Daniel Barenboim, 82 today

Ich bin Ereignis says:

The end of this clip, where Mr. Barenboim discusses the metaphor of giving — “giving oneself to music as one gives oneself to another human being,” as well as concentration being nothing but “a form of giving” of oneself — truly demonstrates his unique caliber as a musician. In a time when most giving has become transactional, when the very possibility of concentration is being undermined by our ever-increasing dependency on devices which are greatly responsible for the erosion of our capacity for attention, and when everything must be regimented by a strictly utilitarian form of rationality, these notions may sound rather foreign to many. In a sense, to ask the very question “how to listen to music” betrays having already veered on the wrong track: one could simply say, there is no “how” to listen — just listening should be more than enough, given enough time and persistence. But such sheer listening may prove to be a challenge, not merely because we seem to have lost somehow the capacity to listen in general, but also because listening in turn implies another capacity, that of truly giving oneself to something else — in other words, putting one’s individuality aside for a while and becoming open to the possibility of being transformed. Music, just like all the other arts, has no utility and no external end other than itself. It cannot, and should not, be approached by a “method” which would then allegedly allow us to “understand” what it “means.” Rather, it is an experience one undergoes — one that transports us away from the world of sheer practicality. Such departure, paradoxically, is precisely where we might encounter our truest selves and be finally able to focus on what truly matters.