn’t know Marjorie Taylor Greene was a slippedisc.com regular! Welcome!
I’d recommend you read Naomi Klein on these issues in her latest book Doppelganger, if you haven’t already.
Shame that such untruthful and inflammatory comments are allowed to be posted.
That’s freedom of speech. It’s up to everyone to make of it what they will.
That is self evident
@If you think: All valid points, but virtually none relevant to this post. For maximum impact, concentrate on articles debunking the Covid myth and all its appalling teachings (they are now, fortunately, mainstream and many). You won’t appear crazy, you’ll be in good company.
Imagine expanding the ‘West-Eastern Divan’ idea to the region where Jews and Palestinians can all live peacefully and harmoniously. That will likely never happen in 10,000 years.
This is why “art and music making the world a better place” is a cliche and fallacy.
I sing in 3 amateur choirs.one is welcoming, friendly, second is neutral and the third, can be negative, ignoring me, that I left for a while
One out of three fits the positive plus of music
In 1914 the middle east was full of Christians. Where have they all gone and why? Each state had a way of it’s own – but they all got rid of most of their Christians (and Jews): Turkey, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Tunisia, Algeria. All had substantial Christian and Jewish communities – all are either completely gone, or at best reduced to a fraction of what they were. Practical Islam is not tolerant. That’s why DB’s “vision” is no more likely to succeed than the vision of Zionists that had been looking for 100 years for an Arab partner for any kind of peace – only to find out that non exists.
Yup. Nail on the head.
Barenboim turned out to be as politically naive as his idol Furtwängler in the complete opposite direction. While the latter was politically disengaged to the point of blindness, Barenboim is so engaged he is, paradoxically, similarly blind to the reality around him. What unites them is that they both shared the profoundly naive idealism that art can save humanity, when the best it can do is make existence more bearable. But art has zero political value. Furtwängler recognized this but thought art could create a separate, redemptive reality. Barenboim thinks art can foster the creation of better, more ethical political actors. In the end, I fall more on the Furtwängler side of the equation – art is inherently apolitical and attempting to use it for political ends is at best naive and at worst a propagandist abomination – but without his Wagnerian delusion that it can create a separate spiritual space where politics – and the atrocities committed in the political sphere – become irrelevant. I do not mean to disparage Barenboim’s in many ways laudable activism. But it is profoundly quixotic, and in the final analysis, totally useless.
Classical music is a symbolic realm of human potentialities, and can change people who are open to it. Nothing more, nothing less.
I agree, except for „symbolic“, which I would replace with „self evident“.
I wonder whether the music of Beethoven, Bach, Mozart, Schubert “changed” the mind of a single Nazi, whether the Ninth Furtwängler conducted several times before concert halls crawling with Nazis convinced a single solitary soul of the error of their ways. My wonderment is entirely rhetorical, of course. Art has never and never will make “better” human beings. Arguably, it may be more successful at making them *worse*.
I had the honor and privilege of being a small part of the first few years of the West-Eastern Divan workshop in Weimar, Germany and Seville, Spain. I consider those times spent with Maestro Barenboim, Edward Said, and each and every extraordinary young person to be powerful, defining and quite moving. Frankly, those experiences changed my life and trajectory, musically and personally. It was a bold, powerful, and incredibly positive thing that was taking place. It’s wonderful to see that the flame has continued to grow brighter and brighter over the years….
Thank you very much for your comment. I remember golden times when CSO was on the Festtage Berlin regularly. Unforgetable concerts!!!
I have nothing but admiration for Barenboim as a musician. The orchestra he and Said established, in and of itself, is also an admirable project. But Said was and remains the epitomization of everything that’s wrong with the scholarly world today. His book “Orientalism” is worse than worthless as a work of scholarship, and has done immense damage. Barenboim’s association with Said tarnishes his legacy. Said was a rabid hater of Israel who even opposed the Oslo Accords. No honest person should have associated with him.
Barenboim has also disengaged from Israel for many years now. Where has he been since October 7? Our most difficult time since 1948, and where is he? The fact is, there’s nothing Israeli or Jewish about this man. A great musician, but a pretentious intellectual and public figure. When it comes to anything outside music, not even an average human being.
Barenboim is now a citizen of the world, an intercontinental figure conected to many peoples and places, but probably best at home in Berlin. He had an Israeli episode many years ago, but he had not peformed with the IPO for very long. I believe he never bothered to shaw simple human solidarity with the Kibuzim who were worst hit by Hamas – including some of Israel’s most stuborn peace activists. Perhaps he is too important for such trivialities.
Magnificent musician who I have had the privilege to share a stage with when we both were young. Some of the greatest moments of my career. Bravo maestro!