Daniel Barenboim 70th Birthday Concert

With family and friends present Daniel Barenboim celebrates his seventieth birthday in the company of Zubin Mehta and the Staatskapelle Berlin He starts with Beethovens Piano Concerto in C minor No 3 and ends with Tchaikovskys Piano No 1 with an Eliot Carter short atonal piece sandwiched between Both the Beethoven and Tchaikovsky are exquisitely and passionately performed by Barenboim as he commands the piano and dazzles the audience The structural composition of each comes alive especially in the 2nd movement of the Tchaikovsky Concerto when the beautiful Claudia Stein opens with a sad flute introduction repeated by the piano One marvels at the nuance of the Russian composition played an Argentine Israeli with a German orchestra conducted by a man born in Bombay Mehta in his marvelous laconic way might be seen as the onlooker but the generous Barenboim does not allow it He brings in Mehta and makes him part of it at all times