Barenboim/Simon Bolivar/Dudamel, Royal Festival Hall, London, review: Symbolic passing of the musical torch

To mark the sixtieth anniversary of his first performance (aged 13) at the Royal Festival Hall, Daniel Barenboim chose to play Brahms’ two piano concertos on his customised Steinway with the Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra under Gustavo Dudamel – symbolically passing the musical torch. But we had to wait until they were half way through the second work before Dudamel and his band managed to shake off their nerves – manifested by sluggish tempi, muffed entries, and a mousy string sound – to match Barenboim’s serene assurance. By then his spirit had got into everybody, and the finale was brought to a triumphant close.

After delivering a souped-up Schumann encore, Barenboim took the microphone and launched into a speech, starting with his gratitude to British audiences, to great British musicians – and to this great hall for the performances he’d been able to share in it. Then came his real message. This Venezuelan orchestra, and the sistema which had spawned it, was absolutely not to be seen as a political project. It was, he insisted, a musical and humanitarian project: Hitler and Stalin loved music, but look what crimes they could commit because they kept music in a separate compartment of their minds, rather submitting their behaviour to its humanizing influence.