Daniel Barenboim: Importance of history

This sense of the importance of history was very strong in Israel. I was reminded of it when I began to study opera, where what you show on stage should relate in some way to life today. This connection between history and daily life is something I tried quite consciously to apply to operatic performances, but also to abstract music - symphonic music, piano music or chamber music - this awareness that something that was written two hundred years ago has great relevance today. This sense of Jewish history playing an active part in contemporary life helped me to realise that every great piece of music has two facets - one relating to its own period and another to eternity. And it is from this 2nd aspect that our interest in music that was composed two or three centuries ago comes.