Daniel Barenboim
conducting the Staatskapelle Berlin in October. Mr. Barenboim has been accused
of bullying by several current and former members of the
orchestra.CreditCreditPool photo by Christian Marquardt
By Alex Marshall and Christopher F. Schuetze
Daniel Barenboim,
one of the world’s most celebrated conductors, is known for doing what he
wants.
He founded an
orchestra (the West-Eastern Divan, a youth ensemble of musicians from around
the Middle East), a conservatory (the Barenboim–Said Akademie) and a concert
hall (the Pierre Boulez Saal). In 2001, he broke a longstanding informal ban in
Israel and conducted a piece by Richard Wagner, an anti-Semite beloved of the
Nazis. He makes the kind of political statements most musicians avoid.
Mr. Barenboim, 76,
has long been considered untouchable in Berlin, where he is music director of
the Staatsoper — the city’s premier opera house — and principal conductor for
life of its orchestra, the Staatskapelle. He is close to city politicians and
has used his influence to ensure the opera company receives a healthy annual
subsidy of 50.4 million euros ($57.4 million) from Berlin’s government.
But cracks have
begun to emerge in the conductor’s image as Mr. Barenboim has been accused of
bullying and humiliating members of the Staatskapelle. The accusations have
been reported widely in German media, and there have been calls for politicians
to intervene. A spokesman for Klaus Lederer, Berlin’s highest-ranking official
for culture, whose department provides most of the Staatsoper’s funding, said
Mr. Lederer has asked the opera company to appoint a third party to look into
the matter.
“A piece of art
might not always be democratic, but a public institution can’t be allowed to
transform into a royal court,” said a recent article in the newspaper Der
Tagesspiegel.
The New York Times
has communicated with seven former or current members of the Staatskapelle. All
highlighted examples of Mr. Barenboim’s behavior that they said was bullying
and went beyond what was normal for a conductor.
Mr. Barenboim
dismissed the accusations. “I was born in Argentina, so there’s a bit of Latin
blood in my body, and I get upset now and then,” he told RBB, a German
broadcaster.
In an email exchange
with The Times, he denied bullying anyone. “Bullying and humiliating someone,”
he wrote, “implies the intention of wanting to cause someone hurt, of taking
pleasure in it, even. This is not in my character.”
Highhanded behavior
was common in conductors of the last century, with maestros like Arturo Toscanini
and George Solti known as harsh taskmasters. (One of Mr. Solti’s nicknames was
“The Screaming Skull,” because of his bald head and temper.) But the debate
around Mr. Barenboim raises the issue of whether such behavior is still
possible.
“The issue is not
personal, but a question of how orchestras are run in the 21st century,” Martin
Reinhardt, a trombonist in the Copenhagen Philharmonic who played in the
Staatskapelle and has openly criticized Mr. Barenboim’s behavior, said in a
statement.
Willi Hilgers, a
former timpanist with the Staatskapelle, said in a series of Facebook messages
that Mr. Barenboim repeatedly humiliated him in front of colleagues by singling
out his playing. As a result, he said, he had suffered “high blood pressure,
depression, the feeling that you can no longer play your instrument, sleepless
nights, my family had to suffer as well, no performance without beta blockers
and antidepressants.”
Mr. Barenboim at the
Staatsoper in Berlin in 2017. He says that the accusations are part of a
campaign to stop him from continuing as music director of the opera
company.CreditOdd Andersen/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images
Mr. Barenboim said
that the accusations were part of a campaign to stop him from continuing as
music director of the Staatsoper. “The fact these allegations have surfaced
now, just as I am in negotiations about renewing my contract beyond 2022,” he
wrote in the email exchange, “makes me wonder: If people were indeed hurt, as
they claim to have been, why speak about it now, at this precise moment?”
“I know that in
certain tense moments I have used a harsh tone that I regretted,” he added, but
that was all. “I am not a shy lamb — but I am not a bully, either.”
In a statement, the
Staatskapelle’s orchestral board said it had achieved “great artistic successes
through mutual trust and close cooperation” with Mr. Barenboim. “This
confidence remains untouched,” the statement added.
The accusations
against Mr. Barenboim first appeared on Feb. 6 in VAN, an online classical
music magazine, which interviewed over a dozen current and former employees of
the Staatsoper, quoting them anonymously. The article described a leader “who
can be inspiring and generous, but also authoritarian, mercurial and
frightening.”
Mr. Hilgers, 56,
said in a Facebook message that his problems with Mr. Barenboim started during
the Staatsoper’s 2001-02 season, at a performance of Wagner’s
“Götterdämmerung.” During the first intermission, Mr. Hilgers said, he told Mr.
Barenboim he had a migraine, warning the conductor in case he lost
concentration during the rest of the opera. During the next act, Mr. Barenboim
would bang out the rhythm of the timpani’s solos with one hand and a foot, as
if instructing a child, Mr. Hilgers said, adding that he felt humiliated.
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“Afterward, his attacks piled up against me,”
Mr. Hilgers said.
Mr. Barenboim said
in an email, “The timpanist you mention had a beautiful sound and made
beautiful colors,” but he had “rhythmic weaknesses, which is very problematic.”
Mr. Barenboim added that the pair had “some disagreements,” but that is normal
when musicians are trying to get the best results.
Leo Siberski, 49, is
now the music director of the Plauen-Zwickau Theater in Germany, and played
trumpet in the Staatskapelle under Mr. Barenboim from 1992 to 2003. He said he
witnessed outbursts from Mr. Barenboim directed at musicians, and started
experiencing them himself after asking for a sabbatical in 1996.
Mr. Barenboim
refused the request, Mr. Siberski said. “He soon found a situation where he
could humiliate me, also to make an example of me,” Mr. Siberski said. This
behavior largely involved singling Mr. Siberski out, and making him repeat
passages in front of the orchestra.
Mr. Barenboim said
he didn’t remember any request for a sabbatical. He added it was “fair practice
to ask musicians in a world-class orchestra to play their lines alone.”
Mr. Siberski said he
eventually quit as the orchestra’s principal trumpet to “get out of the firing
line.” Now a conductor himself, he said he has adopted a different approach
with the musicians he works with.
“If a responsible
artistic director wants to lead his ensemble to new levels of quality, this
will always cause some pain,” he said. “But there is a huge abyss between pain
like sore muscles, and deep mental wounds caused from attacking your very
dignity.”
Mr. Barenboim
acknowledged that the world is changing. “That is generally a good thing,” he
said. But, he added, “an orchestra cannot function if every tempo, every
dynamic is put up for a democratic vote. Somebody has to lead, take decisions
and be ultimately responsible.”
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