Boundless Talent, Offset By Endless Self-Importance

The CSO may have benefitted from Daniel Barenboim’s celebrity, says Alan Artner, but it certainly didn’t benefit from his self-important conducting style. “The emotional blockage, vainglory and shallowness of interpretation I heard at the beginning I still hear; only now, it’s no longer offset by the promise of natural ability and aptitude… In place of audible conviction, we have gotten testimonials.”