I would like to be a terrorist for music education - to make a complete reform, all over the world.
The greatness of a musician is measured by the degree of fanaticism he brings to his playing.
On Nov. 5, 2012, my friend Elliott Carter died in New York at the age of 103. For me, he was and remains one of the most interesting figures of music history in the past century.
Every concert I've finished with the knowledge I've played a fistful of wrong notes.
You can't expect someone born into a family with no music... to understand when I'm conducting the Schoenberg Variations.
I have accumulated so many experiences, so much, that I want to be able to realize so many things. This is why I have basically given up most of my positions.
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.
No one can be an artist without a rich inner life.
The Barenboim Foundation has nothing to do with politics.
To have real knowledge, one must understand the essence of things and not only their manifestations.
I know so many Irish musicians. They're all over, because there has been so much emigration from Ireland. Like the Jews.
I feel that the Jews have always had a special connection to this part of the world, which in geographical terms was called Palestine for so many centuries.
I was never really interested in an operatic post, but I took on the Bastille because it seemed a unique opportunity to build an opera ensemble from scratch, and to deal with all the disciplines that go into opera - the music, the staging and the singing - in an interrelated way.
Once you start playing a piece, there is a connection between every note. You cannot say, 'I will not concentrate on this note.' You cannot ignore things the way you do in the rest of your life.
