VATICAN CITY, JULY 3, 2012 (Zenit.org).- The conductor Daniel Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are to play a concert for Benedict XVI this July 11, the feast of St. Benedict. The program will feature works by Ludwig van Beethoven, whose music will be the focal point of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s summer tour.
After its opening performance in Munich, Germany, the orchestra will take in Versailles, France; Geneva, Switzerland; the BBC Proms in London, England, and the Salzburg Festival in Austria, among other venues. The concert scheduled for Berlin’s Waldbuhne on July 29 will be one of the highlights of the «Beethoven for All» summer tour and will again be in aid of educational projects organised by the orchestra in Israel and Palestine.
«Benedict XVI has long promoted active dialogue between Jews, Christians and Muslims,» says a communique on the event released today. «In 1999 Barenboim and Edward Said founded the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, a grouping of musicians from Israel, Palestine, Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Lebanon, Iran, Turkey and Spain. Every year they come together for summer workshops, which take their inspiration from the spirit of music and a willingness to engage with the views and experiences of the assembled musicians, each with personal ties to the troubled situation in the Middle East.»
