Ramallah Concert-Symphony No. 5 / Sinfonia Concertante K297b

"A marvellous score set alight by these young players, going for broke in Gaza"
(MusicWeb March 2006)

In 1999 Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, the Palestinian intellectual, writer and professor for comparative literature, founded the West-Eastern Divan Workshop which each summer invites young musicians from Israel and the Middle East to work together, play music together and form an orchestra. In the first two years the workshop took place in Weimar, in the following year in Chicago, and in the summer of 2002 in Sevilla. The workshop does not wish to express any political statements. In this instance, music-making is meant to set an example of the dialogue of cultures.

"The sound of Beethoven's Fifth Symphony drowned out the staccato of bullets on Sunday in the conflict-ridden Middle East as world-famous conductor Daniel Barenboim dazzled his Ramallah audience with both music and words.

Playing under the theme "Freedom for Palestine," Barenboim and his new West-Eastern Divan Orchestra were able to break all barriers and help an audience fatigued by strife to enjoy two hours of pure music from Beethoven and Mozart.

The 1,200-seat auditorium of the Ramallah Cultural Center was packed with a Palestinian, international and even Israeli audience an hour before the baton was scheduled to drop. As the seats filled, hundreds others milled in the hallways and the aisles hoping to get a seat or just to be allowed to stay in standing room and listen to Barenboim and the orchestra.

The same audience stood for 15 minutes, enthusiastically clapping and yelling "bravo" after Barenboim concluded the performance, giving Palestinians in Ramallah a chance to forget the checkpoints, the occupation, the wall and everything that has made their lives void of spirit, as one member of the audience remarked after the concert."