Daniel Barenboim

Wilhelm Furtwängler wrote that "Daniel Barenboim is a phenomenon" when he heard the young piano virtuoso play in the year 1954. Barenboim was born on November 15, 1942 in Buenos Aires as the son of pianists. He received his first piano instruction from his mother, with his father later taking over his musical training. At the age of 11 Barenboim took part in conducting classes in Salzburg under Igor Markevich, and it was in that summer that he met and played for Furtwängler. Soon Barenboim was making a name for himself as one of the most versatile pianists of his generation.

At the same time he began to spend more time conducting, developing a close relationship with the English Chamber Orchestra which lasted over a decade. By the time of his London debut as conductor of the New Philharmonia Orchestra in 1967, he was in demand with all the leading orchestras of Europe and the USA. From 1991 until 2006 Barenboim was the principal conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and since 1992 has been the General Music Director of the State Opera Unter den Linden in Berlin. Daniel Barenboim's debut with the Vienna Philharmonic took place in 1989, and he has since then been a regular guest.

Daniel Barenboim has led a life guided by music, and has combined musical knowledge and talent with ideas and gestures that give his work significance beyond the concert hall. In 1999, Barenboim and the late Palestinian academic Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, in which young musicians from the Middle East and Israel perform together. "Music is an art form which transcends all borders," he said when being awarded the Wolf Prize before the Israeli parliament.  Among the many awards Barenboim has received was the Ernst von Siemens Music Prize in Vienna in 2006, where the foundation's board of trustees noted his "unifying efforts toward peace in the Middle East". In September 2007 Barenboim was named as United Nations Peace Envoy.

The Vienna Philharmonic

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 over 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 which due 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 pre-eminent 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 as 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."

Artistic and Entrepreneurial Autonomy

Since its inception through Otto Nicolai in 1842, the fascination which the orchestra has exercised upon prominent composers and conductors, as well as on audiences all over the world, is based not only on a homogenous musical style which is carefully bequeathed from one generation to the next, but also on its unique structure and history. The desire to provide artistically worthy performances of the symphonic works of Mozart and Beethoven in their own city led to the decision on the part of the court opera musicians to present a "Philharmonic" concert series independent of their work at the opera, and upon their own responsibility and risk. The organizational form chosen for this new enterprise was democracy, a concept which in the political arena became the subject of bloody battles only six years later.

The Message of Music

The Vienna Philharmonic has made it its mission to communicate the humanitarian message of music into the daily lives and consciousness of its listeners. In 2005 the Vienna Philharmonic was named Goodwill Ambassador of the World Health Organisation (WHO). The musicians endeavour to implement the motto with which Ludwig von Beethoven, whose symphonic works served as a catalyst for the creation of the orchestra, prefaced his "Missa Solemnis" - "From the heart, to the heart".