When Barenboim was turned away from a childhood haunt
mainA BR documentary on Daniel Barenboim follows him to Buenos Aires, where he tries to gain access to one of his childhood haunts, the home of the Rosenthals where he played at parties.
He is refused entry.
Martha Argerich rings the bell and gets them in.
Watch, from 44:00.
Why didn’t they get their people (or TV researchers) to sort it out in advance, rather than just assume their musical fame would instantly open all doors ?
It’s a little hard to tell what’s going on without English subtitles but I suspect the person upstairs thought it was some kind of prank and told them to get lost. Looks like an interesting documentary though.
Dear Norman, THANK YOU!!!! so much for this cosmically wonderful documentary, so full of love, humour, and beauty from all concerned. It has made my month!
This reminds me of a story Muti has regaled, also to Norman Lebrecht. Muti was on tour in Raleigh, NC, in the early 80s, and Karajan called him at his hotel room early one morning. Muti initially thought it was a prank call.
So, why was he calling?
To invite Muti to conduct Cosi fan Tutte in Salzburg.
http://www.beyondcriticism.com/2010/08/salzburg-milestone-riccardo-muti
It’s an oft told story I find hillarious. For clues on Muti’s answer, check this:
http://www.arkivmusic.com/classical/album.jsp?album_id=1864477
It’s starting to seem as if every conductor around when Herbie was alive got a phone call from him and thought it was a prank. There must be a dearth of anecdotal inventiveness these days.
Reminds me of Gary Karr’s account of when Serge Koussevitzky’s widow called to inform him that Koussevitzky had bequeathed his bass to him. Karr thought it was a prank call made by his pals, thick Russian accent & all.
Reminds me of Gary Karr’s account of the call he got from Serge Koussevitzky’s widow to inform him that her husband had bequeathed his double bass to Karr.
Karr thought it was a prank call from his pals with thick Russian accent to boot.
Aside from the inevitable Barenboim platitudes, the documentary includes some beautiful duo playing with the great Marta Argerich. Barenboim’s and Argerich’s childhood recollections are very fascinating.
I studied German quite a fair bit and can understand much, but i wish this had subtitles, as i’d like to share it :-(((
As do I for the sake of, um, clarity. The post and its header do not exactly provide an accurate notion of what transpired, though certainly a notion that will bring joy to the tickers of the anti-DB brigade.
Great photo. I wonder how the photographer got them all together. I have had tickets over the years for (canceled) recitals by all three of them.
BTW: any news on how long DB might be out of action following his eye op ?
Is this a new documentary? If so where is it available please?
The very end of this interesting film shows that even Barenboim can not perform Schubert without dedicating all of his time and energy to it.