Arab and Israeli musicians in concert

In a time of deep trouble and war in the Middle East, a concert involving an equal number of musicians from the Arab countries and Israel becomes a strong bid for peace.

A memorable concert was held last Wednesday at Théâtre du Chatelet, in the heart of Paris, led by the famous conductor Daniel Barenboim. His orchestra is known as the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra; the name stems from collection of poems by Goethe, who took the word 'divan', from ancient Persian. The German poet was renowned for his openness towards other peoples and other civilisations, in fact he had actually started learning Arabic when over 60 years old.

The orchestra is part of a larger project which was set up by Barenboim, an Israeli, and Edward Said, the great Palestinian intellectual who passed away in 2003. As the director explained in an interview he gave to Le Figaro on August 17, the aim of the project is to create a forum where young people of all the countries of the Middle East could work on music while analysing the relationship between instruments as a metaphor for the construction of society.

Barenboim does not believe that there is a military solution to the conflict in the Middle East. He does not believe that music can solve the conflict either, but he is convinced that obliging musicians to work together creates dialogue, as "when playing Brahms, nobody is interested whether you come from Syria, Palestine or Israel". Perhaps the fact of seeing people from enemy countries play together can make people think that co-existence might actually be possible.

The programme was carefully chosen. The first piece was Leonore Overture No. 3 from the opera Fidelio by Beethoven, that was composed as an echo of the French Revolution, and which transmits a message of justice, peace and love. The next was Giovanni Bottesini's Fantasy on the themes of Rossini for cello and double bass which brought to life the project's message by creating a moving and dynamic dialogue between an Israeli cellist, Kyril Zlotnikov, and an Arab double-bass player, Nabil Shehata.

The last piece on the programme was Brahms' First Symphony in D Minor, Op. 68, written in the years after the Siege and the Commune of Paris in 1870-71. The choice of the encore, which was exquisitely performed and which touched the audience deeply, was controversial. Barenboim chose Liebestod (Love-death) from the third act of Wagner's Tristan and Isolde. He deliberately chose the work of a notorious anti-Semite, and fully brought out its beauty through the lamentation that the death of a loved one always provokes. This piece acquired added meaning and poignancy in the context in which it was being played.

The deep emotional impact that this concert left on the audience can be, we feel, traced to two main sources: on the one hand, the incredulity of watching war-torn enemies producing together beautiful music on stage, and on the other hand, the music itself which lifted everyone's feelings beyond the idea of conflict. No wonder the orchestra and its charismatic director obtained a long standing ovation by a public who would not leave the theatre.