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Force of nature
Never underestimate the power of music. Or youth, for that matter. THE WEST-EASTERN DIVAN ORCHESTRA are an ingenious young group whose music traverses cultural and geographical boundaries amid the tumult of the Middle East. Sara Mohr—Pietsch finds they’re not the only ones.
ttsic and international relations may not tnake obvious bedfellows. but they ’ve always got on well in Iidinburgh. When the International liestival was fottnded in the post—war climate of 1947. one of its aims was to unravel the prejudices of wartitne by allowing Brits to come face to face with the enemy's culture. and vice versa. The best way to begin to understand and learn to live with the Germans was to start listening to their music again. Nearly ()0 years on. the ladies of Morningside can‘t get enough of Mahler.
54 THE LIST FESTIVAL MAGAZINE ' '
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.\'o-one is more keenly aware of the power of
tnusic to foster cross-cultural understanding than pianist/condttctor Daniel Barenboim. who makes a welcome retttrn to the Festival this year with his \Vest-liastern Divan Orchestra. For years. Barenboim has effectively merged tnusic with his very own brand of cultural politics. and his leadership of the West—Eastern Divan Orchestra is no different. Together with his great friend. the late Iigyptian/American writer and thinker Iidward Said. Barenboim founded the West- Iiastern Divan in Weimar. back in 199‘). The project is named after the set of poems. ll’esr- (isrlit-lwr Din-(m. by the German poet and Weimar resident Goethe. who encountered the poetry of Persia. began a love affair with Islamic art and tried to learn Arabic when he was already an old man.
In the spirit of Goethe. West-Eastern Divan is an impressively atnbitiotts project with a strong humanitarian message. livery summer. a grottp of young (under 25-year-old) musicians from
across the Middle Iiast meet for three weeks of
intensive musical workshops. The project has finally found a permanent and rather appropriate home in Seville. the gateway to Mudejar Spain. where Moorish architecture and Islamic art have lived side by side for centuries with towering churches and hidden synagogues. In this neutral bttt sympathetic space. musicians from Syria. the Lebanon. Jordan. Israel. Egypt and the Palestinian territories rehearse. and are encouraged to discuss the issues surrottnding their cultttral and political backgrounds.
Daniel Barenboim (left); lmpromptus (below right); Jonathan Summers as Klinghofler (below far right)
Out of this process emerges an orchestra of an extremely high standard. which spends the rest of the summer touring under Barenboim’s rigorous baton. ‘He works meticulously like no other person I know.’ says Maria Arnaout. a Syrian violinist with the orchestra. 'But he has the capacity to bring ottt the very best in every one of us.‘ Maria. who is the leader of the Syrian National Symphony Orchestra and a graduate of conservatoires in Damascus. London and New York. simply can‘t get enough. ‘l‘ve played with this orchestra since its first year in Weimar. I keep coming back every year. and it‘s never routine or repetitive.‘
It‘s hard to see how it could ever be repetitive — each year the students are different. and every individual brings his or her own intricate cultural identity to bear on the group. Indeed. it's clear from conversations between Barenboim and Said. published in 2002 in a volume entitled Parallels and Paratl().t'('.v. that an understanding of the inescapable complexity of human identity is at the heart of the West-Eastern Divan project. ‘In my opinion it is impossible for anyone at the beginning of the 2 I st century to believably claim a single identity.‘ writes Barenboim. Coming from a man who was born in Buenos Aires to Jewish parents. grew up in Israel. works in America and Europe and lives in Berlin. this is hardly a surprising comment. But it points to a deeper understanding of the nature of human perception: that we see others in black and white. while acknowledging our own complex and dynamic shades of grey.