Conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim feels like an emissary from a different age of classical music. At the age of 79 he can look back on 70 years as a performer, from nine-year-old prodigy to grand old man. He can recall encounters with such figures from the past as the pianist Artur Rubinstein, who gave him cigars and vodka when he was 14 years old. In London in the 1960s Barenboim fell in love with the cellist Jacqueline du Pré and with a rising generation of classical stars who made music seem sexy and glamorous. SponsoredHe went on to establish a towering career, full of notable events, such as playing Beethoven’s First Piano Concerto with the Berlin Philharmonic three days after the Berlin Wall came

Source: The Times December 26, 2021 00:38 UTC