On August 19, 2020, Daniel Barenboim will celebrate the 70^th anniversary of his stage debut.

The famed pianist and conductor will perform a solo recital at the Großes Festspielhaus with music by Beethoven. The repertoire will be similar to his August 19, 1950 recital, and first public concert in Buenos Aires at the age of seven. In that recital, he performed works by Beethoven and Prokofiev.

The concert will also mark Barenboim’s 55^th anniversary of his Salzburg Festival debut on August 18, 1965. Barenboim first performed at the Salzburg Festival as the piano soloist in an orchestral concert of the Vienna Philharmonic under the baton of Zubin Mehta.

In 1990, Barenboim made his Salzburg Festival conducting debut with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra and has since been a regular guest with the company leading the Staatskapelle Berlin and the Vienna Philharmonic, among others. His West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, founded in 1999, has also had a strong annual Festival presence. Since his debut, Barenboim has appeared 87 times at the Salzburg Festival and has conducted 23 opera performances, was the conductor or pianist in 59 concerts, and participated in artist conversations or master classes 5 times.

Artistic Director Markus Hinterhäuser said in a press release, “We are delighted that Daniel Barenboim has been part of the Salzburg Festival for 55 years. After all, he is incomparable – because of his musical and intellectual open-mindedness, his outstanding musicality, and his social and political activism.”

Meanwhile, Festival President Helga Rabl-Stadler said, “The philosophy that led Max Reinhardt and Hugo von Hofmannsthal to found the Salzburg Festival 100 years ago also guides the life of the great artist and human being Daniel Barenboim. He is a crusader against the zeitgeist’s vacuity. He is a champion peace, resisting all setbacks. His active conviction and faith in the power of the arts, particularly in difficult times, is especially inspiring to us in this centenary year.”