Maazel’s Replacement Pick

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The New York Sun

NewYork Philharmonic music director Lorin Maazel announced yesterday that he plans to recommend conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim to succeed him. Mr. Maazel’s contract expires at the end of the orchestra’s 2008–09 season.

“I wrote a letter to the board of directors suggesting a name,” Mr. Maazel said. “And that name is Daniel Barenboim.”

Mr. Barenboim, who was raised in Argentina and Israel, previously served as a conductor for the English Chamber Orchestra and currently performs around the world as both a pianist and conductor with such groups as the Berlin Philharmonic and the Vienna Philharmonic orchestras. He is the cofounder, with the late scholar Edward Said, of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, comprised mainly of Israeli and Palestinian Arab musicians, and designed to foster Middle Eastern relations through music. Mr. Barenboim is scheduled to lead the orchestra in a concert at Carnegie Hall on December 19.

Mr. Maazel delivered the surprise announcement during a press conference for one of his other endeavors, the Symphonica Toscanini, for which he is also the music director. Following his naming of Mr. Barenboim, Mr. Maazel commented on the suggested “graying” of the classical music community, saying he believes it is the role of a conductor to fight classical music’s decline in popularity. “I think that conductors today maybe don’t do what they should, which is engage audiences,” Mr. Maazel said.

While the general board of directors of the New York Philharmonic is scheduled to meet next week, a spokesperson for the orchestra said the music director search committee has no timeline for announcing its choice to succeed Mr. Maazel.

eorden@nysun.com


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