daniel barenboim illness withdrawal from the scene

One of the world’s greatest pianists and conductors, Daniel Barenboim, says he will retire from the stage, at least partially. “I have lived my whole life in and through music, and will continue to do so as long as my health permits.”

In a message on Twitter, the teacher announced that he suffered from a serious neurological disease. “It is with a mixture of pride and sadness that I announce to you today that for the next few months I will be taking a step back from some of my concert activities. In particular management engagements,” Barenboim writes, who is also a famous pianist. “Now I have to focus as much as possible on my physical well-being”.

Daniel Barenboim. Photo Ansa / Epa Miguel Ángel Molina

“My health has deteriorated – wrote Barenboim – in recent months and I have been diagnosed with a serious neurological disease”. “Music has always been and continues to be an essential and enduring part of my life. I have lived my entire life in and through music, and will continue to do so as long as my health permits. Looking back , I am not only happy, but deeply satisfied.” Barenboim announced his retirement from the music scene on October 4, when he received a Lifetime Achievement Award on the night of Gramophone’s Classic Music Awards.

Barenboim, 80 years old in November

Daniel Barenboim will be 80 on November 15. He has Spanish, Israeli and Palestinian nationality. For exactly thirty years he was music director of the Berlin State Opera. He also held this role at the Teatro alla Scala in Milan from 2011 to 2015. Born in Buenos Aires, the capital of Argentina, to Russian parents of Jewish origin, Barenboim was a very precocious pianist. He made his debut as a child, at the age of 7, in his hometown and studied with maestro Vincenzo Scaramuzza. He first studied with Claudio Arrau then abroad in Rome, Salzburg, Paris and with Edwin Fischer in Lucerne, Switzerland.

Barenboim conducts the Berlin State Opera on Unter den Linden (Berlin) in 2017. Photo Ansa / Epa Felipe Trueba

He combined a prestigious international career as a pianist – in solo recital, with orchestra and in chamber ensembles – with a distinguished career as a conductor. This is currently the main part of his musical activity. An intense activity, which led him, from time to time, to conduct the greatest orchestras in the world. As a pianist, Barenboim is an accomplished interpreter of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart, whose entire corpus of sonatas and concertos for piano and orchestra he has recorded on several occasions. And he did it both as a pianist and as a conductor. But he is also the famous interpreter of Ludwig van Beethoven, of which he recorded the complete 32 sonatas.

Photo Ansa/Epa Hayoung Jeon