Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra

Performers

• Daniel Barenboim, Piano
• Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
  Pierre Boulez, Conductor

Program

• SCHOENBERG Chamber Symphony No. 2, Op. 38
• SCHOENBERG Piano Concerto, Op. 42
• WEBERN Six Pieces, Op. 6
• MAHLER Adagio from Symphony No. 10 in F-sharp Major
• 
  Encore:
• SCHUBERT Impromptu in A-flat Major, D. 935, No. 2
• 
  Program is approximately 1 hour, 45 minutes, including one intermission

Bios

• Daniel Barenboim, Piano
  
  Daniel Barenboim was born in Buenos Aires in 1942. He received piano lessons from his mother and father, who would remain his only piano teachers. At the age of seven, he gave his first public concert in Buenos Aires. In 1952, he and his parents moved to Israel.
  
  At age 11, Mr. Barenboim took part in conducting classes in Salzburg under Igor Markevitch. In the summer of 1954, he also met Wilhelm Furtwängler, who then wrote, “The 11-year-old Daniel Barenboim is a phenomenon.” In the following two years, Mr. Barenboim studied harmony and composition with Nadia Boulanger in Paris.
  
  At age 10, Mr. Barenboim gave his international debut performance as a solo pianist in Vienna and Rome, followed by concerts in Paris, London, and New York. Since then, he has regularly toured Europe and the United States, as well as South America, Australia, and the Far East. Mr. Barenboim began his recording career as a pianist in 1954, and he has recorded the complete piano concertos of Beethoven, Brahms, and Mozart.
  
  Mr. Barenboim had his debut as a conductor in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra in 1967 and as an opera conductor at the Edinburgh Festival in 1973. In 1981, he conducted for the first time at the Bayreuth Festival, where he would conduct every summer for the next 18 years.
  
  Mr. Barenboim has been music director of the Orchestre de Paris (1975–1989) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra (1991–2006); since 1992, he has been Music and Artistic Director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden. In 2000, the Staatskapelle Berlin appointed him Principal Conductor for Life. At the opening of the 2007–2008 season, Mr. Barenboim began a close relationship with the Teatro alla Scala in Milan.
  
  In 1999, Mr. Barenboim, together with the Palestinian literary scholar Edward Said, set up the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, bringing together young musicians from Israel and Arab countries each summer. The orchestra seeks to enable a dialogue between the various cultures of the Middle East through the experience of making music together.
  
  Mr. Barenboim has published a number of books, including an autobiography, A Life in Music, and Parallels and Paradoxes, which he wrote together with Mr. Said. Recently, he has published Everything Is Connected and, together with Patrice Chéreau, Dialoghi su musica e Teatro: Tristano e Isotta.

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• Pierre Boulez, Conductor
  
  Pierre Boulez is one of the most important musical and intellectual figures of our time, currently serving as the Chicago Symphony Orchestra’s Helen Regenstein Conductor Emeritus. He was named principal guest conductor of the CSO in March 1995, and served in that position until 2006 when he became Conductor Emeritus.
  
  A native of Montbrison, France, Mr. Boulez pursued studies in piano, composition, and choral conducting at the Conservatoire de Paris. In 1953–1954, he founded Concerts du Petit Marigny, a series dedicated to modern music, which later became the Domaine Musical. He subsequently was involved with musical analysis, and taught in Darmstadt, Germany, and at Basel University in Switzerland. In 1962–1963 he was a visiting professor at Harvard University, and in 1976 he became a professor at the Collège de France.
  
  Mr. Boulez began his conducting career in 1958 with the Southwest Radio Orchestra in Baden-Baden, Germany. From 1969 to 1972, he was principal guest conductor of The Cleveland Orchestra. In 1971, he became both chief conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and music director of the New York Philharmonic, a position he held until 1977.
  
  Mr. Boulez’s difference of opinion about state intervention in the arts as espoused by André Malraux led him into voluntary exile for several years. He returned to France in 1974, when the government invited him to create and direct a music research center at the Centre Pompidou. From the Institut de Recherche et de Coordination Acoustique / Musique (IRCAM) sprang the Ensemble Intercontemporain, one of the world’s finest contemporary music ensembles. In 1991, Mr. Boulez resigned as conductor of the ensemble while continuing as its president.
  
  The compositions of Pierre Boulez are widely performed, including Le Marteau sans maître, Pli selon pli, three piano sonatas, Eclat/Multiples, Le Visage nuptial, Répons, Notations, and … explosante-fixe … . He has also published five books about music. His awards include honorary doctorates from Leeds, Cambridge, Basel, and Oxford universities, among others; Commander of the British Empire; and Knight of the Order of Merit of the Federal Republic of Germany.
  
  Mr. Boulez’s discography includes prize-winning recordings of Parsifal and Berg’s Lulu. He has 26 Grammy Awards to his credit.
  
  
  Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra
  
  There is perhaps no other musical ensemble more consistently and closely associated with the history and tradition of European classical music than the Vienna Philharmonic. In the course of its more than 160-year history, the musicians of this most prominent orchestra of the capital city of music have been an integral part of a musical epoch that—thanks to an abundance of uniquely gifted composers and interpreters—must certainly be regarded as unique.
  
  The orchestra’s close association with this rich musical history is best illustrated by the statements of countless preeminent musical personalities of the past. Richard Wagner described the orchestra as being one of the most outstanding in the world; Anton Bruckner called it “the most superior musical association”; Johannes Brahms counted himself a “friend and admirer”; Gustav Mahler claimed to be joined together through “the bonds of musical art”; and Richard Strauss summarized these sentiments by saying, “All praise of the Vienna Philharmonic reveals itself as understatement.”
  
  The Vienna State Opera Orchestra holds a special relationship with the private association known as the Vienna Philharmonic. In accordance with Philharmonic statutes, only a member of the Vienna State Opera Orchestra can become a member of the Vienna Philharmonic. The engagement in the Vienna State Opera Orchestra provides the musicians a financial stability that would be impossible to attain without relinquishing their autonomy to private or corporate sponsors.
  
  The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra’s mission is to communicate the humanitarian message of music into the daily lives and consciousness of its listeners. In 2005, the orchestra was named Goodwill Ambassador for the World Health Organization; since 2006, the orchestra has also been a supporter of the Phonak initiative Hear the World. As of November 2008, Rolex is the worldwide presenting sponsor of the Vienna Philharmonic. The musicians endeavor to implement the motto with which Ludwig van Beethoven, whose symphonic works served as a catalyst for the creation of the orchestra, prefaced his Missa Solemnis: “From the heart, to the heart.”

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