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Roula Khalaf, editor-in-chief of the FT, selects her favorite stories in this weekly newsletter.
This was no ordinary concert. Security at the gate had been put on high alert. A dark cloud of political crisis hung over the event at London’s Royal Festival Hall, threatening to overshadow the music.
Daniel Barenboim’s lifelong mission to bring dialogue to the Middle East has never been more delicate than it is today. Since founding the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra with the late Edward Said in 1999, the young Israeli and Arab musicians who make up the musicians could never have seen peaceful coexistence as a more challenging prospect.
“We, the musicians of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, are horrified and deeply saddened by the extreme escalation of violence in the Middle East, which continues to intensify every day,” the program reads.
As for Barenboim, 81, himself, the last two years must have been physically exhausting, following the diagnosis of a serious neurological illness. At least he moved around the stage a little more easily than when he conducted the orchestra at the BBC Proms this summer, and there was a little more animation in his direction, too.
The concert included the fourth symphonies of two composers (there was no soloist). The influence of period instrument groups has constantly quickened the pace of Mendelssohn’s Symphony No. 4, “Italian,” to the point that it can sound like a Lamborghini hurtling down the highway. Barenboim, who led a relatively large number of traditional instrumentalists, was slower, heavier, not to say sometimes more leaden.
The companion piece, Brahms’ Symphony No. 4, was another matter. If anything, it was even slower than the average performance, but the experience of a lifetime testifies to how Barenboim fruitfully used the generous leeway he had given himself. The very first sentences hung in the air, each one a tear-laden sigh. Whenever the violins had a long, soaring melody, it was wonderfully shaped, tracing a flamboyant bow-like arc through the air. In the last part of the slow movement, the richly colored chorale, or threnody, with strings digging deep for tone, was almost worth the ticket price alone.
Despite the slow speeds, Barenboim kept the symphony going in his own way, which came as a surprise when the energy level dropped in the final two minutes, leaving the musicians adrift. Overall, Brahms had imagined this on a grand scale, stretching time and space in a way that would not be possible in the hands of most conductors. It is no wonder that Barenboim’s greatest legacy is as a master interpreter of Wagner.
There was a recall. Barenboim led his orchestra in an unexpected performance of Mendelssohn’s Scherzo. A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Not the whole game had been as polished as this one, but that wasn’t the point. There are certain orchestras, at certain moments, which go beyond everyday life in their ambition.
★★★★☆
