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(CNN) -- When Daniel Barenboim was just eight years old, he played his first concert on piano with an orchestra in Berlin.

In a review of the concert, a major newspaper in his home city of Buenos Aires said it was criminal to let such a young boy play in public -- especially one completely devoid of talent.

Fortunately for Barenboim, the other major newspaper in Buenos Aires responded more favorably, describing him as "the greatest musical genius since Mozart."

Barenboim says it was those early reviews that taught him to take hard knocks on the chin.

Now in his 60s, Barenboim is a world-renowned pianist and conductor, as well as a crusader for a unified Middle East -- a subject on which his outspoken views have drawn praise and criticism in equal measure.

Born in Buenos Aires in 1942 into a family of Russian-Jewish descent, Barenboim began playing piano aged five, taught initially by his parents, and gave his first formal concert two years later.

When Barenboim was 10 the family moved to Israel. A year later, he began learning to conduct, traveling throughout Europe and eventually the U.S., conducting and continuing to play piano.

The road to notoriety continued when, at 24, he met renowned young British cellist Jacqueline Du Pre.

The couple took the world by storm and were feted as the golden musical couple of the age.

They were married in 1967, a year after meeting, at the Wailing Wall in Jerusalem in the aftermath of the Six-Day War.

In 1973 Du Pre was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis and within a few years was unable to play the cello or walk. In 1987, she died at the age of 42.

Barenboim married again soon afterwards, having already fathered two sons to his new wife, the Russian pianist Elena Bashkirova.

Interest in Barenboim's first marriage and the premature death of Du Pre is such that the saga is dramatized in the movie "Hilary and Jackie" in 1998.

But Barenboim owes his fame to more than his personal life. He was musical director of the Orchestre de Paris for 15 years until 1989, and musical director of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra until June this year. Upon leaving, he was named "honorary conductor for life."

In 1992, he became general music director of the Deutsche Staatsoper (Berlin State Opera) and in 2000 was made "chief conductor for life" of its orchestra, the Berlin Staatskapelle.

He continues to hold both roles and is still based in Berlin since moving there 14 years ago.

In July 2001, at the Israel Festival, Barenboim caused a public outcry by leading the Staatskapelle in a piece by Richard Wagner, Adolf Hitler's favorite composer.

Israel observes an unofficial ban on Wagner for decades due to his anti-Semitic writings and Barenboim was accused by Israeli officials of committing "cultural rape," though in May 2004 he was awarded the prestigious Wolf Prize at a ceremony at the Israeli Knesset.

Although Barenboim could choose to play in any of the world's concert halls, for one month every summer he rehearses and performs with a youth orchestra called the West-Eastern Divan -- dubbed the "peace orchestra" because it comprises both Israeli and Arab young musicians.

Barenboim founded the orchestra in 1999 with the writer Edward Said and describes it as "the most important work I do."

Though Barenboim is Jewish and Said Palestinian-born, they discovered a shared ideology after a chance meeting in a London hotel lobby.

Said died in 2003, but his legacy lives on. His widow Mariam continues his work with the Barenboim Said Foundation.

After playing in public for more than 55 years, Barenboim says he is trying to slow down and reduce his commitments -- but his busy schedule tells a different story.