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Born in Argentina in 1942, Daniel Barenboim has enjoyed a long and distinguished career as both pianist and conductor. Barenboim, who recently announced<\/strong><\/a> that he was stepping back from live performance, has proved himself a distinguished conductor and interpreter of music from the Romantic era and beyond.<\/p>\n Key figures in Barenboim\u2019s musical career have included the great conductor Wilhelm Furtw\u00e4ngler<\/strong><\/a>, who labelled the young pianist a \u2018phenomenon\u2019 and invited him to play Beethoven\u2019s Piano Concerto No.1 with the Berlin Philharmonic. Then there was the inspirational cellist Jacqueline du Pr\u00e9<\/strong><\/a>, Barenboim\u2019s partner for many lauded chamber music recordings \u2013 and a 20-year marriage, until the latter\u2019s tragic death in 1987. Lastly, Beethoven<\/strong><\/a> has been something of a colossus in Barenboim\u2019s career, both on the podium and at the piano. He has made several much-admired cycles of both the Beethoven symphonies and the piano sonatas.<\/p>\n