When conductor and pianist Daniel Barenboim joined philosopher Edward Said to establish the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, combining Israeli and Arab musicians, they knew it would be no magical bringer of peace. Instead, it was intended as a project against ignorance, giving space for opposing sides to understand one another and to disagree without “resort to knives”. For 24 years its achievement has been to show that mutual cooperation and respect can produce grace and beauty in a world too often defined by bloodshed and cruelty.
That spirit of understanding and friendship is distilled and refined still further in a spin-off from the orchestra, the West-Eastern Divan Ensemble, a flexible chamber group formed in 2019 and directed from the violin by Barenboim’s super-talented son Michael. That they should coincidentally appear in London on the day that the capital was engulfed by peace marchers and ugly counter-protests only served to highlight once more their example of supreme tolerance and understanding.
