Daniel Barenboim: Interpretation

Every masterpiece is open to any number of interpretations, as long as they do not falsify it. However, it is not possible to combine all interpretations in one performance, just as it is impossible to live more than one life. The interpreter can never perceive all the many details of the many possible interpretations. In any one performance he can only glimpse them.

We often become obssessed with one particular viewpoint or idea and thus become blind to its opposite. But to me, dualism, the paradoxical nature of things, is the very essence of music. It is not coincidence that the sonata form, which is based on this dualism, is one of the most perfect forms of expression. The structure of a classical sonata or symphony is based on this principle of dualism. It brings out the dramatic essence of music, which does not consist merely of loud or soft, of fast or slow, for music in itself is dramatic, even in its more epic forms such as the compositions of bach. The first subject may be more heroic, and the second subject more lyrical; it is the juxtaposition of these opposing elements that lends the music a feeling of tension and excitement.