Hi Robert, Helen and Michael.
This wonderful summer weather brings Berliners outside and we are joining them.
Near the Potsdamer Platz there is an open-air picture theatre, where films are shown regularly throughout summer. The square is set up with deck chairs, a large screen, huge sound system, and a wonderful view of the Berlin skyline once the sun goes down and the lights come on. Alison and I went to see Grand Budapest Hotel screened in the original English version with German subtitles – very enjoyable.
Last Thursday afternoon I rode just a few kilometres to the former Tempelhof airfield. This was once Berlin’s only airport. It was the place where the original experiments with airships took place, where aviation first took off (forgive me) in the early 1900s, and it became the main airfield for the Berlin airlift of 1948-9. It has been decommissioned recently, so is a huge vacant space in the city. Berlin voters were given a choice: either the airport was replaced by housing or it was left as it is. The housing option did not carry the day, so I was able to ride up and down the main runways (2,250m long) at leisure. Berliners were coming out after work: bike riders, skateboarders, joggers, blow carts, people sunning themselves, reading, firing up the BBQ for an evening meal, all in acres of space.
Last evening Alison and I went to the Waldbühne: this is an open-air theatre in the forest on the edge of Berlin, just behind the 1936 Olympic stadium. It is a steeply sloped amphitheatre with a covered stage. The concert featured the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim. They played works by Beethoven, Tchaikovsky and Sibelius. There were a few raindrops before the concert started, but the evening was overcast and warm.
It was a special evening for me, because of the presence of Daniel Barenboim, a person whom I have long held in the highest esteem.
As we filed out of the theatre afterwards and queued for the underground train, I was thinking about what makes greatness. And it seems to me that there are four criteria:
- achievement: the person has to be outstanding in their field or have done something remarkable
- social-political commitment: this does not mean involvement in politics, though it can, but acting to make the world a better place
- a lifetime commitment: the engagement takes place over a long period of time
- certain personal qualities that we all admire: of which humility seems to be a constant factor.
Many New Zealanders regarded Sir Edmund Hillary as the greatest living New Zealander during his lifetime and he embodies these four criteria. The ascent of Everest is a remarkable story, but his commitment to the Sherpas over his lifetime, his service to New Zealand as the first ambassador to India, his willingness to accept just about every invitation around the country, and his embodiment of the qualities of a good bloke, humility included, all made him truly great.
Nelson Mandela was regarded as a remarkable human being by many people all around the world, including Barack Obama, and for the same reasons. And among his many fine personal qualities, of which a forgiving nature is the most striking, features humility.
Don admired Albert Schweitzer immensely: outstanding in the fields of theology, music and medicine, he committed himself to the people of Africa. Modesty featured among his striking personal qualities.
Daniel Barenboim meets those criteria for me too. Let me explain, as you may not know as much about him as the others I have mentioned.
He was born into a Jewish family in Argentina in 1942; his parents taught him to play the piano. Already in his teenage years he was recognised as an outstanding and precocious talent, certainly the best pianist in the world by his twenties. In 1967 he married Jacqueline du Pre, a British cellist widely regarded as one of the greatest of the last century, but who sadly stopped playing in 1973 because she had multiple sclerosis of which she died in 1987.
Barenboim started conducting in 1966 from the keyboard: he set up the English Chamber Orchestra (ECO) which he played with and conducted. They recorded the 27 Mozart piano concertos in the late 1960s and I bought those recordings one by one as a university student in the early 1970s. The Barenboim recordings of those concertos are still the only ones I have.
Since that time he has held positions as Music Director in many places, including Paris, Milan, Chicago, and at the moment he is the Director of the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Berlin State Opera. He speaks Spanish, Hebrew, English, French, Italian and German (that in itself is good enough for me!).
The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra is his creation: he has brought together young musicians from Israel, Palestine, and other Arab countries as his personal commitment to using music as a way of uniting people. Under his direction it has become a wonderful orchestra that travels the world, not only in Israel and Palestine, but also in South America and Europe. Last night’s concert was the last of their current season.
Barenboim is a critic of the Israeli occupation of Palestinian lands and of the building of the wall between the two peoples. He has a home in Jerusalem and lives there for part of the year. He has also been granted honorary Palestinian citizenship, I read on Google. He has repeatedly reminded the Israeli government of the long Jewish history of persecution and suffering, and points out that the Israelis are now engaging in the same behaviour towards its neighbour.
He has published an autobiography. Typically, it is about music and contains very little about his own personal life. This exemplifies not just his concern for his own and his family’s privacy, but also his humility.
In the last two years I have heard a radio interview with Simon O’Neill, a New Zealand tenor who has established an international career. He said that he set up a small group of people as his career advisory committee, his “governance board”, and that Barenboim is one of its members. I found it intriguing that he refers to him as Mr Barenboim, and when asked about this, confirmed that this is how he addresses him. A mark of respect for his greatness, I think.
When I first left New Zealand in August 1974, just two days after the death of Prime Minister Norman Kirk (another great Kiwi), I went to London before crossing the channel to France and university studies. Quite by chance, Barenboim was performing Mozart piano concertos with the ECO at the Festival Hall on one of the two evenings I was there. I went along. Entry cost me 39 pence, cheap for an evening during which I was captivated and enchanted.
So last night was the second time in my life that I have heard Mr Barenboim live. It was a very great pleasure. As you can see from my photo, I was a long way away, but I still felt being in the presence of an outstanding person.
Who do you admire? You must tell me one day.
Malcolm
15 August 2015
