Barenboim was to have played a program including excerpts from Bach's Well-Tempered Clavier in Seattle, San Francisco, Vancouver, Santa Barbara, and Los Angeles between October 11 and 18. According to the Los Angeles Times, Peter Serkin will replace him in Los Angeles on October 18. His San Francisco appearance in October 17 has been canceled outright. Vladimir Feltsman will substitute for Barenboim at Seattle's Benaroya Hall, but the recital has been rescheduled for January 11, 2005.

Barenboim has also canceled this week's conducting appearances at the Berlin Staatsoper, where he is music director, a representative said. The representative added that he is undergoing therapy and expects to perform in New York and Chicago later in October.

According to a statement released earlier this month by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Barenboim is suffering from herniated disks and cervical myelopathy, a compression of a nerve in the spine that is sometimes a result of herniated discs. Barenboim, the CSO's music director, canceled several performances with the orchestra planned for mid September.