After reappearing on stage to conduct the traditional New Year’s Concert at the Staatsoper Unter den Linden in Berlin, Daniele Barenboim announced this Friday his resignation from the music directorship of the Berlin State Opera due to persistent health problems.
“Unfortunately, my health has deteriorated significantly in the last year”, the famous musician sent in a statement. “I can no longer deliver the performance that is rightly expected of a music director,” he concluded.
Barenboim had recently returned to the stage after announcing last October that he was suffering from a neurological disease.
The Argentine-Israeli pianist and conductor had taken the necessary precautions to once again take over the baton and conduct Ludwig van Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony on New Year’s Eve. He did it from a chair, and only got up when the job was done and he was ready to receive recognition.
Barenboim canceled several engagements in February and April due to ill health, but his decision last October was more drastic. “Now I have to focus as much as possible on my physical well-being,” he said at the time, according to an AFP news agency cable.
In addition to the concert scheduled for last November 15, the day on which he turned 80, Barenboim had also suspended the premiere of a new Ring of the Nibelung at the same Staatsoper, the direction of which was finally taken over by Christian Thielemann, with whom he shares the passion for Richard Wagner.
Born in Buenos Aires on November 15, 1942 from a Jewish family of Russian origin, it was in this city that he held his first concert when he was just seven years old, but he became a citizen of the world both for the family transhumance and for his talents, performances pianists and his personal and musical activism for peace in the Middle East.
He has currently been Chief Music Director of the Berlin State Opera since 1992 and his contract was recently extended until 2027.
Barenboim is also a sort of “adopted citizen” of Berlin and a moral authority for his fellow citizens, as he often influences social or political debates, as well as being committed to a peaceful solution to the conflict in the Middle East.
In October, through a press release, the musician specified that his health “has deteriorated in recent months”.
“I have been diagnosed with a serious neurological disease,” confirmed Barenboim, who has announced that he will focus as much as possible on his “physical well-being”.
In a reflection posted on his Instagram account, the pianist added: “Music has always been and continues to be an essential and lasting part of my life”.
With information from AFP
Source: Clarin
