Daniel Barenboim has been the artistic director and general music director of the State Opera since 1992. A few months ago he declared that he was suffering from vasculitis, a serious rheumatic disease Photo: Parvets
From BZ/dpa
Daniel Barenboim, who has been ill for a long time, returns to the conductor’s podium this Saturday (7 p.m.).
The general music director of the Staatsoper Unter den Linden Berlin conducts a concert at the turn of the year with the ninth symphony by Ludwig van Beethoven. The piece with the final Ode to Joy is also on the program for New Year’s Day on Sunday.
The 80-year-old Barenboim announced at the beginning of October that he now had to concentrate as much as possible on his physical well-being. “My health has deteriorated over the past few months and I have been diagnosed with a serious neurological condition,” he wrote.
The State Opera had to cancel a concert planned for his birthday in the Berlin Philharmonic, where Barenboim was supposed to play the piano. Previously, Barenboim had already had to give up conducting the new production of Richard Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” at the State Opera, which was realized for his birthday. He was replaced by Christian Thielemann and Thomas Guggeis at the podium. Thielemann also represented Barenboim during the Asian tour with the Staatskapelle.
Recently, Barenboim had failed several times. In February he underwent spinal surgery.