Daniel Barenboim Quotes
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I think Sharon is anti-Israeli because it's in the interest of Israel to understand the problems of the other side.
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I liked very much when we lived in Hampstead. We would go for walks on the Heath. I liked it better than living in the centre of town.
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Controversial means somebody who makes people think. And if you are afraid of people who will be against you, you might as well stay home and do nothing.
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I am permanently relaxed.
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There is too much employer-employee relationship in America. I wish the musicians would feel that many decisions have to do with them and not delegate everything to management or to the board or to the committee. This is why you get a sense of pride in some of the European orchestras: because they are part of the decision-making.
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I'm one of the ones who believed the Iraq War was a complete mistake from the very beginning.
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The Barenboim Foundation has nothing to do with politics.
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Of course there is really vile anti-Semitism in Wagner's writings, but I can't accept the idea that characters like Beckmesser and Alberich are Jewish stereotypes in disguise. Would Beckmesser be a court councillor if he was meant to be a Jewish stereotype? No Jew could occupy such a role.
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I think what history has done to Jewish people, frankly, cannot be made good by giving them a piece of land.
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Playing and listening to music gives you a sense of fulfilment because you have to put everything in you at its disposal.
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I think the most important thing for a listener is to realize that he, too, should not listen to music in a passive way; that if you sit in a concert hall and expect to be moved or taken off your seat by the music, it will not happen.
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When you love somebody and they die young and you are young, too, it is very hard.
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Anti-Semitism has no historical, political and certainly no philosophical origins. Anti-Semitism is a disease.
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For many people, music is here to let them forget the daily chores of life.
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I have music in my brain all the time, all sorts.
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You can't expect someone born into a family with no music... to understand when I'm conducting the Schoenberg Variations.
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It's funny, because in 1970 I met the Beatles quite by a chance at a party. It was the Beethoven bicentenary, and I was then also playing the Beethoven Sonatas. And that's all they wanted to hear about - I wanted to talk about them, and all they wanted to talk about was Beethoven.
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Most of the dramatism in Wagner comes from a very close link between the music and the language of the text. So much of the expressivity of Wagner's music dramas comes from the singers' capacity to play with the sound of the language. This kind of thing you can do very well in concert performance.
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The Iranian government still denies the Holocaust - so you can't take them seriously. And the Israeli government spreads rumours and disinformation about Iran - because it needs to for the creation of panic. I find these theological states - and in this respect, Israel and Iran are twin brothers - very, very dangerous.
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The problem with listening to music today is that there's so much of it everywhere. We've got used to hearing music without actually listening to it.
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Either you live by the barometer of the music critics, or you live by your own. I choose the latter.
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The greatness of a musician is measured by the degree of fanaticism he brings to his playing.
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You find Jews, Irish, and Italians in every orchestra.
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I get no satisfaction just showing myself in every corner of the world every week.