Barenboim at La Scala

Barenboim changes direction to La Scala
By Noam Ben Ze'ev

(Haaretz-May 22)


Last week, theories abounded before the appointment of the Israeli conductor Daniel Barenboim to a major position in La Scala, the most prestigious opera house in Europe. Personnel is changing in orchestras and opera houses around the world. Barenboim leaves the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in June, and Riccardo Muti left last year following a very public falling-out. However, commentators in the world's newspapers see Barenboim's move, whose appointment was officially announced on Tuesday, as expansion of his European power base. One music critic even hinted that it was a step by Barenboim to shift the center of gravity of his activity from Berlin, where he serves as musical director of Staatsoper, to Milan, where La Scala is located. Barenboim denies it. "What are the congratulations for?" he responds from his home in Spain to the pleasantries expressed at the start of the telephone interview with him. "I wasn't appointed to anything. I didn't receive any title or responsibilities of any sort, certainly not administrative ones. I didn't leave the Chicago Symphony only to take on administrative responsibility for an orchestra again."
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Q. Nor will you shape the repertoire in Milan in the next few years? "Certainly not. The association is based on cooperation between La Scala and Staatsoper ? that is the object. And, therefore, the work in Milan will not detract from the work in Berlin, not in terms of time or of interest. It will only help. Joint operas will be staged both in Berlin ? for instance, when La Scala is closed for the season ? and in Milan. With the same singers and the same production. A great deal of time will be saved on rehearsals and everything will become more efficient. Most of the rehearsal time will be devoted to working with the two different orchestras." Barenboim conducted the La Scala orchestra this year in Beethoven's Ninth Symphony. "For me, this is an adventure," he says. "The last time I conducted there was in 1975, and since then all of the musicians have changed, aside from maybe two. Therefore, it is an entirely new orchestra, and this is the first time in the past 16 years that I am conducting an orchestra with which I am not familiar. The last time that happened was when I stood on the podium in front of the Staatsoper." And what orchestra did you discover? "I expected a good orchestra, but not one this good. This is a very flexible and inquisitive orchestra, and after six or seven rehearsals, I felt as if I had been conducting there my whole life." Is there a difference between the orchestras in Milan and Berlin? "A different type of playing, the sound is different and so is the phrasing, and, mainly, the way that they hold the sound. Maybe our biggest secret in the Staatsoper is how we hold the sound, from the moment it is created until it is ended. That is what gives it its depth and weight. In Milan, it's different." At the press conference, you mentioned that you would contribute to music education in Milan. "When I will be there, for around two and a half months every year, I want to start doing educational work with children. We have the experience we gained in Ramallah from the teaching program and from the musical kindergarten we set up there, experience that we expanded upon with the orchestra in Berlin. In Italy, there is a great deal of interest in this. I have no interest ? and it is obvious that you cannot foment a social revolution through music education. Maybe only to create a model. People are always complaining that the young people don't come to concerts, but why should they come? "Most of them were not raised in musical families, in kindergarten and in school they don't get to know music, and in university they take up general studies. All of a sudden, when they are 30 years old, they are being pushed to go to a concert. What does that have to do with anything in their background? My object is to bring the children to consider music a part of life, part of general education and culture. Anyone who is not affected by it or is not open to it has a more dreary life."