The child prodigy who went on to inspire countless peers in the classical music world, Daniel Barenboim, has announced that he will be stepping back from conducting and some other performing engagements for the foreseeable future.

A young Daniel Barenboim on the podium during a conducting class with Igor Markevitch in 1954. Photo supplied

A statement released on Tuesday cited “a serious neurological condition” that requires Barenboim to focus on his physical health – something the maestro is no stranger to, having helped his late wife, cellist Jacqueline du Pre, live with multiple sclerosis.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1942 to Jewish Russian immigrant parents, Barenboim took up the piano at the age of five. In 1950 he played in and observed a conducting class by the avant-garde Ukrainian Russian composer and conductor Igor Markevitch, before settling in Israel with his parents. Four years later, Barenboim was the youngest member of Markevitch’s master classes, and German conductor and composer Wilhelm Furtwängler invited him to perform with the Berlin Philharmonic, calling the 11-year-old Barenboim “a phenomenon”. In 1955, he began taking lessons with Nadia Boulanger, as well as performing for Rubinstein and...