Word: barenboim
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...curtain calls at the end of Act I, and only one curtain call at the finale. Fine for the show, but a bit of a sacrifice for the exemplary cast (notably Roger Soyer as the don, Sir Geraint Evans as Leporello, and Heather Harper as Elvira) and Conductor Daniel Barenboim. Only seven years after rearranging a notable piano career to include the baton, Barenboim, 30, made an impressive operatic debut at Edinburgh, bringing forth from the English Chamber Orchestra a powerfully humane and often witty reading ideally geared to Ustinov's provocative ideas about the composer...
...Barenboim Conducts Elgar's Symphony No. 2 in E-Flat, Opus 63 (London Phil harmonic Orchestra, Columbia; $5.98). Wildly famous in his day, the stately, sunlit tonal landscapes of Sir Edward Elgar withered before the 20th century's neoclassic revolt. Elgar died nearly forgotten in 1934. In this stylish reading of the E-flat symphony Daniel Barenboim takes a fresh look at the elegant Edwardian, holding a course of gentle restraint against an exuberance of leaping octaves and rolling timpani. Barenboim reclaims the Elgar grandeur without losing any of the buoyancy that captivated 19th century audiences...
...great was the excitement before the single Royal Albert Hall performance of Arthur Honegger's stage oratorio, Joan of Arc at the Stake, that the Observer compared it to the time in September 1968 when Pianist Daniel Barenboim was warned that he was going to be shot during a concert. The big attraction, however, was not murder; the oratorio was bringing together the professional talents of the recently married lovers Mia Farrow and Andre Previn, she as Joan, he as conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra, the Ambrosian Opera Chorus and a children's choir. The critics were...
Quite simply, Barenboim has not yet decided what kind of pianist he really wants to be. Five years ago, he rippled off Mozart sonatas and Beethoven concertos in a smooth, glassy style, as opposed to the passionate, warmly phrased playing of the late Artur Schnabel, Van Cliburn, even Daniel's friend Vladimir Ashkenazy. Barenboim's more recent recordings of Mozart's concertos Nos. 17, 20 and 21 are still too bland and bloodless. This year's set of the complete Beethoven 32 (like his current Tully Hall cycle) has weaknesses, notably a prevailing glibness...
...their public careers were not enough, Du Pré and Barenboim are the magnetic center for a clubby group of musical jet-setters known affectionately and with some envy as the "musical mafia." It consists of Ashkenazy, Violinists Pinchas Zukerman and Itzhak Perlman, plus Mehta, who is reliably reported to play a mean double bass. The group meets four or five times a year to play chamber music. "We are more than friends," says Mehta. "If there could be something like a family outside a family, that's what we have...